Loneliness [Riley]

[Linda Tucker G1]

Linda sighed and entered the Common Room. Since she had arrived at Hogwarts, she hadn't really fit in. She took a seat on the sofa, sighed once more and delved into her bag for a book to lean on, a piece of parchment and a quill. She began to write a letter to her family, and had to prevent herself from writing about how isolated she was feeling.

All Linda ever wanted was a good friend, but couldn't even seem to get that. 'There must be something,' she thought, 'that's putting them off.'

She leant back and looked up to the ceiling, wishing she was home milking the cows, cleaning out the horse stables, walking the dogs or just spending time with her family.

[Riley Coxen G7]

Riley didn’t know what she was doing. It was late, and she was wandering once again. She really needed to stop doing this. Sometimes, her mind would wander off into lala Riley-land and her feet would do the thinking while her mind was obviously absent, so she’d eventually find herself wandering around various random parts of the castle. Once, she had even been thinking about this absolutely arrogant Slytherin girl and found herself almost walking into the entrance to the Slytherin common room. It was odd how things like this tended to happen, but to Riley, this was all normal. Sometimes Riley had the oddest habits and even personality traits that to anyone who knew her would be considered ‘typical Riley’ and completely odd for anyone else. She was different from most people to be honest. She wasn’t your average teenager. Okay, in some aspects she was. She couldn’t stand her parents, hated being bossed around (one of her hugest pet peeves) and had one of the largest attitudes and a seemingly large ego. In reality though, Riley was incredibly self conscious, though she never let anyone know it. She liked being alone when she needed to be, so that was one of the main reasons why she took to wandering around the castle so much. It was a problem though, because her wandering mind and curious feet (combined with her attitude issue and refusal to follow most rules) often got her into a lot of trouble. But her little wandering thing was the main reason Riley knew her way around the castle so well.

Like now, Riley was somewhere near the Astronomy tower making her way back down to the common room. Her mind was wandering once more, this time to the subject of the oddly close relationship between Oz and Oliver. It was unfair that Oz had obviously chosen Oliver over the Coxen dynamic duo. Those two Coxens were known as many things, some of them being the best thing since the Weasley twins (by most of the students at school) and then of course there was the school’s newest trouble makers. The latter was mostly a title given to the twins by the professors and staff of the school, as Riley and Oz did (and still do) cause some trouble around the school just to spruce things up. But then there was Oliver. Crazy, kooky Oliver. He’d been around the Coxen clan for as long as she could remember, and it always drove her crazy that him and her twin brother could possibly be so close. They seemed like such polar opposites to Riley, so odd together. Most normal people would consider them perfect for the “inseparable best friends” look, but Riley found it odd that they were together so very much. Riley loved her brother and she enjoyed spending time with him. But for some odd reason, she simply could not find it in herself to put up with Oliver for more than five minutes at a time. They couldn’t possibly get along when Riley had two very different opinions of them, right?

Wrong. Much to Riley’s dismay, the two were always together. I don’t even know why Oz is even friends with that kid. He’s a terrible Quidditch player and I bet he’s always talking smack about Oz the second he turns around. And he’s always surrounded by a huge crowd of boy-crazed teenagers. But then again…so is Oz. But that’s a different story. Oz doesn’t have to try to get girls. It just happens. Oliver on the other hand is probably flirting with every other girl he sees. Riley grumbled slightly, her hands jammed in her robe pockets angrily as her feet continued to leave the way. She guessed that now that she was thinking about Oz and Oliver her feet would probably decide to take her back to the common room where they were almost certainly were right this moment. Despite her sour mood, she greeted the Fat Lady rather politely, as she was one of the only magical objects Riley could actually appreciate. It must have been painfully boring sitting up there all day, although her constant singing did get on Riley’s nerves a bit.

Looking around the common room, Riley took note that Oz and Oliver were nowhere to be found. They were probably off sneaking around the castle getting into trouble without her again. Sighing, Riley took a seat by the fire and sat there for awhile, wondering why she didn’t just go up to her dormitory. She had nothing to do down here and no one to talk to. But then again, she wasn’t in the mood to go up just yet. The other girls (all except for those two quiet ones of course) had probably invited those older girls over again to go get drunk and such, and Riley wasn’t in the mood to join in on the ‘fun’ just yet. Not today. She wasn’t in the mood. Especially after experiencing the hangover their last little party had caused her. Riley looked around the room, noticing that there weren’t many people in the room right now, which was surprising. There were probably only about four people in there right now, and three of them were first years. There were so many of those little kids walking around these days, it was scary. Riley remembered walking through a crowded corridors where all the first years hung out, and the corridor looked completely empty at Riley’s eye level, and if it wasn’t for all the noise they were making, Riley would have had to look down to even notice the sea of new students. She decided it wouldn’t hurt to start up a conversation with one of them. She was a first year once too of course, but she forgot most of her first year. It would be nice to end the night with some reminiscing back to her first year and talking to a new student was the perfect way to do it. “Hey, you writing to your parents?” Riley asked politely to the young girl, starting some kind of pleasant conversation. It was odd how Riley could go from so angry to so civil so quickly. Actually, scratch that. It wasn’t odd, it was just typical Riley at her best.

((sorry if its longer than what you're used to. Couldn't help myself. ))

[Linda Tucker G1]

Startled, Linda jumped with surprise and tried to hide the letter by sharply standing up, whipping around and hiding it behind her back, her hands sweating with nervousness.

Her voice shaky, she spoke. "I'm sorry," she apologised, whole-heartedly. "You scared me." Beginning to relax at the sight of the smiling older girl, she retrieved the curmpled up piece of parchment from behind her back and straightened it out. "Yes, I was. I'm sorry for... you know... I'm just not that good with company. Well, I haven't had much since I got here, so... yeah... sorry," she apologised once more. It was very unlike Linda to be so nervous, but she had recently only found out that she was a witch, unlike the rest of her family, and was now in a strange world where new and, sometimes scary, things were happening all the time.

"I-I'm Linda," she stammered, shakily holding out her small hand to the girl. Come on, Daddy, help me out, she thought.