Leisurely strolling down the corridor away from the library, Rose nonchalantly ignored Andrew's pleas for her to stop. The puffy, dark brown cat simply did not care. Behind her, Andrew made an effort to pursue, but simply couldn't keep up, holding that enormous stack of books in his arms. He held the stack by his waist and it towered all the way up to his nose. It was almost comical.

"Where did you run off to?" he grumbled as he got to the staircase and Rose was nowhere in sight. It was incredible how so small a creature could cause him so much irritation. The hallway was unusually silent, and without another pair of eyes to search for the beast that had apparently abandoned him, it seemed Andrew was going to be searching for a while. Meanwhile, Rose was busy scratching her back on the wall behind him.

Awwww.

What a pretty little kitty. Where was its owner?

Biting her lip, Lux looked around and saw a boy walking in the opposite direction with something in his arms. Was he the owner of the cat? Or did the kitty belong to someone else? There was only one way to find out. "Hello, is this your cat?" Since the corridor was otherwise empty, surely he would know that she was talking to him.

Rose scampered over in Lux' direction, snuggling up against her leg. 'Give me attention!' her purring signaled. Andrew hadn't quite been prepared to see someone else in the silent hallway, and spun around at the sound of Lux' voice. A book slid off the top of the stack and tumbled loudly down the staircase.

"Merlin, you scared me.." He said quietly, his cheeks pink with embarrassment. "Y- Yeah, that's Rose." he nodded. Glancing down the staircase at the point where the stray book had landed and then looking back over at Lux, he decided the book could wait. "I lose track of her so much these days, I'm sorry." He walked over to Lux with an apologetic look on his face, as if he believed his cat to be bothering the girl.

Bending over, Lux started to pet the little cat as it rubbed against her leg. Awwww, she was so adorable. "What's your name, little kitty?" It didn't matter that the cat wouldn't be able to reply, she was more or less talking to herself.

Hearing a book tumble down the stairs made her wince slightly. Not because it had been loud or scared her, but because she felt bad for causing the boy fright. "I'm sorry.... Andrew?" Wow, she hadn't seen him in ages. What a lovely surprise this was. "Rose... What a pretty name. No need to apologize, I like cats." Affectionately, she kept petting Rose.

With a considerable amount of effort, Andrew bent down and placed the enormous stack of books on the floor by the wall. He recognized Lux as being the girl he'd once had a snowball fight with sometime the previous term, and could faintly recall her name on account of it being short and memorable, much like the girl herself. Rose affectionately pressed against the girl's leg and hand as she petted the puffy brown cat, letting out a satisfied 'meow'.

"You remember me? I'm impressed." He smirked at the third year. He glanced down at Rose and then back up at Lux. "Well, it looks like she likes you too." he remarked, crouching down and picking up the fuzzball purring against Lux' leg. "Go ahead and hold her. If she does indeed like you, she'll want to get up on your shoulder." He smiled and held the cat out towards Lux, inviting her to take her into her arms.

Watching Andrew put down a huuuuuge stack of books, Lux raised her brow. Well aware that he was in what was considered to be the House of intelligence, she was still a little surprised by how many he had been carrying. "What did you do? Empty out the library?" Were any of those adventure novels? Those were her favourite kind.

"Of course I remember you, silly." What was she? An eighty year old? No, her memory was perfectly fine generally, and they had a snowball fight last term. That was pretty memorable. Taking the cat in her arms, Lux continued to stroke her fur. "I'm glad she likes me. I have two cats myself, but only my kitten is at Hogwarts."

Andrew let out a hearty chuckle and shook his head and Lux' question. "No, believe it or not, most of these are textbooks that I need to read all the way through by the end of the week." He explained, looking through the stack, which contained a grand total of 16 thick, heavy, leather bound tomes.

"All eight of these," he said, indicating the eight books that formed most of the stack. "Are the textbooks." He lowered his indicating finger to the 9th book down to the 13th and spoke again. "These five are all on subjects I need to know more about for my extracurricular activities."Finally indicating the bottom three books, he smiled and looked up at Lux again. "These three are just for fun."

Rose, showing as little interest in Andrew's book stack as could be expected of a cat, was spending an awful lot of effort trying to clamber up onto Lux' shoulder. She was quite an acrobatic animal, and would often spend hours just sitting on Andrew's shoulder. Finding Lux' shoulder appropriately comfortable, she had just settled in a comfy, yet precarious position next to Lux' head when Andrew finally finished speaking. There she snuggled herself up to the girl's ear, slung over her shoulder. "She definitely likes you." Andrew grinned.

Sweet Circe.

Incredulous, Lux stared back and forth between Andrew and the books. "What are you doing? Attending Hogwarts and university at the same time?" Hopefully this was not coming across as rude, because it was a sincere question. As far as she knew, Andrew was in the same Year as Bay and Louis, and unless they were keeping it from her, they didn't have this heavy a reading load.

Extracurricular activities?

Eyebrow raise. Yes, this she definitely wanted to know about. "Okay, so what are these activities if you don't mind me asking." Curious girl was curious. The way he had spoken was so mysterious, it was almost as if he was egging her inquisitiveness on. "Well, I'm glad you have some books for enjoyment as well. What kind of reading do you like to do for fun? Me, I like adventure, sometimes mysteries, and Quidditch books." Nod. She loved Hobbits and stories about knights - especially the King Arthur ones.

Distracted by their conversation, Lux had almost totally forgotten about Rose until she could feel the cat digging into her shoulder. Wincing slightly, she turned her head to see that her shoulder had become a seat. Awww, this was so precious, and she could hear purring right in her ear. "Awww, I'd give her some treats if I had any on me." Sadly, they were back in her dorm. Instead, Rose got some nice ear rubs.

Andrew had expected this reaction from Lux as he expected it from just about everyone. He did know that sixteen books was a lot, but it didn't bother him as much as it seemed to bother everyone else. He liked to read, why was that so weird? In any case, the reaction Lux had had was nearly identical to every reaction he'd gotten that day. He had four more stacks just like this one back in the dorm, but just this once, he decided it would perhaps be best not to mention those.

"Extracurricular Activities." He echoed. He had a feeling that part would have intrigued her. At least until he explained what he meant by it. "However, I seem to recall you not being very interested in my experiments." He said with a smirk on his face. The last time Lux had been exposed to one of his experiments, she had deemed it less interesting than her idea to have a snowball fight. Then again, there were few things in this world more interesting than a snowball fight, and Andrew had never intended to try to compete with something so important.

"Mystery and Fantasy are without a doubt the best entertainment genres." He said confidently as he handed Lux one of the books he had selected for entertainment value alone; 'The Bee and the Bard' the title read on the front.

Rose, uninterested in all this book business, took to licking the lobe of Lux' ear and purring loudly.

The fact that Andrew didn't reply to that first comment had to be a good thing, because it surely meant that he wasn't bothered. What a relief, because she really liked him and it would be a huge shame if she ended up offending him or something. In the end, she figured that maybe he liked checking out extra resources for all the subjects he was taking. That would explain why he had so many more textbooks than anyone else.

Oh gosh. He had to bring up that snowball fight. "Well, I didn't really understand what you were talking about. Besides, who wouldn't be interested in a snowball fight?" Laughing, she knew that she had him there because snowball fights were awesome and a lot of people loved them. "I seem to remember you having a lot of fun that day too," she went on to tease him.

"I am glad that you like the same kinds of books that I do. Last term, I read The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings books." She had really enjoyed them, and wondered if Andrew had read them as well. "The Bee and the Bard? What is th -- hahaha!!"

Oh goooooosh, that tickled!!

"Sorry, Rose is licking my ear lobe. hahaha." What a precious cat. More ear rubs for her.

Andrew had never before in his life felt self-conscious about how much he read. It had never even occurred to him that people might think him strange. He had always thought of his ability to remember everything he read as an incredibly useful talent, and had always sought to find and absorb more information. Lately, however, more and more of his fellow students had been remarking at the unusual quantity of books he constantly surrounded himself with, and sometimes he could help but feel like he had to conform to their expectations in order to not be shunned. Maybe he should get professional help. Read-aholics anonymous.

"I may have had a little bit of fun." He admitted. "Snowball fights are maybe just a little more interesting than runes and vellums." He could definitely understand the lack of interest in his rune experiment. Maybe there was more to life than playing with magic.

"She doesn't feel like you're giving her enough attention" He laughed. Rose batted a disinterested paw at the book in Lux' hand. Lux was paying more attention to this silly book than she was to Rose? This just wouldn't do.

AHA! She KNEW it!

"I think you liked it and would want to do it again." Would he try to prove her wrong out of pride? Or would he admit to to her? Maybe the extracurricular activities were fun, but it was all beyond Lux's level of comprehension. Besides, who could say no to SNOWBALLS? "Runes are okay, I suppose. But I have no idea what a vellum is?" Was it related to Runes? Or something else that was really old and complicated?

Awww, poor Rose. "I'm sorry, girl." Feeling a little bad, she started giving the cat more attention because she was being so good.

Oh no! He'd been discovered! Andrew let out a defeated sigh and nodded. "Alright, fine! It was fun! Let's do it again sometime!" He admitted, adding the suggestion to have another snowball fight just to accentuate the fact that he'd given up on trying to argue with her. "Everybody loves snowballs."

Rose purred happily up against Lux' cheek and placed a paw on her chin. It was so fun to climb people and touch their faces, especially if they were trying to have a conversation. After all, if they were paying attention to anything or anyone but her, something was wrong. "Mreow!" she celebrated her new friend.

"Well, a Vellum is the surface you draw the rune on. It comes from Latin, and it means 'Calfskin'. Calfskin is the most effective surface to use with runes, but in a pinch, any old surface will do." Andrew began to explain, but paused, knowing he'd be off on another one of his tangents, and he didn't want to bore Lux.

Giggle. Lux was happy that he had admitted she was right. "Okay, we can have another snowball fight in the winter. Have you ever made a snowman before?" That was another fun thing to do in the winter. So long as she bundled up nice and warm, she was never opposed to playing in the snow; it could be rather fun!

D'aaaw. Now the kitty was touching her face and chatting with her. "Good girl, Rose," she said as she kept petting her. While this was happening, she listened as Andrew explained what vellum was. "So it's like really old paper?"

"Once or twice," Andrew figured it would come as no surprise that he'd built a snowman before. Hasn't everybody? "My mother was very fond of snowmen, and she'd insist on building one every year, and sometimes I'd participate." He smiled, recalling memories of happier times. It had been so long since he'd done anything like that, at this point he wouldn't know where to begin.

"Well, sort of. The technical definition states that anything that has a rune on it can be referred to as a vellum, but the original meaning refers to a piece of calfskin parchment rolled into a scroll." He tried to answer Lux' question as clearly as he could. He was well aware that he had the tendency to bore people when he didn't get straight to the point. Rose was having none of it, and wouldn't stop batting her paw at Lux' nose. Such a lovely nose to bat at.

"That's awesome! We can build one then!" Of course most people had, but Lux was aware that there were those who hadn't. Either because they had lived somewhere that didn't have snow, or they didn't like to play in the cold. "That sounds like fun. Sometimes I go skiing with my family. I'm not the best at it, but it is fun." One of the best parts about it was that after they finished skiing, her family would have hot chocolate together.

Ummm... What? Not meaning to be rude, she stared at him as he gave her an answer. Honestly, not much of that was sinking in. "Sorry, Andrew but most of that went over my head." It wasn't that she was stupid, it just was she didn't really know much about the kind of thing he was talking about.

Angel had been running, running as fast as her little legs could take her, she really was wishing she hadn't come to this stupid school if that was how older students were allowed to talk to you, seriously in her old school they had taught everyone to treat each other with respect but he they seemed to do anything they want.

Angel decided that there had been enough running now and so she stopped and sat down so her back was against the wall and cried, she didn't care who heard her, she wanted out of this school because all the students were mean.

Leo made his way out of the library with the intention of picking up a snack in the kitchens before he took a break on the grounds. The student's in the library could survive an hour or two without him. If they really needed him he had left a notice of where they could find if there was an emergency.

As he walked he picked up the sounds of sobs that got louder the further he walked towards the staircase. Rounding a corner in the corridor Leo came upon a girl sitting on the floor, her back against the wall crying. Approaching quietly he called out to not scare the girl. "Hello, are you all right dear?"

Angel was not alright. "No I want to go home." Angel cried as she looked at the dude in front of her. "This place is mean." Angel really didn't like this place. "I've had someone put bugs in my hair and then someone else snapped at me that I wasn't right for Gryffindor house." Angel was in more tears now and really could use a cuddle of her mamma because she really wanted a big massive hug.

"Tell you what, Lux." It had been an eternity since Andrew had last done anything like building a snowman, but he would be lying if he said the idea didn't appeal to him. "If you can remember to remind me, come wintertime, we can go and build a snowman." He promised. "I've never gone skiing. My family hasn't done anything like that. There's just too many of us." He chuckled, not at all feeling like he'd missed out. On the contrary, Andrew felt he'd had a very blessed childhood, even if his family was so large that there was rarely any opportunity for them to do something fun together.

"Don't worry about it, it's just me being a geek." He reassured Lux, as Rose gently batted at her nose and ear. Her ear's shot up when she heard crying coming from the nearby hallway, but decided it would be better to stay on her comfy shoulder than to investigate.

Pulling out a handkerchief from one of his many robe pockets Leo offered it to the girl as he asked brows furrowing. "Mean? Who put bugs in your hair? And more importantly who told you, you don't fit in Gryffindor house?" Casting a glance around the corridor Leo said trying to be consoling. "The sorting Hat put you in Gryffindor for reason dear. And it has never sorted any student who has gone to Hogwarts into a wrong house since long before you were born so I highly doubt it has made a mistake with you."

"Don't you know you shouldn't listen to people when they speak nonsense or better yet just say things to be mean?" Leo wondered. "I'm Leobald Kitridge by the way, school Librarian and Ravenclaw Head of house. And who might you be dear?" He asked a smile bouncing on his lips.

"Someone called Kevin put bugs in my hair." Angel pouted. "I guess he thought it would be fun but it wasn't." Angel sighed, though normally she wouldn't mind so much, she just was a bit worried about things. "And it was a Hufflepuff called Adi, that was mean to me and said I was in the wrong house." Angel sighed. "He used to be really nice but I have no idea what was going on with him."

Angel looked at the guy. "Hi Mr Kitridge," Angel was shocked that the guy was letting her know his full name, no teacher normally did that. "Oh I need to go to the Library one day soon." Angel was still talking sadly but the man had just reminded her about what she had to do. "I'm Angel Valentine." Angel said to the guy, he seemed nice.

Eyes widening at the prospect of building a snowman with her friend, Lux had no other choice but to jump at the opportunity. "I will try my best to remember!" This was going to be so much fun, and she wanted to build at least one snowman; definitely one of them would have to be made with Bay. Oh, he had a large family? "How many siblings do you have? I have a brother and sister. Both are a lot older than me." It was something that she was generally cool with, but sometimes she wished that the age gap wasn't so big.

Awwww, he thought he was a geek? "That isn't true! You aren't a geek. You are smart and like to read. But you are also fun and very nice." Lux liked Andrew because he was a good friend. Noticing Rose's ears perking up, she wondered what the cat was hearing as she gave her some more love.

"Ah Kevin, I know that boy. He likes to prank people. He usually doesn't mean anything buy it." Leo commented quietly. "Kevin likes to cause mischief. He brought a few creepy crawlers to the library. I didn’t see the humour in that either." Thinking up an idea Leo suggested. "If you want to get back at Kevin I suggest pranking him back in some harmless way," To let the boy get a piece of his own medicine.

Beaming Leo said "Come any day you want. The library is worth a visit. I can recommend some books for you to read if you want?" Because that was part of the fun of managing the school library; getting to help students find something to read. His beam turned more serious as he responded. "I can talk to Adi if you want me to? I think your right, he was probably troubled by something and instead of dealing with that he took it out on you and was mean."

"It's a pleasure to meet you Angel."