. @desiree

The blonde witch knew that ideally this time between Easter and June was a time she was supposed to make her own. However that was going to be harder than planned given that there were only a few people she could tolerate at school. It may go against the grain of being a Hufflepuff and on top of that being a Hufflepuff Prefect but she didn’t care. She had noticed amongst the older students(at least) that there was a lot of tension and she put it down just to their eagerness to graduate and get out of Hogwarts. There was no other rational reason she could think of.

At least she would be able to focus on her studies and she would succeed in that way. While the house team may have not had the greatest record when it came to winning matches, at least she had that captaining experience under her belt. She hoped their poor games records didn’t go against her when it came to her scoring an reserve spot on a team when she graduated but she would wait and see. Alois knew that given she had been the captain, the chances that coaches would look at her record at Hogwarts would be high but she could very well prove them wrong with her flying skills.

That was her dream. Whether it became a reality, would wait to be seen. She still had her NEWTs to get through. While she knew she wanted to play Quidditch after school, she knew she would need good Scores in her exams for later in life. She also had to have a backup plan should, Merlin for big she get injured and be unable to to pay the sport she thoroughly enjoyed any longer.

It was now the morning and she had another eight or so hours ahead of her to get through before training this evening. While it may seem fruitless to have training now given that Hufflepuff were very unlikely to win the house cup she still thought it was good for the team to keep up the regime. The blonde witch stood at the sink after washing her hands fiddling in her satchel for her mascara to finish her make up before she headed to her first class when the door opened.
 

walk it like i talk it

@alois

The majority of teenagers grumbled at the thought of an early morning, but not Desiree. She enjoyed waking before her housemates. It meant she had peace, quiet and the showers to her damn self. Not to mention that she got to watch the beautiful sunrise as she completed her morning run. Yes, she was most definitely an early bird. It had been nice, however, to sleep in during the Easter break in the emptiness of the enormous castle. Most of the students had traveled home for the holidays, but not Desiree. She couldn't stand the thought of watching her mother crying over waffles again and again and again. "They had been Layla's favorite" her mother would certainly attempt to reason. 

That was always a pitiful display, as were the millions of other remembrances that caused her parents to cry at the drop of a hat. Layla would have loved these, these had been her favorite, she hates these. Yadda. Yadda. Yadda. She was quite sick of hearing about her dead sister. Why couldn't they just get over it already? She had. Hell, she had the very first day. Sure, the surprise of watching her sister being dragged out into the street and murdered had been a little...unexpected. But in the end she got what she wanted. Freedom from that damn squib.

No more tarnish on the family name, no more Layla sucking up every ounce of attention from their parents, no more worrying about keeping her secret. She was finally gone. So why wouldn't she just leave?! Why did she still hold so tight to the hearts of their parents? It was maddening! And the fact that Desiree had to deal with the repercussions of having a squib for a sister... Even more maddening. Being rid of her was supposed to be a good thing. For her, for her family, it was supposed to be great! Their lives were finally going to be great again, and normal. They could live like they did before learning Layla's affliction.

But it didn't feel great or normal. Not with everyone sulking around. Not when they told Desiree and her siblings that they would be moving to the UK from the states. And definitely not when she was forced to enroll at Hogwarts. Desiree had spent many bitter days in that castle, but as the year marched on she found herself growing slightly fond of it. Possibly because it offered an escape from her sorrowful family. This morning she woke with them far in the back of her mind, her visions on positive and happy things. It was going to be a great day!

She had awaken extra early, which gave her even more time than usual to make herself beautiful. Her hair and make-up was done almost flawlessly, yet she still felt the need to check it constantly. Desiree bounced into the girls lavatory to prim herself once more before her first class. A familiar face stood at the sinks as she entered. "Hey! What's up?" Desiree greeted as she approached the mirror next to hers. She fluffed her loose wavy hair smiling to the girl in the other mirror. "Love that mascara! One of my faves. You have a busy morning?" She asked politely, but it was no hiding that she was a little judgmental. Was she just doing her make-up now? So late in the morning?

Alois did spend a considerable amount of time on her own and that wasn’t purely because she was a prefect and people avoided her. She had her friends and they weren’t her friends just because she was a prefect or because she was team captain. She had made sure she was not going to be used like that. She knew that it was the case when you were in school but Alois was just being careful. Maybe she was too careful at times but she sure she could justify her reasoning if she needed to. The Hufflepuff didn’t mind being alone. In fact when things got to overwhelming, she actually preferred it. She was not one to go out of her way to be someone’s friend. She had Hamish and then there was Truly. Well, in the case of the latter, she was just happened to be the Head Girls so Alois made the effort to get along with her. She knew the Slytherin was having a hard time but she really just wanted her to relax. But at Hogwarts, relaxing was not exactly possible especially amongst the seventh years. It seemed that they only had a few more weeks here to make sure they were set up for the rest of their lives. Alois that there was life after NEWTs but that didn’t mean she wanted to try any less when it came to them.

She had been up early this morning, reading over a few notes from one of her classes as well as completing some homeworks she had for another. While she was supposed to have all this completed well in advance, sometimes Alois gave to much of her time to Quidditch. She knew that would not sit well with her parents and they would prefer she gave more time to her studies, they would be none the wiser when it came to this morning. She had grabbed her books and things and had headed up the stands of that wrapped around the Quidditch pitch and completed her school work there. Once she was satisfied that it would be a good enough job to get her the mark she so desired then she packed up her things and decided to put her things into her school bag and head to the great hall for breakfast. Given that she was a team captain, Alois tried to eat good nutritious breakfast.

In the middle of her running around, she had neglected to do her makeup. Well, she had applied lip gloss before she had gone out to the stadium but it was long gone by now. She wasn’t expecting to be alone in the bathroom as she finished off her makeup but she definitely wasn’t expecting the Slytherin girl to talk to her, and definitely not in such a perky mood. ”Morning” Alois smiled back as she glanced at her mascara tube in her hand. ”Yeah? Not many people have it at school, at least not that I’ve seen. Have used their eyeliner? I like that one too” She added as she put the mascara into bag before she removed her hair tie and slid into one of the outer pockets of her bag before pulling out her wand from under her sleeve and began to twist her hair around it.

WALK IT LIKE I TALK IT

The system at Hogwarts was very similar to that of Ilvermorny, students being sorted into houses and what not. But the stigmas they held were a little more....what was the word? Ridiculous. She had found out rather quickly that her particular house was the worst of them all, not only in that they kept mostly to themselves, but within that they fiercely clung to certain bloodlines. Some of the purebloods made it very clear to her that they believed themselves superior because of her heritage, and that was fine. If they didn't wish to consort with her kind, then screw them, but it was hard for her to accept as a legitimate reason not to like her.

Desiree believed herself to be pretty likeable. She had a great sense of humor, loved giving people compliments, she was pretty kind.... Well, sort of. OK, so maybe she was a bit bitchy at times, and, sure, maybe a lot of her compliments had underhanded insults, but that didn't mean she was a bad person. Having her sister killed made her a bad person, but no one knew about that. Not her parents, not her siblings and certainly not the students of Hogwarts. It was her little secret to herself, one that had since changed her resting bitch face to a sassy little smile most days. 

So far Desiree had kept her bitchiness to herself. She knew from the moment she entered the castle that she would need friends if she would make it out of this place alive. She needed people to help her learn the ropes, show her who she could and could not consort with, and most important, keep her from jumping out of the astronomy tower if her parents sent her one more whiny letter about Layla. She had done well at keeping her attitude in check, though it had been hard not to let it slip. Especially when it came to that annoying girl from Ravenclaw. Something about the girl rubbed Desiree the wrong way and it was only a matter of time before she let her true colors show.

She wasn't worried about that happening any time soon, and certainly not in the girls lavatory with this stranger. The blond girl was older than Desiree, and quite pretty. If it hand't been for that fact, and the fact she had make-up in her hand Desiree would likely have ignored her existence completely. "Yaas, queen, their eyeliner is ah-mazing! I'm obsessed with it." She enthused, her American-Latina accent contrasted with the girls own accent. Desiree was terrible with slang, throwing it around like she was back in the states. Some people laughed about it, others looked at her like she was crazy, not that she cared. "I had one of their lip glosses but I lost it in dark arts. More like it got blown up, whatever.... I suck at that class. Sooo do not want to go today." Desiree spoke mostly into her own mirror, touching up the lines of her lipstick.