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Distracted
Author: Bronwyn Dewhurst
Date: 08-10-07 11:55
Kate stifled a sigh as Professor Snape peered into her cauldron and claimed that the Acne-Removing Potion she was currently brewing had too lumpy a consistency. She'd followed the directions on the board to the letter, or so she thought. Perhaps she'd accidentally brushed something into the cauldron or had measured something wrong. She set about trying to make adjustments to her potion, but being brand new at making potions, she didn't really know what to do.
She supposed she was a little distracted. Her excitement at being at Hogwarts had quickly worn off as soon as Hairy the Snide opened her mouth and proclaimed that purebloods were blessings from heaven and everyone else was worth less than the dirt under her feet. Kate, having one Muggle parent, had found herself among those for whom Professor Snider had no apparent liking. Tainted blood was what she had, simply for having a Muggle mother.
There were three dormitory rooms in Hufflepuff House specifically for girls with tainted blood. Kate had found herself in the last of the three and the only first year among two second years, a third year, and one very resentful fourth year. Sophia Hall was not at all happy that she had to share a room with girls younger than she and took out her frustration concerning everything happening at Hogwarts against Kate more than the others, simply because she was the newest and the youngest.
Kate had found herself reduced to tears more than once because of Sophia, who if anything, should have been her ally. They were both nons. Shouldn't they stick together? It seemed Snider's actions were driving apart even those sharing the same blood status. Was her ultimate goal discord instead of unification? So it seemed.
Because she wasn't in a room with four other first years, Kate hadn't made any friends her age. There were two first year Hufflepuff boys who were also nons, Hugo Hathi and Demetrius Whitmore. They were able to bond because they did share a room, and Kate found it difficult to infiltrate the friendship that had already blossomed between the two boys.
The only person she'd had a real conversation with who was in her same year was that boy Mark, whom she had met on the train. Unfortunately, he was in Slytherin House and a pureblood, no less. The chances of them becoming friends were slim, at best.
Professor Snape called time at the end of class, and everyone was asked to bottle up the potions they had been brewing. Kate scooped up some of her lumpy Acne-Removing Potion from the cauldron, put a cork in it and then wrote her name on a lable, which she stuck onto the bottle before carrying it up to Snape's desk. She didn't know how to empty her own cauldron, because she hadn't learned how to do that yet, so she left the cauldron simmering and collected her books and notes before exiting the classroom.
She navigated the dungeon for the stairs, hoping not to get lost even though she still didn't know her way around Hogwarts very well. She had DADA next and really didn't want to be late. The other first year potions class, the one Professor Spudmore taught, had also let out, and Kate found herself in the dungeon corridor with pures as well as nons. She spotted Mark walking with friends. One made a rude comment to a girl in Kate's class. They all laughed and then the same boy shouted, "Out of our way. Purebloods coming through."
They barreled past the nons, shoving some to the side of the hall as they went by, and then stood at the top of the staircase leading to the entrance hall, deliberately blocking the way. Kate knew she'd be late now.
"We'll let you pass if you pay us," the same boy taunted.
Some nons immediately started turning out the pockets to see what they had, while others looked defiant and demanded the pures move out of the way.
Mark laughed and jeered with the rest of them. They didn't at all seemed worried that they would be late to their own DADA class with Professor Yaxley.
"What is going on here?" thundered a voice from the bottom of the stairs.
Kate felt relief in hearing Professor Snape's voice.
"Get to class, all of you."
Mark and his friends scowled but they moved away, unblocking the corridor. Kate quickly resumed climbing the stairs and brushed passed the Slytherin boys, in a hurry to get to her class and not wanting to be anywhere near them anymore.
Starved and Almost Broiled
Author: Lysander Stratford
Date: 08-10-07 14:35
Hunger gnawed at Lysander's stomach. He knew he'd been left in the back room of the warehouse to die. How long could a person live without food and water? Lysander had had neither for several days. Perhaps deep down he knew he could pay for all the lives he took, but he didn't suspect he would die like this or that it would happen so soon. If only he could see Charlotte one last time...
He'd passed his time alone by reading the books Allah Al-Khidad had left in the room with him. They were, every one, identical. He read them from cover to cover, comparing them as he went, and found not a single difference. It was obvious that they'd been printed together, and that one was not a reprinting or recopying of another. The books that had been born together had been reuinted after centuries apart.
And at what cost? Death. Four wizards, already dead, and Lysander soon to join them in the afterlife.
He had paid special attention to the chapter Hermione Granger had asked for, and had read the words so much that he had it memorized. Not that it mattered, really. He was as good as dead, and then that knowledge would be lost. She'd never know how the chapter ended.
He groaned and squeezed his stomach, which felt like it was eating itself.
Suddenly, one of the books combusted into flames. Lysander started and approached it warily, wondering how on earth such a thing could happen. Then the next one caught fire, and the next, and the last. Lysander tried to smite out the fire with his blanket, only to have it be consumed by the fire.
Great, so I'm not going to starve to death. I'm going to get burned alive! he thought to himself. He turned towards the door and decided to try to ram it down, but he was so weak from not having eaten for days that he could hardly find the strength to do so. The smoke was getting so thick that he started coughing violently. He got down on the floor and as far away from the flames as possible.
That's when he started hearing voices. There were people in the warehouse.
"Help!" Lysander started shouting. He coughed violently when a lot of smoke went into his lungs. "Help me, please!"
"He's in there," he heard a British man say. "Open that door, quickly!"
Lysander didn't see what happened next. The little room was so thick with smoke and the flames were so hot, that he'd curled himself into a ball in the corner. The door blasted open. Someone shouted, "Aguamenti!" Someone else ran into the room and used Mobilicorpus to lift Lysander and carry him out into the main part of the warehouse.
"You're safe now. Just relax," said someone. Lysander, unable to stay awake any longer, closed his eyes and drifted into unconsciousness.
Herbology On Monday
Author: Lawrence Masterson
Date: 08-10-07 19:26
Lawrence currently sat behind his desk, eyes sliding closed a she waited for his sixth years to come in. He was collecting Friday's homework as well as late homework from the week. Soon enough, the first few came in, checking them off attendance wise while he remained seated.
Iris, Alanna, Cecelia, Mary, Crispin, Ronan, Castor, Katharina, Orei, Sage, Cailyn, Jared, Artemis.
Roll call taken, Lawrence looked over the expanse of the class before starting with the first item of business.
"Time to collect Friday's assignments, as well as the late assignments from earlier in the week."
He gathered the assignments, looking through and finding two students who hadn't turned in a single assignment despite having been given the extra time to do them. "Five points from both Slyterin and Gryffindor. No assignments from either Cailyn Spicer or Iris Audley. Points will be given back if the assignments are turned in no later than Tuesday afternoon at three o'clock, the end of my office hours." Yes, he was giving the two a second chance.
The class passed on well enough, after handing out the assignment for that class he would dismiss them a few minutes early. His seventh, third, fourth, and fifth year classes went well enough. No other houses loosing points for not turning in homework assignments. Merely trouble with that first class.
Finally, his fifth years left the green house and he himself closed up for the night. Though, he didn't immediately head into the great hall, he wandered the grounds a bit, coming to pause before the lake. He saw Minerva finishing up in her own classroom, which if he recalled correctly, had been a storage closet...there was a dark side to everything, though from the looks of it, she had the classroom neat and orderly like her other classroom, when he'd been a student.
Around five thirty he finally headed into the Great Hall for dinner, he nodded to both Ariella and Alanna, before taking his seat at the "new" head table.
Wanted Man
Author: Nymphadora Tonks
Date: 08-11-07 09:42
No sighting of Constantius Ravenscroft had been reported since his flight from home last week, but his photograph and description had gone out to all law enforcement departments around the world with the hopes that someone would spot him and make an arrest. The evidence in his journal and collected from his cellar implicated him for the attempted murder of his former alleged best friend Percival FitzRoy. It also led to Tonks bringing Bors Blackmore into custody for his part in the ritual that almost led to Percival's death and ultimately did lead to one boy, Daniel Lyttle, dying. The other wizard involved, Lionel Wickham, was already in Azkaban on an unrelated charge.
According to Constantius' personal account of the incident, Bors and Lionel had had knowledge of his intention to kill Percival and had been present for the ritual Constantius intended to perform. However, they did not participate in the incident as anything more than willing spectators. As such, they might be tried as accessories to the crime but would likely serve only a short time in Azkaban, if at all, as they had been underage at the time. Blackmore's solicitor was already working up a strong case in his client's favor to show that at one time the boy had been young and stupid but had since grown into a respectable wizard with a respectable career.
Tonks went into the evidence room and summoned a book the aurors found in Constantius' cellar. It was called Ritus Niger and contained rituals dark in nature. She wondered where Constantius as a boy had ever found the book and hoped that she could one day ask him. The binding was worn in the middle of the book, where the instructions for a ritual titled Homo Invictus began.
The ritual Constantius had wanted to perform had been one intended to make him invincible. Tonks was unsure whether a Hogwarts student could have truly mastered what seemed to be a very complex series of spells, but Constantius seemed to think he was perfectly capable of performing it. It didn't matter to him that he would have blood on his hands. And ultimately he did, though the person who died that night hadn't been the intended victim.
Although Tonks didn't expect Constantius to return to his South Kensington home, there was 24-hour watch set up around the premises, just in case. Also, Georgia FitzRoy, his partner, and their two children, Carolina and Marcus Ravenscroft, were being tailed, just in case they met up with him. Tonks herself had a shift outside the house in just a few minutes. She sent the book back to where it belonged on the evidence shelf and then got ready to go to South Kensington.
Fuegomenti
Author: Ariella Beck
Date: 08-11-07 17:46
Professor Carmella Flume stood at the front of what had been Professor Flitwick's classroom and looked from one side of the raised desks to the other, smiling at each face in turn.
"Will no one volunteer to demonstrate Fuegomenti?"
Ariella had certainly read about the spell. It had been in the chapter assigned for homework on Thursday. She just hadn't be brave enough to try it outside a controlled environment, like a classroom.
She tentatively raised her hand.
"Thank you, Miss Beck."
Ariella rose from her seat and stepped to the middle of the classroom, where Professor Flume had set up a three-legged stool not unlike the one Professor McGonagall had used in the Sorting Ceremony. She'd placed a piece of parchment on top of the stool.
Gripping her wand, Ariella gently tapped the parchment and said, "Fuegomenti."
A small spark came out of the tip of her wand and ignited the corner of the parchment. Ariella exhaled a breath she hadn't realized she'd been keeping. She almost thought she'd cause an explosion or something.
"Nicely done. You may return to your seat."
Ariella went back to her seat and immediately tuned out of the lecture that followed. Her mind went straight to Lawrence––Professor Masterson as she called him during school hours––and the gift of sweets he'd sent her on Friday night. Alanna had told Ariella that she thought Lawrence was being pretty bold by sending her a present right under Snider's nose. As long as Snider didn't monitor the mail, Ariella really wasn't worried that she and Lawrence's romance would get discovered. It wasn't like they were hanging out outside of class. They knew the risks.
Ariella also thought about the letter Anthony had sent her over the weekend. He'd written all about their grandfather's failed attempts to get the new changes at Hogwarts overturned. Ariella didn't want Gramps to lose his job and would rather have him play by the rules than risk getting sacked, or worse, getting on the Minister of Magic's list.
Another thing on her mind was the fact that Wylie Martin, Ariella's supervisor during her summer internship, had also sent her a letter this morning with a survey asking her to rate and describe her experiences working for the Agency for the Development of Magical Items. Ariella wanted to start working on it today, but knew that she would probably have to save it until tomorrow because she had class all day long today.
She was pulled from her thoughts when Daria Matthews exclaimed that the stool had just caught on fire. The parchment Ariella had ignited had burned to ashes over the course of Professor Flume's lecture. Professor Flume, laughing, pointed her wand at the flaming stool and stated, "Aguamenti!" A jet of water shot out from the tip of her wand and doused out the flame, leaving a slightly charred, but otherwise undisturbed stool.
Alive
Author: Lysander Stratford
Date: 08-11-07 19:17
Lysander woke up at St. Mungo's the next day and found Julian at his side with Grace in one arm and Charlotte in the other. When she saw her daddy open his eyes, Charlotte squealed with delight, clapped her little hands together and then stretched out her arms. Julian put her in Lysander's bed, and she immediately snuggled into his shoulder.
"What happened?" Lysander asked Julian, as he put his arm around Charlotte and cradled her lovingly against his chest. His voice sounded croaky from all the smoke he'd inhaled yesterday.
"What do you remember?" Julian questioned. "I can fill in the blanks from there."
Lysander told him about how the four Books of Kem Heka had caught on fire and how he'd sought refuge in a corner of the room in which he'd been kept prisoner. He'd remembered hearing voices outside the door and then suddenly it had flown off its hinges into the smoke that had rapidly filled the enclosed space. Someone had tried to put out the fire, while someone else had carried him out of the room. Then everything had gone dark.
"Hermione Granger stopped by the shop yesterday asking for you. When I told her you'd been gone for days, she pulled out the last letter you'd sent her. She realized the name Allah Al-Khidad was actually an anagram for Khalid Adallah. That's when we decided not to take any chances. We got in contact with the authorities. They got in contact with authorites in West Irian Jaya and came out to rescue you."
"I would have starved, had they not come," Lysander recalled, running his fingers through Charlotte's dark curls, "or burned to death."
"Apparently the place was charmed to go up in flames should anyone enter. You would have starved, had no one come. I'm just glad they were quick enough to get you out of that room before you got burned or died of smoke inhalation," Julian said.
"The books," Lysander starting, shutting his eyes in agony, "they're destroyed."
"You'll just have to tell Hermione that she'll have to give up on getting what she wants from that book. You've certainly risked everything to help her."
Lysander opened his eyes and grinned. "Actually, she doesn't have to give up. I memorized the chapter she wants." He pressed a kiss into Charlotte's hair.
Julian laughed. "I hope your asking price is high, then. You certainly went to a lot of trouble to get her the information." He reached out with one arm to take Charlotte back. "You need your rest. You'll probably get discharged tomorrow morning. I'll pick you up."
Relucantly, Lysander handed over his daughter. He waved goodbye to the three of them, Julian, Charlotte, and Grace, and then closed his eyes for another nap.
A Few Renovations (Harriet Snider)
Author: Harry Potter
Date: 08-11-07 19:21
Harriet bends down to closely inspects the gleaming bar surface. Standing upright again, she cranes her head back to study the chandelier overhead, already brightly aglow with blue and white fairy lights. Next, Harriet walks over to the long windows to take a closer look at the lush, velvet drapes puddling on the floor, a rich, deep purple in color.
At the doorway to leave, Harriet turns to give the large, expansive room another once over. A number of comfortable couches and loves seats dot the room along with equally comfortable chairs and oversized pillows. Some sit alone while others are arranged in intimate groupings. There are a good many side tables made of fine woods. There are tables as well as desks for group and individual study. The bar Harriet had been inspecting is fully stocked with a huge variety of drinks. There are even more snacks to choose from, including fresh baked goods from Briar's Bakery, which will deliver items three times a day. One shelf arrangement near the bar is stocked with sweets, ranging from chocolate frogs to sugar quills to canary creams to every flavor ever made of Bertie Bott's Every Flavour Beans. Other shelves around the room contain interesting objects and games. There are spots to listen to WWN programs. In one corner, at a diagonal is a stage, ready for the live bands that will perform there every Friday and Saturday nights.
When the room is officially opened after lunch, there will be a cadre of House Elves carrying serving platters to wait on the needs of the room's users. One of the scuttles across in front of Harriet, checking for any signs of dust and plaster from the just finished remodel. Harriet beckons to it. When it's quivering before her, Harriet waves her wand to perform a cleaning charm. "Remember that whatever any of you wear in this room must be crisp and white."
The House Elf nods, squeaks out a thank you for noticing the miniscule stain Harriet had cleaned, then scuttles off. Harriet smiles again and steps from the room, pulling the grand, carved mahogony French doors shut behind her. Walking at a brisk pace, Harriet goes straight to the Great Hall for lunch, where she'll announce the grand opening of the new, Purebloods only common common room.
Interrupted Again
Author: Viktor Krum
Date: 08-11-07 20:53
Viktor had avoided Theodosia Batuti all week. Not an easy feat when they share an office. That ends sometime this week when another office will be ready. Viktor can't wait as that will make avoidance of the woman all the easier. Whey they have been in each other's presence, Viktor has been civil just as she'd asked but nothing more.
Setting up some brightly colored cones, half of them red and half of them blue, along the pitch, Viktor tells his students, "You vill fly along the path as part of learning control of your brooms."
Equally bright red and blue lines appear, connecting each line of cones. Viktor nods at Ramona Mickle. "You are first, Ramona."
As Ramona remounts her broom and starts flying along the zig zagged path Viktor has set up the very person Viktor has so far managed not to see at all today walks up.
Theodosia tilts her head, "Clever idea."
"Are you alvays going to bother me when I am in the midst of teaching?"
"Why aren't you up at the usual place?"
"I did not bother you during your class last week yet you disturbed me then and are doing so now."
"I thought we were being civil to each other."
"Ve vere but it is very difficult to continue being civil vith you vhen you keep interrupting my class." More loudly to Ramona Viktor says, "Very good. You only broke the red line once. Eric, you will go next. Adella, you vill go after Eric."
"Are the cones yours or are they they school's?"
"The school's, part of the equipment from the Scholastic Aptitude Tournament."
"Excellent. Then I do believe I shall use them this afternoon. Thank you for giving me a wonderful idea."
Viktor doesn't bother answering. Theodosia walks off but doesn't leave the pitch. She goes to sit in one of the stands, observing the rest of Viktor's flying class. For some reason this annoys Viktor almost as much as her interrupting him again did.
By the time Viktor dismisses his students and gets the equipment put away, Theodosia is gone. Since she's not in the office he supposes she want to lunch. Viktor debates whether to eat at his desk, go into Hogsmeade, go to his quarters, or go to the Great Hall even if it means seeing Theodosia again. Deciding it's stupid to keep taking meals somewhere other than the Great Hall simply because of a woman who sits at an entirely different table, Viktor walks up to the castle, arriving at the Great Hall just in time to hear Professor Snider make another announcement.