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Post by saeth on Jan 25, 2009 13:00:12 GMT 1
It was rare for Zanele to leave homework so late. Usually, when she was given an essay to write, she had it done within two days - at the latest. It was rare that she would be so forgetful that she wouldn't even start the thing until fifteen hours before it was due.
So, it was understandable that she was feeling extremely annoyed with herself as she poured over an ancient library book, trying to find something that would save her from a massive academic cock-up. The essay was for Defence Against the Dark Arts, meant to be on methods of defence against unknown beasts or cursed items. The class had been given three weeks to do it - and for good reason: they needed the time to find as many obscure facts about random objects as they could.
Zanele rubbed at her eyes, tired after straining to read the spidery, faded text. It was written in old English, too, and she felt like her brain wanted to implode and ooze out of her ears. Stifling a yawn, she picked up her quill and began to slowly construct a paragraph on cursed beehives.
Then came another setback of the evening. Absorbed as she was in her writing, she misjudged her aim when dipping her quill in the inkpot. The pot tipped and fell over, drenching her essay in greenish-blue ink and dripping onto her shoes.
Muttering a string of colourful swear words under her breath, she impatiently flicked her wand at the mess. The ink disappeared. All of it. All of it.
Zanele blinked at the now-blank roll of parchment, the last three hours of work erased in a moment. And to top it all off, she now had no ink. With a stifled moan, she rested her head on the desk, fingers pulling at her hair.
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Post by julielondon on Jan 25, 2009 17:16:14 GMT 1
”Oh, wow...” Juliette piped up from about a metre away from the other girl. ”Bummer. Here.”
Within minutes, she’d tucked the three books she had under her arm, strolled across the room and had produced a bottle of in from her bag, offering it to the girl. She’d came to the library to look for a book or two on Astronomy. Her three-paged essay on said topic was due in about two days, and she hadn’t even given it thought. She didn’t worry, she’d be able to get it done in the time she had, but it was about time she started her research at least. She’d found some decent books on Astronomy, and had just discovered what looked like a good reading book before the sound of the girl’s accident attracted her attention.
She’d never seen Zanele before, but the woman’s frustrated expression evoked pity in the blonde’s heart. The last time she’d left an essay to the last minute, she’d spent four hours working on it until 5am, and her trusty lemur had decided to steal it from under her nose and dunked it in the Black Lake. She was then left with three hours to completely rewrite the whole thing. Juliette had felt the other girl’s pain, which is why she offered her the ink.
”I’ve never seen someone look so stressed.” She said with a slight smile, in an attempt to lighten the girl’s mood. It would probably be a fruitless attempt, the girl looked so tense that she looked like she was about to give herself a hernia or something, but she figured there was no harm in trying. ”What is your essay on? Perhaps I could try to help?”
The girl looked older than Juliette, and was probably doing something completely different or more advanced than her, but sometimes any help was good help, right?
((Hope you don't mind me jumping in? :]))
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Post by saeth on Jan 26, 2009 5:43:15 GMT 1
Zanele was rarely on the verge of tears these days, but now she'd come close to it. She was tired, it was late, and this stupid essay was due for the following day... and now she had to start it all over again. Stupid. Stupid, stupid, stupid.
"Oh wow... bummer. Here." Zanele raised her head sharply at the sound of the unfamiliar voice, looking over to see a Slytherin girl she didn't know offering a bottle of ink. She blinked at it, then a small smile appeared on her lips. "Wow, thank you," she said. "I didn't know where I was going to get ink... that was my last bottle, and my order for more hasn't come in yet..."
It was random acts of kindness like these that made life worth it for Zanele, which is why she felt annoyed at the part of her mind that still found it hard to trust strangers and was currently trying to find any reason at all not to like this girl. Firmly, Zanele buried those feelings.
"I've never seen someone look so stressed," the girl said, and Zanele gave a small snort of laughter. The Ravenclaw girl couldn't remember ever being this stressed. "What is your essay on? Perhaps I could try to help?" the stranger added.
Zanele gave an irritated wave towards the old text book. "Defence Against the Dark Arts essay. 'List twelve unknown and obscure beasts, curses or cursed items, and the best ways, in your opinion, to counter them'. Apparently we can never be too careful when fighting the Dark Arts... we need to be well prepared for... cursed beehives or whatever." She scowled at the length of parchment again, and then sighed.
"I wouldn't mind some help actually... but surely you've got homework of your own to do... and it's getting late..."
(((OOC: Don't mind you jumping in at all. ^___^ I'm glad someone did! ;D I'll ask the Powers that Be to move this to the Library though... we were originally in the Ravenclaw common room, but no biggie. ^__^)))
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Post by julielondon on Jan 26, 2009 18:03:16 GMT 1
"Wow, thank you,"
Julie simply smiled at the girl’s acceptance, and nodded at her explanation of having no ink. She leant on the back of a chair and surveyed the girl’s predicament – The blank parchment, and the old textbook that looked like it would fall apart if you even looked at it too suddenly. This looked like hard work. She figured that if she were the Ravenclaw, she’d probably have given up the moment she started, and then made up some garbage barely hours before the deadline.
But of course, that’s not a solution for Ravenclaws.
” 'List twelve unknown and obscure beasts, curses or cursed items, and the best ways, in your opinion, to counter them'. Apparently we can never be too careful when fighting the Dark Arts... we need to be well prepared for... cursed beehives or whatever."
The Slytherin scoffed lightly at this, rolling her eyes. Teachers always found the worst ways to waste your time with this rubbish. If they were obscure, why would they need to know how to defend themselves against it? And surely, a counter to an obscure item would be the same as countering a known item? The professors didn’t make sense sometimes. They seemed to operate along the idea that as long as the students didn’t have any free time, they would do well in school.
"I wouldn't mind some help actually... but surely you've got homework of your own to do... and it's getting late..."
At this, Julie let out a soft chuckle and shook her head.
”Nah, I’ll do mine tomorrow” She said with a casual wave of her hand, then continued ”And in any case, I fell asleep at six. So I’m wide awake right now.”
Her sleeping pattern was bizarre. She tended to find herself falling asleep at random times in the evenings, between 6 and 11, and then wake up about four or five hours later. It was strange, but it worked for her. She pulled out a chair, and sat herself down, peering at the decaying book with slight disdain.
”Well... surely a sensible thing to start with would be saying that the best way to counter any beast, curse or item would be to avoid it in the first place, maybe?”
((Oh wow, I suck XD sorry for somehow ignoring that. I swear I checked like twenty times before I posted. My mind didn't register it, I guess D:))
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