The Story of a Girl [Open]

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Selena Faith Greyback stood, staring through the window, out onto the grounds. Lena had spent the morning reading, but today she simply wasn't really feeling it. Weird for her. She took in the leaves changing colours,  and falling from the trees, she watched the tiny, distant shapes of students walking, she cast her eyes out over the lake, and the white tomb of Albus Dumbledore.  That tomb filled Selena with a kind of bitterness most people wouldn't understand. Her father was there when Dumbledore died. He'd known that same monster that had made her life hell. If her mother hadn't saved her, Selena herself would have been a warewolf after the night her father had finally 'come home'. He wondered how Albus Dumbledore had handled  her father. What the noble headmaster had made of him. Was Dumbledore concerned about the prospect of a castle full of students being transformed forever? Was he calm and aloof as he was often said to have been? Selena had long ago dismissed the writings of Rita Skeeter and the impression given in that horrible woman's venomous biography of the late headmaster, but still. She was sure Dumbledore couldn't have been all virtue and goodness.

That was how the mind of a depressed, cynical teenage girl wandered on these gloomy autumn days. Her expression softened as she came to realise that even the people who thought Albus Dumbledore aloof, insisted on his greatness. That everyone who had known him that she had ever spoken to had adored and respected him.  She felt horrible for the way she had let her emotions get the better of her, and worse still for the accusatory thought that Albus Dumbledore might have been unconcerned about his students.  Selena made her way to an arm chair and sat down with a sigh. She'd walk, when she found the motivation but for now, why bother? 

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Slouched in the corner of a large sofa, Nina doodled in her notebook that was propped up against her knees. Contentment was few and far in between for her these days, but drawing had always been a good release, though she wasn’t very good at it. After scratching in a few bold lines she examined her work, cracking a smile. A cutesy cartoon version of herself had sprout wings and was flying over a warm, palm-clad beach. It was a great fantasy in contrast to the actual weather outside which was getting colder by the day.

Since coming to Hogwarts she hadn’t warmed up to literally anybody, her moods getting in the way of feeling social most of the time. Her loneliness (and boredom!) was at an all-time high and she knew that pushing people away wasn’t going to help anything, but sometimes the small talk they approached her with did nothing but annoy her. Melting her outer layer of ice was step one on the path of finding any kind of regular company. She knew this, and thus forced herself out of her four poster bed and came downstairs to draw in the common room. It was the least she could do to try and change things up and maybe meet someone new.

So far she’d only seen one other person in the room, that fifth year that sat down on the chair near her. She avoided her gaze and thus couldn’t really observe her properly to see if she even was the type Nina would be inclined to socialize with. Returning to adding details to her tropical paradise drawing, she quietly sighed, remembering that she should be less judgmental if she wanted to make literally any connection during her final year of schooling. “Do you like this kind of weather?” she asked abruptly, puncturing the silence and finally looking up and straight at Selena. Without much of a pause she continued, “I prefer summer, hands down. The cold makes me want to crawl into a hole and hibernate.”

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tagged: @selena
wearing: cozy casual

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Selena heard the sound of the other's voice and turned sharply. An older student. Lena thought her name might have been Nina? She was the vampire, though. That much Selena did know. Vampiric students had certain needs that stood out. As she heard the other speak, Selena offered a friendly smile - or what she hoped would pass for one. It was distinctly an act. Not that she had any problem with the older girl. Far from it she'd scarcely even spoken with her. It was just that in Lena's current mood she wasn't feeling too friendly to anyone.

Considering the vampire's question she shook her head. "I've never been a fan. All the gloom doesn't do a lot to help my mood." She answered from where she had flopped down, looking over at Nina now. "Honestly, I've always been one for spring, myself. Not too hot, but still nice." She answered. "Sorry if this is kind of ignorant, but I'd have thought the summer sun would be a bit much?" She asked genuinely curious now. She'd never really spoken with a vampire before and this was an interesting chance. Her bad mood was bubbling away in the back of her mind but this was a welcome distraction if nothing else.

"Oh, I'm Selena." She said plainly. She didn't need to declare her last name, it would be obvious by reputation most likely, and besides. any time she could keep from calling herself by that monster's name, the better, at least in Selena's mind.

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With the question about the sun, Nina exposed a toothy grin. “I’m Nina. And that’s a very valid question.” She always appreciated straightforwardness. “I find the summer nights to be unbeatable. Especially in the forest.” She closed her notebook and sat more upright, still facing Selena.

She had indeed heard of the Greybacks, though it was solely through books until very recently. The battle at Hogwarts had been a distant event she had learned about in school back home, but here it seemed to loom over the castle. It was much more prevalent and brought up fairly often, especially in the current political climate. Selena wasn’t a werewolf herself, as far as Nina could tell, so she wasn’t feeling threatened.

“I haven’t done much around here yet, this being my first year here,” she started. “Is there anything I should know? Great places to blow off some steam? Or meet people? I keep hearing about this Hogsmeade… is it all it’s cracked up to be?” She knew she’d rattled off a lot at once, but Nina was just eager to be speaking to someone that wasn't a professor.

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"I can dig that. Light cool breezes... summery smells still in the air, night birds are active... That does sound really nice." She said thoughtfully as she considered the other. The Vampire seemed nice. Selena may have held a grudge against werewolves and that extended as well to other creatures that could turn somebody's life on its head in a violent moment, but at least from where Selena was sitting, Nina didn't seem the type.

"I heard that you'd moved here - Obviously when a vampire moves in people are gonna  talk." This wasn't accusatory or anything but she had heard - not because there'd been some grand announcements or anything. Just because Selena paid attention and had heard some of the school's staff discussing the logistics of the Vampiric student. Of course there had also been stirrings from other students, mostly curiosity but a few people would react in a more decided way, either hating vampires on spec, or being drawn in by the sort of dark glamorous reputation that vampirism held. The latter were mostly muggleborns who were influenced by modern vampires in popular culture. culture. Selena found such interesting. It was mostly accurate in most cases and yet muggles were still drawn, inexplicably to things that could kill them. The same trend had even started to surface with werewolves. "Either way, welcome to Hogwarts." Lena did her best to sound friendly. She was never a particularly rude person - aside from perhaps to her half-brother, but sometimes it was hard to be enthusiastic.

"Hogsmeade is nice." She responded. "At the end of the day it's just a little magical village, though. Only fully magical settlement in the U.K." the girl explained. "It's a nice place to go to get away from everything,  it's not actually some amazing blissful place. There are some pretty great shops, though, and it's not school, What more can you really ask for?"