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Crying because of School
Author: Cailyn Spicer
Date: 07-05-08 09:53
In front of Cailyn was an array of different items, her school things where in a pile to the left, her clothes in a pile to the right and in front of her where several different things that she didn’t really need but wanted take with her. She had first divided her things into piles and was now working on the packing part.
This was also the first year she could do magic outside of school. So packing should have been fun. However, it wasn’t any more fun then had ever been. Perhaps, it was because Cailyn absolutely did not want to return to Hogwarts this year, and tears where silently streaming down her cheeks as she began to pack.
Hogwarts, was supposed to be the best Wizarding School in the world. Everyone who was a wizard wanted to go to Hogwarts, everyone always said how much fun Hogwarts would be. It was far from fun and she just couldn’t do another year with Professor Harriet Snider. She had been trying to form an escape plan all summer, so far nothing had worked or been deemed possible. The only thing she could think of was to take MoonDancer and find Paige, then runaway to America. She had written a few of friends in Washington and they had agreed to hide her and Paige. The only problem was that she had no idea where Paige was.
Cailyn plopped down in front of her trunk and pulled her knees up. The tears wouldn’t stop falling and she put her wand back into her pocket.
“Crying because you’re leaving for school? Now that’s not very Gryffindor like.” A male’s voice came from her bedroom door and Cailyn grabbed her wand. There in the doorway, stood Simon Rivera. She stood up and glared at him.
“How dare you come into my room without knocking!” She shouted at Simon, her wand pointing at him. She was so tempted to curse the little maggot. Simon just stood there looking smug.
“This house is as much mine as it is yours. I have a right to go where I please in it.” He said.
“You are not welcomed in my room! Get out!” She shouted and with a flick of her wand, she shut the door in Simon’s face. Another flick and the door locked. She knew that if he wanted too, he could enter her room again, but she didn’t think he would.
Cailyn stood still fuming; she could not believe that Simon would enter her room without her permission. Her father would hear about this. She slumped up against her bed post and glared at the door, almost willing Simon to enter her room again, just so she could hurt the knuckle brain. Instead she heard a sudden loud “pop” in the right hand corner of her room. She turned to see Blinky standing in the corner.
“Blinky!” Cailyn cried happily walking towards the little elf. “Did you find her Blinky? Did you find Paige?” asked excitedly.
Much to Cailyn’s disappointment, Blinky sadly shook her head no. She looked sadly at Cailyn. “No Miss Cailyn, I couldn’t find your friend. I couldn’t find any of the Muggle Born children or Half Breeds, or Half Bloods, it seems that the Ministry is hiding them. They are all being hauled off to different places but I can’t find out where. I shall keep trying.” Blinky said and with that disappeared.
Cailyn kicked at her bed. All of the Nons where taken away? That she had known would happen after they started to gradually haul them off during the school year. She couldn’t image what school was going to be like now. Hogwarts was going to feel very empty this year without the Nons and the Half Breeds. Where was Dumbledore? Why wasn’t he coming to help them? Surely this wasn’t something he wanted to have happen to his school.
Too Late
Author: Sage Porter
Date: 07-06-08 09:50
Sage climbs the last of the steps to the Divination tower, entering the classroom to find Saffron bent over a crystal ball. Although a question about what she's doing springs to mind the first thing Sage says is, "Why didn't you decide to move to the Arithmancy classroom?"
Saffron does move but there's a shrug in her voice. "I like here better."
Sitting opposite of his sister Sage asks, "What are you doing? Seeing if the crystal ball will work for your students?"
"No, not that, though I do need to check all the balls to make sure none are clouded or marred in some way."
"Then what?"
"Sometimes if I concentrate really hard on Aaron I get a picture. It's always very dark and murky, can't make out details."
"But you'd at least know he's relatively okay."
"Right. This image is different. I don't know what it means."
"Different how?"
"It's bright. Glaringly bright. I almost feel like I need sunglasses on. I can see a backlit image that I know must be Aaron but the light is so bright the image has no details."
Saffron pulls away from the crystal ball to look at Sage. "It's not too late for you."
"As of a half hour ago, it is."
"What?"
"Da stuck his nose in where it wasn't wanted. Told Snider he was concerned I might not stay at Hogwarts."
"I wish you'd left when term ended like I wanted."
"And I keep telling you that I'm not leaving you alone with that bitch, not with you under house arrest still."
They've had this disagreement too many times to count so Saffron instead says, "What did Snider do?"
"I get my wand for classes but have to check it out in the mornings and back in after my last class each day. I may leave the grounds but not with my wand."
"There's more to it because that still wouldn't prevent you from leaving and then getting a new wand."
Sage says nothing, looking down at the table, fiddling with the tablecloth.
"She threatened me, didn't she."
Not looking up, Sage shrugs. "Maybe."
Saffron reaches across the table to grab one of Sage's hands. "You should still go."
"No!" Sage's reply is very emphatic as he meets Saffron's eyes.
"You always have to be so stubborn."
"You would know about stubborn."
Making an exasperated sound at the back of her throat, Saffron gets up to put the crystal ball away. Motioning for Sage to come along she says, "How does leftover lemon chicken sound?"
"Sounds perfect."
For the walk from the classroom to the residence, Saffron quizzes Sage about whether he has all his school supplies yet and they talk about the new class called Fitness & Athletics.
Confrontation
Author: Plum
Date: 07-06-08 12:45
Daria and Plum double check nappies and shoes as well as making sure hands and faces are clean. The children will get dirty in the little park between the day care and the library but starting out with sticky hands and faces means the dirt is harder to clean off once back inside. Making a face at her brother's dirty nappy, Plum picks Alex up to go change him. He's right at the cusp age wise of when some start potty training kids but as yet Alex hasn't shown the slightest interest. Plum knows it's best not to push the issue, especially with him not quite the age yet for when some learn.
Back with the others in Alex's age range, Plum nods to Daria. "All set."
The young women slowly lead the children out a side door to the park. They'd already made sure the gates to the park were latched so that the young ones can't go roaming where they shouldn't so Daria and Plum, after making sure the children are happily settled, sit on one of the benches. They know their time to sit there won't last long as invariably children will start begging to be pushed on the swings or go down the slide.
With an almost imperceptable tilt of her head, Daria indicates someone across the street from the day care. "Blood stupid Snatcher."
"Are you sure he's with the RAC and not some other Ministry office?"
Daria snorts. "Does it matter? He's keeping watch in case Blossom or Fred or anyone else they're wanting show up. Making sure that we truly have broken ties with them."
Plum doesn't have to ask what Daria means. She knows that the Matthews are putting on the charade of no longer considering Blossom and Tracey's mother as family, of having no knowledge where Blossom, her family, and Margaret Davis are. It's that or be considered blood traitors. If that were to happen the day care would have to be shut down entirely, with no one to oversee it, and so would Fred's and George's business.
Plum asks, "Is consideration still being made to change the business names?"
"Yes, but only because of... well, you know."
"Yeah."
"Plum? Zat you?"
Plum stiffens, a chill going down her spine. She quickly stands and hastens to the park gate that opens onto the High Street.
"It's me, Dad. What do you want?"
"Gots ta pay. Wazit called. Tab."
"You've run out of the money I gave you yesterday?"
"Pssssss," Evan makes a disgusted, spitting noise. "H..hhhardly drop'n za buc..buc..bucket."
"So you ran a tab. Where?"
"Hhhhogsssss Head," her father slurs.
"And now it's pay the tab or be cut off," Plum states.
"Yesssssir, ma'am. Be uh good lasss an' help your dad out."
Plum, who'd been the one to clear out the family vault at Gringott's before the Goblins closed both British branches, had hidden the money. She doles a little out here and there to her father. It's the only way to keep Evan from going through all their savings with his drinking. He looks expectently at her now, hand out. Plum shakes her head. "Time to go home and sleep it off, Dad. I'll settle your tab later."
The held out hand curls into a fist. Evan's eyes narrow, his face flushing as much now from anger as from drink. He raises his fist as if to strike Plum. She moves back but he steps forward, eyes blazing. For some reason he hestitates and then his eyes focus past Plum to where children, including Alex, are playing. Jaw clenched, Evan lowers his fist. Even though Plum isn't in his way to go either direction down the lane, he shoves past her, going off to the right. "Sree Boomstick'll run a tab."
Evan stalks off. Plum goes back through the gate, saying to Daria whose come to stand near it, "Sorry you had to witness that," then scoops up one of the little girls who's wanting to be pushed in a swing.
Third Time's the Charm
Author: Lysander Stratford
Date: 07-06-08 13:23
"Dawn." Lysander blinked, hoping his true emotions didn't depict themselves on his face. His bell had just run and, thinking it was his friend Lysandra, Lysander went to the door only to find Mrs. Fox on his doorstep. "What brings you do my flat?"
He asked the question, already knowing the answer. Dawn would want to see her granddaughter Charlotte. Only to his surprise, Dawn had a secondary reason for stopping by his flat.
"I wanted to make sure you got this," she said, revealing an envelope from behind her back. Inwardly, Lysander cringed at the sight. It bore the same script and seal of the past two he'd received and subsequently discarded.
"Ah," he said, making no move to accept it. Instead, he took a step back, opened the door wider, and said, "Please, come in."
Dawn, looking relieved and pleased, entered. She immediately sought out Charlotte, who sat on the floor with several building blocks around her. Charlotte looked up at her grandmother and smiled.
Lysander, leery of what was to come, closed the door behind him and stood nearby, watching grandmother and granddaughter interact. After a few moments, Dawn patted Charlotte on the head and then stood up to face Lysander. Again, she held out the letter to him.
Reluctantly, Lysander took it and studied it in his hands.
"My daughter told me that she has been writing you lately but that you haven't been corresponding. I realize she's probably the last person you want to hear from, but I cannot imagine that you would simply ignore her letters."
Clearly, Mrs. Fox didn't know Lysander very well at all. Lysander turned the envelope over in his hands, looked up in the older woman's face and lied. "I haven't received any letters from Aralyn. It is my understanding that these days the post goes through many channels before reaching its final destination. Perhaps the letters got lost in transit?"
"Perhaps," Dawn acknowledged. She look from Lysander's face to the letter in his hands before looking at him again. "Well, are you going to open it?"
Lysander sighed quietly to himself. He ran his finger through the seal and removed the letter from the envelope. Aralyn's familiar script filled the page:
Dear Lysander,
This is my third attempt at reaching you. They say that the third time's the charm, so I'm hoping I'll hear from you shortly. I know that you are angry at me for what I've done and that you probably don't want to hear from me at all, but I am pleading you to hear me out, just this once.
In the time that I left our child on your doorstep until now, I've come to realize that I was a fool. I think I lacked the maternal instincts any mother had then because of my many problems. I assure you that I've changed. I'm not the same person I was.
Lysander, I don't want to ask for joint custody of our daughter or anything like that. I just want to see her again... just once if you are unwilling to make it more often than that.
My parents are going to visit me sometime in the fall. I would like to invite you and Charlotte to travel with them. Since I left Britain, I've been living in Argentina. I've married, and I live on a ranch.
Please consider my request. I will be eternally grateful to you if you can find it in your heart to forgive me for what I've done.
Aralyn
Lysander resisted the urge to crumble up the letter and toss it in the waste basket. Instead, he looked into Dawn's questioning face.
"Will you go?"
"How did you know she wants me to visit?"
"She wrote me a letter telling me she had asked," Dawn replied. "Will you go? Will you bring Charlotte with you?"
Hell no, Lysander thought, but to Dawn he simply said, "I will think about it."
Seemingly satisfied with the answer, Dawn excused herself to shop in Hogsmeade. She blew Charlotte a kiss and slipped out the door, leaving Lysander to fume where he stood. He didn't crumple up the letter even then, instead slamming it onto the kitchen counter. Charlotte looked up in alarm, but soon found interest in her toys again.
In Hogsmeade With Etta
Author: Jared
Date: 07-06-08 17:33
Jared holds Star so that Etta can talk with the animal healer about Pea. When Coco handed off Pea to Etta right before boarding the Hogwarts Express at end of term, she'd talked with the little dog and explained why they had to be apart. They all thought it would be for a very short time. No one expected what had happened with the train, the cars carrying the Nons uncoupled and gone to who knows where.
The last few days, Pea has gone into such a depression that he's not eating properly. Etta and Jared, as well as their parents, worry that Pea won't last long if he stays depressed. Because Jared was concerned about his friend's dog - and the reason why Pea is on the decline - Etta simply had to ask if Jared would help her today. She didn't have to wheedle or beg even a little.
After Pea is given a check-up, Etta's given a couple of potions to help stimulate Pea's appetite and to make sure he's getting the nutrients he needs. Jared pays using the money their mother had given them that morning then they step outside into the bright summer sunshine.
"Home or you want to walk around some?"
Etta looks down the street, a look of longing on her face. "I wouldn't say no to something from Briar's."
"I'm sorry but you're going to have to do a whole lot of convincing to get me to that place," Jared says laughingly, already taking off.
A few minutes later they're sitting outside the bakery, Etta eating a large fairy cake with a pile of frosting that looks much like a butterfly and Jared eating a thick slice of perfectly chilled lemon pie.
Around a bite of the big cupcake, Etta asks, "Do you think Viktor Krum will be at Hogwarts still?"
"Don't know. Nothing against Professor Batuti but I hope we do get Krum."
"Could be someone entirely new."
"True."
"No matter who is it, I'm going out for Quidditch again," Etta firmly states.
"Me too. I'd love for Gryffindor to win the cup with this my seventh year."
"You got prefect but not Head Boy. Who do you think it is?"
"I haven't got a clue. I've asked around but no one seems to know who either head is. Based on who were prefects at end of term, I'd say either Sage Porter or Crispin Cooke for Head Boy. What class are you least looking forward to?"
"Hard to say when we don't know who's teaching. If Professor Yaxley's got Defense Against the Dark Arts, I'd have to say that one."
Jared reaches for his drink. "I agree with you there. What do you think of me getting a pie or cake to take home for dessert tonight?"
"I say yes," Etta grins. "Oh, and Honeydukes. I have some of my own money with me and want to get a couple of things."
"Mum's going to nag me about letting you have so many sweets."
Etta's eyes twinkle. "What Mum doesn't know won't hurt."
Jared laughs as he gets up. "Take your time finishing. I'll go see what they've got that looks good for dessert tonight."
"Everything will look good."
"Good point," Jared laughs again, going inside the bakery.
Reverse Catch and Release
Author: Minerva McGonagall
Date: 07-07-08 07:44
Although Minerva had long lost any sense of time since coming to Azkaban, she felt almost certain that today was the last day of summer holidays before the new term at Hogwarts. She didn't know why she knew; she simply did.
She thought, with great nostalgia, of how Hogwarts had been before Albus Dumbledore's disappearance and the appointment of Harriet Snider as Hogwarts headmistress. The first years, some of whom were Muggle-borns, would have stomachs full of butterflies in anticipation of starting at Hogwarts. Tomorrow, they would all board the Hogwarts Express and travel to the great castle, where first, there'd been the Sorting Ceremony and then, a grand feast for everyone to enjoy.
Minerva knew that things wouldn't be quite the same this year, though she had no idea how much things had changed and were still changing since her arrest. She didn't know that the children who weren't pures wouldn't be returning to Hogwarts this year. She didn't know that there wouldn't be any first years at Hogwarts who weren't purebloods. Information was hard to come by, especially since her one-time visitor Bart E. Rohe, or Aberforth Dumbledore as he was otherwise known, hadn't made another visit.
She sighed quietly to herself, not for the first and certainly not for the last time wondering where in the world Albus was.
Minerva didn't stir when the door clanked open at the end of the hallway. She only moved when she absolutely needed to, or when she simply couldn't sit still anymore. However, when a guard stopped outside her cell and opened its door, she sat up and climbed to her feet.
"Congratulations," the guard said. "You're officialy being released from our custody."
The subtle sarcasm in the wizard's voice did not escape Minerva's attention.
"On what grounds?" she asked, taking a tentative step forward.
"They don't tell me those things. My orders are only to bring you downstairs."
Although the man held his wand firmly in hand, he casually waved his free hand in a gesture that told Minerva she was free to leave. Her feet carried herself over the threshold of her tiny cell. With the guard at her side, she navigated through the halls and stairs until they reached the bottom level. The few possessions she'd had on her when she was arrested were returned to her, with the exception of her wand which had been destroyed upon her arrival.
It was while inventoring her things, which she hardly remembered giving up in the first place, as it had been many months since her arrest, that a pair of wizards appeared by her side.
"You're to come with us, Minerva McGonagall."
She looked up sharply and scrutinized each face. The pair, two lean individuals who were a witch and a wizard, pointed their wands at Minerva.
"What is the meaning of this?" she demanded, as if she were speaking to delinquent students and not stern-looking adults.
"We are relocating you," said the wizard. "Either you come freely or we will use force."
"Relocating me where, and for what purpose?" Minerva asked angrily.
"Your new home, and you know the reason," the witch replied coolly. "Now, what's it going to be? The easy way, or the hard way?"
Realizing she had limited options on account of not having a wand with which to defend herself, Minerva allowed herself to be snatched.