Meet Me in the Library PV Eliphas Dune Closed

Soon enough Eliphas was all sorts of turned around.

Hadn't he passed this shelf before? He recognized that sign, and this book spine, and... He huffed a disgruntled sigh and raised a hand to rub the back of his neck. Now how had he managed that, exactly? Had he taken one too many rights? He felt as though he hadn't, but now he wasn't so sure.

So lost in thought was he, that he didn't immediately catch on to the approach of another. Thus when the words were uttered, even with just a quiet tone, he jumped slightly and turned to face the older student. Though his cheeks flushed, he tried to downplay his embarrassment and act as though he hadn't been frightened at all.

"Hello," he responded, with a sheepish smile to accompany the word. Apparently he was right in his assumptions, he was in fact going in circles. It was like the Staircase all over again, dizzying and confusing. This time though it was his own two feet which had betrayed him, not some enchanted steps.

"I uh... I don't know where to find the Herbology section" he confessed, glancing up and around them as though to emphasize the grandness of it all, before settling his gaze back on the student. He was quick to introduce himself...

"Simon. I'm Eliphas, Eliphas Dune. Ravenclaw..." He looked down at himself and his obviously blue-trimmed robes and his cheeks flushed. As if that hadn't been obvious, doofus!

"Do you know where I might find this book?" He held up a slither of parchment with the books title on, all too aware of all the Second Year's time he was wasting in the process.

@Simon Kincaid

What luck he'd had thus far, in finding helpful individuals willing to assist an out-of-his-league First Year. First Jack, now this... Simon. He decided rather quickly that he quite liked Simon, he was quick to the point and seemed knowledgeable enough, beyond that usefulness though he was polite and pleasant. Some of his fellow First Years had proven that they could already have a rather mean spirited side, did that wane off over time? Or had he simply lucked out with the older students he had encountered?

No matter.

"Thank you, Simon," he said as the pair set off through the shelves in search of the Herbology section. Well, Eliphas was in search of it - Simon seemed to know exactly where he was headed. Even so they ducked and weaved until they reached the region which was slightly more tucked away than the rest.

"This looks like a nice quiet area, he remarked, as though the rest of the library hadn't been similarly quiet. Perhaps it was just the privacy which further supplied that feeling. "It would probably good to study in." He couldn't spend all of his time locked away in the Ravenclaw Common Room, after all. As tempting as that was. Besides, he'd already begun to make friends outside of his House, maybe this could be somewhere they could come to study together, as a group!

"Switching signs? That seems rather foolish, doesn't it hurt them more than anyone else? It's not like they know the layout of the library yet!" He chuckled lightly, shaking his head at the thought of the poor House Elves chasing after wayward students. At least Eliphas' level of mischief never delved into the realm of truly inconveniencing others. He was more the search hidden corridors and unearth lost secrets type.

"Herbology, perfect!" Now to find the book itself. He glanced over the spines, a great many of them, eyes narrowing in focus. He realized after a few moments that he had quite forgotten to thank him properly.

"I appreciate your help. What are you studying? Is it something interesting?" He turned back to the shelves, hoping to kill two birds with one stone. After all, Eliphas Dune could certainly multitask, if he hadn't been able to then he'd never get anything done!

@Simon Kincaid

Eliphas stuck out his tongue and made a yucky face when Simon mentioned using the spot for snogging. He was still at that delightful age where the idea of girls being anything more than just friends was disgusting to him, it seemed silly and he'd sworn that he'd never ever kiss one! Primary School mentality was still well and truly within his mind.

Even so he perused the area close by and spotted a nice armchair he'd like to use for himself. "Fine, then I'll take that seat!" Back to the shelves he turned, noticing that his companion was also hunting down the book with him. It was a long title, surely it should be quick to spot among the sea of spines.

Simon's explanation as to what he had been studying made the First Year's eyes light up. The connotations didn't immediately come to mind, because his brain immediately took him to fantastical stories he'd read in the muggle world instead. No way Vampires could be real, right? Just fiction!

"Vampires? Cool! Mum always says I'm still too young for most of those kinds of books... She wouldn't even let me read Dracula!" He pouted slightly at that thought, before shaking his head. It didn't matter, one day he'd read them!

But then Simon continued on, and the way in which he explained the notebook made the young Eagle all the more curious. Questions about it? It almost sounded as though Simon was studying them as though they were... real? "Wait, are you telling me that there really are Vampires?" The thought was... dizzying. Maybe a little exciting?

"No, I didn't know magic even existed until a few months back! My Dad's a wizard, but he kept it a secret... You're new to it all too, then?"

As he was speaking, his eyes fell over a spine with more than enough words to fit the bill. He reached up on his tiptoes, after all it was fairly high up on the shelves, and pulled it down. Huzzah! Just what he was after. It even had some embossed flora on the spine and the cover, some of it was inset with gold leaf! Cool. It felt fancy.

"Here it is! Blimey, look how thick it is!" He could sit and read for days and probably not even make much of a dent. "What was I expecting from something named a thousand anything?" He gulped, and then turned toward the little seating area the nook housed, curious if Simon would join him.

He didn't have to, of course! But Eliphas was interested in the whole premise of Vampires being real...

@Simon Kincaid

A thousand pages. The way in which Simon said it made him chuckle a little, but no doubt there was truth in his words. Unless it was more like a glossary of plants? No, no it definitely seemed thick enough for at least a page per plant. That made five hundred leaves of paper... He turned it so he could get a better look at the pages, and then nodded.

"I think you're right, you know. Do you know much about plants?" He wasn't exactly looking for all of Simon's knowledge to be shared, a lot of the fun of learning was researching for Eliphas, he was simply curious where the other boy's interests lay. Hogwarts had way more room for interests in basic subjects than muggle schools did. Herbology and Potions and Astronomy and Flying! It was so much cooler than simply Maths and English though he did enjoy those too.

He was realizing as he considered it though, that many of them did overlap. Potions was like Chemistry, wasn't it? And from what little he'd read on Transfiguration, it was very much along the same vein as Physics. Eliphas knew exactly nothing about physics...

"I think I'll read it soon, maybe not this year though..." Maybe next? He'd be older next year, after all. He'd barely finished that thought though when Simon explained what he was actually researching. The real thing? His eyes widened slightly.

Eliphas' thoughts on Vampires had always had a weird dichotomy to them. On the one hand, Vampires were terrifying right? The very idea of something being out there looking to feed on blood and the like sent shivers down his spine. But on the flip side.... "I imagine a Vampire would have time to read the entirety of this library, wouldn't they?" he said, with a slight grin to mask the more cowardly of his thoughts.

"Are any of the other supernatural beings real? I mean, I've seen Ghosts first hand... And I've heard Unicorns exist. And Dragons! Now Vampires..." He shook his head some at that, mindboggling. Utterly mindboggling.

"Can you imagine having been raised with all of this as .. normal?"

@Simon Kincaid