New Year, Old Habits

[Kira Wolf]

After a rather eventful holiday, Kira sought solace in the one place she had always felt at home. The back of the library had seen many hours with the blue eyed Ravenclaw during her first year, and with classes coming up quickly she wanted a head start on the new year.

Kira sat on the floor in the back of the library. She was surrounded by maybe two dozen books, a stack of at least six parchments next to her left leg and at least a dozen on the right. The smaller stack was filled with her dainty penmanship, while the larger still remained blank. In front of her was a lone strip of parchment. On one knee she held a half-filled parchment and on the other an open book. She ran a finger down its page as she read. She stopped near the bottom and turned to her parchment, jotting something down.

She picked up the last strip of parchment off the floor in front of her and placed it in the book, shutting it and setting it on one of the piles surrounding her. She turned to a different pile and, sticking her quill behind her ear, she pulled out a large volume from in the middle. She flipped through it until finding what she was looking for about two-thirds of the way through the book. She removed the quill from behind her ear and started jotting things down again.

She reached for the strips of parchment, only to look up when her fingers brushed the empty floor. She deliberated for half a moment before pulling the hair tie out of her hair, letting her chocolate ponytail fall in soft waves against her shoulders. She rarely ever wore her hair down. She placed the hair tie in the book before flipping back to the beginning of the book and scanning it for something else.

She was so caught up in what she was doing she didn't notice there was someone else there.

 

[Paolo Ricci]

There were so many things he had been looking forward to, but this was one of the top on his list to see here at Hogwarts. The library! Paolo had always loved learning everything he could, always being extra studious in his classes. He had a large collection of books of his own back in his room at home, and hoped to start another collection of his own at school. Being able to go to such a grande library like the one here at Hogwarts, he was sure he would find many he would want to add to his collection.

Paolo arrived and could not believe his eyes. He had the silly thought of wondering how long it would take him to read each book here. Maybe all 7 years here at school? He wondered how many he could take out at a time, hoping he could even take some home whenever he was on break. After going here a lot, he was sure he would become friends with the librarian and he thought that might help his chances with taking more books. He took a big whiff of the smell of books that lingered everywhere and started to stroll around. Looking at the different subjects he passed by, he was making a mental list of what area he wanted to read up first.

There was a row of books on various Charms topics. He skimmed his finger over each spine of the books along the row that was shoulder height for him. Going along each book until he came to one of the last ones in the row, and he pulled it out. It was a book on the theory of Charms, which he thought might help him with learning to cast different kinds of charms. Paolo couldn't wait to dig into the book later that day. This wasn't to say he was done exploring the library though. He held the book at his side and kept walking. So far he had seen a few students here and there, mostly sitting at the various tables for studying. But the further back he got, the less students he saw. He wondered how far back the library actually went.

When he started to think it would simply go on forever, because, you know...magic, he saw someone sitting against the back wall. As he got closer he saw it was a fellow Ravenclaw! She looked a little familiar, maybe he had seen her at the House table in the Great Hall or their Common Room. Either way, he was happy to meet someone else from his house. It didn't matter to him which house someone was in, but he was always extra excited someone from the same one. He strolled over to him with his big Cheshire grin that he always sported, and introduced himself. "Hey, it's nice to see a fellow Ravenclaw in here! Not that there aren't many here," he said, chuckling to himself. Of course there would be plenty of Ravenclaws in the library. "My name is Paolo, I'm a first year and just checking out this awesome library for the first time" he said looking at all of the books and parchments around her. Seeing that he thought they may get along well. He extended his hand to shake hers as he introduced himself.

 

[Kira Wolf]

Kira glanced up as she heard a voice, a little surprised to see a younger boy approaching her with a wide smile. She blushed a little, nervous to see anyone approaching her with so much enthusiasm. Relax, Key, he's just a kid. She offered him a small smile as he approached, noting the charms book in his hands.

After he introduced himself, she took his hand and gave it a small but firm shake. "Kira." She said simply, before standing and going over to the book shelf.

She browsed for a moment before pulling out two other books- one on fundamental charms and one on practical charms for everyday life. She turned and offered them to Paolo. "These are good follow-ups." She spoke softly, nodding at the book under his arm.

 

[Paolo Ricci]

Paolo was very excited when she picked out two books and handed them to him. Looks like he would be busy for awhile! Kira was a pretty name, he thought. "Thank you very much Kira," he said, "what kind of things are you working on here?" He was always interested in what people were learning about. As much as he loved reading books and learning on his own, he knew of the importance and benefits of learning with others. Everyone had their own views and ways to do things, and he always liked to learn about that.

 

[Kira Wolf]

Kira blushed a bit when he thanked her before he reminded her why she was in the library in the first place. She returned to her stack of books. "Um, I'm just going through course materials before classes start again." She admitted quietly, brushing her chocolate hair behind her ear. "I know it's a little silly, but I like to be prepared." She looked down. Every time she thought she was confident and over her shyness, this happened, someone else would approach her differently and she'd draw back into herself. Last year she had managed at least a semblance of confidence, but part of her mind was still elsewhere, and it made it harder for her to focus.

 

[Paolo Ricci]

"Oh I don't think it's silly at all! I've already started doing the same," Paolo said, absentmindedly scratching the back of his head and grinning. "I have already read a lot of each of my school texts," he said, a little sheepishly. It was good to meet another person who was like that too. He was worried he would seem a little too nerdy to others here at school, like he had in the past. Meeting Kira in the back of the library, he thought he had found a friend who was similar to him in this regard.

"What is your favorite subject?" he asked excitedly, probably a little louder than he should have in a library. He looked around to make sure he hadn't disturbed anyone or noticed by the librarian. Paolo didn't want to make a bad first impression on her, since he planned on spending a lot of time here. But during his time at Hogwarts he had a hard time containing his energy, wanting to see and learn as much as he can.

 

[Kira Wolf]

Kira smiled softly and listened as Paolo talked. It was always nice to see someone else had the same enthusiasm for learning as she did. When he asked what her favorite subjects were, albeit a little loudly, she scooted over and patted the empty space next to her. "Well, I like Herbology and Potions," She told him with a shy grin. "What, um, what subjects do you like so far?" She asked, curious if he had any particular passions as far as school went.

 

[Paolo Ricci]

Paolo sat down next to Kira when she motioned to him. He sat cross-legged and put his three books down on the other side of him, save for the first one he grabbed and kept it on his lap. "I can't wait to start classes, Herbology and Potions sound so interesting. They go well together too, I would guess, since you're using different plants in the potions," he said, his voice now quieter. "I am pretty excited for Charms, as you could probably guess," Paolo said, chuckling a little to himself and glancing down to the text on his lap, "But I heard from another student that depending on what your wand is made of it may be good in different areas. I want to find a book on that and figure out what mine is good for!"

 

[Kira Wolf]

Kira smiled and listened to Paolo talk as he sat next to her. She wasn't the best at talking to other people, but she was always a good listener. When he mentioned wanting to find a book on wand woods, she gave him a wide smile and reached into her bag. After ruffling for a moment she pulled out a thick book and offered it to him. "Here," She smiled. "It's an encyclopedia on wands. It's all about the cores, the woods, even the lengths and different flexibilities." She tucked her hair behind her ear again. "I have a friend who has trouble with spells, so I went looking into what his wand was made of."

 

[Paolo Ricci]

"Oh wow! Thank you very much Kira, I'm sure glad I met you," Paolo said, making eye contact. He had his big Cheshire grin on his face again, showing his gratitude. She had now given him three new books to read, he felt he owed her something now. "You keep giving me new books, I feel like I owe you something. If you ever need a favor, let me know" he said, leafing through the book on wands. He was searching for his wand wood, which was Mahogany. Once he found the page he briefly read it and saw it was good for Transfiguration. "Woah, I guess this is good for Transfiguration. I will have to get another book on that!" he exclaimed, holding out his wand and staring at it in wonder.

 

[Kira Wolf]

Kira let out a little giggle and began organizing her pile as Paolo thanked her, promised her a favor, and started leafing through the book she had given him. It wasn't all that big a deal, really, she would have liked someone to have given her books last year. She saw no harm in doing so for a younger student. It was a good thing he had shown up, actually, because once she had been pulled from her books she realized she hadn't eaten since this morning.

She glanced up as he said he needed another book on Transfiguration and she smiled. "Wait one minute," She told him as she stood, before disappearing into the bookcases. After a few minutes, she returned with a few different Transfiguration books. "Here," She offered him with a grin. "These really helped me last year."

 

[Paolo Ricci]

Kira surprised Paolo again with more books! "Even more," he laughed, " thanks again Kira! How many books can we take out of the library at once? I can't wait to get through all of these! He looked over each text she handed to him, putting them in the order he wanted to read all of these new books. Paolo was excited to go through each and gain all of the knowledge the books had to offer. The young first year glanced at his new friend, looking forward to talking about all that he learned with her. Since she was a second year, she had already read these books and had this knowledge. It was comforting to know someone he could talk about these things with. He hadn't met another first year yet that seemed to have the thirst for knowledge that he did, so he wasn't sure if any others would be reading as much as him. Being friends with older students will help with that though. "Do you like to read a lot, Kira? I haven't met anyone else yet who likes to read more than the course texts."

 

[Kira Wolf]

Kira couldn't help but smile a little bit. He seemed as eager as she was to go through all the texts the school held. "I don't know, I've never tried more than ten." She shrugged, tucking her chocolate hair behind her ear. "I do enjoy reading a bit," She told him. "I've been through quite a bit of material already, but there's always so much to learn." She smiled shyly. "You're right, though, I haven't seen anyone else frequent the library past studying."