Needle in a Haystack Finished

Han had been studying a charms book for hours. The study room proved to be too noisy, so the slightly aggravated hufflepuff moved to the library instead. He was academically behind in the class, and needed to get better grades. Obviously bored, he tossed the book aside. While he liked reading, this one was a bit too informational for his taste. Besides, he's been absorbing all this information for a while, he could use a break. "Why don't I find a book that wont kill me from boredom." He thought, standing up to walk around the library. He placed the charms book back where he found it. Or at least where he thought it was. He wandered around some more, careful not to make much noise. After all, he didn't want to be yelled at by an angry librarian. He stopped when he saw a girl, visibly annoyed at something. He didn't want to bother her, but he also wanted to see if they were okay or needed help. Stepping forward, he said in a whisper tone, "Hi! I'm Han. Han Woods. I just wanted to make sure you were doing alright. I couldn't help but notice your sour facial expression."

As Odessa continued to search for her book crouched, and with slight frustration, she didn't notice that a boy had approached her. She jumped as the boy spoke to her.

"Hi! I'm Han. Han Woods. I just wanted to make sure you were doing alright. I couldn't help but notice your sour facial expression."

"Sour facial expression?" she thought to herself as she realized she was scowling. "Oh no, I don't want him to think I am mean". Odessa replaced her scowl with a smile as she stood up quickly and turned to face Han. "Hi Han!" she said smiling at him. "Pleased to meet you!" she said. She thought to herself that this was her chance to maybe get help finding the book. She didn't want to admit it to herself but if she tried to find it by herself, she would never find it. Swallowing her pride, she asked the boy for help. "I've been trying to find a book about the great witches of the 21st century and it isn't going too well.." she paused. "Do you think you could help me?" she asked with a smile.

Anastasia strolled into the library and made a bee line for the biography section. The library was rather intimidating, but she was focused on her goal, so she didn't stop to marvel, no matter how much she wanted to. She was hoping to find something about a student getting sorted into what their family thought was the wrong house and things turning out alright for them. She began looking through titles but saw nothing like what she was looking for. She bit her lip and looked around. There weren't many other people in that section, only a confused looking Ravenclaw girl and a bored looking Hufflepuff boy. She turned back to her search, only to be distracted again when she heard whispering coming from that direction. She sighed, a bit irritated at them, although she wasn't really sure why. She saw a book that looked fairly promising and pulled it off the shelf. She was disappointed to realize that it was an autobiography, written by Godric Gryffindor himself. Normally, she would put a book like that straight back on the shelf, for fear of what her parents might say about it, but something inside her stopped her. Her parents weren't here, and they'd never even know about this unless she told them. In a better mood and feeling a bit daring, she turned back to the pair behind her and made her way over. If nothing else, hopefully she could at least make some friends. She overheard them talking and decided to just dive right in"Sorry to butt in, but I was wondering - are you looking for a specific book, or just something like that, because I recently read a biography of Hermione Granger that was absolutely brilliant!" she said, smiling pleasantly.

"Sorry to butt in, but I was wondering - are you looking for a specific book, or just something like that, because I recently read a biography of Hermione Granger that was absolutely brilliant!"

Odessa hadn't even noticed the girl that had walked up to her and the boy before she abruptly spoke. "How clueless am I?" she thought to herself. "Nevermind that..." she thought to herself, "...she knows where a book about a great witch is!" Odessa looked at the girl and smiled at her. She immediately assessed her appearance. The girl was beautiful and she also had an aura of intelligence and pride. "This girl could be a really good person to be friends with" Odessa thought to herself. "Can you show me where the book is?" she asked the girl. "My name is Odessa by the way!" she said as she reached out her hand. "Nice to meet you".

"Can you show me where the book is?" she asked the girl. "My name is Odessa by the way!" she said as she reached out her hand. "Nice to meet you".

"Oh, certainly," she said, still smiling at the other girl. She wanted to ask if she was a Muggle-born, but couldn't figure out a way to without coming off as rude or haughty. She was fairly certain the girl was however, and was a bit excited. She didn't think she'd ever gotten to meet someone so close to an actual Muggle. Her father hated Muggles, but Ana was undecided so far. She shook the girl's hand and remember to introduce herself. "I'm Anastasia, Anastasia Beckett," she told the other girl. She had added her last name as a bit of an afterthought, figuring this would confirm or disprove her idea about the other girl's lineage. She hadn't mentioned her last name to most of the people she'd met, simply because the family was fairly well known and a lot of people already had ideas about her that she didn't quite fancy. "It's actually over where I just was, with the biographies about Gryffindors." It occurred to her that the way the library was organized didn't exactly make much sense, especially to someone who didn't know much about the Wizarding world. If this girl was in fact a Muggle born, then a book about Hermione Granger would actually be rather perfect for her.

"I'm Anastasia, Anastasia Beckett,"

Odessa smiled, "I like your name" she said to the girl. The way that the girl said her name gave Odessa a slight hint that her name could possibly be well known around the school. Odessa wanted to ask about her name but she decided against it. For now, she had to find the book. She realized she didn't know who Hermione Granger was. The way that the girl had said her name, she could tell that it was common knowledge that whoever Hermione Granger was, was a great witch after all.

"It's actually over where I just was, with the biographies about Gryffindors."

So Hermione was a Gryffindor. Odessa knew that Gryffindor was known for their courage and bravery. "I wonder if she was muggle-born like me?" Odessa thought to herself. After giving it a quick thought, she decided it wouldn't be too awkward to ask. After all she had no reason to be ashamed of her status. "Er.. I know this question might seem random, but is there any chance that this Hermione Granger girl was muggle-born?". Odessa kicked herself for asking a question like that as she did pick up that talking about magical blood sometimes can be a tricky topic, but she was too curious to see if a witch could be great, even if they were muggle-born.

Han shrugged. He never knew much about Hogwarts history, and needed to leave anyways. "I'm very sorry to cut this short, but I have worn myself out a bit from reading. It was good to talk to you guys. See ya later!"

He walked out the front doors, cringing at the awkward encounter. No one else probably felt that way and it wasn't because of the other two students. He somehow got really bad genes and he isn't too great at social interaction. The rest of his family is, so who knows why he turned out this way. Maybe from the lack of socialization in his earlier school years. Han hoped that the girl... Odessa was it? Got her questions answered and got the book she needed. Speaking of books, Han forgot all about picking up that fiction book he wanted. He needs to learn to stop getting so distracted all the time. Anyways, he had almost gotten to the Hufflepuff common room and wanted to take a nap.

"I'm very sorry to cut this short, but I have worn myself out a bit from reading. It was good to talk to you guys. See ya later!"

"Oh" Odessa said, she had forgot for a second about the boy that had offered to help her first. "Hey don't le-" she had started but the boy had already walked away. Odessa shrugged and turned to follow the girl again. "He seemed rather awkward" she thought to herself. "Maybe he was just really tired? Oh well, maybe I will run into him again." she thought to herself.

"I like your name"

"Oh, well, thank you," she said, smiling again. She wasn't a naturally smiley person, but she was working on it. Her father always said that people who needed to smile to make people listen to them were weak, but that seemed a bit odd to her. Anyway, her father said a lot of things, and while she adored him, some of them didn't make much sense now that she was around a large amount of people who weren't pure bloods. Anyway, she had to admit that he didn't know everything since she hadn't even written him about the sorting, which hadn't been anything like he'd said it would. She glanced back over at the boy, but he had left before she really had a chance to respond to his statement.

"Er.. I know this question might seem random, but is there any chance that this Hermione Granger girl was muggle-born?"

"Oh, she's one of the most famous Muggle borns," Anastasia told the other girl as they walked towards the shelf. "She was Minister of Magic for 6 years, and helped with the downfall of You-Know-Who. Are you a Muggle born?" She added the last sentence to try to distract from her mention of the evil wizard. With all of the recent controversies surrounding Harry Potter, it was the definition of a delicate topic, and she really didn't want to try to have to explain any of the events, especially when she knew she didn't know the full story. She also didn't want to talk about the fact that her grandfather had been killed in the first war, and her grandmother had been sent to Azkaban.