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(Créteil, France) Safe House
Author: Sirius Padfoot Black
Date: 09-11-08 12:44
Sirius does another walk around the room where the Order plans on holding Barnabas Bartlesby when an Order member impersonates Bartlesby in Britain. This house in Créteil is a Wizarding but there are Muggle houses all along the block so one of the spells Sirius wants to ensure is in place and working properly is sound proofing on the room.
Sirius stands in the middle of the room, yelling at the top of his lungs. A minute later Molly Weasley opens the door. "Can't hear a thing outside, Sirius."
Still angry with the woman, Sirius curtly nods then wordlessly turns to the windows, checking the secureness of each. Still standing at the doorway Molly tells him, "We've gotten word from the Rue de Belles Femmes."
La Rue de Belles Femmes is a Wizarding shopping area in Paris, the Parisian counterpart of Diagon Alley. Sirius doesn't turn from inspecting the windows when he asks, "And?"
"They'll be here within the hour."
Sirius senses Molly moving out of the doorway but she's not walking off, she's coming in. Turning and giving her a what now look, Sirius waits for her to speak again.
"Is this animosity really necessary?"
"I don't know, Molly. You tell me. You never really approved of me and then you back Arthur on undermining my marriage."
Molly sputters angrily, catches herself before she makes a retort and takes a deep breath. A very deep breath.
"I don't know what's ever given you reason to think I don't approve of you. While it's true that I've not always approved of some of your rash behavior, that doesn't mean I disapprove of you. Arthur's actions this summer, and my backing of him, are not efforts to undermine your marriage and you know it. We've explained and explained. I'm sorry if you still do not grasp that Arthur's approaching Drucilla with his idea was one Order member approaching another with a suggestion for something that might help us get closer to ending all this nons and purebloods nonsense."
"You approve of me? That's rich! I caught the look you gave me when the debate over who would impersonate Bartlesby came up."
"What are you talking about?"
"When I didn't rush to put my name in the hat, you looked directly at me with a look that is best described as loathing."
"I looked at you with surprise that you hadn't jumped up to volunteer. Nothing more."
"Easy to deny. You must think I'm nothing but a great bully wanting to dictate every little thing on what my wife may or may not do while at the same time being too cowardly to want to take the place of someone who's working at the prison camp where Snivellus Snape is held," Sirius spat out.
Aghast, Molly starts to speak, stops, then after another very deep breath she finally says, "There are others being held beside Severus Snape. My Percy might even be there. You don't know what it's like to have a child missing and not know if he's all right..."
Molly stops herself, face blanching as she realizes what she's just said. "I'm so sorry," she says in a rush, "I didn't mean that."
Sirius, stonily silent, brushes past Molly, walking out of the room and then, after a half second of thought, out of the house.
Human Gobstones (Wenlock Cousins)
Author: Aaron Miller
Date: 09-11-08 14:53
Hair dripping into his eyes from where Argus Filch made a mighty splash going into the dunk tank tank, Hadrian Rabnott laughs, "That was satisfying."
"Yeah, but I'm coming back when Professor Carrow's in the tank," Hunter Rabnott pronounces.
Walking between them, their cousin Daniel Gelson mutters only loud enough for them to hear, "Too bad Hairy the Snide, Yaxley, and Parkinson aren't on dunk tank duty."
"Yeah, that would be bloody great to have a chance to drown, I mean dunk Yaxley," Hadrian agrees.
Deciding they'd best change the topic before someone overhears them, namely Ryland Yaxley whom they'd seen lurking about a short time before they'd reached the dunking booth, Hunter points to a large, flat area where big spheres are being rolled about in a giant circle. "Let's do Human Gobstones."
They reach the attraction just as the current round is ending. Walking up just after them are Ivan Grimsby and Basil Wynbourne. In a bored tone, bordering on snotty, Basil says to Ivan loudly ehough for the three Wenlock cousins to overhear, "Shame there's no competition. This might be fun."
Daniel and Hadrian exchange amused glances. It's a well known fact that Basil Wynbourne is a snooty prat and Ivan Grimsby is just as bad but without less brain cells.
A sixth person wanting to participate in the next round comes jogging up. Christopher Chant asks to no one in particular, "Can I get in on this turn or are there too many? It's six max at a time, right?"
The woman running the event tells him, "You make the sixth if all five of those boys are taking part. Any of you done this yet?"
Receiving six no replies she proceeds to give them instructions. "You'll each get into one of the colored balls. I'll make sure the opening's properly shut and then you have a minute to practice getting the feel of rolling the balls around. I'll blow the whistle to end the practice minute. I'll blow it twice more to indicate the start of the round. She sweeps a hand around ot indicate the outline of the giant circle. "The object is to knock the other gobstones out of the ring. It's a three minute round. Anyone left inside the ring at the end of three minutes gets a prize. If one person knocks everyone else out, the sole prize winner gets a bigger prize. Everyone understand?"
This time she receives six yeses. "All right then, choose your gobstone and get in."
Daniel's sphere has a blue cast to it but he finds that from inside the coloring doesn't obscure his vision in any way. Hunter's inside an orange ball, Hadrian a red one, Basil is also in a blue one but it's a different shade than Daniel's. Christopher has a purple ball and Ivan's gobstone is brown.
They all wait eagerly for the signal for the practice to begin. When it comes, Hunter experimentally walks forward, causing his ball to roll. Hadrian gets his rolling forward as well while Daniel's got his going sideways. The minute passes really quickly and next thing the three know, the whistle's sounding twice.
Daniel runs inside his blue gobstone getting it rolling at a nice clip as he awkwardly steers for a collision with Ivan. Their gobstones smash into each other, sending Ivan's rolling close to the perimeter of the oversized arena. Daniel ends up tumbling backwards, giggling inside his gobstone as he gets dizzy.
Hadrian and Hunter both target Basil at the same time. There's a three way crash and Hadrian to his disappointment goes hurdling out of the ring. At least Basil does too.
Hunter, still in the game but rolling a little uncontrollably after that crash, works to get the gobstone going again in the direction he wants. He's tries to keep up the momentum gained from the collision, directing his ball at Christopher who's just knocked Ivan out of the circle.
Hunter and Christopher meet. Hunter is expecting his gobstone to try rolling backwards or sideways after colliding with Christopher but he's hit from behind by Daniel. That sends Hunter's gobstone rebounding forward, hitting Christopher again. It's enough to send Christopher tumbling towards the ring's line and try though he might, Christopher can't get his gobstone under control before he rolls over the line.
Daniel grins inside his gobstone, hurling the ball at Hunter again in hopes of knocking his cousin from the ring as well. Hunter's able to move his sphere out of the way. Daniel rolls right past and has to get the ball going another direction or risk rolling right out of the ring himself. Hunter's gobstone is bearing down on Daniel's but he can't get out of the way in time and he's still really close to the perimeter of the circle.
Hunter whoops with glee when he smashes into Daniel's gobstone, sending the older boy out of the arena at precisely the same time the whistle is blown to indicate the three minutes are up. It felt a whole lot longer than three minutes. Odd how the practice minute seemed so short but the three minutes of game play seem much more than that!
Sweating, Hunter climbs out of his gobstone, excited to be the sole winner this round. The woman hands Hunter a basket filled with a set of gobstones, sweets and a certificate to redeem for a professional Quidditch match!
Daniel and Hadrian rush over to see what all he won. As Hunter offers them sweets from the basket, he says, "That was HARD!"
"Yeah! Let's do it again!" Daniel laughs.
Mouths too full to speak, Hunter and Hadrian run to the staging area where those wanting to participate in a round line up.
(Rivalen) Are you man or mouse?
Author: Isolde
Date: 09-11-08 18:14
Rivalen leaned on a troll club and called out to the students who strolled by the Show of Strength booth in the Great Hall. Although he never did any serious work on a Saturday anyway, he reveled at the opportunity to do something extremely carefree. Also, smashing things was quite satisfying.
"Come on and test your strength. It's simple, really! Just take this club, aim for the target just there," he exclaimed, pointing to the circular platform at the base of the meter, "and hit it with all your might! Who wants to give it a go? You there... or you there? Come on! Don't be shy! Clearly, you are in need of a demonstration!"
Grinning at the small group of students congregated nearby, he turned his back to them and pretended to roll up his sleeves. He hauled the club up effortlessly, slung it over his shoulder, and after throwing a final quick look at the children, slugged the target powerfully, causing each level of the meter to light up magically. A bell sounded to indicate that he had the strength of a troll!
Pretending to wipe his brow, he turned to the children and smiled. "See. It's that easy. Now who wants to try it?"
One of the boys raised his hand and said, "Me! I'll try it."
"All right then." Rivalen started to hand the club to the boy, but paused when he caught sight of his nephew walking by with a pastry in his hand.
"Mark! Put that sweet down and come show us how strong you are."
Mark looked up and slowed to a stop, taking a nibble from his pastry before answering. "All right."
The boy wanting to try his hand at the Show of Strength booth looked a little disappointed at getting passed over but did not protest against Rivalen's blatant nepotism.
Mark exchanged the pastry for the club, which was quite heavier than Rivalen made it appear, and carried it to the base of the meter. He hauled it over his shoulder and then lowered it swiftly onto the flat, circular lever. Up, up, and up the meter rose, but Mark didn't get anywhere near his uncle's level of strength. He was merely "average".
Mark didn't like being merely average, but he didn't want to show off his skills or lack of skills any more than necessary. He took the pastry from his uncle and hauled the club to the boy who'd lost his turn earlier.
Rivalen didn't watch Mark stride away, instead turning to the boy he'd passed over only moments earlier. "Let's see what you can do," he said encouragingly.
In the US (Jade & Hunter)
Author: Emerald Green
Date: 09-11-08 18:44
Jade can't keep still. Aunt Blythe and Uncle Woody are arriving any second and Jade is so eager and excited to be reunited with them that her entire body is near to quivring from the impatience of waiting. Hunter is just as excited but being the typical boy that he is, he's trying to act like it's not a big deal.
They'd stayed with Phin's Hodfuffer grandparents until Tuesday. Phin's uncle Lardsnelter Hodfuffer, who tends to go by the name Lars, and his wife, who has a name Jade LOVES, Bambi Fandango, Floo'd from Belgium that day. Lars is still part of the restaurant in Hogsmeade but, if Jade remembers what Emerald had said about the former Hogwarts librarian and her husband, he Floos to Hogsmeade the days he works because after Bambi was fired from Hogswarts, she took a job in Brussels.
From Mr. and Mrs. Hodfuffer's Lars and Bambi had apparated with Jade and Hunter to the home of some friends of theirs in London. With their passports picked up from Aunt Blythe's by another friend of one of the Hodfuffer's on Thursday they boarded an airplane with Bambi and Lars, who was extremely thrilled and very nervous about his first experience in a Muggle aircraft.
It was during the flight across the Atlantic that the twins had finally asked why the round about way of getting them out of Great Britain and why America?
Bambi had explained that although they didn't think anyone with Camp Lollipop or the Ministry would associate their sister Emerald as having been the girlfriend of Phin, it was, in Bambi's words, "Better to err on the side of caution."
In case anyone had made the connection and were monitoring all the Floos connected to the various Hodfuffer homes, apparating away from Chillzab's and Buckterlus's home was best. Taking a Muggle taxi from Bambi's and Lars's friends to the Heathrow was just another way of making it harder for the Ministry to track the twins. The Snatchers probably would't know much about Muggle airports to be able to effectively check Heathrow, if such a thing even occurred to them that is. Snatchers would be watching Blythe and Woody, which is why none of the Hodfuffers visited to be the ones to let them know Jade and Hunter are safe and why their aunt and uncle hadn't come for the twins themselves.
Lars and Bambi took the twins to Phin's father Virgil and his wife Vivian. The twins had met Vivian's daughter Jewel a few times because of her being Phin's step-sister. Jade figures they want to help the twins because they can't help Jewel, who went missing during the school year when she and someone else labeled as Nons were attempting to leave Hogsmeade during a Hogsmeade Saturday.
If Virgil and Vivian Flefforfore hadn't offered the twins a place, Bambi had assured Hunter and Jade that her own family, who also live in America, would have plenty of room for them.
It's in the Flefferfore's living room that Jade now can't sit still, waiting for her aunt and uncle to arrive. Hunter, for all his attempts at appearing nonchalant has started pacing. At a sound from the fireplace Hunter spins around and Jade jumps up.
Aunt Blythe comes barreling out of the fireplace, practically in a run. Jade rushes forward as does Hunter and the three practically collide into one big hug. They're joined almost immediately by Uncle Woody.
A little later, with faces still wet from tears, Aunt Blythe makes a request. "We've gotten the general story but don't know any of the details. How did you end up going to the Imperial Crown & Cauldron?"
Vivian and Virgil wish to hear the details as well. They'd wanted to ask when the twins arrived but knowing they'd already told the story a few times and would most likely tell it again to their aunt and uncle, they restrained themselves. Now, they both lean forward to listen as Hunter starts by describing Camp Lollipop and how Jade and he got away.
Jade picks up the story with catching the bus and figuring out they were in London. "We both thought of the Leaky Cauldron because we knew it had a Floo we could use. We walked in behind some people, hoping they wouldn't notice us. Hunter and I were dirty and smelly and our clothes looked bad and knew there was a chance someone would ask what was up with us. Thankfully, Old Tom saw us right away and without having to ask us, somehow knew we didn't need to be seen by too many people. When we told him we were Nons who'd escaped from a prison, he asked us was there anywhere we could go that we thought we'd be safe."
"For some reason I thought of Phin and his mom," Hunter picks up the story. "I think maybe it's because a bunch of the kids at Camp Lollipop are their relatives. We needed someplace that the prison people wouldn't come looking for us right away and I just knew we could trust Phin's mother. Old Tom let us get washed up, fed us, and gave us clean clothes before having us Floo from one of the private rooms at the Leaky Cauldron."
Jade wraps up the story of their arrival at the restaurant, going to Phin's grandparents, and who Lars and Bambi brought them to the United States. When she finishes, Aunt Blythe and Vivian are both crying and Virgil, sounding emotional, says, "Viv and I want the twins to stay here. We've got plenty of room and Cassandra's just loved having other kids around to give her attention. You two have your business to run, Blythe, Woody and the twins can't go back with you. We'd love to have them here."
Blythe and Woody want to discuss possible other arrangements but for the time being, the adults decide that Jade and Hunter will stay with the Flefferfores.
(Aemilia) Who Am I?
Author: Bronwyn Dewhurst
Date: 09-12-08 09:06
Aemilia sat on a bench in Rotterdam, having no idea whatsoever how she had gotten there. She didn't have any idea about a great many things, most of all, her own name. She'd searched her pockets for identification but hadn't found anything to indicate something about her life. She only guessed she was in Rotterdam because a barge docked not far from where she sat had Rotterdam painted on the side. Perhaps she lived and worked in Rotterdam, though as she overheard the conversations of the people drifting along the banks of the Nieuwe Maas, she realized that she didn't understand a word they were saying, which meant that she obviously didn't speak Dutch.
Perhaps she was visiting the city on business. If that were the case, then it didn't explain why she didn't have a briefcase or carry-all on her person and why her clothing looked relatively shabby.
A sinking feeling came over her the more she thought and failed to remember. Maybe she'd gone crazy, fled from home (wherever exactly that was), and wound up homeless in the Netherlands. Maybe she'd been in an accident and suffered amnesia.
She not only felt concerned for her condition but also very frustrated. Why couldn't she remember anything? Not her name, her family if she had any, her home, anything. She felt her eyes well up with tears. What would become of her now?
She shook her head to clear the tears from her eyes and backhanded the few that had escaped. Something just wasn't right about her situation. She couldn't remember anything beyond the present, so she must have hit her head just now and lost her memory. Her head didn't hurt, though, so that didn't really explain things.
Sighing, Aemilia climbed to her feet. She debated in which direction to walk and then set off, hoping to find some answers.