The Delights of Essay-writing; Sophia Lyndall

The Study Room was almost completely empty, except for Davina, who was sitting alone in a corner. There was a piece of parchment in front of her, and a quill in her hand, yet she didn't seem to be doing a lot of writing.

Davina was sitting there, trying to work on her History of Magic essay. She was glad that she was alone, as it helped her to concentrate, but she still wasn't getting on that well with her homework. Davina wasn't used to finding work hard though, which was the problem. She usually understood everything straight away. She needed to learn how to tackle problems.

Sighing, Davina bent down to pick up her bag. This was when she needed food. She searched for some chocolate, and after a while of looking she had found some. She ate the bar, then turned back to her essay. Now what?

The door crashes open, hitting the wall and rebounding to hit the disheveled girl attempting to enter. She's a bit of a mess - ink down her robes, a quill stuck in her hair, shoes untied, arms full of texts, parchment, and other such school supplies - really, it's a tad painful to watch.

Sophia swears and kicks the door open, more gently this time to avoid another bump on her head and somehow is able to make it to a table without dropping another thing. She spills the contents of her arms onto the wood and brushes herself off, a sour expression on her face.

"What a way to start the day..." she mumbles to herself, then, realizing it's afternoon, retracts the statement: "I mean continue it." She glances up to sees a slightly familiar face and colors slightly. "Oh, hi. How are you? I don't usually talk out loud like that, I mean, talk to myself it's just been kind of an...off day for me."

Davina's face immediately looked up as she heard the door open. Crash, more like it. She saw a girl walk into the room. Davina thought she looked like a bit of a mess. She then felt bad for judging the girl. People had judged Davina in the past, which is why she didn't have many friends.

Davina was watching the girl with interest. She was quite a curious girl, her parents would say. Most people just thought she was nosy though. The girl swore and dropped her things on the desk. Davina felt bad for her, she knew what it was like to have bad days.

Davina didn't say a word until the girl spoke directly to her. She didn't mind her talking to herself, she did it quite often as well, although it made most people think she was a complete freak. "Hi, I'm alright thanks. she replied, deciding against asking how she was. "I don't mind you talking to yourself, I do it too." she then said, but regretted saying it immediately. Not the best way to boost your social status, she realised. "What you doing here?" she asked, trying to change the subject as quickly as possible.

"Augh, some asshole did a splitting hex on my bag and ink went everywhere and I've lost all of my quills except for the one that got-" she reaches up and plucks the quill from her head with a grimace, "ow, stuck in my hair and I'm sure I've ruined far too much parchment and I'm so far behind in my studies right now that it's just not even funny..." She begins sorting her belongings into different gradients of ink splatter, noting with relief her History Of Magic text was spotfree. Without looking up from her task, she asks "We have History of Magic together, right? Hufflepuff/Ravenclaw, Wednesdays at 10?"

"That's annoying. I can't believe people think it's funny to do that." she said in disgust, thinking of various pranks that had happened over the years. She wasn't a fan of them. She watched her sort through her things, then decided she should volunteer to help. "Do you need any help with anything?" she asked, trying to be friendly. She was always trying to be nice to people but never had any close friends. It was quite sad, really. "Oh yeah, I think we do." she replied, going through her timetable in her mind. She'd memorised it, of course. "We did that project together a while back, remember?" she asked, hoping she did.

"Right! On 5th Century Animagi! That was a quite excellent project, as I recall," Sophia looks around for a chair, finds one, drags it over, sits, decides she'd rather stand, and pushes the chair back. "How are you doing on this essay? I swear, I may just have to ask for an extension, the stress is getting to me." Sophia grins at her, then a sheepish expression crosses her face. "You must forgive me, I am absolutely terrible with names and I've forgotten yours."

Davina smiled. She remembered the project, if not her name. That was surely something, right? "Yeah, it was! That was a great project." she agreed, still smiling. She was glad when Sophia pulled up a chair to ask about her work. "I'm Davina, by the way." she added, not too worried that she'd forgotten her name. She remembered the project, at least. "This essay is killing me. she complained. I'm usually alright with essays but anything about these witch burnings is just going over my head at the moment. she explained.

"Sophia, nice to...remeet you Davina." She says by way of greeting, and nods at Davina's comment on the essay. "Moi aussi, witch burning is the worst topic, too. It boils down to 'Muggles are stupid and jumpy and witchburning is completely ineffective.' There, I just wrote your essay for you."

She looks back down at her ink-covered books and sighs. "Say, are you any good at that cleaning spell? I've never been able to master it completely, the thing I'm trying to clean either dissolves or the stuff I'm trying to clean off ends up everywhere but it's original location."

"Nice to re-meet you too," Davina answered politely. "Yeah, it's the only topic I can't do. I mean, what is there to write? Muggles thought witches were evil but they couldn't repel fire? It's just so pointless." she agreed, going off on a bit of a rant. She laughed at Sophia's response though. "Wish I could get away with handing that in." she added. Then the essay would be over, she thought.

Davina looked at Sophia's books. She had mastered the cleaning spell a while back, but she didn't want to seem like she was gloating if she said it. "I can try," she simply said, drawing her wand out from her cloak. 'Scourgify' she thought whilst pointing her wand at the books, the ink coming off in an instant. "There you go" she said, smiling, glad that she had helped in some way.

"Oh, you are simply the best!" Sophia says delightedly, "I am probably the worst witch ever, I'm good at the kinds of magic where you can look it up, but when it comes to practical things and wand magic, I swear to gosh, I need to practice. I don't even know if I can find a job that doesn't need that, maybe an archivist..." She looks wistful for a moment, but returns to earth shortly.

"Well, as long as we're both here, why don't we work on our essays together? Is that a good idea, or are you one of those students who doesn't like any interruption what so ever?"