Having a wander

Lavender entered the Library quietly, she hadn't been in here yet and was curious. Shelves stood tall for as far as the eye could see. A desk on the left had a woman sitting at it, she guessed this was the librarian. Lavender could tell the lady was busy so didn't wish to bother her, instead she slowly ventured further in. Once she'd passed a few book cases she stopped a second and ran her finger along the spines of a few familiar books. These were muggle books, fairytales. Her finger stopped at Sleeping Beauty, her favorite, and she pulled it out. The cover was old, there was no doubt about that. It was warn and faded, with a feel of leather to it,though she assumed it wasn't. Lavender opened it carefully, bringing the pages closer to take a sniff. Smelt like distant perfume. Strange. With that, she closed it and places it carefully back on the shelf. When she went to carry on she hit into something, or someone, hard.

"Oh! Sorry, sorry. Are you all right?"

Lavender looked up to see the Gryffindor boy she met in the Astronomy Tower the other day. His name was Landon if she remembered correctly, she always remember names of nice faces. Landon most definitely had a nice face.

"Yeah, I'm fine." She smiled shyly, feeling a bit clumsy. "Hi, Landon," Lavender made sure the book was properly back on the shelf before turning her attention back to him, brushing herself down.

Lavender shrugged, glancing round for something to say. "Not sure really," There were a few students scattered round them, but none of whom she recognized. Though, she felt Landon's company was nice enough anyway. "What about you?" There was an empty table nearby so Lavender went and sat on it, keeping her eyes on him all the while. He seemed like an interesting character. She suddenly wondered if he knew Hester.

Lavender could tell the older boy was feeling awkward, which was the last thing she wanted.

"Exploring," She stated, thinking about it before continuing. "I don't explore very often either to be honest. Though Hester and I did go into the forbidden forest the other night," Lavender swung her legs that were dangling from the table. "Where have you been? What have you seen?" She was genuinely interested, anything to make him feel comfortable.

Lavender smiled, impressed by his ventures. Hers looked feeble compared to his. He'd been to loads of places.

"The Shrieking Shack? What was that like? Scary I bet," She couldn't help but feel a little excited about this particular place. She made a mental note to suggest it to Hester the next time they spoke. Lavender hoped Landon wouldn't get tired of all the questions.

Lavender nodded, this boy really didn't seem to be that interested. Which made her a little sad.

"Oh, ok." She thought hard for something else to say. "So what is your kind of thing?" Perhaps this would break the ice a little better. Lavender watched the Gryffindor boy intently, trying to mentally communicate how interested she was. Somewhere far off within the maze of book shelves she could hear someone being told to shh. "What do you like to do for fun?" She whispered playfully.

Lavender smiled. She understood why he seemed to have trouble figuring things out. She always did. For example, she knew all the girls thought Landon was handsome, they all had crushes on him. But she didn't. She liked to look at him yes, but she wasn't attracted to him like the other girls. This kind of thing had happened to her a lot.

"Ah ok. Do you support a Quidditch team or anything? I'd love to be good at flying. It looks awesome," Lavender smiled at him, tucking a strand of hair behind her ear.

"Why did you stop being interested?" Lavender jumped off the table gracefully, her robes flying everywhere. "Viktor Krum was good I agree. My brother's a big fan of his. My father prefers the Irish of course. They never agree on anything," She grinned as she remember her brother and father's constant playful bickering. "If you get those muscles you want you'd be perfect to play Quidditch. Do you think you'd ever consider it as a career, if you got really good?"

Bri was searching the library high and low for her Herbology notes. She knew she'd stuck them in one of the books she'd checked out and she must have forgotten to take them back out again. The only problem was that she borrowed so many books that she couldn't figure out which one she'd stuck them in.

She rounded a corner and saw Landon standing by a girl she had never seen before sitting on one of the tables. She hadn't spoken to him in a while and as part of her genuine attempt to be more social with people from houses other than her own, she went over to them. She was nervous just thinking about talking to them, but she was going to get over it and introduce herself if it was the last thing she did. She hoped that she wasn't interrupting anything important. That would be embarrassing. "Hi Landon, how are you?" she asked him politely with a smile.

She looked at the girl she didn't know and flashed her the same smile. "Hi, I'm Bri Carter, nice to meet you," she kept her voice low enough that Mr. Hudson wouldn't hear them and come scold him. He was a little intimidating (okay, a lot intimidating) and Bri didn't want to get on his bad side.

Lavender turned to see a stunning blonde girl talking to Landon. The girl then turned to her and introduced herself.

"Lavender Parkinson, nice to meet you too." Lavender smiled, attempting to stop herself from staring at the pretty girl. She looked at Bri's robes and saw she was a Ravenclaw, Lavender hadn't met a Ravenclaw yet. This girl obviously knew Landon and she wondered how.

Natalie skipped up to the fourth floor to check out this so called library that they had in the school. She hadn't been there before, but Landon said they had one so she wanted to check it out. There it was, right where he said it would be.

She stopped skipping when she got inside for fear of getting yelled at by whoever was in charge, since libraries usually came with a cranky librarian. She wandered among the shelves, thinking of all the fun things that she could do there, when she saw the Restricted section and her eyes lit up. Her and Landon would definitely be checking that out some time.

She thought she saw a familiar face out of the corner of her eye, causing her to turn and look. Speak/thin of the devil...

Pretending she was some sort of ninja/spy/assassin, Natalie ducked behind bookcases, tables, chairs, older students, anything to get her closer to Landon and the people he was standing with without being seen. When she got there, she crept up behind him and whispered "Boo!" in his ear. She then gave him a hug in greeting (because hugs were safe in front of other people), then she realized that she recognized one of the other people as well.

"Hi Bri," she hugged the Ravenclaw also.

She didn't know the third girl, but that wasn't going to stop her. "Hi, I'm Natalie!" she grinned and gave her a slightly more awkward hug. (Have you ever tried to hug someone who was sitting on a table? It's awkward.)

"Why are you all here?" she whispered to the group.

Lavender grinned at the arrival of Natalie, who she hadn't met before but had heard plenty about. She hugged the girl back, though it wasn't the easiest of things to do.

"Hi. I'm Lavender," She said with a small smile. "Erm, we were just chatting," Lavender shrugged, looking from Landon to Bri. Maybe now Natalie was here they would have a bit more fun, she didn't mind the idea of going exploring with the girl. Landon had made it sound fun.

"Chatting... Chatting is good," Natalie said.

Natalie didn't typically "chat" but she could give it a try. She looked around and surveyed her options. She could stand, she could sit on one of the chairs, she could sit next to Lavender on the table, she could sit on the floor, or...

Since all of those options were boring, she decided to stick with what she was best at and hopped up onto Landon's back. He was just as comfy to use as a substitute for a chair as he was being her favorite mode of transportation.

"What are we chatting about?" she asked, resting her chin on Landon's shoulder and looking back and forth between Bri and Lavender.

Lavender sniggered as Natalie jumped on Landon's back. She was a funny one.

"About your adventures actually," Lavender smiled. "Just before Bri arrived. Oh and Quidditch," She nodded to herself, trying to remember. It was difficult to tell whether they were a couple or not. Lavender wasn't sure if she'd ever jump on anyones back. Not even Hester's, though she didn't quite know what her and Hester's relationship was. That was another story entirely, one her head didn't have time for right now.

Bri hugged Natalie back when she joined them. They'd met sometime during the previous summer break and Bri quite liked her even if she was a little odd. She wasn't one for adventures, so she hoped that Natalie didn't try to drag her off somewhere.

"I only just got here," Bri said. "I was actually looking for my Herbology notes. They've just sort of disappeared."

She laughed lightly when Natalie jumped on Landon's back, she didn't expect anything less from her. She'd heard rumors that they were a couple, but Natalie had assured her they weren't true, that they were just friends, so she believed her.

"So, are you a first year?" she asked Lavender. She was curious since she didn't remember seeing this girl around before.

Lavender turned to Bri when she addressed her, she really was pretty. These three evidently knew each other, it made Lavender feel out of place.

"Yeah," She nodded. "Just getting used to it all really," She shrugged, hoping the others would like her. Accept her. Seeing Landon and Natalie interact in such a way made her miss Hester. Darn that girl, she was always on Lavender's mind.

Natalie nodded. She wasn't very good at this chatting thing, so it would seem.

While Bri was asking Lavender what year she was in, she whispered in Landon's ear, "I have an essay that I need to do for Divination. Do you want to help me?"

She knew that he'd know she was lying. Even if they did get essays to do in Divination, she wouldn't write them. She'd never written an actual essay in her life and she wasn't about to start now.