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The End of the Day
Author: Mildred
Date: 04-22-12 12:30
Like the rest of the class Mildred was exhausted but she still didn't like when Coach Krum blew up his whistle ending the Fitness and Athletics class. Since Coach Batuti had died he had replaced her. Mildred had developed a big admiration for Viktor Krum since she opened her Secret Santa gift at Christmas day. He had given her a gift certificate from his store, Krum's Completely Quidditch and with it Mildred could buy anything she wanted.
But he had even been more generous with his second gift, an angel locket with a photo of her mother's inside. Mildred had no idea where he had managed to get the photograph. In it her mother waved and sent kisses to the camera and that made Mildred smile. There were days she would wake up missing her mother terribly and just opening the locket helped her a lot.
She had thanked Coach Krum the first class she had after Christmas. She had to fight her shyness because it was still hard for her to speak with her teachers, especially about her parents. The fact he had been a famous Quidditch player did not help at all, only making her even shyer. But he had been kind when she came to him, with his funny accent and his warm smile. Since that day her favorite class had been Fitness and Athletics and she always gave her best, blushing when Coach Krum would compliment her or award Gryffindor with points, like it happened today.
After the class she went with Achilles and Queenie back to the Gryffindor common room. Most of the school was boiling with the Valentine's banquet tomorrow night. But none of the three first year Gryffindors seemed to be interested at all in it. Achilles even got to the point to saying kissing a girl was the grossest thing ever, even worse than troll boogies.
Meanwhile Queenie wanted Mildred to use Krum's gift certificate to buy a broomstick.
"But I don't even play in the Quidditch team…"
"So what? Maybe you will play in the future. I mean just think about it: if you buy clothes one day they will stop fitting you. Same with shoes. As for Quidditch matches, you can only watch them once. So I say you should get a broomstick. A broomstick can be for life."
"She's right," Achilles supported. "And then maybe you could let us all ride it eventually."
Mildred told them she was going to think about it. The idea tempted her and she knew Queenie was right, this would be the best thing she could get with Krum's gift certificate. But she was also sure her grandmother would confiscate her broom as soon as she arrived home for summer. Mildred knew her grandmother well enough to know her hate for Quidditch. It happened when she was listening to a match on WWN and her grandmother came into the bedroom and turned the radio off, banning Quidditch from her house. But maybe she would be able keep her broom at Hogwarts if she explained the situation to someone.
Her day of classes wasn't completed yet since she later would have Astronomy. Mildred hoped she still had enough energy left to focus during the class. She was glad it was a joint class with Hufflepuff and not Slytherin. Despite Phyllida's help she was still afraid Horace and Maurice would come after her seeking revenge. Mildred had omitted this episode in her last letter to her father. She didn't want to worry him. She thought being in Azkaban was bad enough and she knew that with her birthday coming he would feel guilty because he wouldn't be able to give her any gift. But the little witch didn't want anything but him to do his time at prison and take her home. That would be the only gift she wanted. The rest didn't matter.
Did A Herd Of Cupids Vomit? (Glori & Wiggy)
Author: Phinfilius
Date: 04-22-12 12:59
Walking into the Commons from Potions with her friend and roommate Jasmine Doyle, Glori stops without warning, taking in the abundance of red, pink, and white hearts, flowers, winged cherubs, lips, bows, streamers, balloons, glitter, and confetti. There are far more than what she recalls from when last in here.
She resumes walking, fairly skipping to catch up with Jasmine. "Did a herd of Cupids vomit in here?" she giggles.
One of those winged cherubs shoots an arrow at Glori. She ducks but it hits Jasmine, exploding in a cloud of more sparkly white confetti. "Maybe a love sick house elf was in charge of decorating," Jasmine suggests, shaking glitter from her hair. "Great. Now it looks like I've got spangly dandruff." She brushes at her shoulder but doesn't do more than spread the glitter around. Shrugging off the dark uniform robe she says, "We're done for the day so I don't have to wear this, just remind me to clean it off better before I wear this one again."
"I'm getting something to drink, do you want anything?" Glori asks after they've staked out a table.
"Hot chocolate, if you please."
Glori's nearly to the bar when she sees Wiggy on his way out, probably to class as he's got Care of Magical Creatures soon. She goes after him, "Wait up."
Her brother turns, giving her a slightly annoyed, "I've got class soon."
"I know, but I wanted to wish you well in your match this afternoon."
"Thanks, but I got word it's rescheduled. There's a massive storm with so much lightening and wind the officials decided it was best for us not to play."
"That's too bad."
"Yeah, but we also aren't having practice instead so I've got a little more time today to catch up on classwork and with the banquet tomorrow I need to get as much done as I can."
"You know, you could have asked someone not in my house so I wouldn't have to hear all the gushing and swooning about how lucky Matilda Flander is to be your banquet date."
Wiggy smirks, "I'll keep that in mind next time we have a banquet or dance."
"I've got a date. It's just Jasper but it's a date."
"You're thirteen. You don't need a Valentine's date."
"I'm thirteen. I'm old enough."
"Maybe you are, but he's not."
"He's the same age."
"My point exactly. I've really got to run. It's a bit of a trek out to Professor Kent's class. See you."
"Jasper's perfectly nice and you know it. Bye, enjoy class." Glori returns to the bar to get the two hot chocolates and as long as she's there she gets a couple of sugar biscuits for Jamine and her.
Her cousin Baron is also at the bar, gulping down a drink. "Don't choke yourself, Baron."
"I nearly forgot about F&A today. I'm going to be late if I don't hurry but wanted to finish my drink."
He chugs more then, mouth full as he's still swallowing, waves and runs. Baron is such a friendly, helpful sort that Glori has yet to understand why he was Sorted into Slytherin but he always assures her the Sorting Hat got it right.
Back at the table, she carefully hands over Jasmine's hot chocolate, though Jasmine is hardly aware that Glori's returned. "What are you looking at?"
"I'm looking at a who, not a what. Two whos actually. Your cousin Gus and Caerwyn Valentine are both so cute. Do you think either one needs a date to the banquet?"
"Why should you care? You're going with Ichabod Hawkins."
"I know but they are just so darned cute the both of them. Watch out, that cherub is shooting another arrow. Did you ever decide what you're wearing?"
They spend the rest of the time before supper in the Commons talking about what to wear to the Valentine's banquet, doing homework, and avoiding getting hit by cupid arrows but having fun watching others get shot.
Invitation
Author: Nathaniel Ross
Date: 04-22-12 13:46
Nate had always hated Valentine's Day. Maybe it was the large amount of couples that seemed to be start up during this season. Or maybe it was because he had no one do go to the banquet with. He had thought about being bold once again and giving a try with Phyllida. He had even been practicing the Shield Charm just in case she would try to jinx him again. He had asked Tim to try and jinx him and he was now an expert at taking the wand out of his pocked and yelling Protego.
Nate found her in the common commons after Charms class. Phyllida was having a quick lunch before going to her next class, Ancient Runes.
"Hey…" he greeted her, sitting next to her on the sofa.
"Um...hey," she replied, somewhat absent.
None of them spoke for a moment and then Nate brought the banquet topic into the conversation. "So, the Valentine's banquet is tomorrow…"
She played with the straw in her pumpkin juice for a while and then replied: "Yeah, it is."
"Do you have a date for it?" He decided not to delay anymore and just ask.
"No. Do you?"
"No," he said with a laugh "I'm not a popular boy. The girls don't like me."
"Apparently not witches, anyway," Nate had bragged more than once how he had several muggle friends, implying that had been a little bit more then friends at times. Phyllida didn't miss the chance to tease him.
"Yes....But well I would like to go. Do you know someone who might be interested?"
"I'd like to go," she muttered nearly inaudibly.
"I'm sorry?"
Phyllida scowled and made it clear. "I want to be your date."
"You do?! Really? Oh in that case, yes I want to go with you!" he exclaimed in a somewhat loud tone. She blushed as people turn their heads to them.
"Yes, yes, so do I...just don't shout."
"I'm sorry. " he lowered his voice "So…hum…I guess you're my Valentine now."
She grinned a bit and entered the game. "Will you write me a card?"
"I suppose so. Do you like flowers? Or do you prefer chocolates?"
"I feel like I should say flowers."
"Flowers then. But not like the ones Ferne likes, I hope."
"No...not those."
They laughed together and then Phyllida stood up saying she had to go to her class. Nate watched her go before exclaiming 'Yes!' and do a silly happy dance, ignoring everyone's eyes on him. It didn't matter. He was going to the Valentine's banquet with Phyllida. And she hadn't even jinxed him for it.
Then he spotted Tim and grinned. "Hey Tim! Guess who I'm going to the banquet with!"
Adventure with Aunt Nephele and Uncle Kirley
Author: Valeria Mockridge
Date: 04-22-12 14:47
Nephele and Kirley were both waiting on the foyer when Valeria made her way down. Her woolen cloak was already over her aunt's arm. She was wearing jeans, which her grandmother hated, but had acknowledged as far more practical than the ornate robes she preferred, and a warm green jumper. Almost all of her clothes were in some shade of green or silver, her family trying to subtly influence her toward Slytherin.
"Are you ready, Valeria?" Kirley asked, once her cloak was on. They would Side-Along Apparate to the Leaky Cauldron, as her grandmother did not approve of using the Floo to public places.
"Yes, Uncle," she answered, earning a nod as he turned on the spot before she took Nephele's arm and felt that strange tugging sensation. She always hated Side-Along Apparition, it made her feel half sick. But it was a least cleaner than the Floo.
Once they had regained their footing, he shook his head. "Nephele, why don't you take Valeria to Madame Malkin's? I'll take care of her potion supplies and we can meet at Flourish and Botts. Mother doesn't need to know that I've left you two alone."
Valeria smiled. She liked Uncle Kirley best like this. When they were out of the house, since Grandmother never came with them, they were given a little more freedom. In the Dower, Cloris Mockridge ruled them all, but outside, they could be a little more normal.
"That sounds good. Maybe we'll even stop by and visit Quality Quidditch Supplies before we go back, but anything we buy there will have to be hidden. You know how Mother feels about girls and Quidditch," Nephele said with a sigh.
"Yes, it's why you could never play outside of Hogwarts. Which reminds me, I think I can take off the weekend of the next Slytherin game. Would you two like to go to the school with me to watch?" Kirley asked.
"That's a silly question, Uncle," Valeria answered with a smile. He laughed and winked.
"You two have fun at Madam Malkin's, then we'll meet to get your books and see if Mr. Ollivander can measure you for a wand today or if we need to wait until closer to term."
Valeria nodded and her uncle smiled once again before he headed off toward the Apothecary as she and her aunt walked toward Madam Malkin's. It couldn't hurt to get a head start on her uniforms and robes, nor on reading her lesson books. After all, she'd about exhausted the ones she and her aunt had been studying. And maybe, if she was good, she could talk Aunt Nephele into peeking into Narcissa's. Most of the things there were too old for her, but sometimes, she could get a piece of jewelry, if she was extra careful not to tell Grandmother about their adventures.
Not Going Back There Again
Author: Araxie Loren
Date: 04-22-12 15:22
"Araxie!"
I rolled over and turned the volume up on the song that I was listening to on the WWN, drowning out the voice of my Aunt calling up the stairs trying to persuade me to go to Azkaban and see my father. I had no desire to see him, and with the information that had been revealed over the past few years I doubted I would ever, ever want to see him again. I tugged a photo album to me, I'd found it in the back of the hall closet a couple of months or so ago and it had family pictures from when my Mum was alive, back before I was born and shortly after I was born before the world went to hell in a handbasket. She smoothed her fingertips over the image of her mother, a woman that she barely remembered.
"Araxie Charlie Loren, come down here this instant or I am cutting the connection to the WWN for a month." Charline called up the stairs and I sighed, shoving myself off my bed and adjusting my braids a moment before slipping my feet into a pair of trainers and tugged open the door.
"Fine. I don't know why I have to go see him. He's a bloody murderer and he killed my mum." I said irritably. "I don't care if he is still my dad. I don't want to see him," I said slouching against the wall at the bottom of the steps while glaring at my aunt.
"You are going to see him because he asked to see you Araxie, and humor the man. He's trying to atone for what he's done. One day you'll understand that and perhaps find it in your heart to forgive him," My aunt said, handing me my coat which I shrugged into, not entirely looking forward to the side-along apparition that was about to happen because it tended to make me a bit queasy.
I double checked that I had my sketching supplies, because I had no intention of being overly social during this forced visitation and I swear my aunt was starting to sound more and more like my shrink every day now. Rolling my eyes I took her arm as we poofed (my favorite technical term for apparition) to where we needed to be.
After going through the usual protocols we were set in a sort of reception area where I would be seeing my father – the one man on the planet that I really had no desire to see. How in the hell is a kid supposed to look her father in the eye and keep up pleasantries when they know that he is the reason your family fell apart? The reason that your mother is laying in a cold grave somewhere back in Cardiff (if she even got a proper burial) and that you are stuck growing up without the two people that could and should matter most in your life.
I'd started sketching by the time they led my dad in to the room and seated him across from us. He was a murderer and we weren't afforded much privacy, but the guards were used to us coming by now, as we were here at least once if not twice a year every year since I turned seven and the questions began.
"Hi baby. Did you get your letter to Hogwarts yet?" He asked, trying to reach for me, to touch me and I pulled my hands back, setting them on my sketchbook on my lap.
"Not yet, but it is only February and I doubt they send them much before the end of the current school year. I'm still trying to convince Aunt Charline and Uncle Matthew that I will do better in a school not in the country that knows me as the daughter of a murderer. Though I guess since it's been a while I wouldn't be all that well known now." I said, unable to keep the acidity of my tone down as I glared at the man who had ruined my life. Sure it may be some pre-teen angst, but most of it was real and genuine hurt at the man who had torn my family apart.
"I see, well, hopefully you'll get your letter to Hogwarts and be a better person than I was." He said somewhat forlornly as he turned his attention to his sister, my aunt.
I then proceeded to tune them out for the remainder of the visit, I was uncomfortable enough as it was and focused on the sketchbook on my lap. By the time the visitation was done, my fingers were inky black from the charcoal and there were smudges along my jeans and even some up along my hairline from where I'd shoved back stray strands that had fallen out of my braids.
"Come on Araxie, we'll get some lunch before heading home." Charline said attempting to brighten the mood with no doubt a trip to my favorite curry place just down the block from our house. True, it would have a slight effect on my mood, but not much of one.
"I'm not going back to see him. I can't keep pretending that I want to be there. I can't keep pretending that I feel anything but hate for the man sitting across from me. I realize he's your brother and he's my father and that is supposed to mean something, but it isn't going to happen again. I'm not ready for it to happen again. If he asks to see me the answer will always be no."
I didn't give my aunt a chance to reply just then because we'd arrived at the curry place and I'd already ducked inside intend on stepping into the loo to wash the charcoal from my hands and my forehead before joining Aunt Charline at a table, knowing that she'd order me my favorite chicken curry over rice.
Be My Valentine
Author: Emerald Green
Date: 04-22-12 16:56
Since breaking up with Phinfilius Hodfuffer-Flefforfore, Emerald has gone out with a few really nice guys. She enjoyed hanging out with Gavin Adams, going to a street festival with him as a friend though it was more like a date and then some outings that were dates and not dates disguised as two friends spending time together. At St. Emrys there is the very nice Colin Applewhite, with whom Emerald has had dinner twice, though one involved studying for an exam. There's also been Jason Byce and Mark Armstrong, both students at Duke.
All of them are so nice and Emerald thinks Gavin is a great friend. The problem is that none of them are Phin and she's been a huge idiot.
Spotting him in the library, head bent over a book, Emerald wondered if it was too late for her. None of their mutual friends had mentioned him seeing anyone but that could be because it's an awkward topic to broach or because after making it clear she needed space to do her own thing, none thought she'd even be interested.
It took her a good ten minutes to muster up the courage to approach him, and then found she was glad when Phin hadn't looked up from his work. That gave her more time to think what she would say. It also gave her more time to study him, a flood of memories of them together, of how supportive he was after her experiences at Happy Haven and City of Hope.
She also recalls the pressure she suddenly felt at the thought of being engaged and then married. Now, she can't believe she didn't just tell Phin, yes, let's get engaged but I don't want to get married right away. Would it have been a mistake to do that? Maybe she did need this time to realize just what she had; what she could have again if Phin hasn't said screw waiting for Emerald to stop being a moron and moved on.
When Phin does look up and sees her, Emerald wonders how on earth she could have ever told him they were through.
A little opening chit chat that's only somewhat awkward and then she plunges in. "So no Valentine for tomorrow?"
"Not this year."
"Does that mean if I asked you to the dance here tomorrow night, you're avialable?"
"You're joking, right?"
Her mental pleas of, "Please say yes," put on hold, his question is not what she was expecting. In the range of what she thought he might say were a polite, "No, but thank you for asking," to a somewhat angry, "After making it repeatedly and abundantly clear we're done, hell no." Though not what she was thinking he might say, Emerald cannot blame him for his reaction. At least anyway, he's not said no just yet.
"I wouldn't be deliberately cruel to you, Phin."
"Breaking up with me when I wanted to marry you was not deliberately cruel?"
"No, not in the sense you mean."
"You knew it would break my heart but you did it anyway. That's pretty deliberate."
"Yes, but not like you mean. I didn't want to hurt you. There was no malicious intent. I thought it was the best thing for me, for both of us."
"You thought wrong on that count. It wasn't the best thing for me."
"It was for me. I needed to be able to conclude for myself what you were already so sure of. In a way, that means it was the best thing for you as well."
"What do you mean conclude for yourself."
"Don't be deliberately obtuse."
"You can't fault me for want to hear you say it."
"No, you're right. I did love you then, Phin, I just couldn't see the future of us like you seemed to be able to. I needed to be able to see it for myself, on my own terms and not through you."
"Go on."
"I never stopped loving you; and, now, I can see that future. I just don't know if you still can."
"I never lost sight of it."
At some point during this exchange they've both risen from their seats and are standing face to face, mere inches apart, eyes locked on each other. A shy smile plays across Emerald's lips. "Does that mean you'll be my Valentine?"
"I don't know."
"Maybe this will convince you."
Hands that had twined fingers through Phin's hair of their own violition now pull his head down to hers. The kiss is deep and long enough that someone at another table starts clapping. When they part, Phin shrugs, "I don't know. Show me that again?"