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arden campbell was a mystery. she didn't have many friends, so people didn't know much about her. they all found her rather attractive, but then they saw that all she did was read and do homework, which in their eyes, wasn't attractive at all. but they didn't know her story. nobody at hogwarts did. they all just assumed. and that is the problem with society these days: nobody asks questions, so they assume; then they share their assumptions, creating rumors, and rumors like 'freak' tend to stick. but arden didn't mind. not to the public.
thursday's were open quidditch practices, meaning anyone could watch. her favorite place to be was alone in the quidditch stands, with only the company of a hardback book. she loved coming the practices throughout the whole year, but her favorite time to be there was during the fall and winter, because her favorite days consisted of curling up in a blanket with a book and cheering on the players. not aloud of course. but today was not one of those days. it was rainy and hot and she felt sick.
she sat waiting for practice to start for a good half an hour. she opened her book and began to read. she was currently reading "The Outsiders" and so far, it was her favorite book. but unfortunately, as much as she always loved reading, she wasn't feeling it at the moment. she looked up to see that practice had started and she sat up and got comfortable. she immediately recognized james potter, the gryffindor chaser and infamous prankster. she had always admired james. not that she liked him as anything more than a regular human being, but in a way where she had always wanted to be close friends with him. everyone saw the way he was with ivory hue, and she aspired to have that kind of relationship. but other than that, she didn't see james potter as anything more than a fantasy friend. not a crush, not a real friend, not a brother, nothing. although if she had to pick someone from his friend group, she definitely admit to herself that sirius black was quite attractive.
arden was snapped out of her thoughts by a quaffle being thrown into the stands beside her.
"oi! throw that back, will ye?" james potter smirked. arden struggled to get up and pick up the sport ball. she wasn't going to attempt to throw it and embarrass herself during her first encounter with the boy. she picked it up and reached out to give it to him. he laughed and said, "you've got to be kidding."
she shook her head at him. he rolled his eyes and took the quaffle, zooming back to the center of the field. she groaned, covered her face, and plopped back down into her seat. great. first impression: "she's a freak." that's how it always went when arden tried to make friends. but she wasn't going to stress about it. he doesn't even know her. why should it matter?
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tomorrow would be the perfect time for a late night library visit because everyone would be at hunter collin's party, so the library would be empty from 9 until at least 4 in the morning. perfect conditions for curling up in a corner in the library in the middle of the night. it wasn't the quidditch field, but it still gave her a warm feeling just thinking about it.
she had just gotten out of transfiguration, her last class of the day. it was a couple hours after noon, and arden was exhausted. although she was unsure why, she let it go. after her and her classmates ate lunch in the great hall, she went up to bed and went to sleep. well, she tried to. the girls in her dorm wouldn't stop laughing over... she wasn't even sure what it was that was so funny. after an hour of waiting for them to chill out, she came to the conclusion that they weren't going to shut up, so she decided to go out and lay down by the lake.
as she descended the stairs, she could hear familiar voices chuckling behind her. not directly behind her, of course, but as she reached the bottom of the grand staircase, they slid down the railing. one by one they hit the floor, brushed themselves off, and continued about with their day. except for james, who fell off the railing halfway down. what an idiot.
"what the bloody hell happened?" sirius wheezed, doubling over in laughter at his friend.
"shut up," james mumbled, whacking sirius in the back of the head before dusting himself off. the boys all roared when james tripped not even a minute later.
"clumsy twat," the carmel haired boy— remus?—shook his head. arden let out a laugh at that, and was beyond thankful that they didn't notice her.
she didn't come across the four boys after that encounter for the rest of the afternoon, thankfully. the girl absolutely despised being in their presence because she felt that she would only embarrass herself if she was around them. a perfect example of this would be this morning at practice, she thought to herself. oh well. it's not the first time something like that has happened to her and it won't be the last.
arden found her favorite spot right on the edge of the forest. she had never been a huge fan of the lake, though she wouldn't mind being alone there with maybe one other person. maybe her best friend. maybe someone else. either way, she had never been a fan of the lake. wanna talk about abnormal fears? arden had plenty of those. the lake, the kitchens, the astronomy tower, mandrakes... the list goes on and on.
pulling out her book, arden laid her back against the tree behind her, and began her reading. she read on about pony boy and johnny saving the school children from the burning church and johnny being hospitalized. she read over a hundred pages in one sitting and didn't even realize that it was dark out. the moon always shined so bright that you could barely notice the difference when you're out of it. it seemed to be around 9 o'clock and she was famished. she hoped that one of her dorm mates would have some food.
by the time that she arrived to her room, arden could barely keep her eyes open, so she ended up passing out, not even asking for food.
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i finally updated, you guys haha. sorry it took so long. there's been a lot of issues lately, but i'm really trying to update on time from here on out. i haven't really had a whole lot of inspiration lately but i made do with what i could think of. THIS IS NOT EDITED YET! okay have a nice day/night.
