Paris didn't like the library. So much that until today, he'd never set a foot into the unnecessarily large room.

Why he was here NOW was still unknown to even him, except maybe there was a section on art that had books he could flip through. So the fourth year wandered around, hands shoved deep in his pockets and looking very much out of place. Odd Ravenclaw.

Naturally he gravitated towards the stained glass window, figuring it would make sense to put art books over here right? Plus stained glass was always neat. So were pretty girls.

He stood off to the side beside a shelf, and watched her for a moment.

After a few moments of looking curiously at the windows, Pietra turned her eyes back down to the sketchpad in her lap, tilting her head and using the curious look on what she had created so far. The colored pencils really just... they weren't working so well. There was something lacking. Unfortunately, her charcoals were packed away in her bag and when she leaned to pick it up from the spot on the ground, her colored pencils fell to the carpet with soft little thumps.

Well, that was hardly graceful and sort of embarrassing. Pi stood and kneeled, collecting the pencils with care. It wasn't such a big deal, really. It wasn't like anyone was watching her.

"Well dear you have plenty of time to figure it out. You are only a fourth year. When I was in school I didn't have a clue. I just knew what I loved." She loved animals obviously, socializing, and divinations. So it was a no brainer with her families talents where she should end up. "I even went to Uni without really knowing. Your path will lead you were you need to be. For now just try everything and see what jumps out at you." Keeping an open mind was the best thing to do to figure out what you really wanted. "I'll bet that your friends will change their minds before they graduate from this very castle." Children always seemed to change their minds about that sort of stuff.

Her eyes moved with Cinna's to the dragon. He was just so ah-mazing in his glassy painted form. She did love to sit here and look at him. Thought the others were pretty as well. "Well then you picked a good place where there are less loud and outspoken things going on." It was pretty quiet for the most part. Looking around she didn't see that many even sitting around. A frown crossed her face, knowing exactly what the child meant. "Yes, I'm having the same issue. It is all very odd. I don't like not remembering what really went on."

Paris was content to stand exactly where he was, not needing a book when he had this girl drawing to stare at and maybe save in his memory to draw later as well. It wasn't until she spilled all her belongings that he bound over to her, bending down and helping to pick up everything.

"Colored pencils are fun to sketch with. It still gives you the details of the pencil, but with the vibrant colors that bring the sketch to life." He liked to sketch people with them sometimes, because they came to life more in his sketches.

She heard the movement, of course, but she hadn't been expecting it to be because anyone was coming towards her, she more thought that someone was on their way past. So she was surprised when she realized that he had moved over to help her collect her pencils. Well, that was nice, wasn't it? Even though she did feel silly then for having spilled them on the ground in the first place. Pietra managed to hold back most of her blushing and sort of just got a little pink instead. She wasn't a messy person, really. Merlin.

And then... oh. "I thought they would be perfect for the stained glass. Though, I was thinking just now of watercolors, but I think they would be too messy to bring in here." So that would have to wait until later, but.... she was kind of babbling.

Whoops.

One of Justine's beloved spots in the castle, maybe it was the relative quiet, maybe it was the beautiful colored light of the stained glass or the comfort of being surrounded by books rather than frustrating students, perhaps the culmination of all three, regardless, Jus loved this spot.

And here it was that the young girl had decided would be the best place to actually study. Something she had been avoiding, but could no longer put off. Justine grabbed Rowena Ravenclaw's window - Not out of superstition, but because she enjoyed the aesthetic of the stained glass. - and opened up her Transfiguration book.

......

Yeah, she was already bored to death.

Kace decided it was time to go to the library and do some study time. OWLS were coming up faster and faster and he didn't even know a lot. There were many lessons going on and he just needed to sort his mind out. As he walked to the library he noticed a girl was sitting by herself. She seemed to be around his age. He felt like he known her from somewhere. Wait a minute....he brushed her hair in Ancient Runes. She was the mermaid. He grinned to himself and walked over to her. Her name was Justine was it?

"Least I am not the only one who thought to study for their exams.." he shrugged and plopped down his textbook. He could tell she was already bored. "And by the looks of your face you seemed bored.." he gestured to the open book but she wasn't reading it. He even opened his book and read through his Potion notes and it already seemed boring. "You study for your NEWTS OR OWLS?" he asked.

Yes, yes, she knew all about Gamp’s Law already, wasn’t there anything of interest in this book? There had to be some part that wasn’t just laws and regulations, actual spells or at least magical theory? What was even the point in studying when she already knew this stuff, she should be off doing better things, like getting the acting troupe situated or torturing defenseless boys…

At the sound of footsteps, Justine looked up and was met with a familiar face… But she couldn’t quite remember how or why, or the who – which was actually the most important bit – She raised an eyebrow. “I doubt ether of us are the only ones, everyone in the castle seems to be studying like mad.” It was true, even Jun who she hardly ever saw doing homework had his nose pressed to the parchment these days. “Well… I don’t think anyone really looks excited when doing school work.” Justine lightly smirked, her eyes glancing over the potions text book in his hands, a subject she abhorred with every breath of her being.

Justine had gone back to her book when the boy – seriously what was his name – spoke again. “NEWTS. How about you?” She asked, because talking to whateverhisnamewas would have be more enjoyable then reading this ridiculous tripe.

Mel was wandering the castle, looking for her friends but couldn't find anything so she went into the library. She sat down on one of the window and curled up, burying her face in her knees. Melek felt so alone today and having been fighting for over a year with her best friend and not seeing anyone she knew, she was getting a bit depressed. Melek just whimpered and let a few tears out as she sat on the window seat.

The library wasn’t a place Ian visited often. It was quiet and there was no pizza, like what even is the point of this place, ain’t nobody got time to be reading books when there’s an entire kitchen open to the public on the ground floor. PPPFFFTTTTT.

And yet here he was.
After bailing from classes for the past… well, since the term began, really, Ian received a howler nasty enough to get him to visit the most boring place in the entire universe. Normally he wouldn’t care, but his mother had THREATENED TO TAKE HIS SHINY GOLD IPHONE 6 PLUS AWAY. And he just couldn’t allow that. How was he supposed to find fine honeys to video chat with without a phone.

The boy was wandering the aisles searching for a book on herbology (the first class he planned to catch up on), when he saw a girl. Immediately, he was distracted. But she looked like she was… crying?

Err…

Book in hand, Ian walked up to the girl and poked her arm cautiously, as if she were a sleeping lion. “Hey, I know this place is boring but it can’t be that bad.” I mean, I hate it too but you don’t see me CRYING about it.

Mel glanced up, about to snap at the poke but then sighed and looked at the guy. She wiped her tears away and stared at him. "I... I wasnt crying because of the library..." She pouted, "I like the library... after all, I am a Ravenclaw." Melek glanced away, "Life... is just frustrating right now..." She sighed and glanced at him, "Why are you here if you hate the place so much?" Mel tried to glance at the book in his hand but she didnt quite get a good look at it. She looked up at him, "What is your name anyways?" She just kept eyeing him, not sure if she liked the interruption or not... She hated being caught when she was crying. Melek sighed and laid her chin on her knees, looking up and staring at him. Her dirty blonde hair framed her face as she just stared, waiting. She didnt offer to let him sit next to her or offer to do anything at all.

Cinna nodded. She did have plenty of time though. She had know idea why she was freaking out about it. It must have been due to the letter she had gotten from her cousin telling her about Mercedes new job and going to school and stuff. So yeah that may have been the reason why she was so worried about this. "Yeah. I know. I don't know what I'd like to do." Something she loved. Definitely working on her sketches. So she could do something with that. There were lots of things she could do with that. Yeah she could try out new things. See what else she likes. Nodding again, she agreed.

The quietness was actually pretty nice. This place may have just became her new getaway spot. Who would think to look for her in the library. No one of course. Nice place to be alone. Not many people around. She returned a frown. "Me either. I don't think I want to know. From the things I remembered." That was the last thing she remember clearly before she went all cinderella on everyone. Cassie went all evil mirror mirror queen during the same class. She should have known some thing was off when professor Cassie started acting so weird.

Cinna seemed still deep in thoughts over this and Cassie wasn't sure how to help her. She just gave her an encouraging smile. "That is certainly fine. Who says tomorrow I won't wake up and want to change directions? It's life at times you think you want something then you realize you don't." It could happen, so she shouldn't fret over needing to know right now what she wanted her entire life to be.

She sighed and put a hand on the child's shoulder. "I'm very sorry this happened to you too, but the best thing I think is for us all to just try to put it behind us and get back to our normal lives. No harm was done during that time, so no point dwelling on it." Easier said then done for Cassie since she knew she had been so mean to everyone. More then one person had to told her things and the worst was Leo. She wasn't sure exactly what she had done, but she remembered being mean.

Paris didn't notice the blushing until he looked over at her face, and even then didn't mention it, because girls didn't like that. Or at least so he was told. "You could always just sketch it, and take it back to your dorm to paint on a larger canvas. Or," He continued, standing to his feet when all the pencils were up, offering her both a hand and her supplies. "You could just bring all of that here." Did they need permission for that? Hmm.

"My name's Paris, by the way." He hadn't forgotten his manners or anything, just art talk was more important.

"Thank you." She whispered her gratitude as she took his offered hand and stood up again. Pietra gathered up as many of the pencils into her hand as she could, and then she held open both of her hands so that the boy could deposit the rest of the pencils into them. At his suggestion, she smiled, letting some of the blush and embarrassment go away just a bit. If he was going to say something mean to her, he would have already said it, so that was comforting. "That was my plan. There's lots more room in the dorm to spread things out." As opposed to the limited space where the windows were.

"Oh. Paris. That's a nice name." It reminded her of her cousin who was named after Rome. She always thought names like that were fun. She smiled again, "I'm Pietra." Yeah. Like pie. Now she was hungry.

“Oh yeah, you’re the bookworm kids aren’t you,” said Ian, brows furrowed thoughtfully when the mysterious girl confessed her House. Despite having been in Hogwarts for a few months already, Ian still hadn’t bothered to learn the different qualities that made each House unique. All he knew was that Harry Potter was a Gryffindor so obvs this had to be the cool-people House or something.

Why was he there?
Ian rolled his dark eyes. “My mom sent a howler this morning. She’s ticked off I haven’t been going to classes, so now I have to do all my homework to pull up my grades,” he explained as if the whole thing was totally ridiculous and absurd. Which it was. He didn’t need to know about stupid moving plants! Why couldn’t school teach them actually useful things, like baking pizza or how to pick up girls.

“I’m Ian, who’re you?” Without awaiting an invitation, the boy sat down opposite her at the bay windowsill, slumped casually with the book on his lap. He flipped open the cover and watched as the drawings of magical plants swayed on the first page, as if pushed by a gentle breeze.

Kace raised his eyebrows and chuckled. "Well I am glad everyone is doing it. I know some people will probably save studying for the last minute.." It was true though. He could probably think of a few people who will have last minute cramming study sessions but Kace didn't wanna be like that. He wanted to do well on his OWLS. "What subject are you studying for?" he asked curiously. He wanted to say her name but he didn't know if it was right. He didn't wanna look like a fool.

At her comment he chuckled. "It is true, I think if we were excited doing school work we might be considered crazy or just plain weird for that matter." He saw her glimpse at his potions book and he couldn't help but say with a quirked eyebrow. "I take it you hate potions?" Ah she was studying for NEWTS. He heard those were much harder. "Jeez good luck with that.." he said eyeing her notes. "I am taking my OWLS actually and I am sort of nervous.." he shrugged and looked back at his notes.

Seriously now he had to bring it up, "I am just wondering is your name Justine?" he asked. He covered it up with, "I am Kace and I think we worked in Ancient Runes together.." Remember when Bostros classroom was the under the sea theme. That was interesting times.

Melek glanced at him and nodded, "Yeah... I guess you could call us the bookworm kids... what are you? Captain Obvious?" She grumbled and stayed where she was. Mel sighed, "Sorry... I didnt mean to snap... I am just a bit grumpy right now..." She whined a little and tugged at a strand of her hair. What had Bryant turned her into? A girly girl? Anyways... didnt mean that she could snap at anyone.

She sent a glare at him rolling his eyes. Her frown deepen. "Sounds like it was your fault... Shouldnt be skipping classes and not doing homework." Mel shrugged and picked at her jeans. Melek sighed and glanced over, out in the window. She put her hand up against the window and sighed, at the many colors.

Melek glanced over at him and did an once over, "Ian? Hmmm..... interesting..." She glanced down at her bag, "Mine is Melek though my friends call me Mel..." Not that he is getting permission to call her that... because he wasnt her friend. Mel glanced up with a frown as he sat across from her. Melek peeked over at the book, still trying to figure out what he had to read. She debated on whether to take her books out or not and whether to leave from this spot now that he was sitting there or not.

Ian hardly registered the girl’s irritated tone as he flipped through the pages of his book, looking for a specific page. When she confessed to feeling grumpy, he looked up, one eyebrow raised. “What’s up?” You’re a teenager living in a cool haunted castle learning magical spells, what was there to be grumpy about? Except homework, that is…

“You sound just like Mom.” Shouldn’t be skipping class, you should be doing your homework, you ought to be honored to have been accepted into such a prestigious school! Yaddah yaddah blah blah…

Ian frowned. “Melek?” First time he heard something like that. Sounds like the kind of name autocorrect would have a blast with. “Where’s that from?"

Melek glance at him, "It feels like all my friends ditched me." She pouted and looked at him. "Not that that would matter to you since you are a perfect stranger, Ian." She sighed and looked at the window again. She traced a few of the pieces before glancing at him.

Annoyance flared in her eyes and she crossed her arms, "Well would your mom say that you should study and do homework to get out of this place and not be trapped here forever... This is a dangerous place full of weird things and in a strange place!" She pouted and opened her bag, pulling out her diary and started to write. She decided to stay near him not because she liked him but... it was convenient... yeat... that was her excuse.

"What is wrong with my name?" She frowned at his frown. "It is Turkish... I am from Turkey... and dont you dare$ ask me if it is like the bird or food because I will stab you with my wand." Mel hissed and glared at him.

It took Cinna just a few more minutes to get all of her thoughts back together. She looked back over to kind of wide eyed. Uh. No professor Cassie couldn't just wake up tomorrow and change her mind about teaching. She liked her way too much for her do a thing like that. "Just like when I was younger I wanted to play quidditch just like my dad. But now it's just something I don't want to do." Personally. She still liked playing. But as a career? No. She wasn't much of a daddy's little girl anymore.

She was still frowning when she felt a hand on her shoulder. She looked up at her and nodded. "Yeah. So am I. Yeah that's the best thing to do. Eventfully things will go back to normal." She nodded again. But then again where were things ever normal around here? Two years of being here at taught her that. She just hoped that it didn't happen to any of her friends. On the bright side it made her realize just how much her friends cared about her. Not that she didn't already know or anything.

He obediently placed all the colored pencils into her hand, then fell back unceremoniously into the free chair behind him. "Same. I do most of my painting there if what I want to paint isn't in a large enough or vacant room." And he also had his awesome roommate to help him with anything he needed as well.

"Thanks." He grinned, folding his growing legs into the chair with him. "Pietra's a nice name too. What's it mean?" It was different that all the usual names he'd heard, and not one that sounded like she was from around here.

Pietra retreated back to her window seat, pulling up her bag into her lap so that she could retrieve the charcoals. She straightened out the pencils and tucked them away neatly. Though she did take note of the charcoals, she didn't take them out of her bag just yet. It wasn't polite to ignore someone who was speaking to you, of course. "It's not easy to find a quiet spot around here." She smiled easily, realizing that might have sounded like she was saying he was bothering her, which he wasn't at all. She was pretty sure he understood what she meant.

"It means rock." She wrinkled her nose and smiled at her own misfortune, "But I was named for my father, Pietro." So at least her parents hadn't named her Pietra because she looked like a rock. She totally didn't look like a rock. No way.

............."Have you ever been to Paris?" She had to giggle at herself then, because really, what kind of question was that?

Despite his distraction with the book, Ian was listening. At her comment about him not caring, he laughed. “That’s the point of strangers, though. You can tell them all the things you wouldn’t tell your friends or family ‘cause they wouldn’t care enough to judge you,” he said. Not that he often followed this advice. Ian told everyone, stranger or not, whatever was on his mind at the moment.

It was probably the reason he had no friends.

“You know what?” He frowned thoughtfully, looking out into space. “She would. Are you sure you’re not my mom using a polyjuice potion or something?” He looked at her again, brown eyes narrowed. This Mel girl sounded an awful lot like his mother, it COULDN’T be a coincidence…

“What is wrong with my name?”
Ian shrugged. “Nothing, it’s just weird.” AW MAN. SHE TOTALLY RUINED HIS TURKEY JOKE. HE WAS SO ABOUT TO DO IT. “That would’ve been such a great joke, though!! Like, ‘Oh, were you born on Thanksgiving…? ‘Cause you look like you came from Turkey!’” HWAAAHWAHWHAHWAHHAW He was so hilarious omg.

Now he was literally in tears.

Mel glanced at him but nodded, "I guess you are right... though it seems that all my mother cares about is grades and if i am girly..." Melek sighed and rested her chin on her knees, watching him. She tilted her head and just kept watching the strange guy sitting near her. Mel gave up trying to read the cover of the book.

Melek glanced at him, "Dont go narrowing your eyes at me! I am not your mother!" Mel crossed her arms and tapped her fingers on her arms. She narrowed her eyes at him and frowned. Melek didnt know if she liked this guy or not... He was definitely unlike anyone she met...

She pouted, "My name is not weird!" She glanced at him and grimaced, "Don't say this!" Mel threw a quill at him, "That isn't even funny." Melek crossed her arms and glared. She took out her wand and started to stab him with the tip of it, just like she had warned him. "You know how unoriginal that is? Oh and by the way, we don't have Thanksgiving!" She snarled and glared at him.