Stu-die-ing

[Elizabeth Chatwin]

Doing all electives and Quidditch was horrible and something Elly had picked out of free will. It was something Elly was regretting at moments, but she did love all the different subjects she was taking. Her friend Geo was taking all the subjects as well and she kept her great company.

Since she had so many subjects she followed the library was becoming her second home. Elly loved to sit in the back and look at everyone learning and writing notes furiously. The lessons in the third year asked more from you and Elly wondered what it would be like if you dropped some subjects. Maybe she should drop one or two, but she just couldn't. She saw use in all the subjects, even if they weren't her favorites. Especially next period had a lot of subjects she didn't like. History of magic and astronomy were the ones she disliked, but they were necessary for some jobs.

Resigning from the Quidditch team was definitely not on her list, she enjoyed being the keeper way too much. Although they weren't the most important of a team Elly loved the job.

 

[Sara Benivieni]

Because she had decided not to take on too much this year, as she had picked only three electives, Sara knew she had to do the very best possible in her classes. She was doing the minimum in her opinion and it meant that she also had no excuse not to put effort into her studies. The last Quidditch practice had gone badly, and the other keeper had hardly done anything. Though she could hope that it would mean she got to play one of the next matches, since she was just an alternate. Sara had at least tried. Because the practice didn't go as planned and the beaters were hitting the wrong targets (thankfully none came towards Sara), it had put her in a mood.

She arrived to the Library with all of her books, as it seemed like a good distraction from Quidditch gone wrong, and she noticed how many students were in here. She sighed, hoping one of the tables at the back would give her some space, the student lounge was often not a good place to study when there were a lot of people because she couldn't concentrate so this was the only other place Sara would be able to finish her work. Upon spotting one of her friends, she went over to her with the hopes of keeping her company. "Hey Elly, do you mind if I sit here with you?" she asked, but not wanting to disrupt what the other girl was doing.

 

[Minerva Khulik]

Minerva weaved her way through the different aisles of books balancing a stack of them before her, as she levitated them to a table. At this point she could barely see over the stack and took to peering around it every so often. Every time she spotted a book that she thought might have something of note or interest in it pertaining to the subject at hand, she would lower the stack of books, summon the required book and place it on top of her ever growing stack. It was when she was doing this for the twentieth time that she spotted Elly and Sara at a table not too far away near the back of the library and with a smile and a sigh of relief she levitated the books once again and made her way over to them.

"Hi" she whispered peeking her head around the books and giving the girls a wave with her wand free hand before adeptly hovering the books to the table and lowering them down with barely any noise. A smile beamed at her own success before she turned and pulled out the chair available.

"Hope you don't mind but everywhere seems to be full right now!" which was definitely true, as Minerva gave a cursory glance over her shoulder.

 

[Elizabeth Chatwin]

Homework was a lot of work and Elly was currently searching for information on the bowtruckles. Elly knew that most of friends didn't follow all electives and subjects like she did. Some of her friends had almost dropped all of the subjects and she barely saw them. With all the workload she had to do next to the subjects she didn't have a lot of time to see her friends. Not that she didn't like her friends, there just wasn't enough time in a day anymore.

Soon after Sara stood in front of her. Maybe this was a good thing and she could chat up with some friends. Elly closed the book on bowtruckles and looked at Sara. She didn't look very differently from the time she had met her before Hogwarts. ''Hey Sara, no go ahead'' Elly smiled broadly. ''How are things going?'' There were so many things she liked to ask, but there was no time. They hadn't seen each other since so long.

And if Elly her luck hadn't run out her friend Minerva also showed up. She hadn't seen her in a year and Elly was glad she was doing okay. ''Hey stranger'' Elly winked. ''No, of course do sit down'' Elly wanted to ask how Minerva was doing and what happened in the second year.
She didn't want to push her so she decided to keep it a bit quiet. ''I missed you last year.'' Elly muttered almost quietly.

 

[Sara Benivieni]

Sara was happy to see that her friend didn't seem to mind her presence. When Elly asked how things were going she smiled back, tucking a lock of her hair behind her ear. "They're pretty stressful, the same as usual," she admitted. "What about you? It has been long since we last had a proper conversation." Although she had seen Elly in classes and on some occasions Quidditch matches when they played against each other there wasn't enough time to hang out, especially as she knew Elly had a lot on her plate - she took way more electives than Sara did.

Soon another person joined them and Sara made space for the hufflepuff, and greeted her as she sat down. "Of course we don't mind!" she added, wanting to have a new friend around too. When there was an opportunity to befriend people, Sara didn't waste it. She barely heard what Elly muttered but she shrugged it off, figuring it was nothing to worry about. "Oh, and I'm Sara!" she exclaimed to her classmate, in case she had no idea what her name was or even who she was.

 

[Minerva Khulik]

Minerva wished she knew enough spells to enlarge the table or shrink all her books but she didn't, so those that she couldn't squeeze on to the table before her, she managed to place on the ground by her chair glowering at any one that passed by and brushed against them. Turning her face to Elly's she gave her friend a smile, delighted that she had let her sit down with them. She vaguely recalled the other girl as one that had attempted to help her with flying in her first year but that seemed like such an eternity ago now.

"Hi" she said to both of them as she let out a sigh before folding her arms across the books in front of her. Resting her chin on said arms, she felt the undeniable pang in her gut that came from having missed Elly, Norton and Alistair the previous year too.
"Missed you too" she admitted aloud before smiling amicably at Sara, "I'm Minerva."

Another sigh seemed to shrink her deeper into her chair and pile of books.
"A few new professors this year" she said, remembering just how difficult she had always found small talk, "I've been swamped since I got back with so much to catch up on from last year too" her mouth changed into a pout as she sat back and stared at the books before her. She had honestly thought she would need to ask for a spell to keep her eyelids open the previous night.

 

[Elizabeth Chatwin]

Between all the electives, lessons and Quidditch it was fun seeing Min and Sara. ''Things are going fine, just a lot to do in a short period of time'' Elly replied to Sara. Elly nodded when Sara talked about not having spoken to each other for some time outside of classes. They were both busy and that didn't make things easier.

It was a lot of fun that Minerva was joining them to. Elly had missed both of them. ''There is always someone new at Hogwarts'' Elly giggled ''Somehow the Professors won't say for longer than two years'' It was true, a lot of Professors didn't seem to want to stay. I know kids are hard, but teaching at Hogwarts would be awesome. ''Are you seriously trying to catch up last year?'' Elly paused ''Wow, that is amazing'' Elly wouldn't even want to think of doing two years in one.

''How is Quidditch going Sara?'' Elly had seen her at matches, but they didn't train together. Two teams on the pitch was way too crowded. Especially if all the alternatives played.

 

[Sara Benivieni]

The more Sara talked to Elly and Minerva, as she had introduced herself, the more she realised that the Hufflepuff had been the same girl she'd offered to help with flying back in first year. It felt good to reconnect with people she hadn't seen or talked to in ages, and ones she hadn't interacted with for possibly over an entire year. What was even better was that Minerva and Elly already knew each other, which made it more fun. She nodded at the Ravenclaw‘s words. "Yeah, there is a lot to do. I can't really speak though, I only have three electives this semester," she admitted. "I heard theres a new flying professor for this semester, some former student. I don't know what his name is though, but he seems pretty cool."

At Minerva‘s statement, Sara told her, "If you need help sometime, I can always help you," she offered. Since her workload wasn't as much as other people's, she could make time for extra help. When Elly asked about Quidditch, Sara chuckled. "Well, the start of the year wasn't great for us, we lost our first match, and I just hope it gets better in future. Even our practice didn't go well." She shook her head, disbelievingly, Slytherin had done so much better last year, and she wanted her team to do well again, if not even better, this year. "Ravenclaw seems to be doing amazingly though, and I'm sure your Keeper skills helped with that."

 

[Minerva Khulik]

Minerva listened to the girls, realising that this was valuable study time and she had so much still to do but this was Elly and she hadn't seen Sara either since first year. She bit her lower lip to stop from blurting out that she needed to get on, she could feel a headache beginning to form from tension alone. Elly spoke to her and she nodded sheepishly back, though she didn't think it was particularly amazing of her at all to be so foolish as to do what she was doing. She would have loved to have done more electives but had to hit some of those on the head entirely and all because of spattergroit!

Sara offered help then in the event that she would need it and Minerva gave a feeble smile and then rubbed her forehead vigorously for a moment before looking back to the girls who were discussing quidditch now. Norton played quidditch too these days didn't he? She barely saw him any more, if it weren't for lessons she probably wouldn't see him at all. All this ridiculous extra classes to try to catch up with everyone else had distanced her even more from her friends when that was not what she had wanted at all.

Glancing at the books before her, she pushed then a little to the side and leaned in a bit closer to hear the girls conversation better. She would make time for studying and assignments later ... like during sleep scheduled time or something, what she needed now was to keep her friends and not distance them any further.
"What house is winning so far?" had she missed the entire quidditch cup league?

 

[Elizabeth Chatwin]

Sara was speaking about the new flying Professor and Elly hadn't even seen the guy. She knew Professor Cliffeton was on leave, but she hadn't seen his replacement. ''I have yet to see him'' Elly blushed, she barely came outside except for Quidditch practices. Maybe she had seen him sitting at the staff table, but it wasn't like she was staring at the table constantly. Elly had been babbling so much and she hadn't even noticed that Minerva seemed to be in pain. At least she was rubbing her forehead vigorously and Elly felt bad. ''Are you okay, Minerva?'' Elly asked Minerva out of worry.

When Sara started to talk about Quidditch Elly smiled. Her keeper skills had literally contributed nothing. ''First game went horribly for me, I kind of let everything through.'' Elly laughed, the second game went better. ''Our practice wasn't as good either.'' Elly knew that they were going to lose a lot in the next year. Their seeker was graduating and the new one didn't have as much practice as Izzy had. When Min asked who was winning so far Elly didn't even knew the answer to it. Which was pretty bad, since she was actually a permanent player on a team. ''I have literally no clue, I barely have time to follow the other matches'' Elly said ashamed. ''How are you two anyway, outside of school and Quidditch?'' Elly muttered, she was curious.