Little History Big Problem PV Closed

It was the end of her first week at Hogwarts and all Calanthe wanted to do was retreat to her dorm to write a few pages worth of a letter to her mother. There were so many things she craved to talk to someone about; the magnificent castle straight out of a D&D campaign, the enchanted ceiling in the Great Hall, the brilliant school uniforms, the magic. It was overwhelming for the young witch who, up until now, had spent all her life within the muggle world, dreaming for the day that she would become swept up in a fantasy adventure akin to the games she played with her father. She could not even remember the last time she felt so excited.

You aren’t excited. Stop being excited. Nothing about this is cool. You hate it. You hate it so much.

If she was being honest, not even the cynical affirmations she had been repeating to herself for months was enough to stop her from being amazed at the sights before her.

On instinct, Calanthe’s feet took her straight to the Gryffindor common room right after she finished her last class of the day. It was the routine for the past week. Instead of exploring the castle and making new friends like she ached to, Calanthe holed up in her room, refusing to speak to anyone. The chore was made difficult due to the fact that she was sharing the room with other first year students, but the witch was adamant to stay away from everyone. She simply would not invoke any joy by being here. This school was a constant reminder of the lie she had been fed all her life.

Muttering the password to the Fat Lady, Calanthe ignored the portrait’s jolly welcome and pushed her way into the common room. Not taking her eyes of the ground, she ascended the stairwell to the girls’ dormitory and unloaded her bag onto the bed. Before she could throw herself across the red sheets, her eyes caught a piece of parchment sticking out of her chest. Resisting the urge to grab the paper and scribble down a letter, Calanthe distracted herself by looking through the things in her bag, hoping to get her mind off talking to her mother.

She pulled her History of Magic notebook out of her bag and started flipping through the pages, trying to find something. Anything… A small, crumpled piece of parchment fell out of the book and onto the floor. Never the one to keep her room untidy, the witch snatched the parchment up and uncrumpled it to find the name Lark Flaer written in dark ink. The feeling of her heart dropping into her stomach was immediate as Calanthe, without even stopping to think, grabbed her bag and rushed out of the dormitory and common room. She did not even stop to check the time for she knew she was late.

Vague memories of being partnered with the Lark girl in class rushed back to Calanthe, as well as their agreement to meet right after class at the end of the week. She had done so as unconsciously as she had just run out of the common room, barely remembering the endeavor.

Rushing as fast as her tiny legs could take her, Calanthe finally came to the entrance of the library and ducked inside. Stopping almost immediately, the witch held her breath as she took in the sight of the library for the first time; massive shelves, hundreds of books and a beautiful atmosphere.

“W-whoa,” the breath left her lips as she panted for relief. Shaking her head quickly and reminding herself that this was definitely not the most amazing library she had ever set foot in, Calanthe moved deeper into the library, searching for the silvery blue hair she recalled from class.

Why am I like this? I’m never late. Ever! What has gotte-

Halting in her tracks once more, Calanthe’s fingers tightened around her bag.

No. I know why I’m like this. I don’t need to be here. At all. That Lark girl...I should have just stayed in my room and let that Lark girl do all the work. I don’t need to do any work. I hate it here.

Turning on her heel, Calanthe, firm in her resolve to leave, felt another pound at her heart as she spotted Lark sitting at a table close to the entrance of the library, diligently reading through a textbook. After hesitating for a few beats, Calanthe dove behind a few shelves. Banging her head not-so-softly on the wooden surface, Calanthe inwardly cursed.

Damn. She must have already seen me.

Well, that doesn’t matter. I don’t care. I can just ignore her and leave.

But the assignment is about Death Eaters and the lecture was so interesting!

Not that I was paying attention.

Before she knew it, she stood in front of Lark’s table. Not sure how to proceed, she tried as nonchalantly as possible to toss her bag onto the table and plop onto the seat. With the best I don’t want to be here face she could muster, Calanthe folded her arms nodded towards Lark, trying to make it seem as if she meant to be here almost forty minutes late.

“Hey. You almost done?”

^{@Calanthe Choi}

Biting at her lower lip, Lark finished taking notes on a particularly interesting paragraph about Binding Marks and even Blood Pacts. This could be something that the Professor may touch on, it seemed pretty important. A loud *whump* as a bag smacked onto the table interrupting her thoughts and making her jump in her chair. Glancing up at the intrusion expecting to see one of her other friends who might have the same thought study in the Library, she watched as a slender dark haired girl flopped into the seat across from her.

“Hey. You almost done?”

Setting her quill down, Lark blinked at the girl in disbelief. 'Done?' What had she meant by that? This was supposed to be a group project... and what was up with the look on her face? Lark tried to hold a smile on her face. Eyeing the girl closely she sat up higher in her chair leaning back against the chair. Judging by the pose she had, Lark wasn't going to be able to offer up a hand and warm greeting.

"Well.. no actually. I figured I could get a head-start for us since I got here early." Trying to ignore the obvious 'this sucks' vibe the girl was giving off, Lark swiveled one of the books around to face Calanthe. Pointing the end of her golden quill at a couple different images, Lark decided to just jump right into the work.

"This is the three different unforgivable curses an' uses the Death Eater's used. We can start there then go to the marks, which I haaave-" Lark's eyes fell to the girl's bag that sat on top of the books Lark had carefully chosen and had stacked nicely on the table for them to use. Tugging at one of the books to free it, she flipped to one of the pages she had marked.

"Here!" Lark beamed at the girl. "Look at it! Crazy huh. Even a little spooky..." She gestured at the image of the skull and snake of the Death Eaters signature mark. "They even branded themselves with the mark, heck a Professor here had it on his own arm for when...well.. The Dark Lord returned. A whole ton uh Death Eaters did.. Can you imagine? Wonder what it felt like... not ta mention them killin' all those people.. muggles too!" Lark rambled on. Going over all the information had really grabbed her interest, especially with everything going on with her friend James. She wanted to make sure to study as much as she could for not just the grade but to help James understand the past wars. Grabbing another book she looked at the girl and tried to offer up another smile, hoping it would be a sort of peace offering. Maybe Calanthe was just like the others had been when she met them, nervous and unsure of how to approach others at Hogwarts.

"If you want to read through this, we have to write up on the motives of the Death Eaters." Patting the pile of books she laughed slightly. "If we split it up we can get this done, maybe have lunch after? Have you been able to catch breakfast? I know it's sorta early here. You could even sit with me an' my friends! You'd totally love them, I know they'd like you too!" Another peace offering. Lark hoped it would sound tempting enough to loosen up her partner a bit so they could complete the project on good terms.

"Oh an' these two!" She almost forgot, there had been a couple more books that would help with Calanthe's half of the work. Pushing two larger books across the table, dust kicking up a little. They must have sat for quite some time on the shelves. Lark could take the other three books making it even. "So what do you think?" A goofy grin spread across Lark's lips as she waited for Calanthe. This could totally work! Splitting the task in half, brilliant!

Reducio

OOC: Haha no worries! Sorry for the delayed reply! Alsooo do you prefer me to use Calanthe or Choi? I saw nicknames on your Ency but figured that's more of a friendly nickname sort of thing.

Arms folded and shoulders slumped, Calanthe’s left eyebrow slowed raised higher the longer Lark went on. She was impressed, truthfully. The light-haired girl had probably gotten a lot of reading done in the time that Calanthe had spent away from the library. A few tidbits of information did catch her fancy. Dark Lord, Binding Marks and murder? It looked to be an exciting assignment for sure. But as riveted as Calanthe was, there was no way she would let herself do any work here. Lark could report her to the teacher for all she cared; anything to get a letter sent home to her parents – or her mother, she guessed, as her father, Janus, probably had not even inquired about his daughter’s new life. 

Her expression grew bilious as Lark mentioned splitting up the work. Before she could even interrupt the girl, Lark launched into niceties, offering Calanthe a spot at her lunch group. Scoffing loudly and turning her head away, she almost missed Lark pushing two large books towards her, woefully optimistic about her ideas of splitting the work. Feeling her heart pang for the hard-working girl, Calanthe almost considered shutting up and getting the work done. Though, a steely feeling spread through her body and she met Lark’s eyes with an almost-threatening glare. 

“First of all, I have no interest in sitting with you or your friends. I’ve got my own friends and I don’t need your brainless pity,” she practically spat at Lark, quickly glossing over the part about her own friends which was a big, fat lie. Calanthe had no friends at all – the result of her refusing to make conversation with anyone at the school.
 
“Secondly, I think you’re overdoing it here. Don’t you?” jutting out her chin at Lark’s notes and the various text books she had stacked on the table. “I guess you’re an overachiever then?” she said the word with as much vapid vigor as she could. “Well, I’m not and this,” she gestured over to the two very intimidating books, “is too much.” Dragging the smaller of the two books closer to her and waving the stray dust bunnies away, she grimaced, “Where did you even find this shit?”. She gave Lark and incredulous look but shook her head in a whatever manner. “Doesn’t matter. I’ll be going through this text and this one only. You can do this one if you want,” and she forcefully pushed the bigger text book back towards Lark.

The frigidness of her demeanor did not leave as she opened the text, skimmed through the table of contents and turned to the pages dealing with Death Eaters.

^{@Calanthe Choi}

The smile Lark had plastered across her face slowly melted as her partner made it rather obvious how she felt.

“First of all, I have no interest in sitting with you or your friends. I’ve got my own friends and I don’t need your brainless pity,”

Lark shifted in her chair her mouth hung agape. She had certainly not expected this. Maybe some protesting, but what was her deal? Silver brows knitting together in frustration Lark opened her mouth for a rebuttal but the girl kept on. Instead she sat there, mouth open and eyes wide in disbelief. It was all she could do to keep herself from wincing as Choi spewed a long stream of snippy remarks. Lark felt a little dazed and gaped at the books as the girl waved away the dust and continued on;

“Where did you even find this shit?”

A slight twitch entered Lark's left eye. 'WHAT.IS.HER.DEAL.' A ball of anger raged in the pit of her stomach. Who did this girl think she is??! Here Lark had spent most of the morning gathering what she thought was the best material even getting a head start... finding a good seat, offering a meal with her friends, and she has the nerve-! Clenching her teeth together Lark stared at the girl as she pushed the book back in her direction.

Wanting to lash back out at her, Lark thought better... Choi had started to at least take SOME sort of bother with the ONE book... This was not going to go as well as Lark had expected. Gripping her quill tightly, fingers shaking a little Lark left the book where it was.

"Someone didn't exactly get their beauty sleep..." Lark murmured, not caring if Choi heard or not. The remark had left her lips before she could stop them and a part of her winced knowing that her mother would have been upset with back-talk but the other half of her wanted to get a jab at the girl after the verbal lashing she just received. If this girl would act cooly as if nothing had happened and go on her merry way doing the tiniest bit of work... well Lark could do the same. Well... not the tiniest bit of work, she wouldn't admit it but even if it meant staying up to finish it herself she wouldn't let their grades tank because of this girl's attitude.. but the cold shoulder could be something she could return just as easily. She hoped feeling her temper boil through her entire body.

Taking the larger book Choi had pushed back, Lark picked it up and flopped it down on front of her sending a wave of dust shooting out. Opening to the middle of the book, the cover slapping against the wood with a loud crack, flipping through the pages creating another flurry of dust bunnies settling on the table. Clearing her throat loudly, trying to not act as if the dust bothered her even if a wheeze threatened the back of her throat, Lark hummed to herself and read over a section of text with a list of some of the original Death Eater members.