Relaxation Time ((Eric))

[Celia Richmond]

Celia yawned that Saturday afternoon. it was the weekend, finally! And she was tired! Well, i had been a pretty hard week in the lives of most 5th years. It had been a week of unofficial end-of-topic tests, in every subject, and all at the same time. Well, they still kept the normal timetable, and the only homework was basically revision, but tests were always hard and annoying, whatever they were on, however they important they were. She would much prefer just a normal week, with normal homework, and normal lessons which were test free (not counting rune-translation tests, perhaps, in Ancient Runes), to one packed with tests and revision. Even if the tests weren't that importannt, Celia always liked to do well, and revised thoroughly, but it was still a dull process.

But it was all over, for now. No more tests, and back to what she knew as normal next week, once all the results had been given out. Luckily, seeing as most of the homework was revivion for the tests, she had nothing to do work-wise, and decided that she needed some relaxation time after the hard week. Which for now would be just sitting by the fire in the common room with a good book, so she was comfortable, warm, and having a good time in whatever land the book she was reading was based in. And the less people in the room the better, as less people means less noise means more chance to concentrate. So she picked up her book from her trunk by her bed-The Hobbit, at present, and went down to the common room.

But when she got down there, her worst fears were confirmed. The room was full of mostly younger students, all chattering on about whatever homework they had, and looking over to the fire, there were no free seats at all. In fact, there were only 2 free seats in the whole room, situated together, and by one of the walls, so Celia went to sit in one of them with her book. It was a good story-she had read it for the first time when she was about 10 or 11, and she had read it about a further 3 or 4 times since then. She was also a fan of The Lord of the Rings too...she'd only read that twice though. In fact, she was a big fan of fantasy generally. She could delve into the other realms fairly easily, imaginining vividly what it would be like to be there...

But today was a bit different, seeing as the room was so packed with people. Normally she preferred to be outside, but the weather didn't permit today. Nevertheless, she would still try her best. So she started to read, and had no intention to stop once she had started-the moment was just too good to be ruined. So she sat there, in her own world, trying to block out any signs of life outside her book, as best as possible, for about 20 minutes, not really noticing what was going on around her. When she reached the end of her chapter, she noticed that a boy she vaguely recognised from her year as Eric had sat in the chair next to her. She glanced over at him...she didn't really know him, but he seemed like a nice boy...she sat there, wondering if he was going to say anything...she always liked making new friends.

[Eric Caolan R6]

Eric slumped out of Transfiguration class, feeling drained and practically mentally dead. He could not believe that he was even standing anymore, the magic of it made him smile slightly. Between Quidditch practice and the simple fact that school was kicking his butt, Eric did not feel like his usually carefree self. He pulled his books closer to his hip with one hand and loosened his tie with the other. He was glad the weekend was here finally, now he could get a bit of rest.

He stumbled into the common room, and frowned, another swarm of younger students all laughing and talking, or studying and moping. He thought that maybe he would spend the evening in his dormitory, but realized that he needed to be around the human race, even if only for a smidge longer. He trooped upstairs and dumped his books on the bed and draped his tie and robes over the side. He thought of changing into his street clothes, but decided that it would be pointless, seeing as how dinner was coming upon him. For now, he would just roll up his sleeves and sit in the common room, waiting to go down to the Great Hall.

No less crowded than when he first arrived, he found that there were generally no vacant seats, save for one. It was next to a Prefect girl, Celia Richmond he believed her name was. She was reading a book, one he did not recognize, seeing as how he rarely read books anyway. Deciding it was his only chance to rest his tired feet, he made his way over the chair and plopped down with a light thud. He grinned jovially at Celia, wondering if they had ever met before.

“Hi,” he said kindly, “Celia, right? My name is Eric. Hope you don’t mind if I join you, seeing that there are so many places to sit.” He waved his hand in a sweeping motion to indicate the overcrowded room and laughed. Leaning back in the seat, he folded his arms and stifled a yawn. “So…what’s your book about? Can’t say I’ve read it.”

[Celia Richmond]

Celia made a mental note of the number of the page she was on and closed her book. She thought it would be rude to continue reading when someone had come to sit next to her, and seemed to want to talk, and closing her book would limit that distraction. She wasn't in a particularly interesting place in the book...somewhere in the middle where nothing much was happening except they were still travelling along. They hadn't even introduced Gollum yet, and he was one of Celia's favourite characters. Not the sort of creature she'd like to ever meet, but an interesting character at that. She was also a fan of Gandalf, although now she was among real life wizards being at Hogwarts, she found the muggle versions of wizards slightly amusing, although there were some accuracies, but Gandalf was still a great wizard. To some extent, he reminded her of Dumbledore...when she pictured him in her head, she pictured Dumbledore, but in the sorts of garments Gandalf wore.

Anyway, Eric was talking to her now, so she banished all thoughts of Hobbits and Dwarves and the like from her mind and turned to the boy sitting next to her. "Yeah, sure, no problem...it is really crowded in here this afternoon, even for a Saturday" was her response when he asked if he could sit down, and "Yup, I'm Celia. Nice to meet you Eric" and a smile was her response to the introduction. She shared most of her classes with Eric, being in the same house and year, yet they'd never talked before, as they had their own sets of friends. But she'd seen him around, and thought he seemed friendly, and that he would be a nice guy to talk to.

Then he was asking about her book. "Umm, well, it's a pretty old book, but it's still one of my favourites. It's "The Hobbit". It's a muggle fantasy book. Basically it's about this Hobbit called Bilbo Baggins...Hobbits are these small creatures, that have strong feet and hence don't need to wear shoes. Then he's visited by a load of dwarves...don't ask me the names, there's too many of them and it gets confusing, and Gandalf, this wizard-he reminds me of Dumbledore in a way-and then they have to go on a quest into some far away land to get the dwarven treasure back. Yeah, it may seem rather childish, but it's still an amasing book. So, do you read a lot, or do you tend just to read when you have to? Or somewhere in between?"