welcome to chimera!

[Elizabeth Shacklebolt]

In an attempt to devote what was left of her Friday afternoon to her homework she had sprawled out across her bed, Charms textbook wide open, and settled in to make an effort at the essay Professor Weasley had assigned earlier that week. Two hours later, however, and having retrieved her chalks from beneath her bed at some point her parchment was looking far more colourful than was generally expected of an essay – apparently she had given up to distraction sometime after she had penned her third opening sentence. Caught up in her doodles, it had taken the dwindling light to make her aware of her surroundings. Squinting her eyes to add more detail, it was only when they began to strain that she realised the hour was getting on.

Glancing to the window beside her bed and seeing the setting sun, an orange not all that different to the chalk held lightly between her thumb and forefinger made her remember her afternoon aim and glancing sheepishly at her ‘essay’. Feeling that it had, at least, been a rather grand aim for a Friday afternoon, it was the coloured dust spread across her hands, bed, and her shirt front that had her struggling not to laugh.Swinging her legs from her bed, the attempt to brush the dust from her shirt only made it worse, and pushing stray curls off of her face saw it getting into her hair as well. Reserved to the fact that, although not dirty, she was something of a mess she abandoned the quiet of the dormitory to clean off, attracting more than a few looks as she went.

Bent over a sink in the girls bathroom it did not take a great deal of effort to get the dust from her hands, but it almost seemed as though it would be too much to clean it from the rest of her. Contemplating whether or not to, she took a step back from the mirror, trying to push her unruly curls into a tie without much success when she heard the door creak open. Feeling rather awkward with her hands above her head as she forcefully pushed her curls through the tie she smiled largely at the them, stretching her neck over her shoulder to do so.

[Ophelia Hall]

"Oh! What have you done?" Ophelia declared in tones of being surprised by a party as she came into the girl's lavatory. Elizabeth Shacklebolt was one of her favorite people and because they girl had approached her for a conversation exactly twice, Ophelia now believed them to be quite good friends. She approached the girl and touched her fingers to Lizzie's sleeve to closer examine the pretty dust covering her. "What were you drawing?" She asked, a wide smile on her birdish face.

It excited her to be around people she considered friends, because the experience was quite rare. Her friends didn't seem to work the same way as other people's friends. As in, they didn't spend all that much time together. But Ophelia was used to things not working for her like they worked for other people, so she didn't question it too much.

"You were using lovely colours,' she said and then began to help the girl brush off her robes, whether or not the physical contact would be welcomed. Ophelia was only trying to be helpful and had no conception that she might be making Lizzie feel awkward.

[Elizabeth Shacklebolt]

It did not take her long to place the other girl as Ophelia Hall; besides having shared classes with her Ravenclaw year-mate for the past six years, her eccentricities made her difficult to simply overlook. Although she may not have necessarily considered them friends, if only because their interactions had been quite limited in the past and had not often extended outside of the classroom, she certainly found her interesting - and interesting was almost always complimentary when coming from Lizzie.

Ophelia's surprised exclamation coaxed a laugh from Lizzie, who glanced down at the rainbow of coloured chalk dust covering her school shirt as though she was likely to find the explanation there before lifting her gaze back to the other girl. Finally managing to pull her thick - and right now quite unruly - curls through the tie with a tug that took far more effort than perhaps it ought to have, it was a relief to drop her arms to her side.

"Oh - a garden," she said with another laugh, waving down at her robes as though the coloured dust was evidence. Not at all taken aback by Ophelia's move to brush off some of the dust she joined her, only managing to spread it out and brush it further into her robes in the process. Were she running late for class, or anything similar, she may have minded, but as it were her plans for the evening were entirely open.

[Ophelia Hall]

Ophelia kept brushing at the dust two-handed but came to the same conclusion as Elizabeth; that they were merely mixing it deeper into the fabric. Taking out her wand, she seemed to hesitate for a second on whether or not to cast tergeo. Maybe Lizzie would like to preserve her robes the way they were; they sort of looked like a work of art. "I can do a quick cleaning charm, if you like?"

It was a rare occasion when Ophelia had the forethought to ask permission, but this was less about doing something Lizzie might not be comfortable with and much more to do with worrying that Lizzie might not want the dust removed. "Or maybe you should frame the robes, they look quite interesting like this."

[Elizabeth Shacklebolt]

Watching with a bemused grin as the colours mixed together and began forming patterns of their own, she was amused by how far the dust would spread with each pat and brush. Almost distracted by the spectacle of her robes she glanced up at Ophelia as she spoke, taking a moment to connect her words to any meaning. Eventually realising what she said her grin returned with ease and she nodded agreeably, a shrug of her shoulders to show that she was not at all fussed, "Sure - go for it."

Cleaning spells were not something she was incredibly skilled with - although she had intentions of changing that - so she was quite happy to let Ophelia go ahead. With two younger brothers who were constantly needing to be cleaned up after at home, both with a knack for mess and trouble (Franklin more so than Eugene), being of age and able to clean up in their wake with a flick of her wand here and a swish there was much more preferable than going about it the muggle way, which she had for years. It was far simpler, even, than hounding after them to clean up their own mess, because Merlin knows that was never done well.

Pulling her thoughts from her brothers she had to blink twice at what the Ravenclaw said next, and wondered for a moment whether or not she was joking. Treating it as one anyway she giggled and shook her head, curls from her ponytail bouncing behind her. "Oh - I don't think they're worthy of being framed. I could do a far more interesting job if that were on the cards."

[Ophelia Hall]

Taking out her wand and looking a little wistful at having to remove the pretty colours, she cast a quick and efficient cleaning charm that whisked the dust right off. She swirled it around in a neat pattern before sending it down the drain of the nearest sink with a wave of her wand. "Well, you look quite clean and ordinary now. Are you going back to drawing?"

Ophelia sounded a little wistful about that too, as if hoping Lizzie wouldn't now skip off and return to what she had been doing. Which was, indeed, what Ophelia was fearing. She got to see her friend rarely enough in an intimate setting that it would be a shame to waste this opportunity.

[Elizabeth Shacklebolt]

She half-watched as Ophelia siphoned the mess of chalkdust from her clothes and straight into the sink, not paying enough attention to admire the colours as they disappeared. Once that was done and dusted she twisted on the spot, eyeing off her robes in the mirror until she was satisfied that they were indeed clean and she no longer resembled a walking rainbow. Wiping off her hands against her thighs, she smiled and offered the other girl her thanks.

"You know, I hadn't given it any thought. Maybe I'll try to find Susie," she said, thinking out loud more than anything else. It certainly hadn't struck her that Ophelia, who seemed kind enough if not at least a little bit strange, might want to spend any time together. Out of a combination of curiosity and politeness, she added "What about you? I imagine your Friday night plans must be more exciting than cleaning off my robes."

[Ophelia Hall]

Ophelia shrank back a little, imperceptible bit at the mention of Susie. Lizzie was one of those awkward people she couldn't really maintain the lie of being close to Susie around. Lizzie was someone who was actually close to the Hufflepuff and it would make sense they spent tons of time together. Ophelia felt a pang of envy and rejection despite the fact that had likely been the farthest thing from Lizzie's intentions. "Oh, sounds fun. I haven't got any plans, really."

She might've lied, but there was the slightly manipulative hope that Lizzie would invite her along, as unlikely as it was. It was embarrassing to admit she was without anything to do on a Friday. Even without a Hogsmeade weekend, most kids had plans with friends or their more-than-friends and it was sort of pathetic that she had none. "Free as a bird,' she added, perhaps a little pointedly.