Naps and Forgotten Quills, Mind You open

"Hi I'm Ivy Bellamy."

Interacting with @Willow Anderson, @Toni Bunch, and @Kevin O'Reilly

As the Slytherin ran out of the library, Ivy looked over at her retreating figure slightly mournfully. Was she really that bad?
Sliding into her empty seat, she looked at the rest of the table. "Um. Did I just, uh, you know..." She looked at the exit of the library again. Surely not.
Before she could ponder the Slytherin's abrupt exit any longer, a Hufflepuff wandered over to their table and sat on the top of the table. Without introducing herself first, she asked if any of them were skilled in Herbology confidently, eyeing the Ravenclaw boy particularly.
Ivy found it odd that this girl would interject herself into the conversation when it could have been a private gathering, and without introducing herself first, too. While the girl's confidence was admirable, it was also rather alarming and Ivy tensed up, her eyebrows raising. The audacity...
"Um, maybe tell us your name first?" she said, biting back a smirk. "Y'know, like normal people do when greeting someone new?" Ivy hadn't meant to say that last part, but it was too late to take back her words, so she just glared instead, hoping she looked more confident that she felt. She would have to roll with it.
"I just find it kind of weird," she continued. "Usually people introduce themselves before asking for help. And also, um... can you not sit on the table?"
The Bellamy family was firm about manners, and Ivy had been brought up to respect... well, respect. It was definitely, in her mind, rude to sit on a table. It was where people read and ate and worked, for God's sake.
"Are you blind?" Ivy asked, more harshly than she had intended. "There are plenty of seats here." She gestured to the empty seats across from her. There was just something about the newcomer that she didn't like. Maybe it was her overconfident, audacious air and assumptions that everyone would let her sit there, because of course they would like her. Ivy did not.

Interacting with @Toni Bunch, @Kevin O'Reilly and @Willow Anderson

The Hufflepuff introduced herself as Toni Bunch after eyeing Ivy for a moment, and then stated that she was one for politeness. Ivy almost laughed. If she was one for politeness, then surely she would get off the table and sit down on one of the seats!
Toni proceeded to stick her hand out with a smirk and ask Ivy's name. The Gryffindor narrowed her eyes at the outstretched hand before shaking it limply.
"Ivy Bellamy," she said stiffly. "Now can you get off the table and sit down? It's really very rude. Please?" she added the last part as an afterthought.
Ivy did not like asking for things, and the word 'please', for her, was almost non-existent in her vocabulary.
The girl wanted help with Herbology homework, did she? Ivy cleared her throat.
"Why ask us?" she quizzed. "We are in a library, after all. I'm pretty sure the books would be a lot more helpful."
Ivy wasn't trying to be mean now. It was the truth. What good would a couple of eleven-year-olds do Toni with a subject they, too, had only just started?
"We're only first-years, and we've just started Herbology as well. Wouldn't you be better off asking older students, or Professor MacTavish, if he's in his office?"
Ivy leaned forward, resting her chin in her hands, curious to see how Toni would react.

Interacting with @Toni Bunch @Ivy Bellamy

Willow gave a small wave as Opeila retreated, not being able to say much of a goodbye since she seemed to be in quite a rush. She shrugged it off, she saw Opeila around often enough so she'd probably get another chance to talk to her later.

She looked back down at her notes for a second before she heard a small voice quip up introducing herself as Ivy. Willow looked up and met her eyes with a smile, "Hi Ivy! My name is Willow!" She put a hand into her pocket and pulled out her signature friendship bracelets. "Feel free to join us, also fell free to take a friendship bracelet or two!" She put them down at the table and started writing a note she thought of. "Ah, don't worry about her. You didn't scare her off she just had somewhere to be." She smiled warmly, trying to make Ivy know that she wasn't the reason for Opeila's sudden absence.

Suddenly a fellow Hufflepuff sat at the table and asked if anyone was good at herbology. She was adept at it, with it being one of her favorite classes and she had already started reading up on the plants they were going to learn about in following years. She opened her mouth to volunteer to help until the two of them started going back and forth. She watched them shoot words already dripping with a sense of confrontation and she was lost for words. They had... just met and they were already acting like this? Finally Willow stood up and addressed the both of them.

"Ivy, hi it's lovely to meet you just by the way. But, the library is a place of learning and what better than to ask your fellow peers that are at the same level as you." She turned to the girl who introduced herself as Toni, "Toni! Lovely to see a fellow Hufflepuff. I consider myself quite skilled at herbology, but Ivy did have a few good points about introducing yourself before inviting yourself on a group of people that might've been in the middle of something." She looked around, they weren't studying all that much with all the talking. "I mean, we're not right now.. but.. we could've." She smiled gently between the two of them. "Let's start over, yeah?"

She paused, leading the group in taking a deep breath before speaking. "Hello! I'm Willow and I'm a first year Hufflepuff. If you'd like a friendship bracelet, please feel free to take one. I love herbology, and would be happy to help with any questions you have Toni." She smiled at the both of them, hoping they'd follow along to try and reset the energy at the table.

Interacting with @Willow Anderson and @Toni Bunch

A retort was on the edge of leaving Ivy's lips when Willow spoke up, obviously trying to put out the fire. Ivy was half glad and half disappointed - she might've ended up saying something she regretted, but the insult she was about to say was a good one.
Slumping down in her seat, her cheeks flushed red and her arms folded across her chest, she listened to Willow as she suggested that they all start over.
"As if life is as simple as that," she muttered, much louder than she had intended. She looked at Willow apologetically. "Um. Sorry."
Ivy was unsure what had come over her in the last minute or so. She was usually on the quieter side and tended to be a nice person.
But in the past few days, the letters from her family had arrived a lot more frequently, and the contents all caused Ivy sadness or fury.
First of all, there had been a letter from her parents, telling her how disappointed they were that she wasn't a Slytherin.
Next her younger sister, Alison, had written to her in despair, telling her that her parents were treating her even more unfairly now that there was no Ivy to protect her.
And to top it all off, her older sister, Lillian, who had eloped with a Muggle boy five years ago, had suddenly decided to send her a letter after years of no communication.
Every little thing seemed to irk her these days, and the over confident introduction had seemed to push her right over the edge.
Ivy knew she had treated Toni unfairly, but she couldn't seem to swallow her pride to say it out loud. Instead, she took a piece of parchment from the pocket of her robes and scribbled an apology furiously.
Sorry.
She slid it across the table in Toni's direction and looked away, waiting for the smirk that would surely spread across the Hufflepuff's face and the taunts that would surely follow.

Interacting with @Toni Bunch and @Willow Anderson

Ivy let out a breath she hadn't realized she was holding when Toni held out a hand. She shook it, smiling in relief. "It's alright," she said, in response to Toni's apology. "And - um, Herbology, right?"
Ivy got up and wandered over to the shelves containing the Herbology books and ran her finger along the dusty spines until she found the one she was looking for. Herbology For Beginners. Returning to the group of people, she put the thick book on the table.
"I was having trouble with Herbology homework the other day and I found that this book really helped," she told Toni. "Just - um, don't sit on any more tables, hm?" Ivy added. She was only half-joking.
She turned to the rest of the group. "I'm sorry for causing such a scene. It's just-" Ivy's hand slipped into her other pocket, where the letters from her family were crumpled up.
She clenched a fist around one of them and looked away. She couldn't tell them about this. They had just met. You couldn't tell someone you just met about your complicated family history.
"Whatever," she muttered under her breath. They all probably dealing with enough without Ivy piling on.
She smiled tightly at the group, hoping everyone would just pass her behaviour off as normal and move onto other things.