Allie sat in the furthest corner of the library, books stacked high like a wall around her; if you added one more book to each stack, you wouldn't have even known someone was sitting there.  Allie leaned low over the table scribbling furiously on a sheet of parchment.  She had no intentions of having any homework to do after dinner.  After-dinner time was for studying only with thirty minutes set aside for recreational reading and fifteen for chatting and/or bathroom time.  Even with O.W.L.S. being months away, Allie wanted top grades.  Kieran and Craig both recieved above-average marks; she would have to do better than that.

"Ugh!" she grunted over the pin-prick of a hole she had punctured into the parchment.  She pulled out her wand and repaired it before quickly setting back to work.  After a few more minutes of scribbling, she leafed through a small stack of parchment and groaned loudly.  "Oh, cockroach cluster..." she said with the tone of a cursing sailor.  Speaking to herself, she chastised, "It clearly says an essay on Gobnork the Great, and you just spent forty-five minutes and two feet of parchment writing about the rebellions of Gambok the Grand.  Great job, Allie, great job."

She set down her quill and rubbed her eyes.  Her stomach growled; she had forsaken lunch in order to practice some of her charmwork.  Alas, it was still an hour before dinner.  Grumbling softly to herself, she reached up to the stack of books and carefully extracted one that was in the middle.  She took a deep breath and then began to flip through the pages with a renewed fervor, slowly muttering to herself, "Gambok the Grand...Gambok the Grand...aha!"

She set quill to parchment and began scribbling again, even faster and more furiously than before.

Edmund was in the library returning some books; the new History of Magic professor, Austerlitz, was a complete nazi. She demanded essay upon essay and work after work, but she was that driven kind of teacher that pushed everyone to their own limit, despite her steely disposition. With books in hand, he was still feeling rough after the Gryffindor match, but tried to shake it off. His back still had that dull type of pain but it wasn't nothing he couldn't smirk through.

The library was relatively quiet, as always; staff members were keen to hush compulsive chatters, as Edmund had learnt with his last conversation in the place with Waker and Leon. Edmund wasn't the quiet, retiring type and teachers hated him for it; always one for a quick gimmick or comment, it'd landed him in detention not long ago.

Turning another corner in the library, he peered over at a hunched over Ravenclaw studying away. Why were his housemates so typical? Leaning over to catch a glimpse of her, he accidentally knocked a skyscraper of books with his elbow, causing them to topple over onto the floor.
"Eeesh, sorry!" he loudly remarked, immediately stooping down to catch the falling tomes.

Allie leaned low over her essay, rereading it with every new sentence added.  While she found History of Magic to be an interesting subject, goblin rebellions tended to be the same mundane kind of history--some goblin got angry, other goblins joined him, and they revolted against some wizards.  Whether it was Gobnork the Great or Gambok the Grand, it really was just the same old story.  Then, suddenly and without warning, her wall of book collapsed in front of her.

"Agh!  Peev..." she shrieked, thinking immediately that Peeves was behind it (disrupting study-time seemed to be a favorite pastime of his.)  She looked upwards, expecting to see him floating above, cackling.  Instead, she saw nothing floating, but rather the top of a bloke's head as he bent down to pick up some of the books.  It took her a second, but then she recognized him; he was a 7th year Ravenclaw and a member of the Ravenclaw Quidditch team.  She had spoken to him briefly at various parties in the common room, but never really had any kind of one-on-one interaction.  He always seemed a little smug to her, but then, some people think that about her, too.

"Oh...you're not Peeves," She said, somewhat embarrassed that she had shrieked as she had, and in the library, no less!  "You...erm...need a book?"  'Hopefully not...this essay won't finish itself,' she thought.  She momentarily looked away from the boy who's name was momentarily escaping her and down at her essay.  "Oh, shite..." she stood up quickly.  In the shock of toppling books, Allie had apparently spilled her bottle of ink.  Ink dripped off of her lap and onto the library floor.  Could this day getting any better?

"Allie, Allie, Allie, Allie, Alliieeeee!"

Peyton's voice could be heard long before he burst through the Library doors shooting an apologetic look towards Mister Morgan. He knew the librarian would likely bite his head off for this but he didn't care, he was desperate. He had been searching all over the castle for his best friend, if anyone could help him out of his homework Dilemma it was Allie. He had finally managed to get a first year to tell him they had seen her go into the library.

Spotting her standing near a table that was mostly covered in book he raced over to the shorter Ravenclaw. He looked completely dishevelled. His brown hair was mussed up, his shirt was untucked and unbuttoned and his tie looked as though it was threatening to become completely unravelled. Completely oblivious to his fellow teammate picking up books from off the floor Peyton threw his arms around Allie and gave her a squeeze, "Thank Merlin I found you."

Peyton was in serious trouble. He had been taking notes in class for the essay he was supposed to be writing on Goblin rebellions but somehow without him realizing it his notes on Gobnork the Great turned into a reflection on what had gone right and wrong during Ravenclaw's latest Quidditch match with Gryffindor. Now he had nothing to write his essay off of.

"Oh Allie you've gotta help me out. Austerlitz is gonna have my hea- why are you covered in ink?"

"Not Peeves, I'm afraid," Edmund sheepishly replied, stooping low and grabbing a few books to place back on the table. She was a Ravenclaw girl, a few years below and he recognised her, but he couldn't say they were friends. Unless it was Waker and Leon, Edmund's usual sidekicks, his contacts with the lower years were few and far between. "I'm really sorry," he finally said, boyishly rubbing the back of his head awkwardly.

Gazing a little at the girl, he couldn't help but give her that trademark Klint grin of apology that made so many girls in the lower years swoon; he'd been regarded as the heartthrob of the Ravenclaw Quidditch team, and Edmund knew that he got away with his cocky borderline-arrogant charm. Placing a few books on a nearby table, he saw another misplaced tome and stooped down, placing it on the pile of books that had already toppled. The dull pain in his back magnified for a split second, but he gritted his teeth; there was no way he was coming across as a melodramatic weakling. Noticing the spilt ink, he grimaced, embarrassed at his own uncharacteristically clumsy error.
"Oh, I'm really, really sorry, is that going to stain?"

As a familiar voice came running through the library, Edmund noticed Wentworth and gave him a nod, feeling a little bit awkward being a third party in this apparent renunion of friends.
"Good game Wentworth by the way, you did us justice."

She heard a familiar voice shouting her name--in the library!--but had no more than a second to look before Peyton threw his arms around her.  "Oh!  Wha..."  She had gone from being alone quietly doing her homework, to being nearly crushed by an avalanche of books, to being covered in ink, and being thrown into a hug by yet another person.  'So much for getting it done before dinner,' she thought bitterly.

Allie stepped back away from Peyton, giving him a friendly smile before looking at ('Edmund!  That's his name...') Edmund, and raising an eyebrow, amused.  "Is it going to stain?  You know you kinda have to be a wizard to get into Hogwarts," she joked, pulling out her wand.  With a swish of her wand, the ink on her robes vanished.  Cleaning spells had always come naturally to Allie as she tended to be rather clumsy when she was nervous.  She inspected her robes and looked back to Edmund, still amused, "Nope, I don't think it is going to stain."

Taking a more serious tone, she stated, "But really, don't worry about it.  I'm clumsy enough and should have known not to stack so many books like that."

Slowly she turned to Peyton with an amused expression.  "And let me guess...your quill took a leaf from the goblins' book and rebelled against taking notes...?"  Despite asking, she was almost positive that was what he needed help with.  Peyton was one of Allie's best friends--he was a great quidditch player and he was intelligent, but he lacked the over-achievement gene that most Ravenclaws had.  Nevertheless, Allie was always happy to help.

Peyton felt a little embarrassed that he hadn't noticed Edmund beforehand but he had been so focused on finding Allie that nothing else had mattered. With Sasha still MIA Allie was pretty much the only other friend he had at the moment. Sure he considered the Quidditch team his friends but he wasn't about to drag Knight off for a study session or take Dark out for a night on the town in Hogsmeade. He wanted to be closer to his team mates but it just didn't really work out that way, at least not at the moment.

When Edmund complimented his efforts in the game on Friday Peyton swallowed hard and a blush of pride (and perhaps something else) had rose to his cheeks, "Thanks mate. Sasha's a much better seeker than I am but I was happy to do you guys proud." He scratched at the back of his neck, running his fingers through the hair at the nape of his neck, "You were really good out there too, saved my butt a few times and the way you walked off that crash," Peyton shook his head in amazement, "You're a great player."

When Allie spoke to him again Peyton had to shake himself a bit to come back to the whole reason he had come to the library in the first place. He was so easily distracted whenever Quidditch was brought up, "Well not exactly. I was doing the notes but somewhere in the middle I stopped writing about rebellious goblins and started writing about how the game went on Friday. Without even noticing!" He emphasized the last part just to show how badly he needed her help.