Exploring the Hogwarts Library Closed

Sophie was already walking around the school's Library, scanning the shelves with curious eyes. She had already had a few books clutched in her small and skinny arms. She finally tugged one last book from a lonely shelf. It had been titled, 'Quidditch Through The Ages.' and she had been stoked to read it, as she had heard, that it was a really good book.
She was having trouble finding an empty table as most people were there by themselves, or with groups of 2 or 3. Knowing she would just have to find a table with one person at it, she quickly glanced over the tables
The tables occupied many first year students from other houses, not very many from Gryffindor, her own house. She quickly found a table with a Ravenclaw girl.
"Hi. I'm Sophie Murphy, is it alright if I sit here? Everywhere else is full." She put her books down across from the girl, many titles were shown, like 'The Tales of the Beetle Bard.' and 'All about Patronuses.' which she on her own time, had been studying.
"Every wonder which Patronus you'll have, if you can create one?" she had prompted the question, to whom which she had asked everyone she knew.
"I think mine will be a Phoenix, at least, I want it to be that. Phoenix's resemble the kind-hearted and the wise, but, I think they're beautiful creatures."

Turning one of the thick parchment pages ever so carefully, Louisa glanced up to see a small Gryffindor girl sitting down across from her. An assortment of books fell onto the table beside her, each consisting of a multitude of words that Louisa couldn't quite understand. She smiled kindly at the Gryffindor as she introduced herself. Sophie Murphy. Louisa mentally noted the name in her already growing collection of new faces - the last thing she wanted to do was call someone by the wrong name.

"I'm Louisa Bennett," she replied in a friendly tone. She nodded a little too eagerly as the girl asked whether it was okay to sit with her. "No problem, I understand." Her eyes flickered over to the many books that the girl had brought with her, wondering which she would most like to read herself. Sophie spoke up again, asking about something called a 'Patronus'. Louisa didn't particularly want to mention that she had never heard of such a thing, but she could feel the blood flooding her cheeks the longer she went without answering. Her right hand clasped her left forearm instinctively, rubbing it gently as she pondered her response. In the background, she could hear Sophie explaining something about a phoenix, but that provided little explanation as to what a Patronus actually was.

"I'm sorry, but what's a Patronus?" she asked finally, her eyebrows furrowed. She quickly stumbled out a clarification for her question. "I'm Muggleborn, you see. As much as I like to think I do sometimes, I don't really know all that much about the magical world, sorry."

Sophie Smiled.
"Ah! I see! Well a patronus is a type of positive force that a dementor feeds on! A dementor is a soul sucking Kind of monster. Each person has their own kind of patronus." She grinned, at least someone was interested in her speech about Patronuses. She opened one of her books and flipped to the 394th page. "Here. Patronuses." She pushed the book towards Louisa. Though she hadn't studied the page herself, Sophie knew the book better than the Author Himself. She opened another book and flipped to the first page, engrossing herself into the book. The book had been 'The Tales of the Beetle Bard.' 
She swiftly flipped through the pages and stopped at one of them, beginning to scan through it.
"When you finish your school years here, what career do you want to Pursue?" Sophie herself wanted to be an Auror, but was only getting an A average score. She quickly closed the book she had just opened. Not that she wanted to quit reading it, she just found the book, boring. The stories themselves were really wonderful, but, for some reason her mind wasn't processing the words she was reading.
"Hey, you're a muggle-born, right? Question, are muggles nice? I've been thinking about pursuing a career in writing muggle stories."

Louisa nodded in understanding at Sophie's explanation - the concept sounded somewhat familiar to something she'd read in a Muggle novel not too long ago. She smiled at the Gryffindor pushed her book before her and she began to skim over the page as it described how the positive energy created a 'shield' of sorts to protect its wielder. Louisa couldn't imagine a time at which she'd be able to cast such strong magic, but she still hoped that she wasn't too far off.

"So, your happy energy forms an animal of some kind?" she attempted to summarise, glancing up at the other girl for confirmation. A grin stretched over her lips. "That sounds pretty cool. If it were me, I think my patronus would form a dog. I've always wanted one, but our flat was too small to keep one in."

Sophie spoke up again, not too long afterwards, asking about the sort of career Louisa wanted to follow. The eleven year old frowned as she pondered for an answer. Even at home, she'd never really thought of what she'd wanted to be when she grew up - she'd just assumed that she'd join her mum in the coffee shop. "I'm not too sure," she admitted sheepishly. "I read something about these people called 'Aurors' - they sound a little bit like police officers, so I suppose that would be a pretty exciting job."

She couldn't help the bubble of laughter from escaping at Sophie's next question. Louisa felt a little bad for laughing as Sophie explained her cause, but it still seemed rather an odd question. "It depends on which ones you meet, really," she began. "My mum and dad are the nicest people in the world, but there's this old man who lives next door to us and always has something new to complain about each morning. I'd imagine it's the same in the wizarding world - some are good, but others are most certainly not."

She nodded at Louisa's explanations.
"I see what you mean. It is a bit like the wizarding world. There are very nice wizards like Ollivander. He was always nice when I had to get my wand. But, there are bad wizards, like Voldemort." Even now, people still gasped, when the name was heard, though its been years since his defeat. Twiddling her wand in her fingers she muttered.
"Orchideous." And a soft bouquet of flowers appeared at the tip of her wand. Waving her wand, the flowers disappeared.
"I love magic. Spell-Casting to be exact. Its one of the few things in the wizarding world that feels so... natural to me. Like Quidditch. I want to be seeker for the Gryffindor house team, but, First years aren't allowed brooms its an awful rule really." She had wanted to be a Quidditch player too, but, she didn't seem so keen on that. Maybe it was the idea of flying around on a broomstick for half of your life and never being able to help the world was what made the idea flatten. Or perhaps just the fact that being an Auror or Writer seemed so much more interesting.
"My dad is an Auror. Well, he works in that department, in the Ministry. He sometimes goes out and catches dark wizards. But mainly, he does paperwork. My mum is muggle-born and she just stays at home, or works in the public Library." She shrugged. Being Half-Blood from two wizards parents wasn't that common anymore. It was always a wizard with a muggle, and Pure-Bloods were coming back, but, Half-Bloods were still the most common.
She quietly and swiftly pulled out chocolate frog and opened the box. Tossing the frog into her mouth, she checked the card.
"Dumbledore again! I've got about 7 of them now! Of course he is very famous, no wonder he's on almost all the cards." She shoved the card into the pocket of her robes. Her high ponytail began to droop, causing the girl to Pull out her hairband and put her hair into another high Ponytail, one, which was to not fall over, though it wasn't likely. 

With her head stuck in a book, Clary barely registered her surroundings as she nearly ran smack into Louisa and her new friend. After the encounter with the Hufflepuff girl Michelle, she'd discovered a copy of Magical Creatures and Where to Find Them and had fallen in love with the magnificent sketches of the different beings. There had to be dozens of images, from enormous dragon-like beings and majestic horses to dainty pixies and some kind of creature that looked a little bit like a puffball. The book seemed like a gift from the fates in her eyes, the detailed images a thousand times more interesting than anything the blurbs of words could provide.

Realizing she was getting distracted, Claryssa shut the book tight and joined Louisa and the girl dressed in red robes, plastering a pleasant smile on her face. "About time I find you! I got kind of lost in some crazy stack of books and ended up running into a Hufflepuff girl. Literally running into... She was super sweet, though, so it wasn't too much of a fuss, I suppose." Clary brushed off some invisible wrinkle from her robes, worrying she'd somehow messed up her outfit in the mishap.

Once finished, she smiled over at the Gryffindor girl. "Claryssa North, apparently a student of Ravenclaw. My best bets are that you've probably already met Lou here.... and I just realized I am one hundred percent interrupting your conversation!" Her voice trailed off, realizing what she had done, and she winced. "Wow! Sorry, you two can continue."

Sophie gleamed up at the girl whom had walked over.
"Oh! Its all right! Im Sophie Murphy, of the Gryffindor Residence." She smiled at her own introduction, not that she ever spoke to very many people. She was never very Social in the first place. Preferring people come talk to her. But, sometimes the easiest thing was to go meet people, instead of staying quiet and in the background.

Realizing how quiet the room had become, she quickly picked up conversation.
"Do you know about Patronuses? They're bloody helpful. I want mine to be a phoenix, you?" She knew it was odd to be talking to a complete stranger, but, everyone was here to learn magic, stranger or not, we're here now and there should be no reason to not talk to one another. 
Her mum had always taught her that. Everyone was equal to everyone, no matter house, blood, skin, or how fast or how well they learn. Sophie had always listened to her mum, lots of discrimination was in the world due to so much prejudice people. Its not like anyone can help that they're different, we cant choose how we're born, or how we look, that's the wonderful thing about life. 

She grinned at her mind, listening to the girl's replies to her question.

Clary smiled, nodding her head as the young Gryffindor student introduced herself. She seemed sweet, if not a bit shy with her high-pitched voice. First impressions aside, Clary hoped to spot her again sometime soon, perhaps in classes or in another subject or club after school she'd been looking into. Her eyebrows furrowed at the mention of the word 'Patronus', her heard immediately plummeting at her annoying lack of magical knowledge. She was just beginning to realize how perhaps her family bloodline, or at least family history and methods of her upraising, may prove a few issues doing her first few weeks here. Especially in the magical vocabulary topic.

She racked her brain for any information she could remember about magical creatures or the word 'Patronus', drawing up a blank in the latter. The Phoenix, however, she did recall after flipping through her textbooks earlier in the summer. It was a gorgeous bird with striking orange and red feathers, almost like that of flames. When its lifespan ended, it would go up in flames, ending up in a heap of small ash, and a new baby Phoenix would be born from the embers. It was one of her current favorites at the moment. "Oh... If I'm going to be honest, I actually have no idea what a Patronus is, but I'm sure it's really cool! Phoenixes seem like an amazing option, though, no matter what," she assured the girl, pausing a moment to think through the second part of her answer.

"Well, I'm a muggle-born, so I guess I don't have a lot of experience with magical creatures yet, but I'd say a lynx or some kind of cat would be cool. Ooh! Or a snowy owl. I'm so torn!" She laughed, feeling herself relax as the conversation continued. She was appreciative of the opportunity to discuss magical topics, even if she didn't know about them. Perhaps Sophie or some other wizard-born students could teach her a thing or two before classes start. She'd hate being stuck miserably unprepared. "Sorry, I'm not too familiar with the topic, though... Are you interested in doing any clubs here?"

Her eyes widened with excitement at the words 'Club'.
"Yes! My friends and I want to start a study group, if you call that a club!" She grinned happily. She was never shy or quiet when met with friends, or talking about something she truly enjoyed. She flipped open 'Quidditch through the ages.' And flipped through the pages, her eyes quickly scanning through the words, and catering onto them. As this was going on, a small white owl fluttered through one of the Library windows and landed on Sophie's small shoulder. How the owl managed to stand on her shoulder was an unsolved mystery in its case.

Sophie quickly untied the letter from the Owl's leg. "Go to the Owlery to get something Kiyoko, okay?" She spoke to the owl as a friend, more or less, because The owl was a friend. 

She quietly opened the letter and scanned through the words, and tears came to her eyes.

Dear Sophie M,

[font=Times New Roman]How are you? We do miss you dearly. Thanks for your letter, Kiyoko seemed so happy to deliver it.[/font]
[font=Times New Roman]There is something wrong here, you know Kiki, Kiyoko's mother? Well, of course you do, you raised her with me. She has passed away last night. It was peaceful of course, she died in her sleep. Don't be too sad, she just crossed the veil. We all will one day. I think Kiyoko noticed as well. When I was writing this letter, she went to go in your room and came back quickly and seemed to want to leave. I tried to write as much as I could as quick as I could.[/font]
[font=Times New Roman]I do hope you are making friends, the funeral for Kiki will take place over the Holidays so you can be there. [/font]
[font=Times New Roman]If you want to, you can invite a few friends, if they want to come of course, but, I'm sure Kiki will be happy with just you, me, and your father at her funeral.[/font]

[font=Times New Roman]                                                                                               Miss you dearly, Mum[/font]

The tears were pouring from her emerald eyes. 'How can I not be sad! I loved Kiki!' She covered her eyes and set askew her glasses and the letter. She didn't want to be known as a crybaby. She tried her hardest to not cry, but thinking it was better just to hide her crying instead of trying to stop it.

She rubbed her eyes multiple times, before giving up and putting on her glasses. From the glasses lens she could tell her eyes were puffy, people would know she had been crying, even if she did stop any time soon.