Second Year Introductions Closed

@Alina Rosier

Lizzie had been beyond excited to return to Hogwarts. Her summer had been fun, but she had looked forward to seeing her friends all summer. She felt that second-year Lizzie was going to make more out of her year than first-year Lizzie did. Then again, she'd thought that her first-year and look at how well that had turned out. Many times, it seemed she was all talk. Maybe that could be her goal for the new year: actually make progress on her goals.

The Welcome Feast had been going quite well for the redhead. She was stuffing herself full of food and welcoming any new Gryffindor that was near her and it was great. Until she felt the sudden urge to talk to someone new. It wasn't really a rarity for her to feel like that, due to her extroverted nature, although it was very rarely wanting to talk to a new person, usually more like a friend or an acquaintance. She wasn't talking to anyone at the moment, and so she excused herself from the table and went to wander the halls until she found someone.

Somehow, she ended up on the second floor. Why was it always the second floor?! The second floor seemed to have a Lizzie magnet and every time she was trying to get somewhere or nowhere, she ended up there. It was really quite funny, once she took a step back from her outrage. For once though, the second floor held what she was looking for. Another person, to be specific. The girl looked to be about Lizzie's age, with light brown hair and fair skin. She was... touching the portraits? Lizzie wasn't sure what the girl was hoping to accomplish by touching the paintings, but approached her anyways.

"In an African country, muggle farmers are painting eyes on cows' butts," she said, once she was within earshot of the girl.

@Alina Rosier

Lizzie cackled at the girl's response and immediately flushed in embarrassment. She hadn't meant to straight out cackle, it was supposed to just be a laugh... That was embarrassing. Hopefully, it didn't scare the girl off. She tried to answer the question presented but found herself cackling laughing too hard to get the words out. Every time her laughs slowed, she tried to speak only to start laughing again.

After what seemed like ages, she actually stopped laughing, her cheeks flushed a shade of red nearly the same as her hair, both from the embarrassment and her laughing fit. "They do it to protect the cows," she explained, a hint of laughter still in her voice and a large smile on her face. "The eyes are actually sigils that ward off evil beings that wish to harm the cows-" she stopped abruptly and watched the girl carefully to see her reaction. After a second or two, she laughed and said, "Nah, just kidding, these are muggle farmers, after all. They actually do it because when the things that hunt the cows see the eyes, they think the cow has seen them and then they don't attack."

She paused to consider how the cows felt about it. She'd never thought about it. Now that she was, though, she figured it probably felt quite weird to have someone painting stuff on your butt. "I'm not sure how the cows feel about it," she answered with a small laugh. "What do you think?"

@Alina Rosier

Lizzie hesitated before she responded to the girl's question. Did she know any other weird/interesting facts? She glanced off to the side with one eye squinted and her head tilted as she contemplated. "No..." she answered slowly, unsure. "Well, not usually. But over the summer, my sister got a book that has all sorts of weird facts in it and she's been spouting them almost every day." As she spoke, she looked back at the girl, a goofy smile on her face. Her sister was obsessed with her fun facts book. At first, though, it had been sorta annoying that she barged into Lizzie's room every day to announce the "fun fact of the day" as she'd dubbed it, but after a little bit, it had become part of the day, and Lizzie didn't mind it as much.

"Nice to meet you, Alina." The saying that had been engraved into Lizzie's mind slipped out of her mouth. Her mother always told her to be polite when meeting new people, and to repeat their name back to them, so she'd remember it better. Every time she met a new person, Lizzie wanted to say something besides "nice to meet you", but every time, she said it anyway, because her mother had succeeded and made it a habit of her's. "I'm Lizzie," she added with a smile.

As Alina recalled the location of cows in paintings, Lizzie couldn't help but marvel at how good the Hufflepuff's memory was. Lizzie could only dream of being able to remember locations that well. "I like where you're going with this," she commented, a little surprised at how she was actually considering it. The previous year, she'd been very rule-abiding and wouldn't have at all considered anything that had the possibility of getting her in trouble. "Although, I wouldn't want to paint eyes directly onto the canvas. I think we'd have better results sticking a piece of parchment to them." There it was, the part of her that didn't want detention. Her parents would be quite upset with her if she did receive detention, she was sure.

@Alina Rosier

As Alina brought up a possible flaw in the parchment idea, Lizzie nodded thoughtfully, having not thought of that. Her head tilted as she tried to think of an alternate idea, but as Alina spoke again, she realized she wouldn't have to. "Ooh washable paint is a good idea!" she exclaimed, nodding eagerly.

She couldn't help but worry about ruining the paintings though. What if the washable paint wasn't as washable as they thought it was? Or what if taking it off messed up the paintings? She was sure the paintings were all super old, and that the professors would not be happy if they got messed up. Or she could be getting it all wrong and no one cared about the paintings, especially the ones that featured cows. She guessed she'd find out if she and Alina went through with their idea.

The brunette quickly amended her previous statement, and Lizzie was quick to respond. "No, no, it's fine, I think washable paint would be good," she said, a smile rising to her face as she imagined what the outcome of it all could be. "I don't have any of that type of paint though... Do you?" That would sure throw a wrench in their plans if neither of them had the type of paint they wanted to use. Lizzie was pretty sure she had acrylic paint in her trunk, but that was not washable paint. "I could probably ask my parents to send me some, but then we wouldn't be able to do it until next week." She added, almost as an afterthought.

@Alina Rosier

Lizzie followed the brunette Hufflepuff down the stairs, marveling at how easily she navigated the castle. It seemed impossible to the redhead to be able to find her way around without getting lost however many times. The only place she was able to successfully get to her destination first try was her home, and maybe her best muggle friend's house. Anywhere else, and she was wandering like a lost child.

As Alina disappeared into what was most likely the Hufflepuff common room, Lizzie leaned against the opposite wall, not quite sure what to do. A couple of seconds of that and she stood up straight and stretched a little. Leaning against walls was not as comfortable as it looked. With a sigh, she started to slowly pace the area. She needed to "get her steps in", as her muggle friends often said.

Soon enough, her new friend emerged from the badgers' lair, her bag noticeably fuller than it was before she'd entered. She must've had the supplies. That was good. Lizzie wasn't sure what they would've done if neither of them had what they needed. They started walking, and the redhead contemplated Alina's idea. It was true, that the cows really weren't in danger, so there was no real reason to put eyes on them, but at the same time, the whole point of putting the eyes on them was for the joke and "just in case".

"Maybe we could do a little of both?" she suggested. "Some could get the eyes, and some could get a new accessory?" As much as she didn't want any conflict, she felt that some tribute to their inspiration had to be given, and she really wanted to see the cows in the paintings with another set of eyes.