Bored of Books? PV Cass Ito Finished

Cass was bored. Again. Hogwarts was great and all (when it was being mindnumbingly boring of course ) but sometimes Cass just wanted to run off and dooo something. Even the sun coming out wasn't lifting their mood, so they had come out to the courtyard for some fresh air. There where few students dotted around, most people having taken advantage of the sun to go hang out down by the lake with friends. There was however, a Slytherin girl who looked about their age sitting at the fountain nearby with a pile of books. The books in question looked large and boring, the perfect sacrifices for- no. Cass would not ruin first impressions of this perfectly nice (or really good at hiding being horrible) student by playing a prank on their books. Plenty of time for that later. Even if the books were really asking for it.

They moved from their spot leaning against the back wall of the courtyard and started to walk over to the girl by the fountain. Time to see if years of sneaking around the manor and woods could still be put to good use. Not sneaking up on her of course. Just walking slightly quietly. (Though it would be funny if she got a fright and dropped the books. Though Cass wouldn't let them fall into the fountain. probably). They leaned over and tapped the girl on the shoulder. "Watcha reading?" they grinned.

Reducio

NOTES: Hello hello

She almost slammed the book shut, a bit harder than she intended.

Perhaps as an apology, Elisa's hand caressed the dark blue book cover. It felt cold- and distant. Heaving a sigh, she wondered whether she should go take a stroll out in the grounds. She just didn't feel like reading today.

Books in her lap, she stared at the few clouds floating in the sky. She got lost in her thoughts, unaware of her surroundings...

Completely unprepared, for example, to a sudden tap on her shoulder. Elisa whirled around, wondering who for heaven's sake would want to speak to her. She half expected a prefect telling her off for sitting on the edge of the fountain, but no, it was a student her age.

They asked her what she was reading. Eager to talk with someone, although still a little dazzled by the student's sudden appearance, Elisa answered, "That's 'Great Wizards of the Twentieth Century' I was reading." Well, she hadn't really been reading, but oh well, that was just a detail...

Elisa frowned a little... I don't even know this person, why are they suddenly... Coming up to me and all? I'm not even interesting...?

"So..." Elisa said, breaking the silence, "The weather's good, isn't it? The sun's up and..." She shrugged. "And yeah..."

It was a bit scary how Elisa still had trouble finding a topic to talk to others. You'd expect being stuck for months with hundreds of youngsters would have made her more comfortable speaking with others...

OOC Notes: Hello there... Sorry, Elisa didn't fall into the fountain

So the new girl was shy. That was fine- lots of shy people where really nice when you got to know them. The trick with shy people was to get them out of their shells- like with peanuts. The shell of a peanut was hard and boring, but smack a peanut against the counter and you would find peanuts inside. And peanuts were nice, though better when honey roasted. Maybe that wasn't quite the best metaphor, since at this point in time Cass had no intentions of smacking the girl against a counter or honey roasting her. Either way, Cass wasn't sure what book she was talking about (Books are boring. Though they didnt think that they saw this one on the school book list. Maybe she liked to read?) but they were sure it couldn't matter that much. "Uhh.. nice" they say back to her. Great wizards in the 20th century could wait, Cass was going to make sure the girl enjoyed the nice weather.

They stretched, taking in the sunlight. It was way to nice of a day for anyone to sit around reading. "Yeah the weathers great" they said back to her. The girl in question didn't seem to be to great at small talk. No matter, Cass was good enough at talking for both of them some might say to good at talking even. The problem for them was figuring out when to stop talking. "Im Cass- Cass Ito" they say to her "How are you not bored, sitting out here reading?". Cass would never voluntarily spend time with their nose shoved in a book. They didn't really understand people who did either- how could anyone focus for that long?

"Nice to meet you. I'm Elisa, Elisa Wagner."

She shrugged. She was bored right now, but she usually wasn't.

"You just- can't get bored with books." Except that you are bored with books. She brushed the thought away, and continued on, hoping to appear persuasive enough; the student, Cass, didn't seem very convinced of books.

"You get absorbed into the universe. When it's about- let's say, goblin revolution, you see the events taking place! When it's like- this book", she gestured towards the blue-covered book she was holding, "You picture the wizards in their robes and all, fighting off dragons or discovering a new spell!

Pause.

"It's easiest when it's fiction, of course, but all the same, you don't get bored when you have a book in hand." Except you do have a book in hand and you are bored... she secretly added.

She still didn't understand why Cass, was it, suddenly talked to her. Was this a normal behaviour? Elisa surely wouldn't have acted like that...

"So, uh, what's up?"

What's up, huh? What else could you have said?, a little voice whispered in her head. She was horrible at conversations.

Whacking her brain, she tried to think of what they could do. An idea, at least. Think! So that you don't seem stupid!

"Wanna play gobstones?", she blurted out without even thinking. Now that she did think, however, she didn't really feel like being squirted at by gobstones...

Whatever.

They wrinkled their nose at the statement. "No way you just can't" they said "I get bored with books the second I open them". Books just didn't interest them. How could someone focus for that long anyway? Didn't they just feel the overwhelming need to do something, anything, rather than sitting around all day?

Besides, you didn't need to read books when you could make stuff up. The REAL goblin revolution was going to be in 2024 when the history of magic teacher finally pissed off their part goblin students beyond the point of no return. This ah.. unconventional method may not help their grades, but it was certainly funnier. It didn't really matter anyway- it probably wasn't even possible to fail first year. Either way, they could just start bothering closer to the end of the year. Might as well have fun now.

As for getting absorbed into the universe, weren't you already in the universe anyway if it was non-fiction? Fiction made slightly more sense, and they had been known to enjoy a good story on occasion.They didn't say anything though, wanting to make a good impression on Elisa. If she enjoyed it, then that was what mattered. She looked kind of bored though, despite her claims otherwise. Understandable with books involved.

"Not much, I'm just wondering around" they grinned "I'm bored to". They kicked a rock across the courtyard, watching it arc through the air and land with a soft thud. "Gobstones sounds like a good idea if you want to- Or we could play wizarding chess if you know how" they said, turning on their heel and pacing back and forth. They weren't very good at staying still, even while talking to people.

Well, Cass obviously didn't like books. Whatever. Despite her own love for books, Elisa allowed others to think otherwise.

"Sure, we could play wizard chess, but I don't have a set to play with." Elisa said, sighing. Wizard Chess was her very favourite board game, after all. Not for the first time since she came to Hogwarts, Elisa regretted having left her chess set home. She should've brought them instead of the Gobstones.

"I do have a set of 10 Gobstones though, if you want to play." When was the last time she touched them? Probably two months ago, when she was fumbling her trunk in search of her Charms Book. She hadn't played a game of Gobstones since- a long time. Maybe those black stones could use a little playing with.

"I can go fetch them real quick." she added.

Elisa stood up, diving her hand in her pocket. She had just remembered she had something in her pocket. She had put it there, in case there was an 'emergency'. Taking out the small piece of crumpled paper, she smoothed it out, to reveal a parchment with lines of words written by hand.

She looked at Cass. "Or... We could play this game. I invented it myself."

It's uh, a little lame though." she thought to add.

OOC Notes: I'm so sorry this is so late!

The girl was looking a little less nervous to them. Progress, progress. They were sure she would come out of her shell soon, with a bit of convincing. Cass was sure they weren't that scary. As for what game to play, gobstones was fine but the game Elisa was talking about sounded way more interesting. She might get more confident if Cass liked it, so it could only be a bonus. "Your game sounds interesting" they say "Want to give it a try?"

On second thought, it was on paper and looked like it involved reading. Oh well, they had already committed to it now. They were getting really curious about what it was. Something like one of those muggle games with the little boxes? They really hoped not. Maybe it was just the rules written down and it was something you played rather than did. Like quidditch. They doubted they would need brooms for this, but it would certainly make anything more exciting if you did it midair. Perhaps they should suggest turning off gravity in the great hall for breakfast.

Either way, the game couldn't be that bad. And if it was then they didn't have to play. Anything was better than walking around in circles, bored out of their mind. For a magical school filled with students walking around unattended with wands, there was surprisingly little chaos. Oh well, they could always help with that.

She really hadn't expected Cass to want to play her game. Although... she had been the one to suggest it first, and that meant she was prepared to play. Anyway, she'd have to stick with it now.

The game's name was 'Remember it All'. Elisa had invented it when she was bored, but never actually tried with anyone, that is, if one doesn't count her little brother. The rules were simple. There were one hundred questions on the parchment, and taking turns, one had to chose a random number and the other would answer the according question written. The first player then does their best to remember all the opponent's answers, and at the end tries to recount them all. Then, they switch.

The questions and numbers were magically bewitched (with the help of Elisa's parents) to switch at each game, so even Elisa didn't know which number corresponded to which question.

Hesitantly, the girl explained the rules to the fellow student. It was simple enough, but then she wasn't the best at explaining stuff.

As Elisa waited for Cass to digest the rules, she glanced at the crumpled parchment in her hand. She had been really bored when she wrote this. The questions were very bizarre. One caught her eye 'What was the most embarrassing moment in your life?', she silently read.

Gosh, she had forgotten how crazy this game was...

OOC Notes: If Cass does want to play this game, I'll further detail the rules and how we could proceed by owl.

They had originally only planned to play it to try to get Elisa to become less shy, but they couldn't deny that they weren't interested now. Memory games could be rather boring, but this was clearly an opportunity to show off who had more interesting stories in disguise. 100 questions was certainly a lot, but no matter if they ran into class time. This was way more fun then sitting around staring at books, and they hadn't even started yet. The bewitched questions were even cooler though- one day they had to learn that charm. It could be very helpful in causing mischief.

They shot the girl a grin "Sounds awesome". They took a seat on the side of the fountain again, balanced precariously over the edge. The rules were simple enough, and honestly it really did sound like fun. "So, you want to start?" they said. It seemed like the game had been built around helping meet new people, which was perfect considering that this was the first time Cass had talked to the other Slytherin. They could bond over being in what was clearly the best house, no questions asked.

Hopefully they would be able to have something interesting to say to most of the questions. A childhood spent getting into mischief (getting out of it was another problem altogether) meant that they did have a lot of ridiculous interesting stories to tell. Not to mention all the times they had accompanied their father on business trips all over the world. Surely the other girl wouldn't find that too boring.