7 Mar 2022, 22:28
Everything's Runed
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location | mid-morning, libraryxxxxhex | #284B4Dxxxxappearance | ◎[font=book antiqua]Mid-morning on a Saturday in February, the Hogwarts Library…
While the days crept sluggishly out from under the snowy blanket of winter in the Highlands, Freya had settled into the quiet routine of her first year at Hogwarts with much more ease than she'd expected. The novelty of life at the castle with all its secret crannies, burnished charm, and casual air of mystery hadn't worn off the wisp of a girl yet. Moreover, she was vastly relieved to find Hogwarts was big enough, and labyrinthine enough, to avoid run-ins almost entirely with her wretched brother. Ravenclaw Tower was about as far as you could possibly get from the Slytherin dungeons, and of the myriad reasons Freya had discovered since September to be glad of her placement, the luxury of distance from Einar sat near the top of the pile. If she had been given the chance to choose a House for herself, she would have chosen Ravenclaw anyhow. The plush tower, the quiet but focused energy of her fellow birds, the unending supply of tea in the Crowned Eagle dormitory that lent a familiar, smoky scent to the rooms; it all made Freya feel just as perfectly at home as if she were safely ensconced away at Sterling Manor.
This Saturday morning, however, the Tower had a frenetic energy to it that was making Freya feel uncharacteristically restless. From her seat on a velvet chaise longue in the common room where she was sat with a heavy tome on her lap, the Scottish girl watched the last of a group of upperclassmen breeze past and vanish out the heavy Tower door, dressed for the weather and chatting brightly amongst themselves about the day ahead. Bound for Hogsmeade, no doubt, Freya thought with a small pinch of envy pursing her lips. She desperately wanted to visit and had even heard tell that some of her fellow first years had risked detention to sneak out, but that sort of foolhardiness was better reserved for the rambunctious Sterling boys, though none of them had to bother sneaking out anymore.
"I'd like to know what more trouble they reckon we'd cause than the older students could, and probably do, get up to," Freya sighed into the silence, casting her grey gaze along the figure of her only present company in the common room.
From her sphinx-like perch on the velvet arm of the chaise, Freya's young cat, Skaði, made a sympathetic mau to her unsettled mistress. Freya's lips curled upwards fondly at the response, and she tilted her head in acquiescence to the cat.
"You're right, cat. We may not get to go yet, but it does make the castle all the quieter." Freya replied, closing the old book on her lap and rising from the chaise with an unhurried stretch of her lean figure before returning the book to the nearby shelf where it lived.
"Let's have a wander, shall we?" The chestnut-haired girl asked the cat, who unceremoniously padded at the arm of the chair a few times and shifted herself gracefully into a ball, closing her eyes with no further ado. Freya's brows shot up at the unequivocal answer and she brushed off her skirt with a chuckle.
"That answers that, I suppose. Go on and nap, then, lazy bones. I'm away off to the library." Freya announced to absolutely no one and departed the way her fellow Ravenclaws had moments ago. There was a book of rune lore that the girl had been eager to get her hands on since her first trip to the library, and an afternoon spent curled up with the familiar subject matter sounded exactly what she needed.
She found the library as sparsely populated as the Tower was and spent the short walk back into the shelves where she thought she'd find the book she wanted wondering what it would be like to be the only soul at Hogwarts. How eerie the cozy Great Hall would seem, how unsettling the empty passageways and corridors without the constant bustle of student life. It gave the slender girl a shudder, but the reaction was as much one of excitement as trepidation at the idea. She had always loved the thin edge of curiousity and fear.
Slowing her steps when she reached the shelf, Freya ducked into the narrow alcove and ran her fingers along the gleaming wood shelves, walking them across leatherbound spine after spine until she reached a conspicuous gap in the row of books where, alphabetically, the object of her search ought to have been. The thin crescent-moon of dust in the shape of a book's spine was smeared and Freya frowned in consternation. It looked as though someone had pulled the book from its place in the rank and file, and recently at that.
"Honestly," she breathed in quiet frustration, dusting off her hands on the front of her cleanly-pressed navy skirt. ”Just my bloody luck."
Shoulders dropped in disappointment, Freya turned on her heel and strode back out to the aisle, casting her glance around the seemingly endless rows of bookshelves. Surely there was something else in this entire library that would suffice to pique her interest. Wandering past several tables and alcoves of the occasional student reading, Freya couldn't help the petulant feeling of dissatisfaction making her normally pleasant features sour as she paused to collect herself. It was childish, and churlish, and she rolled her shoulders back to stand up straighter in rebuke of herself.
As she did, Freya's uncommonly keen gaze caught sight of something that made her perk up. The familiar, specific peacock-blue leather binding of the book she had been looking for. In the hands of someone else. She hung back a moment, peering through the dusty light to see if they were very far through the book. Perhaps, if they were only perusing it, she could ask to have it after them…
@aurelius leeds | 928 words[/font]
OOC: I figured I’d let you situate yourself as you please before approaching. She’ll speak up in the next post.
20 Mar 2022, 23:30
Everything's Runed
• ʀᴜɴᴇ-ɪɴ ᴡɪᴛʜ ᴀ ꜱᴛʀᴀɴɢᴇʀ •
· || ──────────────────────────────────── || ·
Library Study Table - 12th February 2022
When it came to the weekend, there were various opinions on how best to spend the time. Some in higher years enjoyed travel, others enjoyed exploring the school or grounds, some still relaxed in common rooms and conversed with friends and fellow house members. Yet, for others, their focus and dedication toward education and learning didn't stop for weekends; and it was for this reason that Aurelius was in the library, and had been for almost an hour already, despite the early hour of the day.
The Irish boy was seated comfortably at a study table. Dressed in a neat all-black ensemble that consisted of a dark sweater, dark pants, polished school shoes and a Slytherin pin on his chest, Aurelius clearly took pride in how he presented himself. An array of items was set out before him, a stack of paper and a quill with ink pot, as well as a few small candies to one side, but most importantly a blue-covered book on runes was opened before him. The well-read pages were yellowed, some were torn and had been repaired, with the odd page with margin notations, and it was clearly an old book filled with runic knowledge that was many years old.
On the paper, Aurelius had scrawled notes and observations. He had cross-referenced a number of chapters, had found some interesting correlations between runes from different cultures, and had started to match several individual markings to - what he believed - were more modern letters. Though, granted, modern in this instance still meant centuries ago, as tended to be the case with books of such subjects; they were not known to be contemporary interest pieces, after all.
There, that specific interlaced effect is repeated... Aurelius thought to himself, as he flipped through the pages quickly, slender fingers flicked each in succession, until the chapter he wanted appeared. Here. I knew it. Could this be a precursor to... hm?
Movement across the way caused the Irish boy to glance up briefly. He saw a young girl, another student, who stood near the aisle. Nothing too out of the ordinary, a number of students wandered the library after all, so the Slytherin went back to his study-turned-investigation. His blue eyes regarded the specific interlaced linework he had recognized in two very different runic alphabets, as his smile grew slowly with anticipation...
"Hmm," Aurelius mumbled, as his eyes narrowed, and he leaned further into the book. Further inspection of the small markings that had garnered his attention revealed some subtle differences, which brought into question his initial thought. "I might need reading glass, to properly assess..."
Aurelius eased back, as he looked around. One of the magnifying lens had to be around, somewhere. Yet, his gaze passed over the same girl from moments before, who seemed to be staring at him now. For a moment, the Irish boy sat there, expression unsure as he simply maintained the awkward gaze of the young girl in the white blouse and blue skirt. Whatever had resulted in attention being centered on him, Aurelius wasn't sure, but he knew that randomly being watched wasn't typically a good thing. And with some quick contemplation, the Slytherin couldn't recall any prior instances where he might have upset or interacted with the brunette girl, so he felt confident that it wasn't some slight... which begged the question:
What does she want?
Aurelius furrowed his eyebrows, as he made a wry expression and returned to the book before him - at which point he paused, again, and realized what it could be. The book on runes, was it possible that the brown-haired girl wanted it, too? Well, there was only one way to find out, though since Aurelius hadn't finished with it, he would do so in a more roundabout way to avoid being forced to give up the tome until he was finished.
"Is there a reading lens over there?" Aurelius asked, his Irish accent evident, as he looked toward the young girl again. He raised his eyebrows. "Since you're up, do you mind grabbing one? I might have found something very interesting on this page, but need a closer look..."
It was time to see what the brunette wanted, what she might have been interested in and how amicable she was toward him on first meeting...
@Freya Sterling
4 Apr 2022, 08:21
Everything's Runed
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[font=book antiqua]Freya was so busy frowning at the book in the dark-haired boy's hands that she found herself quite startled indeed to find him meeting her gaze and staring right back at her, as if to ask what she thought she was doing gawping at him in the first place. Mortified internally, Freya took the moment he looked back down at the book to drum up what she could possibly offer as an acceptable explanation for her behavior when she was surprised all over again at the silence between them being broken by an Irish brogue asking bold as brass for her to find a reading glass he might use. The impertinence made Freya's lips curl up just the tiniest bit at the corners in unexpected amusement, and she all but forgot the apology that had been on the tip of her tongue a moment ago.
Schooling her features back into serene order, Freya canted an eyebrow at him for a moment's worth of contemplation, in which her hands settled on her hips, and she seemed to be deciding whether or not she would honour the request. In truth, she was simply inspecting the boy more closely to see if she'd noticed him around before, and if not, why. He seemed clever enough, and the anything but ordinary way he'd addressed tickled her sense of impropriety. Besides, she'd not yet met anyone else who seemed half as interested in runes as she was, and here he sat positing a potential discovery...
"Since you're up, Freya, do you mind grabbing one, please?" the Scottish girl replied tartly, with soft emphasis on the words missing from his request to double as an introduction. Her lips curled ever so slightly again as she pushed off the heel she'd been leaning on and disappeared for a moment to collect a reading glass she spied glinting in the light from a bank of desks nearby.
The glass was placed delicately down beside the boy, and Freya lighted upon the seat next to him in much the same manner, sparing a moment to neatly arrange her skirt.
"I suppose I ought to know your name if I'm to insist you surrender that book to me after you've worked out... whatever it is you're working out." Freya said, gesturing vaguely at the open page in front of him as she volleyed her own cheeky request back to him; either a game was afoot with a like mind, or he was simply lacking actual social graces.
@aurelius leeds | 424 words[/font]