Hush Hush (open)

Kitty sang cheerfully as she made her way around the castle, garnering more than a few strange looks as she went, although she wasn't sure whether that was due to her dress or her singing and in any case, she had never been one to worry too much about what other people thought of her. Personally, she rather liked her outfit today, but the blonde supposed that tartan was an acquired taste and some people had plainly never made the effort to try. She herself had had little choice, growing up as she had in the north of Scotland, but others had not been so privileged as she had, and she supposed that their hatred of tartan stemmed from jealousy on that point. Nevertheless, she had faith. She was stylish. Maybe not by everyone else's standards, but then who wanted to conform to other people's standards anyway? Other people were boring. Kitty conscientiously excluded every one of her considerable number of friends from this sweeping generalisation and then went on briskly with her train of thought. Other things were boring, too. Some of her classes, for a start, and long journeys and having tea with some of her more elderly relatives who gave her disapproving looks and complained about how degenerate young people were these days... She usually just smiled and switched off her ears.


The blonde stopped suddenly to avoid falling straight through a gap left by a moving staircase- something which she had done more than once in the past; it was a good job that she'd not yet broken her neck- and sighed. Having a naturally short attention span, Kitty could not be bothered to wait for a flight of steps to make its mind up to come her way, and so she turned back in the opposite direction and, picking a corridor at random, began to walk. She did not often find herself alone, being of a naturally friendly disposition, but nevertheless today would appear to be an exception, and so with a good will, she was making the best of the situation. It was very difficult to depress Kitty, and while it was possible- in fact, she had one particular issue which managed that on a regular basis- most people eventually gave up trying. Of she course she was human, and things got to her. But she hid it well. She had grown good at hiding things. From most people.


As she passed, Kitty eyed the doorway to the library. Generally, she wasn't in favour of spending too much time there, since it tended to limit her opportunities for socialisation, but since she didn't seem to have much chance of doing any in any case, the blonde decided that she might as well break the habit of a lifetime. She pushed open the door. The first sight which met her eyes brought an even wider smile to her cheerful face. Well, well, if it wasn't her very favourite roommate. It might be a library... but this opportunity was one which was too good to pass up. OK, she had no self control. Kitty accepted this, did her best to sneak up on Echo and enveloped the other Hufflepuff in a tight hug. "Hey!" she exclaimed, waiting a moment or two before finally releasing the girl.

Kitty reluctantly released her friend as Echo let go of her and grinned, completely unabashed, at the other girl's question. "I don't know if you're seeing things, sweetie; I can't see what you're seeing." she pointed out logically, one hand resting easily on her hip in the best attempt that she could make at sassiness. The blonde was not by nature a sassy person but nevertheless she made the effort and occasionally she was successful. After all, a million monkeys typing on a million typewriters for eternity would sooner or later produce the complete works of Shakespeare. Not that Kitty was an expert on Shakespeare. A couple of his plays were quite good, she supposed. As plays went.

"I guess that depends on your definition of hot." the blonde suggested, looking around and being somewhat disappointed by the results. Of course, she would never actually dare to speak to a hot guy, but it was nice to have something attractive to look at when one was supposed to be studying something boring... like Potions, for example, or maybe Divination. "And this is the Great Hall, right?" She gave the other blonde a wink as she sank into the couch with a sigh.

"Is this a new nickname?" Kitty queried. "If so, I like it. And actually, I'm quite warm... I got a friend to put a heat charm on my jacket, so I'm all good!" Sliding along the sofa a little, the Hufflepuff rested against her friend's arm as she peered over Echo's shoulder at the textbook, sighing inwardly as she did so. Studying was important, Kitty understood that, but you could have too much of it. Far too much of it.

A blonde head nodded enthusiastically in response to Echo's suggestion, and the head's owner slipped her arm through the other girl's. "Now, Echo, have I ever said no to the chance to spend time with you?" Kitty teased, attracting a couple of odd looks from the boys at the next table over. She ignored them- she was used to odd looks. "But I have to warn you that if you do work with me, it will probably turn out to be practically impossible."

"I know, I'm hilarious." Kitty agreed sunnily, giving her friend an affectionate smile. She knew that she was far from being any such thing, but she tried to make up for it in other ways. For one thing, her Hufflepuff loyalty. Kitty had friends; she had a lot of friends; and she would never betray any one of them to any other. Which could cause some considerable tensions at times, but nevertheless, she stuck to it. Because giving in was not in her character. The blonde had not exactly had an easy life. Giving in would, at times, have been all too easy. But she had not done it then, and she'd be hanged if she was going to do it now, after all this time. Someone had once told Kitty that she was the epitome of a Hufflepuff, and while it had been meant as an insult, she hadn't taken it as one. She'd come a long way to get to where she was now. There was no way that she was going to waste all that effort.

Her grin only grew at Echo's terrible pun. That was just perfect for Kitty's sense of humour. "I like to think that I'm always the hot one." she riposted, while knowing that Echo was far more likely to fit that description than she was. Not that Kitty was interested in Echo that way- in fact, she wasn't entirely sure who she was interested in in that way- but she firmly believed her friend to be by far the most attractive Hufflepuff girl that Hogwarts had ever seen. "Sitting in the dorm all weekend sounds like a riot." the girl commented, completely devoid of sarcasm. "I still have that box of chocolates left over from Christmas-" it had been a present, although she had, rather to her distress, found herself unable to remember who for- "and I think I might have some shortbread my mum sent..." Food was very important to the blonde, and honestly, she was amazed that she managed to keep herself in any shape other than that of a sphere. But it would seem that Kitty was simply naturally slim, and who was she to look a gift horse in the mouth?

"I'm fine." the Scot assured her friend with a smile, gently squeezing Echo's arm to show that she appreciated the thought. "I just felt like going for a wander, and ended up here. Honestly, I was so bored, even the library sounded like a good idea." Kitty produced a brilliant smile which she aimed in the general direction of the librarian, who was hopefully not watching. People seemed to have the most ridiculous idea that libraries were not invented for the sole purpose of people having somewhere warm and cosy to sit and chat.

Kitty was not possessed of anything which could be considered to even be approaching subtlety. She was, in point of fact, about as subtle as a nuclear strike. When Kitty was in the room, it was difficult not to notice. It wasn't that she was particularly loud, and neither was she especially assertive. She merely had a rather large personality which, without her consciously controlling it, or even being aware of it most of the time, managed to fill more or less any space as soon as she walked into it. The blonde simply had a natural exuberance and enthusiasm for life which meant that there was nothing that she could do to prevent herself from being noticeable. Kitty would, she knew very well, make a terrible secret agent.

But just because she lacked subtleties did not mean that she failed to notice them in others, and so the blonde's brown eyes caught Echo's lip as it vanished into her mouth. Kitty had lived with Echo for the last six years of her life; she knew the girl's habits and tendencies- and she would have had to be deaf, blind and stupid to miss Echo's little hormonal... thing... the previous week. Being female was a terrible thing. Once a month, regular. Although Kitty had to confess that she would probably be more worried if her monthly dose of torture failed to arrive. She'd always done her best to avoid that. Kitty was an empathetic girl, and so she perhaps noticed the change in Echo more than others did- and, knowing very well what was necessary, she had made sure to leave her neglected Christmas present in one of the other girl's drawers. That, she presumed, was what Echo was currently feeling guilty about and, while she hadn't quite expected the whole box to have gone, it was no skin off the Scot's nose. Chocolate was replaceable. Friends like Echo were not.

"So do I!" the blonde agreed with enthusiasm. "I wish I could bake like her." Shortbread had always defeated her. Cake was no problem and scones had always been something of a speciality, but Kitty was a lifelong devotee of the Scottish biscuit, and to be unable to bake her own was somewhat depressing. "So, what's that about music? Are you going to be singing, because if so then I'm out." The Hufflepuff grinned. In truth, she didn't think there was a great deal wrong with Echo's voice, but the girl was just so bloody perfect that she'd simply had to resort to making things up when she wanted to tease the girl. It was a shocking state of affairs.

Raising an eyebrow, Kitty considered the question for a brief moment and then shook her head decisively. "Nah. You're here, and you're much more exciting than secret passages." the Scottish girl declared, grinning as she pulled her friend into another hug. Not that secret passages weren't exciting, because they were... obviously. There was always an element of chance, however; you never knew where you might end up, and after hearing the horror story of the girl who had followed an unknown passage and had ended up in the Slytherin boys' dorm, she had been perhaps just a trifle more cautious with her explorations. But not much.

Kitty nodded enthusiastically at her fellow Hufflepuff's suggestion- Echo always had such awesome ideas, which was probably why they got on so well, since Kitty's ideas generally did not fall into such a category. But it would be so much fun, and easy too- after all, the kitchens were literally next door for the badgers who were lucky enough to have their sett located in the basements. More than once, Kitty had been guilty of sneaking out in the middle of the night if she felt a little peckish, and the houseleves had always been incredibly friendly, welcoming and obliging. In fact, she had felt quite guilty about being there in the first place, and the last time she had gone, she had tried her best to help with the washing up. Unfortunately, the little creatures wouldn't hear of it, which had only made the Hufflepuff feel even worse. Maybe this time, she could make up for it... But she doubted it. Still, she was sure that the house elves would be delighted to help them- they always seemed incredibly flattered when you asked them for their recipes, which was a plus since, when Kitty had first asked if they could possibly see their way clear to letting her have a peek at their recipe for scones, please and thank you. she had thought that they might well take it as an insult. Thankfully, that had not been the case at all, and she had come away with a neat copy of the entire recipe, with helpful notes made in the margins. Yes, the Scottish girl was firmly in favour of house elves. Wonderful creatures and massively underappreciated.

"That sounds like a great idea!" she confirmed verbally. "When do you fancy? Maybe I should write and get my mother to send my oven gloves." The blonde gave her friend a grin. Of course she didn't own a personal pair of oven gloves- heck, she barely owned a personal pair of knickers, she was so disorganised. No doubt the house elves would have plenty, although Kitty wasn't entirely sure why seeing as she was almost certain that, with the amount of magic that the house elves could command, they would have no need whatsoever for such mundane articles as oven gloves.

The girl grinned and nodded at the suggestion of singing. Kitty loved music, being a capable violinist and reasonable pianist herself, and she was frequently found to be humming as she made her way around the castle, much to the annoyance of everyone else. It was a basic element of her existence, and she would be simply lost without it. The blonde wasn't a fabulous singer, but she could get by with most of the right notes in a reasonably stable mezzo-soprano.

"Of course I do." she assured her roommate with a grin, and she meant every word of it. Kitty adored Echo for her cheerful and optimistic outlook, and her musicality was a definite part of that. One of these days, she was determined, she and her roommate were going to give a concert, and Echo was going to sing, and Kitty was going to fumble her way through the accompaniment. Just as soon as she got around to actually mentioning it to the girl... "And that, lass, is very definitely a superpower."

Biscuits were always a good idea. This was a truth which Kitty lived her life by, and would probably continue to do so. It was a mystery to her and many other people just how she managed to maintain her slim figure, but she supposed that she was simply lucky that way, and she had no intention of looking that particular gift horse in the mouth. Otherwise, she would probably turn into a small mammoth, and that would be an utter catastrophe. None of her clothes would fit, and that would be a definite problem because Kitty had seen plenty of people wandering around in clothes that were far too small for them over the years, and it was never a pleasant sight. That was without getting started on her underwear, some of which would very definitely be uncomfortable should she gain any significant amount of weight.


But yes, food was important. Kitty was a very Hufflepuff person by nature, she was well aware, and it seemed to be a Heaven-sent piece of luck that her common room was located right next door to the kitchens. The trouble was that sometimes it was all too easy to pop out for something to eat when you got a bit peckish at night. If she'd been at home, she would merely have rolled over and tried to go back to sleep... maybe... but here, the kitchens were barely a few moments' walk away, and temptation was ever-present. Honestly, the Scottish girl was aware that her diet was not entirely healthy, but she hadn't dropped dead yet, and so she didn't see much harm in a few biscuits... or a lot of biscuits. Shortbread was a particular weakness of hers, especially with chocolate on the top and a mug of tea to accompany it.


She shrugged at the girl's comment. "Whatever floats your boat." she returned with a humorous smile. Kitty understood how important homework was to Echo. That wasn't to say she agreed with it. Her brown eyes met Echo's blue ones, sparkling with humour. "I'm sure they can live with the shocking realisation that the library is not my favourite place." she commented with a smile. The blonde leaned further into her friend's side and closed her eyes momentarily as she yawned. "Ugh... Yep. I could just fall asleep right now, couldn't you? It's been a long week... Actually, what day is it?"