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First Day of Term
Author: Capri Brycin
Date: 03-05-14 06:55
Capri always thought she looked rather unassuming but turned out she could be a raging bitch; it was the red hair. Her blue eyes sparkled with deception and mischief whenever she smiled or laughed. Only those who knew her well knew what she was really like – her mother, father and older brother and her younger sister.
Straightening her glasses she looked in the mirror and tapped her hair with her wand and changed the color of her hair to black. She didn't like it and changed it back to its natural fiery red color. "Much better." She said to her reflection.
"I don't know why you keep trying to change your hair," Amyas Brycin said softly as he leaned against the door jam.
"Because I get tired of my hair this color but nothing else suites me."
"It's that fiery red hair that gets you into so much trouble." Her brother said as he moved from the doorway to her bed. He sat down and looked at her reflection in the full-length mirror.
Capri sighed, "I know. But I can't help it. And I have Daddy he always gets me out of trouble."
"Yes, but that won't last forever, Capri. I think he is getting desperately tired of bailing you out of trouble. And this last go around at school just finished it off. Blowing up the potions classroom was not a good move."
"Professor Blain was an ass. He never gave me credit for my work in class and my Outstanding and Exceeds Expectations work he would always mark down. He never gave me the grades I deserved. Not to mention he was just a rude man."
It was Amyas' turn to sigh and he just let his eyes follow his sister wherever she went in her room. "Now that we are in England you had better pull yourself together and stop this."
"I know but I just can't help myself. Trouble just finds me."
*~*~*~*~*~*
The first day of term was here and Capri and her younger sister Andromeda were unceremoniously dropped at Hogwarts by her parents and left to find their way. Sometimes she really despised her parents but if it weren't for her doting father she would be in prison or worse.
She would have to find Professor McGonagall and talk with her, get her class schedule and most importantly get sorted into her house. She had heard stories of people who had gone to Hogwarts in the past and the houses they were sorted into and she was pretty sure that she was going to be sorted into Slytherin house.
When Capri finally found Professor McGonagall she found the woman very self important and prudish she didn't like the woman right off, but she played nice.
McGonagall sat Capri down and placed the sorting hat on her head and it began talking in her ear, "Hmmm, blew up the potions classroom at your old school. Hex and jinxed your sister at every pass. Deceptive and scheming – no need for further thought, it is Slytherin for you."
Taking the hat off of Capri's head she placed it on the near by desk and again welcomed her to Hogwarts and took her to meet her Head of House Professor Snape and then, seeing one of the Prefects for Slytherin Professor McGonagall introduced her to Mark Farnon.
Adjusting her glasses she nodded her head at Mark and smiled her eyes danced mischievously and she held out her hand to him, something she never did for anyone.
(Aralyn) Holding
Author: Lysander Stratford
Date: 03-05-14 18:25
Aralyn faced the wall in her Ministry of Magic holding cell and shivered beneath the thin blanket she'd been given. Besides the cot, blanket, and an understuffed pillow, the only other items in the cell were a sink and toilet in the corner. She may have been a stripper not so very long ago, but Aralyn really couldn't get used to peeing in public.
She had been in the holding cell at the Ministry ever since her arrest sometime before Christmas. Aralyn couldn't remember the exact date everything had gone wrong. She just knew that Kristos had finally pushed her far enough to snap, and now he was gone. The funny bit was she couldn't remember what had set her off. She had no idea what had prompted her to kill her own brother.
She regretted her actions now. She and Kristos may have had a volatile relationship in recent years, but they had at one time been close. He was her twin, after all. Her other half. Now she had no family left. No one except for Charlotte.
Sometime after her arrival at the Ministry, Aralyn had fretted over the whereabouts of her daughter. She had no memory of the Death Eaters taking Charlotte away and couldn't remember where she had been during Aralyn's attack on Kristos. At first she'd feared that maybe Charlotte had been a casuality of her madness too. It was during a later interrogation that she'd learned her daughter was again living with Lysander.
Aralyn remembered blackmailing Lysander and felt half-tempted to tell on him to the authorities, but then she thought about Charlotte. Being under arrest and facing a certain term in Azkaban, Aralyn could not be a mother to her daughter. What good would it do Charlotte if she lost her father as well? Aralyn decided to bite her tongue for the sake of her child and to bear the burden of her crime alone.
She heard footsteps, which stopped outside her cell. There was a jingle of keys and then a creak as the cell door swung open.
"Get up," stated a woman auror with a gruff tone of voice. "It's time to have another chat."
Aralyn felt too depressed to move but she forced herself to roll over and swing her legs over the side of the cot. She stood up and allowed the witch to bind her wrists together.
"How many more chats are we to have?" Aralyn asked. "I'm ready to go to prison."
"After a case is built against you, you'll stand trial, and then you'll go to prison," said the auror.
She escorted Aralyn down the hall and into a side room, where there was a table and three chairs, one for Aralyn, and two for the gruff witch and her partner. Aralyn was seated without ceremony, and then the line of questioning began.
Meeting With Pierce Ford
Author: Charlie Weasley
Date: 03-05-14 18:48
Charlie sits across from the young man who once was a student in each of the courses he teaches. Pierce Ford has bruises under both eyes and across a nose no longer in proper alignment. Both lips are puffy and split. One eye is nothing more than a swollen slit. The younger wizard also cradles one arm and moves that arm as little as possible. He'd limped slowly into the small conference room before even more slowly easing himself into the chair on the opposite side of the table from Charlie.
Charlie quirks an eyebrow at the guard who'd accompanied Pierce. "Why hasn't Mr. Ford seen a healer?"
The guard looks balefully at Charlie before replying, sounding extremely bored. "St. Mungo's is sending someone."
"I take it these injuries occurred yesterday. A healer should have been sent for immediately."
"There was a miscommunication."
Somehow, Charlie doesn't believe that. He turns his attention back to Pierce. "Have you spoken with your solicitor?"
"Not yet."
The delay on the healer and the delay on allowing Pierce to see his lawyer. Charlie will most definitely be speaking with Kingsley Shacklebolt about these and any other issues that come to his attention.
"Yet you've been allowed to see me and at your request."
"I know. Doesn't make much sense but what can I do?" Between the swollen, cracked lips and Pierce's effort not to move his mouth overly much when speaking has the younger wizard words coming out in a near mumble.
"Why did you do it?"
"Had to."
Charlie shakes his head. "Had to? It was stupid to try, Pierce, especially when your trespassing sentence was nearly finished. You attacked a guard. You've added months to your sentence."
"I had no choice. He... "
After a few seconds and the younger man says nothing further Charlie wants to know, "He who?"
Pierce doesn't give a direct answer. "I've been serving as an apprentice."
Once again Charlie waits for Pierce to say more but when he doesn't Charlie asks, "He is who you've been working under?"
"Yes. Doing experiments."
"Involving dragons and their genetics."
"Yes."
"Why didn't you say any of this before?"
"I couldn't. Couldn't not wouldn't."
"But now you're able, obviously."
"The spell was temporary."
"Let me guess. It wore off recently."
Pierce nods but only slightly, the motion clearly painful.
"Why would that cause you to try and break out of Azkaban when your sentence would have been complete in less than two weeks?"
"I received a letter. It's in code so the prison sensors didn't see anything wrong with it. When that one spell wore off, another turned on. I'm dead in another week if I can't get an antidote."
"You knew nothing about this?"
"Not until the letter. My master didn't tell me. According to the letter he would have reinforced the spell to prevent me from talking but he had no way of getting in to see me at the Ministry holding cells or here with a wand. There was also no way to prevent the poison hex from kicking in."
"Why would he have wanted to fix one or stop the other when he put the safeguard in place for a reason?"
"Because my sentence was short and because he doesn't want to have to start training another apprentice at this far into his experiments."
"So, not because he has any affection or care for you?"
"I don't know. Probably not."
"When you got the letter why didn't you tell someone?"
"I did. I told three different guards."
Another item to add to the list Charlie will discuss with Kingsley.
"And your solicitor?"
"She was out of the country for another client at the time. I panicked."
"She's back now?"
"I think so but I don't know. I asked for her to be sent for but when she didn't come yesterday I thought they'd not sent the request on to her. When there was still no word from her this morning I asked to see you. I'm surprised someone sent you the message."
"Why me?"
"Because I thought that despite the trespassing charge and suspecting me of being connected to those dead dragons, you might still help me."
Charlie says nothing for a full minute before nodding his head once. "All right. What is this antidote."
Pierce removes a single sheet of parchment from his prison uniform. "Here's the information."
Charlie unfolds the parchment to scan it before refolding it. "This will take at least a day."
Addressing the guard he instructs, "I'll be checking back in a few hours. If Mr. Ford still has not received medical attention, I'll personally see that Minister Shacklebolt removes you from your current position."
The guard doesn't seem overly concerned by Charlie's threat. If Pierce hasn't seen a healer when Charlie checks back, this guard, whose name Charlie makes not of, will find out just how real that threat is.
Antidote instructions in hand, Charlie goes through the Azkaban exit process to retrieve his wand, then sets out immediately for the mainland, wanting to set things in motion for the antidote as quickly as possible.
Waiting With Burpie (Libby)
Author: Georgia Copperpot
Date: 03-06-14 18:50
After school, sitting on a swing waiting for Georgia to come get her, Liberty Copperpot slowly turns in a circle then lifts her feet and lets the swing spin back the other direction. After the fourth time she stops long enough to address the boy in the next swing.
"Burpie, those new trainers?"
The same age as Libby, nine, and in the same Hogsmeade Primary Day Class the boy sticks his feet out as if needing to remind himself of what shoes he's wearing. Once he has verified he is indeed wearing new trainers he responds in the affirmative. "Yeah. Christmas present."
"Nice."
"Thanks, and it's Albert or Al or Bert or Bertie. Not Burpie. How would you like it if I call you Lispie?"
"I don't lisp. You burp all the time."
Albert considers the truth of this before pointing out, "Only because we have contests. You never call any of the others Burpie."
"Because you always win the contests."
"So you aren't being mean?" Albert asks this because Libby has a not so nice streak, mainly in the form of wanting to be in charge all the time, but sometimes it's more than that.
Libby makes a sound Albert takes to be a no. She suddenly jumps from her swing. "My sister, the cheeky monkey. Bye!"
"Bye!"
Albert watches Libby shoving her bookbag at her sister before she turns to wave. He returns the wave then spots his mum. Grabbing up his own things he walks to meet her, mulling over whether he likes the nickname Burpie enough to start using it.
Humorism
Author: Josie
Date: 03-07-14 11:46
Not even 24 hours has passed and I was again in the Alchemy classroom with the seventh years. Most of them walked slowly towards their desk: it was the first class of the day and some of them were still waking up.
"Yesterday we began to study Humorism. Mr. Anderson, could you please make a brief summary of what was discussed last class?"
Errol Anderson hesitated for a moment but then he replied:
"Centuries ago most alchemists' works were focused in the human body. They did not want to brew potions whose effect was temporary. They wanted to create elixirs that would change your body permanently and forever. But all they knew was to work with simple exterior elements such as fire, water, air... The challenge was to discover what elements where hidden inside a human body and how they would react with the exterior ones and with each others. Once the mystery was solved, it would be possible to finally combine elements and start working on the creations that would affect the person's body. And that was how Humorism was born."
"Excellent, Mr. Anderson. Five points to Ravenclaw. And what are the four Humours? Miss Brycin?" I asked the new student, Capri Brycin.
"Blood, phlegm, yellow bile and black bile. "
I awarded Slytherin with 3 points for the correct answer and then I pointed to my desk where four sealed jars rested. Inside there were samples of each humour. Some students looked at it with repulse, while others seemed somewhat fascinated.
"Are we going to have to work with those, Professor?"
"Yes, Miss Drawlight." Miranda Drawlight didn't seem very pleased with my answer. "But not today; first you will study deeply each humour. We will connect each one to one of four elements, to what organs of the human body are their associated, their ancient names, characteristics and qualities. Today we will start by studying the yellow bile."
The title appeared on the blackboard and I heard the sound of quills scratching the parchments as I began my explanation. The time passed and before the bell rang I gave the class some homework:
"You will read your textbook from page 98 to 113, and then I want you to write an essay about the uses of yellow bile, both in the past and present. Thank you. Class dismissed."
Outed
Author: Rowan Westwick
Date: 03-07-14 17:39
Ash had never been in Professor McGonagall's office, nor had he ever been there when it had belonged to Professor Dumbledore. It was a very interesting room, with cabinets and book shelves that reached the high ceiling and were filled to capacity with odds, ends, and a great many books. Where there wasn't furniture, there were portraits of all the former headmasters and headmistresses who had ever called the office their own.
Taking everything in all morning long had done a wonderful job of keeping his mind off of the surprising news he and his sisters had gotten at breakfast. Rowan and Willow, who were also present in Professor McGonagall's office, had been there before when she had summoned them to give permission for them to leave Hogwarts and visit their recently returned father.
It was Linden Westwick who'd been the primary target in the unexpected news article that had appeared in The Daily Prophet this morning. Rita Skeeter, exaggerator extraordinaire and lover of all things scandalous, had written an article about the former Death Eater and recently released prisoner of Azkaban. She implied that he had never really defected from Lord Voldemort and that he had voluntarily submitted his family to their long-term curse as part of some grander scheme.
She insinuated that it was no accident that the family's return coincided with the rise of Voldemort's successor, Adriana Fairchild. Skeeter suggested that Holly Westwick, Linden's wife, was also no longer cursed but that she was in hiding and doing Fairchild's bidding from the underground.
Then she mentioned the children. Ash and Willow, being Slytherins, were no doubt being groomed to be the next generation of Death Eaters and were probably recruiting from within Hogwarts. Rowan, the Ravenclaw, was described as a criminal mastermind whose cleverness allowed her true nature to go unnoticed.
As she has done with each of the professors featured in her articles last year, Skeeter asked the question of whether the Westwicks should even been allowed at Hogwarts, being dangerous and the worst sort of role model for their peers. They were probably damaged anyway, having been trapped in nesting dolls for more years than any of them had been alive.
Skeeter also questioned Professor McGonagall's decision to readmit the children to Hogwarts, as well as Kingsley Shacklebolt's decision to set Linden free in time for Christmas, if at all. Ash felt certain that the Minister of Magic had not been behind their father's original sentencing, but perhaps he had been involved in his father's early release as a sort of gesture any head of state might do for individuals around a certain time of year.
The Westwicks had managed to keep the truth about their strange arrival at Hogwarts to themselves, with only the staff and a few students having any knowledge about their unique situation. In one unexpected move, Rita Skeeter had changed everything. Their secret was unceremoniously out.
Instead of going to any of their classes, the Westwicks had been ushered to Professor McGonagall's office by the headmistress herself, who'd seen the article at breakfast like everyone else. They had seen her look stern and hand out reprimands plenty of times, but they had never witnessed her appear so very livid as she had upon first learning about the news.
Never did she indicate her unhappiness with them. In fact, she seemed quite determined to shelter them and defend them from any backlash they might receive. A letter was immediately dispatched to the Finch residence, where Linden lived in a spare room in the basement. It was mutually decided that he should not come to Hogwarts for the time-being. Professor McGonagall also insisted the children remain at the school. In fact, she encouraged them to resume their classes that afternoon.
Ash was good at ignoring people, but Rowan and Willow had more concern about explaining or defending themselves to their classmates. They knew they couldn't hide forever, though, and would reluctantly go once more unto the breach. Maybe it wouldn't be so bad…
"Well, then," Professor McGonagall said from her place at her desk. "Why don't we all go to the Great Hall together?"
Ash turned away from the astronomical equipment that held his fascination right then, and Rowan and Willow got up from their chairs and began walking to the door as if the soles of their shoes were made of lead. They went down the spiral staircase, with Ash in the lead and Professor McGonagall at that rear and were met by a very frantic Beatrix Vanderbilt at the landing.
"I thought you were all gone, but I hoped you would stay!" She looked like she might want to hug Ash, but she turned to Rowan instead and threw herself into her arms. "Please don't go!"
"We're not," Rowan said.
"Miss Vanderbilt," Professor McGonagall said. "We are going to the Great Hall. Perhaps you would like to keep Miss Westwick company?"
"Yes," Beatrix said, "of course. We can all sit together if you want." This was mostly directed at Ash, who merely nodded his head.
"Great," Beatrix said, leading the way.
The party made it to the Great Hall without incident, but when they entered the dining chamber, all eyes turned to them and conversation stopped.
(Mark) Tensions
Author: Isolde
Date: 03-08-14 10:25
When Professor McGonagall asked Mark to show Capri around Hogwarts, he had felt a mixture of boredom and eagerness at the prospect. Being a seventh year Slytherin prefect, Mark was expected to assist any of his housemates, which included showing a new student the ropes. Mark usually found those aspects of his position quite frivolous, being more entertained by the power involved in giving or taking house points.
However, seeing as he had no friends at the moment, Mark realized that here was a person new to Hogwarts who knew no one and had no knowledge of what he had done to isolate himself from everyone else. Capri had arrived at Hogwarts with a little sister, also sorted into Slytherin, but they did not get along very well. For the present time, Capri seemed just as solitary as Mark himself.
Perhaps that was why they had spent a lot of time together since first meeting yesterday morning. It certainly helped that Capri was also a seventh year and that they shared a lot of the same classes.
They were just now leaving Defense Against the Dark Arts for the Slytherin Common Room.
"Professor Weatherby seems all right," Capri remarked.
"She often has us practice using the school's obstacle courses," Mark said. "I usually forget I'm in class and actually learning something when we do the hands-on stuff."
"Obstacle courses?" Capri asked, arching an eyebrow.
"Yeah, a couple of classrooms have been converted."
They went from the second floor to the first to ground level and then turned for the staircase leading to the dungeons. It was there in the corridor that Mark bumped into Kate, Johanna, Felicia, and Gus, who had just left Potions. Mark and Kate had seen each other since arriving back at Hogwarts but had not been in close quarters.
There was so much he wanted to say to her. He wanted to tell her about his hypocritical mother and explain his actions from last summer and fall. He also wanted to ask her forgiveness and see if she wanted to give their relationship another try, but he had Kate's schedule memorized and knew that she had to go to Care of Magical Creatures class.
Kate looked between him and Capri and seemed to wonder at the nature of their relationship. She appeared a little wounded at seeing them together. Johanna and Felicia looked curious but otherwise wore fairly neutral expressions on their faces. Gus looked like he wanted to punch Mark in the face.
The foursome brushed past the pair, and Mark distinctly heard Gus mutter "Bastard" under his breath as they passed each other.
It was when they were clearly out of earshot that Capri asked, "What's his problem?"
Mark shook his head. "It's not worth talking about," he said.
They stopped before the portal to the common room, gave the password ("citrine"), and then entered.