I Should Be Allowed to Think

[Justin Biermann]

Sitting in a dark, secluded corner of the library with a veritable barricade of heavy books surrounding him, Justin pored over his Potions text. Without fail, he could always be found from 3 to 6 PM in the same seat in the library, with the same concerned look on his face, every weekday and some occasional weekends when he was freed of his Prefect duty and had a particularly intimidating exam the next week. Justin was, above all, a creature of structure and habit, and while his strict schedule granted him excellent marks, it made it far too easy for other people to find (and generally annoy) him.

Anyone who'd spent an appreciable amount of time with Justin over the past few weeks could tell that the stress of upcoming NEWTs was taking its toll on him, and he had become, if possible, even less fun than ever before. Putting his quill between his teeth and digging both hands through his hair like he was trying to massage the answers right out of his skull, Justin was so engulfed in the Draught of Living Death that he almost failed to notice someone pulling up a chair and sitting directly opposite him.

(ooc: anyone!)

[Matthew O'Connor]

((ooc: Matt was begging me to let him go talk to Justin. Just have him tell Mattyboy to piss off if when he gets too annoying if you want. ))

Looking back over to find Justin now dragging both of his hands through his hair, Matt recognised it as the tell-tale point when the other boy was getting waaaaay too stressed for him to just sit and not intervene with some words of moral support or whatever. Picking up the book- The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes- which he'd been reading, he crossed to Justin's table, pulled out a chair opposite and sat down before he'd even looked up. When he did see him Matt merely shook his head slowly in a show of mock dismay, "Biermann, you need to relaaaaaax, chill. Seriously abusing your hair by pulling it out in frustration is something you'll regret, trust me," he assured him convincingly, nodding with a jokingly sympathetic smile.

"Soooo how long have you been revising for... Potions?" he asked, doing a quick look to the textbooks laid out around the other guy. He knew already how long Justin had been revising for that day because Matt had been in the Library the whole time and in fact he was there most days, like him, but that sounded a little stalkerish so he failed to mention it. Instead he gave an easy, friendly grin over at Justin in the vain hope that somehow some of his optimism and carefree attitude would be picked up from that alone.

[Justin Biermann]

(ooc: lol, Justin is annoyed by everyone. Presumably it's a condition he's just learned to live with!)

Realising that he'd just read the same sentence three times in a row, Justin blinked and silently looked up from his book, staring dubiously at Matt. After having a crush on the guy for a fair few months now, Justin still wasn't entirely sure what to say to him. Sorry for awkwardly and drunkenly hitting on you over Halloween? Thanks for inviting me to that super-weird Pureblood Christmas party? Oh, so I see you're doing an OWL in Sherlock Holmes? (Actually, that last one didn't sound too bad... sarcastically admonishing his classmates for not doing what he considered the proper amount of revision for their classes was one of his favourite hobbies; in fact, he found it rather stress-relieving.)

He motioned for Matt to lower his voice and shoved a Charms book at him so he'd look like he was working. Leaning dramatically forward, he muttered, "I'm not pulling out my hair." He then looked down and was alarmed to see that there were, in fact, several short blonde hairs clinging to the side of his fingers. "Well, surely some of them jumped from my head of their own volition. Anyway, if you must know, I've been here 2.5 hours exactly. Marks are important to me. They're even more important to the Trainee Auror Admissions Department."

Furrowing his eyebrows and looking down at his work once again, Justin leaned over a stack of books to get a paperclip, which he stuck on the current page in his Potions book to mark his spot. "Why are you always so cheerful, anyway? Do you need to hear my 'Drugs are Bad' lecture again?"

[Matthew O'Connor]

((ooc: Good thing really, I imagine Hogwarts would be unbearable without him having adapted to cope with idiots, hehe.))

Looking confused for a moment as Justin shoved his textbook over to him Matt glanced at the librarian, who was glaring at him for daring to talk above a hushed tone, and understood then with an ‘oh’ of his mouth to Justin before grinning and opening the book to a random page. Glancing over the top of the book at the other boy he snorted and shook his head, “Biermann, if there’s anyone paying attention to people’s hair, it’s me, and you are pulling it out,” he said matter-of-factly as the boy looked down and indeed found hair on his hands. “Oh yeah, totally, I mean your hair just wanted to jump ship, leave you with a nice ol’ bald patch to worry about,” he commented casually before nodding along as Justin explained how long he’d been there. “But you’re… well you’re so smart, do you really need two and a half hours and more every day? Besides some of the Aurors in that department aren‘t half as book-smart as you, no way. I mean one of them, this dude called MacKinnon right, I swear he got in on brawn alone, or else he cheated on his NEWTS,” Matt explained as though he were a fountain of knowledge on the department when really, he just heard stuff from his Aunt Amy and Uncle Alistair.

Turning the page of the textbook over to make a real show of looking like he was reading it, Matt gazed over at Justin again as he spoke. “I’m not aaaaaalways cheerful,” he started but then chuckled, “Okay maybe I am. It’s not drugs… not all the time anyway,” he said, lowering his voice to a conspiratorial whisper as he spoke, “That’s only parties, dude. I think the alcohol helps too. I mean come on, you saw a full-on Pureblood celebration at Christmas, it’s really no wonder I turned to sneaking myself glasses of vodka and wine half-way though the night.” Then he rested the textbook on the table for a moment and glanced around furtively before leaning over as if telling Justin the secret of why he was so cheerful. “I need to be cheerful, Bradley’s so angry and 'hey gits, why yes I am an arse' that I need to cancel out all the negative energy being associated with us O’Connors, for the good of the family,” he said seriously with a slow nod of his head, hand on his heart for a moment. “Now, do you need to hear my ‘Too Much Studying Will Fry Your Brain’ lecture again?” he asked in the next second, giving Justin a sympathetic look.

[Justin Biermann]

Still flipping through his book, Justin briefly considered the idea of his hairs jumping ship, and without even looking up he answered in the deadliest of deadpans, "Yeah, well, I watched Edward Scissorhands over the holiday. They found the whole concept deeply distressing." Justin tried to focus on his Potions, but kept feeling his eyes dragged back up to Matt. He was doing a respectable job of trying to cheer Justin up, really. He'd be doing an even better job were he not wearing a shirt. Justin averted his eyes quickly, trying to shake the image from his mind, only the fact that he was trying so desperately to focus on his Potions work was paradoxically making it entirely impossible to do so, and now the only thing he was getting from Matt's speech was that he apparently knew a lot of brawny dudes. Justin closed the book carefully and slid it to the side, taking a slow, controlled breath as he looked up again.

"Have you thought about what you're going to do when you leave school? Now, keep in mind that's it's only a matter of time before the world grows tired of scrappy young hopefuls dancing their way into our hearts in televised talent competitions," he spoke dryly while folding a sheet of notes and shoving them between the pages of his book.

He furrowed his eyebrows, very sincerely trying to hold back from shouting if you binge drink and do drugs, you will fall into a gutter and DIE! For Justin, the reflex to lecture was a strong one. He had spent most of the Christmas party going on about how incredibly wasteful it was for one house to have so many toilets, and if that wasn't a reason for Matt to start drinking, he didn't know what was. "Hey, I've been meaning to thank you for inviting me, actually. I was met with slightly less open hostility than expected. I mean, your Aunt Shannon called me some words I'd rather not repeat, but she also thought I was Bradley, so... I'm not entirely sure what to make of that."

Justin leaned his arm against the table and propped his head against his hand. "Well, your brother's leaving school next year, yeah, so it's the optimal time to branch out with a new persona. Plus I'll be gone too, so who will you have left to annoy?" he asked with a grin.

[Matthew O'Connor]

Merely amused by Justin’s deadpan voice, Matt’s smile didn’t fade, in fact it grew. “I see,” he said through the smile as he looked back to the textbook he was pretending to read. The other boy was admirably trying to appease Matt’s desire to cheer him up, but even he saw the breath Justin took before looking up at him- as if trying to control his annoyance and irritation. Or at least, that’s what people usually did around Matt… not that he minded though.

Shaking his head at Justin he answered in a deadly serious voice, “The world will never tire of televised talent competitions, trust me, I know…” he trailed off meaningfully but the way he wiggled his eyebrows then and broke out into a smile probably ruined the serious thing he was going for. Waving a hand vaguely he added, “Probably you know something in the Ministry, I haven‘t really thought it out because, to be honest, I doubt I‘ll have much say in the matter. Lets just say I highly doubt ma mère et mon père will be very happy if I just came out and said ‘hey I wanna be a performer, seriously I’m good enough to do it professionally’. Nuh uh… that just aint gonna cut it with the O’Connors. I’m gonna work on it though, try and bring them round to the idea while subtly slipping in hints that you know I’m not straight so there’s no guarantee I’m gonna allow myself to be married off to some distantly related girl after graduation. But if my mum gets her way I think I‘ll be stuck in some boring, completely uncreative desk job in the Ministry, sucking up to the Minister and stuff… can‘t wait, personally,” Matt finished in a dry tone with a roll of his eyes at the prospect.

“Hey it’s no problem, it was nice to have someone I didn’t completely hate there, you know,” Matt joked easily with a smile over at him. “Don’t take it personally, whatever she said to you, she hates pretty much all teenagers but her own I think… actually, no, she hates most other people. Like I said, it’s nothing personal, she has to get her quota of meanness in otherwise she’ll just self-combust… and Bradley probably deserved it, so I for one wish to apologise that she mistook you for him and subjected you to verbal abuse. Since you are, thankfully, so not Bradley I suspect this exchange took place several drinks into the evening for dear Aunt Shannon.” Flipping to another page in the book- yes he was still going on with the reading a textbook act- he raised an eyebrow to Justin, “So, how was it? The party I mean? Did it fulfill all your expectations of a wasteful, just-plain-showing-off, snobby Pureblood gathering? I think Aunt Shannon was on top form with the wastefulness this year, the ice sculptures particularly.”

Looking over at the other guy he suddenly laughed rather too loudly, earning him a suspicious glare from people around them, so he quieted and satisfied himself by merely grinning ear to ear at the idea of him having a new persona. “I don’t think so, Biermann, this Matt is here to stay… well until I graduate anyway, and besides there are plenty more people who are frequently annoyed by yours truly. Think of how disappointed they‘d be if he changed,” he commented lightly and then shrugged, “Besides who says I can’t continue to annoy you once you leave? That’s what owl mail is for,” he pointed out. Then he closed the textbook, leaning his elbows on it and knitting his fingers together in front of him, thus assuming a more serious pose. Sighing dramatically and looking quite serious for the moment, and saddened for that matter, he asked, “Do I really annoy you that much? Come on, just tell me the truth, I think I can handle it,” he stated.

[Lillian Turner]

Walking in to the Library, Lillian did 'pistol fingers' to every person she saw, receiving a few odd looks but some happy smiles in return. Scanning the tables to see if there was anyone in the library that she could talk to instead of actually doing her essay, she frowned when she couldnt see anyone and made for a seat next to the restricted section, her favourite place to sit so she could try and devise a plan to steal at least one book from there before she left the school.

Sitting down, she gave a loud huff of air before leaning back in her seat, causing the front two legs to leave the floor she swung there before noticing Justin & Matt chatting and decided that they would save her from this essay. Trying to jump up, she clattered to the floor causing a loud racket, earning her a "SHUSH!" from Madam Pince and a few snickers & tuts from the occupants of the library.

"Lagerdude! Mattyboiiiii! Aiiiiight?!" she managed to untangle herself from the chair on the floor and threw up a gang sign or two for the boys benefit, "What is up? How's my favourite little funsponges today?" she smiled sincerely at Justin before sitting down the seat next to him, leaning back but deciding against the balancing act for the time being.

(ooc. Hope you dont mind a Lil gatecrash! Also, her hair has been newly cut, she now looks like this, theres a 100% chance she cut it herself!)

[Justin Biermann]

"You'd really take the time to annoy me in letter form?" Justin asked Matt, raising his eyebrows in slight amusement. He shook his head and glanced down while shuffling some papers. "No, you don't. Not really," he admitted sincerely. Hearing a loud clatter, Justin turned his head and mouthed 'of course' as a jaunty redhead extracted herself from a fallen chair and worked her way over towards them.

"Gang violence is a very serious issue," Justin lectured almost instinctively as he cleared the right side of the table for Lillian to sit, stacking his wide assortment of books in a tall pile, along with sheet after sheet of loose parchment with notes scratched all over the place -- evidence of Justin's impending mental breakdown, clearly. Shooting Lil a knowing look as she sat down, he wordlessly steadied the back of her chair with one hand so she wouldn't tip it over again.

He glanced between Matt and Lillian and exhaled deeply. "You people do know that it doesn't count as studying if you just... show up at the library? No, wait, here's what I'm going to do," he dipped a quill into a jar of ink and scribbled a note to himself on the side of his Potions notes, "Because you're my friends and I care deeply about your well-being, I'm going to draw you both up some revision timetables. I'll use bright colours and everything; you'll love it." He pointed with his quill to emphasise his point, really trying to sell 'bright colours' as the pinnacle of crazy wild fun times.