All Applicants Welcome ((Billy/Open*/Open*))

[Sita Mehadi H7]

((For anyone wanting those open slots: please read my owl about it.))

Sita needed new friends. The ones she had at the moment were rubbish. One of them, of course, she had long suspected had serious defects as a friend. Namely that he was much closer to Ingrid than he was to Sita, and - what was far more insufferable - he often (she felt) made it quite clear that the pair of them did not need her. Then there was Ingrid herself; as children they had been 'thick as thieves', but now Ingrid was far more interested in her fashionable melancholy than she was in their friendship. She had decided that growing up began at the age of twelve. Sita most violently dissented to that idea! She wasn't ready to grow up just yet - look at where growing up had got Ingy. Nowhere - just perpetual misery, according to outward appearances (Sita thought that Ingrid secretly rather enjoyed alienating her). Sita didn't see the attraction. And Gavin. Gavin... she didn't have any specific complaints against him, but his lack of realism regarding the Ingrid-Aaron situation still irritated Sita, and... Merlin, she just had to get away from them all!

So it was that she had taken a large piece of parchment (just slightly larger than A4 size), and filled it very carefully with large 'bubble' writing that said 'Interviews For New Friends'. She'd coloured in the letters with pink, purple and yellow pencil crayons, and outlined them with the black ink she sometimes used for her quill in lessons. She'd finished off the notice with a sheet of stickers that she'd bought back in second year in Diagon Alley, and not used up. The stickers were small and medium sized, simple flower shapes, which changed colour about every half minute. Of course, the charms on them were a bit old now, so some of them didn't do anything anymore, while others flickered frantically through the colours of the rainbow. The most special stickers which included the detail of separate petals had given up petal-by-petal, so that one lonely petal on a sticker would persist in its colour-changing, even though the surrounding ones stuck stubbornly to their own blue, purple, orange - and so on - hue. Still, Sita thought it looked pretty, and it was too late to go back on her decision to put them on.

Satisfied with her poster, Sita stuck it to the door of the spare classroom she was currently inhabiting (it was a weekend, so she wasn't getting in anyone's way), and returned to the teacher's desk to wait for the crowds to start flooding in. She'd set up a few chairs on the other side of the teacher's desk as well, for the prospective friends to sit in. It was a lonely and silly way for a lonely and silly girl to spend another lonely weekend afternoon, but she had had to learn how to entertain herself and to relieve the tedium of boredom in any way possible. While she was waiting, Sita decided to make a list of the qualities she wanted her new friends to have:

'- Enjoy sport (especially if can play tennis or football)
- Arty, or like pretty things
- Nice
- Clever, but not too clever.'

At this last stipulation, she realised that she was being too choosy, and too imposing. She supposed that it would be good if the new friends were a bit different from her current - former - friends, but to be honest, all she needed from them was consistency. Not the sort of consistency that her current (former! she must stop that) friends ran to - that was, a consistency at being rubbish - but rather, just consistency in wanting Sita's company, and not suddenly setting the goalposts of the friendship in a completely different place than they had been in for the first twelve childhood years.

With this realisation in mind, Sita scrunched up the parchment that she'd been writing her list on, and picked up her purple felt-tip pen. She walked with purpose to the door and addded three reassuring words at the bottom of her notice: 'All Applicants Welcome'. This, she felt, would hasten the arrival of that crowd at the door. And, indeed, not so very long after, she heard the door of the classroom creaking open and she stood up to shake whoever-it-was' hand in welcome.
"Are you here for the interview?" she called out. "Come right on in, have a seat."

[Billy Brady H6]

Bored, bored, bored. A feeling Billy absolutely hated, but thankfully very rarely encountered. The vast majority of his waking time was spent either in lessons or with one Rex Carter, best friend and partner in crime, but unfortunately for Billy he'd recently joined the Quidditch team and was spending a lot of time practising-especially as there was a game coming up against Ravenclaw. And as Billy would only be a distraction (and he didn't have a massive interest in the sport), he wasn't particularly welcome when Rex was practicing alone, and he obviously wasn't welcome at team practices. And so this weekend Billy was feeling rather alone, as Rex was practicing for the quidditch game, and Stacey was nowhere to be found (well, she was probably studying in some room somewhere-she was a Ravenclaw for a reason, even if she wasn't a typical Ravenclaw)-not that he really wanted to see her. They weren't the closest of friends. They were really only "friends" through Rex. They were the only people he spent a significant amount of time with-he did get on with other people in general, but he couldn't consider many of them as close friends, if friends at all. That was quite a depressing thought really. He really needed more friends than just Rex and Stacey, and he wasn't going to get anywhere by sitting on his bed staring into space now was he?

He got up, and went down to the common room to see if any of his year were there, or even anyone he knew at all. Unfortunately not-there was a group of first years huddled around a table in the corner, studying by the looks of it (well, in first year you don't realise how pretty pointless the end of year exams are and hence work as much as possible in order not to fail them, and pass them with flying colours), so he just left them to it. He was never much of a hard worker himself-he got passing grades in most things (Potions and History of Magic being the exceptions), but very rarely excelled. He went up to the entrance hall and wondered about where he could go to find someone new to talk to...the library and student lounge would be full of people studying for exams (he really needed to get a move on with that, or he'd fail and get the whole "if you carry on like this you'll fail your OWLs, then NEWTs and then you'll fail in life" lecture which he really couldn't be doing with. Maybe he should just leave the friend-search for now and get started with his studying? Yeah, he could find a quiet room somewhere and get some productive work done-it would be dull, but whatever. It would be useful. He normally studied with Rex, and they compared notes and exchanged ideas, testing each other along the way. When they weren't talking about something completely unrelated or winding each other up and pranking each other. Which was most of the time, so they could sit there all afternoon and only get an hours worth of work done.

So he went back to his dorm, put his Transfiguration notes into his bag (might as well start with the best subject first), picked it up and went off around the school in search of a free room where he could work in peace. Unfortunately it looked as if a lot of other people had had the same idea and a lot of the classrooms had at least one inhabitant, none of which he knew well enough to be comfortable joining. He got to the third floor, surprised not to have seen Stacey anywhere yet, and soon enough he saw a room. No, it wasn't an empty room he saw (though there was probably one around somewhere), but one with a poster on it. A poster with colourful bubble writing on it, that only a girl could've written. Moving closer, he saw that it said "Interviews For New Friends"...what was this about?? I mean, he felt lonely, but he wouldn't be so desperate as to hold interviews for new friends. That was taking it to a new level-the girl (whoever it was) must be very lonely. Maybe he should go and have an interview, for fun. It'd give him something to do at least. The girl was obviously creative-she would have to be to make up such an idea, and the poster wasn't bad either though he wasn't a fan of the colours himself.

Billy walked up to the door, and opened it a fraction to see who it was in there, out of curiousity. Was it someone he knew at all, or some lonely first year that was having trouble fitting in? Looking over to the teacher's desk he saw that it was none other than Sita, who was another Hufflepuff in his year. He didn't know her very well, but she had always seemed very friendly. Plus, she'd know Harmony-perhaps she could be the key to the other girl's heart? Friends always meant a lot to girls from what he'd seen, so maybe Sita could be a catalyst for him to talk to and impress Harmony? He entered the room, thinking that he must be completely mad to be having a friendship interview, smiled and walked over to her. "Well, yeah, I guess I am. Why not eh? I don't have much else to do really. I'm pretty lonely right now, and I take it that you must be too right? I mean, you wouldn't be holding interviews otherwise, surely?" He sat down opposite Sita at this point. "So...what d'you wanna ask then?" He did feel a bit sorry for her-she really must be lonely to be doing this. Well, he'd try to be friendly with her, and hoped he'd get a new friend out of the experienced. At least, if anything, it got him out of a boring afternoon of work.

[Sita Mehadi H7]

As she waited, Sita wondered momentarily whether she'd been right to dump her friends for becoming substandard. She was sure it hadn't bothered them one little bit. She'd surely just been an inconvenience to them anyway, for the past few months. Who wanted an immature, insignificant pest tagging along with them and stopping them from having their 'couple' moments anyway? Sita expected they would be quite glad to be rid of her, once they actually noticed that she'd gone. If. It was highly doubtful that they would.

Still, she couldn't help experiencing a few pangs of anxiety, or conscience - one of the two. She would miss her friends. She would miss her best friend, her childhood friend, the person who she'd discovered so much of the world with. But to be fair, she'd been missing Ingy for a couple of years already even though she was nominally still friends with her, because Ingrid had changed so much and left Sita only really with memories of the Ingy she'd known. Plus the fact that she was really much more interested in her friendship with Aaron. Oh. There she went again. Being bitter. That betrayed the fact that she still cared. She needed just to cut all ties and start afresh. She wasn't completely boring, even though she felt like she must be sometimes when she was failing to get the attention of a certain two people who were so far above her... oh, there she went again. She should really try to stop that. She would be able to make new friends. She hadn't tried it so recently, but now was the time. She would manage.

The opening door came as a relief, ending the fruitless cycle of thoughts. She didn't even mind who it was. Billy had never yet made a particularly strong impression on Sita, so she had sort've assumed that he might be a little dull. Occasionally she supposed he'd been amusing when considered in conjunction with his friend Rex Carter. But he mustn't be outgoing, because he stuck almost doggedly to his own group of friends, as though he didn't even want any others. She supposed that was okay. She'd liked to stick mainly to her own group of friends for a long time. It just hadn't done her much good. Well, even if he wasn't inclined to be outgoing, she could be extrovert enough for the both of them. Since he'd walked in through the door, and beggars couldn't be choosers, Sita determined there and then that Billy Brady and his friends were darn well going to accept her into their group. There wouldn't be any need for objections, because there wasn't anything wrong with her (whatever Ingy and… no, she was going to put an end to that sort of thinking, she was).

Sita could tell that Billy was a little nonplussed by the artificial situation she’d attempted to set up. It did beg the question of why he’d bothered responding to the notice on the door if he wasn’t prepared to play along, but Sita tried to fight down her slight irritation because at least he was talking to her. He was friendly enough, even if saying something to amaze the entire room (were it filled with people) was no striking aspect of his character. He did, at least, manage to pique her interest when he admitted to being ‘pretty lonely right now’. His honesty had revealed something interesting (she hoped), so she started her questioning there.

“What do you mean by ‘right now’?” she asked him, ignoring the part about her being lonely for now. That was so obvious that she considered it a little rude of him to point it out. If he was going to pity or mock her, could he not just do it inwardly? “Just for the last half hour when you’ve not been able to find anyone to talk to? Or are you drifting away from your friends so that you’ve been lonely for months? Or just that you don’t seem to have anything in common with the people you talk to so that you’re spiritually lonely even if you do have people to talk to?” She stared at her desk thoughtfully for a moment, but decided that she wasn’t yet going to give him an answer to a question that anyone with any sensitivity would not have found it necessary to ask. “Do I have anything in common with you?” she asked him. “I like drawing and making things look pretty. I like pink and purple; I bet you don’t though.” Although she left this part unsaid, she quite frankly didn’t think he would be comfortable with his masculinity enough yet to be able to stop rejecting the two very nice colours.

“Um… and I like sports. Especially tennis. Are you Muggleborn, Billy? I’m not, actually, but my family is supposed to be completely immersed in the Muggle world so I play Muggle sports. I think I should audition for the Quidditch team, though. There aren’t many other sports go on here – that are organised by the school – I’ve just had to make do by playing against a wall or if I’m lucky with a friend. Tennis, that is,” she clarified, wondering whether that expression was puzzlement for Billy. “You’re not a part of the Quidditch team, are you?” she asked. “But your friend Rex is now, right? I’m surprised you don’t want to be on the Hufflepuff team so that you can play against him. Do you not like the idea of being beaten by him? I’m used to my friends doing better than me most of the time – I’m not very ‘academic’. Actually then I’m rather good at Herbology and I do well in Potions too, but my other marks usually manage to be abysmal. I’m not sure how they manage it, but they do. I wish I was better at Charms, there are loads of charms for making things look pretty that I’ll never be able to do. Are you any good at Charms? What things do you like doing? What makes you interesting? I don’t think that I can be very interesting, because my friends aren’t interested in even giving me the time of day anymore. But I don’t know, I’d like to be interesting. I’ll have a think about what makes me interesting and you can tell me what’s special about you in the meantime. I think I’ve asked you enough questions now – so go on, let’s have some answers.”

[Billy Brady H6]

((Fiiiiiiinally getting round to replying! I really should've done this earlier, but hey, I'm sorry =) I’ve been working on it for a few days now too!))

Sita seemed to be interested in what he was saying, not that he'd said much really. The real "interview" hadn't yet properly started. He could tell Sita wanted to ask several questions, though he had absolutely no idea what that would entail, but he was prepared to answer any questions she had-he doubted they'd require sufficient detail to make him uncomfortable. Sita seemed to be the type to ask a lot of questions, and expect complete, honest answers, but he didn't know her well enough to go in expecting to be interrogated, or, indeed, knowing what to expect. He entered, sat down and started talking with an open-minded attitude-for all he knew, Sita could well end up joining his friend's group, if she approved of him. He just hoped she wouldn't end up like Stacey and basically not leave him alone...but then at least he'd be able to complain WITH Rex, rather than listen to his friend's complaints without fully understanding.

Sita picked up on Billy being lonely "right now" first...but he wasn't surprised. Thinking over it, it was rather ambiguous. Did he mean just at this moment in time, today, this week, or in general? That was a good question, come to think of it. He pondered over it for a while, before saying "well, I'm quite lonely today, as Rex is busy with something or other, most likely with Stace. He's busy all the time now it seems...with quidditch or whatever. Hence why I decided to come here...I should hang out with more, different people. It's not that I think any less of my friends nowadays; I just spend less time with them as we're all getting busier, I’m sure you get what I mean…this year’s been pretty tough, and I can’t see it being any easier next year, with OWLs…but we don’t want to think too much about them now, do we?” He said with a grin. “But yeah…it’s not easy when your partner in crime’s busy all the time!”

Billy scrunched his nose as Sita mentioned pretty, arty stuff. Typical girly things, showing that she was generally a typical girl, it seemed…not surprising really. As long as she didn’t end up turning him into her style and make-up guinea pig then he guessed he’d be able to cope with it…Billy’s life was generally a pretty thing-free zone, so he wouldn’t appreciate having his belongings decorated or being caked in make-up. He didn’t know how girls could cope with it all, especially the ones that took hours messing about every morning. He expected that his expression basically told Sita his thoughts, or at least hoped she’d take the hint…no pink, no purple, no frills and no flowers. At least she’d be easy to buy for, he expected, if he’d ever need to buy anything for her. And knowing girls, he expected that if she saw him as a friend, she’d expect presents, for her Birthday at least,

Luckily she quickly turned to sports, and Billy suddenly became a lot more engaged. “Yeah, I quite like sport, though I don’t really do much. I skateboard loads when at home…mostly just round town though. I played football quite a bit at primary school though, as most boys do. I guess I should join the quidditch team…what do you think? Rex has said a load of good stuff about it. Hey, maybe we should audition together sometime,” he said when Sita also mentioned joining the team “we’ll have to track down Ivy, see what she says. But maybe it wouldn’t be a particularly good idea with life getting busier as it is…ah well, I want to become more organised anyway. And extra commitments should help with that.”

He then remembered a brief question she had asked. “Nope, I’m half-blood. It was quite a shock for my dad when mum told him she was a witch. Especially as he’s fairly religious…he really didn’t want me to come to Hogwarts, but we persuaded him that it was the right thing even if he didn’t agree with it. So until I came here I was basically brought up as a muggle, while hearing news from the Wizarding world.” He couldn’t think of much else to say, without going into more detail about his background, and luckily Sita had once again changed the subject, to work this time. “Well, I’m not really academic either…but that’s probably due to not putting in enough effort. If I worked hard enough I could get better grades, I just…always find other stuff to do. I think Transfiguration’s my best subject…that and DADA. I’m told I’m pretty good at Divination but that’s a doss really. I can’t stand Potions though, or History of Magic-I swear Snape has it in for me, and Binns is so dull. Charms…I’m alright at. I’d say it’s one of my better subjects. As for Herbology, I’m not a fan myself. Same with Care of Magical Creatures…I dunno why I chose it over the others! Best of a bad lot I guess…”

He paused for a while before answering Sita’s next question. “Well…I can’t think of anything in particular that makes me interesting. Unless being a master sidekick counts. If you’ve heard about any pranks since you’ve been here, it’s most likely due to myself and Rex, usually down to Rex’s superior brains. He’s definitely the much more popular one, I just end up being in his shadow most of the time. That kid that hangs around with Rex…despite everyone knowing him I bet half the school at least doesn’t know my name, though they see me with Rex loads. I do enjoy all the messing about and pranks, it’s all good fun. Otherwise…as I said, I’m into sports and skateboarding. They get rid of the excess energy I have in the holidays that work drains from me while at school!” He stopped to think of anything else, before saying “well…I think that’s all I’ve got to say really…any more questions? And what about you-if you want to be my friend I’d like to know more about you!”