Searching for a Book (open)

[Zilnafa]

Zilnafa sighed. This tattered old pureblood lines book wasn't helping. She still knew nothing of her parents. And it was putting her to sleep. She'd much rather be playing wizards chess. It was something she was at least somewhat good at.
But at this point in time she'd made no friends. But it's not like she'd been at Hogwarts very long, or that she reached out to anyone. It was for the most part her fault; she'd no one to blame but herself.
Zilnafa loosed another sigh and heaved herself out the the arm chair. She stretched. The chair had put kinks in her knees and back and it felt rejuvenating to get them out. She shook her head and felt her braid flip on her back.
Still lost in thought she put the worthless book back and scanned the shelves for a new one.

[Jory Addison]

Jory didn't want to be here, he could think of at least one other place he would rather be. But he needed to finish his homework before he could let himself play. He heaved a heavy sigh as he turned a corner, unaware of anyone else near him in the huge labyrinth of the library. It was only when he was mere inches from the girl at the shelf that he felt her presence. "Sorry," he mumbled slightly without looking up. When he did look up, his eyes widened slightly. "You have really pretty hair."

[Zilnafa]

Zilnafa flushed, feeling heat in her cheeks and neck. The voice that had complimented her hair, had abruptly yanked her from her thoughts. She surreptitiously glanced at him.

He was barely taller then her, with hair almost as dark as hers and she couldn't tell what color his eyes were. But his ear were pierced and his hair was mussed.

"Thanks, I so needed to hear that." She mumbled, hearing the unbidden sarcasm in her own voice even, feeling that now would be a very nice time to run.

[Jory Addison]

Jory's intense blue eyes dropped at the girl's response and his teeth found his lip. "Sorry, I didn't mean to say something wrong." Though he couldn't figure out what could have brought the sarcasm from her, he wasn't going to argue. It was much easier to apologize and move on. "Um...are you looking for something? I don't know my way around very well, but I could try..." he offered, bringing his eyes back up to her.

[Zilnafa]

Zilnafa winced when the boy apologized. It wasn't his fault she lashed out when she was nervous. Or when she was angry, or sad, or happy, or excited or any other emotion.

She wasn't listening to the boy, as he spoke to her. She'd finally caught a glimpse of his eyes. They were distractingly bright blue and they flicked away from her and flicked back.

"It's not your fault." She couldn't meet those eyes but instead found her feet to be far more interesting.

[Jory Addison]

"Okay," Jory said, looking up again with a small smile, though he didn't push for any form of explanation. "So, do you need help?" The girl seemed distracted, and helping would delay any fun even more, but it would also delay homework, so he supposed it was an okay thing to do. Besides, sometimes it could be fun to get lost in the dusty stacks of the library.

[Zilnafa]

"Yes. No. I don't know." Zilnafa was having a hard time deciding how much to tell the boy.

She'd have to say something about family trees obviously. But she didn't want to tell him about her lack of a family or the fact that she was searching for one. She glanced at his tie. A Gryffindor. Which made it all the harder to explain that she was looking for a pureblood family, even though she wasn't sure she belonged to one.

[Jory Addison]

"Well, obviously you need help if you can't even figure out if you do or not," Jory said, a light-hearted smile coming to his lips. "What are you looking for?" He didn't care about bloodlines, so if she said something he wouldn't even blink at it. He was a halfblood, though both of his parents were magical, but he had never been told that there should be any difference between people because of blood status.

[Zilnafa]

"A book on pureblood family lines." She still couldn't look at him.

But she was waiting for the noise of disgust and the excuse not to help her. In her year at Hogwarts, she'd found Gryffindors the most sensitive to purebloods are better idea followed closely by Hufflepuffs. A smirk drifted over her face. Hufflepuff were only sensitive because they were all made of halfbloods.

But that was rude and she knew it. Zilnafa sighed. She'd have to control her thoughts because who knew what would come out when she opened her mouth.

"But its really not that important." She offered giving the boy a chance to leave without being rude.

[Jory Addison]

Jory had already said okay and started looking around for clues on where such a book would be. "Well, it's help you or do homework," he said, shrugging. "I'd rather help you. D'you know where the history books or whatever are, or are you starting from scratch?" He didn't see any reason not to help her, since he knew next to nothing of the rivalry between Gryffindors and Slytherins, and only a bit more about the Purist ideas.

[Zilnafa]

Zilnafa exhaled slowly in a silent sigh. Apparently she'd misjudged Gryffindors. Or maybe the boy was different. Either was she was glad he hadn't left. Any help was welcomed.

"I've been through most of those books." She gestured to the bottom three shelves. "But they don't tell me what I need."

It had been her mission since she saw the library to locate a book about pureblood lines with pictures of the family in hopes she might find someone who looked like her and she could contact. So far, it had been no luck.

[Jory Addison]

"What do you need to find?" Jory asked as he started scanning over the dusty books. Some of the spines were barely readable. "Oh, I'm Jory, by the way," he said, almost absently, as he stepped lightly over to the end of the fourth shelf to start working his way in. This was so much better than looking up potions homework.

[Zilnafa]

"Don't you listen? I already told you, oh ye with ears like a hawk. A book on pureblood family lines." It was bad enough having to say that once especially to a Gryffindor but twice?

Zilnafa winced replaying her words in her mind. She sounded snotty, like it wasn't worth her time to repeat herself. It wasn't but maybe the boy had forgotten. He had introduced himself as Jory. And she'd probably offended him, just like she'd offended everyone else in the enitre school.

"Sorry, it's not your fault." She confessed to him. "My name is Zilnafa, but just call me Zilly."

[Jory Addison]

Jory rolled his eyes, "Well duh," he said in response to her first words. "But there are purebloods from all over, and there are nice ones and mean ones and rich ones and poor ones. See? This one," he said, pulling a blue one half off the shelf. "It's about Chinese purebloods. And this one-" it was a brown one, this time. "Says it's about peasant purebloods from the middle ages." He looked up at her with his naturally innocent eyes, unoffended. "See? Your name's cool, by the way."

[Zilnafa]

Zilnafa winced. "I don't know. I'm looking for my family but I don't know." She hated admitting she didn't know. It made her feel helpless and sort of dumb. In fact she'd rather stab herself in the hand with a cursed knife then repeat herself.

Jory seemed to know his way around the shelves and she didn't want to get in his way.