an average man. (open!)

For most seventh years, the days were going by quickly and easily; many had multiple breaks throughout the days where they didn’t do anything, free periods where they could finish the homework that had yet to complete or just goof off. In most ways, Ariel found she was similar to her fellow students. She had time to do the piles of homework that was assigned by her professors, obviously with malicious intent because it was still early in the term, but today was not a day that she had the fortune of having hours upon hours of time. No, on this day she had been swamped with all her elective classes, as well as the classes that she was required to take. She didn’t know what had possibly made her think that taking all the classes that she had signed up for would be a good idea, especially since it was her seventh year and most of her friends only had classes that they absolutely had to take. She could have done just that and made sure she had plenty of time just to herself to do whatever she wanted, as long as it still fell within the rules of the school. She could have had an immense amount of time just to read or hang out with her friends, whatever she felt like doing that day, but no: she just had to go and sign up for multiple electives on top of her required courses. That was a mistake, that was for sure. It wasn’t like she hated her classes; in fact, she loved the electives that she had selected for the year. Care of Magical Creatures and Muggle Studies were some of her favorite classes, but they could be a bit much on top of her job and the classes that she actually needed for the future. As much as she enjoyed the classes that she had opted to take, she seriously questioned her sanity at times. The sheer amount of work that she had to finish was making her question her thought process at the very moment.

As it always seemed to be, because Ariel could never just have a little bit of homework, she had been assigned multiple assignments in most of her classes. She seriously wondered what she had done to deserve this mountain of work. Had she done something in her past life that could possibly cause cosmic forces to just add assignment after assignment on her list of things to do, this unknown leader of fate pointing and laughing at her misfortune? She had multiple papers to write and several other things to do for her classes, all of them requiring vast amounts of time and effort. Could she not get a break ever? The only bit of light that Ariel could see in this situation, the only bit of information that could possibly give the glass the impression as being half full instead of half empty was that all her homework was due in several days, each assignment scattered throughout the week. The blond Hufflepuff had no idea what she would have done had they all been due within the span of two days; probably curl up in the fetal position on her wonderful bed, not leaving the room and eating nothing but chocolate to console the downward spiral of emotions that she would most likely feel. It was nice that she at least had the option to put some of the pieces of paper, designed to torture and cause emotional trauma and mental breakdown, aside and work on some more important things. Being as lazy and as much of procrastinator as she was, Ariel was very, very thankful for this. She had already begun to show her distaste for assignments, putting almost every bit of homework aside for later, already decided to do for later. Well, she didn’t put off all of it, just some of it.

She had actually gotten a head start to some of the homework assignments, trying to do as many of the non-paper homework as she could and she had been working for quite a while. It was after dinner, which had been delicious as always, and she had just finished the last of her assignments that would be due in two days time. It was quite a stroke of luck to have every paper due later in the week, though it wouldn’t be around the time that she would actually have to write them. For now, though, it was a blessing. So here she was, having finished the last assignment that would be due soonish, and she had the option of starting on an assignment for Muggle Studies or calling it quits for the night and just spending the rest of her time reading or talking to one of her friends; the decision was obvious and Ariel had her papers all stacked neatly on her bedside table within moments of this option. If she didn’t HAVE to work, there was no way that she would. She enjoyed doing nothing, even if it did get boring at times; if she was not required to do the work by an approaching deadline, then she didn’t. Now all she had to do was decide what to do with her time. It was at times like this that she really wished that she could use some form of technology while at the school for magic. While the things she had learned while at the castle were amazing and she could do so many things that she never would have guessed she would eventually learn as a child, she really missed things that she had in the muggle world.

Being a muggle-born, Ariel got the best of both worlds sometimes. She learned things that other people from non-magical heritage could never possibly believe in, but she also held a large interest in things that didn’t pertain to magical subjects, and right now this was proving to be a curse. She was bored and in desperate need of some sort of entertainment; she missed her iPod, she missed her laptop, and she missed her subscription to Netflix. While she was at home, she was able to do what she wanted, listen to whatever music she liked, and watch whatever TV show she wanted; she didn’t have any of that here, and this loss of everything that she used for fun was very sad for her. Sure she had books that she had brought with her from home, books that she had been advised by her neighbors and muggle friends to read because they were simply fantastic, but she had already read all the books she had brought with her. They had been entertaining reads, they had been quick and now she was left with nothing to entertain her. Now that she didn’t have any homework, Ariel was bored out of her mind. She had scoped the commons of Hufflepuff to see if any of her friends were around and after finding all of them busy with their own homework or not even there, she had nothing to do. It was with this boredom that she decided to mosey on over to the library, hoping to find something to read. If anything, she might find somebody to talk to.

After a quick and relatively dull journey to the library, seeing as she didn’t see a single person that she recognized, Ariel found herself surrounded by hundreds of books and very few people. Usually, a younger student could be found here and there, studying and working on homework, but today they were few and far between. In fact, aside from the librarian, only one other person was in the room full of books, a young man that Ariel remembered seeing around at times in the years leading up into her seventh year. He was a year older than her, having graduated last year, and was a teaching assistant for Professor Binns. He seemed to be grading papers as she browsed the shelves for something to read, blue eyes straying from the many options and glancing over at him every now and then, something that the seventh year couldn’t help; he was moving every now and then, and Ariel always got distracted from what she was doing when something moved out of the corner of her eye. Plus, he was attractive, so she figured she would have looked over anyway, and she always made sure to look away quickly so that she wouldn’t look like she was staring. That would have been embarrassing. It was awkward enough for as it was, since there weren’t very many people in here and she was by herself, and she hated doing anything by herself.

Hurrying up and trying to find something that would interest her, Ariel sped up her search, blue eyes focused in on a book that she had read in the early years of her attendance at the school. It was a fairytale book, The Tales of Beetle the Bard, and it had certainly been an interesting book. She was a fan of fairy tales in general, so she had of course loved the book, though she hadn’t read it since she had first found. It was also a small book; it wouldn’t take up too much of her time, and it would be fun enough to read. Slim fingers taking hold of the books worn-out surface, she tugged it free from its position upon the shelf, she turned around to begin the walk towards the desk to check out the book, her eyes already beginning to follow the words on the page. She had a habit of reading and walking, and she was usually very good at it and aware of what was around her. She had avoided disaster time and time again as she read, dodging table and people in the halls as she focused on the piece of literature. However, today seemed like it was just not working for her; she was so into the book that she had just picked up that she didn’t notice that she was approaching the desk right beside where the teaching assistant currently sat. In typical Ariel fashion, her foot caught on the leg of the chair that was positioned at the table, losing her balance and feeling herself pitch forward.

Ariel only had a little bit of time in between the contact of her foot and the slim piece of wood to realize what was going on and what was going to happen. She would have liked to think it was her life flashing before her eyes as she plummeted forward, but that wasn’t entirely the case. No, in this instance Ariel only had a moment to look up and realize that she was steadily approaching the attractive student teacher, eyes wide as she got closer and closer to him. One obscenity after another flashed through her head and she flew towards him like a comet. She didn’t even have time to utter any of the foul words before she felt her body smack into his, a sharp pain shooting through her as arms collided with his back. It seemed the divine deity was still laughing at her and trying to cause her misery and she hoped that she would ricochet from the impact and fall backward, maybe run into the table or fall on the floor. The pain would be worth it, seeing as she wouldn’t be as embarrassed if that had happened. Unfortunately for her, she didn’t have that happen. No, she fell on him and then didn’t fall back. She just plain fell on him. Her mind blanked for several seconds as she tried to process what to do, as her feet scrambled for a hold on the floor, trying desperately to detach herself from the young man. It was a mortifying moment in time for her, and her cheeks were flushed a violent red when she finally managed to remove herself and she was automatically as close to the table that had ambushed her as quickly as she could be, book gripped tightly in her arms and eyes wide with mortification. ”I am so sorry!!” Oh, how was she ever going to get over this? This was the most embarrassing thing that had ever happened to her! Today was just not her day.