Would you look at that, a flashback! Always fun.

Chapter 14: Common (Room) Occurrence

OR

Time For The Time-Warp Again~

After my first 'real' experience with Tom, my life...didn't really change.

We didn't really run in the same circles after all, and while we lived in the same House, the peer pressure was more a general thing anyway than anything directly targeted at me.

While not as bad as it was/would be/hopefully wouldn't be, most tended to be a bit leery of us anyway because of the fact we were generally aiming for higher standings than them and the fact we gladly declared ourselves snakes.

Damn biblical imagery slowly ingraining itself in the young and then being passively reinforced by our own attitudes. As far as my personal behavior though, I was thoroughly in the background.

I wasn't super quiet, but I didn't really idlily chat with people either, nor did I go out of my way to introduce myself. I was more a person who enjoyed just being around people in most cases anyway. So after my brief brush with probable-torture or a shallow grave, I kind of just went back to it.

Currently, I was sitting in one of the plusher chairs in our common room, an emerald monstrosity that, were it not paired in an equally if to a lesser degree just as green and dark, would have looked like a clown threw up on it. I think this was the real reason they built the common room under the lake. Not for the lighting, but because Salazar's palette choice would have given everyone who saw a damn thing in here migraines without it.

But that was a critique for later, right then I was making my way through a moderately interesting book about how to spin sugar into glass, when my reading light was so crudely snuffed out by a larger presence looming over me.

I sighed, as I put my little blue and white bookmark in place and turned to the sharp blonde hair of one Narcissa Black, eyes staring down at me with an expression just shy of glacial. Following just closely behind her were two other girls who's names escaped me, both because they were in a higher year than me and the fact I'd legitimately never heard them spout an opinion of their own in my vicinity.

"Hello Ms. Black, what can I do for you today?" I asked as I folded my legs twitching for a moment at their shortness for a moment, but still assured I would grow to at least 6 feet and some change, before I focused attention back at the Fourth Year girl.

Narcissa maintained her glare, surely making anyone underneath them feel the same as a poor fish in front of a hawk if they ignored the fact she was maybe 5'3.

"My...sister, has been talking about you recently. Why." It sounded less like she was asking a question and more of a demand, but I didn't mind, she was cute enough for it to lean more towards being cutely-blunt than a threat at this junction.

Either way, I thought about it for a moment, then shrugged.

"Well I can't say for sure what all she thinks of me, but given she saw me talking with her Leader, backtalking him, and now continuing to live after that experience. Also, I think we have similar taste in deserts. You know she really likes blueberries? Cause she really likes blueberries." I sidetracked at the end to other possibilities, because nobody was murderific ALL the time.

Narcissa blinked, and looked to withhold a sigh as if she was already regretting starting this conversation. Good. Rude, but good.

"Yes. She has, something of a fascination with springtime fruit, but that wasn't why she was talking about you. When I asked, she just muttered under her breath about 'stupid Seer-blondes' and, well..." At this she gestured to my whole form, the askew glasses, ruffled robes that I had stylized with some silver and orange stars on the sleeves, and my general propensity to point out weird shit.

Subtle, I was not. Also, it was the conclusion I specifically wanted people to get, but mostly the first.

"I am indeed a Seer, and am also blonde." I casually confirmed, completely ignoring the flinch her friends made and the harsh series of whispers going off in the corners of the room, but I never really cared much for the inbred.

Evidently, she must have expected that to be a bigger bomb to drop for me than I actually felt, so she was felt standing there plastically with a smug expression for a moment, before it died a slow, painful death back to her previous icy mask.

Oh, it seemed I spoiled her fun. Shame.

"Hmm. You seem pretty blasé about such an important thing, are you sure that is...safe?" Narcissa tried to regain the theoretical high-ground in this chat by insinuating that I would come to harm with this knowledge out in the open, but that was a losing topic since long before we had started talking, and I waved it off as such just as casually as it had been brought up.

"Not at all, but that doesn't matter. None of these shmucks would kill a dirty-blonde goose such as myself that could make or break them in my dying moments alone, nevermind the sheer number of back-up plans I have in place in terms of dead-drops of information, hidden traps, and select comeupances. Which is also assuming they succeed in the attempt as well, which is another vast bar to clear. Sure, I'm fairly new to magic as a whole, but determining value? I can solidly say I know EXACTLY what each and every one of you adorable little ragamuffins and future politicians can bring to bear. Can you say the same?" I smiled as I spoke, a plain, small thing that poked at my eyes but held no actual amusement. A yellow tooth peaked out from my left side, and I saw her barely conceal a flinch.

In a world where Teeth polishing and care charms were literally in the First year syllabus, there weren't a lot of excuses for 'properly British' teeth amongst the students with only one or two exceptions, but I used not a single one of them. Sue me, I had more important things to generally worry about than my current dental health, but I wouldn't lie and say I didn't like the effect it had on my teethier smiles.

"Now, is there anything else banal you'd like you to talk about for the moment? Favorite music, the cheering charm homework due next week, may haps when and where your mother will finally be pushed down a ravine from this mortal coil? I know that last one has had a few takers." I emphasized my opinions with the raising of my fingers, doing a little wiggle of them as the Girl went simultaneously pale and disgusted, while Narcissa looked half a step away from showing me how closely related she was to Trixabella before she unclenched the want that had slid into her fingers.

Supple, Pine, 8 and a half inches, Dragon heartstring. Perfect for counter curses and shields.

"No. But I do feel I understand my sisters mutterings quite a bit more now." Narcissa gritted out even as I had already turned back to my book. If she cursed me than pain it was, I was being a prick. And if my head was cracked open by a Reducto, well, then I just so happened to have my wand hand pointed at the seam where the house roof met the lake bed, which would just so precariously drown everyone in the room underneath hundreds of gallons of water and mildly inconvenienced Squid.

"Good show then. Talk to you again in one to three months or when you forget the immediate urge to maim me, whichever comes first."

Ooh, different sugars resulted in different colors and consistencies to the glass. It also tended to hold up its shape surprisingly well when exposed to liquid, but flaked apart in intense heat. Neat.

All in all, a very peaceful day.

END OF CHAPTER

I thought this was gonna be something, but instead it was this. Still good, just...different than the beginning view. That's what I get for taking damn near a month to write this and my other stuff, but damn it, this is my busiest time of the year! Well, that and I discovered and then proceeded to utterly lose myself in the show 'Epithet Erased' and reading every piece of fanfiction that currently exists of it, but that's secondary.

Also, look forward to something with that at some point as well. Now, I have work in the morning so its a night, but I want you all to have a great holiday, happy new year, and leave me lots of fun stuff to you, ya hear me! God I hope you hear from me before New Years, there's still so much I want to write...