A Quiet Corner

[Dante Vittori]

Being from a magical family, Dante knew quite well what moving paintings were. However, he did not like them. They were just another thing that was too loud and distracting. Often he found students staring at the in wonder. But the Ravenclaw found nothing appealing in them at all. They never remained quiet. They were paintings, they were to be looked at and nothing else. Occasionally a conversation could be held with one, but having them call out greetings and yelling at each other was ridiculous. They could do all of that late at night when everyone was supposed to be in bed. If Dante were not allowed around to do as he pleased at night, thus not bothering the paintings, the paintings should have the same courtesy to him and not pester him whilst he read. He was tempted to turn each and every one of them around so they did not look at him and he did not look at them. However, there were far too many paintings and Dante had no desire to set his book down.

After running into that barbarian Hufflepuff, Dante had no desire to speak with anyone. He still felt uncomfortable with his collars now, since that boy. In fact, he wore his tie loosely now. It annoyed him when it constricted his shirt against his skin. He did not wish to even think about that situation. The young Ravenclaw pressed himself against the wall, and allowed his body to slip down to the ground. Using his knees as a table, he held the book open on his lap. There were people occasionally walking through the hall, but he hoped that he would not be questioned. Yes, there were seats, but right in this spot there was not too much light, nor were there any paintings in the immediate area. It was somewhat silent.
​

 

[Paige Jacobs]

Paige found herself wandering around the castle again in an attempt to ward off the boredom that was beginning to set in. Sure, she had about a dozen things she needed to do for homework and upcoming classes, but she really couldn't be bothered. She was kind of annoyed with herself for being unable to just sit down and finish it, but she knew that if she didn't want to do it it was pointless to try and make herself. She'd learned from experience that trying to force herself to do work only made her more restless and unlikely to do it. So Paige had left her dormitory and just continued walking. She wasn't exactly sure where she was now, as the staircases were always moving around and the corridors all looked the same to her. It didn't really matter though, the point of this walk wasn't to know where she was going, and she figured she'd stumble upon something familiar sooner or later.

Paige rounded a corner and began to walk down yet another corridor. This one seemed to be emptier than the others, but the girl spotted a figure ahead of her sitting down with their back against the wall, head buried in a book. With no one else in the immediate vicinity, Paige watched the boy as she headed towards him. Drawing closer, she realised that she recognised him as a fellow third year, from Ravenclaw. His name was something like David, or Daniel... perhaps not either of those, but she knew it began with the letter 'D'. She'd tried to speak to him once, about a year or so back, but he had walked off without saying anything. Paige figured that he must be really shy. She wondered what he was doing here, all alone. Maybe he was so shy that he didn't have very many friends. At this, a thought slowly started to form in the girl's head. She'd told herself that she was going to start over this year, and that included the way she was going to make friends. Instead of leaving the boy to himself, she'd do him a favour and start up a conversation. He'd probably be really grateful for it, and it would be a win-win situation. Now with a purpose, Paige headed over to the boy, and began speaking as she sat down in front of him. "Hello. Do you mind if I sit with you? You just looked kind of lonely, is all." She paused, then added, "I'm Paige."

 

[Dante Vittori]

For a moment, Dante simply thought that one of those irritating paintings had decided to converse with him, so he simply ignored them. His book was more important than some paintings problem. However, the noise of someone speaking did not stop. In fact, it just kept occurring and seemed closer than the paintings should be. The Ravenclaw slouched slightly and pulled his knees closer to himself - much like a flower thrown into the shade. Why must his solitude be destroyed by the do-gooders of the school? He was not depressed, lonely or otherwise timid. He was perfectly content in his current situation. If he wished social interaction, he would have found it. He would have approached Raziel or that blonde girl he grew to favour. He would most certainly not be sitting in a corridor with a book open in his lap. He slowly dragged his eyes from the pages and looked upward. Dante stared at her blankly, almost looking through her. Perhaps it would be possible to simply ignore her existence? Usually, he would swallow his solitude bitterly and agree to introduce himself and converse with the person - until it became unbearable and he had to escape. There was a problem this time, Dante honestly wanted nothing to do with anyone today. He wanted this day - his spare day - to be completely peaceful and he did not want to spend it conversing with some girl he knew to be from the Hufflepuff house.

As she introduced herself, Dante realised that he knew this girl as much as he wanted to already. Paige, a third year, like himself, from Hufflepuff. She had spoken to him before, the previous times where he was in a position to leave the situation. However, he was sitting down now, he could not simply get up and run off like in previous encounters. He looked directly at her, focusing his eyes directly at hers - hoping that she realise that he was not lonely, that he did not wish for her to sit next to him, and that he wanted nothing more than for her to leave the way she came. She was probably an okay girl, to most. However, she already spoke too much for the young Ravenclaw.
​

 

[Paige Jacobs]

Paige noted that the boy seemed to be making room for her, which was promising. She didn't move any closer though, she'd made that mistake a few times in the past. Some people just liked their space, and fair enough. As she waited for him to speak she tried to remember his name. Darren? Damien? Dean? No, none of those seemed right. Oh well, Paige was sure he'd say it soon enough, so it wasn't really a concern. She watched as he turned his head from the book he was reading upwards to look at her. From how long he was taking to respond she figured he must have been pretty immersed in it. Now Paige kind of regretted interrupting him, but she'd already done it, so she may as well stick to her plan. She smiled at the boy, trying to reassure him that this encounter was going to go well for both of them.

He still hadn't said a word, which Paige thought was a bit strange. He must be really shy if he couldn't even manage a hello. Well, he could take his time then, if that was the case, but the girl hoped it wouldn't take too long to get him talking. Until then, she'd just have to do enough talking for the both of them. She looked down briefly at her choice of woven bracelets for today, and when she glanced back she noticed that the boy was looking directly at her, making eye contact even. Well, this situation just got more odd by the second. Surely that wasn't something that most shy people usually did? Paige was a little puzzled, but she viewed this as a good sign. If the boy was willing to do that, this would be a lot easier than she thought it might be. Although, he still hadn't spoken. Paige figured she'd try to get the ball rolling. "What's your book about? Is it interesting?"​

 

[Dante Vittori]

Dante remained silent, still secretly hoping that, if he remained silent, she'd just move on and ignore him. The Ravenclaw was not nervous, that much could be told from his general posture, but he was not interested in conversation. Verbal communication was awkward. The sound of his Italian influenced voice using the English language was not only strange, but uncomfortable for him. Let alone actually talking to this specific girl. He was just in the middle of relaxing, too. It really was not fair. Yet, the girl still remained where she was, in his general space. It was not he overly minded where she chose to remain. He did not own the castle - if he did, there would be several people gone. The girl could remain wherever she wanted, for he did not care about her, her feelings or whether she was okay or not. He just did not want her speaking. If she remained perfectly quiet, he was sure they would get along quite fine. However, he knew that this would not happen. She had already introduced herself and attempted to start a conversation. There was nothing he could do other than not reply.

The Ravenclaw did not see himself as rude. He saw everyone else as rude because they bothered him all the time. Not speaking when spoken to could be seen as rude, but he spoke during classes when asked. He spoke when addressed by a professor or prefects or something. If there was an actual need to speak, he'd swallow his comfort zone and talk. He was not incapable of speech. And as she asked another question, Dante dropped eye contact to avoid her seeing his eye-roll, and showed her the cover. He then looked back at her, his eyebrow raised slightly. Now, if she could not tell that he was obviously enthralled. Well, he was not 'enthralled', he thought the book to be absolutely ridiculous. If he had not been taking Muggle Studies, he would never have been reading 'Home Life and Social Habits of British Muggles'. Mainly because he cared very little for muggles and their life habits. However, it was a course he had to take if he wanted to succeed in his desired job, and so he had to do well. Not knowing any muggles personally and not going out to live with such creatures, Dante had to read about them. Fortunately, the Ravenclaw rather liked reading. Even if he had to read absolute rubbish.
​

 

[Paige Jacobs]

Paige watched the boy tip the cover of the book around so she could see it. He seemed pretty adamant on not speaking, so she guessed she'd just have to make do with this one-sided conversation for now. It wasn't so bad, he was still replying - sort of. As she read the title, she smiled a little bit. "Wow, I didn't realise they actually wrote books on this stuff." Paige looked up at the boy again, who she was going to just call 'D' in her mind now, as he didn't look like he'd be volunteering his name at this point. "Are you taking Muggle Studies then?" She figured that, to be reading that kind of book, he had obviously been brought up in the wizarding world, which must've been rather exciting. Paige, on the other hand, had been chucked around from place to place in a world that regarded her as a freak, which hadn't exactly been the best childhood to experience.

Which gave her an idea. "If you needed any help with the class, or just wanted to talk about it or something... you could ask me, if you wanted. It's just that I know a bit about Muggle stuff, is all. But only if you wanted help, of course." Paige almost had to stop to catch her breath after that little speech. She didn't want to make D feel like she thought he was stupid, or that she assumed he would need help, so she'd had to add that bit in quickly at the end. The last thing she needed was to give the wrong impression, especially as she was just trying to offer him some help, but only if he wanted it of course. Paige didn't want to seem like she thought she was better than D, or anything like that. But if she could offer some kind of help, that could maybe allow a further opportunity to become friendly with the boy.​

 

[Dante Vittori]

Dante looked at the wall in internal irritation. Of course there were books on this. There was a class on this. There were paintings, clothes, ridiculous stories and even magical societies that embraces this rubbish. Unfortunately, Dante lived in a world that seemed to idolise muggles or something. It was difficult for him to understand that his and most of his family's views were not shared. The pure-blood had no idea why they would not be agreed with, they were perfectly reasonable. His kind had to hide like common thieves with those things could just somehow have a magical child and they be allowed into the magical society. He locked eyes with the girl as she continued to be amazed by this relatively normal find. To answer her question, he nodded. She had asked it, and even though he thought it to be a rather silly question, it still deserved an answer. His mother often said that no question was stupid - rather the asker was. He could believe that, especially in this situation. She had yet to realise that he had no interest in talking to her, so she must be missing something.

It was just his luck that he would decide to sit and read - and then be happened upon by a self-involving mudblood. Who else would know anything about muggle stuff? Unless she was a half-blood or something, and that was almost as bad. She could also be from one of those families that actually embraced muggle life. The thought made his stomach sink. It was painful enough having to learn about them - but actually living as one was a thought he was incapable of taking seriously. Magic was natural, those creatures were unfortunate to never have a taste of it. Living as one was degrading. He wanted no advice or help from this girl. He would sooner snap his wand. There was nothing else he could do. This girl was incapable of realising physical cues of any sort. She must have some sort of eye-problem or something, because his chosen form of communication was most certainly not the problem. He looked back at her. "No." That should do it. The Italian boy then returned to looking back at his book.
​

Sorry the reply sucks! x

 

[Paige Jacobs]

OOC: No problem, I rather enjoyed it.

Upon hearing D's reply, Paige didn't know whether to be disappointed or excited. The boy had turned down her offer of help, which cut off any chance of further interaction in that direction, but he had actually spoken to her. Sure, he'd only uttered one word, but that was success in Paige's mind. She wasn't about to press him to speak further, but maybe if she kept up the flow of conversation D would begin to respond with a sentence or two. In any other circumstance that would sound like a pathetic thing to be glad about, but the truth was, the girl had hardly spoken to anyone for weeks, not properly. Not that this could be called proper conversation, but D was the first person that she'd found that seemed to be willing to tolerate having her around since Paige had come back this year. Although she'd grown used to being on her own over the years, it was always nice to break the habit whenever she got the chance.

"That's alright then, good to know you've got it under control." Paige watched as the boy returned to reading his book. She really should leave him in peace, but she was just too happy about having a chance to 'talk' with someone. The girl didn't want to give it up in a hurry. Paige shifted her weight to lean back on her hands; then began to speak again. "So you must've grown up knowing all about magic. That sounds like it would have been pretty cool." Paige had often wondered who her real parents had been over the years, and ever since finding out that she was a witch she had wondered all the more. If they'd decided to keep her, she might have had a childhood that would have prepared her for all the fantastical things that went on at this school. Sometimes she still felt like the weird kid that didn't belong, even here. "I suppose your whole family is magical too then. That must make for some interesting stories."​