Studying for the O.W.L.S. (open)

Betta sighed heavily as she walked into the common room and over to an empty desk. Setting her book sack down beside her, she grabbed her History of Magic book and a piece of parchment, a quill, and an ink bottle and started to take notes from the chapter ahead of the one her class was going over at the present time.

Nothing like reading ahead to prepare yourself for a ginormous test at the end of this term, she thought, then sneezed. Blast...apparently the elves forgot to dust this stupid room. I'm getting stuffed up already. Pathetic.

After sneezing a couple more times, then glaring at a first-year who came up to ask her where the library was again, Betta was finally able to settle down into her comfortable study routine. Soon, her focus was completely on her work and not on the activity around her.

Stella walked into the common room, Mortis following her, scaring some of the other Slytherins. Stella wasn't in the bests of moods thanks to a Ravenclaw that knocked her into a wall, then began laughing about. But, Stella did some sort of sick satisfaction when they realized who she was and ran out running.

Sitting down at a desk next to another student, Stella pulled out her Potions homework. Looking over, she saw Mortis hissing at the student next to her. Scooping up the Milk Snake, Stella looked over at the girl. "Sorry about that. My snake has issues."

Betta smiled. "That's okay. My owl's just as temperamental, so I'm used to it." She sighed heavily. "I wish I didn't have to take this crazy exam...too many sleepless nights and very long days in the library."

After dipping her quill into her ink bottle, Betta looked over and saw that the other girl was about to study Potions. "Oh, fun. Potions. I swear, I haven't met one person who actually likes the class. They would all rather go around waving their wands and turning rats into goblets. Can't say that I blame them--Transfiguration is a lot more fun. Although..." she stopped for a moment as a second-year student shouted quite loudly at his friend, "...I still have a bit of trouble getting my goblet to where it doesn't have a tail."

She sighed and rubbed her eyes. "Are you doing an essay for Potions class?"