Fourth Floor: Library Stacks and Study Areas

[Wilber Winterbottom]

A maze of thousands upon thousands of books, the library is heaven to any book-lover. Upon entering the high-ceilinged room, the smell of books, both ancient and new, hits you. There are many tall, narrow shelves neatly lined up, each divided into different sections -- charms, potions, Muggles, fiction, and so on. If you find a book you're interested in, simply make use of the sliding ladder or summon the book with Accio to retrieve it.

The library just isn't a labyrinth of books and limited to study and research. In the heart of the library resides a seating area or two designated for quiet reading and perhaps the occasional polite book discussion. Professor Gert has made it a point to refresh the nooks to encourage more use within the comfy space and provide a welcoming home for the Bookworms now under her care. All are welcome, of course, not just those who chose to get involved within the extracurriculars.

Scattered among and on the outskirts of it are tables and chairs designated for quiet research some with accompanying fireplaces or large stained glass windows. Tucked away in the very back of the library is the Restricted Section, which requires a key that the librarian keeps on his person at all times and permission to enter because of the more mature titles and content that are tightly locked and chained within. At the entrance stands the front desk where the school librarian can usually be found, who will happily recommend a book, check out a book for you, and help you with any of your library needs.

OOC: Please do not play for the Librarian: Holmesian Feline.

[sweetpinkpixie]

Commandeering her favorite study table nestled by her second favorite stained glass window depicting a spring setting upon the Hogwarts grounds (occasional merperson tailfins or flying hippogriff to be spotted when you zoned out long enough staring at it), Sage had spread her notebooks, parchment, quill, inkwell, and other essentials out along the side of the table looking towards the windows while her bag sat on the chair nearest the window safely out of place but within reach with an simple Accio under the table. The position may not be the best in terms of its proximity to the potions section, but it was just a couple and breezy strides to the Herbology section which was where the majority of the stack of books clutched to her chest had come from. Said books were dropped set on the table with a thud that caused her inkwell to tip over and where it not for the Slytherin being particularity diligent with her notes earlier in the day would have caused quite the mess. Instead a small pool of liquid obsidian formed on the table and clung to the bottom corner of one of her fresh pieces of parchment.

"Tssk," she chided as she reached over to turn her the inkwell rightside up and patted the pocket of her robe for her wand to clean up the mess only to feel Aspen's smooth and cool scales tangle around her fingers. "Don't start playing hunt the thimble with me...I've got things to accomplish today..." she whispered affectionately down towards her pocket.

[Emzily]

Quote:

Originally Posted by sweetpinkpixie

Commandeering her favorite study table nestled by her second favorite stained glass window depicting a spring setting upon the Hogwarts grounds (occasional merperson tailfins or flying hippogriff to be spotted when you zoned out long enough staring at it), Sage had spread her notebooks, parchment, quill, inkwell, and other essentials out along the side of the table looking towards the windows while her bag sat on the chair nearest the window safely out of place but within reach with an simple Accio under the table. The position may not be the best in terms of its proximity to the potions section, but it was just a couple and breezy strides to the Herbology section which was where the majority of the stack of books clutched to her chest had come from. Said books were dropped set on the table with a thud that caused her inkwell to tip over and where it not for the Slytherin being particularity diligent with her notes earlier in the day would have caused quite the mess. Instead a small pool of liquid obsidian formed on the table and clung to the bottom corner of one of her fresh pieces of parchment.

"Tssk," she chided as she reached over to turn her the inkwell rightside up and patted the pocket of her robe for her wand to clean up the mess only to feel Aspen's smooth and cool scales tangle around her fingers. "Don't start playing hunt the thimble with me...I've got things to accomplish today..." she whispered affectionately down towards her pocket.

Solomon did not have a favourite study table, nor would he choose to hang out at the library, but he had managed to follow his friend, Sage, for the last few minutes, hoping to hang out but now had every intention to frighten her somehow. She’d absolutely LOVE that. He watched her get herself comfortable, make a mess with her ink, then utter away to herself. Weird. Sage was always confusing Solly in some way, and he never EVER knew what she was thinking and it was infuriating, but also drew him in every time.

He nursed a nasty graze upon his cheek, for the record, a token from his recent adventure getting into Quidditch and flying. He’d found himself feeling much better since putting his attention into sports and activities, and was incessantly bored of gobstones. He’d forgotten about said wound, and would most definitely be embarrassed by it.

While Sage remained distracted by talking to herself, Solly took his shot, and with a flick of his wand, sent a simple levitating spell towards her study books. Eat your heart out, Professor Feirgrund. Two books gently floated above her head and he held them there until she noticed.

[sweetpinkpixie]

If only Sage had inherited something useful from her gene donors...the ability to speak Parseltongue specifically...so she could have a hope in getting Aspen to relax and cease playing with Sage's fingers. She was far too delicate to pass for a wand and Sage would not be tricked into taking her out of her pocket, especially not here in the middle of the library. "I'm doing you a favor you know," she whispered harshly while swiveling her picky finger over and around Aspen's slender for to feel for something more rigid tucked away in the corner. Really, Aspen shouldn't push her luck since she really shouldn't even be here in the first place. Then again, what was a 16-year-old ophiophilist to do?

Where she not to preoccupied with playing pocket thumb war, she very likely would have caught a certain someone's movements out of her peripheral vision. Alas, as it were she did not and was completely caught off guard by the pair of levitating books - or, as far as her perspective was concerned, the books that had suddenly disappeared from the lineup. "Peeeeeeeeeves...if you've just gone and fussed with my study space again I'll -- " she growled, wand in hand at last, as she pivoted to seek out the poltergeist lurking between some stacks or another only to instead rage!pivot right into the source of all her adolescent frustrations her friend. "EEEEEEK!" she yelped while a jolt of icy surprise shot up and down her spin. Embarrassing enough to flush on top of these reactions, the sparks that shot forth from her wand (and towards Solomon and, specifically, those luscious curls) were truly the icing on the cake.

Did he need a haircut (a buzzed line) to go with his new devil-may-care cheek adornment?

[Lottiepot]

Aurora didn’t know the first thing about making her own potions, nor did she think she was particularly adept at it but she sure was going to give it a try. The first hurdle was coming up with an original idea that hadn’t been overdone. There was such a vast array of healing potions out there and so the easiest direction to go in was to be specific. It would also help if the potion she was attempting to brew was useful to her, or at least could be helpful in the future should her plans to become a creature healer come into fruition. She assumed that dealing with creatures in pain would result in an awful lot of injuries on her behalf so perhaps something that could heal Kneazle scratches would be beneficial.

The library was not somewhere the Ravenclaw often frequented but it was the easiest place to find the books she needed to research for this project. She scoured the shelves in search of books on healing magic, amassing quite the pile which she semi-skillfully levitated back to her desk and plopped them onto the bench with a perhaps all too loud for a library bang.

She opened the pages in search of anything that was remotely similar to what she wanted to create, anything that involved skin and rejuvenation, settling on Essence of Dittany, a potion to cure shallow wounds. She turned to another book on the properties of potion ingredients before setting up her parchment and her (pink if you must know) quill to take notes.

Text Cut: Ingredient 1

Dittany

* Alternative name: Burning Bush.
* Type: Herb.
* Distribution: Wide, able to be cultivated.
* Uses: Healing, skin rejuvenation.
* Potions: Essence of Dittany, Wiggenwald Potion.
* Application: Topical or ingested.

Speaking of the Wiggenweld Potion, she supposed that it was also effective at healing injuries and maybe some of its ingredients could be useful in her own. She settled on Horklump Juice, mostly as it was found frequently across a range of healing potions and therefore had to have SOME merit behind it.

Text Cut: Ingredient 2

Horklump Juice

* Type: Extracted from Horklumps
* Distribution: Native to Scandinavia, found Northern Europe.
* Uses: Healing, restorative.
* Potions: Wiggenwald Potion, Herbicide Potion, Draught of Perception.
* Application: Ingested.

The number of ingredients found in all these potions was really quite overwhelming and it was difficult to distinguish which would be the most useful. How was she supposed to know when to stop? Five had been the minimum recommendation and so that was her target for now. She turned her attention to something more on the muggle side for a minute, a step away from all the confusing magical plants and all their properties to settle onto something more simplistic. Something like.. Witch Hazel.

Text Cut: Ingredient 3

Witch Hazel

* Type: Plant
* Distribution: Native to N. America & Japan
* Uses: Anti-inflammatory, antiseptic.
* Potions: Horned Slugs Mixture, Brann Gunter Unction, various muggle lotions.
* Application: Mostly topical.

And that was about as much studying as this Ravenclaw could handle for now.

[Emzily]

Quote:

Originally Posted by sweetpinkpixie

If only Sage had inherited something useful from her gene donors...the ability to speak Parseltongue specifically...so she could have a hope in getting Aspen to relax and cease playing with Sage's fingers. She was far too delicate to pass for a wand and Sage would not be tricked into taking her out of her pocket, especially not here in the middle of the library. "I'm doing you a favor you know," she whispered harshly while swiveling her picky finger over and around Aspen's slender for to feel for something more rigid tucked away in the corner. Really, Aspen shouldn't push her luck since she really shouldn't even be here in the first place. Then again, what was a 16-year-old ophiophilist to do?

Where she not to preoccupied with playing pocket thumb war, she very likely would have caught a certain someone's movements out of her peripheral vision. Alas, as it were she did not and was completely caught off guard by the pair of levitating books - or, as far as her perspective was concerned, the books that had suddenly disappeared from the lineup. "Peeeeeeeeeves...if you've just gone and fussed with my study space again I'll -- " she growled, wand in hand at last, as she pivoted to seek out the poltergeist lurking between some stacks or another only to instead rage!pivot right into the source of all her adolescent frustrations her friend. "EEEEEEK!" she yelped while a jolt of icy surprise shot up and down her spin. Embarrassing enough to flush on top of these reactions, the sparks that shot forth from her wand (and towards Solomon and, specifically, those luscious curls) were truly the icing on the cake.

Did he need a haircut (a buzzed line) to go with his new devil-may-care cheek adornment?

Solomon CHORTLED as Sage started shouting out at Peeves. To be compared to such a mischievous beast was most definitely an achievement, although levitating some books seemed like a BOREFEST, in hindsight. His laughter was soon quashed at her very sudden turn in his direction, wand in hand. Of course Sage would act with violence. HE SHOULD HAVE FORESEEN THAT. Solomon dove out of the way behind a nearby bookcase, not even thinking to use his own wand that was still in his hand. See, this is why he was a terrible wizard and was FAILING all of his classes. The ends of his hair seeming to be caught up in the icy blast (okay, maybe it wasn’t quite a blast), therefore freezing a few of them into a perfect curled shape. Looking absolutely ridiculous, mind.

He shot a look around because they would absolutely get into trouble for this, before appearing back into sight from the bookcase. He wasn’t mad, only a little amused, and he patted his robes down after the commotion. “Using magic within the library. Detention, right away.” He said to Sage, with some tut tuts afterwards.

The books that he had previously levitated had obviously fallen to the ground by now, so Solomon casually strolled towards her to pick them up for her. Forever the gentleman, of course. “You should be more careful.” He told her as he placed them down, a smile creeping upon his lips, one he was sure that Sage would see right through.

[sweetpinkpixie]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Emzily

Solomon CHORTLED as Sage started shouting out at Peeves. To be compared to such a mischievous beast was most definitely an achievement, although levitating some books seemed like a BOREFEST, in hindsight. His laughter was soon quashed at her very sudden turn in his direction, wand in hand. Of course Sage would act with violence. HE SHOULD HAVE FORESEEN THAT. Solomon dove out of the way behind a nearby bookcase, not even thinking to use his own wand that was still in his hand. See, this is why he was a terrible wizard and was FAILING all of his classes. The ends of his hair seeming to be caught up in the icy blast (okay, maybe it wasn’t quite a blast), therefore freezing a few of them into a perfect curled shape. Looking absolutely ridiculous, mind.

He shot a look around because they would absolutely get into trouble for this, before appearing back into sight from the bookcase. He wasn’t mad, only a little amused, and he patted his robes down after the commotion. “Using magic within the library. Detention, right away.” He said to Sage, with some tut tuts afterwards.

The books that he had previously levitated had obviously fallen to the ground by now, so Solomon casually strolled towards her to pick them up for her. Forever the gentleman, of course. “You should be more careful.” He told her as he placed them down, a smile creeping upon his lips, one he was sure that Sage would see right through.

Solomon insert some insufferably middle name here Duck! If she were a basilisk you would be BEYOND dead right now. So beyond dead, in fact, that your soul would not have even had the opportunity to decide if it wanted to haunt her or not. Gone. Dead. Ceased to exist.

Which would also be terribly inconvenient but that was not being addressed at the moment.

She almost had to do a double take to make sure he hadn't been sporting some prefect badge she hadn't noticed before - but, who was she kidding, this was Solomon - and her eyes only narrowed further to double down on her dagger eyes. Naturally, she was unwilling to admit to the sparks being an accident (and at least they had done SOMETHING instead of compounding the humiliation) and had her brain working double time to remove herself from the mercy of Solomon's cocky gaze.

"Oh? Are yooooooooooou going to punish me? How exciting," she asked with exaggerated fluttering eyelashes. It was a weak counter to his obviously upper hand, but DID sometimes have favorable outcomes when she leaned into...flirtation. Or her version of it. She couldn't quite bring herself to add on to anything more and snatched up some of the books he had abused. "And you should...well...you should...ugh...you should...just shut up."

Great, she had completely flustered herself now. How was it that he had actually managed to get her the upper hand.

"...OR you can make yourself actually useful and help me search these books for the different uses of different small animal spleens in potion making."

[Emzily]

Quote:

Originally Posted by sweetpinkpixie

Solomon insert some insufferably middle name here Duck! If she were a basilisk you would be BEYOND dead right now. So beyond dead, in fact, that your soul would not have even had the opportunity to decide if it wanted to haunt her or not. Gone. Dead. Ceased to exist.

Which would also be terribly inconvenient but that was not being addressed at the moment.

She almost had to do a double take to make sure he hadn't been sporting some prefect badge she hadn't noticed before - but, who was she kidding, this was Solomon - and her eyes only narrowed further to double down on her dagger eyes. Naturally, she was unwilling to admit to the sparks being an accident (and at least they had done SOMETHING instead of compounding the humiliation) and had her brain working double time to remove herself from the mercy of Solomon's cocky gaze.

"Oh? Are yooooooooooou going to punish me? How exciting," she asked with exaggerated fluttering eyelashes. It was a weak counter to his obviously upper hand, but DID sometimes have favorable outcomes when she leaned into...flirtation. Or her version of it. She couldn't quite bring herself to add on to anything more and snatched up some of the books he had abused. "And you should...well...you should...ugh...you should...just shut up."

Great, she had completely flustered herself now. How was it that he had actually managed to get her the upper hand.

"...OR you can make yourself actually useful and help me search these books for the different uses of different small animal spleens in potion making."

Solomon no-middle-name-given-at-birth Duck only felt a smidge of regret as Sage’s eyes pierced into his soul, but his usual mischievous smirk was as clear as day. He knew very well that he had well and truly caught her off guard, which only meant that she was either going to start confusing him with words, or he’d expect some sweet revenge at a later date. Not a good time to share a common room, that’s for sure.

Yep, it was the confusing words that she had decided to go with. NOT a big surprise as it always left Solomon stumbling and stuttering. The Slytherins eye twitched at her remark but the added eyelashes was what really got him. They were so long. He liked them, he guessed?? ANYWAY… “Uhhh…” he started to fluster, until she finished with a box standard shut up. Mwwhahahahha… sweet smell of defeat. “Oh? I… should… I should just… just shut up?” He used his fingers to pretend to zip his mouth shut, thus forth only speaking through hums. “Hmmm, hm, hmm hmm HM.” Sage would never know what he was humming to her right now. Ho har.

Unzipping his mouth to answer her properly, because he truly hadn’t intended to wind her up tooooo much, Solomon said, “Sure.” His interest was spiked at the mention of potions, anyway. He sat himself down at her desk and picked the nearest book that he was most familiar with. “What are you going to make with animal spleens?” GROSS, but he was curious.

[sweetpinkpixie]

Knowledge of no middle name would only serve to make him even more insufferable. It was a wonder that Sage did not have steam or smoke puffing out of her nostrils - her unwillingness to admit defeat was truly one of her worst vices. Revenge was very much on the table still but it was a real struggle to even begin to think of the foundations for how to go about it. Perhaps after returning to their her common, taking a cold shower, and returning to her own dormitory her mind would be more clear.

So she was doing the most in not paying attention to his smirk nor did she even relish in the fact that she had thrown him off slightly with her rebuttal only to have her attention forced back because of his absurd childlike pantomiming. "I know a spell that can help with that if your are really insistent," she muttered over all his 'mmhmming' while rolling her eyes. The humming and whole charade really was amusing patronizing and just as he pretend unzipped his mouth she was smooshing his cheeks together with his palms. "Oh my Morgana, you are literally five."

THAT whole crisis averted, mostly, Sage stumbled stepped towards her seat and had to pivot last second or else she was going to end up in his lap and THAT was not going to help. Instead the Slytherin performed a sloppy pirouette into the seat across from him and flipped open her notebook to a diagram she had sketched of the human head in profile and held it up to him. "I am examining my options to either increase the flow of saliva in the mouth or expand the nasal passageways or decrease mouth muscle inflammation of the drinker," she explained, SO much easier to focus on facts and logistics. She may even unwind talking potions ingredients. "Small animals spleens are a common thread amount potions that involve growth ... bat spleen in the Shrinking Solution, bat spleens in the Swelling Solution, toad spleens in the Deflating Draft...newt spleens...plenty of options," she rattled on with a little flourish of the wrist with each. Spleens, much better than thinking about mouths and in particular Solomon's mouth. Sage even ran her tongue over the back of her teeth to reactivate the slimy texture and earthy sweet but oddly acidic flavor that had sufficiently ruin all food for the past almost month. "It's for the long term Potions assignment," she added nonchalantly. "The symptoms I listed are possible sources of the thing I am attempting to rectify." She paused and looked over the top of her notebook at him. "Have you decided what you are going to do?"

[Emzily]

His head was telling him not to encourage her to explore more spells to shoot at him, as Sage would have no filter and practise something truly unforgivable, he believed. Hopefully the charming smile that was currently upon his face was enough to deter her from ruining it, though when she caught his hands and smushed his cheeks with them, he had to refrain from blowing a raspberry at her face. Clarity: he chose not to. Instead, he felt himself turn a bit pink at her touch so he gently wriggled out of her grasp. “Geroff, and no thanks.” He said. “You and your spells are scary.” True comment. Was his smile charming her yet??

Well, her answer had him completely perplexed but he tried his best to remain in the loop, because potions was his favourite class so appearing NOT knowledgeable would only make Solomon irritated. “You love words.” He commented before reaching for her notebook to pull into his view, eyebrows fully furrowed. “Ah, I see, makes sense.” Solly threw a few nods in there, only half understanding. “Well, expanding the nasal passages… that sounds very… interesting and useful.” That was his vote, anyway.

“Haven’t decided yet.” Solomon answered quickly, not wanting to embarrass himself trying to explain his silly thoughts to someone as smart as Sage. He didn’t actually realise she was that thoughtful until now. He span her notebook back towards her, looking for a new subject to talk about. “Wanna hang out at Hogsmeade this weekend? They have a thing going on, don’t they?” And he would very much like to spend that with her.

[sweetpinkpixie]

What an absolutely horrendous stereotype of an ambitious Slytherin, Solomon. She may be harsh, but she had her morals and certain lines that not even she would cross - though having the knowledge of certain things crossed none of these. Blow a raspberry in her face, however, and something not quite unforgivable but still spicy would happen - like transfiguring his tongue into a slug, perhaps. "I shall take that as a compliment," she hummed.

Moving a few things around in her study spot, her lips curled into a smile of her own. "You're just full of compliments today, Solomon," she teased and, yes, was slightly charmed by his smile but perhaps a little less so than his unintentional words of affirmation. Elbows on the table and chin resting upon the backs of her hands, Sage observed him (and the mild glaze that came over his eyes as he skimmed her methodical research) and scrunched her nose a little as a thought crossed her mind. Was he....NAH. "I am aiming to brew a solution that when added to food or drink will eliminate lip smacking and chewing with one's mouth open," she summarized for him. "It is a horrid habit that when not performed due to POOR manners can be the result of narrow nasal passages and not being able to breathe thoroughly while chewing...according to some muggle medical research."

The sixth year took back her notebook and returned it to its designated spot on the table just adjacent to her capped inkwell and opened apothecary encyclopedia to continue her reading on different spleens. "You ought to get that sorted soon or else you are going to have to rush to finish it and it won't be your best work," she advised with a sharp glance in his direction through her eyelashes and was about to return to her own research so that SHE wouldn't be rushing to complete the assignment when his follow up question caused her arm flunch suddenly and her elbow knocked over her inkwell and it and its now dislodged lip tipped over and a black puddle spread forward across the table towards Solomon. Just as well because it WAS his fault it had happened! Sage quickly tried to compose herself after a tiny little spat of unpleasantries and began moving her things away from the black puddle. "I...think I did hear something or another about some Hogsmeade Village celebration," she replied calmly, though it was hard not to notice the sudden perk to her voice. "I wasn't entirely sure if I would go or not but...if you're going...and you're asking me to go with you...I suppose that means I will attend." It wasn't like she already had her costume put together and tucked it away in her closet or anything like that. Ahem.

[FearlessLeader19]

Ary had figured this part of the assignment would be complicated\ed. As such, he needed a place with minimum distractions, someplace where he could spread all his books containing the notes and research information he would need. The library as did other locations such as the Art Room sprang to mind. In the end, he settled on the library since it meant if he needed additional research done, he would already be in the spot. So, here he was, flying solo and with a table occupied with books and parchment on every bit of its surface.

The good thing was, Ary had already had his ingredients listed and his research on the amount of ingredients as well as potential steps were completed. Still, the purpose of the present books was to double check himself. He started off with water and worked his way down the list, pausing ever to often to consult some note in a textbook or the information he received from his dad and aunt.

In the end, the Slytherin had come up with the following:

• 600 300 ml water
• 2 tablespoons armadillo bile
• 5 boom berries cut in quarters
• 3 dandelion roots cut into one inch pieces
• 2 whole sprigs of goosegrass
• 3 ounces flobberworm mucus
• A pinch of finely crushed lionfish spine
• 7 drops of neem oil
• 2 coarsely ground snake fangs

Sitting back and reviewing his work, the third year could not help but be proud of himself. He thought this assignment was coming along quite nicely.