[September 17, 2016: Saturday, Week 2] [Saturday - a day of rest after a rather long and emotional week. The sparkly new finish of being a student of Hogwarts is starting to dim, and the First Years are trying to cope with the challenges of being witches and wizards.] [Friday morning, breakfast at the Hufflepuff table was quiet - well, as quiet as it could be, with Mark there (like usual). Luke and his roommates had saved Simmie a seat, but she never came. It wasn't until he was leaving that he saw her sitting at the Gryffindor table with two other First Year girls, all smiles and giggles.] [Classes on Friday were relatively uneventful. At lunch, Luke and his roommates all saw Simmie at the Gryffindor table with Maggie and Zoe. They speculated on why for a bit, but then settled back into the normal routine. It came as quite a shock when she appeared at the Hufflepuff table for dinner.] [Now with two of the three together, they only lacked the third piece. It didn't take long for Luke and Simmie to decide to seek out Eliana, and as the last dishes were being cleared away, they caught up with her as she was leaving the Hall and they made plans. They would meet at breakfast the next day and set out to explore!] [Saturday morning arrived. Simmie spent part of her time at the Gryffindor table, but towards the end excused herself to join the Hufflepuffs. As breakfast ended, they met up with Eliana and set off for the courtyard... AND BEYOND!] [begin] 06* Luke passes through *a* courtyard with his friends, certainly - was this here before? He looks around in slight confusion as he pulls open the door back into the castle on the other side, but Simmie's leading and she always knows where she's going. 06* Eliana walks along with Luke, looking around curiously as they head for a courtyard. She's wearing straight up muggle clothes today: slightly faded jeans, sneakers, and a green sweatshirt with a hood that's currently down. Her backpack's the same as usual, though! And also muggle-y. 06* Simmie is talking about various parts of the castle as she leads them around, and it all seems to be a mix of history, which she is just recalling from memory, and personal experience of neat places to be or to hide or to see things from. 01 How come there's a courtyard here? I don't remember going through one to get to the library. 01 Is this a shortcut? 06* Luke grins. "I dunno, I'm just following Simmie." 06* Simmie stops for a moment. "oh... um. well, the staircases were aligned. its through this door and down the hall on the right." Oh, okay! 01 Oh, so it's shorter! Okay. How long did it take you to figure out how everything lines up? 06* Simmie bites her lip nervously. "i don't know?" Must've been a while, I haven't figured out much of anything yet. I get lost on my way to class half the time still. it has been awhile 06* Luke says that perfectly cheerfully and holds the door for the other two. 06* Eliana smiles. "I can find my way to the Slytherin common room!" She sounds pretty proud of herself. "But not many other places." 06* Simmie nods. "i've just been here longer" i grew up here 06* Luke nods. "Yep, it helps!" 01 Oh yeah? That had to be fun. Lots of places to explore and stuff to read. 06* Simmie nods. "it can get a bit lonely." 06* Eliana shrugs with one shoulder. "I don't think I'd get lonely." 06* Luke smiles encouragingly at her. "But at least now you're a student and you can take classes and hang out with all the other students!" 06* Simmie looks at Eliana for a moment, then to Luke as he speaks. She smiles. "its SOOO much better than having to hide from them" 06* Eliana blinks, then looks at Simmie. "Hide?" 01 Why'd you have to hide? because Auntie said so 01 ... Well, that's dumb. That's too bad. I wouldn't have wanted to have to hide from everyone. 06* Simmie nods. 06* Luke recognizes the library door a little ways down the hall. "Hey, it's the library! I don't think I came here from this direction before." it can be safer. think about trying to walk through the halls when everyone is scrambling to get to class and navigating moving staircases when you're only this tall. 06* Simmie lowers her hand to her waist. 06* Luke winces and grins at the same time. "Yeah, that might not be such a good idea." 06* Eliana hurries ahead, excited by the idea of getting to the library. She pulls open the door for everyone else. 06* Luke skips up to the door with a smile for Eliana and scoots quickly inside so the others can get in, too. 06* Simmie catches up too. "thank you," she says as she passes Eliana and enters 06* Luke 's eyes light up as he stops just inside the door to look around. "This place is so cool." He manages to keep his voice to library volume despite his enthusiasm. 06* Eliana walks in after the others and lets the door close behind them. 01 [The Hogwarts library is, in a word, enormous. In another word, it is old. Stacks of books rise to the ceiling, with tall, enchanted wooden ladders available to get to them. Large, arched windows overlook the courtyard outside and let in some natural light - the rest, as the library is very deep, is handled by lanterns scattered about which are probably enchanted so the fire can't damage any books. A librarian sits at a desk not too far from the entrance, and there are tables and chairs scattered about with the occasional student (typically wearing Ravenclaw colors) reading or studying there.] 01 [The walls are dark wood, much like the cases and ladders, and the floor is also wood, though a little lighter.] 06* Luke looks around at all the really old everything and remembers something abruptly. "Hey, Simmie! Eliana and I were talking about how it would be really cool to find a book as old as Hogwarts. Do you know if there are any books that old here?" 01 Or on merfolk. I heard there are some in the lake. 06* Simmie looks around for a moment. "i know there are some pretty old histories in the history section. and there may be others in some of the sections that i wasn't allowed in before i was a student. but that's two different directions." merfolk, though, are in the beastiary section. that's near histories. 01 Oh... let's try to find the super old book first! 06* Luke nods. "We've got the whole day, we can look for other stuff later, too!" okay! over this way 06* Simmie starts off towards one of the wings, motioning for the others to follow 06* Eliana goes this way, looking around at all of the books as she walks. 06* Luke follows, looking around in fascination as he goes. 06* Simmie just dodges Ravenclaws, stacks of books and moving ladders 01 Hey look, there are books on potions here! I wonder if they're the same as the textbooks we'll have later. 06* Luke follows Eliana's gaze. "Huh, maybe. There's so many, though, there have to be a bunch more too?" probably all sorts of things 06* Luke 's eyes widen as they turn a corner to see even more shelves extending off into semi-gloom. "This place is huge. I bet you could get lost just in the library." 06* Simmie giggles. "the librarians will find you eventually and help you back to the central area with the tables. even if you thought you were hiding" 06* Luke grins at her. "Find that out before?" 06* Simmie nods and smiles. "yes" 06* Eliana lingers a bit, looking at the potion books, the hurries to catch up to the other two. I wonder how long it'd take to read every book in here. well... that depends on how fast you read 01 Yeah, but you can probably estimate based on average reading speed. 01 I'd look it up, but my phone won't work here. 06* Luke nods. "But some of the books are harder than others, and you'd have to *count* them all." well, i've read a lot of the histories though not all at once 06* Luke grins. "That'd be pretty hard." 01 Really? You've probably got a really advanced reading level, then. 06* Simmie nods. "i guess so. i started pretty early" And had a lot of practice, sounds like. i think it was because i asked too many questions 06* Luke blinks in surprise. "What do you mean?" 06* Eliana rolls her eyes. "You can't ask too many questions," she says, like it's the most obvious thing in the world. well, i still had questions, but everyone was busy, so... 06* Simmie trails off in thought. she bites her lip 06* Luke frowns a bit at the sight of Simmie biting her lip. "So they taught you to read so you could find answers yourself?" 06* Simmie nods. "yeah. Auntie was soo busy with her students, it just sort of made sense, i guess." 01 Students? Who's your aunt? she's a teacher here at Hogwarts she teaches Arithmancy 01 Oh, cool! Is that the magical significance of different numbers? 06* Simmie nods. "it’s the study of magical properties of numbers. there's some prediction and numerology to it. she loves to talk about it, too" 06* Eliana smiles. "That's neat. Maybe I'll take it when I can take electives." i can introduce you to her at some point if you like 06* Luke nods, then pauses. "Will you take it, d'you think, Simmie? It might be kinda weird to have your teacher be your aunt." i don't know. i think she expects me to but yeah, it will be a bit awkward. she raised me 01 Do what you want. I think I'll take the class, though. I like math. 06* Luke considers. "I guess I'll figure it out when we learn more about the different electives. It does sound kinda neat, though." 06* Simmie nods. 01 Yeah. I dunno if I'd want to take it if my aunt were teaching it. 01 But it's not like they have more than one person teaching the same subject here, right? no, she's the only one 01 *That* sucks. 01 They should do something about that. I don't think there's enough students to have a bunch of teachers, though. 01 Yeah, but two teachers? It'd double the size of the faculty, but it's not like there are a lot of schools to send students to because... this takes everyone in the UK, right? So, like, Simmral can't really go anywhere else to get an education in Arithmancy from someone who *isn't* her aunt. 06* Luke nods, thinking. "Dad's been teaching Matthew how to make furniture and stuff, but...maybe it's not really the same. I mean, he *could* go learn someplace else, I guess." 01 Could he learn here? Is there a magical carpentry class or something? but everyone teaches to their specialties there aren't that many people who could teach 06* Luke shakes his head. "Not really. I mean, a lot of the magic stuff is stuff you learn in school, but there's no class for making furniture." He'd have to go learn from another furniture-maker. 06* Eliana lets out a small huh. "So apprenticeship?" 01 Like in the 15th century? 06* Luke nods. "Kind of, yeah." 06* Eliana wrinkles her nose. "That's kinda silly. Why not have a trade school after Hogwarts? Then it'd be easier for more people to learn what they want to." what's a trade school? 01 It's a school you go to in order to learn a trade! So you could learn carpentry, or how to fix air conditioners, or whatever. There aren't so many people that make magic furniture, really. I mean, you can buy muggle stuff and do the enchantments yourself - or just not - or Matthew could learn with a muggle furniture-maker, but then he'd have to learn all the enchantments and stuff too. 01 Right, but maybe the *reason* not that many people make magic furniture is because it's so hard to learn how. 06* Simmie listens thoughtfully. 06* Simmie finally asks, "what's an air conditioner?" Maybe, but there aren't an awful lot of wizards, either, y'know. I mean, this whole school is most all of the kids in all of Britain. 01 I mean, your dad can't really apprentice more than one person at a time, right? Because that's how apprenticeship works. You have to really concentrate on that one person learning the trade. But if there was a school, your dad could teach a whole class. Then a lot of people who were interested could learn how. But... then maybe there'd be more competition and his business wouldn't be so good, and then... huh? 01 Um, it keeps rooms and houses cool. If it's getting too hot, you turn on the air conditioner. 01 There's probably a magical equivalent or something. can't you just use a breeze charm? 06* Eliana looks at Simmie blankly. "No?" oh okay 06* Luke says wryly, "Not if you're a mugg - um, not-magic person." muggles use air conditioners? 01 Yeah. If you can afford one, but most people in Britain can. are they expensive? 01 They can be pretty expensive to fix, so I guess so? But you usually only need one, if you have central air, or a window one and not that much room. 06* Simmie turns the corner of a bookshelf. "central air?" 06* Simmie stops. "isn't air everywhere?" 06* Eliana walks along. "Well, yeah, it's just what they call it. It's a system that cools air and pumps it all over the building, instead of just one room." oh okay 06* Simmie watches Eliana walk down the isle. "the more recent histories start here." she points to the books on either side of her. "the older histories are further down. i think you're now in the early 19th century, Eliana." 06* Eliana looks back and grins. "Then we should keep going!" 06* Luke grins back and speeds up. "Yep!" well... yeah okay. these are mostly about the war and recent stuff, so the books wont be that old 01 Right! You can't write about the nineteenth century until the nineteenth century. 06* Simmie runs her fingers over the spine of one book and lingers for a moment, biting her lip. 06* Simmie looks up. "no, you're right... plus i've read all of these already" 06* Luke looks back, startled. "*All* of them? Wow." 06* Eliana also looks surprised, then impressed. 06* Simmie nods. "when you're trying to keep yourself amused all day every day, you have a lot of time to fill" Yeah, I bet. 01 You must be really good at history, then. 06* Luke reaches the end of the shelf and pokes his head around the corner to the next one. He pops it back to say, "Yeah, she is!" We were partnered the other day and she was telling me all this stuff about ancient Egypt. 06* Simmie blushes. "i'm okay. i've just read a lot of it, so it isn't really new." 01 Oh, cool! I wish I had someone good to partner with in History. I did all of the work last time. i'd share my notes, but they um... aren't that good. 06* Luke blinks. "None of the Ravenclaws are good at it? Hm, maybe they get bored in class. A lot of people in our class do." 06* Eliana shakes her head. "It's fine. I've got my own notes." 01 And no, I partnered with another Slytherin. Oh, okay. Maybe next time you can partner with a Ravenclaw! 01 The Ravenclaws don't want to work with me. It's fine. 06* Luke 's face falls. "Oh. That's too bad." 06* Eliana rolls her eyes. "It's *fine*, Luke. I'm used to it." And she goes back to walking along, looking at book titles to place where in history they are. well if we can help, we will 01 You can't help if you're not in my class. i can help after 06* Luke 's face twists up a bit, but Eliana's looking at books, so she can't see him. "Yeah, we can always work on homework together, same like we do for Potions and Charms and stuff." 06* Luke manages a smile again. 06* Simmie nods eagerly. "i could use a lot of help in potions" 06* Luke looks over at Simmie. "You have a hard time with Potions?" 06* Simmie blushes and nods. How come? 06* Simmie bites her lip nervously, blushing a bit more. they don't come out right 06* Eliana snorts a little, looking at another book. "Potions is easy. Your timing's probably just off." 01 Or maybe you're not measuring carefully enough. 06* Luke blinks at Simmie, not understanding her discomfort. "It's okay, nobody's good at everything. Barry has a hard time 'cause he isn't careful sometimes." its hard to measure. everything is so icky 06* Simmie blushes a lot more. 06* Eliana looks at Simmie. "Yeah, that'd do it. If you can't take your time measuring, it's no wonder your potions come out wrong." 06* Luke is completely distracted from the books by now. He's a little nonplussed, but still trying to reassure Simmie. "I guess some of the ingredients are, but you can always just wash your hands after." 01 Yeah. And you can just measure most things ahead of time. 06* Luke glances at Eliana, but doesn't comment. 06* Simmie looks down, which is probably for the best since she's a pretty good approximation of Gryffindor red right now anyway. 06* Luke hugs Simmie. "It's okay, we can help." 01 Look, at least you've got like Gryffindor's Gift to Spellcasting. It took me seven *hours* to turn straw into a needle. 01 It should be way faster for you to learn how to make a good Boil Cure potion. 06* Simmie nods. "i have seen students practicing over the years," she says softly. "but never potions" I guess that's not really something you want to practice just anywhere, in case something goes wrong. 06* Luke tilts his head. "Though I guess a lot of charms and Defense are like that too." 01 Yeah. I could ask Professor Slughorn if there's a room where we could practice potion making. 06* Luke nods. "Good idea!" 06* Simmie nods. 06* Luke considers. "I wonder if we need a teacher or something, though. I mean, it can be dangerous if you mess up. Like Barry almost melted a desk once. I don't think we'd do that, but I don't know if Professor Slughorn would want people to practice on their own." We can ask anyway, though. 06* Eliana nods. 01 Plus maybe we could get supervision if we need it. 06* Eliana doesn't seem to think that they should, though. 06* Luke nods. "Yeah." 06* Simmie nods. "maybe" someone might have to help me not melt a desk, though 06* Luke grins at her. "We will!" 06* Luke has kept walking down the shelves meanwhile, and is getting farther back in history. He pulls a book off the shelf almost at random - *all* the books here look interesting, with their myriad sizes and shapes and bindings. what did you find? 06* Luke opens it up and the binding creeeeeaaaakkss. "I don't know, I just wondered how far back we were - " He's looking for a date, but can't find one. "Man, I wonder how old this is. Or when the last time someone opened it was." 06* Eliana looks at the book over Luke's shoulder. "Is there a copyright page?" 06* Simmie walks over to the other side of Luke and peers over Luke's other shoulder. "im not sure i have read that one" 06* Luke flips to the front - carefully, after the noise the binding made - and shakes his head. "Nope. Too old, I think. But I don't even know when they started doing that - " 06* Luke glances back at Simmie and smiles. "Well, you can't have read *everything* in here. Anyway, this looks hard - all the words are spelled funny." 06* Simmie blinks. "well... no. i haven't. i was just..." she trails off and bites her lip nervously. 06* Luke blinks in confusion at Simmie. "I didn't mean to make you feel bad, I was just teasing," he says with some concern. 06* Eliana looks at Simmie. "Do you feel bad?" 06* Simmie looks at Luke and then at Eliana. "i don't feel bad, but i'm worried that i'm starting to sound like a know-it-all" Oh. 06* Eliana frowns briefly, then says, "Who cares." 01 If you know stuff, that's better than *not* knowing stuff. but it can be annoying and put people off 06* Luke had opened his mouth to say something and then gets derailed by Eliana's comment. After a moment of being nonplussed, he grins. "She's right, it is better to know stuff. Anyway, I don't think you're being a know-it-all and you're not annoying us. So it's okay." He smiles reassuringly at her. 06* Simmie nods. "you will tell me if i start to bother you, right?" 06* Luke shrugs. "Sure. I don't think you will, though." 01 Sure, I can tell you. 06* Simmie nods and smiles. "thank you" 06* Luke turns back to the book, that resolved (he hopes). He turns the pages carefully and eventually spots something that looks like a date. "Umm . . . 'Despite Morofreesee's defeat in 1632, much . . . destruction? . . . remained, so that even now, twelve years later . . . " he reads haltingly. Then he stops to do quick math in his head. "That's . . . 1644? Wow, this book is older than the unification." 01 Unification? 06* Luke looks down at it in near awe, then blinks up at Eliana. "Oh, um, of Scotland and England, sorry." 01 Oh! 06* Simmie nods. 01 I thought there was some kind of wizard unification or something. well... there was. several of them. stopped wizards from various countries fighting each other. 06* Luke nods. "Yeah, I just should've said which one I meant. And I think the wizard unification for Scotland and England wasn't at quite the same time as the not-magic one, but they thought it'd be easier for people, so . . . " 06* Luke closes the book and replaces it right where he found it on the shelf, then turns around to grin at the two girls. "Still not as old as Hogwarts, though. Come on, let's keep going." 06* Simmie nods. 06* Eliana keeps walking, then, looking at all of the strange, intersting books with old bindings. 06* Luke follows Eliana, looking around at nearby sections of the library as they turn the corner to a new row of shelves. Suddenly he stops, blinking. "Hey, how come there's ropes around that part?" 06* Luke points. 06* Simmie walks over to bookshelf and gestures with her hand. a nearby ladder starts wheeling its way to her. she is halfway up when she hears Luke. "oh. that's a restricted section" 06* Eliana stops, too, and looks at the rope. 01 There's a *restricted section*? You mean, people aren't supposed to go there? How come it's just part of the regular library, then, and not somewhere else? 06* Simmie hops down. "well of course. that's where they keep things we aren't supposed to read yet. or ever. depends on what is in there" 06* Luke blinks. "That's silly, if it's stuff we're not supposed to read ever, though. It'd be better to lock it up." because if you have access to it, you'd want it in the library. and not have to go somewhere else 06* Simmie looks confused as to why it would be any other way. it is locked up. you can't get in 01 Yeah, what's there to stop us from just crossing the rope? 06* Eliana walks on up to said rope and looks at it. It's just rope. 06* Luke blinks, confused. 06* Simmie looks at Luke and Eliana like they're crazy. "um... magic?" 01 Uh huh. 06* Eliana pokes at the rope. She doesn't catch on fire. Yeah, but . . . if *some* of the stuff in there you're not supposed to read ever, and some of the stuff in there it's okay to read eventually . . . why's it all together? I mean, what if someone goes in to read something they're allowed to and reads something they're not allowed to instead? i wouldn't try it. when i was four, i tried to run and slide under one once. i woke up two hours later in the infirmary 06* Luke makes an 'eep!' face and turns to Eliana, torn between wanting to get her away from the rope and her probable reaction to that intervention. 06* Simmie turns to look at Luke. "maybe there is another rope beyond it. or maybe you don't see the rope if you have access, you only see the rope that marks what you don't have access to" there are places in the library that don't have ropes but did when i was younger 06* Luke considers that, though he's still casting anxious glances at Eliana. "Huh. I guess that makes sense . . . " 06* Eliana is still looking at the rope, thinking. "Okay," she says finally. 01 Maybe I'll get in later. 06* Luke smiles in mingled relief and cheer. "Yeah. It'll be neat to be able to look at more of the library when we're older! And anyway, there's still plenty to look at now." [At this point, a short, pretty girl with glasses and dressed in Ravenclaw robes emerges from the section carrying a stack of books. the one on top is open and she seems to be reading from it as she walks through the break in the ropes, turns and starts down another isle towards the reading room] 06* Simmie ducks behind a bookshelf automatically, then blushes when she realizes she doesn't have to hide anymore. old habits. 06* Eliana spots the Ravenclaw and walks towards her quickly. "Hi," she says. "Excuse me?" [The Ravenclaw stops but doesn't look up from her book.] 06* Eliana waits for the girl to finish reading whatever it is. 06* Luke follows Eliana at a short distance, looking at the girl curiously. He gets a bit more self-conscious as he gets closer and realizes she looks older than them, though. [Saffi doesn't look up. "yes?" she asks after a few awkward moments of silence.] 01 When and how did you get access to the restricted section? 06* Simmie catches up to the others, but still stays a bit behind them. she bites her lip anxiously. 06* Eliana doesn't seem scared or intimidated by the fact that the girl's older than her. [Saffi peers over the top of her glasses at Eliana for a moment. "which one?"] 06* Eliana blinks back at Saffi. "The one you just walked out of." [Saffi shifts the books in her arms so that she can free up her right hand, which involves using her chin for a moment. she reaches into her robe and pulls out a small, dark, polished wooden disk clasping three Ravenclaw blue ribbons and looks at it. she then shows it to Eliana before tucking it underneath the open book and re-adjusting the stack of books so it is easier to carry. "third year ribbon, so last year."] 06* Eliana tries to understand. "Ribbons...?" 01 So they give you ribbons so you can access different sections, and different sections are allowed when you're certain years? 06* Luke overcomies his trepidation since the older student doesn't seem bothered, and he's *curious* about that disk. "Neat." [Saffi looks back down at her book. "yes. is that all you needed?"] 06* Eliana nods. "Yeah. Thanks." 06* Simmie nods. "i have seen students with those before, but didn't know what they were," she says softly. [Saffi nods, turns back towards the reading room and resumes walking down the isle with her books, reading.] 06* Eliana smiles at the others. "Now we know! Want to keep looking?" 06* Luke nods enthusiastically. It's so enthusiastic, in fact, that he bounces up and down on his toes as he does it. "Definitely!" 06* Simmie giggles softly at Luke's enthusiasm. "sure! we still have all day" 01 [And so, the friends continued their Library Adventures.] 01 [End!]