Curiosity PV Eris Closed

The librarian was Eris's least favorite person in the world, besides the school nurses, who were getting used to Eris coming into their office with absurd claims or hurt children in tow. From her first week at Hogwarts, the woman who ran the library had taken a disliking to Eris. Although, this was because Eris had tried to break into the Restricted Section without knowing any better, a feat that she still wished to accomplish after learning what exactly was behind the the roped off section of the library, but didn't dare attempt. An array of books she could use in pranking and mischief sounded lovely, although Eris wasn't going to actively seek out the books. Not yet, at least. Not with the threat of detention with the Defense Against the Dark Arts Professor looming under her nose, like a particularly bad smell.

For now, she was content to wander through the library, hand idly stroking the dust-covered tomes as she walked through the halls, losing herself in the silent room. She had spent years with her nose buried in a book or two, ignoring the screams of her mother or the yelling of her father to not love books and the worlds they spun with each story. Of course, she hadn't found a book to read yet, but Eris wasn't complaining about her lack of luck in finding a book. She was pleased just walking through the shelves, casting an evil eye at the woman behind the desk, who glared back at Eris in turn, before looking back down at the pile of books on her desk.

Eris had a habit of spending most of her free time at the Lake or at the Library. Today's place to spend the day at was the library, as the day was dull enough that going outside did not seem worth Eris's precious time. In fact, it looked as if it was about to rain. The sky was cloudy and dreary, not at all looking like summer. The sky, as it so often did, conveyed Eris's mood. Dull and gray, with just a hint of sunlight shining through. The sunshine that was shining through Eris's life and slowly breaking through the clouds was now the library, and the books she was hoping to find and pour over. Last time she had been in the library, it had been to talk to Rhea Bishop about her family life, not to read. And now that she could read in peace, Eris's dull mood kept brightening by the moment--dark cloud of stress about school work and the end of year vanishing by the moment, as she breathed in the sent of old books.

Humming as she walked, Eris realized she was painfully lost in the shelves and cast a glance over her shoulder to see a boy reaching for a book, with an expression of joy on his face. He picked up the book, looking lost in thoughts. He was completely alone, and letting out a sigh, Eris crept over to the shelf he was at.

Maybe he was reading a good book. Not being one to understand how to interact socially, Eris walked right up to the boy and started looking at the books near him. Seeing the titles, she couldn't help but let out a barked laugh. "Of all books in the library, you pick the ones about herbs? Who are you, Professor Wright?" realizing that she came off as rude a second too late, the girl coughed, backing away from the shelf of books. Too late to take it back now. Oh well.

He heard humming, and he stopped.

Someone else was here.

Immediately, a thousand thoughts ran through his head, of how to hide himself, how to avoid their gaze, how to explain what he was doing here if his previous efforts had failed and he got caught.

But then, he paused. He'd been here a while now, and, well, children came and went from the library all the time. The voice might be another one of them, or even if they saw him, might lose his face in the sea of them. They might not even see the book in his hands. He might not be in trouble for just, existing, like he always was before.

So slowly, carefully, he let the tension unwind from his narrow shoulders, began to move again. Besides, whoever was humming probably wouldn't even see him, just pass on by in search of whatever book held their fancy. He was fine.

So he didn't think about the voice until he heard it again, felt its owner far too close, peering over his shoulder, trying to read the pages in his hands. With a short, sharp gasp, he snapped the heavy book shut, his dark eyes going wild as he turned around, face to face with-

A girl, with bright red hair and curious eyes. This was... Neither good nor bad, not yet, but he felt the need to proceed with caution. He'd had bad experience with redheads.

He shrunk back a little at her laugh, his narrow form contorting to sort of fit into the shelves, as if they might camouflage him into obscurity, his narrow dark brows knitting together with apprehension. "I-... Like herbs," he muttered, his arms curling around the book as if it was his very own infant, "there's lots and lots you can do with them, and oftentimes you can just find them growing outside, so you don't even need any, money...." His rambles slowly cut off, doubting his fragile justification would even do anything to sway her at all. Perhaps "Professor Wright" would become the new "Miserable Morsus," a scarlet letter he carried on his back like a target.

His humming stopped, and Eris flushed a sudden red, body tensing for a fight. Why had she been stupid enough to engage with someone who clearly was a less-extreme Keagen. Strange, yes. Looking socially inadept, yep. Dark hair, check. Could this be Kaegen's long lost twin? Oh god. That thought was too horrible to think about. Shaking her head, and taking another step back, Eris scowled venomously at herself, unable to fathom why she was so stupid in conversations, and why her thoughts were wandering down an insanely odd path.

Her features softened at the boy's words, able to understand the emotional security that books provided all too well. Although Eris was one for the far off worlds and daring sword fights that one could find in the pages of any muggle fantasy novel. The novelty of losing herself in a world that was so different than her own never ceased to enthrall the ginger. In fact, Eris could spend hours pouring over fantasy books, away from the struggles of normality. Although recently, Eris had come to the sincere realization that her own life was quite similar to one of a hero's in a story book, which had lead to to read less, and spend more of her time enjoying the fascinating people and spells that the Scottish Castle she frequented her days in had to offer.

Eris noticed the worry in the boy's voice, enough so that she paused for once, thinking her next words through. "I suppose plants are alright, although I prefer reading about other things." Eris said, content her words wouldn't send the boy into another downwards spiral of strange anxiety and pauses in his speech pattern.

Evidently, the boy was strange enough to be alone in the back of the library, reading about plants. And insisting that he liked plants, which was even odder. Of all things to like in the wizarding world, he had to pick plants? Although, Eris could understand liking something for the lack of money involved.

Hell, she had never had enough money on her months on the streets. No money at all, in fact. A threadbare sweater and sweets she had stolen from other children, of had been offered to her by overbearing parents who had seen through her lies were the only possessions the girl had owned for months. Therefore, Eris nodded her head in understanding when he mentioned the gratuitous effects of his love for plants not interfering with money.

Although not an adult, Eris could comprehend that money was an issue that life revolved around. "I get the money thing though. Anything that doesn't cost money is good, or at least, most things are. Stealing doesn't involve money and it's not fun. Neither is being homeless, but it happens." Vague words, but Eris's cheeks tinted pink nonetheless, feeling like she had exposed herself already, after a split second of fluid conversation.

The first thing he could see in her eyes was fear.

It made it blossom in his own, made him force his pale and faintly trembling body deeper into the crevice between bookshelves, seeking comfort in what little shadows there lay. How could she already know?! Could she see it in his eyes? Did it hang around him like a black cloud, unseen but felt by all? Had word of what he did, who he was, already spread around the school like a virus? The thought made him shiver.

The fear turned to a scowl, and he awaited the harsh, biting judgement he knew was coming next, his breath stopping in his lungs in terrified anticipation. But... It never arrived. Instead, the scowl faded, the storm passed, and she spoke to him again, still in that same friendly tone as before. It shocked him so utterly he stayed rooted to the spot for a moment, trying to process the strange and unforeseen turn of events. But then, he smiled a little bit, shaky, relieved.

"You like to read too?" See? They had something in common, it might not be all terrible! He might even make another friend that wasn't Green. The thought was almost too good to be true, so he used that knowledge to temper his excitement. "What kind of books do you like to read?" Clearly, not herbals, but that wasn't nearly the only kind of book November liked to lose himself in.

"Oh, um, yes." His brows creased with concern once more when she spoke again, mentioned just how well she knew the struggle for money, of even a home. He might have been one degree away from feral at St. Romuald's, but at the very least, he had a bed to sleep in, even if it wasn't a particularly warm or comforting one. "If you're hungry and don't want to steal, or want to save your money for something like," (knives) "books, then it's good to know what you can eat that's outdoors, and what's full of poisons," he mumbled softly. "It's, strange, here though. There's all this food on the tables, every single night, more food than I've ever seen before in my life. And they tell me I can have as much as I like, but-..." He shook his head. Something just didn't feel right about that. It felt like a trap.

"Of course I like to read!" Eris felt more and more like she had just found a kindred soul in the boy next to her, checks still pink, but a smile gracing her face at the evident shock the boy felt when asking her if she liked to read. Who didn't like to read? Books were one of the only things that made the world feel like a pleasant place on nights spent freezing in the cold. At the start of her Hogwarts education, Eris had been scared to talk about her love for books, thinking it would make her out to be a nerd. She still was scared about mentioning her love of reading, but something about the otherness of the boy in front of her calmed Eris, and made her feel like she could trust the black haired boy with her secret love of reading.

Eris nodded at the boy's words, although truthfully, living in a park at London had made it tricky to eat foreign plants. It wasn't like she was going to chow down on sand when there were overbearing grandmothers with purses full of candies and treats to plead with by offering the simple illusion of puppy dog eyes.

Eris's eyes narrowed at the boy's words, and she chewed on the inside of her gum for a moment before replying. At first the abundance of food had seemed weird, and Eris had eaten herself sick, gorging on all the sweets and food that she had not seen, nor eaten in months. At this point, the girl was used to all the food, and had almost forgotten what it was like to be hungry. But when he mentioned how crazy the surplus of food was, Eris was taken back to days without eating, shivering in the cold.

Eris felt her whole body go rigid, and sudden desperation to run away coursed through her. She was fine. She wasn't back on the streets. They were just talking, this was okay. Heart pounding, Eris repeated those words through her head, reminding herself that there was plenty of food at Hogwarts and that she wouldn't go hungry as long as she was at the school.

Cold. She had been cold on the streets. and hungry, but this was not the streets. No, where was she? Was this Hogwarts, was this London, what? The warm lights of the library seemed far off, at the edge of her vision, but so hard to reach out and grasp. Vigorously blinking, Eris regained her sanity and smiled at the boy--a weak imitation of a smile that one could easily tell was fake. What if it was a trap? What if the adults would turn on Eris again, and do something horrible like her mum had done?

"I-I guess it is crazy that they give us so much food. Do..do you think it's a trap?"
He had implied it, but Eris wanted to hear the words out of his own mouth. Wringing her hands together, Eris felt a profound sense of numbness sweep over her. What was going on?

"You-... Do?" he brightened at that, his nerves at last falling away. They really did have something in common! She almost seemed nervous to reveal as such as well, so, maybe she understood. Maybe she'd gotten used to being told she liked the wrong things as well, and so they could hold their secret passions cupped in hands held tight to hearts together. Things were beginning to be alright.

And then, very suddenly, it wasn't.

November could see the terror infuse her eyes, her stance, her motions, and it terrified him too. He'd seen that look once or twice before, usually in the eyes of children who'd found themselves in St. Romuald's as the result of foreign wars. But he still had no idea what caused it, and from his own rather limited and strange experience, could only guess that it had something to do with him. How wrong he was. After all, everything else always seemed to come back to that, so why wouldn't it be that the children who had seen atrocities would be able to recognize that reflected back in the eyes of a monster?

He sighed, and tried to make himself smaller.

She responded well enough to that, shook herself off and tried to smile. But the fear was still in her eyes, and November hadn't the faintest idea of how to soothe it aside from making himself disappear entirely. "I-..." he whispered, voice soft, very soft, "I don't, know.... I've eaten it a few times now, but... Never too much." He knew what happened before when he'd taken too much, it had gotten him locked in a closet with nothing at all to eat for at least the next day, and he was not eager to repeat the experience here. "I think if you don't take too much, it's safe." He offered her a shaky smile, a helpless attempt at reassuring her.

Good god, what was her life? Was everything to be this way--dimmed and diminished by the constant reminders of the past she could never truly escape, even by running away to a Castle in the middle of Scotland? Would there ever be a day when she could look at the world with eyes that weren't expecting danger around every corner, with a stomach that didn't remember the feeling of being hungry so vividly? Eris had no idea, but with every thought of danger, her resolve wavered. She couldn't pick whether she was scared or angry at herself for her running thoughts.

Even though the boy hadn't exactly said that the food was bad, he confirmed it with his soft words. It was funny how the softest words carried the biggest truths or the most painful sentences with their near silent whispers. The boy shrunk down, looking weak, looking broken. He looked like one of the boys at the playground who sat in the shadows, clinging onto his mother's skirts. The kind of child who never had talked to other children, hidden away from the world. The kind of child that was unsure of the world, who was scared of everything. Maybe, just maybe, his words weren't the absolute truth.

Trying to calm herself down, the red head shrugged her shoulders awkwardly. To tell the truth, she ate the food every time it was offered to her. She even ate more than her own fill, having no intention to ever go hungry again. The amount of food was so sizable that Eris found herself devouring whatever she saw, happy to regain calories that had been lost when she had been living without a reasonable, reliable, source of food.

"Maybe..the food is safe?"

Slowly, that terror seemed to fade from the girl's eyes, as if she were climbing inch by carefully inch down from a terrifying precipice. He offered another shaky smile, encouraging, hoping his attempts to shrink what must in no doubt be his terrifying presence down to nothing were succeeding. She spoke again of the food, and he nodded, hoping to shift things back to some semblance of friendliness.

"It, could be," November whispered in response, cocking his head as he pondered her words. "I mean, none of the other children get in trouble for taking it, and Green always snaps at me if he sees me at the Slytherin table without very much on my plate..." Other children not getting in trouble didn't mean that much for him, of course, but maybe this girl would be spared. She seemed perfectly nice, if just a little easily frightened. Maybe she was that rare sort that adults actually liked.

"So, um," he mumbled again, trying to bring her back to a cheerier place, "what sorts of things do you like to, read?" Dark eyes chanced a nervous glance at the other, watching, trying to gauge her reaction, determine if it was safe to uncurl his body from the knot that it took on. As he awaited her response, his ears took in the sounds of the rest of the library, registered every footfall, every coughed breath, they could capture. It didn't seem like anyone else was nearby yet. That was good, they could still speak freely.

Running a hand through the tangled mass of curls that she hadn't bothered to brush, Eris shrugged her shoulders, for what felt like the thousandth time since she had arrived at the Scottish Castle. When the boy smiled, Eris smiled shyly back, face blossoming into a deep shade of red. Maybe he could be a friend to her? The word tasted foreign in her mouth, for even though she had made a few friends, the boy from the robe shop and the salamander boy, Kaegen, she never actively asked for a friend. Or actively talked to someone with the intent of becoming friends.

Yet, there was something about the boy in front of her that drew Eris to him. There was a sense of kinship that she felt, underneath the different colored robes, there was something familiar about him. The boy reminded Eris of herself, which felt strange but not exactly bad. Maybe being friends with him wouldn't be that weird. Maybe it would even be fun, and natural. That prospect excited Eris, and she found her plastered on smile turning slightly less fake.

Although, he didn't eat. Unlike her, he wasn't a glutton for the obscenely large pile of food, that while considered dangerous, was amazing and far more filling then a few crackers offered by a kindly grandmother or a overly excitable playmate. "I guess eating is okay then." Eris said finally, convinced that her words might, just, be the truth. There were no bad adults at Hogwarts that were going to mug or hurt her, right? Hopefully.

A true smile broke out on her face at the mention of what books she liked, and Eris looked around the library with a content gleam in her eyes. "Anything really. I love fantasy, it helps...take away from real life, I guess."

Back at home, when her mum had been acting crazy and her father had been screaming, the only escape was the world of books, and Eris had learned to cherish that escape. Even now, at a school that was out of a fairy tale, she still loved reading. Although, her love of reading was hard to admit, considering the title of nerd that a love of books presented to the world, Eris felt she could trust the boy in front of her. He looked too weak and frail to bully her. He looked like the sort of person who needed protection from bullies, not the kind to bully, if Eris was being honest.