Study Time (Humphrey)

Derek had been having a very busy few weeks before the holidays. No, scratch that. He'd been having a very busy term. Third-year was a lot more difficult and filled with homework than one might expect. Being himself, he obviously wanted to do every insignificant piece of classwork and homework to the very best of his ability, which meant everything had to be perfect. Therefore, when he'd returned to his family's flat in Hogsmeade for the Christmas holidays, he'd been most glad to have some time to relax and enjoy himself. He'd realised that he'd grown up a lot recently - his little brother seemed very immature and childish, and he was sure he had grown out of a lot of the stuff he used to find delight in, like ice-cream every single day, even in the middle of the freezing cold Scottish winter. But he'd helped out in Puddifoot's a lot, getting paid a hell of a lot more than he did only working in evenings and weekends, chanelling his energy into something other than schoolwork. It had been alright, but he was glad to be back to the castle, where he had space to breathe and stuff to do and pretty ginger girls to admire from a safe distance.

Already, after two days back at school, he already found he had a lot of homework to do. He was in the habit of doing work the night he got it, so after classes and finishing work that day, he headed up to the library, like usual, to get on with this before dinner. Only, it was far too crowded for him to focus properly, or find anywhere good to sit. So instead, he climbed the stairs up to the Ravenclaw common room. It was a good place to study, usually, because most of his housemates were like-minded in that they didn't make loads of noise and shit and understood that one needed quiet when studying. He usually preferred the library though, because it was better for looking stuff up and finding books immediately. But he had no choice, so he ended up in the common room.

There was a nice designated study area in the common room, with a little cluster of tables and chairs to work at. It was quite busy here too, but he could see a free chair next to a younger boy who didn't look familiar. Derek went over and sat down, shooting a friendly smile at the boy. "Hey, I'm Derek," he introduced politely as he took some parchment and writing equipment out to start a Transfiguration essay which wasn't due until next week, but which was worth getting out of the way early before homework got really heavy. Even so, he was feeling quite talkative, so he wouldn't really mind if interacting with that boy resulted in conversation. The essay could always wait until after dinner if it came to that.