It appeared that bluebird Mariel wasn't too keen on the head rubbing greeting, which most people weren't at first. She'd grow used to it, but for now he simply smiled at her response.

"Jakey Wakey?" Varius repeated in slight awe, "I like it. What a marvelous nickname. I like nicknames... I like creating nicknames... Jakey Wakey is a good nickname. Let the girl who calls you that know that she is a nicknaming genius."

He giggled to himself for a moment, replaying the nickname over his head again and again. Jakey Wakey, so poetic!

"Transfiguration, eh? I have a personal interest in that subject. Being able to change the nature of an object is a sort of power which is just incredible to me. I can't wait till we have our first Transfiguration lesson. I hope we get to do some magic soon, I don't want to be reading and counting numbers all year!"

"Arthimancy is such a horrible subject which puts a dent in my aura," he said reaching up to his forehead and soothing it a little as if he were having the onset of a headache. "But I managed to crack that homework and hand it in early this morning... anything for Hufflepuff, mind."

Varius did a couple of doodles in a first draft of his alphabet but continued to scribble them out after each one was completed. This wasn't working out, he didn't have the inspiration! "Creatures and plants? Fascinating. Do you know, I plan to learn the name of every single portrait in this castle and also plan to have a conversation and learn about their lives... or what was their lives before they were condemned to paint and frame. Anyway, there was this one portrait up in the seventh floor called Gwendolyn the Gardner. She was a herbologist. Studied the cross-breeding of magical and muggle plants - amazing woman. She was upset of her position in the castle, since she wanted to be on the exterior facing the grounds of course. Sorry rambling again..."

He paused for a moment when Jakey Wakey asked his question, unsure whether or not he should give the truthful answer. Might this young lad try and sabotage his creation of a brand new alphabet? Probably not and if so... what a mean, harsh bully!

"I've decided, Jakey Wakey, that I am going to create my own runic alphabet. Only to be known by me and a select personal few who I would like to share such a creation with. As you are here for the birth of this alphabet I promise I will allow you the translation of one of the letters - guaranteed!" he winked. His second good deed of the day... or so it seemed in Varius' head.

Topic's changed again... wow this conversation was going fast! "Ghost hunting? How very exciting and... carnivorous of you all. I hope you have fun though! Feel free to send me an owl telling me all about it! I would love to hear it all. I heard there was a ghost that haunted the toilets. Such a strange place to spend your death... most unhygienic as well

Alessia made her way through the library... she'd remembered it from her youth. Countless hours spent hiding through the rack so she wouldn't need to speak to anyone, wouldn't need to be around a lot of other students.

She looked at the books on the racks, pleased to see many books on Runes and stones. She trailed her finger over the backs of the books and just let her nose take in the scent of the old parchment.

Jake looked at the girl in confusion as he took the mirror, and let out a kind of strangled yell as he did so. Noticing a professor nearby, he tried to quieten down. "Oh, man."

Ink over the left side of his neck, covering his ear from his ear-pulling habit, and making his hair stick up from when he'd run his hand through it. The hair he could live with, but the ink making him all... filthy. Shudder.

Shooting a glare at the Arithmancy notes that Nancy said looked like they were more from an Ancient Runes class, being all scrawled and smudged, Jake handed the mirror back. Purple ink was so... evil.

"Thanks," he said, gratefully. Jake glared at Cameron and Nancy. They'd noticed and hadn't had the decency to tell him. Cameron even poked his hair! Well, the boy would have to live with purple fingers.

"Yeah," Jake replied. "I got all confused at first, but it's mainly the explaining behind Arithmancy that I don't get. I'm always asking 'why', so I never know reasons or anything. The homework is hard, but only like that first question."

Jake looked back around to Varius. He was complimenting the use of the name 'Jakey Wakey'. Oh, woe is me. "I plan to start using my middle name, instead," Jake tried to move the subject on a little. "It's odd, but related to my first name."

Blech... he'd get that Lima for giving him such a name... why reveal it yourself, idiot?!

Wow... this kid was thorough. "Every single portrait? That's a pretty good idea... I wish you well with that..." Something about a portrait not liking her position. Boy, he was goooood. "You have an excellent memory," Jake responded, gaping.

Then, a runic alphabet. And Jake would get to see a letter himself. He nodded at the acknowledgement. "Cool, thanks... Do you plan on taking Ancient Runes? I'm taking every lesson I possibly can."

Jake looked at Mariel. "What about you, what subjects do you plan on taking?"

Snicker.
It appeared that the nickname Jakey Wakey wasn't going anywhere anytime soon as Varius seemed quite enamored of it. At least he hadn't decided to call Mariel by some odd nickname, well other than bluebird girl which wasn't all that bad. "Middle name?" she asked Jake slowly with eyebrow raised. "And what's that?" She wasn't completely sure why he'd want to use a different name - Jake was certainly a fine name - unless it was the odd nickname thing. But then again, pretty much any name could be turned into an annoying nickname. Not that she'd know from personal experience, and she certainly wasn't daring anyone to come up with something for her.

"Thanks," she told Jake as she accepted the mirror back. Unfortunately he didn't find his appearance nearly as entertaining as she did. Shrugging to herself, she checked her own appearance. Patting down her slightly ruffled hair, she noticed Jake glaring in the corner of her mirror. Glancing up, Mariel followed the boy's gaze to see Nancy sitting not far away with a young Slytherin boy. Giving her a cheerful wave before returning her small mirror to her schoolbag, the Ravenclaw girl resolved to go talk to her Slytherin friend as she hadn't seen her since summer - but later. She didn't want to rudely leave her conversation and Nancy seemed quite occupied herself.

"Yes, Transfiguration is quite fascinating," she nodded at Varius. "One of my favorites, but quite difficult to master... It does seem like all the non-magicky classes are always in the beginning of the term. I guess they like to get the boring ones out of the way. Of course, Charms class is soon as well. That's some straight-forward magic there."

Agreeing with Jake, she said, "Right, I have no problem with the math aspect of Arithmancy, it's the meanings behind the numbers and the predictions you're supposed to gather from them that make my head hurt." Turning back to Varius, she added, "You've finished your homework? Well done, then... I suppose I've put mine off long enough..."

Tilting her head as she watched him appear to be doodling, she averted her eyes back to Varius' face as he spoke of portraits. "That's actually pretty interesting. I'm sure most people pass right by the portraits without even giving them a second glance. I'm sure they have plenty of secrets they're just waiting to share with the right person." Oh, so the doodling was a new runic alphabet. "Inventive..." she contributed quietly. The kid certainly was creative.

"Well, we don't plan on eating them," she said regarding the carnivorous comment, her expression completely serious. "Just talking to them..." Thinking for a moment, she added, "Yes, someone told me she had seen a ghost haunting toilets the other day, Moaning Myrtle is what she's called. And she made a terrible mess of flooding the bathroom... I agree, such an unbecoming place to spend eternity."

Smiling at Jake's enthusiasm for taking classes, she said, "I enjoy Runes, I think you'll like that better than Arithmancy. I'm taking pretty much everything, but I'm really looking forward to Potions." Then she frowned slightly at the recollection of the Potion's office state. She'd have to talk to the Headmaster soon.

Varius pondered for a moment over Jake's comment, "I suppose I do have an alright memory... never really thought about it, I just do it." He hadn't realised how big a challenge he had set himself in order to memorise the portraits, but so long as they had interesting stories he was sure to follow with ease. Interesting and unusual facts were a fun thing Varius liked to memorise also. Wow, maybe he did have a huge memory.

"Yeh, I noticed," he responded to Mariel's comment about the boring classes being first, "But History of Magic is bound to be incredibly fascinating. I cannot wait!"

"Most certainly," Varius began to nod a little too frantically, "Can't make a runic alphabet if I don't go to the lessons which are based on runes! Granted, I won't learn specifically how to MAKE my own runes, but I can understand what the basis of runes are and how their form came into existence in the first place... or so I hope. Merlin, I sounded kind of... intelligent there. That is so unsual for me," he snickered. "Anything has to be better than Arthimancy," he reached for his forehead once again at the talk of it.

Chase smirkwede. "Yeah I dont pay too much attention to what house people are in. Why what house are you in?" he asked looking over at her.

Helena's blue eyes flashed up to his own and back down again. Slytherin, she sighed and then clasped a hand to her mouth. She brought it down slowly, grinning. Sorry...

"Well," Jake twisted his face around a tad. "My full name is Jacob Jakers Dale Blackly-Upstead. It can be quite a mouthful, but its the Jakers... My dad wanted to call me Jakers, apparently, but that was a no go... so I get one of the easiest names to forget," Jake nodded. He'd been called Jack multiple times already. "I'm not sure if I like 'Jakers' or not... I think I do..."

Jake shook his head again to stop his thoughts trailing off. "I think Hufflepuffs really need to do as much as they can, pointswise," Jake mused. "even if that includes the 'boring lessons'. The way people go on about potions makes that lesson a little daunting..." Jake didn't want to go on to mention how he looked forward to seeing what kind of homework they got, because he'd probably jinx it, judging by this Arithmancy stuff.

Turning to Varius again, Jake was stunned. "What do you mean it's unusual for you to sound smart?!" he asked, incredulous. "You, like, are smart. I can tell from this conversation, and the fact you did your homework already... there's something about you that screams Huffleclaw..." he commented, intending it as a compliment.

"Erm... are either of you signing up for Quidditch try-outs?" Had he already asked that? Meh, maybe. It was the usual way he went when he brought topics off track. "Or, like, have you already?"

Chase laughed when she sighed and attmpted to give her a look. "What did i tel you about that?" he asked grinnign . "Im a ravenclaw." he said nodding.

Nancy's eyes started to twinkle in amusement at Jake's facial expression which was a mixture of slight annoyance due to her not answering his question, and disbelief. He apparently hadn't expected this reaction from her but, well, there had been a reason she'd been sorted into Slytherin three years ago. Smirking at him Nancy didn't add anything to her prior answer but just pulled her attention back to her Arithmancy notes in front of her until some quick movement next to her made her look up at Cam who was waving at her like mad even though she was sitting right next to him. Uhm...okay? This guy certainly was sort of weird, this behavior was further proof of that, the first being his trying to write with his eyes closed. Weird...but sort of cute as well, in a well weird way. Some firsties just were cute, there was no other way to describe it.

Giving Cam next to her a grin Nancy'd just opened her mouth to ask which question of their Arithmancy homework they were going to start with when Jake ran his ink-stained hand through his hair causing it to become all spiky and purple-ish. Nancy bit her lip very hard to keep herself from bursting out laughing at this sight since Jake who was apparently unaware of his hair-state was still babbling on about his notes. The 13-year-old Slytherin wasn't completely sure what exactly he was talking about since her eyes were only focused on Jake's hair while Nancy was still biting her lip until it actually hurt.

The moment Cam leaned over to Jake to actually poke his hair Nancy couldn't help it anymore, she snorted which luckely was drowned out by a deafening noise coming from somewhere in the Library causing her to jerk her head around to see what or more like who had procured that sound. And it turned out to be a little Hufflepuff who had sneezed, just sneezed.
Rolling her eyes Nancy once again moved her attention back to the notes in front of her to finally get on with her homework. She wanted to get this done as soon as possible. Not paying the least bit of attention to the conversation Jake and the other little Hufflepuff were having Nancy started to flick through her pages of notes to find something, anything that could help them do their homework.

Her head snapped up as Jake repeated somebody's name: Mariel Morgan. Whirling around in her chair Nancy stared at the Ravenclaw for a second in disbelief that she was actually in the Library along with them before shouting with a huge grin on her face, "Mariel!" Before the other girl could answer, though, Jake suddenly turned around as well and started glaring at her and Cam like they'd done something wrong. Huh? Mouthing a "What?!" at him with a confused look on her face Nancy just continued to grin at Mariel waiting for some reaction from the Ravenclaw girl.

Helena, still grinning, nodded. Yeah, I kind of got that from the badge on your robes. She grinned further and looked around on the ground for her bag. She couldn't find it, though, so she had to keep from sighing again.

Cam stopped with the poking of his friend's hair after it got boring and payed back to his attention on the homework. Ugggh. Sure the class was a bit fun, but only because he got some points. The homework was NOT fun at all. Dreadful actually. Oh well, it was best to try. His goal was getting at least 3 points for the Arithmancy homework. At the crisis his house was in right now he would accept any points except none.

Hokaaaaai... Lemme move to the hard ones first. The hard ones were #1, #2, #3, and #4. All of 'em. He could just have done the assignment later. Yeah he would probably do that! After all, numbers was his worst enemy in homework. Numbers didn't go along with him, wondering if he could get help from some smart people. Speaking about smart people... Suddenly a a big sneeze startled the life out of him! Quickly as possible he turned around to Jake who was speaking to two other people.

"Hiiiiiiii," he said to introduce himself. Going nearer to Jake, he secretly asked him, "Oi Jake. Have ya seen Tibby anywhere?"

"What?! Bloody what?!" Jake hissed. "You knew about the ink that was all over me and my hair, and didn't think of telling me! That's what! And you!" Jake turned to look at Cameron. "Poking it! You know full well how much I like being clean, I would have thought you'd have told me about it on my neck!"

Jake moved his notes around on the table and started scribbling down anything for the Arithmancy homework. The first question utterly bamboozled him but he guessed what the meanings of certain words were and went with it. The rest was easy, though the part about Pythagoras he ended up having to consult a book to do. It was a good job he carried every single textbook with him at once, since he could never remember the order of lessons. Ever.

That done, Jake let the ink dry before tucking the homeworks neatly inside his textbook, before grabbing his potions text and some more clean parchment. He was now in a green ink mood, so he pulled that out too, forgetting about the coat of it on the outside, getting green ink on his right hand now. This would have been fine, if Jake hadn't decided to lean his head on his right hand as he wrote out the Potions essay on safety (using the front of the book where that stuff usually was). When Cameron started whispering to him, the right side of his hair was flattened up with green ink, so the right side of his head showed the right side of a green mohican.

"Hmph..." Jake's face darkened. Cameron obviously didn't know that Tabitha wasn't intending to return. His face went serious, which was a sight, considering his green and purple hair. "She's being homeschooled instead of coming to Hogwarts," Jake turned back to his work. "Didn't want to come in the end I think... and I'm the unsociable one..." Jake glared at Cameron. He'd also made fun of Jake's social skills, technically. Laughing and whatnot.

"Well," Jake changed the subject and let a grin show on his face. "This History of Magic homework needs some discussion..."

Cam started to laugh, a lot when he had that really angry face and voice again. Finally controlling his laughter after a few minutes, he eyed Jake's scribblings and what-not. The homework was pretty hard so he thought that he wouldn't mind if he just took a peek at it. Maybe Jake knew about what the homework was since he was an intelligent, clean-freak being. He started to hum softly while continuing with his work. Soon the ink dried on his hair so it was all hard and purple-y.

Oh Jake should have been a wizard comedian when he grows up because right now he looked like a clown. He soon noticed that there was some green ink oozing out of the case and he didn't know that it had just went on his hand, then on his hair when he touched it. Nancy could have removed it with that cleaning spell again but this was just too funny. While the boy was working on his Potions essay, Cam quickly took one of his dark blue ink from his bag.

As careful as possible so Jake wouldn't notice and that he wouldn't have some green ink on his hand too, it took him about 5 minutes to smear some of his dark blue ink on the green ink's case. Putting his ink away back in the backpack he looked back at Jake. "Hey Jake, I don't think you could do the green ink on homework. Just warning you..."

However when he talked about Tibby, his face just went from prankster to a completely sad face. WHAT?! She was going to be home schooled? It was pretty sad but was happy when Jake soon changed the subject. "From the Slytherin points right now, I'd have to do homework fast. The History of Magic is hard actually."

Out of the corner of his eye, Jake had watched as Cameron coated his inkpot with dark blue ink... amateur. It was right in front of him, and the boy thought Jake hadn't seen. Oh the fun...

"Hmmm..." Jake replied, looking over his notes. "For starters, I wouldn't advise copying my work, if you can even read it, that is... but yes, I suppose I could make this my rough copy." Jake made sure to totally grab the ink with his left hand. In his bag he worked quickly as he coated his right hand with a royal ink, spelling a phrase backwards. "On second thoughts, I need to go wash up and take my things downstairs..." Jake pondered for a moment.

Holding Cameron's face in both hands, Jake uttered a warning. "If you ever do a prank without checking to see if the victim is watching, I will make sure you hear about it..." He finished off with a pleasant smile, and took his hands away, pleased to see the message on Cameron's left cheek; RAVENCLAWS PWN! and a dark blue handprint on the other. Oh yes, leave Hufflepuffs out of this...

Bwahahahahaaaa...

"Well," Jake said, looking round at everybody. "I should really be leaving. Goodbye Cameron, Nancy, Mariel aaaand Varius," he looked at each of them in turn. "Sorry I couldn't stay and chat, but I have loads to do..."

And with that, Jake grabbed his things and left, snickering. Before he was fully out of the door, Jake could be seen ruffling the back of his hair... with the dark blue ink covered hand. Not five seconds after leaving, did the realisation hit him. "Nooooooooo!" he groaned, and changed his direction, heading for a bathroom.

"I am... like smart? A Huffleclaw, really?" Varius gave out a short laugh. He had never heard something like that in his entire life... granted he had only been within the experience of Hogwarts for a short while, but he was still allowed to be surprised!

"Well, I think if I were to do the tryouts, I would have to give up on other things... such as my portrait task, for instance. I will of course try and be there as best I can to cheer on our little soilders!" Varius had never actually held a broomstick let alone flew one, but the prospect of it all seemed incredibly exciting!

Varius let Jake talk to his other friends for a moment, returning his attention when he began discussing History of Magic. "Oh! The homework... I forgot," he began packing up all of his doodles that he had managed so far - he would need to continue this later, "Thank you for reminding me! I must be off as well," he said, agreeing with Jake in the sense that he too had too much to do.

He made sure to rub Jake and Mariel's head in good bye and as a thank you for their company before leaving shortly behind his fellow Huffie first year.

Mariel started twisting the ends of her hair around her fingers as Jake and Varius started discussing less-than-interesting-to-Mariel things like boring classes. And Hufflepuffly-ness. Twisting and twisting until the subject then turned to the best topic of all: Quidditch.

Quickly disentangly her hands from her long dark locks, her face lit up as she nodded fervently. "Oh, sure, I've signed up. I can't wait for tryouts!" She then listened vaguely as Varius listed his reasons for not wanting to play. Giving up other things? Why, Quidditch should top everyone's priority list! Not really understanding, yet trying her best not to be rude, she nodded in his direction and said, "Of course."

She didn't get a chance to hear what Jake thought about the game because at that moment the young Ravenclaw heard a very familiar voice shouting out her name. Turning around, she spotted her Slytherin friend. "Hey, Nance!" she called out to her with a grin and waved over to her frantically. "You don't mind, do you?" she asked the two little Badger boys sitting at her table, as she got up to gather her things. "We have so much catching up to do." Of course they wouldn't mind, they probably wanted to talk more Hufflepuffly-ness and what could a Ravenclaw contribute to that?

"Hello," she said cheerfully to the little Slytherin boy who made his way over as she started to leave. And back to Quidditch... "So do mine eyes decieve me or did I see one Nancy Hudonson on the Slytherin sign up sheet for Quidditch?" she asked Nancy with a grin as she made her way to her table. Not waiting for an answer, Mariel remembered something else she wanted to ask. "Oh! I was looking all over the classroom for you in History of Magic. I gotta know, what'd you think of the class?"

"Bye you two," Mariel told the Huffie boys as they went to leave, and the girl looked at Varius like he was mental when he started rubbing her head again. Shaking her head slightly in disbelief, she patted her hair into place once more. "That one needed a shower anyway," she told Nancy as she gestured towards the ink-covered Jake's retreating figure. Glancing over to the Slytherin firstie, she noticed RAVENCLAWS PWN! written on the side of his face. "Aw, yeah, they do!" she said with a chuckle, as she nodded in agreement.

Mariska walked into the studying area in the library, thinking that this was going to be the weirdest homework group she had ever been in. At least when it was her, Asteira, Elizabeth and Ludo, there were no hidden feelings or agendas. Now, she wasn't so sure. However, she had to admit she was glad Cayden was going to be there with her too. She looked over at him as she walked with him, lightly holding onto his hand as they walked towards an empty table. " I guess they aren't here yet," She said, not wanting to say Roberts name at the moment. It made her feel...odd to say his name when she was with Cayden.

cayden had his books and notes in his hand as he held Mari's hand in the other. he looked around as she then noted that no one was here yet." Guess we are over achievers." he teased her as he looked around. Nope. they werent here yet."Awesome." he said rather excited." we can pick out the best chairs." he snickered a little as he headed towards the table. he looked at the table and the chairs as he was trying to decipher the better chairs. "This one....and this one." he said pointing to the two near the end of the table." they look cushioned and more padded. I have a feeling that we will be here for awhile." he said honestly as he made his way to his chair. he sat down as he set his books on the table." This would be perfect if we had foot stools." what! it would. He was a efficient in finding ways to feel relaxed.

Elizabeth had been scanning the books on the shelves in the history section, looking for information about the person she had been assigned in class, when she heard Mari's voice say something about someone not being there yet. And when she then heard Cayden speak, she edged closer to the area set aside for studying, curious on who they were waiting for, and what they were going to do. She had a suspicion, and she had a feeling he would need her there as a buffer if she was right. And besides, maybe she could get her homework done at the same time. Killing two birds with one stone, or whatever. As long as she didn't end up having to witness another argument about people wanting to be with her more than anyone else.

Robert walked into the library and looked over toward the tables to find Mariska and Cayden already there. He gritted his jaw and sighed as he walked over toward the table. Looking at the chairs he frowned and looked around until he found an empty table. He set his pack and books on the table across from Mariska and lifted the two chairs up, carrying them over to the empty table he switched them out for ones with more cushion and walked back over toward the table. "I assume we'll be here for awhile..." Looking over his shoulder at Lyra he set the chairs down and held hers out for her. It was common courtesy and he was almost always courteous. Maybe that's the second thing I learned from my father, he thought humorously.

Lyra made her way towards the table following Robert. She hoped this was not going to be odd in any way and hoped that their little chat on the grounds helped in more ways than just herself. Either way, she felt bad that she was the one that asked for this, but at the time, she didn't know who Mariska was. To her, she liked the girl's ideas in class as she brought forth a different side to things. Something she never thought of before.

And there they were, sitting at the table. "Hello," she said as she walked up and took the seat that Robert held out for her. "Thank you," she mumbled to him with a smile hoping not to make this more awkward than it already was.

As Elizabeth then saw Robert and Lyra walk up and join the table, Elizabeth shook her head. It was as she figured. Either someone was insane or masochistic. She just didn't know which, or who it was. Slipping the book she had been looking at earlier under her arm, she shifted her school bag on her other shoulder before calmly walking out of the stacks.

"Hey guys," she said with a grin. "Secret meeting or can anyone join?"

Robert nodded as Lyra thanked him and he pushed the chair in a bit. As he heard what sounded like Elizabeth he turned to find in fact, her standing there with a grin. "No...you can join..." Please, his eyes said. "Let me get you a good chair." He looked around and found another well cushioned chair that wasn't being used and walked over to grab it. Walking back he set it down and held it out for her, "We're doing the History of Magic homework."

As Robert turned when he heard her voice, Elizabeth kept the grin on her face, an eyebrow raising at the pleading look when he said she could join. "Okay," she said, standing there a bit awkwardly as he went to retrieve a chair for her. As he returned and held the chair out for her, she sat down, slipping her bag off her shoulder to lie on the ground by the chair. And as he said they were working on History of Magic, she laughed a little as she laid the book she was carrying on the table. "Seems to be a popular activity," she joked, looking up at him for a minute.