“Inner peace… inner peace…”

The young wizard mumbled under his breath as he sat with his legs crossed in the empty classroom. It was obviously unused and forgotten as made apparent by the thick layer of dust that coated everything in sight. It was the perfect place for meditation in Eli’s opinion. The grime and dirt muffled every sound and made the room feel much more still and quiet than the other rooms at Hogwarts. Purple candles circled the NEWT student and cast a soft glow to the atmosphere.

Eli had always found it difficult to find alone time at Hogwarts and now, in his most challenging year to date, when he needed privacy more than ever, it seemed to elude him. With the others in the castle, in his classes, on his lawns, in his home, it was terrible. He finally found solace in the empty classroom, completely fitting for a vegetarian half-vampire. The Ravenclaw had always had an issue with concentration and meditation, his mind always wanted to travel to lands long lost and slightly sea serpents and vicious vampire victims. “NO. Inner peace.” He snapped out to the silence.

He was trying to incur a premonition. He always knew that he was a seer, he just hadn’t been presented the opportunity to show off his talents, but lately he was starting to doubt himself. Even his tea readings seemed off and foreboding. He blamed his condition on his blood-sucking daddy. He closed his eyes to try again, maybe this time he could make it happen, or maybe if he started to hum…

"By Helena, popped seams and everything," said Ligeia, seemingly to no one as she swept through the halls. Somewhat awkwardly given the way one hand gathered up a bunch of her skirts. "That's twice now since the beginning of term. I think a good re-scalping is in order if this keeps up."

Such a sewing emergency required quick action, no time to head back to her common room. Luckily Ligeia had her kit of materials with her, a leather bag almost like a saddle tied around the waist of her elegant black dress, pins sticking outwards away from her hip. Finding a classroom she knew to be unused, she prodded the door open with her closed parasol.

"Though half of it is Buzzard's fault," Ligeia continued, referring to her pet. "Bring you out and it's like catnip for vultures...Oh..."

The albinisitic Ravenclaw was surprised to find the room already occupied by Elijah Grimlish and several candles that he must get from the same supplier as Ligeia. "Sorry Elijah, didn't know you where in here."

From the folds of her dress there was a low guttural sound.

Snapped from his semi-medatative state, Eli looked around wildly, reaching in his robes for his wand to protect himself from any danger. Not that he would find it in all the fabric his robes presented... He found it so easy to lose his things in all the secret compartments and folds of the clothes. One time, he lost his deck of tarot cards and couldn't find them for a week... Then they just showed up in his trunk, all magic like. He was sure they were in his robes, too.

When his mind finally caught up with the present, Eli noticed the reason he was no longer in la la land. "Oh, hi there Ligeia," Eli said quietly, still trying to come back into focus with the reality of the real world. He gingerly got to his feet, patting down his bottom to dislodge any dust that might have gotten a little too friendly while he was sitting and stretched. "What happened to you? What brings you to this part of the castle?" Eli asked, no point in being rude, quiet time was over now, so why not make the best of it with some friendly time?

"Oh, nothing's wrong with me. Just one of my things." The hand clutching up the hem of her dress went to roving amongst the folds. Then her hand wrapped around something, a length of knotted hair...

...on a shrunken head.

The small leathery head with sewn shut eyes and mouth, though half the mouth was free from stitching and flopped open, mumbling something half said.

"I just needed someplace to repair it." At this point her parasol was leaning on the table as she plucked the correct needle from the edges of her bag.

"What have you been doing with candles but no fragrance?"

Eli had to try very hard to suppress a shudder when his fellow classmate pulled a damaged shrunken head unceremoniously from the confines of her robe. Elijah was used to odd things at Hogwarts, but not often from members of his own house. Normally his fellow Ravenclaws were straight-laced and quite honestly rather boring. Thankfully, that wasn’t the case for every Ravenclaw. Proof of that stood not ten feet in front of Eli, preparing to sew the damaged skull back together.

Elijah honestly wasn’t sure who decided on prefectships, but whoever picked Ligeia must have had some odd foresight indeed, because she sure was an odd one. Heck, who was Eli to judge, he was probably one of the weirdest students at Hogwarts, and that’s a rather tough title to own. She was nice enough though, and Eli didn’t have many friends, so he didn’t mind having a conversation with her. The more friendships Eli could earn, the better.

“Oh, well I’ve been trying to hone my third eye, you know, to help me see into the future and to be able to correctly interpret the signs and seasons of the divine.” Eli said, thinking that if his story was odd, so was hers, “Problem is, with everything going on this year, I can’t seem to find time alone to meditate, and it’s very important to have a clear head when dealing with matters of clairvoyance.” He said, giving a skeptical glance to the shrunken head before meeting the Ravenclaw prefect in the eye.

"Oh, divination work. I like that everyone can find their own technique to work best even if they don't have the True Sight. I almost wouldn't have keep the class but I've found alternatives to my liking." Mainly the kinds of things that earned exasperated looks from Professor Cosmos every other lesson.

"They say that a well designed space does wonders for meditation," Ligeia added, although distracted by her activity. Activity of having found the right needle and thread for her shrunken head and proceeding to sew up the loose end of the mouth as she talked. "I could never get into the mood with just candles, I would need some other kind of decor. Or really strong coffee, no cream or sweetener, leaves the drinker with stunning clarity for focus if it's the right brew." Brew in question also leaving the unaccustomed with two sleep free nights unless the compensated with massive quantities of alcohol.

Elijah’s curiosity finally won out over his repulsion and he crept closer to his fellow Ravenclaw to get a closer look at what she was doing. He almost gagged when he got a closer look at the grotesque little skull. He was into some odd things, but he just didn’t deal very well with icky. The head itself wouldn’t have bothered Eli too much, but watching the witch sew it up was rather disgusting. He could just imagine the needle piercing his skin and that would have been terrible.

Eli was a total wimp, and did not fare very well with any sort of pain or discomfort. “Oh, I couldn’t even think of focusing if I had any distractions. That’s why I use unscented candles; just the scent sends my mind wandering to everywhere else. I’m not very good at the focus thing. That’s why I stay here; not many people show up out of the blue… well… unless they have shrunken head emergencies, that is.” Eli chuckled, finally giving up on any hope of returning to his meditation.

“What exactly do you have one of those for anyway?” He asked, genuinely curious. He avoided looking at it directly, though. He got his close-up and now he wanted nothing more to do with the creepy thing.

Eager for conversation and the clack of her needles, Ligeia was oblivious to the hints for how Elijah's meditation had been disrupted by her own entrance.

"Buzzard should be much more mature at his age," she said, referring to how this incident had been caused by her pet vulture. "He's not really scavenging if the dead thing is still moving, isn't he? Not to mention this is considered an antique."

"Oh, why do I have it?" Cue Ligeia beaming with (moonbeams) a chilling smile and enthusiasm behind her eyes. "Isn't it the most exquisite thing?" She held up her quick repair stitch, the mouth again in a sewn line and the loose scalp set. "It's certified over two hundred years old, that's documentation you want to keep with a head. It ensures quality so some warlock didn't go and lop off the head of his sworn enemy and shrivel it with a curse."