(Untitled)

[tatiana_w]

Week Name/Date/Time: 'Expect the Unexpected' / Tuesday, June 6th, 2006 / 7:30 AM.
Location: Great Hall
Open To: Noel  :)
Currently Involving: Tatiana

Tuesday was a study hall day for Tatiana, so she never felt particularly rushed to get to class. Her study hall professor seemed quite accustomed to her late arrivals and never marked Tatiana 'tardy' for

Comments

[sweet_noel]

Noel practically skipped in to the great hall, she was a big fan of Tuesdays, and summer as well. She just had to make it through herbology, and then she was home free until Thursday. Of course she was supposed to go to study hall, but this late in the year who would notice if she skived off?

Noel cheerily took a seat next to Tatiana and grabed a peice of buttered toast, oblivious to any of Tatiana's fellow Gryffindors that might not have appreciated her presence.

"Morning," she greeted before taking a small bite of her toast.

[tatiana_w]

Tatiana was enjoying a grape when Noel took her seat. "Mooorning," she sang out, unconsciously echoing one of her mother's habits. Yes, Lady Winters was always putting on a fake show of cheeriness. "What have you to do today?" she inquired pleasantly.

Tatiana's 'fellow Gryffindors' might not have appreciated Noel's presence, but Tatiana, as always, was oblivious to such barriers. To her complete delight, she crossed lines between the houses fairly with ease, thank-you-very-much. It wasn't often that a person was able to chat with both Slytherins and Gryffindors without hitting many snags at all.

"I myself have study hall, but I don't think the professor would mind terribly much if I missed the first ten minutes..."

[sweet_noel]

Noel liked to think that she could effortlessly mingle with any house that she pleased, though in truth she knew there were many that would dislike, or at least distrust, her just on principle.

Still chewing she let the conversation pause a moment before she scrunched up her nose and responded, "Herbology is all." It wasn't that she outright hated Herbology, after all she adored flowers. "I just hate having to dig through the dirt" she finished, putting down her toast so that she could examine her nails.

"Do they still expect us to go to study hall at this point?" Noel sighed, "It's so close to summer." Despite being a winter baby Noel had always been fond of the warm summer weather.

[tatiana_w]

Well, there were some people Tatiana was just iffy about, 'on principle.' For quite some time, she'd had a bit of an issue with Hufflepuffs, though she could never understand just why that was. Just as equally baffling was the fact that she herself--a rather, er, dimwitted Gryffindor--did not hate Slytherins on principle. Her housemates seemed to be put off with this...not that Tatiana cared at all.

"Ah, so do I!" Tati said in exasperation. "Plants can be pretty and all, but when they whine or bite your fingers or set themselves on fire? They're just a horrendous mess. And dirt--ugh. Mainly I get someone to help me with the digging bit," she admitted without shame. After all, Noel would understand. It was lovely to know someone with...ah, similar interests.

[sweet_noel]

Despite her alliances, Noel didn't really have anyone that she outrightly disliked on principal. She found it useful to be able to keep the individuals separate from the group they belonged to. Though she knew it couldn't stay that way forever.

But for now she was content to mingle with other sorts of people while she had the chance.

Noel nodded enthusiastically in agreement. "Flowers really shouldn't have any purpose other than to be pretty," She agreed. A sentiment she seemed to apply to her own life as well.

"Ah, I hadn't thought of having someone do the digging for me! That's brilliant." Noel replied with a wide smile, as though Tatiana had shared some marvelous revelation. In her own flower arranging she had always just purchased, or transfigured, her flowers. Growing them herself was far too labour intensive, and she had never been a fan of having a house elf touch those sorts of things. They didn't need to be mussed up.

[tatiana_w]

"Of course flowers are only good for being pretty," Tatiana said dismissively with an imperious wave of her hand. "I keep telling people that's all I'm good at as well, and they just tell me to try harder in class. Pssh, as if I'd get an actual career someday," she scoffed. "I'd be plenty happy just to get married...I'm sure you'd agree?"

Tatiana nodded, surprised at her own savvy. "Yes, it took me half a year to think of it, but I finally was able to get a classmate to do the dirty bit instead. And that's all that really matters, isn't it? They aren't going to make us dig for the exams, after all."

She shook her head and put down her fork. There was only so much thinking she could do about dirt; she'd have to change the subject. "So, what are you wearing to the end-of-the-year ball, Noel?" Now THAT was a subject Tati knew.

[sweet_noel]

"Trying hard in class is for Ravenclaws, though sometimes it does look nice to seem as though you're aiming for a career." Noel thought aloud, "not that I ever intend to actually work." She agreed, the life of a pureblood wife was the only 'career' she had ever considered.

Noel was thrilled for a change of subject, even more so when it had to do with the upcoming ball. "Now that is an important decision." She began quite seriously, "I haven't decided for sure yet, but I'm thinking something light and summery. Have you already planned out what you're wearing?" Noel asked with a little surprise, she knew that she could never stick to something this far in advance, there were just too many options.

[tatiana_w]

((Sorry if it's been a long wait--LJ is being an arse and hasn't emailed me comments in the past day or so.))

With a heavy sigh, Tatiana agreed. "I suppose so. A fair amount of ambition gets one through the day without being screamed at by a professor."

Cheerily Tatiana instantly became animated, flailing her hands around for a moment and leaning forward as if to share a juicy bit of gossip or a secret.

"It's never to early to plan an outfit for an event! I think you'd look splendid in white, which I suppose is light and summery enough?" She nodded earnestly as she spoke, completely in her element.

At lighting speed, Tati related her dress search to Noel: "Well, I've asked my mum to owl a few lookbooks to me--those are basically catalogs of all the outfits shown at a runway show--and I've narrowed my choices down to a scarlet and a white Valentino. What do you think?"

[sweet_noel]

[[ No problem, I've been having computer issues of my own. ;D ]]

"White it is then," Noel replied enthusiastically. She was always appreciative of Tatiana's advice. Sure, Noel like clothes, but that was Tatiana's area of sheer brilliance.

"You've always looked amazing in scarlet," Noel replied cheerily. Maybe that was why she had been sorted in to Gryffindor, as if that dirty old sorting hat had any fashion sense. "Of course, you'd look amazing in either," she finished earnestly.

[tatiana_w]

Tatiana smiled down at her clasped hands, faking a bit of modesty. Having her ego fed was always something she enjoyed. Why, if she could say so herself, she'd tell people she was going for a career in modeling. But of couse, Mum would eat her alive for saying such a thing. Having pictures taken of yourself for a living? It was scandalous to Lady Winters!

"I'm so tempted to wear the bright scarlet. Just to show some house pride and irritate Slyth--sorry--just to irritate my sister, I mean," she corrected herself with an apologetic nod. "I'm afraid Adriana messes with my perception of your house. I don't find most of you that bad, I must say."

[sweet_noel]

"Don't worry about it," Noel brushed off the comment with a smile. She certainly knew that Tatiana didn't get on well with her sister, and though she didn't really know why, wouldn't hold it against her. She would never understand why some of her housemates disliked even purebloods from other houses.

"Now we've just got to make it through our OWLs then," Noel said grimly.

[tatiana_w]

Well, wasn't this lovely? Here they were, no doubt both branded as shallow blonde airheads by their classmates, and yet they'd managed to have a fairly good house-tolerance understanding. Score.

Exactly why didn't the Winters sisters get along? There were a multitude of answers. For one, Tatiana was a Gryffindor, which didn't sit well with Adriana. For another, Adriana was much too proud to acknowledge anything worthwhile that Tati did--Adriana was only able to focus on Tati's...er, shortcomings...there were many. And lastly, Adriana was downright mean, and on top of that? Tatiana was quite unforgiving. It wasn't a pretty mix.

"Ah yes, OWLs," Tati echoed gloomily. "I don't know if I'll be able to get through them! I'm not the brightest of..." she tried to think of a metaphor, and couldn't. "I'm not the brightest person," she admitted awkwardly, and poked a bit of scrambled eggs with her fork.

[sweet_noel]

Noel might have understood if she had a sister, but being the only girl and youngest child meant she was treated like a princess. And she was perfectly fine not changing that a bit.

"I'm sure you'll do well enough," Noel tried her best to be encouraging, "After all it's not like we'll really need them anyway. And if you pass less tests that just means you get more free time next year." Noel was fairly certain she'd be able to pass at least the classes she needed to take the NEWTs to be a healer, and even if she didn't she wasn't too attached to any particular career. Plus, more free time did sounds appealing...

[tatiana_w]

If anyone in the immediate Winters family was treated like a princess, it was Tatiana's mum, the lady Isabeli Winters. Though come to think of it, she was treated rather more like a queen. If she weren't Tati's own mother, Tati would think of her as quite a royal pain at times. Huh.

Tatiana shook her head hopelessly. "Just watch--while I completely fail my OWLs, Adriana will do completely stellar at her NEWTs. And then Father shall be disappointed. He's never angry, but disappointed. It's only about, oh, twenty times worse. Are your parents like that, too?"

With a slight shrug, she gave a small "hmm!" and tried to see the brighter side of things. "Yes, that's true...if I only pass a couple, I suppose I'll only have a couple classes next year..." Now, that really didn't sound so bad after all!

[sweet_noel]

"Father?" Within the family he would always be referred to as 'Daddy' by the youngest Stryker, but she did have apperances to uphold. "No, he's never done anything like that." Of course that was because Noel never dared to disobey her parents.

As much as she had her father wrapped around her little finger, to the point where she got anything she wanted, they had her under their control twice as bad. Her parents word was law, end of story.

"That's right, and we should get to enjoy our last couple of years."She grinned, not that Noel hadn't been enjoying these last five years to the fullest.

[tatiana_w]

Sadly, around the house, Tatiana was expected to refer to her parents formally as "Mother" and "Father", and respond to them with cut "yes ma'am"s and "yes sir"s. It might've seemed severe to Tatiana's friends, but she'd gotten used to it through the years. And her parents were distant, besides--her father was politically absorbed, and her mother? Er, she was perfectly content to live out her days jetting from spa to spa in the south of Europe. But hey, Tatiana didn't mind it too much. It gave her more time on her own to pursue her...ah, expensive hobbies.

Ah, their last couple of years indeed. Tatiana stared off into space for a moment, pondering that bit. "Yes...what do you suppose you'll do after that, Noel?" she wondered. "I've told Adriana about my own plans for the future, and she just scoffs at me like always."