look up, the stars are shining for you, CHAR

Looking at her ice-cream cone, Lena gulped. She had never tasted raspberry flavoured ice-cream before. She sighed, staring at it. There was nothing else to do for her, though. She sighed, stuck out her tongue, and licked the ice-cream, expecting it to blow up in front of her or something; her paranoia was one of her worst features.

Her eyes widened when she realized how delicious it was. She continuously licked the ice-cream like an idiot as someone stared at her, out of her horizon.

Charlotte walked around Diagon Alley. She just couldn't get enough of magic, it was so . . . magical, for a lack of better word. She had been begging her parents to let her come back to Diagon Alley ever since they left after that first day. And after the big fight with her brother, they'd decided it could cheer her up.

She walked excitedly towards Ice Cream Parlour, only this would get her mind off of fighting with her brother, her best friend. She briefly wondered if 'Muggle' ice-cream and 'Wizard' ice-cream tasted the same.

Charlotte stood in front of the counter, not knowing what to ask for. So many flavours. She looked around to see what people were eating, maybe she'd get some idea of what to order, when she saw a girl who was licking her ice-cream cone like there was no tomorrow.

"Um, excuse me," she asked the girl, shyly, "Would you mind telling me what's that flavour you're eating?"

Lena looked up skeptically at the girl. She then stared at her for a while, and back at her ice-cream cone - which was steadily melting, and the molten ice was seeping towards her hands - and she looked carefully back at the girl again. She thought of what evil this girl can cause. She knew from the first moment the girl spoke that she did not have a weapon with her, and she asked about what she wanted to know.

For the blonde, it was always a case of whether people were nice or not at first sight. It was both one of her best and worst traits, according to about everyone she knew. Him, Lora, Kait, Frodo, all her German friends, Chuck, even Leon when he nearly tried to kill her: if they had one thing in common, it was that at some point, they told her that she needed to change this attribute of hers. So far, she was failing

"Raspberry," Lena replied, only when she was sure this girl was here for the right reasons. She licked her ice cream, hoping for the life of her it would stay solid for just a few more minutes. "It's delicious," she added hastily, "would you like to try a bit?"

Charlotte saw the older girl hesitate a bit before answering and wondered if it was common amongst wizards to worry a bit more.

"Raspberry," she echoed. She had always liked raspberry, so she supposed she could try the ice-cream.

"No, it's okay," she smiled and answered the girl, thinking it was best not to accept food from strangers, "I'll just buy a cone."

She went to the counter to order her cone, and as she licked it, she decided it really was delicious. Charlotte looked around for a place to sit, but all tables were full. She didn't want to bother the blonde again, but she'd been walking the whole day and was pretty tired. . .

"Do you mind if I sit here, or are you waiting for someone?" she asked, biting her lip, "Everywhere else is full."

"Suit yourself," Lena noted, and she continued to calmly lick her ice cream by herself, staring up at her as she licked. She watched the girl go to the counter to order her ice-cream cone, and she knew right then that she was not as dangerous as her initial thoughts were. She seemed... sane. She needed some sanity in her life right now.

She shook her head. "Nope. No one should be sitting here," she replied calmly, quickly licking a bit of ice-cream that was starting to melt. This were the times she hated the sun's heat. Not like she didn't usually anyway. "What's your name?" she asked amiably, licking her ice-cream again.

Charlotte gave the girl a small smile as she sat down. She didn't know how to start a conversation properly, these were the awkward times she hated being a bit shy. Of course, with her friends and her brother she was different, but with strangers?

Licking her cone and trying to decide if she should say something or not, she barely heard the girl talking to her. She was sure she'd heard 'name' somewhere in the sentence.

"I'm Charlotte," she replied. "You?"

"Charlotte?" Lena echoed, tilting her head to one side, "that's a pretty name." Being completely honest, she didn't think that at all when she took another lick of her ice-cream. It was pretty average for someone like her who talked to people like 'Ophelia' or 'Patricia' on a daily basis. Still, a name was a name, and it had to be respected.

She then piped up, "My name is Lena." She licked her ice-cream again. Merlin, she was never going to let go of this thing. "So. Are you from Hogwarts?"

Charlotte thought her name was pretty common, and maybe that was why she loved it. She didn't like being the center of attention much, she just wanted to fit in.

"That's an interesting name," she said, "I've never met a Lena before. And yes, I'll be starting my first year at Hogwarts."

"Do you study there as well?" she asked, though she thought maybe not, because of her accent.

Lena shook her head. "No, but I'll be a transfer student there next year, so you'll see me around," she piped up, continuing to lick her ice-cream. She then wondered what else to ask because she hated the awkward silences that sometimes happened during conversations, like the one that is happening now. "So," she asked after a long while of pondering, "what house do you think you're going to be in?"

Charlotte frowned as she licked her ice-cream, "What school do you go to, then?" She remembered the witch that was sent to her house to tell her about magic saying that there were other magical schools, not only Hogwarts, but she never mentioned their name. She had been a bit curious at first, but then again, she was curious about everything concerning magic.

She shrugged, "Oh, I don't know. I don't think I'm all that smart to be in Ravenclaw, or brave enough for Gryffindor. Certainly not Slytherin material. . . maybe I'll end up in Hufflepuff, it does seem like a nice house."

"Durmstrang!" Lena proclaimed proudly, flicking her hair and beaming a smile at her new friend. "You know, the school where everyone is mildly insane? Yeah. It's like a totally new trend these days." She laughed, all in good spirit. "I'm in Uchitel, so I'm a smartarse." She shrugged her shoulders, like she didn't care about that statement, which she didn't.

"Well, don't ask me," she remarked, "I don't know you all that well."

"Mildly insane?" Char repeated, frowning, and then laughed, "Seems like an excellent school. Much better than my old one. Everyone was so normal, and I just wanted to fit in, but I never really could. But it's not like I was. . . weird, or anything. At least, I don't think I was."

She took bite of her cone. Crunchy. "So, Uchitel is for smart people? What are the other houses?"

"Okay," Lena giggled, "not mildly insane. Really bloody insane fits the bill more, and even that sounds really inadequate." She chuckled, and gasped dramatically when Char mentioned how normal her school was. "Normal is for looosers!" she declared loudly, loud enough for the entire shop to look at her. She simply rolled her eyes at them and turned her attention back to Char.

"Hrabrost for the brave, Hitrost for the cunning, and Slushatel for the stealthy," Lena replied immediately. She thought that she almost sounded like a guidebook.

Charlotte smiled at the girl, but then frowned, curious, "What makes the school so insane, though?" She laughed and shrugged, "Everyone just wants to be normal at some point, I guess."

"Why do these schools feel the need to have houses with such. . . big qualities?" she exasperated, once again not seeing any trait she had in nay of them, "Is it possible to not fit into anything, not be sorted at all?"

She made a mental promise to try to fit into whatever house she was sorted into. If she was to be a Gryffindor, then she'd work hard to be the bravest Gryffindor; if it was Hufflepuff, she'd be the most loyal person around. And so on.

Lena chuckled. Well, if only Charlotte knew about all of the things they did at Durmstrang. She didn't though, which was why she was asking exactly that question. "I have no idea how to answer that," she sighed, tilting her head to one side and resting her fist on her chin. She really didn't know. "Well... I suppose half of us have killed someone - " she tried to omit the part where she told Charlotte she was one of those people"- we all party in the middle of the night, and most of us have tried alcohol at one time or another. Yeah, even the first years." She smirked cheekily at the last one.

Mentally hyperventilating in disbelief, Lena shook her head. "I'm sure you are either smart, brave, loyal or cunning," she firmly replied, using a calm tone which clearly said, 'You're-an-idiot-if-you-keep-saying-that.' "Hogwarts has the hat to sort people, right?" she asked, but then she immediately kept on going. "The hat - or whatever contraption you use to sort people into their houses - detects qualities you have never even thought of. For all you know, you could be smart, or witty, at least. You might be lionhearted for all I know. Just because people seem to be so much like one house it doesn't mean they can't end up in another, which is why I advise you not to expect too much."

Charlotte tried not to display any emotion when Lena said half the people at Durmstrang had killed someone. She seemed like the kind of girl who had many friends, and what if one of her friends were one of those people? The girl could get mad. What if she was one of those people? Charlotte thought, but shook that away. She didn't seem like a killer.

"I've gotten drunk before," she said, without thinking. Her eyes widened when she realized what she had said, and she shut her mouth. That hadn't been a fun day, not a good memory, no.

Char could tell the girl was becoming a bit annoyed and simply shrugged. "I'm not expecting. I honestly just have no idea. I'm smart, but never the smartest of my class, never one to try anything, or willing to use others to get what I want. Loyal, I guess, but not to everybody," she explained, "But I guess the hat will put me where it wants to put me. Who am I to disagree with a hat?"

Smiling excitedly, she wondered what that hat was like. The witch had explained the Sorting process, but seeing that hat would just be another experience.

Lena's eyes widened out of interest when Charlotte had mentioned she got drunk, once. It may just be a Vorstenbach thing, but she absolutely loved to hear everyone's drinking stories, good or bad. However, she noticed that Charlotte seemed to not want to tell the story, so for once, she decided not to say anything that might make the younger girl feel bad. Though that definitely didn't stop her from wondering what happened when she did. Perhaps, one day soon, she'll get that information out of her without even asking. "I see. That's good to know," she replied, and she spoke no more.

"You're making the hat sound like a nobody," Lena said in a snappy but not annoyed tone. She chuckled. "Well, they say the Hat is never wrong. Not sure if that's true, though." She then looked sternly at Char. "You can't be perfect for one house, you know, we all have qualities which makes us seem like other houses. For example, I may be a smart Uchitel, but I can be as cunning as a Hitrost and I can be as good as hiding things as a Slushatel. I can be brave too, like a Hrabrost, but most of my good qualities lie in my intelligence. I know, because I feel right at home as an Uchitel."

Charlotte watched as Lena's eyes widened a bit when she mention she had gotten drunk. Thinking the older girl seemed interested, she shook her head a bit. It wasn't the worst drunk story ever, some of her older 'friends' had done a lot worse, but considering she almost died. . . it was not a happy memory, nor one she felt like sharing at the moment.

She cocked her head when the girl said she was making the hat sound like a nobody. "It's not exactly a person. . . " she pointed out, but nodded after her explanation, "I understand. I wonder how the hat knows, though. Must be some very interesting magic."

Lena laughed. "It's called psychology. Maybe, for once, unlike most things in these magical places, it's plain science." She pursed her lips, thinking of a good way to explain to Charlotte what her mind had decided upon. "Yeah..." she added, not sure what else to say.

Charlotte smiled as Lena said it could be plain science, instead of magic. Now there was something she could relate to. She'd spent her whole life thinking science and magic were two things so different, and here they could be 'working together', or whatever you wanted to call it.

"Science. . . " Charlotte mused, "It might be, yes. I hope I'll get to find out."

She turned to the girl, "So, are you excited to be going to Hogwarts this year?"

Lena nodded, "I wonder why people think science and magic are so different." She licked her ice-cream cone to moisten her tongue, staring at her now half-finished ice-cream. "I mean... magic is just a more advance version of science. Magic is still molecules bouncing against each other... it's just that they're, well, magical." She licked her ice-cream again, and wiped her mouth gently with her napkin. Table manners were, after all, important.

"Absolutely," she grinned, her face brimming with enthusiasm, "I want to see if all the things Alex said are true or not..."

Charlotte snorted and chuckled, "Tell that to my brother. He's crazy over science and thinks magic is something just extremely weird."

"Is Alex a sibling of yours?" she asked, licking her ice-cream. Charlotte nodded, understanding exactly how she felt. "It must be nice, being part of an exchange program. You get twice the enthusiasm, basically."

Lena laughed, "Yeah, Alex is my brother. He just graduated from Hogwarts. He was a Slytherin, though his pranks made him seem very Gryffindor, though." She chuckled, "I suppose you do, but what matters most is what happens during the exchange program, right?"

Charlotte smiled, "Brothers who like pranks, I know what that's like." Finishing her cone, she asked, "Do you have any other siblings?"

"Of course," she nodded, "It's the experience that counts, but the excitement is a plus."

"I had a sister, and I have another sister," Lena laughed, trying to go through it without telling the other girl about Vanka. "What about you?" she asked, licking the last of her cone and nibbling on the dry waffle.