Listening Carefully

[Tholomyes Fontaine]

Tholomyes Fontaine had been enjoying his first term at Hogwarts New Zealand, though it wasn't quite like what he'd expected from the place it was interesting and intriguing and made the Ravenclaw really consider opening himself up further to the school, he wasn't too sure where such things might lead, but obviously his brain was absolutely convinced that the worst would happen, he just had to remind himself that so far things had been fine and there was no reason why things couldn't continue to be fine. The young boy had forsaken his studies in favour of just sitting quietly in the Courtyard, he'd long discovered that at this school the idea of privacy was far scarcer than at his last, there at least people took the time to find a place where they could be uninterrupted if they wanted a conversation, or even just to look. The room had been smaller overall in his last school, far easier to spot someone just sitting vaguely listening or overhearing what was being said, this school was bigger, was that the primary difference?

The Ravenclaw had his notebook in front of him, but as he sat vaguely listening to what was happening around him, he wasn't writing any of it down, but mostly just doodling away, the lack of arts related classes in this school was the only real fault he could find with it. He had been the best at arts, he had loved drawing and painting, he loved doing things with his hands and keeping himself busy. He didn't think of himself as good at it, but capable and he didn't often let others see what he was doing, currently the Ravenclaw was just content to do this peacefully. He took in what others around him were doing but paid no attention to it, there was no need for him to, it was pointless to really take it in. Tholomyes muttered a small curse when the pencil's tip broke and he had to sharpen it, muttering small muggle curses about the uselessness of pencils and how this was just a reflection on how terrible his art and his life was.
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[Lyra Potter]

Exams were over for the term, and Lyra thought that she had done a decent job with the minimal effort she had put into her lessons this year. The Gryffindor girl doubted that she would get very high marks, but she didn't really care. There was always next semester, or next year, to improve her marks. Instead, Lyra was enjoying her freedom by spending the day outdoors. The weather was warm, and the sun was shining which made Lyra's hair look much more red than it really was. She had gone down to the lakefront, considered jumping in to look for mermaids again, before settling on skipping rocks across the water. The Gryffindor thought she might make the squid appear if she caused enough ripples- or hit it in the head with a rock.

After wasting an hour or so, the Gryffindor decided to head back to the castle. Surely, she could find something to entertain her. Maybe she would look for her twin. He usually had some good ideas for how they could get in trouble together. Lyra bounced through the courtyard, seeing very few people around. She paused when she noticed a boy cursing under his breath and breaking pencils. She grinned. That looks interesting. Lyra thought as she made her way to where he was. "Something wrong?" she asked, curiosity evident in her tone.

 

[Tholomyes Fontaine]

The Ravenclaw's concentration was broken when someone spoke, he had been so focused in that moment on the broken lead of the pencil and the many curses which had followed that he hadn't even heard this person approach him, he looked up and the forced a small smile as he was still very much on the broken pencil and the frustration he felt because of it, "Pencil's just broke, and it's just typical," he uttered with a slight hatred towards the pencil laced into his tone, his french accent flowing lightly through his words, he was very annoyed that it was happening, "I mean it's just of course got to happen when I'm in the middle of drawing for the first time in weeks because of the stupid exams and now it has to break and of course I left my sharpener upstairs in the dorm, which is again typical," he whined looking between the pencil, his doodles and the girl who stood in front of him. He really hated that this pencil's lead had snapped, "Its a useless pencil, completely useless, just ruined this picture, this doodle," he motioned to it with a heavy sigh, thinking that this girl probably regretted ever asking him about it. Theo was cynical and he definitely just saw the worst in anything and everything so he expected her to be annoyed, to regret it.
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[Lyra Potter]

Lyra looked at the boy with confusion as she heard that all of the frustration was over a pencil breaking. She briefly wondered if it was a special pencil or something, but it didn't seem to be. It was just an ordinary pencil. "It's just a pencil, right? I mean it's not like it can't be replaced." Lyra said simply. He seemed to be distraught over the fact that the sharpener was up in his room. Really, it seemed like such a small thing for him to get worked up about. "Why do you want to sit out here alone anyways?" she asked curiously. "There are more exciting things to do." Lyra informed him, in case he didn't already know. She had a tendency to insert her two cents even when it wasn't requested of her. Her green eyes studied the boy. She thought she might recognize him vaguely from lessons, but she had never spoken to him before. "I'm Lyra, by the way." the Gryffindor said with a smile.

 

[Tholomyes Fontaine]

Tholomyes looked at her and just nodded, it was just a pencil and it could be replaced but that wasn't really the point, "Yeah, but that's not the point," he said dismissively in a tone that implied that she just didn't understand his struggle with the pencil and the frustration he felt over the fact that this one time, when he had really his pencil to not break and it had and of course it had to be the time that he decided he didn't bring his sharpener, it wasn't like he used this pencil all that often, in fact he used it quite rarely what with the fact he had to use a quill now, but that really wasn't the point. He looked up at her and shook his head, "I like it out here, I like being alone," he told her, "What if I find this exciting?" he continued as if it was a ridiculous notion that anything would be more fun than just sitting in silence drawing and vaguely listening to what was around him. The Ravenclaw watched as the girl introduced herself to him, "Tholomyès, you're a Gryffindor right?" he vaguely remembered her from the classes and since she wasn't a Ravenclaw and seemed to want to do something more exciting he could only assume that she was a Gryffindor.
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