Claire Rook
Claire was surprised by Xing’s sudden change as she was swept away from the Slytherin table. One moment it had been titles and formalities, “Good morning, Ms. Rook. How did I go, you ask? Fairly well. Is there anything which causes you problems?" the next he had stood and disdainfully forsaken the company of his peers to assist her. "Then I will be helping this young lady, and I just hope, you all will continue doing good with your studies. Have a nice day failing." She'd wordlessly let herself be led away.
"So? Where can I be any help to you?" he asked her with a smile.
"Oh, uh…” she stammered, silently cursing herself for her sudden speechlessness. Recovering, she continued, “Well, not with the homework. I think I did fairly well with it also. No, it’s just that class starts in a few minutes and I couldn’t for the life of me remember if we had transfiguration or potions first. We have potions together, I’m pretty sure, so I came over to ask.”
Claire quickly added, “I hope I haven’t caused you any trouble with your frien– er, housemates. I understand that it can be quite important for some wizarding families to maintain certain social connections.”
She may be just some muggle-born Hufflepuff to some people but she knew how these things worked. It had been selfish of her to have taken the opportunity to ruffle the feathers of some of the more pretentious Slytherines at Xing’s expense. Even if her initial goal had been to simply confirm what class she had.
This really was all Zachariah’s fault; the old man encouraged a particular disregard for the arrogance of some of the old wizarding families, much to the distress of his own. Although he’d admitted being no better than them when he was a young Slytherin, the marriage to his late muggle-born wife had certainly changed that.
Either way she was beginning to think it would've been best if she'd just headed to the dungeons and hoped a mad dash up to the transfiguration rooms wouldn't be necessary later. She appreciated Xing Hei's gesture but didn't want him to end up thinking she was just a nuisance.