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[Cerridwyn Glynn]

Cerri was hard at work, studying for Astronomy.  Learning is a hard task but learning about new things was even harder, except when the new things are interesting.  George's Star seemed the best bit of knowledge for her to have mastery over.  Even the book she had selected had pictures or rather drawings of what the telescope looked like that discovered the new planet.  If minutes were hours, Cerri would have spent days over that picture, memorizing every detail of that particular scope and how everything played on itself.

There were a few other students sitting around and doing their own work.  So in that regard it didn't really bother her that someone had walked into the Library, others were doing it all the time.  Continuing to read on, Cerri got the distinct impression someone was watching her.  It was a little bit unnerving.  No doubt it was one of those House Elves.  Readjusting herself, Cerri turned the page.

Finally she couldn't take it any further.  The book was laid down and she looked up.  As her hand left the open book, the pages still sightable flipped to a balance.  Sadly she lost her place in the book, but it was a book she'd find it again.  Looking up she saw a familiar face.
"Hi.  Good to see you again.  How's classes been?"

[Orion Gray]

Ori had slipped into the library. He had a little bit left on an essay, as well as some other minor assignments, and he wanted to finish them as soon as possible, since he figured that if he finished now he would have the rest of the day free. The common room was much too crowded at this hour, and it got quite noisy; the sheer amount of people, though they were generally quiet and studious, got loud and overwhelming. The library, with its policy of silence was a much better place to get work done. So he had gathered his books and come downstairs.

He had been searching for a table, when he spotted a familiar face. It was Cerri! She had seemed rather scarce of late, and Ori was very glad to see her. He wondered what she had been up to, since they hadn't seen each other since Halloween, and they should have, being in the same house and all. Perhaps the second year here was more vigorous than the first. He had heard two older students discussing how Astronomy messed with your sleep schedule. Perhaps she had just been resting a lot.

He had been about to call out her name and run over to her when he luckily remembered where he was. Instead he walked rather sedately towards her. At least it seemed so to him; he really wanted to speak to her since she had been his first friend here and he was always unhappy when he didn't get too see her. As he arrived at her table, she looked up and cheerfully greeted him.

Ori grinned at her and seated himself at her table. "Great to see you as well! Classes have been fine, well except History of Magic of course, it's a bit of a bore really, but I suppose it's alright sometimes. I really like Transfiguration." Pausing to take a breath Ori wondered if he was talking a little too much, but Cerri hadn't seemed to mind his rambles much in the past. Continuing on, he added, "But where have you been? I haven't really spoken to you since Halloween! Has something been going on that I should no about." Firmly stopping himself, he shook his head, and then finished off, "Sorry, I'm always going off on tangents. At least mum says I do." He stopped himself there, telling himself that he really had to give her a chance to speak. People apparently found it hard to get in a word edgewise when he was speaking, and he couldn't quite imagine why.

[Alistair Bauldaugh]

Though Alistair very infrequently chose to admit it, the boy knew that the Library was a necessary place to be in times of great hardship and homework loads. As it was, he had spent the day before lounging about outside and thereby left all of his Potions homework until today. That wouldn’t have bothered him so much if he cared two bits about writing essays on bubbling water that cures the common cold. For goodness sakes, it wasn’t as though that would kill you. Dysentery perhaps, he had heard of muggles having issues with that, but just a cold? What utter rubbish.

Regardless of the lad’s personal opinions of the matter, he had a class to pass and that would mean much needed time with his nose to a book, preferably facing a wall so that he wouldn’t be distracted. He only made it half way to the back of the room however when the title of a book caught his eye. Modern Courtship; Transitioning to the 1800s How odd. Alistair had very little knowledge on the matter of dating rituals, perhaps this book could be helpful. After all, why would one go to the library but to learn?

As any would do when picking up an interesting book for the first time, Alistair opened the text to a random page near the middle and began reading. The title of this chapter was Bundling “Never heard of such a thing,” Alistair muttered, holding the book up and open with his left forearm as his right index finger led his eyes down the page. His eyes grew wide after the first few sentences and he gasped in a mild form of horror before slamming the book closed and shoving it back onto the shelf where it belonged. He briefly considered telling the librarian that that book belonged in the Restricted Section, but he didn’t think he would be able to handle the embarrassment of telling her why. Forgetting the essay out of shock and deciding to flee the scene promptly, Alistair marched to the other end of the aisle, and stopped short when he heard a familiar voice talking rather quickly about several things.

Peering around the end of the shelf, Alistair found the source of the voice, Ori the first year that Cerridwyn had introduced him to at the Halloween feast, and Cerri herself, sitting in a chair with many books around her. Alistair walked over, holding his finger up to his lips to tell Ori not to let Cerri know he was there. Quietly, he bent down next to where the girl’s head was and said, “No wonder you answer all the professor’s questions in class, you’re in here reading ahead.” Hopefully he wasn’t so loud or so close to her hear that it hurt. All he was looking for was to spook her a bit.

[Cerridwyn Glynn]

Cerri was glad to see Ori.  It had been a while since the two of them had talked, having only really been around at meals in the Great Hall.
"Wha-"  She was interrupted by Ori's questions.  "Well, I tho-"  She tried to answer before he asked her another question.  Finally when he asked if there was something he needed to know, there was silence for a moment as she looked at him trying to just say no with a slightly intense stare.  She was going to give it a beat or two before she even tried to answer any of his questions, but then he was talking again.

Cerri gave up. and hung her head in defeat.  Had this been a contest, she would have surely lost.  She had to wonder when the boy came up for air and took a breath.  How did he survive with not one breath in his lungs since he was expelling it so readily?
"I've just been busy with other things.  Astronomy Class is at midnight and...I can't explain it, but I'm wide awake then and dead tired in the morning.  And you, I've seen you running all over the school.  I think Denman might need to bundle your legs together to keep you on task."  She grinned, not meaning a thing in rudeness to the boy just that he was very active as most Firstyears should be.

Just as she finished joking with Ori, a voice came over her shoulder with a familiarity of one of her friends.  Cerri recognized the voice right away.  Alistair had wondered across her own table and his comment made her laugh immediately.
"Of course I read up on the topics for class.  You could read up too and have an answer ready when the Professor's ask."  She laughed for a moment before passing the book she was reading about the 7th planet to Alistair.
"So what are you doing here?  I'd offer to tutor you both but I need to go check on my Herbology roject in about an hour.  My Snapping Dragons are about to hatch and I need to collect the shell before they start eating it.  Crazy huh?"  Then she looked down at all the books at her table and realized she needed to put them away before she left and had points removed from her House.

[Orion Gray]

Hearing that Astronomy class was at midnight made Ori shiver a bit with fear in anticipation. He generally was a boy who enjoyed his sleep, and anything that took aware from it was not something that made him happy. "Oh dear. That sounds downright awful. Is it really as bad as it sounds?" And the thought of Denman tying him up or using a spell to hold him in place was a scary thought for an eleven year old student. "Oh no not that! Denman would be just as likely to bite my head off. Really I haven't been that bad I haven't!" He repressed a shudder at the very thought of Denman having to restrain. Really, the old man was an unholy terror.

Seeing Alistair coming up behind Cerri, Ori was about to greet him, but stopped when he saw the older boy put a finger to his lips. Ori grinned a little bit, and nodded slightly, not enough so that Cerri would notice anything peculiar about him, but enough so that Alistair would know he was going along with whatever was going on next. Seeing him bend down next to her ear, Ori barely stopped a wider grin from growing across his face, which surely would have alerted Cerri to the whole ruse.

Seeing that Alistair had finished whispering in Cerri's ear, Ori smiled at him, and shyly said, "Hello Alistair." The two second year's seemed to have a special relationship and Ori wasn't sure if he should sit back and do nothing, or join in. He decided to do nothing and give them space; he was sure Cerri and Alistair had a lot to catch up on, and he could always she her later in the Common room after all.

He also had to laugh a little at their exchange. They obviously were two really close friends, and their comments to one another had an ease and familiarity that it was nice to see. However, soon enough Cerri turned to both of them and started listing the tasks she still had to do. Ori's jaw dropped at the list; second year sounded much harder than first year, because of the late nights with Astronomy and what seemed to be a much harder workload. "That's a lot of work," he said to her. "You definitely should get started on all of that work. Alistair and I can keep each other company." Turning to the other boy, he shyly smiled at him and asked, "We can, can't we?" Ori was suddenly struck with a bright idea, and he turned back to Cerri. "Why don't we catch up later in the Common room? Or somewhere else I suppose," he offered, hoping she would accept. He really did enjoy talking with her.

[Alistair Bauldaugh]

Much to the young boy’s dismay, it was almost as though Cerri had been expecting him, for she didn’t jump in her seat or even let out a shout. He would certainly have to work on his sneaking abilities or go for a grander entrance next time around. While Cerri chastised him for not doing as she did and thereby not earning as many points, Alistair took one of the seats at the table, sitting to the right of Cerri. He looked at the book she had open and shook his head. “Maybe later,” he told her, knowing that the next time he would be looking at the book would be that night during class. Though he didn’t make a habit of turning in assignments late, Alistair wasn’t so motivated as to read ahead. “You know, if we go to class with all the answers, the school board will wind up firing all of the professors. We’ll have to teach ourselves forever.” The notion was a little drastic, but a potential possibility.

“Ori,” The older boy nodded toward the other boy. They had been seeing a lot of one another lately, generally when Cerri was about. Alistair had assumed, particularly when they had been introduced, that the first year had taken to following Cerri around. She made a good mother hen so far as Alistair could tell, and at the very least was helpful and imaginative enough to keep an 11 year old entertained for hours.

Alistair wished he could have told Cerri that he needed to check on his Herbology project too, but his had hatched earlier that morning. He had had to leave History of Magic fifteen minutes early and found himself face to face with an impatient professor who had owled him a half hour previously. “Good luck,” he told her, ignoring the fact that she mentioned something about tutoring them. I don’t need to be tutored… much. “Remember to take notes, the professor wants our observations included in the report for next week.” He wished he had remembered before he was half way through. He had to make up how many spots each shell had as they had gotten crushed when he collected them.

As Cerri was about to leave she seemed perplexed by the books that were on the table. “If you’re in a rush, Ori and I can put these up for you.” Alistair offered, not thinking to even ask Ori if he wanted to. If he didn’t it wasn’t a big deal, Alistair could manage on his own. Orion was actually saying something about seeing Cerri later while the Huffle stacked the books atop one another. He hadn’t been in their common room since Halloween. Even though students who knew the passwords were allowed to visit other common rooms, Alistair still found it a little odd. “We could all do something together,” Alistair offered, automatically forgetting his manners and inviting himself. “And invite Adrian?” Alistair imagined he and Ori would get along well.

“Would you mind helping with these?” He asked Orion as Cerri seemed ready to go. He picked up a stack of three but couldn’t manage the others as one was as thick as the other two combined.

[Cerridwyn Glynn]

Cerri nodded to Ori at his suggesstion of catching up.
"Definitely.  I have to prepare you for 2nd year Herbology, right?"  She grinned to Ori, picking up another book and placing onto the stack she was forming to put away.  Hearing Alistair mention he thought they should all do something together was heart lifting.  He wanted to include Ori as well.  That was a great gesture.  May be he and Ori were getting along well in the year, or, maybe more aptly, he was just being a good person.  Either way it was nice to hear it and see Alistair not being selfish.  It is a good trait.
"That would be fun."  She said while putting one of the small stacks of like books back on the shelf beside the table.

Inviting Adrian, Alistair offered.  There was the hint of giddiness.  She liked Adrian but she'd never admit to it, especially when every other girl her age was in love with a pet Niffler.  Adrian was just different and she liked it when he was around, he was fun.  Not as fun as Alistair or some of her other friends, though.  Sometimes she wished she had been a boy so she wouldn't have to be so careful about her motherfinding she was spending so much time with boys at Hogwart's.

Hearing the offer to help her put her study books away helped her feel relieved.  If they helped her she wouldn't have to run to the greenhouses to get there in time.
"That would be wonderful.  Thank you so much."  She placed the next stack of books back to the table so she could pick up her own items.