You Look Suspicious ((Sara))

[Ivy Tunstall]

Ivy had loaded what must have been half of the schoolbooks she owned into her bag before setting off to the library. She'd be going home for Christmas in just a few days, and to be honest she was relieved to be getting away from it all. She was sick and tired of school, and chronically unhappy from not being sure where she stood with a particular friend. Her eyes filled with tears against her will as she remembered that actually, home wasn't going to be that welcoming, and that the person she regarded the same particular friend she wanted to get away from for a while as being the closest thing to 'family' that she had. Oh, Charlie. Ivy shrugged her bag onto her shoulders a little more comfortably as she entered the library. The space was cold: the castle was cold in general at the moment (although the Hufflepuff Common Room was stuffy instead), but the high ceiling of the library made it even colder than the rest of the castle. Madam Pince had a fire going near the librarian's desk; there were fireplaces in some other dingy corners of the library, but there would be none near the windows where Ivy preferred to sit. It would be lighter there, but cold; in previous years she had seen ice crystals on the inside of the single-glazing.

She'd come to the library intending to get several pieces of work polished off. These comprised a substantial Charms essay, a star chart for Astronomy that she'd already completed in a rudimentary fashion but needed to perfect, a bit of practical work for Ancient Runes, as well as a long essay that was also a Professor Greene assignment. She'd tackle the Charms first, since she liked Charms and she had quite a bit of time to bite a chunk off that task. She might need a rest part way through, at which point she'd do her Astronomy or Ancient Runes practical. It was a sensible plan, or at least Ivy thought so. She dug a piece of parchment out of her bag and headed off to the Charms section in search of the book title she'd copied down from one of her reference books, which recommended it as being 'particularly illuminating on the subject of Cheering Charms'. It was funny that she was learning about Cheering Charms at the moment, Ivy thought to herself with an actual smile. She could probably do with one right about now.

Somebody else was already looking at the Advanced Charms section, although it was a bit strange that they were looking there, since they seemed a little bit young to be looking there yet. Then again, Ivy supposed that she herself had taken a couple of books home from there at the end of her fourth year, Charms being the subject that she'd always had a special aptitude for. But it was the way that the girl was applying pressure to the edge of the bookshelf (by leaning on it) that made Ivy think she might be doing something wrong. Last year Ivy had discovered a concealed door there, by doing exactly the same thing in all innocence. It had started glowing as she leaned on it, and when she had then touched the spot with her wand, it had turned into a door handle. The door simply went to the other side of the bookcase. The significance? On the other side of the bookcase was the Restricted Section, and a part of the Restricted Section that Madam Pince couldn't see. The use of the concealed door was quite plain. Not that Ivy wanted to use the Restricted Section - the books there made her want to shudder most of the time - but because she knew about it, her Prefect alarm bells were ringing now that she'd seen this girl there.

"Hello, are you lost?" Ivy challenged the girl in a none-too-patient tone. Seeing that she'd got her attention but not set the younger girl scuttling off, she clarified the meaning of her question. "You look suspicious. Do you know what's on the other side of that bookcase?"

[Sara Malvagio R4]

Sara had gotten up late this morning, late even for a Saturday morning. Sara had always gotten up at an earlier time then anyone student she knew, her dorm mates often complained about her alarm going off at seven or eight in the morning. She had a strict morning routine of getting up early, taking a shower, getting ready and studying for her classes or doing homework. Today was different however, Sara had gotten up at eleven o’clock. Her dorm mates had come in to wake her and tell her breakfast had ended. She had felt a little unnerved to see four girls crowding around her bed asking if she was feeling well but Sara knew why she had overslept.

The night before Sara had done something she didn’t normally do; she had snuck out after curfew to snoop around the library. It was not the first time she had stayed late in the library, usually hiding in a deserted corner with a lamp. Last night had been her first night in the Restricted Section, without permission. Sara had been tracing her family’s history, which appeared often in most Italian written history books. Her father had mentioned to her that her great-great-great uncle’s medical journal might be in the Hogwarts library. Sara knew enough about her twisted uncle Lorenzo Malvagio to surmise that the journal could only be found in the Restricted Section. According to her father the book contained a personal account of the research he had done on blood magic and the people he had worked with, and in most cases, tormented.

Sara could not think of a good excuse to be looking for a medical journal so she had tested out a rumor she had heard from a seventh year Ravenclaw. Supposedly there was a hidden door into the Restricted Section. Sara had spent the better part of the previous night combing the library walls searching for the passageway. After two in the morning Sara could no longer keep her weary eyes open and made her way back to the common room to get some sleep. After waking up this morning Sara had sought out the Ravenclaw and found the exact location of the secret entrance.

Sara had gotten ready that morning like any other, she even brought her homework and a book to seem like she was going to the library simply to study. Sara made her way to the Advanced Charm section in a colder part of the library and was glad she had chosen to wear a warmer jacket that day. She peered at the books, pretending to look for a certain charms book while really she had placed both arms on the edge of the bookshelf and was applying pressure. Sara had just gotten ready to take out her wand and tap the bookshelves to allow her access when she heard a demanding voice call out to her. “You look suspicious. Do you know what is behind that bookshelf?”

Immediately her mind screamed that she was caught but Sara quickly altered her appearance so her demeanor wouldn’t give her away. She quickly looked the girl over. She could tell that she was older, and her robes gave the obvious impression of a Hufflepuff. Sara knew she was a prefect by the shiny pin that was on the front of her robes. She slowly removed her hands from the bookshelf and faced the girl fully. Sara felt her confidence rise knowing that this girl could not know why she was in the library and with a look of upmost innocence, and a slight tone of curiosity, she answered, “No, why is there something behind it?”

[Ivy Tunstall]

A split-second flicker of guilt and panic. Ivy might have imagined it, but she didn't think so, however much it might have been replaced with wide-eyed innocence since then. She regarded the girl with narrowed eyes: she disliked it when she suspected that people were trying to deceive her, and with her current underlying personal worries, she was less likely to drop anything that served as a distraction to them, or to admit that she might be wrong when she was pretty sure she was right. Ivy assessed the younger girl more closely now that she was facing her; when she was suspicious, Ivy's scrutiny was quite searching and sharp. The Ravenclaw's face looked mature and her eyes intelligent, probably unconsciously capable of expressing much emotion (much as Ivy's own eyes were, although that didn't occur to her). The innocent expression the girl seemed to be affecting was a bit at odds with the facial features she had; the straightforward Hufflepuff wished that the girl would simply own what she was about. It would be so much easier.

"Yes, the Restricted Section is just a metre or so from where you're standing," Ivy said, and added with a touch of scorn: "Do you really expect me to believe that you don't know that after being here for three years?" She pondered for a moment, turning quite conversational. "Four years? I beg your pardon, I don't know which year you're in although obviously I can tell you're not in my house." She would have known what year a Hufflepuff was in at sight: she considered it her duty as a Hufflepuff Prefect. It was difficult to tell what this girl's age was; Ivy had a significant height advantage on her, suggesting that the Ravenclaw was quite young, but the maturity of the face suggested she was about in fifth year, although Ivy was pretty sure that wasn't the case since she knew who the majority of the fifth years from all houses were.

Ivy sighed very slightly and walked past the Ravenclaw so that she could find the book on Cheering Charms that she herself was looking for. Although she was actually fairly sure, from the all-too-innocent reaction she'd received, that some rule-breaking had been in the offing, it wasn't as though she had actually caught the girl doing anything wrong and anyhow nothing would be happening while Ivy was here, that was for sure. Quite a strict Prefect, but not a fanatical one, Ivy saw no reason to pursue the matter further, although as she pulled out a very heavy Charms reference book that was always useful whatever topic they were covering, but far too antiquated to be on the list of essential textbooks for the year, she did ask a further question in a friendlier tone:
"What book are you looking for?" The invaluable Charms book went down on a nearby table with a heavy thud, and Ivy started scanning the bookshelves again for the specific one that had been recommended, running her index finger over the titles without glancing back at the Ravenclaw - she was busy so she needed to multi-task.

[Sara Malvagio R4]

Sara dropped her eyes, she found it impossible to look directly into the Hufflepuff's piercing gaze. She knew she was caught but the girl hadn't called her out for it. Sara didn't believe that knowing the entrance into the Restricted Section would be enough to land her in detention, the girl didn't know why she wanted to get in after all. Sara also figured her innocent expression hadn't fooled her. Her brother had told her many times that she could not lie, her body position and facial features gave her away. Sara sighed and decided hiding from this prefect wouldn't help her. "So it is here then," Sara said as she turned her back and gazed at the books, a hint of longing in her eyes. "I had heard from an older Ravenclaw that a student could get in this way," she said dejectedly.

Sara couldn't help it, she had been trying for so long to reach the journal, which outlined the horrors of her family's past, and now it seemed as if the book would loom forever out of her grasp. She dropped her book by the table and sat down sharply in the chair, she managed not to let her shoulders sag as she had been taught by her grandmother many times. The book hadn't seemed important a few weeks ago when she first learned of it but after her father had forbidden her to go searching for it Sara's innate sense of curiosity got the better of her.

The girl had stood up and herself began looking for a book, Much more convincingly then I had, Sara thought wryly. The prefect had changed her tone though, it was lighter now as she asked her the question. "Do you mean the one from the restricted section or the one I'm supposed to be pretending to look for in Advanced Charms," she said as her voice took on a slight lilt. Sara had decided being candidly honest would be a better solution then to try and hide the truth from this obviously sharp prefect, who had most likely known about the door for a while and probably caught students attempting to break in once in a while.

[Ivy Tunstall]

Ivy was immediately glad when the Ravenclaw dropped her pretence of innocence and smiled privately to herself when the younger girl had turned away to look at the bookcase once more. It was only Ivy's sense of loyalty to a friend, or deep grief, that could call up her deepest anger. Confrontation without that backup was tiring even if Ivy was in a bad mood, and so she was glad that the Ravenclaw hadn't insisted upon prolonging it for too long. She glanced sharply at the girl as she revealed her knowledge of the secret doorway, sounding very disappointed about being thwarted. It made Ivy feel a bit cross that some older Ravenclaw was making her job more difficult by passing on such secrets to younger students... they should be left to find out these things by themselves, to keep the number of students Prefect has to police down. At least, Ivy thought so. And actually, she didn't think it was doing a younger student any favours to tell them how to access the most disturbing reading available in the library.

"Had you now?" she asked in response to this comment. "How very irresponsible of them to tell you that." She pulled out the book on Cheering Charms that she'd been looking for and returned to the table where she'd dumped her heavy bag and the larger textbook. She felt a bit sorry for the younger girl, who was looking very despondent, and sat down opposite her, speaking more kindly and softly. "You know," she said gently, as she took out a pad of parchment and loosed a few sheets from it on which she could write her essay, "I'm not sure they've done you any favours by telling you that. The Restricted Section is 'Restricted' for a reason. The books in there are pretty unpleasant. When you get to studying for your NEWTs, you might occasionally have to go in there to get a book for something you're actually studying in class, although thankfully not often at all. Even just looking at some of the titles has been enough to disturb my sleep for a night or two. I suppose you think it's a store of knowledge you can't get your hands on anywhere else... and it is that... but you're probably best off learning as much as you can about conventional magic before encountering anything more twisted, if you can help it."

Putting her bag on the floor to give her more room, Ivy took out her pot of ink and quill, and started sharpening the latter of these items with a knife she usually used in Herbology. She smiled a little at the girl's answer to her question, although she wasn't able to answer it quite in kind because she didn't have any particularly ready wit. She wrote her name on the first piece of parchment and copied down the title out of her notebook before replying. "I suppose whichever one you'd prefer me to mean," she said. "Perhaps the one you were actually looking for?"

[Sara Malvagio R4]

OOC: Sorry I haven’t replied in so long. I have been practicing like mad for my Forensics Tournament and we just started rehearsals for our school play so my time has been limited.

Sara nodded slightly but couldn’t help feeling sad about missing her opportunity at reaching the journal. She head some loud muttering from the table over from their section but wasn’t able to make out what the people were saying. “I’ve been in the Restricted Section before,” Sara admitted softly. “It was in my second year, on a dare. That time I was supposed to ask a teacher for a note and then go and get the foulest book I could find. I was absolutely terrified, the stories I had heard,” Sara shuddered slightly as she remembered. “I could never had imagined ghosts and monsters coming out from books but the screams some of them uttered when you opened them,” Sara cut off suddenly afraid she had spoken too much. “I don’t blame the Ravenclaw girl too much, it was my choice to try and sneak into the section after all.”

Sara saw the girl begin to work and was unsure if she should stay around. Sara had just decided to leave when the girl responded to her original reply. She decided to stay and maybe get some work done. Sara pulled out her own homework, glad that she had brought actual work with her. It was her Charms homework. How appropriate, she thought wryly. She took out her favorite self-inking gray quill and began working. “Well, the book I was looking for is an old family book,” Sara said to her homework. She didn’t want to look up as she felt the blush creep up her neck. “It was my great-great-great grandfather’s journal.”

Sara stopped suddenly unable to reveal what the journal was about. She had only written a few lines and dropped her quill. Her head dropped slightly and she raised her hand to steady it. She looked at the table and shook her head slightly. “I just don’t understand it,” she said quietly, “I don’t know why I need this book so much but my family…my family’s history is dark and I just wanted to know more.” Sara looked up at the girl with pleading eyes. “Ah I know it’s wrong,” Sara said with tortured smile. “I’ll forget it eventually. I’m Sara by the way,” she said suddenly, realizing that she had yet to introduce herself.

[Ivy Tunstall]

Ivy smiled at the girl as she sat down opposite her. Ivy's demeanour was fast becoming friendlier, as she sensed that the Ravenclaw wasn't about to give her any more trouble, and because she believed that she was getting honest replies. Perhaps even more honest than the Ravenclaw had intended, Ivy thought as one sentence cut off rather quickly, but she smiled to herself, not minding. It was a bit late to go punishing her for a second year expedition now, when she hadn't been caught at the time. Besides, from the sounds of it, she'd managed to gain a teacher's permission, which was actually fairly impressive. Ivy looked up 'Cheering Charms' in the index of her book, only giving a short reply:
"I'm surprised that experience didn't put you off from going in there again. It would've put me off, for sure."

Ivy turned to page 352 and stared at the book with an expression of shock on her face. She'd forgotten how small the print was in this textbook! She flicked through a few pages and looked really quite staggered by the time she'd estimated how long it was going to take her to read the section. Talking seemed a much more desirable option, and Ivy ended up musing a little to herself, although outwardly she was talking to the Ravenclaw.
"I'm not altogether sure it wouldn't have put me off Hogwarts, in fact... I wasn't so sure to start with whether this was where I ought to be. And soon I'll be leaving!" she marvelled to herself. She could barely believe it; she couldn't imagine being separated from her friends for any longer than the duration of the summer holidays, and she wasn't ready for it either. Her friends meant everything to her now, and here she and Charlie were barely even talking, wasting the little time they had left together at school.

Ivy stared at the textbook page in contemplation, biting her lip, one of her normal ways of stopping herself from showing too much emotion when she was feeling upset, a way of maintaining her dignity. Nothing had happened in the past few minutes to upset her, of course, but Ivy wasn't really particularly happy at the moment. It was fortunate that Sara chose this moment to own up to the details of what she'd been looking for. Although she was listening carefully, Ivy didn't look up at her and so missed the girl blushing. She wouldn't really have understood the cause of the embarrassment even if she had noticed it. She looked up and smiled as Sara introduced herself.
"Hi, Sara," she replied with a laugh. "I'm Ivy. So what year are you in, then?" (She hadn't been sure before). "I'm in seventh year now."

Ivy tugged at her hair, thinking over what Sara had just said. She tilted her head from side to side as she thought.
"From what you've told me," she said finally, "I don't see that it's so wrong. It's natural for you to be curious when it's your own family. Not that it's really my business to tell you whether you're in the wrong," she added hastily. "But you know," she added after another moment's thought, "if you have a legitimate reason for wanting to see the book, you should be able to persuade a teacher to sign a permission slip for it... you managed it when you were in second year, after all! Just don't forget that the journal's going to be in the Restricted Section for a reason. Have you..." - here she hesitated, slow to refer to Sara's family because she knew from her own exceptional circumstances that it could be awkward answering any question which required some concealment of the truth if you wanted to avoid a big fuss. However, the hesitation only showed momentarily as she decided to continue with her question. "Have you talked to your family about it?" she asked.

Ivy glanced down at her textbook page and was once again overwhelmed by the mass of minute print she had set herself the task of reading. "You don't happen to have a magnifying glass, do you?" she joked, staring a little glumly at the page, her wand tip hovering over each word as she magically enlarged and shrunk them again in turn.

[Sara Malvagio R4]

"It should have put me off," Sara said as she began poking holes in her parchment with her quill. She always chose to keep her quills sharp so even if she wrote a lot they wouldn't dull down too much and cause her to keep resharpening. "When something is forbidden it makes it more attractive. That's how it's always been, with everything in my life. I bet it runs in my family," Sara added with a sigh.

The girl had begun doing her homework but she didn't look too interested. Her eyes seemed to be unfocused as she stared at the small writing in the book. Sara was pleasantly surprised when the girl looked up again. She began explaining how she didn't think Hogwarts would be a match but seven years had passed since then. "Graduation," Sara repeated, a tad stunned. "I couldn't imagine that, you're just a few months away from starting the rest of your life."

Sara saw the girl look back down to her book and noticed that a trouble expression seemed to pass through her face. Sara was glad she had lightened the mood and when the girl resurfaced she seemed happier. After hearing her name, Ivy, Sara responded to the question. "I am just a lowly fourth year," she said letting a somber look fall into her eyes before smiling. "But sometimes my workload makes me feel like I should be taking my O.W.Ls this year."

Sara nodded her head as Ivy responded to her outburst. For some reason Sara felt completely at ease with this older girl and, against her better instincts, explained why she had been trying to get into the restricted section.

"I know my reason might seem like a good idea but for some reason I wasn't able to bring myself to ask a teacher. You see my family doesn't really have the best history," Sara said dropping her voice a little in case anyone happened to be listening in. "The history of how they rose to power in Italy is filled with deaths and now that I've moved away from it I wanted to uncover where it all began. The journal I was looking for it, well, it wasn't any ordinary journal." Sara chewed the bottom of her lip nervously wondering if she could really confide in this girl. Feeling that Ivy wouldn't have probably cause to tell anyone she decided to continue in a strained whisper, "It's about blood magic," she said as her eyes dropped down to the table and she returned to poking holes in her parchment.