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Post by Dylan Cooper on Sept 11, 2007 1:06:08 GMT -5
Dozing fitfully by the fireplace, Dylan's arm drooped over the side of the large leather armchair. His head leant on his chest, his hair creating a stringy curtain in front of his eyes and his mouth open slightly. The fire crackled a bit loudly, and he woke. Looking through the slits in his hair blearily, he reached up and rubbed the sleep from his eyes, his fist balled. Seeing the orange flames lick the sides, he tried to remember what he was doing before he'd fallen asleep. Noticing a Potions textbook face down on the floor where his hand had been a minute previously, he picked it up again. His eyes flicked over the page on Shrinking Solutions and he dimly remembered being punished on his very first lesson. His expression became one of slight disdain and then he shook his head, closing the book and placing it gently on the floor by his feet.
He yawned and turned his head sideways, looking around the room. Seeing a few familiar faces, but no-one he knew personally, he stretched his legs, followed by his arms, and yawned a second time. Urging his knees to bend, he pushed himself up off of the chair and went up into the dormitories to get more textbooks.
Coming back down the spiral staircase clutching several large volumes, he wound his way back to his comfy chair and dumped two books on top of his Potions one, deciding to keep his Transfiguration one in his hand. Settling back into the groove of the chair, he checked the Contents for something exciting looking. Picking Vanishing spells and flicking to the correct page, he began to read about vanishing simple invertebrates.
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Post by D'rorah Philosophy on Sept 11, 2007 14:11:58 GMT -5
(ooc: I'm going to say this is after I've been brought back to the castle and somewhat recuperated... just because I feel like it.)
D'rorah had commandeered one of the more comfortable chairs by the fireplace. Ever since returning, she had been trying to take things a bit more easily, but of course she never could pull herself from her books. Spread on the table before her was her usual array of books written in several different languages. Tonight's selection happened to be Aramaic, Jurchen, and even a tome in ancient Sumerian.
One hand flipped through the pages of the texts slowly while the other flew furiously over sheaves of blank parchment, taking notes, cross-referencing the different sources. In many places the notes became a gibberished mish-mash of languages. Everything in her notes was translated into English, but the original term was written in whatever language it had originally occurred in right next to any problematic words.
She glanced up as a nearby student rose from his chair and and glanced up again as he returned, dumping two new books on top of the one he had been reading. She huffed slightly, always averse to seeing books treated roughly. She returned her attention to the texts in front of her and blinked several times. Ever since returning from the Shadow Realm and the ensuing chaos that had consumed several days of her time, she found it difficult to remain in one place for an extended period of time.
She shifted uncomfortably in her chair, trying to find a position in which fewer of her wounds, still slowly healing, protested. While most of the other students lounged comfortably in jeans and t-shirts, D'rorah still wore robes with sleeves that reached just past her wrists and a skirt that nearly swept the ground when she was standing. She had vowed to hide her wounds and the resulting scars from those around her, not wishing to see horrified or piteous stares from her peers.
Unable to remain still a moment, longer, she stood from her seat, allowing her legs a gentle stretch. Looking back to the boy in the chair nearby, she caught sight of his transfiguration textbook. "Ah, vanishing spells Mister Cooper. A very useful thing to learn," she remarked casually.
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Post by lainehaunting on Sept 12, 2007 14:45:21 GMT -5
Laine walked sleepily down the dormitory staires into the common room. She was dressed in a pair of long black flannel pajama pants and a white tank, her blond hair falling up in a messy bun. It was more than obvious she'd just woken up. After falling asleep in her bed in what seemed to be pounds of homework and textbooks, she'd been awoken by the shouts of two fighting girls upstairs. Rather than stay and listen she'd climbed out of her bed and ventured downstairs to see who was about.
Spotting Dylan, whom she'd met once before, she wobbled over in his direction, rubbing her eyes and giving a yawn. There was another girl over in his direction too, but Laine didn't suspect she'd met her yet. She smiled sleepily a the two of them and flopped down on an over stuffed couch cushion. "Evening." She said wearily, slipping her legs up under her and leaning back lazily into the couch.
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Post by D'rorah Philosophy on Sept 12, 2007 22:33:11 GMT -5
"Good evening... Miss... Haunting, correct?" replied D'rorah. Although she'd never actually met or spoken with the girl, she made it a point to know the names of all of her fellow Ravenclaw students since having been appointed as a prefect for the house. That particular appointment was still a bit of a shock to her, considering that she was new to Hogwart's. "It is a pleasure to actually meet you. My name is D'rorah Philosophy."
She returned to her seat, still close enough to continue conversing if either of them wished to, but unable to keep her nose from her books. She wished one of the other Shadow Warriors or even one of the Elemental Masters would exhibit some proficiency for language. She enjoyed translating, but she worried she would not be able to finish all of them quickly enough. There was so much work to do in order to assure they were prepared for the next encounter with the Mage. She shifted uncomfortably in her seat as one of her wounds protested, reminding of exactly the sort of thing that was at stake if they were not prepared.
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Post by Dylan Cooper on Sept 13, 2007 5:20:11 GMT -5
Looking up at D'rorah's comment about the spell he was studying, he smiled in a tired, wan sort of way. "I thought I should read up before Transfiguration, and these looked vaguely interesting, so..." he trailed off, seeing a familiar face seat herself on a nearby couch.
He rearranged himself on his seat, turning sideways towards the two ladies. His textbook was clutched in his hand, which itself was draped over the armrest of the large leather chair. A yawn escaped his lips and his face took on a vague smile. He thought of his four-poster bed upstairs, with its soft matress and heavy duvet. Imagining the wonderful point in time when he could crash onto it and curl up, he closed his Transfiguration book and surveyed the others that he'd brought down. Seeing Charms and Astronomy, he selected the latter and pulled it up towards himself. Without bothering to check the Contents this time, he simply opened it on a random page and found the middle of the chapter on Mars.
"Hi Laine," he said with a smile towards her. "Can't sleep?" he inquired in a small voice that was only slightly audible over the steady crackle of the fire.
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Post by lainehaunting on Sept 13, 2007 19:11:46 GMT -5
Laine smiled politely at the other girl, who once introduced it dawned on her this was one of the people she was supposed to be keeping an eye on but she kept her face blank save for the smile. "Nice to meet you D'rorah, and the name was correct, Laine." She nodded. She slipped down comfortably on the couch, glancing at the books with D'rorah and the books with Dylan. Apparently the two had also been studying, and Dylan like Laine looked as if he'd fallen off sometime.
Covering a yawn, Laine nodded a Dylan. "No, two girls up there were fighting over something so I decided to come visit down there." She smiled sleepily. It was comfortably warm in the common room, the fire crackling softly and the plush couch. She wrapped her arms around her middle and shook her head in an effort to wake herself up. "Studying?" She asked, glancing from the fire to the two.
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Post by D'rorah Philosophy on Sept 13, 2007 22:44:25 GMT -5
"Fighting?" asked D'rorah arching an eyebrow. "Is it a matter which might require intervention? Or a simple verbal spat?" she asked, wondering if she needed to attend to the two girls. She looked a the books spread on the table before her. "Actually, this is for a bit of independent research. I am still fairly far ahead in my classwork."
As she spoke, D'rorah had picked up her quill and resumed writing. She assumed that if the girls fighting weren't causing any more commotion, she would simply allow the situation to resolve itself. She looked at a troublesome word... "no direct translation..." she muttered to herself as she tried to think of a paralleling English word. She speed of her quill's scratching increased slightly as she began making more notes. "Dead languages always present such challenge," she added. "They contain so many concepts which have no direct translation in modern languages. Ah well, I suppose an approximation will do as long as the source word is nearby in the notes."
After a moment, she realized she had tuned out Laine and Dylan. Carefully, she set her quill aside and leaned back in her chair. "My apologies, I tend to have a rather narrow focus when I begin working on something." In truth, her problem was simply that she was not much of a 'social' person... but she would at least make an effort.
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Post by Dylan Cooper on Sept 14, 2007 4:05:34 GMT -5
Raising his eyebrows slightly at finding out about the reason Laine was down here, he nodded slightly in half of a response to her question. "Sort of studying.. more like background reading." he answered in a tired sort of voice.
Hearing D'rorah's comment about the two fighting girls, he got the feeling she was a rather introverted person, and didn't altogether get the feeling that they would be good friends. She seemed an alright girl, though, and they could always have occasional chats. He knew she was in quite a few of his classes, too, as well as quite smart. In fact, upon reflection, most of the intelligent people he knew were rather off on their own, including himself. He had been known to drift off during any time of the day, wandering in circles in his own mind and forgetting all about other people. Realising D'rorah was quite the same, just in her own way, he gained a sort of new appreciation for the Prefect.
Her vague, to-herself comments that he overheard implied that she was doing some pretty intense work on translation, and he turned to Laine. He saw her huddled up and smiling and his eyes lit up. Whether Laine or the fire was the reason, however, no-one might ever know; not even Dylan himself.
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Post by lainehaunting on Sept 14, 2007 6:13:00 GMT -5
Laine shook her head to D'rorahs comment about the girls, it was over a shirt, very childish. "Nothing that requires attention at all, D'rorah. They seemed to have settled down anyways." She resonded, watching D'rorah write and comment to herself with fascination. Dead languages? Hm, that must be awfdully hard to translate, but from D'rorahs speech she was obviously very intelligent. There was certainly no doubt about that.
All was quiet for the moment except of course for the fire and D'rorahs quill, but it was a nice silence and not an uncomfortable one. It rather made the common room cozy. "So I haven't seen you around lately Dylan, how are you? No food poisoning I hope?" She gave a small grin, looking over now at Dylan.
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Post by D'rorah Philosophy on Sept 14, 2007 9:20:23 GMT -5
D'rorah listened with half an ear as Dylan and Laine chatted, alert for any indication that either of them was speaking to her. She nodded as Laine responded that the girls who had been fighting had settled down, pleased she wouldn't have to leave her research. She furrowed her brown slightly at her parchment as she continued. "There is far more correlation..." she trailed off as she peered at a passage intently. "Oh... similar to the Cruciatus..." she murmured, as though somewhat off-put by the discovery. Her quill resumed its quiet scratching after a moment as her right hand reached across the table and flipped through a few pages in the farthest book from her, then reached across her to a book on her left and flipped through several pages there.
It seemed that, for the moment, she was in her own world. Laine and Dylan temporarily forgotten as she began tracking down cross-references in the texts before her. Her gaze was intent as she read, focusing on the words before her. It seemed she had stumbled upon something that had particularly grabbed her attention.
(ooc: I'm going to sit out for a couple of turns unless someone asks me something. Hehehe, just assume I'm there, quietly scratching away and occasionally flipping through pages.)
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Post by Dylan Cooper on Sept 14, 2007 23:14:59 GMT -5
"Food poisoning?" he repeated, a small smile dawning on his face. "No, no, just school things.. I was thinking about going to a DA session some time.. what about you? Been up to anything exciting so far?" he said in a quiet voice, the crackling flames nearly drowning it out. He faintly heard the scratching of a quill and saw D'rorah out of the corner of his eye, muttering to herself somewhat.
Looking back towards Laine he noticed how pretty she really was, and how comfortable she looked sitting on that couch. She gave off a feeling that put him at ease for some reason; let him rest and settle down around her, and just be himself. Normally he was too immersed in his own fantasies and day-dreams to notice what people really looked like, or were like. Both times he had met Laine, though, he'd been pretty with-it. She grounded him, in a way, and he rather liked it, the feeling of actually being around more, instead of off in his own little world.
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Post by lainehaunting on Sept 15, 2007 6:46:56 GMT -5
Laine watched D'rorah briefly while Dylan began responding before she looked back in his direction after he posed another question. She thought about it. Any thing exciting? There was the spying and whatnot, but since D'rorah was there she didn't dare say anything. Nor would she since she hadn't been given the permission to.
"Not a thing really." Laine finally shrugged. "Oh, but my brother did arrive finally, so that was a raher good thing." She gave a small smile, since she was indeed more at ease with everything having her brother around, they were very close. "We were both ill this summer but I recovered faster so I came here earlier than he did." She added thoughtfully.
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Post by Dylan Cooper on Sept 15, 2007 17:46:49 GMT -5
"Oh that's good," he said, referencing her newly-arrived brother. "It's always good to have people you know well around.." His voice took on a quiet inflection, and he turned away from her to face the fire. It's flames were lower than before; it seemed to be settling down for the night.
He heard once again the scratching of D'rorah's quill, and it brought back to him the image of what he'd seen at Ollivander's. His mind wandered back to that day for what seemed like the hundredth time, and he wondered again what could have caused those scars on her lovely arm. He'd given her the bouquet of flowers that his brand new wand had produced as a sign of friendship. That she could talk to him. He doubted she ever would; a seventh year Prefect with bigger things on her mind than a fourth year. But still, he'd wanted her to know that she could talk to him, even if she barely knew him. He often found that talking to someone who barely knew him was far better than someone he was close to, simply because they could give an outsiders view. He always used to talk to his dad, whatever it was about. He'd always have a way of telling Dylan exactly what he needed to hear, a way of always making him feel better, no matter what was bothering him. He missed his dad, and thought of him often; daily, in fact. All he had left of his dad was his dog and broomstick which, incidentally, were his two favourite things.
Returning his mind to the present with a bit of an effort, he turned his sad eyes back to Laine. With a vague attempt at a smile and a small voice he asked "What's your brother like?"
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Post by D'rorah Philosophy on Sept 17, 2007 14:54:28 GMT -5
Quietly, D'rorah began gathering her materials. It was quite late, and having just been released from the infirmary, she found herself a bit tired. She packed her things carefully, stowing the books as though they were fragile and priceless. Of course, from her point of view, this was not far from the truth. As she finished gathering her things, she glanced one last time to Laine and Dylan. "Good evening Mister Cooper, Miss Haunting," she bid quietly before disappearing into the girls' dormitory.
(ooc: sorry for the short post)
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Post by lainehaunting on Sept 17, 2007 18:05:07 GMT -5
Laine noticed the strange change in Dylan's facial expression but said nothing, his mind was obviously occupied in some other fashion. Turning her body on the couch so she could actually face Dylan without giving her neck whiplash, Laine stretched her legs out in front of her. She thought about an appropriate way to describe her brother as she thoughtfully twisted a strand of blond hair around her finger. Ryder was a very difficult person to describe. Alot of things to alot of people, Laine didn't think it appropriate to describe him to Dylan as she herself thought of him. Her own feelings for her brother were different from most people because she knew him better than most, so she decided to go with the basics.
"His name's Ryder and he's a year older than myself. He loves sports, both muggle and wizarding, and doesn't care much for school. He's rather fond of going to parties, and loves to tease me to no end." Laine smiled at her own description. She had Ryder down to a hair. "But on the downside, and far less amusing one, he's stubborn and loves a good fight. He gets into a spot of trouble academically too because of his lack of drive." She added thoughtfully. "He's a nice guy though, but he's extremely over protective of me. Which is nice, but annoying too in it's own turn."
Seeing D'rorah gathering her materials out of the corner of her eye Laine watched her getting ready to leave. She hadn't learned anything of what she was up to, but at least now she was a familiar face. "Goodnight D'rorah. Have a good sleep." She nodded with a smile, before turning to face Dylan again. She didn't know D'rorah as well as she might have liked but now she had some idea of her character, as Laine was observant about such things and could often tell from a persons body language and other activities.
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