If We Believed In That Sort of Thing

[Veronica Willows]

It was the beginning of a new school year, and Veronica could once again be found in her most favourite haunt of the castle - the library. She had two things she wanted to do today, if she didn't get distracted from them. One was to locate a few books she wanted for some extra History of Magic reading - although she hadn't actually quite finished the textbook this time, seeing as she hadn't had it for very long before arriving back at school. With less books to carry back to Ravenclaw Tower in that respect, that left Veronica free to browse around for more interest books. It felt like forever since she'd been able to search this library in such a manner, seeing as last year's focus on her exams had begun to take precedence during the end of the semester. It had been months since she'd looked for books just for fun, and so Veronica was immensely enjoying the freedom the start of the year afforded her to do so. Currently she was in the Astronomy section looking to see if anything new had snuck onto the shelves since the last time she had combed through them, and as she moved along the row she continued to absent-mindedly add books to the pile in her arms, completely heedless of the rate at which it was growing.

 

[Stella Wright]

Stella had been meaning to explore the library since she first arrived at Hogwarts, so naturally she took the opportunity in the first decent bit of spare time she had. And naturally, the firs place she looked for was the astronomy section. Her new friend Phoebe had been rather dismissive of the library's scientific prowess, but Stella had to see for herself. And even if there was nothing much that was new to her, she still enjoyed looking at astronomy books. She hadn't encountered many such volumes that were magical, so even if they couldn't teach her much, she would enjoy the moving pictures. Plus getting ahead (well, further ahead) in her favourite subject could only be a good thing.

The relevant aisle was not difficult to find for anyone with a working knowledge of library organisation - which, of course, was as it should be. Stella wandered slowly along it, paying infinitely more attention to what was on the shelves than where she was going. She ran her fingers along the spines, enjoying the sensation of the textured leather bindings. Now and again she pulled a book out to look at it more closely, and slowly she began to accumulate a pile to take out. It was in this way that Stella very nearly collided with another girl doing the same thing in the opposite direction. "Oh! Sorry! I should have been paying more attention." Stella glanced at the girl, and realised that she was a fellow Ravenclaw. "Hi," she added, with a sunny smile. "I'm Stella."

 

[Veronica Willows]

Veronica had been so immersed in task that her world had shrunken down to just shelves and the titles on the books, and so by the time she registered that there was a person next to her, she had almost bumped into them. Instinctually her hand rose to curve around the tower of books in her other arm - which that was a lot, actually, she noted absent-mindedly, perhaps it was time to sit somewhere and read them rather than just entertain the idea of doing so. That thought was chased out of her mind immediately, however, considering that the other girl had taken this chance to start a conversation. Veronica smiled in return, awkwardly blowing her hair from her face so as to see the girl better. "It's okay, I'm sorry too - it wasn't like I was watching where I was going either." Although she was always initially a little shy meeting new people, hearing the other girl's name made Veronica's eyes light up and she burst out excitedly, "Oh, are you the Stella that has the beautiful Astronomy book my friend Phoebe told me about?" She realising that she might have sound a bit too personally involved to someone she'd just met, though, so she hastily continued with, "It's just, I love Astronomy; it's one of my favourite subjects... she thought I would be interested, is all."

 

[Stella Wright]

Stella grinned. She hadn't imagined that Phoebe would be excited enough about her astronomy book to share it with other people, but she was most flattered that she had. The thought that Stella might already be gaining a reputation for her astronomy knowledge was quite exciting. "Yes, that's me! I love Astronomy too - well, obviously." Stella paused, looking at the other girl's tall stack of books and realising that they, too, were all from the Astronomy section. Yes, this was definitely the sort of person she ought to get to know. "Are you a second year like Phoebe, then? What are the Astronomy classes here like? I've only had one so far, and it was just introductory - all the classes in this first week seem to be like that. It's really cool to have it in a tower and at night." Stella realised that she was talking too much and stopped; she didn't want to scare off this potential new friend by being too enthusiastic.

 

[Veronica Willows]

Veronica smiled, glad that she had the right person - it had only been after her unplanned outburst that she had suddenly realised the potential for making an embarrassing mistake. "Yes, I'm a second year! Astronomy is wonderful, but, um..." She chewed at her lip slightly, not wanting to speak badly of the course or a professor. "First year is a little... basic, I guess? If you already know the material it can be slightly... well, boring isn't the right word, but... I suppose I wanted to learn things I didn't already know, and there wasn't, um, a lot of that." Suddenly worried that she was dampening the other girl's enthusiasm, Veronica hurriedly continued. "But once you get past the beginner stuff, I think it's more interesting... although, um, I haven't actually had second-year Astronomy yet." She wasn't painting a very good picture for Stella, and feeling bad about it she tried to steer the conversation in a direction she hoped would be more positive. "What other subjects are you excited about?" Perhaps she would be better able to assure the younger girl about another subject.