West looked sharply at Mr Kitridge and then out at the water. There were no books in sight but...

"I think so... unless some sunk before I could get them." But they had all been floating that he could tell? So... yeah. Yeah he thought he had them all.

"Were they imperviused, sir?" Y'know... it wasn't like this particular librarian's books had a good track record of staying out of trouble. West kept that thought to himself though and bent to carefully pick up another one of the books from the grass and let the water drip free. He had one in each hand.

"A drying spell might be enough for most of them..." But not all of them.

What does he mean he doesn't know?!?! she thought in terror. Wait, calm yourself down, Tiara. Nice, deep breath. Iiiiin and ouuuuttt. Of course he didn't know yet, it had been only a handful of seconds. "I don't know if they were protected at all, as they are not my books." By the look of all the water draining from them, though, her guess was no.

She set to work drying as many as she could with practiced movements of her wand. Charms had been a sort of specialty, after all.



Ah good, the owner had arrived. "Leobald Kitridge, you must be more careful when such precious cargo is in tow," she said, a hint of sternness in her voice. Not that she was berating him, but... she had a very large soft spot for reading. Even so... "Apologies. Are you alright?" He had taken a bit of a tumble, after all.

But West seemed to think there was a chance he'd missed a few. Ceasing her drying spell, she pointed her wand at the shallows of the Black Lake and called out, "Accio Leobald's books!" She waited several seconds, but when none came forth she sighed satisfactorily. "Well done, West. An excellent way of combining intellect, reflexes, and agile thinking." Which, of course, was exactly what a Quidditch player needed to be great. "Take five points." Unless Leobald saw things differently?

Alex decided to go for a walk, hopefully to get a little quiet time. Everything had been so chaotic lately. She just wanted to enjoy the sunshine, breathe the fresh air and relax. She arrived at one of her favorite spots, the huge beech tree by the lake.

Finding a good spot with a view of the water, Alex sat down. She reached in to her book bag and pulled out a book that she had been reading. After taking a few moments to take in the view, she opened her book and began to read.

Kace decided to go to this new area he never explored before. The tree by the lake. He always thought this tree was diseased or something and never went near it. Now it looked nice and calming. He smiled and found a nice place to draw and do some landscapes.

As he was drawing, he heard the birds chirp and the trees and leaves rustle. It was a gorgeous day. He loved being outside with nature.

Beverly had finally found a relaxing place for sketch practice; the courtyard was just TOO distracting what with boys doing push-ups and such. Ahem. Sitting on a fairly thick branch and leaning against the three trunk, she tapped her quill against her, yet again, blank parchment. She wasn't worried about falling. Two or three of her would fit perfectly on this branch. And if she were to fall she had four years of gymnastics to back her up.

In the end she decided to sketch out the first thing that came to mind, which was coincidentally the same time the wind decided to pick up. Her quill slipped out of her hand and fell down in a smooth pattern and...

Oh. Well.

It landed on a boy's head.

Beverly blinked, thinking of her next action. She could run or she could claim her quill back. One was too cowardly and the other took a slight amount -- of what she considered -- courage. She didn't like other. Maybe the boy would notice first?

HEY. PSSST. PSSST.

Marigold averted her eyes away from the girls crying face out of respect and that she didn't want to make the other girl feel self conscious. Being a mainly happy person she didn't need to do these things. She nodded in understanding as the girl stumbled through her words. She could understand why books could have such an impact on life. Then the girl showed what book it was. Marigold gasped. "I LOVE that book!" She prepared to go on a full on discussion, but then she realized that the girl hadn't finished yet. "My book was good! How about you finish your book first. I understand how you might feel." She giggled. She knew the exact feeling. "Oh, and I'm Marigold. By the way." Giggle.

Melek gave the girl a look, "You do? I dont blame you... It is a really good book so far... I have about a chapter left in it..." She looked at the girl then to the girl's book. "I am happy that your book was good..." Mel glanced up and raised an eyebrow at what the girl said. "I do appreciate the offer and I think I shall take you up on it!" Melek nodded and smiled, ]"I am glad that you understand how i feel..." She was about to finish the book when the girl talked to her again, I thought she was going to let me read... AAAAAAAAAAARGH! Mel looked up and gave a slight smile to the girl, "Pleasure meeting you, Marigold... I am Melek or Mel as some call me..." Melek sighed and looked at the girl, wondering if she could read now or if Marigold would think to talk some more... She was desperate to finish this book but she knew that she better not be rude to the girl.

The longer she stood there awkwardly, the more Lily realized how stupid she was. More accurately, the more she realized that maybe it wasn’t the girl who was trying to hide, but herself. She had nothing to hide from, though, not anymore. Even if things were a bit complicated in her personal life, that didn’t mean she couldn’t have a nice conversation with this tiny little girl who she’d accidentally interrupted. “Okay then,” she finally concluded, giving her a smile. Reasons weren’t needed. This was just a normal little conversation, a meeting. An introduction, in a way. She had no reason to assume anything else, not when arguing might just make the girl take the invitation back. Practicing alone could happen some other time.

Especially as she watched the rather vehement disagreement to the idea that she’d been interrupting. “It looked like you were asleep,” she admitted, the smile still on her face even as she got settled into her new spot next to the root, and next to the girl who she now knew was named Abbi. “Well it’s nice to meet you Abbi. How are you liking Hogwarts?,” she continued, shifting to get her guitar into a more comfortable position as she was told any song was okay. That made things easy, since she didn’t have to wrack her mind to remember any specific song. She could just fall back on what she absolutely knew, which brought her back to thinking about Alec and that time last term at the lake, before she’d resolved things with herself and other people. Either way, she found herself starting to play “Fix You” again, calming herself down even more. She wasn’t about to sing right now, but it was still pretty anyway.

Having enjoyed the lake view for a while and read a good potion of her book, Alex decided to move on. She quietly stretched and placed her book back into her bookbag. She got to her feet and headed toward the edge of the lake. " Might as well get a little exercise", she thought to herself. It was too nice a day to be indoors.

Focusing solely on West seemed to make him less blurry and more distinct but only for a few seconds at a time. Nodding Leo said."Yes all the books are supposed to be imperviused. I've taken precautions considering the library's track record." First the terrible fire and now doused in lake water.

"Yes, a simple drying spell should work for most of them but the rest I’ll need to take back to my office to give special attention to. Hopefully I can save all the books from being ruined beyond repair." He was certainly going to do his very best.

Turning his head too quickly to look over Tiara when she started to berate him for not being careful with his precious book cargo he winced visibly not in a position to protest. "It's fine. And no I'm not all right. I think I hit my head into the beech tree since I feel dizzy and you are just a big blurry shape. I didn't know you were so strong." Raising a hand to touch his forehead where the pain came from made him wince a second time.

Slowly he looked over at West as Tiara praised him for his efforts and awarded him some well earned points. "Without your quick actions West you most probably saved me the need to ask the groundskeeper to scavenge the lake floor for sunken books. I'm so grateful and thankful." Because the books were hugely important to him.

Well that was a relief. It appeared that Leobald had taken some necessary precautions after all. The books could be saved! She continued on with her hot air charm, happy to see that some progress was being made.

Tiara couldn't tell if the strength comment was a compliment or an insult. He's not in his right mind, either way. Choosing to ignore it, she took command of the ailing man. "Right. I am going to gather up the books and get them back to the library for you." With a few deft movements, the books zoomed off in the direction of the castle. "And now you need to get back inside, possibly even up to Cecelia." She had half a mind to ask West to escort the infirm man, but they had already interrupted his day enough.

The young Hufflepuff was exploring the grounds when she stumble upon a beautiful beech tree. The brunette smiled when she realized that this was a great place to sit and relax. She spotted some fellow students, some she recognized and others she didn't know. Professor Tyner and Mr.Kitridge was there. was even there. Bri smiled at everyone before finding a comfy spot on the ground to sit. She took off her bag and start to rummage through it, before pulling out a book she has been reading for the last week. She turned to the bookmarked page, and started off where she left off.

Kace was drawing when he felt something soft on the top of his head. He looked up giving the object a quizzical look. It seemed to be a quill. He looked around wondering if anyone was missing a quill or if quills were falling from the sky?

Naahhh quills couldn't be falling from the sky. That would be illogical. Then he saw a little girl like a few paces behind him. He smiled and held up the quill. "Hey is this yours?"

O___O

That face was familiar. Yeah! She REMEMBERED HIM. He was one of the boys dancing in the middle of the street with the Professor guy! Also one of the four that got a fox suit.

What does the fox say? Yeeeah.

Green eyes wide with surprise, she blinked at the boy before blurting out: "It's you! One of the fox guys!"

Realizing she sort of shouted that, Bev clamped her hand over her mouth, almost loosing balance and falling off her branch. Instincts kicking in, she ended up dangling from the branch like a koala.

Well they should've been protected, West thought, given how much trouble Hogwarts books had been in since they'd been entrusted to The Barfing Librarian and all.

He helped with the drying and then found himself looking at Tyner in surprise as she awarded him points. "Thanks. I think anyone would've done the same though." Or hopefully? Yeah. Though he supposed there were others around that hadn't much paid attention to the poor books.

Oh and the librarian getting injured and all that.

And now West was getting kudos from him too. West just gave the pair of them a gracious smile and chose not to say too much more about it. Unexpected points were all good though, couldn't complain about that... no Slytherin would.

West also prudently didn't mention that he thought it was less about the library's track record and more about the librarian's track record. And always the lake. He recalled the poo!fish incident after all.

"I'd have gone in and got them if I had to." He added with a shrug. The books. But he'd gone for magic first because that was just smart.

.... and he managed to hide a small bit of amusement at Tyner's suggestion that Kitridge go up to see the healer. Because y'know, Tillstorm would be SO impressed hearing about how the man had injured himself. Hah.

"Do you need me for anything else?" He asked the pair of them. He had nothing pressing to deal with so he wouldn't be bothered if he got roped into something else, now that the books were safe.

She was proud of the Captain, she was. Tiara was glad to see that he was bouncing back strongly from a hard season last year. Stepping in midway through a season was always stressful. "Well I for one am certainly glad that step was not necessary. No need for something else to get wet, after all." But as far as needing him anymore, Tiara didn't see any reason why he should stick around. And seeing as Leobald was not exactly in tip top shape, she took the reigns on his question. "No, I think you've already done enough, West. Thank you. Go back to enjoying the beautiful day we're having," she said with a smile.

But as for the librarian... "Let's get you back up to the castle, Leobald." She made a crook out of his arm and inserted her own into the space. "Pip pip, straight away now."

Gooood she wasn't a weird person. Therefore more beams from Abbi. She watched as the girl got all comfy and then looked back at the lake.

"Naah, don't be silly. I wasn't sleeping. I wouldn't do that here." Anywhere public like this was never a good place to sleep people could ALWAYS do things like put tooth paste on your face or even worse draw something with a permanent marker. HORRIFIC! But funny if you weren't the victim.

Abbi thought it was totally always nice to meet herself, but other people tooo! "And you too!" She was still smiling and then continued with her talking, she loooved talking. "It's AMAAAAZING! Like I LOVE it! Last year was real weird in the beginning though, cause my mommy and daddy aren't magic." Yes she still called them mommy and daddy. Was there anything wrong with that? "What do you think of it?" She asked in return.

and OHHH SHE KNEW THIS SONG! It wasn't a very bouncy bouncy song it was more sad but she KNEW IT!

Swaying slightly the little second year began to sing. "When you try your best but you don't suceeeeeeeed." Her voice wasn't too bad.

Leo hoped that anyone would have done the same if they’d been in West’s position but he doubted it. Not everyone paid as close attention to their surroundings and what happened with or to other people and their belongings.

Thankfully for the library's books West was not one of those people. "Thank you for all your help West go enjoy your day in the sun just like Ms Tyner urged. Enjoy it before the bad weather comes. Ms Tyner will help me get back up to the school with everything." Leo said with a grateful beam at the young captain.

Turning his attention solely on Tiara as she made a crook out of his arm and inserted her own arm through the space to be able to guide him up to the school he said "I don't think it's so bad that I need to see Cecelia even if my head took a right beating against the tree." Remembering his wand and the trunk finally he asked gazing around the ground vision still blurry. "Do you see my wand anywhere and the trunk? I can’t go up to the school without them."

Kace chuckled and smiled. "Yeah i did do that fox dance during the summer while i was at Diagon Alley. I gotta say i am surprised you remembered my face while being disguised in the fox suit and all." he joked with the girl. "The name is Kace..." he began when,

O___O......

Kace saw her loose her balance and fell off the branch. He immediately got up and went over to her. "Oh my...are you okay?" he asked her trying to help her out of the branch.

Thankfully, Bev had wrapped her arms and legs around the branch to keep her from landing, either, flat on her back or in the lake. Both of which would not have been cool. Especially in front of someone.

Letting go off the branch and touching ground with her feet, she dusted off her coat and pants. "I'm okay, I'm okay," she mumbled. No fuss. She was fine. Maybe a little lot embarrassed, but she'd live.

Looking up at Kace she hoped her face wasn't as red as it felt. "I'm really good at remembering faces," she said, referring to his statement before she almost died fell. "I'm Beverly, by the way. And sorry about the quill." A double shot of embarrassment.

Marigold smiled back at the girl. She seemed specific enough about the 'so far" though... In her opinion one chapter probably couldn't ruin a good book. But the other girl was entitled to her opinion as well, right? She nodded as the girl said she would take up her offer. "Of course! Whenever you want," she said happily. She grinned again at the girl's name. That was a super pretty name, but she didn't want to interrupt her reading. She gestured to Mel's book. "Go ahead and finish, I'll wait." And so Marigold leaned back against the tree and closed her eyes for a moment, savoring the peace.

Well, at least the awkward part seemed to be over. Aside from the fact her comment about sleeping on the tree root seemed to be taken as silly. Lily knew that it was a bit silly, but that didn’t change anything. Abbi had looked like she’d been asleep, whether she had been or not. She’d just been the person to stumble upon her at that exact moment and worry that she’d interrupted. “That’s probably a good idea. I mean, you wouldn’t want to accidentally roll over and end up in the lake,” she replied with a grin. Of course, the squid would likely have saved her from drowning, but waking up soaking wet still wouldn’t have been fun. It was easier to just avoid that in the first place, or anything else that could happen if someone fell asleep out in the open. The only time that was safe was if you were camping, and it wasn’t really the right time for camping.

She had nodded slightly when the introduction part was over with, anyway. There hadn’t been much to say after that. She was glad that the younger girl was happy to meet her too, but she didn’t need to say that. The answer to her question of Hogwarts was more interesting. “So you came here last term? So did I, but it wasn’t weird for me,” she replied. She’d been used to magical school, after all, and she’d been older. “My parents are both magical anyhow, but my grandfather isn’t. He knows about Hogwarts, though. I grew up hearing stories, but it was still amazing to actually come here and experience them myself.”

She had stopped talking once she’d started playing, aside from the soft humming that had almost unconsciously started a few seconds after the first few notes of the song, but she’d looked up as she’d heard Abbi start singing. So someone else recognized Coldplay here. That was nice to know, and she’d smiled a little even as she had continued playing. “When you get what you want, but not what you ne-ed,” she continued, just so the lyrics didn’t end. She hadn’t intended on singing, no matter who told her how good she was, but she wasn’t going to make Abbi feel like she had to sing alone.

Leobald seemed to think he did not need healing assistance? Had he paid himself any attention over the past few minutes? He was out of it. But who was she to tell a grown man what to do? "Well it is your head, and I defer to your opinion." She unhooked her arm from his but kept alert in case he needed support.

"Yes, you will most certainly be needing your wand. Just a moment." Leaving him, she went to scour the area around the beech tree. The trunk was easy enough to spot. The wand, on the other hand, must have flown off when Leobald tripped. It took her several moments before she noticed it blending in with an exposed tree root. Aha! Tiara retrieved it and the trunk before returning to where he colleague stood. "Here you are."

Kace smiled and thought it was adorable she was blushing. Hey everyone had their embarrassing moments right? He wouldn't hold it against her. He wasn't that kind of person. He still made motions to help her but she seemed to get it. She almost fell again and Kace grabbed her arms to steady her. "Here you go." he grinned.

"Oh nice to meet you Beverly." he said holding out his hand for her to shake. "Oh and about the quill? Don't worry about it. I mean you can't control the wind. If you could i think you would be like...a...super hero or something!"

See! There was another reason not sleep out somewhere out in the open like this. Maybe this Lily was a clever one after all. Goood! Cause Abbi liked quick thinking people, she was a quick thinker or so she thought. She always seemed to come up with some sort of solution even if other's didn't really agree with them and that ought to mean something, right? "Exactly! That would be funny though." Giggle snort. "Can you imagine that happening to Headmistress Truebridge?" FUNNEH! "Her wig would probably fall off." She totally believed those rumors.

Nod nod. "Last term it was for me." And for Lily too apparently. The auburn girl listened some. So the girl didn't seem to be muggleborn. Eh. A shame really cause muggleborns were lucky in the second year's eyes. After all they got to live the best of both worlds. But this lion wasn't really one to judge...based on that sort of a thing and anyways if she knew coldplay clearly she knew other things too."So you were magic as a baby?" She looked at the older girl. "And your grandfather is a muggle?" Or what was that other word. Oh a Squib.

YAYAYAY! She wasn't singing alone. "When you feel so tired, but you can't sleeeeeep."