Studying Til It Hurts

Simon was curled up in a corner in the empty classroom, his knees up and a book propped up in his lap. His elbow rested on his knee and clutched his head as he stared painfully at the book in front of him, his eyes squinted and a grimace on his face, his lips mouthing the sentences within the book. He blinked a few times and sighed.

He marked his page and closed the book, reaching both hands up to his temples and massaging them as his eyes closed. It was harder than he thought, getting good grades to please his father. It was hard enough to please his father and hard enough to get good grades, but the added pressure of both objectives.

He sighed, resting his head against the wall and taking a deep breath and then slowly releasing it. Eventually, it would all be worth it. His father would be proud and he could finally be able to relax and focus on what he wanted to; primarily, girls. He shook his head and slowly opened the book again, picking up where he left off.

Lily hated bruises. They hurt when she pressed on them and because they looked cool she felt the urge to push them like that last button on a muggle 'elevator'. That was why when she fell down the stairs from the girls dorms to the Gryffindor common room and fell on her quaffle giving her a impressive black eye when she woke up that morning, a few hours after the incident.

Lily felt puffy and gross. She couldn't see half through her right eye and couldn't fly because of it. So instead she had her novel and a muggle pencil tucked behind her ear. She was wandering around looking for a plain spot to read and doodle in the pages of the book.

She strode into a classroom only to realize she wasn't alone. A guy she vaguely recognised as Ravenclaw. "Oh sorry dude, I was just looking for a place to read." She admitted as she sat down. "Mind if I join you?" Lily questioned awkwardly.

Simon looked up and saw a very pretty girl enter the room and watched as she sat down near him, trying not to stare at her eye, which seemed to have been hit to prompt a black eye. "Oh, it's fine. Yeah, you can sit with me, I'm just... studying, sort of. Looking for a distraction, really." He smiled a small, humble, charming smile at her. And what a pleasant distraction she was.

He could not pretend as though he had not noticed that something had happened to her eye, because it was very obvious. "I'm Simon," he said, holding a hand out to her to shake. He gestured towards her eye and cocked his head, slight creases of worry bunching on his forehead. "What happened with your eye? It looks pretty painful."

Lily strode into the room swinging her feet around until she was facing the guy, who later introduce himself as Simon. "Sure being a distraction is what I do best." Lily laughed as she swung her legs up so she was crossing her legs on the desk she was sitting on.

"I'm Lily." She replied simply as she snorted at the next question that was posed. "I fell down the stairs from my dorm. I suck at remaining upright when I'm not flying." Lily admitted unbashfully.

Simon grinned up at her, thinking it was funny that she would so readily admit that she was a good distraction. He chuckled after a bit and watched her, before glancing down at the book that he had been pretending to be able to understand and realized there really was no point to it, not when he had this beautiful distraction before him. He closed the book.

"Nice to meet you, Lily," he said, in a charming voice. watching her as she made herself comfortable sitting on top of a desk, criss-cross applesauce like his elementary tutors had taught him to sit. She laughed it off, saying she had trouble standing and that she had fallen down the stairs. He winced sympathetically. "Ouch. Tough luck." He waited a moment and then said, "So you play Quidditch?"

"Meh, I'm rather use to accidents by now. Especially when I have brothers whom enjoy seeing them happen very much." Lily smiled as she leant back on her palms. "Yup, of course I play Qudditch. I'm a chaser." She explained with a smile.

"Let me guess, you aren't into Qudditch?" Lily asked curiously. "Okay I couldn't say that with a straight face, who isn't into Qudditch?" She asked herself more than anything.