Fourth Floor: Library Stacks and Study Areas

[Wilber Winterbottom]

A maze of thousands upon thousands of books, the library is heaven to any book-lover. Upon entering the high-ceilinged room, the smell of books, both ancient and new, hits you. There are many tall, narrow shelves neatly lined up, each divided into different sections -- charms, potions, Muggles, fiction, and so on. If you find a book you're interested in, simply make use of the sliding ladder or summon the book with Accio to retrieve it.

The library just isn't a labyrinth of books and limited to study and research. In the heart of the library resides a seating area or two designated for quiet reading and perhaps the occasional polite book discussion. Professor Gert has made it a point to refresh the nooks to encourage more use within the comfy space and provide a welcoming home for the Bookworms now under her care. All are welcome, of course, not just those who chose to get involved within the extracurriculars.

Scattered among and on the outskirts of it are tables and chairs designated for quiet research some with accompanying fireplaces or large stained glass windows. Tucked away in the very back of the library is the Restricted Section, which requires a key that the librarian keeps on his person at all times and permission to enter because of the more mature titles and content that are tightly locked and chained within. At the entrance stands the front desk where the school librarian can usually be found, who will happily recommend a book, check out a book for you, and help you with any of your library needs.

OOC: Please do not play for the Librarian: Holmesian Feline.

[sweetpinkpixie]

Commandeering her favorite study table nestled by her second favorite stained glass window depicting a spring setting upon the Hogwarts grounds (occasional merperson tailfins or flying hippogriff to be spotted when you zoned out long enough staring at it), Sage had spread her notebooks, parchment, quill, inkwell, and other essentials out along the side of the table looking towards the windows while her bag sat on the chair nearest the window safely out of place but within reach with an simple Accio under the table. The position may not be the best in terms of its proximity to the potions section, but it was just a couple and breezy strides to the Herbology section which was where the majority of the stack of books clutched to her chest had come from. Said books were dropped set on the table with a thud that caused her inkwell to tip over and where it not for the Slytherin being particularity diligent with her notes earlier in the day would have caused quite the mess. Instead a small pool of liquid obsidian formed on the table and clung to the bottom corner of one of her fresh pieces of parchment.

"Tssk," she chided as she reached over to turn her the inkwell rightside up and patted the pocket of her robe for her wand to clean up the mess only to feel Aspen's smooth and cool scales tangle around her fingers. "Don't start playing hunt the thimble with me...I've got things to accomplish today..." she whispered affectionately down towards her pocket.

[Emzily]

Quote:

Originally Posted by sweetpinkpixie

Commandeering her favorite study table nestled by her second favorite stained glass window depicting a spring setting upon the Hogwarts grounds (occasional merperson tailfins or flying hippogriff to be spotted when you zoned out long enough staring at it), Sage had spread her notebooks, parchment, quill, inkwell, and other essentials out along the side of the table looking towards the windows while her bag sat on the chair nearest the window safely out of place but within reach with an simple Accio under the table. The position may not be the best in terms of its proximity to the potions section, but it was just a couple and breezy strides to the Herbology section which was where the majority of the stack of books clutched to her chest had come from. Said books were dropped set on the table with a thud that caused her inkwell to tip over and where it not for the Slytherin being particularity diligent with her notes earlier in the day would have caused quite the mess. Instead a small pool of liquid obsidian formed on the table and clung to the bottom corner of one of her fresh pieces of parchment.

"Tssk," she chided as she reached over to turn her the inkwell rightside up and patted the pocket of her robe for her wand to clean up the mess only to feel Aspen's smooth and cool scales tangle around her fingers. "Don't start playing hunt the thimble with me...I've got things to accomplish today..." she whispered affectionately down towards her pocket.

Solomon did not have a favourite study table, nor would he choose to hang out at the library, but he had managed to follow his friend, Sage, for the last few minutes, hoping to hang out but now had every intention to frighten her somehow. She’d absolutely LOVE that. He watched her get herself comfortable, make a mess with her ink, then utter away to herself. Weird. Sage was always confusing Solly in some way, and he never EVER knew what she was thinking and it was infuriating, but also drew him in every time.

He nursed a nasty graze upon his cheek, for the record, a token from his recent adventure getting into Quidditch and flying. He’d found himself feeling much better since putting his attention into sports and activities, and was incessantly bored of gobstones. He’d forgotten about said wound, and would most definitely be embarrassed by it.

While Sage remained distracted by talking to herself, Solly took his shot, and with a flick of his wand, sent a simple levitating spell towards her study books. Eat your heart out, Professor Feirgrund. Two books gently floated above her head and he held them there until she noticed.

[sweetpinkpixie]

If only Sage had inherited something useful from her gene donors...the ability to speak Parseltongue specifically...so she could have a hope in getting Aspen to relax and cease playing with Sage's fingers. She was far too delicate to pass for a wand and Sage would not be tricked into taking her out of her pocket, especially not here in the middle of the library. "I'm doing you a favor you know," she whispered harshly while swiveling her picky finger over and around Aspen's slender for to feel for something more rigid tucked away in the corner. Really, Aspen shouldn't push her luck since she really shouldn't even be here in the first place. Then again, what was a 16-year-old ophiophilist to do?

Where she not to preoccupied with playing pocket thumb war, she very likely would have caught a certain someone's movements out of her peripheral vision. Alas, as it were she did not and was completely caught off guard by the pair of levitating books - or, as far as her perspective was concerned, the books that had suddenly disappeared from the lineup. "Peeeeeeeeeves...if you've just gone and fussed with my study space again I'll -- " she growled, wand in hand at last, as she pivoted to seek out the poltergeist lurking between some stacks or another only to instead rage!pivot right into the source of all her adolescent frustrations her friend. "EEEEEEK!" she yelped while a jolt of icy surprise shot up and down her spin. Embarrassing enough to flush on top of these reactions, the sparks that shot forth from her wand (and towards Solomon and, specifically, those luscious curls) were truly the icing on the cake.

Did he need a haircut (a buzzed line) to go with his new devil-may-care cheek adornment?

[Lottiepot]

Aurora didn’t know the first thing about making her own potions, nor did she think she was particularly adept at it but she sure was going to give it a try. The first hurdle was coming up with an original idea that hadn’t been overdone. There was such a vast array of healing potions out there and so the easiest direction to go in was to be specific. It would also help if the potion she was attempting to brew was useful to her, or at least could be helpful in the future should her plans to become a creature healer come into fruition. She assumed that dealing with creatures in pain would result in an awful lot of injuries on her behalf so perhaps something that could heal Kneazle scratches would be beneficial.

The library was not somewhere the Ravenclaw often frequented but it was the easiest place to find the books she needed to research for this project. She scoured the shelves in search of books on healing magic, amassing quite the pile which she semi-skillfully levitated back to her desk and plopped them onto the bench with a perhaps all too loud for a library bang.

She opened the pages in search of anything that was remotely similar to what she wanted to create, anything that involved skin and rejuvenation, settling on Essence of Dittany, a potion to cure shallow wounds. She turned to another book on the properties of potion ingredients before setting up her parchment and her (pink if you must know) quill to take notes.

Text Cut: Ingredient 1

Dittany

* Alternative name: Burning Bush.
* Type: Herb.
* Distribution: Wide, able to be cultivated.
* Uses: Healing, skin rejuvenation.
* Potions: Essence of Dittany, Wiggenwald Potion.
* Application: Topical or ingested.

Speaking of the Wiggenweld Potion, she supposed that it was also effective at healing injuries and maybe some of its ingredients could be useful in her own. She settled on Horklump Juice, mostly as it was found frequently across a range of healing potions and therefore had to have SOME merit behind it.

Text Cut: Ingredient 2

Horklump Juice

* Type: Extracted from Horklumps
* Distribution: Native to Scandinavia, found Northern Europe.
* Uses: Healing, restorative.
* Potions: Wiggenwald Potion, Herbicide Potion, Draught of Perception.
* Application: Ingested.

The number of ingredients found in all these potions was really quite overwhelming and it was difficult to distinguish which would be the most useful. How was she supposed to know when to stop? Five had been the minimum recommendation and so that was her target for now. She turned her attention to something more on the muggle side for a minute, a step away from all the confusing magical plants and all their properties to settle onto something more simplistic. Something like.. Witch Hazel.

Text Cut: Ingredient 3

Witch Hazel

* Type: Plant
* Distribution: Native to N. America & Japan
* Uses: Anti-inflammatory, antiseptic.
* Potions: Horned Slugs Mixture, Brann Gunter Unction, various muggle lotions.
* Application: Mostly topical.

And that was about as much studying as this Ravenclaw could handle for now.

[Emzily]

Quote:

Originally Posted by sweetpinkpixie

If only Sage had inherited something useful from her gene donors...the ability to speak Parseltongue specifically...so she could have a hope in getting Aspen to relax and cease playing with Sage's fingers. She was far too delicate to pass for a wand and Sage would not be tricked into taking her out of her pocket, especially not here in the middle of the library. "I'm doing you a favor you know," she whispered harshly while swiveling her picky finger over and around Aspen's slender for to feel for something more rigid tucked away in the corner. Really, Aspen shouldn't push her luck since she really shouldn't even be here in the first place. Then again, what was a 16-year-old ophiophilist to do?

Where she not to preoccupied with playing pocket thumb war, she very likely would have caught a certain someone's movements out of her peripheral vision. Alas, as it were she did not and was completely caught off guard by the pair of levitating books - or, as far as her perspective was concerned, the books that had suddenly disappeared from the lineup. "Peeeeeeeeeves...if you've just gone and fussed with my study space again I'll -- " she growled, wand in hand at last, as she pivoted to seek out the poltergeist lurking between some stacks or another only to instead rage!pivot right into the source of all her adolescent frustrations her friend. "EEEEEEK!" she yelped while a jolt of icy surprise shot up and down her spin. Embarrassing enough to flush on top of these reactions, the sparks that shot forth from her wand (and towards Solomon and, specifically, those luscious curls) were truly the icing on the cake.

Did he need a haircut (a buzzed line) to go with his new devil-may-care cheek adornment?

Solomon CHORTLED as Sage started shouting out at Peeves. To be compared to such a mischievous beast was most definitely an achievement, although levitating some books seemed like a BOREFEST, in hindsight. His laughter was soon quashed at her very sudden turn in his direction, wand in hand. Of course Sage would act with violence. HE SHOULD HAVE FORESEEN THAT. Solomon dove out of the way behind a nearby bookcase, not even thinking to use his own wand that was still in his hand. See, this is why he was a terrible wizard and was FAILING all of his classes. The ends of his hair seeming to be caught up in the icy blast (okay, maybe it wasn’t quite a blast), therefore freezing a few of them into a perfect curled shape. Looking absolutely ridiculous, mind.

He shot a look around because they would absolutely get into trouble for this, before appearing back into sight from the bookcase. He wasn’t mad, only a little amused, and he patted his robes down after the commotion. “Using magic within the library. Detention, right away.” He said to Sage, with some tut tuts afterwards.

The books that he had previously levitated had obviously fallen to the ground by now, so Solomon casually strolled towards her to pick them up for her. Forever the gentleman, of course. “You should be more careful.” He told her as he placed them down, a smile creeping upon his lips, one he was sure that Sage would see right through.

[sweetpinkpixie]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Emzily

Solomon CHORTLED as Sage started shouting out at Peeves. To be compared to such a mischievous beast was most definitely an achievement, although levitating some books seemed like a BOREFEST, in hindsight. His laughter was soon quashed at her very sudden turn in his direction, wand in hand. Of course Sage would act with violence. HE SHOULD HAVE FORESEEN THAT. Solomon dove out of the way behind a nearby bookcase, not even thinking to use his own wand that was still in his hand. See, this is why he was a terrible wizard and was FAILING all of his classes. The ends of his hair seeming to be caught up in the icy blast (okay, maybe it wasn’t quite a blast), therefore freezing a few of them into a perfect curled shape. Looking absolutely ridiculous, mind.

He shot a look around because they would absolutely get into trouble for this, before appearing back into sight from the bookcase. He wasn’t mad, only a little amused, and he patted his robes down after the commotion. “Using magic within the library. Detention, right away.” He said to Sage, with some tut tuts afterwards.

The books that he had previously levitated had obviously fallen to the ground by now, so Solomon casually strolled towards her to pick them up for her. Forever the gentleman, of course. “You should be more careful.” He told her as he placed them down, a smile creeping upon his lips, one he was sure that Sage would see right through.

Solomon insert some insufferably middle name here Duck! If she were a basilisk you would be BEYOND dead right now. So beyond dead, in fact, that your soul would not have even had the opportunity to decide if it wanted to haunt her or not. Gone. Dead. Ceased to exist.

Which would also be terribly inconvenient but that was not being addressed at the moment.

She almost had to do a double take to make sure he hadn't been sporting some prefect badge she hadn't noticed before - but, who was she kidding, this was Solomon - and her eyes only narrowed further to double down on her dagger eyes. Naturally, she was unwilling to admit to the sparks being an accident (and at least they had done SOMETHING instead of compounding the humiliation) and had her brain working double time to remove herself from the mercy of Solomon's cocky gaze.

"Oh? Are yooooooooooou going to punish me? How exciting," she asked with exaggerated fluttering eyelashes. It was a weak counter to his obviously upper hand, but DID sometimes have favorable outcomes when she leaned into...flirtation. Or her version of it. She couldn't quite bring herself to add on to anything more and snatched up some of the books he had abused. "And you should...well...you should...ugh...you should...just shut up."

Great, she had completely flustered herself now. How was it that he had actually managed to get her the upper hand.

"...OR you can make yourself actually useful and help me search these books for the different uses of different small animal spleens in potion making."