✧.* the far-left chair
─── ･ ｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ. ───
dialogue indicated with red (#930510)
the library was gorgeous. ornate, gilded ceilings stretched high above endless rows of weathered, slightly dusty books, their shelves lined with texts both well-loved and long forgotten. towering stained-glass windows bathed the room in streams of afternoon light, reflecting off well-loved, dark-washed wooden desks. as seraphina puts it, “it’s simply perfect.”
since her discovery of the library, seraphina found herself there daily, always settling into the far-left chair at the desk tucked between the poetry and alchemy sections. it was there where she wrote in her diary, read random books she pulled off of shelves, and occasionally took naps after longer days. amid the endless chatter of the castle, it became a place where time seemed to slow down a bit, allowing her to simply exist.₊˚⊹⋆
time/date: september 5th, 2026
location: the library
mentions: @Elizabeth Witherspoon, @Elara Whitlock
wc: 221
outfit: hufflepuff robes!!
ooc notes: had this image in mind for the setting when writing!!
Last edited by Seraphina Ashford on 13 Jul 2026, 18:09, edited 1 time in total.
with love, seraphina ashford ✧.* | shop
stamina ⊹ 5 | evasion ⊹ 7 | strength ⊹ 3 | wisdom ⊹ 8 | arcane power ⊹ 7 | accuracy ⊹ 5
✧.* the far-left chair
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━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ sta 05 | eva 04 | str 04 | wis 07 | arc 08 | acc 07 ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
━━━Ability━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━The library quickly became one of Elara's favourite places in the castle. Elara usually stopped by after classes, sometimes with a book in mind, sometimes with none at all. If a title caught her attention, she would pull the book from the shelf and read a few pages before finding a place to sit. She usually stayed longer than she meant to.
A few days had passed since the start of term. On her first visit, she noticed a girl sitting between the poetry and alchemy shelves, writing in a notebook. The next afternoon, the girl was there again. Yesterday, she had been reading instead. By then, she recognised the girl without thinking twice. When she stepped into the library that day, her eyes drifted toward the same corner before she looked anywhere else. The seat she had noticed over the past few days was already occupied.
Elara walked to the shelf beside the table and ran a finger along the spines until one title caught her attention. She pulled the book free, read the first page, then looked around for somewhere to sit. There was another study desk just across the narrow walkway. Elara set her book down there and pulled out the chair as quietly as she could.
She opened the book again, resting it on the desk before turning back to the page she had been reading. For the next several minutes, she barely moved. Once in a while she turned a page. Once, she reached into her bag for a pencil to mark a note on a scrap of parchment before tucking it back inside. Someone whispered a question a few tables away. A page turned somewhere behind her. After that, only the quiet rustle of books filled the room.
✧.* the far-left chair
𝒜 𝒬𝒰𝐼𝐸𝒯 𝐿𝐼𝐵𝑅𝒜𝑅𝒴
𝙼𝚎𝚗𝚝𝚒𝚘𝚗𝚜
Reducio@Seraphina Ashford, @Elara Whitlock
OOC NOTESReducioNone
ᴡᴏʀᴅ ᴄᴏᴜɴᴛReducio318 words
Elizabeth wasn’t really fond of the library. I mean, not because she didn’t like books or the quiet, no. It wasn’t because of that. She often found herself distracted. Perhaps by an owl flying past the window, or someone tapping their foot too loudly on the wooden floor… And then bang! Her focus would shatter like that.
She told herself it was because she was a Gryffindor. They wanted adventure, rebellion, something that has her exploring. Also she can just read in her room, with a cup of coffee and some pastries, with her warm blanket tossed on her lap, it sounded much more cozy.
But recently she had been visiting the library more often than usual. There was this book her friends kept talking about. She got curious and wanted to read it herself.
But in those library visits, she kept seeing the same girls over and over again. One of them sat at the same spot every day. A shocking discıvery for Elizabeth, since she changed seats like five times a week.
Today she came to the library for some quiet time for herself. And there, the girls were here again. She felt some kind of… Curiosity? They were both so quiet, she didn’t know how to approach. She saw the other girl picking up a book from the shelf. She made her way to that shelf, pretending to search for a book as she gathered the courage to speak up. She tilted her head towards the girls.
“Hey… I always see you here, thought I’d say hi.” She smiled nervously, not certain how the girls would respond. “You always sit in the same spot, it’s fascinating, really.” She turned to the other girl. “You too, it’s like you live in the library. What are you reading anyway?”
✧.* the far-left chair
─── ･ ｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ. ───
dialogue indicated with red (#930510) | thoughts indicated with green italics (#406d61)
“is evangeline here? i thought she had muggle studies at this time,” she thought inquisitively. though, her answer was given to her as she looked up, finding a gryffindor-robed girl she didn’t recognize with long, black curled hair standing before her. at that exact moment, the girl said, “hey… i always see you here, thought i’d say hi,” she smiled nervously. “you always sit in the same spot, it’s fascinating, really.”
although she didn’t know exactly how to respond for a moment, seraphina felt content and excited knowing someone had noticed this little routine of hers. before she could say anything, the gryffindor turned to a girl in hufflepuff robes sitting at the desk behind her, saying, “you too, it’s like you live in the library. “what are you reading anyway?” the gryffindor asked as the hufflepuff gazed up from her current page. seraphina glanced over at her, their gaze meeting each other simultaneously. the girl’s chestnut brown hair fell in soft waves that framed her face, contrasting her pale blue eyes. seraphina smiled, feeling a small affinity with her knowing they were part of the same house. her gaze then shifted over to the gryffindor girl.
“oh, hi! i didn't realize anyone really noticed me in here,” seraphina said a bit shyly. “i’ve come here quite a bit since i’ve gotten here. you know, it’s gorgeous in here. i just feel like i think more clearly and i’ve grown attached to this little corner,” she chuckled, her gaze dancing back and forth between the two girls.
a short moment passes, until seraphina adds, “by the way, my name’s seraphina! i’m a first year in hufflepuff,” she smiled. “what are your names?”₊˚⊹⋆
time/date: september 5th, 2026
location: the library
mentions: @Elizabeth Witherspoon, @Elara Whitlock
wc: 381
outfit: hufflepuff robes | her rings !!
ooc notes: n/a
with love, seraphina ashford ✧.* | shop
stamina ⊹ 5 | evasion ⊹ 7 | strength ⊹ 3 | wisdom ⊹ 8 | arcane power ⊹ 7 | accuracy ⊹ 5
✧.* the far-left chair
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━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ sta 05 | eva 04 | str 04 | wis 07 | arc 08 | acc 07 ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
━━━Ability━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━The question drew Elara's attention away from the page she had been reading. She slipped the scrap of parchment between the pages before closing the book halfway, then lifted it just enough for the cover to be seen. "It's about magical plants," she replied, her voice no louder than it needed to be. "I found it while I was looking through the shelves." Her thumb rested against the edge of the cover. "I only meant to read a page or two." A small smile crossed her face. "That didn't quite happen." She lowered the book back onto the desk. "I suppose I have been coming here quite a bit lately." It was true. She had been coming to the library almost every afternoon.
Only then did she look across the narrow walkway. Their eyes met for a brief moment. So that was her name, Seraphina. It was the first time Elara had a name to match the familiar face she had seen over the past few afternoons. Elara offered a small smile in return before speaking. "I'm Elara," she said. "I'm a first year too in Hufflepuff." Her eyes drifted briefly to the book resting on Seraphina's desk before returning to her. "I've seen you here a few afternoons already." She paused, choosing her next words with care. "I thought about saying hello once or twice." She hesitated. "But you always seemed comfortable on your own, so I didn't want to interrupt."
That was usually how her visits ended. She would settle down with a book, make a few notes on a scrap of parchment, then realise the afternoon had slipped by faster than she expected. The thought of introducing herself stayed in the back of her mind, though she never quite found the right moment. Looking between the two girls, Elara's shoulders relaxed a little. "It's nice to finally meet you both."
✧.* the far-left chair
••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••
OOC NOTESReducioNone for now.
MENTIONSReducio@Seraphina Ashford @Elara Whitlock
WORD COUNTReducio290 words words
PLACEReducioLibrary.
Elizabeth listened to the girls introductions with a gentle nod. Seraphina and Elara, she noted the names in her head, she would see these girls more often that she thought. She felt somewhat… Relieved? The girls didn’t seem to bother that she interrupted their quiet time, and Elizabeth was really fond of making new friends. Since she was a first year too, she wanted to make good connections.
“Seraphina, Elara. Well, hello to you. She nodded her head. “It’s really nice to meet you! My name is Elizabeth, by the way.” She pointed to her red and gold Gryffindor tie. “Gryffindor, as you can see.”
She leaned against the shelf for a moment as she caught the glance between them. “A book about plants? I guess that makes sense, since you are a Hufflepuff.” She smiled kindly at Elara before raising her hands in a playful manner. “I don’t mean it in a bad way, obviously. In a good way!”
She hesitated for a moment before grabbing a random book from the shelf. Something about spells, probably. She walked towards the Seraphina’s table. She pulled up a chair and sat next to her. Then as if she remembered that she should have asked, she smiled nervously at the girl. “Sorry, do you mind if I sit?”
She was excited, and it probably showed. She put her bag aside and put the book on the table. She flipped open a few pages, and pretended to read even as her curiosity caused her to look at the girls more than the spells. Then she got bored and looked at the girls. “Isn’t the library too quiet?”
✧.* the far-left chair
─── ･ ｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ. ───
dialogue indicated with red (#930510)
“seraphina, elara. well, hello to you,” the gryffindor girl nodded. “it’s really nice to meet you! my name is elizabeth, by the way. gryffindor, as you can see,” she said while pointing to her red and yellow striped tie.
this little interaction made seraphina’s chest feel warm. somebody, two people actually, noticed this little routine of hers and had the courage to come say hi. something about it made this unfamiliar place feel just a little more like home. seraphina shot both the girls a smile. “nice to meet you two! it’s always nice meeting fellow first years,” she said warmly.
elara and elizabeth nodded with kind smiles. elizabeth made her way over to the shelf right by seraphina’s desk, leaning against it casually. “a book about plants? I guess that makes sense, since you are a hufflepuff.” she said playfully to elara before raising her hands. “i don’t mean it in a bad way, obviously. in a good way!”
elara and seraphina chuckled and exchanged a quick, bashful glance. even though it was just for a second, something about it felt comfortable, like they'd known each other far longer than just a few minutes. elizabeth pulled a book off of the shelf she was leaning, walking towards seraphina’s desk and pulling out the chair to her right. “sorry, do you mind if i sit?” elizabeth said hesitantly. a smile grew on seraphina’s face. "not at all!! please sit,” she said as she motioned at elizabeth to set down her bookbag.
time passes between the three girls. pages idly flipped and nearby quills scratched against parchment. for the last few days, seraphina had always found solace being alone in this little corner. it was in this moment, though, where she realized this kind of quiet you share with others felt even better than the quiet she’d been seeking out alone. she smiled to herself. this moment of introspection and silence was interrupted when elizabeth said, “isn’t the library too quiet?”
seraphina and elara glanced up from their books. “well, if you guys would like to keep talking, are any of you hungry?” seraphina asked. “i’ve been in here all morning so i'm kind of starving. we could all go together, grab something, and keep chatting if you guys are up for it,” she said with a smile.₊˚⊹⋆
time/date: september 5th, 2026
location: the library
mentions: @Elizabeth Witherspoon, @Elara Whitlock
wc: 455
outfit: hufflepuff robes | her rings !!
ooc notes: n/a
with love, seraphina ashford ✧.* | shop
stamina ⊹ 5 | evasion ⊹ 7 | strength ⊹ 3 | wisdom ⊹ 8 | arcane power ⊹ 7 | accuracy ⊹ 5
✧.* the far-left chair
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━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ sta 05 | eva 04 | str 04 | wis 07 | arc 08 | acc 07 ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
━━━Perfectionist━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━Elizabeth's question lingered for a moment before Elara answered. She looked over at the Gryffindor girl, thinking about it a little longer than the question probably needed. "I don't think so," she said. "I like that it's quiet." Her eyes wandered briefly around the library. Someone reached for a book a few shelves away. A chair scraped softly against the floor before the room settled again. "I think it's easier to notice things when it isn't noisy." She glanced back at Elizabeth. "Sometimes I come here planning to read for half an hour." A small smile appeared. "It usually turns into much longer than that." She paused before adding, "I don't think I'd come here as often if it were loud."
Her gaze shifted to Seraphina. The invitation had caught her off guard. A few minutes earlier, they had only been familiar faces who happened to spend their afternoons in the same corner of the library. Now they were talking about having lunch together. "I'd like that," Elara said after a moment. "I haven't eaten yet." She slipped the scrap of parchment back between the pages of her book before closing it. The pencil disappeared into her bag, followed by the book a moment later. She adjusted the strap over her shoulder and stood from her chair.
"I still don't know my way around the castle very well," she admitted, looking between the two girls. "I still have to think about which staircase to take sometimes." A quiet laugh escaped her. "So... you'll have to show me the way." She rested one hand against the strap of her bag and waited by the side of the desk, giving them a moment to gather their things.
✧.* the far-left chair
•••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••
OOC NOTESReducioThis is a private thread!
MENTIONSReducio@Elara Whitlock@Seraphina Ashford
WORD COUNTReducio348 words words
PLACEReducioLibrary
Elizabeth smiled softly as she listened to the girls. She didn’t exactly like the silence, but it wasn’t so bad either, if it helped her meet new people like this. “Yeah, I suppose you are right…” She shrugged casually before speaking. “It is good for thinking, and if you need some quiet time… Though I often get bored in places like this.”
At the suggestion of eating together, Elizabeth nodded. She didn’t have lunch yet. “Of course we could go.” She chuckled softly at Elara’s words. Though it wasn’t mocking. Because she was a first year too, she knew how it felt to be somewhere you didn’t know. The moving staircases, the unfamiliar sounds of chatter in the halls when you walk past… She often got lost too, either found by a prefect or late to her lessons.
“I mean… Of course, we will find the way!” She blurted out in a rush of excitement and sudden bravery. “Well… Probably, we will.” Suddenly a look of doubt and nervousness crossed her face. But she quickly brushed it aside. “I get lost very often, then I flip a coin to decide which way I should go. Honestly, it is a game of luck.” She smiled nervously and chuckled. “Don’t worry, that was a joke. I talk a lot when I’m excited.”
She got up from her chair and grabbed her bag. She put the textbook she was reading, or pretending to read, on the shelf where she found it.
She smoothed the creases on her shirt and looked around. The library was mostly empty by now, everyone was either going to get lunch, except for some fifth years practicing spells for their OWLS.
Elizabeth walked over to the doors of the library and opened it with a hand, holding it open for the girls. She glanced over her shoulder to make sure they were coming. “Let’s go.”