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Post by parker diarmaid on Dec 5, 2010 1:31:33 GMT -5
OPEN!
The Library
A Snowy Saturday Afternoon. It was rare that Parker had a Saturday off from work but with the snow storm, Madame Puddifoot had sent her tiny northern saw-whet owl, Puff, letting him know she wouldn't be needing him this weekend. She had also made a point of telling him to have "fun". He was having fun alright. The Ravenclaw had buried himself in the back of the library, surrounded by the dusty volumes he had pulled. These old heavy reams held the house rosters of all four houses from the past eighty years. If he had wizards blood, then maybe, just maybe, his father or grandfather went to Hogwarts. Maybe even his great-grandfather. Anyone with the last name Diarmaid was a start. As he scanned the first page of the first volume of Gryffindors, a thought poped into his head. What if that little boy in the picture, that brother he'd never known, what if he was at Hogwarts right now? What if he saw his long lost brother every day and didn't even know it? |
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Post by alice logan on Dec 5, 2010 20:03:51 GMT -5
Usually on a snowy day like this one, Alice would be found outside, playing in the snow with Lily or another friend, but thanks to the blowing winds, too-cold-to-be-comfortable tempature, and Potions homework she had yet to finish, she found herself walking into the library with her books and quills. It seemed that most of the other Hogwarts students had the same idea, and the majority of the tables were either completely full or taken by a few Slytherins. Not really liking the idea of sharing a table with snakes, Alice made her way towards the back of the library. There was only one table in the back, but it was usually quiet here and nice for concentrating.
Alice was slightly surprised to find a boy sitting at the table in the back, surrounded by books. He looked slightly familiar, but Alice couldn't quite put her finger on it. "I'm sorry for bothering you, but do you mind if I sit here?" She asked quietly, hoping not to startle him. She motioned towards one of the seats at the table a few seats down from where he was sitting. "I promise not to be a bother, but most of the tables at the front are taken."
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Post by parker diarmaid on Dec 5, 2010 23:45:07 GMT -5
Hearing a soft voice, Parker stuck his finger down where he left off and glanced up to see a Gryffindor looking hesitantly at his fortress of books. She must be avoiding the swarm of Slytherins at the other tables.
"Sure," Parker said, in a hushed tone, "help yourself." He knew he'd seen this tiny little Gryffindor before but he knew absolutely nothing about her. Putting his new day neighbor out of his mind, Parker returned to the book in front of him.
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Post by alice logan on Dec 6, 2010 19:47:17 GMT -5
"Thank you." Alice murmured gratefully, setting her books down and pulling the chair out, taking her seat. She positioned all of her books, quills, and ink all in a row, putting it where it needed to be. Alice had a habit of being meticulous when it came to working; everything needed to be neat and orderly in order for her to be able to focus. She pulled her hair back with her favorite red ribbon before starting to pour over the books.
A little over ten minutes later, Alice was bored and her essay hadn't made any progress past her name at the top of the page. With a frustrated sigh, she leaned back in her chair, glaring at the parchment in front of her. This is hopeless. She thought, pushing her bangs out of her face.
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Post by parker diarmaid on Dec 6, 2010 20:12:22 GMT -5
By the time Parker had ruled out the first three volumes, he could tell his table neighbor wanted to be anywhere but in the library. At the sound of a sigh from beyond his book fortress, the Ravenclaw flipped closed the Hufflepuff Roster in front of him.
Tossing the book onto the table, he threw his head back and stretched his arms out as far as they would reach. That very moment, he heard a sound that froze him instantly. It was the sound of his book towers tumbling. He looked down quickly just in time to see the stacks toppling down onto the little Gryffindor's things. The sound of breaking glass meant that ink would no doubt be soaking into the pages of the old rosters.
"Oh," Parker began, forgetting where he was, "fuck!"
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Post by alice logan on Dec 6, 2010 20:40:27 GMT -5
Alice had just been in the middle of trying to figure out where to go after this hopeless essay was finished when the books toppled onto her things. "Oh!" She gasped, quickly jumping up and moving her three-word essay out of harm's way, trying to grab the books and move them away from the ink bottle that had shattered. She bit her lip, eyes widened at the sight of the ink-stained pages and the ink-stained table. She looked around for Madame Pince, who was no doubt on her way over here after hearing the noise and the boy's curse.
"It's okay, we can figure something out," Alice muttered in the boy's direction, pulling out her wand and racking her brain for some spell that would fix the books.
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Post by parker diarmaid on Dec 7, 2010 12:08:47 GMT -5
Whipping out his wand, Parker began muttering "Reparo" over and over at each book and blot. He could hear the click clack of Madame Pince heading towards them. "Screw this," the Ravenclaw muttered. Casting an invisibility spell on the whole mess, he grabbed two books off the shelf, tossed one to the Gryffindor and threw himself into his chair, opening the second book, painting intrigue and concentration onto his face.
Madame Pince glared holes through every inch of Parker's body before slowly making her way back to the front desk. Shutting the book and placing it on top of the invisible stacks in front of him, he muttered, "Sorry, I'll clean it up." Taking down the random book that appeared to be floating above the desk, Parker returned the mess to visibility and picked up the first ink stained book and began bewitching it back to it's former, dusty glory.
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Post by alice logan on Dec 7, 2010 22:05:34 GMT -5
Alice watched him and began casting the spell herself, aiming at the books he wasn't getting. She caught the book easily, sinking into her chair and opening the book, flickering her eyes down quickly to the pages in front of her. When Madame Pince walked over, Alice prayed that she wouldn't notice that the book she was holding was upside down. When Madame Pince finally walked away, Alice let out a sigh of relief before closing the book, setting it down on the table next to her.
"No, no, I'll help. It's my ink, I might as well." Alice said softly, beginning to cast spells on the books that would fix them.
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Post by parker diarmaid on Dec 7, 2010 22:26:02 GMT -5
As the two began cleaning the mess, Parker was pleasantly surprised the Gryffindor wasn't a jerk. Well, at least she didn't come off as self-centered as most Gryffindors. "Well, thanks," he muttered, picking up a particularly messed up Slytherin roster.
Not having any Gryffindor friends, or acquaintances for that matter, Parker began wondering what the scarlet and golds were really like when they weren't zooming around the quidditch pitch with their massive egos. Dropping the now clean Slytherin roster onto the stack of repaired books, Parker said, "I'm Parker, by the way." Then realizing she might know him by his nickname, he added, "Alice to some."
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Post by alice logan on Dec 7, 2010 22:39:32 GMT -5
"No problem." Alice replied, giving him a smile before continuing to clean up the books. He seemed surprised, which surprised her. Didn't people always offer to help? It was what her parents had taught her to do, and it was just second nature to her. Besides, she didn't want him getting in trouble for something that was partially her fault as well. She added a book to the top of the pile, looking at him when he spoke. After telling her his nickname, she let out a laugh.
"Nice to meet you Parker. My name is Alice, too." She said, still chuckling. She hadn't met anyone with her name before, certainly not a boy.
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Post by parker diarmaid on Dec 7, 2010 22:48:47 GMT -5
Another Alice. He knew she was different for a reason. Allowing himself a rare, genuine smile, Parker said, "Well, it's nice to meet you, Alice."
Cleaning the last of the books, he noticed the parchment Alice had been, well, trying to work on. "Having essay trouble?" Parker asked, repairing the girl's ink bottle. Not knowing quite how to magic the bottle full of ink once again, he pulled a stoppered bottle out of his bag and set it next to her nearly blank parchment with a sheepish look.
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Post by alice logan on Dec 7, 2010 23:39:00 GMT -5
"Nice to meet you as well." Alice said, smiling brightly at him. She had always enjoyed meeting people from different houses. While the Gryffindors were nice, they were all sort of the same - of course - and it was always nice seeing how other people in different houses worked.
She laughed, nodding. "You can say that. I have absolutely no idea what to do with this." She said, motioning towards her paper. She smiled slightly. "Thanks." She said, glancing down at the bottle before looking back up at him.
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Post by parker diarmaid on Dec 7, 2010 23:59:41 GMT -5
Sitting back down, the books around him looked far less inviting after their emergency cleaning. Parker thought it might be best to take a bit of a break. Looking for lost family members in the rosters was a long shot to begin with. Besides, he had all weekend.
"What's your essay on?"He asked, shifting the rosters all to one side of the table. "Maybe I can help." Not being one open up like this and offer help to someone he'd just met, the words came out slightly off. Disconnected. They were genuine all the same.
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Post by alice logan on Dec 8, 2010 0:05:24 GMT -5
Alice looked back down at the paper, inwardly groaning. She really didn't want to sit here and work on it, but she knew that if she walked away now, it would never get done, and she'd probably end up with a dentention or something, which was the last thing she wanted to do. "It's on the creation of a sleeping draught, the ingredients you need, how strong it is, where it came from, and so on. It should be easy, but I can't find a potion I can write for a foot and a half on." She said, looking back up at him.
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Post by parker diarmaid on Dec 8, 2010 0:35:47 GMT -5
"Oh, this'll be easy." Parker said with a glimmer in his eye. Slipping out of his chair, he added, "Be right back." Making his way down a few rows of bookshelves, the Ravenclaw soon found himself right where he wanted. Pulling a thick black book off the shelf, he slipped into another aile and soon found another, slimmer book.
Back at the Gryffindor's side, he slid the two over to her and said, "Everything you'll need is right here. First up we have Proper Potion Proportions & Plenty of Particularly Pleasing Planning Pages." Flipping open the black cover to reveal pretty pink pages, he added, "I'm convinced this woman was OCD as well as bi-polar. Then this one," he said, setting the slimmer, brown book on top of the first, "Is A Whirlwind Tour of Magical Regions. It'll have some 'where they came from' facts and other unnecessary things you can throw in to add length."
Sitting back in his chair, Parker felt quite Ravenclawish for once. All those holidays alone in the Libraries, picking books off the shelves at random actually paid off. "Both these authors are particularly wordy so just quote them a lot and you should be done by dinner."
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