Ian nodded. What a horrible thing to have happen while at school

He decided he needed to change the topic. Well, he didn't need to, but he would feel more comfortable speaking about something else. He couldn't imagine the pain.

He pointed at her book with the one he was holding and asked. What type of potion are you looking for in that book?

Christmas looked at the potion and said "Well it is a complex one i want to try it but getting some of the ingredents will be difficult may have to ask the potions professor about it"

Ian returned his gaze back to his own book of potions. He thought about the things he'd heard and learned. He also thought about what it might be like if he didn't have his mum. It wasn't a very pleasant thought. He felt relieved that his mum was still with him. He didn't like to think of the thought of what this world would be like without a wonderful woman like her. No more meat pies. No more fresh fish and chips when his papa came home from a fishing trip. No more tales of old Scottish legends and sea stories. And no more snuggling up on those nights when the winds from the North Sea came diving over the shore into the houses of his village. No more walks along the beach, picking out shells and rocks.

It was sort of a spontaneous gesture, but he reached over with the arm closest to Christmas and wrapped it around her for a side hug and whispered up to her, Sorry about your mum.

Christmas smiled at Ian and said "Thanks Ian i have got over my mum's death but it is hard at times"

Ian released her and looked back at his book. He whispered You're welcome and flipped a page. He wasn't really paying attention to the book, but he needed something to distract him.

Christmas put the book that she was looking at back on the shelf she had made a note of the title she would come back to it and turned to Ian and said "Everything okay there Ian your a bit quiet"

On her way to sit with Altair and Haruka, Brynn caught the eye of another girl who seemed to be about her age. Had she said something? She thought she had heard something earlier but maybe she had been wrong. Although.. the girl was still looking at her.. What if she had spoken and thought Brynn was just ignoring her? The redhead didn't want her to think she was rude so she offered the girl a small but friendly smile as she met her eye again. "Hi, I'm Brynn. Do you want to come sit with us?" Maybe she had read the girl wrong, but it looked like she could use some friendly company. She knew how big and intimidating being one of the new kids at this ginormous castle school was.

Brynn turned back to Altair and Haruka. Surely they wouldn't mind if she invited one more over to join them, right? She didn't really think they would, but she hoped they wouldn't think her rude for not asking first. Leaving it up to the other girl if she wanted to join them or not, the redhead focused on the conversation in front of her.

She smiled widely at the girl as she introduced herself. So she had been correct - a fellow first year. It was good to get to know some of the kids in her year, she thought, figuring they were all in the same boat so to speak. The eleven year old was actually a little bit relieved that the other two hadn't done any more exploring than she had. It made her feel like she hadn't been missing out on something she should have been doing. No, it seemed like she knew more about the castle than they did. Though it didn't mean she was an expert.

"Really?" she tilted her head curiously at them both as she thought over their responses. "I couldn't help but to start looking around, there's so much to see. But I bet I haven't even scratched the surface yet. " She tucked her legs under her as she sat. They probably didn't know that her mother rarely gave her much freedom in that sense so she was taking advantage of the leeway she had here. She grinned a bit as they both mentioned the library, agreeing with their words. "I know. A girl I was talking to the other day said it was even better than Flourish and Blotts so I had to check it out. She was right." Brynn looked up at the towering shelves, leaning back a bit in her seat as she spoke. "This is the first time I've been in here," she admitted. And she'd probably go check it out even further in a little bit.

She listened to Altair discuss where he had already been and her smile slowly grew at his suggestion. "That sounds like a great idea," she nodded happily, somewhat excited by the prospect. "Always more fun with friends, right?" Things didn't seem quite as daunting then. Plus, after the blow up with her former best friend, she needed some friends. "Where should we go first?" Not as in immediately, but when they did set off on their exploration venture.

Ian nodded. He lifted the right corner of his lip in a half-smile and spoke. I've not been overly social before. Honestly, as much as I've enjoyed talking to you, I don't want to over do it. It's wierd sort of. Not knowing how much to talk to others and you're older than I, so I kind of don't want to be like the annoying younger brother. Does that make sense? He looked at the strings on his shoes after he'd said this. He didn't realize how physically draining it could be just to talk and be around people. Of course, that may be because he didn't do it very often. He remembered how difficult things were for him growing up as kids realized he was different than they were.

Christmas smiled and said "You could never be annoying i have never had a brother so you can talk as much as you like to me"

Ian smiled a bit more widely at her now. He also noticed she had returned the book to the shelf. It appeared she was done with it. So are you done here in the library?

Christmas smiled at Ian and said "Not yet there is one other book i want to check it shouldn't take too long"

Ian nodded. He looked up and asked, Mind if I tag along? And then maybe you and I could go flying and practicing quidditch some.

Christmas smiled at Ian and said "Of course i don't mind Ian and that is a good idea"

Ian smiled and pointed toward the door. I'm going to go check this book out and I'll be in a chair by the front desk.

Christmas nodded and said "Okay i will see you over there soon Ian"

Ian nodded and headed in that direction.

He had researched it thoroughly, but Cutty never got sick of hearing about Barty Crouch Senior. How careful was that wizard? How cunning! He thought that he might like to be like him, minus the weak-sauce son, though. Cutty hated children and he especially didn't like sound of Barty Crouch's Junior. "What a whining, sniveling, peon!" He had said beneath his breath as he starred down at an image of the family in the history book he was holding.

He snapped the book shut and placed it into a pile of 'To Check-out' where he sat on top of Bulgarian for Beginners, A Book about Transfiguration around the world, A Wizard's Guide to Gobbledegook, and a copy of The Lonely Potioneer's Diary. Cutty regretted not having made a list of the things he planned to study whilst at the Library, but it was a good start. And he couldn't have been more pleased that there were no more turnstiles. That Headboy, maybe his brain wasn't a potato afterall.

Unbeknownst to Toby (unbeknownst to both of them, maybe), he and the Slytherin boy were separated from each other by only a bookcase. Tobias didn't hear the muttering from through the books that separated them, however, and so casually went on perusing the shelves.

He was sat on the floor, because the past exam papers tended to be kept on the bottom shelves, flipping through the sheaves of parchment, trying to find one he hadn't copied out yet. Toby didn't like to take the papers out of the library, wasn't even sure that it was allowed, so tended to copy them all out in his own handwriting. It was a painstaking process, especially in previous years when visits to the library had to be limited (for turnstile reasons) and the Hufflepuff ended up copying out three or four at a time. Still, it meant he remembered the questions, though he was unsure of whether that helped.

The fourteen-year-old now had two of these past OWL papers, and three books that he wanted to take out, all on different topics. He decided to go around to the next aisle and set about looking for some history books and papers, as that was a topic he had to work on.

And that was when he saw him.

"Cutty!" Tobias exclaimed in a tone of almost delighted surprise. His voice also may or may not have done a weird sort of squeaky thing. A weird sort of squeaky thing that Toby was not familiar with. Still, he ignored it for now and continued towards the younger boy, stopping just short and kneeling down on the floor to start the process of checking through the lower shelves again, placing the books and papers beside him. "Getting some homework done?" Did they have essay homework? Tobias couldn't remember, and resolved to... probably check the notice board when he got back to the common room.

Cutty could feel a wad of nervous energy fly up into his chest cavity so far it was almost lodged into his throat before it sank down into the boy's guts. It was merely Tobias. Merely Tobias.

"Hello, Tempus." He greeted as if it did not matter that so many of the Slytherin boy's thoughts were of Tobias. Tobias ruthless. Tobias ambitious. Tobias useful and knowledgeable. Cutty rather thought he liked these characteristics enough to keep Tobias close by, within reach, so as to be able to access those abilities. Not that the Slytherin didn't posses them himself, in perhaps equal or greater spades, but he seemed to think that he could be improved upon by the simple addition of Tempus. Really, it wasn't too far from old time Cannibalism when you stopped to think of it. Stalk, consume, posses.

It was all very simple to Cutty Mordaunt.

Too simple. But the normally observant boy had told himself that he knew the score and so he remained ignorant and behaved as such. "No!" He hissed as if the idea of doing an essay would've been distasteful. It wasn't. He was simply irritable at the onset of sudden emotional rushes. "What are you doing here? Mulling through parchments! H'mm? What for?" He dug out his wand and used it to poke the pile Toby had gotten for himself.

It soon became clear that kneeling was just not fun for the knees, so Tobias shifted his weight around until he was sat, cross-legged, on the library floor once again. He liked it; feeling low to the ground gave him a weird sort of stability. Sitting on the floor was where he most liked to sit, but only when it wasn't suitable to bounce around like an over-excited puppy.

Toby glanced around for a moment at Cutty's insistent 'no!' but soon was back to looking at the papers he rifled through as though he'd not heard any difference in tone. Just casual, y'know. He took Cutty's question as a reciprocated genuine interest in his current activities, and grinned up at the younger boy from the floor as the Slytherin poked his parchments.

"Oh, I'm just looking for old exam papers!" Toby explained cheerfully, grinning a trademark smile, before rifling through the pile he'd collected. The third year drew out a Herbology OWL paper from 2081 and held it up towards the younger boy, in a gesture which could be interpreted as both handing-it-over and just-showing. Whatever Cutty wanted it to be. "I've been going through them for the past year."

The supercilious sneer that had been drawn across the Slytherin's face was replaced by a little smile. Then a big one. And a bigger one still as he snatched the exam paper from Tempus's little hand. He read it, an as he did, his he realized all of the things he did not know...but could learn. "I saw you kissing Batty Bently's backside the other day in class. Pretty impressive!" He said, calming his smile to a...less maniacal one.

"I don't suppose that kissing up alone works with her, though. Obviously, a stealth and ambitious Hufflepuff like yourself wouldn't be here if it did." He gave the older boy a look that suggested there would be no use to denying this...well, Cutty thought of it as a fact. He inhaled and exhaled slowly and then he said, "I like you, Tempus. You're gonna go places. But hardwork will only get you so far. Let's be honest here. We're friends, right?" He asked in as casual a tone as he could muster while handing back the Herbology OWL and taking a seat so that he was near to Tobias's ear. Library, afterall.

As soon as Cutty had taken the paper out of his hand, Toby had gone back to rifling through parchments on the lowest shelf. He really was lacking in History of Magic knowledge, so it made sense to get quite a few of these, but also some books as well. Gotta start at the lower levels and work up, right? Plus, Toby's knowledge of History of Magic was probably in that group of subjects where he was starting to lag behind.

Now shaking the Hufflepuff from his thoughts came Cutty's voice, and he spared half a second for another glance up at the boy before looking back in front of him for an interesting looking History book. "That's not her name," he mumbled, sounding distracted as he perused titles, and left it at that because Cutty was talking again.

By this point, Tobias was a little confused, and looked back up at Cutty with a lost-but-interested look upon his face. "I don't..." he began, but caught the look. He was going to point out that what he was doing wasn't actually kissing up, but the way Cutty looked at him told the fourteen-year-old that the younger kid was a lot more well-versed in this kind of stuff. Was he really doing it without noticing?

Toby was still musing on this by the time Cutty took a seat next to him, and he sort of watched the boy curiously, as though seeing him for the first time. Cutty oozed so much confidence in the manner he spoke and the way he held himself, and Tobias wondered what other ways he acted that he didn't notice, but that Cutty did.

Honesty? Toby nodded. Honesty was always good.

"I... yeah. Of course we're friends," he responded, now even more curious than before. "Why d'you ask?"

It struck Cutty as funny. Humourous the way Toby tried to defend their Herbology Professor even in her absence. This kid was good! So good, he'd made it a habit. He had to suppress a smile at the very notion of that. Toby was trying to say things, things that didn't matter to Cutty at the moment. He needed Tobias's full attention, having no idea how very impossible that was to obtain.

"Because I've seen your vision. I can see it too. You, a world class Quidditch player." And he was picturing it all now; The exclusive and custom collectable Vanacutt brooms, the parties, the witches, the imported and ill-gotten Ramora roe. Not to mention the summer place on Ibiza! It could all be realized if Toby was strong enough (and Cutty had a feeling he was). It could be his too, because Cutty was planning on getting in on the ground floor. Like so..."I know that you've spoken to Tyner, did she mention which friends of hers she planned to speak with on your behalf? Or what they might be able to do for you?" He spoke almost directly into Toby's ear, his avaricious little heart doing leaps because Tobias!Dreams. PARTIES ON IBIZAAAA!

Toby's attention was still half on the books on the shelves, and he reached out out to grab one tome as Cutty started mentioning his vision. It wasn't until the words 'world class Quidditch player' reached his ears that Toby's eyes widened and visions of super fast Quidditch teams in colourful robes and riding expensive brooms all but literally flew into his mind, and before long he found himself imagining full-blown games with play-by-plays and scoresheets, all thought up in a few moments. He didn't even realise the book kind of topple from his hand until it thwacked a particularly bony part of his knee, knocking him out of his daydreaming.

Absent-mindedly rubbing his painful knee, Tobias listened to Cutty again before responding, his voice matching Cutty's in both tone and volume.

"She didn't tell me specifics, but..." he paused here in order to turn slightly, only a fraction of an inch, but still turning towards Cutty even so. "... but she told me she'd get in touch with coaches. I'm gonna tryout for the Under-17s team. The Magpies, maybe... and the England team. She just said she knew some people." Hadn't she? Was Tobias remembering right? It was hard to remember the days where he'd been particularly skittish, like that one. "If I get on a team, they'll be able to do proper in-depth coaching, 'cause it's their jobs, see? And then I can improve and maybe go pro." Tobias paused again, but then went on. "Professor Tyner thinks those teams would be good for me."

What the hell was Tempus saying?! Maybe? Maybe??! MAYBE?!!! Cutty could feel himself become very...well, maybe it was irritated. It was definitely bothersome. His hand reached down and absent-mindedly gripped onto robes that he thought were his robes and s q u e e z e d them tightly!

His expression may have just as easily been intense listening as confusion while he listened to Toby speak of acquisition and map out the route to his successful Quidditch career, but Cutty sounded a little uninterested now. "Yeah, yeah. The Magpies. Their job." And his verbal confirmation of the dream made the feeling worse for Cutty. Worst of all, his bag wasn't within a casual reach for a quick getaway, which Cutty wanted to do but felt it would be awkward. So very, very awkward. He just wanted Tobias to leave the library immediately. He looked around for something, anything that might help. His book! Barty Crouch!