Thunk. Thunk. Thunk. This is the sound of Kelly glumly making her way down from the dorms, dragging her feet on the stairs as she goes. Thump. Thump. Thump. This is the sound of her heavy bookbag bouncing off the stairs as she drags it along the ground, not even going so far as to properly carry it. With one final thud, she reaches the bottom of the stairs, surveying the common room with a pathetic expression of melancholy – it is early evening, and a number of people are now returning from dinner. Judging from where she came from, and her pitiful expression, she was not among those at dinner, prefering instead to wallow in self-pity in her dorm. One can only do this for so long, however, so she makes her way to a couch, flopping down on it and glaring at anyone who dares approach her.

Sitting near to the fire in front of a table, there are an assortment of sweets sitting on the table in front of Briony, and she appears to be trying to levitate them into her mouth one at a time. “Hi, Kelly!” The girl calls with an energetic wave and a grin. Nothing more is said as the girl appears to be quite intent on getting a sherbet ball into her mouth whole without touching it. She doesn’t succeed, though she does manage to catch it before it falls on the floor and pops it into her mouth, hovering about six inches off of the floor just moments later.

Running inside the common room from the portrait hole Rawnie is in a big a hurry as ever and as usual she even tramples over a couple of the other first year girls who she beleives to be a bit slow. “Oh quit yer whinin would yer? It’s not like Im that ‘eavy. Your toe ain’t broke ner nothin.” She says to a boy who is hopping around holding his foot and looking daggers at her. Rawnie‘s green eyes fall on Kelly and since it has been some time since the young girl had spoken to her it only natrual that she strike up a fast paced conversation right? Rawnie sits on the floor by the couch Kelly is sitting on and smiles up at her. “Ello Kelly…. whatcher doin?” Yes stunningly profound conversation here.

Isn’t it obvious what Kelly‘s doing? She’s wallowing in self-pity. Still, this is hardly a witty retort and she glances over, first at Briony, then at Rawnie, glaring at both of them in turn, then closing her eyes. “I… don’t feel well.” She lies, curling up her legs beneath her and withdrawing herself further from the first year girl, raising one hand to her head to help add weight to the lie. Certainly, it’s not even completely a lie, if one considers being in a bad mood as being not ‘well’ in some way. “So, please, don’t bother me.”

“Y’want schum schweets?” Briony asks with her mouth full of sherbet ball still. The girl giggles a bit and waves to Rawnie. It is apparent that the girls have come a long way from their sorting-day tussle. “My Auntie Eva sent me all these sweets because of the ball, isn’t it great?” Briony doesn’t seem to mind that nobody else is really paying attention to her, as she will end up making them pay attention if she has anything to do with it. “It’s soooo good. Better than that Honeydukes stuff, because my cousin Maura makes it.” Not that anyone had asked her.

Turning her head and peering at Briony at the mention of sweets Rawnie is the first to swarm over to the second year. “Can I ‘ave some?” She asks with the prettyest smile that has ever graced her face. A momment later she turns to Kelly. “Maybe ya should see tha nurse then?”

Opening her eyes and glaring at Briony, Kelly doesn’t seem to feel this deserves any sort of verbal response, just shaking her head and closing her eyes again, wriggling into a little nest of cushions in the corner of the lounge. Then, she opens just one eye and peers at Rawnie, shaking her head again. “I don’t need to see the nurse. I just – leave me alone, alright?” Her eye snaps closed again, and she presses her lips together in annoyance. Exactly what has gotten the girl in such a dismal mood is left unsaid.

“Sure you can have some,” Briony tells Rawnie, pointing to her pile on the table with a boisterous giggle as she continues to hover. “You should go see my mum. She can fix EVERYTHING!” Briony says this loudly, causing some rather sullen looks from some nearby fifth years who seem intent on studying rather than listening to the second year’s outburts. “And she’l make you feel all better, that way you can enjoy the sweets with Rawnie and me!”

Hopping up quickly to grab a sherbert ball herself Rawnie pops it into her mouth and smiles wide at the sweet taste. “Shanksh” she says to Briony. Rawnie sits in the floor again and looks at Kelly for a long momment. “Wotsh wrong Shkelly?” He speaks around the ball of candy in her mouth.

“But Briony,” Kelly replies patiently (or, more appropriately, in a tone that indicates that she thinks she’s being patient and, by extension, has more in common with condescension), opening her eyes and sitting up to glare at the younger girl, “I don’t want to share sweets. I don’t want to go and see your mum and get her to fix me.” Turning her gaze on Rawnie, she rolls her eyes and eventually explains. “I’ve… not had a brilliant couple of weeks, okay? Is that what you wanted to hear? Fine. I’ve had a terrible couple of weeks and I just want to be left alone.” For all that she insists on being left alone, there is an unmistakable tone in her voice: please, ask me more, so I can vent.

Briony frowns at Kelly, unsure of what to say or do. Briony‘s not used to dealing with rough moods. “I’m sorry you’re not feeling good, Kelly,” Briony tells her. “Do you like ‘em, Rawnie?” Briony asks with a big grin to the younger girl as she floats back to the ground and points her wand at a peppermint toad. “D’you reckon I can get the whole thing in my mouth? What do you think, Kelly?” The girl utters the levitating charm and the frog slowly rises into the air as the girl starts to direct it towards her already opened mouth.

Madly giggleing at Briony’s antics Rawnie cheers with a mouth full of sherbert ball as the older girl attempts to fit an entire peppermint toad in her mouth. Turning to Kelly once she has swalloed the candy Rawnie makes a bit of a face. “Yer wouldn’t ‘ave such a bad time-o-it if yer didn’t worry bout things so much…” Rawnie grabs a sherbert ball and tosses it in Kelly’s direction. She takes another and pops it into her mouth happily.

Reaching out, largely operating on automatic, to catch the sherbert ball (and missing, in fact, because she has made no pretense to being coordinated), Kelly seems rather put out by Briony’s lack of caring about her problems, be they real or imaginary. For this reason, perhaps, she turns her attention on Rawnie, narrowing her eyes in annoyance. “How am I supposed to stop worrying?” She asks, her tone edged with a scathing overtone. “It’s not like I can just pretend like it’s not going on. Did you know, I have a stepsister that I didn’t know about until my father wrote me a letter to wish me a happy birthday? And it’s March. My birthday was in October! And, and, Rafe isn’t talkign to me, and I can’t figure out why it is this time, and Icky Gravely in second year, he hugged me the other day, and that was just creepy, and, and, Suki Korosu-Dawson…” What crimes against her Suki has committed remain unsaid, and the third year falls into an uneasy silence, pulling further away from the other two girls and nestling deeper into her nest of cushion.

Briony pauses as Kelly points out all of her problems, the girl lets the toad fall back onto the table. “Isn’t Rafe always not talking to you?” the girl asks her friend — well, good acquaintance, at the very least — quirking her head and then reaching out and taking the peppermint toad, biting a bit off of it and chewing it as she tries to comprehend the confusions that love seems to behold for everyone she’s seen in love other than her parents. Or her aunts and uncles. Or Professor Fallon. Which really only leaves Kelly’s excursion into love.

“Well sittin there mopein bout it isn’t gunner make yer feel no better.” Rawnie says bluntly. She sits in the floor near Briony and smiles a little at the mention of Clavicle. “Next time ‘ee hugs yer kick ‘im and take his tatoo things. I wan’me some of em.”

Plucking a cushion from her nest, Kelly tosses it at the second year, nestling back into her nest with a particularly put-out expression, not even looking to see if her cushion hit the target. “It’s no business of yours whether he talks to me or not.” She replies sulkily, crossing her arms in annoyance. “And, in any case… well, okay, so we don’t really talk much, but it’d be nice if he had a better reason than ‘I don’t trust Charlie’ to ignore me.” This is all that she offers on the topic, turning a particularly venomous glare on Rawnie. “What else am I supposed to do? Tell my father that I actually turned fourteen last October? Kick Gravely until he leaves me alone?” Although that does sound like fun. “And what about Korosu-Dawson, and Rafe, and my stepsister? Kicking,” sadly, “doesn’t solve everything.”

“Well…” Briony starts and then oofs as she is hit with the pillow. “That was really mean, Kelly! What’d I ever do to you?” Briony‘s face gets more serious and she throws the pillow back at Kelly. “Anyway, I’m sorry about all that, but why don’t you just have some candies? Candy fixes everything that my mum can’t.” The girl shrugs and takes another bite of her peppermint frog. Pausing a moment, Briony turns her face to Rawnie. “What tattoo things are you talking about? I’ve never heard of them.”

Grinning toothily Rawnie “Yes! Just kick him till ‘ee gets tha point yer know? Over an over …. or till ‘ee gives you all them tatoos.” She says before turning to Briony. “Oh ‘ee sells neat pictures what ‘ee calls tatoos and they move around an stuff like paintings only on yer skin.” She reaches over and takes a peppermint toad herself and poke it in the belly to watch it squirm before savagley biting it’s head off.

Though she opens her mouth to make some sort of fiery comeback, Kelly is silent for a moment. What exactly did Briony do? ‘You made a very valid, truthful point about my relationship with Rafe which I find offensive only because of the inherent truth in it’ isn’t a very good comeback, all told. After a moment of glaring and opening and closing her mouth angrily, she stands up, grabs her bookbag, and storms back up the stairs without a word, though her loud stomping more than accounts for that. So, she absolutely does not have a comeback.

Staring as Kelly runs off, Briony doesn’t seem to know what to make of it. “Wanna go get a snack?” Briony asks to Rawnie, almost as if nothing had happened just a moment before. Briony‘s demeanor is slightly altered from the scene that has just played out, but for the most part she is still the same hyper girl that she was before the outburst, and one can imagine that she will will not linger long over having a pillow thrown at her. “I know how to get into the kitchens, and the houseelves are awful nice.”

Rawnie Weller gives a nod to Rawnie as she stands up to brush off her robes. “Arright! I never met any house-elves before might be intrestin I reckon.” Rawnie smiles and devours the rest of her toad and heads to the portrait hole at top speed. “Lead tha way Briony!”

“Alright!” Briony responds as Rawnie agrees to her proposed excursion. Quickly sweeping her sweets into the bag that she was gifted them in. It is just a moment before she has shoved the bag into her pocket and hops up, trotting behind Rawnie towards the entrance of the commonroom, making her way out of the area and back into the hallways, headed towards the kitchens for unknown goodies.

Other Interesting Logs:

• Giving Points for Effort
• Gryffindor’s First Practice of the New Season
• Gryffindor Quidditch Tryouts
• An Evening at the Shore
• A Chance Meeting in the Courtyard