Royalty Unites PV Anastasia Beckett Finished

Anastasia didn't particularly fancy being outside unless there was a reason like Quidditch or something. It was dirty, and sometimes smelly, and there were bugs everywhere. Not her scene at all. She was on her way back to her Common Room after doing her homework for the day in the library. She was trying to make a plan as to what to do after that. The young prefect supposed she could just patrol or ask her Head of House if there was anything that needed doing, but she really didn't want to. She decided she was going to find someone to talk to. She'd made a few friends, but she wasn't close with any of them just yet, and anyways, she wanted more. Back home, she was quite popular and had a group of girls who were pretty much minions. She was working on that here, but it was going to take time, seeing as she was only a first year. 

As she traveled down the corridor, she came across a boy perched in the window sill. His robes seemed to be similar to hers in terms of quality, which was always a good thing. She hadn't had the best experience with people who were clearly ragamuffins. "Excuse me," she said, approaching the boy. She'd see if he was good company and more importantly, actually in the mood for company, and go from there. 

Landon looked up at the girl.

She wore a prefect badge on her Gryffindor robes, obviously very nice quality.

"Hello. I'm Landon Riley, nice to meet you!" He said kindly, though the emphasis on his last name was a bit obvious. He wondered if she had heard of the prestigious Riley family.

He hoped that it would develop into a conversation. Landon needed some company and especially something fun to do over the weekend, as he was completely free, with no plans, and that was quite pathetic.

He looked at the girl. Thinking and analyzing the facts, that she seemed wealthy, she was a Gryffindor and a prefect... he had heard people talking about a girl with those characteristics before. Trying to recall the name, it came to him.

"You're Anastasia, right? Beckett?" he hoped he was right, as, if this wasn't her, it would be quite an embarrassing slip-up. But Landon's memory was usually accurate, so he was probably correct.

Just for good measure, though, he crossed his fingers.

"I'm doing absolutely nothing this weekend, which is quite pathetic, I know. Do you want to do anything?" he asked her, really hoping that she would have a suggestion for something to do.

Anastasia nodded when she heard the Riley name. She had definitely heard the name before, which meant they were probably one of the Pureblood families who her parents considered it acceptable to socialize with. So far, the boy seemed like he was alright enough, and in any event, he was one of the few people she'd encountered who her parents would actually be alright with her speaking to. 

"I am Anastasia Beckett. How'd you know?" she replied brightly. It was almost always a good sign when someone knew her name without her even having to introduce herself. It meant one of two things - either they were from a similar family, although she already knew that to be true, or that she had done something to make people know her name. In this case, it seemed quite obvious, since she was a prefect, and a new one at that, that he'd heard it around the school. Still, it was good to know that people were talking about her. 

"I might be interested in doing something. I was planning on seeing all of the festivities that they're doing for Oktoberfest, so you're welcome to join me if you'd like." She arched an eyebrow, one of her signature gestures, at him and waited for his response. She always preferred doing things with at least one other person. She felt pathetic when she had to do things by herself. 

"I'd heard some people talking about the new prefect enrollments, they mentioned a Beckett being one, which was a family I've heard a lot about from my parents. You seemed to have all the characteristics described, so I thought I would take a shot," the Riley boy smirked at his triumph.

The Oktoberfest was certainly going to be Landon's favorite celebration at Hogwarts. It was all celebrating fall and Halloween, which was his birthday, an October 31st baby.

"Definitely. Fall is great, I'm happy there's such a big celebration for it. Maybe we can sign up for some of the events or sleepovers or whatever there is!" He suggested, voicing his thoughts as they began walking.

“So, you’re a Beckett? I’m pretty sure my parents have been to a few conferences with yours or something, they’ve talked about you.”

It was completely true. The Rileys had mentioned the Beckett name multiple times, always with good things. The two families were sort of like wizarding royalty, and there was a unique relationship between those types of families.

“Have you ever heard of my family?” He asked slyly, interested to hear whether his parents were mentioned in other conversations.

The two kept walking to the Oktoberfest sign ups.

"Good job then," Anastasia laughed, brushing her long hair out of her face as she further examined the boy. As he stood, it became clear that he was a good two inches taller than her, which was rather rare. She was on the taller side for her age and her perfect posture and confident demeanor made her seem even taller. It was rather nice to not tower other a companion for once. 

Anastasia listened without comment as Landon spoke. She was a surprisingly good listener all things considered. She was still making up her mind about him, and letting him talk more seemed the best way to do that. So far, she had a quite good impression of him, but she wasn't one to go off of the first impression unless it was incredibly negative. 

"I believe I've heard your family mentioned a few times," Anastasia said cooly. She knew she'd heard her parents mention the name, so she figured she'd say that. She didn't mention the fact that any of the last names she would have heard of would be high status Purebloods. She figured he'd know as much since he was probably raised in a very similar manner. "So, what do you think of Hogwarts so far?"

Landon contemplated the answer to Anastasia's question for a few seconds.

He certainly did like Hogwarts, it was all he had expected it to be. But he didn't like some things about it.

"I mean, I like the school. Some of the people inside it, though, not so much. That Thompson girl, Rorie or whatever. I just can't even start on her, and my sister seems to think she can boss me around for the amusement of her fourth year friends, which is extremely annoying. But, it's cool all in all, I suppose. My brother wou-" Landon stopped in the middle of his sentence, not wanting to reveal his dark secret. It was the one thing that would take the boy from being extremely enthusiastic and mischievous to quiet and tired in less than a second, and he didn't want that sudden mood swing in front of company. That's one thing his parents always enforced, never behave any less than perfect when with someone.

Taking his mind off of the subject, he decided to switch the conversation over to her.

"What about you? Do you like the school? What's your favorite part of it?" He asked, looking down at his leather sneakers as he walked.

Anastasia's face lit up with a bit of an evil grin. She despised Rocky Taylorson. The moment they'd met, Roxie had been horribly rude to her and called her a spoiled princess or something to that effect. Not that she wasn't a spoiled princess, she just resented people saying so. That was part of the reason she had approached Landon - coming from a similar family meant that he would know some of her struggles and know that life wasn't as perfect as all the Pureblood pretending to be. "Not to gossip, but what's your problem with Ricky?" Anastasia asked curiously. She did in fact know that the girl's name was Rorie, but she refused to acknowledge that after she'd made fun of Anastasia's long name. It was also a bit of a dominance thing. "I've encountered her myself and I found her most unpleasant."

Listening, she made two mental notes. She noticed that he didn't have the same reservations about speaking badly of his family that she did. Her parents had drilled that into her since she was young - no matter what your family might do, blood was thicker than water. She'd gotten detention when she'd gone against that. Well, maybe the detention had more to do with the fact that she had hexed someone than the fact that she had publicly disagreed with her cousin, but still. The other thing she made a mental note of was the fact that he cut himself off when he mentioned his brother. She would definitely ask about that later. 

"Oh, I love it. I really enjoy the lessons, but my favorite thing is probably my house," Anastasia told him as they walked. "My family has been Slytherin pretty much forever and I'd expected to be the same, but Gryffindor is really great."

Landon wasn't surprised when Anastasia said that she wasn't on good terms with Thompson.

"Oh, Ricky?" he laughed, using the name his acquaintance had called the girl by. "Well, at first I actually gave her a chance and she was almost civilized, but then she just suddenly distanced herself from me, and I didn't know why until I approached her and asked. Apparently she has trust issues with people that come from actually decent families, seeing as she lives in a dumpster. Anyways, I hate her now and she hates me back, and I think the main cause is that she's jealous that I actually have two living parents," he laughed. Finding that soft spot for Thompson hadn't been hard to do, she had slipped up when they were still talking and he used the past tense to his advantage.

"That's interesting. Funny how us prestigious Pureblood families seem to always be sorted into the same house. All the way back my family has been Ravenclaw, until my sister. She's a fourth year in Gryffindor, too, maybe you've seen her. Her name's Beaux and she can be a stuck up moron sometimes. Anyways, she got the bulk of the yelling from our parents and grandparents and great grandparents and so on, seeing as she was the first. My parents basically threatened to disown her, but I don't think they meant it. Or, at least, I hope they didn't. So when I wasn't sorted into Ravenclaw they still were mad but didn't yell as much, quite the relief," He said, only realizing that he had been rambling on quite excessively after he had finished speaking.

"Ah, that may be partially my fault, since I was a tad unpleasant to her. To be fair, she started it," Anastasia said, looking a bit smug. She didn't like making people dislike her or anything. She just liked disliking people who disliked her. "She was jealous of you too? Honestly, you'd think if it was such a sore spot, she wouldn't bring it up so much." She smiled a bit as she said that. She did have a mean streak, but it was nice to see that it wasn't completely unwarranted or something. Generally, she had pretty good judgment when it came to people, but it was always good to get confirmation. 

 Anastasia smiled a bit when he talked about his parents and their reaction. Her parents had completely freaked out and threatened to disown her as well. Only she believed that it was a definite possibility. Her cousin had been sorted into Hufflepuff a while back, and her parents had disowned her in the middle of her fourth year. So, for Anastasia, at least at the moment, it seemed like a definite possibility. 

"I rather wonder if the Hat sorts you based on qualities you value as opposed to qualities you possess," Anastasia replied. She'd given it a great deal of thought when she was first sorted into Gryffindor. Well, she knew exactly why she was in Gryffindor, but she was trying to find a general theory. "That would explain why entire families are sorted into the same Houses, since, presumably, parents pass their values to their children."