The World From Upside Down (Peyton)

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Silvia walked into the Ravenclaw Common Room, holding an old, black book that she had borrowed the library. She placed it on the table and smiled a little as she looked over the title:

THE UTTER NONSENSE OF URIC THE ODDBALL VOLUME THREE.

She then positioned herself to where she was dangling upside down from a nearby vertical bar that was usually used to hang jackets when it got colder. She grabbed the book and opened it, turning it upside down as well so she could read it. People of course walked by and stared at her, but few of the Ravenclaws said anything. In Silvia Moonberry's case, this was a normal sight. She looked over at Mathieu Peirrin, who was sitting in a nearby chair engaged in his own book... right side up of course.

"Mathieu, could you please hand me a cup of water with a straw please?" she asked. Mathieu found the sight odd, but being the gentleman he was, he honored her request. She took the water and smiled at him. "Thank you." She then sipped the water as she read her book. Mathieu returned to his book for a few moments before retiring to his dorm for the night.

@peyton

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Peyton was lost in her own thoughts, as she came down the stairwell from the girls' dormitory. She had been feeling overwhelmed for many different reasons over the past few weeks. There was the whole situation with Nanali, which she didn't like to think much about, and then her overbearing coursework. She'd signed up for as many subjects as was allowed, which meant she had practically moved into the library. Currently, she was on her way to return some books, and had them stacked so high, she could barely see over them. She had to hold them a ways in front of her, so she could see where she was stepping. Before she knew what had happened, Peyton had fallen onto her butt, books splaying everywhere and she thought she felt something wet spill onto her pants. She looked up, startled, and saw she had run into someone who apparently had been hanging from above, because she was sure she hadn't seen any feet when they'd collided. "Oh, gosh," she groaned, picking herself off the floor and trying to gather her books back into a pile before they were stepped on. Madam Pince would have a field day.

@moonberry

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Silvia was drawn to her book as well and didn't see Peyton coming. When they collided, she dropped the book and the cup. She then slipped off the bar as well, but calmly caught herself with her hands and flipped back to her feet. She didn't yell at Peyton for the accident. She didn't even sigh angrily. That wasn't in Silvia's nature. Instead, she walked over and helped Peyton pick up her books.

"Hello, Peyton," she said as if she knew the girl well. Really she just knew the girl's name from classes and being in her presence in the Common Room, though just in passing of course. "It's not very wise to carry so many books at once. I only say this because I attempted it myself once. It was an experiment to see how many I could carry out of the Common Room should there ever be a nasty fire. I dropped them all after... nine I think." Silvia acted as if Peyton hadn't run into her at all. Silvia wasn't even dwelling on that now. "If you'd like, I can help you carry these to where you're going." Silvia grabbed her own book as well, using a spell to dry up the spilled water and placing the cup on the table in the process.

@peyton

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"In fairness, I'm not rushing away from a fire, and I didn't see your feet before I bumped into you. Where were you hanging from anyway?" Peyton asked, inquisitively. Her tone of voice was business-like. Silvia seemed very nice, but Peyton wasn't in much of a mood for chatter - she had too much on her mind to add more social awkwardness to it. "I'm headed to the library, you can come if you want, but I'm afraid I can't delay." She rested her books against the back of a couch as she readjusted her messenger bag's shoulder strap - the bag was also full of books - before picking them back up.

@moonberry

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Silvia turned and pointed to the bar behind her.

"I was hanging on that," she said. "I like to be upside down sometimes. It's unusual, but very comforting. Clears my head a little too. Some times I get light-headed since our Common Room is so high up."

Silvia nodded when Peyton said she couldn't delay. She quickly grabbed as many of Peyton's books as she could to help lighten the girl's load. As they walked, she looked over at Peyton, seeing a look that she was familiar with. Silvia never had it herself, but she had seen it a dozen times and had a good idea what was behind it.

"You look both sad and stressed, and like you're ready to scream but don't wish to out of politeness," she said. She then thought a moment and looked at Peyton again. "The girl you're always with, Nanali- did you and her have a fight? Not that it's any of my business. I'm just curious because that was the same look Sadie Jendell had after she splashed Pumpkin Juice all over her last boyfriend after she found out he was kissing Pepper Wallace in the broom closet." Silvia said all this as if it were regular conversation.

@peyton

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Peyton stared at the girl for a moment, before shaking her head slightly. "I've never encountered any problem with thinned air whilst being up here," she said curtly, and began to lead them to the exit. She wondered if maybe Silvia's light-headedness was a symptom of sugar rush. The girl did seem a bit off-balance. Peyton found herself stealing glances at her from the corner of her eye, just to make sure she wouldn't do anything else crazy, like jump on Peyton's head.

"She couldn't have been that stressed if all she did was splash pumpkin juice on him," she remarked. If Peyton had ever caught wind that Nanali was cheating on her, she would probably do something much more drastic. Or simply ignore Nanali had ever existed. Peyton was careful to avoid responding to Silvia's statement about Peyton's current emotional state. She wasn't wrong, but Peyton certainly wasn't willing to share the details of that with this girl.

@moonberry

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Silvia nodded when Peyton said she had never had a problem with thin air.

"Maybe it's because my family and live in the low country and just aren't used to it," she said. "Since you are used to it, you would probably come down with something if you visited us, at least in the winter time with the air is colder and thicker. Not that I wouldn't invite you to visit. My family loves when my friends visit, but you have to stay inside on full moon nights. My mother's a werewolf."

Silvia then thought a moment about the incident.

"Well, I think after that, she burned all his assigned homework in the common room fireplace... and put a babbling curse on his new girlfriend... but I wasn't there for that so it could all just be idle gossip."

Silvia knew Peyton was holding something big back, and she wasn't going to force Peyton to tell all. Still, she was concerned for the girl.

"I know you don't want to tell me something, and that's fine," she said. "But you have to talk to somebody at some point. If you keep too many bad feelings in at once, it will make you ill. If it makes you feel better, you can scream at me if you want. But if you want to talk with me about anything, you don't have to worry about me telling anyone. I feel secrets between friends are too precious to tarnish that way."

@peyton

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Peyton merely nodded. She wasn't sure why Silvia was sharing such personal information so freely. Peyton didn't want to know that her mother was a werewolf, that would mean... "Isn't that hereditary?" she asked, looking at Silvia with renewed weariness.

"Why would I scream at you? If I were to scream at you for anything, it would be for putting your snout where it doesn't belong." Peyton was beginning to regret letting Silvia come along with her to the library. This was exactly why she hated social interaction - people always made it too personal. Peyton hated to talk about herself, she preferred the safety of listening.

@moonberry

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Silvia shook her head when Peyton asked if being a werewolf was hereditary.

"Some Half-Werewolves change," she said. "But others like me don't. I do have an advanced sense of hearing and smell though, but that's about it."

Silvia was no fool. She could tell Peyton was not happy with Silvia asking questions and "prying" even before Peyton verbally made it clear. Silvia didn't say anything for a moment, but then decided to say one last thing on the subject.

"I don't wish to pry too far in matters of two people's relationship," she said calmly in reply. "If I came on too strong, it wasn't my intention. But having said that, I do want to give you some advice. It may or may not be helpful, depending on the situation. Peyton, you don't seem very happy. I don't know why and I'm not going to ask. But I think you should be happy. Life doesn't give us a lot of time to be so, so it's important to be happy as long as you can. I'm not going to tell you how to be happy, and I don't think anyone else should either. But I think that you yourself should sit down some time and at least think about what could make you happy. Don't force anything on yourself of course. Just think about it. That's all I'm going to say though. Now I'll be quiet since you want me to." She gave Peyton a warm smile, so show she had no hard feelings. Silvia never did.

@peyton