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Post by Nokomis Astarra H5 on Sept 12, 2004 12:08:25 GMT
A rather skinny Hufflepuff second year made her way down the empty hallway towards the library. Most of the other students were taking advantage of the few warm days left, and were spending their aternoon until dinner outside in the sun--but not everyone. Nokomis, finally reaching her destination, pushed the library door open and stepped inside. There were a few students scattered around, but it was quiet. She sighed slightly--and found an abandoned corner to settle down in.
Her corner wasn't viewable from the door and well known to Nokomis. She had spent a lot of time here the year before when he only goal was to disapere into the shadows. Now though, she sat here only because it was familiar. She wouldn't mind a friend joining her...
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Post by Ivy Tunstall on Sept 12, 2004 12:22:00 GMT
Ivy picked up her Charms books and stuffed them into her bag. The Common Room was getting too noisy to concentrate in. She had enough trouble managing to concentrate even under quiet conditions.
Sighing, she pushed her way through the throng of people blocking the entrance and made her way out. Where could she go? The first classroom she passed was occupied by Peeves. She hurried on, not wanting to provoke him into picking on her.
She walked for a while before coming to the obvious place to work - the library. She entered really rather timidly, glancing around the room. Madam Pince, the formidable librarian, glared at her. Ivy moved swiftly on, trying to find somewhere out of her line of sight.
She passed a table which a fifth year Slytherin was occupying almost entirely. She couldn't see any free space on other tables, so reluctantly she set her things down on the little free space left. The Slytherin glanced up and sneered at her. Ivy hastily gathered up her things once more and moved away.
She wandered around the library for a bit before coming to a little corner she had almost forgotten. Nokomis was sitting there. Her mood lightening substantially, Ivy put her things quietly down beside Nokomis.
"Hi," she said in what was almost a whisper. "Mind if I sit here?"
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Post by Nokomis Astarra H5 on Sept 12, 2004 14:52:25 GMT
Glancing up from her parchment, which was rather blank other than the words 'Nokomis Astarra, Beginners Charms' scribbled across the top.
Hearing a distantly familiar voice she looked up and smiled, seeing the older girl setting her stuff on the table. She smiled as she saw Ivy. They had met on the train to Hogwarts, and then sat beside enough in charms. Of cousre in class, there was little interaction, but it was still something.
"Not at all"
She replied, moving her open charms book to her other side to make more room for Ivy. She was having a hard enough time trying to focus on her charms homework alone, but she was glad for some compay. Besides, Ivy was in her class too, maybe they could do it together.
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Post by Ivy Tunstall on Sept 12, 2004 16:34:44 GMT
Ivy smiled warmly as Nokomis moved some of her stuff to make room for her, and took a seat next to her.
"Doing your Charms?" Ivy enquired, opening her copy of The Standard Book of Spells by Miranda Goshawk. "Mine's turning out to be a hopeless case," she asserted, pointing to the piece of parchment on which she had written her name and a scarce amount on 'Wingardium Leviosa'.
"I couldn't concentrate in the Common Room," she declared, smiling at the skinny girl next to her. "But maybe it's just a problem with my Charms. I'm all right at doing the spells, but when it comes to writing about them..."
She gave a sigh of exasperation and looked over Nokomis' shoulder to see that she had written even less than she herself had. 'Well, at least she isn't about to have to wipe the slate clean,' Ivy thought wryly, feeling a mixture of amusement and annoyance at her failure.
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Post by Nokomis Astarra H5 on Sept 12, 2004 17:37:25 GMT
She smiled slightly as she looked down at her own rather blank paper. She then glanced over at Ivy's, who at least had a slight amount more than she did
"My problem is where to start. What was the assignemnt again?"
She asked, almost to herself as she leaned over and started to dig through a rather old, beat up looking baby blue backpack.
A few moments later she sat up again, trying to flatten a rather crubmpled scrap of parchement
"A 100 words....That is....a foot of parchemnt?"
She half asked again, trying to think. She was too use to the muggle world and their forms of doing things.
"About the charms we did in class and what we need to remember when we do them"
She sighed slightly, looking back over at Ivy, wondering why they had such trouble starting an assignment that wasn't supose to be that hard....
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Post by Ivy Tunstall on Sept 14, 2004 21:30:11 GMT
Ivy could see Nokomis was almost as exasperated as she was - she was muttering to herself.
Ivy sighed and took out a fresh piece of parchment.
'Ivy Tunstall, Hufflepuff 3rd Year', she wrote at the top of it, in her small, cramped style. Her mum had always used to complain about that... she shook the thought away.
She enscribed the title, 'Charms Homework, Beginners', and then paused.
'Wingardium Leviosa:', she wrote, before giving up with a loud expulsion of air.
Nokomis asked something about how much 100 words was, mentioning feet.
"I haven't the foggiest", Ivy admitted to her. "I still haven't stopped thinking in centimetres."
"You know..." Ivy burst out, then stopped. "You know, I just wonder, if this is an easy assignment, what are they like when they're hard?" She looked at Nokomis with mock dismay.
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Post by Nokomis Astarra H5 on Sept 15, 2004 12:04:11 GMT
She looked up at Ivy, her blue eyes a little wider at the meantion of harder assignments. She didn't even know what a harder assignment would be like...there were harder spells that what they were doing in class, and she could hardly believe that expected her to do them in a few years.
After a moment she shook her head as if to break a train of downword swirling thoughts.
"I don't even want to think about it"
She admitted looking down at her page again.
She started her sentence about Wingardum Leviosa. Thinking to herself about how many times she had to repeat the spell in order to get it right.
"At least I have a lot to say for what I have to make sure I do...."
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Post by Ivy Tunstall on Sept 16, 2004 20:53:28 GMT
Ivy could see a flicker of alarm growing in Nokomis at the mention of harder assignments, but it seemed to die down again.
What should she say to her? Ivy wasn't sure, but one thing she did know was just how tired she felt. This library was nice and warm... how nice it would be to drift off...
She snapped herself out of it, reminding herslf sternly that she still had work to do.
"I don't know..." Ivy remarked, not particularly sure what she was talking about. "I've just written... stuff that probably doesn't make the slightest bit of sense anyway. Like about pronoucing it right and how it's pronounced." She wondered, embarassed, just how confused and wrong she must sound.
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Post by Nokomis Astarra H5 on Sept 17, 2004 1:58:12 GMT
She looked over at Ivy with slight confusion. It was almsot as if Ivy had forgotten where she was for a moment, then mabe back, but nothing line up right for where she left off.
Nokomis shook her head slightly, trying to get the thoughts out of her mind. If she kept thinking about that, she was likly to confuse herself.
"I'm not too bad at the pronouncin gof things, but I tend to mess up the swooshing"
She replied, blushing slightly over how simple the task was, yet she needed it re explained to her ever class
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Post by Ivy Tunstall on Sept 17, 2004 16:31:35 GMT
Ivy could see that Nokomis looked slightly embarassed, as if she was remembering something that made her cringe inwardly. She remembered that Nokomis had needed some help in class - she supposed that might be the matter.
She moved her chair over so she was sitting nearer to Nokomis and leaned over her shoulder to look at her work.
"But that looks fine," she said, "it's definitely got to be better than mine." 'Not that that's all that hard to do', she thought dryly.
"Oh dear," she sighed audibly. "I don't know how I'm ever going to get all this done. And we have Quidditch practice too..." Ivy mused.
She hoped Nokomis didn't think her too strange.
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Post by Nokomis Astarra H5 on Sept 18, 2004 13:12:48 GMT
She gave a half smile at the meantion of quidditch. She would much rather do that than her charms homework. She liked charms, but she was never good at homework, and doing poorly always made her feel embarassed and more self concious.
"I'm excited about our pratice though."
For the second time in their conversation, her face flushed again in slight embarasment.
"I have never really played before....or even played with someone else."
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Post by Ivy Tunstall on Sept 18, 2004 15:45:44 GMT
Nokomis gave a feeble smile at the mention of Quidditch. She didn't seem all that happy today, Ivy thought. Was there something up? She'd never seen Nokomis look overjoyed though, she reflected. She just must hide her emotions more than other people.
"I've never really even flown much before," Ivy said, feeling secretly reassured that she wasn't the only one who didn't have much experience, even if Nokomis had slightly more than her. "I don't really know how I managed to make the team. But you're quite athletic anyway, unlike me. I'm sure you'll be fine. Me I'm less sure about."
Ivy was becoming increasingly aware that time was getting on and she still hadn't finished her homework. 'It can wait,' she told herself. 'Never put homework before friends'.
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Post by Nokomis Astarra H5 on Sept 18, 2004 16:58:59 GMT
She gave a brighter smile at Ivy's last comment. Friends. Ivy thought her a friend. She tried to push away all of her self concious thoughts, and she shut her charms book and pushed her partchement aside.
"You are ride, Friends come before Charms"
She commented, nodding slightly, as if agreeing to her own comment.
After that her mind wandered back to Ivy's words about her quidditch skills. She had never seen Ivy fly before, but she guessed that the older girl was better than she was letting on too.
"I hope pratice goes well. I think most of the team is new this year"
She thought for a moment, she had been the first to make the team, and then Ivy and Jordan had tried out, and with a little encouragement, Nokomis guessed, Kyila tried out too and filled out the Hufflepuff team.
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Post by Ivy Tunstall on Sept 18, 2004 21:30:31 GMT
Ivy saw Nokomis' mood lighten considerably. She must have thought something that made her happy, though what it was Ivy didn't know. 'Shame', she thought, 'could have been useful'.
Ivy could see some disbelief in Nokomis' eyes when she commented on her lack of experience. 'Great,' she thought, 'just what I need if I have to live up to expectations I can't meet.' She pondered this gloomily for a while before looking up at Nokomis, saying,
"I think quite a few of us are new. I mean there's you, and me, and Kiyla and Jordan. Anyone else?", Ivy asked, knowing that the slight and athletic girl she was talking to seemed to be quite knowledgeable on Quidditch and especially the Hufflepuff Quidditch team. But then Nokomis knew Kim a bit better than she did, she supposed.
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Post by Nokomis Astarra H5 on Sept 18, 2004 22:05:23 GMT
She shook her head at the question. Those were al the new players their house team had aquired.
"No. Kim was on the team before, Valerie I think has been on the team for a while. She plays seeker now....and then Gram something, I never met him, but he is a beater."
She paused for a moment, amazed a now much she had just said.
"I guess if all the chasers are new, none of us will make the others look bad"
she commented, giving her a half smile to show that she meant the comment to be light hearted
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Post by Ivy Tunstall on Sept 19, 2004 10:47:04 GMT
Ivy looked skeptically at Nokomis as she commented about none of the new chasers making each other look bad.
"Hmm...' she commented, "I'm not sure about that. Any other Chaser will be able to show up what a buffoon I am." She lapsed off gloomily, hoping Nokomis didn't think she was being difficult.
Gram...Tonovan? Wasn't he that seventh year? Ivy pondered the matter, her look of gloom replaced by one of concentration as she scoured her mind to see if she knew anything about him.
"So...", she asked, playing for time while she thought about what she knew of Gram (although a cynical part of her mind was questioning why she wanted to), "does that mean the team is full now? Have we got someone for every position?"
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Post by Nokomis Astarra H5 on Sept 20, 2004 13:13:21 GMT
She gave Ivy an encouraging half smile as she put herself down again. People looking down on themselves always made her feel bad.
"I'm sure your better than you think you are. I'm sure everyone is and we will do great this year."
She smiled again, thinking about their team
"And yeah, its a full team this year. Amazing huh?"
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Post by Ivy Tunstall on Sept 21, 2004 20:42:27 GMT
Ivy chose to ignore Nokomis' misguided comment on her ability to play Quidditch. There was obviously no point in arguing with her. She wasn't making her point forcefully, but certainly insistently.
"I guess," Ivy replied in answer to Nokomis' question. She didn't really know whether it had been a question or not but she answered it noncomitally all the same.
"It's hardly as if Hufflepuff is like Ravenclaw, where everyone is trying to get on the team.", Ivy asserted emphatically, surprising herself quite a lot by doing so.
In fact, that last comment worried her. She hoped it hadn't offended Nokomis, she thought, suddenly alarmed.
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Post by Nokomis Astarra H5 on Sept 23, 2004 16:11:40 GMT
She managed a soft smile after that comment. It was true. It seemed like the Hufflepuff team was scraping for team members where others had people trying out simply to make reserve. But she forced hersefl to shrug if off
"So...even if we just barely have a team, at least its something."
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Post by Ivy Tunstall on Sept 23, 2004 19:35:18 GMT
Ivy decided it was time to change the subject.
"How are you finding this year so far?" Ivy asked. "For me second year wasn't too bad... except I didn't have all that many friends exactly."
Yes, a few imaginary ones perhaps, Ivy thought. And you got to know some people really well without even speaking to them. You don't usually make friends with people as quickly as you have with Nokomis. Ivy shook the thoughts off. She felt she had known Nokomis for a lot longer than she had. The quiet girl had reminded her of herself.
Ivy looked back up at Nokomis, her eyes expectant and waiting for an answer.
'Don't let me have picked the wrong topic', she thought.
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