A Quiet Place to Read Closed

Elizabeth watched the boy with curiosity, wondering why he seemed to be so shy. She had never understood bashfulness or timidity, but maybe that was just because she was raised to speak her mind and not let anyone stop her from doing so.

She realized that she probably had a bit of a dirty look on her face from scolding John, and replaced the scowl with a gentle smile. She nodded as Maisy introduced all three of them, and felt bad when the Slytherin boy- who she now knew as Khris- stuttered out his name, and then asking if he could help. She couldn't help the sympathetic look that probably crossed her face, but it immediately hardened as soon as she heard the noise she had been expecting.

CRASH

Her head turned quickly to stare accusingly at John, who had caused the tower of books she had been carefully levitating to crash to the ground. "You absolute numpty, why would you do that?" Liz muttered, but it seemed her words had fallen to deaf ears as John introduced himself to Khris, repeating his name more times than necessary, once again.

She moved over to the fallen books and leant down to the ground to start grabbing them. She peered up to look at Khris and attempted to smile again. "Nice to meet you, Khris. As mentioned, I'm Liz, and I'm absolutely positive that Maisy would love some help from all of us." She said before starting to grab a few books.

"Sure!" Maisy agreed, with a bright smile, "The more help the better. I'm not entirely sure how I managed to get all the way here as is, with all these--"

CRASH

A squeak issued from the girl and spinning, she witness John emerging from the fallen stack wearing a dopey grin. The entire tower of literature lay splayed across the stone floor, wars and wizards spilled out everywhere. The concern etched into her eyes was short lived as she buried a snort of a laugh behind her hands, before stepping forward to hold a hand out to him. Liz scolded again and it brought another giggle. The Gryffindor girl wasn't entirely wrong, even if John was fairly hilarious.

"Are you alright? Goodness me, that would have smushed me flat!" It was a small miracle that she'd managed to avoid the accident, and she was glad, to say the least, that her path had been interrupted the way it had been. Accident prone as she was, she wouldn't have lasted much longer.

"I'm trying to find my way back down to the Basement, actually..." She continued, a bit sheepishly, her gaze shifting to her bashful housemate, "You wouldn't happen to know the way, would you."

“Oh, I’m just fine,” John reassured Maisy, taking her hand as he emerged from the pile of knowledge. “Must be that good ol’ Muggle might!”

John loved the word Muggle. It was way better than “dude” or “person” or “human being”. Technically, he was supposed to start calling himself a wizard, but he didn’t feel like one, not yet. He spent most of his life as a muggle. Switching over wasn’t something that happened overnight for John.

“And besides. Now that they’re on the ground, they’re way easier to pick up. Imagine trying to get the top book on that floating stack!” It was John’s attempt to placate Liz, who seemed a little high-strung about the books. Even if something happened, he was sure there was a special spell to fix it. There seemed to be a spell for everything in this castle.

As John began picking up the books, he took notice of a book on magical creatures. It seemed a bit different than the one he had to buy back in Diagon Alley. He figured they had enough to read as it was, but Maisy was doing even more?

“Woah, we have this class? I thought only the older kids got to take the animal class. You’re really reading ahead, Maisy!”

John gathered three more books and joined Maisy, looking at Khris as if he were the new leader of this makeshift group. He offered words of encouragement, bolstered by the fact that John was excited to see more of the school.

“Yeah man! Into the depths of the castle! You got this!”

Khris had watched in mild amusement and slight concern as the pile of books toppled onto the young Hufflepuff just as Elizabeth had predicted they would, the crash echoing around the near empty room and causing a few heads to pop up out of curiosity. Thankfully no one seemed too bothered, the roll of eyes and short quip from the young Gryffindor girl clearly stated without much heat and eliciting a cheerful giggle from Maisy.

Curious group...

A hand shot out of the mess of literature on the floor followed by a daffy smiling, introduction spewing, joyfully babbling John and Khris allowed a rare grin. "Nice to meet you too, John." His voice wavered but he had replied.

Yes, a curious group indeed but maybe, just maybe this will be alright.

He knelt beside Liz then, a quick nod and soft smile offered in return for her introduction before lowering his eyes to the task at hand. The variety of books was fascinating. Great tomes filled solely with names and dates rest next to small booklets with cheerful illustrations dancing across each page. There were school books and story books, parchments and plays, required reading and pleasure reading and it was all so very brilliantly excessive.

He cast a knowing glance towards Maisy.

Books... Books were rather wonderful.

Khris smiled as the last of the scattered literature was placed on the much shorter, much sturdier, balanced four stacks and he gave a nod of satisfaction, his eyes darting appreciatively towards each one of the little group. It had gone well.

"I'm trying to find my way back down to the Basement, actually... You wouldn't happen to know the way, would you."

Khris' attention snapped to his fellow house mate.

"Me?" His brow furrowed as he poked a questioning finger to his chest.

“Yeah man! Into the depths of the castle! You got this!”

John cheered and Khris mentally face palmed.

Right! Of course you, silly! Who else would she be asking directions to the basement from?

"Oh. Duh. Me, yeah... um." Khris stuttered out a few more random words, a soft pink running through his freckles and up his ears as he gathered himself with a deep breath. He tried a quick smile and offered a nod to the young Slytherin before casting one towards John and Liz as well. "I just came from there actually. I could... show you? If you like?" Silver blue eyes darted to their other two companions and Khris chewed his lip contemplating. "I don't think you're allowed in our house rooms though... Maybe we could just walk to the door together? I- I'm not sure. It's up to you."

God, is he ever not so bloody cheerful? Elizabeth thought to herself as John continued to smile, even after getting crushed by a bunch of books and her chastising him. He was too bloody cheerful for her, too much of an optimist compared to her being a realist. When she heard Maisy giggle at the exchange between herself and the Hufflepuff boy, she couldn't help but look over at the girl and smile slightly. 

When John promptly jumped up and started talking loudly and excitedly to the boy who was obviously extremely shy. She rolled her eyes again, muttering a small 'unbelievable' under her breath, before continuing to pick up books. She decided to speak up after Khris finished stuttering out his sentences, smiling at him gently. "You're absolutely right, we're not allowed in your common room, but we will definitely help you both carry all these books." She said cheerfully, the first positive thing she had said during the entire conversation between all of them. She couldn't help but wonder what Maisy was doing with all these books, especially since some of them had nothing to do with what they were learning in class. It crossed her mind that the Slytherin girl might be just as uninformed about the muggle world as Liz had been, and she felt a wave of understanding. She had done the same thing when she had first arrived as well. She still had many books in her dormitory. 

With a breath of relief, Maisy plucked up a few books at a time and began to divvy them out to the others. As she worked, she couldn't help but reflect on just how many there were, once again, and when she had finished, she still managed to have quite the armful, but a manageable one, at least. Looking to John, she smiled at his exclamation.

"These... these aren't for classes, actually." She admitted, a little sheepishly, "It's just, well... This is all rather new to me, and I'm trying to learn as much as I can. Hasn't been anyone in my family with magic for a while, now... save my Uncle, but he... well, he wasn't very good, and never made it into Hogwarts. Anyway, I guess I just don't want to be behind everyone else."

In lieu of her fingernails, which were currently trapped beneath several volumes about famous wizards of the current century, she chewed on the edge of her lip, "I don't suppose... How many of your families are... Are you all from big... what's the term they use... pure blood families? Most of the people in Slytherin are. Or at least, that's what I hear, and I guess that makes sense. But I hadn't realized it was so important, you know?"

As the group followed after Khris, John could have sworn Liz was saying something behind his back a bit earlier. She was muttering so low, he couldn't make out what she was saying. She then went back to talking to the others, which confused John. Was she shy, but only around him? How strange...

Shortly after, John discovered that Maisy was more of a kindred spirit than he thought. She was new to this world too!

"Hey, I'm new at this too!" John exclaimed at Maisy. "No one in my family mentioned anything about magic stuff ever. Maybe I'll find some caveman wizard with the last name of Johns in one of these history books. What do you think the chances of that are?"

John's imagination briefly detoured to images of a bare-chested caveman version of himself, reciting "Ooga Booga" magic. The image brought a bigger smile to his face as he continued.

"It's great to learn new things, but I don't know if I'd want to do it all at once. After all, if you make all the discoveries in one day, what's gonna be left? I hear we have seven or so years. Plenty of time to figure it all out!"

Speaking of learning something new, Maisy just introduced a concept he was not familiar with: families and their...blood...type? He tilted his head inquisitively, trying to figure out what that meant.

"What does pure blood mean?" John asked. "My mom once told me that I was 'too pure for this world'. Does that count?"

Khris couldn't help the quiet puff of laughter that escaped at John's words, the Hufflepuff's innocent question pairing perfectly with his mother's opinion of him.

John truly was too pure for this world it seemed.

Babbling at a joyful million miles an hour and gesturing grandly with a cheerful grin never leaving his face, John Johns seemed really rather like the kind of lad that couldn't hate anybody if he tried. It was true the constant chatter was occasionally a bit much but all of it was meant in playful comradery and general kindness or curiosity and really, he couldn't fault the boy for being brave enough to be himself around them.

Khris cast a small smile over his shoulder at the Hufflepuff before letting his eyes drift to the two girls as well, smile still firmly in place.

They had been kind as well.

He had listened carefully as Maisy spoke both of her family's link to the wizarding world as well as her attempts to learn all she could about it and he made mental note to offer a word of encouragement in the future if he saw her studying. New places were difficult enough to deal with, none the less a whole world you barely knew about suddenly opening up to you. She was doing rather well considering.

She asked you all a question. You should answer, it's only polite...

Go on, then.

Khris turned around so as to walk backwards as they turned down another corridor.

Liz' words of encouragement when he had spoken earlier had been a rather wonderful boost of confidence and though his heart was still beating a tap dance in his chest, Khris felt that perhaps this unusual little group was safe enough to speak in.

John chuckled at something random and Khris shook his head in mild fondness.

Yeah, these three were pretty safe indeed.

"My father's pure-blood." His voice echoed faintly in the domed room they were walking through and he hurriedly quieted it to a whisper, his steps still carefully measured and backwards so as to face the little group. "Um... His family has a rather long line but it's not really as well known now. There was a bit of a mess up ever since he- When father married my mum. She's a Muggle, see. My Nan and Grandfather are good with it now but before... hmm..." He paused and a wrinkle formed across his brow as he thought out his words carefully. "I'm a half-blood which is half muggle and half wizard or witch, John. Where as my father is a pureblood because none of his family line has ever had a muggle in it before." This time he turned towards Maisy, his shoulders hunched a bit and lips pressed into a nervous smile. "Does that kind of answer your question?"

Elizabeth felt herself tense up as the group began to talk about their families and backgrounds, freezing where she was. Family was a sore subject for her, considering hers was an absolute mess. Where was she even supposed to start? The mother she had never even met, or the famous father that hated her. Liz had avoided making any friends because she didn’t want to have to go through a whole ordeal, or receive pity. Pity was the worst thing in the world, she found, because it made her feel weaker. But as she listened to Khris explain his family heritage, she felt a surge of bravery. You’re in Gryffindor for God’s sake. If Khris, the boy who seemed to be shyer than anyone she had ever met, managed to speak to them honestly about his family, then so should she.

“I am too. Half-blood, that is. Well,” she paused, thinking for a moment. “I think I am. My dad said me mum was a witch, but I never got to meet her. She left when I was just a wee little thing.” She said with a shrug, putting one last book on top of her pile. “My dad kinda raised me on his own, with my step-mum,” She finished, standing up with a pile of Maisy’s books in her hands.

She'd never quite met anyone like John Johns.. Or John Three (she still wasn't entirely sure how many it was), but she was glad to have run into him, all the same. He was dizzying with his chattering and most of it nonsense, but there was a happiness to him that she missed from home... Far too many students at Hogwarts seemed to bear a sort of melancholic nature to them. They were kids, and it didn't seem right. Not at all.

Khris felt like a balance, really, in a lot of ways and as he spoke she felt a twinge of sympathy for what he had to say. Elizabeth, too, it appeared, came with something of a full set of baggage, and neither of them much older than Maisy herself. Was the another surprise to the wizarding world? Children honed for far too mature circumstances before they had any right to be ready for them? The worst thing she'd faced thus far was being told she couldn't attend her friend Stephanie's birthday party after she'd been marked poorly on a spelling test.

Frowning gingerly, Maisy shook her head, "You two must be awfully brave..." She said finally, and without a trace of pity or irony, neither of which seemed very useful or welcome in most people, "I'm not so sure I could handle all of that at our age. Anyway, I'm glad to know I'm not the only one who's not exactly used to this sort of place. Maybe I won't even need all these books. Especially seeing how we'll have homework enough as is. What do you make of it? All these classes. I'm rather excited, but it is a bit overwhelming."