Find Me *

[KATHERINE LENNOX]

The other students were likely back in their dorms, getting rid of their workloads for the day so that they could freshen up for dinner. After another grueling lesson in Potions, her seventh year classmates were already lamenting the fact that it was only the second week of classes and their homework pile was dangerously high. Some were trying to figure out how they were supposed to balance school work and Quidditch this year. Others were completely lost with what they even wanted to do with their lives once their final year was over.

Some, however, just wanted a few moments alone before rejoining the chaos of the castle.

Her bag was still heavy with her things from class, but as Katherine climbed the stairs, she detoured away from the rest of the Gryffindor students who continued to ascend to the tower. Instead she stopped off at the second floor, weaving slightly through the corridors so that she could find the entrance to the library. She needed another book to give her some insight into the potion they had been working on in class today. The professor had mentioned that it ought to be on the shelves of the library, and provided that no one else had already borrowed it. It was a potion that was often used for healing, and that was the career path that Katherine was seriously considering at this point.

She shifted the bag on her shoulder, cringing slightly at the ache that was developing in her shoulder. It was just a little heavier than it should have been, but she supposed the added potion ingredients from today were not helping matters. She never knew what to bring to Potions these days, and often overcompensated by bringing just about every vial and ingredient that she had purchased over the summer to resupply. If she found the book that she was looking for there might still be time to take her things back up to Gryffindor Tower before dinner. If not, she’d end up lugging the foolish thing with her into the Great Hall and wedging it between herself and whoever ended up sitting beside her at the table.

It would make for brilliant conversation, she was sure.

Kate stepped into the back of the library, her eyes scanning the outside to make sure that she was headed in the right direction. The aisle was certainly correct. Now all she had to do was remember the author so that she could locate the proper spine. So her dark eyes lifted to look at the rows of books, steps slowing considerably so that she didn’t run the risk of missing it entirely.

Where on earth was it? It had to be here somewhere. Her stomach sunk a little as she thought about it being in someone else’s hands. Biting down on her lower lip, she paused and scanned the shelf before her once more. Damn it….was it already gone? Had someone beaten her to finding it?

She supposed there was really only one way for her to find out.

Biting back her groan, Kate emerged from within the shelves once more and started looking about her for any sign of the librarian. There was still a little bit of time before dinner was due to begin. Perhaps she would get lucky and manage to catch them before they left.

WORD COUNT: 565
TAGGED: OPEN
NOTES: --

[Deleted]

Min-jun didn’t quite care that it was almost time for dinner.

He did need to eat, of course - that was something he was pretty certain of. He had uh, tested that and needless to say, it did not go well. Min-jun had fainted and Halmeoni had rapped his palms VERY smartly for that once he regained consciousness, and it wasn’t something that he quite wanted to repeat. He was very certain as well, however, that he didn’t need as much as the average human.

(Honestly, he didn’t want as much food. Min-jun still liked trying all kinds of food, still very much did, but he just didn’t… crave food as much anymore. Which was. Fine. As long as he could still eat it when he wanted, it was fine.)

Instead, he had a few Capri Sun blood pouches in his bag and a bagged lunch one of the elves had thoughtfully prepared for him in case he DID get real-food-hungry, and an arm completely full of books. Well, two arms, really. It took two to hold them, leaning against his chest. He thought he had… a dozen perhaps? Maybe slightly less. He hadn’t really counted, just running through the ever-existing list of both fiction and non-fiction books that he had in his notebook, and now he was heading over to settle down in a corner with them.

The librarian didn’t usually like the students to check out THIS many books at once, so he’d try to plow through at least one of them, maybe two, before he headed back to the common room. (Well. He would actually probably start working on his homework here and only go back once curfew hit.)

Min-jun rounds the corner of the stacks and nearly plows into another student.

She’s a Gryffindor, about half a foot taller than him, and definitely very pretty and when he startles back, trying not to actually run into her, two of his top books fall right off the stack and land on her feet. He winces. One’s a rather thick paperback novel and the other’s a smaller, but hardcover advanced potions book and he’s sure neither of them felt great.

He lifts the stack of books so they cover the bottom of his face, brown eyes peeping over top as he tries to ignore that the stack is a little too heavy to be using as a shield. “Sorry,” he says softly.

Word Count: 412 words.
Tagged: KATHERINE LENNOX
Notes: Lmao jic I didn't make it 100% clear, the book that Katherine is looking for just fell from Min-jun's stack onto her foot.

[KATHERINE LENNOX]

It was early enough in the year that Katherine had foolishly believed her chances at finding the book without difficulty would be rather good. Most students were trying to get themselves situated once more, readjusting their bodies to the new school term and their change in schedule. She didn’t think there was a single person in the school who was able to sleep past seven o’clock on the morning without the risk of missing breakfast or being late to their first class. And though most classes were finished in time for dinner, anyone taking Astronomy would have to wait until midnight before they headed up to the correct tower for their lesson.

Frowning a little, Kate turned as if to round the corner and continue his search when she nearly collided with a stack of books….and the person who was practically hidden behind them.

She stepped back in an effort to avoid hitting them, but not before two of the books on top of their stack slipped from the pile and landed directly on her foot with a dull thud. Kate gasped in pain, immediately drawing her foot back and up to hold it in her hand. Thank goodness for the sturdy shelf beside her, otherwise she would have fallen over from a lack of balance. But damn did it hurt!

Gritting her teeth a little, the Gryffindor student rubbed at her toes. ”It’s okay…” she mumbled quickly at the other student. It wasn’t like they had done it on purpose, after all. Neither one of them had seen the other one coming around the corner. Though she honestly didn’t know how this other student could see anything with so many books in their arms.

Once the pain had dulled a little, Kate knelt down to pick up the two books that had been the source of her discomfort. One of them was a paperback, the one that had managed only to catch the corner of her shoe and therefore startle her more than anything. But the other was a hardcover book...the very book that she had been looking for on the shelves.

...bloody hell!

As Kate rose to her feet once more, she placed the paperback on the top of the pile of books, but held onto the other one for a moment. Even as she shifted her weight, she found that it was near impossible to try and make eye contact with the other person. Was the stack really that high, or were they hiding from her on purpose? ”Were-....were you reading this?” she asked as she held the offending book up a little higher for them to see. ”I was sort of looking for it earlier. I just got out of Potions class and it was recommended for what we were working on. It’s-...well, it’s pretty advanced potion making.” And if she was looking at this person correctly, she didn't think they were possibly any older than fourth or fifth year. Far too young to be worrying about this kind of magic already!

WORD COUNT: 517
TAGGED: @minjun
NOTES: --

[Deleted]

The Gryffindor didn't seem too upset, which was great because Min-jun honestly didn't want to deal with that right now. Or... ever, really, dealing with upset people wasn't a fantastic experience and they doubted anyone would rate that in their top ten. She put one book back on top, which was nice because it meant they could lower the book stack just a little - their nose peeped over as well this time, just their mouth hidden, and that wasn't as hard on their arms.

Books were heavy. They couldn't really hold onto them through a conversation or anything.

She didn't give back the potions book he wanted, though, and that made him frown. "I didn't know a professor recommended that," he said, because he certainly didn't. It made sense, though - he had flipped through it quickly and it looked very well-written. "I... there are a few potions in there I want to look at." The book dealt with a nice realm of medical potions, and some in that bunch definitely dealt with magical creatures. Or, well, he felt like they were important ones. Like a potion for someone who had lost a lot of blood - he kind of wanted to dissect it. Not... making any. Min-jun wasn't stupid. Smart or not, that was way beyond his level, so unless he could ask Nuna politely to put one together for him (which she might!), he would just have to do it on a theoretical level. Again, fine.

(Well, not fine, he would prefer to figure it out more practically, but it wasn't like he had a lot of opportunity for that right now.)

Still, she needed the book for class, it seemed, but... He kind of also wanted to look through it now. He considered. "Do you just need one potion? Or... do you need the whole book?" They asked quietly, absentmindedly nibbling on their lip (shielded by the books), before they realized what they were doing and stopped. If she only needed a single potion, she could always just copy it down - if she needed the WHOLE book, though, he could always copy the ones that he needed down, after all. He needed more than one, so if she could copy it it would be the easiest, but if not...

Their arms were getting heavy. They'd need to set these down relatively soon or they'd end up dropping even more.

Word Count: 403 words.
Tagged: KATHERINE LENNOX
Notes: --

[KATHERINE LENNOX]

Kate nodded, looking from the book back to the student once more. ”The Potions professor suggested that we take a look. Or, well-....suggested that I go and look for it. The potions in here tend to be useful when dealing with magical creatures and their afflictions or wounds, so-...”

It was the perfect book for Kate, at least for the moment. It was the very field that she had been looking at going into for a short while now. Her boyfriend was half-vampire, after all. And ever since her first year, when their relationship had been minimal and friendly, she had had an interest in the physiological differences between himself and a full vampire, or even a human. He was stuck between two worlds after all. On the one hand, she knew that he wasn’t going to burst into flames the instant the sun touched his skin, but she knew that he would be uncomfortable and develop a nasty sunburn if it wasn’t tended to right away.

And vampirism was only the surface of it! There were plenty of other magical creatures out there aside from vampires and werewolves and giants, after all! She would need to read about Grindylows and the effects of their bites on humans. Basilisks and unicorns and the various properties that were not usually spoken about in her classes. Pixies and gnomes and bowtruckles and all sorts of other creatures existed within the wizarding world...and Kate would need to know all that she could if she was to succeed this year.

”I graduate this year,” she added, wondering if perhaps it might stop that suspicious look she seemed to be getting from the younger Slytherin student as they eyed the book still in her hand. ”I intend to be a Healer when I leave. So this is...sort of essential to the rest of my studies.”

If that wasn’t going to be the deciding factor, she was prepared to argue about the stack of books that they currently had in their arms. Surely they wouldn’t miss this one for a day or two while she read it and made her notes? If it was such a big deal she could speak to the librarian and make sure that the book ended up being put on hold for them once she had returned it. Sometimes that was the only way Kate managed to find the books she was looking for at all with so many students wandering the halls of Hogwarts.

WORD COUNT: 421
TAGGED: @minjun
NOTES: --

[Deleted]

Min-jun could see how she was angling. It was pretty obvious. Graduating... Her professor said she should look at it... relevant to her field... Especially the way she was still hanging onto it. If she wanted to, given that Min-jun had an arm full of books, she could run off with it right now and they would find it a little rough to stop her.

But, damn it, even if the book was relevant to her field it was relevant to his life! Or parts of it, anyway.

He sighed, wishing he could be a worse person and tell her screw it, he found it first and thus it was his, but unfortunately for him and fortunately for her, Min-jun actually had a conscience and couldn't make themself do something like that. "Look," he said, instead. "Can I... just go to the corner of the library and copy down the parts of the book I need? I wasn't going to dinner anyway."

Because yeah, if they had been planning on going to dinner, they wouldn't be able to copy everything down but that was really not in the cards, so it all worked out. "You can come back after dinner and take it then, if that's okay. I can show you where I'm going to sit before you go." But wait, since she was a Gryffindor and he was a Slytherin, and everyone always knew how that went...

"Or if you don't trust me, since I'm a Slytherin," he rolled his eyes, "You can come with. I have a bagged lunch the elves made me I wasn't going to eat." He huffed a little, blowing his hair - didn't really expect that, too used to having things OVER his mouth instead of just a very very very heavy stack of books he was hovering in front of them. His arms are like dead weights, ugh.

"Please tell me one of those works, my arms are really tired."

Words: 341 Words
Tagged: KATHERINE LENNOX
Notes: --

[KATHERINE LENNOX]

Kate didn’t entirely mind the idea of having to share the book. It wasn’t as if she were going to take it out of the library and never return it. Not only would the librarian take offense to that, but Kate had too much of a conscious to knowingly keep something that didn’t belong to her. No matter how valuable the information in the book was, she had no business trying to keep the knowledge to herself.

”Well, I-...”

She had to go down to the Great Hall for dinner. If she didn’t make an appearance, people would notice and come to find her later. Between her father and her boyfriend she didn’t know which of them would be the worst to deal with. Probably her father...because nobody wanted a professor to corner them in the halls and demand to know why they were absent from something. It would be embarrassing to the worst degree.

Sighing softly, Kate’s shoulders fell a bit. The suggestion of returning after dinner seemed to be her best option right now if she was to get her hands on the information she needed. ”I suppose.” But as soon as the student asked about being untrustworthy because of their house? Kate took a step back and took the book with her, frowning darkly. ”Grow the hell up,” she hissed at them. ”If you still subscribe to that stupidity then this conversation is over. I don’t care where the hell you were sorted. I don’t care if you’re a bloody werewolf. But I do care if you’re going to be an ass about it…”

It was archaic! The very idea that people could still hold grudges against one another for no other reason than the fact that they had been sorted into a different house was perhaps the stupidest thing that Katherine Lennox had ever heard of in her life. This wasn’t wartime anymore. They were beyond that, and she had hoped that most of her generation were intelligent enough to be able to put that nonsense behind them rather than carry it forward. Apparently not everyone had gotten the memo.

Huffing quietly, she threw the book back on top of their stack. ”Fine. Keep it. Whatever. I’ll look for it later.” Then she moved around them, pulling her bag higher up onto her shoulder as she headed for the door and stewed in her irritation. The nerve of some people! Her boyfriend was a bloody Ravenclaw for Merlin's sake! "And for the record, my father is Professor Lennox. He was a Slytherin when he was in school too," she shot back over her shoulder.

WORD COUNT: 451
TAGGED: @minjun
NOTES: Oops XD