Reading and Relaxing (Lyn)

Maddie had spent the whole of dinner with her head down in the far corner of the table, so was glad to leave and get back to the Common Room as soon as possible. It was empty when she walked in, probably because she'd been the first out of dinner, rushing away from the many people there immediately.

There was a big comfy armchair, right next to the fire, that Madeline loved to sit in during the cold evenings. She curled up and took a book out of her bag. She read even more at Hogwarts than she did at home. At home, there was TV and her family to talk to and the park, where she could go and sit and relax when it was warm enough. At school, without people to talk to, there was just classes, food and books.

The book was about magical creatures. Some of them seemed quite scary, like dragons and werewolves and mermaids. Maddie had always thought mermaids would be nice, pretty and friendly if they did exist, but apparently not. There were some nice, harmless creatures, though, like flobberworms. Even though they were apparently boring, a flobberworm would be a nice pet to have.

At one point, Lyn knew that she needed to spend some time in the common room and actually make some friends. She spent her meals at the Hufflepuff table, but she was usually joined by Hunter and Lyra, or she'd go over to eat with them. So, other than her siblings, she had no friends. Unless you counted Hunter's friends. But they hardly counted, because they weren't her friends. Lyn felt uncomfortable at that- how was she supposed to make some new ones? Walk up to someone and say "Hi, I'm Lyn."? Nobody did that anymore- either she'd annoy the person or make friends with the person. And there was a big chance that she'd end up annoying the person.

Lyn was still plotting over this as she followed the Hufflepuffs back to the Common Room after dinner. Although she had some Charms homework to start, she figured she could do it tomorrow since it would be Saturday. That day, instead of going straight to her dormitories with her head down, Lyn decided to pluck up the courage and talk to someone! But everyone had a friend. In groups of twos or threes, playing Exploding Snap or copying their homeworks, there was never someone alone. How could she talk to someone without bugging out three people at once? In the end, she decided to sit down next to the fireplace and hope for the best.

She did so, and found an armchair next to the fire. Since Lyn had no book to read and no game to play, she looked around and saw a girl nearby, reading. Maybe she shouldn't bother her, but the title of the book seemed interesting. Magical creatures! She'd been looking forward to Care of Magical Creatures since term started, because she was a big animal lover. Lyn even had her own owl, and she planned to buy a cat next term! And she had a dog back on the farm, and had also named most chickens and cockerels and pigs and horses and animals there, too. Like Aidan Turner and Toby. "Do you take Care of Magical Creatures?" Lyn found herself blurting out at the reading girl. Uh oh.

Quite quickly, more of her housemates started arriving and sitting down with friends. While she knew it was her own fault that she couldn't do the same, Maddie was envious of the chatting and games being played all around her. Everyone seemed so happy and content. After looking around the room, suddenly full, she returned to her book to read about unicorns, which were apparently real in this new magical world.

Another girl who looked around her age sat down nearby. She looked quite nice. Madeline debated with herself on whether to try and talk to her, but decided not to. Even though she was pretty and looked friendly, she could be a mean bully like all the girls at her muggle school.

It turned out, in the end, that she didn't need to try and pluck up the courage to talk to her. Her housemate had seen her book and was asking about the animal-themed class. Maddie nodded, her eyes betraying how scared she was. "I-I mean I'd like to," she stuttered nervously. She wasn't sure whether there was a teacher at the moment.