History For Two With Too Little History

Mikey’s quill was halfway to the page when Ellie’s “argg” broke the quiet. He looked up, amusement at the corner of his mouth. “That’s a very academic way of saying it. Argg. “I’ll be sure to put it in our final draft. Under conclusions.” He said hoping to brighten the mood.

“You’re not stuck,” he said, carrying a warmth that didn’t quite match the cold facts of their notes. "It's one of those things that's impossible when it's this big. Its like making friends with someone you've only ever really had a conversation with once before and hoping that they won't think you're," He trailed off mid sentence, eyes flashing up to hers for an instant before he squared them back to his notes. “Completely useless at history,” he finished, and even though it was said lightly, something about the way he ducked his head hinted it wasn’t exactly the word he’d meant to say.

He gave a small huff of air that was almost a laugh, and his grin returned, familiar, and just shy of teasing. “Okay, here’s what we’ll do. I’ll take wand rights and the banking laws. The ownership concepts and lawyer advice are yours. We write down a sentence or two about each of them, just the first thing that comes into our heads, doesn't even need to be good, then we switch and build on top of each other's stuff. That way, we're getting somewhere, even if it's just in little bits. Like inchworm progress.

Mikey leaned over and prodded her notebook with the feathered tip of his quill. And if we just can't think of anything more than that," he said, cocking his head to one side as though seriously considering the notion, "we'll declare an emergency and take a 'research break' to the Hospital Wing. Say we're suffering from acute goblin overload, symptoms are quill cramp, glassy stare, and perhaps an irrational loathing of ledgers." His smile grew just wide enough to indicate that he was having fun.

“That’s a very academic way of saying it. Argg. “I’ll be sure to put it in our final draft. Under conclusions.” Mikey said and Ellie could tell he was trying to make things easier and lighten the mood so Ellie decided to play along.

"You think? Don't you think it's a bit straight forward, don't teachers like big words?" Ellie said smiling even if she felt so stressed and stumped. She had finally felt as if they were getting somewhere, only for her brain to just shut off. She looked at the many shelves of library books, wishing she could go and do what she always liked to do, browse the shelves, looking for books, but no specific one. She had done this in the Randensmith family's giant library (The Randensmith's where one of the rich Pure-blood family's that didn't care about Muggles mixing) and had proceeded to do the same at Hogwarts.

Those great books looked so much more excited then the ones on goblin rebellions that were laid out in front of her.

“You’re not stuck. It's one of those things that's impossible when it's this big. It's like making friends with someone you've only ever really had a conversation with once before and hoping that they won't think you're." Mikey said.

Ellie smiled but she was confused by his words, had he ment he didn't want her to think they were friends?

"You know, you're the only friend I've really made so far." Ellie said, blushing, embarrassed, who went a whole month and a day with no friends? There was so many people here!

@Mikey Forville
Word Count: 267
Speaking= #b88d00

For one moment he thought that he had heard her wrong. The scratching of quills and the thump of feet along the aisles appeared to ring out more clearly, as if the library had breathed in unison with him. Words colliding only once his quill created a splash of ink on his parchment. He yanked it away quickly, cursing under his breath, "Brilliant, that's getting into the final draft," before he lifted his eyes again to look at her.

"Only friend?" he repeated, eyebrows shooting upwards with a sort of amazed look. He rested his elbows on the table, quill still in his hand but abandoned, and cocked his head slightly to one side towards her. "That means a lot. More than you probably realize." His voice fell softer. "I never assumed anyone would actually remember me. Sorting day already feels like an eternity ago, and I keep thinking that's it, you know? One of those random talks people forget once the feast is over. But I never forgot. And to hear you tell me that." He ran the quill between his fingers, nervous, before stopping himself and putting it down.

He smiled again, tentatively at first, then more reliably. "I'm glad you consider me a friend." Because I consider you one too. And really? One good friend is better than a dozen individuals you only get to exchange two sentences with. Quality not quantity. And anyway," he said, his tone brightening as he leaned back in his chair, "one friend is easier to keep an eye on. Less chance to misplace them in a heap of goblin rebellion documents."

His gaze darted to the stack of books in front of him, and he leaned over to pull one loose from the center of the pile, pretending effort. "Though if I wind up being buried under a mountain of textbooks, you'll have to place poor friend Mikey on the top one for my tombstone." He put the book down reverently before going on.

"I think we make a pretty good team," he said after a moment, softer once more. "Not only with the project. With the whole Hogwarts business you know.” His smile came back and a flash of humor came with it.

Ellie noticed Mikey had spilled a bit of ink from his ink pot onto his paper. Actually, she might not have noticed if he hadn’t cursed, she was so absorbed in Goblins and Wizards; The history behind the dispute That she only looked up when she heard him. The book was pretty boring though and basically said the same thing all the others did.

He looked surprised when she said he was her only friend. Ellie blushed she had thought she could be with her sister and of course, hang out, but her sister had already made friends, and Ellie found it awkward to ask to be friends.

“I never assumed anyone would actually remember me.” He said softly and quietly, “Sorting day already felt like an eternity ago, and I keep thinking it, you know? One of those random talks people forget about once the feast is over.”

Ellie nodded, she did know, there had been so much movement, excitement and in a couple cases, disappointment, that it was easy to forget others. But she had never forgotten Mikey.

"I never forgot you"Ellie said then blushed "Like since I thought you where funny and a good friend."

Ellie blushed again, well that had gotten awkward! Luckily Mikey had said something else to say too.

"I'm glad you consider me a friend." Mikey said and Ellie smiled "Because I consider you one too. And really? One good friend is better than a dozen individuals you only get to exchange two sentences with. Quality not quantity. And anyway, one friend is easier to keep an eye on. Less chance to misplace them in a heap of goblin rebellion documents."

Ellie laughed, "All of that if very true! If there was a group here, I probably would have lost them in this maze of books! But with only you, it's easier. I wish we could she each other more since... well, we're different houses but... yeah?

Ellie was lost for words and she normally had a lot to say! Ellie was happy, Mikey had remembered her, her only friend. Her life at Hogwarts had been pretty quiet since that first day.

"Though if I wind up being buried under a mountain of textbooks, you'll have to place poor friend Mikey on the top one for my tombstone." Mikey said, in his familiar way.

"Will do! Of course, I will do everything in my power to make sure that doesn't happen." Ellie said, closing the book she was reading and grabbed another one from the stack, looking over at Mikey as she was doing so. He said something softly, so softly that you would only be able to hear if you where next to him, which Ellie was. She nodded, "We do, we really do." Ellie smiled to herself, knowing this was only the beginning of their friendship.

@Mikey Forville
Word Count: 475

Mikey held the words there for a second, relaxing something in him that had been wound coiled for too long. The scratching of quills and the sound of shuffling feet further along the rows of shelved books seemed distant now, as though all the rest of the library had faded away and there were only the two of them there, sitting opposite one another with a pile of books and something which seemed harder than they had anticipated.

“Right then,” he said at last, trying to put his grin back in place even as his chest still felt oddly warm. “If we’re going to avoid textbook-related funerals, we’d better actually use these things.” He tugged one of the volumes closer, flipping until he landed on a section about the Wand Ban of 1631. He tapped the heading with the end of his quill. “Here. Let’s start here. This will be one of our highlights.

He stooped to his parchment, scrawling quickly in his neat but slightly cramped handwriting. He tilted the parchment toward her, pushing it halfway across the table so she could read. “Alright, your turn. Remember just a sentence or two. Doesn’t even need to be perfect. We’ll patch it together after. Think of it like… building a broomstick from scraps. A bit rickety at first, but it’ll fly.”

KodoPodo poked his small nose out of Mikey's backpack then, looking up at Ellie as if he also wanted to review her work. Mikey grudgingly gave a half-hearted smile. "See? Even he's going to proofread." He looked back at her, more earnest again. “We’ll get this done, Ellie. Piece by piece.

Mikey crouched over the parchment, scribbling while Ellie scribbled suggestions in the margin. It was awkward to start with, arrows pointing every which way, half-finished sentences and crossed-out words stacked up like so much crumpled leaf. But gradually inch by inch, page by page the disparate ideas started to fall into place. Wand rights spilled into economics, struggles over possession had spilled into struggles over culture, and between her writing and his they scratched out a narrative rather than a heap of facts.

He relaxed back after nearly an hour, folding the cramp from his fingers and staring down at the ink-stained paper between them. The report was longer than he had expected, divided into tidy sections with a well-sounding conclusion at the end. "Damn" he muttered, leaning forward to read their final words. "We actually. did it. It doesn't even sound like a disaster.".

He tapped his quill on the paper, then placed it down carefully, as if performing some kind of ceremony. "There. Done. One such report on goblin uprisings. by Ellie Randensmith and Mikey Forville, fellow-survivors of the Great Note-Taking Marathon." His smile felt real, and there was a kindly sincerity to his voice. "Thanks for suffering through it with me. A lot less wretched getting it done with someone who actually makes me laugh."

He settled back in, stretching his arms out to either side with a sigh and releasing his own chuckle. "Right. Now that we're going to be consumed by the pile of books, I think we should stop while we're ahead. We can turn it in tomorrow and pretend it took us five minutes."

"You're right of course, but wouldn't a textbook funeral be much more fun then this?" Ellie asked jokingly in response but she picked up a books. No one would be dying today!

Ellie watched as Mikey flipped to a random section of the book and selected a title, Wand Ban of 1631. Mikey explained this would be a highlight and they could work from their. Nodding, Ellie opened her book to a page on unequal government standings. She wrote it down like how Mikey had done. The page was slowly coming together, note by note, each of the adding small things. It was messy with random jots of writing but they carefully arranged it to a somewhat neat looking paragraph. It was wasn't half bad in Ellie's opinion, but she wasn't grading this project.

"No, It really doesn't! It looks good. Like we totally did not just spend..." Ellie looked at the clock "Almost a hour on it! and half of that hour was me fretting and complaining, you're very chill, you know."

She laughed at Mikey's comment on surviving the note taking marathon. It sure had felt like that. The back and forth, constant writing and searching for what to add to the essay. But they were finished. Done. The essay/project whatever was finished after, what felt like hours of hard work.

"Thanks for suffering through it with me. A lot less wretched getting it done with someone who actually makes me laugh. Right. Now that we're going to be consumed by the pile of books, I think we should stop while we're ahead. We can turn it in tomorrow and pretend it took us five minutes." Mikey said

"No problem! Anytime! Actually no, I never want to do that again but any other activity sounds good! and of course, what are you even talking about? we totally finished that in five minutes, no need to pretend!" She winked with a smile, it felt good to be with her best friend, even though it was because they had to do some school project.

@Mikey Forville
Word Count: 345

Mikey tapped his fingers once on the edge of their parchment and folded it away safely in his folder, calling it a a win. "Five minutes flat," he declared with assumed gravity, a smile dancing at the edge of his mouth. "No fretting, no tarrying, and not a second's worry over staying in sick so that we would not have to submit this."

He leaned over the pile of books they'd drawn out and started stacking them in mounds. "Seriously though. You were doing all the extracting of the good stuff and I was drowning in dates. I'd say you're the brains half of this operation."

Mikey had hardly finished speaking when a furry nose appeared out of his bag. KodoPodo wriggled up onto the table, fluffing his whiskers at the paper as if he dreamed of great things. Mikey captured him hastily. "No chewing homework. That is not going to be done twice." He flashed Ellie a quick grin before he tucked the ferret out of sight once more.

The library had become silent with neither one of them aware. Chairs scraped somewhere toward the front, and a single sheet rustled far off in the distance, but otherwise the building seemed to have retired for the night. Mikey folded the last of his gear, leaned back in his chair, and stretched until his shoulders cracked with contentment.

Well, he said, putting his pack on, "we sure did it. And I'm glad you were across the table for it." His smile was real. Immediately, his stomach growled. He laughed into his hand, touching the back of his neck. "Alright, do you want to go down to the Great Hall and see if there's anything left over? Even crumbs sound good to eat right now." He gestured to the doors with a half-finished incline of his head. "Worth the journey?