We Have A Library? (Open)

Nina was lost. She hadn't explored this part of the castle before. She wandered down a long hallway, almost enjoying herself. She would've been enjoying herself if she wasn't scared about never finding her way back to the main parts of the castle that she knew. Nobody was around, which scared her even more. Why did she have to go exploring a new part of the castle? What if she got lost forever and nobody found her and she'd end up being a ghost stuck here? That wouldn't be fun...

She was starting to get really nervous now. She took a strand of her hair and started twirling it around her fingers. All of a sudden, she started hearing voices. She grew hopeful that she had found her way back to civilization. She had started to panic about what Sarah or their grandmother would think when the headmaster had to write to her and tell her about her disappearance. Ok... maybe she was being a little over dramatic. She over thought things when she got scared.

She made her way to the room with the noises. It was a strange room with a strange smell. A smell that she had never smelt before. It didn't smell like warm chocolate chip cookies fresh out of the oven, nor like week old trash that needed to be taken out... It smelt old... just old... Kind of like a place Sarah might like to hang out. She hadn't seen her in a while, so maybe she was hiding in this old smelling place? She took a look in. She didn't know what she was expecting. Maybe unicorns and rainbows, but certainly not this.... It was rows and rows of books. She had come into uncharted waters.

A place she wasn't familiar with. A place she had never been. She walked further in, and noticed that there were more people here than she expected. She held her arms close and was almost afraid...  It was a library. She didn't even know Hogwarts had one. Apparently they do...

Ariel had been trying to find a nice spot to study, but then completely given up as her determination to do homework dimmed considerably. So, while walking the long corridors, she thought of some plans to prank people. She thought about pranking the Slytherins as this was the enemy house. She had yet to meet a cruel Slytherin, but it was all in the spirit of history and all that!

But how could she prank them? She didn't know where their common room was, and she was pretty sure she didn't get the chance to go inside the common room to set a prank. But the Great Hall...? The tables were set. Slytherin had set seats. So she could maybe do something with the chairs? However, she didn't know that many spells yet...

Maybe she should simply find a dark corner and screw up her face to make everyone think she was a ghoul or something! That would be fun! Maybe even a Banshee! They were freaky times a thousand! Ariel thought harshly about this, laughter and giggles escaping her lips as she imagined the scared people.

And then she walked past the library. Ariel stopped. She looked at the door as if she didn't understand what the doorway meant. Was this karma? Her thinking about pranking the life out of people and then walking past the best place to do homework? She pursed her lips and weighed her options. Homework or pranks? Well, that was easy... Pranks definitely. But making up plans while walking around, or checking to see if she could find some suitable spells? She stood there for a moment, people walking by her, giving her weird glances. Not that she cared. She simply beamed so hugely at them that some frowned and looked away, and some laughed and smiled back. She liked the latter people the best.

And then she decided to do some research on spells. She walked inside and saw a girl standing there, looking stiff and almost afraid by her posture. She looked the same age as Ariel. Wait... Wasn't that one of her roommates? She hadn't talked much with her roommates, really, she had always gone to bed as late as she could, and then collapsed into sleep. Nina, wasn't it?

"Nina?" she said, her voice hesitant but happy. "Are you here to study?" Maybe Ariel would study too, to give Nina the impression that Ariel was a nice and sweet and innocent girl who would never prank anyone in the entire world. Besides, Ariel wouldn't prank her roommates. They were bound by a bond that could never be trifled with. Except maybe apart from the waking other people up part. She did love to splash water around.

Nina looked around in wonder. She had never seen so many books! Books were piled high on desks, and almost to the ceiling on the bookshelves. She sighed and was almost overwhelmed.

She twirled her hair around her finger. Somebody spoke to her. She turned to face them, and noticed one of her roommates... or so she thought... She didn't speak to them much.

But she knew her apparently. She said, "Nina?" Like she wasn't sure if that was her. She nodded and looked into the room with the books. The girl asked her about studying. Is that what people did here? She didn't know. She shrugged and said, "I got lost. I wasn't sure where I was going, I hadn't been around to this part of the castle before..."

She looked at the girl. She said, "Sorry... your name is Ariel, right? We are roommates I think." She probably shouldn't of said, "I think" She just didn't pay attention to detail very much.

And by detail, she meant anything really. Like her roommates names. She asked, "That's what this place is for? I haven't seen my sister in a while... maybe she's been hiding out here...." She sighed and looked around, and was disappointed to not finding her in the library. She shrugged and wanted to make friends with this girl.

She seemed nice enough... But she knew that looks where deceiving...

Ariel grinned at the blackhaired girl. She seemed to recognize Ariel, though it also seemed a bit distant. Perhaps she couldn't quite remember, but she Ariel didn't say anything about it. It might be that Nina found it embarrassing if Ariel pointed it out, and Ariel didn't really wanna bother the girl.

So she shrugged and nodded. "I've gotten lost a few times myself. But you say you haven't been to this part? That's a bit weird, since it's so popular," she said lightly, "Didn't you know that we had this library?" Ariel had found the library after two days, because she had been so busy preoccupying herself into finding all the places that could help her with pranks. And though books weren't the most amazing things in the world, she had found something about two twins and some people called the marauders in here. They had great pranks, so they were her idols!

Ariel didn't have to worry either. Nina remembered her name and the fact that they were roommates. She beamed at the girl and nodded. "That's right! From now on, we should talk more in the dormitory! After all, you've all seemed nice up until now!" she said happily, never one for deciding a person was cruel before she actually knew them.

"Who's your sister?" Ariel asked, thinking it was cool that this girl had a sister as well, because that made them more similar as Ariel's sister was also here at Hogwarts. Nina looked a bit disappointed though, as she obviously couldn't spot her sister. She smiled at the girl and shrugged. "If she's older than you, it's probably because she's got a lot more homework to do," Ariel said softly.

She then looked around, and smiled. "Do you want to join me? I'm going to do some research, but it's much more fun if you join me!" she said happily.

When Hunter had escaped class that day, he'd run straight up to his dormitory to take a quick nap. Because he wasn't at home and he could do that. And it was great, but unfortunately when he woke up, there was nobody around. As in the common room was completely empty. With a sigh, Hunter sunk into the couch, waiting for someone interesting to pop in. But after ten minutes of sitting around by himself, Hunter accepted the fact that nobody was going to be coming to cure him of his boredom. And he was so bored.

Where were Aoife and Blake? Certainly not anywhere together because they were stupid and they hated each other. With a sigh, he dragged himself from where he was sitting and made his way out of the common room. He pushed the portrait open and stepped out, determined to find at least one of his friends. But where to look? Aoife could be absolutely anywhere. Probably outside somewhere, since it was a nice day. But there was a high probability that Blake was in a very specific place - for whatever reason, Hunter's friend loved that place.

Hunter hated the library, but he figured that it was worth popping his head in the door to see if Blake was inside before heading all the way out to the grounds to find Aoife. He ran down the stairs two at a time, finally swinging a left to head down the unfamiliar corridor that connected to the library. Hunter rarely traveled in this direction.

As he reached the large library doors, he took a breath before pushing them open. Hopefully Blake would be sitting right by the front and Hunter wouldn't have to go searching for him. He stuck his head into the door and glanced quickly around. He didn't see Blake, but he grinned as his eyes did catch sight of a familiar face. Pushing the door open all the way, he stepped through and strode up to a pair of girls standing right by the entrance.

"Well if it isn't my favorite first year," he said brightly, beaming at Ariel and throwing an arm around her shoulder. He was getting rather good at ignoring the stupid feeling in his stomach that came from Ariel's veela-ness, but he still felt a bit smug as his arm brushed against her shoulder. Stupid veelas. "And don't tell my sisters I said that," he mumbled to her jokingly. He turned to address the dark-haired girl who was standing with Ariel. "I'm Hunter," he said, flashing the girl a smile. "And, er... Sorry, but I don't know your name." She'd been sorted into Gryffindor. That was all he knew. "I was looking for Blake," he told Ariel. "He's a bit of a loser sometimes, so I thought he might be in here. Have you seen him?"

Nina smiled at Ariel. Of course they should hang out more. They were after all, house/roommates. A boy came up to them, and draped his arm around Ariel. They must be good friends... Nina thought. He then introduced himself as Hunter. What a peculiar name... She said, "Hi, I'm Nina Martin."

She didn't know who this Blake kid was that he was speaking of. She wished she was more social. Maybe this was her chance to meet new friends. She then forgot that Ariel had asked her to go study with her. She nodded and said, "Sure, I'll study with you."

Ariel was felt a sense of victory as Nina smiled and basically confirmed that they did indeed have to hang out more. So she was smiling a big smile, but before Nina had the chance to reply to her question, a voice Ariel recognized easily appeared from the entrance and an arm was soon around her shoulders. "Hunter!" she said happily. And then she laughed. "Don't worry, I won't! Because even though they are amazing people and definitely my friends, I became friends with you first!" she said, thinking that was very reasonable.

Ariel smiled at Nina as Hunter introduced himself, and she gave him her name. Ariel liked this; more friends and more friends who could become friends! And that did make sense in Ariel's mind. She then frowned at Hunter saying Blake was somewhat of a loser to be in the library. Jokingly so, but Ariel shook her head.

"My dear Hunter," she said in a very grown-up ish tone. "You are looking at the library in a completely dumb way! Don't look at all the boring information about spells you can get, but history! The history of previous pranks! And spells to make pranks very successful!" Ariel was grinning from ear to ear now, her eyes having turned away from Hunter and looking up into the roof with stars in them. Ah, pranks.

She then looked back at Nina and beamed. "Goodie! Will you join us, Hunter? You never know, Blake might show up after a while!" she said, hoping she was right; Blake was her first magical friend! Apart from her family of course. And those dull next door neighbors.

She then chose a table and dragged Nina with her, not waiting for Hunter's reply, knowing it was probably going to be a yes. And if not, well, that'd suck for him!

Blake stood at the shelf the librarian had directed him to earlier, deliberating about checking out the book he had in his hand or staying back late to do his research in the library. Ever since his train ride to Hogwarts with Ariel something had been nagging him about what Ariel had termed herself as. 'Veela’. He had no notion of what the word meant, but apparently Darcy was one too. Instead of swallowing his pride and asking what it actually meant he continued to keep up his charade on the train of actually knowing what it was. He also deliberated about asking Hunter about it either, but anytime he thought about bringing up the subject the pesky redhead, Aoife was always in their company and he could imagine the fun she’d have with him about not knowing what the word meant. So Blake had come to the only place he trusted to give him an answer without judging him. As he was about to skim through the index to see if the book was going to give him any information on the subject he wanted to learn about, as he was pretty skeptical by the title of the book: 'Magical and Fascinating Creatures.' Blake nearly dropped the book on his toes as he heard who had approached, one shelf over. As there was a gap in the shelf through the books, Blake stood on the tips of his toes and looked through the hole, spotting Ariel and Nina. A smile broke out onto his face at the thought of Ariel's company. He supposed the other first year wasn't too bad either, he still remembered their Forbidden Forest encounter and recalled how she had severely damaged his manly ego. His smile promptly disappeared when he realised that he didn't want Ariel to realise his lack of knowledge about the magical world and he quickly hid his face from view again.

He was wondering if he should just dump the book on the shelf or risk sneaking out of the library with it when he overheard Hunter joining the fray. And what was he doing here? Blake nearly dropped the book once more in shock. He had never seen of or heard of Hunter in the library before. Blake looked through the hole in the row of books once more, making sure his ears weren't deceiving him. Well it was him alright. Realization spread across his face as he heard why he was here and he didn't hide his feelings about the library in the process. The twat, Blake thought as he suppressed a laugh and shook his head at Hunter's comments.

The group soon dispersed to a nearby table and Blake followed, deciding it was time to announce his presence. "Hi Ariel and Nina!" He beamed at the pair. "Nice to see some fellow Gryffindor's at the library." It didn't seem like a popular hangout for his housemates. "And hi Hunter." He said, giving the boy a dig in the ribs before quickly moving out of range from a retaliation attack. "That's for calling me a loser." He said, sticking his tongue out at him in an immature fashion. "And what are you doing here? I thought you were allergic to the library or is this a mirage?" Blake asked, feigning shock at seeing his friend crossing into the threshold of the library. "Better not stay to long or you might turn into a nerd!" He joked as he took a seat at the table next to the girls, placing the book in his hands on the table next to him. "Just some research for class." He commented, trying to act blase about it. He supposed it wasn’t the best cover story seeing as he didn’t take Care of Magical Creatures.

"That's right!" he agreed happily with Ariel when she agreed to keep his statement a secret. "I mean it, too. Because if we're being honest, Lyn would probably cry if she knew I'd said it. And then Lyra would get angry because I upset Lyn, and she'd find some way to get back at me." That was usually how things went at least. "Better to just avoid that whole messy business, if you ask me!"

Nina Martin was the other girl's name. "Nice to meet you!" he said brightly to her, although he'd probably forget her name the moment he left their company. There were so many first years to remember. "Have you met the twins yet?" he asked the dark-haired girl curiously. "My sisters - don't worry if you haven't met Lyra, she can be a bit of a brat. She just got into Gryffindor as well! But Lyn's great to talk to!"  Maybe he could make Lyn some more friends? Hunter was always on the lookout for friends for his quieter sister, since she was too shy to really make them on her own. He hoped that she would mold into Lyra's group of friends, and his own, which would probably largely consist of the same people.

Hunter crossed his arms, removing his arm from Ariel's shoulder, and raised an eyebrow when she started to lecture him about looking at the library all wrong. "Well I never thought of it that way," he said slowly, pretending to be thoughtful about what she'd just said. "But then, that seems like a lot of work when I can just ask you - since you apparently spend your free time studying up on the history of pranks." He grinned at his own words, but his grin quickly faded when she suggested he join them at a table.

"You mean you want me to go all the way over there?" Hunter called to her as she crossed the room to a table without waiting for his response. His eyes skeptically scanned the large distance between the chosen table and the closest exit - what if he needed to make a quick escape? Well, if he didn't want someone in particular to see him there, he could always duck under the table... "I should have gone and looked for Aoife first," Hunter grumbled to himself as he dejectedly trudged across the space to the table that Ariel had claimed.

Just as he was starting to pull a chair out from the table, a voice startled him from behind and he felt something collide with his ribs. He quickly spun around to see who the culprit was, and allowed a grin to spread across his face when he saw that it was Blake! "A loser AND a sneak," he said with a laugh, considering the fact that Blake had been listening to their conversation without showing himself. "I already said, I was looking for you. Nobody's in the common room!" Hunter repeated. "If I told you I was a mirage, would you believe me?" He slid into the seat next to Blake, as it seemed that Blake didn't have any intention of leaving just yet, and peered curiously at the book that had been set on the table. "For which class?" Hunter asked a bit suspiciously, his interest piqued. "We don't take Care of Magical Creatures."

Nina smiled at Hunter who was describing his twin sisters, one a Hufflepuff and the other a Gryffindor! Just like her and Sarah! Nina said, "No, haven't met either of them yet. But I'm sure I will soon!" Ariel had dragged them over to an empty table as she wanted to study something but wasn't sure what. Nina was still looking around for Sarah. Maybe she was in the deep corners of the library studying. That seemed like the most logical thing that she would do.

At that moment, she jumped back when something ran into Hunter. But then she realized that it wasn't something, it was someone. Another boy. Nina smiled. She was making so many friends today! But then she realized who it was. It was that Blake kid who she met outside the Forest. She slumped as she sat down in her chair next to Ariel.

She didn't know how she felt about the Blake yet. But her first impression wasn't to great. Maybe that would change. Curious as to what Ariel wanted to study, Hunter said something about studying pranks. She didn't do many pranks, but she thought it would be fun to do one!

She asked, "Are we going to do a prank!?" She asked excitedly.

She had always wanted to be apart of something big. And now, maybe this was her chance!

Ariel rolled her eyes dramatically as she walked over to the table at Hunter's comment. But she had taken his comment about just asking her for information about pranks instead of reading up on the subject in the library as a very fine compliment, so she was in a rather good mood. She sat down and blinked as Blake seemed to come out of nowhere, and grinned. Now both Hunter and Blake were there. This was going to be jolly!

She laughed at the comments they threw at one another, but stopped instantly as Nina asked if they were going to prank someone. She sounded excited. "YES! Yes we are!" Ariel said, her smile widening even more, and her eyes sparkling with a golden glimmer. "We just need to find our target first," she said slowly, her mind already in the process of scheming.

Who? "Is there someone beyond serious in this place that would go mad if the person was pranked?" she asked the three there, her eyes changing from a bright blue to a much darker shade. She was going to make everyone relish in her pranks! Be they angry or not, they were going to admire her work! Like with the marauders and Fred and George Weasley! She would walk out of school as a hero! She would be placed in these books!

"What!?" Blake questioned innocently when Hunter referred to him as a sneak. "We don't?" Blake asked dumbfounded by Hunter's comments on them not taking Care of Magical Creatures. "Oh right." He said, finding the perfect excuse to rid himself of the book. He threw it on the desk behind, promising himself he'd come back for it later. Blake idly wondered where Aoife had snuck off to seeing as Hunter and her seemed inseparable recently, or so it appeared to him.

Blake laughed at the idea of them trying to pull off a prank. They were only first years, plus Hunter. But they obviously needed his help and expertise and he was here so he decided he might as well stick around and see the fun enfold. "Fine I'm in." Blake said dramatically as if it was such a big deal to have him on board even though no one asked him.  

He also noticed Ariel's eyes changing colour and presumed it was from the excitement. He wondered if anyone else had noticed, it was kind of hard not to when your eyes changed colour! But it was only a different shade of blue and maybe he was looking for the littlest of changes since the train journey. He glanced around to the others wondering if they had noticed anything different. He guessed Nina would know all about Ariel's cool powers seen as they shared a dorm together.

"I know someone." Blake smirked. Blake didn’t have to rack his brains too hard to know who he’d like to prank. She’d also have a pretty funny reaction, although Blake didn’t know if it’d be a positive one. She probably would end up hating him more, not really a bad thing though. She’d probably take it in good humour if she thought the others were behind it or just go mad altogether and hate them for the rest of her life. She was liable to go either way. "Aoife," Blake said shrugging, trying not to bring too much attention to the fact that he had nominated the girl that he had being at loggerheads with for some time now. "Just a suggestion."

Okay, there was definitely something going on. Blake completely blew off the topic, and Hunter was pretty sure that Blake wasn't the type to randomly forget which classes he was taking. That was something Hunter would do, actually. But for the moment, Hunter let it drop. He'd be sure to bring it up again later, though.

Everything was fine though, because they wanted to pull a prank! "Oh, as if you don't want to!" Hunter laughed when Blake acted as though they were dragging him along. "So what's the plan?" Oh yeah, they didn't even know who they were going to prank yet. That was probably a good thing to know before forming a plan. Who would be good to pull a prank on?

Ariel wanted to do it to someone serious. Blake wanted to prank Aoife. Hunter wasn't surprised. "Quick to come up with that one, weren't you?" Hunter said, rolling his eyes. Actually, pranking Aoife wouldn't be that bad of an idea. Though she would probably hit him. But Aoife was hardly serious - she probably wouldn't even care that they'd pranked her. While thinking, Hunter unconsciously scanned the library. And suddenly, they landed on Morgana Gaunt, sitting alone at a table not too far off from them, studying something.

Morgana Gaunt. Did he dare? After a short internal debate in which Hunter weighed the pros and cons, he announced his idea. "What about her?" he said, his voice hushed so that Morgana would have no chance of hearing him. Most people wouldn't be listening to a bunch of first and second years chat, but he had this feeling that Morgana was the type to hear everything, even if she wasn't really listening. "Morgana Gaunt," he explained to the others. "Very serious. And a bit terrifying. And very good at magic."