Cherries

Audra was sitting on the ground, wrapped in a warm jumper, eating cherries and reading a book.
It's freezing cold, why would a sane person sit on the ground, in a middle of a corridor, around 8pm, you ask? Well, first of, it wasn't that cold. For Audra most of the people in Hogwarts seemed like sissies when it came to "cold". Yeah, sure, it was unpleasant, but she had seen worse few times in her life. Second, there were several bowls of magical fire around her, making the place bit warmer and ghastly blue too. You know, you'd think that nothing get's better than this - cherries, middle of a corridor, warm fire, but then, BAM, there is a ghastly, eery blue light too. Delightful, isn't it?
So, Audra was sitting there, in a middle of a corridor, near to the Rawenclaw's tower, with a huge (and I do mean huge) bowl of cherries, that once belonged to the house elves (it's not like she stole it... it was unattended!), reading a book in Lithuanian and laughing hysterically. You see, it was a good book. Funny one, too.

After a chapter ended, Audra put down the book, fell back and stretched herself, laying n the floor, looking at the ceiling (particularly dusty one, in fact) and thinking about the book. She hummed a lulluby, letting the warm, low voice float trough the nearby corridors.

Wally had had a bit of trouble in the common room. Now, she thought that her dormmates were overreacting. All she had done was released a dungbomb or two. It was elementary stuff! It wasn't even a clever prank, and yet the girls had been horrified. She refused to take any blame. It was their fault for talking when she had specifically told them she would be studying in there tonight and appreciated the silence. They had not shut up, so they could suffer.

Their shrieks were enough to send her tumbling down the stairs however, tearing through the common room, and out the door. She hopped down the steps, picking up momentum so she was soon a bit out of control of her pace.

Which was unfortunate, because an obstacle appeared in the form of a girl lying at the foot of the tower stairs.

"Fuuuuu!"

A moment later, she too was lying sprawled on the ground. She quickly picked herself up and turned on the person who had tripped her. It was a girl from her Care of Magical Creatures class that Wally had thought was fairly tolerable. Now, she was struggling to believe it.

"Thanks, Imbert! Your seance is going to give me a bruise." She rubbed her knee with an irritable expression on her face.

Audra moaned silently when something (or someone) hit her, and then, to make everything even worse - dropped something kinda heavy on her.
Opening her eyes, she discovered that it wasn't that bad. The thing that was drooped on her was a girl, and a quite lovely one at that. They had been talking in Care of Magical Creatures and she seemed to know her way around animals. That, and she seemed to be a bit locked up in herself. A tiny bit. More for Audra to like. Her name was.. yeah, what was her name? Well, the sooner we find out, the better.

Sorry about that. There usually isn't anyone around here at this time. Couldn't imagine there would be someone running here, like they were chased by an cattle of angry bulls. Audra looked around expectantly, as if searching for the bulls. What were you ruining away from anyways? Is Peeves on the move again? she asked, sitting up, straightening her jumper and popping a cherry in her mouth.

Anyways, want some cherries? Fresh from Abhaz.

"Learn to expect the unexpected," Wally said dryly, raising a nail to her mouth and running her tooth under it. Her eyes flicked away, a bit bored. Wally had learned the importance of image when she left Hogwarts last - and she had been really working on hers, to make it seem as though she had not paid any attention to it. So far, it was working.

"I wouldn't call it running away," Wally said, again, her voice sounding dry, robotic, mechanical. That had not changed. Somehow, she had grown into the quirk, though. Somehow, it sounded better on a curvy teenager than a flat-chested preteen.

"Let's just say I was running to a new opportunity after the failure of one." She shrugged. She noticed one of her trainers had come untied, and she dropped to her knee, beginning to work on the knot. The Audra girl offered her some cherries and Wally looked up, checking the girl's face, unsure if she was serious. She seemed to be so Wally held out a cupped hand to accept the cherries.

Audra smiled. Ya know, my grandma used to say that all the time. Got struck by the lightning. Well, that's what I call unexpected! She laughed silently, looking at the girl. Is she stalled long enough, she could figure out the girls name. I mean, they had been talking several times and she distinctively remembered her from the years gone, forgetting her name was quite rude. Even if they were barely acquaintances and even taking the fact that Audra's memory was terrible. Not that the girl seemed to be of the type that would care.

Audra turned her head to one side Opportunity? Is there something exciting happening? By the way Hufflepuff common room sounded - there is. And then again, they sound like that every day. Audra mused, taking another cherry, spitting the bone of the first one in to a smaller bowl. She smiled at the extended hand and pushed the gigantic bowl forward, for the girl to see. Dig in! You wont be getting any on your dessert tomorrow. She laughed loudly and cheerfully. She liked doing these sorts of things. Do you remember the time when Slythern table didn't get any vanilla pudding? Well, she and few of her classmates have sworn to never eat vanilla pudding. Never, ever again. but then again, it was fun. And Audre never really stole. She got the permission to take something and then simply took something that probably didn't count as "some light snacks"

So, what is this opportunity, you were chasing?

"I hope she's alright," Wally said dryly, imagining that a meeting between an elderly woman and a bolt of lightning probably did not end very well, but Wally would be a fraud she really pretended to care. No, dry humor was the way to seem sincere without having to actually take responsibility for caring, which was very important to Wally. She absolutely hated responsibility in relationships, no matter how fleeting.

"I wouldn't call it exciting," she said, shrugging. "The Ravenclaws are typically very quiet - you know, we really fit the stereotypes of the bookish literary types, always burrowing their nose in massive books. They just don't know how to appreciate it when someone decides to relieve the tension, is all. Then they get, what was the word, excitable? Yes, they get a tad excitable."

The girl offered her bowl of cherries and Wally glanced in, before reaching her hand inside and scooping out a heft handful. She brought the little, ripe spheres under her nose and inhaled. They were fragrant, which meant they would do well for their purpose - she had been meaning to experiment to see if she could make some Spice hard candy - the basic drug, but compacted so the effects were minimal and it was packaged like harmless candy. Cherry was always good for a candy flavor.

She popped a cherry into her mouth and then sat down, dropping her other hand into her lap. She would eat a cherry, pocket a few, eat another. Simple enough.

"Oh, you know. Life's opportunities. I had a door slammed in my face back there," she motioned towards the Ravenclaw tower, "so somewhere else, there's supposed to be another door slammed open."

Audra laughed out loud again and then somewhat hastedly slumped down, as if someone had told her that she is being rude.
- Nah, she died. - And then again, Audra was who she was and she couldn't bring herself not to be cheerful about these memories. - But the funeral was a blast. It was raining cats and dogs. And not like the melodramatic trickle. I mean, real, hardcore rain. You should have seen the old ladies, holding on their hats and umbrellas, running from cars to the church and trying to drip with some sort of dignity. - Audra burst in to laughter again. She simply was that kind of a personality. She might be sad from time to time and there were enough times when she was serious, but she was one of those people that would find happiness in every little thing. She laughed a lot and she was happy a lot. It was true most of the time. And if she found something funny in the funeral of her favorite granma, she would laugh, and she would tell others about it.

- Really? I always thought that all the bookish types are actually the crazy ones. You know. The ones with wild ideas and odd parties. Not the plain "lets drink some beer and shag a bit", those are for Gryfindor, but the really wild and odd and "oh god, I hope no one ever hears any of this bullshit" kind. - Audra mused, while looking at the girl with big, inquiring eyes, as if asking, if she really meant what she said. Maybe, just maybe, it wasn't that bad, and Audra could find a partner in crime from there? The kind that would help her with stealing cherries. And then read books in the middle of.. anywhere, in fact. Reading books in a middle of somewhere is a good exercise. Gives you the trill of reading a book, gives you the trill of doing something in a way that's out of your routine and, sometimes, just sometimes, it gives you a reason to start a conversation. Like now.
It's really a shame that she didn't remember the girls name. She should find a polite way to find it out. Later. Maybe later. When it actually matters.

- Oooooh... So that's where the Ravenclaw tower is? I had been wondering, but never actually went looking for it. Makes sense tough. - the girl said, wide eyed, her head turned in an uncomfortable angle, to look at the stairs. - I bet there are many books there. There should be many books. There are none in Hufflepuff dungeon. Just food. I wish there were books. - Audra said, more to herself, than the girl in front of her, slowly eating cherries and staring at the floor. Suddenly she looked up.
- Do you think it's possible to get in there? For me? Right now? - Her eyes were wide once again (she tended to do that, whenever she got excited) and she looked at her suprise-companon-at-cherry-eating (as she had started calling her) with a spark of hope, for a new adventure.

"View Halloo!"

The trumpeting call came from someone in amongst a bunch of students further down the hallway, all mounted on brooms. In the small space, they were pushing and shoving, trying to get to the front of the pack, presumably to catch the small red object that had just disappeared into Audra's cherry bowl.

Wally might have felt conflicted about the news of the girl's relative had Audra been more gloomy about it. Wally would have felt inclined to at least pretend to look sad for the girl but, on the other hand, she really did not care and was not a very commiserating young woman. She did, however, dislike being likened to a sociopath and had learned in her last year in Australia to at least fake emotions when they were otherwise absent to make those around her less likely to say comments that would be worthy of a row. but Audra spared her this difficulty and almost procured a smile from Wally.

Almost.

The story did give her a chance to pocket a few of the cherries, though. Audra continued on with her thoughts on Ravenclaws. Wally knew some of the kids were like that, but Wally had always tried to maintain the image of a clean nose, so that no link between herself and Spice could be found. She shrugged saying, "Not really. That's just the media talking. We really do fit the normal stereotypes associated with us. Books, studying, studying, books."

Audra continued to prattle on, thrilled by the new intelligence of the location of the Ravenclaw tower. And then she did the most appalling thing and asked if she could get in. Wally was torn - between her own pride in her intelligence (a Hufflepuff outsmart the eagle knocker? really?) and her amusement in watching the girl attempt to actually get in. If her ego weren't strong enough to reject the girl, she would love to see the pompous egomaniacs inside be surprised by a visit from a Hufflepuff.

Wally had gone to open her mouth when she heard a voice. As the girls' attention was directed towards the ruckus, Wally's hand floated towards the cherry bowl, attempting to swipe some. She had to pull it away a moment later as another object sank into it, however.

It took her only a moment to piece together what must be following - the students would mean to retrieve their game piece, and no one seemed patient enough to do it in an orderly fashion. She sprang to her feet. "Abandon cherries!"