Open The First of Many Visits

[Branson Archer]

Branson had put off going to the library for as long as possible - he hadn’t, day one was only a few hours in - but he had held off for as long as he could, the first thing he’d done was go to see his dad, and from that was able to get a little tour of the place, mostly he just trailed his father as he worked learning where things were and trying to pick out the best spots for reading and working. Bran had left his dad to go exploring on his own in the library and because his dad had ‘actual work’ that didn’t need him to be hanging around, he’d tried to suggest going outside or exploring the wider school but branson had been quick to shut that down and just continued his library exploration. His muggle school had had a fair library for a school its size but this library was beyond even his dad’s descriptors. It was just so filled with books. He had thought he might try to read all of them, but he was quick to realise that might not be possible even in his best efforts. Branson was not a speed reader, he wasn’t reading to just say he had, he loved savouring books. But he found the defensive magic section and began looking at those, now he was at school and had a wand, he needed to start being more practical. And of course you started any practical with theory.​

 

[Indira Khatri]

Indi hadn’t wasted much time before she found herself in the library. She was eager to see what exactly this school had to offer, and she wasn’t disappointed at all. She had spent a lot of time in the university library with her parents on various occasions but that didn’t even come close to this. She was certain she could get lost in the stacks and be perfectly happy if she never came out again. She got so wrapped up scanning all of the title's she passed she hardly noticed anyone around her until she almost ran into one. Thankfully she stopped short and was even more surprised when she recognized him. “Oh it's you.” she blurted out rather bluntly. “Guess I shouldn’t be surprised to see you here after all.” she said with a laugh, remembering he had had his head in a book last time they met. “Branson, right?” she asked, making sure she had remembered his name correctly.

 

[Branson Archer]

Branson was a little startled when someone, a first year like him, almost walked right into him. It took a moment for him to not drop what he was looking at but then he realised he knew her, well, he’d run into her almost once before. ”Yeah, Bran for short, Indira right?” he wasn’t sure where she had been placed in the end, he knew she wasn’t in ravenclaw or he would’ve seen her already, but he wasn’t sure where she then was. ”The library’s the best place at school,” he told her as if it was obvious and of all the people he’d met before and in his time already at Hogwarts he was sure that she might actually agree with the statement. ”Where did you end up?” he asked her, it felt like a good question to keep the conversation going a little, unless she was too busy for one and just wanted to rush and get what she wanted first. He knew he was revising a bit but perhaps others were studying more. ​

 

[Indira Khatri]

Indi was relieved when he seemed to recognize her too. It hadn’t been that long since they had run into each other, so she shouldn’t have been too surprised. “Yeah, but it’s Indi for short.” she said with a grin, as she mimicked his answer. “I hope so. It’s definitely the coolest place I’ve found around here so far.” she said as she looked around at all the books. She wondered how many sections she could read through before her time was up here at school when she was brought back to the conversation with Bran. “Slytherin.” she answered simply. “You ended up in Ravenclaw right?” she asked. She was fairly certain she was correct. She had tried to listen for any familiar names during the sorting ceremony but it was easy to forget when so many names were called. “How do you like it up there in the towers? I wonder if I’d like it better up there?” she mused, as she thought about her annoying roommates.

 

[Branson Archer]

Branson nodded, he hadn’t been sure if she had a nickname and was just pleased that he had remembered her name. It hadn’t been that long but he had learned a lot of names over the past few weeks, so he might’ve been forgiven for getting it wrong. He nodded in agreement. ”I agree, it’s the best place,” the boy agreed with a small smile. He nodded, ”Yeah, Ravenclaw! I would’ve thought you might’ve end up in ravenclaw too,” Branson knew there was nothing wrong with Slytherin as a house, but he had thought from their first meeting it would be a ravenclaw thing but she wasn’t. ”My dad was a slytherin,” he then added, ”Ravenclaw is nice, the view is quite nice,” He said, ”How do you find Slytherin?”​

 

[Indira Khatri]

Indi smiled politely at Bran and he went on about the library. “I did too.” she admitted. She had been too caught up in the excitement of the sorting ceremony that she didn’t put much thought into what house she had ended up in. It wasn’t until meeting her roommate’s and had some time to think, did she start to question it. She liked books and studying, and appreciated knowledge and all that. But it’s not like being sorted into Slytherin made her any less intelligent. She was determined to be the best in her class regardless of her house. “Yeah I’m sure it beats the view from the dungeon.” she said and rolled her eyes. “It’s fine.” Indi said with a shrug, not wanting to complain or admit that she wasn’t having a great time yet. She knew things had to get better at some point, she just had to be patient.

 

[Branson Archer]

Branson gave a little nod, he was sure that for some, himself included admittedly the view would beat a dungeon view, but he also knew that there would be people who’d be deeply afraid of such a view would absolutely prefer the dungeon view. ”Some people would prefer a dungeon view I’m sure, you know people afraid of heights,” he said with a little shrug. Bran wasn’t entirely sold on her comment about how Slytherin was, it was pretty early on, perhaps she just hadn’t found her place within the house. He was sure that it helped to get friends outside the house. ”It is daunting to try to make friends in such a large place,” he said, wondering if that was perhaps the issue for her. ”Have you joined any clubs yet?”​

 

[Indira Khatri]

Indi scoffed at the idea of someone being scared of heights, but she smiled. “Well it would make going to Astronomy class hard.” she added. “But I guess the dungeons would be a better option. Unless they’re claustrophobic, of course.” she said jokingly. “It is.” she admitted, but she wasn’t really bothered by her lack of friends. She had met a few people and they all seemed nice, beside the unfortunate girls she had to share a dorm with, but none of them seemed quite right for her to consider a friend. Indi brightened when Bran asked about clubs. “I joined SDA. Which should be interesting. And I’ll get to learn all kinds of spells but it sucks that first years can't compete in the dueling tournament. Seems unfair to me.” she said, getting a little worked up as she talked about it but sighed. It wasn’t like she could do anything about it. “What about you?” she asked after a moment, realizing she should ask him too.

 

[Branson Archer]

Branson gave a little smile and laughed lightly at her joke, ”That would pretty bad,” he could imagine that existing at Hogwarts with a deep fear of heights was not going to be good. Or to be claustrophobic and be stuck in the dungeons. It would be weird and difficult, perhaps there was a way to get over such fears at school or it would be pretty hard. He nodded as she said that she had joined the SDA. He had thought about that but he wasn’t really keen to learn to fight, or duel, it seemed cool but he was sure that he needed to see it before he finally decided how he was with it. Bran on the other hand had opted, outside of just the brotherhood for the monthly. ”I joined the Hogwarts Monthly, I write a book review per issue, it’s call Bran’s Bookclub,” he told her, ”I just thought it would be cool do a little more than just read books,” he gave a little shrug, not wanting to overstate the little piece of writing he had done for the monthly. ​

 

[Indira Khatri]

Indi appreciated that Bran seemed to agree with her. “That’s cool.” she said with a shrug, not entirely sure how to respond. The newspaper seemed like an interesting club but she wasn’t sure if it was worth her time. “I thought about joining that club too, but I figured if I was going to write something it should be something I’m being graded on.” she explained, but turned quickly to give Bran a reassuring look. “I guess so. So what book are you going to write about?” she asked curiously, wondering if he’d have any good recommendations.

 

[Branson Archer]

Branson nodded, as she agreed. He didn’t think that it mattered if he was graded or not, he liked reading and writing. ”I don’t mind not being graded,” he said, perhaps that was the reason he was in ravenclaw and she in slytherin. But, perhaps it was just she didn’t want to put effort into something to get little back and he thought just having written something was getting enough back. ”I wrote about Song of Achilles, and the next one I’m doing is City of Ghosts. I want to vary the books on reading level and genre so others can join in. But the books will mostly be old muggle books I find in the library.” he said. He wasn’t sure if she’d read either of those, or was interested in either but that was was he was going for it. ”It’ll always be fiction, cause who wants to read about text books,” he said with a little smile. ​

 

[Indira Khatri]

Indi shrugged and turned to look at the books on the shelf. Her eyes landed on one with a faded spine that once had metallic letters but had rubbed away to the point where it was hardly legible anymore. “To each their own.” she said. “Or whatever that phrase is.” she added and waved her hand dismissively. But she listened as Bran talked more about his article and the books he planned on covering. “I’m sure the readers will appreciate the variety.” she said genuinely, but grinned as he mentioned only covering fiction. “I’d bet there’s someone who would like to read about textbooks. But I don’t think they’re going to your main audience.” she said, sounding serious as she considered the idea before she broke and ended up laughing.

 

[Branson Archer]

Branson nodded, ”Very true,” he agreed, he knew that writing and reading for fun weren’t everyone’s idea of a good time, he didn’t actually understand that but knew not everyone was like him and loved reading and as it turned out writing as much as he did. He nodded, ”I’d take requests really too,” he said, it would be useful to know what others were reading or would recommend, but he had a few ideas for now but down the line it might be useful to hear what other people might want to read together. The Ravenclaw laughed lightly, ”YOu never know, there might be someone who very much wants a review of Standard book of spells grade one,” he smiled easily as he’d said this. It would be difficult to do a review and feel a little like a prank really with it. ”What sort of books do you link to read?” he asked Indira.