Searching… OPEN Closed

Avis shuffled into the library, stifling a yawn. She'd spent the night before going through her notes from yesterday's classes and quickly realized that Herbology was going to be the class she'd be wrestling with this year. She knew next to nothing about plants in general, much less magical plants, and although she desperately wanted to teleport directly to her bed in the Ravenclaw dormitory, Avis knew she needed a head start on all things green, so to speak.

As she passed through the aisles of the magnificent Hogwarts library, she scanned each row with tired eyes but after a few minutes, she didn't seem to be any closer to finding anything on plants. She sighed in frustration. Avis had to check these books out before her first class of the day but was having no luck in locating the bloody things. She really didn't even know where to start and wished her older sister, Prim, was here. If anyone knew the innards of the Hogwarts library, it would be her.

As Avis walked through another aisle, focus completely on the rows of books beside her, she felt herself brush against something to her right and an abrupt clatter of items toppling to the floor followed suit. Avis whirled around to see a disgruntled Gryffindor girl sitting at a corner desk, her books lying in a heap on the floor between them. Avis' quickly bent down to pick up the books, uttering a stream of apologies.

"Bollocks, I am so sorry. I'll pick these up straight away. I didn't mean to interrupt your studying..." she said, collecting the two books in her arms before glancing down and noticing the titles.

Encyclopedia of Toadstools and One Thousand Magical Herbs and Fungi.

Her eyebrows arched in surprise as she looked up at the other girl. "Any chance you could tell me what aisle you found these books in?" she asked sheepishly, setting them gently back onto the desk.

The girl seemed very focused on her studying and Avis felt even worse for interrupting her, seeing as she'd startled her enough to mess up her notes that she'd gone back to scratching out promptly after suggesting Avis sit down.

Well, she did say there were no duplicates, Avis thought and took the open seat, pulling the toadstools textbook closer to her. She dug through her satchel for a quill and some parchment and after locating both, opened the heavy book to the index, hoping to find something to study for next class. She'd glanced through the syllabus previously and had come away even more confused but Avis supposed she could start on next lesson's topic before they discussed it in class.

"Oh, I'm Avis by the way," she mentioned casually. Introducing herself was the least she could do after the girl across from her so kindly let her sit down after knocking all her books to the floor. She wasn't sure if the girl would respond. Her head was still down as she seemed completely enveloped in the book, curly brown hair bouncing slightly as she wrote. Either way, Avis had gotten what she needed, but she wondered what the girl could possibly be studying so intensely. It was still early days in school but maybe she just wanted to get ahead like herself?

The relief that overcame her when she heard the chair move, was unexplainable. But, she smiled to herself. She was Ravenclaw... so if Ranyu remembered correctly, they loved knowledge. AND she was looking for herbology books too. Maybe this could be the start of a new friendship?

"Oh, I'm Avis by the way." She heard the girl say, and Ranyu didn't look up. She had to finish this line first. A silence overcame the two, intermingled by turning pages and writing.

Placing the final period of the sentence, Ranyu finally glanced up. The Ravenclaw girl was now occupied with her own book and notes, but she spoke anyways.

"Ranyu. Are you a first year too?" She asked, setting her feather down. She did some small stretches, her neck already developing a crick in it from her intense studying. She decided to briefly marvel at her notes.

If Ranyu were to be honest, sometimes she was kind of awesome. The little sketches could do with some work though. She smiled proudly, and flipped to the next page, having a small glimpse at what she would be covering next. Something about leaping toadstools.

The magical world was really so fascinating. Jumping mushrooms! Her pops will love to hear about that! She perused the next few pages, pausing.

Jubilee Waxcaps! She couldn't believe it, they had magical properties!? And blackening waxcaps too! She couldn't wait to begin her herbology classes.

She decided to ask one last question, "Do you like plants?"

@Avis Greymond
WC: 240

Avis smiled at the Gryffindor’s delayed response as she looked up from her own studies. So far Ranyu had actually been a great study partner. It was easy to get distracted with someone who was more talkative and so far Avis had been able to get quite a bit done in the short amount of time she’d been sitting here.

“Nice to meet you! And yes I’m a first year!” she replied as the girl stretched, presumably from being bent over her books. Avis chuckled, amused. “Exactly how long have you been in the library?”

She watched the girl admire her notes, studying the little sketches of plants scattered among the words. Maybe Ranyu could teach her how she drew those? It would be a useful skill for sure, especially when they had to identify certain magical plants later in class this year.

Avis scrunched her nose at the Gryffindor’s last question. “Nope definitely not a plant enthusiast. I know next to nothing about magical plants which is why I’m hoping I can study up before my next Herbology class. It was like the professor was speaking a different language!” she said with a disheartened expression. Her other subjects had seemed pretty simple to understand, apart from a few topics in Potions but Herbology had her completely lost and Avis was not planning to be the only Greymond sibling to fail a class.

Ranyu pondered the question. How long has she been here??

"Erm... maybe, three hours? Give or take?"

Ranyu watched Avis' expression and giggled. "If you ever need help, I'm here. I love plants, mostly mushrooms, but flowers and weeds are very interesting as well, and trees, they're cool, and I love spreading the beauty of plants too!" She grinned widely.

"Maybe we're in the same herbology class," She leaned forward, eyes wide in wonder. "It would make sense, right? They usually put all the students from the same year into one, right? I get too distracted in herbology to notice other students..."

She desperately needed to learn more about this whole magic school thing, sometimes it was so confusing. Did they put different houses together? She hadn't really paid attention, too absorbed in the lectures and the novelty of them.

Maybe she should grab a history book. She knows for a fact that there's some Hogwarts history book in her trunk back in her room. They definitely have copies here too, right? Maybe something a little different? She just needed to better understand this whole wizarding thing, she was, what's the term, muggle-born? Muggle... It's such a fun word to say, if she were being honest... According to a few things she'd been explained, wizarding folks were obsessed with blood purity or something like that. Ranyu was pretty certain that inbreeding was illegal in the 'muggle' world. Then again, you couldn't use a phone here so...

Ugh, that sounded very pompous in her head, and the girl frowned, shooing away the thoughts. She can't be judgy. Shaking the biased thoughts out of her head, she returned to her notes, a more fascinating distraction.

@Avis Greymond
WC: 283

"Three hours?" Avis gasped. The girl had been here long before Avis had even thought about waking up. "Merlin's Beard! Are you sure they put you in the right House?" she said, eyeing Ranyu's red and gold tie. There was a running joke in Ravenclaw that Gryffindor's thought with their wands, but this girl seemed eager to lap up any sort of knowledge available.

"And that would be bloody useful actually. I always tend to study better with someone else. I get quite distracted on my own," Avis said with humor in her voice. It was backwards but she never seemed to get anything done when she was alone. Too many thoughts all at once, she supposed.

At Ranyu's suggestion that the two girls were in the same class, Avis nodded thoughtfully. "I think there's too many of us to fit into one class. My brother tried to explain it to me, but I'm almost positive they split the first years into different schedules. But I had Herbology yesterday in the the afternoon. Were you there?" she asked curiously. Avis hadn't noticed much else besides her notes and the chalkboard. She glanced at her classmate but the girl seemed to be lost in thought, ready to return to her furious quill scratching.