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[Joshua Toubia]

Return of the semester from summer break had Joshua already busy in the library on the very first week. Not for the lessons and assignments that usually kept many busy during the week. Joshua was here on his own accords, sort of. Hogwarts Monthly still matter to the boy, and if he wanted to continue to matter, Joshua needed to do better with his writing. First semester he headlined for the Hogwarts Monthly, and to be honest with himself, Joshua didn't see his best on the front page. He looked at it once and store the newspaper in the bottom of his trunk. Joshua hadn't looked at it since, and won't until the next monthly newspaper came out and Joshua was satisfied with his contribution. For the time being, Joshua sat with a stack of old Hogwarts Monthly issues and reading through the articles in some of them. He could tell how the monthly newspaper improved over the years, the first few issues weren't their best and at some point the newspaper was competing with a gossip rag. Joshua wonder why the school would allowed such a thing? The boy kept skimming through the articles, hoping to get inspired by some of the materials in them. It won't be long until Sophie request something from him and Joshua won't have nothing to give this time around if he wasn't really satisfied with his writing.

 

[Simon Vanity]

Simon always put a lot of pressure upon himself to start working and working well from the moment that he was back at school. He had his eyes on doing well in the OWLs, he knew it was another year away but he felt like he had to do well in them and had to start the study process well before he had any classes for them. Well before this year had even finished. He was therefore in the library organising his notes and books and making sure that subjects lesson notes were together and then he could get started on fixing them and improving them, preparing himself for the increasingly intense studying that he would do in the weeks to come. He had however, after a few hours grown a little bored of the work he’d been doing. While studying was good and he enjoyed it a lot, he knew that taking breaks was important so Simon had begun wandering around the library looking for someone interesting to read or do. The part-veela eventually came across, a boy from his house and year group sat in amongst a whole host of what looked like monthly magazines. He wondered why and looked towards the boy, ”Hey Joshua right?” he asked, a little uncertain about the name which he didn’t feel great about, but Simon had never been good at names. ”What are you doing? Are you intending to write for the monthly?” that was the only reason he could think for why he’d be so surrounded by both old and new copies of the monthly.​

 

[Joshua Toubia]

Joshua, naturally stopped what he was doing when someone approached him. He looked up and was a bit surprise to see who decided to greet him today. It's not like he had many friends. "Y-yes, and you're Simon right?" Joshua shook his head, "I'm al-ready writing for the monthly," he blushed a little. Either Simon didn't read the paper or ignored the articles he would published. Joshua couldn't assess quickly enough to know which one it was. Joshua looked over his space, it was all covered in older editions of the monthly to some of the more recent ones in the last couple of years. He probably came across unorganized to Simon. Joshua picked up his mess a little, setting some of the monthly issues to the side. "Umm, you're welcome to sit if you l-like, I was just looking for something to write for the next edition. Trying f-for umm, inspiration," Joshua stammers a bit there while explaining himself.

 

[Simon Vanity]

Simon gave a little smile and nodded, ”Yup,” the boy returned with a nod, and was very surprised to hear that Joshua already wrote for the monthly. Simon hadn’t had much of a interest in the magazine, his sister was a part of it, and that had made him a little less keen, ”That’s pretty cool, my sister is the co-editor, Noemie,” Simon boasted, since he couldn’t boast about being a part of the publication he could at least pretend a little with his connections to it. At the offer to sit, the boy shrugged and nodded, ”Sure,” Simon was bored and he didn’t have much else to do, so why not then just sit down and spend time with his dorm and classmate. He picked up one of the older editions and began to read through it. It was pretty interesting, ”Did you have any ideas?” the boy asked, obviously Joshua had been looking for some inspiration, but it didn’t mean he didn’t have a couple of ideas. Maybe a few that Simon could help turn into something solid and then he’d helped out both a potential friend and take credit for a little of the finished product. A win win for Simon.​

 

[Joshua Toubia]

Now it was his turn to not be that quite mindful when it comes to names. "N-Noemie, she your sister? Why didn't I make that c-connection sooner," Joshua would kick himself if he could. He never uttered a word in the girl's direction, most of the time he sat quiet during meetings. Joshua would blend with the walls if he could. He always holding his journal open while the rest brainstorm on topics and catch up with the latest updates with Sophie. Joshua shook his head, and sighed. "S-sadly no, I'm trying to figure out ways to write this headliner. L-last issue, it fell a little flat. I read some of L-Lennon's old stuff. He a lot confident in his writing, it shows. B-but I can never write like he does," Joshua spoke lowly. He wish to have that same confident in his writing, but in his own way. Joshua wasn't quite getting it yet.

 

[Simon Vanity]

Simon nodded, ”We share a surname and a hair colour,” the boy said, since it was to him fairly obvious, but he knew that not everyone would make the connection between two people who were siblings. He wasn’t necessarily berating him for not knowing but mostly just stating what was to him obvious. He nodded along as the boy went on to the describe the fact he couldn’t think of anything and seemed almost unsure of his own writing. Simon wasn’t sure how to help, but he was eager to. The old person who’d run it had supposedly been very confident in their writing and he didn’t necessarily want to just state that Joshua would need to gain confidence, he’d rather try to help him increase his own confidence. ”Hmm, are there things you like that you could write about?” the ravenclaw asked, maybe his hobbies could be something he wrote about, ”Or maybe there’s something you don’t like that you could write about? Aren’t you on the quidditch team, you could write about sports?” the boy was suggesting anything. The teen didn’t know his roommate very well, they hadn’t ever really been friends, or gotten to know one another, so all he knew were the things that had been about the school. However, Simon was keen to get to know the boy, since they did technically live together.​

 

[Joshua Toubia]

Joshua nodded, his lips parted eyes almost hazing out. As if he was trying to match the hair and surname of both siblings silently in his head. "I umm, I'm p-pretty much like a fly on the wall in the Hogwarts Monthly club. M-must of the time I'm just looking down at my journal," Joshua admitted, stuttering per usual. Joshua squinted his eyes, confused where the redhead was going with his question. "Y-yeah, but I can't write about the things I like. It's l-like an introduction to the Hogwarts Monthly, the main intro," Joshua tried explaining his assignment as if he were writing an essay. Joshua picked up the pile of Hogwarts Monthly issues and handed over the last one he wrote the headliner. "R-read it, it's flat. You'll understand once you do," Joshua pointed at the headliner. "I d-do play quidditch, but I'm not sure how long that will last," Joshua tells him, sighing a bit. He considering long and hard about quiddtch next year, it didn't look promising. "W-what do you like, Simon?"

 

[Simon Vanity]

Simon thought it would be odd to be a fly on the wall in any situation, he did tend to get involved with things, half the time he couldn’t help himself. He could understand why someone wouldn’t look up, but it did at least, in part, explain why Joshua had never made the connection between Simon and Noemie, but he had to hope he was more observant in other aspects of his life than he was in that. Admittedly Simon had never taken an interest in the monthly, his sister wrote for it and that was where his interest in it stretched to. He hadn’t ever wanted to be a part of it because his sister had carved that out for herself. It was a little dumb but Simon had been set on sticking with his classes and doing things that would set him apart from his sister. So he took the paper as it was handed to him and saw what the boy meant, ”Oh okay,” he couldn’t help but think it a little odd that the boy who seemed to not pay too close attention was tasked with surmising a lot of what was going on in the school. ”I see what you mean, but if you just treated it like an essay, it’s the same as any introduction to an essay, figure out everything that’s going on and then rephrase it,” Simon could figure that what he was saying wasn’t exactly helpful, but it was all he could think of. ”Why aren’t you sure if it’ll last?” the part-veela asked, a little surprised that he wouldn’t keep with the sport, ”I like reading, duelling, and I like running, I go running nearly every morning,” Simon said with a little shrug, he knew he needed to stretch out a little more do more with his time at school, but his interests didn’t stretch too much further. ​

 

[Joshua Toubia]

Joshua held his breath, counting on some sort of feedback from his roommate. That's how one improves, right? Joshua raised his thumb close to his mouth, subconsciously he nibbled at his thumb nail. Writing the paper....it was becoming quite important to him. He couldn't explain why, it just was. Writing, like for him, for Joshua, it gave him somewhat a voice. Another voice, a better way in communicating and relating back to his schoolmates without talking. Without stuttering his words, writing helped him feel somewhat liberated. "Y-yes, I tried. S-summarizing, most can do it. Yes? I, umm, d-don't have a style I guess," Joshua explained to his redheaded roommate. The subject switch to quidditch, and Joshua imitated Simon with a little shrug. "It w-was to try something that scared me. I d-did, and I think I'm r-really, like really bad at it," Joshua cast his head down, laughing now that he may consider giving up quidditch. Flavio, had given Joshua a chance and Joshua was nowhere to be found during the game. In the mix of confusion, Joshua shouted out in Spanish and not stutter once when he did. No one notice, including Joshua. "D-dueling? Running, that explains why I d-don't see you in the morning," mystery solved. Joshua stopped from obsessing over the headliner, it will come to him. No matter what he had to submit something or Sophie will take charge and not lead him writing anything in a while.

 

[Simon Vanity]

Simon listened and gave the boy a little frown, ”If you’ve only just started writing them then how can you expect to have a style yet?” Simon thought it was fairly evident that a style came with time, and practice. It took writing more than one or two articles to find a sort of style that he could use. Maybe Joshua was being a little hard on himself, expecting too much and reading someone’s work who had likely been doing it a while. ”If you haven’t written too many, maybe it’s best to just focus on having something written than over thinking it,” Perhaps Simon wasn’t particularly understanding of Joshua and his situation but he was coming at it from a little outside the situation. The teen listened as Joshua spoke of trying something that scared him, maybe it was a little full on for him but he had to admit that it was very brave of him to even try. ”That’s pretty good of you though, brave of you. At least you gave it a try then,” the boy said. He could admit that he’d be unlikely to do something that scared him in the way. He nodded as they began talking about his interests, ”It’s best to do when you first wake up, I find it gives you so much energy for the day,” the boy replied. He wasn’t often in the dorm, certainly not early in the day where he was more likely to be out in the library reading up on whatever he needed to. ”If you want to join me, you are more than welcome to, but I don’t go easy,” Simon spent a good section of the early morning doing that, he knew it was vital to keep in shape and did his best to do so.​

 

[Joshua Toubia]

He didn't put too much thought into that, how can he assumed it would all flow naturally for him? "You're r-right, that's true....I ah, I just read everyone else's writing and was hoping," Joshua couldn't complete that sentence. It's safe for him to say he able to write something or anything coherent but a style, well that was another level Joshua had more to work on. Joshua nodded, he had so much to think about, so much more to consider. Joshua thank the boy for his input, Joshua doesn't think he would've figured it out on his own without some proper feedback. His difficulties are just that more complicated, but the very least he understood why he felt like he was lacking in some area of his writing. "Y-yeah, thanks. And I saw that there was very l-little enthusiasm in try-outs when I did. H-hey, maybe you should play? You're f-fit guy, you run. Ever consider it?" Joshua made the observation and had to ask. It'd be great to have a friend out there if he did try out again for the team since Alexis wasn't playing, and he thinks she won't be playing again any time soon. "Me r-run with you? S-sure, I can join you sometimes. Is t-that why you're always early to class? It makes m-more sense now," Joshua nodded. It must be doing well for Simon because he was nearly always early for class. Joshua admired the boy commitment to a daily routine, especially for someone as young as themselves.

 

[Simon Vanity]

Simon knew that people naturally found a way of writing, he had noticed it in his own essay work, that style that hadn’t been there in first year was clearly developing. It made sense to him then that his dormmate was maybe putting a bit too much pressure on himself to be perfect and natural first time which such a thing just would not be possible. The teen could however sympathise a lot with what he said, the way the sentence just ended, ”I get it, sometimes you just want to be good at it already, live up to everyone else, but you have to give it time, Josh,” the boy shrugged, he could sympathise with it, certainly he could understand it. It was perhaps why he didn’t do those things on top of all the other reasons. He didn’t think that was the actual reaction of the captain, perhaps Joshua just hadn’t looked at the right moment. He shrugged at the question to him, ”I might, my sister played, so I wasn’t interested in just doing what she did, but maybe,” the boy hadn’t ever been too interested in quidditch, it was probably a good sport for him, but he hadn’t ever liked the idea of losing and in a team set up, he was sure he wouldn’t do too well. He would be more than happy for him to join him on the runs, especially after his sister left, he liked running but he could always do with the company, ”Tend to, it’s easier to run first thing, you get the tiredness out your system and then be ready for the rest of the day. ​