Searching for a Book (open)

[Jory Addison]

"Okay," Jory said, though that didn't help at all. "Do you know what country we should look for?" He knew he couldn't judge by accent where someone was from, much less where their family was from. If she didn't know, he supposed they would just have to do eenie minie mo to find a book and just start looking. "If not, like I said, it's not like I have anything better to do."

[Zilnafa]

"I know it doesn't help." Zilnafa wondered if she should go into detail about her previous life but decided against it. Jory was avoiding his homework, he wasn't interested in her entire life story. "I'm from Africa, but I'm not sure my family was. The only thing I've got to go by are my eyes. Which are uncommon if your African descent."

[Jory Addison]

"I think different eyes are a pureblood thing," Jory said, thinking absently about what Eros had said about his violet eyes. That was definitely strange. "I wonder if there's, like, a book about strange pureblood traits or something." As he said so, he started looking for titles with anything involving eyes or Africa, though he knew it was a longshot if all they had to go on were green eyes.

[Zilnafa]

Secretly, Zilnafa was impressed. Jory seemed to know something about books. Zilnafa had never been book smart, not even when she tried. She knew that and she'd accepted it. And that's why her search was incredibly slow, because she had no idea what to look for other then what she'd already been looking for which sounded redundant.

She tilted her head to see the titles better and scanned for something mentioning strange pureblood traits.

[Jory Addison]

Jory didn't know much about books, but he knew enough about research from his self-lead study of Divination to know that it was quickest to find a book about the most specific thing he could find. "Here's one about African purebloods," he said, pulling out a gold-embossed book bound in cracking leather. It was much heavier than it looked, but he tucked it in his elbow and propped it on his hip to continue looking for at least one more. "So are you new, or did you, like, just now want to find this stuff out?"

[Zilnafa]

Zilnada blinked at Jory. He'd already picked out a book. She wondered why they didn't sit down to look through it but decided not to ask. Instead she focused her attention on looking and absent mindedly answered his question, "Sort of both. I got here at the beginning of the year, fresh from Africa, but didn't start using the library until about two weeks ago."

She picked out a book with a silver cover. It had a golden clasp around it and she frowned. Would she need a key or would she have to use a spell?

"What about you?" She asked. "Have you been here since first year?"

[Jory Addison]

Jory shook his head, "No. I went to MI in London until this year, then at the beginning of last term I moved here. I like it a lot better here." Even with the fight with Lyric. He had more friends now than he had ever had at MI, and the number seemed to grow constantly. Some of them probably didn't consider them friends yet, but they had been nice to him so he saw no reason not to consider them such.

[Zilnafa]

"Why?"

Zilnafa eyes were hurting from squinting at the titles. She rubbed them and went back to squintung. She was thrilled her quest was moving faster then it had but soon she would call it quits. Perhaps she could persuade Jory to play a game of Wizard chess with her.

"Why do you like it better here?" She was interested enough in Jory. He was different then other people. He hadn't run when she'd verbally assulted him. And besides she might want to know what MI was like. "And what is MI?"

[Jory Addison]

"Magical Institute. I never talked to anybody there, here, though, everyone's a lot nicer. Even the Headmistress was stuck up at MI," Jory said, wrinkling his nose. He still remembered what she had said in that owl, though now he didn't know if he felt like talking about that. He had been in a good mood for far too long to let that get him down. "I have friends here."

[Zilnafa]

Everyone was nicer here? Zilnafa wondered how bad it must have been at MI. In Hogwarts, she'd witnessed Slytherin's mericlessly tease first years until they cried and Ravenclaw's mock people until the particular person gave up with their school work and started to fail out of classes. She'd seen Hufflepuffs post mean Gryffindor pictures all over the school. She'd heard Gryffindors spread nasty rumors about houses. In fact, she'd been victim to much of it. So how terrible had MI really been?

"It's good you're happy here." was all the Zlinafa said instead of the snotty replie that instantly popped into her head.

[Jory Addison]

"I mean, it wasn't miserable at MI, but I actually talk to people here," Jory said, shrugging. He knew the school wasn't perfect, but, other than a few horrible days the previous term, he had been sheltered from the more negative parts of the school. "What do you think about it? What was your old school like?"

[Zilnafa]

Zilnafa paused. Didn't they teach that here? She thought they taught how other countries dealt with magic. Maybe Jory just didn't pay attention.

"There are no schools of magic in Africa." Zilnafa shrugged. "One had to find a private tutor. Mine was a drunk who never bothered to actually teach me something. Hogwarts is a refreshing dose of knowledge."

[Jory Addison]

Jory's eyes widened as he looked up at Zilly in surprise. "Really?" he asked. He couldn't imagine there not being any schools. That had to be hard. "So....are you, like, having trouble in class?" A drunken tutor couldn't have given her everything she needed. Not that Jory made O's in all his classes, but at least he had been able to go to school.

[Zilnafa]

"A little." Zilnafa shrugged trying to appear as if being terrible in her classes didn't bother her at all. "But I've been up late studying. It won't take me long to catch up."

Gauthia, her tutor, had bought her a wand which was the best thing he'd done for her. But he was her only conncetion to the Wizarding World and she had a soft spot for him. It wasn't very large but it made her 'lessons' easier to handle. Not that she'd learned magic, just how to make sure a drunk wasn't dead, and how to mix a very good whiskey and lime.

[Jory Addison]

"I'm not very good in school," Jory said, "But if you want to, like, study together or something we could." Maybe just having someone else there to say something a different way would help both of them. He tended to rush through his work, though he was starting to realize he should probably actually start trying instead of just getting it done as quickly as possible.