Blood is thicker than pumpkin juice

[Lilianne Wesker]

It was a sunny sunday, after the second week of class. Many students were strolling or playing outside on the Hogwarts ground, trying to take advantage of the last days of warmth. Lilianne was sitting alone against a tree by the lake, sketching the view of the lake, and once in a while catching a glimpse of the giant squid's tentacles in the distance. Dinsdale was trotting around her, exploring the surroundings.

"It could have been worse, I guess, Din. So far, anyway. I'm not really good with magic, I told you what happenned on Professor Lannsman's AND Professor Novim's classes... I'm not really good with pressure. But maybe I can make it okay, if I try to believe in myself more, Like Professor Lannsman says... At least I've been good with theory! That's a start! And there's been some students that made fun of me, but others have been really nice too..."

"Yeah, it could have been worse... But I wouldn't mind it being better..."

[Isabelle Wesker]

Isabelle was taking a walk with her friends Sera Jotte and Mary Prawett. They should have been studying, but Isabelle convinced the other girls to go outside instead, saying they had all the time in the world before exams. Henson was flying around them, once in a while coming back to cling onto Isabelle's back.

"... and she didn't even know the answer to that! Where has she been the last five years?" Sera was carrying a few books with her, hoping she might convince her friends to sit down in the sun and revise their hardest subjects after a bit of a walk.

"Ah! And have you seen the way she cut her hair? Welcome to ten years ago!" Mary was bouncing alongside her friends, picking up flowers as they went and braiding them together with a few twirls of her wand.

"Ugh. And her boyfriend. Total lack of taste there. Maybe he confunded her."

"Speaking of boyfriends, Isa..."

"Oh, don't you start that again. I am not interested in him."

"Oh, come now. You can't take your eyes off him."

"Guys, quit it! There is no way that..."

"Hey, isn't that your sister?"

Isabelle was glad of the sudden distraction. "Oh, yeah that's her. I guess she's moping on her own again. That kid I swear..."

"Well come on, introduce us! We've never met your little sis!"

"Bah, I said I didn't want to babysit her here..."

"Doesn't mean you have to completely ignore her. She's family, you should spend time with her. And I wanna meet her too."

"Oh, fine. Don't say I didn't warn you about how she is, though..."

The three girls approached the tree where Lilianne was sitting.

"Hey, Lil!"

[Lilianne Wesker]

Lilianne raised her head from her sketchbook. Dinsdale had just let out a happy squeal, then a distant screetch was heard. She looked over and saw Henson flying towards her Hedgehog. The bat landed on the ground and both pets sniffed each other, happy to see each other again, and started playing together.

"Hey, Lil!"

"Oh, hello, Isa!" She said, beaming at her big sister. "And you must be Mary, and you must be Sera. Isabelle told me lots about you two!" She told the two friends, identifying them correctly.

"Nice to finally meet you! Ohhh, did you draw that? May I see? Wow, you're really talented!" Mary put down the flowers she had been braiding together and took Lilianne's sketchbook to look through it.

"How have you been doing so far in Hogwarts, dear?" said Sera, sitting down next to Lilianne.

"Oh, well, I guess it's been okay, so far."

"Oh come on, don't be shy, tell us everything! Have you made friends? What do you think of the teachers? Have you been able to cast some spells yet?"

"Oh... well... I guess I'm not really good so far. I'm okay with theory, but when it comes to doing actual magic, I guess I'm too nervous and it's been reather disastrous so far..." Lilianne went on for a bit about her insecurities. She didn't feel ashamed talking about them to her sister, and since she hard heard so much about her best friends, she felt she could trust them.

[Isabelle Wesker]

"Oh Lil, seriously, you really need to grow up. When I was first year, I didn't have any problem fitting in. Everything was so easy! You're nearly as smart as I am, you should be able to get through this as easy as I did. In fact I remember in my first weeks of class, Professor Longbottom kept telling me how I reminded him of himself at my age! And I made friends right away and..."

Mary and Sera looked at each other and rolled eyes as Isabelle went off on a tangent, not really taking notice of her audience anymore.

"Don't listen to her, dear. She's too proud to admit it, but we all had to go through the same thing." Sera said in a low voice.

"Tell me about it! When I first tried to cast the Levitation Charm, I poked myself in the eye with my wand! Had to go to the hospital wing!" Mary picked up her braided flowers, and arranged them on top of Lilianne's hair.

It can't all be bad though. Some of the teachers are really nice... What about your head of house, Sir Nicholas? He's pretty nice, how has it been in his class so far?

[Lilianne Wesker]

"Oh! Professor Lannsman has been really nice with me. More patient that I'm worth, I think... In the second class I was trying to cast the relaxation charm, and I threw my wand at a boy's head!"

Mary nudged Lilianne gently, grinning. "At least you didn't get him in the eye! Tell me he was a Slytherin, and I'll say you deserve a medal!"

Sera smiled softly. "Honey, this is a school of witchcraft and wizardry. We're here to learn. Of course it's going to be hard at first. If you already knew eveything, you wouldn't need to be here, right? You're allowed to make mistakes. You just have to learn from them, pick yourself up and go on. Practice makes better! And one little accident isn't the end of the world. It'll be forgotten soon enough."

"Well... I also nearly knocked Professor Novim down, this week..."

Sera just stared at Lilianne a moment, her mouth slightly open, while Mary let out an impressed whistle.

[Isabelle Wesker]

"...so then I told him, if the sorting hat fits, wea... WHAT?"

Isabelle was roughly brought back to her surroundings by the mention of the accident with Professor Novim.

"Oh Lil, what am I going to do with you? I can understand if you're having troubles with Defense Against the Dark Arts, well we all know just how pointlessly dramatic that class can get.."

"But I love Defense..." Mary started to mutter, but stopped as Sera shrugged at her in defeat.

"But Transfiguration? It's one of the most interesting and useful classes you'll ever get! You can't get on your professor's bad side so quick! I was expecting to take a little more after me, you know. You should spend less time moping around feeling sorry about yourself and get out there and have fun with your classmates and putting some real effort into learning magic!"

Before Lilianne could react, Sera punched Isabelle in the arm. "Oh, Isabelle, you're so full of it! You're not helping her at all this way, pretending what she's going through isn't perfectly normal!"

"Yes, Honestly! Why don't we help her out instead, and help her practice? Come on, Lilianne, how about we practice that relaxation charm? Sir Lannsman will be pretty surprised when you show up next week better than everyone else at it!"

"Awwww, but Guys! I wanted to go watch the Quidditch team practice!" Isabelle whined, but her friends both stared at her hard, so she threw up her hands in defeat."Oh, all right then. But I swear if you set my hair on fire or something..."

The girls started helping out Lilianne practice the spell, as Dinsdale and Henson kept playing together, splashing happily on the edge of the lake.



(OOC: I'll leave this thread open at this point if anyone feels like poping in, keep in mind this is after the second week of class though...)