Glitter and Gleam Closed

When Elena was studying she did not like to do it in the library, there was something about other students studying around her that made her feel crowded. So she had checked out about six books and rolled a die to find out where she'd be studying that day. One meant the Small Hall, two for the Owlery, three for the Common Room, four to go out to her tree, five was the Trophy Room, and six was the rehearsal room. Today for the first time she'd rolled a five, so she'd picked up a couple of pillows and headed up there. She was planning on checking out some more Astronomy, she liked that class but hadn't studied as much.

When she got to the Trophy Room, there was already someone there. She recognised her from the Great Hall as Nadège Benoit, the divination professor, what was she doing in the Trophy Room? Maybe she was looking for peace and quiet too, but she had a whole office to be left alone in. Also a bedroom, Elena had dorms but she couldn't exactly hide in them, the downsides of being in a boarding school, people.



Elena walked over and smiled at the woman, "Hi Professor Benoit, how are you going? I'm Elena, we haven't met before."

Since her last visit to the trophy room, Tina has been more at peace with her achievements. She wasn't well known to any of the teachers since she never tried to make herself stand out, but she got good grades. She had a few first year friends and knew even fewer older students, but always had someone she could turn to. She was use to feeling invisible, so visiting the trophy room and knowing she would never earn one herself left her in a state of contentment. Why have everything when you already have so much? she thought as she finally reached the trophy room. 

To her surprise, she saw a professor and Elena, a fellow first year, already there. She was disappointed that she didn't have the room to herself, but was willing to respect their presecences. She visited this room more than 50 times since the memorable first visit and it was beginning to become more like a home. She knew every twist, path, and turn and could tell a person where to find some of the trophies. She admired the beauty of the room as well as the trophy and couldn't imagine herself being in any other room. 

As she began to move farther away from the other people in the room, she accidently bumped into a shelf and a trophy came falling down. Swiftly, she caught it in her hands and hugged the trophy with relief. Coincidently, it was her favorite one with her mother's maiden name engraved at the center. Even though she never had a trophy, she felt the same pride of having one as she gently placed the trophy back to its original location. Realizing she was close enough to the others for them to hear her, she decided to walk deeper into the room. 

Moving barely an inch, she managed to slip on the floor, tripping over her own feet. Today was just not her day, she thought. Keeping what was left of her dignity, she picked herself up and began to observe a nearby trophy. She hoped they wouldn't notice her unfortunate timing as she let herself get lost in the trophy's beauty.

The moments with her own thoughts were short-lasting. A young Slytherin girl was the first to enter the room not too long after the professor. The unnatural, bright blue of the girl's hair contrasted strikingly with the green of her robes, but much more thought-provoking, Benoit found, were the few pillows the child had decided to bring along with her. Benoit found it strange, her eyes staring at the cushions for longer than she had intended, but the woman did not pry into why in hopes of not offending the young one's sensibilities. As the girl introduced herself as Elena, Benoit finally noticed the bindings of a book squished between the thick pillows. The idea that someone would use the trophy room as a place to study hadn't even crossed her mind, but she figured she couldn't even be surprised-- children often did nonsensical things.

Removing her lingering hand from the glass, Benoit faced her upper body to properly engage with the student before her. A gentle nod in her direction. "Hello, Miss Elena..." she trailed off with raised brows, anticipating for the Slytherin to give her last name as well. The professor preferred acknowledging all of her students with a surname, if possible. She found it to be most respectable, and additionally, a good way to prepare them for the intricate rules of professionalism.

Closer to the back walls a dull sound erupted, unquestionably pointing to something nearly being knocked over. Before she could take in a response from the Slytherin, Benoit whipped her head around to the source, fully expecting shatters to soon accompany the initial noise. From what she could see over the other containers, a red-headed girl that she didn't notice walk in was the culprit, but the trophy landed smoothly in her outstretched arms with everything intact. That was a relief. The woman had the skill to mend something if needed, but these were precious school artefacts and historical records; they shouldn't have seen the eyes of danger to begin with.

Shoulders relaxing after the scare, Benoit gave a little huff and stuck her hands inside of her robe pockets. The stone interior of the room made it less likely to trap heat in the approaching Scottish winters, and Benoit was starting to feel a bit chilly. Turning her head around, she saw that another young witch was waiting before her.

"Miss Jangleton," Benoit greeted politely on the surface, though internally taken aback by how casually the brown-haired student had talked to her, like she was catching up with an old friend rather than meeting an authority figure. A Gryffindor, that was for certain. The student's joke went over the Divination professor's head, because she was now distracted yet again by the loud smack of a body hitting the hard floor somewhere from deep within the chamber.

Assuming it could have only been the same clumsy person as before, Benoit blinked both of her eyes tightly, fighting the urge to face-palm, not only for her own sake but for the red-head's as well. "Excuse me for one moment," she interrupted, bringing up a hand out of her pocket before turning her back to the two Elenas.

"Are you alright?" she called out to Tina, her accented voice carrying throughout the space. Poor child was probably embarrassed, Benoit knew she would have been in that instance. The Cuban tried to continue on with her tender reassurances. "Quite the nasty fall that sounded like. Be a bit more careful, please." Brief silence. After having to jump onto her toes to see over the cases, Benoit could see that the Ravenclaw was busy staring at a trophy, so she turned back around to speak once more with the remaining girls.

She rolled forward from her heels, trying to keep herself warm. "Apologies. Professor Benoit of Divination. Nice to meet you both. What can I do for you young ladies?" Usually, children would stick to their own age group for small talk, finding adults to be a bore. Benoit wondered what had encouraged them to approach her.

Tina never met to be rude, but she was very intimidated by professors. They had such power and authority. They often walked with purpose and grace. Their talent to teach in a specialized subject while dealing with students amazed her. She always made sure to give them a deep and profound amount of respect, but hid her secret admiration for them very well.

When the professor asked her if she was alright, she could barely open her mouth. How could she speak yo such a respected figure of authority? She wanted to express her gratitude, but instead she turned to observe a trophy. She felt terrible as she watched the majestic professor return to speaking with other students. As Tina stole some glances in her direction, she realized that she had never seen the professor before. Perhaps she taught older students?

Turning to leave, Tina felt the embarrassment catch up to her. She had just made a fool of herself multiple times in front of a professor. However, her ears perked when the words, Professor of Divination. Of all the classes that Hogwarts offered, t was her favorite subject. She knew it would be a long time until she had the opportunity to learn in such an honorable class, but she loved the idea of being able to see into the past and future. The methods of fortune telling fascinated her even though they may have been perceived as odd by others. Tina took a deep breath as she slowly joined the group. She gave a small wave to Elena and a shy smile to the other student. Facing the professor felt like the hardest thing she had ever done since she was still ashamed of her previous actions, but curiosity and excitement drove her to speak.

"I uh greatly apologize for-for the intrusion, but did you um say you were the professor of d-divination? It's such an abstract yet concrete subject, and... " she began as she avoided eye contact. She hesitated, hoping she didn't sound like she was sucking up to the professor. She had a genuine fondness for Divination and immediately liked anyone who taught the subject with enthusiasm and great knowledge. Summoning the little courage she possessed, she finished without stammering, "It's my favorite branch of magic and I hope you could tell me something about it that they don't mention in the textbooks."

Elena winced at the sound of something falling, luckily the Tina had caught it, and was now interrogating the professor about divination. Well, you've got to admire how much she went after information like that, but Elena remembered the girl was a Ravenclaw, so she suspected it came with the house.

"Well I originally came here to study because it's supposed to be nice and quiet, no other students, people don't usually want to look at trophies unless one of them has their name on it, you know? But apparently today other people had the same idea." Elena smiled at the other two, "If anyone else wants to chill in here with me, then I brought extra pillows, just in case. This isn't the first time that someone happened to be around at the same time as me."

Elena looked at the other Elena, "My name's Elena too, it's nice to meet you. I think I saw your name on my club's sign up sheet. Really cool to meet a fellow musician! Do you want a pillow?"

"Oh, and my last name is Jones by the way Professor Benoit. I saw you pause there, I just assume people want my first name. Still not quite used to people having any authority over me." Elena shrugged.

It was nice encountering students as polite as these bunch. Benoit hadn't any children of her own and wasn't sure if she necessarily wanted any, but these certainly weren't rowdy like most she had seen. They were all just a couple of witches with dreams and aspirations like she had once been, particularly the one with the blue and bronze robes.

The professor beamed down at Tina, who had surprisingly come around from her spot in the back to shown an interest in her class. Benoit waited patiently as the child came to close with her speech, seeming to have difficulty speaking to her with her constantly stuttering over herself and avoiding eye contact.

"I'm truly happy you have such an interest in Divination!" she exclaimed, assuming that the books the Ravenclaw spoke of were likely her own required readings of Unfogging the Future or The Dream Oracle. Tina must've really looked forward to her lessons if she took her free time out to scour the Hogwarts Library for two book years above her. Benoit found that impressive and showed it through a wide grin. "You're a first-year, am I correct? Your enthusiasm puts that of even my fifth-years to shame."

"Though, I'm afraid there's far too much to tell you! We'd stand in here forever," she responded with a laugh, "But my office is always open during free hours if you want to stop by and ask questions. Materials will also be readily available for you there if you want to see how we do things."

Suddenly, up piped the very first girl from Slytherin with an offer to hand out pillows to the other two. "That's very kind of you, Miss Jones," Benoit praised before pulling a hand from out of her cloak. With it, she motioned towards Tina, hoping to get her more involved with conversing with the other girls. "What do you think, Miss?" she asked the redhead, "Would you like to join these two?"

"There is no such thing as Houses at Uagadou, so please excuse my ignorance, but if I recall correctly, there's quite the competition between the four houses here." From what she had gathered from the trophies and word of mouth, Slytherin and Gryffindor especially had long been at each other's throats. "All three of you are from different houses; for once it'd be nice to see a little school pride and camaraderie, yes?"

If Tina rejected, that'd be okay too - forcing someone was never something she wanted to do and the Ravenclaw girl did seem rather shy. But Professor Benoit knew how hard it could be to make friends after all, especially at their age. The idea to befriend one another had already been set with the acceptance of the Elenas; all Tina had to do was receive a gentle nudge to talk, Benoit believed.

Regardless, the girls were planning to sit and "chill" for a while, which meant Benoit hadn't any interest in sticking around any longer. Her short stroll through the trophy room was a nice break from the monotony of working in her classroom and squinting down on parchment, but now it was time to return to the seventh floor. 

Besides, she was an adult and there were plenty of those around the castle to speak with instead. She figured their conversations would be more mature, as well. "It was nice speaking with you three; I'll leave you to yourselves. Enjoy your afternoons, little ladies." And with a polite farewell, Nadège made her way to the door of the trophy room, in which she promptly stepped out and disappeared behind the corner - a lovely tune faint on her lips.

NADÈGE EXEUNTS.

Tina was flattered by the professors kind words and couldn't help, but to feel honored. When she went back to her room, she was going to reread all the Divination books she had and memorize them word by word. However, the professor's suggestion that she join the other girls made her uneasy. They may have seemed nice, but that didn't necessarily mean that they didn't have a mean side. What if she said something to activate that part of them? She wasn't exactly an expert when it came to human interaction. Still, she couldn't find it in herself to disobey the suggestion and decided to give the two other students a chance. She waved farewell to the professor, hoping they may cross paths again. She has never met such a kind and polite professor before and wondered if she would answer anymore of her Divination questions should they arise.

Tina turned to the other girls, unsure if they would let her join them. She wasn't an Elena like either of them nor did she possess their apparent strong characters. How does one start a conversation without interrupting? It seemed impossible to her. Nevertheless, she asked, quietly, "May I have a pillow too?"