Studying is Torture PV Elspeth Gollens Finished

Elspeth sat in her seat looking at a thick copy of Magical Theory. She was supposed to be reading a chapter about spells that affect the size of an object, but her eyes kept glazing over. The study hall was basically silent at that point. There were small groups and pairs studying together but everyone was talking mostly in quiet whispers. There wasn't an interesting conversation for her to zero in on and listen to as a form of amusement.

She glanced back at her book. Where had she stopped reading when she looked up? A quick glance of the page revealed that she hadn't been paying attention to anything since she flipped the page. Nothing sounded familiar. A heavy sigh indicated to everyone nearby that Elspeth was once again failing at studying. For a Ravenclaw she really expected that studying would come more naturally to her. But spending a lot of time sitting down and reading wasn't her bread and butter. She loved getting her hands dirty, doing experiments, making observations. Right now she was just warm in the sunlight from the window next to her and thinking about how nice it would be to take a nap on top of her book instead.

Stretching her arms out to her sides she opened her mouth wide for an animated yawn. Then she planted her face on top of her book and closed her eyes. The pages felt cool against her face. Like a nice cool pillow on a hot summer night. As she closed her eyes her thoughts drifted away to summer vacation when she'd get to go back home and track the frogs transformations from tadpole to full frog in the pond behind her house. She wondered if they'd already started laying their eggs or not. It had been a pretty warm winter. So warm. So cozy. She felt herself slip away and begin to snore deeply.

Interacting with @Alina Rosier

"I hope you never want to become a professor. While you might have a brilliant mind and decent marks in class, you don't know how to allow your knowledge to escape that smug little brain of yours. You're too busy thinking about how great you are and don't actually allow other people to see it...which makes me wonder if your thoughts are even a reality at all. You sicken me! Almost as much as this class sickens me," and she took the book the boy had brought from the library and threw it at him. "Get out. Go. You're of no help here anyway!"

Her spat was a rather quiet one, as she wasn't trying to humiliate the boy, she was just angry with frustration. Frustration that had been lasting the entire first year term. Transfigurations was the worst - both the way the course was taught and the professor who taught it.

The boy up and left - more like scurried off. Some of the Ravenclaws nearby gave her a slight smile, also annoyed by the boy's normal smug attitude and others sending her a bit of a glare for talking to one of their own in such a way. None seemed to mind her hushed outburst though, because something else was causing others to look another way. Something more had distracted them from their studies.

Alina followed their gaze and saw one brunette girl with her head in a book asleep. It was disturbing some of these Ravenclaws and not wanting the girl to get bickered at, she pulled her chair closer to the table behind her where the girl sat and tapped her foot against the leg of the chair to wake her up. Those Ravenclaws would be on this girl like mob mentality if she disturbed their precious little study time. Little did Alina know, this girl was a Ravenclaw herself.

Elspeth hadn't been asleep long enough to have any dreams. The only thing her mind was contemplating was how exceptionally comfortable she was now that she'd found the perfect position to nap in. Her rib cage expanded, puffing out her robes gently, before each whistling exhalation. With her head at the angle it was, each in breath was a bit of a chortle and each exhalation was a high pitched whistling sound that echoed about the stone buttresses high above. Like some kind of horrific musical instrument that no one asked to be invented.

But then, the slightest jolt traveled up from the leg of her chair, halting her mid in breath. She blinked her eyes open a few times as they adjusted to the bright sunlight again. Even though she'd only been asleep for a few minutes, it'd been enough time for her to drool on the book with her mouth smushed against its pages. As she picked up her head, she wiped her mouth with her oversized robe sleeve and continued blinking her eyes. Her hair was a bit of a mess as it readjusted to gravity. She was still in the study room, her reading still incomplete. A dejected sigh.

In her attempt to be able to see in the sunlight again, Elspeth turned her head left and right to try and regain her bearings. It was only then that she noticed the other girl sitting close to her. Oh no! Someone saw me sleeping! She quickly ran her fingers through her hair while making a sleepy smile at the newcomer to her table. "Oh, hi. So sorry. I must have fallen asleep huh?" The last few words were a bit of a half yawn as she stretched her arms out again.

With a small glance down at her book she slumped dejectedly, "This reading will never get done," she said mostly to herself, though certainly loud enough for her new tablemate to hear.

Interacting with: @Alina Rosier

Alina knew that all too well. That's what happened to her in History of Magic sometimes, the pages stuck to the face, drooling and all. She had been there so she couldn't fault the girl for it one bit. Her gaze did lower to see the girl in her Ravenclaw tie and that she did find rather interesting. Most Ravenclaws were so....studious.

Alina smiled to the girl. "You don't have to read it all," she whispered. Maybe the Ravenclaws normally did. "You skim for detail. Find the key words. Look over the beginning and ending sentences in each paragraph." She paused though because here she was giving advice in the world of study skills.

"Actually, scratch that. My current average is an A...." she said even softer. Grades were definitely not her forte and luckily there were many other aspects that made Hogwarts a wonderful place to be and made it worthwhile of her time. More than worthwhile. She loved it.

Alina wasn't sure she had seen the girl before. Then again, sometimes she was the last to come to classes and sat in the back, then she was one of the first to leave. If she hadn't been paired up with a particular classmate, many times she didn't know names. Especially those in other houses. Sometimes the different tables in the Great Hall at meal times and the separate common rooms made it more difficult for someone to become friends with someone of another house. It certainly made it more difficult for her to keep in touch with her twin sister Bella who was in Slytherin.

"Don't take advice from me when it comes to the world of intellect. It won't get you very far. I'm sorry for waking you, but I swear that small group up front there was about to shove you off your chair or something for disturbing their study session."

Elspeth was still in the processing of waking up, so it took her a moment before the words this other student was saying actually landed to her. She was giving her study tips! Oh man, this other student was being so nice and trying to help and she had been half asleep through the first bit. Should she have gotten a pencil out to try and write these all down? No, no that moment was clearly past. But the points were actually absorbing now so that helped.

People were regularly perplexed by Elpseth's seeming lack of study skills. She didn't dislike Ravenclaw, by any means. She loved her dorm mates and did actually feel some affinity for many of the traits her house was known for. But so many people associated the house with being a genius and and bookworm, two things that Elspeth was not. Most of this first year had been spent feeling like she was a failure for not being able to live up to those expectations. Well, actually she still felt a little bit like a failure for not living up to them. But knowing she had a problem and fixing the problem were two very different things.

So she would periodically find herself in the study room on a beautiful day trying as hard as she could to keep up with the work that she was struggling with. Most of the time she was eventually able to pick things up, but it always seemed to take her three times as long as it should have. Which meant she spent less time hanging out with peers and more time sitting and being frustrated inside. On such a nice day, she'd much rather be outside looking for pond skimmers or trying to see the giant squid from the astronomy tower.

But she nodded politely to the student helping her out. This kid didn't know her and obviously didn't mean anything but kindness by offering her help. Elspeth wasn't known for her poor grades. She wasn't really known at all. It was a facet of herself that came in handy at times like these. "Thanks for helping me out. And them. I can't believe I fell asleep so quickly today," she stopped herself quickly, "I mean, not that I umm... regularly fall asleep here." Her cheeks flashed crimson and she looked down at the book so she didn't have to make eye contact.

Come off it now, don't just be a weirdo around her. She picked her pencil up to fidget with as she talked, "Um, so, you're having a hard time with some of this stuff too? It's really a lot of reading, isn't it."

Interacting with @Alina Rosier

"Yeah, a whole lot of reading. I do better with the History of Magic sort too where it at least makes sense, even if it bores one to tears," she smiled a little. "I have a right awful time with things like Transfigurations and I do alright with Astronomy but when it gets into the math..." [/color]she sighed. "It's always the math."

Alina wondered why the girl came there if she just fell asleep often. "Maybe our lack of focus is just the higher powers that be trying to tell us that we need to take a break from our studies!" It was a suggestion. Maybe they needed to tire themselves out first and then they could sit down, relax with a textbook, and focus. "We could go see if we can spot the Giant Squid in The Great Lake or sneak into the kitchens to see if we can't score some cookies or something. Maybe try our way into The Restricted Section of the Library." Alina was all about that sort of thing.

She wasn't sure this Ravenclaw girl was up for that sort of thing though. Did Ravenclaws follow rules exactly as they were written? Well, even if so, this girl didn't seem to be your average Ravenclaw.

Elspeth shook her head no, gently. It was so kind of this other student to be offering her a chance to go out and adventure, but she knew that she did really need to stay in and try to do her homework. She was already so far behind that if she put it off there'd be no way that she could pass some of her classes without having to stay late for one on one lessons with the professors. Given that she was trying to work on her Transfiguration homework that would mean private lessons with Professor Lian. A small shudder went down her spine. Lian was a brilliant professor, but was exactly the kind of bold personality that set Elspeth on edge.

"Sorry, it's just... I really have to study," she didn't want to seem rude, or like she was rejecting this potential new friend and so she quickly added,"But maybe we can help each other? And once we're done we can head out, like, as a reward. I'm Elspeth. I'm a, uh, a first year. Although you could probably already tell that, huh." Elspeth didn't imagine that many of the upperclass students fell asleep inside their introductory textbooks.

She was also worried about seeming like the giant weenie she was in front of what seemed to be a very intrepid student. Going to see the Giant Squid from the Astronomy tower sounded fun, but the idea of trying to sneak in anywhere was beyond her. Elspeth had heard that kids got strung up by their toes in the dungeons for stepping out of turn. Just picturing herself hung from rusty shackles in the musty catacombs under the school? Yeesh.

Of course, that meant that she would actually have to try studying. Which mean making a game plan. She got out a piece of paper and started making a list. "I don't know what kind of homework you have to do. But I want to try and finish at least three things while I'm here."

To Do:

• Finish Magical Theory Reading
• Practice Reparo
• Write letter to mom and dad

Elspeth left her quill on the paper covering up the bottom one. She didn't want to seem dweeby for constantly writing back and forth with her parents. A lot of the other first years here were so independent, just waiting for a chance to prove that they could live on their own. While she wasn't a complete disaster on her own, she definitely still felt like a kid at heart and missed her parents terribly, even as she got used to living away from them.

Interacting with @Alina Rosier

Three things. Alina liked to plan and all but that was for fun things like slumber parties and adventures, not when it came to schoolwork. That was a whole new idea that she hadn't thought of until she saw the girl in front of her do so. Maybe if she planned things like her schoolwork, she'd have better grades. It was a thought - one that seemed to require a lot of work, but she was eager to get to know Elspeth a little more and if it meant doing three things before they left the Study Room then so be it.

"Alina," she told her as she thought about what her three things would be. "Alina Rosier. Hufflepuff," she glanced down to where she didn't have a tie on. It was still something she put on when she first got into class and took off when the professors dismissed them. Hufflepuff wasn't the house she had wanted to be sorted into and it would most likely be a disappointment and embarrassment to her family. Still, she didn't mind it so much now as the year progressed. Some of the best people were in Hufflepuff - ones that held Secret Secret Blossom Balls, went on Trophy Room pranks, battled suits of armor with amazing martial arts skills, listened to her problems, and shared treats from their mums.

"Okay, well...how about you finish your first task and I'll work on something else. We can then practice Reparo together," because she too had that assignment. She'd actually maybe be able to help with that one too because her and a Gryffindor friend got together on a regular basis to work on Charms. "And then umm, we'll wrap up by doing the third and go celebrate with some down time." She didn't know what Elspeth's third one was...or what her third one would be, but she'd think of something or use that time to look over one of the books on Healing that she got from the library.

It was a little hard for Alina to sit in those stiff wooden desks and just read, so she propped her legs up criss-cross and got more comfortable to do her History of Magic Homework. Her Step 1. To help her, she grabbed a lemon drop from her bag and then offered it over to Elspeth to see if she wanted one. Lemon drops, at least according to Alina Rosier, made everything better.

Alina Rosier, that's a pretty name. Elspeth smiled slightly to herself. The longer she lived at Hogwarts, the more she was learning that most people were quite kind and just looking to make friends, as she was. Alina was also one of the first Hufflepuffs that she'd had much of an extended conversation with. Over the years, the house had been somewhat maligned by folks as where all of the kids who didn't have special skills got stuck - the kids who weren't brave or ambitious or smart. It was too early in her time at Hogwarts to really know if that was true or not, but Alina, at least, seemed to be fairly adventurous and outgoing. As with so many aspects of this school, very little was as simple as it may have seemed and writing a puff off before getting to know them was a surefire way to miss out on meeting some interesting people. And shared lemon drops. Elspeth held out her hand to receive the offer, wishing she'd brought anything of interest with her to share in exchange. "Thanks! Yeah that sounds like a good plan. I'd really like to find the Giant Squid later too. I hear it's as big as a ship." She popped the lemon drop into her mouth, instantly feeling her cheeks pucker as the sourness melted over her tongue before smoothing out into a subtler, sweet lemon flavor. Her eyes blinked a couple of times, reflexively, as she readjusted to her new mouth state.

Sadly she had no candy to offer in return. All she had with her was her giant Magical Theory textbook, open to the chapter about ways that spells can break the laws of conservation of mass and energy. Her brow furrowed as she looked deeper into the words, wishing there was some picture or video she could watch that would make it all make sense. "I wish there was a spell that made understanding Transfiguration easier..." she said out loud, a bit absentmindedly. So far she'd loved most of her classes, but Transfiguration had been exceptionally difficult. Her mother, having homeschooled her, wasn't especially strong in Transfig and so had always glazed over those lessons leaving Elspeth at a bit of a deficit when it came to scientific knowledge. "Maybe the spell would just have been my mom teaching me was 'matter' is. It's so hard to picture, atoms being so small." She glanced over at Alina's book. History of Magic was, similarly, a pretty dry class. But at least she didn't have to write essays comparing and contrasting physics principles with magical theory for it. "Are you also working on the Gargoyle Strike in your class?" Elspeth wasn't sure if all first years studied exactly the same stuff at all times, also given her lack of experience in a public school setting. There were enough of them that they couldn't all fit into one class, so what other students did remained a bit of a mystery to her.

Interacting with @Alina Rosier. Sorry for the delayed response! I've been wild busy this last week.