Shouldn't We Be Friends By Now? (Nerisei)

Clara sat on her bed, an open book in her lap, and her wand held loosely in one hand. She didn't get much practice with actually casting spells outside of class--she spent more time reading about magic than actually doing it, which she was beginning to realize would probably be her downfall on her exams. As the O.W.L.s approached, she decided it was time to rectify that.

She'd been practicing in the library, but it had closed for the night and she still didn't feel satisfied with her progress, so she had continued to practice in her dormitory. She didn't spend much time in her dorm--she mostly just went there to sleep and that was it. She wasn't particularly fond of living in such close quarters with other people. She'd never had to share a room until she'd gotten to Hogwarts, and it took some getting used to. Even now, she mostly ignored her roommates, sometimes blanking on their names despite having spent the past five years living in the same room.

At the moment, she was doing her best to tune out the girls around her as she concentrated on perfecting her nonverbal casting. She wasn't doing anything particularly complicated--the levitation charm, a first year spell--but it was hard for her to concentrate when there was background noise. She was doing everything right according to the book; she just couldn't focus well enough.

Swish and flick, she tried again, going through the motions as she concentrated on a pencil resting on her bed. Wingardium leviosa, she said in her head, trying to imagine that pencil lifting in the air. The tip rose a couple inches, then fell back down. She groaned silently, taking a break for a second before she tried again.

Nerisei wasn't a fan of staying in her dorm. Most of the time it was too loud, and even if it was quiet, Nerisei felt like drowning, whenever she stayed in. The Library was her usual getaway, when she was studying hard, or even the Study area, depending on the busy-ness of the place. And whenever she wasn't there, Neri would be found someplace with Dimitri. Now, whether that would be the Black Lake, the Common Room, or even the Room of Requirements... that depended on the day!

But this particular evening, Neri had decided that it would be wiser to stay in the dorm. She had some studying to do, since the O.W.L.s were close, and Dimitri was busy with his dorm mates, as far she she knew. Some space was honestly needed, and that is why Nerisei found herself walking into her dorm, notebooks in hand. The moment, though, the witch stepped foot inside the room, she was already regretting making this decision.

The dorm was noisy, and Nerisei knew that there was no way she would be able to study here. It was too late to go back, though, so instead, the witch plopped down on her bed, grabbing her phone and scrolling through her messages. The witch reminded herself that she should get Dimitri a phone, one of these days. That way, they can be able to exchange messages during the summer, and even pictures.

As the Ravenclaw was scrolling through a message from her parents, her eyes caught movement on her left. Neri lifted her head up, turning her gaze towards the way she had caught the movement and frowned. A witch, Clara was her name, she believed, was on her bed, practicing what seemed to be... yup, the Levitation spell. For a brief moment, Nerisei was confused. This was a spell they had learned during their First Year. What was she trying to do?

Nerisei almost pushed herself off of her bed and moved towards the other witch, but stopped before she could make a fool of herself. Even though they were in the same Dorm, Clara and Nerisei hadn't really spoken much, which was more than a little weird. Though, Nerisei knew that the other witch was quite intelligent. They attended a few classes together, and it was obvious why Clara was placed into Ravenclaw. Clearing her throat softly, in order to get the witch's attention, Neri asked.

"Do you need help with something?"

Clara looked up at the voice, surprised that someone was addressing her. She was used to being ignored by her dormmates, and ignoring them in return. She considered the question. Did she need help with something?

"A silencing charm might be nice," she replied drily. She didn't need help with the spell, that part was simple. She even, technically, had the non-verbal part down, in that she could do it just fine by herself when it was quiet. What she needed was for the rest of the girls in the room to shut up, but she had learned in her first year that telling them as much didn't produce the desired result. Apparently people didn't take well to being told to shut up by relative strangers. After that, she'd simply taken to avoiding her dorm when it was noisy.

Unfortunately, she didn't have that luxury at the moment, and she was growing more tempted by the second to see if there was a reverse muffling charm--one that instead of making other people unable to hear you, made you unable to hear them (without actually hexing them--that would certainly not go over well). She wished she'd brought her headphones, but she had left them at home over winter break after she'd realized she very rarely used them. That had been a mistake.

Maybe the way Nerisei had decided to approach the witch wasn't the best one, but to be fair, Neri wasn't very social. On the contrary, she was the exact opposite. The Ravenclaw witch didn't handle being the center of attention very well, and was usually hiding away, whenever she felt uncomfortable. Unless Dimitri was near. Then she would turn all of her attention on him, and forget about how terrible she was at making friends.

"A silencing charm might be nice,"

A soft chuckle left Nerisei's lips at that answer. Smart and short, proving just how much of a Claw Clara truly was, and Neri liked that. She hadn't really talked much with Clara, and that was probably Nerisei's fault since she hadn't been very talkative the whole year. But after everything that had happened in her life, Nerisei had, once again, felt the need to make friends. Max and Primrose would want that for her.

"I will see what I can do." Nerisei answered truthfully, getting up from her own bed and moving towards her somewhat friend, and fellow dormmate, Anne. Leaning closer, Neri whispered something into the blonde's ear that earned her a very dramatic eye roll, but it was definitely worth it. "Let's go grab some drinks from the Kitchens, girls." Was all Anne said, and all of the girls followed her suit out the door.

"Thank you!" Nerisei yelled after her, hoping she would hear. But even if she didn't, Nerisei would make sure to leave a very simplified version of her notes on the girl's bed, as a thank you. Once all of them were out of the room, and Nerisei and Clara were finally alone, in peace, the Ravenclaw witch moved back to her bed.

"Is that better?" Neri offered with a small smile. It wouldn't hurt to try befriending someone, right?

As the girl said she'd see what she could do, Clara looked back up, about to tell her not to bother. She was sure it wouldn't work--it had never worked before when she had tried. But the girl seemed sincere, like she actually thought she could do something.

Clara watched in disbelief as the girl--Nerisei, she remembered--rose and said something to another of their roommates. Less than a minute later, everyone was gone, and the room was quiet. Clara stared, awestruck, at her fellow Ravenclaw as she returned to sit on her bed.

"Is that better?"

"How...what did you say to her?"

Clara had long since given up trying to control other people's actions. People were confusing and unpredictable, and they never did what she wanted. She'd come to the conclusion that it was simply impossible, and yet, somehow, Nerisei had cleared the room with only a few words and nobody was even mad at her or giving her funny looks. She needed to know how that was done.

"How...what did you say to her?"

The chuckle that escaped Nerisei was small, but a suckle nonetheless. Nerisei was not one of the people that particularly enjoyed the noise that the other girls created in the dorm, but she has never truly complained about it either. Simply because she always had her earbuds in, listening to music, every time she was studying or relaxing in the room. Clara, however, didn't seem to share the same habit with her, so dealing with noise was not something she had found a solution to, it seemed.

"I know Anne. The blonde that runs our dorm. We were acquaintances, for the most part, but have grown kind of close. We don't really hung out much, due to the fact that we have different opinions on what 'fun' means, but I still care about her, and she cares about me. I just asked her to give us sometime. She's not all that bad, once you get to know her, really." Nerisei explained, offering Clara a smile. Not many people could get Anne, mostly because she made it hard for them to do that, but she wasn't a bad person.

"Now, you seem to be struggling with something. Could I help you?"

Clara listened to Nerisei's explanation, a little disappointed that it wasn't something she could also do herself. It seemed the key to getting people to listen to you was to befriend them--and that was even harder. Clara had never been good at making friends. She usually didn't care that much, but at times like these, she was reminded how useful friendship could sometimes be.

She didn't have an opinion either way about Anne. The two hadn't interacted all that much, as Anne had her own friends and Clara stayed out of their way. At times, she found the blonde rather annoying, but the same could be said of many people. Clara didn't know Anne well enough to pass judgement.

When Nerisei asked if she needed help, Clara shook her head slightly. "I've just been practising non-verbal casting in preparation for the O.W.L.s. I have the mechanics down, but it's hard for me to concentrate with any kind of background noise. I was doing fine in the library earlier."

She didn't want the other girl to think she was incompetent, or that she didn't know how to do it. She knew how, it was just that the world around her got too loud and overwhelming sometimes, which made it very hard to think.