light speed (victoria)

It was, by now, known that Isabelle Dimonté was a typical Wormwood, chosing to devote her time to books over everything else. Muggle fiction was her favourite: that had long since been decided. Muggles had such an interesting outlook on life, though that was probably because they had found ways of doing everything without using magic. It was baffling to her, really, that they had managed to do it.

So yes, Isabelle liked to read. Her attitude had always been that books held the adventures that the mind couldn't, but there was always something that she didn't understand. Why didn't other people love to read? She found it soothing, so much so that the library had become her go-to destination for any kind of stressful situation.

That was where she had ended up that day; sitting in the back of the library with her nose in a book. She wasn't even sat at a desk, instead choosing to lean up against the wall furthest away from the entrance with a bulky book in her lap. Very few people knew about the muggle literature section of the library, she concluded, because every time she showed up and scanned the shelves there was rarely anyone else there.

The soft sound of her own breathing was enough to send her into a trance-like state almost instantaneously, the words of Charles Dickins' Great Expectations being traced through her eyes as she calmed herself. It was one person, Isabelle she murmured. It was only one person...

"Hey... It's Isabelle, right?"

The Wormwood looked up at her housemate with a pleasant smile, the other girl's happiness radiating off her and it seemed to make Isabelle feel happier too. It made a change from everywhere else around the school: people seemed to be stressed out left right and center, so to feel someone's happiness instead of their misery felt great. Oh, the girl loved being an empath sometimes. "That's me!" she said cheerily. "It's great to see you again, Victoria!"

"I'm Victoria, I saw you in Duelling, I'm sorry we couldn't sit together."

"No harm, no foul," the younger of the two witches assured, shuffling slightly to get comfortable on the floor. "Honestly, it's okay. Maybe we can sit together next class!" The girl was excited at the thought; Victoria seemed like a very lovely girl and if there was a chance that the two could get along, Isabelle was going to make it happen.

"You can come and sit next to me anytime, I always seem to be one of the first in to the lesson anyways!"

"I've noticed," Isabelle said with nothing but nice intentions, though as soon as the words left her lips she figured that there may have been a better way to phrase it. "Not that that's a bad thing of course; it's great that you're always so keen to learn!" She smiled to herself, hoping that Victoria wouldn't be offended by her little tongue slip. Engage your brain before you speak, Isa! the third year thought with a mental shake of her head.

"Socially, I mean, Merlin knows us Wormwoods are constantly in and out of here for books in regards to lessons!"

Isabelle let out a bit of a giggle at the girl's words, knowing it was too true but finding the Wormwood stereotype that fitted her so well to be ever amusing to her ears. "I guess so. It depends what mood I'm in really; being back here is so relaxing but sometimes all I want to do is go outside and look around, you know?" She hoped the other girl would understand. There was always something new in the grounds of Salem, one just had to know where to look.

"It's just... magical what you can find out."

Finally, Isabelle thought to herself, grinning a lot at the other Wormwood's attitude. Finally someone else. "Everyone else thinks I'm odd," she admitted a little bashfully, a light pink hue to her cheeks as she started. "They think that I shouldn't like school and learning. They think I'm too positive. I'm just different," the third year concluded with a soft smile, nodding as if to assure herself that it was true. "They just don't understand how lucky they are."

Never before had the young girl found someone else who shared all of her interests. At home, there had been one or two who enjoyed reading, but never to the extent that Isabelle did. Very few liked to explore as much as she, and no-one as of yet had shared her passion for making people happy. Heck, last valentines she'd even gone to the trouble of putting a handful of roses outside all of the Wormwood dormitories to make sure that no-one felt left out. "Good luck! I would have joined but I'm hopeless at sports. Still, if I can make people happy without getting on a broom, I'm sure I'll be just fine!"

"Not to the full extent, anyway."

The younger girl gave a nod and a soft noise of her agreement, hoping that she hadn't come across as having put an awful stereotype on the rest of the world by her words. Obviously there were people who had it worse than her, there always would be, and there would always be those who had it better too. That was fine, as well, because some people were lucky and some people weren't; the fun part was trying to have fun nonetheless.

"My brother is much better though, you know Jake, don't you?"

Isabelle nodded enthusiastically, then. Yes, she remembered him; Professor Newbury from Defense Against the Dark Arts. He'd congratulated her on her successful defeat of the boggart, an experience that she had enjoyed thoroughly but would rather not relive if she had the chance. "I remember him! His boggart was of a girl leaving, right? That was so sweet, I hope I can find someone who cares about me like that one day..."

In all fairness, relationships at her age weren't at the forefront of her mind, but she was only female, and like many others she'd already dreamed up her fantasy life. The big white wedding and the happy family; it sounded like bliss, but school was more important.

"I don't think they could ever be apart."

The inseperability of the couple that she barely even knew had Isabelle in complete awe. She'd only ever seen that kind of affection between her parents. The relationships she'd seen around school, namely in the "private" parts of the grounds that she assumed the people thought were mainly unvisited, didn't seem to have that kind of love; it was mostly icky demonstrations and generic PDA that made her sort of want to be sick.

"But, I have to finish my studies first."

Most impressively, though it really shouldn't have been from what she already knew of the older witch through classes, she shared the conception that schooling was of more importance than relationships at their age. "I don't think I'd want one until I leave school," she admitted. "I'd like to make it that much more special, you know?" The Wormwood really hoped that Victoria understood where she was coming from, otherwise she'd probably just look strange.