Strings of Thought

January 9th, 1891 — Hufflepuff Common Room, early afternoon

Oftentimes, Shona wished she weren't taking such a full courseload. It left her with little time to practice the mandolin, which of course she brought her own, and her courses left her with a significant amount of homework. Still, each Saturday she tried to block out an hour or two to practice. Strumming a gentle tune of her own creation as she contemplated the fast-approaching end to her schooling.

She wasn't sure she was ready to apply for an internship, or even if her father would permit her to do so. She would, of course, seek out Apparition licensing, and would purchase her own supply of Floo powder if necessary, but she would be aiming for that internship, and she would do whatever it took to be successful.

Of course, practicing at a table in the Hufflepuff common room meant she could easily be interrupted in her contemplation, and that was precisely what happened. Someone startled her out of her contemplation, and she jumped, strumming an odd note on the instrument. "Pardon me!" she exclaimed, apologetic. "I hadn't thought anyone would be about!"

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Open to 1-2 Hufflepuffs!

Darlings final year was in the final couple of months and she sometimes thought on it. There was not anything in particular that she wanted to do for a career so she was likely to be a debutante. It would suit her well enough, she figured. Even so, she was determined to do her best in her classes. It was Saturday and she had been studying on her bed for the last hour or so.

Done with that and in want of human company, she wondered where her dormmates had gone off to. Descending into the common room, she smiled as she saw Shone with her mandolin. "Oh, don't apologize! I enjoy hearing you practice," she assured. "Have you had lunch yet?"

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Carefully, Shona lowered the instrument into her lap. She'd come down to the common room to think, at an hour she hadn't thought she would be disturbed. Hoping for a little solitude, that she might think through some private contemplations. Some things no one wanted to know just yet. Things that no one should know, period.

So much was changing for the Lukeson name, hopefully those who bore it would still be standing.

"Thank you," she inclined her head, offering a smile. Miss Whitledge was, perhaps, one of Shona's favorite dorm-mates. The slender blonde had always been there, really, and they were of the same standing. So what, if her father had once told her to stay away from the Whitledge family? She couldn't avoid her dorm-mate without being impolite. "I fear I have not gone down to the hall, yet. In truth, I was contemplating simply visiting the kitchens."

She loved the smell of the kitchens.

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@Darling Whitledge