Despite the vast population of witches and wizards that filled Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, Nerissa had found in the five years that she had spent within the walls of the enchanted castle, that as long as you could remember which hallways lead where, and what windows were close enough to the ground to slip out of, that it was not too terribly difficult to avoid other human beings.
Classes, on the other hand, were an entirely different story; Nerissa could not dash out the nearest exit when one of her classmates decided to turn to her and speak. She had no choice but to sit completely still and stare ahead at the front of the classroom- and so the small mouse paused before entering the classroom, one half of her body on either side of that imaginary edge.
The students of Basic Charms had been assigned a new professor, she noted, her dull eyes taking in her surroundings, stopping momentarily on the man who stood at the head of the classroom. He was new, and therefore unknown... something which frightened Nerissa.
She allowed a mouthful of oxygen to fill her lungs for a moment, but the sound of the sigh was a bit louder than she had intended it to be and had echoed off of the bear walls that held the classroom together, causing her hands to fly to her mouth.
“May I ask you a question, sir?” came the sudden quiet-yet-determined voice of the young Ravenclaw student; she may have been frightened by the stranger, but she had always been able to stand tall- or as tall as possible for such a small child –when she faced a professor. Though she looked quite the opposite of determined as she spoke through her parted fingers in such a way, having forgotten to move them away from her lips.
“What might I refer to you as? The school has gone through many professors, as I am sure you have been informed, and it has become a bit difficult to remember what face to pair with which name, but I do try to keep track,” she continued, taking a step further until she had officially entered the classroom, hiding a good portion of her fair face in her untidy red hair.