Upon entering the Common Room, one might say that Jenna Howard was almost relieved to be alone. She supposed that the girls she had met, Sally, Mia, Flora, and Leann, none of which were in her own house, were nice enough. But she simply wasn't used to being in a large crowd. A small part even preferred to be alone.
She sat in the nearest chair and stared pensively at the floor. Jenna supposed she would have to ask her Head of House for a map of the school, and her class schedule. That way, she could best plan her route she would take everyday, and what books she would have to take. Jenna loved to have plans and schedules. She was practically deficient without them.
She smiled as she noticed a small black kitten walk down the stairs of the girls' dorm, "Hellow, Thornmallow dear, how have you been? I have a lot to tell you about." The cat's ears pricked up, and he stared at her, as if he understood her every word and sat on her lap. Jenna petted the kitten, sitting there in silence, still thinking about oh so many things.\n\n
0Jenna HowardEntering the Common Room46Jenna Howard15
Matthias padded quietly into the common room. The feast had been fun, and very tasty, but he hadn't really spoken with anyone. There just wasn't anyone to talk to, really. He just didn't really like mass conversations- especially with s, who tended to get giggly in large groups. So he had eaten in silence.
Halfway across the room, he froze. He had just realized that he wasn't the first Crotalus back from the Cascade Hall. A g1rl was sitting in a large chair in front of the fireplace, holding a small black cat not unlike his grayish Fogfeet.
He debated silently whether to speak, or to turn and walk up to the dorm room he had all by himself.\n\n
0Matthias ArgonRe: Entering the Common Room0Matthias Argon05
Jenna heard footsteps. She slowly looked up, and saw a boy. She remembered he had been sitting silently, eating all by himself. She felt a sort of empathy for him, knowing very well what it was like to be alone.
"Hello," she said to him quietly.\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n
0Jenna HowardRe: Entering the Common Room46Jenna Howard05
"Yeah," Matthias said, "I do. I have a kitten named Fogfeet- have you ever read that peom? It's by. . . oh, I forget who it's by. It was cool, though." He paused, searching for things to speak about. "Where are you from? I'm from Fargo. Do you have siblings, or anything? I don't. Do you feel like playing Jenga or something?"\n\n
Jenna pursed her lips in deep thought, "No, I don't think I've read it. My kitten's name is Thornmallow. A character in a muggle book I was able to get my hands on once. It was about a school of magic, but it was so funny how it wasn't anything like magic at all. I'm from northern California, actually," she said quickly. She wasn't supposed to reveal the location of the family home.
Strange, she was talking a lot more than she usually did, "I have siblings, three, actually. Two brothers who go two a school on the east coast (I can't ever remember the name) and a younger sister. You're lucky, siblings are horrid, at least mine are. They were trying to kill poor Thornmallow when I found him, but I saved him from them. By the way, what's a Jenga? Is it a muggle game? Because I don't know very much about muggle things, my parents feel it isn't proper- but I'm not like that," she added quickly.\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n
Matthias was surprised , but decided not to comment on Jenna's family. He nodded in affirmation of her last comment, and proceeded to explian: "Jenga is a Muggle game, but it's lots of fun." Matthias said, "You have a tower of wooden blocks, and you take turns pulling out blocks with one and placing them at the top of the tower. The one to make the tower falls, loses." he paused. "It's a Muggle game, but just so you know, I'm not Muggleborn myself. My parents were both magical, but my mom really liked this game. My dad and I play it a lot now."\n\n
Jenna raised an eyebrow. Muggle approving parents? Jenna had never met anyone with magical parents who didn't loathe muggles. It was simply unheard of. He was SO lucky!!!!!
"Um, c-can I, m-may I," she stuttered, suprised and annoyed at her own embaressment, "Could you teach me to play?"\n\n
"Sure!" Matthias said happily, glad to have someone to play Jenga with. "Just let me grab it out of my-"
"Do the young Miss and Sir wish to play with this?" asked a high, squeaky voice.
Matthias glanced downward, and at his feet stood the ugliest house-elf he had ever seen. It was holding up a rectangular blue box.
"Yes! Thank you. . ."
"Tuppy, sir! Tuppy is always glad to help! Sir can call Tuppy whenever he feels like it, sir. Does Miss want Tuppy to do something?" The elf asked, turning to Jenna.\n\n
Jenna didn't know what to make of the house elf. At home, she had three, and was only on good terms with Binky, the oldest, whose hair was graying. The other two were like spies for her parents, waiting to report her every fault. She wondered if Tuppy knew any of her house elves.
Tuppy resonded, "Yes, Miss! Be sure to call Tuppy if Miss is wanting anything!" Then she snapped her fingers and disappeared.
"Uhhh. . . OK! That was a bit. . .odd. Now, this is how you set it up."
He opened the box and jammed it upside-down, then carefully pulled the box upward. A near-perfect tower of woode blocks sat before them.
Matthias grinned "Nifty, huh? You have to set it up by hand if you play again afterward, but that's not too hard. I'll go first, to show you."
He scrutinized the tower, the picked the middle block in the third row up. He carefully poked at it until most of it was protruding from the other side, then carefully wriggled it out. The tower seemed to have no problem balancing on the remaining two blocks in that row. He set it on the top of the tower.
As soon as Matthias had explained it to her, Jenna had loved the game. It seemed to be a game of concentration, and Jenna loved such things.
Meticulously she poked at the wooden blocks until she found a loose one. It was fifth row up and center. Slowly she pulled the block out from the tower. It still stood.
"I've got it!" she smiled proudly at her success, she might be getting the hang of this.
At the moment, Thornmallow wanted her attention, and so he scratched her hand with his claws. "Thorny, that hurts!" she exclaimed, dropping the block. It hit the tower, knocking the top three rows off.
"Maybe, I don't got it," she said, looking back up at Matthias, "can we rebuild it and play again?"\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n
"Sure thing. And don't sweat it, beginners usually knock over the tower several times before they get the hang of the game."
He picked the blocks up and carefully replaced them, laying the rows of three crosswise to each other.
"OK, we're ready to go!" he said, "Y'know, I'm having fun. I'm used to playing with three or four players- it gets wilder that way! But I don't mind playing with just you. Do you want to go first this time?" he asked.\n\n
"Okay," nodded Jenna. This time she was a little nervous- she didn't like to fail. This time she made sure her left hand was petting Thornmallow to fill his attention cravings as she looked for a block. This time, she took one fourth from the top row, all the way to the right. Once again she slowly pulled the block out. As soon as she got it, she put it right on the floor.
"Usually, when you play Jenga, you add blocks that you pull out to the top of the tower, starting a new row. Makes the tower unsteadier as the game goes on. But for now, let's play the easier way and just stick them on the ground."
Matthias tested several bricks before wriggling out one from a middle row. Just as it was almost free, he sneezed. The tower toppled.
"Okay," Matthias said, gathering the pieces, "Let's try that again. . .Hey," he said suddenly "Do you want to play. . . with magic?"\n\n
Play using magic? Now Jenna was sure she'd win this one. She had read through all the textbooks already, and had even tried a few simple spells herself. This was going to be very interesting. She noted that Thornmallow was now sleeping, and realized that she should be off to bed soon too.
"Well, this will have to be the last game, because I want to get a good night's rest for tomorrow. But let's try it with magic," Jenna said, "I suppose we will be using the levitation charm?"\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n
"Yeah!" Matthias said eagerly. "I've seen my dad and his friends do it that way, and I was always bummed that I couldn't join in."
He paused, thinking. He wasn't sure how good Jenna was at magic- he himself was pretty inexperianced at magic. Ah well, he told himself. May as well find out!
Using his wand, he carefully drew a block out from near the bottom. His next turn, he levitated one out of the second row from the top. Jenna was just as good as he was; the game wore on for a while. Finally, the game got to the point where removing any bricks would lead to collapse.
"Good game," he said to Jenna, yawning. "Well, I'm off to bed- I think I'll leave this out for other Crotalus to play with, when they get here. It was fun- I hope to play this with you again." he smiled, and extended a hand towards Jenna.\n\n
Jenna stared at his outstretched hand for a moment. In her lessons on etiquette, her mother had taught her that no proper lady shook hands. Then she remembered that to break away from her family, she would have to break away from their ideas. Well, the sooner, the better.
"Good game. See you tomorrow," she smiled and shook his hand. Yawning, she retreated up to her dormitory.\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n