Gryffindor Study Tables
 

Chris sat down in his seat and began his History of Magic homework. He was sitting for an hour before he was done. His homework is done so he went to his dorm to go take a nap.

Nika had just finished reading the announcement board in the common room. She was not very happy with what she saw. Not only was there the usual homework, but there was also one very unusual assignment posted as well. From her new DADA "Professor". She hadn't ever met the guy, but he sure sounded mean. They had to do physical exercise!?! REALLY?!?!

Sigh.

She looked at her list of things to do and let out a groan as she read each one out loud. "Number one: Run 8 km?!? WHAT? Why??" Groan. She moved to the next one on the list and her jaw just about dropped. "100 minutes of meditating about a proper role model!? But that will take forever!" Groan. "50 Front rolls?! I'm never going to get through this year! And it's only my second one!" Groan. She rolled her eyes as she went down the list and finished at "Singing! YAY! That's the only one I'm going to enjoy." She sings normally anyways so it doesn't make much of a difference for her.

She knew that it would take a while to do, especially since they had to keep a journal. Great. Just great.

She sighed as she read the one about meditation. "I guess I could do that now?" A hundred minutes is just so long! What if she splits it up into groups of twenty? Is she allowed to do that?


She thought about who she considered as a role model. She thought about this for a very long time before concluding with the answer. "Rex."
She said once out loud to confirm it. "Yeah I think Rex." And so the meditation begins.

Wait.

"How do I meditate?" She thought about those TV shows she'd seen where monks sat with their legs crossed over each other and made weird noises. Okay worth a shot. Nika imitated the monks she had seen on TV as she hummed "Oooooommmm" over and over again.

She thought about Rex and how he did so many things. 'Not only did he graduate Hogwarts last term with great marks, but most of the professors liked him. He was nice to everyone including some of the mean snake girls who made fun of him. He took his time to teach me how to dance and he was really patient with me.' The more she thought about him the more saddened she grew over the fact that he wasn't at Hogwarts anymore, but she still kept going even if it was with tears in her eyes. "OOOooommmm."

After what seemed like a good amount of time she checked her watch. It had only been 50 minutes. Which meant 50 more minutes to go. "Ugh. This. Is. Going. To. Take. Forever." With a sigh she continued. "OOOOOOoooommm." Meditation is harder than it seems. Especially for a twelve year old with the attention span of a squirrel. "Oooommm."

She checked her watch once more and after what seemed like forever the 50 minutes were up. "YES!" But then she remembered she had to record this stuff in the journal.

Hmph. What a JOY.

And with that she began writing.

Nika is back. Yes back to mediate.

Well the meditating is boring, but making the funny noises is fun! YES very fun! And Nika loves fun! Who doesn't love fun?

She hopped up on a chair and climbed up onto the table. Crossing her legs she began to mediate. Now this time she needed a different role model to meditate on. Hmmm... Who inspired her growing up? Well.... OH! There is this one show she used to watch on TV all of the time! Even though it's an extremely old television show from when her great great great great great (and many more greats) grandma was a little kid it was still a good show.

Her parents always showed her the tapes growing up. They would find it online and show her using the computer too. It was about this bald little boy who had puppets for friends or something like that. His cat would talk too. They went on adventures and did some cool things.

Nika loved the show and the bald little kid. Caillou. THat was his name. Caillou. The bald little boy who could make the most boring day fun with his imagination. That's why she thought of him as a role model. Because he was always there to make rainy days fun.

"OOOOOOOooooooommmmm" And that's why she was meditating about him.

Chris sat down at a study table and got our his herbology book and began to do his homework. Chris got his quill and paper and then began to write about the three categories of water plants. "Hmmmm. Oh! Floating plants is one!!!!!" Chris said.
After about 20 minutes of writing, he was done. He got up and walked up to the dorms.

Nika walked to the study tables with some of her homework in hand. She needed to focus and where else would she do it other than the study tables!? They were meant for studying anyways! She walked with her books in hand and sat down. She looked up from her spot and saw a familiar face. "Hiya Ariella! Are you doing homework too?"

"Oh, hey Nika!" replied Ariella. She was glad someone else was here to talk to. "Yeah! I'm working on my Herbology."

Nika smiled when Ariella said she was doing the herbology homework. "What a coincidence! Me too!!" She held up her parchment, well her blank parchment.

And that's all she had. It was harder than it looks. "I can't find the answer to the first question anywhere in the book!" She explained with a sigh. She had looked through it and nothing. Ugh. Why did they have to do homework. Couldn't it just be optional or something?

Ariella smiled. "I was thinking that exact same thing. It doesn't say anywhere what the three categories are!" She flipped through her book again, but no luck in finding the answers. "I wish we got to do more creative things for homework. Not just writing essays."

Nika nodded her head and let out an exasperated sigh. "Oh I know!" She liked the homework where you were able to do things from your imagination or make things up not write essays and answer questions. "Lafay gives us homework like this all of the time. Once she gave us a crossword puzzle though. We had to find potion words! It was the funnest thing I've ever had to do for her class." Fun doesn't exist where there's a Lafay.

"Jeez....she sounds like a fun time!" Ariella laughed. Looked like she needed to get used to boring essay homework from Professor Lafay. "Do you think we missed her say something in class about the three categories of water plants?" No, that can't be it. Ariella swore she was listening the whole time. It had to be in the textbook somewhere, but she couldn't seem to find it.

Nika nodded. "Yeah... the funnest time." Okay so maybe funnest isn't even a word, but Nika will make it a word! Besides it was probably her best use of sarcasm to date so it's an accomplishment. Nika shrugged at hearing Ariella's next statement. "Maybe. I suppose we could've." She didn't even feel like doing the homework anymore. So much for that. "So do you like herbology?"

Ariella shoved her book to the side. Oh well. "Well, it's alright, I guess. I'm not really the best at it," said Ariella. She remembered the one time when she had to tend her mother's garden of magical plants and ended up getting bitten by this flower-dragon thing. "It is pretty interesting, though, to learn about the plants and flowers. What about you?"

Nika held out her hand and tilted it back and forth in order to say "so-so". "It's alright I guess..." She said with a smile. "It's a lot better now that Vindictus isn't teaching it though! He's best at just a flying teacher." No need to work with plants because he was pretty bad at it. "I don't find it the most interesting class though. I was never really into gardening." She admitted.

"Vindictus used to teach herbology?" Whoa. "Yeah, I was never really into gardening, either. I prefer more...well...safe activities, like writing and reading." Ariella laughed.

Short xD I'm lazy right now...
 

Nika chuckled at Ariella's comment. "I'm not really a big fan of reading." She admitted with a sheepish smile. "But I do like writing! Well, writing songs that is.."

"Oh my gosh! I love writing songs! That's what I do every day!" Ariella smiled. Someone who enjoyed the same things as her = smile! She hadn't met ANYONE before who liked to write songs.

Sorry for being so late!
 

Nika beamed at Ariella. It was nice finding someone with the same interests as her. "We should show each other our songs sometimes!" Then her smile faded when she remembered what she did the other day in the dormitories. "Only... I ripped mine up." She said in an almost whisper. It was a few hours after Emily had broke the bad news to Nika. She felt alone, lost, confused, and hopeless. So she went and ripped up her songs because they were too happy.

Ronnie walked to an empty study table, where no one could see what she was doing. She was still crying, but softly this time. She didn't want anyone to notice her, she didn't want to bother anyone else's work. She took out a piece of parchment and quill, and wrote a letter to her brother, Rupert Weasley.
Dear Rupert,
I feel very alone right now, no one seems to notice me at school ever since I heard the news about dad. I feel very lonely, the only company I ever seem to get is Scabbers...and a few fellow Gryffindors have talked to me. When I heard the news about dad, I was terribly sad and don't know exactly what to do. I just need someone to talk to and I thought of you. Please right back.
Love,
Ronnie Weasley
Ronnie folded the letter and went to find her brother Ben to use his owl (Poppy) to send the letter, since she didn't own one.

Nika saw someone that she didn't know not too far away. She waved at her, but the girl didn't seem to notice because she was too busy crying... wait? Crying? Well that's not something you see everyday. Nika didn't like crying in front of others so she went to the second floor corridor to cry last week when Emily told her the news, but maybe she went there just because she didn't know where she was headed. She didn't really think she just... ran. "Hiya!" She waved at the girl, but the gryffindor had walked away. Maybe she heard Nika...

Right before Ronnie left, she heard a voice saying "Hiya!" She turned to look for the person who said it. Then she noticed a girl. She tried her best to force a smile, and waved back. "Hi!" she said.

Nika wanted to know why this girl was possibly so sad, but she knew better than to ask. If the girl wanted to speak about it she would. Besides why would she tell a complete stranger why she was so upset. Nika knew how it felt like to be in that position. She had been the same way after the Emily thing. It hurt to tell others so Nika didn't push it. "Sorry I didn't mean to stop you." The girl had been leaving to go somewhere yes?