Hello again! In this chapter you get introduced to another one of my OCs- so be excited! Enjoy!
-LLF
After class, he tried to get away from the strange girl watching him as fast as he could, but she was inhumanly fast. She appeared in front of him, startling him so badly that a vibrant orange shock flashed across him.
"Hm," she said, and peered at him for a second, making him shuffle his feet awkwardly until Starlie came up behind them, wand tucked behind her ear.
"Hello," she said in that breezy voice of hers.
"Hello," said the frizzy-haired girl, voice clipped as she continued studying Harry. He shifted uncomfortably.
"Who are you?" asked Starlie, and Harry sighed as the girl jumped a bit, startled by the sudden and rather rude question.
"I'm Hermione Granger. Who are you?" she asked, looking at Starlie curiously.
"What is a thought?" asked Starlie, smiling. The frizzy haired girl's eyes lit up.
"That's an interesting question, actually! A thought is, scientifically, a mental process where living things form associations and models of the world. Thinking is manipulating information, as when we form concepts, start to problem solve, or when we reason and make decisions. Thought leads to thought, continuing the thinking process! Religiously, thoughts can be sacred and special things. We never notice when we have a thought. I read about it in a psychological book back in Oxfordshire!" said the girl, and Harry laughed.
"What?" asked the girl, confused.
"I read that same book!" he giggled. Starlie crinkled her nose in delight. The girl smiled. "So then you know that a thought is…"
"A conscious cognitive process that can happen independently of sensory stimulation!" they said in unison, leaving Starlie giggling.
"I'm Starlie Lovegood. Nice to meet you, Hermione," said the blonde girl happily, holding out an elbow to shake. Hermione, befuddled, shook it slightly.
"Um, hello, Starlie," said the frizzy-haired Hermione, who was looking very bemused by the whole situation. Harry bit his lip, but he knew that Hermione must know who he was anyways, so he just blurted out:
"HiimHarryPotterhowareyouHermione?"
Hermione, amazingly, understood this.
"Of course you're Harry Potter, idiot! You've got a giant lightning scar down your face!" she giggled. Harry blushed. He had tried to hide his scar, since it was so big and obvious, but it never worked. It was one of the only features that wasn't changed by his Metamorphosis.
"Well, um, yeah," he said, trying to cover his embarrassment (and his scar) by growing bangs and pulling them over his eyes.
"Oh, don't be silly," Hermione said, pawing at the bangs until Harry made them disappear. "You look fierce with it," she said reassuringly.
"That's the problem," he said miserably. They traveled out into the hall, accidentally bumping into a girl with long, straight, platinum blonde hair.
"Ow!" she screamed, falling to the floor with a nasty thud.
"Oh my gosh! Are you ok?" said Hermione, immediately moving to help the girl up.
"I'm fine," she said fiercly, standing up on her own, even though it looked like it hurt.
"Are you sure?" said Harry nervously. The girl squinted at him, taking in his scar, and then nodded, turning around with a huff like she hated being there.
Starlie whipped out her amptipoculators again, looking as if she was examining the girl for injuries. Harry shuffled awkwardly as the girl checked her bag and started to walk away.
"You've got a bruise on your left thigh and knee, and a moderate fracture in your ankle that's been there for… uh… about a month, I'd think," Starlie suddenly said, before the silver-haired girl could disappear into the crowd. The girl paused, then turned around, hair glinting as she spun.
"How did you know? Are you even sure? How?" She said, squinting suspiciously at Starlie, who was now mindlessly fiddling with her amptipoculators. She lit up at the question.
"Easy! My amptipoculators!" She said, grinning wildly, gesturing to the silver spectacles that seemed to glint as if they knew something you didn't.
The girl sniffed, and Harry looked more closely at her. She had the palest skin of anyone he'd ever seen, not a blemish on it anywhere, not even a single stray freckle. Her hair was the blondest that blonde could claim to be, just on the edge of teetering into silver or even white, and it glittered, a radiant shine gleaming off it. It fell to her backside, straight as a ruler, falling like a sheet of moonlight down her back. She was very petite, a skinny figure that was nearly engulfed in the cloak of her robe.
She was very beautiful, but the most alluring part of her features was her eyes.
They were, so, so green, a shade of emerald that Harry had only seen in his own eyes. They were large, too, making her look sweet but intelligent, and along with her thin, pointed eyebrows, they made her look strangely fierce.
She had faint lines in her forehead from making snotty expressions- but there were also slight creases around her eyes and mouth from smiling.
It was strange to Harry. She seemed different from the other students, much like Starlie. They had the same aura, you could feel it in the air.
Harry suddenly realized he was staring, and the girl stared back skeptically.
"Something wrong, Potter?" She said, glancing up at his scar. She didn't say it rudely or anything, but Harry still blushed, averting his eyes and pulling his scarf up over his flaming cheeks, eyes turning blindingly blue with embarrassment. She smiled at his shy reaction, which WAS kind of endearing.
"You should probably go to the Hospital Wing before the fracture gets any worse," Starlie said, and Hermione nodded along.
"Ankles are particularly painful when they break," she winced. The girl was about to say something when someone behind them called out to her.
"Lily!"
A pale (though not nearly as pale as the girl), skinny boy came running up to them. He was wearing the same emerald and black robes as the girl. His face was skinny and pointed, and his slick, gelled blonde hair was strikingly similar to what Harry assumed was his sister's.
"Don't call me that!" She snarled at the boy. Harry felt a pang of something weird in his chest as he muttered "whatever, lily" under his breath.
"Are these TWITS bothering you?" The boy said, sneering at them. The girl (Lily?) rolled her eyes. "Even if they were, Draco, then I could handle them on my own, thank you." She turned promptly, hoisting her bag up her shoulder. At the last second, she looked over her shoulder.
"I'll go later," she said, looking directly at Starlie, and then she walked away.
The pale Slytherin boy, Draco, mocked in a high pitched voice as she disappeared into the crowd. " 'Even if they were, DrAcO, I could handle them myself, ThAnK yOu.' Psh! And 'I'll go'? Go WHERE?! What an ungrateful brat. I was just trying to help, as her older brother!" He muttered. Then he focused back on the trio of them, taking stock of Hermione (who blushed slightly as his ice grey eyes passed over her), glanced up and down at Starlie, taking stock of her amptipoculators, and then finally reaching Harry. His face twisted into an interested smile.
"So, Liliana met Potter before me? Of course she did. Well, I'm meeting him now, Lily dearest!" He sneered. Harry had the impression that if Liliana were here, he would probably just have earned himself a bloody nose. He disliked Draco immediately.
Liliana, however… she seemed pretty cool. If you could warm up to her.
Before Draco could get another word out, the 30 second warning on Harry's watch went off, and Harry jumped.
"MERLIN!" He said, and then bolted in the direction that Liliana had gone. He could make it if he just sprinted…!
3…2…1… and the castle floor vibrated, indicating the start of the class, just as Harry flung himself into the Charms classroom, tripping onto the cobble floor.
"Ah, Mr Potter," said an evil, nasally voice from above him. "Tardy and on your first day! Tut tut… I'm very disappointed. 10 points from Ravenclaw."
Harry sighed, picking himself off the floor. "I'm very, very sorry, Professor Flitwick," he said obediently. Flitwick sniffed haughtily, and then turned his back on Harry.
Harry sighed again, taking a seat in the far top corner of the raised seats, which was like a giant staircase with desks looking down to the center of the classroom. He put his head in his arms, hair turning a decidedly miserable shade of ugly fuchsia.
A few seconds later, Starlie entered the room, trailed by Draco. His sister facepalmed from across the room.
"Ah, nice to meet you, Miss Lovegood, Mr Malfoy. Take a seat, anywhere you like. Be warned, though, that this is your seat for the rest of the semester." Flitwick turned to Harry with a malicious look stuck in between his unproportionately bushy eyebrows and his pointed chin as he let the two sit down without punishment.
Starlie drifted over to the seat next to Harry, while Liliana very purposefully moved her bag to block Draco from sitting next to her.
Ah, Liliana and Draco Malfoy. What fun characters. If you're lucky, I might just do a special from Liliana's POV…
Anyways, thanks for reading!
-LLF out