[Library] Crunch Time!

[Professor Ashton Laurent]

The alarm sounds jerked Ash awake that morning tearing him away from a rather nice dream. In the dream he had just left Honeyduke’s and was of course, carrying a bag of candy. Candy that never ran out. Each time the bag was near empty, it refilled itself. Yawning, he rolled over and looked at the clock. "Six in the morning?" He groaned as the red numbers glowed in his face, almost laughing at him. He frowned as he stretched, "Alright, what idiot convinced me it was a good idea to get up at this time to study for finals?" Ash asked himself as he pulled the quilt off him and stepped out of bed, "Oh wait," He said, once more to himself, but this time with a smile on his face. “Oh, of course. I was that idiot," Though, that wasn’t the only memory to come back to him. Today was Saturday, the first real day of the weekend and if he remembered rightly, Ash had to work as well as study for Finals. "Well isn't this just great." He mumbled to himself, "I may just owl Jen; she might understand that school is more important than work" He scoffed, “Not that I actually care myself. The only reason I study is to get Daniel off my case.” He muttered to himself rolling his eyes. He had long since stopped calling his father dad, and now just called him by his name.

Opening his dresser, he reached in and pulled out a piece of parchment and a quill and inkwell. He penned a note to Jen explaining that he could not come in today because he had to study for finals. Giving the letter to Aphrodite who preferred to stay in his room, rather than the owlery, he told her who to take it to; and with an affectionate nip, the snowy owl soared out the window.

Standing up, Ash stretched and yawned, he walked towards the bathrooms, eager to get a shower before anyone else was up. While waiting for the water to heat up, he looked in the mirror and noticed a zit on his chin. “Ew. Gross.” He said with a frown to his reflection. Reaching up and opening the medicine cabinet he pulled out some facial cleanser and washed his face. He turned to check the water, and smiled. It was just perfect. After showering, Ash pulled on a pair of grey skinny jeans, a navy blue t-shirt that had the French flag, and the words ‘Kiss me. I’m French’ on it, and his black vans with the white stars. Ash straightened his hair, which was fluffy and poufy like it usually was when he first woke up, put his makeup on, and stepped out of the bathroom.


Walking down from the common room, Ash grabbed his dark blue bag. He had left it downstairs laying by his favorite chair next to the fireplace the previous night for one reason or another; he had been studying in the common room late last night so that was probably why. He’d probably gone to bed and forgot to take it up. Pulling the strap over his head so it lay diagonally over his chest, he stepped out of the common room and began to make his way down the deserted corridors to the Library.

The castle was cool and quiet at this time of the morning, most of its inhabitants still in bed asleep. There was however, the occasional ghost; although they too seemed rather quiet. Well, more quiet than usual anyway. A draft blew in through a partially opened window making Ash shiver and wish he’d had a hoodie. Then he remembered, he did have one. In his bag. “Duh.” He muttered to himself pulling out a black hoodie with silver stars on it. He shrugged into it, and zipped it up halfway. Enough to keep him warm, but not too much where he would roast.

Continuing on towards the library, Ash bumped into a Slytherin first year, much to the annoyance of the young Ravenclaw. When the Slytherin realized someone had indeed bumped into him, he turned around with a malicious glare and said in an icy tone, almost as though the little kid was going to frighten anyone, "Watch where you’re going," He looked Ash up and down before continuing, "For a Ravenclaw you’re not very smart are you?"
Ash was about to walk off, until the kid insulted him. So turning around, with an equally as icy stare, Ash bit back, "You watch where you’re going Snake," he looked at the Slytherin who seemed to be sizing Ash up, "I’m a lot smarter than you." He replied with a smirk. Ash didn’t have to say much, but the kid gave a small "hmph" sound before scurrying off, probably to find re-enforcements to come and torture Ash later. "Slytherins are always arrogant" He muttered turning around to continue down the corridor.

Reaching the Library he pushed open the solid, heavy doors, and stepped inside. The library, like the rest of the castle was a bit chilly. Ash was glad he had his hoodie. Walking onto the library, he found an empty table and sat down. Placing his bag on the floor beside him, he reached in and pulled out everything he would need to study with. Parchment and quills for notes, textbooks to look things up, and snacks to sneak when Ms. Marsh, the Librarian wasn’t looking.

Realizing however, that if he left food lying out in the open, Ms. Marsh was sure to see it, he stashed the food back into his bag. If he got hungry all he had to do, was make sure she wasn’t looking, and reach in and grab a snack. Opening up his Ancient Runes book, the Ravenclaw began the tedious, and in his mind, torturous task of translating the annoying things. The marks seemed to make no sense; they just sat there, mocking him. Laughing at him “You couldn’t translate us if your life depended on it!” they seemed to say. And it was true, he couldn’t. Not without help anyway. Ash glared down at the book, “I hate this class.” He muttered as he stood to go find a book.

[Carolanne Roberts]

Six a.m. Who in their right mind would wake up so early? Definitely not this girl but the ringing of someone else's alarm made its way through the walls and to the young Laney's ears. There was a small problem with this sudden alarm. Once awake, Lane had troubles falling into sweet slumber once more. Eh, now that she was awake, Carolanne could put the morning hours to good use for once. Finals were coming up fast and Laney hadn't looked at a school book since the Christmas holiday, not like she had to or anything, but it would be good for her to refresh her mind anyway.

As she pulled herself out of bed, she caught sight of herself in the mirror. Lane raised an eyebrow and shook her head before running a brush through her golden hair. Bed head was never good, especially when you went to bed with wet hair. Laney usually waited until morning for showers but for some reason, last night felt like a good time to take one instead. What good that did her.

Carolanne stripped her pajama's off and pulled on a pair of faded blue jeans. They weren't her favorite blue jeans, nor were they in the best condition but they were comfortable and right now, Laney needed comfortable. Next came a plain navy blue t-shirt and to finish it off, a white zip up hoodie. A simple yet cozy ensemble. The only thing left for Carolanne to do was grab her books and head to the libarary, the only quiet place in the castle, or its supposed to be.

The hall was quiet in an almost eerie sort of way. It made her wonder what went one when no one wandered the halls of the castle. The thoughts were soon pushed out of her mind when the library doors came into view. Laney wondered if Marsh would be up this early or if Students were even allowed inside at this time. Lane hesitated at the door. She'd feel like a complete nerd if the doors were locked and she was caught outside. Much to her pleasure, they opened with much grace. Laney let a sigh of relief escape as she found an empty table to sit at.

She noted the remains of another student sitting at the table next to hers. So she wasn't the only one up at this hour and in the library, now she didn't feel like such a brainiac. Maybe it was Maxi, but then again, that boy usually slept in so she didn't expect to see him until nearly noon. Eh, who cared it wasn't like it was important, plus she needed to concentrate on her studies right now.

Carolanne opened her History of Magic book and pulled out some parchment. A question had been written on the parchment and Laney hadn't answered it yet, why, she didn't know. The question read, When did the break between the Wizarding world and the Muggle world happen and why?

Carolanne scribbled down:
In the 1400's. With the coming of the Renaissance and the increasing reliance among Muggles on scientific reasoning, the break between the Wizarding and Muggle worlds is becoming more and more complete. Each culture goes on to create their own civilization: social structures, economies, governments, etc. Each borrows a little from the other as the years go by but it becomes apparent that the Muggles must be kept ignorant of the existence of their magical kin for their own good. Some Muggles persecute their magical neighbors, others try to exploit magical power for their own gain and for quick fixes to their problems.

Carolanne sighed as she placed her quill down and rubbed her eyes. She was still tired. Now if only she knew who else was wandering around the library.

[Professor Ashton Laurent]

Ash strolled between the shelves, drumming his fingers on the dusty, ancient wood as he searched for books to help him translate those blasted Runes. Spying a group of books, he pulled them out, coughing amidst the cloud of dust that was expelled into the air.

Nearly staggering under their weight, the Claw carried them back to his table, and stopped, dead in his tracks. His sister was sitting at the table right next to his. The books tumbled to the floor with a crash, causing Ash to wince. Way to go graceful! he berated himself as he bent down to pick them up. Cheeks flushing with embarassment, he quickly retrieved the books and placed them on the table.

Ash hadn't seen, much less talked to his sister in what, weeks? Now, by pure chance, they were both in the same place at the same time. The Claw smiled, "Laney. Haven't seen you around much. Finally get tired of hiding from me?" he quipped, a small smirk playing in his face

Not having spoken to Laney in ages, Ash was unsure if his sister was still well...less than happy about his engagement. Although, she didn't really have reason to be. It wasn't like Cris had proposed on a whim, right? Taking his things, he moved them over to Laney's table and sat down with a smile. "So, what have you been up to? Other than avoiding me?" he teased with a smirk, eyes sparkling with humor.

[Carolanne Roberts]

Carolanne closed her eyes slowly and tilted her head back so it was turned up towards the ceiling. Doing homework this early should be illegal, or at least that's what Laney thinks, especially on a Saturday.

'Ugh, why did someone have to set their alarm for six?' Laney thought to herself.

Just then, a loud 'Thud' sounded through the library and Laney found herself practically off her seat. Usually she didn't startle so easily but give the girl a break, she was dead tired. Catching her breath with a small chuckle she stared into the face of Ashton, her step-brother. She hadn't spoken to him in weeks but she wasn't avoiding him either. She just kept herself preoccupied with other things, like Max for instance, and homework of course.

Of course, right away he had to get sassy with her. If that's how he wanted to play, then fine. Carolanne pursed her lips and nodded, "Yeah, I've been keeping myself busy but I was never hiding from you, just... not going by you," she answered with a smirk.

It was true that Laney and Ash hadn't spoken for a while and part of it was lack of time but another part was the way Ash had treated Maxi and herself before him and Cris ended up engaged. She didn't think it was right that they got to badmouth Maxi and Lane then go and do practically the same thing and not expect any drama from it all. But, that was weeks ago and even though Laney was still upset, Ash was family and you couldn't avoid family forever.

Laney sighed and shook her head. "I've been keeping myself preoccupied with homework and such." of course the 'such' part meant spending time with Maxi but she didn't want to bring Ash down from cloud nine. How the guy continued to remain peppy was a mystery to her. Oh well. "What about you? How's work going?"

Alright, so it was small talk but what else did you expect when you haven't spoken to eachother in a month or so and are still on shaky ground?

[Bradyn Reed]

{ Mind us joining in? }

Bradyn was always an natural at getting up early and most of the time early to him was five AM when he'd get up and get ready before Darius stole the bathroom for hours. Really, that boy was such a girl about getting ready and it's not like he was trying to impress anyone. Most of the time when he got up, he'd wake up his poor dorm mate too then run away to lock himself in the bathroom, and today was no exception. It was almost troublesome to be that much of an arse, but it was too fun to push his buttons. Bray showered in the morning like usual and dried his hair via some girlie charm he found in his sister's wizarding magazines before straightening it. He always had to straighten it, the damn lazy locks from hell loved to curl and frizz up for no apparent reason.

Having to blast open the door as for some unknown reason there was a trunk blocking his only exit, he was amused by the shocked expression he got out of his sleepy roommate. "Hm, someone needs to be more careful about where they place their junk." He said, sarcasm being his first reaction for everything and only getting an annoyed grunt out of his dorm mate who was now hiding from the light under his pillows.

Deciding to be merciful and leave he poor lad alone, Bray took the moment of privacy to get dressed. His sister had just been home recently and dragged him back a few sets of summer clothes and with it, apparently some clothes he'd never seen before. 'I don't know why she thinks she has the authority to shop for me.' He grumbled while looking through a pile of t-shirts until he found a dark green one that intrigued him. On it was yellow writing that said 'God created liquor to keep the Irish from conquering the world'. Oh, yes, this shirt was made of win. Bray couldn't help but laugh as he pulled it on then worked his way through the mess of their dorm until he found his pile of semi-clean jeans and grabbed the first pair he saw. Older jeans and a little roughed up at that, they were a little tight on him but it only managed to make his butt look a little nicer.

"Not too shabby." Came a sleepy voice from the other side of the room and Bray just sighed before picking up a random hoodie and throwing it at him. "Shut up, I didn't ask for your opinion!" He growled and left his dorm and the ClawCave as fast as he could. As Ellie was out on a little trip for a while, Bray had been forced to spend more time with Fay. Ugh, such a chore, spending time with his best friend. Today being the first day of the weekend, they had made plans to hang out and do something. Usually when they made plans, it wasn't for anything specific because doing random stuff on the spur of the moment always worked out much more enjoyably for them. Plus, that way they stayed away from Hogsmeade and weren't forced into child labor.

As usual they met in the Great Hall where Bray could shove down a few English muffins before she dragged him all over the place. This time, though, they started getting into one of their silly arguments. The thing about Bradyn and Felicity arguments was that no matter how silly it was, they could keep the arguement up for days, but feeling-wise they could never stay mad at each other. This time it was about dragons and which breed was the strongest. Bray said it was the Ukrainian Ironbelly, whereas Fay said it was the Peruvian Vipertooth. The only way to settle this and give the other Claws some time to get over their headaches was for them to march down to the library and look up who was right.

Keeping up the bickering the entire way, as they entered the library the only change was for them to switch to angry whispering on what aspects of each breed made it stronger. Bray made it into the Magical Creatures section first, he could tell by the symphony of growls that sounded as he passed the werewolves section. It always happened, only usually he'd turn around and his 'Shut up, ya mangy books.' Only egging them on. Really, some things were too magical for their own good. After finding the dragons section he heard as whistle from one of the books and soon pinpointed it to be the Incubus one. Smirking, he tapped it on the spine with a laugh.

"I think it likes you, Fay." Of course, incubi were the male version of veelas, only much scarier. Picking up a book about illegal dragon fighting that was written back before laws were made against it, he flicked through it looking for the fight records only to be interrupted by someone speaking that was most certainly not Fay.

Who'd be in the library this early besides a couple of nerdy Claws? Well, a couple more nerdy Claws, of course!

[Professor Ashton Laurent]

Ash smiled and shook his head, "Laney, Je vous taquinais juste." he replied, barely repressing an eye roll. The girl could be so literal sometimes! He switched to English, "So, what have you been up to exactly?" he enquired tilting his chair back to rest against the shelf behind him. Fingers interlocked behind his head, and chair balancing on two legs, Ash looked relaxed, casual, and like he hadn't a care in the world.

The Ravenclaw shrugged when Laney asked how work was going, and let the chair fall forward with a thump. "Le travail est parfait." He replied, switching back to French. Ash yawned and let his head fall onto the table. "Whatever made me decide that I actually cared enough about my grades to get up at six a.m. on a Saturday to study, is beyond me." He grumbled, voice muffled by the table.

Raising his head up, he gave his sister and best friend (even if they were on shaky ground right now), a smile. "So, tell me little sis, how are things in your neck of the woods?"

((sorry, it's crappy!))

((Translations: Laney, I was just teasing you

Work is fine.))

((Damn your ninja posting Nicole! lol))

[Felicity Locke]

(( Yay for invading! Oh and Kris, Bray and Fay are in one of the aisles, methinks you can't see them ;D ))

Whoever invented the art of studying needed to be beheaded…or something like it. It was absolutely the most boring thing a person could think of. While on the subject, who invented testing too? Sure, Fay did well on her tests, but that didn’t mean that she didn’t despise them with all of her being. All week all her professors would say is ‘Study!’ Some were more…interesting than others. May’s was just threatening. In essence, study hard or you fail, hard. Don’t study? Fail. Study light? Fail. Blow everything off? A big fat fail. T for Troll.

So here she was, up at a crazy hour in the morning, because of Bray. Who’s idea was it to wake up so early? She was barely coherent. Fay moaned, rolled, and flopped right onto the floor. Can you say ouch? She muttered a string of profanities as she sat up and brushed herself off. Thankfully her room mates were fast asleep; otherwise she would certainly be expanding their mental dictionaries. A cranky Felicity is an unhappy Felicity for all.

Fay threw on a skirt and went shuffling through her trunk to try to find a good shirt. Standing in a room full of sleeping girls while trying to stay quiet and trying to look for a shirt was a difficult task. She finally pulled out one that she thought would look pretty decent. It happened to be one of her favorites. But, who wouldn’t love a shirt with a cute little cat on it? Plus, it was light blue. Go Claw pride! She glanced in the mirror, and shrugged at her appearance. Her hair was fine, as usual, and the rest of her looked alright. Well, in actuality she probably looked much better than alright, but she wouldn’t say that about herself.

Her books were snatched up quickly from her bed, and she made her way downstairs. It would be much better to spend today outside, instead of cooped up in the library. There was barely a cloud in the sky as she stopped to look out one of the windows. Fay sighed lightly and made a face. The weather just had to mock her like that. Look at me! It’s nice and sunny outside; too bad Felicity can’t come out. Haha, you lose. Alright, so maybe she was a little crazy in the morning, but it wasn’t her fault, everyone was crazy when they had lack of sleep.

Now, onto the Great Hall to go meet Bray. Bradyn had insisted they wake up early, because that’s what he did every morning. Well la di freaking da. So, she trudged her way down there and plopped down across from him. Why Bray would ever contradict her was beyond her, because she was usually right. No, that wasn’t just her being pig-headed, it was true. Except when it came to herself, then Bray was usually the one that prevailed.
What was the pair fighting about? Dragons. Fay didn’t really know how they got onto the subject, but it was most likely from the fact that Bray had mentioned she looked all angry like a dragon. After which she nearly bit his head off. Yay for friendship!

As the two bickered all the way to the library, they were receiving several groans from other students. The fighting thing wasn’t really new with these two. They always were argueing about something, but it was more for amusement than actually proving oneself right. And then there were the bragging rights too. But that was only a perk.

She followed Bray to the magical creatures section, and snickered as the books made a series of growling. One book in particular seemed to whistle at her. She peered closer at the title, then snorted. “Oh well, you know, I’m gorgeous. The book has good taste.” Fay rolled her eyes and peered over Bray’s shoulder, which wasn’t really difficult considering the fact that she was taller than him. Her concentration on the page was broken once someone else spoke.

Felicity placed a finger to her lips and looked (stealthily) around the corner of the bookshelf. She first saw Ash, and then upon further inspection Laney. Fay quickly retreated back into the little hallway and tapped the book Bray was still reading, trying to get his attention. “Ash and Laney.” She whispered to him.

[Carolanne Roberts]

(Rikki <3's Nicole and Ally :-p)

Carolanne stared at Ashton with cold eyes. Sure he was just teasing but why must he speak in French all the time? Laney didn't like it that much, she didn't like it when others around didn't know what she was talking about. It was alright when they were at home with the 'rents because Vera pretty much only spoke French but at school, Laney didn't like it.

What has she been up to? Didn't she pretty much answer that or no? She sighed and picked up her quill as she continued to scribble answers to the questions already written.

"Homework, Essays, Studying, Spending time with Max," she answered. She looked up at him, "The usual."

Carolanne stared down at her parchment. It was only half finished but she didn't care. She knew the answers already, or at least most of them. Why she decided to come to the library was starting to seem like a mistake. But, Ash was family and she didn't want to avoid him forever, or at least she didn't think she did.

Ash's voice was heard once more so Laney, as a normal response, looked up at him. "Things in my neck of the woods? What's that even supposed to mean?" It was probably the oddest thing she had ever been asked. It was more of an American expression but it was still confusing. She started to doodle in the left hand corner of her parchment before answering, "Things are good."

[Bradyn Reed]

Fay was always so arrogant when they got in a fight, like it was impossible for her to be wrong. Honestly, most of the time she was wrong but you could never tell her that and come out with all your limbs intact. Sometimes he would get tired of arguing with her and just give her the benefits of being right when obviously, she was dead wrong. And the silly little prick always took bragging rights until he showed her up with something that shut her up for a while. Fighting, if you wanted to call it that, was part of their daily routine and most people were pretty used to it by now... maybe.

Bray just rolled his eyes at her comment on the flirty book, even though he knew she was joking. It was his first language, after all.
"Yeah, I wouldn't go as far to say that. The book's probably blind." He said, even though it was pretty risky to make remarks against any girl's appearance.

Trying to pick up on who was talking and what was being said, they were a bit too far and too quiet for him to understand and he was definitely not enough of a peeping tom to change forms, and honestly he didn't really care much about library gossip. What could it honestly be? 'Gasp, can you believe the assignments Professor Beckket gave us?' Psht, whatever. But obviously Fay was interested since he could see her sneak away in the corner of his eye and he just smirked and shook his head. If she wanted to find out, then he wasn't going to stop her. Bray just continued to skim through the list of fights with a bored expression. There were too many possible dragon pairings to make this easy.

Finally finding the section he was looking for, he frowned in disappointment. "Well, that's a ripoff." He sighed and pointed to the section for Fay to see with her own eyes. " 'Ukrainian Ironbelly versus the Peruvian Vipertooth, total fights 348. Wins 174, Loses, 174.' " An even match, perfectly so. Of course the stupid book just had to make their argument unsettled. Shutting the book with a quiet slam after he was sure Fay got a good look, he pouted a bit.

"I bet some of the Vipertooth's wins were flukes. The Ironbelly was probably just tired from kicking some Sweedish Shortsnout's butt earlier." Bray was certainly the more stubborn of the two but he knew when to stop. The stopping point being whenever pain was threatened. But then he heard her whisper and looked up at her with a curious expression and a raised 'brow. McLane siblings, ay? "Hmm.. very interesting." He said generally like he wasn't interested in them being here at the same time at all. Grabbing the first book off the shelf that he saw -- it so happened to be on kelpies, something that wouldn't be too bad for him to refresh on -- and turned back towards Fay.

"Well, shall we go... 'study' now?" He said, gesturing towards where the voices were coming from. Instead of waiting for her response, which he could only guess was going to be 'yes' he just headed out there himself. Leaning against a bookshelf in plain sight of them, he waited for Fay to come out and say something. After all, he was quite sure they wanted these silly Claws to join in with their study party. Bray and Fay always made things completely unproductive.

[Professor Ashton Laurent]

Ash noticed Laney's cold stare, but chose to ignore it. It wasn't like French was going to kill her. He leaned forward, so that his chair balanced on the two front legs, rather than the two back legs, and propped his elbows on the table. More than likely he'd get in trouble if Marsh caught him, but he didn't really care. To be trtuhful, the only real reason he was studying was so he could graduate on time. As much as he loved Hogwarts, he couldn't wait to begin his own life.

Ash yawned slightly, looking down at his Ancient Runes book once more. The markings blurred together until they were one big blob. A blob that was giving Ash a headache. He sighed and placed his head in his hands, fingertips massaging his temples. "Laney, can you help me translate these Runes?" he asked his sister in a weary voice.


((Meh, not my best... but oh well))