Secret Spells of Suns and Stars. This was the most interesting book Maximus had read in the last two weeks. It had arrived this morning with the owl post, wrapped in brown paper and with a small handwritten note from his mother reading “I think you’d enjoy this, Maxie.” And, boy, did he? This astronomer - certain astornomer named Arzachel Ortzi - had some interesting points, and had done his research well. It hadn’t took long for Max to be so deep into its chapters about lunar phases’ influence on spellcasting, that he forgot his paper for Charms class.

School had started again, and for the last time in his life he was back at Hogwarts and its familiar halls. He loved the place, and even though he hated leaving his family home (and his mother) he had happily boarded the Hogwarts Express a couple of days prior, and easily adapted back into the life at the castle. He was especially excited for this year because finally he was able to study only the subjects he cared most about - and at NEWT-level at that!

His last class for the day had been a few hours ago, and after a quick dinner, he had headed towards the Ravenclaw common room, looking forward to easing into a window sill with his book and a nice cup of nettle tea. He hadn’t put the book down all afternoon, and walking back to the tower it was still in his hands. Peeves had past him, but he hadn’t even noticed as he chased after some first years in the same corridor, and he let his feet lead him, his nose deep in the book. Unfortunately, his feet didn’t quite take him where he had expected.

“Password?”

Maximus looked up. Expecting to see the familiar eagle-shaped bronze knocker, he was surprised to be met by the intense stare of a painting of a fat lady dressed in a pink gown. Confusion followed his surprise and he glanced around, trying to localise himself. He wasn’t sure exactly where he were.

“Password, boy?” the painting repeated, arching an eyebrow.

He met her eyes again, but quickly lowered his gaze, mumbling something that might’ve have been an apology and started backing away. Unfortunately he backed into something. Or rather - someone.

Sophie was feeling nostalgic, it sort of hung in the air around her as she embarked on her final year at Hogwarts. The summer had been fun, though perhaps not as eventful as some of her friends... but now they were back in the castle for the last time. It was a very strange feeling, having so much time to be aware of the fact things would be ending after they sat for their NEWT's. It all felt too long and too short at exactly the same time. It made focusing harder than usual (which was saying something because attention to singular subjects had never really been Sophie's strong suit).

So there she was, loitering outside the paintings, trying to create a concrete memory of what every single evening of the last six years had entailed. Of course, creating a mental picture of a place took a lot of concentration and before she could even crack an eyelid she felt a heavier body bowl into her tiny frame. First she yelped, then she grasped for any wayward limb that might stabilize her before finally ending up in a heap on the floor. It took her a minute to orient herself to the new position, blinking once then twice her brown eyes slowly lifted to the face of the human wrecking ball. Maximus, of course.

"There are easier ways to go about it if you want a little physical contact Maxie," her tone was teasing, lips twitching with just a hint of a smile. The Ravenclaw was (like most) a little peculiar to Sophie, but then who wasn't a little peculiar in their hidden corners? Max was just always so quiet, Sophie wondered sometimes if he ever wanted to just burst out with all that bottled up energy and weirdness, do a wacky dance and then go back to reading while walking like nothing ever happened. "This is the part where you offer to help a lady up before she gets trampled by over excited first years, Maxie. It's just good breeding," she was joking of course, if she'd been in any hurry to get off the floor she'd just pick herself up (though she was more than mildly vexed even Maddy Whitman now towered over her, being short was such a chore).

Bumping in to the girl first made Maximus even more confused. He had accidentally pushed a girl to the floor and for a moment he didn’t realise who it was - then he heard her say his name and saw the house colours of her uniform. It was Sophie, in the same year as him. Everything fell into place. The fat lady, the presence of Sophie and the unfamiliar corridor. He was not outside the Ravenclaw common room - he was outside Gryffindor’s.

“This is the part where you offer to help a lady up before she gets trampled by over excited first years, Maxie. It’s just good breeding.”

“I’m sorry, I’m sorry,” he began as he dropped his book the the floor and reached a hand out. “Sophie, I’m so, so sorry!”

A blush spread across his neck and cheek, and he felt embarrassed to even be there. He didn’t know Sophie that well. Over the years they had shared quite a few classes, but Maximus had always felt a bit intimidated by her. Popular, outspoken and always seemed to be the center of attention. All the things that Max was not. And from what he had heard she seemed like she had a certain disregard for the rules.

“I was just…” he began, and trailed off as he waved his hand in the general direction of the Ravenclaw tower. “Not sure how I ended up here.”

Sophie laughed a little as the dazed boy apologized, shaking her head and taking his hand, scooping his book up on her way, "No need to grovel, happens more than you think. One of the many many hazards of being short. You'd think the loudness would make up for it, but I am routinely bowled over. Tragic really".

Sophie was a talker, she could jabber on about any old thing for any length of time, she did it most with new people because she still felt that need to fill up the silence. Max wasn't exactly new in the traditional sense, but he wasn't someone she had much to do with outside of class. He'd always seemed so skittish, which she didn't particularly understand, but to each his own.

Tilting her head to one side she gave a sagely nod, "I'm sure it happens to everyone, well everyone who can read and walk at the same time anyway," her smile was bright as she handed over the book, peering at the title curiously, "what were you so wrapped up in though, must be fascinating if you don't make a habit of running into cute girls just so you can help them up".

Even though Sophie said that he shouldn’t think about it, Max still felt guilty. The small jab she made about her height made him feel bad. Of course he should’ve seen her. Just because he was tall and lanky didn’t mean he should be able to walk around in his own mind. Merlin, this was all wrong.

“What were you so wrapped up in though, must be fascinating if you don’t make a habit of running into cute girls just so you can help them up.”

The “cute girl” comment made him blush, but he brushed it off. This was just Sophie being Sophie, although Max wasn’t that used to it.

“This astronomer, Arzachel Ortzi, debates that the lunar phases might influence our spellcasting. It’s quite interesting, actually,” he said as he took the book from offering hands. “You see, he says that - for instance - that casting healing spells during a full moon might be more beneficial than during other lunar phases. And that curses and hexes, might work better during a new moon than perhaps…”

He trailed off. This was a regular occurrence with Maximus. When he got interested in something, it completely engulfed him. If someone asked him about it whilst it was still in his mind he would go off on an explanation most people didn’t ask for - or had enough patience to listen to. He cleared his throat and gave Sophie an apologetic smile.

“Sorry,” he cleared his throat and gave Sophie an apologetic smile. “What, er… What are you up to?”

Sophie tilted her head to one side as Max blushed, she forgot sometimes that people didn't know how to take her sense of humor. She was so used to being the silly funny one she didn't stop to consider it might be awkward. It reminded her of when she and Zel were first getting to be really good friends and her exuberance had caught him off guard. Sophie still sometimes forgot not everyone responded to physical contact (or needed it) in the same way she did. Maximus was probably one of those people. She'd have to be more careful, at least a little.

She listened with rapt attention as he explained about the book. She liked magical theory well enough, it wasn't her favorite subject but she felt it was important to consider the how of magic. Of course she also got frustrated when people (coughSashacoughcough) went on and on abut how something was improbable or couldn't exist in their world. They were magic, Unicorns were real some things just didn't need more explanation than that. Of course maybe she was just defensive because some magical abilities (like Sight) were still dismissed as parlor tricks. Living as a Seer wasn't exactly easy and having people act as though she would fake something like that was frustrating.

"Don't apologize," her tone was bright, hands clasp behind her back as she shifted from one foot to the other, "I think it's neat. I mean that sounds silly, I mean I think it's interesting"., She felt fidgety, like she needed to same something very clever because Max was a Ravenclaw and would probably be bored to tears by her usual thought processes. "Actually it makes a lot of sense. I think the moon plays a heavy hand in Divining. I get much better readings, or at least have a clearer understanding during certain phases," with her luck he probably thought Divination was for scatter brained ninnies.