Who ever said you couldn't run away from your problems? (Open)

The air in her lungs stung as she sucked in one breath after another, trying to control it in a steady pace the best she could, timing it to the repetitive sound of her feet beating against the ground. The earbuds cord bounced against her shoulder and chest, music blasting in her ears. She found her eyes closing and her voice whispering the words to her music in between rough breaths, focusing partly on the song and partly on the chill against and wind against her skin.

This was one of the only times she didn't mind the cold, was when she was running. Back in California you could get overheated really quickly but at the moment she was sweating, but not too hot. In fact, she might almost prefer running here than at her old home. The salty air near the sea didn't compare to the freshness of the air here for one, though she got plenty of that at Ilvermorny.

Still, when she was running she almost felt like she could leave all of her problems behind her, if only she could run a bit faster, make it two more steps, focus a little more. But, eventually she gets to the point where her legs feel like jelly and her breath gets harder and harder to pull in and push out.

Her path had already lead her along the edge of the forbidden forest, then along the edge of the lake, until she eventually was forced to slow, breath coming in gasps as she cooled off with a slow walk along the lake, looking out over the water. She had to admit, if nothing else this place certainly was beautiful.

Maybe Hogwarts wouldn't be too bad of a change after all... Of course, the recent events of her last few weeks told her otherwise, but she could at least let herself believe for a moment that it had all been a bad dream. No, everything was fine. Just how it should be.

She stopped when she reached the dock, breath having finally slowed to a point that it was much more normal. She walked out to the edge of the dock, sitting and letting her legs dangle down below her before leaning her head back and letting the sun seep into her skin. Even the chilly air couldn't stop her from appreciating the sun after all.

Gwennie often wondered how her mind managed to stay in one direction while bobbling off to a million others at the same time. She was a child of hobbies, always needing to have a goal to ground the main focus of her scatterbrain. It helped if the project had multiple little pieces of information or a variety of moving parts so she could jump around between different elements without losing concentration on the final product. Her father had once joked that if she spent this much energy on schoolwork she could do great things, but Gwennie disagreed. She did fine in her classes, but she acknowledged that having a well-rounded skill set was going to be a better help to her in her future than knowing wizarding history. Hell, a few years ago she hadn’t even known that there was a wizard history.

She often wondered if she even wanted to work in the wizarding world. Of course, having magic as an everyday companion had become a nice norm and she appreciated the community that she had been born into. But she’d grown up in the muggle world, so she’d always figured that she would end up being a scientist or an engineer or something of the sorts, helping fix muggle problems with muggle solutions. She knew that there were wizarding equivalent to her interests, but she questioned if her being raised in a world without magic would mean that she was never going to really know how to work in a world with magic.

Shaking her head of the tangent she’d just encountered, Gwennie focused her mind back on the task at hand: grapes. The girl had spent the vast majority of her free time as of late trying to figure out if there was a way to grow grapes on a tree instead of a vine. It was a quite pointless goal, but she felt obligated to find a way to answer any question that came to her mind. She’d found some research of the subject, but it was in Italian and after trying to translate scientific terms she didn’t understand from one language to another she decided that trial and error might be the way to go.

But first, she wanted to take a walk in nature to try and connect herself to her project. She watched the world intently, holding a plastic bag of grapes in one hand and popping them into her mouth with the other. She hadn’t been paying much attention to where she was going, as the point of this walk was to study the details and structure of different trees and foliage. Somehow, she’d ended up by the black lake. She frowned because water wasn’t going to help her research much, but then a switch turned on in her brain. Aqua grapes? She laughed and wrote off the idea in her mental notebook.

Moments before she went to turn around, Gwennie noticed that she wasn’t alone. She saw the backside of a girl with dark hair, sitting on the edge of the lake. She decided that perhaps it would do her some good to take a break on her research. Gwennie walked up to the girl and tapped on her shoulder, hoping not to startle her too badly.

“What’s your opinion on grapes?” She asked, dangling the bag at her side.

Her eyes closed to protect themselves from the direct glare of the sun as she sat there for a moment, arms supporting her as her breathing worked to slow itself and her heart beat slowly calmed in her ears. She'd entered almost a daze, nearly half asleep with her music still playing in her ears when she was tapped on the shoulder.

She jumped, ripping out her headphones and twisting to peer back at the figure behind her all in one motion, eyes wide in surprise.

"Merlin!" She exclaimed, pressing a hand to her chest as she sit up into a normal sitting position, her heart rate once more elevated. "You scared me," she motioned to the earbuds now in her lap, "I didn't hear you coming." She gave the girl a small smile as she pulled out her phone, pausing the music and unplugging the headphones as the phone returned to her pocket. She stood slowly, legs already feeling the ache from the run that she knew she'd continue to feel for the next couple days. She'd need to start picking up her old routine again.

"Grapes?" She raised an eyebrow as she took the girl in, eyeing the ziplock bag she held in one hand. "I mean... I don't know?" She giggled softly, her eyes returning to the girl's face. "I much prefer watermelons myself, but I grew up in California so there were plenty of both!" She nodded to the girl's bag. "The pinkish purple ones are the best I think, but the red ones are pretty close behind."

She bunched the headphones into one hand, using the other as an offer to shake hands. "I'm Lyra. I don't think we've met? Though, we might have. I'm new here so I'm still getting used to all the new faces and everything. What's your name?"

The girl looked younger than her, so she wasn't all that surprised she didn't recognize her, but still, Mary-Kate hung out with plenty of third years, so either this girl just didn't hang out with the Slytherin's crowd, or she was younger than them, one or the other. Or, it was still possible that she'd just forgotten the face that was currently in front of her, in which case she would be even more embarrassed than she already was.

Gwennie frowned slightly at the girl’s reaction. A part of her knew that the brunette was going to startle, but she’d still hoped that it wouldn’t happen. Looking at the earbuds the girl now held in her hand, she made a mental note to check people’s ears before sneaking up behind them next time. Initiating from behind wasn’t something that Gwennie did often, as most of her encounters began facing forward. Despite the momentary look of fear, this girl didn’t appear annoyed with Gwennie’s presence, so she noted that at least that was good.

“I’m not much a fan of watermelon,” Gwennie responded, shrugging. “It makes a nice treat, but it’s just so sweet, y’know? I feel like you can’t eat that much of it at once.” She didn’t eat the pink fruit often, but memories of sugar disguised as fruit swirled through her brain. She did not quite understand how watermelon could call itself healthy when it tasted so much like something that should be very very bad for you.

“I like grapes because they’re so tart and they make a fun popping sound when you eat them and they explode upon impact with your teeth,” she laughed. “I think the green ones are my favourite. I love them all, but the green have the best colour to them.”

Gwennie accepted the girl’s handshake, taking her name in mind. Lyra. The name didn’t sound familiar, but she recalled possibly seeing her face in passing. She recalled envying the girl’s freckles a few days prior; Gwennie had always wanted the small, scattered kind of freckles but her genetics hadn’t complied. Lyra looked a bit older, possibly a third or fourth year, and she was more than likely in a different house so it made sense that they hadn’t crossed paths previously.

“I’m Gwennie,” she responded. “I don’t believe that we’ve met, but I do think I’ve seen you around. What brings you out here, Lyra? I'm on a research hunt, but I bet you have a different reason.” Gwennie laughed lightly. She was almost one hundred percent sure that nobody else was out and about trying to figure out how to grow grapes on trees.

Lyra nodded her understanding to the girl's reasoning on watermelons. "They definitely aren't for everyone, but I love how sweet they are. I like sour things too, but I get more cravings for something sweet. But yeah, it's for sure not something you can eat a whole bunch of at a time. A piece here and there though is pretty amazing."

She laughed along with the other girl and nodded as she listened. "They're really fun to eat, that's for sure! And the green ones I think are the most sour, which is fine for every once in a while, but I have more of a problem not being able to eat a bunch of sour things at a time than I do sweet." She paused, going back over what she said before grinning widely at her unintentional joke. "Get it? A bunch?"

She worked on detangling and then looping the headphones around one hand after she shook the other witch's hand, listening closely as she talked. "Nice to meet you Gwennie! What house are you in?"

The mention of research really caught her interest and she tilted her head slightly. "What are you researching? Oh! Are you taking a poll of how many people like grapes? Do you need any help?" She stuffed the now manageable headphones in her pocket as she continued. "I just finished up a run. I used to go on them all the time back in California, but it's been a while since then, I figure it's a good hobby to keep up!"

She laughed at Lyra’s grape pun, wondering if the girl had meant to make it. Gwennie liked unintentional puns better than intentional puns because they were always a surprise for everyone involved. Planned puns were fine, but they could only really be pulled off by someone who had a good poker face. Gwennie hated when people started laughing halfway through their jokes and couldn’t even make it to the punchline. She nodded in order to confirm that she understood the joke.

“I’m a Gryffindor,” she responded. A part of her wanted to start roaring but the better half of her brain reminded her that she should probably not roar in front of someone she had just met, especially since her roar wasn’t very good; it was more of a yell slash choking sound. She made a note to practise her roar because a Gryffindor should probably know how to make lion noises. She wondered how many other Gryffindors worried about the authenticity of their roars.

Realising her head was in the clouds, Gwennie blinked herself back into focus.
“How about yourself?” Her assumption was Hufflepuff because Lyra seemed bubbly and nice and all that stuff, but she wasn’t very good at guessing so she decided to just let the witch tell her.

Gwennie wasn’t expecting the mention of research to spark any kind of questioning, but she enjoyed the fact that it had. She liked being able to share her interests with people, even if she hardly knew what she was doing. She shook her head, keeping the poll thing in mind for a later date. Polls were statistics and she wasn’t in a math phase right now.

“Close,” she laughed. “I’m trying to figure out how to grow grapes on trees instead of vines because I figured it was time grapes saw what it was like to live somewhere else. I don’t know why fruit can’t move homes as easily as people can its really not fair. So far all I’ve found on the matter is some research but it's in Italian and I can barely speak English so I’m kind of at a standstill. I was hoping that coming out here would spark my problem-solving skills but so far I’ve got nothing.” Research was rewarding ultimately, but Gwennie didn’t always appreciate how frustrating it could be. She sometimes wanted to reach a conclusion straight away without all of the hoops.

“Oh I love running!” She beamed. It’d been a while since she’d gotten some true action into her schedule, as grapes and school had really been weighing her done. She made a note to go on a run at some point in the next week; she felt like it was something she really needed.
“It’s a great habit I wish more people did it. If you ever need a running buddy, I’m happy to oblige. I also skateboard if that’s something you’re into.”

She laughed along with Gwennie once again, glad that she hadn't been too cheesy for the younger girl, though if it had been over the top she could have just played it off as an accident. She studied the girl subtly as she supplied her house, considering her. She didn't really seem like the stereotypical Gryffindor that always first came to mind, but as the headmaster himself had once told her 'it isn't one's house that defines them, it's what they do in that house', and that was good enough for her.

"Hufflepuff!" She replied, grinning further. "Though I think I really would have fit in any of the houses." She shrugged, not really willing to put too much thought into it. She was who she was, and being put in a certain house over a different one didn't change that after all.

"I’m trying to figure out how to grow grapes on trees instead of vines because I figured it was time grapes saw what it was like to live somewhere else."

The words brought her to a pause as she listened to the girl, though she was rambling just a bit. Why would anyone want to move homes? Maybe the grapes just liked their vines better than trees? You shouldn't ever force anyone to move homes and leave behind their whole lives and... 'They're just grapes,' she reminded herself, drawing herself back into the conversation, 'and it's just a scientific experiment.'

"Well maybe I could still help? I you wanted me to that is. Like I said, I grew up in California, grapes grow really well there. I had a garden with grapes in them back home, so I might be able to be of some use there. Plus I know a bit of Italian, so that could help too?"

Her smile grew even bigger at the offer of a running buddy and she nodded quickly. "Totally! I could always use some company. I don't know how to skateboard, but it might be fun to learn? I do know how to surf though! If you don't know how I could totally teach you! Sometime over a break or something? I play Quidditch too, I'm the Hufflepuff's seeker!"

Gwennie’s face contemplated Lyra’s response to her question. A part of her felt like the sorting ceremony was just a formality- a way to organise students into groups so they would be easier to keep track of. She had a-lot of pride for her house, but also acknowledged the fact that she and most of the people she met exhibited traits from most of the houses. That being said, she didn’t see a part of herself that could fit in Slytherin; while she had met a couple of nice snakes, her disposition was a bit too sunshine-y to fit into the vibe of that house.

“So you’re a badger,” She smiled. Her mind posed a question, but her vocal chords decided that it’d be better to pose it out loud instead of mentally.
“What sound do badgers make?” she asked. “Lions roar, snakes hiss, and ravens caw but is there a word for badger noises?” She recalled watching a video of a badger once, but she couldn’t quite remember what sound they were making. In fact, the video might have been voiced over.

Gwennie watched the girl contemplate her words. She understood if Lyra was confused; not many people went about the world the way Gwennie did. That was probably why there was very little research on transporting grapes.

“I could use a research assistant,” She beamed. No-one had offered to help before. Her brothers were good skateboarding partners and wrestling opponents, but none of them were too into spontaneous science research. Her dad had tried to help once but after a run in with a black widow spider, he decided to support his daughter from afar instead.

“Of course, if you’re super useful I’m very willing to promote you to partner. It isn’t a paid position but you could probably fudge it on a resume if you needed to. Now don’t know a bunch about grapes, but I’ve done a ton of research on gardening so I have a few leads. I’m wondering if maybe cross-breeding them with something that grows on a tree might have a result? It seems like a reach but it’s all I’ve got right now.”

“I’ve never been surfing.” She’d always wanted to, but Gwennie had never lived near a beach so the opportunity hadn’t shown itself yet. She knew she could be good at it though because surfing was pretty much just skateboarding on waves.
“And I would totally be up for a lesson. Let’s call a trade: I’ll teach you skateboarding and you can help me surf!” She held out her hand to solidify the deal.

She laughed softly and nodded in response to being called a badger. In any other context Lyra was pretty sure that wouldn't have been a compliment, but this was one of the rare cases in which it wasn't really a compliment or an insult, rather just a simple comment.

The question of what sound a badger made caused the smile already on Lyra's face to grow. "Actually I did a bunch of research on that before I came here just cause I was curious. See, I knew ahead of time I would be transferring to Hogwarts so I read Hogwarts: A History so I would know what to expect and read about the houses. So when I first read about all their mascots, if that's what you could call them, I decided I wanted to know that too!

"So I looked up videos of badgers and it turns out they make all different sounds. I guess that's probably why they don't have a designated sound that you learn when you're first learning your animals or whatever. Sheep go bah, cows go moo, all of that? Badgers actually make like sixteen different sounds, if I'm remembering right, at least!" She decided to leave it at that, already at risk of sounding overly nerdy on the subject as she gave the girl a sheepish smile.

The word assistant didn't quite agree with Lyra, but as the younger girl continued to talk she assumed she was only teasing and let out a soft chuckle. "Well I'd love to help! Have you thought about maybe starting with a bush? If you cross-bred the grapes with some sort of berry or something it might be a good start at least? Or, if you wanted to go straight to a tree maybe if you cross-bred it with some sort of small-ish fruit? Something similar in size would probably have the best results..." She trailed off as she tried to think of something that grew on trees that could be a similar size as a grape. "Cherries maybe?!"

She shook the other girl's hand to make the deal quickly, nodding just as fast. "Deal! I could definitely use a European surfing bud, I have friends back home, er in California, that surf but none on this continent! And skateboarding has always sounded fun, I just never got around to actually trying it."

Gwennie beamed with excitement as the girl explained the findings of her badger research. She appreciated the knowledge that Lyra had gathered and made a note to pat herself on the back for finding a research assistant with such a good work ethic. As for the conclusion to the honey badger question, the Gryffindor was quite underwhelmed by the findings themselves. She had hoped that badgers screamed or made some other strange noise, as it would be more entertaining and a much better fun fact than ‘They just kind of make a bunch of different nosies.’

She also made a mental note of Lyra’s facial language right at the end of her information-burst. She seemed a bit embarassed by her tangent, as her smile seemed a bit like an effort to lighten the mood. Gwennie smiled warmly, as she didn’t mind listening to people talk about something they found interesting. She had trouble paying attention to people who didn’t care about what they were saying because it was boring and no-one was having fun. But if someone was interesting in what they knew, it was like they were sharing their sunshine with you and Gwennie liked that.

“I appreciate animal individuality but I do wish that there was a more concise answer to the question than them having a plethora of noises.” She liked the word plethora; it was fun to say and a much better alternative to the other ways to adress multiples of something.
“Maybe I’ll look up badger noises and try to find a median that can be used as an introductory noise.”

The idea of using a bush first had crossed her mind, but Gwennie wasn’t a patient person by nature. She wanted to complete this experiment as quickly and efficiently as she could and starting with a different experiment was not the most efficient way to get there.
“Bushes would be a good place to start, but I’m on a tight schedule,” she responded.
“I like the cherry idea though!” her brain bounced up and down with enthusiasm. She hadn’t considered cherries, but it made perfect sense to her.

“I think the only problem there would be that cherry seeds are pits,” she contemplated. “So crossing the two might be a bit difficult.”

“Could apples work? Maybe crab apples because they’re smaller than traditional apples. The seed situation is more similar there so I wonder if it would work out better than cherries.”