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At the Lesson
Author: Jolyon
Date: 02-10-09 18:11
As had become standard for Jolyon on Saturday mornings, he stood off to the side in the Great Hall and listened to Wiklie Twycross' pointers on proper apparition techniques. By now, everyone in the course had managed to apparate successfully, though the students were still very much beginners and could benefit from more tutorials before going for their official apparition license.
After a quick speech, Wilkie had the students practice some more. Although Jolyon paid close attention and moved in to assist when somebody splinched themselves, he allowed his mind to wander.
Last week, after the apparition lesson, he and his seventh year students had gone to the MacFusty Hebridean Black Preserve for the promised field trip to view dragons in their native habitat. Indigo MacFusty had met them at the reservation and had acted as their tour guide. The field trip had been both informative and exciting, since the students learned things they hadn't gotten from Jolyon in class and because they got to see a couple of dragons with their own two eyes.
The trip was such a success that Jolyon planned on doing more, if not in what remained of this year, then next. The seventh years had told him how much they'd enjoyed it, and he could well-imagine that his other students would be interested in field trips that went beyond the Forbidden Forest too.
There was a shriek, and two of the four Hogwarts professors gathered in the Great Hall hurried to assist the student who had just splinched. There was a bunch of purple smoke and sounds of small explosions and then everything was set right again.
Jolyon spent the rest of the lesson thinking about field trips for his Care of Magical Creatures classes and occasionally helping a student get unsplinched.
A Discovery (Jewel)
Author: Phinfilius
Date: 02-10-09 18:48
After an all nighter and first part of the morning doing more decorating and sewing for the warden's wife, Jewel wearily walks to the building that houses the women. Bleary eyed, she stumbles, windmilling her arms to prevent from taking a head first fall. A hand shoots out and grabs her.
"Thank you," Jewel says before seeing who it is who kept her from a face plant.
Tommy Baddock grew up in Australia but came to Britain to attend St. Emrys. He's a cousin to the Malcolm Baddock who attended Hogwarts. Tommy took a job part-time with the Ministry, ending up as one of the guards for Community 485. Tommy's had his eye on Jewel for a long while but, thankfully, he's not the type to force himself on an unwilling woman.
Tommy shoots Jewel a dimpled smile. "You okay?"
"Better watch asking a prisoner such a question."
"Community member. Resident. You aren't a prisoner."
"Oh?"
Tommy looks momentarily flustered. He changes the topic. "So, uh, you think any futher about, uh, about what we discussed?"
Jewel can't help but heave a deep sigh. "I've not had any sleep since early yesterday morning. I've been given permission to sleep a couple of hours so can this wait?"
"Yeah. Sure. I'll find you this afternoon."
Another guard comes into view so Tommy adds for good measure, "Get going, lazy slag."
Without another word to Tommy, Jewel resumes walking, wondering if there will ever be a day again when each foot does not seem like it's filled with a ton of lead. She makes it to her cot and sinks down on the lumpy, thin mattress. Jewel's closes her eyes, grateful to get the nap.
Jewel's eyes snap right back open at the loud hammering coming from the other end of the room. Was she that tired that she'd not noticed someone else was there?
Yes. She is definately that tired.
At the hammering continues, Jewel sits up to see what's going on. Siegfried Dewhurst is on on the floor, boards scattered around him.
"Siegfried, what are you doing?"
Siegfried startles, not having realized Jewel was there. She doesn't know if his case is one of being tired as well or because of being intent on his work. He straightens up from his all fours position then leans back, resting his rear on his legs.
"It's stupid."
"What isn't around here?"
"The warden decided he wants a fence around his garden but the Ministry apparently hasn't yet approved the requisition for the wood he wants. The wood he has," Siegried gestures to a stack nearby, "isn't very good. He thinks the floorboards in here would do in the short term; so, I'm pulling up floorboards and replacing them with the bad stuff. I'm working in sections as best I can so that there's no gaping hole at any given time."
Hearing this, Jewel feels more tired knowing she won't get her nap afterall. Not unless she can find a good spot to take an undisturbed nap. Maybe if she said yes to Tommy but a place to sleep a couple of hours is not worth lowering herself. She's not that desperate. Yet.
"Bloody hell!"
Jewel, not knowing what she's missed, moves closer to Siegfried. "What?"
"I dropped the hammer."
"Pick it back up?"
Siegfried chuckles, "Easier said than done. It's beneath the building now. I'm too small to fit through this hole so I'll have to go out and crawl under."
Jewel takes a look. "I'm small enough. It's a short drop, right? So I'll pop down, pop back up."
Siegfried holds out his hand to help Jewel through the opening. "Thanks."
It's gloomy under the building but not too dark to see anything. That is, it's not to dark to see anything except the hammer. Jewel, down on hands and knees is feeling all around. She calls up, "I can't find it."
"It should be right there where you are. It's a hammer and wouldn't bounce much to begin with plus the drop isn't that far.
Jewel runs her hands over the ground, one hand suddenly finding nothing but air. Peering more closely and feeling with both hands, Jewel is stunned into several seconds of silence before finally saying, "The hammer fell farther than we thought. There's an opening of some sort."
"An opening?"
"Yeah. A hole of some sort."
Siegfried's head appears through the floor opening. "I'm going to see if I can sneak one of the torches. And something to light it with. Do you mind waiting down there or want to come back up?"
"I'm fine here."
Siegfried's head vanishes and she hears clomping across the floor above her. While she waits, Jewel works both hands to see if she can expand the opening in the ground even more.
(Siegfried) Now or Never
Author: Bronwyn Dewhurst
Date: 02-11-09 17:48
Siegfried moved out of the women's dorm and discreetly searched for a torch he could bring back to Jewel. Enough individuals, prisoners and guards alike, milled about and made his effort appear slightly less than unobtrusive. Siegfried hoped that the guards wouldn't consider his activity suspicious and did his best to look as if his actions were a part of his job.
Unfortunately, Siegfried didn't think he could justify removing a torch from a bracket on the wall in broad daylight, especially when the windows in the on campus housing provided enough light by which to see. He wondered if he could hide the torch under his worn tunic, but somehow didn't think the threadbare garment would conceal anything larger than a wand.
He laughed to himself, knowing that he could never come by a wand. An absolute miracle would have to occur for one to appear within reach. A moment later, one did.
Siegfried entered a building adjacent to the women's dorm to find a guard dozing in a chair just a hand's-breadth from the door. Astonishingly, his first thought was that the guard would be in enormous trouble if found out, but then Siegfried's eyes alighted on the wand protruding from the sleeping wizard's pocket.
For an intense, heart-pounding moment, Siegfried stared between the wand and the man's face and back again, itching to react before the guard woke up and ruined the plan rapidly forming in Siegfried's mind. Only one thought caused him to reconsider: if he were caught, Jewel would be stuck in the hole. True, one of their own might discover her and help her out if Siegfried couldn't make it back, but what if a guard found Jewel? What then?
He almost turned around to seek for light elsewhere, but he could already feel the wand in his grip, it was that near. Deciding it was now or never, Siegfried reached out his hand and lightly wrapped his fingers around the top portion of the wand. He could hear his pulse loudly in his ears and wished that he would calm down because the hammering in his chest was distracting. Now or never he reminded himself, and then he gently started to pull the wand from the guard's pocket.
It moved a solid inch when the guard snored loudly. Siegfried froze with his hand on the wand, frightened that the guard would wake himself up, but then the guard slept on, and Siegfried was free to carefully remove the entire length of the wand from the wizard's pocket. As soon as it was in his hand, he tucked it between his waist-band, which fell losely against his hips on account of all the weight he lost since arriving at the community, and then pressed his arm to his side. He hoped he didn't look too awkward, leaving the building and returning to the women's dorm with the wand concealed under his clothes.
The room was as empty as it had been when he left it. Siegfried got to his knees and pulled the coveted wand from his waistband. He quickly shoved his hand through the hole in the floorboards and said, "I found something better," and discovered that the thrill of what he had just done was still very much in his entire being, since his voice rattled a little from nerves.
Jewel reached up and grasped the wand. "Oh my... where did you?... how did you?..." She couldn't believe it.
"I'll tell you the whole story later. First, tell me what you see down there."
Serving Part Of His Detention (Deak)
Author: Kody
Date: 02-11-09 18:19
Deak winces at the fresh sting in his fingers. As part of ongoing detention, Deak is spending the morning preparing ingredients for potions Professor Carrow is making. When Deak had reported to Professor Yaxley just after breakfast to learn what today's assigned tasks were, Deak had been told to go right then with Carrow.
Upon arriving in the dungeon workroom Carrow's using for his potion making, Deak had been instructed to dice stinging nettles. Deak asks, "May I go get my gloves, Professor Carrow?"
"Absolutely not. If you cannot arrive prepared then you must face the consequences."
Deak had wisely not retorted that he couldn't have come prepared when he hadn't known until after breakfast he'd even be working with Carrow today. Deak also said nothing despite the pain that quickly set in from working with the stringing nettles without any sort of hand protection. Deak had only thought that the throbbing and itching that set in was bad until now.
When Deak finished up with the huge mound of stinging nettles, Carrow directed Deak to a large vat. The vat contains plants in a heavy brine. To get each plant out to strips the leaves to be finely chopped and to julienne the stems, Deak has to stick his hands into the brine. The salt on his damaged hands has taken the pain to a whole other level.
Blinking his watery eyes, Deak does his best not to show Carrow just how miserable he is. One of the ways Deak masks what he's experiencing is by thinking of creative ways to do Carrow in, such as putting the man in the brine with only his head above the briny solution, then adding more and more salt as Carrow's body loses water to the solution and withers up.
"What are you smiling about, boy?"
Deak looks up with a start. "Sorry, sir. I hadn't realized I was smiling."
Carrow's eyes narrow then after a pause he says, "Probably just an odd grimace."
"Yes, sir. I'm sure that must be it."
"Well, carry on. There's too much to do for you to stand about yacking."
Deak schools his features to remain as neutral as he sticks one hand into the brine to pull out another plant. Hopefully lunchtime is soon, offering Deak a much needed respite.
Exploration (Jewel)
Author: Phinfilius
Date: 02-12-09 11:25
Jewel stares at the wand in her hand and gulps. She can't help but feel there's a trick on Siegfried and her and that the second the wand is used for a spell, guards will descend on them. From just above her head, she hears Siegfried's urgent, "Jewel?"
Gulping again, Jewel points the wand towards the hole, ready to say, "Lumos," but a thought jumps into her head just then that has her saying, "Accio hammer."
A couple of seconds pass and Jewel can't tell anything's happened. Maybe she's done it wrong. It's been so long since she did any magic. Siegfried's again saying, "Jewel?" and she's about to try the summoning spell again when the hammer floats out of the hole. Grasping it firmly, Jewel feels almost giddy.
She passes the hammer up to Siegfried, "I retrieved the hammer first in case you need to look busy."
"Good idea."
Jewel's next spell enlarges the hole large enough for her to stick her arm in with the wand and to have her head through. "Lumos."
She's glad it's daylight because she doesn't know how far the light from the wand, even though it's through the top of the hole would carry. A glow from underneath a building would definately get the attention of the guards.
So far all Jewel sees is rock. There is a shaft with rock walls all around. Part of the rock forming the ceiling must have broken up and fallen and dirt over it was thin enough that when the hammer fell through from the dorm floor, even though it's not a long drop, the dirt gave way.
Jewel calls up to Siegfried, "It's a rocky hole."
"Like a cave?"
"I can't tell yet. I'm going in."
"Be careful."
Enlarging the hole more, Jewel debates whether to try and carry the wand in a hand or to clench it between her teeth. Not knowing if there's a long drop or not, Jewel decides to go with having both hands free. Carefully lowering her legs through the opening, Jewel feels for the protusions she'd noted and only when her feet have as solid a perch as possible does she work more of her body down.
Jewel crabs down the side of the shaft a distance equal to the length of her body plus about another meter before the side she's on peters out. When she feels she's steady enough, Jewel lets go with wand hand, grasps the wand from her mouth, then sends a flare of light bursting out below her.
The flare illuminates rock just a couple of more feet down. Jewel shoves the wand back between her teeth then with a silent prayer, lets herself drop. She lands and the giddiness rushes through her again. Holding up the wand, Jewel inspects the shaft and then ducks down to see how far the opening extends from where the wall she was on ended.
The wall turns out not to be all that thick and moments later, Jewel is standing erect again, holding the wand out to take in as many details as she can see. She sends out more flares, the brilliant though brief bursts giving her a better picture of where she is.
Jewel is on a large ledge that juts out into a bigger space. Definately a cave, though not a very big one. The ledge is less than a meter off the cave floor unless, that is, there's another drop across the cave that she can't yet see. There is, however, at least one other opening somewhere.
The hole the hammer created must have created cross ventilation because Jewel can feel air moving past her. She'd noticed what felt like a gentle breeze when she was poking her head in the hole and then coming down the shaft but guesses she was too nervous and excited to pay attention that the air was moving out of the hole, not going in.
The adrenaline coursing through her body is enough to hold the weariness and allure of a nap at bay. Jewel takes a deep breath and lets it out slowly, making the decision to at least look around the cave a little and see if she can locate the other opening. Stepping carefully, Jewel works her way around the cave, paying attention to shadowed areas and the way the air seems to be moving.
There. What looks like a shallow crevice isn't really shallow. It's just how the light from the wand is hitting it and the way the opening of the crevice is formed. Jewel sends a flare into the crevice. It's bright light shows her a natural tunnel wide enough for two people to walk abreast. Having no idea how difficult it might be to backtrack, Jewel uses the wand to mark a path as she follows the tunnel.
When Jewel finally returns, using another spell that seems rusty to her now to help her get back up the shaft more easily, she finds the hole in the floor is no longer directly overhead. She sticks the wand in a good hiding spot for it in the top of the shaft, a place easily reached and one that won't have the wand rolling off even if it gets knocked somehow. Jewel then crawls to where the hole is now, listening carefully to try and determine if it's safe to let Siegfried know she's there.
When she's certain of it, Jewel softly calls during a lull in the hammering, "Siegfried."
Siegfried's face appears at the opening. "Thank Merlin! I've been worried!"
He helps Jewel through the floor opening then with him continuing to work, Jewel helping him, she tells him what she found.
(Enid) Reunion of the Golden Horn
Author: Ronan Eastwick
Date: 02-12-09 19:34
Enid and Urania traveled to Istanbul yesterday. Getting Urania out of the country was necessary, since she was one of many who had broken out of the Goen Bren community for nons and was currently a wanted woman. A further reason for the journey abroad was Enid's impending meeting on the bridge that spanned the Golden Horn, an inlet of the Bosphorus strait.
The two women had booked a hotel room in the wizarding portion of the city, and while Enid had longed to seek out her son right then and there, she'd forced herself to remain patient. She would find out soon enough about Ronan, if the coded message she'd been sent wasn't a trap of some sort.
Enid had no reason to anticipate a trick, for she'd never displayed anything but loyalty to her kind since the changes had taken course at home. She didn't expect anyone to have taken notice of her relentless searching for Happy Haven, nor for anyone to have realized that she'd been the one to raise Caden from the dead. Unless the Ministry of Magic had resorted to testing the purebloods it had no reason to question, Enid couldn't imagine the meeting being anything other than an honest effort to reconnect her with Ronan.
Urania seemed just as keen on the reunion, though she exhibited strong caution since she feared getting snatched and sent back to Goen Bren or some place like it again. She had suffered what had felt like a lifetime of torture and she hoped never again to endure anything like it.
When the time finally came to step onto Galata Bridge, Enid allowed Urania to tag along, though Urania traveled at a distance since she didn't want to intrude if and when mother reunited with son. She gripped a wand, newly purchased yesterday after arriving in the city, where she kept it in her pocket, just in case something happened.
Enid strolled the walkway, not at all sure where to stop along the entire 490 meters that comprised the bridge. The cryptic message she'd received had only said to meet on the bridge, but it hadn't said where. Three lanes of cars and a tram raced beside her.
She wondered if she should even be on top of the bridge and not underneath it. A new marketplace had opened up beneath the roadway, and whoever had arranged the meeting might be waiting there. She started to turn and head back in the direction she came so that she could go below deck when she heard a familiar voice call for her.
"Mum!"
She turned her head around again and spotted Ronan walking toward her, accompanied by a man and a woman. Enid resisted the urge to run forward and instead carefully navigated her way through the other pedestrians on the walkway. When she reached Ronan, she couldn't help herself from clutching him to her. Ronan stiffened at first, but then he relaxed and wrapped his arms around her. He was taller than she and held her almost as if he were the parent and she the child.
Enid pulled back and looked up at her son. He looked older and thinner but not nearly as gaunt as Urania, who had only freshly been released from her prison. Ronan surprisingly looked relieved to see his mother, and then he looked over her shoulder and spotted Urania standing in the distance. A small smile touched his lips and through silent urging, he convinced Urania to join them. When she arrived, he stepped out of from in front of his mother and hugged Urania. He knew there was a possibility he would see his mother again, but he didn't expect a reunion with an old friend.
The Younghams, meanwhile, introduced themselves to Enid and then invited everybody back to the waterfront home for proper catching up.