Library Lock-In Ravenclaw Closed

Jeronimo wasn't certain how wizarding money works. "Are you muggleborn?" she inserted, although she had a feeling that she already knew the answer. Then again, it wasn't like she really knew how that all worked either. Knuts and sickles and galleons were endlessly confusing with their conversions - far more effort than it was worth. One of these days, the system needed to be remade.

Deciding it was best to save her thoughts on the decimalisation of wizarding currency for later, she pinned a smile on her face, careful not to offend anyone with her question. The half-blood, after all, wasn't a fan of all that blood supremacy either.

Next, he dived his hand into a bowl of what appeared to be liquorice. And let out a cry of instantly.

She couldn't help it. Clarisse slammed her hand over her mouth to stop herself from erupting with laughter. What more could she expect from wizarding sweets?

He clearly wasn't finding it funny. It made her feel even worse about her reaction. As Emma worried about the boy himself, Clarisse was more interested in the sweets - and that way they couldn't see the smile on her face as she peered into the bucket. Tiny, leech-like liquorice snapped at her face, squealing slightly as they did. Where they enchanted like that or was that an actual magical creature? And if it was the former, wizards had a strange sense of humour. Before she could launch into questions about the background of them, Emma announced their name.

Clarisse couldn't stop the giggle escaping this time. Liquorice snaps. Wizards were insane.

Emma was one of those. Following in Jeronimo's example, she grabbed one. Clarisse shook her head, hiding the grin on her face as she was bitten too. She felt bad about laughing at Jeronimo. But Emma... Emma knew what was coming.

"I'm going to avoid them," she said through giggles, "That does not look like fun. I'm not the biggest fan of liquorice anyway." Wiping a tear from her eye, she then went on to apologise for her laughter. "It's just.... Sometimes there's no logic. To anything here. Maybe it's best we move away from the snacks?"

She gave another chuckle. "I'm sorry!"

Jeronimo tried to retain his frown, but laughter is contagious. A smile forced its way onto his lips as he looked at his finger.

“Candy is supposed to be sweet,” he muttered, “Not violent.”

Jeronimo stepped away from the still-struggling cup and watched the other snacks suspiciously.

“Yeah, I’m... I’m good on food for now.”

Jeronimo cleared his throat.

“I’m not Muggleborn,” Jeronimo replied, hastily adding, “Not that there’s anything wrong with that! My father’s a Muggle, but uh... My mum was a witch, she just didn’t like talking about magic. I- wait, is that what Muggleborn means?”

The boy chuckled before thinking to himself. Seemingly, it wasn’t that rude to ask one’s magical heritage. Probably okay to go for it.

“How about you two?” Jeronimo asked, “You seem to know a thing or two about this world. Or, at the very least, you knew not to pick up the piranha candy.”

The boy cringed. It had to be weird to ask these questions, right? His mum explained that, not too long ago, there was a war between people who believed in wizard purity or something. The last battle apparently took place in this school. Jeronimo imagined that the subject of magical heritage had to be a touchy subject, at least.

Carmen was flabbergasted, she could not believe that Valerie had said yes. She smiled and thought to herself, now I won't have to follow Phaedra around everywhere when I don't know something . For the first time since she got to Hogwarts, she was truly happy. Being somewhere without her brother Robert had made her terrified but now she knew she had someone else to help her. She felt more confident like she could actually talk without embarrassing herself. She was so confident she didn't double check her move and one mistake and boom Valerie was saying, "Checkmate."
Carmen frowned as Valerie's queen gave an evil laugh, "Off with his head." Suddenly Carmen's king did not have a head.
Carmen's thoughts were interrupted as a boy nearby gave a loud, "Ow!" she turned to see a boy with very dark brown hair that looked black, being bitten by a piece of candy. Her eyes widened and she felt heat rush to her cheeks. That boy was someone Carmen would try her hardest to avoid, she knew she would stutter the whole time talking to him and she didn't want anybody else thinking she was weird. She believed that Valerie was not saying yes to being her friend out of pity, but she did think that Valerie thought she was weird.
Carmen looked up back into Valerie's dark stormy eyes and shivered. Sometimes it felt as if her eyes were piercing right into her soul seeing through everything. Now that the game of chess was over what would they do?

The chess pieces were not as vocal as Valerie had assumed them to, but then again they were all rather battered up and obviously had seen many battles over their lifetime. She had no idea if the charm that made them pseudo-sentient would wear off at some point or if they'd simply lose their magic when the material they were made of fell apart.

She had assumed that Carmen would be happy that they would be friends, but the pretty blond girl just stared into space with a content expression on her face while they continued to play. By now Valerie had understood that the pieces would move by themselves if she gave a command; she didn't even have to take them up and place them where she wanted them to go. This was cool, she decided, and watched as the a Bishop killed a Pawn in theatrical fashion.

With Carmen distracted however was winning. "Checkmate," she mumbled and her Queen moved without further instruction to behead the other girl's poor King.

They both looked up at the same time. A dark-haired boy standing at the snack bar was attacking the candy - or perhaps the candy was attacking him, one could never be sure in the wizarding world. Valerie chuckled at the thought of being eaten by a giant candy snake.

On instinct she turned around and found Carmen staring at her. Huh... the girl still hadn't answered her question about Dublin, but Valerie had the sinking feeling that she had simply forgotten about it altogether.

"That was a good game," she said and pointed at the pieces that were reassembling themselves at the moment. "Thanks for playing with me, we can play another game sometime, if you like... do you like playing chess? It's fun, but I like puzzles better. Riddles, especially. What do you like? What are your hobbies, I mean."

She smiled warmly at Carmen, wanting to put her at ease.

Eri has been excited for the lock in at the library. Maybe she could make new friends. But mostly it was to get rid of the stress from the finals coming up. Though she wouldn't let that stop her from having fun. 

The brunette walked into the library with all of the other Ravenclaw students who signed up. It was going to be fun. Though she didn't know many of the people in Ravenclaw and she wasn't sure if she wanted to speak to everyone. Maybe she would start with a few.

As soon as everyone was inside she found her self walking on the outside of the group of people, looking for anyone she recognized. Especially her few friends . Hopefully she would see someone. The brunette wiped her hair out of her face and looked around with her emerald eyes. It looked like everyone was having a fun time, she just didn't know if she wanted to approach anyone new. Starting conversations with people she hasn't met isn't the easiest thing for her. So she mainly wants to find some of her friends. If she can see any of them. Though she was looking for Adam and maybe other friendly faces.

"That was a good game. Thanks for playing with me, we can play another game sometime, if you like... do you like playing chess? It's fun, but I like puzzles better. Riddles, especially. What do you like? What are your hobbies, I mean." Valerie said with an awkward smile.
Carmen thought for a second before answering, "I love puzzles and riddles. And my hobbies, I usually spend about six hours a day practicing instruments. At least I used to before coming here to Hogwarts. I would and still do get up at around four to practice. I play three instruments, piano, harp, and violin. Now since I can't practice much I usually skip meals to get practice time in but don't worry one of the (paid to be working) houseelves brings me meals."
(The stuff Carmen is about to say is all true about me too.) "I do like chess but I like backgammon better.
Backgammon is my favorite game. Do you know how to play? I hate checkers it's way too simple for my taste, though I really do like Chinese Checkers."
Carmen looked around the room. Now that she and Valerie were done playing chess there was a possibility that Valerie would leave, and if she did Carmen wanted to find Phaedra as soon as possible. She frowned as she couldn't find the Ravenclaw prefect anywhere. Turning back to Valerie, she waited for her answer about backgammon.

Valerie was happily surprised that Carmen shared her hobby for quizzes and puzzles. Her knowledge and proficiency in all those instruments however made her grey eyes go wide. She'd never heard of anyone who played more than one instrument. Her grandma Phoebe could play the piano, quite well actually, and she'd once listened to her grandpa Michel performing on a harp, but both of them had been born pure-bloods and taught from childhood, maybe as a part of their formal education.

A few of her school mates had played the flute, or drums, or guitar, but nobody had been nearly as extravagant and multi-talented as Carmen seemed to be. "Wow, it must have taken a lot of dedication to learn all of that... and the practice! You must be really talented to be so good. Did you go a music school or something?"

"I know checkers, but I've never played backgammon," she admitted when the blonde Ravenclaw girl talked about her other hobbies. "How does it work? And what's the difference between normal checkers and Chinese checkers? We only had a lot of board and trivia games at home. Do you know Taboo?"

She reached over and grabbed the game she'd brought with her, showing it to Carmen.

"Cecily? That's uh" pausing for a second to consider what he said "a - a nice name." Were names usually described as nice? He felt really awkward after the statement, as was about to follow up was something when Cecily made a statement about getting food, and whether he wanted to come.

An invite for food? That seemed a bit abrupt. Before he could answer, however, Cecily also asked another girl who Midas had previously not realized was there. The girl introduced herself as Cecily. "This might get confusing." Midas thought in his head. Anyway, he was rather hungry, having not eaten much for lunch. "Yeah-h, I'd like to get snacks as w-well." 

He slowly followed the other two as they walked to the snack table. The second Cecily mentioned how she didn't have many friends due to her shyness. It was rather like himself, though he really just didn't go to many social events, and mainly just avoided people in general. "That's l-like me" he stuttered out "I don't really h-have many friends e-either". 

After he had said it, the statement felt rather awkward, and Midas moved towards a bowl on the table. "So I guess we sh-should grab some snacks now?" Oh boy. Was everything he said awkward? He looked around at the snack table and saw many different kinds of food. It was like a miniature version of the dining tables in the Great Hall.

Midas grabbed some candy, and a cupcake as well. "This isn't exactly the healthiest meal..." he muttered under his breath. Maybe he should grab something else. He looked around, and realized almost all the dishes on the table were sweets. "I guess not then..." After eating some candy, he turned around to other girls. He had no ideas for a conversation, and there was an awkward silence. Trying to randomly start one, "Umm, what do you guys t-think of the..." Midas struggled to come up with something. "The Lock-in! What do you think we're g-gonna do tonight?".

Unlike most others that she could see, Cel had been in the library when the Lock-In started, not because she wanted to be there early but simply because she was reading and she had lost track of time. Fear the man of a single book. That, of course, applied to women too, but of course back when Latin was living and well, the word hominem stood for all people. Right now, though, she was content in reading.

She'd already brought her belongings with her as soon as she had entered the library, knowing a posteriori that she would likely not have time to return to the Common Room to retrieve them. A large blanket, some soft plush pillows, a bundle of bookmarks-- they were set up neatly in a corner of the giant library, though their meticulous organization would likely be soon completely messed up. Besides that, a giant stack of books reaching barely three inches shorter than the whole of her own body was pushed up against the wall, ready to read as she liked.


Celynne was not in charge of the Lock-In; she was a member of it tonight. As the announcements started, she raised her head from the book she was reading, listened for a few seconds, then immediately dove back into the pages again. She understood the gist of things, at least, and this book needed her attention more than the welcoming did. Besides, she likely wouldn't interact with much else tonight-- she was only using the access to the library to her advantage in staying up reading all night with a wider selection of books. Perhaps Cel would participate in some activities if that little wheedling voice in her head managed to convince her over the annoyed and lazy one dictating that she should stay where she was, but it was more likely that the latter would win the argument-- it really usually did.

Some people had begun to chatter, but she used it all as white noise as she heard only the crackle of parchment while she turned the page of the old volume. Cel hummed to herself contentedly, shifting in the comfortable cotton pajamas she had come in. She'd not brought any board games in their colorful cardboard boxes as she could see the others had begun to set up and play, but her books were good enough-- and Cel had a roll of parchment and a quill ready for writing or drawing if she needed a break from reading, although those were fairly rare.

A yawn made its way out of her lips as she stretched up. She was not hungry; she never was, but she smelled chocolate. Chocolate, the beautiful food, that was warm. Hot chocolate... mmm. Still, she could not be bothered to stand and find the origin of such a delectable scent.


Vainly, the girl knew, she hoped that nobody would approach-- but then, everyone seemed to turn up whenever she didn't want them to bother her... which was all the time, actually. She was in a good enough mood, at least, that her reaction to those interrupting her in the middle of reading would be toned down from her usual scathing snap, but that did not make her preference to be left alone vanish in any sense.

Eri continued to walk around. She wasn't sure if she should go speak to anyone. She could try to make new friends, but she was more of the observative type. But her brothers are telling her she needs to make new friends, so why not make them at a house lock in? 

The brunette weighed her options. Either watch and don't talk to people, or go try to make some friends. She chose to try to make new friends. Well, now she had to find someone to talk to. Scanning the room she looked for some people to talk to. She saw Adam and waved at him and kept looking for new people to speak to.

The brunette came out of the isle she had been sitting in and walked around. She walked into the crowd of Ravenclaws and regretted her decision and went to a table and sat down. She pulled a book out of her bag and began to read it. It was a muggle book that her Aunt had given her. It was called Peter Pan. And she loved this book even though orb wasn't a wizard book it was still very interesting to read about neverland.