#7 - waiting and sliding

Elara having finished at Try-outs was eager to find Joe and her friends and break the good news about her new position on the Quidditch team and hurried back into castle. Hugging herself and breathing a welcome sigh of relief once she was back inside the relative warmth of the castle, it was beginning to get quite cold as October drew to an end.

Looking around, it didn't appear as if the feast had started yet, but then... She'd assumed she'd be too early anyway. Joe would probably be in his common room or off playing with his friends or something... Doing typical eleven year old boy stuff. Elara was disappointed to realise that she probably wouldn't have much luck of bumping into Hanna before the feast either- even if they hadn't been talking, she hoped that her friend would still want to hear how try-outs had gone.

She was just thinking about heading back to her own common room in search of Arthur (at least she could talk to him if he was hiding out down there) or one of her other housemates that she was friendly enough with, when she heard a small exclamation... Glancing towards the staircase, she couldn't help but frown as she watched a familiar Slytherin in the process of clambering off the railing she'd obviously just slid down and return to the top presumably to repeat the process.

Elara hadn't started off disliking Reena Ashworth, she'd originally admired her drive and ambition and appreciated that they might have their similarities. However, the other girl had made it quite clear that they weren't going to be friends. She didn't know why Reena often greeted her with hostility, but she could only guess that she was jealous at how often Elara outshone her in class.

If she waste her energy on being jealous instead of putting in the work to actually better herself, then she was free to do so. But Elara wasn't going to waste energy trying to be nice to her when it was like talking to a brick wall.

"What are you doing?" she demanded, looking up to the top of the staircase where Reena was waiting to slide again. She hadn't meant for her words to come out sounding quite as harsh as they were, but whenever she was confronted by this girl (who had already treated her to enough hostility of her own), she couldn't help but be defensive from the start.

Elara scowled at Reena's reply, honestly she couldn't understand how Hanna shared a dormitory with the girl- if she was in that position, she would've taken to sleeping in the common room years ago. If Reena didn't want to tell her what exactly she was doing, then that was fine and Elara would just continue to assume that the explanation was childish and pointless.

She was just about to turn to leave, still hoping that maybe she had time to go to her dormitory and get a head start on some reading before the feast began. But she stopped when the Slytherin spoke again, finally explaining that this was one of those dares everyone seemed to be so invested in doing. Ugh.

"Don't you think that's a little childish?" she asked, crossing her arms and staring up at the other girl with mild disbelief. She wasn't friends with Reena, frankly... She couldn't stand the girl most days, but she'd always respected her as a competent person who seemed to take their lessons seriously (unlike a lot of their classmates), maybe she'd been wrong about her. These weren't the actions of a sensible scholar.

No. She was going to go find Arthur- then she'd at least be in decent company (even if he'd become a hazard in potions lately).

Elara's neutral expression gave way to a stubborn glare at Reena's goading- she was obviously baiting her, trying to lure a reaction from her and... Elara couldn't help but play into it. She couldn't allow someone like Reena to think she was scared or worse lacked the ability to slide down the staircase when she'd already done so. Placing her bag gently at the bottom of the staircase, she stomped up the stairs until she was level with Reena and then gave her a small shove with her shoulder to move her from her way.

Hoisting herself up until she was sitting comfortably on the railing, she stared defiantly at the Slytherin and then pushed herself off, allowing herself to slide down. She'd like to say that it was an effortless descent, but a couple of times she'd kicked out her legs in fear of falling and had to grab the railing to steady herself. Finally though, she landed at the bottom (stumbling slightly) and retrieved her bag.

"Like I said... Childish" she called back to Reena, straightening her robes and attempted to look as if she'd never engaged in an activity that was less fun or worth her time.

'Childish?'
Reena raised an eyebrow yet did not respond to King's question.
Obviously it was childish. That was why it was embarassing for her and she needed King to follow suit so she would not tell on her to their classmates or ...whatever.

Reena knew she had her when King's expression changed. She folded her arms again as she watched King put down her bag and march up the stairs. She was relieved that her plan had worked and her smirk mayhave even grown more smug- up until King have her the shove.
She had been unprepared and had to take a few small steps in order to regain her balance and not stumble which would have almost been even more embarassing than the childish dare she had partaken in.

She watched King slide down the staircase with a neutral expression, mildly interested in King's process. There appeared to be a few bumps yet she did make it down in one go without having to restart.

When King once again called to her to call the activity 'childish', Reena shrugged.

"Well, childish or not, you've proven me wrong", she called back.

Reena mounted the railing side ways and started to slide down again- this time side ways which was a lot harder to control her descent with.
She was getting rather fast and leaned forward in order to not fall off to the side without the stairs and jumped down after half of the stair case.

"You can slide after all, Elara"
She had had a smile on from sliding down the staircase. That smile however faltered as she realised she had just called King by her first name for the first time. She was confused, if not repulsed by the familiarity the firstname implied.
Just because she had fun and relief from the anxiety of being caught did not mean she would let her guard down infront of her.

Her attention was drawn towards the door as a familiar voice called her name and her face immediatly lit up again. It was exactly the person she had been waiting for after all.

"Jaxen!", she called and waved back at him.

Skipping down the stairs she passed King on her way to her brother. She paused next to her classmate for a brief moment, gaze hardening again.
"See you in class, King., she said while her tone of voice hopefully brought across that another slip up like calling her 'Elara' would not happen again any time soon.

Reena turned and closed the distance between her and her brother, not regarding King with another glance or thought. The smile was back on her face, yet the joy of finally seeing her brother was clouded with the envy she had felt earlier that she had tried all day to fight creeping back into her mind as well as theobvious question: Why had she not been chosen alongside her brother to meet with the minister?

"How did it go with the minister? What was it all about? Did you get to speak with him?, she asked.
She tried to shove those negative feelings away again and just feel excited for her brother to get such an opportunity- eventhough he probably did not care much for it.

At the Slytherin's words, Elara rolled her eyes. Of course she'd proven her wrong, but then that shouldn't come as a shock to her, Reena Ashworth was probably used to being wrong by this point. At least, Elara was used to her being wrong, she tended to take note of those instances, mostly because it made her feel better when Reena was attempting to draw attention to her own failures (not that there were many of those to bring up).

About to say something in response as Reena slid down the staircase, she paused at the use of her first name from her school rival. That was uncharacteristically familiar of her. Perhaps there was hope of some sort of civility passing between them? Even if they couldn't stretch to a friendship.

The voice of a boy drew Elara's attention and she turned round to look at who'd called Reena's name, whoever he was- his arrival had brought an excited reaction from the Slytherin girl and she ran down the remaining stairs to join him. Pausing only to state that she would see her in class- all previous familiarity gone from her tone.

And the hopes for any kind of civil relationship was gone.

As the hall started to slowly fill with people making their way to the Great Hall for the feast, Elara waved off the hostility and shouldering her bag, left the Ashworth girl to her conversation with the boy- feeling like she might find better company among her own house.