Charis had spent her afternoon once her last class finished, in the library; something that a year ago, would have been an impossible feat to have accomplished. She was determined to pass her O.W.L’s with flying colours, and to provide her father with a little bit of positivity by doing well at school. Since he was now alone in their house, after her mother had left and since her sister was being deemed dead rather than missing. it was a lot easier to focus on her academics than what was or was not happening to her family. Potions was still her worst subject, so Charis had been spending extra time each day to ensure she was understanding what her year were doing in class. It seemed to be benefitting her, as so far, none of her potions had eroded the bottom of her cauldron or become lethal because she added something she shouldn’t have done.

Evening was beginning to set in, so Charis grabbed a swift meal in the Great Hall before retiring to the common room. She’d had enough studying for one day, and she was tired of carrying her mountain of textbooks to and from the library. She didn’t understand why they had to be assigned the biggest and heaviest books for all the subjects she was taking. Everything was beginning to make sense since Charis had started doing extra reading, and she was feeling more optimistic that she would actually pass the year. Perhaps acting like a Ravenclaw wasn’t all that bad in the long run.

Charis almost tripped on the bottom of her school robe as she descended the steps to the dungeon, though fortunately she caught her balance in time so she didn’t drop all of her books. She was glad that the disaster had been avoided, for there were several Slytherin’s leaving the common room and she was sure they would have made a mockery of her. The pile of textbooks carried in both arms, almost reached the bottom of her chin, and Charis was grateful when she reached the door to the Slytherin domain. She hastily spoke the password, which opened the door for her. She clambered through the doorway, into the dimly lit room. The fire was burning fiercely, creating a comfortable temperature, which was needed down in the cool dungeons. Charis dumped her books on the floor beside the nearest leather armchair to the fireplace, and sat down with a sigh of relief.

She had failed to see the other student sat in front of the fire, too intent on setting her books down to care about who was in the common room at all. The boy on the sofa she knew, Hikaru. He was in the same year as her, and they had stuck up what would be considered a reasonable friendship over the time they had known each other. Though, as it was with Slytherin’s, she was frequently annoyed by the boy, and expected the same was said for him towards her. Her brain was struggling to get back into normal operations after being swamped by so much information, she had been reading up on patronuses since her charms class and she was keen to be able to keep up a fully formed one. Though, so far, she was still only able to produce a hint of a silvery shape, which Charis could not identify as a specific animal. She hoped it wouldn’t be something embarrassing; she had a certain appearance to maintain after all. "Hello Hikaru. Drawing again are we?" She asked the boy lazily as she watched the bright flames flicker violently, creating shadows against the walls. He was often seen carrying a notebook around, and Charis knew he liked to draw on occasion. She was never much of an artist, lacking any creativity whatsoever; she would take flying any day instead.

Charis watched Hikaru with amusement; his frustration was evident in his facial expressions and actions against the artist’s tool of choice. It didn’t take the boy long to give up on his task, the fire proving a difficult subject to recreate in drawing. Hikaru was a difficult person to please, and it seemed now that he couldn’t even please himself with his own talent. She didn’t expect him to speak to her immediately, he was too absorbed in his work to allow her to be a distraction, but once he had put the sketchbook and pencil out of the way he then acknowledged her fully.

“Ah, right. Shame.” She responded with little emotion, Charis didn’t exactly care what he was doing or the reason behind his angst over the picture. He was noticeably worked up over it all, and she thought that was a tad excessive for such a minor thing. Though some people were easily aggravated by small unimportant things, Charis was not one of those people, she saw little point in getting annoyed with inanimate objects or people that weren’t worth her time. She very much enjoyed unleashing her aggression on irritating Gryffindor’s or Hufflepuff’s, who were always good fun to toy with. Even some of the Ravenclaw’s posed a good vent for her anger, in particular one Kolbi Andrews, who had already pushed the Slytherin too far in her quest of humiliation.

“Surely there’s something better to be doing?” She questioned the boy, thinking of all the possibilities that the wizarding school held within the castles walls and even more so outside them. The Forbidden forest for example, would be a perfect place for an adventure, especially after dark. She still wished to discover for herself whether the rumours were true in regards to the creatures that lived amongst the woodland. Hikaru would probably be up for such an excursion one day, maybe they could even lead a gullible first year out with them for an ‘experience of a lifetime’.