First Meetings (Sept '95)

[Paula Kendrick]

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Lilliane Nouveau

"Better be... RAVENCLAW!!!" the hat yelled, followed by clapping and light cheering around the room. A blonde hair, green-brown eyed girl dressed in the Hogwarts uniform hopped off of the three legged stool and slowly made her way across the room to the table filled with students wearing blue and bronze colors. A grin seemed to be permanently etched onto her slightly red face as she got pats on the back and shouts of congratulations from her new house members. Her eyes went to the other students still standing at the bottom of the small number of stairs, waiting.

She remembered the fear from just seconds ago that still raced through her veins. The fear that she would go into a house that would hate her. That no one would like her. That she wouldn't get sorted at all. The blonde collapsed into her seat and listened with half an ear as the other names were called out and the children sorted, still trying to calm down from her own experience.

[Lilliane Nouveau]

Lille was bouncing up and down on the heels of her shoes, nervous as nervous could be. On the train and all the way up to the sorting ceremony itself, she had heard story after story of the different houses at Hogwarts, and which ones were most desirable. Her parents, of course, wanted her to be in Slytherin. Their pureblood status required that. Lille thought they all sounded like stuck up brats, though. All of the others houses were fine with her, just not Slytherin.

"Lilliane Nouveau!"

She stepped up the few steps in front of her, and sat upon the stool. The Sorting Hat was placed upon her head, falling down below her ears and eyes, and was relatively quiet. She did not dare to breathe, even, because of how nervous she was. Not Slytherin, please not Slytherin. She thought, listening to the hat finally musing over where she belonged.

"Right, then, for you.....RAVENCLAW!"

Lille could only breathe a sigh of relief and smile as the hat was taken off of her, and she walked over to her new house table. There was applause and congratulations all around, much of it was garbled and confusing to hear over the noise of the entire hall, but it didn't bother Lille all that much. She took a seat next to a blonde first year who had just been sorted a little before her and smiled. "Hi," was about all she could say, the nervous energy still pumping through her. "I'm Lille."

[Paula Kendrick]

The blonde looked over at the girl who had taken a seat next to her. "Hi Lille," she replied, holding out a hand,"I'm Paula, but everyone calls me Nikki." Of course she could have probably just stuck with her nickname and been alright, but most people got confused over that for some reason. "Welcome to Ravenclaw."

The girl let out a small laugh after she said that, her nerves and the energy slowly wearing off now that she wasn't the one waiting to be sorted. She leaned against the table and watched the others be sorted before looking at Lille. "So, are you looking forward to the next seven years?"

[Lilliane Nouveau]

"Nice to meet you, Nikki." Lille grinned, not questioning the nickname. Normally, she would have insisted on using the girl's first, and to her proper, name, but Lille figured it might not have been putting her best foot forward to do that.

"When you put it that way, it seems like forever!" The girl laughed gently. "But, yes, I suppose I am. What about you, are you excited?"

[Paula Kendrick]

The blonde laughed lightly at the other girl when she mentioned that it seemed like forever. She thought about the way she had worded her question and could agree that it did sound forever, but there was no other way to put it. She was glad that the other girl seemed to be looking forward to it though. "Yeah, I'm excited. I've been waiting forever to be able to come here," she told the other girl. She stopped talking as the others finished sorting and Professor Dumbledore stood up and started talking. The girl listened quietly to what was being said and frowned, like pretty much everyone else, when the pink toad interrupted the man mid-word.

"How rude," she said and rolled her eyes as the woman began talking. It sounded like she was trying to sound like a little kid and was doing a terrible job of it. Once both professors had seated themselves and the food appeared Nikki looked Lille. "I don't have a very good feeling about that teacher."

[Lilliane Nouveau]

"Oh, really?" Lille asked looking a little surprised when the girl said she had been waiting forever to go to Hogwarts. "I always thought I was going to Beauxbatons when I was younger, but my mom was set on Hogwarts." She also kept quiet while Dumbledore gave his speech, and became quite shocked at the rude interruption from a woman in pink.

"That was completely rude! How awful, right in the middle of his speech," Lille murmured, shaking her head. Once the talking was over and food appeared on the table, Lille started to put some on her plate, still talking to Nikki. "Neither do I. The way she acts is so... odd. Hopefully she won't talk to us like that when we're in class," she said, referring to the immature tone the woman was using.

[Paula Kendrick]

Nikki looked over at the other girl surprised when she mentioned that she had thought she was going to Beauxbatons. "Why would you think you were going there?" she inquired curiously,"Isn't that in France?" The blonde girl would have had no reason to try and go to a school that far away because all of her siblings attended Hogwarts as had her parents. Still the other girl had to have a reason for thinking she was going to a whole different school.

The blonde nodded in agreement. She wasn't sure if she would be able to put up with the professor talking like that every class period. "Do you think she's putting on with the voice? I mean the cough thing was obviously fake so do you think the voice is too?"

[Lilliane Nouveau]

"My father's French," Lille explained. "He went to Beauxbatons, and he's told me all of these wonderful stories of the school. I was born here in the UK though, and my mother is from England and went to Hogwarts, so really, Hogwarts is where I was destined to go." She looked around the Great Hall, looking up at the floating candles supported by nothing but magic, and the ceiling that matched the sky outside. It was wonderful, in her opinion, though she had seen slightly better.

"Oh, yes, that voice has to be fake. I doubt anyone could seriously talk like that naturally," the girl said, glancing over at the woman in pink, and then back to Nikki. "Or maybe she was hit with a wayward hex and it messed up her voice. I'm pretty sure that's possible, at least."

[Paula Kendrick]

Nikki made a slight 'o' with her mouth when Lille explained why she thought she was going to Beauxbatons. "You were expecting to go to Beauxbatons does that mean you're not very happy to be going to Hogwarts instead?" she asked curiously. The blonde couldn't imagine going anywhere other than Hogwarts, but then again her parents and siblings had all went to Hogwarts. She would probably have wanted to go to another school if someone else in her family had attended another school.

The blonde giggled at Lille's suggestion that the woman was hit with a wayward hex. "If she goes about interrupting everyone with that silly cough then I wouldn't be surprised if someone intentionally hexed her like that," the girl said, casting another glance at the pink lady.

[Lilliane Nouveau]

"Oh, no, I'm happy to be here at Hogwarts. My mom has told me great things about this school, too. It's just, I love France, and Beauxbatons just so happens to be there." Lille smiled while she spoke, thinking of the time she had spent in France, and the friends she had there, and the lovely weather. Still, she couldn't deny that she loved the UK as well. It was home, and it was where she was comfortable.

"Oh yes, I completely agree there. That seems very, very likely." Though Lille had yet to even meet the woman, nor talk to her face to face, she could already tell that she wasn't going to like her very much. The young girl figured that maybe once she had a lesson with the woman clad in pink, that perhaps her opinion might change, but Lille seriously doubted that.

[Paula Kendrick]

Well, that made a lot of sense. "I take it you've been to France a lot then...unless you're like some of those people who randomly choose somewhere they've only been there once and decide it's their favorite place in the world," she mentioned, stopping to think about the way she's worded it. The blonde was sure that she could have said that a whole lot better then she had. It made her sound rude or something.

Paula hoped that their defense professor was not as annoying and rude as she came across tonight. She had heard some great stories from her siblings about the professors that had worked here and she had been hoping for one like that her first year. It would have made a big impression on her and been something to tell her kids about. "I hope she's a good teacher."

[Lilliane Nouveau]

Lille laughed a little at the way the question was worded. "Oh yes, I've been there a lot. I have family and friends in France, and generally, my family likes to spend the winters in France. Their winters aren't as cold as they are here." That was the definite upside to France. The weather, for the most part, was great.

Lille was expecting the professors at the school to be top-notch, and very wonderful at their jobs. Her parents felt they were qualified enough, or else they wouldn't have sent Lille to Hogwarts, and she held the same thoughts. If her parents thought they were good enough, then so did she. "Yeah, but with that kind of behavior... Well, I shouldn't judge a book by it's cover. Maybe she will be a good teacher."

[Paula Kendrick]

Paula wasn't to surprised that she had family there considering Lille had already said that her father was French. "I've been to France once, over the summer," she told her,"it was pretty cool once I got away from my family." She couldn't imagine spending every winter in France, one trip was enough for her.

"I hope she's a good teacher, but I've got siblings who have been here for the past few years and apparently they get a new defense teacher every year and have only had like...two good professors since they've been here. The first time my older brother was here they had that Lockhart man who wrote all those books as the professor and he obliviated himself," she told her.

[Lilliane Nouveau]

"Got away from your family? What do you mean, you went off by yourself?" While Lille felt like she could have ran around any of the major cities in France and have no real problems, her parents would never let her. She was always accompanied by somebody, whether it be her mother and father, or a close family friend.

"He obliviated himself? Seriously? Oh dear, and he was a professor here too. I can't believe that." Lille actually laughed a bit at hearing that. It surprised her that there was a new Defense teacher every year. "Well, surely he had to be the worst of them. And this lady looks competent enough to not obliviate herself. I'm sure we'll be fine."

[Paula Kendrick]

Paula grinned when the other girl began to ask her about going off on her own and nodded quickly. "Yeah, the entire time I was there they treated me like a little baby. They wouldn't let me do anything by myself. I was lucky they let me go to the restroom without trailing after me to make sure I didn't get hurt or something. I got sick of it one day and sneaked away from them. I was gone for a good bit of the day before they finally found me again," she told her with another nod. The blonde sort of forgot to mention that she was grounded for the rest of the trip and summer.

The new Ravenclaw shrugged slightly when Lille reiterated the part about the man obliviating himself. "According to my parents and siblings yeah he did. Apparently he got lost in the sewage system...I think that's what my siblings said and somehow obliviated himself," her eyes shot to the new defense professor,"I hope she's not that bad. According to my brother last year's professor was probably the best one they've ever had...but my oldest brother swears that the best is a tie between last year's and the year before that."

[Lilliane Nouveau]

"Oh, wow." Lille was definitely surprised as she listened to Paula recount her tale of getting away from her family for the day. Lille thought of how she'd never do something like that, nor could she if she wanted to. "That's awfully brave of you. I don't think I could wander off from my parents without feeling lost." Of course, Lille didn't need to wander off on her own, because her parents took her wherever she told them she wanted to go.

"How do you end up in the sewage system, of all places..." Lille asked herself more than she did the girl sitting by her. The Lockhart man was seeming more and more dense as she thought about it. "Too bad they couldn't have stuck around then. You don't know what happened to them, do you?" She asked Paula about the two previous teachers. It seemed odd to her that they couldn't hold down a stable Defense teacher, but she figured it had to do with the liability of the teaching the subject. Or something like that.

[Paula Kendrick]

"Well," Paula said a little uneasy,"I was lost and I did wind up in some part of Pairs I never wanna get to again. I'm not even sure what was going on there." That had probably been the scariest part, the guy screaming that they needed to find that adults and stay with them because people tended to die.

"And sadly once I was found I was grounded for the rest of the summer. My parents wouldn't let me out of their sights and when they did they left my older brother there to watch over me cause they knew I listen to him. Even when we got home they refused to let me leave the house and I had to go to work with my mom everyday, which meant getting up at some outrageous times and getting ready."

The blonde shook her head at the other girl. "I don't know what went on with the two good ones. Something about that tournament last year probably chased off last years and the year before that there's no telling with all the crazy stuff going on here."

[Lilliane Nouveau]

"Oh, wow." Lille was partially shocked. She did realize that getting lost was bound to happen, especially when someone was walking around Paris by themselves, when they weren't familiar with the area. She couldn't even figure out some of the areas of Paris, and she had spent quite a bit of time there. "Well, I'm sorry that you were grounded for so long. At least it made for a great story though."

If Lille had run off in Paris on her own, unsupervised... She doubted they'd ever let her out of their sights again. Her parents could be so overprotective and annoying at times. If she had done what Paula had done, Lille doubted they'd even have let her attend Hogwarts. They were so concerned with her upbringing and the way that she was going to turn out, and it seriously irked her at times.

"It seems like there's always something interesting going on here." Lille had heard plenty about the tournament from last year, and the general majority of it had simply confused her. It had made her parents even further worried, as they were having more hushed, private conversations the closer that September first came around, ones that even Lille couldn't manage to eavesdrop on. "I wonder if something'll happen that will scare this lady off."

[Paula Kendrick]

The blonde gave a small shrug and a small grin. "It does make for a good story and the only part of the grounding that was bad was having to get up early in the mornings. My mom works in Diagon Alley and so I had plenty of people to talk to and when my mom couldn't watch me I got to hang out with my favoritest brother."

Of course when she had to stay with Landon he had made her sit quietly and find something to entertain herself with while he did school work or read or if all else failed they went outside and played some kind of game. Quidditch was out because of where they lived, but there were games like football or soccer or something just as fun.

Green-brown eyes flicked up to look at the pink splotch again with a shudder. "We can only hope something will chase her off," she whispered.

[Lilliane Nouveau]

"Diagon Alley? That's actually pretty cool, I'd love to wander around there all day. Really, it doesn't sound like too bad of a punishment." Lille thought about what it would be like to hang out with a brother all the time. She figured it might get annoying, but Paula really seemed to like her brother. "My dad owns a company that makes quidditch supplies, mainly bludgers, but some other things too. It's interesting enough, I guess, I don't really care for it besides the times when I get to travel with my parents. I don't have any siblings though."

The young girl shrugged slightly with the other Ravenclaw's comment. "I don't know what could scare her away though. Maybe, if we're lucky, she'll accidentally fall into the lake and the squid will come and get her."

[Paula Kendrick]

The blonde smiled a little at her new roommate's words. "It wasn't to bad, but as the summer went on it got rather hot and a lot of people crowded together like that just made it miserable." As Lille explained about her dad's job green-brown eyes widened. She loved playing Quidditch -not beater because they had to get close to the bludgers but that was the only position she didn't like. "I love Quidditch," she told the girl, "and you get to travel too!"

At the comment about siblings the girl shook her head. "I can't imagine life without my siblings," she told her as she cast a glance over to the Gryffindor table where her older brother was currently sitting with some of his friends joking around. He glanced over at her when he felt her stare and shot a grin her way before going back to his own friends.

She giggled at Lille's idea of what could make the woman leave. "What about going into that forest outside? I hear there are some scary things in there that could probably make anyone leave."

[Lilliane Nouveau]

"Ah, yeah, I can see where that might get a little irritating and awful at times." Lille nodded her head in understanding, knowing what it was like to have to navigate crowds and hot weather. Plenty of family vacations had made her no stranger to that. "Quidditch is alright. It can be fun to watch, but I don't play very often." Lilliane was decent on a broom, but it was evident that she possessed no extraordinary natural talent with the sport, and as such, never really tried any harder to play the game.

"Really? I think I'm fine with being an only child. I mean, there are times when I would have loved a younger brother or sister to play with, but it's not so bad being an only child." The first year shrugged. She had enough friends to make up for anything crucial she was missing with siblings, she thought. "How many siblings do you have?"

Lille laughed as they came up with ways that would drive the pink lady away. "Oh yeah, there's always the forest. My mother told me I'm not allowed to go wandering in there, no matter what, because there are pretty dangerous creatures in there. Maybe one of whatever it is in there will come and get her."

[Paula Kendrick]

"I don't get to play Quidditch often," Paula told her fellow year and housemate, "where I'm living is full of muggles so it makes it a bit harder to do magical things. My parents found out that hard way that it was better to keep us home and at Diagon with mom than send us to public schools when my oldest brother's accidental magic started up during some school thing." The blonde laughed at the memory of the stories her parents had about those few years that they were in muggle school and it made her glad that they had pulled them when they did.

The blonde looked shocked when the other girl told her that she was "fine with being an only child" and shook her head. "Doesn't it ever get really boring being all alone? Like at night when it's to late to have friends over or when it's to stormy outside and your parents are worried about letting you go over to their homes?" When the question about how many siblings she had popped up the girl grinned. "I have three," she replied happily, "there's the oldest Benjamin who's in our house," here she pointed to a boy that looked nothing like her that was sitting a bit down from where the two girls were, "then there's Landon," she pointed to a boy who looked almost just like her sitting at the Gryffindor table, "and then my sister Ruth, who's in Hufflepuff," here she pointed to a girl who looked like the Ravenclaw boy sitting at the Hufflepuff.

"What if you have to serve a detention in there?" she asked with wide eyes, "are you going to tell them your mom said you couldn't enter the forest?"

[Lilliane Nouveau]

"Oh, wow," Lille commented, looking at her wide-eyed. "That's really interesting. I only have to really worry about not talking about magical things when I go to muggle places, like certain parts of London and stuff. At least here you can play quidditch all you like. My parents decided that because they traveled so much, it would be better to just get me a tutor. They never had to worry about me showing my magic in front of people who weren't supposed to see it that way."

"Well, sometimes it gets lonely. But I have my house-elf that I can play with. When he isn't busy, I have him to keep me entertained." Lille hadn't ever thought about that before. She was used to not having any brothers or sisters, and the thought of having them, and having to share things with them, didn't sit well with her. The newly sorted Ravenclaw paid attention to who Paula's siblings were, noticing the resemblances and the not so close resemblances. "That's kind of cool, that almost all of you are in different houses, besides Slytherin."

"Maybe I will. If it gets me out of doing detention in there, I could at least try it." Lille grinned at the thought. "Though, I'm sure the professors will say that because I'll be with an adult, I'll be fine, or whatever."

[Paula Kendrick]

Nikki listened as Lille spoke about her own growing up. "My mom's a pureblood so we were tutored at home," she told the other, "they didn't want to risk the chance of one of us showing signs of magic in front of a classroom full of kids who would go home and tell their parents or something. Mom and dad took turns teaching us what we needed to know before we got here." The blonde sometimes wished that she had been able to attend a muggle school just so she could tell the difference between them and Hogwarts or at the very least so that she could be used to the waking up early and homework thing.

The girl blinked in amazement as Lille told her about the house-elf. She really couldn't imagine living without her siblings. Sure she had to share things with them sometimes, but for the most part each of them had their own things and didn't have to share. "Only a house-elf?" she questioned, "and only when he wasn't busy?" She just couldn't grasp not having someone to play with whenever she felt like playing. She shrugged a little at the comment about it being cool they were each in different houses. "I suppose so," she said, "I just wish I had been sorted into Gryffindor so I could be with the sibling I get along better with. I mean I love Ben and all, but he's one of those typical Ravenclaws who are interested in studying as much as they possibly can and all that and I love Ruth, but she's," the blonde just shook her head, "she's nothing like me at all."

Paula giggled and shook her head. "I don't think that's going to get you out of doing detention. If anything it'll make it worse and you'll have to serve more than one in there." She nodded in agreement to what the professors would probably say. "Yea they tend to believe that just because you're with an adult you'll be fine."