you've got too much talent;;beth

[lysander]

As much as Lysander liked to swear he wasn't a stereotypical Ravenclaw, he was. He studied when he was supposed to, he never stepped a toe out of line and he spent more time with his schoolwork than he did out with his friends. He was quite involved with his classes, to the point where it was rare to find him doing anything else. Of course, on those occasions, he was usually absorbed in whichever novel he had picked up to take a gander at for awhile. So, social situations were often a bit lacking for the young man, making it a bit awkward on those times that he did happen to stumble upon a situation where he was required to talk extensively. For the most part, he was fine with simple conversation and even a heated intellectual debate, but when it came to girls, that was an entirely different story. Lysander was, most definitely, a complete and utter fool when it came to women.

It wasn't like he'd never spoken to them before, it was just that when he did, he tended to clam up and stutter. He wasn't a studmuffin like many of the males around the school seemed to think. He was a fail. So, when he was confronted by an attractive, flirting girl, Lysander had turned into a complete babbling idiot, barely escaping before complete and utter humiliation took him over. Now a significant distance away from the trainwreck that he had just encountered, Lysander's eyes revealed nothing of the fear he had felt moments ago and his breathing had returned to a relatively normal rate. The only sign that he had just been completely humiliated was the strained clenching of his book as he walked along the corridor.

It was days like these that Lysander wanted nothing more than to get away from the hustle and bustle of the castle for awhile. He had no doubt that someone would hear about his antics and come find him to laugh, or attempt comforting him, and at the moment that was the last thing that the poor boy wanted. Really, he just wanted to sit around in peace and quiet. His first thought was to head to the library, but he knew that it would be a predictable move for him and that anyone could easily hunt him down there if they wanted to. His next choice, barely out his element enough to pass as a hiding place, was Scrivenshaft's.

Knowing that it was a weekday and that most people wouldn't have a need for the quill shop, Lysander set off towards Hogsmeade with a rather determined spring to his step. The faster that he got to the shop, the less likely it was anyone would stop him along the way. Walking at a fairly brisk pace and taking as many shortcuts as he could, it didn't take the boy long to enter into the village. His pace slowed significantly as he entered into the small town, his mind soothed by the fact that there were much less people around that he recognized. Not to mention, he was close enough to his destination that he had little reason to continue worrying about much of anything.

Slipping in through the door, a small smile of contentment arose on his face. He was, most definitely, in his element there. Shifting through all the stacks of notebooks and fiddling around with the quills was soothing for the budding author. All of the things were fascinating to him and captured his interest with ease. He wrote rather often; short stories, poetry and even the beginning to his eventual novel. It was just something that he found himself ever passionate about and was precisely the reason why, when presented with a situation like earlier that day, Lysander came to a place like this to recover. Drifting around the shop, he began flipping through various books, testing the pages and generally getting swept away by it all.

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[bethany]

Bethany huffed out a breath of air and flicked her hair out of her face with a jerk of her head. Stepping back from the table, she examined the plant she had just transferred from the ground to the pot, comparing it to the diagram on how it should have been placed. Of course, knowing her skill with Herbology, it came out completely wrong and the Herbology teacher quickly pointed that out to her. Eventually, after another failed attempt, Beth was sent off to grind up leaves that would be used in the Potions class later on in the week. Angry at herself, for her lack of skill, she wondered how a Ravenclaw as adept as herself could be so useless in this class. The thought had crossed her mind that she had been placed in the wrong house, but she knew that her skills in Charms and Transfiguration were beyond the normal. Glaring angrily down at the leaves, she continued her work until the class was finished.

Unfortunately for her, her class was assigned an essay on the abilities and uses on some obscure plant and Beth left the class more agitated than ever. She could handle complex potions and transfiguration spells beyond her years, but ask her to write an essay for Herbology, and she just couldn’t do it. It was mostly due to her lack of enthusiasm for the subject. How anyone could find it interesting was beyond her. But, being a Ravenclaw, she knew she wouldn’t get any rest until she had at least started on the essay. Making her way up to Ravenclaw Tower, Beth’s unhappy mood followed her, making her a pretty gloomy person to be around. Having arrived, she ran up to her dorm and deposited her things onto her bunk. Pulling out her inkwell, notes and parchment, Beth went looking for her quill. There it is. It was sitting at the bottom of her bag, the tip broken and unable to write with. Stupid. I shouldn’t have just thrown my stuff into my bag. I'm lucky my inkwell didn't spill in my bag. In her rush to get out of her classroom, Bethany had just thrown her stuff in there, not noticing the quill she had placed at the bottom.

Guess I need to make a trip to Hogsmede. Sighing and grabbing her jacket, Bethany started on the trek to the small village. As she moved down the steps of the castle, she shoved her fingers into her pockets, her hair blowing behind her in the small breeze. The road was a ghost town; no one was heading to the village today. Well, makes sense. It’s not a weekend or anything, besides, how many people need things during the week? When she entered the town, Beth saw some people walking about, but none she recognized. Sighing, she had kinda hoped to bump into someone, Beth made her way down the street, moving around packs of people and ducked into Scrivenshaft’s, a quill and parchment supply store.

Breathing in the scent of the fresh parchment, Beth smiled for what seemed like the first time today. Her last class had (obviously) not gone too well, and she was actually starting to like her decision to come to Hogsmede. Maybe that is all I needed, she thought, moving among the differing displays of quills. Some time away from the castle, even if it is only an hour or so. Noticing that she had been looking at quills without really seeing, Bethany refocused on her task, looking over the different quills, trying to decide which one would be best suited to her needs. It was quite a daunting task, considering how many quills there actually were in her vicinity. Looking around the store, Beth searched for someone to help her. During her search, her eyes alighted on a student she knew personally as another Ravenclaw. Smiling, Beth placed the quill she had been twirling in her hands down and moved across the store. “Hey, Lysander!” Beth greeted him, the smile still on her face. “I didn’t expect to see any other students here during the week.”

[lysander]

The longer that Lysander spent there in the quill shop, the more he was able to calm down. It was one of the few places that he found himself able to simply let his problems go and allow himself relax a bit. That wasn't something that happened very often in his life, so it was nice once in awhile to just get lost in the store full of quills and notebooks and forget about the issues that were happening in his life. Bending down at one of the displays, Lysander knelt down on one knee and picked up one of the notebooks that hadn't been in the shop the last time that he had been around. He was there often enough that if there was ever something new to pop up throughout the aisles, Lysander would be the first to notice it and, of course, the first to intently examine precisely what it was.

He found himself quickly getting wrapped up in the binding of the book, the feel of the pages and everything else about the object in front of him. Inevitably, when he heard a voice from behind calling his name, he was a tad spooked and stumbled forward slightly, catching himself on the table so that he didn't completely fall over. His head swiveled to the side to see who it was and when he saw that it was Beth, his mouth gaped slightly and he sucked in his breath, incapable of saying anything at the moment. He'd already had one bad experience with a girl today and this, most likely, was about to deteriorate into another. The last thing that Lysander wanted was to turn into a bumbling mess once again and ruin the one last place that he was able to exist peacefully. The tower was already off limits the rest of the day and he certainly didn't want to lose Scrivenshaft's as well.

Tumbling back slightly, Lysander put his hand out and pushed himself back up onto his feet. Getting up, he brushed off the slacks he was wearing and cleared his throat a bit, the nerves quite apparent in his actions. "Uh, B-Beth, h-hi. Err, hi," he stuttered, looking over at her with his best attempt at a smile. For whatever reason, Lysander had always had a crippling fear of women, especially when they were pretty and Beth, well, she was pretty. Despite the fact that he had known her for years now, he still found himself incapable of talking or functioning properly in her presence. It was like that with most of the girls that he knew, but he found that oftentimes it was worse around the ones that he had known for any length of time. Technically, he should have been more comfortable around them, but that was rarely the case.

Taking a step back, almost as a precautionary measure, Lysander paused for a moment to let himself take a breath. It was hardly enough to get him to the point where he would be capable of carrying out a conversation without looking like he was scared, but it was enough to get a few more words out of him without completely stumbling over his words. "Ah, I...it's nice here. Not..many people," he nodded. Obviously, the last thing that he wanted to do was go into the story of why, exactly, he was there. That is, of course, if Beth hadn't already heard about that. "Why..are you...here?" he asked, not wanting to be completely rude. It wasn't easy to carry out conversations, but he hated being rude and so, he tried. He failed, sure, but he tried.

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[bethany]

Upon approaching Lysander, Beth noticed that he seemed startled by her greeting. Her smile faltered slightly, she hadn’t wanted to scare him away from whatever he was doing. Besides, she really hadn’t meant to startle him so much that he stumbled. “Oh my, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to startle you.” She said, adding an apologetic smile to her words. Figures. Go to Hogsmede where there are barely any students at this time of day, and you happen to startle the only one here? She has skills. Or lack thereof. She should’ve known better than to approach a person not paying attention from the side. “How are you today, Ly? Not doing bad, I hope?”

“I broke my last quill, you believe that? And to top it all off, I’ve got a Herbology report to write.” Bethany rolled her eyes, “As if the Herbology part wasn’t bad enough,” It wasn’t a secret that she didn’t like the class. Personally, she wondered at how it could possibly help her as Charms, Transfiguration and Defense Against the Dark Arts seemed more likely to come up in everyday life. Then again, I suppose those plants with medical properties could come in quite handy someday. Regardless of that, Beth still highly disliked the class and wasn’t happy, at all, that she had to write a report. The distraction of her quill was more than welcome. It gave her a chance to not only get out of the castle, but to procrastinate on her homework as well. She didn’t exactly hold Ravenclaw-ish feelings for that class in particular.

“Enough about me, what are you up to here? You break a quill, too?” Beth questioned, smiling lightly. She knew that Lysander could be a tad…nervous around people and so it didn’t faze her at all that his words were being stumbled over slightly. Looking around the store, Beth sighed slightly. She would never find what she was looking for, the store had a lot of different quills and she didn’t come here often enough to know where to look. She normally got her school stuff in Diagon Alley. This year it seemed she forgot to purchase quills while she was in London. Ah well, good thing they had a supply store here. “Oh my, I’m not sure I’ll be able to find what I’m looking for here, there is just so much else to look at!” Beth remarked, looking around the place once more.

Much as she had an obsession with sweets and chocolate, Beth also had a passion for books. Books of any kind, too. She read both muggle and wizard books, and was working her way through the muggle “classics.” Just recently she had finished reading Pride and Prejudice and had fallen in love with the story. Now she was working on the Tales of Robin Hood, but that was slow going considering her homework load and Quidditch practice time. Then again, if she hadn’t been busy, she would probably be wondering what to do with her life. In any case, she tried to read as much as she possibly could. Granted, these were not novels but mostly books with blank pages, and parchment, she still felt quite at home in the store. It had the same feel as a normal book store, and she was curious as to why she never spent much time in here during her regular trips to the small village. She was certain that with a little hunting, she could find something interesting within the walls of this store.

[lysander]

Quickly waving off her apology, Lysander looked over at Beth with an attempt at a smile. He certainly didn't want her to think that it was in any way her fault, since he really didn't think it was. If he weren't so skittish, her approach wouldn't have disturbed him at all, so he didn't think she needed to apologize at all. "No, no. It's...I'm..no, you're fine," he nodded, his words jumbling up together as he spoke. It wasn't exactly reassuring on the point that everything was perfectly fine, but he was doing his best to make it appear as if he were totally calmed down about her sudden appearance. At least, sudden to Lysander anyways. More than likely, anyone else would have noticed her walking up long before she spoke, but that couldn't be helped. Lysander just was who he was and as much as he tried to be chill, he probably never would be that guy.

Brushing his hair back slightly, Lysander shrugged slightly at her question. Technically, his day had been pretty unfortunate so far, but he wasn't going to tell her that, obviously. If she hadn't heard about his earlier fail, than he definitely wasn't going to say anything about it. It was probably best to just tell her that everything was perfectly alright and move on with it. "Err, good. I'm uh, having a...day okay. Err, okay day," he said, offering her up a slight smile. He felt weird simply lying like that, but it was for the best, right? Starting to get a bit more nervous, Lysander clasped his hands together to attempt to keep them from getting far too sweaty. "How are...you? Ah, good...I hope?" he asked, being ever so polite, even in his nervous state.

As she spoke, Lysander frowned slightly at the fact that she had broken her quill, since he completely understood how that felt. He hated when that happened to him, especially when he was in the middle of something important, such as homework. "Oh, that's...not good,"he agreed, nodding along. He'd never had too much of a problem with Herbology and quite enjoyed it sometimes. Though, he wasn't all too fond of the messy part of the class, he did enjoy the actual books. "If ah...I can...help...with Herbology if you need it," he offered, figuring it was the least he could do. Lysander found that he was generally much less nervous around other people when he was talking to them about things related to school, since that was something that he felt comfortable with. He tended to calm down significantly when they were talking about something he knew a lot about and as long as it wasn't about him.

Chuckling slightly at her question, he shook his head a bit in response. "No, no. I...aha, nah. I'm...hiding," he responded. It probably sounded a bit silly to have to be hiding, but Lysander didn't particularly want to go into any more detail than that, nor did he really want to lie about why, exactly, he was there in the shop. He was starting to calm down a bit more and he wasn't quite as nervous as he had been when she had first shown up. However, he probably wouldn't fully ease up until the conversation was over, since the whole fact that he was talking to someone was unnerving enough. Not to mention, he'd already screwed up a few times that day and definitely didn't want to be drawn into that again. Well, any more than he already had been, that is.

His eyes lit up slightly at her comment about the shop. If there was anything he would be able to help her with, it would be showing her around the store and helping to find anything that she needed. After all, he spent an inordinate amount of time there and probably knew his way around there better than the majority of the employees that worked there. "I could help you find...a quill," he suggested, running a hand along the back of his neck nervously. He didn't know if he was imposing his presence on her too much or if she even wanted his help or what, so it made him turn slightly red once again as he spoke. He didn't want to not offer and let her just wander around, but he also didn't want to offer if she didn't want his help. Social situations were just too tricky for the poor boy.

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[bethany]

“That’s good,” Beth said, smiling in return. Much as she may have come across as a cold and chill person, she really did care about her friends and was glad that Lysander was having a good day. She couldn’t help but feel as if he wasn’t being totally honest with her, her evidence being his slight shrug at the beginning of his sentence. That shrug didn’t really match with his claim of having a good day, but she wasn’t about to push the issue. For one, she respected the privacy of others and wouldn’t pry unless she felt it was absolutely necessary. Then again, there was always the possibility of her being wrong. She could be just mistaking a nervous Lysander habit for an out-of-the-usual bad day message. Ah well, no use dwelling on it. If something has happened, and he wanted to talk about it, he would. No need to force the kid into talking with her. “Yeah, I’m doing great, thanks for asking.”

“Eh, I suppose it delays my paper a bit, which is always a good thing when it comes to Herbology,” It may have been the fact that she found the class stupid and pointless, or the fact that Herbology was mostly hands on stuff (not Beth’s forte. At all.) but whatever it was, it bugged her. To. No. End. Care of Magical Creatures was the same way. She couldn’t seem to do well in that class, for what it seemed were many of the same reasons. It was a shame that a Ravenclaw did badly in some classes, but then again Beth supposed that not everyone could be good at everything, even bookish ravens. Turning toward Lysander, Beth smiled at him. “That’d be great, I could definitely use some help. Besides, two heads are always better than one.” In her case, it would be more than just “better”. She had no idea where to even begin when it came to Herbology. However, with his help, she may actually begin to understand and do better than she has been.

Beth raised an amused eyebrow when Ly told her the reason why he was here in the first place. “Hiding, huh?” A smile played on her lips. She wasn’t being cruel by laughing at him, she would never do that to anyone, especially one of her friends. “I hate to break this to you, but I found you. I think you may need a new hiding spot.” Although curious about what exactly he was hiding from, Bethany didn’t push the issue. If he wanted to tell her, and felt comfortable talking with her about it, that would be great. If not, it wasn’t any of her business. It wasn’t her style to get involved in other people’s affairs, or to even care. It was hard enough dealing with everything in her own life, never mind wondering about what was going around in other people’s.

Bethany gave Lysander a grateful look. “That would be wonderful, actually. I’m afraid I don’t spend much time in here, so I have no idea where anything is, any help you could give me would be very helpful.” Glancing around again, Beth eyed the shelves and books on display. There really was a lot to look through, wasn’t there? It was very good that Lysander had offered, otherwise she would be completely lost. “So, where do we start?” She asked, smiling slightly.

notes;; around 560 words (a tad short)

[lysander]

Lysander was quite relieved when she simply let him go with the not entirely truthful statement that he was having a good day. It wasn't like there hadn't been good parts about the day, exactly, but there was no denying that there had been some less than stellar parts to the day. However, it was easiest for Lysander to just not worry Beth with any of his silly troubles, so he was glad to see that she was willing to just let it go at that. Even if his answers weren't entirely the most confident, it was good to know that Beth could tell he wasn't too keen to talk about all that had happened that day to him. He nodded slightly when she replied that she was good as well, quite glad to hear that. "Ah, good. We're both...good, which is good," Lysander nodded, in another bout of rather awkward talking. Even when he tried, it seemed like he couldn't batter down his nerves for quite some time when speaking to girls.

To be honest, Lysander didn't quite see how breaking her quill and having to take a break from her work was a good thing, but he wasn't going to argue the fact. "Oh, ah, yeah...herbology is okay, sort of," he shrugged. Really, any class that he considered a bit legitimate was a class that Lysander liked to attend and the homework was even better. Lysander liked to stay busy and even if Herbology wasn't his favorite, it was still learning and he was glad to do any of it. So, he was quite glad to go ahead and help her out as best as he could. Not to mention, perhaps the work would help calm him down slightly. "Err, yeah. Well, I mean. In this sense, I think, but not like together on one...one body, that would be a problem and err, yeah," Lysander nodded, mentally slapping himself for his stupid remarks. Obviously, he doubted that she meant that in any way, but it wasn't like he could unsay anything he'd said.

When Beth pointed out the fact that his hiding place was rather less than perfect, Lysander's face fell into a worried expression. He wasn't sure if she meant that as simply a joke or if, in some cruel twist of face, she had been sent here simply with the intention of tormenting him. "Ah, I...yes. It's...should have gone...somewhere else...I...oh," Lysander babbled on worriedly. Had Lysander not been concerned with helping Beth, he probably would have turned and bolted just then in an attempt to go hide himself somewhere else that most definitely wouldn't have led to people finding him. Well, if they were even looking for him, of course. The whole not knowing what, exactly, was going on thing made him more nervous than anything and he certainly hoped that Beth wasn't involved in some dastardly plot to make him more embarrassed than he already was.

At least he had the goal of finding a quill to distract him from all of his thoughts about conspiracy theories and other crazy things. There was no doubt that he was probably one of the most capable people there to help find anything at all in the store, since he spent a good portion of his spare him there. "Yes, of course. No...problem, I like to...help. Ah, quills are...back...back against the wall, there," Lysander said, awkwardly pointing back towards the far corner. He wasn't sure if he should start walking over there or wait for Beth or what, so he started to slowly inch his way over, looking for some sort of cue from Beth before he messed anything else up. He was hoping that as soon as they got back there and he started to go through the various quills he would somehow be able to get involved in it enough that he could calm down to the point where he could have a normal conversation.

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[bethany]

Just the thought of Herbology made Beth want to fall asleep. She was always extremely bored and absentminded in the class, always thinking about what cool things they may get a chance to do in Charms or Transfiguration. Those two classes were, of course, her favorites and the ones she excelled in the most. Of course she did well in all her courses, she wasn’t a Raven for nothing, but those two classes in particular she was very good at. They both came naturally and above all they were practical. When was she ever going to have time to uproot a plant to add the juice of the root to her potion for some obscure cure to a disease? Bethany found Transfiguration very amusing and also very practical. Although, she didn’t think that the owner of the cat she accidentaly turned into a tarantula ever really forgave her for that…

Beth chuckled under her breath. For a guy who was really shy around people, Lysander could make some pretty funny remarks. “Yeah, that would be quite a problem. Although I suppose they would be a medical anomaly, and therefore, very interesting to study.” Beth mused, tilting her head to the side, thinking about what kind of reaction a person like that would cause in the world. It was very interesting how far science had come in the past ten years. Before, organ transplants were considered a future technology, something that would be nearly impossible to do. Now the muggles were attempting to clone humans, and had even been successful in cloning a sheep. It sparked her curiosity even though she knew she could pretty much do the same thing with her magical abilities.

Noticing that Lysander’s face had fallen into a rather worried expression rather than the smile she had hoped for, Beth’s own face fell. She really didn’t mean to worry him, or cause him any anguish. If it was one thing she hated doing it was causing or helping drama along, especially when it hurt her friends. Apparently what she had said had worried Lysander. Of course she had no idea why, but it wasn’t in her character to press and pry into the lives of others. It was much easier staying on the outskirts. Keeping her face serious and calm, Bethany looked over at Lysander. “I’m sorry – that was kinda a weird thing to say, huh? No worries, though. I’m not here for any other reason but to get myself a few new quills.” Whatever had happened to him, Beth hoped that someone paid for it. It wasn’t fair that some people just couldn’t seem to leave him alone, especially when it came to social skills. She herself didn’t have the best people skills and so when she saw or found out about a friend getting made fun of for it, it rubbed her the wrong way.

Following the direction he pointed, Beth smiled at him before walking next to him across the store to the far back wall. When she arrived, Bethany looked all along the back wall, stunned at how many different types of quills there were to choose from. How anyone managed to tell the difference was beyond her, she was having a hard time just focusing on one there were so many to look at. “Wow…what a selection, huh?” Sparing a side glance to the Ravenclaw besides her, Bethany picked up one of the quills and twirled it between her fingers absentmindedly. “So what can you tell me about these?” She asked, looking over at Lysander curiously.