Welcome to Gaia! ::

Toby marched into the common room in his usual discreet fashion, a blank look on his face. He strode, with eyes locked to the floor, to an empty table. He smiled to himself contently from his seat in the furthest corner of the room. Setting his books down with a light thud, he went over his agenda of homework assigments that needed to be completed. Potions. Charms. Transfiguration. Arithmancy. Why the hell do I take that bloody subject? Stupid numbers. With a feeling that he'd be doing homework until it was time for bed, he set to work, withdrawing a quill and some parchment.
An hour passed and his Potions homework was neatly completed. Then, he finished a short Charms assignment. Finishing up a Transfiguration essay, he moved on to the dreaded numerological crap. It was complex, but Toby understood it well. Even still, it was not remotely fun. Scratching a number onto a scrap piece of parchment, Toby's gaze locked onto the tip of the quill as it slowly moved across the page. His mind left the subject of numbers for the better part of a minute as his thoughts jumped nimbly to random things. Then, Toby, although seeming to be engulfed in the mystical world of numbers, was completely devoid of any consciousness. Safe, of course, for his worries.

Toby was still caught in his trance-like state when Felix, one of his roomates, approached him. The boy was one of the many boisterous, socially outgoing students who Toby had, for the most part, avoided through the course of his years at Hogwarts. In fact, he had rarely ever spoken to any of his fellow Hufflepuff roomates. He had always found it safest to stay in the Common Room, except for those dreadfully necessary times when he had to sleep.
"Can I help you?" Toby said, a little startled. His voice was unwavering, very flat, with a hint of condescension. What the hell is he doing talking to me?

Toby's lips tightened, which gave him a look that didn't appear too pleased. "Well, I am rather sick of it, but it's homework and it has to be done. Now, unless you came to help me with this Arithmancy homework, which, I don't expect you to understand," he held up his parchment and showed the complex number sequences written on it. "I do not understand why you bothered to approach me." The second the words left his mouth, Toby felt insanely guilty. He had a knack to tear into others, being the little p***k he was. Why can't I just be nice? Burning bridges was something Toby did well.

Having the parchment taken out of his hands, Toby frowned. "It's actually Tobias. But Toby's fine." He looked down at the surface of the table thoughtfully. "And I'm not sad, " he added after a moment, in a soft, affirmative voice.
Recalling the prismatic muggle chocolate, Toby allowed a controlled smile to form on his face. "I suppose those are rather delectable. What they have to do with me, however, I have no idea." God, no. Don't call me that. What a strange name.

Toby stared at the boy, who seemed a little scatter-brained. "You sound absolutely ridiculous." And he did, although Toby didn't think it was an entirely negative thing. He found his attempts to create analogies somewhat endearing, but he wasn't quite ready to betray this thought to the boy, or anyone, for that matter. Nonetheless, he pursued Felix's last comment. "I noticed. Say, is that why you never do homework?" He paused a moment. "Does your inability to think make homework completely beneath you?"

((Ouf, that was kinda mean...))

This boy was rather friendly. It seemed he kept continuing with his advances into Toby's restricted space. "How nice for you. But there's a reason why I'm the prefect and you aren't." Normally, Toby hated to pull rank, as it brought more attention than he wanted. "Now go play with your other buff little jocky cronies. I might just take points from our own house if you misbehave." Toby found himself saying more and more things to the poor boy that he didn't really mean. It was almost as if words automatically flung themselves to assault the dignity of others. This was the reason Toby had little friends. He thought certain types of people were a little too 'different' for him. But since he had little intreaction with these types of people, Toby was unsure of how to proceed. It was like a pattern of behaviour had developed and Toby didn't know how to control it. He did know, however, that he got a certain sense of amusement out of verbally sparring with this boy. Mentally, he smiled. He hoped Felix was a good sport.

Is there a reason why he talks so much? thought Toby. As soon as this thought appeared in his mind, however, it was replaced by a sense of excitement. At least he was getting attention from a boy (even if there wasn't a chance in hell there'd be any reciprocating feelings). He didn't know what to say to Felix's comments about friends and acquaintances. He frankly wasn't sure of what to say in terms of anything. "Well, then perhaps your girlfriend'd be glad to have a visit from you?" he suggested weakly. "I'm sure you have at least one of those."

((Sounds... very ick... //I'm just gonna assume that Toby doesn't know about Felix's 'preferences'.))