Seventh floor? Missions. [open]

[jack stephen carlyle]

Last night had been awful, James had barely got any sleep in, and he was just about ready to kill someone, well, that was an exaggeration. Until last lesson he had been pretty chilled out but he had a knob of a professor who decided it'd be hilarious to take ten points from his house simply for wearing his tie the wrong way round. Some people needed to get a grip on reality, in all seriousness. He slumped himself in one of the chairs in the group commons, aiming to be up the stairs by seven pm, bearing in mind it was only four pm now. He was so tired of just being in lesson constantly, walking around constantly, pretending to like people, it was almost as if he was becoming someone he wasn't. He wanted to party, get drunk, live a little, but schooling almost made that impossible these days. He was quite focused on his NEWTs, but he also was focused on finding a boyfriend and finding someone to chill out with and relax with.

His life had been turned upside down slightly since he came back to Hogwarts, he was just about readjusting to living at home with his family, living the muggle life, but then next thing he knew, bam, he was back on the train to Hogwarts without any of his muggle friends, or his laptop or iPod or anything. Life seemed to be boring without it, but hey, what can he do except get his examination results and go by the book. He took a quick glance around the room to see if there was anyone he knew, sadly, there was not. What he would do for someone to bring him a nice hot cup of coffee with about four sugars in it was unreal. Shame, really. He closed his eyes momentarily, then he grabbed a book, but he was happy to put it down whenever someone else came along, providing he actually got on with them. While he wasn't rude, he was tired and when he's tired, people know about it. If he doesn't particularly like someone, he'll be blunt as anything, or just completely disregard what they're saying. Time to play the waiting game, but if no one had come along within the next hour, he knew it was time for a nap.

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[gage]

Gage, unsurprisingly, was already suffering from lesser-than-average grades that were going in their usual downward trend. Showing extreme application for his standards he had gathered everything he needed for Defense Against the Dark Arts and headed down to the group commons to work. Unlike most of his peers Gage found he couldn't focus when things were too quiet, it filled his brain with a blank buzzing that made concentrating an even harder task than usual. Of course, he had never been much in the realm of academia. Gage could always do the practical just fine, but when it came to things like reading and essays...

His dyslexia usually got in the way. He figured that he had built up something of a tolerance for the potion the nurse had prescribed that was supposed to help, lately Gage felt that it didn't make any difference. Which was a frustrating thing, as he had no idea how he was supposed to keep high enough grades to stay on the Quidditch team without the potion working the way it should. Gage frowned a bit when he walked into the group commons and found it mostly empty. Maybe he should have gone back up to the common room instead, it was usually never short on noise.

Gage did notice, however, a particular person, James Scott, a fellow Gryffindor in his year. "Hi," said Gage before plopping himself down at a table to rifle through his bag for the books, parchment, quill, and ink he needed. Needless to say he found it odd to make the switch from pens back to quills when term started, granted there was a lot about muggle life that he tended to miss during the school year. Going to the cinema, or even not having to explain what a cinema was, television, music... But Gage didn't miss them too much when he had his magic.

[jack stephen carlyle]

Drifting off into his own little world, James began to bop along to the song that was stuck in his head, some new muggle chart music song by some crappy boyband. He had been simply thinking about life, again. One of the worst things to do these days, especially with all the going ons in the world, all the evils and all the rumours of some new 'evil dark force', as he had heard many Slytherin students talking. He might not be the most up-to-date with the rumours, but if he knew one thing, it could be just about anyone who was fighting for the wrong side. He didn't let it bother him too much, afterall, it was their choice to get involved with this sort of group and it was their choice to kill people and become the way they have. It'd have been their choice and whatnot, fair enough in his eyes, some of it was nature and some of it was nurture, but he could never be sure who was on who's side, so he decided it was best to generally stay out of things, unless something had to be done.

He was beginning to drift off quite deeply into his own little world when he felt the presence of someone else, then a small voice muttered a word of hi to him. He responded by allowing his eyes to shoot open and immediately taking in everything in the surrounding area, one or two people in the years below him, judging by the look of them, probably about fourteen, and a fellow Gryffidor, Gage. He hadn't properly spoken to the guy, but he had a few classes with him here and there over the years. James looked up at him and gave him a small smile and a raise of the eyebrow. "Oh, hey there. Sorry, I was just drifting off. You all good, matey?" He asked while propping himself up on the chair so his body language was a bit more open and approachable, but then he watched as Gage began getting out a quill, ink and parchment. He assumed Gage was about to begin doing an essay of some form, or something similar, so he knew it wouldn't be that much of a conversation. No big deal, though.

James looked around the room once more to see if anyone else had entered, but nope, it was pretty empty except the two. "So, what you writing there?" He asked, trying to flare up some form of conversation, he hated it being awkward and silent, that was possibly one of the worst things to happen, especially in this sort of situation. He was sure they had spoke a few times in the past, or maybe he was just imagining it, no, they must have, or so he told himself. He couldn't have gone seven years without having at least one conversation with the guy, right? He had always noticed that he found Gage attractive, but he knew his boundaries on that front, so he never pursued anything, he didn't see the point in causing drama over it. Sure, if Gage ever asked, he would be straight up, but that situation had never come up before and he didn't plan on it coming up, either. Just part of life, as James saw it. Still, it would be pretty awkward, even if they were completely rat-arsed drunk. Which was something James needed to do soon, he hadn't had a good drinking session in a while, whether it was going to be on the good old stuff from the Wizarding world, or a good old bottle of vodka from the local Tesco from the muggle world, he was planning on getting stupidly drunk within the next half term at some point, especially seeing as he lived on his own at home and could invite people over if they wanted to pop round for a drink or two. Maybe he should have just thrown a party over the Summer or something.

James looked at Gage, waiting for his response to his questions and while he did so he fumbled around in his pockets quickly for his wand, to make sure he hadn't dropped it somewhere or left it in the class room, or even worse, while he was falling asleep, rolled over and snapped it, which knowing his luck, he would have done. Thankfully, though, he managed to find it, sitting in the crease of the chair where the actual seat area comes out. He allowed a sigh of relief to fall out of his mouth while he twirled it in between his fingers, still anticipating on Gage's reply.

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{ I really do apologise for the length of time it took to reply. I've just had a proper busy few days with working at the hospital. Surgical trauma wards proper wear you down ahaha. }

[gage]

Gage half-frowned when he didn't get a reply straight away, though he did suppose that James' gaze seemed incredibly unfocused, his mind must be elsewhere, or perhaps nowhere at all. Gage himself often would stare into space, though those episodes never lasted long for him- Lord knew the boy couldn't sit still for more than a couple of minutes without losing his mind. He fidgeted almost constantly throughout the day, and while his attention span really wasn't that great, he found it easier to concentrate when he was moving- even only if he was shifting around in his chair or bouncing his leg up and down rapidly. He began flipping through the pages of his book, he had forgotten what page the assignment was on.

Seven hundred fifty came to mind, but for all her knew it could have been five hundred seventy, seven hundred five, or any other combination of those three digits. Gage looked at the few sentences he had already scrawled on the parchment earlier that day to get some sort of clue, but owing to his notoriously poor study habits he hadn't put down a single page number. Sighing quietly he flipped to seven hundred fifty, figuring that since it had been his gut feeling that it was most likely to be the page he needed. Thankfully enough, it was, and he found himself impressed that he had been able to remember.

Gage almost always needed to write those sorts of things down. His already weak concentration was broken, however, when James spoke up, which half-surprised him, he hadn't been expecting anything after that long a pause. But Gage welcomed the distraction, as much as he needed to, he really did not want to work on homework. This was his seventh year, and he was determined to be able to remember it as the year where he had had the most fun, rather than done the most homework. In the spirit of this he had been planning to throw an unauthorized party in an empty dungeon on Halloween, which was also his birthday.

He typically kept the guest list open, anyone who wouldn't go off telling teachers was fair game. "Fair enough," said Gage with a bit of a shrug. Of all things he did not want to be doing his homework, and while it wasn't a secret that he didn't do the best academically, he would rather not talk about how he was one failed or late assignment away from failing a class, even though it was only September. Truth be told, Gage had not planned on coming back, but rather skipping his final year at Hogwarts and going out for professional Quidditch. But his normally indifferent parents had essentially threatened to disown him if he dropped out.

Gage mentally reminded himself that he had only a little more than a month before he would be eighteen, and then entirely free to do what he wanted in both the wizard and the muggle worlds. It would be a small victory, however, compared to his seventeenth birthday. Gage had been able to use magic over both the Christmas and summer holidays with reckless abandon, apparate to wherever he wanted to go, use a spell to take care of things that normally would have taken all day.

"Defense Against the Dark Arts," said Gage, crinkling his nose when James asked what he was working on. He would much rather that school be based around the practical side of things instead of the written, where he tended to fall flat on his face. He could do the spells and things just fine, he just couldn't read or write about them without difficulty. "Essay's due Thursday, you'd think I'd at least have some of it done," Gage added with another shrug before slightly squinting at the page before him, as if it would make it easier to read.

((OOC: Not a problem, I understand that life gets the better of us sometimes, haha))

[jack stephen carlyle]

James looked at Gage with a perplexed look when he mentioned about Defence Against the Dark Arts. He vaguely remembered doing the essay which Gage hadn't yet done, or do he assumed it was the same one. "If it's the essay on dark creatures and spells to counter them, try page seven hundred and eighty two, that's the one I used. He replied with a small half hearted smile. Even though James wasn't the brightest spark in the year, he did remember book pages like there was no tomorrow and he also remembered what sources he used for all of his work, if someone asked him what book he used for a paragraph of his essay, he'd be able to tell them in the click of a finger. That's one of the good things that came with being a bit of a book work and reading all the time, book memorisation was no problem for him.

Gage seemed to be having trouble, or that's what it looked like to James, anyway. He looked around to see if there were any other books that he could find for the guy, but there was nothing and he was not about to suggest going to the library. Usually the books the professors told them to use were good, but in the library there were much better books for people to use and some of them made it so much easier to understand things, too, with a lot more information. More information meant more points and marks for the students which meant a better chance at getting further after education, or that's how James saw it, anyway. James looked back to Gage, trying to see what book he was reading, but he couldn't quite make out the title from where he was sitting, he couldn't read Gage's handwriting either, it's not that it was scruffy, but it's more that James didn't have his contact lenses in today, so it made reading pretty much anything an almost impossible task. He was regretting not putting them in, but at the same time, he knew that if he did take the time to find them, he would have been late for class and got a royal lecture about being late for the third lesson in a row, but then again, it wasn't worth getting the lecture for not being able to read or write down the work.

"Oh, while I'm at it, there is a book or two in the library that we can go and find if you want. He began talking while twiddling his wand around between his fingers, then he finished his sentence off, "I mean, I know it's a bit of a mission away, but being the geek that I am, I'm always up there if I have no one else to see or nothing to do, so yeah. He finished off, sounding completely unsure of whether or not Gage was about to view him as the social rejected geek. Truth be told, James would only ever be up there is around the holidays when everyone else went home and if he fancied staying around the school, he'd be there rather than looking around hopelessly for someone he knew, but usually he would end up going back home and spending the two weeks on his lonesome. Something which he didn't mind doing, but it did get boring and repetitive, unless he went into town to go and do some shopping. However, when he turned seventeen, life became so much easier for him, too easy, in fact. He could apparate everywhere, sometimes he would apparate to London, or somewhere near by usually. He would usually end up in the wrong end of the city, but it wasn't much of a bother for him he would have just got the underground trains to the area he wanted. Those crammed trains were amazing, for him anyway. He loved the feeling of a busy commute somewhere, an area in which he could hardly breathe and it was too loud for him to think for himself, it was the sort of life he wanted to lead, but then at the same time, he wanted to be able to be able to sit down and relax at home without having to worry about anything else going on in his life.

At that, James began to twirl his wand around in his hands again, then he began poking it against his hand lightly, simply waiting for Gage to reply to him about his offer of giving him a hand with finding a book in the library. There was simply not enough time in the world to be pondering on things, and there was definitely not enough time to be pussying around with putting off doing essays till the last minute, especially in the final year, no matter what someone's circumstances are. Then again, it would be entirely possible to use a time turner or something similar, but there weren't many people around who knew about those. James only had a bit of knowledge about them due to the fact that he read so much into magical things and where he lived on his own, he knew a lot of people who were of a magical descent, especially seeing as he practically lived at Hogwarts and when he wasn't at Hogwarts, he lives on his own in a flat, the only possibility of him being disturbed would be if his family calls, an owl comes or if the neighbours wanted to see him, oh, unless he has one of his parties.

James snapped back into the real world and looked at Gage and flashed him a small smile and nodded his head towards the door, signalling that if he wanted to go, they had to go now before the library was shut off to the students for the rest of the night.

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{Blahhh, you can tell I haven't been in the role playing game for a few years -.- }

[gage]

Gage lightly chewed on his tongue as he skimmed the segment that he was supposed to be using for the assignment, squinting his eyes as if that would make the letters unscramble themselves. Some days, as far as his dyslexia went, were better than others, today was one of the days where every letter had seemingly turned to mush. They blended together as if his eyes were tired when he did not feel fatigued in the slightest. On these days Gage felt like turning the book upside-down, or trying to read the text backwards as if that would make the letters position themselves in the proper spot.

He never let on about his difficulties with schoolwork, however- Gage did not wish to be viewed as stupid or incapable. It wasn't a secret that his grades were less than perfect, actually far from it, but he allowed people to believe that he simply didn't care about academics. And truth be told, he didn't. Gage had his eyes on one goal only, and that was to join the ranks of professional Quidditch once he had finished school. He had been a supporter of Puddlemere United for several years, he subconsciously decided he would go out for them since their seeker retired last season and their alternate was pitiful.

Thankfully his favourite team's averages hadn't been skewed too badly, though the team had lost several games that their previous seeker could have easily won. Pulling his mind away from Quidditch, Gage began haphazardly working on his half-finished paragraph, not even caring what he was writing as long as it pertained in some way to the subject that they had been assigned. Gage looked up when James spoke. "Seven eighty-two, eh?" said Gage, frowning a bit as he squinted down at his book again before flipping to the page that his fellow Gryffindor seventh year had suggested.

He tilted his head to the side a bit as he scanned the segment on that page, unsure of whether or not it was going to be helpful. James, though, did appear to know what he was doing academically- or at least more so than what Gage did. Granted, there were probably a lot of people that knew their way around schoolwork better than he did, he wasn't bothered by it- it could be that way for as long as he could remember. Ever since primary school Gage had lagged behind everyone else.

It had taken until his first year at Hogwarts, however, for it to be determined that he was dyslexic- though Gage did not find much consolation in the diagnosis. It didn't make it any easier on him. He was just glad that he had been able to scrape by years one through six without having to repeat anything. He had even managed to score highly enough on his OWL exams to carry on with a handful of subjects. Gage had worked hard at applying himself fifth year- he didn't want to be that one student who failed everything, and thus was left with no options.

Gage wondered if that had ever happened before, he figured not, what with all the propaganda and homework forced on them- it was enough to make even the most level-headed person start to freak out about them. The way the professors implied that if they did not do well they would be stuck with some menial career for the rest of their lives, like cleaning up after other people, or something no greater than a house elf. Gage lightly shook his head at himself, he kept getting distracted. It was too quiet here.

That was Gage had come to the group commons in the first place, for the noise and slight chaos it always seemed to hold. Unfortunately his plan hadn't exactly worked the way that he thought it would. Gage hastily scrawled down a few more sentences, not even minding that he might have a spelling error or two in there, and that his writing was getting steadily more difficult to read. "If it'll make this assignment easier I'm all for it," said Gage, laying down his quill- he was always willing to explore another resource if that meant getting done faster or with less effort.

In all honesty, Gage loathed school. He liked the social aspect of it just fine, excelled in it, even- but when it came to classes... He'd rather not bother. Perhaps the next day he might skip entirely. Sure, that might land him in detention for the millionth time it seemed, but Gage had never been afraid of them. They were annoying when they made him miss practice, but the professors seemed to recognize that Quidditch was his sole talent- and thus his detentions seemed to be scheduled around practice sessions, unless of course he was caught by one of the stricter professors.

"Right, guess I'll pack this all up again," said Gage when James tilted his head toward the door. Actually, he was glad for the opportunity to get moving, sitting around trying to focus on homework drove him crazy. If it were possible he would want to walk and work at the same time. But his handwriting was difficult enough to read as it was, he didn't need the added confusion of movement behind it. Gage put the cap back on his ink and went about stuffing his things back into his bag again.

He flung it over his shoulder as he stood up, stretching his legs a bit alth0ugh he had not been sitting around for all that long. It felt good to be on his feet again. That and James was a welcome distraction at the moment for an assignment that he hadn't wanted to do in the first place.

((OOC: Nah, you're more than fine, quite the impressive length of post there))

[jack stephen carlyle]

Usually James' help was turned down when it came to things like this, even if he did know how to work the library like the back of his hand. He wasn't sure what it was about him that made people turn down his help, but he didn't particularly care either, at the end of the day, he did what he could do to help people, and if they turned it down that was their choice and he would know that he had done at least the decent thing of offering a hand with things. He had been a firm believer in looking after each other around the castle, even if it was someone he didn't particularly get along with, he knew the castle could be dangerous at times, especially considering how there are constant evils in the world.

He went to offer Gage a hand with packing up, but Gage had already packed all his things by the time James had got off his chair, so he began to simply proceed towards the exit of the group commons, it was simple really, as long as they got there before they lock the door, then it shouldn't be too hard to hide in the library if they take a while finding the books that they require to do Gage's essay, which shouldn't be too hard, but in saying that, James always had a gift with his words on paper, or parchment in this case. He would be able to babble on and make it sound convincing, get the grade and then be able to blab his way through another essay that had to be completed for the next week. It was unreal how he got through his schooling life, he knew it wouldn't work when he went into the 'real world', but it would be worth a try.

James looked at Gage and gave him a small smile before opening his mouth, "If we go in through the main entrance then go through to the restricted area, then we can stay in there as long as we need or want to. I've often spent nights in there, to be honest," He began to explain while leaning against a wall in room, then he pushed himself off the wall and began to proceed to the exit of the room, knowing that Gage would follow or catch up with him pretty quickly. James wasn't the fastest of walkers, he preferred to take slow strolls places, even if it did mean having to leave the common room five minutes earlier so he could get to classes and meals on time. Life was good at Hogwarts, for the time being, why would he want to do anything to change it, or why would he want to rush around and miss the things in life. The scenery was beautiful, there were a lot of good looking lads in the castle all the time and best of all, just the magic that constantly goes on around them is such a wonderful feeling for him. He snapped out of thinking about the castle again and turned around to see where Gage was, then called back to him to hurry up.

{Sorry there's not much to reply to here, if you want I'll add more to it later but I've had a bit of a crisis and I've got to run out x.x }

[gage]

Gage, although he was not open about his dyslexia, didn't usually turn down help when it came to schoolwork. Of course, he never sought it out, but he was typically quick to take someone up on that offer should they feel the need to step in. He figured that those who offered their help genuinely wanted to see others succeed- a trait he oftentimes lacked. Yes, it was true that Gage could get a little full of himself at times, he had a bit of an ego problem, though he felt he managed to stay in the realm of "slightly cocky," rather than proceeding all the way to "pretentious douchebag."

Of course, no one had specifically told him when his ego got too much, so perhaps he might blur the line from time to time. Gage adjusted the strap of his bag so the weight of it was more evenly distributed on his shoulder as he followed James to the door. Truth be told, the library had been the last place that he had wanted to be- he hated how quiet it always was in there. Quite the opposite of the majority, Gage had trouble focusing when it was completely still and quiet. He needed noise and movement to be able to apply himself.

Hence why he always did better in practical examinations rather than theory. That and he didn't read or write all that well in the first place. Gage supposed if he worked harder at actually applying himself he might do better, but he had always felt that his future laid outside the world of academics. Hence why he hadn't really wanted to come back to Hogwarts for his final year. He would have been better suited to getting himself a spot on Puddlemere United like he was convinced that he was going to do.

"Rebellious book-lover, eh?" said Gage teasingly, unsure of why exactly someone would want to spend the night in the library, even if they had massive amounts of homework to finish. But of course, he didn't enjoy reading, he never had, so maybe he just didn't understand where that was coming from. Now thinking on it, Gage hoped that the homework load wouldn't get too bad this year, even with the impending NEWT exams. He had nearly flunked fifth year, what with all the work, he wasn't sure if he could afford to do that again.

Though he wasn't going to bother himself with getting too concerned over it, Puddlemere wasn't going to care about his steady T in history, nor that he had barely scathed by in a handful of subjects in order to actually continue on to the NEWT exams. They were just going to care about his flying and ability to capture the snitch quickly.

((OOC: No problem, I usually write around this amount anyway- I match what I'm given ^_^))