Third Year Hufflepuffs Meet

[Babette Avian]

Babette walked into the room, to find a red haired girl sitting down in a chair, reading a book. "Hello! Nice day today, isn't it?" she said. "What's your name? Mines Babette. You can call me Babs, if you want though. I prefer it more, but Babette is fine, too."
Babette took a deep breath in because she talked too much, without a breath in between.

[Robin Slater]

There was a big test coming up in Transfiguration, which wasn't exactly Robin's best course. Probably the only thing she was worse at, actually, was Divination.... and she didn't really think anyone was good at that. It was all a lot of guess work... ultimately, a person either had the gift or they didn't.

But Transfiguration always seemed so... arbitrary. What was the point in changing a toothpick into a tea cup? Couldn't you just Summon a tea cup if you didn't have one? When she tried to transfigure her toothpick into a teacup, she always ended up with a wooden teacup... and usually a few splinters.

At the moment, Robin was re-reading a chapter in her Transfiguration book to prepare for the upcoming test. She was concentrating pretty deeply, so when suddenly, she heard a voice talking to her, she gave a little start and looked up at the girl who was speaking.

"Oh... hi," she said slowly, pausing to rub her eyes. "Sorry, I didn't get all that. What did you say?"

[Babette Avian]

Babette stopped, and realized that she was the girl everyone was talking about. She was dating James Potter. Babette thought James liked Lily... Ah, another love triangle. Babette loved this kind of drama. She couldn't blame James, for the girl was very pretty. "I love your hair! I always wanted to dye my hair red. Maybe then, people would stop calling me 'Blondie'." she said with a giggle.
Babette smiled, and realized the girl had been reading for more than an hour. "What's that you're reading? Oh, transfiguration. I hate that class. Is there a test coming up?! Oh, no! I forgot! Well, what I said was what's your name?"

[Robin Slater]

Robin was wide-eyed for a moment. This girl talked so fast, and Robin was still suffering from study-brain, so it took her a few minutes to catch up with what the girl was saying.

"Thanks," she said, unconsciously fingering a lock of her hair. "They have worse names for redheads, you know. I almost hexed a boy for calling me Carrot Top last week."

She closed her book on her lap and shifted slightly in her seat to better face the girl. "I'm Robin," she said, holding out her hand to the girl.

[Babette Avian]

Babette was startled when she saw Robin's hand, because she usually didn't greet people that way, but since Robin was a new friend, she accepted the hand and shook it, gently.

"Robin is a pretty name. And, another name for redheads is ginger. I hate that. People call me ditz, just because I have blond hair. It gets frustrating sometimes. You know what I mean? Oh! I almost forgot! My name is Babette."

There was a pause for a moment, until Babette broke the silence. "What do you like? Food, colors, hobbies... I like to talk a lot. It may be a little obvious... Haha..." Babette continued biting her nails, because she was feeling quite awkward.

[Robin Slater]

If Robin had been a different sort of girl, she might have thought that there might have been another reason why people might call this girl a ditz. But she was a Hufflepuff, after all, and if she noticed that the girl had introduced herself a total of three times in under two minutes, she was too nice to point it out.

Instead, she just smiled. "Yeah, I got that. Nice to meet you, Babette."

She wasn't going to get any more studying done now, so she closed her Transfiguration book on her lap and turned slightly to face the girl. "Wow... a lot of questions. Um... My favorite food is pizza, my favorite color is blue, and for hobbies... I don't know... reading, I guess. And I like to watch quidditch. What about you? Besides talking, I mean?"

[Babette Avian]

"Hahaha! Well, my favorite foods are chineese foods, like crab rangoon and peach snapps chicken. My favorite color is yellow, because it makes me happy. I like to swim. And maybe go on the treadmill for a few hours, if I feel like it." Babette slapped her hand, and said "No!" with a loud yell. "Sorry. I hate biting my nails. It's such a nasty habit. I hate it because it ruins the enamel of my nails! It's terrible!" the room got suddenly quiet, and then it felt akward.

"Cloudy day today, isn't it?" she said trying to break the silence, and change the subect at the same time.

[Robin Slater]

Robin wasn't quite sure what to say for a minute, when it got suddenly quiet in the room. This girl was certainly enthusiastic and energetic.

"I bite my nails, too," Robin confessed, holding up her hands with the ragged-looking nails. "I wonder if there's some sort of magical way to stop us from doing it, you know? There should be. If there's not one, maybe I'll have to try and invent one or something. Too bad I'm not much better in Potions than I am in Transfiguration."

[Babette Avian]

"Hahaha!" Babette giggled. "What I used to do was paint them, and it usually worked, until the paint fell off the next day. It's hopeless!"

"I'm bad at most classes, and late to the ones I'm good at! It's hard to be early when your locker is at the other end of the hallway. I usually run to class. I need to learn a teleporting spell. It would make life so much easier!" Babette complained. She thought to herself "Robin is a lot like me in some ways. I'm gonna get to know her better."

[Robin Slater]

Robin frowned as she looked down at her own ragged nails. "I never was very good at painting my nails. I'd smudge it, or it wouldn't dry properly and it would look all bubbly. After a while, I just gave up. I'm not so good at all the girly-girl stuff, like putting on makeup."

Of course, she was only 13, and she didn't really need to know that kind of thing just yet. Or at all, really. Ultimately, it didn't really matter. What was important about a person was what was inside. That was what her parents always said.

[Babette Avian]

"Well, I could help you paint your nails! In fact, I carry an extra bottle, or four, for emergencies only. I consider this an emergency. Haha! Being only thirteen, I do know a lot about makeup. My mom teaches me these things about makeup, and it is acctually pretty cool. I could show you a few things, if you want." Babette said with a huge grin appearing suddenly on her face.

Then the pounding sound of rain, and bright lights filled the room. A crashing sound sent Babette flying to the fireplace, because it was on the other side of the room. Babette had a terrible pathelogical fear of thunderstorms, since the age of five. Her parents had no explanation of this strange phenominon. "Ahh! I hate storms!" she said while rolled up next to the fireplace, shivering in fear.

[Robin Slater]

Robin, however, remained calm. Things like thunder and lightning didn't really scare her anymore--at least, not as long as she knew she was somewhere safe. If she had been out in that, she might have been a little more scared. But the castle, she knew, was magically protected from things like lightning. They were in the safest possible place they could be. Which meant, for Robin, that she was able to sit back and see the storm for what it was--an incredible force of nature.

"When I was little, I was afraid of storms," she said. "But now I'm not anymore... at least, as long as I'm somewhere safe. Nothing can happen to you in here, you know. Storms can actually be kind of beautiful... especially since without the storm, you can't have a rainbow."

[Babette Avian]

"Wow. That is a really good saying. After all, rainbows are pretty... I guess there is nothing to be afraid of..." Babette said while cautiously approaching the couch on which Robin was sitting upon. "So, how about your nails, now?" She swiped four colors from her pocket, and held them inbetween each finger. "What's your color? Pink, blue, yellow, or green?"

Babette studied Robin's nails carefully, and made a small suggestion. "I'm thinking blue, but it's your choice."

[Robin Slater]

It had never occurred to Robin to wear any color nail polish other than pink or red, and she hesitated for a moment, looking down at her own small, white hands. The trouble with being a redhead was that her skin was always so pale, almost translucent. It was hard for her to find colors that looked good on her.

"Yellow would be bad," she said instantly. "Unless it's a really dark yellow. Otherwise it washes me out even more, if that's even possible. And pink tends to... um, clash. I was always sad when I was a little girl and all my friends were wearing pink frilly dresses, and I had to wear blue. I'm used to it now, though. So I guess blue or green. Those are usually my best colors."

[Babette Avian]

"Ooh! Green! That would be pretty!" Babette said with a laughing smile. She could not wait to paint someones nails, considering she has never painted another person's nails excluding her own. "Oh my gosh. Just had the greatest idea EVER! What if I painted the base a dark green, and then the tips a light green. That would look so pretty! Yay! Hehe!"

Babette stopped, and noticed how immature she was acting. "Oh, I'm sorry for my three- year- old behavior... just got a little too carried away, there." she said with a shy smirk. "So how are you liking your classes this year? Oh, and of course, I hate History. Big surprise there... Haha!"

[Robin Slater]

Robin wouldn't have even imagined wearing green nail polish, much less wearing two different colors like that. She suddenly felt that she wasn't nearly as experienced in fashion or such girly things as she could have been. She wasn't exactly a tomboy, but she wasn't super-girly, either.

"OK, if you say so," she agreed, shrugging. "But maybe we should file them first. They look kind of... shredded. I was biting them earlier, and they look pretty bad."

[Babette Avian]

"Ooooh. I hate this habit of ours. It truly is a curse." Babette said with a frown. "I don't think I have a nail file, though. Aw, man! That's too bad..." she said as she searched for a nail file in her bookbag. "I should carry one around with me from now on, I guess. Haha!"

She then yawned very sleepily. "Oh. It's getting late. Maybe we should head back up to the rooms. Wow! Look outside! It stopped raining!" After that being said, a soft crackle of thunder echoed through the now empty halls of Hogwarts.

[Robin Slater]

Robin was still sort of processing all of this. She had been about to ask the girl whether she thought that James, the boy she was sort of dating, would like it if her nails were green, when Babette changed topics, and suggested that they go up to bed. She wasn't at all tired, and she did need to finish her studying, so she was about to say that when Babette changed topics once again and pointed out that the rain had stopped. Robin couldn't help but laugh this time. Babette jumped from topic to topic like a small bird hopping from one branch to another. It was not something Robin was used to, and she found it a little difficult to keep up.

"Do you just say whatever comes into your head?" she asked. "I don't always know what to respond to first when you do that."

[Babette Avian]

"Oh. Hahahaha! I guess I never noticed that. I'm sorry! Sometimes I just talk, and there's no real reason for what comes out of my mouth. Hahahaha!" Babette had never been told this, and so she laughed at her little quirk. "I guess I'm just tired." Babette shrugged, and stood up slowly.

"I'm gonna head on upstairs in a little bit. Oh, you were still reading. Sorry, i woke you up, before." she let out a small, quiet, laugh. Babette then dragged her feet around the room, and shuffled toward the warm fireplace, and curled up under a blanket. She then stared at the dancing flames, reveiwing her day.

[Robin Slater]

Robin sat there, her mouth still open as she tried to get a word in, to tell the girl that she didn't mind the interruption (in fact, she probably had needed it, now that she thought about it) and that she would see her upstairs later, but again, Babette just talked and then was on her way out of the room before Robin even knew what had happened.

She shook her head for a moment, then attempted to go back to her Transfiguration studying. But if she had been having trouble concentrating on it before talking to Babette, it was nearly impossible now. The common room was much emptier than before, and the fire was starting to die down. And it was later than Robin had realized.

Still, she attempted to carry on for a while, staring down at the book until the words began to swim before her and she realized that she had read the same sentence four times. Studying Transfiguration was even more useless than actually doing it... Really, she should be practicing right now, or she'd never make that toothpick into a teacup.

But she wasn't going to be able to do that now. Her brain just refused to work. So at last, she gathered up her books and went back up to her dormitory. Babette was already up there, sitting on her bed and staring into the fire. Robin glanced over at her, then dropped her books down on the bed unceremoniously. "I'm going to get a Troll in Transfiguration, I swear," she moaned.