A day of ease

If there was one thing Anabelle Mulciber loved, it was when a day went the way she intended it to. Today was one of those days. Her classes had gone well, work was done and all that was left of the day she had to herself. Anabelle didn't like to be around a lot of people, be it a group of them or just one or two others. She liked having her time alone and right now all she wanted was to be able to head down to the lake with the book she had in her hand, tucked close to her body, sit by the water and read.

She liked to enjoy the little things in life.

Her walk down to the lake was met with her passing a couple groups of students who were all muttering among themselves. What they muttered about, the Gryffindor wasn't sure of. However, there was something unsettling about it when she caught a couple of the other students staring at her as she passed by them. They turned to each other and whispered, which was quickly followed by giggling. Anabelle tried to not let it bother her, but she couldn't help the curiosity and anxiety that began to brew within her.

Had she done something wrong?

Racking her brain on the rest of her walk down to the lake, there wasn't a thing she could pinpoint that could have caused a reaction like that from the people she had passed. Maybe not all of them were talking about her, but the ones that were definitely had a reason to. The Mulciber girl wanted to know why, but she didn't want to walk to them and cause any kind of problem. It's probably nothing, I should just ignore it.

Easier said than done.

Once reaching the lake, she chose a spot close enough to the water where she could feel the cool breeze lift droplets of water from the lake and flick them at her, but not close enough where she could get too cold nor her book could get extremely wet from it. Letting out a relaxed sigh, Anabelle opened her book to the page she had marked for the next time she wanted to read it and she settled herself in.

There were many trees that had sprouted up on the grounds of Hogwarts, the most notable being the ever destructive Whomping Willow. That, however, was not the tree Matt found himself in on that fine afternoon. Hours had gone by as he watched several groups of students and a few loners meander around the grounds down by the lake. He had brought a book but it had remained unopened as they provided the entertainment he so desired. People were interesting and he was always fascinated with the way that students interact with each other.

But even after the hours droned on Matt began to feel bored and he no longer found his book choice interesting. Perhaps he'd read it some other time. As he placed it in his book bag he had hung on the branch adjacent to him he couldn't help but notice a gaggle of female students and a loner. Now, Matt didn't often engage in situations like this in the past but with his new title he figured now would be a decent time to change.

Head Boy

That was the alias he adopted when facing matters like the one he was currently charging head-on into. He had just barely overheard the group of female students and the only word he could really make out was "rumour". This, naturally, upset him because rumours are absolute bull and childish. He had already lost the group of students but he could still follow the other girl who was now walking ever closer to the lake. And as he watched her settle and open up her book he couldn't help but wonder

Should I really disturb her?

But he ignored his inner monologue and walked right up to her.

"Sorry to bother you, but are you alright?" he asked her.

Anabelle wasn't the type of person to let rumors or the whispers of others get to her, she had learned from a young age that someone will always have something to say about you.

Good, bad, neither.

However, as she began reading her book, she found her thoughts drifting back to the group of students that had been talking about her. When she found herself reading the same sentence for the third time, Anabelle decided to stop. Closing her book, the Gryffindor sighed and placed her arms over it on top of her legs, crossed.

It wasn't long before someone's voice broke the silence she had been sitting in and she jumped a little, startled. Her head turned toward the voice and she nodded, a look of confusion crossing her features. "Yeah, I'm fine. Why?" She asked the boy, who looked to be older than her. He seemed familiar, but she couldn't place her finger on why.

Anabelle had never been good with faces, so it didn't surprise her that she couldn't remember him.

He knelt down closer to the ground. He was making a conscious effort to not be imposing. He smiled at her.

"Well, I just noticed that brief but telling interaction between you and that other group of girls. I overheard them saying something about a rumour and then some more giggling."

He knew some of the girls in that group were in his own year. Which was honestly pitiful, spreading rumours about younger students. Matt didn't exactly exemplify what it meant to be a head boy but he knew when to get involved. And in his experience and honest opinion, Rumours were significantly worse than fighting. At least when there's a fight it's obvious who the parties involved are. Rumours are practically untraceable.

"Sorry, I'm Matt and I'm the Head Boy this year. I don't think we've ever met." he held his hand out to her.

Ah, head boy. That made sense.

Hit extended her hand toward his outstretched one and shook it a little timidly. New interactions tended to freak her out just a tad, so she was always cautious on introducing herself. "Anabelle Mulciber."

She looked down at the still opened book in her lap and let go of his hand to close it. "So you're a seventh year I'm assuming? I know you're not in my year, otherwise I'd know you.. and you don't look like you'd be much younger than me.." she trailed off, thinking she was starting to ramble.

"Um, I wouldn't worry about those girls, honestly. I don't really know what they could have been talking about, but something tells me it might have to do with my sister. We're not on very good terms, so I wouldn't doubt that she's going around saying things." She cleared her throat. "I can talk to her about all that, though."

The Gryffindor's hand went up to her hair and she began to twirl a loose strand around her index finger. "Thank you for the concern though." She smiled at him.

If it was a familial matter he figured he better not get involved that much. Family relationships can be volatile and susceptible to even the most minor of infractions between siblings. He sort of understood where she was coming from; at least he understood the rumours part.

"Right, yeah well I know how rumours can be so I just wanted to make sure everything was alright."

He ran his own hand, subconsciously through his own hair and smiled back at her. "I'm going to guess you're just a year below me, maybe two?" he asked her, still kneeling. He wasn't quite sure where this interaction was going but he wasn't quite sold on the idea that Anabelle was completely alright. And he was still getting used to this whole "caring" thing. It would be good practice regardless, it felt good to take interest.

"Sorry, if I was interrupting studying." he pointed to her book. "What are you reading there?"

Though it seemed right up her alley, Anabelle wasn't sure what Naomi got out of spreading rumors about her. It was bad enough that people thought she wasn't actually a Mulciber, thanks to the scene her father had caused with her mother about a year back at a party the family had been expected to attend. While it didn't surprise her that her mother was out there, seemingly flirting with some of the other men that had attended, it came as a shock when her father burst into the room and started accusing Iris of cheating on him and sleeping with another man.

Of course, then she learned that he had been drunk at the time.

Alexander had never been good with liquor and after giving way to the peer pressure of his closer friends, he had drank more than he could handle and had sent him on a downward spiral of regret and suspicion. Needless to say, after dragging Anabelle into the argument, the Mulciber's had left the gathering with an air of shame to them. Ever since then, the Gryffindor had been hounded with questions from a select few people who she wasn't sure cared but more just wanted to stick their noses where they didn't belong.

The more sincere of the people asking had been the Yaxley boys, both asking her on separate occasions about the incident. Anabelle had given them both different answers, a calm one received by Evander and an aggressive one received by Cronis. She couldn't say she was sorry about her response to Cronis either, he had been pestering her about different things that whole day.

"Just a year, I'm in sixth." Anabelle nodded. She looked down at the closed book in her lap, taking her arms off her knees. "Oh, I wasn't studying, I just like reading. It's a book about muggles who have to have this game every year with sacrifices, essentially, from each different district and they fight it out and try to survive til the end of the game." she explained.