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Before Classes
Author: Illyria
Date: 11-15-13 17:39
Illyria stood at the railing on the observation deck and looked out over the darkening Hogwarts grounds. It wasn't yet time for her first class of the evening with the second year Gryffindor and Hufflepuff students. Theirs would be the very first meeting of the school year. Like the other group of second years Illyria had met with the previous evening, this group would get a basic introduction to constellations and then observe and discuss Aquila and Capricornus.
The final class Illyria had yet to meet this school year was the one consisting of fourth year Ravenclaw and Slytherin students. They were set to meet at midnight tonight. Like last night's group of fourth year students, the Ravenclaw and Slytherin class would have a preliminary discussion on the planets and then begin discussing Mercury in earnest.
Illyria started to turn away from the view to return to her office, when a speck in the distance caught her attention. It eventually grew large enough for her to identify it as an owl, though it wasn't one she recognized. She couldn't say she was familiar with all of the school owls, but Illyria felt certain the one approaching her now didn't belong to Hogwarts.
It swooped low, causing her to duck out of instinct. The owl, a great, brown thing with a wide wingspan, made a graceful arc over the tower, dropping a small scroll onto the stone decking and then flew away, apparently not needing any form of payment for its delivery.
Illyria watched it for a moment and then went to retrieve the scroll. It was tied with a piece of twine, but the knot wasn't very tight, making it very easy to unravel. Illyria unfurled the scroll and smiled when she saw the signature on the bottom. She quickly read the note:
Dear Illyria,
If memory serves me correctly, you don't usually have classes on Friday evenings. I think the time is right for me to ask you out on a proper date. Would you like to go out to dinner with me tomorrow night? I hope your answer is yes. I look forward to your owl.
Yours,
Nathan
She wanted to very much. Illyria had been waiting for him to ask her out ever since their last meeting in Hogsmeade. She missed being with him very much, but she also had changes in mind for their second go at a relationship. This time they would take things slowly. This time they would do it right.
Since she had plenty of time to write a response and owl it off before class, Illyria set out to do just that, her smile never leaving her lips.
TGIF
Author: Ethan Somerset
Date: 11-16-13 10:09
The first full week of fall term was nearly at its end. Ethan had met with all of his classes twice, except for his third years, both sections of which met for the second time on Friday morning. Every year, Ethan enjoyed meeting his newest students, which primarily consisted of the first years. Hogwarts was new to all of them, even those who'd grown up in the wizarding world. Seeing their looks of interest and wonderment, especially among those who were Muggle-born, always made Ethan feel better about his job as a teacher who could shape young minds.
There were a few new faces among his older students, as well. He had met Justin Hodges, who had transferred to Hogwarts from Australia and was cousin to Plum, who sponsored the Language Club. Ethan had also met Niccolo Zabini and Raz Kohen, both of whom would be in his classes again this morning.
Shortly before 9 AM, the first of the Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw third years trickled into the Defense Against the Dark Arts classroom. Ethan checked them off in his roll book as they came in. When everyone had arrived and taken their seats, he stood up from his perch at his desk.
"Good morning, everyone. I hope that by now you've all adjusted to it no longer being summer and that you are all ready to learn."
There were some quiet groans to that remark. Ethan smiled inwardly, having expected the reaction.
His summer had been very quiet. Other than the occasional visit with his family in Bristol, Ethan had stayed home in Greenwich or come to Hogsmeade for Lilly's play dates with children in the village.
He marveled at how uneventful and pleasant summer had been, having been almost certain that someone from his past would interrupted his tranquil lifestyle. Little did he know that several figures from his old life had already joined together with the new order of Death Eaters.
"Let's begin with Aparecium. Who can tell me what the spell does?"
No one had a guess. Either it was still too early in the morning, a Friday morning at that, or no one had done the reading. Maybe everyone was still aching for summer and didn't yet have their heads ready for the new term.
Ethan supposed he couldn't entirely fault them. As nice as his time off had been, he also longed for the dog days of summer.
"Aparecium is colloquially known as the Revealing Charm, and it forces invisible ink or other secret messages to appear. That said, there are always exceptions. However, for the most basic of hidden messages, this spell will most certainly work. Let's give it a try."
He went to his desk and picked up scraps of parchment, which he distributed to each student with a flick of his wand. Then, he gave everyone a special quill and a well of ink that looked empty but felt weighty when held in hand.
"Use the invisible ink to quill a message to yourself. When you all have finished, I will show you the proper incantation and wand movements for the Revealing Charm, and then you will try it yourselves."
Ethan gave his students the chance to write themselves notes. While they scrawled on their scraps of parchment, he did the same on one. When the last student stopped writing, Ethan carefully enunciated Aparecium and executed the wand movement very deliberately, so that his students could follow along.
The note that appeared on his scrap of parchment read Thank goodness it's Friday.
Some of his students laughed. Others looked amazed.
"Now, you try."
For the rest of the class, his students attempted the Revealing Charm on their notes, with Ethan helping them correct their wand movements or pronunciation of the incantation if necessary.
(Kate) Troubles
Author: Bronwyn Dewhurst
Date: 11-16-13 11:08
Not even the cute dogflowers in Herbology class could serve as a distraction for all the troubles afflicting Kate at the moment, though she tried very desperately to concentrate on the task at hand. She and Anita Tuck worked together to repot a cockerspaniel variety of the flower. It was a young plant, a puppy, and moved far too much for them to make quick work of the repotting.
"Come on, Boy!" Anita coaxed the plant, which made excited yipping noises and showered pollen every time it shook itself.
"How do you know it's a boy?" Kate asked, pushing the bigger pot a bit closer for the transfer.
"I guess it's not really one, is it?" Anita replied, "or it's both a boy and a girl."
She yanked the plant out of the smaller pot, and soil went everywhere when the dogflower's roots wagged wildly like several puppy tails. Anita lowered it into the bigger pot, and both she and Kate added soil around the plant. It wiggled quite a lot, making the task more arduous than it needed to be.
"There!" Anita exclaimed, running a hand across her brow and accidentally smearing it with dirt.
"Nice work, ladies," Professor Masterson said as he moved around the work table.
"Thanks," Kate murmured.
She glanced at her watch and noted that class was nearly over. Although she wouldn't get much of a break today, having four more classes after Herbology, she looked forward to the reprieve in between this class and her next.
She inevitably thought about her cousin Bronwyn, who had been missing since Emrys Fest. No one knew what had become of her. Was she simply lost? Had she been kidnapped? Had something more sinister happened, and now she was dead?
Then there was the matter of Mark. She avoided him when she could, but sometimes seeing him proved inevitable. They saw each other in the corridors. They saw each other at meals. He always gave her the cold shoulder. She always looked the other way.
She wanted to know why he'd kissed that other girl, whoever she was, but she couldn't bring herself to ask. She knew about Gus's confrontation with Mark on the train, but Gus had been a gentleman and had not repeated the awful, unbelievable things Mark had said to him. Kate had heard all the rumors, though.
Half the school seemed to think there was a love triangle going on between the three of them. Some of the girls who were in love with Gus gave her dirty looks now. Kate couldn't decide if it was because they thought she had something with Gus, or if they thought she had broken his heart by being with Mark. Either way, she would have found it amusing if she weren't so very heartbroken herself.
At long last, Professor Masterson dismissed the sixth years from the greenhouse. She waited outside for her friends, and then they headed up for the castle. All except for Gus had History of Magic next, but he walked with them anyway to keep them company. He walked beside Kate, and though they weren't holding hands like Johanna and Taran were, simply walking alongside each other seemed to fuel the rumor that they might be together.
Felicia, not having Baltus at her side since he was a year older and in other classes, seemed to take it upon herself to question those who glanced sourly at Gus and Kate.
"What are you looking at?" she exclaimed to a girl they met on the grounds who was glaring at Kate.
The girl scowled at Felicia and then continued to wherever she was going.
"Honestly!" Felicia exclaimed. "Some people are just so rude!"
Kate felt really lucky to have her friends. She reached over for Felicia's arm and then put her head on Felicia's shoulder, murmuring, "You're the best."
"Finally, you recognize that!" Felicia joked.
Kate cracked a smile and then let go of her friend. They climbed the steps up to the castle and then went inside, heading for the grand marble staircase.
Terminal
Author: Hermione Granger
Date: 11-17-13 10:04
Hermione stood aside to allow a forensic healer to go by with a covered gurney that shrouded a recently deceased patient. The deceased had been another terminal patient on Hermione's floor, so his death had been expected. The only puzzling matter regarding his death was the suddenness of it. Like several other terminal patients who had recently died on Hermione's watch, this wizard had not shown any imminent signs of impending death.
Hermione knew that sometimes longterm, dying patients expired sooner than expected, but usually there were signs that the very end was approaching. Like the others, this wizard had been fairly stable prior to his death.
Maybe it was a coincidence, but Hermione couldn't help but let her imagination run away with her. After all, it wouldn't be the first time that someone had murdered patients in their beds.
"Knut for your thoughts," asked intern Cavendish. Only a month of his internship remained. Hermione had been very pleased with his attentiveness and looked forward to working with him again in the future, if Spell Damage ended up being his true calling when he finished his the Healing program at St. Emrys.
"Oh, I was just thinking about him," she said, indicating to the covered gurney waiting at the lifts. "I know he suffered greatly and that death was his relief, but his passing has nevertheless taken me a bit by surprise."
Marco followed Hermione's gaze and frowned. "I think it's normal not to expect death, even from the dying, but it was his time to go, and it is for the best."
Hermione nodded, but the feeling that it hadn't been the patient's time to die just yet simply wouldn't leave her. Unavoidably, she thought about the serial murderer who had gone after all the Muggle-born patients. Surely, she was allowing her imagination to run wild. She shook her head and then felt a wave of nausea roll over her.
"Oh!" she exclaimed, clutching her stomach and looking a bit green.
"Are you all right?" Marco asked.
Hermione waited for the moment to pass and then murmured, "Yes. It seems Baby #2 isn't very keen on death either."
"Smart Baby," Marco commented with a small smile. He cupped Hermione's elbow and led her to a chair at the nurse's station. "Water?"
"Yes, thanks."
Marco fetched her a glass, and while Hermione drank, her thoughts drifted again to the dead patient and if there was truly cause for concern or if it was all in her head.
(Adriana) Back to the Bar
Author: Bill Weasley
Date: 11-17-13 18:01
In the shadows of an alley, Adriana swallowed the vile, thick sludge contained in a silver flask and then visibly shuddered, both from the taste and the effects of the polyjuice potion. When she felt the transformation cease, she removed a silver compact from her small handbag and looked into the mirror. Instead of her usual self, Adriana saw a woman with bright blue eyes and honey-blonde hair. Her face looked different, but her body-type was much the same.
Satisfied that the potion had done its job, Adriana stuck the compact back into her purse and strapped the flask onto her thigh. There was enough polyjuice potion left to buy herself some time if at all necessary, but hopefully she wouldn't need very long to get the information she wanted.
Adriana checked the time on the dainty silver watch on her wrist and then left the alley for the main street. She walked a block in heels higher than she was used to wearing, turned the corner, and found a slight crowd on the sidewalk in front of the Muggle bar Drive's.
She remembered what Dex had said about the bar––that it belonged to his brother. The unintended slip of information was the only thing Adriana knew about Dex, other than his willingness to sacrifice himself to protect the ones he loved. So noble, that one.
Adriana had long wanted to find out about Dex and his dear family, but a long laundry list of other matters had kept her attention. Already, she had amassed treasures of extreme value and power, such as the codex Jimmy Stewart had procured for her, and the statuette of Circe with its hidden secret still waiting to be revealed. There was much she still wished to accomplish, but she had finally decided it was time to find out about Dex.
Adriana assumed his brother was a Muggle for him to own a Muggle bar, but then she knew of wizards who chose to spend time on the other side. Adriana herself had grown up in the Muggle world, though only because her father had taken away the memories of her young life as a witch.
She entered the bar, which had bulked up its security since her last visit. Brawny men stood at the door and in every corner, keeping watch. Adriana ignored them and approached the bar, sitting on one of the brand new stools. It was obvious that Dex had gone through a lot of trouble to get the bar ready for reopening.
She looked at the man currently behind the bar and ordered a beer on tap. He didn't look anything like Dex, but then siblings didn't always look exactly alike. When another man stepped behind the bar from a back room a moment later, however, Adriana felt sure she had found him. This man and Dex didn't look exactly alike either, but there was a definite resemblance.
She flashed him a smile to coax him over and murmured, "Hi there."
Driver smiled and came over to greet her, a bar towel over his shoulder and a crate of clean glasses in his hands. He set the crate aside and said, "I don't think I've seen you here before."
"This is actually my second visit," Adriana said, smiling flirtatiously. "You may not recognize me, but I think I know you."
"Oh?" Driver replied, smiling.
"It's just, you look so much like your brother."
For the briefest of moments, Driver's smile faltered, but he seemed to recover himself and asked, "Which brother?"
Adriana quirked an eyebrow. So he had more than one. "Honestly, I'm not sure I really know his name. We first met at this bar. It was a long time ago." Relatively speaking.
Driver's face seemed to reflect a lot of emotion again. He removed the towel from his shoulder and started impulsively wiping down the bar. "Sounds like you might be referring to Dexter, before his married days."
"Dexter! Yes, of course!" Adriana exclaimed. "So, he's married now? Off the market?"
That garnered a small smile from Driver. "Yes, for more than a year now."
"Really? Huh."
Driver smiled again. "Didn't peg him for the settling down type, did you?"
"I don't know. I guess I don't know him that well. Does he want children?"
Driver again assumed a pained expression, which Adriana knew stemmed from Dexter's long absence, but her current persona merely cocked her head and pretended as if she didn't notice.
"He's actually already a father of three," Driver finally said, ceasing his wiping of the bar. He left the towel bundled up on the counter and sighed. "He and Karma adopted two young girls from India, and last May, before––well, last May their daughter was born."
"Karma? That's an unusual name, isn't it?" Adriana only knew one person named Karma and that was her former coworker Karma Davyd.
Driver shrugged. "She's Indian, so maybe it's a common name there. I don't really know."
"Huh," Adriana murmured. Was Dexter married to the Karma Adriana already knew, who just happened to be Indian herself?
"I'm sorry, but I never got your name," she said, smiling at him.
Driver extended his hand across the counter and said, "I'm Driver. Driver Morgan."
Adriana ran her thumb over his hand. "It's a pleasure to meet you, Driver Morgan."
She surreptitiously glanced at her watch when she took her hand back and noted that she still had some time before the polyjuice potion wore off, but she had no intention of cutting it close. Adriana had gotten more than enough information about Dex––Dexter Morgan––to hold over his head, should he decide to go back on his word and double-cross her.
She smiled at Driver again and fished a few pounds from her purse, leaving them on the counter. "Thanks for the conversation, Driver. Maybe I'll see you around."
She got up and started to go, when he called out to her, "But I never got your name!"
Adriana turned to look at him over her shoulder and answered, "My name is Anne. Anne Potter."
Tough Questions
Author: Plum
Date: 11-17-13 18:26
Alex leans over to stick a finger in the biscuit dough that's mixing while Plum debates what to stir in. Nuts? Chocolate bits? Caramel drops? Some chopped up candy bars? If she asks Alex he'll suggest they use all of it.
Timing sticking his finger into the bowl again so as not to have the self-stirring spoon catch his hand, Alex gets a big dob on his finger. Plum says, "If you keep doing that, there won't be any biscuit dough left to actually bake into biscuits."
The biscuit doughed finger stalls in its progress to his mouth. "How did you know?"
Plum, whose back is to Alex, turns to face him, chocolate bits and nuts in hand, innocently inquiring, "Know what?"
"That I was getting more?"
"I just know these things."
Alex sucks the dob from his finger, then goes to wash his hands when, with a nod of her head, Plum indicates he has to if he wants to help stir in the nuts and chocolate. Returning to his stool at the kitchen island, he adds the nuts Plum gives him and then the chocolate bits, getting to his use now clean hands to mix them in. Head down, brow furrowed in concentration, hands working the dough, Alex asks, "Pum, why are you and Anthony sad?"
"Because Bronwyn is still missing."
"Are you going to missing too?"
"Go missing and now, I very much hope not."
"That means maybe."
Plum can't help but sigh a little at that. She doesn't want to out and out lie and then, Merlin forbid, something happen to her and Alex having a perception of her as a liar.
She comes behind him, arms going around in a hug, looking over his shoulder at how he's doing with the mixing. "I hope nothing happens that makes me go missing or that I don't have an accident but I can't promise. Accidents do sometimes happen."
"Like with our mummy?"
"Yes, like that. All I can say is that I will try very hard to be here for you until we are both extremely old."
"Anthony too?"
"Anthony too."
"Okay. Pum, can I have a brother? Or a dog?"
Plum chuckles at the abrupt shift in Alex's mind set. They'd had a pet for a short time at one point but the original owner was located and was extremely grateful to have a beloved pet returned. She pats Alex on the head and reaches for one of the baking sheets. "Anthony should be home soon. We'll ask him his thoughts on getting a dog, or maybe a cat. Would a cat do?"
"I like cats but a dog is better. I like Jordan's."
"A dog then. We'll see. "
"That's another maybe."
Smiling, Plum confirms. "That's another maybe. Now, let's spoon up some of this dough and get biscuits baking."