our minds distort our mirrors

Castle was almost empty and Charlotte found it rather odd. It was strange for her to come to the Great Hall and found there barely few people. It was almost time for the breakfast, but she wasn't able to force Darian to woke up. Last night he was drunk again and he just couldn't stop talking about the pressure he has as a pureblood and the oldest child in his family.
Charlotte wasn't able to understand that. She was a halfblood, only child and the most important, her family didn't care about those things such as blood, tradition, and everything that goes along with that. They didn't expect her to marry a wizard from the good family or take a good job at the Ministry. They would love to, don't get her wrong, but she wanted to go to college. Maybe she would end up with Muggle boy and forget she was a witch until she got the baby. Then she would need to explain to her husband about magic, they would maybe even get a fight but everything would be fine.

But she couldn't do that, right? She couldn't raise her child without letting him know about magic because if she does that, her child would hate magic, maybe even more than she did.
Charlotte shook her head as if she wanted to move those thoughts from herself and looked around her. Mia was sitting at the center of Slytherin table talking with her classmates. For her, it was natural. She was born to be popular and around people with her charisma and that beautiful smile. She knew where she belongs and what she wants to do with her life. Charlotte often wondered if her Slytherin "friend" will end up among Death Eaters. She probably would.

Today she decided to sit at Gryffindor table because no one was there so no one would bother her. She put some eggs on her plate and started eating.

This was the time of year where everyone was supposed to go back home to be with their families for the holidays. Supposed being the key word there. There were still quite a few students lingering in the castle, including one Anabelle Mulciber, who had decided they would stay at the castle for these holidays. Originally, the Gryffindor had thought that she was going to be the only one at Hogwarts out of her little friend group for the holidays. But it turned out that the Yaxley twins had also remained in the castle, to her surprise. Those two always went home at this time, just like Freyja did. At the very least she knew her housemate had actually gone home.

Hit sighed, the boys were fighting over something a couple of days ago. She imagined it had been over them still being at Hogwarts when they should have been home. Cronis could have left, though. In fact, he should have left, given how he hardly ever took Evander's feelings into account for anything anyways. She would have been able to keep the Ravenclaw company if he'd decided he was going to stay the whole time. But she had a feeling that that was exactly what Cronis had wanted to prevent and that was why he'd also remained at the castle.

... If that had been the case, then why fight over it?

She didn't understand boys. Especially not those two with their random fights over seemingly nothing. Shaking the thoughts from her head, Hit entered the Great Hall to get some breakfast. The tables were almost empty, a few students here and there, all chatting about why they had decided to stay rather than go home. Another sigh escaped her lips as she walked toward the Gryffindor table. Most of the comments were the same. Someone didn't want to see a family member, they didn't want to have to explain why they weren't doing so well in a specific class, etc. She supposed she was the same way, too. She didn't want to go home because that meant going back to her family. But, it was a family that almost seemed to resent her for being a Gryffindor. For not wanting to grow up to follow in their footsteps. For not wanting to be a Death Eater, like her brother Walter was going to become after graduating.

When she reached the Gryffindor table, Hit noticed it wasn't completely empty. Charlotte was there. The Gryffindor girl blinked and eventually shrugged before taking a seat almost directly across from the Ravenclaw. "Hi Charlotte. Not going home for the holidays?" she asked nonchalantly, getting some food on her plate.

Hearing all those people talking about why they didn't go to home was quite annoying. They just decided to stay so why explain that and make all stories about that? But the castle was beautiful, at least that was what Charlotte noticed. She had never seen andything like that before. Everything was decorated and because of the enchanted ceiling, it looked like snow is falling directly on the Great Hall.
While looking around Charlotte saw Mia waving at her and Charlotte just smiled. She didn't want to bother with Slytherin girl at the moment.

She was looking at eggs deep in her thoughts when she heard someone telling her name. Or maybe that girl was speaking to someone else? Charlotte wasn't sure, but she probably wasn't only Charlotte at school. Still, she looked at Gryffindor girl, Hit if she was correct and smiled.
"Hi Hit. Not this year I guess" she frowned a little bit thinking again about all reasons why she didn't want to go to home this year. But she didn't want to bother this girl about it. Actually, she didn't want to bother anyone.

"I decided it's for the best to stay here. What about you?" She asked more to keep conversation than because she really cared. But Hit was always polite and nice toward her, even before when she was... Well, when she wasn't on her best behavior.

The Gryffindor shrugged. “Nah, I’ve never really been one to go home during the holidays.”

Better to play if off as nothing, than to tell Charlotte her life’s story. It wasn’t that she didn’t trust the Ravenclaw, it was just that.. well, yeah. She didn’t trust her. But that wasn’t her fault. Hit didn’t have much faith in people, Ryo and Freyja being the acceptions. The twins were always kept at bay to an extent, though Hit definitely trusted Evander more than Cronis. Merlin, if they heard that from her. Cronis would probably son for days about how she didn’t love him. Hit mentally groaned.

“I see you’ve been getting better with.. y’know, being at the castle among all of us.” The girl commented lightly, taking a bit of the food that had been sitting on her plate. She had abandoned it earlier on accident. Though she didn’t know Charlotte on an intimate level, they were really just acquaintances, Hit was always the type of person to worry about others that didn’t seem like bad people to her. She supposed it was only right to ask Charlotte about how she was doing with getting accustomed to magic.

She knew how much she had seemed to hate it beforehand. The Mulciber girl couldn’t even imagine what her life would have been like if she didn’t have magic or if she’d been raised as such. She knew of many people who went through that, and they all seemed to have some kind of resentment toward someone else over it.

She shook her head. Best not get into depressing details now.

“Anyone or thing giving you any trouble at all?”