Studying with Friends and Foes Open to first-years

Ivan nodded at Akira an eyebrow raising at the fire explanation holding his wand behind his back with his hand as he approached the fire with one of his hands outstretched stopping around 2 feet from the open flame before backing of and sitting back down
"Thank you for your information Mr. Shimizu, excuse me if I don't trust your word and want to try it on myself. I have only just met you and don't know anything about you to hold you just to your words honor" .

Placing his wand on the table carefully Ivan smiled before starting on a subject that seemed to irk him as well "I am really glad you brought up wand care Mr. Shimizu, you see the esteemed wand maker of the British Isles, and I won't even start on the idiocy of only having one shopping place on the whole isles, the wand maker you see, said nothing about proper wand care, or even mention that there are holsters one can buy for their wand, I have been resorting to carrying an item that my whole life resolves around in a bag alongside my other things, just because the esteemed wand maker couldn't be bothered to tell to a first year more about wand care and help them out. I only found out about all of that once I read the schools newspaper, and by that time I was already here and I am unable to go out until the hols to buy the supplies for maintaining my wand properly and a good holster! he sighs and takes a deep breath "I started using my best scarf to clean my wand because I don't have anything better to do it with, it's worse then torture I will tell you"

Taking his wand he twirled it between his fingers unsure what to do with it or his hands at the moment and continued talking
"Yes, witches and wizards are trined, but form what I ahve seen ehre, we are trained in how to use the wand, not in self restraint or the wisdom of when to actually use it, the whoel vibe of the magical world seems to be if you can use magic to make a task easy do it and don't think about it. I Think I will just in spite of that take up running after the hols to keep my body, magic and mind in shape that way

He then turned his attention to Blue and her talk about pure-blood traditions
"Well... I was doing that mostly as a running gag but it seems I was spot on with shakespear and Victorian traditions, I will have to do some research on the subject smiling and nodding to Blue he froze on her next subject silently cursing in his mind before turning to Akira and saying in an apologetic voice "I am sorry if I have disrespected you, your culture or traditions by calling you mister I just went with the whole theme that I have been doing since I came here. It was not meant as a slight against you

Listening carefully to the talk off the floo powder he asked Blue "But don't you get burned, what it the fireplace on the other end is not on fire, and even if it is for that use it still doesn't explain why in the library would the small hall or the common rooms be better?"

Lizzy's face turned red as Akira struggled for words to say about her hair. It didn't look bad, so to speak, but it certainly was different and a whole lot shorter. He finally said it looked like it framed her face very well. This sentiment lifted her spirits a bit, she knew that Akira didn't say things that he didn't mean. It was one of the qualities that she admired most about him. "Let's see," Lizzy said, digging through her bag. Her hand hit the piece of parchment that she was after. "Yes! I have potions to work on as well." Her potions assignment wouldn't be too hard, in her opinion, but she would still like the company while she was working.

Still, Lizzy couldn't hide a small smile as Akira got on Ivan. When she chimed in that she agreed with Ivan about the wand as weapon topic, she was touched when Akira considered her opinion. Lizzy certainly respected Akira's opinions, and it looked like Akira respected hers just as much as she did his. Yes, that is why we are going to school to learn how to control our magic," she said in agreement with Akira.

Lizzy was truly glad that he had invited her to study with the group he had formed. Though Akira had made it out like there would be mostly Mahoutokoro students, Lizzy found it slightly amusing the amount of Hogwarts students that had joined the group. It was a invigorating sight to have Hogwarts and Mahoutokoro students alike all working together, which, after all, was what the students coming from other countries was supposed to be about.

Seren quietly walked into the Library, carrying her books and thinking she might want to find a spot to study. She did not really have anyone to study with, but she figured a quiet spot would be available, and if someone needed to share her table, she would... Be fine, probably? She really needed to make more friends, but she had been having so much trouble balancing her... Personal issues, when it came to interacting with new people... and her studies AND her desire to avoid any bullies, and she had just sort of faded into the background for quite awhile.

She was heading towards the back, when she heard a fair few voices off to one side, near a fireplace she had occasionally studied near. She paused, then quietly walked in that direction, her blue eyes curious as she got close. She peered around a bookshelf to see a group of her fellow First Years all gathered together, talking and... Not studying? She was not sure if they were even attempting to study, though at least one person had some things out to study with. She listened in silence for a good while... She was not trying to snoop, not really, it was more she was not sure if she should approach and she was feeling that nervousness and fear about strangers again.

Finally, she bit her lip and decided to come out from behind the bookshelves, and moved to approach the table... And promptly tripped on the corner of the bookshelf, so that she stumbled forwards several steps, and just barely caught herself on the table. "Ow!" She said, as she slowly straightened herself up, her cheeks now flaming red as she looked around at the group. "Uh... Sorry... Misjudged the corner there..."

She looked ready to flee, honestly.

Open to Interactions, not interacting with anyone directly. Feel free to poke

Roleplaying as Akira Shimizu from Mahoutokoro
Outfit: Navy Uniform

Of course the boy wouldn't trust him that the flames wouldn't burn. Perhaps it was just a muggle thing, that all fire was supposed to be hot. After all, muggles did seem to think that burning witches at the stake could actually hurt them, when many real witches were likely screeching in pain just for fun and theatrics. "So?" Akira asked Ivan. "Did you determine whether the flames were actually hot enough to burn? I didn't expect you to trust me. Personally, I wouldn't trust a stranger I just met, either, but you seemed to trust me enough to put your hand near it," he observed.

The unfortunate boy didn't seem to learn about wand care until he read the Hogwarts Headliner, and even then he still put his wand in his bag. Akira felt rather sorry for the cherry wood, despite its luxury of being cleaned by a good scarf. Well, some things couldn't be helped. How Ivan Solarus took care of his wand was his own business, after all, and Akira would keep his mouth shut after that lest he spout something too condescending.

"Interesting observation," he would muse, as Ivan discussed the lack of training in self-restraint at Hogwarts and when it was appropriate to use magic versus not. In truth, it seemed that he had seen many examples of a lack of restraint during his time here, and perhaps the lack of education in such matters or general lack of such values was the reason. First, there was Cody Stevenson, who inserted himself into unwanted conversations, and Henry Knight, who would lash out in anger. "I wouldn't do something inefficiently without magic if I could simply use magic, though," he added. "For example, I don't believe in the necessity of cleaning something manually if I could use Scourgify. I've cleaned things before, and doing it again once I've learned the spell wouldn't add any value to my life." Certainly, he would have better things to do to improve himself than cleaning messes by hand.

Something that Miss Blue said caught his attention. "So-called 'pure-blooded' families? Did you mean the term 'pure-blooded' is rubbish or the strict rules of etiquette were rubbish?" Indeed, many of the outdated customs of the Victorian age would not be practiced in current-day UK, that's for sure. But he wanted to clarify what she meant, because somehow the girl didn't seem to put pure blood in very high regard? Akira himself was brought up by a proud pure-blooded family (one with less of an open mind, that is).

Miss Blue seemed to prefer that he drop suffixes. "Thank you for letting me know," he responded, glad that she was sensitive to his customs but also willing to voice her thoughts on what she preferred. "I'll call you Bluebell, then." It was a pretty name and flower. He didn't feel quite close enough to call her Blue, but that didn't mean they wouldn't become friends in the future. He vaguely observed how strange it was that he and Kobayashi-san still called each other by their surnames with honorifics when he was sitting here calling a girl he'd just met 'Bluebell'. However, if his classmate had offered that he called her differently, he would've felt comfortable enough to go with 'Kobayashi' or even 'Sakura-san'.

He turned back to Ivan as the boy addressed him. "Oh no, not at all. 'Mister' is fine. I would think of 'Mister Shimizu' as the equivalent to 'Shimizu-san', which is what I'm used to, anyway. The '-san' suffix is usually attached to the names of coworkers, classmates, or other people you've just met on a more formal rather than familiar basis," he explained. "Feel free to let me know if I'm not making sense." At this, he would consider the boy to have partially redeemed himself. At least he was polite and eager to learn.

Lizzy seemed to be the only person eager to work on Potions. Thank goodness for her. He knew they were just getting acquainted with each other, but Akira was finally feeling a renewed ability to focus on his assignment. "I'm not sure where the Hogwarts students are in their Potions curriculum, but I'm trying to brainstorm some potions that would be especially useful in duels. Any ideas?" he asked the group.

He was deep in thought and gazed around the group for possible answers or conjectures. However, his concentration was broken by a loud smack that landed upon his open textbook next to him, as a dark-haired girl all but sprawled over the table. "Uh... Sorry... Misjudged the corner there..." Akira eyed the girl curiously. She looked like a deer caught in headlights, embarrassed by her obvious blunder. He softened his stare into a small smile, hoping to appear at least a bit approachable. He was here to get acquainted with people, after all, he had to remind himself. Not scare people away, which he would be quite good at on a normal basis. "Ah, thank you for volunteering, miss. I'm Akira Shimizu from Mahoutokoro. What's your name, and do you have an idea as to what kind of potion could be useful in duels?" Hopefully, his question would encourage her to stay instead of run off? Who knew, Akira could be very wrong sometimes on what made people tick.