| Details for Breakfast Between Ravenclaws |
| Summary: | Elise and Ludae chat over breakfast after the events of last night's Pantomime. |
| Date: | 1940-01-11 |
| Location: | Hogwarts Castle - Great Hall |
| Related: | — |
| Characters |
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Into breakfast come many of the Ravenclaws, a great deal of whom have their noses, predictably, stuck in their books. Not so Elise, this morning. After getting cleaned up from last night's fiasco, she bit the bullet and had a fellow student cut the rest of her hair to match the missing braid that somehow got shorn off while she tried to put out fires on stage. So here she is, with her glossy dark hair hanging to some point between her ears and her shoulders, curling at the ends… and she looks utterly miserable about it.
Ludae, likewise, is cleaned up after the events of last night, looking more composed than she was afterwards - rumors are that Sybil found her crying in the common room later that night. It was a rather intense experience for a girl who typically avoids those sorts of adventurous things. Her own hair was mildly singed from the heat, but nothing so severe as poor Elise. Ludae sets her books down and takes a seat beside the forlorn-looking girl. She's quiet for a moment, chewing her lip a little. Seems she doesn't quite know what to say to the other girl, but she wants to say something.
Elise takes out a little hankerchief - snowy white with little flowers embroidered on the corner around a monogram of her initials - and dabs at her eyes a couple of times before sighing deeply and reaching for food. She brings a little bowl of oatmeal in front of her, with honey and sliced strawberries, and sits and stares at it for several seconds. Then she takes the tiniest bite ever.
Ludae frowns a little bit as she gets some food of her own. Nothing fancy, a plate with some eggs, toast, and a glass of orange juice. Again she chews her lip for a moment, but then she says to Elise, "I'm really sorry about your hair, Elise…" She frowns again, but then smiles. "Hey, why don't you come by the next meeting for the domestics club? Some of the girls there know a spell that might be able ot help your hair grow back… Or at least style it how you'd like it… I'm sure they'd love the opportunity to practice it."
Elise looks up at Ludae and tries on a smile. It's almost heart-breakingly sad. "Mother won't let me re-grow my hair with magic. She had a bad experience with it when she was a girl and absolutely puts her foot down." She sniffles a bit, but then slowly nods. "Are you sure
they'd want me there?" she asks carefully.
Ludae smiles, though she's probably feeling as down as Elise is right now - though at least her own hair was intact. "I don't see why not," she says, "A lot of the girls there are good with hair, some even without magic. I'm sure we'd be able to help." She puts an arm around Elise's shoulders and gives her a squeeze. "Besides, my mother always told me to never worry too much about a bad haircut. Hair always grows back, right?"
Elise can be something of a social pariah, in the wrong circles - mostly because of her membership in the Mud Club, and if not that, then for her last name. But she accepts Ludae's assurance and smiles, a bit more genuinely this time. "Thank," she says. "It does. Even without a potion to help it along, it does. I just hope Cillian doesn't hate it." She glances around toward the Gryffindor table.
Ludae isn't one for making a big deal of bloodlines or families, and in fact that's likely left her out of some social circles, herself, but you won't see her shedding tears over that. Besides, Elise wouldn't be the first member of the mud club to also be at the domestics club. "Of course," she says, "And if they don't I'll be sure to smack them around a bit until they do." She grins a little bit, and turns her attention on her breakfast for a moment. Gotta eat -something- today, after all. She gives a glance over towards the Gryffindor table, as well, and quirks a brow. "Who's Cillian?" she asks, and then gets a coy grin, "Is he your boyfriend?" She gives Elise a teasing nudge in the side with her elbow.
Elise turns red at the question, and shakes her head. "No," she answers. "He's the boy I like, but… he doesn't like me back. I mean, not like that. The — the one with the eye patch," she says. Is he even down for breakfast yet? Who knows? Either way he'd have been difficult to miss in the hallways. Elise has a bit more of her oatmeal, this time taking a slice of strawberry with it. "Do you have a boyfriend?"
Ludae giggles at first, but then her cheeks flush red themselves at the question. "Ah, um… N-no," she replies, flustered a bit, "I, um." She chews her lip a little bit before giving any further explanation. "I, uh, I don't like boys, um, in that way," she says, her face almost as red as that strawberry Elise just ate. She falls into a sort of awkward silence then, and tries to cover it up by taking a drink from her OJ.
"Do you like girls?" Elise asks, totally unphased by this possibility - at least in this, the wizarding world is far more progressive than the Muggles. "Cillian's got two dads." She has another bite. "I've met them. They're nice."
Ludae knows it's more accepted in the wizarding world, but school can always be a little different, and some teenagers will find anything they can use to humiliate each other. She smiles, though, and nods her head when Elise mentions Cillian's dads. "I do," she says, "I've always been a little, um, different, I suppose, and that's made it a lot more difficult to, well, approach girls I like." She shrugs her shoulders a little. "Though it's probably not any easier than approaching boys, I guess, there's always that risk that they just don't like you that way."
"You'll find the right girl eventually," Elise says encouragingly. She nods though, at the last bit. "There is always that," she sighs. "Cil's my dearest friend, but it makes me really sad sometimes to know that he doesn't like me the same way I like him. What's worse is that
he knows I have a crush on him. He's been terribly nice about it all."
Ludae winces a little at that last bit and nods her head. "Yeah," she murmurs, "I don't know what I would do in that situation." She sighs again, and shakes her head. "Love stinks sometimes," she says, but then she smiles. "I'm sure you'll find the right person for you, too. Even if it isn't Cillian, there's a lot of boys that go to this school, and a lot of them are very nice and very cute." She giggles a little. "Boys your age are still a bit… Mmm, well, they're more interested in toads and snakes and other gross things still. I bet by next year you'll be swimming in boys asking you to dances and parties."
Elise giggles quietly at the image of swimming in boys, and her cheeks pinken up. "Just one boy at a time is fine," she says with another giggle. "Though I do wonder… why do girls mature more quickly than boys? Have you noticed? Half the girls in third year are taller than the boys by now."
Ludae gives a shrug of her shoulders. "I haven't got a clue," she says, and leans in to whisper, "Though it might just be because we're smarter and know better than to stay so immature." She grins broadly, and then turns to her breakfast again, taking a bite of sausage. "I'm sure I'd be happy with just one girl, too. The hard part is finding the right one, really. So far, I've been horribly unlucky in that department."
"Well," Elise says thoughtfully, snagging some more food from the center of the table. "There probably aren't that many girls who like girls here at school. But once you graduate you might have an easier time. You could even put an advertisement in the paper. I hear people do that."
Ludae shakes her head, and shrugs. "Maybe, but that doesn't seem like the right way to go about it for me. I want something more… I don't know. Romantic, I guess." She smiles, and sighs softly. "It's tough but I'll manage. One day I'll find the right girl for me, and we'll have a nice little house in the country together." Ludae smiles again, for a moment lost in the pleasant thought.
Elise turns to Ludae suddenly. "Did you know what?" she asks. "My family has three evacuee children coming in from Germany, can you believe it? Three!" Topic change!
Ludae sputters a little and grabs a napkin. That came in the middle of a sip of juice,
and she wipes her mouth before replying. "Wow, really? I'm still waiting on a letter from my parents to hear if they're taking in any children, but I'm sure they will. We've got a big enough house for it." She tilts her head slightly. "How old are they? Do you know their names yet?"
"Oh, yes," Elise says. "There's Ada, she's the oldest. She's eight. Then the boy, Arik, he's six. The youngest is Alyda, and she's barely three." She pulls a sad face. "Their father was a Muggle, you see, and because they're Jewish the Nazis made him wear this yellow star on his clothes, and then not too long ago their business was looted and he was shot! Their mother died about a year ago - we're not sure what happened. Something to do with Grindewald, we think."
Ludae frowns a little at the end of that story. "That's awful," she says, "Some muggles are as dreadful to one another as some of the pure-blood families are to muggles. It's very good of your parents to take them in, though. After something like that, younger children need a good home." She shakes her head and sighs softly.
"It's just until the war is over," Elise says with a sigh. "Then we'll find out who their family is and return them. After it's safe." She sits and stares at her oatmeal for a minute. "It kind of makes me making a fuss over my hair seem silly, doesn't it?"
Ludae quirks a half-smile on her lips and nods a little. She lifts a hand and fusses with Elise's hair a little bit, rearranging it just slightly. "It doesn't look bad, anyhow," she says, "In fact I'd say it makes you look a little more fiesty, and less like a little girl. It's cute, even." She smiles, and gives Elise a wink. "And you can trust me on that, I know what makes girls look cute."
"Fiesty?" Elise repeats. She turns red at the wink, clearly overwhelmed by the gesture. "Um," she says, completely at a loss.
Ludae giggles a little, amused at the expression on Elise's face. "Oh, relax, I'm only teasing," she says, giving Elise a little nudge, "But it really does look good on you. A little more proper trimming and arranging and it would be quite fetching, I imagine."
Elise makes an effort to seem more relaxed, rocking like a punching-bag doll when Ludae nudges her. "I should hope so," she says. "I wouldn't want those poor orphans' first impression of their foster-sister to be that I'm a ragamuffin."
Ludae grins a little and shakes her head. "I doubt that's what it will be," she says, and then adds, "Can any of them use magic, themselves?" She quirks her brow slightly, curious. "Well, of the older two, anyways, I don't think the youngest would have had any indications just yet."
"I think so?" Elise says. "I actually haven't any idea. But either way, their mother was a witch, so they'll be used to the household spells and things." She looks up at the other girl. "When do you think you'll hear from your parents? About taking in refugee children?"
Ludae taps her chin in consideration. "I usually receive letters from them mid-week," she says, "So I expect to hear something around then. If they don't mention it I'll be certain to ask in my letter back, I really am curious now if they are or not. My parents have always been very generous people, so I suspect they will be."
Elise nods and then finally digs in to her oatmeal, which has gone a bit cold by now. She doesn't seem to mind much, and quickly shovels it in. "The sooner the better. I hear it's awful over there."
Ludae agrees with a nod, before downing the rest of her juice. "Oh yes, it must be," she says, "Hopefully it won't get much worse than it already has, and it will be over soon." She finishes off the last of her toast and eggs, as well. "I heard they've begun rationing in Britain because of all the refugees," she says.
Elise quickly finishes some of her own juice and then hops up. "I've got to get to class," she says. "Thank you for cheering me up!"
Ludae smiles, gathering up her things as well. "I've got some more studying to do, myself. I'm glad you're feeling better, Elise. Remember to stop by the domestics club, okay?"