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Atonement
Author: Plum
Date: 03-02-08 16:34
Frowning at the calculations Doris Dibble made on the sixth question of the end of term exam, calculations that look very similar to what Hermes Conroy wrote for the seventh question, Plum checks and double checks to make sure she's not the one in error. Plum doesn't want to give a student low marks on an important exam because she made errors in her own calculations.
Satisfied that she's done the calculations correctly, and glad that if she had she's only marked two other papers - meaning she'd not have to go back and correct her corrections - Plum studies Doris's exam more closely. She pulls out Hermes's exam and studies his answer for question seven. Doris's incorrect answer for question six is similar to Hermes's but not identical. Frowning again, Plum looks to Doris's question seven and finds another incorrect calculation though a spot on answer if it were for question eight.
"Oooooh, got your questions off somehow, did you Doris?" Plum says to herself.
Plum makes little marks on Doris's paper, drawing small lines from the off numbered answers to their correctly corresponding questions. Ultimately, the only thing Doris gets counted against is that there is no answer anywhere that correctly goes with question six.
Plum thinks that maybe it's just her but if she'd gotten to the last calculation question and didn't have anything to actually write in that spot, she'd have gone back through and looked at what she'd done. Found where she got off and made a notation about it at the spot where the in correct matching of answers to questions began.
Finishing up the rest of Doris's exam, Plum puts it aside, debating whether to go grab lunch first or check on her father and Alex first. Loudly blowing air out through her mouth, Plum knows she should go check on those two before doing anything else.
Evan's been in a deep depression since Mary died, not that Plum can blame him. She's not been the most chipper either. The difference is that Plum doesn't have a history of alcoholism. Plum is constantly worried that Evan is going to go out and get drunk and stay that way. And if he does, she has little doubt he will be mean and vicious like he was in the past when drinking.
At least Blossom's in Hogsmeade is still open. Most of the Weasleys seem to be laying low or off in hiding but Blossom Weasley's day care is open and it's convenient to Hogwarts. Plus, Alex loves being around other kids his age. Maybe for him, having them around to play with helps with his inability to understand why Mummy's been gone so many days and nights in a row.
Plum dearly wishes she had something to keep her that occupied. Perhaps that's why she's been covering her father's Arithmancy classes. It helps to fill the void of doing something other than sitting around bleary eyed and tear stained with grief.
It is to keep occupied that she's substituting in his classes but that's only part of it. Partially she's doing it for atonement. More than once since that awful day Plum has fervently wished that if she had to lose a parent that it had been Evan, not Mary. It's a horrid, awful, comtemptuous thought to have but it's also painfully, gut wrenchingly the heartfelt truth. Much as she'd rather be wallowing in her own grief, much as she'd rather be doing other things to keep occupied to keep from wallowing, such as supporting Anthony's sister Katherine in a protest march on St. Emrys this morning, Plum assuages some of the guilt she has for wishing her father were the dead one, by covering his classes for him and taking care of Alex, all without complaint.
Pulling the office door shut behind her, Plum turns in the direction of their residence. She'll see how Evan is doing then she'll walk into Hogsmeade, look in on Alex, then make herself get something to eat while in the village.
Furious
Author: Johanna Steele
Date: 03-03-08 10:31
Johanna wasn't paying attention to what Professor Ivy Whitmen was saying. She was thinking on how unfair it was having History of Magic classes on the 4th floor while the pures have it on the 3rd. Today she arrived late to class and the teacher retired 5 points to Slytherin. "If the class was on the 3rd floor nothing of this would happen," she thought.
She liked History of Magic a lot. She dreamed with the day that her name would be in one of these school books that the students have to study. "Johanna Steele, born in London, daughter of Anthony Steele and ... ARE YOU LISTENING TO ME MISS STEELE?!!!"
Johanna jumped from her chair. "Sorry Professor Whitman."
"Well, you must pay attention in my classes!"
"Yes, Professor. I'm sorry." ("Please don't take Slytherin more points," Johanna thinks desperately.)
"Less 5 points for your house! I hope you learn with that. And now, with no more distractions let's continue with ..."
The class goes on and Johanna listens to the teacher.
She was furious. "If I was a pureblood nothing this would happen."
Another Day Hard at Work
Author: Lucille Faraday
Date: 03-03-08 12:44
Somewhere outside of Nouakchkott, Mauritania
Dawn - Wednesday, March 27, 2002
The owl came for Lucille Faraday at a rather inopportune time. That always seemed to be the manner of things these days, what with the coup dwindling to a standstill and the pompous bastards up in 'Parliament' adding their harassing letters to the ever-growing pile of notes from her father.
Stop bombing my important government buildings. Stop cursing my children. Come home and bring your brother with you.
So demanding! People are all the same.
The increasing sunlight filtered through the slats in her tilted balsawood-and-corrugated-sheet-metal shack provided plenty of light to see by as she leafed through the latest installment of charges against her, bored. Her younger brother slid up behind her, eerily silent as usual.
"Are you finished with him?" He whispered. His eye kept twitching, but Lucille was still looking at the letters in her hand.
"No, why? You want to finish him up?" She dropped the letters on the card table before her, fully expecting the weight of them, however negligible, to finally collapse the stupid thing. She turned. "I didn't think that was your cup of tea, Sammy. You willing to give it a go?" As she spoke, she pulled her wand out of the waistband of her jeans and began idly flicking the drying blood off the end.
Samuel Faraday was tall and lithe, with a perpetual distant, distracted look. "No." He eyed her wand distastefully, "such disrespect for your wand. The Cruciatus Curse was good enough for our forefathers, and it will always be good enough for me."
"That's why I'm the ringleader of this little operation, not you. You've got to think outside the ugly, decaying shed in the middle of nowhere. Think beyond our stuffy past." When she waved her wand idly at a spot near her feet, a trapdoor opened up and a rope ladder descended into a large, comfortable series of underground rooms. The moment the door opened, pained moans punctuated by short screams filtered their way out of the hole in the ground.
"Creativity is the key, Sammy. Use everything, no matter the source." She smirked at her brother. Samuel sulked.
"Are you coming, little brother, or do you want to go home to your cozy beach in Algiers and your daddy?" Lucille dropped down the hole, giggling to herself, and her brother followed her, slowly, his grumbling quickly overpowered by new screams.
Employee Shortage
Author: Briar Rose
Date: 03-04-08 18:26
"You look knackered," Earl Hampton remarks to Briar as he looks over the items offered in the display case.
"Having to put in more work hours, including time trying to find more employees. I don't have anyone full-time anymore."
Earl, someone Briar has dated on occassion since meeting him at her brother Byron's new year's eve party, December 31, 2000, scrunches up his face. "I hadn't realized you're short-handed."
"Only these past two weeks or so. The RAC."
"Ah. Say no more. I understand. I'll take two slices of the lemon cake."
Briar places each slice in its own container as she says, "To make things worse, Byron and Bethany were found by the RAC."
"I'd heard that but was hoping it wasn't true."
"Somehow I've ended up with their boys; not that I mind taking care of them. They were unceremoniously dumped here two days ago. To say the least Duncan and Douglas have been rather upset, especially Douglas. With him not even being two, he simply doesn't understand what's going on."
"I wish there were something I could do to help. If you can think of anything, let me know."
"Thanks, Earl. I appreciate the offer."
Earl stands talking with Briar for all of half a minute, taking his leave to return to work because another customer has come in. Briar leaves the counter, and the customer making her decision on what to purchase, just long enough to pop into the kitchen, wave her wand to empty the oven and fill it again.
Minnie is coming in soon to help with the rush the bakery always gets around lunch. Maisie was in this morning to help with the breakfast crowd. Briar has some interviews later for some part-time help. With so many people vanished or in hiding now, many businesses are struggling to find employees. Briar really hopes she can find at least one person to hire. If not, she's going to have to consider cutting back on the bakery's hours.
Aegean's been a huge help as has having Blossom's continuing to operate. If that shuts down, Aegean will have to return full-time to keeping the children, which means even less help in the bakery.
Briar sighs, forces a smile, and returns to the counter to wait on that customer.
5 Days In
Author: Severus Snape
Date: 03-04-08 18:58
Severus sank onto the cot in his cramped cell at Azkaban and leaned his head against the cool stone wall. He closed his eyes and breathed deep, shutting out all the sounds of his fellow inmates. He imagined hearing the wind howl and the waves batter against the shore of the island. Unfortunately, the outer walls of Azkaban were so thick, that no one on the inside could ever hear what went on beyond them. Severus opened his eyes, knowing he would never again hear anything from the outside world as long as he continued to serve his life sentence.
Suddenly stir crazy, he rose to his feet and took the few steps required to reach the front of his cell. He rested his arms on the crossbar and looked up and down the hall. One of his former students, Siegfried Dewhurst, occupied the very first cell across the corridor. Ethan Somerset, a former colleague of his, lived next door. Other familiar faces shared the same cell block, though there were plenty of wizards Severus didn't know. He bet the majority of them, if not all, weren't purebloods or perhaps were blood traitors, though as of yet, Severus hadn't heard of purebloods getting more than a slap on the hand. Then again, he'd been in Azkaban a whole five days. Maybe a lot had changed during that time.
Since his incarceration, he hadn't seen or heard from Minerva, Filius or Hagrid. He knew the three were somewhere in the prison, since they'd all arrived together last Saturday. Snape guessed they'd been assigned to different cell blocks on different floors. If he had been the one making the arrangements, he would have ensured that the four bad seed professors were separated. It made perfect sense.
From the corner of his eye he saw a pair of hands emerge from the bars of the cell to his immediate left. He turned his head properly and acknowledged Ethan with a nod of the head.
"There are moments when I decide I'm glad to be here and not out there," Ethan said. "At least we know what to expect in here. The same thing day in and day out. Out there..."
"...there's uncertainty," Snape finished. "And yet, I could do something out there and can only wish to gouge my eyes out from boredom in here."
Ethan chuckled. "Don't be too hasty. You made need your eyes yet. How are you, Siegfried?" he called out to the younger man across the hall.
"Could be worse, could be better," Siegfried replied with a shrug of his shoulders.
Severus no longer felt interested in chatting and slipped his arms from the bars of his cell, skulking back to his cot where he intended on drowning out everything but the thoughts in his head.
Exhibition
Author: Griet
Date: 03-05-08 17:44
Before nightfall, a house elf escorted Griet to the dungeons, where they entered the room Griet visited monthly when she turned into a werewolf. Griet stepped into her cell and turned at the wall, where she slid to the floor and waited for the unavoidable to happen. The house elf secured the cell and then exited the room, closing the door behind her and leaving Griet very much alone.
Griet always felt extremely out of sorts around the full moon, having never really gotten used to the transformation. Her mentor Remus Lupin had once told her that after so many years of experiencing the change, even he felt dread and fear each and every month. It seemed one never grew accustomed to it, no matter how often it had happened.
On this particular occasion, Griet had something new to fear. Ever since her very first transformation, she had been under the influence of the Wolfsbane Potion, which allowed her to keep her own mind while in werewolf form. Without Snape at Hogwarts, Griet had no access to the potion. She'd even asked Professor Carrow for help in the matter and had left his office feeling lucky not to have come away cursed. Snider was no help either. In Griet's desperation, she'd even asked the pureblood Potions professor Spudmore for aid but had learned that there wasn't any Wolfsbane Potion in stock and there wasn't time to make any either. Griet scolded herself for not thinking of it earlier, but at the same time wondered whether Spudmore had even been telling the truth. She seemed like a nice enough professor, compared to some, but maybe it was just an act.
As the room was in the dungeons, it had no windows and Griet had no real way of knowing whether or not the sun had completely gone down. She sometimes wished she had a way of preparing herself for the first tremors her body felt, such as being able to see the moon rise in the dark sky. Griet wasn't one for surprises.
She pushed her head back against the wall and shut her eyes, but they flew open when the door opened and Professor Yaxley entered the room, followed by a dozen or so students. Griet scrambled to her feet. Why did she suddenly have a sinking feeling in her gut that something else was about to happen that she really didn't want?
"Although all students of Defense Against the Dark Arts learn what a werewolf is, few, if any, are privileged enough to see one with their own eyes. Tonight you will not only see a werewolf, but you will also witness its transformation. Consider yourselves truly fortunate."
There was a murmuring among the students after Yaxley finished.
Griet couldn't believe her ears. Although she loathed being alone during her darkest time, she had never wanted to be an exhibition.
"Professor Yaxley. I think you are making a dangerous mistake! I haven't taken the Wolfsbane Potion. What if I escape?" protested Griet somewhat franctically.
"Quiet, girl." Yaxley pulled out his wand and drew a thick yellow line across the floor, two meters from the bars of Griet's cell. To his students he said, "No one is to the cross this line. If you choose to disobey me, you will rue the consequences, believe me." He shot an icy smile at Griet. "Just ask Miss Vanderbilt."
Griet eyes began to glitter with tears. She turned away from Yaxley and walked to the wall, seeming to stare at it when she couldn't see anything but a blur of stone before her eyes.
Suddenly, she buckled forward, one arm clutching her middle, her left palm pressed against the wall.
"It's happening!" she heard Yaxley say enthusiastically.
Griet slid to her knees and cried aloud, feeling pain in her joints as they lengthened and popped. The sickening sounds of cracks were drowned out by her whimpers and cries of pain. Fur sprouted from her skin. The seams of her clothing burst (she would have undressed, had she not had unwanted guests). Her nails sharpened into claws and her teeth grew long and pointy. In a matter of minutes, she forgot who or where she was. Fully transformed she howled and then paused to sniff at the air. Whirling around suddenly, she bared her teeth at the dozen pair of eyes that stared at her and then threw herself at the bars of her cell, over and over again. She growled angrily and dripped saliva onto the floor. All she could think of was how badly she wanted to tear her fangs into soft flesh and taste warm, flowing blood. Forgotten was her embarrassment, fear and astonishment. All she thought of now was the hunt.
Wingardium Leviosa
Author: Johanna Steele
Date: 03-06-08 10:03
"Wingardium Leviosa," says Professor Flume. "If you want to do it well, you have to pronounce it well."
All the class repeated, "Wingardium Leviosa."
"Good. Now with your wands, please." He asked.
Johanna grabs her unicorn hair wand and with an effort tries to levitate the feather. Useless … She looks around: Felícia Flaversham’s feather lifted an inch and Taran Tremaine’s lifted for about a second. Professor Flume didn’t seen any of her colleague’s progresses. He was looking throw the window.
Johanna sighted. She missed Professor Flitwick a lot. She was sure that if he taught them the spell by this time she could do it in perfection ( or almost!). The pile of books he used to sit had disappeared. “Poor Professor! I heard they put him in Azkaban along with Snape, McGonagall and others…”.
An exclamation took Johanna from her taughts. Gus van Tassel, livitated his feather. Professor Flume turned his attention to the class and saw it right on the moment when the feather fall on Gus’s desk. “Good, Mr. Tassel! 5 points to Slytherin.”
Gus smiled. “Now I want to see the others feathers in the air! Come on don’t stop! Practice makes perfection!”
Johanna tries once and twice but with no success. Her mind is on other places. It’s the last class of charms of this term. Soon she’ll be on holidays.
“I did it!!” says Felicia. More and more "I did its" echoe in the classroom.
“I see we are making progresses. I’m glad. Althought I might say that your colleagues from the other blood status class have dominated the levitated spell in less time than you." At least that was what Professor Flume says.
Johanna thinks again in Flitwick. He didn’t believe in blood status. “If I was a pure I could done this already!” She lifted her wand and proffered: "Wingardium Leviosa."
But nothing happened.
Professor Flume was looking directly at her. She blushed. She wasn’t very good at charms like her father. She tried again and again. She locked at her watch. The class was almost over. Flume didn’t take her eyes from her. “You can do it,” Johanna said to herself: “Wingardium Leviosa."
The feather lifted. Only a little but it lifted!
“Class is end.” Said Flume. “Now don’t forget to practice on the Holidays,” He was looking to Johanna. She nodded to him and run to History of Magic class. She couldn't be late again.
Places for Meetings (AJ)
Author: Furnella Hodfuffer
Date: 03-06-08 18:04
AJ wads up the parchment he'd been writing on and tosses it into the small waste bin in his office. AJ's works on his novels better in the hidden chamber he'd found through a secret entrance in the library but he'd got office hours until noon. With the unfortunate sacking of Bambi, AJ had thought he might have to give up his sanctuary altogether but he'd finally fully explored the rest of the hidden passageway and found not one but two other entrances into the passageway.
One of the entrances is in a niche hidden behind a large tapestry along a little used corridor. The other is one floor up not all that far from some empty classrooms. That hallway though has more foot traffice so for now AJ's been using the entrance behind the large tapestry.
In addition to the two other entrances, AJ also found more chambers. It's those chambers and the one that he considers to be his room that have AJ too distracted to work on writing or even finishing up grading end of term exams. Phin recently came to AJ about asking Furnella in person if the offices or one of the other rooms at the restaurant could be used over the spring holiday as a meeting place.
While AJ doesn't want to condone or encourage Phin, Wiggy, Jewel, and others to do anything that might get them in deep with Snider, he also can understand their desire to do something. AJ has the same desire. The only thing that's held him back is the thought of what might happen to his two nephews and Phin's step-sister Jewel if he were to be caught. AJ can very well see Snider taking out some sort of punishment on them because of any actions he might take.
It's easier for the adults to meet away from Hogwarts but it's not always convenient. There's also the fact that those students set on doing something more than that one display organized back before Christmas holiday are going to find a spot to gather somewhere at school. On top of these secret rooms being good for meetings, they would also make due as hiding places, particularly the Nons, if it comes to that.
AJ checks the time and sees it's nearly twelve. He spends those few minutes until then finishing up that grading he couldn't concentrate on before. He'll go eat lunch and then spend a little more time in his office to calculate the term grade for the 5th years, the class whose papers he's just finished grading, and get everything recorded. After that, AJ will go to those hidden rooms of his and start putting in chairs and pillows. No matter who uses any of the rooms, they'll need places to sit comfortably.