TERM 6 - A Rough Day - Library - Hunter VanDerberg, Willow Meana

With a sigh, Hunter pushed open the door to the library and let himself inside. He had never been in the library before, and he was surprised to find it so crowded. His eyes scanned the room and finally located an empty table. He made his way to it and pulled out a chair, taking a seat. He set his things on the table and pulled out his Defense Against the Dark Arts book, flipping it open. He was looking for information on Boggarts, whatever they were, as that's what Professor Elldir had said they'd be working on next class.

Hunter had been a little upset that he'd been placed in Group B, especially since Aoife had gotten into Group A... but he supposed he couldn't really be surprised. He didn't know about anything the professor had brought up in class. Hunter had always been concerned that he'd be behind everyone else because he was a muggleborn, but Defense Against the Dark Arts had unnerved him more than usual. Finally, he found the page about Boggarts and got to reading. He was determined to show Professor Elldir that he wasn't incompetent. He was going to be as good a wizard as any.

Willow entered the library with a couple of books in hand and her bag on her back. She looked around a few moments for a spot to study, clearly the term was fully underway now as the library was full of students from all houses and years studying and working on homework. It had been so quiet in here the first couple of days.

Her brown eyes scanned the library for an empty table, they were all full! She scaned the library again for the least empty table, or a table where someone she knew sat. She managed to find both in one go, there was one table where just a boy from a few of her classes sat. She walked over to that table and pulled out a chair beside him. "Umm... hi, is it ok if I sit here?" She asked softly looking at her shoes.

So a Boggart was something that turned into whatever you were most afraid of. That was... different. And unnerving. What was Hunter most afraid of? He wasn't really sure. His eyes scanned forward in the text, but averted upward as someone approached him. A girl with dark hair stood next to him, her hand on the back of a chair. He instantly recognized the girl from some of his classes. She was a first year, like him. She asked to sit, her voice quiet, and didn't quite meet his eyes. She was obviously shy.

Hunter offered the girl a smile, and nodded, sliding some of his things out of the way so that she had room to lay her own things down. "Of course," he responded in a friendly tone, inclining his head toward the seat to invite her to sit. He let her get situated before speaking to the girl again. "My name's Hunter," he said easily. "I'm a first year, too. Gryffindor," he informed her. He glanced back down at his defense book before looking back to her. "I'm just trying to get a head start on the next Defense lesson. I wasn't nearly prepared enough for the first one. I got put into group B," Hunter admitted, frowning.

Willow smiled as he invited her to sit. "Th-thanks." she said softly as she set down three large books and hung her back, heavy with more books on the back of her chair. She pulled her wand out of her robes "Accio Quill, Accio Ink, Accio Parchment." she made a quick movement with her wand for each time she said accio and the items she named quickly made their way onto the desk in front of her. She smiled a little to herself as she arranged everything in prime position to take notes from the books.

She looked in Hunter's direction without meeting his eyes. "I-I'm Willow, Hufflepuff first year." she said softly to him. She frowned a little when he said he was being put into Class B in their Defense Against the Dark Arts Class. "I'm sorry Hunter... I can help you study if you like... I'm in group A." She blushed a little and said this even softer than she had introduced herself. She didn't want to make him feel bad!

She began taking notes from several of the texts on dark witches and wizards and the unforgivable curses and other things she thought may come up in the first class of Class A. Her brows furrowed, this really was nasty stuff! She began to wish that she was in Class B.

Hunter watched on as Willow summoned her supplies to her. That was impressive - he couldn't do that. He smiled at her as she introduced herself. "Well, it's nice to meet you, Willow," he said kindly, hoping to make her feel a little more at ease. "Hufflepuff, huh?" he said. He hadn't met many Hufflepuffs yet. Only Dierdre. "D'you like it there? I was almost positive I'd be in Hufflepuff when I learned about the houses," he informed her.

She frowned as he admitted that he'd been placed into group B, and offered to help him study. A blush rose on her cheeks as she told him she was put into group A. He shook his head and offered her a grin. "No, don't worry about making me feel bad about it, I figured I'd be put in group B the moment he brought it up. My friend Aoife's in group A, too!" he said, shrugging his shoulders. "But I'll be taking you up on that offer, you know. If I ever need help I'll go straight to you," he grinned at her. "Right now, I'm just trying to figure out what my Boggart would be."

Willow smiled warmly towards Hunter. "It's nice to meet you as well!" She said a little more calmly. "I tend to stick to myself in the common room and such, all my spare time goes to studying. I'm pretty behind the rest of the first years because I'm muggle-born..."

She smiled at Hunter again, this time looking up at his face for a brief second. "I know Aoife! She's very nice and really smart." She laughed. "The Boggart will turn into whatever you're most afraid of, then you just simply have to think of a way to make it silly and cast Riddikulus and it'll get upset and try to go away."

With that she went back to her own book and began making notes on the unforgivable curses. She shuddered. "I think I'd rather be in Class B... nasty horrible stuff we're talking about in class A..."

Glad to see that she was relaxing around him, Hunter nodded at her words. "Apparently, that's what I should be doing. I didn't realize how much less I'd know - I'm muggleborn, too!" he informed her eagerly. It was always nice to meet others who understood the strangeness of Hogwarts in the way that he did. "I still haven't wrapped my mind around it, honestly. I thought for sure I'd be bad at everything." At first, Hunter was bad at everything. "Luckily," he continued, "it turns out I'm not so bad at potions. Or flying, not that it's the most important part of being a wizard!"

Hunter laughed when Willow seemed to recognize Aoife. "Yeah, she's something else, that's for sure," he said, grinning. "And I mean that in a good way. She's one of my best friends!" Hunter added, smiling.

He nodded as she confirmed his concept of a Boggart. "I'm sure that would be easy, if I knew what my worst fear was," he responded, his face becoming slightly concerned. "But I don't think I'm really afraid of anything, in particular. Like, I'm not afraid of spiders or the dark or anything like that. Guess I'll find out next class, won't I?" he said, though his voice was less confident than usual. He didn't like the idea of finding out in front of a classroom full of people.

"Really?" he asked her when she said she'd rather be in Class B. "Like what?" He remembered the professor talking about unforgivable curses, which sounded bad. But Hunter didn't know anything about them, really.

Willow smiled as Hunter explained his strengths were exactly the classes that she was struggling in. She laughed a little at this, it really did take all sorts. She smiled when he mentioned Aoife and nodded. "I know what you mean."

She shrugged to his admission that he didn't know what his worst fear was. "Just be prepared and don't let it catch you off guard, boggarts like to do that."

She shuddered when he asked what they were studying in Group A. "The real dark arts. Dark witches and wizards and the spells and abilities they tend to weild. The unforgivable curses are unforgivable for a reason. Casting a single one of those will put you on a one way trip to Azkaban, the Wizards' prison. Imperius which we talked about controls another person and it takes a really strong will to break out of it. Cruciatus tortures the person it's cast on physically and mentally. Then there's the killing curse which well... kills. It's all really horrible stuff and I don't like talking about it."

She really was a bit of a know-it-all but only in a few certain subjects. She could never get her head around potions or history not to mention flying, she was horrified of heights!

Hunter made a face as Willow described the things that she would be learning in Group A. "I don't like the sound of any of that," he admitted, shaking his head. "Maybe it really is better that I'm in the easier group. I don't know about any of those things, really. And they don't sound like they're very pleasant to talk about."

Hunter thought about Professor Elldir, and imagined that he likely didn't have a problem discussing such things. "What do you think of Professor Elldir?" he asked Willow, tilting his head curiously. "I mean, since you're muggleborn, too. He's seems a little big-headed when it comes to blood, doesn't he?" Maybe it was just in Hunter's mind, but he didn't think so. "He makes me feel like he'd fail me just cause my parents aren't magic." Hunter hoped that that wasn't true, but it did seem like it.

Willow thought on this as she continued to make notes, every so often making a nasty face as she read something particularly horrible about what would be coming up in her Defense Against the Dark Arts class. "I really wish I was in Group B... this is horrible stuff..." she said idly as she continued with her notes. She was avoiding Hunter's question about the Professor until she was sure exactly how to phrase it.

After a few more minutes went by she finally set down her quill and looked at Hunter."I think he's very strict and passionate about his class however he has this edge to him that really scares me. I also agree with you, he does seem a little hung up on blood status, though if he were going to fail us just because of that Aoife and I wouldn't be in Class A." She said this softly, slowly and gently and immediately returned to her notes after she was done as if to let Hunter know, in her own way, that she'd like that to be the end of that particular topic.

Hunter returned his eyes to his book as he waited for her answer. He hoped that he hadn't made her uncomfortable by it. He decided that if she didn't answer, he wouldn't ask her again, but she looked up after a minute and responded. She admitted that the Defense professor scared her, but made the point that both Willow and Aoife had gotten into group A. "That's true," he admitted, nodding. "I still don't like him," he added, remembering the way he'd taken points from that Aylee girl for no reason, and how he'd given Aoife detention.

Willow's attention reverted back to her notes immediately when she'd finished talking, and Hunter took this to mean that she didn't really like what they were talking about, and decided not to push the subject. He flipped a page in his Defense book and read through it in silence for a while. When he finished the section on Boggarts, he flipped it closed and looked to Willow.

"Are you going to Professor Elldir's Party?" he asked her curiously. He hoped that the question didn't bother her, since she hadn't liked talking about Professor Elldir, but this wasn't exactly about him. Just the party. "It's only for Group A, but Aoife invited me, so I'm still going to be able to go! It should be fun, I think." He was glad that Aoife had invited him. After talking to Willow, he decided that he was glad he wasn't in Group A. But he still wanted to be able to go to the party, and now he could.

Willow nodded after a moment looking at Hunter with a smile. "Yes I am, I'm so glad Aoife invited you, if she didn't I would have." She returned to her notes again adding quietly "It wouldn't be as fun if you weren't there."

Hunter smiled as Willow informed him that she would have invited him if Aoife hadn't. "That's nice of you," he said, looking at Willow. She was still being a little shy, but he thought that she was a really nice person"Well, now we'll all have fun!" he pointed out. He had only just met both Willow and Aoife, but he could definitely see the three of them becoming really good friends throughout the school year.

The thought came to Hunter that he had never really seen Willow without a book. "You do a lot of studying, don't you?" he asked her. "I don't really have the attention span for it. In muggle school, I never studied. I always did okay, though. Not great, but I passed. I think I'll have to study more here, though, if I want to do well."

Willow smiled at Hunter and nodded. "I didn't study much when I was in muggle school either, it was boring. Magic is much more fun but since I'm muggleborn and I want to keep up I have to study extra hard."

She giggled a little. "Want to see a spell I just learned recently?:

Hunter definitely agreed that muggle school was boring. "Magic is more fun," he said, nodding. "I was home schooled," he informed her. "So it wasn't quite as boring as it could have been. But magic definitely beats listening to Mum go on about algebra and literature."

Willow then offered to show him a spell that she had just learned. "Yeah, definitely!" he said eagerly, grinning. Though he wasn't great at any spells yet, he loved watching others perform magic.