Other Ravenclaws' Daily Lives

"Going to the library again?"

"Yeah."

Andrew packed his schoolbag and answered as though it were obvious.

"God... It's only the second week of term, and you practically live in the library."

Kevin sat up on his bed and looked at Andrew. "Think about it. Apart from eating together and watching Quidditch once, you've spent all your free time going to the library."

"I guess I have..."

Andrew paused, then realized Kevin was right. Compared with his classmates, his life at Hogwarts was simple to a fault.

But what choice do I have? I see that scarf-wearing Voldemort every day at mealtimes!

Defense Against the Dark Arts was no help at all, and he wasn't stupid enough to walk right up to the man. That left Transfiguration, where an excellent teacher was willing to tutor him outside class.

The other students might find it unbearably dull, but he could genuinely feel himself improving at Transfiguration!

"Don't worry so much about House Points. Not everyone can be as freakishly good at every subject as Miss Granger."

"Exactly." His other roommate, Bell, put down his copy of Quidditch Star. "Andrew, you need to learn to use your wits to experience life, not blindly treat books as your only source of knowledge."

I know that. If Voldemort died, I'd definitely go see the sights of the Wizarding world...

But he couldn't say that.

"See? You know it too, right?"

Grinning, Bell walked over to Andrew and all but wrestled the bag off his shoulders. "Today. Just today. One day a week, feel the Hogwarts sunshine."

"Hughes, put the book down! I even talked Andrew into it. Let's explore the castle!"

A few minutes later, the five boys from their dormitory appeared in the castle.

"Our dormitory has a lot going for it, but the biggest problem is how high up it is..."

Bell led the way. "Honestly, my favorite way to have fun is playing cards. There are all kinds. But that would defeat the whole point of coming out. Spending the afternoon playing cards in a classroom isn't what I brought you out to experience."

Bell's words soon came back to bite him. There was more than one group playing cards beside the Black Lake.

"They're terrible..."

After watching for a while, Bell looked thoroughly unimpressed.

"They don't even keep track of the cards... I don't get it. Why would anyone play without counting what's left?"

"Don't judge students from other houses by those schemers in your club..."

Andrew gave him a little shove.

"Keep your voice down. They're the ones actually playing for fun. You lot have just picked up bad habits from those crafty upper-year students. Even for entertainment, you have to master every bit of knowledge involved."

"Of course you have to learn how it works. Are you supposed to rely entirely on luck?"

Bell looked unconvinced. "You're so obsessed with Transfiguration. Are you telling me the knowledge behind it doesn't fascinate you and you just think it's fun?"

Andrew had no answer to that.

"He's won," Bell said, with enough attention left to judge the game. "The others can't stop his cards now."

Just as Bell had calculated, the game ended.

"Come on, let's go. They're hopeless..."

Bell called for the others to leave with a look of disdain, and the five of them resumed wandering aimlessly across the grass.

"Over there!"

"How dare they?"

"Oh my God..."

In a slightly secluded spot, more than a dozen fishing rods stood firmly along the water's edge. If Filch saw this, his fury would turn straight into wild delight.

The anglers heard them and glanced back, but made no attempt to hide. They simply returned their attention to their rods.

They could afford to be so bold. Every house was represented, and they were all upper-year students.

A Slytherin student sat beside a Gryffindor student, both quietly watching the lake. Nearby, an older Ravenclaw and an older Hufflepuff were arguing until they were red in the face.

It was absurd enough to seem unreal.

But with fishing rods in front of them, it somehow made sense.

"Watch if you like, but don't scare off our fish."

During a lull in the argument, the older student said this quietly to the younger ones, then went right back to arguing with the person beside him.

Andrew listened for a bit and was left speechless. The Ravenclaw was explaining everything he'd learned from the material he'd read, while the Hufflepuff mercilessly mocked him for having theories for everything and catching nothing day after day...

That was more than the theorist could take. He fired back with one excuse after another: the water temperature was unusual, the Hufflepuff had used food magic to doctor his bait, and so on.

After watching for a while, Andrew and the others quietly slipped away. With the seventh-years busy preparing for internships, no one was likely to call out the sixth-years unless everyone had taken against them.

After that, they came across a Hufflepuff picnic group with a Ravenclaw who had slipped in for a free meal, and a makeshift team practicing Quidditch on old brooms. Every house but Slytherin was represented, though Bell called them equally matched rookies...

Some had found comfortable places to read. Others were tucked into hidden corners, dating, or practicing spells the boys couldn't identify. There were mixed groups of every sort, along with Slytherin-only groups... There was so much to see that they nearly forgot why they'd come out.

When the five of them grew tired of wandering, they found a comfortable spot of their own and started playing Exploding Snap.

"It's getting dark. To the dining hall!"

"Let's go!"

Only after they sat down at the table did they realize their grand plan to explore had ended with them playing cards.

"Kevin, where did you get the cards?"

Before dinner began, they took stock of what had happened.

"I figured before we left that we'd definitely end up playing cards. It was only a question of when we'd get tired of walking."

Kevin looked as though the answer were obvious. "Most of the people we'd run into would already know how they wanted to pass the time. Given how few people we know and the odds of borrowing a deck, bringing one was only natural."

That made perfect sense, so Bell, who had been the most eager to get everyone outside, immediately changed the subject. "Andrew, tell us what you thought of this afternoon."

"It was great. Not everyone treats the library as the only place to find knowledge... Though it did reinforce my stereotype of our house..."

"Huh?"

"Yeah." Andrew nodded. "You make even leisure time too formal. We spent the afternoon wandering around, and now you want a reflection on it... Do you think this is a class?"

"Pfft... Hahaha..."

Laughter instantly filled their end of the table.