the stars sighed

Amelie awoke on her own, morning sunlight streaming through the windows of her dorm. She could hear chatter down from the common rooms, and she looked around blearily for a moment before reaching for her glasses. She slid them on and made her way out of her bed, reaching for her drawers and pulling out her uniform.

She carried to the bathroom where she got ready, changing out of her pajamas and then making her way around everyone else putting on makeup and fixing their hair in the mirrors, finding a spot after murmuring several apologies while trying to make her way around everyone.

She curled her hair and put on some makeup, though it was barely any at all. That particular morning she was feeling quite lazy, and more hungry than anything, so she made her way to the dining hall after grabbing her books for her first class. Amelie made her way to the Hufflepuff table, settling down on the bench and reaching for the tea. She prepared a biscuit with jam, which reminded her of her mornings at home, with all of her loud and obnoxious brothers and sisters bumping her elbows and giggling when others dropped jam on their shirts.

Her heart felt heavy for a moment before she was bumped out of her daydream by one of her dorm mates, who chattered nervously about a quiz they were having in their Defense Against the Dark Arts class. Amelie did her best to eat and calm her down at the same time, simultaneously concerned about her worrying and interested in how yummy the jam was. She made her friend eat some of the jam, diverging the conversation elsewhere, and it wasn't long before the clocks were chiming and everyone was getting up to go to their classes.

She gathered her books and walked towards her Potions class, dropping her friend off at her respective classroom before continuing up another set of stairs to hers. She waved and greeted the paintings on the walls that still weren't sleeping, and found her class in no time. There were people already there at their tables upon her arrival, and she went to her usual spot in the front, at a table that was empty since others didn't like being directly in the front.

Amelie enjoyed being able to see the teacher and ask questions easily when she wanted to, and felt like she had a better learning experience when she wasn't distracted easily by others. After setting her things down and sitting down on her barstool, she happened to look up and see Arabelle entering the room. Searing heat flared in her lower stomach, the feeling of anger which she usually didn't experience flaring up in her like wildfire.

Although she never was, Arabella hated the feeling of being late. She always woke before everyone else, got ready before everyone else, and was at the dining hall before anyone else, at least, none of her fellow Ravenclaws were there before her. This morning was like no other. She got herself ready, with makeup and running a brush through her hair. She slipped her feet into her shoes before heading out of the commons quietly as to not wake up her roommate or disturb anyone else. Arabella murmured a soft good morning to the paintings she passed on her way to the dining room and sat herself down.

She pulled out her Potions book to review as she put a biscuit with some jam on it on a plate and poured herself a cup of coffee. The dining room was usually so loud, except for these moments like this, before most people stumbled out of their beds, waking up. She ate slowly, going over her notes and rereading sections in her book. Arabella liked to try to keep more to herself in these moments, they reenergized her. It was when she was around so many people constantly, chatting, that she felt entirely drained.

It wasn't long until everyone was in for breakfast, and then when clocks chimed signaling everyone to head toward their first class. Arabella gathered her things and said goodbye to her friends before heading towards her class. Walking in, she immediately saw the nearly orangy/pink sherbet coloured hair of Amelie Todd. If it were possible for Arabella to have an arch nemesis, it would be Amelie. It seemed like they were always battling for the top of their classes, it almost made her wonder why the girl wasn't in Ravenclaw to begin with.

Arabella took her seat at a table not too close to the Hufflepuff girl, and pulled out her book.

Amelie turned towards the professor in her seat when he entered the room and tried to get the rest of the class to quiet down, sitting with her hands folded in her lap. "Good morning class," He echoed out, in which everyone replied back "Good morning, Professor,". The professor set down his things upon the table in the front, and cleared his throat.

"As you all know, we've been focusing on doing individual potion spells for the first few weeks of school. However, I am now assigning you partners that you will be with for the rest of the semester, so that you are able to complete potions and study together for experiments," The professor picked up a piece of paper, then, and began reading off of it. "The pairings go on as follows," He started, and Amelie waited around until she heard her name.

She heard Arabella Fox, her arch nemesis and person that she felt the most jealous of at Hogwarts, name called, and went absolutely frozen when she heard her name following right after. Amelie looked to the professor with an incredulous face, however the teacher didn't even spare her a glance, and continued on with the list. She couldn't believe her life in that moment, that out of all people, it had to be her.

She saw others shifting and moving to sit next to her partners, and sighed when she looked over to Arabelle to see her not moving over to her. Being as friendly as she was, she grabbed her books and went to move over to the seat next to Arabelle, since it was the only thing left open at her table after people were moving around. She sat down and put her books softly on the table, and didn't spare Arabelle a glance.

Arabella knew what lessons they were to learn today, so she tried to tune out the professor's droning and started not quite daydreaming, but living in her own head. It was only when she heard her name called out and then Amelie Todd's following that she snapped back into reality, slightly confused. She glanced around to see her other classmates moving seats, sitting with people she would have never imaged that they would ever sit with that she understood what was going on. Arabella bit back a groan of annoyance, there were now partners.

Arabella hated working with others. She felt the need to take over all control of projects and do things on her own, barely giving credit to others who wouldn't have done the work anyway. She had always been like that. It was the reason why she tried to sit by herself in classes. It was different at meals and if she would go to quidditch matches - there she liked to at least be around a the few people she hung out with. Even then, it would grow exhausting and she would leave early.

Still sitting in her seat, Arabella wasn't going to move. She wasn't going to be the one to give up their spot. Eventually, Amelie moved to her table and took the empty seat beside her. It kind of scared Arabella a small bit, she wasn't used to someone being immediately beside her in any class (not that people haven't tried). It was her own little personal space and she enjoyed that much room, to be able to lay out all her text and write comfortably without having to think about the other person needing space to fit parchment and a quill. She ran a hand through her hair. This was going to be awful.