PRP-Exploring the Castle-Emalthya/MiniMin

[MiniMinyaagar]

Nahuel was once again exploring the Hogwart's castle. It was the sixth time in the last two weeks he'd had to find something to do indoors. The wet weather and storms that had been hitting them were rather bothersome, to say the least. So far he'd already explored the first five floors and had memorized them rather well. So today he was up on the sixth floor looking around at the portraits and trying the doors on that floor to see what he might find.

"It's kind of boring to do this alone," He said with a sigh as he opened another door and peered inside. "You'd think people would get bored of hanging out in the library at this rate."

He closed the door softly and moved on to the next door. He was a bit surprised to find a room full of writing supplies. He moved inside to take a closer look at everything. After glancing around for a moment he stepped out and closed the door and moved down the hall.

He stopped to glance at the random professor's office door he found and ran his fingers over the nameplate before moving down the hall and checked out more of the rooms his bare feet moving silently across the cool tiles.  

[Emalthya]

Emalthya shifted around on the cold stone. She was sitting on her bag and had her cloak wrapped around her like a blanket and a large book was open on her lap.

She was sitting in a corner of a corridor off the sixth floor next to some artistically rendered, but thankfully silent and still, stonework. There were a few narrow windows close by, but the storm blocked almost all the light, so Emalthya had stuck some candles around her and lit them. She looked like she was an eleven year old doing a seance at a sleepover, rather than an eleven year old reading a schoolbook at a school for magic.

The storm had driven everyone inside. This meant that the common room was overcrowded and noisy and the library was overcrowded and stifling. People bored of study would stare around and watch people. Some older kids had taken Emalthya's favourite study table, the one in the nook with lots of bench space and fewer chairs.

Emalthya had considered sitting in a disused classroom or office, but even those were being used by other students who played loud games or talked or cast obnoxious spells. Nobody wanted to be in the cold corridors or floors, though, so she had decided to make this little corner hers for the time being. There was a fire close by, though it was outside the corridor, and she had yet to be spotted by anyone who might tell her to go away.

She turned the page of her book.  

[MiniMinyaagar]

Nahuel turned a corner of the hall and blinked in surprised to find a girl sitting in the opposite corner wrapped in her cloak and surrounded by candlelight reading a book. He eyed her for a moment wondering if he should disturb her reading or not. It looked like she was pretty far into her book.

He edged closer, his feet still moving silently. He came to a stop a foot or so away from her and peered down at the page she was reading. For a moment he tried to read it upside down but soon gave up. Sure he could read English but upside down was pushing it for him.

"What are you reading?" He asked in a rather quiet gentle tone.

He glanced up out the window behind her as he waited for an answer and a rather loud crack of lightning flashed across the sky illuminating the corridor for one moment. Nahuel listened to the sound of the storm being oddly soothed by the sound despite his hating being stuck in doors because of it.
 

[Emalthya]

The boy's steps had been supernaturally quiet, at least to Emalthya, who always planted her feet when she walked like she would take her last stand there. She hadn't heard him approach, but the air currents he caused when he moved made the candle flames shiver and his shadow when it fell close to her ate up her light.

She had hoped he would just leave her alone, but he spoke to her and so she opened her mouth to reply without looking up from her page. A loud burst of thunder made her jump in her place, shut her mouth like a trap and jerk up straight. She exhaled her shocked intake of breath. Being so high up in a storm was foreign to her.

"Um," she began. She had had a dry explanation before, but she had forgotten it. "It's a library book. About weather magic. Things you can do to survive better in this climate. I'm not very used to it."  

[MiniMinyaagar]

When the girl didn't answer Nahuel's soft spoken question he wondered if she had heard him. He was constantly being told he needed to speak up so people could hear his words. His eyes flickered down when she jumped and her mouth almost snapped shut. He shot her an empathetic look and moved out of her light. "You okay?" He asked with a look of concern in his light gray eyes. "It looks like the storms going to get worse," he said idly casting his eyes back out the window.

He glanced back down when he heard her start to speak. "Weather Magic?
That must be an interesting read," He said moving a bit away from her to give her more space. He knew most people didn't like to be crowded.

"Do storms like this scare you? Perhaps exploring a lower floor might be more relaxing than being up so close to the lightning and thunder." He found himself suggesting.

"Have you explored the lower floors yet?"  

[Emalthya]

Emalthya listened to the boy, trying hard to make sure she understood everything he said; his accent was strange and not anything she had heard before.

"I'm not afraid of storms," she replied. "But I'd like to learn how to weatherproof my shoes and books, how to make a rain repelling dome with my wand, how to dry my clothes... all those kinds of things are in here, as well as really hard charms like ones that make the great hall ceiling mimic the sky outside."

She looked around. "It's quiet here, that's why I like it. What are you doing up here?"  

[MiniMinyaagar]

Nahuel noticed that she was paying a great deal of attention to what he was saying and realized he should have spoken up a bit more. His accent wasn't the easiest to understand.

His gaze turned from the storm back to her when she started to speak. His eyes lit up when she spoke about weatherproofing and repelling water. "They have those sorts of spells in a book? Huh, I've seen people doing them before, they do come in rather handy. I find most of the spells we're learning right now to be oddly simple and childish. When you're done with the book, might I borrow it?" He asked.

"It is quieter up here, " He agreed. "I was exploring. I've already explored the five floors below, I figured it was time to check out the sixth floor."

 

[Emalthya]

Emalthya wrinkled her nose. "The library is too loud with everyone in it. All my quiet places are noisy with people.

"It's a library book, so you could borrow it from there. I'm Emalthya," she said. She was starting to get a bit sore from looking up at the boy from the ground, but she still kind of hoped to stay where she was an read more.

"I have explored... a little. I get lost easily. I mostly look for quiet places to read or practice my magic in places people won't laugh at me when I get it wrong. There are a few very quiet places, mostly on the ground floor or on the fifth, sixth, and seventh floors. People have less reason to be here because there are no houses here."  

[MiniMinyaagar]

Nahuel nodded in agreement. "That's one drawback of storms, all the nice quiet spots get overrun. It's ten times worse for me, I'm still getting used to being indoors where all the noises echo even worse. I hope one day I will get used to it."

He smiled at her reply. "Oh okay. When you're done let me know so I can check it out after you return it. Ee-mal-the-uh. That's a pretty name." He said pronouncing it slowly so he'd recall it correctly. "There are so many different and strange names that people have here at the school. It can be hard to remember all of them." He mused.

Nahuel got a thoughtful look on his face and then moved to sit cross legged across from her. He could explore later he decided. he thought it would be better to get to know the girl a little better. He normally had a hard time finding people who would try to talk to him. His accent usually made it hard to be understood and most gave up after about five minutes or less.

He listened to her explanation quietly, feeling empathetic to her.

"It is rather easy to get lost in this place for most people. I just have a good memory from tracking and hunting. There are tricks I could teach you if you'd like. Or you could just come explore with me." He suggested with a smile.

He frowned when she spoke about people laughing at her attempts and magic and shook his head. "People shouldn't laugh, we are all learning magic. No one is perfect at everything. I know a lot of quiet secret places if you need somewhere new to practice," he suggested.