I see Dragons! PV Nellie Finished

Nellie Lam wasn't paricularly studious. She wasn't stupid and her grades were okay, but she wasn't the type to spend hours in the library studying something. At least that's the way she was in the muggle world. In the wizarding world, however, she felt like there was so much that she needed to catch up on. Of course, she wasn't the only first year going through this. She certainly wasn't the only one among her peers raised in the muggle world with no knowledge at all of actual magic. Still, she felt like she was behind the curve. It was something that needed rectified.

Recently, she'd realized that some of the things that she'd grown up believing were legends or myths, were actually rooted in the wizarding world. Take, for example, Merlin of Authorian fame, or dragons. Dragons were what drew her here now. As a child, her father had passed the legends to her from his own heritage. It made her curious. So here she was, hunting up a book that might tell her something about dragons. The first book she'd found had been pretty straightforward. It listed the types of dragons along with a blurb about them. And there it was- the Chinese fireball.

Putting that book away, she set out on a new search. She needed a book on the Chinese fireball. Making her way that direction, she spotted a boy right where she needed to be. He was a ginger and around her age. Crap. Clearing her throat, her hand went to smooth down one of her braids. It was a nervous habit she'd picked up in her younger years. "Hi. Um.. do you see a book on the Chinese fireball by any chance?" She gave the boy her best friendly smile and a small wave if he would turn to look at her.

Dennis was leaning against one of the bookshelves, leafing through one of the books. There were a bunch that had information about the Chinese Fireball but the images still varied from a traditional Chinese dragon, to something red and more western looking. It still wasn’t at all clear what this thing really looked like. It was hard to tell what was the definitive answer, but he hadn’t been there for long.

The young student heard a voice, but thought at first it was one of the many ghosts who float through the bookshelves pranking students hard at work. However, he felt he was being watched and looked up from his book to see a girl standing in front of him smiling and waving. Dennis fumbled his book. “Sorry…sorry….” He apologized as he picked the book up off the floor.

He stood up and straighten his robes and gave the girl his attention. She was a Hufflepuff. He only had nice to sweet interactions with them so he was more at ease. Didn’t want to be caught in between stacks of books with a Slytherin or Gryffindor they were often interchangeable to him. Dennis noted he thought she had a nice smile but seemed a bit nervous as she was playing with one of her braids.

“Hello. My name is Dennis. My family calls me Denners, if you like. If not that’s quite all right, Dennis will do…” the young lad’s voice trailed off when he realized he might be talking too much and didn’t answer the girls question. What was it? She was also looking for Chinese Fireball!

Bouncing from relaxed to awkward and now Dennis’ eyes grew wide with excitement and recognition. The candlelight playing tricks seeming to turn his eyes softly from grey to green as it flickered. “Oh yes. Yes. I’m also looking for information on the Chinese Fireball!” Dennis said in hushed tones. He waved her over to the shelf he was searching. “These books here have information about the dragon. I only just started.”

Dennis paused. He never even asked the poor girl what her name was. “I’m terribly sorry. I didn’t catch your name.” He said with on hand resting on the bookshelf and an outstretched hand for a handshake.

Nellie was typically pretty awkward. She kinda of understood people but she felt like she typically lacked the finesse in actually putting that understanding into practice. However, the way the boy fumbled the book put her immediately at ease, at least more so than she would otherwise be. In her ease. She released her braid as her hand fell back to her side. She even managed a little giggle. It was a sweet sound. “Denners. I like it.” It seemed she made her choice as to what to call the boy.

At his beckon, Nellie’s brows rose, but she went. Mostly, she was interested in what the big secret was. Suddenly, she felt like she was in one of those spy movies her mom loved. “Why are we whispering?” The decibel of her voice now matched the hushed tones of his.

“Oh!” She grinned, all smiles as she took the shake. “I’m Nellie Lam. I don’t have any fun nicknames I’m afraid.” She instantly liked the boy. It was hard to find someone she didn’t feel awkward around. “But if you can find a good one for me you’re free to use it. Always wanted one.” Once the shake had finished, she allowed her hand to fall to her side once more. “So what do we have?” She nodded to indicate the books he’d collected.

The girl was as sweet as a Hufflepuff should be, it seemed, to Dennis’ continued relief. He could feel his pale complexion redden as she giggled at the dropped books. Not from embarrassment though, perhaps he just liked to hear girl’s giggle. He didn’t know, all he knew was they have cooties. He was pleased as well she seemed to choose his family’s nickname.

He waited to hear her name before he continued. Nellie. Sounded nice. Definitely a name Dennis would remember. “Nice to meet you, Nellie.” He smiled at her and then went back to looking through the shelves.

“We are in a library. I don’t want to get yelled at by the librarian for being too loud. Apparently I’ve been told I always ‘forget myself’ and need to ‘mind others are studying’,” Dennis muttered feigning to be the librarian. He continued to pull some books of the shelf. “I’ve already read some information on the Chinese Fireball from the usual sources but these book pertain to it specifically. Grab some if you’d like!”

He got as many as he could carry. Three big books are heavy for an 11 year old, especially for a scrawny Scottish boy! When Nellie had made her selection, he motioned with his head over to a nearby table that was relatively empty. He sat down at the table and waited for Nellie to join him. “So, Nellie, what is your interest in the Chinese Fireball?”

Girls definitely were cootie ridden. Nellie, however, was at that age where she was beginning to suspect that boys might not be totally disgusting. Not totally. "Nice to meet you too, Denners." Her smile was bright and warm. She liked the nickname. It suited the boy.

As his attention returned to the books, so too did hers. "That's true enough, I gues." She glanced towars where she knew the librarian was, though, of course, she couldn't actually see them from here. After a moment, she'd turn back to the books her new friend had already found on the topic. "Thanks." Since the reminder that they were in a library, she seemed to be working to keep her own voice lowered, as well. Grabbing one, she'd take a second from Denner's stack, effectively splitting the load. "Let me help."

As the made their way over to a table, she'd grab a chair and her choice of book and begin to scan the contents as they spoke. "Oh I uh. My dad used to tell me about some of the legends he grew up with. I've noticed a lot of muggle legends are based in wizarding truths, so I just kind of wanted to know more. I'm not really looking for anything in particular." She was about to flip the question around on him when something in the book caught her eye. "Hang on." There was a long moment that she was quiet while she read. After which, she slid the book to him. "My dad used to tell me this legend. But here it sounds more like history? References..." She looked down at the text to find the title before pointing it out, "It references this book. Do you know it?"

Dennis found this girl to be surprisingly helpful, for a girl. He felt a little sheepish about not being able to carry more in front of her. He took only a moment to ask himself why he even wanted to carry heavy things in front of a girl, and immediately forgot the question. He was thankful for the load off since he wasn’t the strongest to begin with and he was already tired from returning the other books.

Dennis moved his red hair out of his face as he listened intently to her experiences. It was then that Dennis got a decent look at her, sitting across the table from him. Her soft tan skin and dark almond shaped eyes, he felt…he felt like he should have figured out she was Asian before asking the question. That must be the feeling, of course. The interest now made sense to the Ravenclaw. “I see. Let’s see what we can find out, shall we?” Dennis said happily as he dove into his pile of books.

He looked up when she mentioned a reference to another book. The Scot did recognize that book. He had it somewhere! “I think I have that book!” He said barely containing his excitement. He opened it and finally found the page number and then the paragraph. He kind of slumped in his chair a bit. He really wanted to make a connection to her stories. It would impress her, or would it, wait…why did he care? The emotions of a child are a confounding thing.

“Listen to this: even though Chinese fireball dragons come from China they don’t bare the resemblance to Chinese folklore where dragons are long slender creatures that are often thought to be benevolent bringing rains and good harvests.” Dennis gave the book to Nellie to read. “Looks like it would require actually going to China to hunt down where the magical world and the muggle legends intersect.” For a brief moment he wanted to run all the way to China to find out but then realized he didn’t have a clue how to even find China on a map. He wasn’t at all sure he pronounced it right either.

Nellie was completely oblvious to the boy's thoughts or the way he studied her looks, eventually deciding why he was so interested in her. So, too, was she oblivious to his want to impress her. Already, at her age, she knew when a boy was cute, but it was unfathomable that they ever think the same about her.

When Dennis seemed to find something in the book she'd found the cited refernece for, she leaned over the table. This move would have effectively invaded his space, if he allowed it. However, it also meant that she would be able to read along what he found. "I mean, makes sense. I hear mermaids don't exactly look like the pretty sea creatures with shells for-" she stopped short, looked at him, and blushed. No way did she need to finish that sentence. Clearing her throat, she continued on, accepting the book as he handed it over.

It took a quick scan of the rest of the chapter, but it didn't really tell her much more about the subject. With a sigh, she handed it back. "Maybe someday." For a moment, she said nothing, only biting her bottom lip and drumming her fingers on the table that was currently their center of operations. "Speaking of mermaids, my mum said she hear there's some in the Great Lake. Wanna go see if we can spot one?"

Dennis noticed her lean over to read with him, which is one of the reasons he passed the book to her. He can’t be seen being too close to a cootie monster. Dennis let his hair fall in front of his face as the read the book together. This time he was leaning subconsciously over to read with her.

She mentioned something about mermaids. Shells for? Dennis was curious and it got the better of him. Looking up from the book Dennis blinked innocently, “shells for what? Eyes?” He obviously had never seen the Little Mermaid - what 11 year old boy would really?

He knew he probably shouldn’t wait for a response because she moved swiftly to a new topic. Lake? With a girl? Dennis quickly looked up and stared at her with both shock and confusion, his hair still obscuring much of his face. But the thought of spotting some cool creatures quickly replaced whatever else he was thinking about. He moved his hair out of the way and said excitedly, his face bright with enthusiasm. “Do you think think we would really see something? How cool would that be!”

Dennis started cleaning up the books, the Chinese Fireball a distant thought at the moment. This time, without noticing, Dennis carried twice the amount of books than previous, leaving only one book for Nellie to put away. Once the books were put in place, he waited for Nellie before heading off for his next grand adventure.

Nellie looked up, grinning at him and making room for him to read with her. Not many were let into her personal space so quickly but Dennis was the right amount of awkward, innocent, and outgoing to make her feel at ease.

His request for further explanation made her nose scrunch as she considered how to explain Ariel. Sometimes she forgot the pop culture gap between the cultures. As well as every single other gap. "Um.. shirts." That was likely the best way to explain it without having to discuss underwear. That would be mortifying.

The initial response to going to the lake made her think she might have messed up by asking him such a thing. There was a moment in which her smile fell and she prepared to put distance between them once more. However, she was relieved when he seemed to realize that it could be a new little adventure. Of course, it was likely they'd see absolutely nothing, but, hey, a girl could hope! "Right?"

The girl laughed as Dennis got right to clean up of their books. Her brows rose as she noted his new found strength. She was impressed and her face showed it, if he paused to see it. But Nellie would handle her own book, locating its place an putting it away. After, she'd set out to the lake with her new friend.