Sixth Year-itis?

Autumn's holiday had been one of little relaxation. Her dad, once again, had been on a business trip, which left her mother and her alone with Marli and Hannah. They were growing up so quickly. Her sisters were six and three and full of energy. And Autumn was quickly losing the energy to keep up with their antics. She didn't realize how truly boring age sixteen was.

But as soon as Autumn was en route to France with Jonas, Gregory and Kayla, the kid in her was coming out of hibernation. And she was bubbly and energetic and anxious to get to school.

She realized that she'd have to go to La Petit Dragon again and she didn't quite mind, anymore. She was an upperclassman, a Prefect, and the Cerisier Quidditch captain. The Beauxbatons crowd was basically all open to her.

So she walked into the pub and sat down at the first table she saw, which happened to have a younger student seated at it. "Hi. I'm Autumn Armstrong. Are you a first year?" she asked politely.

"Yeah, thanks, hiya!" Caster replied as enthusiastically as he could. He didn't want to start off by making enemies. Friends would be much easier to deal with the first time away from his parents.

"Yep, My name's Caster, my parents work at the ministry and I am here to learn divination just like them!" This was a lie of course, he had no desire to work in divination. As far as he was concerned there were enough people doing that given his parents' predictions always ended up being true. Christmas was agonizing, father trying to guess what the present from mother was and getting it right before they were even downstairs yet. He really was basically a child, even though he was quite old. Older than his mother that is. But, it was better to start off open minded, he supposed. He could explain to his parents his love of alchemy after a few potions lessons. But that was neither here nor there, the youngest Schritt was trying to make a new friend.

Good. A friendly kid. Autumn thought. There were enough bratty kids at Beauxbatons. Last year she had a group on regular rule breakers that she reported on a regular basis. Maybe this year would be different. But she had a feeling that it was wishful thinking.

"Divination? That's great! A noble profession. I took a class in my fourth year. I was dreadful at it, though. I don't have the Inner Eye," Autumn explained. She supposed that she was rambling a bit, but it didn't matter to her. "I prefer Transfiguration. What classes are you looking foward to?"

"To be honest," started Caster, "Transfiguration sounds really cool, and so does potions, and also Defense against the Dark Arts, oh, and flying!" He really was far more excited for any and all of these than for Divination. He didn't want to end up like his father, who he suspected knows just about everything that is going to happen and acts like a kid as a defense mechanism. Maybe he knows things no one should know.

But Caster's thoughts were wandering. He wondered if trying to compliment her would make it more likely for them to become friends, or enemies. He didn't know this girl after all. "But I think I'd like at least one class with you, you know, cause I'm new and you're nice."

Autumn smiled. "The normal classes are good, but flying is the best, for sure. It's so much fun. And practical. Especially if you end up playing Quidditch."

She remember trying out in her second year. Or was it her third year? It didn't matter too much, did it? She could recall the feeling of jealousy of that specific Saturday very clearly.

"Caster, we won't have classes together. I'm a sixth year," Autumn said, trying not to sound like she was being condescending. Did she really look that young? She was still shorter than most of the girls in her year, but she hadn't stood up since she had started talking to the boy. She decided to ask Julie-Pierre about it later. "But you will meet all kinds of new students that are closer to your age. Have you met anyone other than me yet? Do you have siblings that attend Beauxbatons?"