Should focus more on the real things (open)

Mariah had finally started to settle into the new environment. She'd been to a few classes, knew the pass code to the Hufflepuff common room, and could now find her way to the Great Hall for breakfast without getting lost. Mostly, she followed her classmates to wherever they were going, trusting them to know how to get around. This time, however, she was determined to find her way on her own.

While she liked her housemates well enough, and the girls in her dorm had been quite welcoming, she had never really liked sharing a room with a bunch of other people. It felt like she lacked privacy, and it was hard to think - and especially hard to write - when other people posed a distraction.

So after a few days of nearly constant company, she finally decided to seek out some alone time. Ever since she had first seen the castle upon her arrival before the sorting ceremony, she had wanted to explore the tall towers. She imagined the view would be excellent, and she just knew if she could find a way to the very top - if there were an observation deck, or a balcony - the fresh air up there would help to clear her head.

So she asked one of her dormmates what the highest point in the castle was, and the other girl had informed her of the astronomy tower. She had tried to pay attention to the directions the girl had supplied, but by the time she set out after dinner to find it, they had already slipped her mind. Still, Mariah figured if she kept going upward, she was bound to find it eventually.

After climbing what seemed to be a hundred sets of stairs, Mariah was fairly certain she'd never find her way back to her dorm without help. She had no choice but to keep going up until she found the astronomy tower. She wandered down a long corridor until she came to one last winding staircase. She slowly climbed to the top.

She emerged in a spacious room with many windows overlooking the castle grounds. A door led outside to a curved balcony with a low parapet. Perfect.

Then she realized there was someone else in the room. A girl, maybe a little younger than her, was sitting by one of the windows and reading a book. Mariah decided not to disturb her. This girl had probably come here looking for privacy, much like Mariah.

She quietly crept toward another window across the room from the other girl and gazed out at grounds. In the distance, she could make out a forest, although the light was nearly gone from the sky. This tower was very high up indeed, and it offered a spectacular view of the stars that were just beginning to appear.

A voice broke through her reverie. Mariah jumped a little and turned to look at the other girl in the room.

"Hey," she replied with a soft smile. The girl returned to her book, so Mariah returned to the window, entranced by the sky which seemed to be darkening and brightening simultaneously as the sun went down and the stars came out. After a few minutes, she reached inside the bag she had brought and pulled out a small journal and a mechanical pencil. She jotted down a few of the words that had popped into her head. This was definitely the most relaxed she had felt since her arrival, and she wanted to capture this moment.

After a little while, the other girl spoke again, and Mariah turned to face her.

"Hi, Amy," she said softly, not wanting to break the tranquility of the quiet room. "I'm Mariah. I'm new here, so I haven't met many people yet."

As Amy turned to look out the window, Mariah followed suit for a few minutes before she began to fear that the silence was growing awkward. She continued to stare at the stars as she mulled over what she wanted to say.

The other girl had been reading a book when she'd arrived, but she must have finished. She wondered what book it was, if it was something Mariah had read before, or if it was a wizarding book she'd never heard of. Did wizards have their own literature? Did they have novels specifically for wizards? Would they ever be available in muggle bookstores? Would muggles even notice anything suspicious if it could just be passed off as fantasy?

She decided to go to the library when she had a chance to see if she could find any wizard fiction.

Mariah shook herself out of her thoughts. She was just trying to start a conversation. She didn't want to go down that rabbit hole just yet.

After a long pause, she finally forced some words to come out of her mouth.

"Do you come up here often?"

Mariah felt her face flush a little as the other girl brought up her sorting. She still felt some retrospective embarrassment when she thought about it, even though she knew it was irrational and totally shouldn't be a big deal. "Yeah, that's me..." she responded a little hoarsely, looking at her feet. "It's nice to meet you too."

Mariah nodded at Amy's response to her question. It made sense, and she could certainly see the appeal of the tower. She imagined she herself would probably come up here fairly often in the future when she wanted to get away from the noise of the main castle.

"I get that. It is really nice up here. Seems like it would be good if you needed to focus."

She turned from the window to get a better look at the other girl. The room was dark, so it was a little hard to make out any details.

"What, um, what house are you in?" Mariah asked carefully. She hadn't met too many people outside of her own house yet. She thought it was a bit of a shame that there weren't very many opportunities to mingle with other houses outside of a few shared classes. It seemed like most students tended to stick with their housemates at mealtimes, and there weren't very many school-sanctioned bonding activities. People had to be proactive to meet each other, she supposed.