Between Classes

After his unusually strange first DADA lesson, Ryland decided to have his break in the hallway where he had first met some of his friends. Not that he remembered any of that, of course. Still, he felt a bit worried due to the homework assingment. It wasn't so much the questions, as he had seen Aylee was deeply angered by them, but Ryland was worried about his answers. He had completely lied about everything in that one assignment, and if he wanted to stay where he was he would have to keep the lie.

Blood Status: Pure-Blood He had lied about everything that required an opinion. He had even kept his real surname masked as his middle name. He had abreviated Marcotte to a simple M, and had let the Lucas part out completely.

Willow sighed frustratedly as she left her first DADA lesson. The professor seemed nice enough... despite his apparent obsession with blood status. She wrinkled her nose, the stench was still in the hallway! She flicked her wand, sending it out a nearby window with a little irritation. She was lost in thought and not really paying attention to where she was going and nearly walked straight into Ryland. She stopped less than a half inch away from him.

"Oops! I'm sorry..." She said softly looking at the floor. Her face turned pink as she realized who it was she almost walked into. "I'm also sorry about talking over you in class today... I didn't realize you'd started to speak and now I was lost in thought and not really paying attention to where I was going... that lesson kind of flustered me." She added meekly.

He hadn't noticed the girl walking in front of him until she spoke. He smiled at her and replied, "it's fine. I'm sure we were all flustered by this first lesson." He himself had been terribly put off by his newly found shame in being a muggle born that he had forgotten to pay attention for some of the class, mostly towards the end of it. "What do you think of this professor?" He asked, still not knowing what year she was in though he suspected she was relatively young; a first or second year.

Willow nodded a little still seeming like she was having a conversation with her shoes. "Umm... he was ok I guess... I liked that he gave out house points... but I don't like that he used that-that term..." She actually looked up at him with inquizitive brown eyes, "why do some witches and wizards think that muggle-borns are so horrible? I like to think that I'm going to grow up to be a good witch despite not knowing anything about magic and the like before coming to Hogwarts."

She quickly looked back down at her shows nervously. She didn't know this older Gryffindor's opinion on blood status yet she basically just declared hers to him. Was he going to hate her for being Muggle-born now?

Ryland listened attentively as she explained her thoughts on the professor and the class. She made him feel like a terrible person. He smiled awkwardly before saying, "It's nice to hear you think that way about yourself, but we have valid reasons to think muggle borns are a bit hard to adapt to this world." He noticed the way he had said we instead of they and hated himself a little bit more.

Willow flinched a little bit to his words. "Oh... I... I understand..." She said softly trying to hold back tears so that he didn't think she was an idiot. Suddenly, frustration flared in her young mind and that quickly turned to anger. Anger at the professor for having this topic brought up in the first place and now anger at this Gryffindor for agreeing with him. She stared up into his face, tears in her eyes, "You'll see... I'll be a great witch, muggle-born or not!" Angrily, she flicked her wand and brought back what was left of the stench from outside right into Ryland's face before running off as she began to cry.

How could they be so mean? She never fit in in the muggle world because she was a witch but she didn't know that until she got her Hogwarts letter. She thought it would be different here, that she would belong that she wouldn't feel like... like this! Maybe she wasn't meant to be in the magical world after all...

Before Ryland could apologize for his rudeness, he was hit with an awful odor that the girl had suddenly summoned from the outside. He waved his arms in front of his face in a lame attempt to not smell it, or to drive it away. "That's not what I meant!" He yelled as he walked towards the girl. Sure, he had just met her, but he didn't want to give her a worse impression. He saw the girl run off, but still he asked loud enough for her to hear, "Will you just listen to me before assuming the worst?"

Willow stopped in her tracks. Now he was trying to apologize? She slowly turned to face him, tears still slowly falling down her face. "Wh-what do you mean?" She asked confused. "You j-just said that you're pureblood too and do think less of muggle-borns..." She wiped at her tears with the sleeve of her cardigan and looked at her shoes. Had she misunderstood him entirely?

"I mean I know that coming from a world where magic only exists in books is the best thing that can happen to a Muggle-Born. But because their magic line goes too far back, it's harder for them to adapt to this new and fantastic world." He replied before she had time to send in another awful smell in his direction. "Most of the Muggle-Borns I know are great witches and wizards...but it took them a long time to perform some spells." he admitted before looking behind him. With all of his recent lying his conscience was driving him insane. "I never said I looked down on them."

Willow slowly stopped crying and began to smile. "I'm doing all right with my spell work, I'm working extra hard so that I can keep up with the rest of the first years. I'm doing a lot more studying and practicing than most so that I am on par with my classmates. I sent that smell back at you and made my work fly over and land on the professor's desk... my worst areas are probably flying and quill work." She nodded as if to emphasize that she thought she was doing just fine. In fact, she waved her wand again and sent the smell back out the window again.

"See, watch this!" She said happily. "Avis!" As the young witch proclaimed this and gave her wand a flick a small stream of birds appeared from the end of her wand. After letting them fly around for a moment she gave her wand another flick declaring "finite incantatem." The birds quickly disappeared as quickly as they had arrived. Willow puffed herself up proudly at this.

Ryland smiled at the girl just as she had stopped crying. "Flying is easy when you let of any fears." He replied, happy to see that he wasn't such a bad person. "And yeah, what was that smell?" he witnessed her send the smell back out the window again, surprised that a first year could do that so easily. Then, his eyes lit up as he realized she was casting his favorite spell. "No way! That's so cool! I make these birds all the time." he grinned, "But mine are yellow a little bit bigger. I guess that's just how I imagine them as I cast them." However, just as they had appeared, she made them disappear without a fault in her spell. With a grin, he stretched his hand towards the girl, "I'm Ryland Malfoy."

Willow nodded a little to his mention of what made flying easier. "I'm just so afraid of heights and falling... How can such a little broomstick hold me so high up in the air and keep me safe?" She laughed brightly as he asked what the smell was. "It was what was left from the hallway outside our Defense Against the Dark Arts class."

Willow smile only grew as he seemed excited by her avis work. She slowly reached out her hand and shook his. "Willow Meana, Hufflepuff first year." She said happily before tilting her head to Ryland. "What year are you in?"

"Want me to help you with that? It's actually pretty neat once you get the hang of it." he offered, knowing how scared he himself had been during his first year of Flying. With Wade's help, though, he'd gotten much better. He then nodded at her response; he had barely noticed the smell due to his excitement for the class. Shaking the Wllow's hand, he said, "Fifth year, Gryffindor." He knew she must have been a first year!

Willow shook her head to his offer. "No thanks, I'm afraid of heights... I'd rather just get the class over with and be done with it. I'm excited to watch others play Quidditch, but I don't want to play myself." She smiled a little. "I'm fine with being good at spells and the like. I wonder what classes we'll each be put in for Defense Against the Dark Arts... I think I'm smart enough for class A even though the topics are more scary." The young girl stared at her shoes for the better part of the conversation and was trying her best not to stammer while she talked. She might be confident and loud giving answers in class but talking to people always made her nervous.

Lucy walked along the hallways, looking for either Elita or Professor Vega. She hadn't seen Ella around at all and she was worried that she had left them like Wade did. With sweaty palms, and Lucy's hands were never sweating, she walked between the many students, holding her books close to her chest. Her Care of Magical Creatures textbook was hurting her as it was sinking one of it's edges into her right forearm, making her walk even faster to get out of the crowded parts.
 
Soon, she managed to get out of the multitude and into a seemingly empty hall. There, she found Ryland running after someone; a girl, she later realized. "I thought he liked..." she began to wonder out loud, until she hears his voice and realized she had misunderstood the situation. She watched from a distance as the girl conjured up the same birds Ryland always did. Though there were differences, Lucy liked her birds just the same. After quietly watching them for a few seconds, she decided to approach them and introduce herself to this new girl.
 
"Hi Ryland." She greeted her brother with a smile before suddenly wrapping her arms around him. Apparently, she hadn't grown very much since the last time she hugged him. Unwrapping her arms from him, she turned to the new character in front of her. "Hello. I'm Lucy Malfoy." she reached out her towards the girl, a smile spreading across her now pale face.

Another Malfoy? Willow thought, they must be siblings. Her cheery demeanor shrunk back into shyness as she looked at her feet. She shook the girl's hand. "N-nice to m-meet you..." she stammered, "I-I'm Willow M-Meana, fir-irst year, H-huffle-pu-uff." Now there were two people in front if her and it was even harder to control her shyness. Up until she came to Hogwarts a group of people usually meant she was about to be picked on or beat up... Hogwarts certainly was a very different place. At least she wasn't seen as a freak here because everyone was magical unlike whens he was in muggle school.

Ryland shrugged as Willow said she didn't like to play but would rather watch. It seemed reasonable. When she began talking about their Defense class, Ryland's cheeks became warm with guilt. "I don't know about that...I mean, me. I don't know where I'll get. I wouldn't mind Group B, though." he admitted, asking himself why he had lied if he wouldn't mind getting into the lesser group. He would probably do fine in there anyway. He was good with bookwork.
 
At the sound of his name, Ryland recognized the voice and opened his arms to welcome the usual hug. His sister was big on loving gestures, so he had gotten used to them by now. Noticing the shyness in Willow, he joked, "Don't worry. She doesn't bite." With a grin, he added, "Lucy's my sister. So we'll see where she ends up in Elldir's class." Turning to Lucy, he nudged her only to frustrate her. After all, he was the younger brother.

Willow smiled a little and nodded to Lucy. "Nice to meet you." she said again, this time a little more calmly. She blinked after a moment in silent surprise. Ryland was in Gryffindor but Lucy, like most Malfoys in history, was in Slytherin. But Lucy seemed so nice! Whas that just towards her own blood and at first meeting? Was she hiding something darker that couldn't be seen at first glance? Willow began to ponder to herself as she stood with the Malfoy siblings.