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Imagining
Author: Havana
Date: 09-09-08 07:46
Living as a muggle had been relatively relaxing. Not knowing who she really was gave Havana a sense of freedom, she could do anything she wanted. Everyday she took in the sights, fascinated by the people that passed by. Why were these seemingly normal people seem so different? Little did she know, but compared to her usual lifestyle they were fascinating creatures.
“Ey girl! Whatcha’ looking at there?” A man glared at her as she watched him fiddling with what looked like a wand.
Havana just blinked “I’m sorry Sir. I didn’t mean to frighten you, I was only watching. What was that you’re doing?”
He stiffened, tucking something into his coat pocket. “What did you see child?”
“Can ask you something privately? I have one of those stick things too…I found it when I woke up on the street. You see, I’ve no recollection of who I am. All I know is I’m called ‘Havana’ now.”
The man smirked “You think you’re a witch then? Take this and I’ll be in touch.” He handed her a slip of paper before disappearing around a corner.
Dunk Tank Duty
Author: Saffron
Date: 09-09-08 09:19
In one of those all too rare moments these days, Saffron was able to envision herself in a conversation with Harriet Snider. Because of this when Professor Snider approached late Friday afternoon to inform Saffron that she will be taking the first shift as dunkee for the Fall Festival's dunk tank, Saffron had the satisfaction of not showing any surprise at the news or giving away just how annoyed she was to only be told more or less last minute. It was with a smile and great calm that Saffron had replied, "I've got just the thing to wear."
Although she'd not had a vision of the first person in line to dunk her, Saffron isn't at all surprised to see her brother grinning at her where perches on a bar over the water. "You'd do this to me, Sage?"
"Who better to be the first to see you take a swim?" he cheekily replies.
"And you, Jared Wynbourne, taking part. I should deduct points from you."
Just as cheekily Jared smiles, "Should but won't."
Saffron makes a face at both of them, which is actually part of the fun of a dunking booth, egging on the potential dunkers. She then shrugs. "Not like your aim has ever been any good, brother dear."
Laughing, Sage points his wand towards the target area, timing his shot carefully since it's a moving target. "Dunkus."
Sage's first shot misses. Saffron sweetly says, "I hate to say I told you so about your aim, but I told you so."
Jared helpfully points out, "You get three tries per turn so take another shot."
"Stop helping him, Jared."
Sage, acting nonchalant, informs Saffron, "I wasn't wanting to hit the target that time. I'm building suspense."
When he misses with his second shot Saffron asks, "More suspense building?"
Sage ignores the friendly jibe and points his wand again. "Dunkus!"
This time Sage's shot squarely hits the target. As the bar collapses under her, Saffron has time to say, "At least the water's warm," before going under.
When the bar's reset and she's resumed her seat, Jared has taken Sage's place. "I saw myself in one of your crystal balls, Professor Sacheverelle, hitting the target and dunking you. I should get five points for that at least."
Saffron laughs. "Must have been a faulty crystal ball," she retorts just before she finds herself once again falling into the warm water.
Carnival
Author: Ella
Date: 09-09-08 17:37
With activity going on outdoors and in the Great Hall, Ella realized she probably didn't have much of a chance of escaping notice if she tried to smoke one of the cigarettes Zane had gotten her the week before last. And since she really didn't have anything better to do, she decided to partake in the carnival events. First, she went into the Great Hall where it was considerably warmer than outside where winter weather raged.
She first tired her hand at the Balloon Dart Game. Aiming her wand and using the Dartus incantation, she fired at a yellow balloon. It popped and showered confetti onto the floor. Her second attempt on a blue balloon garnered neither confetti nor a prize of some sort. Just when she thought she wouldn't win anything, the pink balloon she popped on her final attempt earned her a packaged chocolate frog.
Not entirely pleased with her win (she'd really hoped for something more exciting than a sweet, but nevertheless took it and ate it), she moved on to the next booth and waited for her turn to try her hand at the Quaffle Strike Zone. Although she could throw the quaffle in the general direction of each hoop, it always bounced off the rim and never actually made it in. Frowning, she went to the booth and hoped she'd have better luck there.
In the Bowling Game, she did knock over some of the pins but did not get a strike or a spare in her attempts. She went on from booth to booth, mostly not winning anything but occasionally earning a small prize in the form of candy or something relatively useless. Growing bored and discouraged rather quickly, she decided to go outside and check out the entertainment there, but first she had to make a pitstop at her dorm room to pick up her coat. Since she roomed in what used to be Gryffindor Tower, it took a while before she finally made it outside.
Once there, she discovered the entertaiment far excelled what was indoors. There were rides galore and ice skating on the frozen lake. Ella loved ice skating. She made a beeline for the lake, wishing she'd brought her own skates with her. She accepted a pair in her size, pulled off her shoes and pulled on the skates. She stepped on the ice without any hesitation and immediately glided around in the large circle that everyone seemed to be skating around. Not everyone looked as comfortable on their skates as Ella did, but she didn't consider herself especially talented. She didn't do any spins or jumps. She just knew how to stay on her feet.
It didn't take her long to wish that she'd brought her gloves with her. They were up in her dorm room, and she wasn't about to go all the way up there again to get them. She stuffed her pink, cold hands into the pockets of her coat and realized she'd stashed a couple of ciggys into them at some point last week. Perhaps later she'd find an isolated spot and smoke one, but for now she would enjoy herself on the ice.
Free Falling (Augustus)
Author: Phinfilius
Date: 09-10-08 09:18
Augustus Hodfuffer, who usually goes by the shorter Gus but almost never Augie, nearly trips as he approaches the Free Fall tower. There's nothing on the ground to make him trip other than his own two feet. For Gus, that's perfectly normaly. He is not the most coordinated person around. Unlike his cousins Phin and Wiggy who both left Hogwarts with reputations as excellent Quidditch players, Gus is lucky if he can stay on his broom for two minutes straight if not distracted by something like a Quaffle or a Bludger. Nevertheless, Gus perserveres, enjoying sports anyway and greatly looking forward to getting to play in one of the two remaining Quidditch matches. By then, maybe he'll have had enough time in Fitness & Athletics class and in working on his own, that he won't embarrass his team.
Climbing the steep steps that wrap around three sides of the Free Fall tower, Gus slows when he reaches the first platform level then with a shake of his head he continues going up, up, up, bypassing the second platform, and continuing all the way to the very top. It's much colder and windier at this height and it's a very long way down. Gus gulps but steps forward, shaking his head and answering, "No," to this platform's attendant when asked, "Have you done this before?"
The attendant gives Gus some tips for getting the most thrill out of the free fall, though Gus would have thought that the simple act of plunging at a breakneck speed towards the earth would be thrill enough. The attendant motions for Gus to step to the edge.
Gulping again, Gus takes a hesitant step foward, propelling himself to the edge, the toes of his shoes hanging slightly over. The attendant instructs, "Jump on three. One... two... three!"
Gus leaps, his heart and stomach jumping into his throat. He falls and falls, thinking how much taller that platform suddenly seems now that the ground is racing towards him. Remembering something the attendant had said, Gus does his best to tuck his body into a ball and do a somersault. He lets out a whoop of joy, the somersault having been so fun that Gus does another.
When the breaking charm takes hold of his rapidly descending form, Gus is sorry that the fall is coming to an end. When his feet or firmly on the ground again, Gus runs forward, nearly tripping himself again in the process, going to the stairs to climb up for another plunge off the tallest part of the Free Fall tower.
Barnabas Bartlesby
Author: Charlie Weasley
Date: 09-10-08 13:30
Charlie skulks in the shadow of a deep entrance to one of the many shops lining both sides of the street in the Parisian equiavalent of Diagon Alley. For once he's got something more to do than lurk in bushes near the Mews with another Order member, learning what they can of the prison camp. Something other than sitting around in yet another meeting trying to figure out what to do with the little information the group has and trying to come up with more ideas on locating Albus Dumbledore.
Four days ago, while on observation duty at the Mews, Charlie caught sight of an employee there whom he actually knows. Barnabas Bartlesby was in Charlie's year at Hogwarts, a Hufflepuff, and played on that house's Quidditch team a couple of years. While Barny and Charlie had never been the best of chums, they had been friends of a sort. In their time at Hogwarts, Charlie would never have pegged Barny as an elitist pureblood, someone who'd take a job working in a camp, subjugating anyone with so called tainted blood.
As luck would have it, they learned that Barny was leaving on a holiday to Paris this morning. Charlie and a few others are rotating a tail on Barny to determine if he's meeting up with any friends who might notice if Barny doesn't see all the sights that Paris has to offer. They'll snatch Barny at an opportune time and take him to a safe house, found with the aid of Fleur's father, the Order has set up in Créteil, to the south and east of Paris.
The Order plans to extract as much information from Barny as possible and then using Polyjuice Potion, put someone in Barny's place at the Mews when the man is scheduled to return from holiday. Charlie's already pushed for him to be the one who goes inside, speaking up for the mission before his brothers were able to. Ginny, who'd been at the meeting, had hotly reminded him that she's just as capable of undertaking such a mission as their brothers are and he'd best not forget it. Charlie had smiled grimly and said, "Fine, I've gotten my name at the top of the list before you or Bill or Fred or George or Ron. Your name can be second."
Good thing for Charlie that they were in the midst of an Order meeting or else he'd have suffered at the hands of Ginny's bat bogey hex.
Barny moves from looking in a shop window, deciding to enter the shop so Charlie takes the opportunity to shift locations so that he's not blocking anyone from coming and going from the shop whose entrance he's standing near. Ten minutes later Charlie is on the move again, trailing out of sight from Barny as the man continues strolling down the street, oblivious that he's being watched.
Visiting Fall Festival Booths
Author: Zabrynna
Date: 09-10-08 17:35
Anne Kendrick, still on a high from her Quidditch team's win a week ago, confidently aims then throws a quaffle towards one of the hoops at the Quaffle Strike Zone booth. She makes that shot as well as her other two, earning her a tidy little gift certificate to Windweaver's in Hogsmeade.
Philippa Fox, Victoria Visconti, and Zabrynna applaud the win then Philippa tries her hand at the game. She makes one shot, receiving a bag of Bertie Bott's Every Flavor Bean for her effort. Victoria gets the quaffle through a hoop one of her three tries and receives a chocolate frog. Zabrynna misses widely on her first two attempts then with a little coaching from the other three, she still misses but at least the shot hit the rim of the hoop.
"Take another try," Victoria urges.
"No, that's all right. Let's move on to something else," Zabrynna declines.
"I want to do that Free Fall tower outside," Anne tells them.
"Did you see that one called Dragon?" Philippa asks. "I am definately riding that one!
"Me too!" Victoria chimes in. "I also want to check out the Magic Carpet one and that serpent thing. "
Zabrynna, with her lack of enthusiasm for anything that involves flying and heights, internally shudders at the thought of those attractions. Outwardly she smiles and says, "I'd like to try the Human Gobstones, the Fun House, and maybe that Cauldron ride. Oh, and Gnome Tossing. We should all be able to win at least a little something there."
"Let's not forget Capture the Castle and Ice Skating," Philippa reminds.
"Let's wait a little while to go outside though," Victoria suggests. "It won't get much warmer but it should warm up a little bit."
"Let's not wait too long though because Filch is up next on the Dunk Tank," Anne giggles.
"Would be fun to dunk him but I'm really waiting for someone else's turn on that," Victoria states.
Even though Zabrynna's only been at Hogwarts less than three months, she understands the sentiment behind wanthing to dunk Argus Filch. That man is always so sour, scowling at everything and everyone except his cat Mrs. Norris. As for the other person Victoria's talking about, Zabrynna learned the first week of school why Amycus Carrow is so severely, so thoroughly disliked by the majority of the student body. And to hear others talk, he's the nicer of the two Carrows. Zabrynna is very glad she's not had the experience of Alecto Carrow as a professor. No one seems to know where Professor Carrow's sister went but as nasty as the woman sounds, Zabrynna is not at all sad the woman left her Hogwarts position.
To Victoria, Zabrynna points out, "There's nothing to stop you from visiting the Dunking Booth more than once."
"Very true," Philippa agrees. She scans the Great Hall. "Which booth next, ladies?"
Zabrynna says, "Shooting Range," at the same time Anne offers up, "Sweep Zone."
Zabrynna says with a shrug, "Sweep Zone next then Shooting Range? Or do either you, Victoria, or you, Philippa, have a preference for another booth?"
"Shooting Range is fine with me," Philippa answers.
Victoria's already walking that direction when she too replies, "Shooting Range it is."
The other three hurry to catch up, Zabrynna hoping that this time she'll win something, even if it's only a piece of candy.
In a Hurry
Author: Carys
Date: 09-10-08 18:24
Crossing her arms over her chest in a futile attempt to get warm, Carys hurriedly strode from the dining cabin to Building A. The residents at Goen Bren hadn't been provided with decent winter clothing, which made everyone all the more miserable but particularly those whose tasks primarily kept them out of doors. Inside was only barely more tolerable than out, but at least the walls managed to keep out the elements. Regrettably, at least one or two residents had already died from the cold, and Carys wagered as winter neared and the weather grew even colder and more miserable, even more would die.
She moved quickly, not only to get out of the cold, but also to avoid running into the one person at Goen Bren she loathed to see, the warden, who had requested her presence in his company on only a handful of occasions, but certainly a handful too many. In her efforts to get indoors and away from the relative isolation she currently found herself in, her foot caught on a patch of ice and she slid precariously across the ground. Her arms spread out and waved franctically, and for a moment it seemed like her foot would slip out under her and she'd wind up on the ground with a bruised tailbone. However, her foot moved off the slick ground onto gravel, and she managed to regain her balance.
She didn't let the near-fall delay her, and rapidly resumed her trek across the grounds for her cabin. It came into sight, and it was all Carys could see until she made it inside. She made a beeline for her cot and sank onto it, before lying down and pulling her threadbare blanket up to her chin. The cabin was empty, as most of her roommates had day jobs that kept them busy. Carys didn't mind the solitude, and soon drifted off into a fitful nap. She dreamed, not of her family, but of the cruel warden and what he'd done to her.
Winning Prizes
Author: Fionna
Date: 09-11-08 11:28
Catriona Amherst had planned on visiting the festival booths in the Great Hall with Bianca and Aleydis but when she got back from showering this morning, Bianca had already left their room and when she checked Aleydis's she found that Aleydis had already left the former Ravenclaw House. She came alone to the Great Hall and made her first stop a food booth offering a wide assortment of crepes. Cat watched as a House Elf made her a perfect mixed berry crepe, topped with a dusting of confectioners sugar and a dollop of fluffy almond flavored whipped cream.
Cat sat down to eat the crepe but after that, with a steaming cup of frothy hot chocolate, she began strolling through the Great Hall, looking at the booths and keeping her eyes open for either of the other two second year girls. It's times like this that have Cat missing Polly Potts the most.
Trying not to sink into a dark, depressive, melancholy state on a day that should be nothing but laughs and thrills, Cat approaches the Bucket Brigade booth. Setting her hot chocolate down, Cat accepts several small balls from the adult currently supervising the booth, none other than History of Magic professor Declan Douglass.
"The object is to toss a ball into each of the tea cannisters," he explains.
Nibbling a little on the inside of one cheek, Cat puts all but one of the balls down in a groove in the counter then with the ball she's holding, she takes aim and throws. The ball hits one of the tea cannisters but bounces right out of the bucket. The next throw is too gentle. Cat has better success with the third ball. When she's thrown all the balls she was given, Cat ended up doing well enough to earn a chocoball.
She eats the chocoball, savoring the strawberry mousse and clotted cream filling, as she walks to the Balloon Dart game. Washing the last bite of chocoball down with the remains of her hot chocolate, Cat stands waiting her turn, her eyes scanning the board of balloons, wondering which ones contain the best prizes.
When it's Cat's turn, she steps up and listens to the instructions on how to pop the balloons. Pointing her wand at an extremely bright, lime green colored one, Cat keeps her hand as steady as possible.
"Dartus!"
A light shoots from the tip of her wand like the projectile it's meant to be. The lime green balloon gives a very satisfying POP and something falls to the floor. She's given the indication to go on and take her other two shots so Cat aims at a pretty pale yellow balloon, "Dartus," and again, something falls to the floor. Cat's third dart is at a red balloon and all she gets from that is a shower of pastel confetti. She's not at all unhappy about not getting anything with the third turn because the yellow balloon had a voucher for two feather quill pens and the green balloon had a voucher for food from Burger Wizard in Hogsmeade.
Cat gave the quills voucher to a House Elf there at the Balloon Dart game who then let Cat pick from a wide assortment of the pretty quills. She picked one with a fluffy, soft feather the color of coral and the other is one that cycles through shades of blue, ranging from a so pale it's nearly white blue to a deep, dark, midnight blue. The Burger Wizard voucher she can owl in when she wants the meal it promises and the food will be delivered.
Passing a booth offering up mini flaky, buttery croissants with ham and cheese, gets one of the little sandwiches, eating it on her way to the Cake Walk. There, Cat picks out a scrumptious looking confection of lemony cake with luciously aromatic lemony frosting. The cake is set on a starting mark and Cat, drawing on what she's learned from Charms class and with additional instruction from the booth attendant, is delighted when four little feet spring from the bottom of the cake. Working her wand carefully, Cat directs the cake down the path drawn on the low table. When it reaches the end mark for someone of second year status, Cat claps for herself, excited that she won the cake.
Deciding to take the cake, quills, and Burger Wizard voucher to her room, Cat scurries from the Great Hall, anxious to deposit her winnings and get back to see what the other booths inside have to offer.