#2. A Quiet Moment

Cintia didn’t stop running until she was way past the door and found herself on the private courtyard. It was quiet enough since most people were still in their classes, so she could gather herself. But, Cintia wasn’t as alone as she thought. When the Hufflepuff took a better look around the place, she found her classmate already there.

At first, Cintia wanted to ignore her as the Slytherin looked busy, but it’d be rude to at least not acknowledge the girl. ‘Hi Avery,’ Cintia sniffed and rubbed at her eyes with the sleeve of her uniform. ‘You were awesome today in class,’ she gave the girl a watery smile and proceeded to look at the ingredient list. Luckily for her, one of the ingredients, silkmoss could be found in this location.

Taking note of where in this place it could be found, Cintia moved closer to the walls and started perusing them for the ingredient, touching them from time to time.

Growing close to the stone wall was something darker and taller than the nearby grass. It matched the appearance on her scroll and seemed harmless enough to pick. When Cintia retrieved it, she'd be able to get a closer look and see it was indeed Silkmoss. She'd found her first ingredient!

Though she continued sketching, better prepared this time, Avery listened as Cortia explained what she was doing. Avery had no idea why she felt the need to explain, but didn't react to the invite. She was rather comfortable and wanted to finish her artwork, not trek all the way down to the boathouse. At least Cintia proved she wasn't just crazy and did actually have a task at hand, which sounded interesting. Avery briefly considered doing the same, but her good mood was one she wanted to make the most of.

She stayed in her tree, but hoped Cintia found what she was looking for.

”I’ve got a lovely bunch of Pygmy Puffs,
There they are all standing in a row,
Pink ones, purple ones, some as white as snow,”

The few students that were sitting in the private courtyard heard Thomas long before they saw him. His voice boomed down the hallway ahead of, and behind, him so that anyone nearby knew he was coming. Which was just the way he liked things, unless he pulling a prank.

Since he wasn’t undergoing any such endeavors at the moment, Thomas was more than happy to announce his presence to all of Hogwarts that could hear him. Which just so happened to be far fewer people than he had hoped. Also, the wrong kinds of people.

As soon as he rounded the corner and stepped into the courtyard, Thomas knew that there weren’t any Gryffindors here. For one, it was far too quiet for any of his housemates to be nearby. The fact that he didn’t catch even a glimpse of crimson proved his assumptions correct.

Thomas’s shoulders slumped in disappointment. He’d hoped to find at least one Gryffindor that he could try to recruit to the Quidditch team. Unfortunately, he wasn’t going to have any luck here. At least not right now.

He smiled and nodded to a Hufflepuff that sat nearby before he turned and started back the way he’d come. Lunch was bound to start soon, Thomas thought as he began to skip down the hall. Even if it didn’t, he’d promised Jacob that he’d meet him in the Great Hall once he was done here. They hadn’t had the chance to eat breakfast together so he was determined that he eat lunch together. He hadn’t told his best friend about one of the best parts of his Summer yet, after all.

(Lyrics are an altered version of ‘I’ve got a lovely bunch of coconuts’ by Merv Griffin.)

Cintia got slightly startled when she heard someone singing. She looked up to see an older Gryffindor strolling into the courtyard. He nodded at her, making Cintia bewildered as she didn’t know him. She slightly recalled his face from Quidditch and general happenings around Hogwarts, but his name escaped her. The Hufflepuff nodded back and watched him leave.

Going back to what she was doing before, it wasn’t long before Cintia was disturbed again. It was weird being so bothered after almost a whole morning of silence. This time, it was someone from her own house.

Smiling back at the girl, Cintia grabbed the girl’s hand in a handshake. ‘Cintia Cortez,’ she introduced herself, and then put away her things so she could focus on the conversation. ‘I know you,’ Cintia offered, then thought that came out slightly creepy. ‘I mean, not know know you, just…know of you,’ she lamely finished, trying to explained herself.

‘Uh, you’re on the Quidditch team, right?’ Cintia asked and thus briefly explained how the girl was familiar to her. After two years of watching the sport, Cintia wanted to try her hand at it, but she slightly doubted herself and whether she was good enough to make it onto the team. The younger girl was sure it was filled with older years with much more experience at flying than her.