This room always held a surprise for Casey, no matter how many times she used it. As she opened the door to the room she couldn't help but smile, feeling surprised once more. On the right a fire crackled, illuminating the room and warming it up. In front of the fire was a plush rug, comfortable enough to sit on. Off to the sides of the fire were rather comfortable armchairs. And beside the rug was a pile of books, a sketchbook and some drawing pencils.

Casey paused momentarily, taking in the room, before making her way over to the rug, where she immediately plopped down and looked at the pile of books. Among them was her all time favorite. Pride and Prejudice. She picked it out of the pile and lay on her stomach, resting her chin on the palm of her hand. A smile fell across her features as she read, remembering the story all too clearly. She'd turn to drawing later, but for now she was content with reading.

Zeke was in the middle of one of his favorite time-killing activities; walking-and-reading. The combination of the two had caused him to both trip and walk into people before, but nonetheless he insisted on doing it. As he turned around a corner, however, something caught his eye and caused him to look up. As he did so, he saw a girl disappearing into a room. Zeke's curiosity istantly took over. Walking closer, he realised that the room the girl had walked into was the Room of Requirement. This only made him more curious. He knew how the room worked and was soon able to open the door to the room where the girl was.
She was lying on her stomach by a fireplace not to far from the door. The room was cosy and Zeke nodded slightly. He was only rarely able to make a comfortable room appear. Realising that the girl probably had no idea that he was there, Zeke cleared his throat.
"Um.. I don't mean to interrupt, I just.. " he wasn't sure how to end the sentence since curiosity is a hard thing to explain. Zeke merely let his weak attempt of a greeting hang mid-air.

Being absorbed in her book, Casey hadn't heard anyone come in. Not only that, but she hadn't expected anyone to come in, considering that it was the room of requirement. Startled at the sound of a voice, she jumped slightly, she hoped that it wasn't too visible. She looked up, smiling at this newcomer.She pulled herself up and moved into a cross legged position.

"Oh, hi!" She said, a bit shyly, glancing down at the book in her hands momentarily. "Don't worry about it. . . You can come in you know." This was a bit out of character for her, being so straight forward. She was always the quiet shy girl in the corner, who preferred to avoid eye contact and conversations. But she was desperately trying to break out of that. This past year at Hogwarts had changed her a lot, and he hoped for the better.

"I know" he said, even though the girl's 'you know' did not strictly need an answer. Zeke closed the door behind him and walked towards the fireplace with just a hint of hesitation in his step. As he reached it he smoothly lowered himself into the same cross legged position as the girl had taken. He made sure there was quite a bit of space between them.
Zeke was his usual confident self, as he leaned back slightly, leaning on his arms.
There was a moment of the kind of silence that is tightly connected to first conversations, but Zeke broke it with a question.
"What were you reading?" he asked, making sure not to sound as curious as he was.. He glanced at the girl for a second, but then let his eyes fall on the book. A person who came to the room of requirement and made a room that was suited for reading appear couldn't be half bad, he figured. Zeke thought of the pile of paperbacks stacked under his matress in his dorm as he waited for the girl to answer.

Casey watched as Zeke made his way towards the fireplace. She was actually kind of glad that she now had company. It was all very nice to be alone and reading, but it was usually a lot more interesting when there was company. She grinned as he sat down next to her, but of course that awkward silence followed in which she couldn't really think of anything to say.

"Pride and Prejudice. It's one of my favorites." Casey said, showing him the book. "This is a great place to come and read." She paused and fiddled with her long, copper hair. "I'm Casey, by the way. Fifth year Hufflepuff." She said, in way of introducing herself.

Since Casey had introduced herself, Zeke figured he would do the same.
"Zeke." he said shortly, not finding it important to tell her his house.
"And I guess I shouldn't say this, being a guy and all.." he said, as he leaned forward as if to let her in on a secret.
"But that.." he said, pointiing at the book. ".. is good stuff" he said, his voice no more than a whisper as a wry smile spread across his face. He grinned slightly as he said
"Austen, she writes in such a captivating way, right? I read that one a couple of times, but I liked Mansfield Park better." he said, speaking a lot more than he usually did. It was as if the cosyness of the room and the presence of the books had opened him slightly. He usually didn't talk a lot about his passion for reading.

"Well nice to meet ya Zeke." Casey said with a friendly smile. She assumed the same postion Zeke had, and leaned back on her elbows.
Casey couldn't help but look at him in slight surprise." You like this book? Sorry... It's just that, well, I don't know many other guys who like it. Austen's amazing, isn't she? I love her style. I can't say I've ever read Mansfield Park though. I'll have to put that one on my list of books to read." She smiled, surprised at herself. She was freely having a conversation with someone she'd never met before. "Who's your favorite author then?" she asked curiously. "Jane Austen is definitely mine for right now."

"I know" he said, nodding at her comment on how guys seemed not to like Austen's books. "Which is why I'd like it if you don't tell anyone.. It's not exactly the macho book, you know?" he said, still smiling.
"My list of books to read is terribly long and growing.. there's just too many books and not enough time.." he said.
"Oh, Austen is good but not my favorite at all.. I am not quite able to tell you who is, though, 'cause as I said, there are just so many great books.. Besides, I am terribly at namedropping" he said truthfully.
Even though he liked talking about books he changed the subject. It seemed strange to be talking to a person without knowing the slighest bit about that person. He looked around the room.
"What did you ask for when this appeared?" he asked out of curiousity.
"Whenever I use this place it always turns out a little faulty.. but this is just.." he looked at Casey with the hint of a smile, admiring her ability to make such a comfortable place appear.
"..perfect."

Casey laughed. "No worries. My lips are sealed. I promise." She understood. There weren't many guys who would admit that they like to read let alone read a book by Jane Austen. "That's a good point. I sometimes wish that there was more time just so I could read all the books I want to. It's hard to read during the school year because there's so much going on." At that, Casey felt like she was rambling so she shut up and looked down for a moment.

"My favorite usually changes by the day. I guess it all depends on mood, doesn't it?" Casey said. Zeke was right of course, it was hard to choose a favorite. There was so many great books and authors out there, how could you just pick one?

Casey grinned at his last statement, blushing slightly. 'Thanks... I don't know really. I thought of this one room that I used to read in all the time. I really just wanted a fireplace and a comfy rug, that is after all, the best way to read."

"Oh I can only agree with you on that one" Zeke said as he changed to a more comfortable position lying on his stomach.
He wasn't sure of what to say so he merely smiled, then let his glance run across the room. As it fell on the small pile of sketchbooks and a few pencils, Zeke's eyes widened.
He looked quite a lot like a little boy who had just spotted a gigantic bag of candy.
"Sketchbooks" he said exitedly, not realising that he was speaking out loud. He grabbed one of the sketchbooks and a pencil.
Without thinking, he started sketching randomly, and since he was lefthanded the entire side of his hand was soon the colour of charcoal.
"Oh man.. I have a gazillion papers do but I simply cannot cope with that right now" he said, making conversation though he realised it probably wasn't a very interesting topic he had chosen.

Casey laughed as she saw Zeke's excitement over the sketchbooks. It seemed like he enjoyed drawing too. She decided it wouldn't hurt to take the other sktechbook and draw as well. Assuming the same postion as Zeke, she lay on her stomach, opening the sketch book and pondering what to draw.

"You like to draw, too then? Seems like we've got a couple things in common." She smiled, and went to drawing. A couple of times she moved to get the hair out of her face, frustratingly enough, it just wouldn't stay where she wanted it too.

"Same here. I'm so fed up of schoolwork. I just need a break from it every now and then. Reading or drawing is usually a good escape."