One Step [Open]

[Altheda Twidget]

She was a tightrope walker - The Great Altheda , the wonderful - and even though she was wearing a windbreaker and jeans, and not a sequin bikini with lots of feather trim (like that was ever a practical outfit anyways!) she certainly lived up to her name, of being great.

One foot in front of the other, careful - the audience below was gasping - they couldn't believe her gutsiness. She stepped forwards, a little too quick, and put her arms out to her side to steady herself. One second, two...the world held it's breath...

Without warning, she jumped, turning 180 degrees and landed straight, if a little wobbly i n her upper body.

"And the crowd roars jubilation for the Great Altheda!" She crowed, and bowed to the invisible audience 'below' her. "Thank you! No, please - Thank you! Too Much!"

It was pretty late in the afternoon - but the sky was heavily overcast, so there wern't many people out by the lake. Those that were passing along the lawns were more likely to just walk on by, or stare at her like she was nuts before muttering about crazies and continuing on to dinner - so Altheda was free to daydream as much as she wanted to. In her mind, the shoreline of the vast black lake was miles above the water's actual surface - a thin line of rope rather than a stretch of muddy sand. Her trainers and socks were in a heap several feet away, and her toes dug into the mushy stuff 'for grip' as she bowed and curtsied in answer to the screaming fans in her mind's eye.

[Lily Evans]

Whoever heard of a flower that only bloomed on cloudy days? Supposedly, it was a rare form of morning glory, and the flowers, when crushed, had medicinal properties. This was the reason Lily was out on this cloudy day, wandering the grounds in search of this plant. They had discussed the plant in Herbology that very morning, and Professor Tonks had explained that the plants were supposedly found on the grounds, not far from the lake. So of course, Lily wanted to find the plant, so that she could bring it into class.

But it was proving harder to find than she had expected. She had seen morning glories before, of course; her mother always grew the Heavenly Blue variety along the back of the picket fence back at home. The color of the cloud-blooming morning glories, however, were supposed to be bright yellow--like sunshine on a cloudy day. It made Lily think of that song she and Petunia used to sing along to, back when they were still speaking. And now, as she walked the grounds in search of the plant, she found herself singing it again in a soft but clear voice.

"I've got sunshine on a cloudy day.... when it's cold outside, I've got the month of May..."

She was just nearing the lake when another voice broke through her singing, and she glanced up to see a girl walking by the edge of the water, her feet bare. Lily wasn't quite close enough to hear what the girl was saying, but she did see her bowing, as if to an invisible crowd.

Her first thought on seeing this girl was that James Potter probably would have made fun of the girl for her behavior. And Sirius Black probably would have said something sarcastic, then starting flirting shamelessly with her. Lily, of course, did not make fun of people. The girl seemed to be having fun, and she wasn't bothering anyone where she was, so Lily didn't say anything at all. She might have moved on without speaking with the girl at all, except that she happened to notice, at that very moment, the plant she was looking for, just a few feet from where the girl had abandoned her shoes and socks.

She hurried over toward the plant and tripped over a rock, falling flat on her face in front of the girl.

"Um... hi," she said sheepishly.

[Altheda Twidget]

Altheda sudden decent from her fantasy world was quite abrupt - but expected when your 'high-wire' was suddenly flopped upon by another girl. Altheda wouldn't have minded if it were any other time - but seeing as she was doing something that alot of her fello twelve year olds would think was silly - and she herself had not expected any real flesh-and blood audience, she jumped back a little harder than she had ment to - her left foot splashing down lightly into the shallows of the lake. Her cheeks blushed rosey, and she let out a little squeal that was part startled, and part gasp - the water was cold!

"Sorry!" She added quickly afterwards - even though there was no real reason for her to be sorry for anything. She gave her wet foot a little shake - trying to get rid of the water without splashing the other girl - because that'd be rude, right? When that didn't quite get rid of the drippiness - or the numbing chill - she held up her leg, balancing while she padded it dry with the sleeve of her jacket.

That taken care of - although she kept wriggling her toes, to better keep the chill out of them - she took a closer look at the girl on the ground, and finally returned her awkward hello with one of her own.

"Hello." She paused a moment, before extending her hand - in case the girl needed help up. "Are you alright? Anything hurt? I didn't think of bringing my bag out with me, but if you need anything I can run back there and grab it in a jiff. Dad always gets me to carry around some of that antiseptic stuff and a whole slew of bandaids - never know when you're going to need them, right? But...I suppose if I leave it in my room, it isn't much use out here, right? It wouldn't take me a second, though." Altheda let this all go out in a huff before she could really stop herself - then again, she wasn't exactly used to checking herself against just lengthy, random bouts.

[Lily Evans]

Lily's face had to be just about as red as her hair. She never tripped, and if she hadn't been so excited to see the shade-blooming plant, she would have been more careful. She had tripped over a rock, she now realized, and she felt foolish for not noticing it sooner.

Slowly, she pulled herself up into a sitting position, checking with each movement that she was not injured. Once she was sure she was fine, she began to dust off the sand that now covered the front of her robes.

"Oh, really, thank you, but it's not necessary. Nothing hurt but my pride." She laughed lightly as she looked up at the other girl.

Lily was the kind of girl who noticed people, and she especially noticed her fellow redheads. So she felt pretty confident that this girl was in at least one of her classes, but she couldn't for the life of her remember the girl's name. It began with an A, she thought, and was unusual.... but Lily could not remember it.

"I'm Lily," she said. "You're in one of my classes, aren't you?"

[Altheda Twidget]

Lily, that was a pretty nice name. Simple and girly - Altheda always thought that flower names were pretty cool too. She couldn't really place the face - but she didn't look like she could be much older than she was, so the chances of them having a class together was pretty good. Everything was pretty general in the first few years, right? It wasn't like they were divided up into career-wise subjects yet, or even their third-year electives.

" We probably do - and I'm Altheda." Since Lily seemed to be alright, Altheda backed off - giving her a little more space to get her barings together. Trying to think of possible classes they shared, she counted her schedule off on her figngers.

"I've gotten Transfigurations, Defence, Creatures, History, Charms, Potions and Herbol-" Altheda stopped dead, as a scary thought flashed through her mind. She had woken up late that morning (Ursa had made a great escape the night before, and it had taken her a while to coax the fat cat down from it's hiding spot behind the hanging tapistry over the Fireplace mantle in the Common Room.) So panicked, she had barely had enough sense to get dressed that morning - and had completely forgotten to consult the giant wall calander mom had gotten her for Christmas that she'd posted to the top of her trunk. She had sworn it was Tuesday...so she had rushed down to Potions only to find the Dungeons empty, and she was sure she'd missed the class entirely. After that, she had a free period after Potions, so she had never thought to check - instead, wolfing down some lunch for breakfast and then heading out here for a little break before dinner.

But Altheda realized something horrible at that very moment. She hadn't checked her calandar for at a day. Doing the mental math, that ment that Tuesday was yesterday, and she had gotten to Potions...And that ment today was Wednesday, and Wednesday was -

Herbology.

"Oh, Fudge!" She moaned. What made it worse was she could have actually made Herbology class today; if she hadn't freaked and wasted her morning running to a class she didn't even have. With Potions, at least, she wouldn't have had to worry too much about catching up in - she was pretty good in that class, as brewing a potion wasn't that far from cooking. But Herbology was a sorta-hard class. She found it hard to concentrate, with all the colors and smells in the greenhouses, and the fact that not all the plants in their classroom were insentinent or friendly put her ever so slightly on edge. In that class, she always ended up with the potting table next to the Snap Dragons - and when you didn't keep one eye open for them, they could bite you hard. She was behind in it as it was - she so didn't need to miss a class.

[Lily Evans]

"It's nice to meet you, Altheda," Lily said. "That's a pretty name. Everyone has such interesting and different names around here. Where I come from, everyone was just named Mary or Sue. Even my sister's name--Petunia--was kind of unusual where I came from."

While Altheda was trying to think of what class Lily might have remembered her from, Lily got to her feet. Standing up, she realized that she had a fresh new mud stain on her robes, clearly the result of her earlier mishap. Now if only she could remember that cleaning spell...

She looked up abruptly when she realized that Altheda was upset about something. That was when she realized it... she knew the girl from herbology. And Altheda, now that she thought about it, had not been in class today.

"Oh.... you missed Herbology today, didn't you?" she said. "What happened? Weren't you feeling well?"

Lily liked Herbology. It wasn't necessarily her best class, but she liked Professor Tonks, and she liked plants. Maybe it came from being named after one, or maybe it was just a trait she had inherited from her mother, who loved to garden. From a very early age, she and Petunia had worked with their mother in her garden, planting seeds and seedlings, pulling weeds, adding fertilizer, and watering the plants. Their mother had taught them the names of all the plants, and how to tell the difference between weeds and wildflowers.

On the other hand, Herbology was a little different. The plants were magical, and if she wasn't careful, she could get bitten by an ornery snapdragon or knocked unconscious by the scream of a mandrake. That could be a lot to keep track of at times, and it was entirely different from what she had learned when she was growing up.

"If you want, I could let you copy my notes from class," she offered.

[Altheda Twidget]

Altheda was only half-listening now, as she was going over in her head what her possible avenues for redemption were. They seemed pretty slim to her.

But she was had enough congnative consciousness to be able to answer Lily when she questioned her about what why she wasn't in class - because apparently that was where she had recognized her from.

"Well, no, I'm fit and all that, it's just, my stupid cat - " She trailed off, wondering if she should really be telling a stranger that she was bested by a Persian. She knew the other houses figured the Hufflepuff crowd were a bunch of dodders; and she wasn't sure she'd get much love from her housemates for proving the stereotype even remotely true.

"I fell asleep." She muttered instead, trying to shrug casually, but ending up just bunching her shoulders up tight and tense against her ears. "And then kinda....messed up what day it was...That was all."

Meanwhile, she had gotten a possible idea - what if Lily'd let her, you know, peek at her notes a bit, to see what had happened on her mistakenly absent day. Before she could actually ask, though-Lily offered.

Altheda had to hold herself back from hugging her (as some people seemed adverse to that kinda thing - she didn't know why.)

"Really? Could I?" Altheda's eyes flashed with relief, as a genuine, crooked smile stepped in for the bearhug she had wanted to give the other girl. "Because, I mean, I could go and beg Professor Tonks for forgiveness. He's really nice in class, but then again, you know, I've never met him on other terms." An image of a fuming professor flashed unbidden into her imagination - as he ordered some scary-looking plant to wrap around a pleading Altheda and dangle her upside down by her ankles. She quickle shook her head, to shake the thought away.

"Thank you - I'll treat 'em like they were made of gold or sumthin', I swear!"

[Lily Evans]

(Psst: Professor Tonks is a she; it's Andromeda. )

Lily was probably the least prejudiced girl in the school, and she probably wouldn't have thought anything of it if Altheda had told her the truth. After all, she was a muggleborn, so a lot of people had a tendency to be prejudiced against her. She would never turn around and treat anyone else that way, just because of what house they were in.

As Altheda stumbled through her explanation, Lily listened politely, a sympathetic smile on her face. "Oh, I've done that before," she replied. "Sometimes it's so hard to keep track of everything. One time I stayed up all night studying for a test in potions, then fell asleep and slept right through the test! It was so nice of Professor Slughorn to let me take a make-up test."

Actually, he had offered to let her skip the test altogether, since she had one of the highest grades in the class, second only to Severus Snape. But even though Lily didn't really need the grade, she insisted on taking the test anyway. After all, she had studied very hard for it.

The look of relief on Altheda's face when Lily offered to let her copy her notes made Lily smile. It always made her feel good inside to help another person, especially a girl as nice and sweet as Altheda seemed to be.

"It's no trouble at all. Only I don't have them with me right now. I'd have to go back up to my dorm room and get them. Do you want to wait here, or walk back with me?"