Occupying Time ((Ed))

[simone]

“Gerbil please. Please? Please?” Simone begged her owl as he stared down at her as if she was crazy. He was a little upset that she hadn’t been up to see him since school started but… what was she to do? It’s not like she had a million people she was corresponding with back home… it was really just her parents and Wesley. Plus she didn’t exactly have time to be writing an excess of letters – this was her OWL year. So with her course work on top of the beginnings of revising and a social life… it’s not like she had hours on end to come spend with him. Simone sighed with resignation and pulled a handful of sunflower seeds out of a bag she had brought with her just in case this happened and held it up to him. Gerbil took the peace offering at once and flew down where he started munching on the seeds in her hand allowing her to tie the letter to her parents onto his leg. Simone pet him until he had finished when he looked at her with his big eyes. “Oh none of that you’ve had your treat. Go take this to Mum and I bet she will spoil you.” Simone told him before dropping her arm so he was obliged to fly off through the hole in the roof to deliver her letter. Sometimes she swore he seemed almost human in his emotions and the way he expressed them – a very cunning self absorbed one at that.

With a sigh Simone went down the halls with no real objective in mind. She had some homework to. Writing to her mum was done. No classes today. Homework can wait. With that she turned down the corridor to the nearest staircase and made her way to the Student Lounge. She passed a number of people in halls – it must be getting colder out. You could always tell the weather was turning sour because nobody wanted to go out anymore and the halls felt as crowded as a Monday morning even in the middle of a Saturday. Nobody out there was worth talking to though.

She pulled on the heavy door and was meet with the smell of smoke from a fire. Rather unfamiliar scent in the middle of October… But a welcome one none the less. Simone was never one of those who cried at the first snowfall or anything – winter was as much a part of life as summer was. Of course she preferred summer but… What could anyone really do about it? She took a step in and noticed it wasn’t too busy though it was more so than it had been the weekend before. Thankfully a few seats were left though and Simone walked over to a chair in the far corner away from the fire – where she figured it would be much too warm – and dropped her bag. Taking out a textbook and scroll of parchment Simone set up on a table and crossing her legs under her began taking notes.

[Edward Summers R6]

Homework, homework, and more homework! Thats all this year was going to be for Ed. NEWT's were harder than he had expected. They required a lot more studying that OWL's had. Ed had spent many sleepless nights either studying for tests, or finishing up homework. Of course, it was his own fault. He had decided to completely fill his schedule with every class possible. He somehow wished that he could figure out how Hermione Granger had been able to get to her classes during their third year. Had he actually stopped and thought about it logically he would have recognized that having so many classes would eventually kill him.

Even now at this moment Ed hadn't been able to catch any sleep for almost a day now, and he still had mountains of homework to do. Anyone who looked at him right now would think that he was a walking stack of books. The stack that Ed was carrying was clearly to much for him. He had over 20 books. The stack went way over his head, it was a wonder that he managed to see where he was going. He had been in the Common room, but with no classes today the common room had been filled with many student's. The noise had finally driven him crazy and he packed up his books and headed off to the student lounge. Ed wobbled from side to side as he walked, the weight of the books carrying him from one side of the hall to the other. Making it nearly impossible for other student's to judge where he would be and to properly dodge him. Ed bumped into many student's on his way and nearly lost his entire stack with each bump.

Aside from these minor problems he didn't face any other problems until he reached the door to the lounge. Ed's head poked around the side of the stack of books and he looked down at the doorknob of the lounge. He frowned, when he went to release one hand to open the door his books would begin to fall. He stopped there and thought a moment. The doorknob wasn't one of those round knobs that you had to turn. It was more of a lever. Maybe, just maybe. Ed lifted his foot and brought it up to wards the doorknob. Bad idea! As soon as Ed got his foot to about doorknob height the weight of his pile shifted dramatically. "Oh no! No, no, no, no!" Ed began to fall back. Luckily his foot kicked the doorknob and the door to the lounge flew open. Ed was now dancing dangerously, trying to get the teetering pile of books under control. Ed's back slammed into the far wall and fortunately that was enough to finally get everything under control.

He stayed there for a moment to make sure he had everything under control. When he was finally satisfied he walked into the student lounge. He decided to leave the door open. Someone would close it later, and he didn't want to test his luck again. Poking his head around the pile again he searched the lounge and found an open table. He dropped his books down onto the table rather clumsily and they scattered everyone. "Gah!" Ed quickly dived onto the table to try and stop most of the books from falling off the edge. He overdid and went toppling over the table and landed on his back on the floor.

[simone]

Simone had been taking notes for a short time when the door swung open and she heard someone screaming no. She looked up only to see a pile of books with legs slam into the wall. She of course began to giggle and watched as the boy who turned out to be Edward – two years above her so they didn’t know each other too well – walk into the room and drop the books onto a table. She covered her mouth as she laughed even harder watching the books start falling everywhere – man was that boy accident-prone. Rumour had it that wherever Ed went chaos usually followed True to form he threw himself to the books and Simone only stopped laughing when he hit the ground and she realised he may have gotten hurt. Sighing Simone let go of her scroll and allowed it furl back up into it’s tight roll as she stood up. “You ok?” she asked standing over him. “Looked like a bit of a… rough fall.”

[Edward Summers R6]

Ed groaned. The world was spinning. The birds were flying around his head. Wait, birds? Ed shook his head and the birds finally started to disappear. Ed did a mental check of his body. It all seemed in order. Ed heard a voice above him. He opened his eyes and spotted a girl standing above him. She looked familiar. A Ravenclaw for sure, about a year or two under him. Ed threw a grin up at her and flashed the thumbs up sign. "It wasn't to rough. I'm fine." He said quickly climbing to his feet and straightening his glasses.

He looked down at the mess of books all over the floor and table. It was at that moment that it occurred to him that he could have used a simple featherweight charm on the books, or he could have levitated the books behind him. He sighed, he never thought of that at the moment that he needed it. He bent down and started to pick up the books and place them back into a neat pile on the table. He looked back at the girl from his kneeling position. "Oh, my name is Edward." He stood up and faced her. "I can tell your from Ravenclaw, but I can't remember your name at the moment."

[simone]

Simone watched the boy and he shock off his fall - he kind of reminded her of a corpse jerking as the life slipped out of it. Not that she had ever seen a corpse before but… who hadn’t watched one of those gory horror movie that make you want to hide and be sick at the same time. Wesley adored them – every Halloween when they were little they had a “scary movie marathon” in his basement complete with popcorn, gummy worms, and Halloween candy stolen from the front hall where his mum was giving it to Trick or Treaters. Ed then gave her a thumbs up and said he was fine. She couldn’t help but giggle – they would get along just fine. What a dork – giving the thumbs up – he must be the only one left at Hogwarts who does that. “Simone Davis. Fifth year. And you are the infamous Edward.” Simone answered proffering her hands. “So did you just clear out the library or something? I'm not sure Pince would appreciate all these books all over the place.” She asked with a smirk.

[Edward Summers R6]

Ed grinned as he struggled to hold onto the books. "Famous huh? I didn't know I was famous." He chuckled slightly. That action caused the books to slide down his belly and down his legs. Ed fumbled for it and missed. His sudden motion caused one of the books in his hand to be launched high into the air. The book nearly came down on top of his head but he managed to raise the last book in his hands above his head as a shield. Ed looked sheepishly at Simone from under the book helmet. "Heh, sorry."

Ed placed the book on top of the table with the rest of the clutter. He turned so that he had to looked at her sideways and knelt down and began to retrieve the books ones more. He glanced over at Simone. "Well, even though it does look like it, the library still has a lot more books." He glanced at the books on the table. "Half of those are my own collection." He stood up. "So, what do you have planned?"

[simone]

Simone raised an eyebrow at Ed when he asked about being famous. “Infamous I said. Very different connotations. I would assume that somewhere in all these books there would be somewhat of a description of the word infamous.” She said – not in a harsh way… just more matter of fact. Simone sat down in a nearby chair as Ed protected his head from a falling book with another. “You know, it may be safer to get up off the ground.” She said while taking a seat herself at the table with all his books. A quick accio and all her belongings were there too.

She simply nodded her head as he said half the books were his own. They were both Ravenclaws and of course roomed with Ravenclaws – Simone had rather a stockpile of books up in her room as well. “Planned for what? The rest of the day? Nothing terribly exciting – just some homework and perhaps some revising. The rest of the weekend? Same as my day. For Halloween? Sapphire and I are going as muses. For my future? I really don’t know. So how about you Ed? What do you have planned?” Simone asked with a sarcastic smirk.

[Edward Summers R6]

Ed couldn't help but grin as the girl teased him about his mix up on the word infamous. He couldn't help but nod in agreement either. "Well, I have to admit you are right." He shrugged a bit. "But than again they are pretty much similar. One just is a bit more specific." He placed some more books onto the table and pushed up his glasses. "The two definitions are so similar that I don't think there is any harm in combining them. Famous is being known by a large group of people. Infamous is nearly the same thing only you are known for a bad reputation."

It was at this point that the meaning of her sentence came clear to him. He grinned. "Hey, I wouldn't say I have a bad reputation." He listened quietly as she described what she had planned for the rest of the day, for Halloween, and for the future. Laughing slightly as she turned the question back on him. "Well, for the rest of the day. Studying. For Halloween, studying, and for the future. I'm looking to be some kind of scholar or historian in the Ministry." He shrugged. "That or I might be able to replace Professor Binns here at Hogwarts."

[simone]

Simone sighed as Edward tried to justify his mistake. “Sure, no harm in making them synonymous so long as you are fine with being inaccurate in your speech and perhaps even misleading. Not to mention being seen as either lazy or just plain stupid when people recognize your folly.” She said with a smirk. Truth was, as a Ravenclaw, she was actually surprised to hear him speak like that. Sure nobody liked being wrong but to actually condone inaccurate speech… She lifted her legs and crossed them while resting them on the table in front of her. As her feet thumped onto the table a book fell off and she leaned down to get it.

“No, not a bad reputation. A funny one. You are not “infamous” in the psycho killer sense. More in the – people will never forget watching you fall down the stairs and get hit in the head with a transfiguration book sense.” Simone said with a laugh as his seemed offended at her use of the word infamous.

“You are studying over Halloween? And yet you don’t mind the misuse of words. Aren’t you planning on going to the ball though? Come with Sapphire and I.” Simone said casually.