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Thoughts
Author: Illyria
Date: 08-24-07 16:05
Illyria sat in what consisted of her office, though she felt more like she was stuck in a lift shaft than an actual room. She constantly knocked things over when she entered and exited the tiny space, which barely had enough room for her desk. In fact, when one entered the office, all one pretty much noticed was the desk crammed between all four walls.
Although she was marking homework assignments from last week, Illyria's mind went to where it often had ever since Ronan Eastwick confided in her and her sister Urania two weeks ago at the Quidditch trials. She thought back to that conversation every time she saw the Gryffindor student around the castle.
Ronan left the field, cradling an ice pack to his forehead, and climbed up the stands to where Illyria and Urania sat together and watched the Quidditch scrimmage currently underway. Both women smiled when Ronan approached and scooted over to give him some room to join them.
"How's your head, Ronan?" Illyria asked, studying the bump after Ronan removed the ice pack from his head.
"Somewhat painful, but I think I'll live. Erm..." He looked suddenly nervous, as if he'd just changed his mind about revealing something.
"Is something the matter?" Illryia questioned.
He looked away, in the direction he'd last seen his mother go. Then he looked at Urania and then finally at Illyria. "I'm sitting on a very big secret and I can't keep it anymore. I know I need to talk to the authorities, but I want to tell someone else first."
He lowered his voice, conscious that they were all in a very public place, though most people seemed to be concentrating on the action on the field. Illyria and Urania moved in closer to listen to what Ronan had to say.
When he finished telling them about some things they already knew, like Caden's sudden change in personality and his eventual death, and had told them a few things to fill in the blanks, like discovering Enid's scrapbook, he told them that he had the book in his dorm room, should they like to see it.
They certainly were interested, especially Urania, who had dated Caden. Together, the three had returned to the castle and met in Illyria's small classroom, where they could talk in private. Illyria and Urania both couldn't believe what they were reading and looked through the entire journal twice before advising Ronan to call in an auror. Illyria ultimately did so herself, and the man, a nice fellow by the name of Geoffrey Blackwell, talked to Ronan, Urania and Illyria at length about what they knew of Caden and Enid, and then took the book in as evidence.
That very same evening, Geoffrey returned to Hogwarts for an audience with Illyria and Ronan. Urania had already gone home by then. He revealed that a team of aurors had gone to Ronan's London home and arrested Enid. She would stand trial in three weeks time, on Friday, October 5. Ronan and Urania both would be called in as witnesses, since Ronan was the son of the accused and Urania had had a recent relationship with the accused's other son. Permission to leave Hogwarts for the trial had already been granted by Professor Snider and easily obtained, since Ronan was a pureblood.
One of the reasons Illyria thought so much on the events from two weeks ago was because she knew Ronan worried about what would become of him in the summer months after this school year. Ronan's 17th birthday wasn't until the following September, and unless he became an emancipated minor to live on his own those few months before, he needed a guardian. Illyria had given it a lot of thought and wondered if he would accept her offer to be his guardian until next September, when he would be considered a legal adult.
She decided she would ask him after the trial, and only if Enid didn't somehow get released so that she could continue to raise her only surviving child, though Illyria hardly thought a murderess, whether convicted or not, was a suitable parent for any child.
Illyria tried to concentrate on marking her papers now. Afterwards, she intended on making sure everything was ready for her evening classes. She had two: the first years, who would study the phases of the moon, and the second years, who would learn about Aquarius.
Two Weeks Later
Author: Viktor Krum
Date: 08-24-07 16:54
Viktor chews on the end of his quill, makes a face at the taste of the feathers, and vows to remember to buy some sugar quills if he's going to keep trying to gnaw on his quills. With September's end, Viktor isn't sure what his purpose at Hogwarts is anymore. The first years' flying lessons are completed. He's got no say in coaching the Quidditch teams, at least not officially.
Viktor scribbles something onto the parchment in front of him. It's not even Hogwarts work. It's Humbatas related. Anything related to Quidditch at Hogwarts goes through Theodosia. Through the narrow doorway of the cubbyhole that is now his office, Viktor can see Theodosia bent over her desk, intently writing. At least she's allowing - it still irritates Viktor no end he had to obtain Theodosia's permission - the flying and Quidditch workshop he always gives on Hogsmeade weekends. Thinking about that, Viktor pulls out some large pieces of parchment to make notices about the workshop. He'll get them up around the castle when he goes up for lunch.
Viktor pulls out a variety of ink colors to make the notices more like small posters. Maybe those students who should have made their house teams, or at the very least been high in consideration, will attend and while not the same, they could still get in some good game time during the Quidditch portion of the workshop.
It's exactly two weeks since the team lists went up. The trials were on Saturday the 15th and the lists went up on Monday the 17th. On Sunday, Theodosia had called each team captain in to her office, with the exception of Slytherin, and went over who had tried out for which spot, who is a Pure, who is a Non, and got the input from each of those three captains. Viktor was there as well but he only gave an opinion when directly asked.
What each of the captains wanted and what Theosodia, as per Professor Snider's rules, would allow were often in opposition. Take the Ravenclaw team team for example. Daria really wanted Coco Nutt to resume her position as Beater. Alastor Jenkins got that spot but only because Alastor only wanted Beater and no other position. That gave a second year the position over the far better, very seasoned sixth year simply because the Jenkins boy is pureblooded and Coco is not.
Other decisions were difficult but not in the same way. For example, Gryffindor had seven purebloods trying out for Seeker, all of whom would have been good choices. It went to Orei McCoi mainly because Orei has more playing experience, having been on the team a few years ago. Two of the others who'd shown some talent in other positions and who'd both said they'd take another spots if they couldn't be Seeker were made Chasers. Francis and Etta will be playing alongside Wiggy. Jared so very worried that Wiggy wouldn't be on the team again but of the other purebloods trying out, none wanted Chaser. That allowed a none pureblood to take the third Chaser slot. Jared didn't hesitate in naming Wiggy.
The Slytherin situation was a whole headache unto itself. For a wide variety of reasons, only Griet was returning to the team. Griet was made to try out again and the captain's badge taken away. Problem was, that left no one to watch tryouts and select team members. The new Slytherin team is purely Theodosia's choosing. Griet made the list though Viktor hasn't been able to tell if she's pleased about that or not. Theodosia made Mortimer Rollo the new Slytherin captain solely because he's the oldest pureblood on the team.
Finishing up the workshop announcements, Viktor uses a charm to more quickly dry the still wet ink on all of them then gathers them up to put into a water proof envelope for the walk in the rain up to the castle.
Changes at the Ministry
Author: Nymphadora Tonks
Date: 08-24-07 17:32
Tonks busied herself at work to keep her mind off of the changes occurring at the Ministry of Magic, though it was terribly difficult not to feel affected since she didn't have pure blood. Even though she had two wizard parents, her father being a muggle-born was enough to place her in the company of those like Ethan Somerset, who had no wizard ancestry.
As of the present day, Tonks didn't have a new, very spacious cubicle towards the front of the Auror Office like the purebloods. Those with lesser blood, like Tonks and Ethan, were stuck in the back in smaller cubicles than they'd had before.
"Pures" had a purple stripe down the bottom of her ID badge, while the "nons" didn't.
When a new case presented itself, purebloods always had first dibs on it. Muggle-borns and others with an equivalent blood status were left as second string aurors, unless the case involved dangers that would most definitely end in death, maiming or some other unfortunate downside. In those cases, the Muggle-borns and the like were expendable.
Tonks found it extremely disgusting but counted her blessings over the fact that she was still able to work on her old cases. At least they hadn't been taken away from her... yet. She put her mind to those tasks, the case involving Constantius Ravenscroft and her continuing work on shutting down the other Resistance offices around the world. In the first instance, Ravenscroft still hadn't been sighted and he hadn't made any attempts to go home or get in contact with his family. The aurors no longer monitored the house but continued to monitor the floo and the post.
With regards to the Resistance, Tonks had intended on traveling out to Taipei well over a month ago, but had gotten sidetracked by a number of things. Her contacts overseas had dug up a lot of helpful information in the meantime and had even managed to locate and shut down the office, called #7. Tonks had learned that many years ago, #7 had done business with a mob group led by Kep-Tian Zhongxun, whom Tonks recognized as being a wizard Ethan Somerset knew quite a bit about, having met the man and solicited him for the Dark Lord. Zhongxun was a Death Eater who was still at large. Tonks interviewed Ethan to see what he knew about Zhongxun's mob and its relationship with #7, but he didn't know anything.
Unfortunately, the raid of #7 didn't provide any leads for other Resistance offices around the world, like some of the other raids had. At least Tonks knew there was a London office somewhere, so she now spent time trying to find out more about it. She was busy looking through a list of contacts she had who might be able to help her in the matter, when a clerk came into the office leading another man. They stopped at the entrance to Tonks' cubicle.
"Yes?" she asked, looking from the clerk to the other man.
The clerk walked away, attending to other business, while the man introduced himself. He spoke with an Australian accent. "My name is Byron Clutterbuck. I'm an auror with the Australian Ministry of Magic in Sydney."
"I'm Tonks," Tonks said, shaking the wizard's hand. "What can I do for you?"
"It's my understanding you're the main contact on the Constantius Ravenscroft case, are you not?" When Tonks nodded, Clutterbuck continued. "I have some unfortunate news. The body of Ravenscroft was found in the quarters of Percival FitzRoy at Sydney's School of Wizardry. Apparently, Ravenscroft killed FitzRoy and then himself."
"FitzRoy is dead?" Tonks asked, frowning. She would have to give the bad news to the man's daughter, Marzipan, if she hadn't already been contacted.
"Yes. He was killed sometime this morning, as some of his students saw him alive at breakfast. His body was discovered by a colleague after FitzRoy didn't report to class."
Tonks learned that Ravenscroft had apparently left a suicide note, which he'd apparently written after killing FitzRoy, and which detailed quite a lot, from their time together as youths at Hogwarts, to him running away with FitzRoy's wife, to his eventual decision to kill FitzRoy and ultimately himself.
After giving Tonks all the information she needed, Clutterbuck revealed that he intended on telling FitzRoy's daughter personally of her father's death. Tonks offered to go with him and then planned on going to the Ravenscroft household to relay the other bad news. The Ravenscroft case had been more or less solved, but at a great price.
Adjusting to the Changes
Author: Ethan Somerset
Date: 08-24-07 18:33
Ethan sat in his cramped cubicle at the Ministry of Magic and looked over his current assignments. Ever since the Minister of Magic designated that the Ministry should be as segregated as Hogwarts, Ethan found himself dealing with cases ranging from tedious and ridiculous to outright risky. Many of his jobs had some level of risk, but sometimes he found himself dealing with situations that had no safe solution. When he wasn't bored to tears or fearing for his life, Ethan did get to work on some of his old cases, for which he had some level of passion. For example, his unanswered questions dealing with Project 25, although not so much a priority anymore since Project 25 had long ended, were still important. Dark witches and wizards associated with the defunct faction were still out there.
The two biggest questions on Ethan's list with respect to Project 25 were:
How did Voldemort know the children he was stealing were wizards?
and
Who kidnapped them?
Ethan had learned who'd kidnapped him and a few other Project 25ers, but the list of unknown kidnappers was still longer than it was short. There was also the matter of rounding up those Project 25 adoptive parents who were still at large. That list was fairly long in and of itself.
It had been a while since Ethan had really thrown himself into the assignment of finding those not yet apprehended, and it was about time he concentrated on those efforts again. Project 25 had been conceived thirty years ago and it had only been two years since the horrible attack on Diagon Alley. It was well past time for all those involved to go to Azkaban.
It was also well past time for those unfortunate Project 25ers who'd been victims quite unwillingly to get out of Azkaban, but Ethan knew he had no chance in hell of ever getting them out. Not as long as Berwyck Oldridge ran the Department of Magical Law Enforcement and served as lapdog to Minister Smythe-Jones.
At least one thing was going right in Ethan's life. Just slightly over two weeks ago, Ethan had confessed that he was a wizard to his biological family. He'd thought they would think he was crazy or a freak, but they were very open and adjusted to the fantastical news quite well. Ethan promised to take them to Diagon Alley one day so that they could see the other side of human life, and they really couldn't wait to see with their own eyes what Ethan had described to them.
He leaned back in his chair and almost knocked over the back wall of his tiny cubicle. "Sorry, Arnold," Ethan said, surprisingly cheerfully for working in such uncomfortable and disappointing conditions.
Early Mornings And A Hated Contract
Author: Briar Rose
Date: 08-24-07 19:43
Briar rubs the back of her hand across her eyes. Not yet even noon and she's ready for bed. For the past six days Briar's had to get up in the wee hours to come get things started for the bakery. Part of her morning staff left, one to open his own bakery in Dublin and the other so she could take on the full time job of caring for an ailing parent, and so far Briar's not found competent replacements. She could shift around schedules but she doesn't want to risk ticking off employees who didn't sign on for a shift starting at 5 am.
At least being Wizarding, those who are on the early morning shift don't have to come in at 3 or 4 am like Briar's heard goes on with some Muggle bakeries. With the magic they use to have some things start on their own and to also speed things along or make things easier, her people don't need to physically be there until 5 to have things ready for the early morning business from 6 to 7, or even the occassional really early bird who taps on the door at 5:30 to see if anything's ready yet.
Adding to Briar's stress has been her efforts to get out of a contract with Hogwarts headmistress Harriet Snider. When Professor Snider approached Briar about catering to Hogwarts with three orders a day, no word had been said about the baked goods being only for pureblooded students and staff. If Briar had been filled in on that little fact, she'd never have signed the contract.
Briar's solicitor is working on breaking the contract on the grounds that for purebloods only is not mentioned or implied. The solicitor Snider has for Hogwarts, and one provided by the Ministry no less, is claiming that it doesn't matter who receives the baked goods once at the school. The contract has nothing to do with how the goods are dispersed once received and therefore a stipulation mentioning the goods are for purebloods only is not necessary.
Briar is going to keep fighting but if she can't get out of it, when the contract is up in just over five months, she won't be renewing. Harriet Snider has sent a personal note to Briar about it all, stating how disappointed she is that someone of Briar's heritage would not be fully supportive of the new initiatives. Upon reading the letter, a disgusted Briar threw it in the fireplace, making sure every piece of it burned completely.
Deep In Thought
Author: Harry Potter
Date: 08-24-07 22:51
Harry sits in a chair in the break room, listening to Tommy, Randy, Una, and a couple of others debate who the best professor Quidditch Keepers are for this season. Harry is listening yet isn't listening. Harry's mind is back on the trip to Egypt with Hermione and Ron.
They were - or rather Hermione was - successful in finding that flower needed for Bill's cure. Unfortunately it takes thirty days for the potion to brew. The potion won't be ready for about two more weeks. Two weeks Bill might not have. If only they could get a time turner and go back to either prevent Bill getting harmed or if that weren't possible, to go back to right after he was injured and immediately go to Egypt to look for the flower. They could start with the spot where Hermione found it and go from there if it weren't in bloom there. They'd get it from somewhere, get the potion going, and Bill would have been fine and back on his feet for weeks now.
"Harry? Halloooooo?"
Harry looks around to find the others peering at him closely. "Oh sorry. What was it?"
Tommy says, "We wanted to know what your thoughts are on the Humbatas this year. Your friends with Viktor Krum, right?"
Harry starts nodding. "Yes, that's right. Want me to see about setting you up with some tickets? Viktor's forever giving me and some of his other friends tickets so it wouldn't be any problem."
"Yeah, that would be great!" Una is the one enthusiastically replying.
The talk about who's got the best teams this year resumes but Harry's mind starts drifting again. With the Ministry of Magic now undergoing a segregation of sorts, Harry wonders how long before this branch of it is affected. Right now the new rules are being applied within the Ministry itself but how long before branches of it, even secret ones, are forced to change as well? This organization is, afterall, under the purview of the Ministry, even if only remotely linked.
Even if it takes a long time for an operation like this one to be forced into compliance, there's always the chance that Minister Smythe-Jones will decide to pay close attention to who exactly is on the payroll here. If that happens, Harry's most likely out of a job.
Harry keeps himself from sighing aloud at that thought. He suddenly feels very tired and would like nothing more than to go home and sit on the couch with Janine. Of course, the second he were to put his arm around Janine or think about kissing her, Pinky would be thisclose to them, wanting to hang around.
Thinking of Pinky reminds Harry of how Ron kept calling him a pinky. Harry has asked Hermione but she'd just given him an odd look then grinned. "I think Ron's right, Harry. It's something you need to figure out on your own."
Shrugging mentally, Harry closes off all his thoughts so he can pay attention to the on-going conversation about Quidditch before this lunch break is over and they get back to other things, which means for Harry learning some new techniques from Randy with Tommy helping.
Mysterious Invitation
Author: Charisma Stone
Date: 08-25-07 10:36
Charisma had a long Monday as usual. Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays were the worst...though Monday's definitely were the worst, because she was up until midnight or later because of Astronomy from ten thirty until midnight. However, the morning was made interesting by the delivery of an invitation to dinner in the Common Commons tonight..no doubt the nonpure common commons as she most likely wouldn't be able to get into the pure's common commons...since she wasn't a pure blood.
That invitation was still tucked in her bag as she headed into the common commons after DADA let out at three. She had some time, so she decided to do some homework, they hadn't said -when- dinner was going to be served so she figured she'd work a bit until others started filtering in. All the while, she would look down at that invitation, wondering who sent it. There was no name on it, there was no telling who it could have come from.
It was about four thirty or so when others started filtering in. So she quickly finished of the last sentence to her current paragraph in her essay for HoM, and tucked everything back in her bag and put away.
She recognized Orei, a sixth year Gryffindor who had just been named seeker for the house team, and who had helped her with some of the older Slytherin when they'd been picking on her. "Orei!" She called, raising a hand and drawing the older girl's attention.
"What are you doing here?" She questioned, quickly spiriting that mysterious invitation into a pocket of her robes.
"Coming for dinner." Was all that Orei said, she'd caught a glimpse of the invitation before Isma had put it away.
"Same here. You got one too huh?" She asked, pulling out the invitation that had come by owl that morning between Charms and History of Magic.
"Yeah, got it this morning, before Herbology." She said, settling down across from the first year. "Who do you think sent it?"
"I've no idea, I wish I knew. Don't even know where to start looking to figure out who sent it." Isma said, shifting slightly, pressing her back against the booth that they were sitting in.
"Neither do I. I wonder if it was sent to a mix of blood statuses, you know, since I'm a pure, and you are well..." Orei bit her lip looking at Isma and shook her head. "You're not." She finished.
"Don't worry about it. I'm proud of what I am, even if I am deemed a second class citizen here at Hogwarts." Isma said smiling up at the older girl. They continued to talk idly, while waiting for this little event to get started.
Bad News
Author: Marzipan
Date: 08-25-07 16:41
Marzi had been in the middle of her fourth year class (in which they were harvesting the rhizome of moonseed), when Tonks appeared in the doorway of the greenhouse with a man unfamiliar to Marzi. From the expressions on their faces, Marzi knew that the visit couldn't wait, and excused herself while her students continued working on the roots to talk to her guests. She wasn't sure how she ever kept it together upon hearing the bad news. Her father was dead, murdered by the man who'd tried to kill him just under 40 years ago. It was only a small consolation that Constantius had taken the coward's way out and ended his own life, though Marzi would have loved to tell to his face what was on her mind.
She returned to her students, feeling as light as air because she was really miles and miles away in Sydney with her father and not there in the greenhouse at Hogwarts. When the third years left, Marzi broke down into tears. Unfortunately, her next class filed in almost immediately and didn't quite know what to make of their sobbing teacher.
Marzi put herself together again, apologizing for alarming her students, and proceeded to teach her fifth years about the mimic plant, one of which sniffled continually as it copied Marzi and her mood. The students had a lot of fun with the plant, and their happiness made it easier for Marzi to pass through the class. When they finally left, she went immediately to Snider's office to relay the news of her father's passing.
She wondered whether Snider would raise a stink at Marzi's plan to go to Sydney for a few days to take care of her father's funeral arrangments, but to her surprise, Snider didn't raise any argument to anything Marzi said. She asked Marzi to see to it that she had a substitute in place and even offered Marzi condolences, which Marzi suspected she only received since she was actually pureblooded herself, even if she wasn't one of Snider's batch of teachers.
Marzi immediately called on Wilhelmina Grubbly-Plank to substitute her classes for the rest of the week and then spoke to Lawrence of her impending absence. Lawrence, too, offered his condolences. He'd known Marzi's father from his own days at Sydney's School of Wizardry. Then Marzi owled Weston.
While she packed for Sydney, Tonks and Byron Clutterbuck met with Georgia Ravenscroft with the news of Constantius' passing. Then they returned to the Ministry to give Weston the news. He arrived at Hogwarts before receiving Marzi's letter and offered to travel with her to Sydney, which she accepted. She knew she would need some support, even if it came from the son of the man who'd murdered her father.