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Developing Photographs
Author: Carys
Date: 01-30-11 13:06
Carys reached for her backpack and slung it over both shoulders. Her French course had just let out, and now she had some time to kill between grabbing something for lunch and attending her photography class. She briefly debated going home to see how her grandfather and son were doing, but ultimately, she decided to go to the student newspaper's office to develop some photographs.
She greeted everyone in the office and took off her backpack at her desk. If not for magic, it would be nearly too heavy to carry. Inside were several thick textbooks as well as some of her more durable and sturdy camera equipment.
Carys removed several rolls of film, including the one inside her camera, and then she headed for the dark room. Although she would never forget what had nearly happened to her inside the dark room, with each visit Carys found it easier and easier not to think about Decimus Clarke.
She immediately set to work developing photos. Among them were some for work, as well as family photographs. Carys took a lot of Tristan, who grew or changed a little more everyday. Sometimes it was hard to believe that he was a boy of four and would be turning five later this year.
Some of the personal photographs were of the new house in Newcastle-under-Lyme, Staffordshire Griffin had purchased only last week. He had invited Carys, Tristan and Alun over for supper and the grand tour a few nights later. The house was big enough for a hyperactive child like Tristan to run amok and had a sizeable backyard to boot. Even Griff's cat Seeayetee had plenty of territory in which to prowl.
The house had three levels. The ground floor contained the kitchen, breakfast nook, dining room, living room, one full bath, and a study that could also serve as a guest room. The first floor had a family room and three bedrooms. The second floor consisted of the attic and a large room. The whole house was fully furnished.
Carys had enjoyed walking from room to room, but no one had been as pleased to explore the new house as Tristan, who went up and down the stairs over and over again.
Carys smiled down at a picture forming in the chemical-filled tank in front of her. It was a close-up of Griff and Tristan grinning at each other. They were in Griff's new house. Griff was kneeling so he could be eye to eye with his son, who looked a bit ruddy-cheeked from having done a thorough check of the backyard.
Carys decided she would frame the picture and give it to Griffin. It would be her house-warming gift to him.
Adriana's Return
Author: Minerva McGonagall
Date: 01-30-11 14:46
"With a few exceptions, everything should be finalized for Saturday," Professor McGonagall said, as she reviewed a list of administrative tasks from a scroll she held. She sat in Dumbledore's office in a chair adjacent to his desk.
"That is welcoming news, Minerva. Thank you. I'm sure this year's Career Day will be as successful as those in the past."
"Yes, I––"
But before Minerva could finish her thought, the house elf Londy, who served Dumbledore in the castle, materialized in the middle of the room. The house elf paused, realizing the interruption, but when Professor McGonagall didn't proceed, Londy announced, "There is a witch to see Professor Dumbledore."
"We can continue our discussion at another time," Professor McGonagall offered. She started to roll up her scroll and rise from her seat, but Dumbledore held up his hand and asked Londy, "Who has arrived, Londy?"
"Miss Fairchild, Professor. Miss Adriana Fairchild."
Professor McGonagall froze in a position that was neither seated nor standing. Dumbledore slowly lowered his hand and asked, "Indeed? Please show her in, thank you."
Minerva was just as intrigued, and as Dumbledore didn't request her to depart, she sank back into her seat and wordlessly watched as someone thought long-dead entered the office.
Adriana Fairchild, formerly Muggle Studies professor at Hogwarts, swept into the office, looking much as she'd had nine and a half years ago when she'd first joined the staff. She gave the office a quick glance and smiled wistfully. "I remember when you first brought me here," she said to Dumbledore.
Dumbledore, ever the cautious wizard, nonetheless smiled and said, "I seem to recall you felt insulted after I called you a witch."
Adriana laughed. "You opened quite a few doors for me that day. You revealed my past and my true identity, and you gave me a job. I take it the Muggle Studies position is currently filled, though?"
Dumbledore nodded and conjured a chair so that Adriana didn't have to stand. She thanked him, sat down and accepted a cup of tea he'd also conjured for her.
"Our current Muggle Studies teacher is Aaron Miller. Curiously, his background is similar to yours. He also grew up unaware he was a wizard."
"I guess my parents weren't the only ones with the same idea."
"They certainly weren't," Dumbledore said.
Adriana looked at Professor McGonagall for the first time. "It's good to see you again, Minerva."
"I would say the same but frankly, I'm quite surprised you're here at all."
Adriana smiled and looked a bit bashful. "Yes, that feeling is running rampant lately."
"What brings you to see me, Adriana?" Dumbledore asked.
"Well," she said, turning back to her father's old friend, "I really am interested in a position if there is one available, but I mainly came to talk to you about... things."
Minerva realized this might be her cue to leave, but she really wanted to hear what "things" Adriana had in mind.
"I've talked to Bill, of course, and a handful of others, but I think out of everyone, you are the least likely to judge me for what I've done."
Dumbledore turned to Professor McGonagall. "Perhaps we can continue our earlier discussion at a later time?"
"Of course," Minerva said, careful to hide her disappointment. She rose and began to cross the room, pausing by Adriana's chair.
"It is good to see you again," she said not unkindly, before she reluctantly left the room.
Hippogriffs
Author: Jolyon
Date: 01-31-11 17:54
With it sleeting outside, Jolyon held his lesson on hippogriffs inside the barn. He would have preferred holding it out in the open, where there was plenty of room for both beast and students to comfortably roam, but a little rearranging inside the barn made for a passable alternative.
Now the open area in the middle of the barn was just that, open and clear of the desks that usually filled the space. All of the third years stood with their backs to the barn door. The hippogriff stood opposite them against the other wall. Jolyon stood somewhere in between.
Throughout the class period, he had each student step forward, bow, and then wait for the magical creature to decide whether or not it would bow in return. If the hippogriff bowed, then the student could approach and stroke its feathers. All of Jolyon's students were generally well-behaved, so he didn't worry that the hippogriff might become hostile toward any of them. And he was right. Each student was permitted to touch the magnificent beast.
"Well done, all of you. Now, who can tell me what hippogriffs eat?"
Kate Dewhurst raised her hand. "Their diet consists of insects, birds and small mammals," she said, indicating to a bundle of dead ferrets slung over the door of one of the stalls near where Jolyon stood.
"That's right. Five points."
"Hippogriffs are not uncommon pets. Not household pets, obviously, but wizarding families with farms or otherwise large tracts of land might have one or two, or perhaps even a whole herd," Jolyon explained. "There is a Ministry regulation regarding the ownership of hippogriffs, however. Who can tell me what it is?"
Johanna Steele said, "It has to be shielded from Muggles. Owners have to cast a Disillusionment Charm on it everyday."
"Good. Five points to Slytherin."
Jolyon went on to talk more about hippogriffs until the end of class, which came quickly. For homework, he assigned the third years an essay on hybrid animals.
Hot Topic
Author: Lysander Stratford
Date: 02-01-11 17:58
Lysander knelt at the window display and used his wand to collect all the books that had been there since around the start of the new year. They were new year's resolution type books––on becoming a better, healthier witch or wizard, on finally getting organized, on learning a brand new hobby like knitting or flobberworm farming.
In their place, Lysander planned on displaying books suitable for Valentine's Day. The romantic holiday was just under a month away. At worst, a forgetful significant other could give his or her partner one of the books as a last minute gift.
After stacking the discarded books on an empty chair, Lysander gave the display a quick cleaning. He removed any dust that had collected there and gave the windows a quick washing. It was while he waved his wand at the windows that he saw Adriana Fairchild moving up High Street.
It was sleeting, so very few wizards were outside at all. Business was extraordinarily slow at Twice Told Tales today. In fact, Lysander didn't have any customers in the store at the moment.
Adriana wore a long, black coat with a fur-lined hood. She moved past the window rather swiftly, to what destination Lysander didn't know.
"I've been thinking..."
Lysander whirled around and chuckled. "You scared me."
"Sorry," Julian said, with a small smile and a shrug of his shoulders. "I came out to ask you if you wanted to get a pizza for lunch."
"I'm in."
"Half meat, half veggie? Or one of each?"
"One of each. We can have leftovers later, or save some for the girls. Is that what you were going to say when you startled me, or was it something else?" Lysander asked.
Julian looked over Lysander's shoulder at High Street, but Adriana had long since moved on to her destination. All he saw now was a flurry of snowflakes in an unrelenting wind.
"I don't think she told Bill everything about where she's been all this time and what she's been doing," Julian said.
"Why do you say that?"
"Do you remember when Helena came back?"
Lysander nodded.
"When Helena fled the Burrow the night of her wedding to Charlie Weasley, she planned on disappearing on her own. Adriana wasn't supposed to join her, but it happened away."
"Everybody knows that," Lysander said.
"Yes, but not everybody knows that Helena learned Adriana's secret. And nobody knows that Adriana changed that night."
Lysander looked around, even though there was no one else in the building but the two of them. "Into Voldemort's pawn, you mean? He appeared to have quite a lot of those, didn't he?"
Julian nodded. "Yes. Helena said that something happened to Adriana the night they ran away. Adriana told her the truth, and Helena, being who she was, supported Adriana in cultivating hew ner, darker self. Remember when she split her time between here and New York?"
"Vaguely. Helena didn't ever hear of Adriana actually doing anything for the Dark Lord, though, did she?" Lysander asked.
"I don't think so. She and Adriana didn't see each other for very long after Helena came back."
Both men fell silent for a while. Then Lysander asked, "Say she did go dark. What if Voldemort's hold on her went away when he died, like it did for that other group... Project 25, was it?"
"Probably did," Julian said. He shrugged and picked up the stack of books Lysander had removed from the window display. "It's just curious that Adriana seems to have left out some vital details of her more recent past, is all."
"Makes you wonder what other secrets she's keeping," Lysander mused, turning back to the window.
Jinxes & Gut Feelings
Author: Ethan Somerset
Date: 02-04-11 14:28
"Why, may you ask, would we even think to use a jinx when defending ourselves from the dark arts?"
Ethan paced back and forth along the front of his classroom, which had been removed of all its desks. His second year Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw students stood in two parallel lines. Soon, they would duel each other, but first they listened as their professor lectured on densaugeo.
Glori Hodfuffer raised her hand. "I guess in the heat of the moment, you will use whatever comes to mind first. Jinxes can serve as distractions."
"That's right, Glori. Two points to Hufflepuff. Although it's important to keep a level head when you are dueling against a dark wizard, even the best of us get nervous sometimes. It's hard to think on your feet when you are fighting someone whose very intent is to do you severe harm or worse, kill you. Jinxes can not only serve as distractions, but sometimes they can actually help much more than that. Who can tell me what densaugeo does?"
Jasper Jenkins said, "It makes someone's teeth grow abnormally large, which I guess I might make it hard for someone to state clear verbal incantations."
"Exactly," Ethan replied. "We all know that spells don't always work or will go wrong if you don't say the incantation correctly. It's not just the right word but the right pronunciation. Suddenly finding yourself with big teeth might disrupt your speech because you won't be used to them. Two points to Hufflepuff, Jasper."
Ethan stopped pacing and turned toward the lined up second years. "Of course, expert duelers can cast spells without saying a word. One day, you all will learn that art, but not today. Today, let's practice casting the densaugeo spell on each other. Before we start, who can give me the counter charm?"
Liannah MacDougal replied, "Reducio."
Ethan rewarded Ravenclaw with two points and then had his second years practice jinxing each other.
The exercise turned out to be a lot of fun, and several students collapsed into fits of giggles at the sight of each other with grotesquely large incisors. At the end of class, Ethan gave everyone a stern reminder not to use the jinx on anyone outside of class. He knew some might be tempted but hoped everyone would mind him.
The classroom emptied out rather quickly, and Ethan soon followed. He made course for his office, where he found Penn leaning against the wall. The boy looked a bit rosy-cheeked.
"Been outside, Penn?" Ethan asked, as he unlocked his office door and stepped inside.
Penn followed him and put his backpack on the floor by the chair in front of Ethan's desk. "Yeah. Herbology."
"Are you here with a question about school work or is this a social visit?" Ethan asked, while unloading the parchment in his arms onto his desk and sitting down at his chair.
"The latter," Penn said, "but if it's all right with you, I'd also like to work on my homework in here."
"Wouldn't you rather work in the library or in the Slytherin common room with your friends?"
Ethan knew that Penn didn't seem to have any friends and wasn't very surprised by the boy's reaction.
"I have nothing in common with any of my classmates," Penn said with a frown. "I don't think any of them like me anyway."
"I'm sure that's not true," Ethan said.
"Sure it is. I'm strange, a loner. Why would they want to be my friend?"
Being homeschooled had cost Ethan the experiences he might have gotten in life if he'd gone to Hogwarts or another school of magic. He couldn't identify very well with what Penn was going through at the moment. Ethan could only rely on what he'd observed while teaching at Hogwarts.
"Anyway, it doesn't matter to me what they think. I'd rather be your friend," Penn said.
Ethan smiled. "I'm glad you think of me that way, but I think it would be good for you if you had a friend your own age too."
Penn opened his mouth to say something but then he seemed to change his mind.
Ethan decided to switch to another subject, something he'd been wondering about since the holidays. "So, have you resolved the conflict with your nephew yet?"
Penn's whole expression changed. He looked refreshed and somewhat exhilarated. "Not yet, but my plan is forging ahead."
"Must be difficult when you are here and your nephew is...?"
Penn shrugged. "The difficulty is making sure that all the pieces fall into place the way I want them to. Everything else is easy."
Ethan wanted to ask so many questions, but he also didn't want to be too nosey. Penn was a very reserved boy and seemed willing to only reveal so much. The feeling that there was something strange occasionally still nagged the back of Ethan's mind, especially when Penn talked about things like the conflict he had with his nephew.
Nonetheless, Ethan tried hard not to follow his gut instinct. After all, Penn was nothing but a boy.
Remember When
Author: Griet
Date: 02-04-11 15:40
"Bugger, it's cold," Oberon muttered, as he, Griet and Gervaise made the treacherous trek from the greenhouses to the castle. Mercifully, it had stopped sleeting something during Professor Masterson's class, but it was still uncomfortably cold at the moment.
"I'm definitely ready for winter to end," Gervaise answered, the sentence heavily muffled by the scarf he wore over his mouth.
Griet walked up the stone, castle steps and slipped on a patch of ice, tearing a hole in her black pantyhose but luckily not scraping open her skin.
"Damn it!" she complained. Thankfully, there was no teacher or prefect, other than herself and Oberon, to hear her swear.
Oberon quickly helped her up. "You all right?" he asked her.
"Fine. Let's just get inside," Griet replied through gritted teeth.
Gervaise got the door and the three quickly stepped into the entrance hall, which was toasty warm in comparison to the outdoors. They headed for the staircase that led to the dungeons and navigated the familiar path to the Slytherin common room.
"Ivory," Oberon stated at the wall.
A passage opened and extended to the common room, where the trio found Cornelia lounging on the sofa with a book. Gervaise kissed her on the forehead and then eased behind her, so that she leaned against him.
Griet thought about changing out of her clothes but decided to just relax for the moment and sat down in an adjacent chair. Oberon sat on its arm.
"What are you reading?" Griet asked. Cornelia never read for pleasure.
"Some book I found at the library. It's not a school copy. I think somebody just left it there." She turned the book so that Griet could see its cover.
"Juvenile Delinquents in the Wizarding World: Their Wild Crimes, and Does Reform Really Work?" Griet read aloud. "Ah, that makes sense now."
Cornelia, sensing Griet's joke, stuck out her tongue. "Calling me a juvenile delinquent, are you?"
"You've definitely done some terrible things."
"I don't deny it, except to the teachers and our parents," Cornelia replied proudly. The boys laughed. Griet rolled her eyes.
Cornelia turned back to her book and paged over. All at once, the color seemed to drain from her face.
"What is it?" Griet asked, noticing her sister's change.
Cornelia said nothing for a long moment as she read whatever was written on the page. Gervaise, his eyes wide, read over her shoulder.
Griet and Oberon exchanged looks and waited patiently for Cornelia to tell them what she was reading.
Finally, Cornelia sat up and reached over with the book. Griet took it and gasped.
Sweet Sixteen Slashers read the chapter heading, and below that was a black and white photograph of Clover Blakely in prison garb holding up her Azkaban inmate number.
"Who the hell wrote this?" Griet blurted out, flipping over to the cover. "This person doesn't even have his facts right. Clover was fifteen when she went to prison."
She felt a bit funny all of a sudden. Griet hadn't said her former best friend's name in years. In truth, she hardly ever thought about her.
She looked at Cornelia, who still bore the scar Clover had given her, a thin, pink line that went across her neck. Her lips were pressed tightly together.
"Do you think she's still in prison?" Cornelia asked quietly.
"I think if she would have gotten out when all those other prisoners got released, we probably would have heard about it," Griet said. She turned back to the book and read the brief article about Clover, which detailed the crimes that had landed her in Azkaban, the slitting of Cornelia's throat and the poisoning of her own brother, Morgan.
When she finished reading, she shut the book and tossed it onto the coffee table. "What rubbish," Griet muttered.
"I would have liked to have seen her get arrested," Cornelia murmured absentmindedly.
"You were in St. Mungo's when it happened," Griet replied, thinking back to that day and remembering it as if it had only just happened, even though she hadn't thought about it in years. "We'd gone to Hogsmeade, and then Clover tried to poison Morgan. Something she'd said revealed what she'd done to you, and I lost it. I probably saved Morgan's life that day, but I also lost my best friend that day."
"Morgan was an ass," Cornelia remembered.
"I know, and so were you," Griet replied, "but neither one of you deserved to die, and Clover didn't get that. She confessed to everything in Dumbledore's office and then Snape found some evidence and called Professor Somerset to haul Clover off to the Ministry of Magic. He wasn't a teacher then," Griet added, in case everyone didn't remember that part. "He was an auror."
Cornelia sighed, eyeing the discarded book on the table. "Let's get a snack from the Common Common Room."
"Let me change first," Griet decided.
"Just meet us there," Cornelia said, rising to her feet and helping Gervaise up off the sofa.
"I'll wait for you," Oberon told Griet. He waved the other two off. Griet shot him a smile and then disappeared into her dorm room to change out of her torn pantyhose and into something more comfortable.