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Who'll Crack Next?
Author: Emerald Green
Date: 04-19-07 21:24
Emerald had been at a table just across from the one where Sandra was sitting when that girl had some sort of breakdown. "Great. Excellent!" Emerald sarcastically muttered in a low breath.
There was someone having a conniption fit about the OWLs right in from of Emerald. Someone who's grown up with magic. Someone who's been at Hogwarts for nearly five fully years. Emerald is expected to be prepared for the OWLs when she's still relatively new to this world of Witches and Wizards yet there was Sandra unable to handle the pressure of studying for the OWLs one second more.
Emerald might have had bouts of depression since her parents died but she's not the breaking down sort. At least she hasn't been so far. Seeing Sandra go from all appearances of being a confidence teen Witch to a quivering, squaling child in hysterics has been enough to give Emerald pause. Sure, she's known of others who'd had to go to the hospital wing after cracking under the stress of studying for OWLs and NEWTs but this is the first time it's happened in front of her.
Since then, Emerald's had a hard time concentrating on her own OWL studies. All she can think about is how unprepared she is and how she could break at any time too. Emerald finally got exasperated with herself and packed up her OWL study materials. She spent the rest of her time in the library reviewing Wednesday's Herbology lesson on squill and reading over again the material for today on tarragon.
It's really nice having just one class on Friday's. The only drawback is that it's from 12:30 until 2:00. Although she does like to sleep in, Emerald wouldn't mind of her Herbology section were at 9:00 so that she'd have the rest of Friday to sleep, be lazy... or study for the OWLs without having to watch the clock.
Deciding to go on to the Great Hall for lunch, Emerald shoves all thoughts of the OWLs - and who will crack next - out of her head. She can stress again about them and whether she'll crack under the pressure after Herbology is over.
The Aftermath
Author: Hermione Granger
Date: 04-20-07 08:56
Kingsley Shacklebolt and Remus Lupin were among those who tried to contain the chaos following Bellatrix Lestrange's unexpected visit to Mr. Granger's funeral. Several of the Muggles had fled the scene, raving about magic wands and flashes of colored light. They would need to be stopped and oblivated. At least one of them had used a mobile phone to dial the police, who came relatively quickly to the cemetery. Kingsley had apparated to and from the Ministry to alert the aurors to the situation, and several had come out to the crime scene as well.
They waited until the ambulance had come to take the pastor to the hospital and the dead Muggle man to the morgue before dealing with the other Muggle guests and police, all of whom would have to have a little bit of memory adjustment so they could forget about the startling arrival of a most unwanted guest. As far as any guests would know, the funeral had been peaceful and lovely... a fitting end to a nice man's legacy. Only the wizards present would remember the interruption.
Later, at the Burrow, Hermione sat on the sofa with a cup of tea in her hands. Arthur had seen Molly to their room where he'd asked her to rest while she recovered from being stunned, though she protested saying she was fine and that she wanted to keep Hermione company. Hermione sat between Ron and Harry and fiddled with the arm of teacup.
"I didn't think she would come," Hermione finally said, after several minutes of deep silence.
"No one did," Ron said quietly.
"I think I should have anticipated it, though," Hermione replied, her voice cracking a little bit. She cleared her throat and took a sip of her tea. "I should have known that she would find a thrill in coming to see me in my misery. I should have known that she wanted to see how the job she'd started all those years ago had finally been finished."
Harry reached over for her hand, the one fiddling with the teacup, and squeezed it gently. "Maybe the sighting will lead to her arrest. Coming to the funeral just might have been the most foolish thing she's done."
Hermione knew that had this been an ordinary Muggle situation, then Harry was probably right. Muggles didn't have the means to show up in one place one moment and disappear to somewhere else entirely the next. Even with the sighting, Bellatrix might be free for a long time yet.
But she appreciated Harry's words and leaned her head onto his shoulder, sighing quietly to herself. At least it was all over now.
Missed It
Author: Harry Potter
Date: 04-20-07 09:45
Even as Harry offered words of comfort to Hermione, he silently berated himself for not having physically been at Mr. Granger's graveside at the moment Bellatrix Lestrange apparated there. Harry has had bouts of queasiness since mid-day yesterday. Around a minute before Lestrange showed up at the cemetary, a particularly strong moment of nausea had clutched at Harry's stomach. As surreptitiously as possibly, with a very quiet word whispered to Janine, Harry had slipped away from the knot of those gathered.
Once behind the group, Harry had turned and quick walked to one of the old, sprawling oaks. He'd picked on far enough away from the mourners to not be heard if he did start wretching. Good thing he did because throwing up is exactly what Harry ended up doing.
Behind the tree and the sound of his own wretching filling his ears, Harry was only dimly aware something was going on. When he finished his business and came back around the tree, it was just in time to catch a glimpse of Bitchatrix laughing at the pandemonium she'd created. Harry had shoved a hand in the pocket where he'd stashed his wand and took off running with it aimed and ready to fire off a spell. He'd ended up not getting a single shot off because of too many other people in his line of sight. By the time Harry was close enough to work around those still scrambling out of Bitrchatrix's way, she'd disapparated.
Harry shouldn't feel as though he failed, not when those who did spar with her hadn't been able to stun Lestrange much less capture her. Nevertheless, Harry can't help thinking that if he had been right there he could have made a difference. He could have at least given Bitchatrix someone to focus on long enough for someone else, be it Kingsley or Remus or Mr. Weasley or Ron or any of the other Wizarding folk present, to get a stunning spell in before the woman got away.
Harry lets none of this show on his face as he sits now with Ron and Hermione, Janine across the room talking with Remus but giving Harry a little smile over Remus's showlder. He expresses nothing when Sirius comes over to speak with the three sitting together nor does Harry utter a word to Ginny when she sits down next to him after Ron and Hermione have gotten up. Harry has an internal dialogue with himself about not being where he's needed, when he's needed. Today is about Hermione and her loss, not about a return of Harry's stupid hero-centric angst.
Paris, France: The Catacombs
Author: Nymphadora Tonks
Date: 04-20-07 13:02
According to Abu Ababwa, the Parisian office of the Resistance was located beneath the city in an offshoot from the main catacombs. There were many entrances to the catacombs, though all but the single official entrance was considered illegal to enter, although that never stopped the occasional Muggle who attempted to sneak inside for a bit of adventure. Apparently, it didn't stop the wizards either.
On Friday morning, the French aurors, Tonks and Terry gathered at the supposed entrance to the part of the catacombs where the Resistance was reportedly located and went over their plan one last time before commencing the mission. They stood in the metro station Port Royal and waited for a train to pass before all but one of the group jumped onto the tracks and disappeared into the tunnel. The remaining auror had also been trained as an obliviator and wiped the minds of the few Muggles who'd just arrived to catch the next train.
With her wandlight guiding her, Tonks followed the tracks until she found a heavy-duty door in the wall. Her adrenalin was pumping hard because she knew that the trains traveled down the tunnel frequently and she didn't want to be there when the next one shot through it. They unlocked the door with Alohamora and filed through it one by one.
They found themselves in an antechamber that was very dark and very empty. Tonks held her wand aloft and saw that a light bulb hung on a chain in the middle of the room. It had a layer of dust on it that told her that no Muggle had come through in a while, or if they'd had, they hadn't bothered with the light.
The room narrowed in front of her to what looked like a simple corridor. The group went through the short corridor and came into the first part of the catacombs, which was in a wider corridor though it was still quite cramped. Piles and piles of femurs, fibulae, tibiae, humeri, radii, and ulnae met them on all sides. An occasion human skull grinned at them.
"This place gives me the creeps," Tonks muttered to Terry.
"I was just thinking this would be a great place for a Halloween party," he replied, grinning himself.
They walked through corridor through corridor of bones, which were sometimes as narrow as the one they'd started in or widened or changed shapes. They took twists and bends, pausing occasionally to peruse a hand-drawn map the reconnaissance team had created during their initial observations.
When they came to a fork in the road, they split up, Tonk and two French aurors taking the left bend, and Terry and the other two aurors taking the right. It was more and more of the same until they eventually came to a deadend. Tonks roved her light across the bones, trying to figure out if it truly was the end of their journey and if they should turn back and follow Terry and the others or if this was exactly where they needed to be.
She looked at the ground, she looked at the ceiling, she looked at the bit of walls that peeked out above, below and between the bones. Tonks didn't see anything out of the ordinary, nothing that would draw her attention.
"Perhaps it's not meant to be obvious," she said mainly to herself. The members of the Resistance would know exactly what to do to get into the office. They wouldn't have to guess, like she was having to do.
She started touching some of the bones. Most were stuck in there pretty good but a few were loose here and there. She rattled them and accidentally knocked some onto the ground. A skull broke into three pieces.
"Oops," she said, looking down at it. "Sorry."
Then she looked up and saw something gleam in the wandlight. It was a golden key, tucked away between the bones. She never would have seen it had she not knocked that skull to the ground.
Tonks reached out and touched it. The minute she did, she regretted it, because she felt a tug on her body and then she disappeared.
Letter from Caden
Author: Ronan Eastwick
Date: 04-20-07 14:12
Ronan left Herbology and headed for the Gryffindor common room. He got there before most of his classmates, though many had peeled off for the library instead to study for the OWLs which were less than a month away. Ronan went straight to his dorm room and dumped his books on to his bed. One bounced on the mattress, flipping over the front cover revealing an envelope he'd stowed in there that morning at breakfast. Ronan had been in too much of a hurry to get to Muggle Studies on time that he'd tucked the letter away to read later. He'd completely forgotten about it until now.
He sat down on the bed and ripped through the Eastwick seal, which Ronan had noticed had undergone some alterations since the last time Caden had sent him a letter. Instead of the fanciful E in a circle that had once been the family insignia, the E looked slightly offensive in its two triangles, one with the point facing up and the other with the point facing down. Ronan had hardly noticed the change because the wax was the same but upon closer inspection he'd caught the alteration. Why had Caden done it? The seal had remained unchanged for centuries, according to Ronan's own father Bertram. Ronan figured it had something to do with Caden's bizarre behavior lately.
He pulled out the letter and scanned the text quickly. The gist of it was just what Ronan expected from Caden after writing to him weeks ago about seeing Enid at the Broom Racing SAT event, just like Ronan had done at the Runic Rodeo in Australia. He'd been so sure that he'd seen his missing mother there, but once again Caden said no, it was impossible. Enid hadn't been seen for years.
Ronan had no idea that this time Caden was lying to him. Last time, Enid hadn't revealed herself to Caden yet. In fact, Caden hadn't even undergone all the changes that had turned him into a seemingly different person. This time, Caden knew better. Enid was still around and she probably had been there to witness Ronan's race. But Caden wanted to keep the news of Enid's return to himself. He wanted to shield Ronan from her darkness, and from his own.
After he finished reading the letter, Ronan tossed it onto his bed and lay back against his pillows. He couldn't wait for term to end so that he could go home and see if he could get Caden back on track again. It seemed obvious to Ronan that what Caden needed most was to be around those who loved him the most. These days Ronan felt like the older brother and not the teenager with the adult brother who served as his guardian.
He shut his eyes, deciding to take a nap before joining his classmates in the library.
Awkward
Author: Kody
Date: 04-20-07 14:44
Kordelia Reese-Emerson drops into a chair at the table where she'd left Kody, Drake, and Ophelia a few minutes before. "That was awkward."
"What's that?" Kody asks
"I knew it would happen sooner or later, and frankly I thought it would be sooner. I bumped into someone I was with at Durmstrang. Berit said hello and immediately began introductions to the friend she's with. She didn't know I don't go by that other name anymore. I had to correct her then explain not only for her sake but for her friend's so the friend didn't think Berit had embarrassingly confused names."
Ophelia says, "I've wanted to ask for awhile now, if someone walked in and called out the name Nia, would you turn and look to see if it was you being called?"
"I've sorted wondered that myself," Kody admits.
Drake's nodding his head. "Me too."
"I don't know. I might. I never really felt like I was supposed to be answering to Nia. It never felt natural. I did answer to it of course but now, going by the name I used to have dreams about being called, I don't think I would."
Drake rises out half of his chair, pointing to the doorway of Yellow. "I could go out, come back in and yell out Nia," he jokingly offers.
Kordelia laughs then jokes as well, "That first class reunion at Durmstrang is going to be awkward as well. I'll have to wear an oversized blinking name badge that reads My name is NOT Nia. Call me Kordelia."
The mention of a blinking name tag reminds Drake and Kody the various times at Hogwarts things like buttons and tags had been charmed to read things other than what they should have read. Ophelia and Kordelia join the conversation with stories of practical jokes pulled at their own schools. Soon the four are laughing and telling even more stories, Kordelia no longer thinking about that awkward moment she'd had a short time ago.
A Date
Author: Travis
Date: 04-20-07 21:35
Looking at her reflection in a full length mirror, Travis holds up one dress in front of her, studies herself then moves that dress to hold up another. From behind her in the bedroom doorway Lisi says, "Definately the dark blue."
Travis turns, uncertainty written all over her face. "You're sure?"
"Positive. Why are you so nervous?"
"I've not been on a date in a long time."
"You have lunch or supper with Julian Valentine on average of once a week," Lisi replies with confusion.
"A meal with Julian is never a date in that sense."
"Why not?"
Travis hangs up the pale pink dress and lays the dark blue one on the bed. "Because Julian is just a friend. In school we knew each other but weren't friends. Julian would ask me on a date from time to time but he only wanted the conquest. I was forever turning him down. Julian's matured and he has changed but he in many ways he's still all about the conquest. We're defintely friends now but that's all. That's why I don't consider meeting Julian for lunch or supper once every week so to ever be a date."
"Oh." Lisi screws up her mouth then says, "This is still very confusing for me." Then to clarify she adds, "Dating in general, not the why you don't think of meals with Julian as dates."
"If it's any consolation, I find it very confusing too," Travis says with a grin, "and I bet if you ask Indi, he'd say the same thing."
Lisi sits down on the bed. "That does help to know. We can takl more about this and my socialization skills and understanding relationship dynamics later. Right now, get ready for your date. You only have twenty minutes until the time you said he's coming."
"Oh hell!" Travis exclaims, snatching up the blue dress to put it on. "I can't believe I just spent an hour trying to decide which dress to wear. Too bad you didn't get here sooner to help me decide!"