New Connections Open Closed

'Oh, what an exciting life I lead,' Bubba thought to himself as he sat in the library on a Friday afternoon. He used to be fun. At least he thought he used to be fun. He was always good for a joke or making a toilet explode or something generally disruptive. But no, now he was a Prefect, and he had to behave himself. No more fun for him. Now it was homework and giving detention and patrolling the corridors at night. What a responsible boy? What a boring twat.

And so, on a lovely Friday afternoon, Bubba sat in the library. Doing his potions homework. Oh, how he hated potions. It was the most boring, useless subject. If Bubba needed a potion in his adulthood he'd just buy it. Honestly, who what time to stand there stirring for hours on end? Man, I got shit to do. Ain't nobody got time for that. Still, if he didn't want to be a wizard bin man then he'd have to knuckle down and learn this mind-numbing material. Kalle wasn't helping. The Siamese cat had followed Bubba to the library and now was stretching out on the table, his front paws now tauntingly draped over the open potions textbook. Bubba sighed and scratched him behind the ear, which elicited a contented purr.

The purring, however, was short-lived. For just as soon as Kalle had started purring there was a loud thump. Kalle jumped, Bubba jumped, hell, he was pretty sure the textbook had jumped. He looked up to see Opeila hastily apologizing to one of his baby birbs. This simply would not do. She was not allowed to scare the first-year Ravenclaws. That was his job! The cheek of her.

Bubba stood up and walked over to them but another of his baby birbs beat him to it. The clumsy club. Cute. Kalle had gotten up with him and went to check out Opeila's cat, ready to throw paws if necessary. "Surely there are more subtle ways to get someone's attention," Bubba said but with a smile on his face, hopefully, Opeila wouldn't tell him more horrible things about the grotesque horrors hidden in the library. "Opeila, I'm afraid I have to ask you not to scare any of my baby birbs."

Interacting: @Opeila Winters, @Lauren Tayor, @Cynthia Beaufort Mentioning: @ N/A

It was Dec 9th, a normal Friday afternoon, and it was nearly time for dinner. Rita was just coming to the library to finish some DADA homework that needed to be completed and handed in very soon, just next week. Rita had to admit she did not like DADA, even though she understood learning those spells to protect herself from danger was quite necessary as a wizard, it was quite boring and repetitive to just learn and practice those spells. Learning about some dangerous species was also not that interesting, at least for Rita. Actually, Rita did not enjoy doing homework in general, she would rather spend her time meeting up and having small talks with new people and old friends around the Hogwarts campus, doing some Quidditch practice as well as other outdoor activities, and taking part in a variety of activities and events taking place in Hogwarts then just sitting on the chair and move her quill on parchments after parchments to complete the boring homework. However, Rita did not want to fail the exam and leave her parents being angry with her since they apparently had high expectations of her. She also did not want to give into trouble with the professors. Anyway, she had to study. She had to complete that DADA homework. Even though she really did not want to do that. Feeling extremely reluctant to do the DADA homework, Rita finally moved slowly into the library.

As soon as she quickly found a seat since there were not many people in the library during that Friday afternoon near dinner time, took out her quill and parchments, and began to complete her homework, she heard a loud noise. She looked up and found an older girl wearing Slytherin robes and a prefect badge she remembered from the chocolate frogs incident earlier this semester in the great hall, who apparently had accidentally dropped her book and made a large noise, and quickly apologized. There were a bunch of Ravenclaws who also witnessed the accident, and one of them, the only boy there, also seemed to be a prefect, was telling the Slytherin prefect, known as Opeila to him, not the scare the first-year little birds, known as "my baby birbs" to the Ravenclaw prefect. A little cheesy, but cute way to call the first years.

"So your name is Opeila? I think I have seen you before, in the Great Hall, where I and a bunch of others helped you grab some chocolate frogs. Remembering me from that?" Rita walked up to the Slytherin prefect and whispered to her, "It`s OK, Opeila. Be careful next time not to drop your books and make such a loud noise." She also turned to the Ravenclaw prefect and whispered to him with a smile, "You are also a prefect? It`s quite adorable that you call those first-years your baby birbs." After talking to the two prefects, she returned to her seat and continued to do her DADA homework she did not want but have to do.

Interacting with: @Opeila Winters @Lauren Taylor@Cynthia Beaufort @Bubba McGarry

@Lauren Taylor @Cynthia Beaufort @Bubba McGarry @Rita Su

Opeila felt even worse when the young girl she had almost hit with her book seemed to be speechless now. "I'm really sorry.", she repeated as she bent down to pick her book back up to store it safely in one of the book shelves.

What she had thought would be just a few seconds incident, not even worth talking about, seemed to be just the opposite. Suddenly there was another child, appearing to be of similar age as the speechless one, seemingly finding it appropriate to mock Opeila, a prefect she had never spoken to before, for it. Opeila was usually not one to believe in hierarchy, but the attitude of this girl rendered her speechless for a moment.

This girl couldn't be older than eleven or twelve and really had the audacity to walk up to a senior prefect and sport captain to drop some mean girl phrase? And they said that Slytherins were mean...
After staring at the girl for a second or two, Opeila decided to smile. "Thanks for the advice. You know, maybe we should take a look at clubs together! Surely there is a club for mean or judgemental kids too." The snarky response absolutely didn't fit her friendly tone. "The name is Opeila Winters, I don't think I know yours."

As if this really random mean child wasn't enough, another would appear- a familiar one, but Opeila wasn't quite sure yet if this was good or not. Bubba McGarry had pulled off some strange actions in the past and she was not quite sure yet what to think of the younger prefect. Or.. of the fact that he was prefect for that matter. At least with him she was very sure that he was just poking fun.
"Tell you what Bubba, I'll stop scaring them the moment you manage to teach them manners, how does that sound?", she responded, the corners of her mouth twitching.

And finally another familiar face. This girl had been present when Colin showed off his skills in catching chocolate frogs mid air- what was her name again? "Rita, was it? I-" Opeila stopped when the younger girl came up to her and whispered what the Slytherin was sure were meant to be comforting words. That sadly missed the intended effect and made Opeila feel just slight secondhand embarrassment for the second time.

"Right... Next time I am about to have an accident, I will remember... not to have it.", she said, rewording what the Hufflepuff just whispered. This time her tone was neither sarcastic nor sharp, but plainly confused. Did none of the two girls feel the slightest bit awkward for this?

─────A long week of classes finally ended. That was the good part of Fridays. The bad part is that there are loads of homework to be finished, piles and mountains of books and parchment. It would not be a good idea to leave it for later, so naturally, the best option is to finish it on Friday, quick and well, then leave all the playtime for the weekends.
─────Ayuna was sitting at the tables of the library when she heard a loud thump from somewhere. Standing up and walking towards the noise, she saw an older girl who seems to have dropped a book that made the noise. And now there were some students crowded over there, talking.
─────A Ravenclaw, actually two Ravenclaws caught the girl's eye. Judging from their speech, Ayuna could tell that the first year- Cynthia wan't nice while the prefect was quite goofy. Walking over, Ayuna shot a look of dislike at Cynthia, "Excuse me," she said to the rude girl, "I really don't think you should be harassing her. She dropped some books on the floor by mistake and was apologetic and sorry. Why do you have to butt in and tell her something mean?"
─────Turning to Opeila, Ayuna smiled warmly and said, "It's not your problem at all, we can all understand. I'm Ayuna by the way, Ayuna Baudelaire, nice to meet you! Then she turned to the prefect and said," Hi there! It's cute for you to call us little birbs, I like the name quite much."

As Bubba continued to look up the scene he thought it was quite apt that almost everyone that came over to check on the commotion was a Ravenclaw. True to form as always, here they were in the library, doing their work and representing the House. The only participant that wasn't Opeila or a Ravenclaw was a fellow second-year but a Hufflepuff. Bubba knew she was on their Quidditch team but he didn't know her name. She smiled as he commented on her labeling the firsties as his baby birds. As she walked past he whispered back, "Of course, someone has to look out for them," with a smile.

He felt a bit sorry for Opeila, she was getting, well not ganged up on but she surely had drawn a lot of attention to herself. Of course, it was unintentional but he didn't think that really helped her. He felt a bit bad for poking fun at her (not much though), hopefully, she'd take in the spirit in which it was given. Well, the way she was shooting back at firstie number one didn't bode well. Then again, the first one really had been a bit rude so he couldn't blame her too much.

And then, it was his turn. Would he get straight fire or a little fun jousting? What was it to be? The corners of her mouth gave her away, it was jousting and he was glad because up until that precise moment, he was unsure if she had any sense of humor whatsoever. He gave a small chuckle and shrugged his shoulders in a 'what can you do?' manner before smiling at her and firing back with, "Well, you know how it is, it's like a new broom, they take a little breaking in."

Before he knew it she was done talking and like a tennis match, someone else was serving. This time it was Cynthia, he only knew her name because she was a duelist and he had a passing interest in the sport Sam was involved in. She was really being quite rude and he felt the need to step in before things could escalate further. As soon as she'd stopped talking he jumped in before anyone else could respond. "Hey, that's enough. She said it was an accident, you know it was an accident, so how about you show a little grace and let it go? Surely you have some homework to do." He said calmly but firmly, clearly emphasizing that enough was enough.

As he stopped talking, Bubba turned his attention to the one person who could be considered a 'victim' of what had just transpired. She looked shaken but fine, she offered a frightened smile and he returned a warm one to her, "You sure you're ok?" He asked before adding, "I'm sorry, I don't remember your name."

Then, seemingly out of nowhere, another first-year Ravenclaw materialized. They really were amassing quite a flock. She continued on in much the same vein he had, and she also liked his referring to them as his little birbs. He gave her a warm smile and wondered how long it would take him to remember her name.

Interacting: @Opeila Winters, @Cynthia Beaufort, @Lauren Taylor, @Rita Su, @Ayuna Baudelaire Mentioning: @ N/A