--words on pages [isabella]

[DANTE TIAN-NING AU-YONG]

Although it was not uncommon to see a Ravenclaw, especially Dante, studying and reading up on various unrelated materials to school, it was uncommon to see him doing so in the Ravenclaw Common Room. In his personal opinion, the Common Room was just that, too common. It was full of Ravenclaws, which as a house, he had no problems with. For the most part, Ravenclaws had the desirable personality traits. However, his house was full of impure blood, and that was what he didn't like so much. Most often, Dante liked spending his studying time at the library. For one, it had plenty of resources, an endless wealth of knowledge if you will. In contrast, the common room was not the place. Why this change of location? Recently, someone had started taking over his corner in the library, and that was something that he was not pleased about. Dante was a creature of habit, and his annoyance at not being able to get his usual spot made him decide to study in a whole other location rather than stay in the library. The common room was not the first place he looked to. Various empty classroom had not done the trick for him. They all seemed to lack a certain 'je ne sais quoi'. That and students of an even more distasteful nature would enter and disrupt his studying. And so his search continued to the Ravenclaw Common Room. So far, it had proved to be only moderately better than the classrooms.

Currently, he was engrossed with the Transfiguration text that talked about the theory behind the magic. These were the type of things that he was truly interested in learning. While Dante was greatly interested in learning all sorts of things, learning and understanding how everything worked behind the scenes absolutely fascinated him. Just being told that something worked one way and having the explanation stopped at that genuinely frustrated and annoyed him. He could never take such shallow explanations and all those who could. In his opinion, those people were vapid and shallow.

Unlike many others, Dante did not necessarily study to stay ahead of the curve so to speak. He studied for the pure joy of it. Well, that and it's beneficial effects on his kleptomania. Ever since he was a child, he had discovered that his studying habits could help with his kleptomania. It kept his mind occupied and left no room for such random urges to arise. Unfortunately, his currently environment had progressively risen above a loud murmur such that he could hear a couple of girls in the corner giggling about how cute Dunstable Dursley was. In response, Dante sighed in annoyance. It wasn't so much that girls were giggling about yet another bloke. It seemed to be part of every girl's nature to giggle and sigh over every even remotely attractive bloke. It annoyed him they could think that a Mudblood like Dursley was attractive. What terrible taste.

Unfortunately, this meant that the common room was no longer the place to do his studying. At least in the library where this kind of behaviour could run rampant, they could always be shushed by other more aggressive fellow studying comrades and the authorities in the library. Here, they could run absolutely amok; it was clear to him now that this was the case. What a fickle guy.

[ISABELLA SABRINA ACKERLEY]

Isabella was rarely seen in the Ravenclaw common room, she tended to avoid the place as much as possible. It wasn’t that she disliked Ravenclaw, no she loved being in Ravenclaw it was just that being pretty much the top student of her class she always got bothered about many things no matter where she went. But at least at times the Ravenclaw common room was the better place to get bombarded then out in the Library or other areas. At least Ravenclaws had the decency to not copy her answers unlike what many other students want to just do and that of course was one of Isabella’s biggest pet peeves. She really did hate it when others copied her work instead of them trying to do the work on their own.

Isabella was sitting in a chair minding her own business as she read one of her ancient runes books. She was paging through the books, soaking in the material when something bothered her. A few Ravenclaws were giggling about the Hufflepuff boy that got named champion. Dunstable Dursley was the cousin of her friend James, but she didn’t know him very well and it seemed that he was an eye catcher with the females. Of course Isabella wouldn’t know because she was usually more focused in on her studies then she was on boys. To her, fawning over boys or having a boyfriend was pretty much just a distraction.

Finally she had enough of the giggling and slammed her Ancient Runes book shut. The giggling girls had glanced over at Isabella who had just turned to look at them. “If you girls really feel the need to fawn over Dunstable Dursley instead of our house champions, perhaps you guys should go join Hufflepuff instead,” she scowled at the girls before opening her book once more. She mentally rolled her eyes knowing that it might not have worked but at least she said her piece in it. “Seriously the nerve of those girls, don’t they realize what common room they are in,” she muttered under her breath where no one could hear her, except perhaps the Ravenclaw boy named Dante that was near here.

[DANTE TIAN-NING AU-YONG]

Through the fog of his annoyance, the sound of a slammed book followed by a similarly annoyed voice pierced through the humdrum of the Dunstable Dursley's personal fan club and caused the group to fall silent. Dante peered up briefly from his books to see his most continuous academic rival telling off the ditzy girls. ''Oh hallelujah. Peace and silence... well, excluding the scolding, but that's just all part of the process anyway.'' Anything that was part of the process of eliminating such talks of the Muggleborn Hufflepuff champions' degree of hotness would be wholly welcome.

Goodie, someone else who's not so fond of the whole boy talk in the middle of the common room. Boy talk should only ever be conducted in the presence of girls, and only girls. And currently, there was a mixture of girls and guys. Other blokes do not want to hear about how dreamy some other bloke is; they wanted to know hear about how awesome they were. Even he who was officially off the market knew that.

Peace and quiet resumed quickly following the stunned silence of the Dunstable Dursley's fan club and end of Isabella's sound scolding. For a brief moment, there was only a dramatic silence before soft murmurs of studious students continued. Dante could hardly vocalize just how grateful he was for the break from the boisterous boy talk.

Hearing her muttered comment under her breath, Dante looked over to his friendly rival. “I'm hoping they do. I'm also hoping that a Ravenclaw let them in and they're not really Ravenclaws. Otherwise, we're all doomed,” he murmured back quietly with a bit of an amused twinkle in his eye. “And thank you. You saved us all from that,” he said with a wry smile, waving over to the sullen group. Glancing briefly over to the group, Dante could see that one of its members decided to pay no heed and decided to gush over someone, albeit more quietly. Perhaps she found a more appropriate champion to gush over? Or perhaps the subterfuge was meant to hide that they were gushing over someone as equally inappropriate.

[ISABELLA SABRINA ACKERLEY]

Isabella was quiet glad that the girls had stopped their unnecessary chatter. They should realize that they were in the Ravenclaw Tower where Ravenclaws studied most of the time, especially since lately the chatter in the Library was getting louder that it should. Perhaps Gryffindors and Slytherins were actually making their way there for once, at least they hadn’t started breaking out in duels in the Library. She knew how those two houses were and she was pretty sure that they would always be that way.

Now what Isabella needed was to find a classroom that she could enchant so that no one else would be able to enter, other than her best friend Raychel of course, or perhaps some other close friends. But not if they were going to be swooning over Dunstable Dursley, yeah he was a nice kid, but why not swoon over Jaycen Tate instead? He the Ravenclaw Champion after all. Not that Isabella would, she knew how much Jaycen annoyed Rachel. It seemed the Head Boy and Girl were always arguing with each other then there was the fact that they were quite competitive as well. Imagine if they had to play on a team together? Now that would be horrifying.

“I'm hoping they do. I'm also hoping that a Ravenclaw let them in and they're not really Ravenclaws. Otherwise, we're all doomed,” her thoughts were interuppeted once again. She was about to snap at the girls again when she realized it wasn’t them that was bothering her this time. Looking up from her books she saw Dante Au-Yong. He was in the same year as him, and somewhat of her rival, like Jaycen was to Rachel. However, the two of them rarely ever argued it out like the Head Boy and Girl. They were more civil about their little rivalry. Isabella often wonder if he ever felt that she was his rival? After all, they never glared at each other if one did better than the other. But she definitely agreed with him and nodded lightly in agreement. Yes they would be doomed the those chattery Ravenclaw girls always talked about the other Champions.

“And thank you. You saved us all from that,” Wait… Did he really just thank her? Now that was a bit of a surprise for her. Really it was. “Well I’ll do it again if I have too. But really, if they aren’t actually Ravenclaws they should get out of our common room. They don’t belong her if they aren’t those of intelligence,” Isabella commented as she took once last glare at the chattering girls. They of course were still going on about boys, boy who needed them with a brain like hers? It’s not like she ever expected to fall in love. “Really though, I don’t understand why they need to be talking about boys in general, they should be studying for their classes instead. School is much more important than boys anyday.”

[DANTE TIAN-NING AU-YONG]

Ever since they were young, Dante and Isabella had always had a form of understanding between them. However, differences in beliefs created a gulf between the two of them that was instigated by himself. But if one were to point fingers, this sudden desire to keep only the company of purebloods was due to his father's sudden onset of teaching pureblood supremacy at the behest of his commanding grandmother. But even his father and his grandmother's teachings were not enough to fully eliminate the respect that he already had for Isabella, thus making her one of the few exceptional non-purebloods that he would willingly keep company.

Despite striving towards becoming one of the best, if not the best, student at Hogwarts, Dante is disgustingly uncompetitive. He puts very little stock in simple grades. He simply doesn't consider competing for marks a necessary activity. The Ravenclaw believes in one's own ability to do well and understand the material, regardless of what a mark on a piece of parchment may say. Although he would admit that his parents' pride over his marks are a benefit, and in fact, it is the primary reason he strives for good marks. As such his rivals, if they can be called that, find that there is much to be desired from his behaviour. Yes, there is still that constant push to do better with him, but it has nothing to do with purely grades. It is for the pure simple knowledge and the need to learn and learn more just for the sake of it. If he were entirely honest, as much as Dante enjoyed book learning, there was one other thing that he enjoyed even more, so much as to be called his true passion, his calling in life if you will, his music. Specifically, his violin. After years of hard work and practice, Dante has become quite accomplished at the instrument, and has since then has branched off to learn different instruments, but there was none that he loved more than his violin.

Due to Dante's pureblood mindset, he very rarely sought out the company of his friend, despite their connection prior to the change. However, lately he had been craving the company of his old childhood friend. At her less than kind words directed at the chattering girls, he smiled fondly. This was the girl he remembered from his childhood. “Agreed. It makes me worry for the younger years if they are Ravenclaws,” he commented as he glanced briefly over to the girls to confirm his statement. Coincidentally, one girl continued to giggle so much that she had stuck her fist in her mouth to prevent it from being too audible. “Either standards have dramatically fallen since we were first years or they're Ravenclaw impostors. Between the two, I'd rather the former.”

“I would resent the implication, except I happen to agree with you on that assessment,” he replied jokingly to her small tirade with a small smile. “Those girls could do with more than a bit of studying. Can you imagine how much time they're wasting on just talking about boys?” His tone was light and joking, but Dante was entirely serious. One of the few things that he could never stand for was unproductivity. If one had nothing to show for their time, what was the point?

[ISABELLA SABRINA ACKERLEY]

Isabella sure did miss the times when Dante and her used to hang out every day, but it seems that those days would always be lost to her childhood. Why did people change so easily at times? It wasn’t right away at first, but slowly each of their play dates back then had begun to be less and less. She truly did miss watching him play his violin as they stood beneath a tree, or where ever it was that they were meeting up. Even now they rarely talked and she wished that she could change that. But she knew why things were so broken with the two of them. His purist ideas and the fact that she was halfblood. So times like now, were memories she would treasure.

“Agreed. It makes me worry for the younger years if they are Ravenclaws,” Isabella listened closely as she nodded in agreement. She really wasn’t reading her book anymore, just pretending for that matter. What did it matter? She read it several times already anyways, so it wasn’t like she needed to read it. “Either standards have dramatically fallen since we were first years or they're Ravenclaw impostors. Between the two, I'd rather the former.” she nodded in agreement once again, her chocolate brown hair falling out from behind her ears that she had to reach up with her hand and tuck them back again. Oh how troublesome long hair could be at times, but she dealt with it as she didn’t want to cut it short to make her look like a guy.

“I would resent the implication, except I happen to agree with you on that assessment.” she couldn’t help but smile back. It was one of the few rare moments that she could actually see Dante smile. “ hose girls could do with more than a bit of studying. Can you imagine how much time they're wasting on just talking about boys?” Indeed the troublesome girls were wasting so much time talking about boys. This was one of the reasons why Isabella didn’t try to find a boyfriend, or a boy to fawn over in general. It was a waste of her precious time to prepare for an upcoming exam. Besides, she had her N.E.W.T.s that year and she couldn’t afford to get anything less than an “O”. Why would she want to get an “O” in all her classes even if she didn’t need to for what she wanted? Well that was easy to answer, in case she wanted to change career paths. At least she’d have the grades to be able to do it easily.

“Indeed they are wasting too much time. If I wanted to waste time, it would be fawning over which boy was the hottest, or anything like that. It would be to spend meaningful time with a friend or perhaps do a bit of reading for fun,” she nodded lightly as she placed her book in her lap. Surely there could’ve been a better place for her to retreat to than the common room that was obviously getting too noisy for her tastes. Perhaps, with Dante actually talking to her at the moment, it could be a moment of opportunity to rekindle their old friendship. It would be nice to have him as a close friend once more. “How about we find some other place to study, away from those boisterous students so that we may be in peace and quiet?” she suggested lightly in hopes that he would agree.

[DANTE TIAN-NING AU-YONG]

Due to the lack of time that the two Ravenclaws spend together, Dante felt as if he hardly knew his childhood friend. However, this was all his own fault for having broken away from Izzy in the first place. Naturally, throughout the years, they must have grown apart. It was rather sad how little they know of each other at this point in time considering how very close they were as children. Maybe Dante knew of her favourite books and her ideals back when they were younger, but what were they know? What was her stance on Percival Rackharrow's theory of magical perpetuation? Maybe he would know if his younger self was not so preoccupied with those blood purist ideas. He had always wondered what Izzy had thought of his gradual disappearance from her life. It was never an issue that they particularly addressed. They just seemed to eventually drift apart with a great deal of help from himself.

As he spoke with minimal response from his childhood friend, Dante was beginning to lose hope that his friend all those years ago was no more and that there would be no more chances for him to regain even a piece of that old friendship. Recently, Dante was finding a loneliness nudge at him gently, certainly that must be why he was voluntarily associating with a halfblood. Or so he told himself. That shouldn't be surprising considering that Dante was the sort of person who often told little white lies to himself and others for peace of mind. For Dante, it was absolutely necessary that there be harmony in his little world. But seeing a small smile from Izzy in response gave him a bit of hope that perhaps not all was lost.

“I wouldn't call spending time with a friend or reading a book a waste of time. Perhaps not the best use of time, certainly,” he replied with a bit of hesitance. It was quite a surprise that Dante who thrived on the very thought of studying was now speaking such words. Throughout the years, if there was one thing he learned it was tha t while he enjoyed studying and learning for the sheer pleasure of it, he enjoyed playing his violin far more. It was something that his cousin, Chun, had inadvertently taught him through their weekly meetings. “It all depends on the book and the friend, of course,” he continued with a pensive tone as he rubbed the back of his neck as he glanced over to a corner. It had always been a rather nervous gesture of his.

“How about we find some other place to study, away from those boisterous students so that we may be in peace and quiet?” Blinking, Dante glanced back over to Izzy with curious assessment in his eyes. It had been years that they had studied together, definitely long before they arrived at Hogwarts and definitely due to his own fault and his own actions made years before. While it may be fantastic to study with someone as intelligent as Izzy again, there was a voice that rang in his head that sounded astoundingly similar to his father's that warned against it. Her blood is impure. The blood that flows through her veins were diluted with the blood of a Muggle, or at least it was at some point in her ancestry. That should have made him pause at the idea altogether. However the ache of loneliness nudged at him, the loneliness possibly derived from his distant fiancée. That combined with his desire to study with another practiced intellectual made the offer all too tempting.

“Sure,” he replied lightly with a small smile as if he had not just painstakingly made the decision. 'Besides,' he reasoned to himself, 'it will be nice studying with someone who is truly intelligent, enough that there would be no need for me to explain a concept.' Surprisingly, it was a rare find in such a large school. “Do you have any particular suggestions?”

[ISABELLA SABRINA ACKERLEY]

“I wouldn't call spending time with a friend or reading a book a waste of time. Perhaps not the best use of time, certainly,” Isabella smiled. She couldn’t agree anymore with him on that, but certainly what those girls were fawning over, was a waste of time, but she wasn’t going to waste her time to show them that they were wasting precious time that they could use studying, or other more meaningful things. From what she had heard of Dunstable, he wasn’t exactly the type that liked it when girls fawned over him anyways. “It all depends on the book and the friend, of course,” she looked up at Dante and nodded once again. Indeed that was true. She would waste all the time in the world with her best friend Raychel if it was with her that she spent time with.

“Sure, Do you have any particular suggestions?” she was glad that Dante had agreed to go find a different place for the two of them to study. Isabella marked her page before she closed her book and placed it in her school bag. “I know a couple of empty classrooms that we could enchant to have all outside sounds, stay outside,” she smirked lightly as she stood up, picking her school bag up at the same time before swinging it over the shoulder. She then ran her hand through her chocolate brown hair to pull it out from under the strap of her book bag before she readjusted her book bag to make sure it was on comfortably. Many would be surprised with how full her book bag was that she was even able to lift it, but she was also the smartest witch in the school and all she did was enchant her book bag to make everything weightless. “Shall we head out?

[/color]” she smiled lightly.

( sorry about the crappy post. >.< )

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[DANTE TIAN-NING AU-YONG]

“I know a couple of empty classrooms that we could enchant to have all outside sounds, stay outside,” There was something very comforting about this familiarity. Interacting with his old childhood friend brought warmth into his heart. This was an intelligent girl, one fitting of his caliber. He sudden recollection that while they may get along splendidly, she was however not a pureblood. The thought made his blood run cold. How could he have possibly forgotten that? There was a reason why they had stopped seeing each other in the first place. His grandmother had always been so strict as to reinforce this idea into his head: do not associate with non-pureblooded beings. She had always spoken of the terrible repercussions of doing so. While her reasoning at the time had made plenty of sense, Dante was feeling at least a bit conflicted. On one hand, he did not want to displease his grandmother who was quite a formidable woman. But on the other hand, there were few people's company that he enjoyed as much as Isabella's.

“Shall we head out?” More than a little off-balance from his train of thought, Dante smiled weakly at her. Being conflicted was certainly raising his stress and anxiety levels a bit, making him more than a bit nervous because it was times like these that his carefully hidden care of kleptomania rose up and forced his hand so to speak. “I'm sorry to bail on you but I've uh, I've forgotten that I agreed to tutor a first year today. Maybe some other time,” he said as he packed his things away in his bag.

Standing up with his bookbag straining at the seams, he realized that he was being rather abrupt, but he felt like he should get out of there. Experience had taught him plenty of his condition, and it would not hold under such stress. Pausing as he was leaving, he turned around to say one last thing to her before he exited the common room. “I'll see you later.”

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