Meet and Greet [Jake, Husk]

[Lily Potter]

Lily had a lot of homework to do. She had a massive pile stacked up. She supposed she probably shouldn't have spent her time this week reading that muggle book a girl from her dorm gave her. So she took a trip to the library in order to get a lot of studying done and to at least cut her homework pile in half.

When she got to the library, however, she was shocked at how many people had decided to do the exact same thing she was doing. Every table but one was full. It had two guys at it. Clearly older than Lily was. Both from different houses. One was from Lily's house and the other was a puff. They clearly were only sitting together because there was no other place to sit.

Lily sighed deeply, she hated having to sit with people she didn't know, which was about half the school basically. She barely knew anyone, and she liked to keep it that way. Her personality didn't like her meeting new people. She went to the table none-the-less. She was determined to do homework today, and that could not be achieved in the Common Room or even the dormitory. The girls had decided they were having a nail day. And Lily definitely didn't want to be a part of that.

She was going to just sit down, but decided it would be polite to ask them first. She slowly walked over to the table and used her Gryffindor courage to speak, quietly though, "Do you mind if I sit here?"

[jeneraljames]

Husk was absorbed in his Potions homework. If there was one class he hated, it was Potions. It wasn't as if he wasn't good. He was actually decent. He just never had the want to perform Potions. It was unlike him to be that way towards any class.

That was when the timid girl approached the table he was sharing with the Hufflepuff. He didn't even know the boy's name. Husk had merely sat down and started working without even noticing that he was already at the table.

The girl was a Gryffindor, and that softened Husk up quickly. Then again, it wasn't as if he would have been able to say know anyways. He may look mean sometimes, but he was a nice kid. He looked over to the other boy, then the empty seat, and he said, "Go ahead. I'm not saving it for anyone, and he didn't protest when I sat down. I'm Husk by the way, I've seen you around the Common Room before."

[aero]

Jake had been doing his Runes homework when Lily Potter approached. He didn't know her, but he knew of her, of course. With a dad like hers, it's impossible to be unnoticed. He looked up from the essay which was only halfway done and indicated that she could sit down. "It's open."

The other guy had made his own little introduction so Jake figured it would be polite to introduce himself. "I'm Jake Abbott. Hufflepuff...obviously," he added the last part when he remembered he was wearing his robes and not more muggle clothes which he put on to go visit his uncle sometimes. It was a long story.

His mind had drifted off but he came back to the present to focus his attention on the other two at the table- half of it anyways. The other half of his attention was focused on the Runes paper which had become increasingly hard. He liked Runes most of the time but today was not one of those days.

[Lily Potter]

Lily smiled softly when they both told her she could sit down. As to show that she was grateful for that. She put her books on the table and pulled out the chair enough for her to sit down.

She hated telling people her name, because of who she was. It got old after a while. She couldn't even imagine what her dad had to go through while he was at Hogwarts. She wasn't going to, but chances were at least one of them knew who she was anyways, so she did it anyways.

"I'm Lily. Lily Potter," She said it carefully, and slowly. As if she was showing them that she didn't want to tell them her name. She was shy, and didn't like talking to people. But she was raised to be polite, and that meant introducing herself when others introduced themselves to her. No matter how much she didn't even care to know them.

Sure, she had seem that Husk guy around the Common Room... He was a Gryffindor. She had probably seen all of the Gryffindors at some time. Talking to them is a different story.

[jeneraljames]

Husk had figured the girl was Lily Potter, but he didn't usually like to assume. Like the old saying went, 'never assume, it makes an ass out of u and me.' He smiled upon remembering the saying he grandfather had been so fond of telling him. Lily's shyness struck Husk as rather odd. He had met James before, and James was anything but shy. When Jacob introduced himself, Husk gave him a small nod. "Nice to meet you man."

"Well Lily, what year are you? I'm a Fifth Year." He asked her this basic question to try to get her out of her shell a bit. He knew she was probably a Third Year by how much younger she looked. He abandoned all hope of doing his Potions homework their, and he switched over to his DADA homework. This was his bread and butter. He loved Defense. While he did his Defense homework, he kept an eye on Lily.

[aero]

Jake nodded politely to Lily. She had an expression on her face....slightly tentative or something of the sort that said she didn't know what they'd think when she revealed her name. Jake knew that it was better to not make a big deal out of her name, her father in particular. His uncle didn't like publicity either and sometimes complained about it so Jake knew better. Instead, he focused on the other Gryffindor, Husk.

"You too man," he said although it didn't look like Husk was paying attention. He seemed to be doing his Defense Against the Dark Arts homework which of course, reminded Jake of his homework. He smiled at Lily awkwardly but then quickly refocused on his own homework- only a few more paragraphs. Jake sighed and started to write some more about the history of the particular Rune he was examining.

[Lily Potter]

The boys seemed to start doing their homework again, although it seemed like Husk switched subjects. He pushed aside his potions book and grabbed what looked like Defense Against the Dark Arts. Lily wanted to say that she could help, even though she was younger than him. Potions was her best subject, even though Charms was her favorite.

She took out her History of Magic essay and book and began to work on that when she heard Husk ask what year she was in. She really didn't want to answer him and just wanted to do her homework, but it seemed like he was was starring at her. He was doing his DADA homework, but still looking in between Lily and it the entire time. Which would annoy Lily after a while, so he decided just to answer him. It couldn't be that bad.

"I'm a third year." She said simply. She didn't know what else there was to say, and her shyness probably wouldn't let her say anything more even if she could think of something to say.

[jeneraljames]

Husk wrote quickly on the various uses of the Stunning Spell for DADA. It was too easy for him. He could get pretty creative with his spell usage when he wanted to. He should have left this paper for last, but he just didn't want to do his Potions work.

While he was lost in this thought, Lily answered him rather meekly. So much for getting her out of her shell, he thought. He noticed that she had a fairly large stack of homework with her, and he smiled a bit. Most kids seemed to procrastinate on their homework here. Then again, that was probably the case everywhere. As he finished up his essay he leaned back in the chair, and he started to daydream about Quidditch. He thought for a second then said, "Y'all don't play Quidditch do ya?" His slight southern drawl came out, especially with his use of y'all. Even if someone didn't know he was American, this was the giveaway that he was. He felt bad for interrupting their work, but he was just too curious to let it go.

[aero]

Jake looked up from his Runes essay which only required a few more sentences before he was finished. He detected a Southern accent in Husk and was slightly surprised as he hadn't met a lot of Southerners in Hogwarts- most of the kids were British like him but there was still a percent of other nationalities.

"No...I prefer to analyze the players and try to guess the outcome based on their previous plays," Jake answered. It was bookwork and he was good at bookwork. Plus, he didn't feel like sharing that he couldn't fly from his phobia.

"You're from the States?" Jake accidently let slip out. He silently cursed because not only had he started asking personal questions, he had opened himself up to personal questions about his life too. He wondered a bit as to how he had let that slip out though. Usually he was better about this.

[Lily Potter]

Lily heard the accent she had grown to love throughout the years. She had liked to listen to music while on summer vacation with one of those muggle contraptions. Her father was big on having both muggle and wizarding traits. So that meant she liked muggle books, and muggle things while she also like the wizarding stuff.

She heard him mention Quidditch... Something she really didn't want to talk about. Quidditch was a tough topic for her, and she almost decided to just get up and walk away. But she really needed to do homework... So she answered him.

"Uh. Yeah. I play. I'm just not on the Quidditch team. It's more something me and my dad do together on Holidays and before I came to Hogwarts." She eyebrows were raised and her lips were pressed together tight. Showing that she didn't want to answer the question, but did it anyways.

Then, she surprised even herself by saying something else. Something that wasn't even an answer to a question. Wasn't even a question. More a statement. "You have a country accent."

[jeneraljames]

Husk chuckled quietly at their reactions to his accent. He should be used to it by now, but no matter what, it always amused him when someone was surprised by his accent. "Yeah, I grew up on Naval bases all through U.S., but I mainly grew up in the South."

The Hufflepuff's answer to his Quidditch question told a lot about his personality. He was analytical, likely could've been a Ravenclaw. Lily's reaction to his question left him teetering on the edge over whether or not to ask more. He abandoned caution though. He thought about asking about her family, but he knew about her father, and she probably didn't like being asked about her famous family. It likely happened a lot.

However, he decided he would ask a generic question to both, "So, both of you've grown up here in Britain? Have y'all ever visited the States?" He had deemed the question important enough to ask. He loved the U.K. and all, but he missed the States, and he wanted to know how much they knew about them. He missed his grand-parents. He missed his heritage, no matter how much and how frequently he pushed it away. He hoped they weren't prejudiced against the U.S. like a lot of people were. Americans were seen as cocky, loud, and fat by many people.

[aero]

Jake frowned a bit and wrote the last few sentences of the Rune paper, concentrating hard. After a few minutes, he put his quill down and looked back at the Gryffindor. "Sorry," he said, "I just wanted to get that done quickly." He had realized that the Gryffindor wanted to talk more than he wanted to do homework so he'd finished the Runes as fast as possible.

"Um...no. I've never been to the States," he lied. He had gone to the States on one occasion and that was with his parents when he was just a baby. They had been forced to take him with them because his mother was required to go. He'd only been born a few weeks before so she was still taking care of him at home but of course, she deemed the trip more important and decided to compromise and just take him with them. That had been a huge mistake on their part.

Jake didn't want to open up his past to these people though. He rarely opened up to anybody and that was only when his friends made him. There was no way Husk was going to learn about his parents.

In all of this thought process, Jake had kind of spaced out and now just came back to the present.

[Lily Potter]

Lily didn't know what to think of that weird Hufflepuff. He seemed to be completely spacing out and he barely tried talking to Lily. Just Husk. Then again, maybe that was a good thing. Lily didn't know if she liked Husk either because he kept asking her questions and being friendly. It drove her nuts.

"No. I've never been to the States. I have no reason to go to the states. All my family is here in Britain." She said it like it should be completely obvious. Most people that went to hogwarts hadn't been to the United States. Most never would.

Lily turned back to her homework, she really needed to get it done. She knew it was going to be hard with these two people talking to her. But she had to at least try. She didn't come here for nothing. Yet this guy did make her wonder about Americans. His accent was just too cute.

"How long did you live in the states?"

[jeneraljames]

Husk felt there was something Jake wasn't telling him, but he didn't prod, because it seemed that he didn't want to talk about it. Instead Husk turned his attention to Lily when she responded. With her reply, he figured her to be yet another stuck-up daughter of a famous family, and that she was a Briton that didn't have time for silly Americans and their questions. He furrowed his brow at that. And he had so much hope that she would be a kind one, he just figured he was wrong.

Husk was about to stand up when she proved that maybe he was jumping to conclusions. "I lived their for eleven years. Came here right before turning 11, and I've been here since." He wondered if maybe he was coaxing her to be a little more sociable. He probably wasn't, but it was worth the try, especially since he didn't normally do this. He normally remained rather quiet like a good little soldier.

[aero]

Jake leaned back in the chair paying more attention to the conversation. He had a bad habit of zoning out except when he was in class-the irony.

"Eleven years? That must have been a huge change coming from America to Britain," he commented. He wondered what it would be like to move to America although that would never happen until after he got out of Hogwarts.

"Do you still find our country a little weird?" Jake asked. He had begun to become more curious. He wondered if Husk was muggle born because that could also change his opinion of England. "You're pureblood right?" he also added, "Not that I have anything against muggleborns at all. I was just thinking that it could have changed your opinion on our country. After all, I am Hufflepuff and we do treat people quite fairly. Not to say that all of us are perfect."