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What To Do?
Author: Declan
Date: 06-29-10 19:15
Knock knock.
Even though Declan doesn't respond his partially open office door is pulled all the way open. From the doorway AJ Hodfuffer asks, "You still coming to lunch in Hogsmeade with us, right?"
Shrugging his shoulders and shaking his head back and forth Declan puts down the sheef of parchments in his hand. "Maybe. I'm not sure."
"Something come up?"
"Yes and no."
AJ gives a short, low chuckle. "That sounds firmly vague."
The hall behind AJ is empty and there isn't any sound carrying into the office that would indicate others are nearby but Declan, gesturing for AJ to come all the way in, gets up, goes to the door, looks out into the hall, then pulls the door closed. He moves to lean against his desk, hands gripping it on either side as if he's bracing himself.
Seeing the grim look on Declan's face AJ says as he lowers himself into a chair, "Clearly something serious."
"It's Zabrynna Ravensdale."
"Is she violating the terms of the agreement?"
"No, that's not it but it's related." Declan sighs and leans back more on his desk, crossing his arms. "You heard about what she said to Kissy and me when we found her delirious after that fall she took?"
"Yeah. Is that bothering you? That she you enjoyed seeing her hurt? She was seriously injured at the time and couldn't have realized what she was saying."
"No, but even if she didn't realize it, she was speaking truthfully from her point of view. There's more to the story though. One afternoon she'd been out on the grounds, staying out until it started getting dark. On her way back inside Zabrynna fell, spraining an ankle and twisting a knee in the process. I was nearby when she called for help and I kept going. I was going to leave her out after dark with spring temperatures that get pretty chilly here in Scotland and I rationalized it by telling myself someone else would come along soon enough."
AJ sits stunned. When he does speak all he says is, "That's... Wow."
"Right. I know. I did go and get her but she knew I'd heard her the first time she called out. She even said something to me about how she wasn't surprised I'd done it. Zabrynna said I hated her and I denied it. I told her I had at first but that by then I hated what she'd done but did not hate her. She said something else then about how even her parents hated her."
"Zabrynna really thinks that her parents hate her?"
"She did then and maybe still does. I know that as of Friday she still thought I did to despite me telling her several times I don't. She also thinks Kissy and you despite her."
"What? Sputtering, AJ is now sitting ramrod straight in the chair. "I never hated her. I disliked greatly what she did and wasn't sure about letting her return to Hogwarts but I have NEVER acted towards her in any way that would indicated I despise her. Never." AJ emphasizes.
"Didn't think so. Kissy has shown disapproval but to my knowledge she hasn't ever shown hatred towards Zabrynna either. I told Zabrynna neither of you hate her but just like she's continued thinking I hate her utterly and completely she may think you two do as well."
"Is this what's been bugging you all weekend?"
"There's more. Was it obvious?"
"There's more? And yes, you've been a little anti-social the past few days."
"Sorry."
"Well?"
"Well what?"
"The more part."
"Yes, sorry. On Friday as I was coming down one flight of stairs, a student on another flight dropped a rather heavy book when the stairs started moving. Zabrynna was a few steps ahead of me on the flight we were on and in trying to avoid being hit by the book she almost lost her balance down the steps. I grabbed her to steady her and she said something about me always saving her. I pointed out that Kissy had helped that one time and Zabrynna's reply, and I quote, was It's just... ironic I guess is the word. You who hate me the most and Professor Isuki who barely tolerates the sight of me. I went over again with her how we don't hate her - this was in an empty room - and she told me that she doesn't understand how none of us wouldn't hate her when she hates herself and how she can never forgive herself."
AJ doesn't say anything right away. After a moment he asks, "Do you think there could be a chance it's a ploy on Zabrynna's part to gain your sympathy? She did an excellent job acting in Boreaus & Kalandra."
Declan ponders AJ's question, at length shaking his head. "No, I don't think she is. Since the little chat we had Friday, I've been trying to decide if I should say anything to her parents."
"Have you spoken with Professor Dumbledore?"
"No, but that was my other question. Should I? Should I say something to him first? Should I have already said something to whomever before now? Should I wait until exams are over so that if any decision is made about getting her some help, her exams aren't interferred with."
"Have you decided anything?"
"I'm strongly leaning towards speaking with Professor Dumbledore and getting his input. That's been my instinct."
"It's what I would do."
Pushing up from the desk Declan says, "I'll go now and see if he's available. I've got an exam to give at two but if there's time after I'll come into Hogsmeade and fill you in on what he said."
"I've got one at two as well so if you don't make it into the village, come by my classroom as soon as you can after 3:30."
Declan holds the door open for AJ. "Will do."
As he walks to the headmaster's office, Declan thinks that if he did hate Zabrynna, he wouldn't now be going to discuss her well being with Albus Dumbledore. That still doesn't make up for nearly leaving her injured outside in the cold and dark back in April.
Visit From Da And Birdie
Author: Sage Porter
Date: 06-30-10 17:07
Emerging from his room in Saffron's and Aaron's Hogwarts living quarters just as there's a knock on the door, Sage hastily finishes tucking in the clean shirt he'd just pulled on as he walks over to open the door. At the sight of his father Lohengrin and step-mother Birdie Sage is, to put it mildly, somewhat shocked. He gapes at them but very quickly gathers himself to say, "Birdie, Da, this is a surprise."
Without preamble Lohengrin barrels past Sage, making straight for on overstuffed chair. "You call that a greeting? Whatever happened to hello, please come in?"
Sage mades an exaggerated sweeping gesture from Birdie still at the door towards the sitting area. "HELLO! Please do come in!"
Birdie makes a chirpy laughing sound but Lohengrin sputters, "None of that cheek! Have you nothing to say for yourself?"
Sage has come around to stand at an angle facing both Lohengrin and Birdie. His brow draws together in puzzlement as he asks, "Say about what? Saying hello?"
Lohengrin just glares at Sage almost as if he's directing a remark telepathically. Sage shifts his gaze to Birdie, "Would you like a refreshment?"
"No, but thank you."
"Da?"
"Slightly chilled sparkling water with lemon."
There isn't any sparkling water in the residence but it's easy to get some from the Hogwarts kitchen. He hands the drink to his father who accepts it from Sage, taking several small sips while watching Sage with an expectant expression. Birdie has been sitting there with a large smile on her face the entire time but hasn't said anything. That changes with Sage settles on the other end of the couch from her. She shifts slightly to better look at him then asks, "Is Niccola here? I would just love to see the little darling."
"She's taking a nap but go on in if you want to see her."
Birdie eagerly gets up and tiptoes across the living room to a short hallway then tiptoes down it to Nic's door. If Lohengrin weren't still glaring at him Sage would have laughed aloud at how Birdie tiptoed the entire way instead of waiting until she got to Nic's room. Watching as she slowly opens the door and creeps in, Sage can't help but think how surprised he is that Birdie is still with his da. She and Da have had a couple of rough patches with Lohengrin being the over-the-top jackass he usually is.
Turning back to face his father Sage says, "I still don't know what you're wanting from me."
Lohengrin rolls his eyes, accompanying the action with an exasperated snort. "The owl I sent you yesterday morning."
"I haven't gotten any owl."
"I sent one."
"I'm not saying you didn't. I'm saying I didn't get anything from you."
"There were two envelopes. One for you, one for Saffron."
"I bet she took both the envelopes and sent the owl on. I was visiting Mum from Friday afternoon until less than an hour ago. Aaron was here and didn't mention anything. I've not seen Saffron yet. Let me look."
Sage gets up and check the usual spots owl mail. He finds the envelope on his dresser under the shirt he'd exchanged for the one he's wearing. He emerges from his room holding it up. "Found it."
It's an invitation for a party the very next evening. As Sage scans it Lohengrin explains, "It's very last minute I do realize but it's also very important to us."
Sage really doesn't want to go. Really, really doesn't but maybe he can pop in for a short time, put in an appearance to appease Da, then leave. "Yes, sure. I'm free tomorrow night."
"It's formal so dress appropriately and be on time. You know where it is?"
The location is Da's newest restaurant, Première Encoche, which Sage has been told translates to Top Notch. He nods, "Just outside Reims, in France."
Lohengrin is one his feet by then. "That is correct. It would be good if you are early but I would settle for your being on time. Do not bring a date. Birdie's cousin Esperanza will be in attendance and is not bringing a young man."
"My girlfriend's term isn't done here at Hogwarts so I wouldn't have brought a date anyway," Sage replies, managing not to grimace at the thought of Birdie and Da once again trying to set him up with Esperanza.
Lohengrin starts for the door, calling out, "Birdie, we are leaving," only saying to Sage by way of goodbye, "We will see you tomorrow. Do not embarrass me."
Sage closes the door after his Da and Birdie, muttering to himself, "Wouldn't think of it, Da, wouldn't think of it."
First Years Potions
Author: Majandra
Date: 07-01-10 21:00
"Twenty minutes left."
The scribbling sound of quills racing over parchment increases intensity. Two students students appear to be finished, with one taking the time to read over her answers and the other choosing to put head down with eyes shut, grabbing some rest where possible. This morning has been the Potions examination for the first years. Instead of the usual pairting of Gryffindor-Slytherin and Hufflepuff-Ravenclaw, for the two exam sections the first, from 9 until 10:30, was Gryffindor-Ravenclaw and this one, from 10:30 til noon, is Hufflepuff-Slytherin. When the exam schedule was first given out, Majandra had asked the one doing the scheduling, Deputy Headmistress Minerva McGonagall, about it, wanting to be sure the changes weren't simply an error. Maj couldn't help but laugh at Professor McGonall's reply of, "I made more work for myself and redid everything."
Majandra does a slow circuit around the classroom, passing down each aisle, keeping a watch out for straying eyes, sighs of cheat sheets, and that sort of thing. She doesn't think any of this lot would pull anything like that but you never know. Lon Irwin tried pulling the wool over Maj's eyes earlier in the term but after getting caught and having to serve a detention, along with the thread of not being able to attend the first flying and Quidditch workshop of the term, something Lon was greatly looking forward to, he's not tried anything since. Or perhaps he has and Maj simply hasn't caught it. She sincerely hopes it's the former. If it's the latter than she's falling down on the job and there would be no telling what other things various students have gotten away with. Maj would hope that having George Weasley as a husband would have taught her a few things.
A hand shoots up, waving to quickly get her attention. Maj hurries over to where Lucy Lehane sits with her face scrunched up in consternation. Bending, Maj asks in a low voice, "Yes, Lucy?"
"My hand is bleeding. Somehow I poked myself with my quill."
Sure enough, there are fat drops of blood on Lucy's hand and on her desk and exam paper as well. Maj uses her wand to clean the blood away to better study the puncture wound. She frowns then looks at Lucy's quill, which she now sees is missing its nib. Maj produces a handkerchief to wrap around Lucy's hand. "This will help slow the bleeding. Go see Madam Pomfrey. I can take the nib out but it's best she does it. Are you done with your exam?"
"Two more to go," Lucy says with a shake of her head.
"Then come see me after you're done with Madam Pomfrey. I'll be in the Great Hall for lunch and then my office. Do you have an exam at two?"
"No, miss."
"So we don't have to worry about that. It shouldn't have been a problem though. Now, off you go. Leave your things here if you wish."
Lucy gets up and hurry out, her hand probably throbbing by now. Maj looks to the time and announces, "Five minutes." Once more the sound of furious scribbling increases.
Third years had been Monday, fourth years were on Tuesday. Majandra has their exams graded and final grades recorded, ready to be turned in to Professor McGongall. She'll grade the first year exams this afternoon, average the written scores with the scores from the practical exam she gave last week, and get the final grades calculated. Tomorrow with two sections of second years is Maj's last day of exams. She'll have those grades done before supper Thursday. She plans to spend Friday doing a thorough cleaning of the classroom and her office and getting an inventory done. Severus and she are also going to sit down and determine what needs to be ordered and whether they want to stick with the current textbooks or switch. For the past few weeks they've both been looking over copies of texts they'd been sent by publishers in the hopes that Hogwarts would switch.
Majandra moves to the front of the classroom. "Time! Quills down!" After a pause she stresses, "Quills down. Waldo. Kida."
The two slams their quills down, both guiltily looking up. Maj gathers up the test papers telling the students as she does, "If you care to know your score, come to my office after supper. Have an excellent summer. Look for me at Emrys Fest if you're going! Yes, Glori?"
"Will you be at either Weasley's?"
"Yes, some. I do help out at both locations from time to time and I even help invent items."
"You do? What have you invented?" Flora asks.
"Some of the Special-Tea line and ," Maj points to an egg shaped object on her desk, "that's mine. Other things as well. Any other questions? No? Then off with you. Don't run!" she calls out to one of the boys who's bolting from the room.
Maj locks the papers away then after shutting up the classroom makes her way to the Great Hall, just then realizing she was so busy with an out of sorts Miranda this morning that she never ate breakfast.
Construction Zone
Author: Bill Weasley
Date: 07-03-10 13:44
Gringotts teemed with activity, though most of it consisted of the craftswizards working on the new level of the bank building. Construction had been underway for a couple of weeks now and would likely finish in a couple more. Bill looked forward to its completion, if only because his workdays would resume some sort of normalcy.
Construction of wizarding buildings by wizarding craftsmen often went quicker and quieter than their Muggle equivalents, but the distraction that the project and those working on it brought to Gringotts was certainly there, no matter how quick and quiet they were. Bill often found himself going upstairs to check on the progress being made. It usually beat sitting in the office doing paperwork.
Presently, Bill forced himself to sit down and read through the applications he'd received for the summer internship at Gringotts. He'd only received a couple, which disappointed him a little bit, but a couple was certainly better than zero. He did wonder if next year he should open up the pool to St. Emrys students too. Bill figured he'd get more interest, especially from students already studying finance or curse breaking, but he really thought it would be nice to give a Hogwarts student the opportunity to gain valuable work experience before graduation.
He initially thought he would come to a decision about who to offer the internship to towards the beginning of next week, but now it seemed as if he could easily reach his decision by the end of today or tomorrow at the very latest.
Bill started reading Stephen Hunt's application and jotted down some notes as he read. He got only halfway through it when Hans McCullough, the builder from Wren, Inc. who had done all the previous renovations and expansions on the buliding, knocked on the door and poked his head into the office.
"Have a minute or two to go over some color schemes with me?"
Bill put his quill down and looked up from Stephen's application. "Sure."
Hans came all the way into the office carrying several paint sample cards. He also had a notebook under his arm, which he set on Bill's desk, right on top of Stephen's application.
"If you want to go with the same or similar scheme you have here, I would recommend these colors," Hans said, marking certain color samples on the cards with Bill's discarded quill. He also flipped through the notebook and pointed to particular pages.
Bill looked them all over and said, "I definitely don't want anything that is too far removed from what we already have in the building. For example, I think Mrs. Davies' office can look like mine. The business rooms should have a similar scheme, and the common area can match the lobby. The kitchen and break room should compliment each other while being in the same color family as the other rooms in the rest of the building."
He pointed out some of the colors he thought might do for the kitchen and break room and then asked, "Will that work?"
"Absolutely. I'll doublecheck the colors used in this room and the lobby and then go from there. Thanks, and sorry to disturb," Hans said, taking the notebook and cards and handing Bill his quill.
"Not a problem," Bill replied.
Hans slipped out of the office and closed the door. For a moment, Bill thought about getting up and going upstairs to see how things were going but then he remembered the internship applications. Forcing himself to concentrate, he read through them all and then set to work deciding whom to hire.
(Alanna) Busy as a Bee
Author: Beck
Date: 07-03-10 15:05
Alanna flitted between the desks of the various Ministry of Magic attorneys, staying busy every minute she worked her part-time job with the Ministry's legal team. Every once in a while, she glanced at the watch on her wrist and found herself astonished that some much time had passed since the last time she looked. The main reason for checking the time wasn't so much because she longed for the day to end but because she had a lunch date with Jared.
Her grandfather caught her gently by the arm as she rushed past his desk to take care of an errand for another attorney. Alanna turned to him with questioning eyes and asked, "What is it?"
Tobias smiled. "You're not in a race, you know."
"What do you mean?" Alanna asked, puzzled by the statement.
"Every time I look up from my work, I see you rushing around like something is chasing you. I don't know how you manage it in those shoes!" he said, eyeing the pumps on Alanna's feet.
There was a time when she could hardly walk in them, but she had grown used to walking, and yes, even running in heels.
Alanna shook her head and smiled. "I'm just really busy, is all," she said. She already had the itch to get moving, but her grandfather still had his hand on her arm.
"Are you happy here?" he asked. "Do you like your position?"
"It doesn't take much of a brain to fetch a cup of tea for someone, but I do like being here and I'm glad I have this opportunity. I hope that one day I'll be sitting at one of those desks and having a part-timer file paperwork for me!"
Tobias laughed and finally released Alanna's arm. "Good. Well, on your way then."
Alanna hesistated long enough to shoot her grandfather a loving smile, and then she was off to complete the task she'd been given before Tobias had intercepted her.
Unwanted
Author: Lysander Stratford
Date: 07-03-10 16:10
Lysander jumped every time the doorbell at Twice Told Tales jingled, signaling the arrival of a new customer. He had a terrible feeling that Aralyn Fox would one day enter the shoppe, which was absolutely the last thing he wanted. When he obliviated her and the rest of her family, his plan had been to keep her out of his life forever. Now with Astrid's intrusion, Aralyn had managed to creep back in, though he had yet to see her face to face and hoped that it would never happen.
It was hard not blaming Astrid for reintroducing Aralyn to his life, but Lysander had to remind himself that Astrid had gone to Argentina because she cared about him. Her intentions had been good, and because he'd kept secrets from her, she had accidentally opened up a can of worms. Still, if she hadn't butt in on Lysander's affairs, none of it would have happened.
The letter that Lysander had received from Aralyn had simply stated that she had connected with Chyler's cousin and heard a little about how they were doing. She wrote about herself and asked some questions about what they were all up to these days. She implied that she might stop by the next time she was in the country visiting her family. That statement alone was what had Lysander up in arms. He didn't want her stopping by for a visit, and he didn't want to respond to her letter and increase the chances of an eventual face to face meeting happening.
How would he manage it, anyway? What Aralyn believed about him was a total lie. Chyler was dead. Astrid wasn't just a distant family member on the Thomason side. She was Lysander's girlfriend. And worst of all, Charlotte wasn't a product of his marriage and in fact was Aralyn's own daughter. Would seeing Charlotte with her own eyes trigger the memories that shouldn't be in her head anymore? Lysander really didn't want to find out.
The bells tinkled, startling Lysander, but it wasn't Aralyn who came through the door but a wizard dressed in a hooded, khaki colored robe. Lysander found the costume a bit odd for the summer weather but other than that, he didn't give the wizard another glance, who walked into the stacks and up and down each aisle. Instead, Lysander thought about what he would do if Aralyn did show up one day.
Astrid had already suggested that he should respond to her letter, but that he should delay in doing so to make it seem as if he were really busy. If he knew in advance when she might be visiting, he could plan for not being there at that time via an impromptu vacation or a made-up family emergency. It would be better than having her show up unannounced on account of him not keeping in touch with her if her desire to reconnect with an old Hogwarts friend had her stopping by someday.
Lysander supposed it made sense, though he really didn't want to write to her. It took him several moments to realize that the hooded wizard was standing in front of the counter.
"Oh, I'm sorry. Can I help you find something?" Lysander asked, peering at where the man's face ought to be. It was completely obscured by the hood of his khaki robe.
Instead of answer, the wizard produced his wand and hissed, "Stupefy!"
Everything went black for Lysander even before he flew backwards and bounced off the wall behind him. He landed in a crumpled heap behind the counter. Half a second later, the khaki-clad man came around and knelt beside him. He hooked his arm around Lysander's and with an ear-splitting pop, disapparated from the spot.