The IC time: 1 pm on Friday November 15th 2079.

After the fundraiser the reference section has been restored to its former glory with new bookshelves and bookcases filled to the brim with donated books as well as new editions bought by the librarian, Mr Kitridge in Diagon Alley and elsewhere. Today for the official re-opening a big red ribbon has been tied around the book shelves and cases and held together with a bowknot in the middle. In front of the ribbon a little stage has been put up where the ceremonial cutting off the ribbon will take place in a short while. In front of the stage rows of chairs have been lined up for those invited to sit on during the ceremony.

Just inside the door a big sign has put up reading in bold lettering:

Quote:

Reference section re-opening ceremony!

Please come in and look around as you wait for the ceremony to begin!

-Mr Kitridge

Leobald entered from his office clad in his dark navy best robes for the ceremony at a quarter to 1pm. He had done his best to comb his dark unruly mop hair and had even put on a new pair of shoes. Going around the section to see that everything looked good and in place he busied himself with fixing the odd shelf or arranging books as he waited for guests and colleagues to arrive.

OOC: This ribbon-cutting ceremony is only open to be attended by school staff, invited BoG board members, BoG Candidates and Daily Prophet journalists.

Lexi was NERVOUS about being in her alma mater. She had the sudden urge to rush to the Gryffindor common room and hide in her old dorm. It was THAT bad. Really. Smoothing down her overcoat she stepped into the reference section... to find she was the ONLY one there at the moment. Good... no one could see her dig the paper bag out of her handbag and begin to breath in and out. Hyperventilation MIGHT occur. MIGHT.

As she walked into the library, Ivy took a look around and didn't notice many people yet. In fact, only the Librarian and some young blonde girl were the only people there yet. Hm. Maybe she was a smidgen early.

"Good afternoon, Mr. Kitridge," she said with a friendly smile to the handsome librarian. "And... you." Blonde girl. Whoever she was. Ivy took a look at the refurbished reference section with a satisfied smile look on her face. That auction was sure a great accomplishment and a big help for the library, it seemed. Ivy took a seat in the second row, crossed one leg over the other, placed her hands in her lap, and waited for the ceremony to begin.

Lexi cared not that there was a seemingly RUDE woman in her presence. Nope. SHe turned toward her, paper bag to her face, and narrowed her eyes for a split second. After another deep breath she removed the bag and shoved it into her pocket. And WHY was the librarian being so creepy and not speaking to anyone? Clearly they had made an epic mistake when replacing her former Head of House. Hmph.

"Alexandra Kennedy... I'm with the Daily Prophet," the BLONDE said sweetly as she slipped into a seat... a few away from the one she was catching bad vibes off of. Or it could be all of the bad vibes she was catching off of the castle in general. MEH. Could she go to her common room, please?

Layla walked briskly into the library and looked around. Well then it was nice to see that their donations and money had indeed been put to good use. She found little to complain about.

Nodding to the librarian and the others there Layla took a seat and of course out popped her parchment and quill. It was hard these days to show up to an event without those things after being appointed managing director of the Daily Prophet. Though showy events like this was certainly nothing new. She was the liaison office for the minister of magic after all.

Right..grumpy Layla wanted this little shingdig to kick off sooner rather than later.

Gemma walked in and decided to stay in the back. She had a little gift bag covered in polka dots hanging from her right hand. She glanced around looking for Leobald, but couldn't see him over the crowd...she wasn't good with crowds or with reporters being here or with the BoG candidates....all of it stressed her out and made her nervous.

Selena muttered words under her breath. Something about dresses and shoes that pinched one's feet. Something about tall shoes that were near impossible to walk in and the library being way too far away. Upon reaching the outside of the library, the girl straightened her back, her blazer and smoothed out her hair. She put on a bright cheerful smile on her face then walked in trying her hardest not to wobble at all in her shoes.

This was the last time she was asking her cousin to help her put together something.

"Helloooooooooo everyone," Selena greeted, waving her bright red bag thingy at everyone. "Lovely day today," she added, taking a seat. Now, did she just sit here? Yeah, she supposed she did. She looked around the library quickly. The reference section definitely looked much better than it had before. Very nice.

Or nicer than it had been before. So what happened now?

Roxanne had seriously debated even coming to this thing at all. After her niece had sent her the owl containing that stupid school rag of Hogwarts and an angry letter, she had just wanted to bury her head under her covers for a few weeks. That's all it would take that thing to blow over, right? But, she had to remind herself that that wasn't the adult thing to do. So, she had gotten dressed and headed down here, hoping that at least the Hogwarts staff didn't really pay attention to the students' gossip. And hey, it could have been worse. The whole thing could have been printed in the Daily Prophet.

This thought didn't stop her from picking a seat in the very back and keeping her sunglasses and coat on the entire time, though.

Grumbling to himself as he once again returned to Hogwarts with his Quick-Quotes Quill floating behind him, Basil half wished that he had attended this event in another form. It had certainly helped him from rubbing unwanted elbows at the auction and fundraiser while still being able to keep up and get the buzz necessary for the Daily Prophet. But, seeing as he had been incognito last time, the Editor-in-Chief figured that he ought to do things properly this time. Bleh.

"Awfully big ribbon there," he mused as he tapped one of his red converse on the ground for no real reason other than to distract himself from being too grumbly. Resisting the urge to poke at the ribbon, Basil leaned forward and looked at the books on the shelf before taking a seat next to a woman in sunglasses (lazykitty) and removed some parchment from his briefcase for some light reading before this thing got going.

Yes, old men loved to dress up sometimes. It made Sherman feel special to be wearing his best brown suit and tie and loafers and even more so to have been invited to the reopening ceremony of the Hogwarts reference section. Even thought it was SO FAR AWAY and wheeling around the castle was such a pain, the elderly man rolled his wheelchair into the library right on time.

"Oh, look! Pretty red ribbon," he exclaimed quietly, beaming around the room before he caught himself. "I mean.. ahem.. good afternoon, everyone." So many people were there. But one of them, Sherman remembered, from the feast and the candidate party at the Leaky Cauldron. That young girl, the one who worked at the ice cream place? Yes, he liked her. She wasn't as scary as the rest of them, so he wheeled himself over next to her.

"Selena, isn't it?" She got a smile, too. With that, Sherman zipped his lips and waited for something to happen.

No she wasn't late she'd just been glancing around the new Reference center for a while. This place actually looked rather good - and to think she'd gotten a beautiful chair for it. She smiled at that and just brought her hand up to brush through her hair again and stopped herself. She needed to STOP doing that - after all she'd ruin the do she'd created earlier. She just smiled and glanced at the candidate people and again at all the other members of the reporting community.

Charlotte smiled to everyone and my my this Kitridge character was actually rather cute. Charlie thought as she gave him a quick once over.

When Lourdes arrived at the Library, the first thing she noticed was the obviously brand-new Reference Section. All the money earned in the Auction and as the fee for the Fundraiser actually did pay off. This part of the library was indeed beautiful and it brought back the glow it had, which Lourdes could remember during her days in the place. Also, the books were new as well. Her donated publication was probably around here somewhere. She'd check it back later on after settling things at her office and for the her candidate responsibilities.

Anyway, Lourdes smiled at the people present prior to her arrival. "Good afternoon," she greeted to everyone, actually. The woman had to be proper for this afternoon's event because even the Daily Prophet journalists were here and some Hogwarts Staff members. She also heard that the Board of Governors were coming here as well. Lovely.

Roxanne was finally starting to relax a bit and was even thinking of taking off her coat and sunglasses when someone sat down right beside her. This wasn't the problem, however. The problem was the parchment the man pulled out of his briefcase. Followed by the realization of who the man was. Basil Skeeter, Editor-in-Chief of the Daily Prophet. Like someone had been reading her mind or something. Was it too late to add a bunker to her home?

Deciding to play as if she had no idea who he was, like she wasn't even herself, Roxanne leaned a little closer, as if reading the parachment over Basil's shoulder. "Whatcha reading?" she asked, adopting a rather awful Southern accent. It would give her a chance to evaluate the situation before making her move. Unless he saw right though her, of course......

Cooper was THRILLED, to hear that the fundraising event had gone so swimmingly. Not to mention Cooper simply ADORED the item he had won at the event, and was wearing it to this very special occasion. He looked rather handsome, if he could say so himself. On top of his natural excitement, he was SUPER eager to see this book shelf made of gold. Yep. He'd heard rumors. And with all that money, it was believable.

Upon his entry to the library, however, he was disheartened to see it WASN'T made of gold. How sad.

Still... at least the kiddies had more books!

With a nod to the librarian, Cooper took a seat in the middleISH. He liked being in the centre, more people to SEE that way.

Lexi was relieved when more people began to trickle into the reference section. PHEW! She was afraid she would have to sit there with the creeper doodle Librarian who seemed to STILL be standing there not speaking to anyone. WEIIIIIRD. She was going to keep an eye on him...

But then she let her eyes wander a bit here and there, taking in the faces of the new comers... There was that girl she had gone to school with. Selena? She vaguely remembered her. And well she thought she was WAY too young and ridiculous to be taken seriously as a Board of Governors member. Pfft. And what did she know about ANYTHING? Not that Lexi actually KNEW her, she just looked... whatever.

And there was her boss. The awfully short man with the cool shoes. Lexi approved of Chuck Taylors and owned a few pairs herself. But really... she was getting fed up with him. It seemed like she never got her work done... because he never gave her the column submissions. BAH. Whatever.

And more people that she was merely going to sit and silently judge... really that was all that was going through her head right now. That and that the creepy Librarian was creepy. SIGHS.

Entering the library Gavin headed for the reference section. He was looking forward to seeing all the books that had both donated as well as purchased with the money that was raised at the fundraiser. He saw a few candidates there already like Selena and Roxanne, as well as a few others besides. Giving anyone a smile that noticed him he just remained silent at least for now.

Making her way back through Hogwarts to the library, Willow noticed a few of the DPers already there and gave them a smile as well as anyone else who noticed she'd entered the room. She had her camera there as well, hoping to take some nice shots of the event. Already she was noting which candidates were and weren't there as of yet.

Althea was exactly on time. Not a minute early and not a minute late. She was most interested to see her own books on the shelves. Or at least.... books that formerly belonged to her, since they now belonged to Hogwarts, many of them rare enough that even the sizable amount of galleons they'd got for the auction wouldn't have managed to get them for the collection. Money wasn't everything after all.

The blonde woman noted the familiar faces and opted, rather than push through crowds (even if she rarely needed to do that since she was tall enough and tended to be noticed enough that they parted for her) she decided to stop by Gemma and say hello.

She walked over to the Muggle Studies professor. "Hello Gemma. Good to see the library restocked isn't it?"

Well what? Couldn't she be nice to an old school mate and former colleague? Didn't mean she wanted anything.

Hearing somebody say his name Leo turned around to see Ivy Knox, the brunette from the fundraiser that had made a large contribution to the restoration of the very room they were standing in. Smiling broadly he greeted her. "Good afternoon Ms Knox."

"Did you buy anything in the auction?" He wondered just to make polite conversation as they waited for more people to trickle in.

Leo had seen a younger blond woman arrive while he had done his inspection of the shelves. Shooting her a friendly smile he said "Good afternoon Ms Kennedy."

“Did you by any chance go to Hogwarts before you joined the Daily Prophet?” he asked curiously since the blond looked sort off familiar.

Another woman walked briskly into the room on high heels. Exchanging a nod of greeting with the woman as she took a seat in one of the rows and immediately extracted quill and parchment Leo assumed that another invited Daily Prophet writer had arrived. Where was Annie?

Spotting Gemma behind the ladies that had already arrived Leo made his way over otwards her since she looked a little out of place and lost. "Good afternoon Gemma." He greeted with a friendly smile. "You should take a look at the shelves I’ve made a whole Muggle studies section." Leo explained as he pointed to one of the nearest book cases.

Leo was about to ask Gemma how her classes were coming along when a blond stepped up and adressed her. They seemed to know each other. Could she be Althea Schrimer which he had heard so much about and had made a very generous book donation to the library. Catching her eye he fired off a smile as his exictement grew in unison with his voice. "Hello, Althea Schrimer right? It's a pleasure to finally meet you."

"I'm so excited, grateful, thankful and happy and thankful for the very, very generous book donation you made to the library." Leo chirped loudly all giddery with excitement.



What was it with the female species and shoes? Leo looked on with apprehension as young brunette entered the library on wobbly feet because her heels were so high. Trying not to stare at the shoes Leo plastered on a friendly and welcoming smile "Hello there. Feel free to look around the shelves and cases before the ceremony starts."

Where were the men? Leo wondered as a woman if posture and appearance was anything to go by slipped into a seat in one of the back rows clad in a coat and sunglasses to cover her face. Odd, why come to a ceremony if you wanted nobody to notice that you were there in the first place?



Finally, was that thought that popped up in Leo's head, when he spotted a man in red converse shoes checking out his meticulously put up ribbon with its bowtie in the centre around the book shelves. As he passed by the man he felt his face flush red as he commented in passing. "It was the best ribbon I could find and I like the red colour of it."



Leo did his very best not stare at the elderly man that rolled into the library in his wheelchair dressed in brown from head to toe. If he had known that the elderly man was coming then he personally would have seen to that the man wouldn’t have needed to wheel himself around the castle. It must have been painful but he seemed happy nonetheless. Going past him on his way back to the platform Leo greeted. "Good afternoon."



In the wheelchair man's backwater two beautiful blond women entered the room. Nodding at them both Leo said "Good afternoon." It was nice that the room was filling up for the ceremony but where was the headmistress? Leo wasn’t going to go up on that stage all by himself and make a speech in front of all these people and not to mention press.



Exchanging nods of greeting with two men and a several years younger woman Leo wondered where the rest of the staff were and most importantly Annie. The clock was ticking closer and closer to 1pm and the start of the ceremony with the big C.

Gemma glanced up with huge eyes as she heard that familiar voice saying hello...she plastered a little smile on her face...she knew she should be nice to the woman but there was just something about her that made Gemma's skin crawl a little bit, but she decided in that moment to overlook that feeling and make one on her own...you know forgive and forget or something like that.

"Yes, it is just lovely...I never imagined that it would be this beautiful and that the auction would be such an amazing success..." she said glancing around the library changes...yes Leo must be ubber excited....

Her face lit up when she saw the man and he mentioned the section, "OOOO I wasn't aware..." she said almost jumping following his hand to the book cases, "That is just amazing Leo....." she said as she felt her eyes watering a little bit. "Thank you...you are always so good about supporting Muggle Studies..." she said meeting his eyes.

Then she quickly looked away and towards the crowd and remembered the present in her hand, "O, I brought you a little present to say congrats on the new addition." she said holding up the little bag. She waited for him to open the bag and then explained...hoping he didn't already have one, "It's an antique Muggle embosser...they used to use them to emboss the front of books so you knew which library they came from...it still works..." she added very proud of it.

OOOOH! Lexi beamed as she caught sight of her former Charms professor. She would definitely credit her with her success in OWLs and NEWTs and her current position on the Daily Prophet. Hehe. Not that anyone aside from Mr. Skeeter and the two blonde ladies ACTUALLY knew that Althea had been her reference. BEAMS.

She gave Professor Schirmer a small wave and turned her attention back to silently judging the people around herself. HEHE.

So the Creeper spoke? Amazing. Lexi had begun to wonder about him. "And to you, Librarian, sir." Yes, she had heard his name mentioned and the invite and all that, but whatever. Heh.

Oh. Well that wasn't a very difficult guess was it? "I would say that the majority of people in this room attended Hogwarts. And I have only recently begun work at the Daily Prophet. I have had a number of other jobs since Hogwarts... you may recognize me from old yearbook editions, though." Because he seemed the type. Mhm. And besides, he was NOT here when Lexi had attended. Nope. Madam Donovan was Librarian then. Gah. She missed Kimber.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Eriin

"Alexandra Kennedy... I'm with the Daily Prophet," the BLONDE said sweetly as she slipped into a seat... a few away from the one she was catching bad vibes off of. Or it could be all of the bad vibes she was catching off of the castle in general. MEH. Could she go to her common room, please?

Ivy had turned her head away from the younger, strange woman, but then she introduced herself. Since it was only nice to do, and since this woman was from Daily Prophet, Ivy decided to be nice. She didn't want this child writing nasty things about her.

Ivy put on a smile that was certainly not there before. "Ivy Knox," she introduced herself. "Board of Governors candidate." But she should know that by now. Now, where was Erik? Fashionably late as always?

Quote:

Originally Posted by Nordic Witch

Hearing somebody say his name Leo turned around to see Ivy Knox, the brunette from the fundraiser that had made a large contribution to the restoration of the very room they were standing in. Smiling broadly he greeted her. "Good afternoon Ms Knox."

"Did you buy anything in the auction?" He wondered just to make polite conversation as they waited for more people to trickle in.

Ivy smiled at the librarian and nodded. "I did. Those gorgeous chess sets donated by Corin Vanderbilt." They were absolutely amazing. And she got them for quite a discount, too. She was lucky Scabior had given up on bidding for them.

Speaking of Scabior, there was his girlfriend and Ivy's old friend. Spotting Althea several feet away, Ivy wiggled her fingers in a little wave with a small smile. Hopefully she wasn't still upset about losing her man at an auction. Heh.

The fact that they had raised good money to reopen the restricted section was good. However....it had still been burnt down. And it was no way his fault. Because of that Dash did not know why he was even attending this event. Rare, irreplaceable books were still gone forever, thanks to someone.

Dressed in a good pair of robes with the Headmistress at his side, Dash really only had one question on his mind.

Why was he even here? "I hope you're scheduling that training day soon."

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kaos.Doodles

The fact that they had raised good money to reopen the restricted section was good. However....it had still been burnt down. And it was no way his fault. Because of that Dash did not know why he was even attending this event. Rare, irreplaceable books were still gone forever, thanks to someone.

Dressed in a good pair of robes with the Headmistress at his side, Dash really only had one question on his mind.

Why was he even here? "I hope you're scheduling that training day soon."

"Soon," Annie agreed, patting Dash's arm absentmindedly as she followed him into the reference section. Oh it just looked SO much better than it had the last time she was here. Much much much improved. Also, it smelled better. No more burnt wood, no more burnt books. Leobald should be happy.

The redhead made her way over to the librarian, then, and tapped him lightly on the shoulder. Did he look nervous or was it just her? "Where do you want us, Mr. Kitridge?" she inquired politely. She had to give a silly speech thing, right?

Atticus was pleased to hear when the restoration of the Hogwarts library's reference section was complete, and he was looking forward to seeing what it would look like now. Would it be solid gold like rumors suggested? He thought it unlikely, but it wasn't impossible with all the money that was raised.

It seemed the rumors were false when he entered the room. The library was not made out of solid gold, but it still looked brilliant. The big red ribbon was nice too.

With a pleasant smile on his face, Atticus quietly took his seat and waited for the ceremony to start, though continuing to admire the newly restored section from his seat.