Picky With Food and Company PV

The Great Hall was packed..as usual. Students tore into their meals, food tended to be the only good medicine that worked after a stressful day of classes. She had selected a seat at the edge of the Gryffindor table away from a rather annoying group of boys that had started a food fight among themselves and perfect timing too as the sound of wings reached her ears. Looking down, she found Flutters perched on her shoulder tiliting it's head at her clutching a enveloped with a Ministry seal on it. She raised an eyebrow at that, this was..new."You never fail to bring interesting contents, do you."She said ruffling the top of the owl's head in a playful manner just as she felt a tap on her shoulder.

Looking up, she found Adlai, which only made her day better. Didn't seem like she would have to spend this meal service all alone after all."Adlai, hey!"She said rather eagerly."How have you been? Have a seat!"She said whistling at Flutters softly and the owl looked up at her rather in a pleading way as if content where it was sitting at."Be nice, you pesky bird."She said frowning and with a sort of regretful hoot, it flew up perching itself on Elena's shoulder."This is Flutters by the way, my owl. He's a sweet little thing but he can be quite mischevious sometimes!"After the owl had finished digging around the Gryffindor's plate for any edible treats and munching them down, it gave it's owner a sort of playful nudge before flying off back towards where it had came from.Might have to look into that letter later, from the Ministry.

"So! What have you been up to, long day?"She asked pushing a plate towards Adlai and nodding towards the variety of food options spread out on the long table that just seemed to keep refilling and refilling over again. "Eat up though! Lots of options, take your pick!" It felt good..she felt like everyone else now. Engaging in converstation with their mates, talking about the day or whatever the latest gossip was. it felt like she actually..belonged for once.

Adlai gave Elena a broad metal covered tooth smile when she heard her name and then a curious look to the Owl.
”This is Flutters by the way, my owl. He's a sweet little thing but he can be quite mischievous sometimes!” Elena said. Adlai have a shy wave to Flutters. She still wasn’t quite used to the owls yet, in fact whenever she receives are delivers a letter she jumps when the owl takes it from her hands or plops it in front of her.

Taking a seat next to Elena she wearily looked at the food and merely puts a pile of greens onto her plate as they were the safest option until she learned to trust the meat here.
“I’ve been racking my brain over for an astronomy project that I was pared to do with a dude no one I know in Hufflepuff likes. While at the same time trying to not get eternally lost in the every winding hallways. So you know, the regular first year stuff. Other than that my parents sent me three new magazines to read which I’m excited to break into after I’m done with Astronomy of you and me! How about you? What have you been up to?” She asked as she took a bite of her food.

"Astronomy project, huh? That just sounds painful."No one liked projects, some of the professors could get...quite creative with their lengthy assignments and not in a fun way. Their definition of "fun"invovled a long essay on some random topic like the many qualites of flobberworm mucus or something like that. 'Well, I'm sure you've met Professor Lian then for Transfiguration? The blind one? The amount of work she expects you to do on your own is..ungodly."That was one subject Elena though she would enjoy but was proven very wrong early in her first year here, she had been so, so wrong. She didn't exactly dislike Professor Lian but the courseload that she handed down as homework was simply not doable. Perhaps a Ravenclaw could tell her better but she didn't have the patience to fill out those stacks of parchment considered as homework.

She laughed at Adlai's next comment smiling a bit as she took a sip from her water cup."It can be pretty easy to, you'd think they would have invested in a map or something by now."The revolving stairs and hidden corridors behind paintings did not exactly make it easy to navigate. The logistics of this castle were sub-par at best but you eventually got used to it. Eventually."Me? Well aside from the onslaught of homework, I've been thinking about Quidditch. I'm thinking I should try out for the team so been trying to practice on one of the school brooms but I swear the Flying Professor guards that storehouse like a hawk. Haven't been able to get close at all." Her parent's weren't exactly the greatest help either, they could very much afford a new broom with their budget but just flat-out refused when Elena had sent them an owl sending a very blunt response that summarized into focusing on her academics."Don't want to look like a blunder at the try-outs if I do go."

“Quidditch? I didn’t think you’d be the type. But that’s great! I’m sure you’d do great at try out’s. I personally am to afraid to get to far off the ground when it comes to brooms. Then again I’m not a fan of heights in general.” She rubbed the back of her neck, embarrassed a bit by her irrational fear.
“If you make it promise you’ll tell me when your first game is. I’ll cheer you in in the stands, ok?”

Adlai herself has taken part in sports but never any sport related to the magic, unless you count being able to balance a tennis racket on your finger as magic.
She meant to go to the first few Quidditch games her house had competed in but sadly her professors had deemed it a good idea to give extra homework those days, and besides she didn’t know anyone in the Quidditch team so it wasn’t as much as a requirement to go as it was to do her work.

She heard plenty of great things about the games, especially how Hufflepuff and Slytherin has a rematch not long after Hufflepuff had won their game against them. However, the fact that games can go on for weeks was a bit concerning for Adlai.

Honestly? I didn't think I would either, I have literally zilch experience with brooms.She held up her hadn in the form of the number zero."Nada. Zero. Nothing."However, that had changed when she had arrived at the castle as she found out so very quickly."But I took Flying my first year here and it just resonated with me, the broom flew into my hand and everything plus the sport looks really cool so why not?" The thought of soaring through the air, the wind in your face as you battled the odds to score points, avoid Bludgers and whatnot. It was a fun sport."You can count on it, just don't be late."Elena stabbed a piece of lettuce with her fork waving it Adlai in a sort of threatning-joking manner.

"So you must have something you like to do rather than reading horoscopes and vesting yourself in Astrology, what's your passion?"Everyone generally flocked to some sort of group in a sense, you had those who lived for dueling, you had the expert potioneers, the pranksters though Adlai didn't seem like the pranking type, that was more Lamik's thing and then, the ever so proud Quidditch players, sort of like those people that Muggles called athletes or jocks. "Orr if you haven't found anything that appeals to you yet, I can take on you a lifelong adventure of Hogwarts and we can discover for ourselves what the amazing Adlai Rod of Hufflepuff is meant to be!"She declared grinning.

"Sorry, I get a bit carried away sometimes, just feels nice to have a companion." It was bringing out the best in her and that was when Elena came to the realization, she was being herself, her true, happy self and no one seemed to mind. She felt..accepted. It was a good feeling to have. She was opening up a side of herself that she hadn't seen in a long time and it was working..that thought alone was enough to know that today was a happy day.

“No, it’s completely fine! Besides other than astronomy and two other sports I don’t really think you know much about I don’t have many passions. So I think that grand adventure will be very much so needed.” She smoked looking up at Elena. She hadn’t talked to anyone like this in a while. It felt nice. Her friend group was small so whenever they all became busy or disappeared with other people who were their fiends she became lonely.

Everything was so simple back in Wales. She lived in a busy body household where everything was in its place, she went to school with kids in her neighborhood who she would play with on the weekends, and unlike now she didn’t have mounds of homework to worry about.

At those times she knew what she wanted to grow up to be. She knew where she would go to college, where she wanted to live, everything was planned and pin pointed for her future.

Now everything was so new, scary, yet also bright and exciting. She wanted to experience everything.
“Where will we go first on this adventure, Elena?” She asked curious as to what her friend would come up with.

In response to her friend's question, Elena got to thinking, Hogwarts was a big place, it all depended on what you felt a natural urge towards. The desire to do something of that caliber, a passion. "Well, it depends! I'm simply the driver, you control the destination! It all weighs heavily on what type of person you are! If you're more into outdoors stuff and being out and about, things like magical creatures or Herbology would be where you'd find your answer."Herbology wasn't a bad subject, the various qualites of plants and history behind some of them were quite interesting but the first subject she was really looking forward to was Care of Magical Creatures. That was one class that everyone liked becase you got to interact with the animals. Granted, not all of them were cute and fluffy, thankfully, she had gotten a sneak peek of that class due to that R.O.A.M club Professor Griffith had started and it had proved quite useful.

"Orrrr if that doesn't appeal to you, maybe spellwork is your thing like me. I love trying out new spells and seeing what they do. After all, who doesn't want to add to their arsenal of spells that they know?"That was one of the main reasons why she studied Defence Against The Dark Arts and Charms so much with a passion, it was more of a hobby than a chore. "You could get into things like dueling or heck, even potion mixing if you wanted, that's a route not everyone takes. You control the ride. What is one thing you always wanted to know more about, once you have that answer than this journey can begin!"

Elena pulled two Choclate Frogs from her cloak pocket offering one to Adlai. It was a routine, she always had a few on hand in the hopes she would get some rare card or something."Ever seen one of these? Try it and no, it's not an actual frog, I promise. Each one comes with a famous witch or wizard renowned worldwide for doing something they adore, maybe the card you pull is your answer!"That's an interesting way of looking at it.Everyone had a passion even if they didn't admit it, they just had to dig deep enough to find it.

Looking suspiciously down at the card Adlai thanked Elena and gently took it from her hand. She had seen her fellow house mates have these before. However, she wasn’t quite sure where or how to get them. Thus, this was her first time.

Opening the chocolate frog she slipped out the card. A very realistic picture of a woman appeared and the name below read, Beatrix Bloxam.
When Adlai looked back to the picture, the woman was gone. “Incredible! Where did she go? Who is she?” She asked her mouth wide open in shock and her eyes wide with wonder.

You’d think she’d be used to magic by now, after all it’s been a little more than half of the school year. But alas Adlai was still brand new to this world.
To her everything was wonderful and bright. Would her parents believe the stories she has? Would they believe her when she said there was moving stair cases, paintings that were alive, and flying broom sticks.

She could see her mother’s mortified face right now and look of wonder on her father’s. If she could she’d spill everything to her younger sisters and tell her grandparents as well. But of course her parents had sworn her to secrecy and she understood why.

"Oooh, that's an interesting one!"She said peering at Adlai's wizard card. The woman was there for a moment and then...nothing much to the other girl's surprise. The name however resounded with Elena, being a academic person as she was.Beatrix Bloxam...she was an author..she wrote children's books, she did a series..the Toadstool Tales based of the Tales of Beedle the Bard." Perhaps less famous than the author who had done that series, but Bloxam's name was still out there."Oh! Yeah, they do that! See, unlike Muggle paintings, the people in these portraits and drawings actually move from portrait to portrait..yeah it takes some getting used to. She probably went to some other portrait she has in some part of the Wizarding World."

It was a creepy feeling in a way seeing as the walls of Hogwarts were littered with them. There some who adopted quite unique personalites but at the same time, they were just..paintings. Glancing down at hers, a elderly man filled her portrait with a bunch of beans that he deposited into his mouth before walking out as well The name read Bertie Bott."Well, there's one I haven't got yet, Bertie Bott. He invented those colorful beans that have all sorts of flavor, some good yet some that make you wanna puke."

So Adlai had gotten a storybook author and she had gotten a old man who's only acclompishment was making some sort of magic beans. Somehow, she felt like perhaps Bertie Bott got a bit too much credit though it did provide a sense of satisfaction to know how they orignated. "So, a author huh? Maybe t's telling you you're the studious type, the type to invest yourself in books and such! Like me!"She added. Granted, she had a vested interest in Quidditch but that was about it, things like studying the magical structure of herbs didn,t really appeal to her. Now, when it came to things like the origin of the Unforgivable Curses or perhaps the famous uses of some spell, all could be found in textbooks, a thing she enjoyed doing which most people would find..burdensome.