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(Happy Haven) Wishing and Hoping
Author: Charisma Stone
Date: 07-12-08 20:36
The entire summer had been spent in this dreadfully dreary place, Happy Haven, it was named, however with HeadMistress Carrow, there was nothing happy about it. Not to mention that she would be spending the school year here and not at Hogwarts where she wanted to be despite the segregation that had been happening all over the British Wizarding World.
Not to mention, on this day, the very day that they should have gotten off the Hogwarts Express, that pretty scarlet train, they should be having a glorious feast at their house's table instead of already having a day of classes and then eating the same disgusting mush as they had all summer.
"I want to be back at Hogwarts." She said to Della as they filed back into the dorm room after dinner as neither had cleaning detail to tend to at the moment.
"I do too. I want it to be like they said it was going to be in the books, the way my Aunt said it should be." Della said and started to cry at the mention of her Aunt, it was like that when either of them mentioned any family member. Isma didn't even know where her parents were...had they been snatched? Did they go to Paris? Did they know what was happening to their daughter?
"Charlie!" Isma cried and then burst into tears. She would never see her best friend again, he was a muggle and the bestest damned friend anyone could have. She quickly quieted and they slipped out of the room and back outside into the fading sunlight to do a few more chores. They had classes again tomorrow, and it would be the same over and over and over again until the world was righted.
Lonely (Catriona)
Author: Fionna
Date: 07-13-08 13:01
True to her word on the train, Cat had been quiet and not bothered Christopher Chant for the bulk of the journey. She'd wanted to share with him that she could have chosen somewhere else to pass the time on the train.
Wanted to share that she didn't because those compartments were each empty and she was very lonely.
Wanted to share that her loneliness is amplified by the fact that all of her friends are gone.
But she didn't say anything.
Cat just sat quietly reading a book.
Once in the Great Hall Cat's loneliness swelled. She sat by herself, an empty seat on either side of her and no one directly across. Cat hadn't meant to isolate herself like that and no one was purposely alienating her either. To her immense relief three boys, including Cat Chant, sat near her. Cat Chant and Daniel Gelson across from her and Hadrian Rabnott next to her.
As the meal progresses Cat can't stop looking around, wondering who her roommates will be. There aren't too many second years left after the purge of the Nons so figures the girls will all share a room, or if there are enough of them, split between two rooms. The count Cat comes up with has her thinking they'll be sharing one room. That's fine with Cat. She doesn't dislike the other second year girls. She simply never got to know them well. Looks like she'll have lots of time for that now.
(Cornelia) Ex-Slytherin, Evidently
Author: Griet
Date: 07-13-08 13:03
Cornelia appraised each of the old and new teachers one by one, glad to see some familiar faces and definitely interested in some of the newer ones. She only fleetingly wondered what had happened to some of the older professors and surmised they'd probably been carted off with the other Nons. For a moment, Cornelia's shoulders slumped as she thought about Griet and where she might be, but she didn't dwell on her sister's situation for very long.
Snider's announcement that there were to be no more houses shocked Cornelia. Little wonder there wasn't a proper Sorting Ceremony this year, as in years past. Cornelia wasn't quite sure she liked the change, as she had a strong loyalty to her house, her former house, that was, and didn't at all like the idea of rubbing elbows with students in what she deemed the lesser houses. What would the room assignments be like? Would she wind up sharing a room with four girls of different ages like last year, and this time also of different houses? She couldn't even imagine the thought.
At least the food was as superb as she remembered. Hogwarts feasts were always outstanding in comparison to the already tasty everyday meals. Tonight's Start of Term Feast was no different. Cornelia ate a little bit of everything, including roast beef, chicken, sausages, roasted potatoes, carrots, and pasta. Dessert had yet to be served, but Cornelia wasn't feeling full quite yet.
She glanced at the Hufflepuff table, or what was formerly considered as such, where Aleydis sat with her own plate heaped with food. Aleydis seemed just as disenchanted with the changes at Hogwarts as just about everyone else. Cornelia really couldn't imagine anyone being incredibly supportive of a house like Hufflepuff––why would anyone want to be?––but she figured Aleydis did have some house pride.
Cornelia sighed and directed her gaze elsewhere. She didn't yet know what to make of the first years and the two transfer students but did truly wonder where they might have ended up, had Slytherin, Ravenclaw, Hufflepuff, and Gryffindor not been so unceremoniously dissolved.
Not Used to this Kind of Treatment
Author: Johanna Steele
Date: 07-13-08 14:59
Today, it had been a different day at Happy Haven. Schedules were given and the classes started. Tasks, like cooking and caring for the chickens, were now part of their daily routine.
It was dinner time and Johanna only thought on the pure students who were at Hogwarts. How lucky they were!
Felicia and Gus were talking about the new classes they have now. The conversation wasn’t joyful and she didn’t found willpower to join them. In her mind there was only room for the feast that was happening right now at Hogwarts.
After finishing their meal Gus remind her that they must go to the kitchen: it was their task washing the dishes.
Felicia was free from this task and went straight to the dormitory.
They join some other students and started doing their task at the old muggle way: no wands, allowed only to use their hands.
“This is a house elf’s work!” Gus complained. The plate he was holding almost fell on the ground. He grabbed it on the last minute. Gus was very clumsy doing household things. He proved it that afternoon in Home Ec.
“Concentrate on what you’re doing Gus! If you break anything you’ll have extra work to do!”
“It’s easy for you saying that. The thing is I’m not used to this kind of treatment. I’m a wizard and not a slave. This is unfair! I don’t deserve this!”
“Will you stop it?” It was an older boy who talked. “Just do what you have to do in silence and then you can go complaining yourself to another place.”
Due to the boy’s superiority Gus remain in silence the rest of the time. Now and then he looked with anger to him.
Finishing their duty and after an inspection by the part of an adult witch the students went to bed.
Tomorrow was another school day at Happy Haven. Translating it was another hard working day.
Missing Out
Author: Carys
Date: 07-13-08 15:57
When the last of the community members passed through the buffet line, Carys started clearing away the food trays and carrying them back into the kitchen, where another group of witches and wizards worked on cleaning the kitchen. She did everything required of her position and then took off her apron and hair net, placing them on the hook and bin by the back door before exiting into the cool, summer night.
Instead of walking to the Death Zone, as she did less frequently nowadays but still occasionally did, Carys headed in the direction of her cabin. Very recently, she'd received a new roommate, someone she knew relatively well. Professor McGonagall had arrived at Goen Bren, much to Carys' surprise. The last time she had seen her former head of house, Transfiguration professor, and Hogwarts Deputy-Headmistress had been the last Career Day, though the occasion before that had been the day of Carys' unofficial expulsion.
Professor McGonagall had been just as surprised by the reunion with her former wayward student, and yet, both seemed relieved to have another familiar face in the vicinity. Carys had felt very alone since her grandmother's passing, though she thrived on the companionship and friendship Urania Jones provided her. Yet a strange way, the older witch's arrival seemed to fill a void that had been missing since Mairwen's death. Carys wagered McGonagall was much older than Mairwen had been but McGonagall still seemed like the grandmotherly type.
It nonetheless felt a little strange bonding with someone who had on more than one occasion shown great disappointment in her. Although Carys' underage pregnancy probably hadn't been the first at Hogwarts, it still wasn't something that happened very regularly and she did feel a little guilty about putting Professor McGonagall through something like that.
She sighed, shivering slightly from the cool breeze that fell over Goen Bren after the sun set. Yesterday had been her 18th birthday and also the three-year anniversary of her mother's murder in Diagon Alley. The three-year anniverary of her brother Owain's death had been just weeks earlier. Tristan's birthday was just days away.
Carys felt like she was missing out on so much. She loathed being at Goen Bren and wished for change, but she knew she shouldn't get her hopes up. For all she knew, she'd die at Goen Bren, just like Mairwen and so many others already had.
Self-Control
Author: Jet
Date: 07-13-08 17:15
Raising a bottle of butterbeer to his lips, Jet stands not three from from the closed main gates of Hogwarts. The castle is brightly lit and Jet can vividly imagine the feast taking place inside the massive Great Hall. He can also well imagine how empty it must seem with the majority of those who should be attending taken Merlin knows where by the Ministry.
Like many, Jet wonders of the Nons are even alive.
Thinking about what has become of the Nons, about what has become of those who have openly spoken against the Ministry, about people like the Minister for Magic and Hogwarts Headmistress make Jet very angry.
It's harder to control the voice when he's angry because it feeds on the anger, the hate.
Jet doesn't want to get back to the point he was when he vanished those years ago. He doesn't know why he hasn't. His self-control isn't any greater now than it was then.
Or is it?
That's one of those questions Jet doubts he'll ever have an answer to. Some days he goes with the theory that the things Dumbledore and Sacherelle did helped enough that the control he does have works where it didn't before.
When he gets angry, when he starts having the evil thoughts again, Jet can't help but think that it won't be long before he's back to the point he was that day in Diagon Alley. Jet never wants to be in that dark place again. It's hard enough being where he is now without reverting. He wants nothing more than to be gets along with everyone, happy guy he was before that day in the secret caves.
What happened to him was there at Hogwarts. Maybe the way to fix it is there too. Jet spent time looking in the library but without knowing where to look or what even he was specifically looking for, the task was daunting and slow going.
How to get back in to keep looking is the big question now.
Downing the rest of the butterbeer, Jet walks back to The Three Broomsticks to mull things over more with another butterbeer.
Things couldn't get worse
Author: Cailyn Spicer
Date: 07-14-08 06:01
Cailyn tried not to think about what had just happened. There were to be no more houses? Hogwarts was always based on its houses. You just couldn’t have Hogwarts without its houses. The founders of the school must be as dumb struck as its students. Or at least what was left of the student body of Hogwarts.
The great hall had felt extremely empty to Cailyn when she first sat down at the Gryffindor table in her old spot. She tried not to think about the fact that there where no students at Hogwarts who were not Pures. She tried not to think about the fact that half of the old Hogwarts Professors where gone. She tried not to think about the fact that tomorrow she might be sitting at a table with Axel or Eoin.
Instead she sat and stared at the chocolate pudding she had dripping from her silver spoon. There was to be no houses? How in the world did Snider expect the Gryffindors and the Slytherins to get along? Or the Slytherins to get along with anyone for that matter.
Cailyn scowled. That was it. She was leaving tomorrow. Moondancer had already been brought to Hogwarts so she could continue to have her riding lessons. All she had to do was sneak out and go. That was it, simple as pie. There wasn’t really anything left at Hogwarts for her to stay for anyway. Her friends where gone, and she had not spoken to Alex Whitman all summer. Dumbledore wasn’t coming back to stop this. If he was, then he would have last year.
Cailyn dropped the chocolate covered spoon, stood up and made her way out of the Great Hall. She was not going to put up with this. She was not going to be part of the Ministry of Magic’s Chess play. She was leaving, she was going to run away and find Paige and the others and then they would all live in their own Wizarding community. She didn’t need anyone to help her. All she needed was Moondancer.
“What are you doing?” A familiar voice said from somewhere behind her as she stepped into the hallway.
“What is it to you?” Cailyn asked not surprised to see her grandmother’s ghost trailing behind her.
“You’re leaving?” Charity asked frowning slightly. She didn’t wait to see Cailyn nod her head. “Cailyn listen.” She said standing in front of Cailyn now.
Cailyn narrowed her eyes and glared at the damnable ghost. “Listen to me, I know things are hard….” Charity seemed to be glaring in the direction of the great hall and where Snider sat. Whatever her thoughts of the Professor were, she kept them to herself. Cailyn was pretty certain she knew how the ghost felt. “You can not just up and run away. Where would you go?” Charity asked crossing her arms.
“Home.” Cailyn said as she started to walk down the hallway again.
“Cailyn, I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but America is not your home anymore.”
“America, has always been my home. England has not. Horrible things have happened since I came here. I am going home. I’ll go live with Leslie or something.” Cailyn snapped. She was sure her friend’s parents would take her in.
“Did you ever stop to think that maybe the Ministry would find you there too?” Charity asked leaning up against the wall as Cailyn passed. “And then you would end up in the same place they are carting all those poor children off too. What good would it do you if you ended up with them?”
Cailyn paused and stared at Charity. Tiny tears slammed into her eyes as she thought about what Charity had said and she slumped up against the wall next to her grandmother. “I wanna go home.” She whispered twisting her school robe. “Nothing makes sense here. I hate it here.”
“Things will get better.” Charity whispered. “They certainly can’t get worst.”
Room Assignments
Author: Alanna Beck
Date: 07-15-08 18:22
Alanna scratched out the last of the raspberry chocolate chunk ice cream from her bowl and then put down her spoon and sighed. She'd eaten herself silly, even though in a strange way she hadn't had much of an appetite at all since entering the Great Hall hours earlier. She supposed her desire to tuck into some of the best food around had waned upon the sinking realization that half of last year's student body really was still MIA. It certainly didn't help that a portion of last year's professors had seemingly been replaced as well, even if some of the new faces weren't hard on the eyes. Worst of all, the four Hogwarts houses had been disbanded! 1000 years of history, wiped out on a whim.
Well, Alanna inwardly acknowledged, it probably had been a calculated plan and not spontaneous action, but still. She shook her head and glanced around the Great Hall. Most everyone, even the diehard pureblood supremacists, seemed a little taken aback by the changes announced by Professor Snider. Many of the new students seemed a little unsure, as they usually were each year, but few seemed to realize that Hogwarts wasn't the same place it had always been.
"Room assignments, Miss Beck."
Alanna directed her attention to the wizard standing over her shoulder. Professor Yaxley held out a piece of parchment, which she accepted with a quiet "thank you" and quickly perused as he moved on to pass out the room assignments to the other prefects.
Her name was close to the top of the list, under Common Room A, Room One, with roommmate Mary Black! Alanna's gaze swept uneasily to what was formerly the Slytherin table, where Mary sat between Crispin Cooke and Mortimer Rollo. She couldn't believe she would be sharing a room with someome from Slytherin House.
Wait a minute! Alanna asked herself, dropping her gaze back to the list in hand. Where exactly was Common Room A?
In parentheses next to the name were the words formerly Slytherin. Alanna's mouth fell open. Not only was she to have a Slytherin roommate but she was also to bed in a Slytherin dormitory room? What had Hogwarts come to?
She heard benches scraping away from the tables and looked around to see her fellow prefects standing. Alanna still marveled at how she had been selected to become one, considering that certain members of her family had been labeled blood traitors, or nearly so. She wondered if she'd managed to fool Snider enough during their meeting last term to show that she wasn't like the rest of them (even though she was), or if Snider was merely playing the "keep your friends close and your enemies closer" card.
Alanna didn't dwell on it right then and there as she had a job to do. Since just about everyone had no idea where to go this year, the prefects had the added duty of not only showing the first and transfer students their common rooms, but also the rest of the student body. Alanna was assigned to show the sixth and fifth years to their common room, "B", which she knew well since she'd lived there, when it was known as the Hufflepuff common room, for six whole years.
"Sixth years, fifth years, follow me!" she announced near the doorway of the Great Hall.
An array of students joined her, and apart from the two transfer students, wore ties with the respective, former house colors. Alanna's own tie was black and yellow. She wondered if tomorrow they'd all be wearing black ties, or maybe purple ones?
When it seemed like everyone had gathered around her, Alanna led them out of the Great Hall and down the steps to the cellar. She tried not to think about how she didn't really know the exact location of her own new common room. Hopefully she'd be able to find it before evening's end!
So Far, This Place Is Hella Boring
Author: Don Thomas
Date: 07-15-08 21:34
Don seemed like the only person who wasn't too effected by any of the changes/new rules the Bearded Lady had announced during the feast. As a matter of a fact, she wasn't effected at all. To her, the speech was quite boring. Almost boring enough for Don to wish she was back in Diagonally and even that was a stretch. Don mostly occupied herself by listening to the music in her head. Bold as Love. Another Jimi Hendrix hit. There were some funny parts to this speech that forced Don to listen. One of these funny parts was calling a forest named the Forbidden Forest forbidden. That was a stitch in itself, even though Don knew it wasn't supposed to be. Seemed as though the Bearded Lady could definitely use some writers.
The feast had mimicked the speech. Don had expected talking, lots of it. Commotion, maybe. Instead, she was given shocked faces and depressed looks. Even Curtis, possibly the coolest kid in this joint, looked saddened by the news of his precious houses being gone. Don wanted to reassure him that all was good and would be good. Middleton Magic didn't have houses and it happened to be (in Don's opinion) the best school ever. But Don didn't think Curtis would appreciate it, so she ate her dinner in peace and quiet. This made the feast just as boring as the speech.
Boredom elongated the feast in Don's mind. Though she did find some happiness in randomly throwing broccoli at Stephen Hunt. This even made Curtis laugh a little, which was something Don was happy she could see. The boredom ensued as the feast ended and Don was whisked off with the other 6th (and 5th) years to find their rooms. Don was a little discouraged to find out that Curtis would not be coming with them. He had prefect duties. So Don walked with Alanna Beck, the prefect in charge of escorting the 5th and 6th years to their rooms.
As they walked, the brunette Beck looked at Don. She smiled, or what looked like a smile, at her. It was a forced smile. Don could tell she was also was upset about what was going on with the houses. Don just sighed and continued walking. Alanna Beck looked forward as well.
"So, anything to do around here that's not boring?"
"Well, it is only the first night," Alanna said as she continued to look forward. "Though I must say, it's much more fun when everyone is here. Alot less depressing."
Don nodded. "I believe that."
"You could always make some friends."
"Ah," Don said as she tilted her head back for a moment. "But you see, I'm allergic to humans. My doctor said I should refrain from contact with them. It gives me these horrible body rashes with, like, blisters and puss everywhere."
"I'm a human and I don't see any puss."
"Touche, touche."
Alanna smiled as she stopped for a moment. "And you're Don, right?"
"Yessum. Most call me Donnie. Like Donnie Osmond from Donnie and Marie."
"Who?"
"Ya know," Don said, trying to cover for herself. "Let's keep walking."