Hope was in a bit of a mood herself. The farm hadn't done that well this season and her parents had written that they couldn't afford to bring her home for the summer holiday this year. Hope secretly thought that her aunt and uncle could surely afford it easily, but apparently they preferred to put up with her over the summer rather than spend the Galleons needed to get her off their hands. But Hope was feeling depressed and a little abandoned. Last year she had felt going home to her small village might seem dull after London, but now she was thinking that spending the summer in a stuffy city house, however exciting the city it was in, was a poor trade for seeing her family and roaming around the summer countryside.
Lost in her self-pitying thoughts, she didn't see Aurora at first, but when she did, she looked up shyly at her fellow third year. Right. Aurora had been one of the ones in the mirror. Hope had heard all about it from listening to the staff and other students. Quite frankly, she hadn't noticed as much change in the other girl as she might have feared; rather, Hope had just thought Aurora had finally realized that she actually needed to do a little studying if she was going to get through school. Still, having that happen to you must be unnerving, to say the least.
"Hi, Aurora, how are things? Any plans for the summer?" Hope felt she would like to vicariously enjoy someone else's fun plans, since she had none of her own. |