Chilly morning ((Dahlia))

[Anna Monkshood R5]

Anna’s breath curled in the air in front of her as she jogged back towards the castle. She was dressed warmly, which meant that she was overheating a little bit, but she was very wary about catching cold. She’d had a cold a few weeks ago, and didn’t want the cough to come back. It seemed like everyone was spluttering everywhere – in the Common Room in the evenings, at breakfast in the morning, all the way through the Transfiguration lesson... it was very irritating. Anna had annoyed herself when she had a cough, in fact. But she was still outside taking a jog – she’d been cooped up in lessons and in the library for too long, and although Quidditch practice was great, it was a sitting-down sport (after all, the British excelled at those). Really she’d have liked to go swimming, but that might prompt a rather more serious illness in these temperatures. There was snow forecast for next week, and Anna was inclined to believe the forecast – the ground was already iron hard with frost.

It was a Saturday morning, and it would be lunchtime in a couple of hours. She would go and have a nice relaxing bath, then maybe take some notes before eating. At least it was nearly Christmas! – Anna was looking forward to the holidays. It had been a difficult term – OWLs year was intense. But she’d be going skiing in the holidays! With her dad’s family, which unfortunately included her stepmother, but hopefully she could keep out of her way and that way they would avoid any family discord. Then New Year’s with her mum’s family. That would be fun. Oh yes, and she ought to do some work at some point... hmm. Well, it would happen, somehow – it wasn’t as if she had much choice.

Anna’s semi-gloomy thoughts ceased as she slowed to a walk a few paces away from the castle steps; she recognised the girl just coming down the steps – it was Dahlia, with whom she’d shared a compartment on the Hogwarts Express this autumn. The Gryffindor had actually been all right, a tag that Anna only applied to people begrudgingly. Anna smiled and waved at the younger girl.

“Hi there!” she said. “How’re you doing? What are you doing outside? Quidditch practice?” She prompted the opportunity to talk about the last Quidditch match with care: the conclusion had been disappointing for Ravenclaw, but it probably hadn’t felt all that good from Dahlia’s perspective either...

[Dahlia Rain Keo G3]

Loud arguments and distinct male laughter were muffled slightly as Dahlia closed the portrait of the fat lady and walked away quickly, biting her bottom lip. The fat lady called after her to see what was going on, but Dahlia kept walking forward. Her hands deep in their pockets clutching her quill that was bitting her fingers.

Apparently someone in the Gryffindor common room had thought it would be funny to charm all the quills to start biting their owners hands. Dahlia was in the middle of writing her charms essay when her quill started bitting at her thumb. She about then exploded with annoyance and stormed out grabbing her quills and stuffing them in her pockets.

It was times like these when Dahlia wished she was in a different house. She didn't mind a joke every once in a while, but this was becoming a daily event. She especially hated it when it prevented her from finishing her school work.

"Ow!" She screeched and came to a halt as her quill bit deeply in the side of her hand. She pulled in out of her pocket and saw the quill still biting onto her hand, blood dripping down the side. Dahlia growled slightly and pulled it off her hand with much force. She put her bleeding hand to her moth and took out her wand and pointed it at the quill that fell on the floor.

"Diffindo" She whispered and the quill snapped in half. The few other students in the hallway looked at her confused, for she had just randomly destroyed a quill in the hall. " What!" She snapped at a hufflepuff first year boy who stopped to stare at her, he quickly ran down the hall. She normally wouldn't do something like that, but today wasn't a good day for her.

Dahlia stood there for a few more seconds contemplating whether she should go back to the common room. She remembered the screaming and rest of bitting quills and quickly decided against it. She walked toward the steps and started quickly down them, buttoning her jacket as the air grew colder.

Dahlia spotted a flash of red hair and looked up to see Anna, the Ravenclaw fifth year she met on the Hogwarts Express, coming toward her.

"Hello" She greeted her with a smile genuinely happy to see her. She asked if Dahlia was out for quidditch, bringing back memories of the last match of Gryffindor vs. Ravenclaw, Gryffindor barely won thanks to there seeker and no thanks to her poor keeping skills.

"No, just getting away from homework and well quite frankly the Gryffindor common room" She said pulling out her hand that had stopped bleeding, but still had the quills bite marks.

[Anna Monkshood R5]

Anna stared at the bitemarks on Dahlia's hand with some consternation and surprise. "I didn't realise the Gryffindor Common Room was so dangerous!" she said, frowning, " - is this why you have to be courageous to get in? Or have you just got a gnome infestation that everyone's been keeping quiet about?" She grinned a little uncertainly, actually quite puzzled as to the cause of Dahlia's injuries and hoping that the younger girl would explain herself and clear up the mystery.

"I know the feeling of getting away from homework - that's what I've just been doing," she said, continuing on into easy conversation as she adjusted her house-(dark blue and bronze)coloured scarf to block out the cold wind. "In fact, I feel like homework is pretty much all I've done this term, apart from Gobstones and Quidditch, of course. You're still welcome to come and join Gobstones, by the way!" she coaxed shamelessly. "I will attempt to recruit you every time I see you if you don't," she added, waving her index finger threateningly and then relaxing into a smile. "What homework are you getting away from? How are your new subjects? Which two did you pick up? Was Muggle Studies one of them? Erm... Arithmancy? Care of Magical Creatures? I do Ancient Runes and Care of Magical Creatures, they're good. Runes especially."

((Sorry that this is short - lack of inspiration, but I wanted to get a reply up for you because you've been waiting on one for a while with me being away on holiday. Hope there's enough to give you a starting point for a reply, anyway!))

[Dahlia Rain Keo G3]

Dahlia laughed at Anna's comment of a gnome infestation. " I wish it was gnomes, the don't bit quite as hard. No someone decided it would be a great idea to charm the quills into biting people." Dahlia stated nodding to her bit hand. " And well one bit into my hand, destroyed it in the middle of the hall." Dahlia said blushing when she remembered her sudden rise of temper. " As for courage, all I'm seeing right now in the Gryffindor common room is stupidity" She said and giggled.

"Gobstones?" Dahlia asked questioningly, she hard heard the name before, but nothing specific came to mind. She looked to Anna for further explanation.

"Oh, just getting away from my potions essay, not my favorite subject. I quite like charms, seem to be more useful to me." She replied. " What about the homework your getting away from?" She added. " It was hard for me to decide my new classes I quite frankly wanted to do them all. I settled with Muggle studies and Ancient Runes."

[Anna Monkshood R5]

"Oh," Anna said mildly, all that she could really think of as a response since she was still a little nonplussed. "Well, I suppose that is an original... but very inconsiderate and rather cruel way of annoying people. We don't get much of that in the Ravenclaw Common Room." She continued frowning for a few seconds more, and then her expression cleared. "I can sort out those cuts with a simple spell though, if they're still hurting," she offered, not going ahead until Dahlia gave her permission. There was a certain matter of trust with these things. "It's unlikely that whoever cursed the quills managed a sophisticated enough spell that a simple healing spell won't work - especially if they cursed everyone's quills at once," she mused.

"Oh, Gobstones!" Anna cried, seizing on the topic. She was quite keen. "Erm... I don't have mine with me to show you at the moment, but I carry them in my schoolbag most of the time. It's a game, it involves strategy and thinking and it's really fun too. I'll show you another time if you want, and then if you say you like it I'll nag you to come and see whether you like Gobstones Club." She smiled a little secretly, knowing that she was at times an undauntable enthusiast but not wanting to give away to Dahlia quite how much she was in danger of being on the receiving end of that.

"Well, it's not so much any particular homework I'm trying to escape some," Anna said musingly. "I actually quite like most of my subjects - some more than others, obviously. It's just the sheer quantity of work that I wanted to forget about for an hour or so. But I'm going to take some notes from a Herbology book I've got out of the library before lunch, because I've got a Herbology essay to write this afternoon. And some Potions, too, and some Transfiguration practical task that I'll probably do after the Herbology for a bit of light relief. And," she sighed theatrically, "some other stuff. I think it's normal for OWLs year. In a way, sixth year is supposed to be better because you have fewer subjects, and you get to choose the ones you're most interested in, so I'm looking forward to that." She smiled brightly at Dahlia, hoping she hadn't intimidated the third year too much with her revelation of what was to come in two years' time...

"I'm sorry - too much detail, eh?" she asked. "Muggle Studies and Ancient Runes - that sounds good. Do you like them? Do you think you made the right decision taking those two?"