Quote:
Originally Posted by
sweetpinkpixie 
Calliope had been considering two curiously placed bookcases, her heart telling her that there was a secret alcove to be discovered, but thus far her thunk thunk thunking on the spines of all the books was not giving. Maybe she needed to pull them forward for the alcove to be revealed, but that would be a task for another day. She couldn't waste her entire night playing with books and bookcases, especially when she had posters of The Hippogriff Howls and Glitter Dragon to put up and some small postcard sized posters of Joshua Miller, The Dead Kneazles, Grimoire, and Melanie Sung...all of which were all kind of embarrassing in their own ways. But sprucing up and getting her dorm up to aesthetic could obviously wait seeing as Alaric was popping on over - yes, she had finally placed his face and name and recollection once she was no longer tossing bits of bread at others and as well as no longer feeling ravenous.
"Alaric, hey, sup?" she greeted nonchalantly, tucking her long brown hair behind her ears. "Impossible to get through the crowd or impossible to pull yourself away from your new giiiiiiiiiiiiirlfriend?" An obvious, gentle (?) jab a him for seeming to be SO hyper focused on his conversation with their older housemate. Hello, her and Maddox had been RIGHT there too, you know? Flipping some of her hair over her shoulder, not at all haughtily (but also absolutely haughtily, Calliope struck a little pose in her robes and nodded approvingly at his compliments. "Did you have to tell the hat that you wanted to be here? I think it almost put me in Hufflepuff, at least it seemed to be heavily implying it." So not the vibe though and thankfully the hat had been respectable enough to trust her opinion.
Joining him in the armchair (they were petit first years so there was plenty of room for two, okay?), she nodded sternly but with the tiniest hint of a smile tugging at the corners of her lips. "Obviously...and see about getting a spot on the orchestra and in the frog choir as well I think. What about you? Sorted out what clubs and such you're going to join? Wizard's Chess?"
Some day she would beat him at a game. Some day. Once she learned a bit more patience for it.
Alaric’s grin slipped for a second at the word "girlfriend," and his face went a bit pink. He quickly waved a hand as if brushing it off.
"
What? Peri? No way! She’s, like, a million years older than us—and she’s way more into secret passageways than... anything else." He gave an exaggerated eye roll before flashing a teasing grin. "
You and Maddox were busy pelting people with bread! I was doing important work—like figuring out who actually knows stuff about this place."
He watched as Calliope flicked her hair over her shoulder and struck her little pose. For some reason, it made his stomach do a weird flip, but he ignored it and folded his arms like he was unimpressed.
"
Hufflepuff?" He made a show of pretending to faint. "
I mean... I just can’t see you in yellow. You’d have the whole common room marching in time by the end of the first day." He laughed. "
Besides, you belong here. Obviously."
When she plopped into the chair next to him, he scooted over a bit but didn’t mind. It felt kind of cool, like old times.
"
Orchestra and frog choir?" He raised his eyebrows. "
You’re really going all in, huh? I mean, you’re good enough to pull it off, for sure. You’ll probably be leading the frog choir by Christmas."
She asked about his plans, and he fiddled with the phoenix charm on his bracelet while he thought.
"
Latin and Magical Theory, probably," he said, scrunching up his nose. "
And maybe orchestra, but only in the background—I’m not really a ‘center stage’ person. Oh, and Wizard’s Chess, of course." He gave her a smug look. "
Someday, you’ll beat me. But when you do, I’ll make a big scene like I didn’t see it coming."
He chuckled, then leaned forward a little. "
But until then... you’ve still got at least five more losses to go."
Alaric leaned back again, glancing at the green-tinted windows as something swam past. Hogwarts felt huge and strange and kind of overwhelming—but having Calliope here made it all feel a lot more fun.