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Elizabeth Jasmine Vance. (lostdesire) wrote in incanesco_rpg,
@ 2011-06-03 15:40:00

Entry tags:

!incomplete, elizabeth vance, lily evans

Who: Elizabeth Vance & Lily Evans.
What: A Slytherin and a Gryffindor get partnered for a class project, and surprisingly, it doesn't end with fists flying. Instead, it ends in the start of a new friendship.
When: Thursday, 2nd of September. | Herbology | 11 A.M.
Where: Greenhouse 4
Rating: Low
Status: Incomplete.

The very first classes of the year always bored Elizabeth. Most of her professors had a knack for spending the majority of the lesson lecturing the students of what the year the upcoming year would hold for them, and what subjects they would be covering. Professor Sprout was no different, and it seemed that she was packing more into their schedule this year, something that Elizabeth had expected especially because this would be her final year. That was a thought that absolutely terrified her. Elizabeth was a person for absolute control, and what the world had install for her following graduation was a little irksome. Nevertheless, it was her last year at Hogwarts and she intended to make the most of it, even if it meant spreading her wings a little more, and actually speaking to people. It wasn’t as if she was the silent weird kid in the corner - because she wasn’t - it was just that Elizabeth was such an introverted person that she tended to be more preoccupied with the world of the mind rather than actually voicing these thoughts. And this was something that proved to be a roadblock in terms of making friends, Elizabeth realised this, and slowly over the summer holidays she’d been doing her best to fix it. However, she was so stuck in her ways and she still constantly found herself hiding away in the corner during the many social events her parents had dragged her to. However, there was an extreme flaw in her plan - the fact that only people who would actually approach her in a friendly manner would be a fellow housemates, and despite the fact that she was rather civil with the majority of them, she found some of their actions rather barbaric. Still, she put up with it just to make her parents happy.

Positioned towards the back of the long table, Elizabeth doodled in her notebook as she pondered on what the new school year might bring. The welcome back feast the evening before proved to be what everybody had expected. The school paid their out most respect to her fellow students and as much as she feared of her father’s involvement in their deaths, she still felt deep sympathy for them, as well as their families and friends. Elizabeth sighed heavily, tucking a strand of hair behind her ear as she pushed the thoughts out of her mind. Ever since she heard the news she had had this constant nauseous pit in her stomach, and she was willing to do anything to make it go away. Elizabeth propped her elbows up on the table, placing her quill neatly next to her notebook as she skimmed through the pages of her textbook. Elizabeth reached around halfway through the book before a certain page caught her attention. She slouched her body over the book that laid flat on the table and narrowed her eyes. Reading a few sentences, her eyes indistinctly widened in astonishment as her head moved back to it’s original placement, rather amused by what she had just read. Well, at least Herbology was going to be interesting this year.

Her head snapped back up to Professor Sprout when she heard a few words that signaled the beginning of something more than the year’s schedule. “To ensure everybody gets back into the swing of things, I’ve organised a game of some sorts. I’ve paired each of you up and each pair will receive a card with a list of clues on it. It’s your job and your partner’s to identify the exotic plant as well as present its various uses. The first and most sophisticated answer will receive ten points for the appropriate houses.” Elizabeth rested her chin in one of her hands as she chewed the corner of her lip, a little irritated with the current task at hand. She had always had a distaste for group assignments because she always proved to be the one partnered with the daft git who did nothing, meaning she normally had to do all the work. Her ears perked up when she heard her name, a slight smile tugging at her lips as she looked up at Professor Sprout, a way of ensuring her teacher that she was listening. “Miss Vance, you’ll be paired with Miss Evans,” said Sprout rather cheerfully, as her head motioned towards Lily’s direction before she dropped a card in front of the red head. Elizabeth’s eyes reached the Gryffindor before they glanced around the room quickly realising that everybody had started moving. She pushed her two books off the edge of the table, catching it with her other hand before gathering them in her arms as she grabbed her quill and ink.

Upon reaching the Gryffindor, she smiled a little hesitantly before placing her belongings beside Lily’s on the table. “Lily, right?” she asked, even though she knew perfectly well who she was. She was Head Girl for crying out loud. Elizabeth took the seat next to her, straightening out her belongings before she looked at the girl again. “I’m Elizabeth,” she offered, not really sure if Lily knew her or not. It was always a mixed bag with everybody. People either knew her because of her family or they didn’t because of her tendency to keep to herself. Whatever was Lily’s case she wasn’t certain on so she offered her name all the same. Her hands motioned towards the card lying in front of Lily. “So what have we got?” she asked, forcing a smile to tug at her lips.

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fleurderouge
2011-06-03 05:43 am UTC (link)

Lily had had trouble concentrating all day. Normally, she was focused and cheerful on the first day of classes, happy to be back to Hogwarts after a long summer without magic, but today, the tragedy that had rocked the school to its core had all of her attention. Lily’s mind kept going back to her past experiences with the muggleborn students who had been murdered, even just times she had passed them in the corridors and barely given them a second thought. She felt both sad that she hadn’t reached out to them more and, at the same time, selfishly glad that no one to whom she had been especially close had been killed. Lily was both worried and frightened for herself and her own family, too.

Of course, she was also focused on the absolute debacle that had been the first Prefect meeting on the train yesterday. James Potter, who was meant to be her partner, had spent the meeting being himself: that is to say, drawing attention, interrupting progress, and hitting on Lily. At this point, she felt as though she were at her wit’s end with him, and it was only September.

Basically, Lily had a lot on her mind. She was looking at Professor Sprout as she spoke, but not particularly listening. Being the first day of classes, it was more or less the same information in each class, so Lily wasn’t disturbed from her reverie until she heard Professor Sprout say her name. Lily thought back to try and remember the last few things Sprout had said--they were meant to identify the plant on the card which was now sitting in front of her, as well as its uses, and she was going to be working with Elizabeth Vance.

Lily fought against prejudice on a daily basis. She took Gryffindors to task all the time for stereotyping Slytherins as “evil people” just based on their house, and yet her first thought when she saw Elizabeth heading her way was ‘Great, a Slytherin.’ Lily knew that the last thing she needed today was to be called an idiot mudblood. Almost as soon as she thought it, though, she felt ashamed of herself. She didn’t think she’d said ten words to Elizabeth in her life, and she’d certainly never seen her do anything to suggest she was a purist. She had no reason to believe that Elizabeth would treat her poorly just because she was Sorted into Slytherin. To compensate for her inward rudeness, Lily was outwardly even more polite to Elizabeth than she typically would have been, determined to prove the little voice at the back of her brain wrong.

“That’s right,” said Lily with a smile as Elizabeth set down. “I know who you are, but I don’t think we’ve ever properly spoken. A bit sad how we can get to seventh year and not know everyone in our class, isn’t it?” Finished with her greeting, Lily turned over the card Professor Sprout had set down in front of her, and placed it face up on the table between herself and Elizabeth. “It’s a bubotuber, isn’t it? Looks like Professor Sprout wants to make sure we haven’t forgotten anything, I suppose. Didn’t we cover these in fifth year?”

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lostdesire
2011-06-03 05:49 am UTC (link)

In all honesty, Elizabeth was a little taken back by Lily’s cheerful response. Normally, Gryffindors would either a) make a complaint to their professor demanding they switched partners, or b) had some sort of remark about her house. It was somewhat refreshing seeing someone who didn’t make that usual judgement. Even with everything going on outside the castle walls, and the fact that whoever was to blame for this terrible incidents were ‘her kind of people,’ Elizabeth was suddenly feeling much more at ease with working with the Gryffindor.

Elizabeth nodded her head before responding, “Definitely, but people tend to shy away from things they don’t know, or people for that matter. It’s a rather sad thought that you grow up with these people around you but you never really get to know them for who they are, instead of who people think they are.” Elizabeth chewed the corner of her lip a little nervously thinking of what she had just said. It confused her a little, especially seeing how candid her response was. Candid, in the way that she actually said what she was thinking for once and that she was actually referring to herself in the latter part. “I mean, I’m a Slytherin, I think there’s some unwritten law that states everybody has to be frightened of me,” she grinned for a second, “Which is a rather ridiculous thought seeing as I don’t even think the first year Slytherins are scared of me.”

Elizabeth settled her eyes on the card that laid in between them, reading the clues carefully before nodding her head instantly once Lily asked her to confirm her original thought. “Yes, it is.” She sighed as she leaned back in her chair, glancing around the room a little surprised that some of their fellow classmates still looked a little confused when they glanced at their cards. Maybe their one was a little easier than others. “And yeah we did. Usefulness and all. The pus is a remedy for acne, if I recall correctly.” Elizabeth shuddered a little, remembering the Herbology class when Professor Sprout made them collect the Bubotuber pus.

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fleurderouge
2011-06-03 05:55 am UTC (link)

Lily was somewhat surprised to find herself in agreement with Elizabeth's comment, but pleasantly so. She hadn't really spoken to Elizabeth before today, but she already seemed more tolerable than many in her house, helping to prove Lily's long-standing hypothesis that surely not all Slytherins were vile. "I absolutely agree," she said, nodding her head as she spoke. Elizabeth’s next comment actually made Lily laugh. The last time a Slytherin had made her laugh...well, that would be Sev, wouldn't it? Shrugging those thoughts off, Lily continued the amiable conversation. "And the unwritten law about Gryffindors says we've all got to be reckless idiots, right? But that's ridiculous too. I promise I won't live up to the stereotype of my House by causing a big scene today," she finished with a bright smile.

As Elizabeth confirmed Lily's guess about the bubotuber, Lily made a bit of a face. "Yes, but only diluted. In our class some idiot spilled their pus everywhere and broke out in awful boils. Does that count as a use?" Lily was mostly joking, but she supposed that as a defence, a can of bubotuber pus would work more or less as well as a muggle can of pepper spray, though of course a wand would do better than either in a confrontation.

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lostdesire
2011-06-03 06:45 am UTC (link)

Elizabeth pulled an exaggerated expression once Lily mentioned the Gryffindor stereotype. Like most of her housemates, Elizabeth found most of the Gryffindors intolerable. It wasn't because of their blood, or beliefs or anything, it was simply because they targeted Slytherins. Even if she considered that most of her housemates probably deserved some of the things they got, a lot of it was still unwarranted. Especially when Gryffindors would all stereotype them as bad people. And even more so, everybody has the capability of being a bad person, no matter whether you were a Slytherin, Gryffindor, Ravenclaw, or a Hufflepuff. And hell, even some of the Gryffindors were bullies, and in Elizabeth's books, that did make you a bad person. And, in a lot of the Gryffindors' cases it also made them a hypocrite. And that was something that both infuriated Elizabeth, and amused her slightly. Gryffindors walse around with big mouths, preaching how good they were, when really they're arrogance just turned people off. However, she hated when people judged her, especially when they hadn't said two words to her, so Elizabeth did her best not to judge anyone, even the ignorant gits who had happened to be sorted into Gryffindor. She mentally slapped herself for blanking out on the conversation at hand. Something that was a huge habit of Elizabeth's. She snapped herself out of it, and planted on a small smile to ensure Lily she was listening. Elizabeth laughed, something that was a little uncommon for her, at Lily's comment about Gryffindors. Despite what Lily said, Gryffindors were reckless. That's what often separated the two rival houses - Slytherins had the ability to think things through properly before they acted, and well, Gryffindors didn't.

"I think it's best we not follow rules today. I mean, these unwritten rules mean this has got to end in either fist flying, or you know, a big epic duel in front of everyone," Elizabeth responded with a hint of laughter in her voice. Elizabeth glanced around instinctively, rather surprised that she was actually laughing with another person. And strangely the person she was laughing with was someone her parents taught her to hate. "But, I promise that I won't draw any wands today," she said with one of her hands up in a 'scout's honor kind of way.

Elizabeth dropped her head down to her notebook, chuckling slightly when Lily mentioned some daft git who had managed to spill their pus everywhere. Elizabeth flipped a new page of parchment, one which wasn't covered in a drawing, and considered writing their answers down. However, she rolled her eyes realising that there wasn't much to write. She looked around the room, seeing everybody discussing with their partners, and she looked at Lily again wondering if this was a little awkward for her. Elizabeth was used to silence, hell, even when she was with Francesca it was rather quiet. Getting Elizabeth to talk was like pulling teeth. "Hey, congratulations on the whole Head Girl thing," she said quietly. "You excited?"

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fleurderouge
2011-06-05 05:19 am UTC (link)

At Elizabeth's amused comments, Lily found herself laughing once more, then continuing the thread of conversation effortlessly. "It's a shame, but I forgot my prejudice and blind hatred in my dorm today," she said in a mock disappointed voice. "I suppose we'll just have to get on. No duelling sounds good to me," she finished, imitating Elizabeth and giving a 'scout's honor' hand sign herself. For her part, Lily was enjoying this conversation immensely, happy to have found on the first day of classes someone else who she didn't know particularly well, but already got on with.

Honestly, Lily didn't mind the quiet. So often, because of her House placement, Lily was hard-pressed to find even a shred of it, and she had grown up in a fairly quiet household. Especially right after returning to school, this moment of silence was welcome. However, she was the one to break it, when she saw Elizabeth turn over a piece of parchment with a drawing on it. "Oh, wow," said Lily, reaching out for it. "Did you draw that?" she asked, a hint of awe colouring her voice. Of course, after she asked, she realised that Elizabeth had congratulated her on her position. Lily flushed just a bit and smiled, hand automatically straightening her badge. "Sorry, thank you," she said apologetically. "I am, yeah, if a bit nervous."

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lostdesire
2011-06-05 11:09 am UTC (link)

Elizabeth responded by simply laughing lightly, something that she hardly ever did. It was a refreshing change. Elizabeth didn't really have any friends. Sure, she had the few she talked to simply because of her obligations of keeping up appearances, and then she also had Francesca, but that group hardly ever included carefree banter like the one she found herself in. In all honesty, Elizabeth always found herself somewhat distant from Francesca and her 'minions.' And as much as she knew Chess had a brain, they still didn't think in the similar fashion that she did. Elizabeth was one for being quite content with sitting in silence by herself, and well, Francesca wasn't the type. When it came to their friendship it was a similar to a love, hate type of thing. Francesca would push Elizabeth's buttons, but somehow, she loved her all the same. But, the conversation she was having at hand, well it was fun. She didn't have to fear someone bringing up 'teaching mudbloods a lesson' or however Francesca and Jasper often spoke. And that meant she didn't have the pressure of making up her mind on the issue, or trying to figure out a way to stop the said lesson being taught. In all honesty, whenever Elizabeth was around Slytherins or in her common room, she felt this weird pressure, almost as if her mind was never at peace. This was probably why she hung around the grounds by herself during the majority of her free time.

Elizabeth blushed slightly when Lily commented on her drawing. When a person spends so much time alone, it was only natural they pick up something to do, and drawing was Elizabeth's. She had started it when she was younger, and hell, she was actually rather talented. She never really told anyone, but the majority of her friends knew she drew only because she usually had a sketch book in tow. Her favorite place to work was usually near the lake. There was quite a large tree just off the shoreline, and it was usually the spot where she could sketch or work on her art. When her parents had sent her off to Diagon Alley, she had even made a stop at a Muggle art store broaden her horizons, art wise. She hadn't worked with any of it yet but there was a variety of inks waiting up in her dorm room. Whenever she did work on her art, well, it soothed her. And it didn't make her feel like such a messed up person, because truth be told she did think of herself as a messed up person. There were even times where she wished she was someone else, but when she did draw or paint, that nagging thought would silence itself for a few brief hours. Elizabeth shrugged before she smiled at the Gryffindor. "It's nothing really," she said as she pushed her book further away from their focus. "I'm better with paints, but my artwork is honestly just a few doodles." she continued before she realised she had been a little rude by not thanking the girl for her compliment. "Thank you though," she said, her smile picking up again.

Elizabeth's smile faded again to her usual neutral expression. "I'm sure you'll do an excellent job. I mean, from what I've seen you're very fair to every student. I've seen some who favor others, and that's definitely not a good thing," she finished as she glanced around the room, curious on what their fellow students were doing.

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