The Common Room

Louis sighed in relief as he trooped into the Ravenclaw Common Room. His first year had been stressful, to say the least, and had gone by far too fast.

He almost actually prayed for this year to be more... boring, because at least then he'd have an excuse to sit back and read instead of socializing.

He sat down by the fire and pulled out his favorite book and the thought never got out of his head that life couldn't get any better than this.

Bri was ready to just relax by the fire with a good book when she finally made it to the common room after returning to Hogwarts. She selected one out of her trunk and bounded down the stairs, making herself comfortable in one of the chairs before noticing that there was already someone there.

"Oh, hi," she said awkwardly. "I'm Bri, do you mind if I join you?" she asked to be polite. She didn't want to encroach on his area if he wanted to be alone.

Terry entered the Common Room after answering the riddle (What runs up and down the stairs but never moves?) with a new book from the library in her hands, just waiting to be read. She was tired from the first week of school- she never knew that fourth year classes could be so hard! Iggy was perched on her shoulder and Puff was in her pocket, all tired from the day also.

Sitting down by the fire, she smiled at two second years and opened her book, yawning widely.

Bri smiled at the girl who soon joined them and gave her a small wave as she tried desperately to remember the girl's name. She'd only met her once, but she thought it would be terribly rude of her to have to ask for her name. Out of nowhere, she remembered. "Hi Terry, how are you?" she asked with a polite smile.

Louis had been caught up in his book, and that's why he didn't notice the newcomer until she said something.

"I'm Louis," he said to the girl. "And 'course I don't mind you sitting here, not that I could stop you even if I did."

And then, up walked another girl, just sitting by them without so much as a word. That was Terry for you, he supposed, remembering the girl from his previous year.

"Hey Terry, been a while, hasn't it?"

"Hey guys." Terry greeted, looking up from her book. "I'm good...Bri is it?" Terry couldn't quite remember, but was sure Bri was the blonde's name. "How are vou?"

"Hi Louis. Veah, it has been a vhile." Terry nodded. "So vhat vear are vou guys in now?" she asked curiously. She knew that a few students were able to skip one or two years, her being allowed to skip three.

Bri continued to smile politely. She really did want to read her book, but keeping up with the conversation was more important. "Nice to meet you, Louis," she said to the boy.

She listened to Terry and him speak briefly; it would seem that they had known each other before now.

"Second," she said in response to Terry's question. She was more than happy to take the slow path at school. She was afraid of rushing through things and missing out on something that the school had to offer.

Sami silently walked into the common room after Terry, unoticed by the Ravenclaw. The moment she stepped in, she took note of the lack of people in the common room, which surprised her considering the amount of Ravenclaws. She saw Brianna, Louis, and Ri all talking on the couch, while holding books. Not wanting to bother them, she sat down on the loveseat a meter away from the group. All she wanted to do was practice, which sadly, was not possible in the public area.

Grabbing her bag which her father had shrunken to make it more portable, the witch pulled out her copies of both songs. She silently mouthed word for word the lyrics to the song, hoping to have the whole thing memorised a week or two before the audition.

Bri saw Sami come in and started to wave to her, but the girl went to her own little area and started mouthing something to herself. "Excuse me for a minute," she said to Louis and Terry, setting her book on her chair as she got up and went over to the lone girl.

"Hi Sami," she said quietly with a soft smile, not wanting to scare her. She sat down next to her on the couch. "What are you up to?" she asked. She hoped she wasn't interrupting something important, but she didn't want to leave Sami out.

Louis finally sighed and set down his book, the room was just becoming more and more populated by the moment.

"I'm in second year," he said in confusion to Terry. Maybe it was the fact that he wasn't too good at listening, but he wasn't aware of why he would be in anything but second year. He'd been in first the year before, after all. "How about you?"

"And hey Sami," he called to the girl that had just walked in.

Sami sighed as her milisecond of peace and quiet was interrupted. Could they not see that she was trying to do something? She waved to Louis and Ri, not wanting her fellow Ravens to think of her as rude. She mumbled an incoherent "Hello," before continuing her memorising, stopping only when someone approached her and sat on the empty space next to her. She raised an eyebrow at the Ravenclaws antics, and gave a nod of the head.

"Hi Sami. What are you up to?"

"It's mine," she said on instinct, before rephrasing. "I mean-, it's just a song. Just reading a song. You wouldn't know it." The Criss hoped Brianna wouldn't question her as to what song it was and why she was reading it, but being a Ravenclaw she knew it was inevitable.

Louis rolled his eyes at Sami. Of course the girl would want to do her own thing, it was just part of her. So he just turned back to Terry and where Bri had been standing, not that there was all that much to be said or anything.

He just sat down, pulled his book back open, and carried on with his reading, wondering when his next interruption would be (not that he minded or anything, monotony could get rather boring after a while...)

Andy answered the riddle to gain access to the common room and noticed a crowd of people gathered there already. He gave the room a quick glance over. It was much the same as last year. He did, however notice another boy sitting in the corner. He nodded his head to him as a greeting, not 100% sure if the boy was even paying attention or not.

He saw Bri and Sami sitting on the couch, so he decided to join them. Plonking himself down beside Bri, he stretched his arms over his head, yawning. "So exhausted, and it's only the first week!" he exclaimed. "How are the two of you?"

Bri was surprised by Sami's reaction to her question. She was curious what about it was worthy of that reaction, but her upbringing had taught her not to pry, and she got the feeling that Sami didn't really want to talk about it, so she didn't ask anything else.

She was about to get up and go back to her original seat when Andy joined them. "Hey," she greeted with a smile. Bri didn't have many friends at the school and Andy was probably one of the closest that she did have. She nodded in agreement. "I feel the same way. This year is going to be interesting, I hope." She silently wondered if they would go into the Forest again. She wouldn't mind seeing another unicorn, or some other magical creature.

Liz shuffled into the room, glancing around curiously. Nothing had changed in the past year; same furniture, same books on the shelves, even the same people. That wasn't necessarily a good thing, because she had had rather...awkward run-ins with them in the past. She could see Sami and some girl in a corner, but she looked like she was concentrating on something, so she decided not to bother her. She instead sauntered over to a seat not far away from the group, but not quite in it, either, daydreaming about the movie here mother had gotten her hooked on.

Terry sighed. It was getting really difficult to study. She nodded at the other students before moving over by Sami, not saying anything, just opening her book again and trying to remember Gamp's four laws from last year. Propping her book up on her knees, she began to go through her memory tricks, mouthing the things she knew would appear on tests, homework and exams.

She was getting tired, but was unsure whether or not the dorms were ready so she just settled down on the couch and decided to try and sleep on her book.

Sami saw Liz enter the Common Room out of the corner of her eye, and gave a silent nod, acknowledging her presence. She knew the girl probably just felt like sitting down and reading, like she did and Louis, most likely, as well. It was a mutual feeling amongst most Ravenclaws. She wasn't surprised. Rowena herself enjoyed doing that, as her diary had told her last year.

"Oh, 'ello Andy," she smiled as Andy took the seat next to Brianna. "Sorry, we dinna get ta talk much on the train, I was still a wee bit angry about something and didn't want to bother ye." But now that we're in the Common Room, she smirked. I'm in quite the mood for a little arguement. The girl got a little gleam in her eye, her witty Ravenclaw side coming out into the open. A good-natured discussion was something Sami loved, especially when it was something she truly cared about.

She relaxed back in her seat, arm hanging loosely from the chair. "Say, what's your opinion on Animagus'?" She noticed Ri moving to sit next to her, and gave a little wave, wanting to wait until they went to their dorms to really talk.

Bri felt a little awkward sitting between Andy and Sami as Sami asked the boy a question about Animagi. She wasn't one hundred percent certain what they were since she didn't take Transfiguration so she didn't want to get in the way of whatever they were going to talk about. She excused herself quietly and went back to her seat where she had left her book, picking it up and flipping through to where she had been.

Andy shrugged slightly. "That's okay," he said to Sami, knowing full well that it was very wise to not bother a girl when she was in a mood, unless you wanted to leave the conversation with one less limb. He watched Bri walk away and start to read again. He had hoped to have a talk with her about something, but the common room was awfully busy for that at the moment.

He turned his attention back to Sami and blinked at her question. Did he have an opinion on Animagi? He wasn't sure. "I don't know. It's a nifty skill to have?" he asked, more of a question to himself then to Sami. Andy got up from where he was sitting and walk over to Bri again.

"Fancy a walk?" he asked her.

Bri was on the middle of the page when she saw Andy approach her out of the corner of her eye. She smiled at him and placed her bookmark back in the book.

"Fancy a walk?"

"Yeah, sure, just let me take this upstairs," she replied.

She got up and went up to her dorm, tossing her book onto her bed, then returning to the common room. She was tempted to say bye to the people in the room, but many of them were reading and she didn't want to disturb them. She settled for giving a small wave to anyone who was looking. "Is there anywhere in particular that you wanted to walk to?" she asked Andy quietly as she led him out of the common room.

Sami sighed and pocketed her lyric sheet. There was no possible way she'd be able to read with all these distractions. Pushing her bangs to the side, she quickly got up and began walking to her dorm. Tonight was her first night back and she wanted to make it as peaceful as possible before classes started. Unlike the Gryffindors, she simply wanted to be left alone to read in peace. After passing the first year girl dorm, she glanced back at the common room to see if Terry would follow her. When no approach was made, she turned back and walked back up the stairs.