Encroaching slumber... [open]

[Haden Whittlore]

...his hand lifted to the right hand corner of the book, separated the pages and turned from the current so he could go on reading. This bit of reading wasn't for leisure or pleasure but homework. History of Magic actually. And as riveting as this bit of reading was not, he found a way to keep him reading and far from bored at the same time. Settled in an arm chair well away from the rest of his gathered house mates, he had the book on his lap, propped up with a cushion so as to reduce the strain his neck would have experience while on the side, he had a book resting on the chair’s arm and was using it to press as he scribbled on a frayed piece of paper. What he was working on wasn’t much, but it was just something that would allow him to return back to the book and resume reading on the mind-gripping facts about Giants and their conflict with Wizards and the consequences that resulted. Honestly, many times he just opted to slamming the book closed and calling it a day because he could seriously care less about what happened years before he was born, but there was a reason he took the class in the first place and carried it on with him passed OWL level…he felt that reason had been lost over the years but…he pressed on. Not like he was going to drop it, not now that he’d come so far with the subject. He was certain that reason would come back to him one of these days.

But for now, he was going to take a brief break, sure the break may extended his natural definition of brief and he would ignore himself screaming to get back into studying before he regretted mission on all this precious time, but the fact was that he was going to return to the book eventually. He placed the paper and the quill in the book as the bookmarker for where he last read, then he closed the book and set it down at his feet; slumping in his seat moments seconds after. He was so comfortable right now. So much so he was beginning to question if he was going to make it to bed…or if he wanted to given that he had found a comfy position for him to pass the night. Speaking of passing the night, now that he was read for sleep to impose itself upon him, he was waiting for it…impatiently. Yes he lied to himself about going back to studying, not like he has not done it before, it’s just that sleep was calling him, but was it sleep? Did he misinterpret? Was he tired or had reading that book finally drilled boredom into his weary mind. It was certainly worth a thought, a thought he could not manage to conceptualize at the moment, nor would he wish to if he could. “So tired.” He said to himself as a yawn escaped him, passing up on putting his hand to his mouth as he was accustomed to.

He shut his eyes for a second, giving sleep an easy chance of taking its next victim for the night but nothing…nothing as yet and it forced him to open his lids back up and for the first time in a while he truly noticed those who occupied the room with him. At 10:48pm, according to his watch, there was a dark haired girl and a blond haired guy over in a corner, standing, talking, silently laughing and kissing without care or shame. They were into it, and each other. On the floor by the fire, a brown haired younger student was busy practicing turning her goblet into something else. That brought back a few memories; and finally, there was a girl, dark haired, thin and such, sitting in the window, looking out at the night sky. He looked at her for a minute then he turned and looked at the probable first year who had decided to call it a night. As she got to her feet, their eyes meet and he smirked. He wanted to try something. He held his head forward slightly, and with great ease he shook his head and every last strand of his dark brown hair turned silver, and when he met her gaze again, he met them with silver irises. There was shock on her face at first, but that quickly faded when Haden restored his true physical nature. They exchanged a smile, then she curried off to her dorm, leaving him there with the three others, one of which, the girl in the window, was looking at him curiously from her perch. He chose to avoid her gaze.

He didn’t usually do things like that. He found it a bit…insensitive… to flaunt a gift he was blessed with under odd circumstances. That wasn’t like him and for good reason. He was mute, one day he wasn’t and he was revealed to be a methamorphagus at the same time. The latter was cool but the former was the more important by leaps and bounds. At first he could not fight the urge to indulge to the point where it should have become a sin, but now, older and wiser by much, he was more careful with it. Changing his appearance only when he felt necessary, and if he was with friends and he was certain no harm would come of it, he would have some fun…like just now. It was worth it sending her to bed with a smile. That is something he saw as necessary at the time, not a necessity but it did some good nonetheless. He tilted his head back till it touched the cushion behind; then he closed his eyes and gave sleep another chance to take him because he was willing to go voluntarily, has been for the whole night now, but this attempt failed just as much as the other and he conceded defeat and victory at the same time. “Right…” He breathed, fighting another yawn. “…back to it.” He whispered on as he bent over to pick up the book from at his feet.

[Nickole Weasley]

Nickole scanned the pages of another book, stopping occasionally at a page hoping it was something useful but then continued on when she got to the back cover she closed it with a loud thud and, threw the book onto her ever growing reject pile also. She had been at this for hours now and felt like screaming. She knew she should probably keep working on her homework, since she had three essays due in two day her, but she just couldn’t seem to be able to put her through that sort of torture at the moment. ”That’s it, no more work tonight,” she said after trying for hours to write just one essay. As soon as she had decided to give up she threw her books down and flopped down onto her bed, trying to decide what to do.

Usually when this happened, which lately seemed like all the time, she would have headed down to the common room, made some huge ruckus, made everyone laugh and then gone back to finishing her essay. Only tonight she really wasn’t in the mood for entertaining either. So instead she dragged herself out of bed and went to sit on the stairs. She sat close to one of the edges hidden in the shadows to everyone below her but still able to see all that was going on.

Actually watching people like this made her feel a bit like a stalker but just as she was entertaining the idea in her brain thinking of how cool it would be to make a story out of it she was interrupted by a the abrupt movement of a first year heading off to bed. One of the other students, a boy with dark brown hair, her year she though, noticed this too. She watched this and almost gave herself away by gasping when she saw him change his eyes and hair to a bright silver color. Then she rolled her eyes at herself Metatmorphise of course, she thought.

As the young girl walked towards the staircase she realized that her hiding place was going to be found out and she was going to be caught spying on everyone below her. Not wanting to seem too much like a creeper she stood up just as the girl reached the bottom of the stairs and pretended as is she had been intending to descend the stairs the whole time. She waited till the first year had entered her dorm before actually taking her first step. As she took the step though, her foot got caught on her robes, making her become off balance.

She flailed her arms trying to catch her balance but failed miserably. The flailing just seemed to put her more off balance and sent her head long down the stairs into the common room. She finally came to a stop at the feet looking up into the eyes of the boy who had changed his hair silver just a few moments before. ”Well this is the most interesting way I’ve ever met someone before. Nickole Weasley by the way.” She said laughing while still lying on the floor. “Hope I’m not interrupting anything important.” she said glancing at the school books spread all around him.