Confused and Lost (Open)

Derek had finished with classes for the day and was heading back to the common room for a bit. Like usual, he’d had an awesome day. He’d had Potions and Charms, probably his favourite classes out of the lot. Potions because it was fun chucking stuff in a cauldron and cutting stuff up and everything, Charms because of the crazy professor who taught them awesome stuff. Even though he really enjoyed the day’s classes, it was Friday and therefore the weekend now, which was obviously better than all his classes. Because it gave him more time to explore and eat.

Where was the Ravenclaw tower? He had found himself among crowds of students, mainly bigger and stronger than him. Being shoved about all over the place was not fun. Especially since he didn’t know what direction he was meant to be going in. Then to make things even worse, the staircase he was on moved and he looked around confusedly, trying to work out where he was. Was he even in the right part of the castle to get to the bloody tower?

“Ugh,” he said in an attempt to murmur to himself which was probably loud enough for all these people everywhere to hear. “Where is the STUPID Ravenclaw tower?” If he got pushed around for a while, he’d probably find a kindly Ravenclaw to direct him or even the common room itself, which would be even better. He knew what the bottom of the tower looked like but he had no idea where it was.

Hunter could remember when he had found Hogwarts huge and confusing - in fact, as a first year, he was probably the worst at finding his way around out of everyone. He got lost constantly - not to mention that time with the staircase - and was always frustrated with the castle because it pretty much seemed like it was trying to make him late for class. Or more importantly, late for dinner.

But now, Hunter was pretty much a professional at navigating the castle. And he was also really lazy, so after Transfiguration, he ducked instantly into a secret passage behind a painting in the courtyard and sprinted up the narrow, winding stairs. But rather than the Gryffindor common room, he was actually headed to Ravenclaw tower to meet Seren, so that they could head to Hogsmeade for a quick butterbeer - of course, it would have been easier if Seren would just meet him on the grounds. But Hunter knew how to pick and choose his battles.

As he emerged into a corridor, Hunter slipped out onto the grand staircase and started making his way up - pushing past an insignificant first year on his way - when he heard the kid voice out loud that he was lost.Turning to look, Hunter saw that it was that kid who had sat with them at the feast. He hesitated briefly, considering just moving on, but then backtracked. "Derek, right?" he said in a friendly voice as he approached, not really sure if that was actually the kid's name. "It's this way," he told him, pointing in the right direction. "Er, I'm headed there now - I can show you if you want."

Derek was glad when he heard someone say his name, because he had just been about to sit down in the middle of the stairs and moan to himself about how life wasn’t fair. It was good. He didn’t have to do that anymore. Now he could just go to the common room and read or do homework or talk to Kaleb or whatever, like he had intended in the first place before he got lost. Really, he didn’t know how he had done it. He was on the right path and knew where he was going but then staircases were moving and people were everywhere and he didn’t know anymore.

It was sort of a surprise to see Hunter there, offering to help him. “I thought you were meaner than this,” he said idly. Not nice enough to show a random first-year the way. So the lesson in this was not to judge a book by its cover. Or not to listen to Aoife when she was in an emotional, messed up state. Or not to listen to Aoife ever. “Yeah, it’s Derek,” he grinned. He’d always believed he had the coolest name in the world. He definitely did. Whenever he said his name, he said it with pride, because he was totally the best and should be proud.

Oh, it was that way! He never would have got it, though, so it didn’t really matter. “Yes please!” He didn’t know why Hunter was going there. There was nothing at the top of the tower but the common room and he was a Gryffindor. But from deduction, Derek could guess that he was going to see Seren, the beautiful girl with curly hair. She was almost as pretty as his best friend Lily. Hunter himself wasn’t the most good-looking like Derek, but he imagined Seren liked him because he was nice. Good technique to get girls. Being nice.

Hunter raised an eyebrow, a little taken aback as the first thing Derek said was that he thought Hunter was meaner. Well, it wasn't like the kid was completely wrong, depending on Hunter's mood, but he was pretty sure he hadn't been irritable with this particular first year before. He looked at him for a second before replying. "Sometimes I am," he said finally, with a shrug. "But you seem alright." For a first year, he actually seemed relatively un-annoying.

"Come on," Hunter said, inclining his head to tell the boy to follow him and taking off at a casual walk up a set of stairs to the left. "Who told you that, anyway?" he asked casually as they made their way up, wondering who would have told some random first year that he was mean. His thoughts instantly drifted to Phin. Derek probably had some classes with the git Hufflepuff, since they were only a year apart, and Phin had probably been warning Derek to stay away from him. Although, as far as Hunter was concerned, he'd been far nicer to Phin than the kid deserved.

"So, how do you like Hogwarts so far?" Hunter asked. It was a boring, typical question, but Hunter felt like it would be a little awkward to walk in silence. And what else did one say to an insignificant first year? "Are you happy with Ravenclaw?" Personally, Hunter thought Ravenclaw was probably the most boring house. Because it involved a lot of people who read a lot of books, and Hunter avoided the library like the plague.

That was nice. Even though he was admitting that he was mean or arrogant or whatever, he had said that Derek was alright. And alright meant of a satisfactory or acceptable quality. It was nice to find that he was giving out a pleasant or at least acceptable first impression. "That makes sense," he nodded. "There's no point being nice if the person is stupid or not very nice." He didn't really like stupid people. They infuriated him. Because he liked to think he was intelligent enough himself.

Ah, who had told him that? He paused and faked a coughing fit so it didn't seem like an obviously unnatural pause. But his coughing wasn't very good so he stopped. "Just... my first impression," he shrugged. "I'm not that great at judging people." LIE. He was GREAT at judging people! Usually. When he had seen Hunter, he hadn't thought about it too much but he could definitely sense that he had a huge ego. Probably because he had the prettiest Ravenclaw ever as his girlfriend.

"Hogwarts is great!" Derek grinned, quickly and easily responding to the typical first-year question. "I have a nice roommate and a nice best friend and a cool Charms professor so it's all good!" He had almost the perfect lifestyle, yeah! "I like Ravenclaw, they're all attractive and they read a lot, but they do actually have personalities!" He had been doubtful of that at first.

Hunter grinned down at Derek - apparently he'd made contact with the right first year. "Exactly," he agreed. "If you've figured that out already, you're a step ahead of a lot of people." More than Hunter could say for himself as a first year. He was entirely to nice and happy then. "Trouble is, most people don't actually see it that way."

Hunter raised an eyebrow as Derek broke into an obviously fake coughing fit. And then he said that he was just a bad judge of character. Which was the most ridiculous lie he'd ever heard. "You might want to work on your lying if you plan on doing it much in the future," Hunter told the kid, rolling his eyes. He thought for a moment about who would be the most likely to tell a random first year that Hunter was a git - and instantly, it hit him. The answer was obvious. Of course. "Aoife tends to overreact," he added, not even bothering to look at the kid, because he knew that he was right. "And exaggerate."

Hunter couldn't help but grin at Derek's enthusiasm. "Sounds like you've met a lot of people already!" Hunter had met most of his best friends in his first year - Aoife and Blake. And technically, Seren, though they weren't exactly friends at the time. "Oh, you had Leblanc already?" he asked, laughing. "He's great. Gives out tons of candy, passes everybody. Gracen is pretty cool, too, if you're taking any of her classes." He snorted as Derek pointed out that the Ravenclaws were all attractive - though, he couldn't exactly disagree. Seren was in Ravenclaw, and she was one of the prettiest girls he knew. "Gryffindors are pretty attractive, too," he told the kid, just to keep the conversation interesting. Gryffindor definitely won by default because they had Ariel and Darcy.

So Hunter was saying that he should be an antisocial - or cruel and uncaring - git and he would be clever? What he'd said had a lot of insight, intelligence and logic to it, but the stupid people might object. The older boy seemed to get that too, even though he probably was a git. "There's a difference between not being nice and not being civil, though," Derek said. "You can be deferential without being friendly. That means respectful, by the way." True, he was usually a sociable person but he wouldn't be able to cope with a stupid friend and wouldn't last long with a conversation.

"Yeah," he said, nodding in sort of agreement. He had totally got away with good lying before, though, like all those times when he had rebelled and had ice-cream even though his mum had forbidden it. "But I did genuinely not like you much from first impression!" he added, defending himself for a totally stupid reason. "I know." And although she could possibly be classed as stupid, she was still his friend. Exaggerative, overreactive friend with no common sense. And she was definitely Hunter's friend too. He could sense that they were soul mates. Potentially. But they were easily destructible soul mates and if they ever realised that they were soul mates, he didn't think they would last long.

"So that means I'll never fail Charms?" he grinned. Obviously he intended to pass every subject with flying colours and a nice teacher wouldn't stop him working hard but there was no pressure. And the candy was a nice touch. "She's head of Ravenclaw! But I don't take her classes." She seemed very nice and friendly, but the stuff she taught sounded like it sucked. Maybe he would take one of them next year. Probably not. "So you think you're attractive?" Derek smiled. "But yeah, there's that Ariel girl." She was ridiculously pretty. "Hufflepuff has pretty people too. I bet Slytherin does, I just haven't met any outstanding beautiful people there."

Deferential? Was that supposed to be a word? Did he actually use it in a sentence? Hunter quickly racked his brain for some concept of what the word might mean - because he'd look completely stupid not knowing a word used by a first year. Deferential... Deferential... nothing. Thankfully, the kid defined it shortly after he said it, so Hunter could play along and pretend like he understood what it had meant the whole time. "True," Hunter agreed, although he wasn't exactly the most deferential person himself. "But what if the other person is undeferential to you? You don't need to be respectful then." Was undeferential a word? Wasn't any adjective with un in front of it a word? Was deferential even an adjective?

Hunter raised an eyebrow at the first year, but grinned good naturedly. At least he was honest. "Fair enough. I genuinely dislike first years at first, until they prove me wrong - which they usually don't. So I guess we're even." Ah, so he was right. "I knew it was her," he said proudly, mostly to himself. Who else would try and turn random first years against him? She'd done it with Phin last year, and now she was trying to do it again.

"Doubt it," Hunter replied. "I don't think he has it in him to fail anyone. Gracen's classes aren't the greatest - but we get hot chocolate in astronomy. History of Magic is a drag, no matter who teaches it." Hunter snorted at the kid's question. "I wasn't talking about me," he replied, rolling his eyes. He nodded in agreement, though, when Derek brought up Ariel. "Ariel is probably the coolest person you will ever meet. And if you think she's pretty, you should see her sister," Hunter added, grinning. It wasn't that Ariel was less pretty than Darcy, really. But Darcy was older, and attractive in a slightly different way. At least Hunter had finally managed to stop staring at her when she was around - at least most of the time.

Derek was feeling a little confused himself now. And he didn't like feeling confused. Not at all. Still, he was good at hiding his confusion and going along with whatever, so he was sure he'd be fine until he got a grip on what Hunter was saying. Deferential was a splendid word, as was its antonym undeferential, but he wasn't entirely sure that Hunter had used it correctly in the given context. "There's also a difference between not being deferential and being undeferential. But if the person is being undeferential, it's fine to be rude, because undeferential is basically the same as rude and impolite." What he was saying seemed quite confusing to him now, so he shrugged. "Nevermind, I'll add them to my word book and be done with it."

"So I've proved you wrong?" he grinned. That was nice. If first-years didn't usually prove him wrong, that made him special. And worthy of Hunter's acquaintanceship. "There are some cool first-years in my year, though." All those he actually interacted with often seemed very friendly based off first impressions. "Uh... well done?" he said a bit hesitantly. What was he suppose to say to that?

"Well, it's nice to know that if all else fails, I'll be doing fine in Charms," he nodded. Obviously he wasn't serious because in no circumstance would all else fail for him. "I like hot chocolate!" Maybe he would consider signing up for Astronomy if that was what he would get out of it. "She has a sister? And she's EVEN prettier?" He wasn't entirely sure how that was possible, but he would have to look out for the girl who must be the most beautiful in the whole school. Or maybe he wouldn't, because he might look like a creep standing there staring.