solitary chair

[erika2]

today was wednesday and as such the most difficult day of the week for mackenzie. some people disliked mondays but it was the middle of the week that always managed to make mac feel worse. this was a difficult feat to accomplish as she generally felt rather bad to begin with but there was something about the dreaded hump day which really brought her down. perhaps it was the day's nickname itself, an almost cruel reminder that even days of the week were able to get more action than the girl herself could but more likely it was the knowledge that two awful days lay behind her while two more were still ahead.

classes had just finished for the day and while students were scattering to get away from the classrooms they were exiting as they chatted to those around them mackenzie resigned herself to another night alone. her final class had been on one of the higher floors and as she made her way down the stairs she hummed the theme from an old arcade game to herself, trying to make a game of her daily dash through the halls; trying her hardest to avoid contact with any of the other students. as she made her way down the final flight of stairs mac got stuck right in the middle of a gaggle of first years. grateful that none of her skin made contact with theirs she let out a breath of relief before continuing to the hufflepuff common room.

approaching the entrance to the common room mackenzie took a deep, steadying breath before uttering the password. the threshold of the room was always crowded with people coming and going but she barreled through it jostling several people on the way and earning herself some rude remarks in the process. having finally reached her destination she made a bee line to the back of the common room.

by nature hufflepuffs were social creatures so the solitary chair located in the back of the room was just that, solitary. no one bothered to hang their cloaks on it because it was too far away from most everything else in the room. as a chair it had never warranted much attention in the past but since her return to hogwarts in recent months it had become hers in a way, she spent a good deal of time in it and there was something comforting about it, in a way that only furniture can be comforting.

she settled into the chair and let her mind begin to drift, things had been different since her return to the school mere months ago but the girl hadn't expected them to be quite so difficult.

OOC NOTES omg it is so bad and unpretty, i apologize but i just needed to post something with her. and i'm horrible with thread titles.

[juniperfour]

with a free period for his last set of classes, ellie had made his way - as was characteristic for him - towards the hufflepuff common room. it was cosy and sweet and filled with little yellow couches and cushions and was generally a very comfortable little hidey hole. but with someone who had sixteen years' worth of pent-up inhuman energy locked inside him, ellie was certainly not the type to be lying down a relaxing, or doing his homework: homework made his poor little brain hurt, anyway. he could always get someone else to do it for him. instead of knuckling down and getting his things together, ellie chose instead to spend his free hour or so partying it up in the common room. with a bunch of sixth and fifth year boys, he stood in front of the fire and laughed uproariously, chatted about professors and homework, handed around some sweets he'd collected over the holidays and generally tried to forget that he'd have to go back to classes tomorrow. it was all going well, and the afternoon passed into gentle obscurity as ellie realised he had let his period off merge slowly into the time after classes and that it was almost time for the room to be filling up with everyone, not just the older kids who had free time on their hands. as such, their raucous laughter and general cheer died down and most, if not all of his little collection of friends peeled themselves off from the group with a bunch of acceptable excuses - doing homework, taking a nap, seeing someone they knew - and left him standing before the fire. just as he was about to turn and head up to his dormitory and jump on the bed for a while just so he'd feel tired enough to lie down for a few minutes, he was rather abruptly pushed aside by a streak of golden robes and long brown hair.

taking a few seconds to rifle through his not-so-canny intelligence and take a guess who it might have been, suddenly his features lightened up happily, in the simple and gleeful way that it only did when he was glad to see someone. "mac!" he called after her, reaching the chair that had come to be known as her chair in a matter of a few lengthy strides. he was, after all, a very well-built boy for his age of only sixteen years, and his boundless energy made it all the more easy to cover the short distance. that, and he was just excited to see her. "mac and cheese! mackenzie," he called out, leaning down in front of her and waggling his tongue out, making hand movements above his head mimicking a moose's antlers. his holidays had been filled with sports, energy, running, meeting up with friends, and shovelfuls of food at every meal, just as every christmas should. the only thing lacking from the fairytale was family: christmas dinner was a subdued affair in his household, with just himself and his dear mama. but he couldn't understand why coming back to hogwarts would make his favourite little mac so unhappy, when she got to see him every day now. he knew he was happier upon seeing everyone he loved and missed for the past few weeks. "what's got you down, you old grump? i missed you over the holidays, you know!" with a heavy sigh, he lay across the back of her armchair theatrically, one hand laid delicately across his forehead. if she didn't tell him what was up, he'd have to stand on his head and make silly faces until she smiled. he much preferred it when she smiled: he hated when his good friend - or so he saw her: he didn't know or care whether she thought of him as acquaintance, enemy or friend - looked so glum and morose. it happened more often than not now, and he was going to don his detective's hat and get to the bottom of it, whether it was the last thing he did.

hello there, i'm juniper, i'm just going to slot ellie in here and ruin her perfectly calm and normal evening