A hopeless case (Open)

Vincent had been scouring the shelves for over an hour, unable to find the book he was looking for. He had a potions assignment due in two weeks and he wanted nothing more than to find one particular book. Eventually, he found it, sitting second from the top in a pile next to a blonde Hufflepuff.

"Say, are you using that book at the moment?" he asked her, leaning on the table and tapping the book's spine.

Sophia looked up and bit her bottom lip. Sophia didnt talk to people, well accept for Astoria, who was trying to encourage her to be a bit more outgoing. She stuttered a bit when she answered the boys question about the book, "N-n-no, Im n-not using it at the m-moment." She hated when she got so nervous she stuttered

Vincent flashed the girl a small smile. "Do you mind if I use it?" He could be terribly charming when he wanted to be, and at least he had initiated the conversation. Last time was a disaster. He'd sworn he would never be caught off guard by someone approaching him ever again, and since then he'd done a relatively good job of it. Although this poor girl was another story. Upon observing her nervousness further, he relaxed his shoulders and brow and made his smile a tiny bit bigger. No good could come of giving her a panic attack.

Violet had been sitting at the far away desk, poring over a thick, and very old looking defense book. She had put it in her mind to study the more advanced spells whenever she had any free time. In times like these, you could not have enough knowledge about how to protect and defend yourself and especially with Death Eaters hexing people left and right, she wanted to be prepared.

Hearing voices close-by, Violet suspiciously looked up at the other two students. She did not know either of them very well, but neither seemed to be out for a fight, so she relaxed again and returned to her book.

Vincent glanced up at the sound of someone shuffling uneasily in their chair, and made eye contact with a Slytherin a few tables down. If the library wasn't so empty, he wouldn't have noticed it, but every breath attracted attention when so few people were around to make them. Perhaps he was a little on edge. Who knew?

He sighed, and shook his head. This was really getting out of hand. You need to stop spacing out like that, he chided himself. To the Hufflepuff, he said, "Sorry, I never caught your name." Hopefully she wasn't upset by his distraction.

Sophia took the book from the pile and handed it to him, "Sure, you can use it." Thankfully her nervous stutter was gone and she was talking like a normal human being. She noticed the Slytherin not to far from them and quickly averted her eyes. "Most Slytherins scared her. Well, except for Astoria and Idie Benton. Idie was pretty nice. "My name is Sophia." She said when he asked her for it

Vincent was relieved; it didn't seem like the girl was offended. Actually, it didn't even seem like she noticed in the first place, but he had no problem with that. If anything, she seemed a little distracted by the Slytherin he'd just uncomfortably exchanged glances with. That seemed to be a common theme across the grounds. Not that anyone was any safer than the next to associate with, but the more dangerous types tended to be in Slytherin. What a stereotype.

Restoring his smile, he replied, "My cousin has the same name as you. It's a very nice one, I must say. How's your assignment coming along?"

Violet calmly raised her brow at the Ravenclaw who met her eyes and she had to smile slightly when he just continued staring at her for a few seconds, obviously lost in thought. Some of these Ravenclaws were quite strange, she thought, quite amused. He somehow reminded her of Azrael, who often just zoomed out as well.
When he finally shook his head and looked away, Violet let her eyes travel to the Hufflepuff girl who seemed to be quite tense for some reason. Slowly, she got up and strolled over to the table the other girl was sitting at. "Are you scared of me or why can't you meet my eyes?" she asked curiously.

Sophia smiled softly as the boy said she shared a name with your cousin, "I did not catch your name, monseiur." She said in her soft french accent. She was about to answer his question about her assignment when the Slytherin girl came over. Sophia turned almost as white as a sheet and looked down, not saying anything. She began shaking lightly and tried to not show fear but failed epicly

Vincent watched the girl erupt into a trembling frenzy. What's up with that? he wondered, but said nothing to attract more attention to the episode. To the Slytherin, he raised an eyebrow and said, "Well it's not every day that someone just marches up to her and asks why she couldn't make eye contact with them. Maybe she just felt uncomfortable. Some people just don't like to be stared at."

Sophia looked up at the boy as he spoke and stopped shaking a bit. He was... what... standing up for her? No. He was just being kind. She slowly raised her head to look the girl in the eye for a few seconds before lowering her head a bit again

Violet turned to the Ravenclaw with a slight smirk and raised her brow back at him. "Well then lucky for you, I'm not one of those people, seeing as you were doing the exact same thing just moments ago to me." she gave back with a wink before looking back at the other girl. "I'm not going to eat you, you know? No need to be this terrified. If I scare you that much, how do you even survive here with so many Death Eaters around?" Violet asked her, honestly curious.

"I do not know how I survive. I go unnoticed I suppose. I am not the type to be noticed by many people." She said with a tiny shrug. She looked over at her sketch pad and took it out and began drawing. Soon, she had two faces on her paper. One of the boy and one of the girl. She smiled softly and put the pad on the table then turned to the girl, "What is your name?"

Vincent gave the Slytherin a wry smile in response to her wink. He leaned against the table again, propping his elbow on Sophia's book pile. In silence he watched her sketch their faces, privately questioning if now was the time to be doing that. Either way, she was quite good. Artistic, French, and shy. The delicate flower. He found himself wondering how many people gazed at her from afar. She was definitely that type. No one would be able to muster the courage to approach her, but in a writer's mind she would have many distant admirers.

The Slytherin, contrariwise, would be the one pursuing. Forward, intimidating, basically the powerful female character that everyone loves in books and hates in real life. She would be interesting to write.

..........and he was missing their entire conversation again.

Sophia looked up at him and blushed, "I still have not caught your name." She said before turning to the girl, "Or yours. I look to put names with the faces I draw. So I never forget them." She said smiling softly. SHe wasnt sure how this boy say her, but it was not the way he saw this girl. She was vibrant and out going. Meanwhile, Sophia was the shy little French flower in the corner

"That's true." Violet stated bluntly. The Hufflepuff was just kind of there. Not saying anything, not doing much, to be honest, she hadn't even noticed her before today. With a shrug, she leaned against the table and ran a hand through her long hair in thought. "Maybe that's best for you though. They have started attacking people everywhere they go." she said, thinking of Luna and others that had been victimized. Violet smirked slightly when she was asked what her name was. "Come on, you don't know me?" she chuckled softly. "Well, you do know my father, though. He's your potions master." Violet waited calmly for the other student’s reaction to that, seeing as her father had been the one to kill Dumbledore and was still acting as spy.

Sophia looked up, "You're Violet Snape, right?" She asked in her soft velvet like voice, she was never really sure when it came to names, she was lucky she could remember her own name. She wrote in a curly like manner next to the girls face on her paper Violet Snape.

Snapping back into the present conversation, he added, "I'm Vincent. Sorry I didn't answer when you asked." Problem was, he went right back into his head after providing that information, this time focusing on Violet's parentage. Similarities suddenly stood out, and his lips turned up in an appreciative grin. People liked to disregard the saying that apples never fall far from trees, but he'd only encountered a few cases that disproved it thoroughly. This was not one of them.

Violet nodded and chuckled again. "Yes, that's me, Violet Snape, the sole pride of my father ... just kidding, he probably hates me as I fought on the other side during the war." she told the other two, though if the Ravenclaw was even listening, she did not know. But it also did not truly bother her. He seemed like a nice enough guy and she didn't mind if people didn't talk much. Her own sister was usualy very quiet as well. The other girl though ... Violet looked at Sophia. "Why are you so scared of everything? Did you take part in the battle or did you just arrive after the spell had been lifted?" she asked curiously.

"I-I arrived after the spell had been lifted. I transfered from Beauxbatons. But I had heard about all the things happening here while I attended school there. I am frightened it might happen again. Im not the strongest witch out there, I could get hurt or taken advantage quite easily by the death eaters." Sophia said softly "I guess Im just afraid of it happening again." 

Violet lowered her head and snorted darkly, images of the battle resurfacing in her mind and she closed her eyes with a pained expression on her face when she remembered her mother dying in her arms. Taking a shaky breath, she steeled her nerves and looked back at the other girl. "You're scared it will happen again? ... The real war hasn't even started. The Battle was horrible, but we didn't even have to fight against Voldemort himself. The next time, we will have to take him down as well. If you want to survive the next few years, I suggest you start training yourself, or you can just kill yourself, that would be easier." she said.

Sophia froze and realized the girl was right. THe battle was nothing compared to what would come. When she suggested to just kill herself though, Sophias eyes darkened a bit and she glared at the girl, "I highly suggest you do not say things like that. Especially to me. Am I clear?"

Vincent's expression went flat. "No one should be killing themselves. Training, I can endorse. Suicide is a little drastic, don't you think?"

Then, to Sophia, he inquired, "Why did you transfer, then? It probably would've been at least a little safer if you'd stayed in France." There must be some logic behind a move as dangerous as that one.

"My father is the one who made me transfer. He wanted me to learn to defend myself. Not stuck in a school with some prissy princesses as he put it. I say its ridiculous." Sophia said still in a dark mood. After a few minutes, she returned to normal however and looked up at Vincent and gave him a soft smile