Disclaimer: I own nothing except Terran and a few stray spells. :Sadness: It's depressing…
Cold air wafted across the exposed pale cheek. The sleeping blond grunted in her sleep and pulled the blanket over her head in a daft attempt to halt her waking mind. After a moment of loosing the battle she flung her arm down to her hip, taking the quilt with her and exposing her face to a blast of chilled air, lightly scented with sausage, blueberry pancakes and cinnamon waffles. Allured by the thought of breakfast although her stomach wasn't quite awake yet, Terran kicked the blanket down to the end of her four-poster bed and rolled over, shoving her face into her pillow and exhaling with sleep still thick in her mind.
Finally, almost grudgingly, Terran braced herself on her forearm and threw her legs over the bed. Stumbling she stood and pulled a pair of jeans and a black T-shirt out of her drawer and grabbed the robe that was hanging from her bed. Rubbing her eyes she dragged her feet out of the room and down the stairs to the level just below the common room, where the showers and bathrooms stood waiting.
She entered a stall lazily, thumped her clothes down on the bench attached to the wall and turned on the shower, allowing the water to heat as she stripped down.
"Oh, crap. I left the brush…" She begrudgingly pulled her shirt and pajama pants back on before exiting her stall once more. Taking a deep breath she exhaled, then moved quickly to the door, which swung open suddenly and smacked Terran in the forehead.
"Ow!" She flopped backwards, landing harshly on her bum and brushing her fingers over her eyebrow where the door had come in contact with.
"Oh! Goodness I'm sorry!" Standing in the doorway was a shorter girl with brown bushy hair clutching her clothes to her chest. "Are you all right?"
Terran glanced up before standing. "Yeah, I'm fine." But upon bringing her fingers down into her sight she saw then streaked with blood. "Oh." She stood, accidentally wiping the red substance on the tile below her.
"Goodness, you're bleeding!" The brunette came forward to get a closer look.
"It's okay, I'll wash it in the shower."
"Are you sure?" Upon seeing Terran nod she extended her hand. "I'm terribly sorry. I'm Hermione Granger."
"Ah. I'm Terran Ferrik." And shook her hand. "Now, if you'll please excuse me I have to run back upstairs." She then did just that, and ran up the stairs quickly and entered the bedroom quietly. Shuffling through her drawer she pulled out her brush, toothbrush, and toothpaste. She then exited quietly and ran back down the stairs, careful not to trip as she went.
Upon entering the bathroom Terran took another deep breath and came to rest before the mirror. She ran the brush through her dirty hair and roughly scrubbed her palms over her eyes.
"Are you all right?" Hermione's voice called from the stall next to Terran's.
"Yes thanks." Terran glanced back into the mirror and saw there was now a nice crimson trail reaching nearly to her eyebrow.
"Are you still bleeding?"
"Only slightly." Terran said with a dismissive tone as she entered her stall once more, stripped, and entered the warm water.
"So," Hermione's voice echoed through the bathroom again as she turned on the water in her stall. "How come I never see you in the dorm room Terran?"
"I'm normally in the common room or something, running around and doing assignments."
"Really? I never see you."
"Yeah, sometimes I'm not in our common room. I got to Ravenclaw and Slytherin too."
Hermione dropped something that must have landed on her toe because a sharp "ouch!" quickly followed. "You mean you go into other house common rooms?" Hermione asked with slight disbelief evident.
"Umm, yeah." Terran pumped shampoo from the dispenser into her hand and began scrubbing it into her scalp.
"That's amazing." Hermione said, surprise still echoing in her voice.
"Why? Just because I'm not in their house?"
"Well yeah. Mostly the houses try to keep the entrances to their dorms a secret from other students. And if they say the password in front of you—that's amazing."
"Er—well I guess I'm just a special case then."
"Have you ever been in Hufflepuff common room?"
"No, mostly I just meet my Hufflepuff friends in the library or something."
"Wow, so you have friends in all the other houses too? Even in Slytherin?"
"Yeah." Terran said, slightly uncomfortable. "Anyway Hermione, why are you up so early?"
"I have some more research I want to get done before Charms begins."
"Oh what essay?"
"From Snape, about mugwart. I found out yesterday there are three uses I didn't include in my essay, I want to make sure I get them all into my report."
"You're kind of an addict to research aren't you?" Terran said smiling.
"Shush, I am not. I just don't want to give Snape a reason to count points off my reports. Being Gryffindor you know, he doesn't like giving us the credit we deserve. I don't like giving him reason to doc points."
Terran nodded as she dipped her head into the stream of warm water that cascaded from the showerhead. "So," She said as she worked her fingers through her hair. "You're friends with Ron Weasley and Harry Potter aren't you? I see you sitting with them all the time."
"Yeah. They're amazingly thick though, you'd probably be surprised. We used to get into fights about the stupidest things. In third year I didn't speak to them during almost the whole year because Ron thought my cat ate his rat."
"Wow. That's terrible! You'd think that after being friends for two years and going through the things you'd gone through that he'd be able to forgive you. I mean, I can understand how he'd be upset about loosing his pet and all, but really!" Terran was now working on emulsifying conditioner into her scalp.
Hermione laughed. "Yeah…" She let her voice fade. "It was terrible that year. I was taking so many courses with so much homework…"
"That was the year Ron was attacked by Sirius Black, wasn't it?"
"Yeah."
"Gosh, that would have been really scary. I remember that." She thought for a moment. "But he was finally getting more attention than Harry for once, wasn't he?"
"Yeah. It was really good for him."
"I suspect, being friends with Harry that a lot of people overlook him. He probably gets really sick of it."
"You have no idea." Hermione said with slight strain in her voice. "Mostly he's all right about it, but he was getting really sick of it in Fourth year. Harry had almost no one as his best friend, everyone was so angry with him. But Ron came to his senses."
"That was probably easier for you once they were talking again."
Hermione sighed at the memory. "Yeah. I had been going from one to another and trying to stay friends with the both of them. It was ridiculous."
"But you're all good right now aren't you?"
"Yeah, we're in good shape. But, it is the beginning of the year so… well, you never know." Hermione said as Terran shut off her water, realizing Hermione's had been off for a while. She worked, lazily drying herself off as Hermione's voice again echoed through the empty bathroom. "So, where do you go over the summer? I mean, do you live with your parents or what?"
Terran easily opened her stall door after dressing casually. The jeans hung easily form her hips, the legs being wide and not constricting. Her plain black shirt still clung unceremoniously to her semi-wet torso as she used her towel to ring out her hair again. "Um, I live with my family." Terran said after a moment.
"Your mom and dad?" Hermione asked. "Are they muggles? Mine are, they had no clue about anything concerning the wizarding world until I got my letter." Hermione said, seeming to be cheerful having someone to talk to so early in the morning.
"Er—yeah, they're muggles, but um, they're not my real parents." Terran said, slightly nervous. She anxiously fingered the ring on her fourth finger as she brushed a hand through her damp hair.
"You mean…you were adopted then?" Hermione asked cautiously. This was a subject many people chose to avoid if given the option, and she didn't want to chase Terran away. After all, it was always nice to make new friends.
Terran cleared her throat as she smeared toothpaste on her toothbrush. "Yeah. My mum died when I was two and my dad—" She paused to cough, "left when I was seven. I had to go to a muggle orphanage even though both my parents were from the magical world."
"Oh, Terran I'm sorry. That must have been terrible for you." Hermione said sympathetically after rinsing her mouth.
"It's not your fault. Um, it was kind of hard I guess. My new parents had no idea about the magical world, and when I started talking about it they would just laugh and talk about the crazy stories I made up. After a couple years I began believing they were just stories too—until I found a letter from someone on my dad's side explaining my situation to my new family, dated from the day after they had taken me in. I knew they weren't just stories then—and that the memories I had of my dad bringing people around the house, objects flying around, creatures scurrying around the house—were all real and that I wasn't mental. It was rather comforting actually. Anyway, when I got my letter it was one of the best feelings in the world." She paused to look over at Hermione, who was watching her through the mirror that extended along the entire wall of the bathroom. "I mean, I was getting a chance to return to the world I actually belonged to. I didn't have to worry so much about saying something and having people stair at me as though I'd lost my marbles, you know?"
Hermione grinned at her as she picked up her brush. "I'm sure you'd enjoy a chat with Harry. His guardians are muggles and they absolutely hate anything to do with the wizarding world. He'd probably understand better than I. Mostly for me when I say something about school to my parents they ask me about it so they're not so confused."
Terran watched Hermione struggle to get the brush through her hair. "Do you want some help?" She finally asked when the brush got stuck once more and Hermione sighed exasperatedly.
"Yes please." Hermione said, quite irritated.
"Mostly when I say something my parents look at me for a moment and then go on as though I hadn't said anything at all." She carefully took a strand of hair from the clump of Hermione's head. "I mean, it's not that they don't care or anything, they just don't understand. I tried explaining to them once, but they got so confused I decided it was better just to keep the two worlds separate." The brush slid through easily and Terran took another lock. "Of course that'll all change once I turn 17." She grinned.
Hermione giggled easily from in front of Terran. "Do you have any siblings then?"
Terran's face darkened. "No." She said, adding another lock to the hair that was being brushed. Hermione, taking this as a sign, stayed quiet for a moment. "So, you normally aren't up this early, what's the occasion?"
Hermione's cheeks flushed slightly. "I have a letter to send out that I wrote last night, but I don't want Ron seeing me do it, he'll just bug me about it."
"To a boy?" Terran asked with a slight grin on her face.
"What makes you say that?" Hermione asked, rather bewildered.
"You blushed. I figured it was something that had to do with a guy, seeing how that's usually the response girls get when thinking about a certain guy they like."
Hermione stared at Terran for a moment. "You're pretty smart. What are you getting in your classes?"
"Nuh-uh. Don't go changing the subject Hermione." She flushed again as Terran grinned. "So, who are you writing?"
Hermione blushed furiously for a moment before responding, "Viktor Krum" and lowering her head ever so slightly.
"The Quidditch player?" Terran asked in a slightly interested voice. "Boy, I can see why you'd sneak off early in the morning. I'm sure Ron'd give you a load of trouble, knowing you're writing to him."
Hermione looked up, almost eager to rant to someone about it. "You have no idea." She shifted her standing position as Terran added another lock of hair to the brushed side of Hermione's head, which now had more hair than the tangled side. "Ron always gets so touchy whenever he's mentioned. He still seems to think that Viktor was using me to get closer to Harry and jinx him for the Triwizard Tournament, even though there was nothing to even suggest such a thing." Hermione huffed indignantly.
"He was doing that whole, 'I'm a guy so I have to be protective no matter what my friend actually wants' thing wasn't he?"
"Yes!" Hermione said, extremely pleased that someone finally knew what she was talking about. "I swear, that boy is so annoying sometimes. They're so thick, they think just because you're writing to someone that you're dating—honestly! All I ever do is write him letters…well…I mean—I visited him over the summer for a couple days, and it was lovely, but really there's nothing special going on between us!"
"Hey, I'm not the one accusing you of having a romantic relationship with a wizard form another school am I? You just have to make sure Ron and Harry never hear about that, otherwise you'll have a great time trying to explain all that to them. Have fun with that, I mean, boys minds are so weird. They have to be so direct all the time, and if you're not they just go stumbling around in the dark as if they've got no head."
"Exactly! And then you practically have to shove their heads into it in order to make them see and understand." Terran laughed as she finished brushing Hermione's hair.
"There you go then." She set the brush down and went back to the sink to gather her things.
"Hey Terran." The dishwater-blond looked up as she tucked her toothbrush and toothpaste within the folds of her nightclothes for easy-carriage upstairs.
Hermione smiled sweetly. "Want to have breakfast with me today?"
Terran grinned after a moment. "Sure."