Books, Books and?... [OPEN]

[Laurinda Lendon]

Lauri entered the library solemnly, hair hanging in her eyes. She was half-asleep after double History of Magic, so decided to rest in the library like she did every Monday afternoon. Nothing to disturb her, and no one to annoy her either.

The Ravenclaw stumbled closer to the restriced section, inwardly debating over wether she should go in or not. After a few moments, she decided against it, seeing as it was the middle of the day. Instead, she fell down onto a nearby sofa and picked a random book from the shelf.

She the first few pages but soon, her eyelids began to droop...she awoke at some unknown time later. Lauri thought she saw movement. Was someone else here?

[Nadia McLaggen]

Being sneaky wasn't Nadia's forte, no matter what people perceived Slytherins to be like, not every Slytherin was a master at lying, cheating and scandals, and Nadia was proof.

Just as she was about to tip toe away from where she assumed someone else was Nadia knocked into some books on a shelf and winced as the impact of the books hitting the floor resounded around the room, not willing to reveal herself Nadia quickly placed the books back and ran not before causing a big ruckus accidentally and tripping over a book that she herself had forgotten to put back earlier.

In the light Nadia looked like a mess, hair wild and so obviously full of tangles, the bags under eyes did Nadia no justice either, Nadia was well aware of someone else's presence but she ignored it hoping that someone would just walk away.

[Laurinda Lendon]

Lauri flinched as dozens of books fell to the floor. Yes, it seemed as though someone was in fact here. A girl tripped over a stray book, Lauri thought that she looked a little mad. She then recognized her to be a Slytherin prefect, from her green robes and badge.

Her eyes widened, she wasn't too fond of most Slytherins and the same applied for prefects. This particular one didn't look too harmful though...

"Um, are you okay?" she asked a little hesitantly, standing up from the sofa she was sat on and edging a little closer to the older girl.

[Nadia McLaggen]

Nadia would normally sniff in disdain at people that asked if she was alright, but she was a bit too tired for that now though, in fact lately she hadn't had time or felt the need to be overly nasty, so instead of retorting with an insult Nadia just shrugged.

"Who's ever really okay when they say they are? All of them are liars, the whole lot...even me."

Blinking in surprise at her own reply Nadia buried her head into her hands, it was a bit too much for now...

[Laurinda Lendon]

She had suspected the snake girl to bite her head off for even daring to ask such a question. But she was wrong. The reply she received was both unexpected and concerning.

"I'll just take that as a 'no' then." Lauri frowned then added a small smile, "But cheer up, Snake Girl, you wouldn't want the rest of your house seeing you like this. Let alone a 'Claw like me."

She knew she was in dangerous territory, she didn't know what newly nicknamed 'Snake Girl' was going to do next. And that worried her. Hopefully she wouldn't have to brace herself for an avalanche...

[Nadia McLaggen]

Normality called for an overload of yelling, insults and hexes, but normality wasn't a factor at the moment and disregarding normality Nadia raised her eyebrows and forced herself not to laugh, it was ridiculous, the nickname "Snake Girl."

"Claw like you?" Confused Nadia frowned, was it a trend to call Ravenclaws "'Claws"? Even if it was Nadia thought it was simply a silly little...well whatever it was. She couldn't help but roll her eyes at the Ravenclaw girl's second statement. "Contrary to popular belief us Slytherins aren't all that bad you know."

[Laurinda Lendon]

Lauri held back a laugh as she noticed the confused look on Snake Girl's face. She decided that the Slytherin could possibly be right with what she had said about Slytherins not being 'that bad'. After all, this girl had not attempted to murder her yet, which was surely a positive sign. Wasn't it? Unless she was just holding back all of her hostility to catch Lauri when she was least expecting it.

'Stop being stupid!' she told herself from inside of her head. Lauri tended to get a little carried away with her thoughts, she had been known to completely loose track of whatever conversation she was taking part in once or twice in the past.

“Hmm, I guess you are possible proof about Slytherins not being as horrible as people tell me...” Lauri grinned. Then, surprising herself a little, she held out her hand, “I'm Laurinda Lendon. Feel free to call me Lauri though. And I'm guessing you're real name's not actually Snake Girl, right?”

This time, she laughed properly, thinking how ridiculous it would be to actually have Snake Girl as a name. It was terrible enough as a nickname, now she really thought about it!

[Nadia McLaggen]

Nadia's legs started to ache as she just stood there staring at "Lauri", there was only one seat at Laurinda's table and she was occupying it, spying a chair nearby Nadia dragged the chair to Laurinda's table not caring about the horrible creaking noise the chair made as it was pulled from one place to another.

Sitting down and making herself comfortable Nadia propped one elbow onto the table her chin resting into the palm of her right hand, she was more guarded now, Nadia wasn't one to open up to people she had seen once or twice in her life, and she wasn't about to start then. But nevertheless when she had been alive Romilda had always drilled it into Nadia's head to be polite, charming and basically the most vomit worthy stuck up girl a person could ever meet, needless to say Nadia failed at most of that, she wasn't charming and definitely not polite but she was willing to make an exception, just once.

"Nadia, Nadia McLaggen," Nadia paused, considering what to say next, what did one say when conversing with someone close enough to a stranger? "I think maybe you've heard of my Dad? He's pretty well known, not as much as the Weasleys and the Potters, but known nonetheless."

Nadia wrinkled her nose at her mention of the Weasleys, it wasn't that Nadia disliked them, she didn't like them either but she always despised Ron Weasley because her father had always told her there had been a chance that she could've had Hermione Granger as her mother and that would've been something to be proud of.

[Laurinda Lendon]

Lauri frowned in her usual way "McLaggen...it rings a bell but I'm no good at remembering names," she muttered quietly, "It seems like no family's as well known as the Potters or Weasleys, it's quite annoying actually and sometimes I wish everyone would shut up about them. Especially the Gryffindors, they tend to get on my nerves..."
She swiftly stopped talking, realizing that she'd been rambling. Lauri cleared her throat awkwardly, "Sorry, I do that a lot."

Mentally she slapped herself, she didn't want to bore Nadia with her thoughts like she did to every other person she even managed to strike up a conversation with her. They either laughed at her or walked away when she rambled about something which caused her to snap at them and get into countless fights or arguments that were really unnecessary. Lauri always told herself to speak more slowly and think things through in her head before saying things out loud. What if this Nadia girl was a fan of the Potters or Weasleys, whom she had basically just insulted without any remorse or guilt.

'You really need to learn to think before you speak.' a voice hissed to her from inside of her head. She really agreed with it.

[Nadia McLaggen]

Nadia shrugged at Laruinda's response, it made sense the hype of the Potters and the Weasleys were no match for any other wizarding family (except for maybe the Malfoys), she didn't really mind it at times, her father was more interested in this sort of thing, he liked being popular because that's all he had ever known. (He quite often requested Nadia to ask random strangers at Hogwarts whether they knew him or not, it was quite irritating after a while but Nadia never spoke a word in protest.)

"Gryffindors can be quite annoying, and I might disagree with you on that point there, the Malfoys are pretty well known, although not in the best way..."

Nadia grimaced having a flashback from first year, she was boarding the train excitedly when her father had stopped her, she was going in the same doorway as Scorpius Malfoy, she didn't understand why it mattered which doorway she was going through, she was going to be on the train nonetheless. Back then it hadn't mattered so much, now it seemed so troublesome, Nadia forced herself to push back that particular memory.

Nadia, although often enjoying male presence more often than females still had her "girly" side and blinked at Laurinda's hair, it was rare for Nadia to have a "girl" moment, most of her time was devoted to pleasing her father, Quidditch practice and making sure her little brother didn't get into any mischief.

"How is your hair so straight?" Nadia didn't realize she had wondered aloud, it was something that boggled her, if she had heard herself Nadia would've felt like kicking something, it was so unlike her.

[Laurinda Lendon]

Nadia's response caused Lauri to mentally slap herself again for overreacting. It was another thing she often hated herself for doing. She told herself to forget about it and nodded, it was true that many of the other students at Hogwarts usually mentioned the Malfoys in some way or another, more often than not in an unpleasant sense. Lauri thought of what life would be like for Scorpius, who constantly was forced to carry the weight of his family's burden. She missed the grimace on Nadia's face. It was surprising really; the things she missed when she was thinking about something irrelevant to her current situation.

Lauri frowned for a few moments, trying to register what Nadia had just said and figuring out if she had heard her correctly. And once she had realised that she hadn't misheard the snake, she almost smiled at how spontaneous the question seemed to be. "I just straighten it every morning with my wand, otherwise it tends to look quite... wild." she finally answered, now studying a strand of her hair. "Everyone says that if I dyed it blonde, I'd be the spitting image of my mother, I don't think I will though because my hair colour's the only physical feature that I had in common with my father..."

By the end of her sentence, Lauri knew she'd made another mistake in accidentally bringing up the late Allen Lendon. She felt her eyes cloud over with fresh tears and quickly hid her face in her hands, not wanting to cry - especially not in front of someone who she had only just met.

[Nadia McLaggen]

Nadia forced back a smile that threatened to come at Laurinda's response, there was a sort of fondness there with Laurinda when she talked about her parents. It was something Nadia wished she could have, she had rarely spent time with her mother because her father took up her all of her time with her pointless efforts to please him.

Nadia tilted her head just a bit at the end of Laurinda's sentence, was she crying? Nadia wanted to know, hoping what she thought was right, that Laurinda's father had passed away by the "had" Laurinda had spoken, she reached out her right hand, her left fiddling with her hair, and grasped Laurinda's hand and squeezed it in what Nadia hoped was a reassuring squeeze.

"My mother...she passed away too you know, except...I didn't really know her...and I don't mean I was too young to remember her, I do remember her...she died two years ago, listen to me rambling, I don't often say this but...you're not alone you know."

Nadia closed her eyes, how was she supposed to say anything else without spilling everything to a total stranger?

[Laurinda Lendon]

Lauri looked up again and smiled gratefully at Nadia, finding herself just the slightest bit reassured by what the Slytherin had said to her. "Thank you." Lauri said in a small voice, glad that her tears were no longer threatening to spill over.

All of her life, Lauri had been that irritating person who poked their nose into other people's business and right now was no exception. She wanted to ask Nadia how Mrs McLaggen had passed away though the subject of her parent's death was a sensitive one and she didn't know if Nadia felt as vulnerable as she did. She'd asked Belaya about her brother but, then again, Belaya was her friend and this was her first conversation with Nadia.

"How..how did your mother die?" she asked, letting her curiosity get the better of her. "If you don't mind me asking, that is..." she added quickly, shifting in her seat uncomfortably.