Studying on Library

Edmond Carey

January 05, 2011 6:26 PM

Studying by Edmond Carey

By three-thirty on Saturday, Edmond thought he might have just translated the introduction to his Transfiguration textbook into French, then into German, and then back into English enough times to both write a comprehensive paper on relationships between the three and become calm enough to handle a rampaging re’em without blinking. Whether these preparations would allow him to retain his grasp of spoken English around Cassie, he had no idea, but he could at least rest secure in the knowledge that he had done his best.

This had been a very stupid idea. He should have casually asked her about studying after class one day, then maybe brought dinner into it after the fact. And possibly even had other people around for the first part; he was sure someone on the Quidditch team had to feel they owed him for something, especially considering he’d managed to hit the Crotalus captain with a Bludger during the finals, which would have, no doubt, made it much easier to reclaim the ball and score a goal if Jera hadn’t caught the Snitch just then. And if they didn’t, well, even his sister would have done. Of course, Jane would have teased him about it for the rest of their natural lives, but…still, she was going to be constantly making fun of him for something anyway, so what was the difference, really?

Unfortunately, he had made the error of overlooking his own tendency to immediately recoil in dread upon realizing he had gone out on a limb, and now he had to live with the consequences of it. And come as close to praying as he ever did that another of his tendencies, the one where things became much less bad than he’d expected them to be after a few minutes, kicked in before Cassie got the firm idea that she was friends with a complete moron.

He decided it would be a good idea to put away the parchments and dictionaries he’d used for those translations. He didn’t want her to think he was insane, either.

He didn’t know what Cassie would want to study, and experience from the past three years said he could stand to review anything, so he replaced those things with his textbooks and his notes, divided by subject and category, predominantly magical versus predominately non-magical. He also had clean parchment, extra quills, and extra ink. He had his wand, too, in case there were any spells they wanted to practice. They’d have to go somewhere else if most of the practical skills of Defense or Potions came into it, he thought Miss Simms might do them harm if they practiced most of that among the stacks, and he’d never forgive himself if he permitted damage to come to the books anyway, but as far as he could see how, he had prepared for everything that might come up.

When he noticed her – not, of course, that he was doing nothing but sitting around waiting on a girl, he just happened to be looking the right way at the right time – he stood up automatically, feeling one of those moments of gratitude for his childhood that he still had every so often even since he’d realized how abnormal it had been. The feeling went away instantly, though, when he realized how very strange it would be for him to bow over her hand in this context, and he quickly turned the gesture of reaching for hers into pulling out a chair for her. “Good afternoon,” he said. “You look…you look well today.” An understatement, as almost always, but – stop it, stop it, stop it. You are not a useful portion of brain, at least in your current function!

He had been worried about not being able to say anything, but was now finding he was more worried about going to the opposite extreme. He wasn’t there yet, but…This really had been a terrible way of going about a bad idea, since he was now, to his dismay, fairly sure he was on some level pretending this was something it wasn’t. “Is there anything in particular you want to begin with?” he asked. “I’ve been doing my best not to panic all day.” More about this than about the amount of material he needed to go back through before exams, but it wasn’t technically a lie. “I’ve been practicing living-to-living transfigurations, though I’m not sure it counts when they’re, well, plants.”

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Cassie

January 10, 2011 11:21 PM

Joining by Cassie

Every single piece of clothing in Cassie’s modest wardrobe had been tried on at least twice and discarded just as many times. She didn’t know why she bothered to listen to anything Veronica said. She should have just dismissed such things, but there they were. They kept sneaking back into her head without her permission. Finally frustrated, she had given up and settled for a simple purple sweater and black pants with her dark brown hair pulled up. She felt completely underdressed and envied Veronica for being able to be so fashionable every single day. She had no idea how she did it. Cassie knew everything there was to know about facts and figures. Fashion, however, was quite into the unknown.

Oh, well. It wasn’t like she expected Edmond to notice her and the studying aspect she could handle without a problem. The only question was what materials she was going to actually need. There were the standard textbooks. Then, added onto that she had dedicated notebooks, index cards, and the like for each subject. Then, add in all the reference materials. Why she would probably need three or four bags to carry everything, or a really good extender charm. She settled on taking her Charms and Transfiguration materials. Anything else, she could come back to her room for. It wasn’t like they would be very far away since they would be in the library.

Ready, she entered the library and found Edmond easily enough. The library was a second home to an Aladren. She felt like she could navigate it with her eyes closed. Taking the offered seat, she said, “Thank you.” She wasn’t sure what to say, but Edmond seemed content enough to continue. “Plants are living,” she assured him. “They simply do not contain the same structural components as us, but I think being able to do it all is a good stepping stone. Building blocks and all that. I brought my textbook if you want to go over any of the theory since I don’t think live animals would be appreciated very much in the library. I suppose dead ones wouldn’t be very much liked either.” She bit down on her lip. She had started to ramble. Dead animals? Gross. Why had she even said that?

She knew why she had said it. The reason was completely obvious. Time to backtrack a bit. Focus. “Besides, there’s no reason to panic. You’ve done well so far and the test is just going to cover what we’ve been learning. I’m sure you’ll be fine.” Cassie had no doubt on this. Edmond was probably the smartest person she knew, a trait that she admired very much. Becoming quiet again, she scratched her arm nervously before pulling out one of her textbooks. “I guess we can start with Transfiguration since you mentioned it and then maybe move towards Charms. Potions and Defense will probably be the most difficult exams.”

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Edmond

January 15, 2011 1:17 AM

Rambling by Edmond

Feeling somewhat assured by Cassie’s theory that he was at least on the right track to managing living-to-living Transfigurations, Edmond laughed awkwardly at her comment about why that was about the best they could do anyway. He had not previously considered what Miss Simms would think of dead animals coming into the library, but imagining the look on her face as they tried to explain that they’d thought it would be more considerate to bring something that couldn’t chew on the books was amusing.

Less amusing, however, would be his family’s reaction; he expected he’d end up in mental counseling for the rest of his natural life, or at least until he was both legally old enough to do what he wanted and had managed to get a job and hide enough of the money he earned to handle the possibility that defying orders would get him thrown out of the family entirely. They would be concerned by him even having that thought. He had never understood why everyone seemed to think he was so psychologically fragile, but…

“Yes, I think you’re right,” he said. “Miss Simms wouldn’t appreciate that very much. Or, er, our classmates.” There might be a few other Aladrens who’d find the anatomy fascinating or something, and who knew what was going on with a few others at any given time, but for the most part, he doubted their fellows would like having corpses of any description in their second commons.

He flushed, pleased for no reason that made logical sense, when Cassie pointed out the simple fact that he did well on tests. If a statement of fact could take on the air of a compliment coming from her, then it might be in his best interests if she stopped speaking to him next year for one reason or another. “I’m sure I won’t do a better job than you do,” he admitted, then stopped himself just short of going into a spiel about their comparative strengths and weaknesses with an emphasis on her strengths. “But...yes. The essay portion of Potions will be especially difficult - " for some reason, Professor Fawcett accused him of going off on too many tangents; Edmond had reread them all several times, and honestly couldn't see any pieces of information in his papers that weren't necessary to understand the topics, or at least for his understanding of them, but he wasn't the professor - "but Transfiguration’s as good a place to start as any.”

Luckily, those materials were still close at hand, as he had been using the Transfiguration text in his meditative exercises. “It’s odd how Transfiguration works,” he said, feeling much more at home with something which had recently caught his academic interest. “Or at least what I can do of it. It’s not very difficult to take a bit of the hedge and turn that into pansies – I would have – “ he realized he’d just said that after having read in Jane’s books that offerings of colorful plants were a standard part of courtship – “er, family tradition, but I wasn’t sure what Miss Simms would think of that, either – but it’s nearly impossible to do the same thing with a quill, and significantly harder with a larger plant. It’s still coming awfully close to creating life, that’s an entire other debate, but it makes you think about how powerful wizards and witches who can transfigure things with large mass differences and substances must be, doesn’t it?”

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