A Moment's Respite(Willow/Jory)

[Willow Wenlock]

Getting into the swing of classes mid-semester was harder than Willow might have thought. She would say she was struggling, if not for the fact that hard work persevered, and she had a genuine desire to know the intricacies of each subject. Eventually she would be able to catch up, she would just be spending more time in places like the library than she usually did.

She grinned to herself at that as she opened the ornate wooden door that held the library behind it. She would have been here anyways, but for now, it was going to act as a respite. She took a deep breath in as she set her first foot into the door, breathing deeply of the scent of leather bindings and crisp papers. It smelled old, ancient, enticing.

As she walked into the library she set her satchel down almost as a hind thought as her feet carried her nearer the stacks of books. Closing her eyes she turned in a circle oriented herself and then opened her eyes. It was an old ritual she performed when she didn't know what she wanted, only that she wanted something interesting to read.

The row in front of her held Runes, she smiled to herself, she hadn't spent a whole lot of time recently on Runes, and she was taking the class. She'd spent more time in Beauxbaton with French Magical history books. Runes sounded amazing actually. She stood up on her tiptoes to look at one of the higher shelves, looking for an interesting title.

[Jory Addison]

Jory no longer had to search for the Runes section, or the Astronomy one, or the Arithmancy one. His feet just naturally carried him there. This time, however, he wasn't heading to the Runes section for homework, though he did have some of that, as he was trying to find some place of solitude for just a few minutes. He ducked into the section without paying much attention to whether or not anyone was there, and dropped his bookbag to the floor before he leaned back against the shelf, his head resting on dusty books.

Underneath his cloak he was dressed a little more...obviously than normal, and even moreso than the last time he had tried this. This time, there was no going back. He had technically done this a couple of days ago, just after going with Markise and Quinn to the club, but only now were people picking up on it well enough to start shooting him looks and saying things to their friends in not-so-quiet whispers. So what if his sleeves were shorter than most guys' shirts, so what if his earrings and other jewelry were from a pride shop?

[Willow Wenlock]

Aha, Willow thought as she plucked a volume off of the shelf. The tome was a decent size, covered in a red tooled leather covering. On the spine of the book the title that had captured her attention blazoned in a golden filigree. Northern Mysteries and Magic : Runes, Gods, and Feminine Powers by Aswynn, Freya. It looked like the book had never been opened and the pages still smelled like they were fresh from the press.

With a satisfied sigh, she gently slipped to her heels, holding the book like a treasure in her hands. It took a moment once her feet hit the ground to realize that the section of shelving she had previously been alone in now had another occupant. She'd been to engrossed in the search to hear as the boy standing close to her came into the aisle. Willow tilted her head to the side to get a closer look at him. "Hey, I didn't see you here before."

It would give him an opportunity to choose whether or not he wanted to pretend that she hadn't seen him, or tell her that he'd come while she'd been to preoccupied. Although she could have sworn that he hadn't been there, she had been focused on the thrill of the hunt for a book. She imagined she felt similar in her victory to that of ancient hunters taking down their foe through skill and luck.

[Jory Addison]

Jory jumped slightly at the voice and stepped out away from the bookshelf before he even looked around to see who it was. "Sorry," he said, glancing around. "I didn't notice you were here, just trying to..." He sighed and closed his eyes for a few moments to get himself together to talk. "I come to this section a lot," he said when he opened his eyes again. He rarely found someone else there, though.

[Willow Wenlock]

Willow nodded, "there certainly is a lot to keep you occupied in these shelves. Runes is definitely one of my favorite subjects here." History was her ultimate favorite, but barring that transfiguration and runes were close seconds. "It's okay that you didn't notice me either, since I had my head so far into the shelves that I didn't hear you either." Captain Oblivious in shelving unit three she thought to herself with a small smile. "So, which book is your favorite in this row?" If it was one that she hadn't seen before, then she might take the recommendation and read it for herself.

She tried to imagine what that book would be, Runes could be used to analyze your situation and give room for improvement. It also offered unique insights into how to become more than you were through your own perseverance, if you just allowed yourself to see that in the Runes.

[Jory Addison]

Jory couldn't stop from glancing around again before he focused on the girl. "I don't have a favorite. Well, not here anyway, my favorite is one I got a couple years ago for Christmas, it's up in the dorm." His hand slipped up through the opening of his cloak, which spread a few inches more, showing the brightly colored shirt he wore beneath, to ruffle his hair absently. His other hand soon appeared as well and he brought his hands together in front of him to twirl his rings one by one.

[Willow Wenlock]

Willow's eyebrow raised as she saw the shirt and jewelry on the boy's hands. "You weren't here trying to find a book today either were you?" She'd been raised in England the majority of her life, so she recognized his accent. And the standard of dress was certainly not what he was wearing among normal teen boys. She didn't want to point it out and call the pot black unless the pot decided that he was going to do some talking on his own. Willow thought about a quote she'd run across once, Patience is waiting. Not passively waiting. That is laziness. But to keep going when the going is hard and slow - that is patience.

[Jory Addison]

Jory blinked, but dropped his eyes and shook his head. "No. Well, kind of. I do have homework." Granted, he already had just about everything he needed, but at least in the library he could find some privacy most of the time. "Why are you here?" he asked, blue eyes turning back up to the girl. He rarely paid attention to the people in his classes, much less the girls, so it would have been hard for him to make that kind of connection.

[Willow Wenlock]

That was a loaded question Willow thought, why was she here? On the surface the answer was easy, she was picking up a book, choosing to distract herself in the crisp pages of a well written manuscript. Below the surface it might show more than that, a desperate need to be someplace that she understood, where she fit, somewhere in the wash of ink over those pages. Her name, or names of people just like herself existed, despite how lost she might feel in the passage of only a few years, she knew this place as home.

She sighed, again reminding herself that if she wanted him to tell her what he was doing, she might as well tell him what she had been doing. "I wanted to get a good book to read. So I could take a break from trying to catch up on everything that has been happening in the last two years." Apparently much had happened, her quiet school had gone from just that, to something more sordid, racy or a myriad of other things. Or it could be that she had been here only until fourth year, which is when things began to get more complicated. "Hogwarts is a lot more complicated than it was when I left for my exchange program."

[Jory Addison]

"Hogwarts is...different," Jory said, his eyes falling to his hands again. "This is my first year here." It had been okay for a little while, but then all of a sudden things had kind of exploded. There had been a short period where everything had been great again, then it had plummeted even further. He was slowly working his way back to normal again, though it would be hard to do so with his newest decision.

[Willow Wenlock]

Willow titled her head, her mind going into the analysis that sometimes she just couldn't help. She pointed to his clothes, "brave wearing that your first year here." Or your last year here, it took the intense need to do something like that, or a bravado that belied ever having a social standing with other students. And Hogwarts was different, for all that she had been here when the boat party had occurred, she had been so young, and nothing had happened to her.

It felt like a surreal dream thinking that people had actually died there, and that had been death eaters versus the order of the phoenix. Now there were life lessons that affected the ordered way that people had been raised to think. Sometimes she just felt with all the gossip that she was up to her ears in things that made her head spin. Reading calmed, brought perspective, like knowing that even though people hadn't been raised to believe gay people were normal, in many other societies it was revered as more acceptable spiritually than straight couples were.

[Jory Addison]

Jory pulled at one edge of his cloak, pulling it away from him slightly. He shook his head, "Don't know if it's brave, exactly." It seemed really, really stupid. Of course, he didn't regret it, at least not yet. "Figured it wasn't worth hiding anymore." He was yet to discover if it was worth it showing everything, but he wasn't getting anywhere hiding it, either.

[Willow Wenlock]

Willow smiled as she smoothed the cover of the book that she had chosen, "a common definition for bravery is possessing or displaying courage; or the ablity to face and deal with danger or fear without flinching. I say even if you flinch later, so long as you don't flinch where they can see it, it falls into that definition. Besides, familiarity with danger makes a brave man braver, and I'd say that you are a brave man," just having met him. Of course she doubted she had the gall to wear some of the things he was wearing, even as a girl, but then again, her hair was generally enough to make her stand out on it's own.

[Jory Addison]

Jory raised an eyebrow at the girl and stared at her somewhat blankly. Jory wasn't stupid, but he certainly didn't talk like that in normal conversation. "Thanks?" he asked as he tilted his head slightly, as though to ask if that was the right answer. He pulled his cloak around him again, tucking his arms underneath and hugging himself beneath the thick fabric.

[Willow Wenlock]

"No problem," it seemed a simple enough concept standing for what you believed in, but then from an intellectual standpoint everything was easier to understand than implement in life. But he still didn't seem like he quite got it, especially with the look he had given her, "I just mean, that I admire that you can stand up to them, even if you are afraid." She realized she had been standing here a while and still didn't know who this was. "My name's Willow, it's nice to meet you."