Sometimes [Tia]

[mina pandora oliveira]

@tia

10.01.2019 - year five

A loud clatter echoed throughout the empty classroom Mina was in. The sound came from a chair she had kicked over in anger, the cause being a seventh year boy she had been vying after for a while turning her down, the fact of which she did not like. The bubbling frustration of feeling like she had wasted her time during the last few months had held on just long enough for the classroom door to shut and until the sound of footsteps in the adjacent corridor dissipated. To make it worse, today was her birthday, and she had purposely turned down doing things with her friends in order to hang out with this stupid guy. Figured, nothing ever really seemed to go the way she wanted it to when it was planned out. The excuse he had given her was a pretty weak one too; the fact that he ‘only had a few months of school left and needed to focus on his studies’ did not resonate with her beliefs in the slightest. What she couldn’t understand was why that even mattered at this point in time. The years leading up to seventh year were more important, to be honest. Even she knew that. But she ‘wouldn’t understand, because she was only a fifth year still’. God, she didn’t need to be treated like a child anymore – she was sixteen as of today, after all.

Letting out a low, frustrated groan at the turn of events, Mina crossed the room and threw herself into a chair that was situated at a window near the back of the classroom, folding her arms up on the sill with another huff as her chin hit them. There was no use in leaving the room for the next few minutes, the odds of her running into him on the way back to the common room were relatively high still. And even if she did make it back there without another encounter, what was she going to do? Have her friends spring into action in order to celebrate her birthday? While it certainly sounded like something she would normally do, it was too exhausting at this hour of the night. Better to wait until after curfew and wander back, if not stay here all night. As long as she wasn’t intruded on, no one would care all that much.

[Deleted]

i am my own.

THOUGH TIA HAD TAMARA AT HOGWARTS, sometimes she felt utterly alone. She was a third year by this point. Gone were the days when her poor social skills could be blamed on the newness of the school. On being a Muggle-born. No, now all she had to blame was her personality. Tamara was better, and Tia knew that if she asked to sit with her sister at lunch she would say yes. But, that required asking and Tia had absolutely no desire to do so.

Scuffing the toe of her polished Mary-Jane's along the stone hallways, Tia alternated between skipping and walking. She'd heard about an annotated copy of Hexes For The Busy & Vexed at the back of Professor Pitterpatt's classroom, and had decided quite rebelliously that she was going to steal it while no-one was around. Well, borrow it, copy the annotations in to her own edition and promptly return it. But, saying the word 'stealing' was a lot more thrilling in theory.

She sidled up outside of the classroom at the same moment that a clatter rattled the walls. She stopped, panic seizing her throat as she wondered if she'd been made. Had someone told? She scoffed under her breath, of course nobody had told, she hadn't said she was going to do it out loud to anyone. And she certainly hadn't snitched. The door was left slightly ajar and Tia used her scuffed shoe to open it slightly. First, all Tia could see what an upturned chair - the source of the noise.

She poked her short, frizzy brown-haired head around the corner. Face pinched, the noise-maker turned out to be a girl at the back of the classroom. Tia's immediate emotion was annoyance. How was she going to snatch the book if the classroom wasn't empty? That meant she had to wait for the girl to scram.

Slipping through the small gap she'd between the door and the frame, Tia shook her long robe sleeve up to her elbow and curled a fist in front of her face. "Ahem," She coughed, announcing herself. Her lips were thin, eyes still a little too big for her face. A skinny thing with hair that swung at her waist, all bony elbows and knees. She wasn't much to look at over all.

When no other sounds filled the air, Tia pointed to the upturned chair. "Are you going to pick that up?" She asked primly, though the look on the girls face prompted Tia to cross the room and pick it up herself. "Nevermind," She mumbled, hair falling around her face so that it was mostly obscured by the time she stood back up, forcing her to palm it away from her face gracelessly. "Why'd you kick the chair?" She asked curiously as she tried to untangle her fingers from her own hair, still young enough to forget about 'minding your own business'. 

mina pandora oliveira

NEVERLAND at ADOXOGRAPHY 2.0!

[mina pandora oliveira]

@tia

10.01.2019 - year five

A shiver of uneasiness rippled through her body as a very clear ‘ahem’ reverberated in the classroom. The first thought that came to Mina was that a Prefect or Professor had been walking by the room when she had kicked the chair. Seeing how said chair was still lying on its side and she was the only one inside the classroom, she was going to be implicated in the crime without much to defend herself with. It wasn’t like detentions were new to her or anything – her frequent visits went all the way back to her first year, rather, her first week of first year. Her inaugural trip had been the result of teaching the Goyle boy how to keep his damn mouth shut. No one ever expected a tiny first year to throw a proper haymaker, but there also weren’t many first years that had the luxury of growing up with werewolves for parents. Hogwarts learned that the hard way the previous year when her sister wolfed out on that one kid. Mina hadn’t even put two and two together that maybe that was the reason she had been rejected. It made way too much sense. Siblings were great for plenty of things, though hers tended to ruin her life more often than not. Returning from her trip down memory lane and newfound distaste for her eldest sister, Mina leaned back in her chair at the windowsill and dropped her arms to the side of her, letting them dangle freely as she let out a sigh. The Prefect might as well slap her with a detention for breaking curfew too, since there was no way she was going to make it down to the common room by then.

Except the voice asking her to pick the chair up didn’t sound authoritative at all. Exactly the opposite, actually. There was a hint of formality, and as Mina slowly turned to see who the guest was, she caught the end of them placing the chair back in its proper position. As the newcomer pushed her hair out of her face, Mina realized how stupid she had been to jump to conclusions, assuming this was a Prefect. This girl was definitely younger than her, and unless she had accidentally spilled a potion of age reduction on herself earlier in the day, it was going to be a few years before this one would even come close to being considered a Prefect. “Because I was pissed off,” Mina responded bluntly to the girl’s question about raging out on the chair. Why else would anyone take out abuse on an inanimate object? That was a stupid question. “If you’re lost, I can’t help you. The school should have given a map to all first years. Use that.” Turning back around in her chair, Mina returned to the position she had previously been in, before being interrupted.

[Deleted]

i am my own.

STANDING IN THE MIDDLE OF THE ROOM, TIA was quickly regretting her decision to waltz in to the room. The girl, who had looked rather innocuous from afar, was far more intimidating when she lifted her head. Tia couldn't tell if she was being glared at, or if that was simply her face. Best not to ask, though, she figured. At least, not right now. Her mother kept telling her to count to five before she said something. That way, less people were less offended.

"Oh." Tia said, the girls blunt reply slapping across the side of her face and lowering her gaze. "Pissed off at a chair?" She muttered with a hint of snark, her defences rising as she wrinkled her nose petulantly. Pulling handfuls of her hair from her face, she sighed. Most of the time, Tia didn't mind being told to get lost. She quite liked her own company. But, there was something about the way the girl regarded her. Like she was some snivelling first year, or something.

"Why would I ask you if I were lost?" She snipped, her bottom lip pouting slightly. "You don't even know where the chairs are supposed to go." Crossing her arms, Tia marched across the room towards where the girl sat. But, instead of stopping beside her, or sitting down. She walked straight past to where the storage cupboards were kept at the back. And, drawing her wand, she muttered under her breath, "Alohomora."

The cupboard snicked open, and Tia began to rummage within. She was going to get that book. The angry girl had driven her past the need for secrecy. Plus, if she told, well Tia could tell too. Finally, the annotated book loomed at the back. She snatched it up without a word and had every intention of walking past without a single explanation. 

mina pandora oliveira

NEVERLAND at ADOXOGRAPHY 2.0!

[mina pandora oliveira]

@tia

10.01.2019 - year five

Pissed off at a chair? Mina laughed out loud, not meaning to sound as awful as she did, but the sheer ridiculousness of that comment deserved it. Stupid questions won equally stupid responses, did they not? “Yes, pissed off at the chair because it decided that it didn’t want to go out with me. It’s actually a seventh year boy, did you know that? Transfigured him into a chair and then decided to kick him around a bit,” she said as sarcastically as humanly possible. If this tiny child didn’t get that…well, Mina wasn’t sure what else she would do. That was too much to think about right now because she was still ticked off at the boy, even when this girl was making it increasingly easier to be angry at her for walking into the room. “Because you look like you have that glazed over look that most first years have,” she snapped back, ignoring the bit about knowing where the chairs went. How could she know? She didn’t have class in this room. Hell, she didn’t even know that this was a classroom until the other girl walked over to a cabinet nearby and unlocked it, producing a something out of its shadowy depths. Now things were getting interesting.

Interest piqued, Mina stood up from her chair abruptly, almost at supersonic speed, and was behind the girl in a matter of steps, trying to see what she had pulled from inside the cupboard. It was a book. “Now, I’m not the best at following rules, but I don’t think you’re supposed to be doing that,” Mina said slowly, reaching one arm around the girl’s shoulders to try and keep her from running, if she decided to do so. “What on earth could you want with a book that was locked inside of a cabinet? I’m curious.” All thoughts of the boy that had just turned her down were practically gone, now that something more intriguing had come along.

[Deleted]

i am my own.

TIA'S FACE SCREWED UNCOMFORTABLY AT THE girl's harsh laughter. It rang in her ears, familiar and ugly. She'd been laughed at before. Not mercilessly, but whenever she put up her hand too soon. Or didn't understood what someone was saying, it was always the same, that obnoxious laughter. The kind that never sounded natural to her.

Though, almost as quickly as Tia registered that someone was laughing at her, her eyes widened comically. She took a panicked step toward the chair. "Are you mad?!" She squeaked, staring at it - while simultaneously thinking about what an impressive transfiguration that was if it-

One look at the girl under a curtain of frizzy hair and Tia stopped, her face going slack before tightening in anger. "Very funny." She resisted the insistent urge to stamp her foot, crossing her arms instead. This girl was a bit mean, she reckoned. Though, mostly Tia was rankled at being caught out in such a silly ploy for laughter. She always considered herself... better than that.

With no snappy remark ready at being called afirst year, Tia simply marched toward the back of the room and retrieved her book. She'd hoped the angry girl would be too busy being angry to stop her, but even she knew better than to trust wishful thinking. She halted half way across the room, book under her arm. Pivoting slightly, she cast a snarly look over her shoulder.

"It's an annotated book on Hexes," She said, managing a slightly menacing smile. Except, she hadn't quite mastered the craft. "Are you going to tattle..?" She asked, turning with her arms crossed, the booked tucked under her arm so she could eye the other girl like she wasn't bothered if she did or didn't. She waited a moment, one polished shoe tapping at the toe. "I'm going to put it back eventually..." She explained, wrinkling her nose. She had a rather sour look on her face, which wasn't entirely unusual. 

mina pandora oliveira

NEVERLAND at ADOXOGRAPHY 2.0!

[mina pandora oliveira]

@tia

10.01.2019 - year five

Oh. My. God. This girl was adorably gullible. Mina hadn’t encountered anyone like this in a long time. First years were obviously the best targets, but she grew bored of them after a while. This one though…this one still had that fresh-faced look to her. Still didn’t understand all the quirks of magic, or that this was a school for magic, and students cast spells on each other all the time. By the way the girl reacted to the fib about the chair being Mina’s former crush, the Slytherin could tell this was going to be a fun one to play with. At least for a little longer. The girl wizened up quick. “I thought it was,” Mina shrugged. “I can do worse things, you know. So I guess I’m mad, in a way…” she pondered dropping the werewolf card, but kept her lips tight. That could come later. It would seem too impractical after the last trick. Plus, Mina didn’t have to explicitly say she was one or not; that could be left up to the girl’s imagination.

Unfortunately for Mina, the little one was quick to grab the book and get around her, long before she could manage to get a hold on either the girl or the book. That was fine. There were other ways to keep her here. Right now, keeping the conversation going was the first step. “Oooh hexes. My favorite. Aside from transfiguring boys into chairs, obviously.” The girl asked her if she was going to tattle, and Mina shook her head horizontally. “It can be our little secret, ‘kay?” she placed her index finger up to her lips. As if that would stop her from blabbering about this to literally everyone in Hogwarts. But the girl didn’t know that. “But you have to do something for me first. That’s the price for my silence. How’s that sound?” This was absolutely evil, and Mina knew it. Torturing younger students was way too much fun!

[Deleted]

i am my own.

THE ONLY FRIEND TIA COULD SAY SHE HAD WITH certainty was her sister. And even that was a stretch. At home they'd grown up dressed the same, attached at the hip. Tam had to be Tia's friend. But, Tia didn't really want for friends either. Especially at Hogwarts. More often than not people found her a little too brash. Quick to jump to conclusions, and even quicker to find a way to slip away.

"Are you- threatening me?" Tia asked aghast, a bitter scowl twisting the corners of her mouth down as she looked at the other girl. No matter that the stranger had an odd, sadistic sense of humour. Tia thought her callous comment about what she was capable to be a far more sinister train of thought. "Because- well, I'm very good at defensive spells for my age and- and," Tia's cheeks were tinged pink with a mixture of anger and shock. "I'm not an easy target!"

Tia found the other girl shockingly intimidating. She'd never quite had any reason to interact with anybody like her, and it made Tia feel off balance. She didn't like the obvious lack of control. Happy to leave before it escalated to a place where her eyes started to nip and her throat flexed sorely. Tia wasn't a crier, more often than not she just allowed herself to be worked in to a red faced tizzy before she threw a tantrum. With the book firmly in her grip, Tia thought she was almost home free.

"I-I heard someone added a few jinxes from Dumbledore's Army..." Tia muttered, staring down at the worn, browned pages of the textbook. She really was jittering with excitement to see for herself. Which is probably why she allowed herself to be reeled back in to the girl's orbit. So absorbed in her own concern of keeping the book and not getting in to trouble all at once. She'd never had detention before, she wasn't about to break her streak just yet.

"That sounds an awful lot like blackmail, you know." Tia said severely, her bottom lip pouting out over her top as she stared the other girl gravely. But, the book was gripped so tight to her chest they would have to pry it free. "What is it you want...?" She asked eventually, turning her head away in a shiver of frizzy brown hair. "Not that I'll do it!" She added, eyeing her from the corner. 

mina pandora oliveira

NEVERLAND at ADOXOGRAPHY 2.0!

[mina pandora oliveira]

@tia

10.01.2019 - year five

“Threatening you?” Mina chuckled, ruffling her hair as if she was thinking about the whole thing. Duh, obviously she was acting on the notion that she could be threatening, that was the whole point of saying she had turned the boy into a chair. As for following through on it? She was sure she would never actually do that. It was much more fun playing around like this, as if she was a cat batting around a mouse, in this case, the little girl. Every time she thought she could get away, Mina would be sure to reel her back in for more excitement. That was her whole shtick these days. “Maybe I am. Can your defensive spells keep you from being tied up? Pretty sure the rope I was using earlier wasn’t transfigured along with him…” Looking around the room absently, Mina did her best to hide her smirk, though she was sure some of it had to be seen. It was hard not to see her grinning like an idiot this whole time.

The girl went on to say that some sort of army had added jinxes to the book, and Mina cocked her head to the side. Wasn’t Dumbledore one of the old, dead Headmasters of the school? Why on earth would someone like him have an army? That seemed dangerous to her. “Sounds boring. I can show you plenty of things that books will never teach you,” she offered, though what she was specifically offering, she had no idea. The girl had yet to catch onto the fact that everything Mina said had to be taken at face value. She didn’t like being called fake, because lying and bending the truth wasn’t nearly as bad as pretending to be something else entirely. “And if you want to call it blackmail, then I guess it is,” Mina maintained her grin, keeping it as innocent as possible. “What I want, is for someone to talk to for a bit. To listen to me. My last sounding board is…well, he had some trouble sitting still so I fixed that for him.” A quick flick of her eyes towards the chair she had tossed earlier would hopefully show what she was getting at. “I don’t see any harm in a few minutes of innocent chit-chat, do you?”

[Deleted]

i am my own.

IT WAS QUITE OBVIOUS THAT TIA WAS BECOMING ruffled. Her eyes getting steadily wider, mouth open as she regarded the girl with a mounding anger, tinged slightly with fear. She'd never had to actually face off with somebody before. But, the girl said things so casually, Tia couldn't tell if she was serious. She quickly decided it didn't matter, a person couldn't afford to trivialise threats.

"Well- I, I reckon you'd have to catch me first..." Tia said seriously, her mouth pinched tightly as she took a step backwards. With her arms crossed, she pressed them against her chest until she felt the weight under her shirt. The book was there too, like an extra weapon if needs be. "And when do you intend to teach me all this tripe, hm?" Tia said sharply, shaking straggly strands of hair out of her face. "Before or after you turn me in to a chair?" Tia was slowly coming to realise that either the girl was winding her up, or she was all talk. Either way, it didn't paint her very rosy in Tia's book.

And while, out of all the things Tia expected to be blackmailed with, she hadn't expected to be blackmailed for her time. People never really bothered talking to Tia, she was too busy trying to butt in and generally offering unhelpful comfort. "That a stu-" But Tia stopped herself, aware that if she belittled this offer the girl might come up with something much more insufferable. She wanted to keep that book.

Slowly, and with deliberation, Tia walked over to a chair and pulled it out. "Before I sit down, this isn't your old boyfriend is it?" Tia said snarkily, but she was already planting her behind on it, straight backed and rigid. "Go on then..." But, before the girl could talk again Tia had already opened her mouth. "I won't promise to be quiet, though!" Tia said hurriedly, her face sour. She still held the book like a lifeline against her chest. 

mina pandora oliveira

NEVERLAND at ADOXOGRAPHY 2.0!

[mina pandora oliveira]

@tia

10.01.2019 - year five

A snort came out of Mina when the little girl said she would have to be run down first, before being tied up. Did she not know there was a spell that could conjure ropes which could then be launched at a target? Even Mina knew that, and she spent most classes she did attend doodling in her hand-me-down textbooks over the notes her siblings had previously left, attempting to make things even more difficult for her younger sister than they probably already were as a first-year student. Apparently Mina was supposed to watch over her or whatever, now that Callie had graduated, but she was pretty sure the kid was fine on her own. If the girl in front of her was any indication of this year’s new students, then her sister was going to be a rock star. And if all else failed, Mina would tell her the secret to get everyone interested: pretending that she’s one of the student werewolves. That trick had the potential of making an appearance tonight, and the moon couldn’t betray Mina either. The full moon wasn’t until the middle of the month.

“Depends on whether or not you run, I guess,” Mina answered, flashing her devilish grin again to try and pierce the girl’s soul. She really had this one going, and there was no stopping now. That would mean a ton of disappointment on her end, and a loyal younger student lost. The girl started to say that Mina’s idea of blackmail was stupid, and the Slytherin quickly threw her hands at her hips, eyebrows raised and tongue ready to put the kid in place. She was smart enough to stop, and seemingly accept her fate, taking a seat in one of the nearby chairs. “If you mean boy that happened to be a friend whom I also had a crush on, then no. He’s the one you picked up earlier.” Mina shot another glance at the chair she had tossed, and decided that it was going to be her seat for the remainder of their conversation. Whipping it into place, directly in front of the girl, she equally planted her butt down in it, her knees just far enough away from the girl’s that they would only touch if one of them leaned forward in their seat. If her words had already been imposing, now her actions had to match that. So far, all the girl had seen was a chair get tossed across the room and then a slew of baseless threats.

Before she could get into her rant about the boy, her guest decided to pipe up that she wouldn’t be silent the whole time. That only worked in Mina’s favor. “Okay…anyways, you already know that this chair is a seventh year boy that turned me down about ten minutes ago,” Mina said, quickly rapping her knuckles on the open part of the seat in between her thighs. “If that was bound to happen, it would have happened eventually, right? But today’s my birthday too, so I thought it was a great idea to ask him out, so if he did say yes, it would make it that much better. Obviously he said no, but the real reason I transfigured him was because he forgot it was my birthday, and I was already ticked off at the fact that my parents forgot to send a birthday card again this year. Can you believe that? My siblings always get theirs on their birthdays, and mine has always been a week late, or never arrives. I used to think my sister Sarah intercepted it and purposely hid it from me, but she got kicked out of school a few years ago for almost killing a kid and it’s still happening, so that rules her out. Unless she did it at home, in which case then it doesn’t…” she trailed off, not realizing that her tangent had been going on for quite some time. Her words had been coming out at a mile a minute. Most people would have tuned her out by this point, but she had a feeling that her previous threats to the girl would have her listening intently, or at the most, paying attention to the important bits.

Biting onto her lower lip, Mina looked back up at the girl, hoping to get some sort of response from her. “So what do you think? Is someone stealing my birthday cards, or do my parents not love me? Because honestly, I’d rather it be the second one. I always cause problems for them, and after Sarah going all full on werewolf rage mode, I think they’ve had enough with me too.” Mina nodded her head to herself, all of what she just spouted out making sense now that she had put it into words. Without Callie here to look over her, she was basically a lost cause and the second coming of Sarah, as far as her mum and dad were concerned. Cutting ties now would probably save them a lot of heartache when it was her turn to go crazy.

“What did you say your name was again?”

[Deleted]

i am my own.

THOUGH TIA WAS SMART SHE WOULD NOT CALL herself brave. Tamara was the brave twin, with her love of thrilling sports and her dangerously friendly attitude. No, Tia had always been the more cautious of the two. So, if it came to a fight, she would most definitely prefer to run first. But, that didn't mean she wasn't capable of defending herself. Even if the other girl did unsettle her, with her sharp smile and sinister threats.

"Well, that depends on whether or not you give me a reason to run." Tia snipped back, though her palms were sweaty and she felt exposed. Perhaps that was why she sat down. Something instinctual told her a girl like that liked the chase, Tia just had to seem boring enough to lose her interest. Running didn't seem like the smartest move. Though, she still couldn't help being snarky as she did. "Oh, my bad." Tia said sarcastically, turning over her shoulder to lift a hand to the chair. "Apologies."

Though the likelihood was that she was only playing with Tia, there was something especially heinous about watching her approach the chair and drag it over to Tia, plopping down unnervingly close. Like an added layer of torture. Tia refused to believe it, even when her eyes flickered over the slim legs and scratched frame. Definitely not, she assured herself. But, there was always the risk... Tia sat silently, setting her book on the table top, though keeping a protective hand on top.

It was a task to hold her tongue, almost biting down on it as she listened to the strange girl talk. It was not the tirade Tia had been expecting. In fact, it was rather sad the more she went on. Tia almost felt sorry for her, but more than anything else, a great confusion overwhelmed her. She sat very still, her chin tilted up as she stared at her for a very long time in complete silence. Long enough that the girl went on to ask a question, which Tia had hoped would help. It did not. She wasn't good at this part.

"I don't understand why somebody would steal a birthday card." Tia frowned, shaking her head slightly. "And I- I mean, I can't tell you if your parents love you or not." She felt incredibly uncomfortable saying as much, but Tia wasn't a liar. And she hated when people only said things to make her feel better. That was just a cowardly version of deception. Fiddling with the edge of her sleeve she sighed, turning her head to look at the wall as she reluctantly grumbled, "But like, if they did forget then they're terrible people." Even if their daughter was a little bit of a psychopath, which was saying something since she had just said her sister almost killed somebody. Tia refused to comment on that for self-preservation alone.

Turning to look back at her again, she curled a frizzy strand of hair around her ear. She'd never had a heart-to-heart before, only read about them, but she thought maybe this was the closest she'd ever come. It was kind of gross. "You didn't ask to be here, I figure the least our parents can do is... take responsibility for our existence." Chin squaring defiantly, Tia felt sure in what she had said, even if it wasn't what she wanted to hear. "Though... I still don't think you're dealing with all of this in a very healthy way."

This was, in the end, the only reason Tia answered when she asked for her name. Because, for a millisecond, the girl was actually real. And not some supervillian turning boys in to chairs because they were rejected. "I didn't tell you it," Tia said, licking her lips as she blew a breath out of her nose. "It's Tia." She eventually replied. "Whats yours?" Side-eyeing the girl, she tried to guess what her name would be. Something long and hard to spell, she thought. "For the report I'm going to file against you later," Her tone sniped, the ghost of a smirk tugging at one edge of her mouth. 

mina pandora oliveira

NEVERLAND at ADOXOGRAPHY 2.0!

[mina pandora oliveira]

@tia

10.01.2019 - year five

Of course the little girl wouldn’t have a real answer to the questions. They were only posed to kill time, though Mina did find herself often wondering if her parents did actually care about her. During her fiasco of a third year, they cared enough to have the school take action and put her in detentions and remedial classes so she could catch up on her studies. Those sort of worked for a time. “Terrible indeed,” Mina agreed with a smirk. “I’m the perfect challenge. The one they keep trying to fix even though I don’t want them to. Pretending like they care about my grades,” she let out a laugh here, “The only time they should care is when I graduate. Because I’ll definitely do that to spite them.” She knew that the aforementioned questions only existed because of the way she acted. She wasn’t that stupid. Comprehending school work and being able to concentrate on tests may have been her undoing, but she wasn’t going to let Hogwarts leave her on the side of the road like everyone thought it would. That still didn’t make up for the fact that she was missing a birthday card from them. Its absence did sting a tiny bit, though much less than it had in years past.

Mina shrugged as the girl told her she wasn’t being healthy with the way she was handling things. So what? It was her life and body, she could do whatever she wanted to it. Had she known she was going to be stuck in the classroom for this long, she would have brought her cigarettes along with her. Mummy and Daddy didn’t know about those yet. “Did I say I disliked it?” she asked. “All I wanted to know was whether or not I’m loved. Obviously my parents don’t, and neither did our chair friend. What about you? Have anyone you love yet?” The girl was totally going to say her parents and any siblings she had. Those were like, default ‘I love them sooooo much’ options. Mina desperately wanted to answer for the girl, but decided it was more fun to listen to her say it with her squeaky little voice.

“Well nice to meet you Tia,” she grinned. The repeated threat of being reported was hilarious. Did this girl actually think she was going to give her real name? “I’m Ondina. Last name Weasley. You know, like one of those red-haired kids that are all over? Yeah…one of them. I hate the colour, so I dyed mine,” Mina lied, pulling at a few strands of hair. She hated the little red-headed freak. This would make for perfect retaliation for all the stupid outbursts the girl had in the common room.

[Deleted]

i am my own.

TIA WAS NOT QUITE SURE HOW SHE'D ENDED UP in such a situation. She was not your typical confidante, oftentimes people readily avoided her. She wasn't exactly known for being friendly. Plus, Tia had no interest in gossip. But, this didn't feel like gossip. And while Tia did not think her opinion mattered in this moment, she still felt the urge to give it, even if she was more of a sounding board.

"Well... grades are important." She muttered under her breath, rubbing a finger on a whorl in the wooden table top. The wood had not been treated properly, she could read its wooden diary. "I don't think it's just about graduating." Which was not at all the point the older girl was making, but it was the most important thing that Tia heard. She had dedicated so much of her life to being The Best at her studies, it was difficult to see past that.

Tia was not prepared to be in the spotlight at all, she'd resigned herself to listening to the girl vent her problems so when it was turned on her she was not prepared. Her head whipped up, a frown wrinkling her brows as she stared at the other girl for a long, silent moment. "I... I'm not sure." She said, reaching up to tug at her bottom lip nervously. "Beyond the obvious; my parents, my sister... brother." She loved her family because they raised her, and gave her everything she needed. But, Tia wasn't sure if that counted. It was instinctual, she hadn't felt that love develop, it had always been there.

"What does it matter?" Tia grumbled, shaking the confusion from her head as she scowled. She crossed her arms angrily and glared at the other girl. "You don't need to love any body, it's not important." Which was rather easy for her to say as she'd never been without it, she did not know what she was missing at all. "I certainly won't waste my time with boys who deserve to be chairs." She kicked one leg out from under her seat and it knocked the leg of the chair opposite. "And, quite frankly, neither should you."

Looking up, Tia squinted at Ondina as she introduced herself. Much too pleased for a girl who was threatened only moments before. Even if it was an empty one. "Mmm," Tia hummed, lips pressed in to a tight line. "Wish I could say the same." She tittered, though it hadn't been an entirely terrible conversation overall. Tia had certainly suffered worse. She did, however, recognise the last name Weasley, though it meant very little to her. "I'm leaving now." She said simply, the chair legs scraping against the floor as she stood up.

"You're not allowed to tell anyone..." She added as she turned away and then back hastily, gesturing with her chin to the book she still clutched in her hands. "And I won't tell anyone about the chair or- or anything." She was thinking about the girls story about her parents, about how it obviously bothered the Weasley. It was strange but Tia hadn't heard anything about the Weasley's being poor parents but then again, there were tons of them and Tia hardly ever listened to gossip. She waited for Ondina to confirm but turning to leave again, needing to see truthfulness on her face. 

mina pandora oliveira

NEVERLAND at ADOXOGRAPHY 2.0!

[mina pandora oliveira]

@tia

10.01.2019 - year five

“Are they?” Mina questioned, daringly, fully expecting the little girl to get flustered and either blurt nonsense out or freeze up completely. “Sure, grades are there to see if you test well. But what happens if you suck at testing? Or can’t concentrate during the tests or classes? I can cast spells perfectly and I understand how to make potions but I do horribly on tests and homework is just busywork to keep us from doing what we want to do with our free time and from sleeping.” She thought for a brief moment that she may have gotten a little too into her spiel, that saying all of that to a girl she had watched steal a book so she could study more would fall on deaf ears, but then Mina thought otherwise. She needed someone to dump all of this onto, and this girl meant nothing to her. Callisto would have told her to shut-up and study more, her parents would have gotten concerned that she was doing drugs, and the school would have thought she was going the same route as her eldest sister.

Of course the girl said exactly what Mina thought she would; it was an obvious choice, considering most students couldn’t figure out their feelings for themselves. She even said so herself. And then she started questioning why it mattered. That was what Mina wanted. “Sure it is. Because when your family starts hating you, having someone else is kind of nice.” The fallacy in Mina’s words came with that fact that her own family didn’t inherently dislike her, they were just tired of dealing with her nonsense. Sarah had bought her a few years of freedom, mummy and daddy afraid of turning another one of their pups against them so soon after the first. Mina had capitalized on that as much as possible but was starting to feel the effects waning. “You say that now, but boys are fun. It’s easy to get them to do things.” Easy to get anyone to believe what she wanted them to believe. In her defense, the game had gone on far longer than she thought it would, the girl’s naivety was remarkable even when boldly stealing a book in front of another person. That made Mina look like a saint.

Until she tossed the Weasley girl under the bus for her own (false) actions. The bratty redhead did enough terrible things already as a third year that if word got out she transfigured a boy into a chair, it would seem real. She wasn’t sure if Tia here was going to spill the beans or not. “What if I lied to you,” Mina called as it looked like the girl was preparing to leave. A few steps and she was standing above Tia, trying to read whatever reaction that was going to come out of the girl. Willingly showing her hand like this wasn’t the norm, but coming out of this conversation with only one lie instead of two was better morally. Good karma, or whatever. “The chair isn’t actually the boy. He left a few minutes before you showed up…” She chewed on her lower lip, wondering if Tia would believe her or not. Everything up to this point had been relatively convincing on her part, so it was hard to tell what the other girl would accept as fact or fiction. “So I guess that means you’re the only one that broke a rule, doesn’t it?” Her right hand instinctively found Tia’s shoulder, hopefully keeping her in place.