Parchment Chaser - Katsurou

[serena]

It wasn't that late but most people had gone upstairs to their dorms to catch up with one another after the holidays, show off new clothes and robes, exchange holiday romance stories and enjoy the fact there was little homework and it wasn't due for at least a week. Serena on the other hand didn't really have anyone to talk to about such stuff if such stuff had happened during her holidays (which it had not).

Serena set out her stuff across a small round table. There were a couple of places here and there where the striped wood could be seen and the floor around herself was scattered but it wasn't all homework mainly just notes from studying and about a book she was writing. Once she was done with her homework she completely intended on continuing with her book.

Dipping her quill in her ink Serena started on her essay by writing out the title and underlining it. It was nothing special but neither was she really. Some people had beautifully neat hand writing or nice parchment or even a nice quill to write with, she had none of these things. Her hand writing was barely legible, her parchment was just the cheapest that could be afforded and her quill was old, one she'd had for a couple of years now and that was very nearly split at the tip. She was going to need a new one soon and while they weren't overly expensive it was just a cost her family could do without sometimes.

Putting quill to parchment Serena started her Charms homework, her mixed house class had been given it that day. There were so many interesting aspects to charms but it wasn't really something Serena was overly keen on furthering her skills in. She knew what she needed to run a home from what she'd learnt from her mother and tidying up after her siblings. She hated confrontation but knew a few defensive spells should she need them, figuring she wouldn't need any for an offensive as she'd just sort of run and hide.

Her real passion was reading and writing, especially the writing and so quickly she hurried her quill through her essay without cause to stop until she noticed the common room door open and close, a couple of her pages floating away on the cross breeze from the door and an open window and people just walking on by and up to their dorms without a care while she went from one side of the common room to the next, chasing her pages.

[katsurouakiyama]

It wasn't that Kat didn't like socialising with his new dormmates, he was just quite comfortable in the common room. After all, he would have all year and the next getting to know everyone and to be honest he didn't doubt that he would soon make some friends in his own house as well (Lena, of course, being his other friend).
He had noticed that some others had retreated to the dorms for a healthy bit of holiday gossip, but he was fine where he was, in front of the fire, and writing a rather lengthy letter to his parents, telling them how his first few days at school had been.

As he had been sorted in a friendly house, he had hardly had any trouble getting along with his class- and housemates, despite the fact he was an exchange student. Of course he hadn't made any friends for life yet (apart from maybe Lena.. or so he hoped), because that never happens in the span of a few days, but everyone was being civil to him and no one had made him sit alone in class. It was nice to be received into a group so pleasantly.
He was having a little trouble language and culture-wise, but apart from that he was doing pretty well. Katsurou's English was suffient for conversation and general class activity, but the spells and things like potions' ingredients and the names of plants were a completely different matter. For one thing, he had been educated in an asian sort of magic, while these spells were often Latin-based, but also were the magical creatures and plants a lot different here than in his homeland due to their very different climates. The least of things he'd had to get used to was writing with quills. At home he usually employed ballpoints or pencils (muggle, but easy!), but in school they had traditionally 'written' with paint-brushes - the noble art of calligraphy could prove most useful in magic, after all.

He was momentarily distracted by a draught which seemed to come from the door, and then by a whirling of parchment and a fluttering around him. Those who had caused the miniature-chaos walked on undisturbed, maybe caught up with each other more than their surroundings, but it did not go unnoticed to Kat that a girl was chasing after the lost leaves from one end of the common room to the next.
Placing his inkwell on his letter to stop it from undergoing the same fate, Kat got up from the couch where he'd been sitting and helped the girl in retrieving her what he guessed to be homework. "Here you go."

[serena]

Serena looked up to see the boy holding out a piece of her parchment. Her eyes had been mainly focused on the floor and her mind on praying to God that none of it floated out of the window so to see the last piece was now in someone's hand was quite a relief but she did feel a wave of embarrassment as she did not want anyone to read her work (for writing a book was a quite a personal thing to her).

"Oh thank you!" She smiled and hurried over carefully and collected her piece of parchment as her mind prayed to God he had not look at it and she hoped there was nothing too detailed on there about what it was she was writing about. She wasn't sure if she was a good writer or not and wasn't all too interested in finding out just yet as she would be highly critical of herself if someone thought it bad and probably start all over again with something completely different (possibly even burning her first attempt at a book) and trying to come up with a new hobby to occupy her time. After all she did need something to do because when she wasn't doing homework or reading there was very little else she was doing.

"You're the new boy?" She asked softly though it was also part statement. She hadn't really said anything to this new boy and wasn't even sure on how to pronounce his name but she was sure with her thick Irish accent she'd make it sound worse than any Englishman could.

"I'm sorry for my bluntness." She said quietly hoping she appeared a little apologetic and not at all worried what he might think of her writing (if he even glanced at it). "I'm Serena, I'm in your year, I think we've had a couple of classes together already." She wasn't sure what else to say but she extended her hand for a handshake.

[katsurouakiyama]

Kat had not read what was on the pieces of parchment he'd picked up. Sure, it could well be something innocent like homework, but also a letter - a personal letter to her parents or maybe a love letter which he sure as hell had nothing to do with. Of course his eyes had caught a few words as he had picked them up, but he hadn't looked at them since.
"Oh thank you!" He smiled back at her. "No problem. You've got them all now?" Who knew, after all - it had happened pretty fast and maybe some of the sheets had ended up under one of the couches or something?
He noticed she had a bit of an accent, but it didn't sound unpleasant to his ears. Far from it, in fact - it had an easyness about it that made her sound friendly.

"You're the new boy?" He nodded. "Quite." What else could he have said? Katsurou was confused for just a moment when she apologised for being blunt and he guessed it had something to do with her statement of him being new. Kat didn't see any harm in it - it had been a correct statment, after all - so he smiled.
"Don't worry about it," he said, nodding a little and sitting on the backrest of the couch. He briefly wondered why she wasn't upstairs with friends, chattering about Merlin-knew-what they had done the past few months, but then she introduced herself and he slid off the couch to shake her hand. "I thought I recognised you, but there are so many new faces," he said a little apologetically. "I'm Katsurou, but just call me Kat, that's fine." Throughout the last few days, he had noticed how different his name was from the rest and some had had trouble pronouncing it.

[serena]

Serena nodded her head. She had all of her papers now thanks mainly to Kat. He had caught the last one for her and would have been very relieved to know that he was courteous enough not to take a peek and just have himself a little read of what she was writing. "I think so. I think that was the last one."

Serena never really spoke very loudly or even what someone might class as normal and she was always the placid one of her family and if she had friends that she hung out with then she was sure she would be the most placid of them too.

"Oh, most understandable. I'm sure it's strange coming to a new school where everyone sort of knows one another already." Serena felt a little sorry for Kat and figured (not knowing about Lena) that he probably had no friends in the school either. Though he did seem like he might be the popular sort and would make friends in no time. He was friendly.

"I hope you don't mind that I ask this but where do you come from originally and how come you changed schools?" It may have been very personal to ask and so Serena decided she would voice that he didn't have to answer if it was too personal. "I'm sorry, I'm very inquisitive and you don't have to answer if you don't want to. I just appreciate you helping me and I would like to get to know you a bit better because you seem very nice." Serena wondered if that was ok or if she had overstepped some sort of boundary because if she had then she would go back to her homework and book and leave the poor boy alone.

[katsurouakiyama]

He was glad they'd retrieved all the pieces of parchment. He'd hate to lose part of his homework or, worse, a letter in a room like the common room, which was pretty much accessible to any Hufflepuff.
"Oh, most understandable. I'm sure it's strange coming to a new school where everyone sort of knows one another already." He nodded a little, though Serene needn't feel sorry for him. Kat liked meeting new people and, in all honestly, the culture shock was quite refreshing.

"I hope you don't mind that I ask this but where do you come from originally and how come you changed schools?" He smiled - of course he didn't mind!
"I'm from Japan originally," he explained. Kat vaguely recalled having come up with a reason for moving to the UK to Lena, but he had forgotten what it was. Oh well, it probably didn't matter much. It wasn't like Serena and Lena would get together soon to compare his storiesm right? Besides, he could always tell Lena that his initial story had been a white lie because he hadn't known she went to Hogwarts - which was also a lie! This was confusing. He was going to have to stop lying! "It sounds stupid, I know, but I felt like being adventurous." He grinned a little. "Plus my father said that English is going to be the language of business, so I figured I might as well learn to speak it properly."
He charmingly laughed her apology away. "Don't worry about it, I'm not easily offended." Kat smiled. "So, in turn, do you mind if I ask you why you sound slightly different from the other English people I've heard?" The fact that they were in Scotland and not England escaped him, as well as the fact that Welsh, Scottish, and Irish people were likely to be annoyed with him calling them English. The boy had a lot to learn.

[serena]

Japan! Serena found Kat's answer fascinating. Japanese muggles were some of the most clever. She wondered what it would have been like growing up in Japan where everywhere was so crowded with muggles and then coming to Britain where the muggles were technologically slower than the Japanese but more spread out.

"Wow, that's really amazing Kat." She said, full of genuine awe. "But why Great Britain? We seem so dull over here compared to the rest of the world. You could learn English almost anywhere in the world, though truthfully you don't really seem to need any sorts of lessons. Your English is really pretty good by the sounds of it." Serena was almost fascinated by Kat. He had a thirst for adventure and (if she even dared think of it) he was really quite attractive with his smooth skin and gorgeous eyes.

Serena was glad that Kat was not offended by her questions, she would have been most ashamed of herself if he had been quite abrupt with her and demanded she leave him alone but he seemed like a very nice chap and she hoped that she would be able to tell when he wanted to be left alone.

"Oh, my accent. Well I'm not really English you see. I speak English but I'm actually from Ireland. Across the water. There's probably going to be quite a few different accents that you'll hear. England alone has more than I could attempt to count." She hoped that was a sufficient answer and hoped that it was just her accent that she was referring to and not that she had something wrong with her voice that she could not hear or just thought was normal. Then she might have to head to the hospital wing and find out what was wrong with her.

[katsurouakiyama]

To be honest, Kat wasn't very concerned with muggles. Well.. he didn't mind them. He thought they were people as much as wizards and witches were, really, but he had never sought them out. They had their life, he had his, no one needed to get in each other's way, right?
"Wow, that's really amazing Kat. But why Great Britain? We seem so dull over here compared to the rest of the world. You could learn English almost anywhere in the world, though truthfully you don't really seem to need any sorts of lessons. Your English is really pretty good by the sounds of it." He laughed a little. "Why Great Britain? Because you're the English speaking country. I mean, I suppose I could go to America, but you're, well, like the place where English was born, right?" That was not technically true, as Britain is, for a large part, a Germanic language originating in Germany and Denmark, but that was beside the point. English as we know it now is from Britain, no one can doubt that.

Kat thought Serena was a nice girl, she seemed like the typical Hufflepuff. She was enthusiastic and interested in other people and pretty easy-going, like he was. He made a mental note to speak to her more often, because she was really brightening his evening.
"Oh, my accent. Well I'm not really English you see. I speak English but I'm actually from Ireland. Across the water. There's probably going to be quite a few different accents that you'll hear. England alone has more than I could attempt to count." He nodded a little. "Ah, like that.. I did hear other pronouncing things slightly different, but you stood out." He grinned a little to show he didn't mean that in a mocking or unpleasant way. "I like your accent, it sounds very, eh.. clear." He couldn't really find the right word, but his reason for thinking her accent was 'clear' had to do mostly with the r's. They rolled off her tongue so nicely and, in his opinion, made some things easier to understand, as non-rhotic English speakers tend to leave r's out at the end of syllables, which sometimes confused him.

[serena]

Serena smiled. She supposed English was known for speaking English so it did make sense. But still she decided in her mind and kept it to herself that America would probably have been far more adventurous and he would probably have had a far greater time at a school there and she was sure he would have come across some people that would have been friendly. Like she had thought before Kat seemed nice and like he would be a popular sort of person once he'd settled.

Serena blushed a little when Kat told her she'd stood out because of her accent. She was never one for standing out and usually didn't like to be thought of as standing out but coming from Kat it didn't seem like such a bad thing and she liked that he liked her accent but clear was never a word she had before heard to describe the Irish accent.

"Oh!" Serena didn't really know what to say in response to Kat. "I feel flattered." She smiled. Her normally pale cheeks still tinted with the red of her blush. "I have to admit I don't often find myself in this sort of position." Even though she didn't feel as though she was directly being flattered it seemed as though she still felt a little jump in her stomach at the thought of someone actually liking her accent and not just associating it with muggle wars or heavy drinkers. It was actually somewhat refreshing for her to have someone around that was talking to her and that probably wasn't completely up to date with everything that was going on and had gone on in Ireland. Not that any of it was Serena's fault but sometimes she did feel a little ashamed of her country and the people that were supposed to love it but instead were destroying it and their fellow men.

[katsurouakiyama]

America might've been more adventurous, yet, when coming from Japan, England was farther away than the US were. Also, this way, he could always have a nice detour through Europe during the holidays, maybe he'd ask Lena to come, she might like it.. It was only an idea though, not yet a fully-fledged plan.
Katsurou remembered how Lena had explained the general 'sort of people' in the different houses to him and he had to admit he thought Serena was a typical Hufflepuff, by those standards. Not that he trusted the generalising idea blindly, that would be stupid, but he found himself testing what Lena had said to him constantly.

He smiled when she said, blushing, that she was flattered. "You should be, it was a compliment," he half-teased and smiled. He wasn't quite sure what to do with her confession that she didn't often found herself 'in this sort of position', not sure what sort of position she actually meant - standing out, being complimented, or feeling flattered? Of course all these three 'positions' were related and not immensely different from each other, but especially in this country where they didn't speak his mother tongue, Kat wanted to be sure what people meant.
Kat had no idea it had something to do with the general association with Ireland. Of course he knew some UK history, it would've been stupid not to, seeing as he was living there now, but he had no idea it was still so.. alive?
"Well," he said, just to keep conversation going (because he wanted to keep their conversation going - she was nice), "I like it, anyway. You mumble less than the Scottish ones." Kat grinned a little. Not that he disliked the Scottish ones, they were just hard to follow sometimes.

[serena]

Serena's cheeks were still a healthy pink and she had taken to averting her eyes. She knew it was silly but she really did feel quite flattered by Kat and it was something she was not used to. After awhile however she had to look him in the eye as she felt she was being far too rude to him if she didn't. Eye contact was a necessary in maintaining a good conversation she had been told but she'd never really had many good conversations because usually they were over before they even began but this evening was proving quite different because Kat was quite engaging.

"Well thank you very very much Kat. I'll sure go to bed feeling happy this evening. I have to say I've never really noticed many accents. There's such a mix of accents here that you just sort of get used to them all." Serena was quite enjoying talking to Kat and she was starting to thinknthat maybe dinger some good to become a more social animal. She wouldn't change herself completely but maybe make herself a few new friends and Kat was a good start for her.

"Have you met many new people or made any new friends at Hogwarts yet?" Serena was really getting into the swing of this conversation thing and thought maybe of asking Kat about his family in Japan and what life was like over there but decided she wouldn't. She decided she would take things slow for her first proper conversation while back at school, she didn't want to scare Kat off by being too nosy or inquisitive into his personal life because that would also be rude she thought.

[katsurouakiyama]

He noticed she was blushing a lot, still, and was now averting her eyes a little and for a moment, he felt a pang of insecurity. He hadn't made her feel uncomfortable, right? That was the last thing he wanted. Kat himself favoured honesty and guessed just saying it out loud might lessen the tension, so after a moment of formulating his sentence, he asked: "I'm not embarrassing you, right? Or making you uncomfortable? 'cause I don't mean to, and if you can tell me what it is, I'll stop doing it." After all, it could be some sort of cultural difference he was not aware of. It wasn't, of course, but he didn't know that and he was just trying to be nice.

Kat half-yawned (not because he was tired, but because he was lazy!) and smiled. "I suppose this place must be a melting-pot of accents," he said with a nod. "Still, I noticed yours first, so you can take credit for that." She seemed to have trouble with outright compliments sometimes, so this time, he tried 'hiding' it in a joke to see how that would work. Katsurou really thought Serena was a lovely girl and would make a lovely friend, and so far, his main conclusion was that her self confidence deserved a boost.

"Have you met many new people or made any new friends at Hogwarts yet?" Kat smiled, if only because the question reminded him of Lena. "Well," he started, "I arrived in London to live there last summer, because transferring directly from Japan would've been rather terrible with the time difference and all and you won't believe it that I actually met someone in London who already goes here." He paused a moment for a dramatic effect. Kat could be dramatic when he wanted to. Also, he wanted the emphasis of the story to be on the unlikeliness of it (imagine meeting someone who goes to Hogwarts in the same year as you in London, which is such a vast, enormous city, after all!), because else it would seem so obvious that the whole thing was planned. "Lena Beckett," he said, eventually. "She's in Gryffindor, real nice girl. I think you'd get along, too." He smiled at Serena for a moment. "But, eh, anyway - that's it actually, so far. I met Lena during the summer and now you. I've met some other people, but I never had long conversations with them like this."

[serena]

"Oh!" Serena blushed a little more at the noticeability of her blushing. It was a wicked circle that she was now caught up in and Kat's honesty in wanting to make sure he wasn't embarrassing her didn't help the flush of blood from her cheeks. "No Kat I just never really receive very many compliments as it's not an area of conversation that often arises for me."

Serena saw Kat yawn and assumed it was because she was boring him. She didn't mean to as she never really ever talked to anyone and wasn't really sure how proper conversational etiquette was supposed to go. She wondered if she was supposed to offer him something but then she realised she had nothing to offer. There was no tea or coffee or any sorts of drinks really so what else was there that she could offer? If he even wanted to stay? He was probably tired from a long day and she was just holding him up. Serena felt a little selfish but ignored it as he continued talking.

"Oh yes it is. Very much a melting pot of accents indeed." She said with a little bit of nodding included. "You'll find so many accents here you'll be sure to come up with a favourite!"

Serena smiled. It was good that Kat already knew someone at Hogwarts and it was another girl in their year, only a Gryffindor. That would make things easier for Kat she figured, he wouldn't always be alone but he really did seem like the sort that could make friends quite quickly and that would be sure to help him on his way to popularity, if he wanted to be popular. In fact he might even get there quite quickly. Lena was friends with the Marauders and they were the most popular people in the school now. Or very nearly the most popular people in the school. Serena could see Kat fitting in very well with the trouble making boys.

"Well you'll make new friends, you're a very friendly sort of fellow so you should make your new friends pretty fast." Serena couldn't believe that she was actually having a relatively long conversation with someone she'd only just met. This year was going to be a good one she felt, if she could make a few new friends then it would probably do her some good and help her come out of her anti-social shell. Not that she was exactly anti-social, just very quiet and shy.

[katsurouakiyama]

The moment he had voiced his worries about embarrassing her, Kat wished he hadn't because he felt he had made it worse; Serena's cheeks reddened all the more fiercely. "No Kat I just never really receive very many compliments as it's not an area of conversation that often arises for me. He smiled a little apologetic. "Oh, well - I'm not going to hold back giving you compliments, you should get used to them," he said, nodding a little. Katsurou wasn't trying to be charming or flirtatious per se, but there was a thin line between his joking around and his jokingly-flirting around. He honestly thought Serena was a nice girl and she deserved some confidence and, hence, compliments.

Serena needn't worry about keeping Kat up past his bedtime. Even if she didn't, Kat had enough confidence in himself and in the conversation to be able to speak up if he was too tired to continue. He smiled as she confirmed that Hogwarts was quite a mix of different accents. "It must be nice to be among all sorts of different cultures - do you know if there are any other exchange students or is the rest of the students all from the UK?"

Popularity was not something that Kat was very concerned with, really. He had often been told that he could be popular if he wanted to. Well great, but what did that mean, then? That everyone knew him or that everyone was envious of him or his friends? Not something he cared for much. He just wanted a group of good friends and a good time, wasn't that all anyone could ever want?
Serena had a good point in thinking that Kat might fit in well with the Marauders. I'm guessed especially Remus would be very interested in exchanging various types of cultural magic, as eastern magic wasn't very well-known and most of the books were written in Chinese or Japanese. Then again.. the Marauders were a unit, a tight front, and although they were nice, Kat would probably never belong to them in the way they were a team.

"Well you'll make new friends, you're a very friendly sort of fellow so you should make your new friends pretty fast." Katsurou smiled and shrugged. "I guess so. You're friendly too, though," he added, as he couldn't help but think Serena believed that he would make friends soon and might forget about her. "You're just a little quiet, but that only makes getting to know you better."

[serena]

Get used to them? Serena didn't really think that was going to be at all necessary as she was certain there was nothing more to compliment her about. Her parents were Irish, raised her in Ireland and she'd just picked up the local accent, that was the biggest and quite probably the best compliment she could ever imagine herself getting.

Serena pondered about Kat's question of exchange students and then shook her head. "I don't think there's any more exchange students. I think there has been in the past but they've either left or graduated." Serena was still quite quiet as she didn't really know anyone personally in school but it was nice starting to get to know Kat and getting to know Kat and talking to him was starting to help her feel comfortable with expressing herself with words rather than just giving a shrug as an answer.

Serena smiled and nodded. Her cheeks had returned to their usually pale white. "I try to be as friendly as I can be." She said though she didn't understand how her being quiet made getting to know her better. "Oh. It does?" She asked a little confused. "How so?" The question was out of her mouth before she had even thought of it but she tried to stay calm as her eyes widened. "I'm sorry. You don't have to answer that. I'm just a little confused. It's my fault. It's getting late and I'm getting a bit drowsy."