i'm a first-class let down [quinn]

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Georgie was hovering outside the Ravenclaw common room, trying to look like she wasn't hovering at all. She disliked being seen waiting for people, mostly because she still had her whole 'I hate people and people hate me' mask that she still occasionally tried to wear. Beyond that, she disliked uncertainty, and she was beyond uncertain where her relationship with Quinn, the girl she was waiting for, stood. Georgie knew that she hadn't handled the situation with her parents returning to Britain with anything resembling grace, but she also thought it was a little unfair for her to be expected to handle that sort of shock well, either. The uncertainty with Quinn - and with Max - was not something Georgie wanted to live with for the rest of the school year and possibly the summer, so she had sent Quinn an owl asking if they could meet. Now she was just waiting for the other girl to show up and trying to figure out whether or not she was expected to grovel - and if she was expected to grovel, if she would actually do it. Georgie was making a business of staring at one of the landscape portraits, trying not to look interested in anything as she navigated the bog of her confused thoughts.

@mnm

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It had just been too long since Quinn had suffered a bit of a breakdown in front of Max, at least as far as she was concerned. She had thought about talking to people before, opening up that little bit more - revealing more about herself, about her 'home' life. She hated calling it that. Sure there were one or two people who knew she was a foster kid - she had told them before this, Georgie had been one of them. With both of them having a unique home life it had been nice to have someone kind of understand a little, and then Georgie's parents had come back into the picture. The whole thing had been a mess, and Quinn hadn't handled things the best - she missed her friend and she hated how things were so tense around them now. It was awkward and weird and right now she wanted her friend more than ever.

Getting the owl from her had been, unexpected to say the least. But if Georgie wanted to talk, then Quinn would listen - and hopefully she wouldn't just have a break down in front of her. Hopefully she could pull herself together before then. As it came closer to having to meet up with Georgie, Quinn was struggling to straighten herself up - rushing down to the commonroom she paused before exiting - rubbing at her cheeks and hoping her eyes weren't showing she had been crying earlier. She knew they were red, but maybe the other girl wouldn't notice. She was so stressed about everything going on, it felt like she was falling apart at the edges. She saw the other girl before being spotted herself and a twitch of her lips, a hint of a smile formed.

"Georgie?" she spoke up quietly, stepping out into the hall, "I never knew that painting was so facinating." she couldn't help the tiny tease, with everything else going on - it was a hint of something ... normal.

@georgiana

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Georgie heard her name, but her eyes flicked to the side to check that it actually was Quinn before she straightened up to face the other girl. Georgie shoved her hands into the pockets of the jeans that she was wearing, trying to look everywhere except for Quinn’s eyes. She wasn’t good at this whole making up thing, mostly because she hadn’t had that many arguments with her friends to begin with, due to a general lack of friends. Quinn commented that she didn’t know the painting that Georgie had been staring at was fascinating, and Georgie tried to physically suppress the flush that was beginning to creep up her neck, but that obviously didn’t do anything but make her look ridiculously stoic. She cleared her throat, and then nodded at Quinn. “I don’t get to see it that often.” She said, voice awkward. Damn, how did people go through this all the time? Georgie suddenly understood why she had been relatively friendless for the past five years. Even though there were some people who she just got, when she was nervous, she either turned into a reckless idiot or a stuttering mess. So that was fun. “So, uh. We should talk.” Georgie said. She didn’t know if she was supposed to say something beyond that – apologize, maybe? – but the Hufflepuff decided that she was going to take baby steps and see what resulted from that approach.

@mnm

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It was awkward. Awkward and weird. It was strange, it was so many things - all of which it shouldn't have been. Georgie and her were friends - they were still friends weren't they? As far as Quinn was concerned that answer was a yes. She had a decent amount of friends - but close friends were rare. Georgie had been one of her closest friends - her bestfriends. And then everything had changed and fallen apart. But she still saw the Hufflepuff as her friend, even if things were so very weird. Still it was nice to see her, and be able to speak with her - even if it was still rather weird between them. It was a start and as she reminded herself - it was the other girl that had reached out to her. Quinn needed her friend now, but first they had to sort out this weirdness that was like a crumbling wall seperating them.

"I can see that.. maybe you could see it more often though, its pretty facinating apparently." Quinn mentally was kicking herself, jokes and teasing were fine and all, but - that wasn't why Georgie was here. Was it? Still she could see that it was awkward, Georgie was struggling and feeling awkward about the whole thing just like she was. The Ravenclaw gave a small sigh, nodding her head slightly, "We should talk. Did you want me to start or do you want to start?" Quinn stepped back slightly, her hand reaching up to rub at her eyes - they still hurt a bit, puffy and red from crying and god she was probably a mess. "I've missed you G." It was a little awkward but Quinn had never really been one to sit back and risk losing her friends - her friends were... they were her family and here was Georgie - awkward but trying to reach out. It was more than they had done in awhile.

@georgiana

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Quinn said that maybe Georgie could see the portrait more often, and Georgie just continued staring at her feet. She knew that it was an olive branch, an offer to come to the Ravenclaw common room more often, but the Hufflepuff couldn’t help but feel like it was an olive branch that she didn’t deserve. Quinn asked which one of them should start, and while Georgie knew it would probably be better if she began, she wasn’t sure that she was going to be able to do that. “You can start.” Georgie mumbled. She glanced up for only a moment, just in time to see Quinn rubbing at her eyes. The corners of her mouth turned down in a frown – it looked like Quinn had been crying. Her eyes were certainly red enough to warrant it. Actually, the Ravenclaw’s entire face looked a little red, like it had been scrubbed clean with tears. “I’ve missed you too, Q.” Georgie said, the preamble to an important statement. “Is everything alright?” Obviously not, but Georgie figured the question was a better way to search for information as to why Quinn was so distressed. Georgie wasn’t self-centered enough to believe that their separation was the cause of all of the Ravenclaw’s woes, but she also didn’t want to overstep the bounds of their current relationship – whatever that was.

@mnm

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It was so weird. So very weird and Quinn hated it. 

She hated feeling like this around one of her closest friends - one of her best friends. All she really wanted was for things to go back to how they were between them before, without this weird.. tenseness. Was it really so bad she just wanted her friend back? Now it seemed everything else was so... unimportant. Hearing Georgie tell her that she can start almost just made Quinn blurt out everything right then and there but she held her tongue, thinking - or trying to think before speaking it all outloud. But just as she was about to try and put into words everything - Georgie spoke again. Hearing her say she missed her too - almost brought a smile to her face. She really had missed Georgie. It was the other part that made her bite at her lip however. "Uh..Honestly.. not really. But.. its not what we were meant to talk about... I.. I do wanna talk about that, but..." Her words faulter as her hands quickly tug at her sleeves, pulling them over her hands as she fidgets a little, "I.. A lot has happened recently G, and.. I want things fixed - this.. mess, this.. weirdness - I hate it." She gestured around, clearly refering to the current state of their friendship, "I want my friend back, I... I need you back."  

Quinn went quiet for a moment, taking a few deep breaths - her eyes were burning again. It seemed most of what she did lately was end up a blubbering mess of emotions, ironic considering before recently she had rarely been much of a crier. "I.. I think its your turn - right?" She spoke after a moment, green eyes darting back to the Hufflepuff girl.

@georgiana

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Georgie was waiting. She was waiting for some emotional outpouring that would make it easy to respond to Quinn and make it easy to believe that the reason they had crashed apart was because they were both really, really messed up. But the way Quinn was talking… well, it made Georgie feel like she was the messed up one, even though Quinn had already said that everything wasn’t alright but that wasn’t what they were supposed to talk about. The Ravenclaw said that a lot had happened recently and Georgie nodded. That much she agreed with. As for fixing things… it would be a hell of a lot easier for Georgie to agree to fix things if she knew where and how they were broken. And honestly, she didn’t have a clue why she and Quinn had been doing this weird dance, other than the fact that Georgie had not reacted to her parent news well whatsoever.

Georgie nodded when Quinn said that it was her turn. Before she could get to the whole problem of the state of their friendship, there was something Quinn needed to know. “My mama went back to the States. So it’s just me and Lance again.” It wasn’t the same as what Quinn was going through, because Quinn didn’t have someone like Lance to protect her, but now Georgie wasn’t the one with parents while Quinn was an orphan. They were on as even of a playing field as they could get. “I want to fix things, too. But I think the only way we can do that is just by doing it.” Sitting around sand saying they were going to make things better didn’t mean anything if they didn’t actually do anything.

@mnm

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Quinn wasn't honestly completely sure why things had ended up messed up, sure she knew a few things had happened between her own problems and Georgie's parents appearing out of the blue but - how they got to this point - how they got to where things were so weird and rarely even speaking. It was confusing and honestly rather upsetting - for Quinn, she felt a need to try and fix it. To get things on some normal ground again - to be less weird and more like friends again. She missed her friend and she just wanted things better again, to be able to be friends and relax and... just have fun again like they did before all of this giant mess happened. She spoken her part - or at least most of it, eventually she would talk about more, she'd tell Georgie what had been going on with her - or rather.. as much as she could about what had gone on. She wanted to tell her, to talk to her about the foster home craziness and tell her about Max and the conversation that had happened with McGonagall. But that would have to wait, for now at least.

When Georgie spoke up again, Quinn looked up so fast she felt her neck hurt a little, "She left you guys?" Quinn's voice was quiet but there was something else - a faint anger, a feeling of .... upset. Her heart ached a little, feeling anger towards the other girls parents - it upset her, Georgie was her friend - no matter the weirdness going on between them and the fears of their friendship disappearing recently. She was her friend and the fact that Georgie was alone - not counting Lance, it upset Quinn more than she could express. She had questions - she wanted answers, but for now she shook her head - taking a deep breath to calm herself before nodding slowly, "Then... lets do it, lets fix it and do it. I'll be honest G, I'm not even completely sure what the heck happened in the first place.. it just got weird. I wish there was blame and stuff but.. I don't think it was really one persons fault or one thing.. just a bunch of little things and ... weirdness." She honestly felt it was partly her fault, with the things Georgie's parents going on - and her own little drama - she was sure that was all part of it somehow.

@georgiana

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Quinn was obviously upset by the news that Georgie’s mother had left again, but Georgie didn’t really feel anything. She had already had her time to be angry and upset about it all, and it had taken her surprisingly little time to move on. “Yeah.” Georgie answered with a shrug. “I guess it’s easier the second time around.” While her mother had made a point about how difficult it had been for her and Georgie’s father to leave their children to go under the radar, she hadn’t quibbled as much in her letter. Maybe because she knew it was worthless, and that her relationship with her children was now even more permanently damaged than it had been before. Having her mother walk in and out of her life definitely didn’t do good things for Georgie’s confidence, but it was somewhat comforting that other people had the nerve to be horrified by Barbara’s actions.

Georgie nodded when Quinn said that they were going to do this – they were going to fix things. It seemed the other girl was just as confused as to how this whole thing had started, which was good to know. It wasn’t either of their faults, which was even better, because it meant they weren’t going to be blaming each other as they tried to put their pieced back together. “Can I hug you?” Georgie asked quietly. She wasn’t normally the hugging type, but right now? She could really use a hug.

@mnm

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Quinn honestly wasn't too sure what to feel or think about it, all she knew was she felt sad for Georgie - even if she wasn't really effected by it, Quinn felt it for her she supposed. It didn't matter how many times it had happened, it sucked and Quinn wished Georgie could just have a family that stuck around for good. At least.. at least she still had her brother though right? Quinn sighed, shaking her head, frowning slightly - as much as Quinn had her own issues, she had never met her birth parents - they hadn't left her only to come back into her life and leave all over again. Her heart ached for her friend and she felt an anger at the other girls mother for doing such a thing.

But she was determined, to at least fix their friendship. If anything good could happen - she'd at least want it to be that. When Georgie spoke again it made Quinn smile and nod lightly before holding out her arms, "Come here G." Quinn herself was never the most cuddly of people, with her upbringing - hugs and affection had been rare things until she had started at Hogwarts. It had been her friends that had been some of the first to show her such things, and only a handful of people had been able to actually make Quinn feel it was okay to hug and be affectionate, "I could use a hug myself." she sighed and gave another half smile before reaching out to pull Georgie into a much needed hug.

@georgiana

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It was weird, how quickly responded to the request for a hug. Neither of them were the hugging type, which almost made it easier to accept hugs from one another – they knew they were equally uncomfortable with the situation. Even hugging people she liked made Georgie fidget a little. Even Lance didn’t hug her that often – though they didn’t need physical intimacy to feel close. Sometimes sitting next to her brother was better than any hug that anyone could give Georgie. It was really only Louis who could hug her and never make her feel uncomfortable. Most of the time when Georgie did hug, it was for the other person’s sake, and Louis was one of the only people who she could trust to hug her for her. And he was safety in a way that no one else was. When Georgie stepped into Quinn’s outstretched arms, there was an echo of that safety there – a promise that together, they would find better days. Georgie wasn’t sure how long she hung onto Quinn, but when she stepped back again, there was a warmth in her chest that hadn’t been there before. Georgie blinked at Quinn once, and then took a deep breath. “Was there something else you wanted to say?” They had touched on the whole friendship thing, but while Georgie had given a brief update on what had been happening while they were drifting apart from each other, Quinn hadn’t said anything else.

@mnm

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Hugs were something rare, rarer still for Quinn to initiate them. She could count on one hand and still have fingers left over for the people she actually felt comfortable hugging, and Georgie was one of the few who was actually one of those she felt okay to hug. Even still it was a rare thing for her to quickly offer a hug. But then, it was easier to accept and offer hugs to Georgie than it was for most people - except Seph - Seph and her hugs were... different at least to Quinn and she'd never tire of recieving those hugs. But as she gently wrapped her arms around Georgie, hugging her she felt better, neither of them were really 'huggers' but a hug from Georgie was a special thing and she hung onto Georgie for as long as she could. Something felt better now than it had before the hug.

The question made her pause, scrunching her face slightly, "Kind of .. I mean, a lot has gone on lately." she took a deep breath before glancing around them, "Do you think we could sit down somewhere G?" She knew if there was someone she could really trust to talk about what had been going on, about Max and their talk and the meeting with McGonagall - it was Georgie.

@georgiana

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Quinn said that a lot had happened lately, and that instantly put Georgie on high alert. For some people, a lot going on meant having a lot of exams in the same week, but with the way Quinn wasn’t just coming out and saying that school was stressing her or whatever, Georgie guessed that the subject matter was about to get a little heavier than exams – which Georgie was fine with, considering she had done the same thing with dropping the whole parents bomb. Heavy subjects were becoming her specialty lately, though Georgie was thankful for the fact that she’d also had some lighter, happier moments in the past year. Even if they didn’t totally offset the heavy points, they were a nice reminder that the entire world didn’t suck – just parts of it. “Yeah.” Georgie responded immediately when Quinn asked if there was somewhere they could sit. “There’s a window seat just around the corner.” The Hufflepuff was slightly more alarmed than she had been, wondering what exactly qualified as sit-down news. Her original forecasts suddenly got a lot drearier, and Georgie led them to the window seat before sitting and gesturing for Quinn to start talking before the Hufflepuff made herself sick with worry.

@mnm

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Quinn knew that without saying much about it, that Georgie would understand what had been left unspoken. It was one thing she really liked about the friendship she had with the other girl, sometimes - they didn't need to say the words or even speak about certain things. They just ... knew. Both of them had been dealt a hard hand in the families department, and usually whatever it was that was left unspoken had something to do with that in some kind of way. The heavy - emotionally draining subjects were something neither girl enjoyed - and actually talking about it was a hell of a lot worse. She offered a faint smile, nodding and moving to head around the corner, keeping up with Georgie as she led them to the window seat, "Thanks G." she mumbled and sat herself down, her hands resting against her knees as she took a deep breath in, holding it before letting it out as she sorted through her thoughts. 

"Okay. So.." she started, her eyes focused on her hands and not looking at Georgie as she began to speak, "So you know.. do you know a girl called Max - she's a Slytherin," starting with the easier parts was always best she supposed. "I kind of spoke with her the other day - it wasn't planned.. it just kinda happened and - she found out about my being in the muggle foster system." It just came out and her hands moved - tugging at her sleeves as she had the memory returning to her mind.


@georgiana

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Quinn wasn’t looking at Georgie, choosing instead to look at her hands, but the Hufflepuff didn’t mind – she knew that sometimes it was easier to talk about difficult things if you didn’t have to look someone in the eye. Quinn’s first half-question, half-statement caught Georgie off guard. Did she know a girl called Max? Georgie had to suppress a laugh, because she definitely did know a Max who was in Slytherin. She thought that everyone knew that she and Max were friends, but apparently that wasn’t the truth, since Quinn had to ask. Still, things couldn’t be too bad if they involved Max. Sometimes the Slytherin could have a temper, but she was a good person – or at least a good enough person, and even the latter category was hard to come by. Georgie nodded to show that she had heard of Max, but didn’t speak so that Quinn could continue her story. The only thing that was particularly notable was that Max had found out that Quinn was in the Muggle foster system. “Okay…” She said slowly. “Is that a bad thing?” Georgie asked quietly. She knew that Quinn wasn’t really open with that information, but Max was good at keeping secrets, and she wouldn’t hold Quinn being a foster kid against her. She had never held Georgie being in the orphanage against the Hufflepuff, at least.

@mnm