Help... How Does This Place Work?!

Chase stepped foot into the library with the air of someone who did not come here often. Normally, the Hufflepuff was surrounded by a gaggle of Hufflepuff girls her age. Today... Chase had a look like there was something that smelled bad under her nose. She had a couple of books held tight to her chest, and her bag was laden with quills, parchment, and ink. Today was the day Chase got caught up on homework she liked to put off until the last moment, and after laboring for hours in her dormitory with very little luck... well... she found she was almost forced into the library against her will.

Chase... didn't like libraries. In fact, she spent as much of her life avoiding the place as she could. It was dusty, smelled weird, and filled with books that made her head hurt. She wasn't a bright student. She wasn't a smart student. One might call her moderately dumb if she didn't excel at Care of Magical Creatures, Herbology, and was quite excellent at Potions. She did the best she could in those classes but every other one? Transfiguration was a bust for her. She could barely transfigure a mouse into a goblet. Charms she was constantly scolded for her lack of concentration and sloppy wand-work, DADA? Well, let's just say she would rather talk it out than cast an offensive spell, and it didn't usually go well.

So when Chase had to use the library, it was usually for emergency purposes, and she came alone. She covered her nose with a scarf to try and avoid the smells she didn't like, her hair was up in a ponytail, and her sleeves were rolled up to avoid getting ink all over them. It was the day Chase tried to concentrate...

She strode into the room, found a table in a corner she figured wouldn't be in anyone's way and set up shop. First, her books down on the table, then her parchment and quills, and finally, the ink. Set neatly and carefully as she procrastinated, having to do the part she hated. Book finding...

Chase finally turned towards the expansive shelves of books around her and took a huge breath in. Where... did she start? She looked around, completely lost and almost on the verge of tears. She just needed a book on the history of Charms and a very specific spell that wasn't covered in her usual textbook, where it was.. where even a Charm's section was though.... she was lost. So Chase took off, wandering along the shelves, looking like a lost lamb. Her eyes were pleading and almost filled with tears as she scanned the shelves, completely out of place.

Per usual Cecilia could be found in the library. After class she had ditched her robes and uniform in the common room, and she had replaced them with a pair of leggings and a shirt that was way too big, so big that one of her shoulders poked out of the neck hole. The girl had once again folded her small frame into an armchair in the back corner of the large room. Despite the size it felt cozy inside the library, the shelves helping build nooks and crannies.

There was a sound that drew Cecilia’s attention away from her book. The sound was Chase, her clothing choices seemed really interesting. Cecilia tilted her head to the side as she watched the girl walk down the aisle the shelves created. “What’s wrong with you?” even Cecilia was surprised with her self when she spoke to the older girl.

Chase heard a small voice in the corner and spun around, her eyes falling on the girl in leggings and a big baggy shirt. It actually looked like quite a cute outfit, and while Chase was distressed, she wasn't too distressed to take notes. However, her question made Chase jar back into the present, and she almost bounced over to the girl, tugging her scarf up around her nose a bit more. "Hello! Oh please, you look like someone who might know your way around here. Do you know where the Advanced History of Charms is? I need it for my Charms class, and I have to say I rarely come in here... If I'm honest, I try to stay as far from this place as possible." She crinkled her nose under the scarf and looked around her again.

"It's just... too much... you know?" she spun to look back at the girl and then gasped, holding out her hand in a very friendly manner. "My name is Chastity, though everyone calls me Chase. Chase Moor. What's yours?" Chase was grinning under her scarf, and while her lips weren't visible, her eyes were clearly crinkled in a way that was almost completely opposite to how they'd been when the girl had first spoken. It seemed Chase's mood switched very quickly upon being able to speak to someone who might help.

“Yeah, it’s over there,” Cecilia noted gesturing with her chin, as if that would help at all. What caught her attention more was the way the girl wore her scarf over her face. It was strange, not like Cecilia was one to judge her. “No, not really. Kinda nice.” She enjoyed the quiet, it was a good place to hide, a good way to stay out of trouble as she read quietly going unnoticed most of the time. Most of the time, this was the second trip to the library where she had been interrupted, “I know who you are Chase, your friends with Margo, i’m Cecilia.” the girl with dark hair reached out and shook the others hand, it was the only option she saw. “Why did you need that book again?” she asked, might as well help Chase too, wouldn’t do to make it a special case for Margo.

Chase smiled at the girl when she mentioned Margo. If she was honest, Chase knew a LOT of people, and it didn't surprise her in the slightest that people knew her due to her associations with many of her friends. "Oh! Well, I'm glad to meet you, Cecilia!" She pulled her scarf down a bit and then crinkled her nose. "Oh... I had to take a remedial class in Charms." she made a face. "Professor says if I want to get into the Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures, I need to be able to perform high-level Charms, and I'm just not there yet. I struggled with some of them, and they made me start looking up histories and stuff on why they are used and what they are used for. Particularly I have an extra essay to write on the History of the Memory Wipe Charm." She sighed heavily and ran her hand through her hair.

"It's just not in my regular textbooks, and I need it to finish this essay. Eventually, I might very well use Obliviate all the time if I don't get into the Department I want, and I need to learn its uses and history... it's just such a pain! I'm no good at Charms." She gave a heavy sigh and then looked at the Ravenclaw girl in front of her. "Are you any good at them?" She looked hopeful, and with it, her entire body seemed to radiate that. She actually stepped forward, lifted up on her toes a bit, and the scarf fell down around her neck, forgotten.

No wonder Chase and Margo got along so well, they could bond over the difficulties they had during classes. It wasn’t really something Cecilia had ever understood. With how much time she spent with her nose in a book learning came easily. In fact she had just read a book on the memory wipe charm, what was it, about a month ago. Obliviate, it made one forget. She wasn’t really listening to the girl as she explained why she was studying the charm, or how she got there.
When Chase asked if she was any good at charms it brought her back out of her thoughts. “Inadvertently?” It sounded more like a question than an answer, She wouldn’t say she was good at charms, or anything really, but she might be if she applied herself more.

Chase tilted her head towards the girl, her expression and stance suddenly reminiscent of a bird as she looked at the younger girl. "Inadvertently? I don't suppose I know what that means." She lifted up a little bit on her toes and looked around at the books around them. "I suppose I'm inadvertently good with magical creatures...." She thought out loud, her eyes scanning the names of the books but not seeming to take a single one of them in.

"It does make you wonder, though, is the first time I'm ever meant to do a memory charm meant to be only from practicing it on someone else? Is there a way to undo a memory charm like that? I suppose there must be... but I can't imagine casting it on anyone for the first time. I'd be so nervous about messing it up!" She gasped and sat down heavily in the seat next to Cecilia. "How do you go about practicing charms that do something so permanent? I can't imagine knowing the history and theory of it is any help.." She sighed and shook her head. "Yet people use them all the time, so..." She trailed off with a dejected look.

Cecilia shook her head, "I wouldn't use the word 'inadvertently' for that. It's more like animals sense a person's intentions naturally. It's a survival thing that keeps them away from danger." She paused and then added, "I used the word 'inadvertently' because I'm only good at things because I read about them...a lot." Cecilia listened carefully as the older girl shared her worries about using spells. "Well, there are two charms that can alter the memories of others. Obliviate makes them forget a specific memory, and there's one that creates a false memory. As far as I know, there's only one recorded instance of Obliviate being done incorrectly, and that was because the caster used a broken wand and the spell backfired." She searched her memory for more information to share. "There's also a counter spell that Hermione used to reverse the memory charm that was used on her parents after the battle against Voldemort. Although, I would probably use the memory potion instead of the charm."

Chase looked a little relieved at what the girl said. "Oh.. so learning about all the theory and book stuff does work sometimes then?" She sighed and ran a hand through her hair, still ruffled from the thought process. "Maybe I'll just stick to memory potions, though... I'm much better at potions than I am at Charms." She groaned and then sat up, looking at the girl. "But hey, you said you are good 'cause you read. Uh.. well, do you know where to find that book? I really don't know my way around here." She said sheepishly, moving the scarf back up around her nose. "It smells funny too... I don't know how people come in here all the time." She glanced around and then back at the girl. "Sorry, I don't mean to bug you." She leaned forward. "I might be procrastinating a little bit."

Cecilia attentively listened to the girl's struggles with her lessons and the library, understanding why she had wrapped a scarf around her face due to the unpleasant odor. "I know where you can find the book," she assured the girl. Rising from her chair, Cecilia motioned for Chase to follow her as she made her way through the maze of bookshelves. She finally arrived at the section that housed books on charms, scanning the spines of the volumes until she found the one Chase was seeking. With a sense of satisfaction, she plucked the book off the shelf and turned around to hand it to Chase.