So Many Books, So Little Time PV Della Barfield F

@Simon Kincaid

The library. It was the largest library Della had ever seen. Larger than any library she could have ever imagined. And it was full of books on subjects she hadn't known were real until a few weeks ago. She had spent a lot of time in the library this week. She found it to be a great place to tackle her homework--they were already giving some out during the first week, which Della was grateful for. It gave her direction with her new life. She could sit in the library and be fascinated with her classes. Some of her textbooks expected her to know something that she didn't, but she didn't need to feel silly or dumb by asking someone, she could just look it up.

Today she had finished her homework, but she still entered the library looking for solace. Della had always excelled at school, and so far Hogwarts was no exception--well, there was an exception. Transfiguration. They had begun their first spell today, and unlike Charms and Defense Against the Dark Arts, Della didn't instantly get the wand movement or the feeling of the spell. In the back of her mind, Della knew it was silly to expect so much from her first week of school, but it was hard not to think of school as a source of validation. She had still completed the spell, but she struggled. It made her nervous to struggle, so she came to the library to find as many books as possible on transfiguration. Maybe she could read her way into doing it perfectly.

Her arms were full of different transfiguration books, ranging from beginner to becoming an animagi, all different sizes and colors, and varied focuses. She wasn't paying too much attention and the stack was too high for her to see where she was going--Della can run into Simon and spill their books everywhere, or he can avoid her or whatever you want to happen next

One of the best aspects of the Hogwarts Library was its massive size. This meant one could spend an entire several hours just striding along the hundreds of thousands of book titles that rest upon the thousands upon thousands of shelves. There were elaborate windows that overlooked the school grounds and darker lit areas that lended themselves to hardcore studying. There were wooden tables where one could spread out their work for an assignment or intensive researching and there were comfier spots to take in some leisure reading. It was a place one could get a lot of work done or just take an evening to relax.

One of the worst aspects of the Hogwarts Library was its massive size. This meant that sometimes when one was doing some extensive studying on a topic, like Della Barfield was that particular day, they would stack up a large amount of books into one stack, and began to meander over to the wooden table where they left their belongings. This meant striding across the length of the library, with obstacles in their way - being those comfier chairs, the other wooden tables, other students with massive stacks of books.

Simon would have predicted what was about to happen if he had his eyes up, but instead his head was down as he leafed through the pages in one solitary book that rested open in his hands. He wasn't sure if it was one he had checked out last year or not and he was looking for new information so he didn't want to repeat the reading.

No, he was pretty sure this was one he hadn't read before.

SMACK.

The two collided. Now Simon only had the one book fall from his hands onto the floor but the poor girl had her entire stack come toppling down. That wasn't the worst of it. Knowing he was quite strong for his age (due to his dhampir nature), he was initially worried that he didn't hurt the girl.

"Wow, I wasn't looking where I was going in the least. I'm so sorry!" and he instantly knelt down to begin stacking up her books again for her. "Are you alright?" she seemed to be. Didn't look as though a trip to the Hospital Wing would be necessary. "Let me at least help you carry these to where they belong." The books were stacked up quickly and then lifted without a bit of struggle. She'd have to lead the way to where she wanted them placed.

@Simon Kincaid

SMACK.

Della hit something. Her books went flying in all directions. Her cheeks turned red. She looked around to see how many people saw her.

Then she realized it wasn't a something she had ran into, it was a someone.

An older boy with dark hair had been her target. He started swiftly picking up her books and putting them back into a stack. There weren't many other people in the vicinity, and, of course, the library was quiet. Della had to contend with the boy in front; there wasn't a swift way to escape her embarrassment.

The boy profusely apologized—he took the blame for what was clearly her fault. "Are you alright?"

She attempted a smile. "Yeah, I'm good." And she stammered, "No I'm so sorry, I had a big stack and I couldn't see and I really should have watched where I was going and I'm really really sorry."

He had already picked up the books, and Della was still on the ground. She realized her position and got up as quickly as possible. "Yeah, thanks. Uh, we can take the books over to this table." Della pointed to a nearby table where she had left her sweater to save her spot. She looked at the boy nervously—she was still in shock that he was carrying all the books for her, and that he made it look easy.

Simon looked to the table and got up with the stack of books, carrying them over to where directed but still felt pretty horrible. He was fine, perfectly fine, and luckily it seemed the girl was as well. He knew that sometimes his strength could take over and if he had bumped her any harder than he had it could have been dangerous.

Gently he placed the books down on the table and then turned toward her. "I swear I'm not always so inconsiderate of my surroundings," he said, still apologizing. He looked at the stack of books, that now contained a mix of her Transfigurations related books and his on the topic of Vampires.

"I'm Simon. Simon Kincaid," he introduced himself as he slid off the top book which was one on Transfigurations. He set it to the right of the tall stack. The next book was also hers and it went on top of that one.

"Big assignment coming up or just interested on the topic?" He knew that Transfigurations could eventually even go as far as to having one become an animagus which was pretty fascinating stuff, he'd agree. The next was one of the books he had so he placed it in a separate stack.

"I do alright in Transfigurations, although I'll admit its not my strongest class." It all had to do with casting spells and wand movements and he wasn't always the most accurate. Still, some of his classmates had several mishaps over last year and he never had anything embarrassing happen - just sometimes needed a few extra swishes and flicks.

@Simon Kincaid

The boy was still apologizing and sorting out their books. Della wondered if it was worth correcting him that this was all probably her fault. She decided she'd feel guilty if she didn't at least advocate for herself—rather advocate for him being the victim here. "No, no, no it's definitely my fault. I was carrying too many books . . . thanks so much for sorting them."

He introduced himself. Simon. Della tried to smile through her cheeks turning red. Simon's overeager helpfulness made her feel more embarrassed. And he was so genuine about it. "I'm Della. Della Barfield. It's nice to run into you." Wow, what a lame joke. She hoped Simon wouldn't notice it.

Simon asked about her pile of books. He had stacked them neatly on the table, removing books Della hadn't seen before from the pile. Those must have been his own. Now that Della was confronted with the idea of explaining why she had so many books, her cheeks reddened even more. "Um . . . I know it's like only the start of school. But transfiguration feels really hard compared to my other subjects. I probably just need more practice. I'm new to magic. But I thought it would be fun or useful to read more about it? I don't know."

Trying to change the subject, Della scanned Simon's books. They seemed to all concern vampires. Another magical creature! So far learning about all the mythical beings that were actually real was Della's favorite about this new experience. She had even seen the giant squid on her way into Hogwarts on the first night. She forgot all about her previous embarrassment: "Are you learning about vampires? That sounds exciting! In the muggle world, we think they're not real, but we put them in a lot of movies and books. I wonder what muggles got wrong and what they got right. I read a little about them in one of the textbooks over the summer, but so far, everything is pretty spot on."

"Uh, yeah...learning about vampires," he said slowly. Maybe a little too slowly. Was his discomfort noticeable? He wasn't always so good at covering it up although he was successful some of the time. "Don't worry, I was there. Where you are. This time last year I couldn't get over that mermaids, goblins, unicorns, dragons...DRAGONS, existed. I mean, crazy, right?" he smiled big. Simon was STILL fascinated that all this existed and he now knew of it for a year.

"They're pretty interesting creatures, especially in the fact that there isn't all that much known about them," he said, of vampires. He looked over the stack of books he had which was much smaller in comparison to the ones she had on Transfigurations. That was the most difficult part of learning about vampires - the lack of research. It wasn't that wizarding scientists, documentarians, and historians didn't want to study vampires and get knowledge out there but rather that vampires themselves rejected such notions. They didn't want to be studied or have others know about them. Why? Was there something really bad to know? Simon wondered, and part of him knew he needed to know as much as possible - even if that meant he had to keep searching.

If this wasn't so personal to him, he probably would have books on dragons laying about the desk, that or magical plants that held healing properties or potions that did the same. No, right now his focus was on vampires and he knew that it would be for quite some time until he had gathered what information he could on them. "I doubt actual vampires are as intriguing as some of the movie ones," he muttered.

@Simon Kincaid

Simon explained that he was learning about vampires. Della noticed that he seemed a little uncomfortable, and he quickly changed the subject to all magical creatures, explaining that it was all quite the shock to him last year, too. So he was a second year. He definitely looks older. "Does that mean you're muggle-born? There are a lot more people here that are new to magic than I thought there would be." She smiled back at Simon, hoping to show that her enthusiasm about all the new magical creatures matched his.

Simon turned the conversation back to vampires. He explained that there wasn't much research about them. Della got the idea that this was quite the sticking point for him. His research in the library today seemed to have some higher stakes than hers—though Della couldn't say why. She got the feeling it wouldn't be best to pry, either. Maybe it was part of the second-year curriculum—did professors give out impossible research essays here? He could have picked the wrong topic for a summer assignment. Or he was a big fan of Bram Stoker. One thing was for certain, Della felt the need to help him out.

"Well, I could help you do some research. Or rather—I guess you're ahead in terms of knowing the library and school curriculum—if I see anything in the library that might have something to do with vampires, I'll let you know. We could also just have a study group once in a while, you read about vampires and I'll read about transfiguration or the giant squid or whatever."

Della was surprised with herself. She had never been this forward about making friends in school. She usually let her cousin Marnie do all the talking. Now that Marnie wasn't here, she was quickly realizing that even introverts could make friends. Especially over books.

"An official Study Buddy," he said, smiling slowly to Della. He had never really had one of those before. Well, he had a study group back in one of his later years at primary school back in London but honestly that was an excuse to try and get his friend Gabe out of the house sometimes to do things like a pick up game of rugby or something. There hadn't been any studying at all going on, just maybe some studying of girls from time to time.

"I like the idea of an official Study Buddy. I, Simon Ezra Kincaid, accept your offer, Della Barfield. I warn you though, I tend to get off on tangents and if you're wanting a SERIOUS study buddy ...although I will try my best...you might want to find yourself a Ravenclaw. Or maybe you could find one on the side and just not tell me about it, keep me on the down-low about it so I don't know that you're cheating on me. I can remain happy in ignorant bliss," and he held his hand out to her for a handshake, as if to make it official. Already he was going a bit off on a tangent, but wasn't randomness one of the things that made friendships fun? He thought so.

"And we can definitely do more than just vampires. I'm just...trying to figure out some stuff with that. I've got a whole notebook full of questions I want answered about all things magic. The entire wizarding world is quite fascinating. Some of the questions even include Herman. He's the Giant Squid. I overheard once some other student call him that and thought it was amusing. Not sure if it's a well known name or not but I've decided to keep it. I think it's a good name for him." Even if he himself had only seen its tentacle once and nothing more of the creature.

@Simon Kincaid

Simon took Della's offer and ran with it—it was much more than she had expected, but it was a pleasant surprise. He made an oath and stuck out his hand for her to shake it. Della grasped his hand, returning the speech, "I, Della Eugenie Barfield, promise be a light-hearted, tangent-accepting study buddy. I will not seek out a Ravenclaw." She laughed at the thought of "cheating" study buddies and wondered what other library "scandals" there could be.

Once again, Simon quickly moved past the topic of vampires. Whatever "stuff" he was learning about them, he wasn't ready to talk about it. Della made a mental note of this in case her new buddy ever did want to broach the subject. However, the mental note was quickly supplanted by Simon giving the giant squid a name.

Herman.

"Herman? Herman! It's perfect. I hope he loves his name. Well I'm not certain he is a he. Or that he understands English. Definitely questions we should consider researching first!" She quickly rustled through her bag, pulling out her sketchbook and turning to the page with her first drawing of the giant squid. She had sketched it soon after getting acquainted with her new bed last night. She was trying to keep the image of him fresh in her memory. She had worked hard to get the candlelight glow from the boats just right on his tentacles and the surrounding water. She scrawled "Herman" at the top in calligraphy with a brush pen from her bag.

"I saw him last night! On the boat ride. He might have helped a student or two back into their boats. A lot of us fell in! Not everyone thought it was great to be up close and personal with Herman, but I really did!" She realized she had taken out her sketchbook and inadvertently showed someone a drawing. She didn't do this often. "I'm going to try to draw all the magical creatures I encounter this year. To show my cousin."