The last thing Zia wanted to do was catch up on all of the work she had been neglecting. It wasn’t just the past few days -- it was the past half of a year that Zia had been putting off. Ever since Ronaldo’s death, schoolwork just didn’t seem important. Dressing in uniform, studying, writing essays… what was the point? She couldn’t save her brother, couldn’t save her classmates, couldn’t even save herself.

She hadn’t been paying much attention to other people. Zia felt eyes on her, whispers - everyone knew who the victims of the kidnapping were. She couldn’t stop thinking about it. Even when she was by herself, she felt the sense of impending doom. She hated being alone anyway -- she needed someone to protect her, because tragedy was evidently unavoidable.

The library was relatively empty, which was understandable on a Friday night. Even as a Ravenclaw, Zia rarely found herself here on the weekend. She was expecting her work to distract her, but didn’t expect the struggle to focus and get started. Zia spent several minutes rearranging her books and shuffling through papers. When those were finally organized she began writing her name, slowly, so that it was clear and neat.

Zia looked at each of her books, trying to decide where to start. She was behind in nearly every subject. Shameful, for a Ravenclaw. Instead of choosing a textbook, however, Zia stared off into space and started thinking. She was very still, with her eyes fixated in one spot.

"You okay?" Kelvin asked the older Ravenclaw.  It was a stupid question he realized after it left his lips.  If half of the rumors were true of what happened to the kidnapped, then he doubted he was alright.  He was sure he wouldn't be.  But he might have done the same thing and retreated to the library, but Zia was just sitting there and staring at nothing.

He hadn't meant to be watching her, but he had been.  And it had worried him when she went from moving her stuff around to just sitting too still and not doing anything.

When a voice sounded Zia snapped out of her trance and looked toward the source. She had not realized how far away she was from the moment until she had to come rushing back into it. It took her a moment to readjust. She blinked a few times.

“Oh, hi Kelvin,” Zia told the voice. It was her housemate, one of the Ravenclaw prefects. He asked if she was okay, and she honestly had no response to that. “Me? I’m-” there wasn’t a word Zia could think of to come next. There wasn’t an adjective around that succinctly described her emotional state. Again her mind moved top speed. It was hard to focus with this many thoughts. It took her a moment to finish her sentence. “I’m okay.” She pursed her lips. Even a 15-year-old boy had to know that ‘okay’ didn’t really mean ‘okay.’

She gave a half-hearted smile and did her best to look alive. “Just trying to make myself get started,” Zia continued, trying to make it seem like the real issue was a simple case of procrastination. "You?" She tucked a bit of her hair behind her ear, hair that was brown and not hot pink. Not that she’d felt much like having the brightest hair in the room lately, but Zia’s hair would not change colors no matter how she attempted the spell.

"Just trying to get some reading in," Kelvin responded.  Mentally kicking himself for asking her if she was okay.  She'd said she was of course.  But it was obviously a lie.  And now he was standing there awkwardly.  What was he supposed to say?  He'd already asked the obvious, and the next obvious question, What happened, he wasn't about to ask.

Instead he sat down next to Zia.  "What are you working on?"  Kelvin asked.  He was kinda surprised that the students who'd been kidnapped had come back so soon.  And even more surprised they had assignments to work on already.  Did they have to make up work from the classes they'd missed.  Surely not.  That just seemed wrong.

Zia felt a strange sense of relief when the younger boy sat next to her. She had never previously noticed how safe she felt in the presence of a male. Perhaps it was from having grown up with a half dozen brothers. She was the baby of the family, a baby girl they all helped protect and take care of. She didn’t like to be by herself - it was very lonely. And so she smiled at Kelvin as he sat down.

“What are you working on?”

The Ravenclaw’s books loomed next to her, a stack of texts balanced precariously on top of one another. She sighed. “I kind of need to catch up on… everything,” Zia admitted. She hadn’t been living up to the Ravenclaw title at all this year. Normally revising was her way to calm down or release pent-up emotions. Learning made her feel powerful, or at least it used to, before she’d had all of these experience that were completely out of control, where she’d been powerless.

She cleared her throat and smiled. “Do you need help with anything?” Zia asked the prefect. Kelvin was also a Ravenclaw, so it was unlikely that he was behind in any class. Zia felt like a shame to her species.

"Not really,"  He was caught up on all his class work, except for an essay that needed some time before he looked at it again. "These," he motioned to the books, "are just for me.  I enjoy history."  Three of the four books he'd gestured to were history books.  The fourth was fiction, alternative history.

Then he sat there awkwardly, unsure what else to say.  If it had been another fifth year or someone younger he'd have offered his help, but Zia was a seventh year.  And despite being ahead in several subjects, he doubted whether he'd be any substantive help to the older girl.

"Uh, thanks though."

Llywelyn was perusing through the library's history section like he often found himself doing when he was finished with his school work. He was searching for a book on magical historical figures. Most of his heroes tended to be long dead, and not particularly good people. In this case he was curious as to what magical folk had written about Merlin and the court of Arthur. Although, he was easily distracted by books, and began to pick out a few that had nothing to do with what he was originally searching for.He did however find a book on famous Welsh witches and wizards, he excitedly scooped that off the shelf. He hurried off to check out his books with the librarian, and then rush back to his dormitory.

On his way out of the library he found a table with Kelvin, Zia, and a stack of books in between the two. Kelvin he expected to see at the library, but Zia was a new sight. He watched them carefully, hiding behind book shelf for cover. Zia seemed very out of it. Whatever "it" was. Probably had to do with those kidnappings and her brother. To be honest, he had paid very little attention to the happenings of other students, as he was often lost in his own thoughts and issues. For whatever reason he felt compelled to join them. Maybe they wouldn't mind him butting in. Or maybe they would? Llywelyn shook his head, and made his way out from behind the book shelf and over to Kelvin, and Zia's table.

He slumped into a chair at the table and placed the books on his lap. He gave each of them a timid smile and a nod, unsure what to say. He decieded on "S-sut mae[1]"

1.	How are you?

"Llywelyn, English mate." Kelvin said gently.  He wasn't trying to be mean, he just didn't understand Welsh.  Okay well, he understood how are you, but only cause he'd heard it enough and context clues and such.

"We were just discussing catching up on school work."  Well kinda, but close enough.  He noticed the books that Llywelyn had with him.  Some he'd read, some he'd seen before and hadn't bothered picking up...or gotten around to.  There were a lot of options in the library. 

"Are those for class?" He wouldn't have used those particular books for any of the assignments they'd had recently, but that didn't mean they wouldn't work for some of them.  Or they were just for fun.

"Llywelyn, English mate."

He gave Kelvin a smile, he liked using Welsh as much as he could too much of his fellow students dismay. As far as he knew there weren't many Welsh speakers at Hogwarts. He just liked to show off a little, he figured it made him seem a little more unusual (in a good way) at least more so than he already does.

"Are those for class?"

Llywelyn shook his head and tapped his stack of books with another grin.

"N-no, these are just for pleasure. I've just found a book on famous Welsh witches and wizards, I'm really excited to start reading." he spat out quickly not bothering to hide his excitement.

"There's just so much written about English and Scottish magical folks, here that I nearly gave up hope on finding a book on my people, but I found one! It's a matter of pride, you see. Other than that there are few books on some other topics I've been reading about."

He gave another quick smile to Kelvin and Zia.

Another boy joined them, another younger boy from their house. Zia smiled at him and watched as he and Kelvin chatted. From the sound of it they were in the same year, though it was pretty hard to tell. Italian was Zia’s first language, and so Welsh was a tough accent for her to comprehend. Before she knew it they slipped into a conversation, while Zia was still working on what Kelvin had been saying earlier. It took her a minute to get up to speed - everything was taking her a while to understand lately.

“I’ve never been to Wales,” Zia finally said after a short lull. She looked at the cover of the book Llywelyn was talking about. Maybe it was somewhere she could consider visiting. Running her fingers over the cover, she looked back at the boys and put up her best effort to smile.

“I had a book on famous Italian witches and wizards,” she offered. It was at her parents’ house, in the library - so technically she supposed it wasn’t hers. “It was interesting. There were a few from my hometown, I’d never heard of them before.” She tried to remember a few of the names or even something cool they’d invented - but came up blank. It was a book she had flipped through as a child, and she couldn’t recall.

“I’ve never been to Wales”

As soon as the words left Zia's lips, Llywelyn's eyes lit up like a wee lad on Christmas. He started to fidget in his seat, unable to contain his excitement and pride. His eyes locked immediately with Zia's trying to convey all of his emotions with one look.

"Cymru! The land of my fathers!" he burst out. "Oh you have to see it! I'm from a region called Gwynedd[1] she's been the home of many a Prince of Wales, and the heart of many Welsh rebellions!" he let out a sigh.

"Northern Wales is so beautiful. Mountains, valleys, farmland, and coast that connects to the angry Irish Sea. And like any place in Britain Wales has it's mighty castles!"

Just talking about his home filled him with a pleasant homesickness. Llywelyn let out another wistful sigh, and muttered "Hiraeth."

“I had a book on famous Italian witches and wizards, It was interesting. There were a few from my hometown, I’d never heard of them before.”

The Italians were beyond an area of his knowledge. There was just so much history, and so much knowledge that he wanted to gather but so little time.

1.	pronounced gwin-eth