Thursday: Study Break, 2:30 PM

Among the dozens of students that were pacing the library and studying, none of them seemed to notice the ickle red-head sitting at her own table with a rather large textbook placed in front of her. Faye turned the page of 'Famous Seers of Twelfth Century Bulgaria' to read about Isadora the Blind while remaining happily oblivious to the world around her. Since the super-strict librarian Mr. Morgan didn't allow them to bring snacks, she'd had to eat a large lunch and already that was beginning to fade; she was getting hungry again.

The tiny Gryffindor tucked a strand of her red hair behind her ear and tried to pry her mind away from her rumbling belly to the material she was reading. Isadora the Blind had a fascinating biography! Too bad she had died ages ago; she might have been able to read Faye's future. Her family history was detailed and as the eleven-year-old fell into a more relaxed state of mind, she began to kick her feet back and forth in her chair.

Nobody noticed her presence so nobody would notice that she'd traveled all the way down from the Gryffindor Tower to the library without shoes. Her bare feet, clean and pristine, swayed back and forth idly as she placed the side of her head in her hand (propped by her elbow on the table) to read. Her stomach rumbled rather loudly, but again she ignored it.

The rain outside meant that today was going to be a day of studying and meditation. If there was one thing Roland Dylanis did not like about Scotland's erratic weather cycles, it was the fact that when the weather got bad, Hogwarts was the only place he could really go aside from classes. This became problematic for him as the year wore on as Rou's preference for solitude usually involved his favorite spot by the lake or somewhere else outside where he might enjoy the serenity of the Scottish highlands.

Instead, he found himself cooped up in the library today, enjoying a bit of studying for his next class and keeping himself company. That is, except for a fellow classmate there, a first-year Gryffindor whom he'd seen in a few previous classes but only remembered her for her penchant of shedding her shoes and socks at a moment's notice. She reminded him of Aoife in that respect, but in this case, he didn't even seen any shoes or socks around her! Apparently, she'd come straight here from Gryffindor tower without footwear in the drafty, cold castle of Hogwarts, which caused Rou to smirk a bit as he observed her sitting near him to his side.

As he perused his copy of "A History of Magic", however, Rou was inspired to make a carving. Of course, he didn't even have History next, so really all he was doing was passing the time, anyway. Pulling out a block of pine that he regularly used for carving, as he'd packed one before the weather kicked up and kept him from going to the lake, Roland drew out his father's dagger and began to whittle away at the small block while he continued to read his book, though he still found himself stealing small glances toward his nearby classmate every now and again.

Faye read on, unaware of the attention her classmate was giving her. Had she known, she might have flushed and run. His entire presence went unnoticed. There was a moment where she tensed when a burly fifth year came around the corner to browse the shelf behind her. It took him longer than she was comfortable with for him to find his book, but once it was collected the boy shuffled off again with a grunt. Clearly, he didn't like doing homework any more than she did.

The small red-head tried once again to focus her attention on the large text book in front of her and, again, her stomach gave an inappropriate growl. One would think the girl was starving herself. One or two heads from a nearby table turned her way to give her odd looks. This caused the tip of her nose to turn pink. She scrunched up her nose and tried to ignore them. Eventually, they turned away and she was able to relax. When she turned the page, she found an article on Isadora the Blind from a 1532 newspaper entitled, The Wizard's Gazette.

Isadora is responsible for over 400 accurate prophecies that are now in the possession of the Ministry of Magic. There are official documentations and articles written by witnesses that state she kept a book dedicated to her Seer abilities. Within this book, according to her descendant Keratsa Smilets, there are precisely 463 prophecies that have been documented and withheld by the Ministry of Magic. However, there are also 31 alleged prophecies contained within the book that Isadora recounted that were never seen by the Ministry. The Ministry claims that these 31 'missing prophecies' are nothing more than rumors as there is no evidence or official documentation other than the book.

The small Gryffindor was amazed that it took almost three centuries for someone write an article on 31 missing prophecies. How did people miss that for so long? For a moment, she paused and, ignoring another growl from her stomach, decided that she would check this book out. After all, one never knew when such information was needed.  Isadora the Blind would make a fascinating topic for a History of Magic essay... If Professor Jowd would cover the subject of 12th century Prophets in Bulgaria. Faye pondered on the idea for a moment. There were currently Durmstrang teachers here at Hogwarts for the tournament. Maybe she could bring the subject up with one of them.

Her nose went pink again at the thought of conversing with someone else. The girl sighed. If only she could talk with her mind... That would be so much easier than opening her mouth.

She was rather enraptured with whatever it was she was reading in her book laid out before her. And, he noticed, she was really uncomfortable with people surrounding her, as a fifth year browsing the shelves nearby caused her a bit of discomfort before he left, indicating such to the boy as he continued to shape a carving of the girl in her intense concentration. Her feet provided a great insight into her concentration with the way they scrunched as she focused on her reading, and Rou began to concentrate on the carving more than he was on his book in the process. Of course, he was simply reading his "History of Magic" to pass time to begin with, so it wasn't like he was wasting his time by whittling as it was.

After a short time of his work, the carving began to take shape and form, though he now noticed she was facing some type of dilemma as her face flushed slightly and she sighed. In the process, he could hear the faint growling of hunger from her, as if she was intentionally ignoring eating or something! Frowning slightly at this, Rou inched himself closer to her and got a better look at the pose she was in during this moment. A bit more time, perhaps, and he might finish this carving and invite her to lunch. It wasn't typical of Rou to go out of his way to interact with another person, but he felt like being nice or at least showing himself to be such for once. After all, so many of his classmates thought his shyness and rather short manner of talking meant that he was rather mean and antisocial.

The loud grumble of her stomach was not so easily dismissed this time. It was loud enough that she attracted a momentary glance from an older girl passing by. Once again, Faye's nose went pink with embarrassment. Her toes automatically curled inward from the tension until the student decided to keep walking. The first year was just about to close the book and wander off to lunch when a passage in the book caught her eye.

The famous wizard Bogdan Kliment is the only known Seer to have attempted multiple methods of divination including, but not limited to, tea leaf reading, numerology, scrying, tarot reading, and runes. He is the only known Seer to have successfully utilized the method of Anthropomancy--human sacrifice. During the Spanish Inquisition, Bogdan repeatedly impersonated Muggle priests and inquisitors in order to torture and maime Muggles based on the accusation of witchcraft. He then brutally murdered hundreds of innocents, gutted them, and wrote his prophecies down in a ledger known as Liber de Sanguine: The Book of Blood. There have been many rumors of this book circulating all over the world yet none can prove its existence. It has been reported by some former members of the Bulgarian Ministry, whose credibility remains questionable to this day, that the book is hidden by the Bulgarian Ministry who has been spreading lies and trying to cover up the existence of the ledger since it was found in the hands of a group of young witches and wizards. These youngsters, expelled from the Durmstrang school for having performed a blood ritual on a student, allegedly robbed the grave of Bogdan Kliment and acquired the ledger. According to the aforementioned ex-Ministry members, Ministry officials refused to take the young group in for inquiry in exchange for the book and, since the children were of prominent wizarding families whose names will remain anonymous, they cooperated.

The article went on to further quote previous Bulgarian Ministers about the book not existing, but Faye had read enough. She was horrified and yet fascinated at the same time. She wasn't usually interested in something so gory. That was too much for a first year to handle, but she found herself wanting to know a little more about the circumstances surrounding the Liber de Sanguine. Immediately, Faye closed the book and stood up to gather her things. She would certainly be checking out this book!

It was finished, and apparently just in time as well. While there was definitely more things Roland could have done to perfect the carving, he felt that his effort to make a carving fast enough but still maintain some level of quality paid off at least somewhat decently. As she gathered her things, Rou closed his History of Magic book, after brushing off the dust and shavings from the wood block, and strode over to the Gryffindor girl, setting the carving of her seated and concentrating on her reading right next to her bookbag before quickly retreating back to his seat in order to pack up his things. The carving was simple, with only minor detailing on the chair she was sitting on her what she wore. Rou's biggest attention was given to properly fleshing out her face, which was also complemented by him carving her bare feet in their scrunched position in order to convey her intensity in concentration.

After he finished packing up his bags, he turned back toward the Gryffindor girl, hoping she wouldn't out and out attack him for being so forward.

And suddenly beside her bag was a carving of her. Faye stared at it in both confusion and admiration. She didn't touch it or lean closer; she just ogled it. After what seemed like a long time, her blue eyes meandered toward the Hufflepuff boy that had left it there. Why did he do it? Did he want praise? It was rather good, she admitted, but why had he done it? Faye went back to peering at the carving to better note the details that had gone into it. However talented he was, the mute wouldn't break her silence. She ripped a small piece from her empty scroll of parchment within her bag, scribbled something with her quill, and packed everything--including the figurine he had given her--into her satchel before she scurried over to him, the book she intended to borrow tucked under her arm. With a forceful glint in her blue eyes, she handed him the slip of parchment and waited for him to read it.

I like it. Thank you.

An unexpected tinge of pink spread across her nose. She was embarrassed to receive a gift, but grateful for it all the same. When he finished reading her note, she gave him one of her rare, super-small smiles of shyness.

He turned and found that the girl had approached him, which startled Rou and he jumped slightly when he turned to see the Gryffindor girl had approached him while he was packing without him being able to tell at all. Then again, she was barefoot, so it probably had something to do with her footfalls being practically silent. She didn't say anything, which the boy found particularly odd, even though he himself didn't really care to talk if he could help it.

After Rou regained his composure, he saw that she was offering him a small slip of parchment, written with her thanks for his gift to her. Rou's eyebrows lifted slightly as he read, seeing that this girl was seemingly completely taciturn if she was taking to writing her dialogue toward other classmates on slips of parchment instead of actually speaking them aloud. Nonetheless, he looked at her to see that she had a faint but very warming smile upon her face, which got him to crack one of the first inviting types of smiles he'd done since starting here at Hogwarts. Normally, he was the one who was busy shyly smiling in order to show that he had some form of intelligence and emotion behind his reclusive exterior, but now here he was with a girl who was decidedly more taciturn than he was! Nonetheless, he'd still try to get a few words out of her.

"You're welcome," he said softly, his cheeks now burning a bit as he began to realize that she was also embarrassed a bit, "I'm Roland...you going to lunch?"

He had been startled by her approach and it dawned on her that she was without shoes. She had forgotten temporarily, as she always did when reading books on the history of the wizarding world. The Hufflepuff boy gave her a genuine smile and introduced himself as Roland.

'So that's his name,' she thought. They had been in quite a few classes together from the beginning of the year and the first years was a small group. Many of the other students knew each others' names already, but Faye couldn't remember the names of those in her class. She barely knew the names of her housemates! Her memorization skills extended only to books and what she practiced (spells, few potions, etc.); it did not include anything about people. Once he had introduced himself, she reached for a quill and remembered that she had already packed it all. Drat!

"Faye," was the only word that came mumbling out of her mouth.

He then asked if she was going to lunch to which she responded with a simple once-over look at him. He didn't seem shady, but one could rarely tell--especially herself. She was much better at reading books than people, after all. Could he be trusted? They were within the walls of Hogwarts though that didn't mean much given the school's dark history during the years of the famous Harry Potter. There were ways to infiltrate this school. Who would suspect someone as innocent-looking as Roland? She now peered at him suspiciously, but nodded her head 'yes' anyway and turned to make her way toward the counter to check out her book.

His eyes caught the wariness in her's as he saw her look him over, as if dreading that he was going to do something horrible if she said no or something. He followed her silent footsteps to the librarian counter as she went to checkout her book and thought briefly about how amusing it was that she only spoke because she had no other choice. Nonetheless, Rou definitely felt something of a kindred spirit in her, even though she was definitely less social than he was, which was saying something.

"Good to know you can talk," Rou said, thinking briefly about Dione, the Slytherin girl he'd met that could only speak through a translation artifact on her throat and sign language. He smiled again before continuing, "And, um, you can call me 'Rou.' Most other people here do."

She mouthed the name 'Rou' to herself over and over, determined to remember his name. Her blue eyes watched the librarian check out her book and became temporarily distracted by it. It was fascinating. She poked her head over the counter and was disappointed when he did not give her a due date slip. Faye earned a cold look from the librarian when she took the book from him and tucked it away in her tacky bag. She glanced at Rou and marched towards the corridor.

Finally, in the hall, she stopped walking and turned to face him, regarding him closely. This time, there was less suspicion in her eyes. After a time of watching him without a word, she settled herself beside a suit of armor and took out a piece of parchment, a quill, and some ink to scribble down a note. Once finished, she handed it out towards him.

Why did you carve the wood to look like me?

Then she waited for a reply. Her wide-eyed expression made it clear that it was important she got an answer.

Her abrupt pause in walking as they left the library again started Roland. She moved so silently due to her bare feet that there always seemed to be a one-second delay between her doing something and him perceiving her presence. When she handed him the note, Roland blushed a deep red and nervously shifted his weight while pulling at the edge of his robes.

"I...well," he began, stammering about and fumbling with his words, much like she'd been earlier in their conversation(if you could call it that), "I just...wanted to. I don't really know why, I just felt a sudden inspiration and...I carved you." He averted his eyes from her's as he finished, wanting to turn and run so he wouldn't have to deal with the embarrassment.

"I'm...sorry," he said, thinking he might have violated her personal space like that. He was always unable to really tell if he had or not, but it was clear that Faye was a girl who preferred her space and distance.