Open Casual Is As Casual Does

[Jingyi Huang]

The new semester at Hogwarts brought about some brand-new challenges for Jingyi, one of which could possibly get him expelled if things went wrong. So, he was going to try awful hard for that not to happen. Quite unusually, he found himself in the library and was trying to act very casual about it. Even if he knew full well people went to the library to look for books all the time, Jingyi was not one of those people, and he could count on one hand the amount of times he had actually checked a book out at the library. But he was just trying to act casual about it as he walked around, pretending he knew exactly where everything was. The fact of the matter was, he had no idea where the correct section was, scrunching his nose and squinting slightly as he walked down an aisle which appeared to have all kinds of books about cooking. Certainly not the section he was after.

 

[Raafe Khatri]

It wasn't often that Raafe completely lost track of Anisha but when he did he could almost guarantee that she'd eventually turn up in the library. Sure, it might take an hour or two of people watching but Raafe had already given up on doing his homework and he liked to see what sort of faces people made while they reading. The OWL students always looked especially stricken around this time of day.

Today though Raafe was more intrigued by one of their prefects who seemed to be lurking around the shelves more than reading them. Or maybe skulking was a better word? Scheming? He was doing something Raafe didn't have the vocab for just yet and with Anisha not yet in sight, Raafe couldn't resist approaching him as he innocently circled the cooking section. "I think books are usually more effective if you read one," he offered wisely, poking at a pamphlet about charms to help your dough rise.

 

[Jingyi Huang]

He wasn't really having much luck finding what he was after in the cooking section. Though maybe that was not much of a surprise. Perhaps he should have paid more attention to where things actually were the last time he had actually been in the library... about two or more years ago. And it wasn't helpful when one of the younger Gryffindors happened to notice his just aimless wandering. "Yes, thank you. Very helpful," he grumbled, giving the kid a rather hard stare for a moment. Fact of the matter was, he didn't want to be reading books about recipes or how to make the best dough. That sounded like something his brother might be interested in, but not him. Though, while he had the attention or someone else, he might as well make the most of it. "Don't s'pose you know where the Defence Against the Dark Arts section is?"

 

[Raafe Khatri]

Raafe nodded encouragingly at the prefect's comment, doing his best to hover in the older boy's periphery in a way he knew Anisha and Indira always found extra irritating when they were trying to focus, curious what a prefect was doing looking so unsure in a Library. "Nope sorry, I do my best to forget everything about the library the second I leave it," Raafe offered flatly. "Only so much room up here," he said, tapping his head.

"Aren't prefects supposed to know all this sort of stuff?" He asked, sliding a few books back and forth on a shelf with his finger. "It feels like something you guys should know," he continued, glancing at a few of the placards dotted around the library in the hopes that the Defense section would be comically close to them. "Are you trying to hex someone or something?"

 

[Jingyi Huang]

This kid was starting to get annoying now with how he was just buzzing around like an extra annoying fly. Even more so when it appeared he didn't even know where anything was, either. "Great, very helpful of you," while he was aware he was the prefect in the situation was supposed to be the one helping the younger students, it would be nice of them to return the favor every once in a while. Instead, it seemed he was being bothered by the least-helpful person in the whole damn castle.

"It's not in the rules that prefects have to memorize the library," he responded rather flatly. At least, he didn't think it was in the rules. In fact, he didn't even know if there were rules. And, if there were, he hadn't read them. And then the question about hexing people and Jingyi raised a brow, "Why? You volunteering?"

 

[Raafe Khatri]

[we don't have to finish this but I am enjoying bothering Jingyi]
Raafe nodded, helpfully, in response.

"No, but you should probably know where the books are for the main subjects, right? Or maybe that's only the prefects who read stuff," Raafe said thoughtfully. Anisha probably knew where all the books were. Raafe usually just followed her if they needed one for class. The benefit of being in the same house and classes even if he struggled to keep up with her academically. "Are you offering?" He responded, even more curious now. He didn't exactly relish being jinxed by a prefect, but it would certainly be unexpected.