A Lazy Sunday For All || Tessa

Sunday, January 21, 1923
2:34 PM

Rae...hated Sunday shifts.

They were the slowest and most grating.

The library had never been her favourite place in the castle; it had never been the place she spent a lot of time or the place that came to mind when she wanted to clear her mind and unwind. On the contrary, entering Hogwarts without the ability to read all those years back, the girl had never found value in books or being surrounded by them. It was people who drew her to the library and people who'd made her stay.

Julia had been one of the few adults who'd been in her corner back when 'problem' was all anyone could see every time she drew near. Of course, she wanted to help her in whatever way she could. That happened to mean volunteering some of her free time to helping around in the library. As of the term prior, it also meant taking on a more active role in leadership in the library. Her 11-year-old self would never recognise the girl she'd come to be. In charge of the hospital wing, a head in the library, and a prefect? Heir to some New York fortune and an overbearing father? It was ludicrous.

Some days, even she struggled to figure out who this responsible girl was and where she'd come from. Some days she wanted nothing more than to return to the girl who didn't give a single flying frozen fudge pop about anything but whatever immediately kindled joy within her.

Sunday afternoons in the library collecting books from tables that had been abandoned never kindled joy.

Rae could think of a million things she'd rather be doing, at least half of them tied to a certain Laurence boy. Less than half, maybe. Her days had become too full again, despite having no OWLs to fuss over.

"Oi," she called to a girl she found sitting at a table (Tessa). "You done with those books or what?" she asked, nodding to a pile at the same table. In truth, Rae didn't know whether they actually belonged to the Gryffindor or if she just happened to be sitting by them, but she would have been infinitely more annoyed to walk by the table only to have to return to pick them up after.

"Well?" Rae pressed when she didn't reply quickly enough for her liking.

The Slytherin may have gone as far as saying she didn't have all day, but with how slow her shifts in the library tended to go, it may as well have been all day.

Ugh.

Days like this almost made it worth provoking the baubles.

It was one of those afternoons when Tessa wanted to be lazy. But she knew that she wanted to make sure that she didn’t have any homework that was due. Because keeping up with her studies was important to her. And she knew that the Gryffindor common room wasn’t a good place. And she knew that he didn’t want to do it outside. Even though it was a beautiful day. She knew that she wouldn’t be able to focus.

So Tessa knew that the only other place that she could go was the library, which was good because she liked spending time there. And she liked how it was always quiet. And she was able to get her work done. And also she knew that she had OWLS happening soon. So that meant that she would be studying a lot. As she knew this would determine what job she would have after Hogwarts.

When she got up to the library, she noticed that there wasn’t an empty, clean table. But she wasn’t going to let that bother her. She only needed a clean spot for her books. Tessa had her bag beside her. And she was trying to motivate herself, which seemed really hard. That is when she noticed someone coming over to her. She had asked her if she was done with those books. But truth be told, they weren’t hers. And it seemed like Tessa wasn’t answering fast enough for this girl.

“ Sorry, they aren’t my books. I just got here.” Tessa smiled at the girl. “ And I am sorry that I didn’t say it fast enough for you.” She recognized the girl because she worked in the library. And the library was a place that Tessa loved to come to.

Not her books. Was it so hard for her to say?

Whipping out her wand, Rae beckoned them from the table with a silent summoning charm, focusing just enough to not have them crashing chaotically into her. Flying books, she was sure, were one of the things the librarian wouldn't have appreciated in her domain, and while it was certainly something she'd have partaken in anyway in her younger years, it wasn't worth the clean-up. Funny how her perception of the things 'worth it' had changed when she began to be more in charge of things.

Rae raised a brow at the girl's apology, looking her up and down twice in case her eyes might have been fooling her. It was decidedly Hufflepuff behaviour for a Gryffindor. Unbecoming for the spawns of Godric.

"Sure..." came her reply. What else was there to say? A snide remark, she expected. Ignoring, and a sharp quip – well, maybe not that last one. Her six years at Hogwarts had introduced her to a plethora of lions; some of them had even become close friends. With the exception of Rosalie Laurence...er...McCormick now she supposed, and the likes of Elliot and Rocio, she'd never thought enough of them to add little moments of 'wit' to their repertoire. Most of them struggled to understand the simple concept that noise attracted attention, and attention got everyone else caught.

It was fair to say, obnoxious as that lot tended to be, that there wasn't much love lost between them and the Slytherin girl.

Tessa, from what she knew at least, wasn't obnoxious, but she'd never taken the girl for a doormat either.

She learned a little something every day.

Rae stacked the books with the others on her cart, turning it to continue her walk, but at the last second hesitation forced her still. Did it bother her enough to say something? On a normal day, when she had her regular demons, she wouldn't have given it a second thought. Alas, it was a slow Sunday over in the library, and Benji had opted out of the shift for himself.

Jerk.

Dark brown eyes found the girl again. "Don't go throwing out useless apologies like that for every little thing. People will start expecting them, and you'll have no peace." Not with her. Rae didn't spend her time with people that couldn't offer her something, and Tessa had never proven herself particularly useful to her bottom line in any manner that might require her to seek leverage over the girl. But she knew a few Slytherins who would see that smile and her speed of contrition.

They'd have a field day.

Tessa didn’t really know why she said sorry. It was something that slipped because it wasn’t her fault. But she knew that she didn’t do anything wrong. And she knew that she didn’t have to explain why she said it. “ It has just been a lazy day.” That part was true, and Tessa loved it when it was just a lazy day. Even though she was trying to make sure that her homework was finished. She loved spending her Sundays in the library.

She knew that she wasn’t friends with this girl. But that didn’t mean that she could be rude to her. And she could tell that she was over this time in the library. And Tessa had noticed her before. Tessa wasn’t sure what they could talk about. So she decided that she was going to fill the quiet. “ So how are you this lazy Sunday?” It was the only thing that she could think about. And this was a way to make small talk.

Tessa could tell that this girl was ready for this to shift at the library to be over. Which Tessa would feel the same. It was also a nice day to be outside. That was something that she was thinking about doing later. But for now she was going to stay in the library. She wasn’t sure what they could chat about. But she was going to let it flow naturally. She didn’t want to make the girl uncomfortable.

“It has just been a lazy day.”

"All the more reason not to waste apologies on frivolous shit." Rae herself was an unapologetic girl, even in the face of the grimest consequences. Her philosophy was exceedingly simple: if it was worth doing, she would do it. If she did it, then she was never sorry. Of course, it took her only a moment more to realise the reflexive nature of Tessa's apology, but the principle remained rooted deep within the Slytherin girl. While she didn't have much reason to be involved in whatever image the girl wanted to maintain for herself, it had always been the sort of thing to leave her wrinkling her nose.

"Forget it, this doesn't need to become a lecture you didn't ask for." Something told her Tessa wouldn't have stopped her, and Rae wasn't in the mood to become anyone's correctional officer.

Realising where she stood in the library, it didn't take her long to realise there were a few books from her cart that belonged nearby. In the end, it was a good thing she hadn't moved on too quickly, otherwise she would've had to double back in the very way she'd been trying to avoid when she first hurried the answer out of her present company. Funny how that worked itself out.

Grabbing the books in question, Rae drifted toward the shelf nearby and began the methodical work of ensuring they were placed where they needed to be. It was another thing that would've been considered unheard of only a few years back. Taking the time? Restocking the shelves with care? She'd never have done it. In fact, it was fair to say she may have been more work than actual help for Julia when she'd first begun volunteering.

How far she'd come.

“So how are you this lazy Sunday?”

Rae recognised the words for what they were the moment they escaped the Gryffindor's lips. Small talk. It'd been a while since anyone had tried small-talking her. Having gone through Hogwarts for so many years and interacting with so many, it had stopped becoming necessary. Six years under her belt and too many things to say, it almost felt like the girl was speaking another language. Rae hesitated, not because she didn't know how she happened to be doing but because she wasn't sure she wanted to reward the behaviour, lest the girl try it again another day.

What a step backward that would be.

"Aching but it doesn't matter. I'll take care of it when my shift's over. More importantly, what's got you cooped up in the library when half your house is trying to figure out how to launch the other half off Gryffindor Tower? Last I heard, some of them were convinced they could fly. Professor Barlowe will love that, don't you think?"

The perfect way to exasperate the already exhausted man.

"Not a fan of trainwrecks and bad decisions done in broad daylight?"

Who in Merlin's beard put this book here? Stupid question. Benji. Benji probably did the evening before when she'd told him to return the set they'd had at the front desk.