It was just after breakfast when Carys made her way to the Hogwarts library. Her steps were light, nearly silent in the long, empty hallway of the fourth floor. There were not many students would be going to the library early morning on a Sunday, especially not with the excitement of the upcoming task and the foreign students as a whole offering a grand distraction. Carys, however, was not like most students. She was quite studious, and would much rather find an interesting volume to read than gossip in the common room or visit with friends...

Then again, most of Carys' friends were Slytherins. So visiting with them was slightly difficult- she couldn't very well lounge in their common room, regardless of the fact she belonged there. The sorting hat had certainly misplaced her by sticking her in Ravenclaw House. (At least, that was what Carys told herself- at least once a day. However untrue it might really be.)

She was returning a book she had been reading about the goblin wars. History was a fascinating subject. Carys regretted she had not continued with the class as a NEWT, but it was unnecessary to her (hopefully) future career of becoming a healer. The only "for fun" class she had continued study in was Ancient Runes. All of the others she was taking at NEWT level were requirements to intern at St. Mungo's. Wanded classes, herbology, potions- things which would be directly useful. Even so, she had continued reading about wizarding history in her spare time. It was a welcome break from studying and homework.

Carys returned the book at the desk and then made her way back to the historical stacks in the library. The Ravenclaw girl was unsure which era of wizarding history she would read about next... Typically she waited for a title to jump out at her. Starting at one end of the shelf, Carys carefully scanned the titles of the old, dusty volumes. It looked like many hadn't been touched in years. Pitiful, really. Books deserved to be read.

She had to crouch to see the lower shelves. Standing at five feet, ten inches tall had it's inconveniences... Much more cons than pros, really, in Carys' book. As Carys reached forward to pluck a book from the shelf, she lost her balance and toppled backward. She landed on her satchel and let out a quiet moan of discomfort. She sat up, pulling her bag out from under her. "Oh no!" she gasped quietly, spotting the ink spot in the corner of the bag that was slowly spreading. She must have burst one of her inkwells!

Carys pulled out some parchment from her bag and lay it on the floor of the library before setting her bag back down- she didn't want to stain the floor. Then she began to pull items out of her satchel, separating those that were unblemished from those currently soaked in ink. "Merlin," she muttered, annoyed. This was not how she had intended to start the morning.

Demitria was royally bored. It was an immensely strange feeling for the petite Russian. She worked day and night to avoid being bored, to avoid the trauma of being left alone with her thoughts. If she was ever left a moment to herself, her thoughts would immediately be filled with dark nights and blood. Work and sweat covered that up. But occasionally, there would come a time when there was nothing she could do. Absolutely nothing. She had stayed up well into the previous night finishing as much of her homework for her classes, leaving nothing to do during the bright of the day.

At least she had managed to get at least two hours of decent sleep. Sleep without nightmares. It was a miracle... perhaps she was on the way to finally healing?

The slight tug on her scars as she stretched out her arms reminded her that even if she could one day sleep normally again, she would never be fully healed. She would always be a monster covered in scars.

Standing from her spot in the library, her ghost green eyes scanned the shelves for something, anything, to occupy her hyper-rational brain. Suddenly, from around the bookshelves she heard a muttered curse. With a quick raise of her eyebrow, she moved towards the other side. She had recognized the voice as Carys Whitman's. She was a nice girl, but took far too much time of her life wanting to be one of the Monarchy.

"Having problems, Konfetka?" Strellie said, a quick smirk on her rose lips. She whipped out her blood red wand and cleaned up the ink spill. 

It would be a lie if Jordyn said the library wasn't one of her favorite places at school.  She enjoyed the solitude it afforded for classwork, and she did have a penchant for reading whatever pleased her.  It was also a fantastic place for clandestine meetings and secret rendezvous in the stacks.  The library was a place of infinite knowledge and secrets, which appealed to all of Jordyn's sensibilities. 

Unfortunately, on this day, she was not going to be indulging in the more fun of the two options.  It was all about knowledge, and doing homework.  Homework that she had fallen asleep before completing the night before. 

This was, of course, very un-Jordyn-like.  But, everyone had their moments.  It had been quite the day before, and with a late turn about the castle for her prefect duties, Jordyn just couldn't keep her eyes open, and she tried to avoid pepper-up if it were possible - developing a dependency was not going to help her get anywhere in life. 

Going to the library, however, to complete her assignment just might.  She smoothed her skirt down with her gloved hands and got up from her table, where her books had been spread out and claimed the entire table for herself - lest someone think they could come and interrupt her time. 

It even seemed that in the stacks she would go unbothered, except for the book she needed was far above her head - and her wand, she had carelessly left at the table.  Sighing, she pulled over a ladder on the sliding rail and precariously climbed in her heels, biting her bottom lip in concentration to avoid falling.  Her knuckles went white around the rungs of the ladder, and when she did grab the book, Jordyn swayed - only two feet off the ground, but not desiring a fall at all.  She thought she was all clear, until she heard a noise - a voice from the other side of the stack and toppled off the ladder with a very ungraceful like flailing, tripping backward into the stack with an indecorous "ugh!" 

Jordyn huffed and was glad the only thing she was left with was a bruised ego.  What on Earth was going on - and what had startled her so?  She walked around the side of the stack and peered, "Is something the matter?" she asked, a slight edge to her voice.

Carys was mortified to see that not only had Demitria Strelnikov stumbled upon such an ungraceful scene- but so had Jordyn Dimbleby. Both girls were sixth year Slytherins, and people that Carys counted among her friends... Even so, it was embarrassing, and she did not want either of the girls to think less of her. Her reputation was so very precious to her, and so fragile these days. It seemed the older that Carys got, the more precarious her standing in the Hogwarts social circle became. She flushed, bright red, as Demitria soaked up the spill with her wand Jordyn simply asked whether or not anything was the matter.

"I'm quite alright," Carys said to Jordyn. "I just... dropped my back and burst an inkwell. but Demitria took care of the spill. Thank you very much for your quick and handy wandwork." Carys opened her bag and inspected the inside, running her fingers across the fabric to make sure there were no missed inkspots. Satisfied the inside of her bag was indeed clean, she picked up the clean items and carefully repacked them. Then Carys went out cleansing each of the ink stained items and packing those in, as well. "I just... can be clumsy sometimes." Once Carys had everything back in her bag where it belonged, she folded up the parchment she had laid out, then crumpled it and levitated it to the trash can where it landed inside without any further problems.

Then Carys pulled the book from the shelf she had been after and stood up, frightfully aware of her unnatural height as she towered over the two girls. Even with Jordyn in heels, Carys was still a couple of inches taller than she. Drat! Her face was still red, and she clutched the book close to her, taking comforting in the weight against her chest.

"I was just trying to get this book from one of the bottom shelves and I lost my balance. I apologize if I disturbed either of you," she said, averting her gaze away from the two girls. "I know the library is a place for quiet and study," Carys continued- keeping her voice low. "But it was just an accident." Glancing at the floor, Carys was glad to see no inkstains there, either. The librarian would have her head if she had managed to ruin the floors of the library, or one of the books.

Demitria's attention shifted away from her wandwork for a moment as Jordyn appeared from behind them. Sending a quick smile at the Slytherin prefect, she finished cleaning the ink, placing her wand back in its spring. The dark haired girl looked quite put out and from the edge in her voice, Strellie could assume that something had just happened that neither she nor Carys had seen. So, it was rather uncalled for. On the other hand, Carys looked less annoyed and more flustered than anything else. Honestly, the situation was quite amusing to the Russian. It was a little break from the monotony of training, training and even more training.

All this passed through Strellie's mind as her expression remained the same. Slightly sweet, vaguely amused. It wouldn't do to have Carys, who she saw as the baby sister of the Monarchy despite being a solid ten inches taller than herself, see her exhaustion. If it had been just Jordyn, she wouldn't have needed as strong a facade, since the Slytherin girls knew what ridiculous hours the veela pulled to avoid waking up the dorm with her nightmares. They also didn't comment on the nights that she wasn't there. However, the rest of the school did not need to know that she was any less than perfect. Kitty, her rock and guardian, made sure of that.

"Do not worry about it. I was not accomplishing much to begin with," Demitria said, her Russian accent making the words slightly louder than she had intended. Oh well. "I cannot speak for Jordyn, but I needed a bit of a break. My textbooks were slowly becoming art."

Honestly, anyone who made a strong alliance with Kitty needed to be considered someone to be watched.  Additionally, her attachments to Xavier, who was slightly more tolerable than he once was, but still by no means Jordyn's favorite male slytherin, was suspect as well.  She did not wish for her to report back to her side of the hierarchy, the challenger, that Jordyn let her feathers get ruffled for something like this.  Even if they were slightly mussed, she did feel bad for Carys who looked abysmally uncomfortable. 

She really didn't have a reason to be so uncomfortable in her own skin.  She was practically oozing with Beauxbaton-esque beauty.  Jordyn could definitely be jealous of her appearance, even her height worked to her advantage - if she actually used it.  She always seemed so gawky like she was unsure of herself.  The curse of being a teenager.  Always far too awkward and self-dismissive.  It wasn't as though anyone else would have questioned how pretty she was if she didn't question it herself. 

At least, that was how Jordyn saw it.  Everyone had their insecurities though, she was certain.  Jordyn's own paranoia about her family's financial problems coming to light, or even Strellie's nightmares, were probably things they all would have liked to remain completely under wraps. 

"I was just seeing if everything was alright," Jordyn smoothed over, not wanting to make a scene, particularly when it seemed like Demetria was playing it calm and collected.  She'd be surprised if the Russian was really riled by anything. 

Smoothing herself out, Jordyn nodded in agreement.  "I was just looking for a book.  I didn't really intend on staying," she shrugged, perhaps a fib - she wasn't sure, "Sometimes the silence can be tedious." 

"Do either of you need any help?"

Carys chanced a smile when Demitria commented that her textbooks were slowly becoming art. The Ravenclaw girl could commiserate with that feeling. Though she spent a great deal of time studying, often times she had to drag herself out of the books she was reading before she got a headache or found herself utterly confused as words and diagrams ran together in a blur. "I am glad not to have been a bother, then," she said to Demitria.

She shifted her gaze to Jordyn as the prefect spoke- stating she was looking for a book, and had no intentions on sticking around. Carys wondered, idly, if perhaps Jordyn found her company unfavorable? Carys could not remember having offended Jordyn recently... Perhaps she was simply being paranoid, as was her usual mindset among the Slytherin elite that she so desperately envied. Carys was certain she would be in the thick of things, rather than on the fringes, had the sorting hat done its job properly and plopped her into Slytherin with the rest of the Whitman family.

"What sort of book?" Carys asked, loosening her grip on the one she currently clutched to her chest. Conversation seemed to ease her nerves, and neither girl seemed intent on poking fun at her for her clumsiness. At least not at the moment. Of course, words were spoken behind Carys' back frequently and with fervor. She was fully aware of this. It was part of being a girl, even more so part of being among proper society. Gossip was a way to pass the time, and nobody could ever be quite good enough in the eyes of everyone else. And if they were, then they were immediately distrusted.

"And no thank you. I've found what I was looking for. A bit of supplemental reading for History of Magic. I'll admit since Jowd took over I've found the class to be less informative and more of a circus." She preferred more traditional ways of teaching and thorough information and essay writing when it came to such subjects. Carys was certain even she was a more capable professor of the subject than their current one.