It's Not Surprising That This Happened

[Veronica Willows]

The library may have seemed massive and intimidating to some of the students who found themselves wandering around its large overflowing bookcases, but Veronica had already decided that she loved it and was slowly becoming more and more familiar with the shelving system every day. If she wasn't up in the Ravenclaw tower, or out on some sort of field excursion with Phoebe, she only ever seemed to spend her free time in this one huge room of the castle, pouring over any interesting book she could find. There had been many books at home of course, and she'd already read at least the first three chapters of each of her textbooks, but there was just something different about wandering down a row of books she'd never seen before and picking out all the ones that looked interesting.

The pile of books in her arms was getting quite large now, and as she was about to reach the end of the shelf anyway Veronica turned and looked back up the aisle towards the table where she had left her bag. There was already one stack of books sitting beside it, and she still hadn't moved the stack that was sitting on the floor halfway along the aisle to the table either. Biting her lip, she glanced back down at the books in her arms, craning her head to read the titles again. No, but she really couldn't put any of these back, especially not 'Mechanical Muggles: 101 Ways to Improve Wizarding Life.' Perhaps there were some she could leave for now in the stack she had left on the floor, Veronica decided, and swiftly headed towards it. Too swiftly - she felt her foot catch on the hem of her slightly-too-long robes and suddenly she was falling through the air, all of the books that had previously been in her arms soaring along with her.

 

[Caelan Maxwell]

The painter in Caelan was excited while exploring the vast castle of Hogwarts. There was too many portraits, hundreds probably. It was better than the portraits at their Northern Ireland ancestry home. The ones here are magical and now he's curious how the people in it move and talk. It was, of course, a leisure trip to the library. Caelan likes being on the go and not see his cousin at the common room, although, she had not approached him recently yet. He heard that she's on the Ravenclaw's Quidditch team Caelan would love to try out but he's too young to do so. He's not just good at painting but flying as well, taught by his father when he was little but wasn't approved by his muggleborn mother.

When he arrived at the library, Caelan went row to row, looking for any books regarding magical portraits. He found a couple and was about to check out the books he had found when he heard crashing on the aisle next to him. Caelan's expression was concerned, and went to investigate it. What he found was both disappointing and amusing. Disappointing because the old and rare books were scattered on the ground. Amusing just because how much the person was carrying. A gentleman he is, Caelan put the books he was holding into a shelf and helped the girl who probably tripped. "Are you alright? Did you hurt yourself?" His English accent stronger than his Irish. He offered the girl a hand, his expression now more concern.

 

[Veronica Willows]

Veronica couldn't quite believe what had just happened to her. Falling face first onto the floor wasn't particularly worrying as the pain in her nose would, after all, eventually go away. But to think she had just dropped all those books in the process... Scuttling forwards on her knees she reached toward one that had landed open at a particularly wince-worthy angle, but paused when she saw a pair of feet stepping into her line of vision. Looking up worriedly, Veronica was about to launch into an explanation and apology of what had just occurred when the boy surprised her, offering his hand and asking if she was alright. "Oh, yes... I'm, I'm fine. Thank you," she managed to say, blushing as she automatically took his hand to pick herself up off the ground.

She didn't feel any pain once she was standing on both feet again, so her concern immediately returned to the books that were still lying all over the floor. Noticing how far up the aisle some of them had managed to fall Veronica bit at her lip worriedly, shooting a nervous glance at the boy in front of her before bending down again to start picking them up. "I didn't mean to drop them," she said, turning to look up at him again as she tried to locate the books by touch. "I shouldn't have been carrying so many, really, but this library is amazing, the books are all so interesting." Having grabbed all the ones in close vicinity, Veronica stood up and deposited them on a nearby shelf, unwilling to risk tripping over herself while carrying them again. "Which ones were you looking at?" she asked, suddenly interested.

 

[Caelan Maxwell]

The Ravenclaw boy was relived to know that the girl was alright and when she took his hand, Caelan hoist her up. Once up, he frowned at the girl at how her facial expression went on when she saw the minor damage of her little mishap. It was only books scattered everywhere. And then she started to explain herself which made him slightly smile, she was interesting at how she loves books and libraries. She was like Belle, that character from a muggle fairy tale story Beauty and the Beast. It might not be his favorite story but it does have some lessons from it. "It really is amazing and interesting. Magical even." Like any muggle public libraries or school libraries, the magical equivalent was the same on some forms except how the books, when returned to the top shelf doesn't need a ladder to get to return it, it levitates up. Caelan didn't want to leave the girl after that mishap, instead, he started to get the few books a feet away from her but can still hear her question. "Books about magical portraits. I love painting and seeing that the portraits here moves, it made me curious as to how they move around. Maybe if I teach myself about it, and can make a portrait move, I'll be the youngest wizard painter." Caelan could tell how he was proud of him being a great painter and apologize, "I'm sorry. I probably sounds like my cousin." He scratched the back of his head as he handed her the books he had retrieved. "Anyways, I see you're very interested in ..." He trailed off, reading the top cover of the book he handed her. "... Mechanical things. Aspiring engineer, I see." Caelan teased her, but it was a teas that has no harm words in it, just a friendly one.

 

[Veronica Willows]

Surprised and glad that this boy was helping her, Veronica trailed along after him down the aisle. It was lucky that the last of the books were in the process of being picked up though, because she was side-tracked completely by his mention of the particular ones he had been looking for. "That's amazing!" she burst out, looking up at the boy with an excited smile on her face. "I've never really learned how magical portraits move either, we don't have any at home - I'd never even seen any before I came here." Her mind was beginning to click along again, exploring different avenues of new things to learn. "Are the books helping? What kind of painting do you do, because I think portraits could perhaps be different to other kinds of subject matter... but I'm not really sure, I don't know anything about it... Do you think you could tell me anything you can, when you have the time?" Veronica was suddenly very glad that she had met this boy, because now she would have the chance to learn something new from him.

Accepting the books he handed to her, she was hardly going to pay any attention to them until he mentioned the topics she had been browsing. She looked down, flushing slightly before resuming eye contact, a small smile spreading across her face. "I, um... yes. Kind of. I want to invent things," she admitted. "But I've always been interested in machines, it's fascinating how all the small parts work together to perform a greater function." Veronica didn't know whether he would also be interested in what she was saying, so she left it there. She was enjoying talking to him, and didn't want to bore or annoy him if she could help it.