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Post by JinAh on May 12, 2011 17:42:14 GMT -6
JK SONIA I LOVE YOU. Also Laura you should totally get something blue to play up your lovely blue eyes.
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Post by Vi on May 12, 2011 17:52:05 GMT -6
I woke up. It was early. Now that I'm done stating the obvious, I shall state the less obvious. It was also Sunday. That meant it was dress-shopping day, as decreed by Willow. I went through my daily morning routine and donned a t-shirt with a nebula print on it, my black uniform skirt, and flats. I reasoned that if we were going dress shopping, we would be changing quite often. And I didn't want to change out of jeans some two-and-forty times. No use in waking up the others, so I headed downstairs with a book entitled MATH: Without the Boring Bits (fun factoid: I actually own this book and have read it several times). No one else was in the common room except for the other early risers, so I nestled myself into one of the squishy midnight blue armchairs and began reading about the theory of relativity until Rachel and JinAh arrived downstairs. We made our daily march down to the Great Hall and indulged in breakfast. Following breakfast, at eleven o' clock sharp, we met with all of our inter-House friends (even the boys, some how) in front of the castle. We waved good-by to Charlotte, who was staying at the school, on account of it being Sunday and all, and walked the path to Hogsmeade. Several teachers were with us as chaperons and all, but really, they just ended up spending all of their time at the Three Broomsticks Inn anyways while the students did whatever they wanted. We discussed our plans for the rest of the school year and the like and before you know it, POOF, we were in Hogsmeade. It was a nice fall day and a few leaves had already dropped from the trees, crunching as we treaded on them. "Where do we want to go first?" "ROSEMARY'S! ROSEMARY'S! ROSEMARY'S!" Willow exclaimed excitedly, jumping up and down. Rosemary's Robes was a fun store that was becoming quite popular as the boutique of choice for many Hogwartsian girls, with hundreds of dresses, accessories, shoes, and the like. We girls agreed happily. The boys looked frightened but followed us down the road to Rosemary's anyways. They seemed to regret their decision to come into a dress shop as soon as we entered the shop. But us girls were delighted and scattered almost immediately, leaving the boys in a confused daze. It was still early, so we were almost the only customers in the boutique, which literally was larger than it seemed on the outside, as almost all stores in Hogsmeade were. Laura and Sonia quickly found dresses that they loved, but I would have bet three Galleons that they would find better dresses within forty-five minutes. JinAh was perusing slowly, looking the longest at the dark blue and black dresses, while I gathered several dresses to try on, repeatedly. In the end, I narrowed it down to three dresses. One was a pale pinkish-white dress that was short in the front and long in the back ( www.modcloth.com/Womens/Dresses/-Ice-Falls-Dress). The second one was a metallic silver with lots of ruffles ( www.modcloth.com/Womens/Dresses/-Who-Wants-to-Be-a-Frillionaire-Dress-in-Platinum). And the last one was a teal dress with a black bow on the shoulder ( www.modcloth.com/Womens/Dresses/-Distinguished-Dreamer-Dress). Many others had come to the same end with many dresses they all loved. I figured that we would probably end up coming back to Hogsmeade next weekend to choose a dress for Charlotte too, and at the same time finalizing our own dress choices, so I really saw no reason to rush the process at all. The boys evidently disagreed. ooc/ must eat dinner; going to continue at a later junction in the space-time continuum.
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Smonia
Hello. My name is Inigo Montoya. You killed my father. Prepare to die.
{{ The Duchess of Hair }}
Posts: 89
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Post by Smonia on May 12, 2011 20:06:08 GMT -6
lol sorry guys. I was supposed to be doing homework at the time of my post-writing. I apologize for rushed-ness.
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Post by Losi on May 14, 2011 23:48:33 GMT -6
It was a bright and sunny Sunday. Seriously, all Sundays need to be sunny. Then what's the point of it being called "Sun"day? So I liked it when this cheery coincidence came up, it brightened by day. More than literally. Yeah.
So, I dressed in yellow. Oh, I usually did that, but today it was specially yellow. Lots of yellow. Except for the pants, actually. My grandmother had given me yellow corduroy pants for my ninth birthday I think it was, and I absolutely loved them. Except they were much to big for me. (They'd probably fit me now.) My mother hated them, though, and soon they were to be found in the dumpster. Ah well.... Maybe I'll find another pair out there someday. For now I wore my pretty white ilet lace skirt. I loved ilet lace. it's the best lace in existence. So pretty.... So very pretty....
Breakfast was nice. I almost fell asleep in it, but it was nice. Sausage.... Lovely sausage....
"You know, you wouldn't really think school food could be this good," said my sister as she licked her fingers.
"What do you mean?" asked Ellie.
"Usually school food is pretty awful."
"Oh. Huh."
"At my old school, I once bit into a chicken sandwich and it was gray*," I offered.
Ellie looked at me in complete disgust. "Ew!!!"
I hugged my friends goodbye as they left. I looked at Jin Ah a while as we said goodbyes. She didn't seem like the kind of person for picking out dresses. But she seemed to be excited about it.
"Look for purple," I said. "Light purple."
"Light purple?"
"Yeah! It's your favorite color, isn't it? It'd look good on you."
"Er.... We'll see."
So they left, and I cheerfully went up to my common room to write a letter to my parents. I filled it with cheerfulness and good tidings, things about seeing new friends again, the awesomeness of there being a new Triwizard Tournament and all that jazz.
Then I read my scriptures and prayed and all that, hoping it could make up for not actually being able to go to church, as I did every year when I came to school. 'Twas another thing that made me guilty about coming to Hogwarts. Ah well. If I was going to be a witch, I'd better learn to use my powers for good. Spiderman's uncle had wisdom indeed. It was like piano. Having a talent for it or being able to play is useless unless you share it with other people. And music's the kind of thing that changes the world. (Belgian Revolution - started by an opera.) So is magic.
By twelve o'clock I was all sung and cozy by the fire in the our dormitory, all alone. The quiet was nice. It made reading easier. Then again I could read and walk at the same time in a crowded hallway since I was six. My teachers had been quite concerned about me.
It was Wuthering Heights. Sigh. Everyone was so stupid except Nelly. But it made me smile, nonetheless. Oh Heathcliff.... Heathcliff....
From the corner of my eye, I noticed something scuttling across the stone floor and looked up. It was a spider, of course. Not many other things scuttle like that. It was a small, grey, rather plain little house spider, and that made me smile like Wuthering Heights did. My dad had told me when I was little that house spiders were the first living things sent into space. We also decided that the best name for them was Arabelle, in honor of Charlotte's Web. I'd always loved spiders. They were so wonderful with their bulbous eyes and many spindly, creeping legs, and pincers and blood drinking, yet these tiny monsters had such elegance and balance, so delicate and gentle as they weaved silvery, gossamer threads.
(ooc/ I'm going poetic on you. I get that way when I really love something.)
As I usually did when I noticed a spider creeping along near me, I talked to it. Silly and childish, but harmless and a habit.
"Hello."
Now, the really strange thing that happened next sent a little chill up my spine.
The spider stopped in its tracks.
But soon I laughed and was talking absent-mindedly to it again.
"It almost seemed as if you'd heard me."
The spider turned around and stopped again. I had a very strong impression that it was looking at me.
"You're a funny spider," I said quietly.
The spider started going around in little circles, and then stopped again to look at me.
Okay, either this was a really freaky spider or an incredibly smart one.
Finally, the little thing scuttled off again, towards the exit this time. I got up, I couldn't help it. I needed to follow the mysterious little spider.
So I did. Right out of the dormitory, from the common room, into the hallways, around a few corners - a lot of corners. Actually, I was doing a pretty good job of keeping track of it until it disappeared up a wall and past a crowd of people and I'd lost it.
I know, I know, it's silly, but I felt very disappointed. It was like I'd lost a new friend, strangely enough.
I stayed in that hallways for a while, still searching. Searching, searching, searching, and so futile.
Until something pretty extraordinary happened. I was alone in the corridor when the wall next to me started to change. Something formed and expanded and lodged and was now jutting of of the wall with two shining handles.
The Doors of Complete Awesomeness had appeared before me.
My mouth dropped open, I laughed in wonder to myself, and went through without hesitation.
It was a very small room, with a table and a candle (the only light in the room), and two armchairs. Nothing remarkable. Except there was a man sitting in one of them. He was looking at me in complete and utter bewilderment and surprise and horror as well, which sort of unnerved me.
"Er.... Hello."
He raised a hand slightly in confused greeting.
"Erm, who are you?" I asked.
He opened his mouth unsuredly, looked at me a bit more, and finally said with an almost confused expression, "A spider."
I gasped and smiled.
"Oh! Of course! You're an animagus, aren't you?"
He nodded slowly.
I should probably describe this man now. He had long black hair, except it was sweepy and a bit spiky and stuck straight up in a rather funny way. What hair couldn't completely grow right up into the air was pulled back into a barely successful ponytail. He had dark eyes, rather pale skin, and wiry glasses. He wore a bagy, dark blue knit jumper over a T-shirt, equally baggy jeans, and large black boots. I noticed his hands long, tapered, and bony, looking much older than he did. That's what reminded me of the spindly legs.
He looked like he must have been in his late thirties or something.
"So.... Where are we?" I asked.
"The Room of Requirement," he responded. His speech was slightly accented. "You find it, and it'll give you anything you need. Found it in my third year."
"Wow!" I exclaimed, sitting down in the other chair. "I love this school!"
He nodded, still looking at me uncomfortably.
"What is your name?" he finally asked me.
"Charlotte. Charlotte Elizabeth Poe. My family calls me Elizabeth and everyone else calls me Charlotte. You can call me whichever."
"I had a cousin named Charlotte," he said quietly, which made me frown uncertainly. We had a family friend who called me Elizabeth because it was the name of his dead sister, and I noticed this man used the word "had."
"But what's your name?" I asked.
He licked his lips in hesitation.
"Cristofori Grey."
I smiled.
"Awesome name, Mr. Grey."
"He shook his head agitatedly and sat up in the chair.
"Just call me Cris."
"Oh. Alright."
He blinked at me a bit, got up, and started pacing around the suddenly existent space behind his chair.
"Erm... May I ask why you're so nervous?"
He stopped pacing.
"Nervous?!" he exclaimed, throwing his hands in the air. "Who's nervous!? Say, have you wondered at all why there's a mysterious man you've never met before creeping about Hogwarts Castle disguised as a spider?"
"Er.... No, actually."
"Aaahhhhyyyeesh...." he trailed off softly, running a hand through his hair and making it stick up even more. I have to say, he had pretty awesome hair to go along with that name.
"So.... Why are you creeping about Hogwarts Castle disguised as a spider?"
He stopped pacing again, looked at me sternly and said:
"I came to see the Triwizard Tournament."
"Sir.... I'm one of the most gullible people you'll ever meet, and even I thought that sounded awfully forced."
He allowed himself a little laugh as if he'd been told that kind of thing a lot.
"Will you tell me the truth?" I asked.
He took a deep breath, held it there a second, and let it go."
"Can you keep a secret?"
"Oh, I'm good at that. Usually, anyways."
"Well...."
He went and sat down in his chair again, leaning forward and backward and then forward again.
"Don't tell anyone. But I'm an Azkaban refugee.... But I don't deserve the punishment! Really! Trust me! It's.... It's very complicated...."
He trailed off again, looked at me with this kind of terrified-because-I'm-not-sure-that's-the-smartest-thing-I-could-have-said-at-this-moment face.
I bit my lip.
"You probably should have just told me to leave, shouldn't you?"
He leaned his forehead on his hand, didn't say anything.
"Oh dear.... Well, er, Cris.... You don't really seem to be that used or that good about this kind of thing. So.... I don't really think you're a criminal."
I looked up, eyes wide. "Really?"
Gosh, he looked like my little brother who's just been told the aliens want to steal his icecream.
"Tell me your story. This seems really interesting."
He took off his glasses and rubbed them with his sweater.
"You're a Hufflepuff, aren't you?"
"Yella-bellied through and through!"
"Good. Right, yellow tapestries. Very good. Honesty. Just what I need. (No sarcasm intended there in the least.)"
"Alright, go on, please. Tell it like it is from the beginning."
"You promise you'll keep this a secret?"
"....I can't promise that," I decided. "It depends on the story. But I promise you, I won't try to hurt you if it turns out you've been honest and good and that kind of thing. You know, if your heart's in the right place. The law can be tough like that, believe me, I watch TV."
He didn't seem to really get what I said at the end there (probably wasn't a muggleborn), but he nodded, took a deep breath, and at last started to tell his story. *True story.
ooc/ I'm deciding to leave it right there and frustrate some of you with a cliffhanger because it's almost midnight and need sleep. I'll write better when I'm more awake. Yeah. Sweet dreams~
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Post by Vi on May 15, 2011 10:09:13 GMT -6
Most of us decided that we would come back to Rosemary's to make some final decisions and browse through accessories at the end of the day, so we left the boutique to explore the rest of Hogsmeade.
"The guys still need dress robes, don't they?" noted Willow.
"Er, no, I've got dress robes at home. I can just ask my mother to owl them to me," Edmund said.
"Same with me," Sebastian agreed.
"Eh. I can just borrow my dad's dress robes." That was Will.
Willow shrugged. "Fair enough." And so we went on our merry way as an autumn breeze plucked more brown leaves from the trees. Will was insisting that we go to Zonko's, but we tried to tune him out as he went on about Nose Biting Teacups and Dungbombs.
"How about Spintwitches?" Katie suggested. "They've gots loads of awesome stuff for Quidditch!" Sebastian agreed, but otherwise, none of us (besides Sebastian and Katie) really needed anything for Quidditch, but Katie seemed really excited, so we followed her into the store. There were quite a few Hogswarts Quidditch players around the store, from Nathan Mayfield to the Whitcombe triplets (despite Bethany not actually being a Quidditch player due to her frail health). While Katie and Sebastian were actually looking for equipment, the rest of us wandered around aimlessly, pretending to know more about Quidditch than we actually did.
However, there were some really cool miniature Quidditch fields that would replay famous Quidditch matches at the tap of the wand, slowing down, speeding up, or pausing at the viewer's demand.
"That's a neat little thing, isn't it?" someone behind me mentioned, as Rachel, JinAh, and I were observing the 1994 Quidditch World Cup's Final Match between Ireland and Bulgaria. We turned around to find Fortinbras Skorunson, the sixth year captain and seeker of Ravenclaw's Quidditch team, who had a number of tremas in his name that I never bothered to remember. "I've been using it to train Ravenclaw's Quidditch team. ... You all are in Ravenclaw as well, aren't you? I've seen you in the Common Room a few times, if memory serves."
"Uh, yeah, we're fourth years, I'm JinAh, she's--"
"Skorunson, you need to get fitted for your new Quidditch uniform!" another Quidditch player (presumably also Ravenclaw) yelled from across the store.
"Er, sorry, I've got to go. Perhaps I'll see you later." And then he left. There was an awkward silence, but then Katie came up to us.
"Hey guys! I finished getting all of my new equipment, and I think Sebastian did too, so if you guys can find everyone else and tell them to gather outside, we can go somewhere else too."
"Uh. Okay." So we proceeded to gather everyone outside the store.
"Zonko's...?" Will said hopefully once we were outside.
"No," a number of voices told him sternly. Will was sad.
"How about Dervish and Banges?" Sako suggested. "Maybe they've got some new magical instruments in there." I'm running out of ways to say we headed off, so: We went to Dervish and Banges.
ooc/ too lazy to describe what went on. if anyone else has ideas, feel free. bic/
We came out a bit dizzier than we had come in, the shop filled with loads of spinning, gyrating, and whirling items. I bought a small levitating silver gyroscope with a turquoise sphere at its core for the fun of it. Ah, magic. Breaking the laws of physics since time began, ironically. By the time we had left Dervish and Banges, it was getting late. So, we trekked back to Rosemary's. Some people made final decisions on their dresses, but I was still hesitant, so I decided to ask them to hold the dress for me. Since I didn't yet have a dress, I would have to go accessory shopping later, but it was still quite fun browsing through the shop's array of magical accessories, like earrings made of balls of light, hourglass watches, and colour-changing gemstones.
When all was said and done, it was time to leave, as signaled by the horde of students moving towards the path to Hogwarts. We followed this horde back to the castle, while we continued to dicuss our day/future year.
When we finally arrived back at Hogwarts, Charlotte was nowhere to be found. Quite unusual, since she likely would have been the first one to greet us and ask to see our purchases. Quite unusual indeeeeed.
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Post by Losi on May 16, 2011 22:31:10 GMT -6
umm... i'm afraid i'm not going to have any time at all this week to post. so sorry! just stay on the same day for a little bit, i'm gonna tell you the story as soon as i can!
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Post by JinAh on May 25, 2011 22:56:03 GMT -6
/ooc. This is going to be sort of short.
Ah, shopping. I had grown to enjoy it more as I got older, mostly because I got to see my friends trying on pretty clothes. It was funny, because they'd always try something on, be overly critical, try something else on, declare that they wanted to go somewhere else, make their way across Hogsmeade repeating those steps, decide that they wanted to go back to the first store, and buy something there. Hogsmeade, luckily, was not too large, but even still ...
And here we were again, shopping for clothes. My friends were ... interesting to shop with, Willow constantly chiming in with her fashion ideas, some of the less-enthusiastic shoppers who had gotten dragged along (like Sako) making snarky comments, and Sonia bouncing up and down like a golden-haired balloon. Today, it was for an interesting occasion, too - this Yule Ball thing, which I assumed was like a high school dance, but fancier, and with hopefully less flashy lights, poor music choices, and people jumping up and down. I mean, jumping up and down in heels? Yowch.
Today turned out to be a rather lackluster shopping experience - Rosemary's, the shop Willow had decided we would grace with our patronage that day, was expecting another shipment in the next few weeks and had less dress choices than normal - and we found that the same applied to the other stores in the village. Several people found dresses that they liked, but I found it likely that they'd probably find something they liked better within the next few weeks, or even months - the Yule Ball was in December, after all, several months away. All in all, a rather lackluster shopping experience that was hardly brightened by the revelation that Will occasionally dressed up in women's clothing, something that Edmund and Sebastian wasted no time in mercilessly eviscerating him about. Not literally, of course. That would have been messy.
After getting our fill of dress shopping, we decided to indulge the tomboys and actual boys in our group and head over to Spintwitches, the Quidditch store. And, I must admit, that made up for any disappointments the rest of the day had had. Rachel, Vi, and I were looking at a model of the 1994 World Cup - it looked pretty awesome, but this one player kept faceplanting - when someone spoke behind us, and I nearly fainted. Which I didn't, which was good, because I would probably have fallen on the model.
It was Fortinbras Skorunson of the name with the complicated symbols.
I didn't really register exactly what he was saying, but he said something about using the model to train the Quidditch team (which I knew about from stalking observing their practices) and something about seeing us in the Ravenclaw Common Room and OH GEEZ OH GEEZ OH GEEEEEEZZZZZ FORTINBRAS SKORUNSON KNOWS WHO I AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAMMMMMMMMMM. DAY. OFFICIALLY. MADE.
And then one of his teammates called to him and stole him away from us, which was sad. After that I guess there was an awkward pause, I suppose, but I didn't really notice because I was trying really hard not to hyperventilate.
We went to Dervish and Banges after that, which was sufficiently loud and dizzying for me to hide my light-headedness. I think the others just thought I had hit my head or something. Well, except for Sebastian, because I could tell from the knowing smirk on his face that he knew exactly why I was so dazed. Stupid smug Slytherin.
He seemed to have been waiting for a time to corner me, and an opportunity quickly presented itself at the whirlingly hectic Dervish and Banges. Smiling his stupid smug lopsided grin at me, he said, "Still not over that little crush yet, eh?"
"Shut up."
"Does he know who you are yet?"
"He recognized me!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"
"... a little over-excited, are we?"
"But he did!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"
"He probably noticed you as "that girl who sneaks around and spies on all our practices.""
"Oh, shut up."
"You know, stalking is not an effective way to initiate a relationship."
"Shut up, shut up."
He grinned at me again and wandered off, probably to go infuriate someone else. Arghrhfurghrufh.
If you would like to know how Sebastian is the only one of my friends (as far as I know) to know who I like, it's a rather embarrassing story, but a short one. Basically, I got stuck on one of the Hogwarts rooftops taking pictures of the Ravenclaw Quidditch team (if you're curious, I have a pretty extensive file with pictures dating back from first year), Sebastian said he'd only get me off if I told him why on earth I was up there in the first place, or he'd get Professor Achilles, and I could explain to him why I was on top of the DADA room with a camera, a telescope, and a book that detailed how to do simple tracking charms. Needless to say, I chose the first option.
/ooc. okay, it's late, and it's sort of a lame post but HEY I JUST FINISHED MY ROUGH DRAFT AND I NEED SLEEP AND STUFF. SO YEAH.
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Katie
Hello. My name is Inigo Montoya. You killed my father. Prepare to die.
Courage! Bravery!
Posts: 79
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Post by Katie on May 31, 2011 17:15:40 GMT -6
Since I was bored. NOT RELATED TO DRESS SHOPPING!
Darkness, pure utter darkness. I don't know where I am, all I can do is observe. I feel myself turn around and then I realize I have a wand in my hand. "Lumos." I say and a small light goes to the tip of my wand. I move the wand around and begin to walk. I then realize I am in a maze. A dark Maze. I don't know how I know this, only that beside me are a bunch of trees and to the right a large green bushy barrier to block me from crossing over. I shiver and watch as a dark hooded figure goes to me. I try to be brave, but I can't move. The figure grabs my wand and laughs. Then it begins to say the awful words. "Crucio." he says slowly and I feel an awful pain come overcome me. "KATIE WAKE UP!" I get up in distress and accidently hit something in front of me. "OW!" a voice says and I open my eyes to Kenna rubbing her forehead. I feel a slight throbbing as well but not as bad as that curse. "Whats with you?" she asks after getting over her injured head. "Its noon and your just shaking." "Sorry, just a nightmare." I say getting up and trying to forget it. "Did last night scare you that much?" I shake my head to protest but partially it was true. Last night we spent the whole night watching scary muggle movies. And boy those were scary even in the theater but to be there...I just hate Scary movies. "Geez, no more scary movies for you." I nod my head and smile at her. Last night was fine, we did some spell and made the movie 4d. Litterally having the people go around in the movie around our room. I was perfectly fine watching Deja Vu, and all those Scary Movie parodies, but when they switched on Incideos. Man I freaked. I mean that music and well Kenna was bored so she made the demons dementors. Now that was super scary. "Yohooo. Katie, lets go." I nod and start going.
So yeah, a short time.
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Post by Losi on Jun 13, 2011 16:45:46 GMT -6
Not on my watch! Sorry for being gone for so long! I'm going to hurry and pick up the plot tomorrow, just as soon as I find Jin Ah and we'll start rounding people up. Don't worry, don't worry! Sorry again for the hiatus!
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Post by Losi on Jun 15, 2011 2:26:00 GMT -6
okay, so I lied.... Jin Ah's not going to be on the computer again until August. T_T
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Post by JinAh on Jun 22, 2011 0:19:00 GMT -6
fnarfnarfnarf I HAVE INTERNET I JUST DON'T HAVE TIIIIIIIIIIIIIME. To quote Mr. Tran: "We don't have TIME, guys!"
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Post by Losi on Aug 16, 2011 19:06:01 GMT -6
ooc/ No fear, people of earth! This site will now be revived! And and this necromancy shall ensue first with the story of Cristofori Grey!
"Now, listen to me, you two, this shouldn't be difficult. All I need you to do is send a message to my friends--"
"How do you expect us to do that?" Odette asked, folding her arms and thereby forcing her brother to the ground.
"Hey!" he protested.
"I mean," she continued, "how are we supposed to go to another house common room and not attract the attention of people other than your friends?"
"Just say you have a message from Charlotte," I said to the portrait. "And my friends will come over."
"Alright then," said Vincent, brushing himself off. "What's the message you wanted us to send?" Odette hmph'd and looked away bad-tempered.
"Tell them to meet me in the Charms corridor," I whispered. Saki, Sonia, and Edmund were right behind me, listening in on every word.
"Will do!" said Vincent cheerfully.
"What exactly do you want them to meet you there for, anyway?" Odette asked, suspicious.
"It's none of your concern," I said with difficulty. "Please just send the message."
"But--"
"Come on, Odette, she said it's none of our business, let's just go."
"But is is our business, we're the ones delivering the message!"
"Yup!"
"Vincent!" she whined.
Before we could hear any more of their bickering, they'd already disappeared from their portrait.
"What exactly is going on, though?" asked Saki. "You are acting pretty suspiciously."
"Yeah, I guess I am," I said sheepishly. "But don't worry, everything will be explained when we get there."
"Why do we have to go there for you to tell us?"
"Partly so that I can tell all of you at once, partly for a reason I can't tell you until we all get there."
"I see. Very helpful."
To cut a long story short, we all managed to find each other in the Charms corridor. Saki, Sonia, Edmund, Rachel, Vi, Jin Ah, Will, Sako, Kris, Sebastian, Willow, Laura, Katie, Mr. Grey, and me. Mr. Grey was still in spider form, of course. He'd traveled there while hidden in my hand and I discreetly let him crawl down my leg and onto the floor.
"What are we here for, Charlotte?" asked Rachel. "This is all pretty strange."
"While you guys were at Hogsmeade, I discovered something pretty amazing," I said.
Then huge double doors appeared on the wall next to us. It was a pretty cool sight. The others gasped, "ooh"ed, and "ah"ed.
"What is this?" asked many people at once in excited voices.
"It's the door to the Room of Requirement," I smiled, and heaved open one of the doors. As we were walking in, Laura suddenly squealed, "AHHHH, IT'S A SPIDER!"
Willow quickly noticed it on the floor and started squealing with her. "AHHHH, SOMEONE GET IT!"
"OUT OF MY WAY!" shouted Sonia, and she took off her shoe and started trying to squish it to a pulp.
Horrified, I quickly rushed over and pulled the shoe from her grasp. Then I closed the doors behind us.
"Hey!" she exclaimed, but I clung onto the shoe firmly.
"I don't see what you guys are freaking out about," said Vi calmly as Mr. Grey hurriedly escaped under a door that had appeared in the room beforehand, as if it had foreseen the need. "It's just a little spider."
"Little?!" Laura shrieked. "IT WAS FREAKIN' HUGE!"
"IT COULD HAVE EATEN US ALIVE!" Willow cried.
"Hey, aren't we supposed to be the Gryffindors here?" said Katie with a quirky smile.
"Where'd the spider go?" Will asked, searching the floor. "I have a magnifying glass! We could take it outside and burn it's face off!"
"Please, Will, are you sure you aren't eight?" Jin Ah rolled her eyes.
"Come on, don't tell me you've never wanted to burn a spider's face off with a magnifying glass!"
"No, I've never been remotely interested in my life."
As you can imagine, all of this kind of talk greatly disturbed me. If I hadn't known exactly who the spider was, I might have just quietly protested in the poor little spider's defense, but as it was, I merely stood petrified while holding onto Sonia's shoe tightly with both hands.
"Do you still hold onto that magnifying glass wherever you go?" sighed Sebastian.
"Maybe."
"Yup, he does," said Edmund, pulling it out of Will's pocket.
"What happened to your deerstalker hat?" smiled Rachel.
"Sherlock Holmes never wore a deerstalker hat! It never said he did in any of the books!" Will protested.
"We all remember your deerstalker hat, child," said Jin Ah.
"I think it accidentally got burned to a crisp during one of our pranks," recalled Edmund.
"Which prank?"
"The one where we set Logan Bingham's pants on fire with your magnifying glass," said Sebastian.
"Oh yeah. I miss my deerstalker hat...."
At that moment, Cristofori Grey emerged from the door. Everyone suddenly went silent and just stared at him. Mr. Grey started looking very, very nervous again.
"Er," he said, gulping. "Hi."
"Everyone," I said, gaining back my nerve and striding up to address everyone. "This is Mr. Cristofori Grey."
"Please call me Cris," he said uneasily. I gave a smirk. I was never terribly comfortable calling adults by their first names unless they were really close.
"We'll probably be calling you Mr. Grey, anyway," said Kris. "My name's Kris as well, and it might get a bit confusing, I think."
"Mr. Grey's an animagus," I continued.
"Ooh! What does he turn into?" asked Sonia.
"A spider," I said. Then I gave her back her shoe.
"Oh."
Jin Ah gave Will another whack on the head.
"Ow!"
"Shame on you."
"I didn't know, okay?"
"We're terribly sorry, Mr. Grey," she told the man. "We would never want to burn your face off." Then she gave Will another whack on the head for good measure.
"It's alright," said Mr. Grey, looking at Will with concern. "If you're an animagus and you turn into a spider, you have to get used to things like that. I don't blame any of you in the slightest."
"You're very kind, Mr. Grey," I said.
Then there was a kind of awkward silence.
"What exactly is a spider animagus doing in Hogwarts Castle?" Sebastian finally asked. The others nodded in agreement.
"That's what Mr. Grey's going to explain to us," I said. I was surprised at my adaptability into the role of spokesperson. "Shall we sit down?"
The others were mildly surprised to notice a fireplace with an armchair facing us off to the side, and exactly fourteen chairs circled around it. We each found one, settled in, and Mr. Grey again started telling us all the story that he'd already told me before that day.
"Before I tell you all anything, you'll have to promise not to tell a single other living soul. Alright?"
Well, I thought he was.
The others looked unsure for a while, but I nodded encouragingly and eventually we were agreed.
"You asked what a spider animagus is doing creeping around Hogwarts castle," he continued. "Well, the short answer is that I'm an Azkaban refugee."
There was the expected round of gasps.
"Okay." Rachel lifted an eyebrow. "So why shouldn't we go and turn you over to the Ministry right now?"
"Because I don't deserve the punishment. I really don't!” He exclaimed when people looked skeptical. “I'm just a normal bloke. I'm a pureblood wizard and I work in the Department of Magical Accidents and Catastrophes at the Ministry of Magic. My wife's a Muggle, but that's not unusual. I was just very, very unlucky."
I nodded again to back him up.
"Fine," they all seemed to say with their expressions. "If Charlotte says so, we'll believe you. For now."
"Alright. It all begins when I was at work, and things were going pretty normally. A few potions exploding, a few misguided apparitions, nothing special. Mostly just paperwork. But if any of you have been to the Ministry, you've probably noticed the hundreds of memos flying around everywhere all the time, folded up like paper airplanes."
A small few of us nodded.
"Well I was just getting up to go use the loo when one of those little memos hit me square between the eyes. Needless to say, I picked it up, unfolded it, and read it.
"On the paper was something along the lines of: 'Dear Mr. Pennyworth, when and where are we going to have that secret meeting? Venning said I wasn't invited, but I'm pretty sure he was joshing me. I have some great ideas about how we can get rid of the mudbloods! Oh, and I've met a teacher at Hogwarts who will be perfect for helping us infiltrate the school. --Suthers.'"
There were many horrified looks from around the room.
"As you can imagine, I was shocked and dumbfounded. It was about lunch break, so I hurried over to show it to my best mate, Neil. After his horrified initial reaction, we decided we'd go and confront Stephen Pennyworth.
"I knew him as Steve, actually. We'd never exactly been on very close terms, but I'd had lunch with him a few times and he seemed like a nice enough guy. When we approached him after work with the letter, though, his first reaction was rage at this Suthers fellow who'd foolishly sent the paper to him.
“‘How dare he!’ he shouted. ‘The fool, sending this to me where anyone could find it and read it!’
“‘What is the meaning of this letter?’ asked Neil angrily. ‘What did he mean, “get rid of the mudbloods”?’
“‘Exactly what he said, good fellow! That’s what the whole conspiracy’s about, isn’t it? To get rid of all Muggles and mudbloods, and eventually half-bloods and blood-traitors such as you!’”
You could see the bitter contempt in Mr. Grey’s face.
"We threatened to tell him off. He had told us plain and true, a complete confession. But all he said was that he wasn't afraid of us. We told him we would tell the Minister of Magic himself, but all he did was smile.
"Well, we went away in a huff and did exactly as we had said we would. Or at least we tried. The Minister's senior undersecretary, Mr. Mortimer Roscoe, said that the Minister of Magic was busy and wouldn't be able talk with us, but he could just as easily listen to what we had to say.
"So we told him!
“Mr. Roscoe listened patiently, but he simply smiled at us and said, “That’s impossible.” When we tried to explain to him that it was very, very possible, he interrupted us and said, “Mr. er, Cloud, I’m sure that you and your friend are simply on the wrong end of some cosmic practical joke, because your story is, well - impossible. I’m sure it’s merely a misunderstanding on your part, though.” He smiled ingratiatingly at us, and it was impossible to imagine that he felt anything other than the kindest sentiments toward us. “Don’t worry about all this,” he said. “I know it must be confusing. Relax. I’ll, ah … take care of you.” He walked away.
“Well, at this point, it still seemed like something fishy was going on - nice as Roscoe had seemed, why wouldn’t he give us any answers? - so we went to talk to someone whom we knew we could trust - Tony Mickelson. He was another friend of ours. We didn't actually see him a lot since he worked in a department far away from where we were, but we went to Quidditch matches with him--Neil was in the Deparment of Sport, you see, and that can have its advantages. We sent him an owl asking him to meet us at Neil’s house, and left work early so that we could head over there ourselves - and were accosted right outside the Ministry’s exit by a pair of dementors. We managed to cast the Patronus charm and chase them away, but we were pretty shaken - you can probably understand why. It seemed pretty obvious to us that Pennyworth, or Roscoe, or someone, had sent them after us, and we didn’t want to see what was coming next.
"Well, there we were, running for our lives, and who do you think we should find in the street but our friend Tony Mickelson!
"We ducked into a cafe and told him everything - Pennyworth’s rants, Roscoe’s strange demeanor, the dementors - and he seemed shocked. Utterly shocked.
“‘Why on earth - ‘ he started to say, then stopped. He stood there, very still, his face twitching as though he was going through some great emotional turmoil. Eventually, it calmed. ‘Neil,’ he said. ‘Cris. Listen very carefully to me.’ His voice dropped, so that we had to lean forward to hear him.
“‘I don’t understand why Pennyworth told you all this - he probably believed, in his pigheaded arrogance, that you would never be able to harm someone of his stature - but now that you know, you’re in danger. Run to King’s Cross Station. Make your way onto the Hogwart’s Express, it’s safe at that school and you’ll be able to find out about the teacher that’s supposed to be infiltrating it. You might even be able to warn somebody. You said you still had that note? Keep it - it can serve as evidence for you later on.’”
“We nodded, saying nothing, although we were scared out of our minds.
“‘What about you? What about our families?’ Neil managed to whisper.
“‘Me?’ Tony smiled grimly. ‘I can’t get out anymore - I’m in too deep. The only way for me to get out of this situation safely is for them to think I wasn’t involved at all - I’ll tell you more about that later. Your families? Hopefully, if you leave soon enough, they won’t be bothered too much - you won’t be able to contact them at Hogwarts, so you should write them a quick note, now.’
“We did so. I wasn’t sure what to write - ‘Dear Penny, I’ve stumbled across an evil society of anti-Muggles, I won’t be able to contact you for a while because then you could get attacked by dementors, Love, Cris, and don’t forget the electricity bill’s due tomorrow’ sounded a bit ridiculous. The entire situation was ridiculous - Neil and I weren’t amateur detectives or anything like that. Like I said, we were just a couple of blokes.
“So we managed to write something down telling our wives not to worry, and the entire time Tony was twitching his fingers and looking nervously behind him, as if he were waiting for a troop of Aurors to storm through the door.
“‘Now what?’ Neil asked, adding a final postscript, and our two letters disappeared with a blue glow - we’d cast a modified sort of portkey spell on them so that they’d appear where we needed them to.
“‘Now? Now you guys save my skin. If they manage to track you here and they realize that I met with you and just let you go, well … let’s just say that it wouldn’t end well for me or anyone close to me. I need you two to stun that clerk dozing off over there, and then I need you to attack me. Convincingly. If you can bust up some of the chairs and tables, that’s good, too. And then I need you to obliviate me.’
“We nodded again, and nervously did as he had told. We silently stunned the clerk, did a couple of deprimo and reductos to the various tables around us, and cast a couple of jinxes for the authentic wizard-duel scorch marks on the floor and ceiling, while Tony cast a couple of jinxes from his own wand in case they did priori incantatem[ on it - he really had thought of everything. Finally, he lay down on the floor, and Neil stunned him and I obliviated him - Tony had already cast a stinging jinx on his face, for the look of the thing, so he looked pretty beat up - and then Neil and I grabbed our things and hightailed it out of there. We realized that we needed disguises, so we cast a quick few spells for that, but it was already ten forty-five, and we only had fifteen minutes, so we weren’t as careful as we might have been.
“It wasn’t until we got onto Platform Nine-and-Three-Quarters that we realized how good Tony’s plan had been - the Platform was crowded with wizards and witches, so it would have been nearly impossible to pick us out, and if the Ministry somehow had managed to trace us there, it would have been a nightmare trying to get all those kids and parents to get organized. And when we got to Hogwarts, it would have been difficult for the Ministry to mess around, because everyone knows that Hogwarts has never exactly had a good history with Ministry interference. And now that I’m here, I can work to try and stop the conspiracy before it goes any further.
“They did manage to trace us to the train, though. You probably know what happened next. Those Dementors - they were for us.”
"I knew it as soon as you said ‘refugee’!" said Vi.
“I don’t know how they managed to find us - it was probably a random stroke of bad luck, I think one of Neil’s coworkers - Lucinda Overton - might have spotted him. Like I said, our disguises weren’t too good. We managed to find a hiding spot on the train, but, as you know, it did us no good in the end. Well, it did Neil no good, at any rate.
"I turned into a spider and managed to escape. Neil didn’t make it." Mr. Grey sighed and his face grew sad and tired. "He must be locked up in Azkaban by now."
"Oh! I remember us asking the train driver about that," said Jin Ah. "He said a Neil McCloud had been captured."
"That's him!" Mr. Grey affirmed. “Poor bloke....”
“Is your family safe?” asked Willow.
“I don’t know yet,” said Mr. Grey. “I can’t contact them now.”
“But this means means one of our teachers is an imposter,” said Will.
“Or at least not who they say they are,” said Kris.
We all took this in slowly.
“It also means,” realized Rachel, “that some of our classmates’ parents are in on it as well.”
“Like how ‘Venning’ was mentioned in that note,” offered Sako.
“There are probably others, too,” said Saki gravely.
“What exactly was their plan, Mr. Grey?” Jin Ah asked.
“I’m not sure,” said Mr. Grey, looking stressed. “I think … I remember him saying something about how they were going to use the Prophet to manipulate public opinion to make people anti-Muggle, and something about … oh, no.” He sat up straight. “I just remembered - they’re going to hex the Magic Quill!”
“The what?” asked Laura, one of her eyebrows quirked up. “What’s a magic quill?”
“‘The Magic Quill,’” Vi said in her memorized-textbook-voice, “‘records the birth of every magical child born in Britain or the surrounding areas, such as Ireland or the Isle of Man. The quill is kept in a sealed room at the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, and is maintained by the Assistant Headmaster or Headmistress.’ Hogwarts, a History, chapter One.”
“That’s...right,” said Mr. Grey, looking at Vi curiously.
I smiled. That’s our Vi, I thought.
“But why would they want to hex it?” Sonia asked. “I thought they were against Muggles - wouldn’t that make it so that no one got into Hogwarts?”
“Well, they would hex it in such a way that no Muggle-borns would be written down,” answered Mr. Grey. “Probably no half-bloods, either,” he reasoned. “Which, sadly enough, would mean hardly anybody. Louise was going to start school next year....”
“Sounds like the kind of dirty, underhanded thing that the Fremantles would love,” said Rachel scornfully. “Speaking of the terrible two, don’t tell me they’re not caught up in something like this.”
“I couldn’t speak for the children themselves,” said Mr. Grey, “but Priscilla Fremantle is Mortimer Roscoe’s sister.”
“Why are there dementors after you, though?” Kris asked. “They can’t have a legal justification for that!”
“I think I have an answer for that,” Jin Ah said. She rummaged through her bag and pulled out a slightly wrinkled Prophet from a few days ago. Beneath a bewildered-looking picture of Mr. Grey, the caption on the third page read:
ATTEMPTED MURDERER AND ANTI-MINISTRY ANARCHIST CRISTOFORI GREY EVADES CAPTURE; MINISTRY OFFICIALS BELIEVE SUSPECT IS HIDING NEAR HOGSMEADE
“I recognized him, but I … didn’t want to cause a stir,” Jin Ah said embarrassedly.
Mr. Grey grabbed the paper from her. “Anarchist? Attempted murderer?”
He read the article aloud.
“‘LONDON, ENGLAND - Ministry Officials announced today that despite the mobilization of ministry forces, dangerous anarcho-terrorist Cristofori Grey managed to elude the grasp of the law yet again. His partner, fellow terrorist Neil McCloud, formerly of the Department of Sports and Games, was captured by dementors on the Hogwarts Express, but managed to escape’ - Neil’s all right! - ‘and is also on the run.
“‘Grey and McCloud were arrested this Wednesday for the attempted murder of Stephen Pennyworth of the Public Relations Office of the Department of International Magical Cooperation. Mr. Pennyworth reported being attacked in his office by Mr. Grey and Mr. McCloud, who threatened to “slit his vile throat” and “send a lesson to all those other Ministry scumbags.” Mr. Pennyworth was saved by the swift action of Mr. Mortimer Roscoe, Senior Undersecretary to the Minister, who managed to frighten away Grey and McCloud, but was not able to capture them.
“‘The gravity of McCloud and Grey’s actions was further increased by the discovery of several letters sent by McCloud and Grey that detailed a terrorist plot to cripple the Ministry and wreak havoc in the international community’ - what is this rubbish?!” Mr. Grey looked horrified and furious.
“What does it say after that?” I asked hesitantly. “I know it makes you angry, Mr. Grey, but this could be important!”
Mr. Grey closed his eyes, breathed slowly for a moment, and continued to read. “‘Dementors and a group of Aurors were immediately dispatched to track down and arrest Grey and McCloud, but were unable to apprehend the two before they injured yet another member of Ministry personnel, Tony Mickelson.’” Mr. Grey swallowed. “‘Mr. Mickelson, who had considered himself a close friend of McCloud, was shocked and angry to hear of his friend’s betrayal, saying “I never thought Neil could do anything like this. He was always a very quiet, good-natured guy - I guess it just shows that the man within isn’t necessarily who you think it is.” Due to the nature of his inuries, Mr. Mickelson was left with no memory of the event.
“‘McCloud and Grey managed to escape to Platform Nine-and-three-Quarters, where they boarded the Hogwarts Express. It is likely that they planned to seek refuge in Hogsmeade before continuing their terrorist plans. However, Ministry officials were able to apprehend McCloud on the train, due to a tip-off by a Ministry worker who spotted McCloud and Grey at Platform Nine-and-Three-Quarters. Grey once again managed to avoid capture, likely using his abilities as an Animagus to turn into a spider.
“‘The Ministry’s troubles did not end there, however, for McCloud managed to steal his wand from the Auror who had confiscated it and apparated out of sight. The Ministry believes that he planned to meet up with his co-conspirator, Grey, at a previously determined location.
“‘The Ministry has come under fire from certain parts due to its inability to capture Grey and McCloud. The head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement, Oliver Renault, blames the Ministry’s troubles on McCloud and Grey, whom he described as “unlike anything we’ve seen before” and “almost supernaturally evasive.”
“‘Grey and McCloud are believed to have sought refuge near Hogsmeade. The public is warned that both McCloud and Grey are considered extremely dangerous, and should not be reasoned with. Any sightings of either McCloud or Grey should be reported immediately to the Ministry.”
“Um,” said Vi. “Just to check, you’re not some crazy anarcho-terrorist, right?”
In response, Mr. Grey pulled out a wrinkled sheet of paper. On it was the fateful note which this Suthers had sent to Mr. Pennyworth.
“This Suthers person must have been incredibly stupid to send something like this through an office memo,” said Sebastian, his lip curling slightly.
“I’m sure he was punished for it afterwards,” said Edmund dryly. “This Pennyworth guy doesn’t sound like the calmest of people.”
Will was nearly jumping up and down with excitement. “How are you guys so calm? This is a chance for us to defeat an evil conspiracy! It’s a chance for an adventure! It’s a chance for us to fight the dastardly forces of … bigotry! So we know that these crazy guys - they need a nickname, what’s a nickname we can give them?”
“Um,” we said, thinking. Usually, Will was the one who came up with the ridiculous nicknames.
I had to agree with Will, though. This kind of thing was terribly exciting.
“The Brotherhood of Evil,” Edmund suggested. Rachel tried to hide her snort of laughter.
“Taken,” I said.
“Um … The Secret Group of Anti-Muggle-Wizards?” Vi suggested.
“... No offense, Vi, but that makes them sound, well … not evil.”
“The Evil League of Evil, then,” said Laura, sounding a little frustrated. “If it’s evil you want.”
“Again, taken.”
I thought fast. “The Group of Really Ugly, Evil Somebodies,” I managed with a grin.
All they did was stare.
“G.R.U.E.S.?” I offered, still smiling stupidly.
“Maybe a bit facetious,” Jin Ah said, though kindly enough. “Besides, ugly is just name-calling.”
“They started it....” muttered Sonia.
“Muggle-hating, Enormously Evil People,” I suggested, then. “Meeps!”
“Facetious, yes,” said Sebastian, tilting his head thoughtfully, “but …”
“It does have a certain ring to it,” ended Edmund.
“Aw, you two are finishing each other’s sentences!” said Laura. “How sweet!”
Will glowered at her.
“Guys,” Sako interrupted, getting us back on track. “So, we’re going with … meeps, then? Muggle-hating, Enormously Evil People?”
“I like it,” said Will. “The group is called MhEEP, or “The Meeps.” The people are called meepers. Or meeple. Meeplepeople! THE POSSIBILITIES ARE ENDLESS!” he said, ending in a burst of maniacal laughter.
Mr. Grey looked at him curiously. “Is he always like this?” he asked.
“Unfortunately,” JinAh sighed.
“Guuuuuuuuuys,” Sako said again. “All in favor of “meep”?”
There were several shrugs, nods, and “Yeah, sure”s from around the room, along with a few crazy-sounding giggles from Will.
ooc/ Alright. That took us a very long time. Many, many thanks to Jin Ah, who helped a lot with this post. Thank you, thank you, thank you! We had much, much fun writing it.
Also, Neil McCloud's codename: Nimbus. (Nimby) Cris Grey's codename: Cumulo.
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Saki
LOLcat
Posts: 22
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Post by Saki on Aug 16, 2011 22:34:02 GMT -6
After the meeting called by Charlotte everyone split up, thankfully on a good note due to the amusement brought on by the "meeps". I was kind of surprised at myself and everyone else for staying so calm about the whole situation. A security breach at Hogwarts didn't happen everyday, mostly because no one is stupid enough to attempt one. If anything everyone was somewhat looking forward to the experience of fighting an "evil conspiracy" as Will put it.
Willow and Laura had been the first ones to leave the Room of Requirement after the meeting had gone from briefing to some sort of meep extravaganza(mostly revolving around Will, seeing as he was the only one really partaking in the meeps). They retired early, going back to their common room. Most everyone else left later, after talking more to Mr. Grey and pondering over who has been acting stranger than usual among the teachers of Hogwarts. Charlotte had stayed behind a little longer to make sure Mr. Grey was out of the way, somewhere where he could be a spider and not get a shoe shoved in his face by some frightened student. Granted he could probably escape pretty quickly had the situation presented itself, but she just wanted to make sure. For some reason he didn't really want to stay in the Room of Requirement.
I walked down the staircase, passing a few portraits I knew and absentmindedly greeting them before going down another flight of steps. I had passed one of my favorites and backtracked. I watched slightly amused as the men in the painting dramatically enacted the sinking of their ship. Sir Ronde looked at me with a puzzled look on his face.
"What are you looking at?" He asked, stopping to turn in my direction while his crew continued to flail.
"Made any bets lately, Sir Ronde?" I asked, curious.
"Beat it, kid." He said flatly, his grand mustache and long hair making him look like a pirate. I smiled and left, walking to the Hufflepuff common room.
It was cozy, the Hufflepuff common room. I always thought it was a great place to relax. The atmosphere of it was perfect for relaxation. At least, most of the time. Every once in a while you could just sit on a couch, stare into space next to a fire, and be pretty much at peace with everything. That was kind of what I was hoping for when I walked in, but there were people with other plans.
"Saki! Where have you been?" Adella asked, dragging Wyatt behind her. They were a pair, those two, not really because they wanted to be...it was more of a forced friendship. When I wasn't around Adella had no one to gush to, and since Wyatt had been our friend since the very beginning, he was naturally the one she turned to. She had other friends, I mean only so many people can hide from a girl that loud, but they weren't in Hufflepuff. Wyatt seemed happy to see me, smiling with relief. He ruffled his hair and gave me a wave, before giving a goodbye to Adella and walking off.
"Hey Adella." I said, kind of bummed that I wouldn't get that relaxation time I had been hoping for.
"You never answered my question. Where have you been?"
"Around."
"Explain."
"I was helping a spider. Or...sort of."
"A...spider?
"Problem?"
"No."
"Well then. Was there something you needed?" I asked, coming off more impatient than I had intended. She looked at me with a blank face before quickly shrugging it off.
"Okay. So I was talking to this ghost earlier, right?"
"Um. Okay?"
"Right. It was that poofy one. Ya know, the one with the big pants and the curly hair and the broken sword?"
"Yeah I know the one."
"Mhm. And it was really weird, because normally he's a pretty low-key ghost He stays out of the way, doesn't make a ruckus, blah blah blah. I was actually a tad scared when I came across him by accident." She said, talking fast. "Yeah, not many people come across him without looking for him. Where was he?"
"That's the weird part, he was on the sixth floor, mumbling to himself about how something was wrong and things are off around here. I guessed someone stole his sword or something, because he didn't have it. And he always has it. Poor thing. If someone stole my sword I'd be all mumbly too."
"How weird." I said, thinking back to the conversation in the Room of Requirement. It probably wasn't just a crazy coincidence that he showed up out of the blue on the sixth floor talking about how things are wrong in the same day that we hear about traitors in Hogwarts.
"I asked him if he was okay, but he rudely told me to go away. At that point I had asked if he had lost something, and he looked really sad. I wanted to comfort him but he just flew off and disappeared. I tried looking for him, but I couldn't find him. Not that I particularly wanted to find him, I guess, but it was curious, wasn't it?"
"Extremely." I would probably have to talk to the group about it later.
"Exactly. By the way, have you seen Shane around? I asked Wyatt but he hadn't seen him."
"No, I haven't seen him recently. Why? Lose something again?"
"Yep."
"Figures."
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Post by Vi on Aug 17, 2011 9:45:42 GMT -6
I was quite surprised that I managed to stifle my scream/hyperventilation on seeing a spider. If there is something that wrecks my calm, it's insects and arachnids.
And then he transformed into a man which is weird and unexpected, but alright, I suppose.
And then, as quietly as we had gathered, we dispersed. That is to say, not very. We decided to wait until the Common Room to discuss anything, so as we walked the hallways, the Ravenclaw Trio (Rachel, Jin Ah, and I) plus Will blathered on about classes and extracurricular activities to keep suspicion about where we had been down.
Finally, after stumbling around in the hallways, talking as if we were from St. Mungo's mental ward (garnering us some strange looks from prefects) we made it up to the Ravenclaw Common Room. We decided talking in our dormitory was out of the question, what with Emily and Agnes likely to be there. And you know, the fact that Will was a boy. No, it was better to speak in the Common Room, where hustle and bustle would mask our conversation. We found a secluded corner next to a glowing fireplace.
"There's something that's been bothering me," I began.
"No, for the last time you're not going to fail Arithmancy," Will complained. WHACK! That was the sound of Jin Ah's hand connecting with the back of Will's head.
"No, not that," I continued. "Jin Ah, do you still have that article from the Daily Prophet?"
Jin Ah handed over the wrinkled newspaper. I flipped to the article and skimmed for what I was looking for.
"Here," I announced. I began to read the article out loud. "'Grey once again managed to avoid capture, likely using his abilities as an Animagus to turn into a spider.'"
"Yeah, so? We know he's an Animagus and so does the Ministry. What's the point?" Will interjected.
"The Ministry sent dementors to apprehend Mr Grey and Mr McCloud, right? But they knew Mr Grey was an Animagus." Will opened his mouth to protest, but I continued. "Dementors don't affect Animagi in their animal form the same way they affect humans--while a human will be partially paralyzed with fear and dread, an animal will feel next to nothing. But the Ministry sent Dementors anyway. Something is amiss. I have a startling but strong suspicion that the Ministry allowed Mr Grey to escape on purpose--so that whoever is infiltrating Hogwarts can deal with Mr Grey him or herself."
"But why would they want the Hogwarts infiltrator to deal with Mr Grey?" Rachel asked.
"I don't know," I admitted. "But perhaps Mr Grey is more deeply rooted in this conspiracy that he knows--or wants to let on."
"Well, in any case," Jin Ah began, "I think the best course of action is to find the infiltrator and tell Headmaster Sceoppend."
"Yeah," replied Will sarcastically, "let's just waltz up to the Headmaster's Office and say 'Hi, Headmaster! Just wanted to let you know that we've been working with a criminal who is supposed to be in Azkaban but is actually innocent and we think this this professor is actually a fake and they're planning a conspiracy to get rid of all muggleborns and half-bloods from Hogwarts! Bye!' Yeah, awesome plan." Jin Ah glared at Will.
"Well, if we're going to be a part of this conspiracy, we had better learn to defend ourselves," Rachel said in a matter-of-fact tone.
"Well, we're already taking DADA," Jin Ah reminded her.
"Yeah, but we're going to need learn even more advanced magic if we're going to take down Dementors," Rachel asserted.
"You're not possibly thinking..." I said worriedly, realizing what Rachel was on to.
"The Patonus Charm!" our DADA expert exclaimed excitedly. "The only known effective spell against Dementors and Lethifolds. They can either be corporeal or non-corporeal. In its non-corporeal form, it provides a sort of positive energy force which Dementors feed off of--so they don't feed on your positive energy. However, in its more powerful corporeal form, it takes the form of an animal that is said to symbolize the caster's personality. These will actively repel and/or chase off Dementors."
"I don't know, Rachel... the Patronus Charm is very advanced magic and we don't have a teacher to instruct us, and---"
"Oh come on, Vi. What's the worst that could happen?"
"Well---"
"It was a rhetorical question. In any case, the risks don't outweigh the reward. And in this case, the reward is not having your soul sucked out. We could practice in the Room of Requirement on the weekends--along with other defensive spells while planning our strategy to crush the meeps!"
I stood by my statement that a Patronus Charm was very advanced magic. Though, admittedly, it would be very cool to be able to cast a Patronus Charm--and likely our friends would agree. I conceded.
"Okay. We can practice in the Room of Requirement on the weekends, provided we don't have that much homework. We can tell our friends when we see them in classes."
"All in favor, say 'aye.'" Jin Ah announced.
A chorus of 'aye's.
"All opposed?"
Silence. There was no turning back now--we were officially part of fighting a conspiracy and aiding and abetting a supposed criminal.
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Post by Teh Zu Person on Aug 17, 2011 10:58:53 GMT -6
Sunday ended on a rather complicated note, between ministry conspiracies, stories, the fact that I would have even less free time on the weekends, and dress shopping, I'd say that the day had been pretty action-filled. Everyone in our group had agreed, of course, never to speak of anything about the "meeps" unless they were 100% sure no one unaware was listening. I waved the majority of my friends adieu as Sako, Sebastian and I made our way to the Slytherin table for dinner.
We were joined by the other forth-year Slytherins, save the Fremantles who would only sit among other pure-bloods. Later, to no surprise, Sonia's sister Sophie arrived surrounded by her third year friends, who sat pretty nearby out group. We all chatted about our enjoyable Sunday adventures, I was pleased to learn that Aeris (and his brother, as always) had pulled a great prank on Mortimer Fremantle by stealing his wand and swapping it with a transfigured textbook. When the charm wore off, it had grown too heavy for his pocket and ripped a hole in his pants.
I don't usually take pleasure in hearing about other people's pain... but I sometimes made the Fremantles and my brother an exception.
Saki, Sonia, Edmund and Cha lotte had joined the Hufflepuff table. Sonia and Saki were busy doodling on some paper Sonia had pulled out of her robe. Edmund was telling Charlotte about a book he had read, while she nodded her head vigorously to agree with his opinions on it.
Katie was with the Gryffindor Quiddich Team, planning out strategies for their upcoming matches. Willow and Laura were trading ideas for dresses they would like to wear to the Yule Ball, and whether or not they would go with dates from Hogwarts or Durmstrang.
Ray rested her arm on Vi's shoulder, complaining about how hungry she was, and Vi tried to move so Ray would get her arm off of her head. Jin Ah was laughing at Vi's efforts, and Will was going off on some rant that nobody listened to.
Headmaster Sceoppend stood up and almost immediately the Hall was quiet. "Well, everyone, why don't we enjoy?" With that, the empty dishes were covered in food.
And so, we all enjoyed the meal. That evening, Sako and I headed to our tower and crashed in our beds. Sleep didn't last very long though... it was Monday morning, meaning classes would start up again.
"Rise and shine, Zu," Sako spoke as she opened up the curtains to let filtered light flood in the room. I groaned and pulled my pillow over my head. Why did the sunlight have to be able to be so bright even through the lake?
"Give me another half hour. I'll skip breakfast." She then attempted to drag me out of bed, which didn't really work due to fact that I'm heavy and sleep under a heavier pile of thick blankets that one would usually not use unless it was below freezing and they were sleeping outside. "Okay, okay, I'm getting up."
She said something about tea, waited for a moment to make sure I was up for sure, and then headed up the stairs to the Slytherin common room. I dressed, and then went to catch up with her in the dining hall for the beginning of another school day. Breakfast was sluggish because of the fact that it was Monday, and Mondays were terrible, only weird people liked Mondays.
Transfiguration; we turned our pets (or borrowed rats) into coats. I ended up with a nice, fluffy winter coat from my wonderful fat cat. Apparently we turned quills into spiders instead. This wouldn't be a problem, except that... well, Cris Grey turned into a spider, and a couple escaped. Oh yeah.
In Arithmancy; our little class got to memorize some new things. Not unusual.
I have no idea what everyone else did for their break, but Vi, Saki, Jin Ah and I all stopped by the library to review our Arithmancy notes. Then, the librarian stepped out for a minute, and we were alone in the library.
Jin Ah glanced around for a minute, even though we were alone, she whispered; "Who do you think the teacher is who might be member of the 'meeps'?"
"I don't know..." I muttered. "...Finns, maybe?"
Vi frowned, "I don't think so. I don't know who it could be, but I think you're just saying that because he doesn't like you."
"What? No! Why would he not like me?"
Saki shushed me. "Well, he was Gryffindor, wasn't he? Maybe because you're Slytherin."
Jin Ah sighed, "Actually, I was asking because I have a suspicion... but, never mind." Mia Nefries returned to the library and cast a glance at us. Seeing as we weren't making any trouble, she went back to sitting at her desk, opened a book and started reading.
And then we proceeded on to our next classes.
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Smonia
Hello. My name is Inigo Montoya. You killed my father. Prepare to die.
{{ The Duchess of Hair }}
Posts: 89
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Post by Smonia on Aug 17, 2011 11:01:09 GMT -6
((tl;dr .... hahah just kidding! This is great. Now let me see if I can actually vomit up a post that is close to the fantasticness that was the previous posts.... also please listen to this song for spy-related enlightenment as well as ear candy C: www.youtube.com/watch?v=d-GEJri7HuI )) After our encounter with Mr. Grey (whom I had almost squished), everyone kind of ambled off in their own direction. I strolled around on the green for a bit, for the heck of it. I didn't want to go back into the old Hufflepuff common room for the squillionth time. I can think best when I'm walking around. So basically some goobers were out and about around the school trying to kill off Muggle-borns and halfbloods. Great. That means me and a lot of my friends were at risk... as well as a bunch of other kids at the school! I kicked a rock down the hill. Stupid lousy no-good conspirator spies! This was making me question Hogwarts' security. I mean, the place is so jacked up on magical defense spells and whatnot - you'd think they'd be able to keep out a few people who were up to no good. I suddenly had a hankering to draw fanart. My fanart sense was tingling big-time. Sonia, you have to overcome this dumb urge to draw fanart of everything all the time. Sometimes you just shouldn't. Sometimes things are a bit too serious. Like now. Despite what I had just considered, I began imagining animations to my favorite spy music... spy-kid bad*sses swaggering down a dimly lit hallway to the beat of the music... pan out onto city scene... close up on main spy guy's face with giant gun, then to all his sidekicks... I moseyed on down the hill and back up again. If my brain had a face, I would punch it. Before I knew it, I ended up at the Hufflepuff common room entrance. Wow okay well here I am. All roads lead to one's common room, I suppose! I muttered the password and slipped inside. It was a quiet Sunday evening. The sun was only just starting to set, and through our westward-facing window, the sun was pouring into the room, lighting it up golden and purple. The common room was practically full - first years sitting by the fire doing crosswords, seventh years talking at a table, people doing homework, etc etc. I scoped the room for Saki and Charlotte but they were ... nowhere to be found. I went up the stairs to our dorm, and there they were! They seemed to be in the middle of discussing something or other. "Sup guys!" "Hello, Sonia," Saki smiled. I plopped down onto my bed. "What were you guys talkin' about?" Charlotte tapped her DADA book and said, "We were considering learning how to do a Patronus. I mean, that sounds like something we should learn how to do soon, if we want to take part in clearing up these conspiracy shenanigans." "Shenanigans indeed," muttered Saki. "That sounds like something the Ravenclaws would be considering too." I could picture them now - Vi and Rachel debating the pros and cons, JinAh being quite practical, and whacking Will on the head from time to time. "Can we think about this later?" Saki groaned. "I'm staaaarving!" Charlotte giggled. "Dinner isn't for another hour, though. But yeah, I'm hungry too." "Heheh, hey guys, maybe we could just sneak all up in the kitchen and nab some food to hold us over for a while," I joked. "LET'S DO IT." Saki jumped up. "Oh for goodness' sake! I don't really think that --" We grabbed Charlotte and went towards the kitchens. It's rather useful that the Hufflepuff common room is next to the kitchen. Edmund, Shane and I had been down there once before a few years ago on account of being hungry as well. But man oh man are those kitchens great. As soon as we slipped in, the warm air wafted over us and the scent of spices floated around us. [glow=red,2,300]FOOOOOOOOD!!![/glow] The cooks were in the back room using the ovens so we quickly grabbed some chicken fingers and skedaddled our way out of there. Dinner was good, chillin with our Pufflehuff bros, talking about classes. Speaking of classes, clubs were going to start up soon! I'd rather think about that than Real Issues Facing Our World Today. Thinking about the conspiracy thing gave me a headache. I wasn't good with the technical stuff, anyway. Just leave it up to our crew... they'd figure out what to do soon enough. ((wow ok that was short. whatever I'm outie!!!))
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Post by JinAh on Aug 17, 2011 12:30:26 GMT -6
/ooc this is going to be different from the other posts on here because it's NOT in first person, and it's information that our characters in the RP are NOT privy to. There's no omniscient narrator jazz either, so what you see is what you get. Mortimer Roscoe snarled with anger. "What do you mean, McCloud got away? I gave you a chance to redeem yourself, Suthers, and this is what you show me? I should have sent Venning, after all, rather than trust an incompetent such as yourself to do the job." "But sir, McCloud - well, you know he was a Beater back at Hogwarts, and Hertfordshire isn't the strongest of men, and-" "Then why, Suthers, why, did you set him to guard the prisoner?" Suthers seemed to be fascinated with the design on a particular section of carpet. "Mort," said a blonde woman who had been sitting comfortably at Roscoe's desk watching the whole thing, "Really, you don't have to be so hard on the kid." Suthers frowned slightly as she called him a kid. "We've made sure that no one in the public will trust McCloud or Grey - thanks to a significant amount of help from my department, may I add - and in any case, we have a certain amount of ah, leverage, here. I assume -" she tilted her head enquiringly at a tall, handsome man in burgundy robes. "We had an undercover squad dispatched just a few hours ago, Ms. Carr," he replied. "The McCloud woman, the daughter, and the muggle woman are expected to be of little trouble. We should have them in by six at the latest." "Excellent," said Roscoe. "Finally, something goes right today. How's Mickelson?" "Recovering. There's some nasty hex in his right ear that the Healers can't seem to fix." Roscoe shook his head. "Strange, I would have never expected that Tony Mickelson would end up at St. Mungo's for something like this ... he's a smart man, he should have been able to take those two by surprise." "I expect they were rather on edge already due to their encounter with the dementors," said the man in burgundy. "Which was, let me point out, thanks to the bungling of your department, West," Roscoe snapped. "Honestly, this entire day has been one mistake after another. Starting with your ABYSMAL lack of thought, Suthers, in sending such information in an office memo, and YOUR utter arrogance and stupidity, Pennysworth" - this to a pudgy, shamefaced man in gray robes - "in telling them everything! If McCloud and Grey had been any more intelligent than they are, we might even have been revealed!" Suthers snorted. "Like that would ever have happened! You know Scrivenby won't let the Prophet print anything that might hurt us-" "SHUT UP, SUTHERS! SHUT UP, SHUT UP, SHUT UP! I DON'T WANT TO HEAR YOU TALK! YOU'VE DONE BLOODY ENOUGH TODAY! JUST SHUT UP!" Everyone in the room except for Carr cringed. They knew what Mortimer Roscoe could be like when he had lost his temper. "Mort," said Carr soothingly. "He's got a fair point. I mean, who else were they going to go to, The Quibbler?" There were a few nervous chuckles from around the room. "There's no need to worry, Mort," said Carr. "We'll have McCloud captured soon enough - there's only so long he can hide, he's got no supplies or anything - and we can turn everything else to our advantage. Giving the public something else to worry about was something we should probably have thought of anyway, and Grey could even be useful. Any news on our Hogwarts contact?" "Suthers gave me a tip on one of the teachers - I forget which one, might have been the Divination teacher - but there's really no need, we've already got two of 'em, haven't we?" said Pennysworth. "I met with the boy on Saturday," said Carr. "He seemed a bit averse to the idea at first, but I was soon able to ... convince him." "Excellent, Linda," said Roscoe, who seemed to have calmed down a bit. "And West, you said you met with our senior contact already?" "Oh, yes," said the handsome West, his face easing into a roguish grin. "It was almost too easy - there was so much anger and resentment underneath that I only had to press the right buttons and it all came spewing out." "Excellent. And Priscilla has assured me that Madeline and Mortimer are willing to collect information for us as well. Once they've located Grey, the quill shouldn't be too hard to find, and phase one of our plan will be complete." "Excuse me? Mr. Roscoe?" this was a stringy-looking youngster with an American accent. "I don't see why we let Grey escape. I mean, if we had gotten a couple more a those Aurors out there, they could have gone whiz-bang and we'd have Grey and McCloud!" "That is an excellent question, Parker," said Roscoe, who seemed to have gotten some of his good humor back. "An excellent question that you don't know the answer to because you were not privy to that level of information when the decision was made." "Oh," mumbled Parker. "Nevertheless, young Parker, I will tell you. We let Grey escape because, well, he'll go looking for the magical quill. He's got his animagus abilities and so on to help him, and moreover, I am told, Hufflepuffs are excellent finders." Roscoe smirked. "And if he finds it, what can he do with it? Nothing, really, whereas if we keep an eye on him, we can do rather a lot with it. It gives us another helper who doesn't even know he is one." "Oh." "There are, of course, other reasons, but ..." "Yeah? But what?" "... but, they are above your pay grade. Daniels?" "Yes, sir." "I want you to set up a few anti-muggle rallies, nothing violent, just a few things to get the public noticing. Venning, I want you to help Daniels with that, and you said that you had a cousin who was writing a book about the Salem Witch Trials?" "Yes, Mr. Roscoe." "Help him, see if you can push up the publication date. Very well, everyone's dismissed except for Carr and West - you two stay, I want to talk to you further." The other wizards filed out, until there were only three people left in the room. "You've got a busy week ahead of you," said Carr. "You've got the dedication of the new ward at St. Mungo's tomorrow morning at nine, then you've got an interview with Melissa Schrackert's Ministry Memories column - something light and charming, get the public liking you - over lunch, then Friday evening you have that radio interview about the Lynfield gang, and then Saturday morning their trial." "Ah, the Lynfield gang." Roscoe smiled reminiscently. "That was a good one. You had fun with it, West, didn't you?" "Of course, Mr. Roscoe," said West, fingering his wand. "It was nice and tricky - not too tricky, but just tricky enough. If you'll recall, we caught two birds with one stone on that one - we eliminated several wizards who might prove problematic to our plan while blaming it on pro-Muggle, anti-pureblood feelings. And the ... elimination was definitely fun." He grinned again, a blinding grin full of almost too many white teeth. A shark's grin. "I assume the gang will get convicted tomorrow, West? The last thing we need is for this to fall apart, after everything that's happened today." "Of course. Those mudbloods are as good as ... whatever you call people that have been Kissed." "Excellent. Well done, James. And you know I don't use first names lightly." "Mort," said Linda Carr, "I love chatting with you, don't get me wrong, but why did you ask us to stay here? Was there something confidential you needed to talk about? I mean, you could have done all this while they were in the room." "Linda, James, I need you two to get some research on the blood status of all Ministry workers. Keep this secret - I don't want anyone finding out about it, not even our people. I want the report in in at least a month. Got it?" "Yes, sir." "And make sure you check out Pennysworth's family. I know he claims to be an orphan, but his stories never quite match up." "Sure thing, Mort." "And West, about your special project." "It's proceeding very nicely, Mr. Roscoe." "How many victims so far?" "Six. Four girls, a man, and a baby boy." "And your muggle liasons?" "Minds wiped blank as a flobberworm's forehead, sir. They've been Imperiused so long that they'd hardly be able to function if the curse was lifted. When we need them to, they'll sing like a bird - and exactly the tune we want." "Excellent. Excellent. And you've been sure to leave the signs and everything ...?" "Pentacles, stars, mystic runes, I've covered everything, sir. We've already received press in a few muggle newspapers - the Wicca killings, they call it - and Egbert Macpherson's already referenced them in a few interviews about his new book about the inherent incompatibility of the Wizarding and muggle worlds." "Very, very good, James! I am impressed! And you're starting on America Saturday?" "Yes, with California. And I've got another one scoped out for today. Seven victims per country - even the muggles know that seven is the most magically powerful number." "I'm delighted to hear how well this project is going, at any rate. You know this, of course, but make sure no one finds out - I can't even imagine the backlash that would occur, even if they are just muggles. Very well, James, you may leave." West strode out of the Senior Undersecretary's office, pausing to flirt with the secretaries as he passed. "You don't approve of his methods, do you, Linda," said Roscoe, catching the brief look of disgust that had flashed across the woman's face. "Not exactly, but I can see why they're necessary," said Linda. "What Macpherson says is right - muggles and wizards shouldn't mix." "Do you know why you're my second-in-command, Linda?" said Roscoe playfully. "Because I'm the smartest, after you?" "That, too, but because you're the only one who believes that what we're doing is truly the right thing to do, something that needs to be done. All the others are acting out of ambition or greed or petty bigotry, but not you." "And you? Do you think what we're doing is right?" "Who cares if it's right, as long as it's what I want?" ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- It was a small club in Manchester, and Elisa Neimann was enjoying her first, and probably only, drink of the evening. She had been convinced by her friends to come and join the fun for once, but she didn't think it was much fun at all - this cocktail was all right, but it was too sweet for her to want another one, and as for everything else, well ... She decided, after watching the third of her friends throw up, that she might as well leave. She turned to the bar to ask what she should do with her cup and bumped into a man who was passing by. "I'm so sorry," she started to say, but was too flustered to continue. The man - he was very handsome - simply smiled at her and said, "I don't think there's anything you need to be sorry about." "Er," Elisa said, barely aware of what she was doing, and slid off her stool. "I'm William Reed," he said. "And you?" "Elisa Neimann," she said, immediately cursing her name for sounding so stupid. The man didn't seem to find it stupid at all, though. "You don't look like the clubbing type," he said, smiling again, gently. "Neither do you," she responded. "I'm not!" he laughed. "I had to come here because I lost a bet with my mate, but" - he winked here, nearly stopping Elisa's heart - "he didn't say I had to stay. You look like you're leaving too, Miss Elisa - can I offer you a ride?" Maybe the cocktail had been a bit stronger than she had thought, because he looked almost exactly like she had imagined Mr. Darcy would look while rereading Pride and Prejudice. His name even almost fit - William and Fitzwilliam, while she could be (Elisa)beth. Why shouldn't she allow Mr. Darcy to escort her home, like a proper gentleman? "I would be delighted," she said, wobbling slightly on her heels. He gently steadied her, and the two left the club. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The next morning, James West paused at a newspaper stand on his way to the Ministry. It was the Times, of London. GIRL FOUND DEAD IN MANCHESTER: THE "WICCA KILLER" STRIKES AGAIN MANCHESTER, UK - Authorities in Manchester today were tipped off to the location of yet another victim of the so-called "Wicca Killer." The body was, like the other victims, surrounded by various mystical signs such as pentacles and runes, and several mystic signs were find carved into the corpse, which had been mutilated beyond recognition. A series of letters to the Times and other publications have hinted that these murders have been committed with the intent of using human sacrifices to (continued on page three)West smiled. It would be a nice article to add to his collection.
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Post by JinAh on Aug 17, 2011 15:17:28 GMT -6
THAT WAS MY HUNDREDTH POST! I'm now a Pwnie.
Also, I realize that the previous post might have been a bit confusing - it takes place on Wednesday, September 1. Day we leave on the Hogwarts Express.
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Post by laura on Aug 17, 2011 18:41:49 GMT -6
Okay guys, Willow and I have something we want to address. We're a little miffed by the way we've been portrayed in the RP. We kind of feel like useless side characters, we're always mulling over boys or talking about things like dresses and the Yule Ball and we just want you guys to know that the majority of things we think about, talk about, and do is not that superficial.
I know that personally I do not want to be the token girly girl who freaks out about spiders and spends all her time thinking about boys, and I know Willow is upset too. We haven't really been involved in any important plotlines at this point and it's a little disheartening. I don't even know what to write a post on because I haven't really been included in anything.
So... I just wanted you guys to know that this is how we feel and that the way we've been portrayed isn't accurate to who we are in real life.
So... hopefully we'll join the RP again soon!
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Post by JinAh on Aug 17, 2011 21:24:32 GMT -6
/ooc yet another third-person post, in which superior positions are much desired, and potions are brewed Date: September first, Wednesday. "NELLIE!" Roscoe yelled out his door. A blonde girl rushed in. "Yes, Mr. Roscoe!" "I don't want to be disturbed until six, do you understand? I don't care if the Minister himself is banging on the door, if he makes his way through that antechamber" (/ooc Roscoe doesn't have Umbridge's office, he has a bigger one, with an antechamber in front with secretaries living under his iron fist. Why? Because he can do whatever he wants.) "then your job, Nellie, is forfeit. And that goes for all of you!" he called through the open door. Nellie nodded. She looked rather like a mouse. "All right then. You may go." He patted her on the head, and she scurried off. Roscoe locked the door, cast the muffliato charm and turned to the painting of Mungo Bonham on his wall. He muttered a strange spell and waved his wand over the painting, and it changed. Where there had previously been a painting of a young man bending over a potion, the only thing that was now visible was the large cabinet which had stood in the corner. He flicked his wand and whispered, Ego sum rex.The cabinet creaked open. Inside were various potion ingredients and a small black cauldron. Roscoe levitated them out onto the floor and placed the cauldron inside his fireplace. With a flick of his wrist, the wood burst into flames, and with another flick, the cauldron filled with water. Finally, Roscoe took out a large, leather-bound book, holding it almost reverently. It looked as if it had once been orange, but the color had faded into a dull tan. Various characters kept flickering across the cover, never staying the same long enough to be legible. He lay the book down on his desk and opened it to a well-thumbed page. He seemed thoughtful, almost nervous as he read the instructions and began to add the ingredients - a few drops of acromantula venom, fur from a Nundu, a silvery liquid which he was unable to handle without trembling - and other, stranger ingredients. The final ingredient was a drop of liquid from a small black vial hidden inside his robes, which, upon contact with the potion, turned it invisible. He waved his wand over the concoction, muttering quietly under his breath, while small wisps of fog began to appear in the colorless potion. When the incantation ended, the wisps of fog faded back into nothingness. Roscoe reached into his pocket and pulled out a small velvet bag. Inside lay a tiny phial which glinted slightly in the firelight. It, too, was nearly invisible. " Terego," he whispered, siphoning the potion into the phial. He sealed the bottle and slipped it back into his pocket. He glanced at his clock; the potion had taken longer than he had expected, and it was nearly five. He returned the ingredients and the cauldron to the cupboard, making sure to leave no trace, and returned the painting to its original view with a few quick words and sweeps of his wand. He had no sooner done so than there was a frantic knocking at the door. "Undersecretary Roscoe, sir!" "Nellie, I told you not to bother me until three!" he shouted. The knocking continued. "Mr. Roscoe! Mr. Roscoe!" Roscoe cursed under his breath. He removed the muffliato spell, then unlocked the door, resulting in his secretary nearly falling into the room. "Oh Mr. Undersecretary, sir, I know you said not to bother you, but Mr. Venning said it was urgent, that you simply had to hear what he had to say-" "Let him in then, Nellie, and by Merlin, if he doesn't have a bloody good reason for interrupting me, I'll see that he spends enough time on probation to think of one! Well, Venning, what is it?" Looking utterly terrified, Venning crept into the room. "Sir," he started, but noticing that Nellie was still in the room, stopped. Roscoe, noticing this, waved her out of the room. "What is it, Venning? Go on," said Roscoe testily. "Sir, they've - they've escaped." "Who's escaped? Not the Lynfield gang?!" "No, sir - the family members - McCloud's and Grey's -" Venning winced, as if expecting a roar of fury, but instead, Roscoe just collapsed into his chair and touched his forehead. After several breaths, he looked up. "Magnus Venning," he said. "I told West to give the job to your squad because I assumed that you had trained them properly. They are Aurors. They had to capture two women and a five-year old girl. One of the women was a muggle. How, may I ask, did they fail? My fourteen-year old nephew could have managed that, and he can't even cast a proper stunning spell." The contempt in his tone bit sharply. "They - they weren't there, sir," said Venning. "Apparently our squad searched searched for several hours but was unable to find any clue as to where they might have gone. I - I have no idea how it could have happened, sir." "Really? I'm surprised you managed to get seven NEWTS, Venning - I would have expected something more along the lines of, oh, I don't know, ZERO? As you clearly are unable to accomplish even the most basic of critical thinking. McCloud and Grey must have been able to contact them, warn them somehow. And you say your Aurors have no idea where they might have gone? Don't be ridiculous, Venning, no one's that thorough - especially when they're in a hurry. I want you to go and explore the houses, personally. Find every possible place they might be. Find them. Find them, Venning, and you keep your job, and I might even decide not to tell your wife a certain story from when we went on vacation to Calais seven years ago ..." Venning's face turned pale. "You wouldn't." "I wouldn't? Venning's face turned even paler. "Yes, sir. Undersecretary. I'll make it my number one priority, sir." "Good. Now," he roared, "get out of my sight!" Venning streaked out the door, barely dodging the paperweight that Roscoe had thrown at him. --------------------------------------------------- September fourth, Saturday. After the trial of the "Lynfield gang". "Four unanimous convictions," said Roscoe. "Excellent work, Mr. Deputy Head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement." "Why, thank you, Senior Undersecretary to the Minister. And how is the Minister these days, may I ask?" West smirked. "Was I really that obvious?" Roscoe smiled apologetically. The two were having tea in a small room in a rather exclusive London cafe. It looked like any other room, but the properly paranoid Roscoe had spells in place that would prevent anyone from coming near, would prevent anyone else from hearing their words, and would protect him from attack - including attack from the person sitting across from him. "If you're looking for it," West replied, taking a bite out of his sandwich. "I was only surprised you never tried this sooner. As for how he actually is, the Minister was never really strong anyways, but since Wednesday ... I'm afraid the poor dear man has gotten quite a bit worse. Which is harder to clean up, do you think, the vomit or the blood leaking out of his pores?" His charmer's smile was still very present. Roscoe looked at him askance. "Why are you asking that?" "I've got a squad of probationed aurors who I've assigned to clean up after him," said West. "What, you thought I meant - you thought it was for personal use? No, I've got that under control." "Good to know. Those aurors you mentioned, James, they wouldn't happen to have been the ones assigned to pick up possible accomplices of a certain pair of terrorist fugitives, would they?" "They certainly could have." "Excellent." Roscoe smiled and took a sip of his tea. "Excellent. I'm very proud of the work you've done. I read a story about your latest job just yesterday." "Oh, did you? Oh, that was fun. Did you know," said West, his voice dropping to a low, seductive tone and leaning in closer to Roscoe, "that there are five different places that you can knot the small intestine so that anything pumped into the throat -" "No, West," said Roscoe, "I didn't know that, and I didn't particularly want to. Will you please stop doing that?" "Doing what?" He raised one of his eyebrows, and a curious smile played across his lips. "That." "Oh. Sorry." West straightened up and shook his head. "Instinct." There was a slight pause in the conversation." "What are people saying about the Minister?" asked Roscoe finally. "They assume it's some dread disease the healers haven't figured out yet," said West. "I'm sure you're very concerned about the Minister's health, of course. It would be awful if he was rendered incapable of serving." "Oh, of course," said Roscoe. "The thought haunts me night and day." The two smiled at each other, and West leaned forward again, though only slightly this time. "What did you use? A Darkening Draught? Schlekel's Libation?" "Oh, no," said Roscoe. "I'm afraid that's a secret. If you wanted to borrow a bit, though, for your own needs, I believe I may have a bit extra." "Me? Nah," said West. "I'd rather take a slightly more personal approach, with all due respect. Besides, Blake's a much younger man than the Minister - it would make people suspicious if he started throwing up and turning into an infernal cesspit of filth. Whereas, murder - well, he's got a fair few enemies, and I'm sure you saw today just how good I am at making people feel ... guilty." "I'll have to buy a new set of dress robes," said Roscoe. "After all, I can't show up to the former Minister of Magic's funeral and look like a tramp." "Or," said West, "the funeral of former Head of Magical Law Enforcement Carmichael Blake."
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