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What the Future Holds
Author: Ariella Beck
Date: 06-15-08 11:01
Ariella was pleased to learn that Lawrence had secured a job so quickly after losing his position at Hogwarts and found it slightly ironic that his job description included creating supplies for the very place from which he'd so recently been sacked and which, as long as Professor Harriet Snider ran the show, would never willingly have him on salary again.
Ariella had begun searching for work herself. The trouble was, she didn't quite know what she wanted to do. Had she graduated from Hogwarts properly, she currently would have been preparing to start at St. Emrys University in the fall. Ariella had never had a solid idea as to what she might do after her schooling ended, and now she found herself in a major conundrum, as she was not eligible to attend St. Emrys and needed to figure out something to keep her occupied and happy, if at all possible, for the rest of her life.
She thought about her siblings and how they seemed to have known for ages what they wanted to do when they grew up. Toby, the professional Quidditch player, Anthony, the auror in training, and Alanna had an interest in law just like her grandfather. It had never been so easy for Ariella, who had a broad interest in a great many things but didn't have that one career path that called to her above all others.
She knew very well that her options were quite limited now. Before, she had a world of opportunity. Now, a dropout and blood traitor, she would be lucky to find a job cleaning up after owls at the post office.
A stroke on her cheek drew her from her vast and seemingly neverending thoughts.
"Earth to Ariella. Where did you go?" asked Lawrence, smiling at her kindly when she turned her head to meet his inquisitive gaze.
"There and back again," Ariella murmured. "I'm happy for you and your new position. I hope it makes you as happy as you were at Hogwarts." As much as she wanted it to be true, she knew he wouldn't like it as much. She simply hoped that he wouldn't be miserable doing something as unchallenging and monotonous as creating herbal kits, day in and day out.
"To answer your other questions," she went on, leaning into his shoulder and wrapping her arms around his middle. "I want a small wedding, with just the family and maybe our closest friends. I want Toby and Bronwyn to be there, and Katherine as well, so I think we should wait until she is released from prison, if she's released. It seems the law isn't always as fixed as it used to be." She sighed quietly and closed her eyes when she felt Lawrence's lips brush against the side of her head.
After a moment's pause, she went on, keeping her eyes closed and her head nestled comfortably against her fiancé's shoulder. "I suppose that means we'll have to get married in Australia, since I don't want to ask Toby and Bronwyn to jeopardize their freedom by chancing a visit here. Maybe when we visit Australia, which I think we should do sooner rather than later, we can check some places out, unless you already have an idea for where in Sydney we can marry...?"
Complaining
Author: Pyrrhus
Date: 06-15-08 13:26
Seated at a round table, each of the eight chairs occupied by a professional Quidditch player, Py listens as the others complain in low voices about more team mergers.
"At this rate, the British and Irish League is going to consist of one team," grouses one who had been with the Wigtown Wanderers before the merges began.
"How many teams does St. Emrys have now?" asks a Chudley Cannon.
"Two. I think," Py answers.
Raising a hand to indicate another round of drings is needed at the table, former Holyhead Harpies Tess Goshawk also nods towards the door of The Hanged Man. "Best be more careful now. I know for a fact that one in the blue stripes just coming in is a Snatcher."
Py looks to the door then just as quickly looks away. He's been questioned a few times by the RAC because of his father and sister. So far they've bought his story that he has no idea where they are and as he is adopted and has no blood connection to them, doesn't to know their whereabouts.
At one time that would have been true as far as Py was concerned about Majandra. Things have changed though. There's still no love lost between them but Py, as superior minded as he is about being pureblooded, no longer harbors ill enough feelings towards Maj that he wants to see his sister vanish. Besides that, Py's sort of gotten attached to his niece Miranda. The new baby, even though tainted with Weasley blood, isn't half bad either.
As far as Paul Fine goes, he raised Py as if Py were his own flesh and blood. For a Muggle born, Paul's a good man, a good wizard, and has always been a good father. Py's not going to reveal where in the Muggle world Paul's hiding. He'll continue to act as though he has nothing but disdain for Paul if it will help keep his father from being relocated... whatever the hell relocation actually means.
The RAC member and the others he's with pass by the table where the Quidditch players are sitting. The eight, not wanting to push their luck with their public complaining, have switched to talking about other teams around the world and who will be the biggest competition this coming fall season.
Not So Happy Haven
Author: Emerald Green
Date: 06-17-08 16:46
Emerald sits on the hard packed dirt, her back against the outer wall of the girls' dorm. Next to her, knees drawn to chin, Olive frowns, rolling a pebble around with one finger. Sitting on Olive's other side are friends Jill Prewitt and Alastor Jenkins.
Olive tosses the pebble, watching it bounce then roll into a patch of weeds. "Do you think that wherever Jade and Hunter are is as bad as this?"
Alastor chimes in, "I've wondered the same because of my brother and sister, Jasper and Eden."
"And our MacDougal cousins," Jill adds.
"What are their names?" Emerald inquires.
"Liannah, Marlow, and Lauren. They're Alexa's first cousins," Jill replies. "If not for having cousins who are Pures and if not for Saffron and Sage, Alastor and I probably wouldn't even know about all of them being taken."
Olive mumbles, "We wouldn't have learned about Jade and Hunter if not for Emmie's boyfriend and his family."
Trying to sound optimistic Emerald says, "Wherever they are is probably not so bad; afterall, it's full of little kids. They'd have to make it someplace okay to make things less traumatic for all those kids they took."
Olive snorts. "Like you really believe that."
Emerald shrugs. "It's better than thinking what the alternative might be."
Jill says in agreement, "Yeah, because they're little kids."
Alastor points out, "But some aren't that much younger than we are."
"I don't want to think about that anymore. What sort of classes do you think we'll have here?"
They all go quiet thinking about the question then start throwing out theories on what classes will be once the Happy Haven school is in session.
Ha Ha
Author: Georgia Copperpot
Date: 06-17-08 18:48
"What's Georgia doing now?" Edith asks, joining Catherine, Isabella, and Georgia at one of the rickety tables scattered around a quasi commons.
Unfortunately, the tables are placed so that no matter the time of day, they're never in the shade. That's fine with me at the moment because it offers excellent light in which to write my sex god of a boyfriend Sage Porter. I say as much to Edith.
"Georgia is writing her sex god boyfriend Sage Porter."
Edith rolls her eyes at me.
"What?"
Izzy says to Edith, "It's useless, you know."
"You three are vair negative. Why I continue associating with you lot is a vair ginormous mystery."
Catherine, who has been quiet so far leans over slightly to see what I'm writing and asks, "Why bother when you won't be able to actually owl it to him?"
"Vair negative, Catherine."
Izzy asks, "What are you even writing?"
"I am describing the how double cool with knobs lovely Ha Ha is."
"Ha ha?" all three ask at once.
"Happy Haven."
"Leave it to Georgia to find a way to laugh at all this," Izzy remarks.
Tapping the parchment in front of me I say, "If you three barmy twits don't mind, I shall return to writing my sex god boyfriend Sage about lovely Ha Ha and how much we miss Woolly."
Edith looks over at Izzy and says, as if I'm not right there, "You're right. It's useless. Georgia's still got the Cosmic Horn in a bad way."
Ignoring my so called friends talking about me, I start on the fourth page of my letter to sex god Sage.
Translations:
sex god = Oh my giddy Merlin it's Sage Porter, Sage Porter, Sage Porter
vair = very
ginormous = bigger than gigantic, larger than enormous
double cool with knobs = every so extremely, ginormously excellent
Ha Ha = the beautifically wonderful summer resort Happy Haven
barmy = *twirling finger near head* suffering mentally
twit = vair negative so called friends who make barmy comments
Woolly = Hairy the Snide, otherwise known as Harriet Snider, Headmistress of Hogwarts
Cosmic Horn = having ginormous lust and love for a sex god
(Callum) An Ex Returns
Author: Ethan Somerset
Date: 06-17-08 18:52
Callum sat at the desk in his corner office at Asa & Bell, an advertising agency located in the heart of Bristol, England. He held the phone between shoulder and ear and typed rapidly on his keyboard, occasionally pausing to move images around on the digital canvas on his screen.
"How does tonight sound? We can have dinner at that new Italian place, around 8 o'clock? Then we can go back to my flat... I can run the bath..."
An audible click from the doorway drew Callum's attention away from the computer monitor. He usually left his door open since a number of beautiful women worked at the agency and he felt it important to welcome them into his office whenever they passed by in the hallway. A beautiful woman, one who didn't work at the firm, stood with her back to the now-closed door and eyed Callum steadily with an unreadable expression on her flawless face.
"I'll have to call you back," Callum said into the phone, cutting off the woman speaking on the other end. He hung up without waiting for a response and rose to his feet.
As he stepped out from behind his desk he said, "I didn't expect to see you ever again, Meadow."
"I wouldn't be here if there wasn't something I wanted," Meadow replied straightforwardly.
"Oh, really?" Callum asked suggestively, misinterpreting Meadow's tone of voice. He took a swaggering step towards her but halted the moment her palm shot up in the universal sign for stop.
"I know I left some of my stuff with you when I left. I want my book back."
"Your book?"
"My book," Meadow repeated, beginning to sound a bit annoyed and edgy.
Callum looked dumbfounded for a moment and then seemed to recall a memory from many months ago, when his mother had cleaned out the attic and asked him to take back all his things, even those things that weren't exactly his. "You mean that journal you never wrote in? I gave it to my brother."
"Tell Alton I want it."
"Not Alton," Callum answered, "Ethan." His shoulders started to sag as he thought about his brother and the vanishing act Ethan had done. No one had heard from him in half a year and didn't know enough about Ethan's world, the magical part, to know how to find him. The family secretly worried that Ethan's dark past had come up to haunt him and that he'd been killed, but they simply had no way of knowing for sure and knew even less how to find the answers they sought.
"Ethan?" Meadow queried, with a raised brow.
"It's a long story," Callum replied, sighing, "and I'm afraid he's been out of touch for a while. I don't even know how to find him."
"You don't have his telephone number and address?" Meadow asked, not entirely believing Callum.
"He doesn't have a phone." Callum shrugged. "I have his address. I just... his place... it's not... it's hard to find."
Meadow's arched brow remained raised. She crossed her arms over her chest and tapped her figners impatiently.
"Look, Meadow. Ethan's not like you and me. He's... special."
Meadow said nothing for a long time. Then she said, "I see." She looked down at the floor and then slowly raised her eyes to meet Callum's. A hint of a smile touched her lips. She let her arms fall to her sides and slowly walked towards Callum, until she was just inches from his body. She wrapped one hand around his tie and pulled him towards her to close the gap between them.
"So, did I hear you making plans for this evening when I first came in?"
"Plans? What plans?" Callum asked, desire filling his eyes.
Parental Force
Author: Don Thomas
Date: 06-18-08 14:01
Don stared at her reflection in disgust as she adjusted her overall straps. Though her current getup to many would be considered a cruel joke, Don knew it wasn't. She stared at herself again. Blue jean overalls, with a white t-shirt underneath, covered her lean body. Her hair had been tied into pigtails with ponytail holders and decorated with a white bow on each pigtail. The only things Don could wear that she liked were her dirty Converse sneakers and her thin blue sweater. Don thought she looked like an ad from the muggle Target store. Perhaps if her hair could have been left the way it was, Don would have been happier. But it hadn't and Don was not happy. Don looked at herself one more time before going into the kitchen.
Upon entrance into the kitchen, Don witnessed Lilly pour a bowl of milk onto her pink dress. Don couldn't help, except smile at the young girl. It was almost as if she was sticking it their mom and saying 'No, I don't want to wear this'. Madeline did not find this as entertaining as Don did, but she put her upset thoughts towards Lilly aside to smile at her eldest daughter.
"You look nice," she said as she grabbed a wet rag and began to clean under Lilly.
"I guess," Don said. "So, why did you have me dress like this?"
"Because you always looked so adorable in overalls as a kid."
Don chuckled. "Understandable. I mean, I am the epitome of adorable." Don, still chuckling, paused and shook her head in disbelief. "Dude, that is, seriously, the biggest load of bull I've ever heard."
"I disagree, DonnieBee."
"So...why did you do my hair like this?"
"Does there need to be a reason for you to look cute?"
"Cute and comfort are two different things. I am not comfortable with bows in my hair."
"But they make you look girly and seem friendlier," Madeline said as she stopped cleaning.
"Aha! The motive! You want me to make friends. But what if I don't want to? I mean, I still miss Nate and I'm homesick. And these things can't be forced. I have to move at my own pace. Plus, I did make a friend. I had lunch with Oreo. It's short for Oreoleah, or something."
Madeline shrugged. "One friend is not enough, Donnie. And what you want to or don't want to do doesn't matter any more. It will happen anyway. You could call it force."
"Wait," Don said as she thought about what her mom has just said. "What?"
"A few days ago, I was shopping. Remember? You babysat the kids. Well, I was just so worried about you. So, I was thinking about what to do and I ran into this lady. We began talking and you came up. I voiced my thoughts on you and your lack of friends. Turns out, she has a son around your age. She was more than happy to volunteer him and you to be friends. She asked if you were a Pure and I said you were a Pure and we set up a playdate for you two at her house. Paul rigged a portkey for us. We leave in 30 minutes."
"A playdate? What? Am I five?"
"Oh, it won't hurt. Just be nice," Madeline said. "And no sarcasm."
"I really have no say in this. Do I?"
"Nope. Now why don't you put some powder on. Oh, no muggle talk."
Don rolled her eyes as she walked to the bathroom. She wanted so badly to rip the bows out of her hair, but she knew her mother would just put them back in. One way or another, Madeline Poplar always got what she wanted. Don put some pressed powder on and grabbed her messenger bag. Most of her hoped this kid was cool with her taking the bows out as soon as she got there. The pigtails she could live with. But the bows had to go.
Decisions, Decisions
Author: Kissy Isuki
Date: 06-18-08 18:06
Sitting on the floor of her classroom - the old DADA classroom and not the one she'd been reassigned to last school year - Kissy looks over the newest edition of the textbook she'd been using, Defending Yourself: A Practical Guide to Defense Against the Dark Arts, volumes 1 through 7, by Ebony Blackstone. She needs to make a decision whether to use it or something else and needs to make the decision like yesterday. Hogwarts letters go out very soon and Professor Snider needs to know what to put down for the required Defense Against the Dark Arts texts.
Initially, Kissy hadn't made the decision because she wasn't sure she'd be employed at Hogwarts for the 2002-2003 term. The day the students left, which was the same day the professors labeled as Nons were also rounded up and taken away, Kissy had started packing up her small castle flat. She'd figured she'd have a few days to find someplace else to live and start job hunting. Her first place to check would be St. Emrys to see if her old position was available even though that was probably a long shot. With the enrollment much lower there now and fewer students from other countries wanting to attend school in Great Britain, the need for professors at the university wasn't as great.
Three days later Kissy had been on her way out of the castle to go put in some applications at several places when Snider stopped her and to Kissy's surprise said, "We would like you to teach Defense Against the Dark Arts this fall."
Kissy accepted on the spot then promptly turned around and went back to her residence to start the process of unpacking. Kissy accepted not because she loves Hogwarts these days and she shudders at the thought of working around Ryland again. She accepted because she needs a job of some sort, because she cares about the students who'll be there in the fall and hates the thought of them having few "nice" professors, and because by being able to live at Hogwarts there's less of a chance any of her family members can harass her if they wanted.
Kissy has no excuse for taking so long since then to decide about the textbooks. She simply kept putting it off, preferring to spend time coming up with new obstacles and challenges for the students.
Glancing at a possible alternate text, Kissy sighs and leans back on her hands. Scribbling the Ebony Blackstone text information on a piece of parchment, Kissy hands it to a small owl that had been sitting patiently on the back of a chair. Decision made, Kissy picks up all the books and puts them away then decides to walk to the village for something to eat.
Routine
Author: Carys
Date: 06-18-08 18:16
After the last of the members of the Goen Bren community passed through the line in the dining hall, Carys began cleaning the empty pans and dishes that had been used for preparing the meal. She wouldn't have to worry about the dishes being used in the dining hall right now; other members of the community were responsible for cleaning them. She worked quickly, albeit thoroughly, and ignored the idle chatter of the other kitchen workers. Ever since Mairwen's death, Carys hardly said anything to anybody.
She finished, triple-checking everything before putting away her apron, gloves and hair net, and exited through the back door. It was relatively quiet outside the dining hall. Some people were still eating, while others were busy conducting their various chores. Carys felt the need to stretch her legs and clear her head, as she often did after spending hours in the kitchen. Her feet carried her down the same path she always walked after leaving the dining hall.
Carys didn't know why she allowed herself to walk to the Death Zone so often, or even at all. The smell, the nearer she came to it, was overwhelmingly bad. She had to pull the front of her robes up and cover her nose with it. The sight wasn't much better. Although less than a dozen bodies had been piled up, some had been there for months, and all were in various stages of decomposition.
Carys never drew too close to the bodies. She stayed far enough away from them that she couldn't see every grotesque detail, but close enough that she could make out her grandmother's stiffened form. Carys used to cry during these visits, but she seemed to have run out of tears long ago. Now she only stared at the pile of corpses in anger more than in pain, believing without a doubt that all of the deaths had come about needlessly. Her old feelings of rebellion longed to resurface, though Carys always considered Tristan. If she did any of the things she imagined herself doing, she might find herself in the pile as well, and then Tristan would never have even the slightest chance of seeing his mother again. At least now, while she still lived, a small miracle could happen and they might be reunited.
The smell started to overpower her nostrils. She lifted the front of her robes over her nose and kept walking toward the Death Zone. When she drew nearer, she noticed she wasn't alone. Urania Jones was there, along with one of the other community members assigned to random tasks such as dealing with the dead. They carried a fresh body to the pile and carefully lowered it to the ground, not at all willing to dump it as unceremoniously as the warden expected. As soon as they let go of the deceased, they hurriedly got up and moved to the outer perimeter of the Death Zone.
Urania's gaze met with Carys', and she slowed to a stop. She'd tied a cloth around her face to protect her extra-sensitive nose and left it in place, making it impossible for Carys to make out her entire expression. Urania's eyes gave away much of what she felt, though. She looked tired and grieved.
"What happened?" Carys asked.
"Killing Curse," Urania said, taking Carys by the elbow when she began to walk again. She didn't want to linger around the bodies any more than she had to and felt that Carys shouldn't stick around either. It was most unhealthy, and a person needed emotional health as much as physical health in a place like Goen Bren.
For some reason, Carys allowed herself to be guided away from the Death Zone, even though she'd only just arrived and usually stayed for a long as she could bear it. She said nothing else, allowing Urania to steer the conversation to other, only slightly happier things. Once they got well enough way from the corpses and away from the sickening scent in the air, Urania removed the cloth from her face and Carys pulled the neck of her robes down from her nose. Urania stuffed the cloth into her pocket and then drew her arm around Carys' shoulders, as if she feared Carys would turn around and walk the other way if Urania didn't continue to guide her to the cabin.
Carys didn't have any intention of going back right now, though. She allowed Urania to sit her down on her bed and sit next to her, her arm still draped around Carys' shoulders. Urania never stopped talking, and though the effect was only temporarily, Carys was able to forget about her anger for a short while.