Pleasure to Meet You PV R. Cazares Closed

Ruby didn't normally re-read books, as she generally remembered their contents very well, and there was so much to get through in such a short period of time. However, for some reason, this was different. She was reading a book by a Muggle author, one that she had read as a young child. Matilda. Although it didn't really bring her new knowledge, it was quite a good book all-in-all, and sometimes it could be nice to relax with a book that was meant to entertain rather than just to inform. Being an avid reader, Ruby read a wide range of things, and had read different things from many genres. However, her insatiable curiosity meant that she had recently been sticking to non-fiction quite a lot. The young Slytherin had a strong desire to learn as much as she could – any new knowledge was always welcome, and she craved it. Of course, there were other ways to gain information besides through books, but when it could be handed to her on the pages and wrapped up in a cover, she could hardly refuse it. Libraries were incredibly valuable resources, and she intended to take full advantage of the one here at Hogwarts. She had been pleasantly surprised with how big it was and the enormous amount that it managed to encompass. She had wondered before if she would finish all the books in it by/before seventh year, though, as she had read a lot of them already. She read very quickly, going through multiple books a day, and she pretty much made daily trips to the library, at this point.

Even with all this reading, she still did other things. She was always on top of her homework and did it early, so that wasn't a concern for her. She drew daily, and updated her notebooks that were filled with information on people. She also spent a lot of time outside, as she adored nature and liked to be in it and admire its beauty, and sometimes it could act as a temporary retreat from life. There was also socialization… despite the fact that she had talked to several people, she hadn't felt many connections yet. It disappointed her a little, but she supposed that she shouldn't have expected the people at Hogwarts to be that different from people in any other school. To make a real friend that she actually truly cared about, she would need the right person. Besides people that could make decent acquaintances or good people to manipulate, she hadn't really found many people here that met her needs/wants. There were definitely some that were better than the rest, but still…

She didn't want to spend all these years alone. Yes, she had her three cousins that were basically her best friends and brothers, but they were older and in different houses to her, and she couldn't see them as much as she wanted to because of that. They did meet up regularly, whether to plan mischief, prank people, hang out, have fun, or just check up on each other, but Ruby couldn't help but feel a strange sense of loss. She was missing out, and that was the truth. She needed a best friend. At the very least, a good friend would do. Was this loneliness she felt? It was not something she was accustomed to. Being alone had never really bothered her before. She was always around these happy people, though, who had amazing friends… people they had formed bonds with. The young Slytherin felt like she had no one. Perhaps that needed to change. Maybe the right people just hadn't come along yet, and maybe she'd find them eventually.

With a small sigh, she concentrated back on her book. It might be best to get her mind off of all of this. Before long, she was lost in the world that Roald Dahl had created. It didn't take much for her to focus entirely on a book. Her eyes darted across the pages, moving quickly through the lines. Then, there was a sound. An interruption. Apparently, she had failed to notice the approaching Gryffindor. Normally, she was extremely aware of her surroundings, with her senses fine-tuned and taking in everything around her. However, she seemed to forget that when she was reading, she sometimes became oblivious. Her head lifted and her light blue eyes quickly locked on the girl near her. She began analyzing instantly. By nature, she was observant, calculating, and analytical, and it helped her find out as much as she could about a person just from a single glance. Thanks to the deep understanding of people she had recently started to gain, she could tell a lot about people from looking at their body language and other factors – such as their expressions, the condition of their clothes/appearance, how they talked, what they said, their tone of voice, and so on. Her brain instantly fired off things about the girl. Gryffindor. From… London. Upper-class. Enthusiastic, quite excited, confident. Reads… somewhat frequently? Outgoing.

Now that that was out of the way, the most important thing was probably to reply. How would she approach this, though – with friendliness, annoyance, or with something else? She looked at the girl again. She seemed friendly enough, and Ruby needed to take a shot at possibly making a friend… fine. She smiled at the Gryffindor, which made her normally cold eyes light up – bringing a new light, life, and warmth to them. “That's cool. I read it before when I was little – this is my second time reading it. What is it that you like about it? Do you like Roald Dahl's other books, too?”

As the Slytherin girl looked up, Anastasia made something of a mental profile about her. Liked reading, obviously. Based on her accent, presumably upper class. More on the reserved side, like Anastasia, typically was. As she was making these mental notes, Anastasia caught a gleam in the other girl's eyes that made her wonder if she was mentally analyzing Anastasia. That made her immediately take a liking to her, which was rare. Then again, Anastasia was rather had a tendency to be a bit more abrasive, so it was probably just as rare for a person to take a liking to her. 

"Roald Dahl's writing style is just so engaging," she replied. The majority of the young Gryffindor's reading consisted of older, well-renowned literature like Dickens and Shakespeare, and nonfiction books about magical theory and such. While she did enjoy those more than most children her age would even Anastasia did occasionally like to read something that was actually aimed at children. It had been surprisingly difficult for her to find something that was meant for children while still actually being a good book. Honestly, authors apparently thought that because they were writing for children, they were writing for fools. Dahl's writing wasn't remotely like that. It was certainly meant for a younger audience, but he didn't talk down to his readers. "I haven't read all of his other books, but I've enjoyed the ones I've read. The one about the chocolate factory is another one of my favorite books because it really has a deeper message that few people connect to. Do you enjoy his other books?" 

Anastasia had managed to stop herself from going off on a tangent about the chocolate factory book, mainly due to the fact that whenever she tried to explain the deeper message, she would do the thing where she started talking really fast and forgot to breathe. There were few subjects she got that excited about, and she didn't exactly want to lead with that. This girl seemed like a potential friend, which was rare at Hogwarts. She had found plenty of potential enemies and even more potential minions, but only a handful of potential friends. She could only hope that this girl saw her as a potential friend as well.