☾ Free Time ☽ finished

As Alexander heard the Ravenclaw girl (Alexis) speak about her father his smile slipped for a moment. Replaced with a feeling of embarrassment and, shame? Though it would only have been noticeable if you had been paying attention and Alexander's smile quickly returned.

Alexander seemed to think a moment about the questions that Alexis asked him about his favorite subjects. He did know what his preferred potion was but Transfiguration spells. Spells they had not really covered yet, it had more been focused on the theory behind Transfgiruation.

So Alexander spoke

"Well for potions I like the forgetfulness potion. It is fascinating how potions can affect people on both a physical and mental level. As for Transfiguration spells"

Alexander stroked his chin for a moment. Where in the future a beard might be grown but now only bare skin could be seen.
"In transfiguration we have not really gotten to actual spells yet. The focus has been more on the theory of transfiguration itself, atomic theory etc." Alexander said.

"I am looking forward to inanimate to inanimate transfiguration. You know needles to matchsticks. That kind of thing." As he said that Alexander nervously scratched the back of his head a little. It really itched there.

When she said hi, Elisa didn’t mean to start a whole conversation; she just wanted to be nice. However, she was grateful for having someone to talk to. Now she must introduce herself, what should she say? She decided to go with the obvious. She didn’t want to seem rude, nor shy. “My name is Elisa, Elisa Teagan,” then she added the following: “I love the library, in fact my stay in Hogwarts can be resumed on going to classes and reading in the library.” She then listened the boy, he was talking about multiple subjects, and he seemed pretty interesting. On the other hand, there was this girl Aida, she seemed, well, too talkative. However, she was also nice. For a girl who had hidden herself in the impressive library, everybody seemed nice, interesting, an opportunity to stop worrying about everything, to act like a child. She smiled, but then thought it was a foolish thing to do. She didn’t intend to look desperate.

“Well, I’m interested in quidditch; however, I think I’ll wait some time before trying to become part of the quidditch team.” She in fact loved sports, back home she used to play tennis and badminton, she expected to become a quidditch player, it was just too soon to try to become one.

"I'm not actually from Glasgow," said Aida back to Alexis. "Since Hogwarts is in Scotland it doesn't feel that different for me when I'm outside, but on the inside it's incredible!" Aida raised her arms and pivoted, indicating the grand architecture around them. "I just love the high ceilings in this library. But back to your question, I'm from Glenfinnan in the countryside. All my life I've herded sheep and horses, but I love every kind of beastie out there. Though I didn't know what it was at the time, I learned from Fantastic Beasts that I once saw a kneazle. Nobody believed me and I was punished for 'lying' when I told someone. Maybe one of you will believe me, but I know what I saw."

Aida turned back to the boy now and a wry grin emerged from her lips, "So how does it feel to be surrounded by a bunch of Ravenclaw girls? I knew you were special when I saw you over here. We Ravenclaws are natural bookworms, but you must really have ambition to be here when there aren't any big exams. I heard that's the only time this place gets popular. Do you have some kind of dream? A goal?" The tone in Aida's voice was curious and excited, not knowing or thinking that she might be rude by asking so many things of people she had only just met.

Alexander shook his head a little, once again a little embarrassed. "Sorry I forgot about quidditch for a moment. There's just a lot going on right now." He seemed to think for a moment before responding.

"I think that for a sport quidditch is a tad too violent for my taste. I am okay with inherently violent sports like duelling or fencing but these are inherently martial focused. Quidditch in contrast is like a combination of..... muggle football and that one sports that muggles do called rugby." Just before talking about the muggle sports Alexander seemed to have a moment of doubt, before smoothly continuing on.

Alexander then went a little red-faced and shrugged casually saying. "I mean we are learning magic why not take as many opportunities you can to learn more of it. It is one of the few areas where knowledge translates to actual physical results." Alexander then got a small enthusiastic/nervous smile as he heard the girl talk about his goals. Seemed to think for a moment. His index finger drumming against his right leg and ran his hand through his hair for a moment. He then looked around the group, not looking at anyone in particular and said.

"I am really not that special. I am just in the Library to study and just get more knowledge about magic in general since it is a fascinating subject. I don't really know what I specifically want to do yet. Probably something with craftsmanship. "

Elisa was confused, the boy’s new declarations were strange, and why would someone say that to random strangers? I am not special… even though those words were relatable, she did not know how to react to them. She looked at the boy, she was definitely confused, he looked so self-assured, so confident, so intelligent. The fact that he was also in the library because he valued every piece of knowledge made him seem less indifferent. After all, she had found someone with her same interests.

She wondered how to response, she definitely wanted to support him, because she knew how hard it was to fill that way. Coming from a prestigious family, Elisa had the pressure to become a great wizard, like her siblings.

“Come on, you shouldn’t say that about you; I think you are special, I mean look at all the books you have.” Then she tried to change the topic, “I come from Ireland. Even though I come from a pure-blood family, I have interacted with muggles many times before. I actually studied in a muggle school for three years.” After revealing private thins to the people surrounding her, Elisa felt weird; during her stay at Hogwarts, she had never talked to someone about her private life. She didn’t know what their reactions would be. She knew the stigma about muggles was rooted to the wizard culture. She felt ashamed for saying such a private thing to people who might not be to open to muggles.

"Muggle school for three years?" said Aida with a sidelong glance. "I didn't even know people could be magical until a few days ago. I'm not even sure if all this magic stuff was known by others around me and kept secret, or if I have actually only been surrounded by muggles my whole life. Well, mostly animals and books, but also alleged muggles. Considering how many magical people I'm meeting now I suspect at least one person was hiding this from me. It feels like my whole life a lot has been kept from me. What are all these things that I'm not allowed to know? What do they keep in the forbidden section of the library? What's in the forbidden forest?" Aida spoke even more rapidly with agitation.

"How long have you all known about magic? Is this a city thing?" Aida tossed her head to get some of the savage white hair out of her face. "I guess I'm many, many years behind in my study already. I could have been studying this stuff since birth. How will there ever be enough time to make up for all the secrecy? I don't even understand how I'm magical at all -- is it just that some talking hat says that I am?" Aida tried to take some breaths to calm down.

Alexis waited for Aida to calm down before answered, "I don't think this is a city thing but it's different for all of us. I think there are a lot of people just discovered magic recently, and I'm sure if they hid this from you, they probably have a good reason." Alexis paused for a moment before continued.

"The restricted section keeps those rare and valuable books or books that they considered not-suitable for children to be looking at. As for the forbidden forest, there are animals, of course. They say some are friendly, some are not." She answered calmly.

"I'm sure there will be enough time for you to study all this magic, we're gonna be here for seven years after all. You don't need to worry about that, you'll catch up." Alexis tried to assure the girl in front of her.

She turned to Elisa with questioning gaze. "you said you spent three years in muggle school, how was it? If you don't mind me asking. I'm home-schooled. My parents hired a gorveness to teach me and my brothers about magic and I didn't go out much except in the neighbourhood and some vacation. Alexis looked around at everyone, waiting to see if they have an answer.

Elisa was surprised Aida didn’t know how the world functioned. Sure, everything was different for everyone. In fact, many found her life peculiar. No one ever hid magic from her, her family openly talked about the subject, they even taught her the basics of some subjects. Her family also talked about the Dark Arts, after all that was their job. Unravelling mysteries, and fighting against the Dark Arts was a common topic. She thought all wizards talked to their sons about magic, she saw no reason to hide it, and their kids would eventually experience it. She looked back at the two girls, prepared to answer their questions.

“A muggle school is technically like Hogwarts, you just have to erase the magic and change the subjects. People, I mean muggles are exactly like us, thought we are not allowed to share magic with them. Regarding the differences between the muggles’ world and the wizards’ world, both of us are blind to each other’s world. Muggles have found a way to make their own magic, they have pretty advanced technology. I learned languages, science and maths; all of them are pretty common subjects.” Elisa was relieved, it seem they weren’t affected by the stigmas surrounding blood.

Alexander, still feeling a little overwhelmed by the attention, allowed the girls to mostly talk amongst themselves. Appreciating the opportunity to take a quick breather. Of course, he himself knew about muggles, he was basically a jumped up muggle if anything.
Luckily they did not seem to be hostile to muggles or concerned about blood status but still.......... He would prefer not to be ousted. It did not even necessarily matter if these girls knew about his blood status, but if they were overheard by some people.....

From what he had heard and seen Slytherin was much better with blood purity than it had been decades before but Alexander still felt reluctant to have even the chance of his blood status becoming public knowledge. He would prefer not to be constantly on watch in his dorms and the common room.

Well, more than he already was considering recent events in the common room. Alexander still shivered, remembering his reaction when he heard about the event. He was not there because he had somehow slept through it, even he did not know how, but he did.

So Alexander took a few steps back, feet soliciting a slight creak from the wooden floor. Trying not to draw attention and mostly listening to the Ravenclaws talk.

"What about you, Alexander?" said Aida with bright eyes. "Did you ever go to muggle school? Did you always know about magic?" Not only did Aida remember his name, but she was also paying attention to what information she was receiving from each person. With the constant stream of questions emanating from Aida, she seemed like an information-gathering machine and it seemed appropriate that she had been placed in Ravenclaw House. Her fingers worked at untangling her ghastly white hair as she spoke. "You said you liked the forgetfulness potion because it was interesting that people could be affected on both a mental and physical level. Have you ever heard of a potion that can speed up a person? I mean, make them think faster, move faster, on both a mental and physical level?" The way she often quickly changed the topic and yet kept track of what information she was receiving suggested that even though Aida's speech was like quicksilver, she genuinely cared about all of the answers and did not mean to simply change topics.

Later, Aida looked back at Elisa. "I've never been to Ireland. Is it very different from Scotland? How did you travel here, by boat?"

Later, Aida also looked back at Alexis. "You said you like dark creatures? How fascinating! Have you seen any dark creatures? Tell me everything you know!!"