An active, character-driven Hogwarts experience set in the early 2000s. Unique items, plots, and features. Non-canon; this isn't Harry Potter's story, it's ours.
Post by Jonathan King on Dec 15, 2020 21:20:46 GMT 10
Jumping down a rock that stuck out on the path from the castle, Joe started skipping along- both to stay warm in today's colder weather and because he felt joyful to just being with Toby and Ryan. He would have been happy to stay inside and just hang out but he knew Toby and he had to finish getting their potions kit soon. Joe to impress Professor Snape, Toby likely for the same reason plus they had told his mother about it and she seemed stern and might want to hear about that progress.
Joe had enjoyed Transfiguration class, not because of the worms or the dirt, but because it had him thinking about molly-cools again. Something he had learned about on TV when visiting his muggle friend back before he had come to Hogwarts. He had a feeling his friends had not had the same experience as he had and he thought about how he could cheer them up.
"Does your family have a TV, Ryan?", he asked, assuming his friends were right behind him. "My friend from muggle school had one, we got to watch some documents-ies about molly-cools and big foot on it.", he continued. "They say big foot uses long sticks as tools to hunt. We could do that!"
He looked towards the tree line at the lake, already picturing himself as a big foot, wielding a stick around to catch some last frog spawn to survive the cold, cold winter.
"Race you to those trees!" With that he started running, hoping his friends would follow suit. If they did not, he would just continue to look for a stick to play big foot with while looking for ingredients.
Post by Ryan Barrow on Dec 15, 2020 23:54:55 GMT 10
'What ingredients are we looking for?' Ryan asked, watching Joe skip along the path. 'How many do you both need?' He wanted to get some more for himself too, but class was exhausting so he couldn't be bothered checking his list for the Glow Potion stuff.
'A TV?' He frowned at the weird question. Who didn't have a...? Oh. 'I guess. It's not a very good one though. We keep losing signal so have to move the antenna a lot. I'm not really allowed to watch stuff though, unless it's the news or sports.' Ryan didn't realise most of what he just said probably wouldn't make any sense to Joe or Toby.
'Documentaries,' he corrected Joe - hopping onto a rock to stand over them like a scout, as if their mission was dangerous and... well, after the nightmare bugs yesterday, it kind of was. At least the lakeside had more open space and less trees harbouring evil insects. He hoped.
What the heck are molly-cools? Or a bigfoot? What cool stuff on TV had Ryan missed out on?
Ryan looked around for a long stick, waving it around to rest its strength. 'What are we hunting?' he wondered. 'No, wait for me!' he ran after Joe, though his friend was faster.
It was probably a Quidditch player thing. He didn't mind though, so long as they didn't completely leave him behind.
Last Edit: Dec 15, 2020 23:55:17 GMT 10 by Ryan Barrow
Post by Tobias Twiggs on Dec 17, 2020 11:58:39 GMT 10
Toby was glad that both of his friends had agreed to hang out that morning after class, it really lifted his mood after the dismal start to his day. Kicking a pebble that was in his path, he watched as it skipped along the path ahead of them and disappeared into the grass.
Transfiguration had been okay, despite how he'd started off by petting McGonagall on the head (how was he supposed to know that she could transform into a bloody cat?). The worms were kinda cool, but the task itself had proven to be rather difficult, he had barely seen a difference in his worm by the end of the class, which hadn't done much to boost his confidence.
"I dunno, whatever we can find?" Toby answered Ryan's question "I think I only need one or two more before I'm done" at least that would hopefully satisfy Snape. If the potions teacher demanded more of him, then he could shove his stupid list- Toby wasn't going to let Snape treat him unfairly when he hadn't done anything to deserve it.
Looking between his friends as the conversation took a turn, Toby became confused by what they were talking about and he didn't like that feeling, it made him feel stupid to not understand the topic of conversation.
"What's a TV?" he demanded, trying not to sound rude in the midst of his frustration. Documentaries? Molly-cools? Big foot? Toby had no idea what Joe was talking about, but he was sure that he had lost it somewhere along the way. It all sounded bizarre and Toby would have to figure out if anyone else knew what he was talking about, but how without making himself seem like an idiot either way?
"Race you to those trees!"
Before he realised what had happened, both of his friends were running towards the trees and leaving him behind.
"Oi! Not fair, you had a head start!" he yelled after them, breaking into a run of his own and sprinting after his fleeing (cheating) friends. Fortunately, years of relying on being fast enough to escape his siblings retaliation, had conditioned him for a moment like this.
Toby quickly passed Ryan and soon levelled with Joe, who proved a little more of a challenge- but still, he didn't have five siblings threatening his life whenever something suspicious happened at home. Putting on a burst of speed, he left both boys behind and when his hand stretched forward to touch the rough bark of the nearest tree, he gave a jubilant shout of victory.
Waiting for his friends to catch up (he guessed it wouldn't take too long), he didn't wait to catch his breath before attempting to climb the tree that had marked the finish line. Jumping, he grabbed the lowest branch with both hands and hoisted himself up until he was sitting on the limb, wondering if he'd be able to see any ingredients from his vantage point.
Post by Jonathan King on Dec 17, 2020 18:02:30 GMT 10
He heard his friends call after him and tried to run even faster when he realised they were chasing after him, an enormous grin spread from ear to ear. He could hear them behind him and when Toby levelled with him Joe tried to swing his arms more efficiently like he had seen the fastest kid in his old class do- but to no avail. His Gryffindor friend was simply the fastest of the three.
Joe arrived at the tree after Toby and leaned against the bark with his arm outstretched, panting for air. “Wow! You’re so fast!“, he said admiringly and out of breath while waiting for Ryan to catch up with them. He watched Toby climb the tree, considering following him but ultimately stayed at the ground, waiting for Ryan to call the shots wether they’d all climb up so no one had to stay down alone. Joe was not sure if Ryan even liked climbing.
Realising none of them had explained the TV to Toby he thought about how to put it in words and said: “A TV is this box muggles have in their homes that shows you stories or the news.“ He added the latter in inclusion of what Ryan had said about his experience of watching TV. “I‘m not sure how it works but I think it’s connected to a camera or to many cameras that you can choose between...“, he trailed off. Did that make sense?
“They can also show old pictures, they did that in the Big Foot documents- documentary.“, he added excitedly grabbing the nearest stick and hitting it against the tree. “Big Foot is a big hairy creature, or monkey that lives in the forest. But he is very clever and hides really well. They only have like one picture of him walking away from a camera from like the sixties or summin.“
Joe had started walking towards the lake shore, sticking his stick into the ground as if trying to hunt. “All the muggles try to catch him but he’s too clever. All they know is he hunts with sticks and stuff for tools. It’s very cool!“
“Oh, and they call him Big Foot because he leaves gigantic human-like footprints.“ Joe looked to Ryan for confirmation, suddenly feeling a tad awkward for getting so excited about it all.
“Anyway, we could be like Big Foot and hunt Frog Spawn or whatever ingredient we can find with sticks and hide from the muggles.“ Joe knew they were already hiding from the muggles. That was something they had in common and he suddenly wondered if Big Foot might be a fantastic creature. He was sure Hagrid would know...
There wasn't much to see from Toby's vantage point, as the lake area was mostly about the water and view. It was lucky they found any tress at all in the open space. However, there were some whiteness by the lakeside that could be something, if investigated. Perhaps a plant or frogspawn, from what he or even Joe could tell from where they were.
There was a loud splash across the lake, but none of the boys could look towards it fast enough to see what had landed or breeched the surface. It was gone already, though the ripples were too big to be an ordinary fish or thrown object.
Post by Ryan Barrow on Dec 19, 2020 1:32:23 GMT 10
Ryan wheezed, collapsing on the grass just short of the tree. He was used to running from bullies, but blimey his friends were fast. How had to gone up and down all those awful, millions of stairs since September and wasn't some sort of Olympian by now? What was the point of it all?
Joe did a lot of talking, trying to explain Muggle things to Toby. Ryan just crawled to lean his back against the tree's trunk, catching his breath.
Wait what?
Ryan stared at Joe, who was in the middle of explaining bigfoot. 'H-how gigantic?' He shuddered, picturing a hairy monkeyman the size of the tree. He gulped, quickly getting to his feet. He gathered a stick though and poked at the ground with it. He remembered puncturing his worm in class. Ew.
'C'mon, let's find ingredients,' Ryan said. He liked having goals almost as much as achieving them. 'Then we can get this finished and just have fun.' He jumped at a splashing sound, turning towards the vast stretch of water.
He stared at the big ripples, clutching to his stick.
Post by Tobias Twiggs on Dec 19, 2020 23:06:14 GMT 10
Toby sat waiting for Ryan to catch them up, the tree he had chosen to climb felt rather sturdy and he made a mental note to see if it was possible to jump from one of its branches into the lake during the summer. He decided that it was probably a little too cold for swimming in November.
Looking down at Joe as he explained what a TV was, Toby tried to act like anything that was being said made sense. How could a box show the news or stories or whatever it was that it showed? What was the point in it? Wasn't that what newspapers and photographs were for?
"I don't get it... Muggles have weird things" he mumbled, swinging his legs as Ryan caught up to them and collapsed to the ground, apparently exhausted. "The muggles don't have magic though" he chimed in to Joe's explanation of what big-foot was. Obviously the muggles wouldn't be able to catch a creature like that, it seemed like something that came from the magical world anyway- maybe he'd write his parents about it.
Jumping from the tree, he stumbled a little when he landed on the floor but kept his footing and began looking around for another stick like the ones his friends had collected. He found one not far from 'his' tree and held it up in the air victoriously. "We can look for ingredients and hunt for big-foots too?" he suggested, running to the waters edge and beginning to search the shallows for anything useful. At the sound of a splash, Toby looked up quickly but didn't see anything, the ripples on the surface of the lake were unnerving though, so he took a large step back from the water and began searching from a 'safer' distance.
"I don't know, but it sounded big" he answered Ryan's question, a little nervous of what it could be himself. He wondered what sort of creatures inhabited the lake...
Post by Jonathan King on Dec 22, 2020 18:06:10 GMT 10
When Ryan asked how big the prints of Big Foot were Joe shrugged and extended his arms to show a length between them of about two feet. It dawned on him Ryan might not know about Big Foot after all and he wondered if he was the odd one out again. He kind of had assumed every muggle knew about Big Foot but alas...
"Yeah, guess it could be a magical creature muggles have encountered. Hey! Isn't there a subject where you learn all about magical creatures? Guess we'll find out then." Joe shrugged. He probably had heard about that creatures class from his cousin but he was not sure.
Something splashed in the water behind him and he turned around to see what it was. The lake looked empty but for the ripples that told them that whatever it had been had been big.
"I had my back turned, I didn't see.", he whispered in return to Ryan's question. He had to agree with Toby that it sounded big and he suddenly felt rather uncomfortable at the water, as if there was something lurking just beneath the surface.
But he figured as a Big Foot and a hunter they'd just have to be more wary and aware of their surroundings.
"But if it's really big it won't be able to come to the shallows here.", he tried to reassure himself and his friends. "Let's be careful anyway"
Joe started to walk closer to the lake, where he had spotted some whiteness in the water that looked promising to him. He cast a nervous glance towards the open lake and to where they had seen the ripples as he started investigating what he could find.
The whiteness turned out to be fresh frogspawn. There was quite a lot of it too, likely having something to do with all the rain from the night before. It was a lucky find! There were easily enough for four viable ingredients, though they'd have to be shared among the boys was it was too much for just on student to collect.
It was so fresh, in fact, that a few green frogs were spotted swimming among some reeds nearby.
Post by Jonathan King on Dec 30, 2020 0:18:34 GMT 10
"Ooh neat!", Joe exclaimed when he recognised the whiteness in the lake as Frogspawn. This looked plenty and he was about to hit it with his stick to sever it into three equal pieces when he noticed the frogs swimming close by and he stopped to look at them.
"Look! There's cute little frogs here!", he waved at his friends and pointed at the reeds. He figured Ryan was not afraid of frogs since Joe had seen him with his rad big toad. Small green frogs were nothing compared to that. "I wish I could have one. What's your toad called again, Ryan?", he asked, the scary splash from earlier momentarily forgotten.
Joe kneed down and dunk his hands into the water and grasped enough Frogspawn for one ingredient. He thought about the frogs and wondered if they should leave some of the Frogspawn behind so there would be new frogs next year. But he would let his friends decide if they needed more than one each.
"Your turn", he said to Toby when he got up and put the Frogspawn away. Joe noticed that his knee was wet now and it felt cold in the chilly air and he got it up to his stomach to rub it dryer and warmer.
Remembering the splash from earlier he looked out at the lake again. "I'll be look-out!", he promised.
Post by Tobias Twiggs on Jan 10, 2021 22:43:41 GMT 10
Listening as Joe attempted to reassure them that anything that big couldn't venture into the shallow water that they were searching, he couldn't help but feel like that was wrong and a little bit hopeful. He was sure that there were some larger animals that hunted from shallow water... But, he wasn't going to mention that with Ryan standing nearby, he didn't want to freak his friend out.
Wandering over to get a closer look at what Joe was investigating, he was pleased to see that his friend had found some frogspawn, that meant that they could leave before their socks became saturated with lake water.
Toby looked over to where Joe gestured to where the frogs were swimming around "I almost feel bad about taking their frogspawn..." he muttered, loud enough so that his friends might hear him if they were paying attention. However, the alternative was hunting around for something else or returning to the castle emptyhanded and that was definitely not an option.
After Joe had collected some frogspawn for himself, Toby crouched (preferring not to kneel in the wet soil like Joe had) and also collected enough frogspawn for one ingredient- allowing Ryan to decide how much to take for himself.
Standing up, he backed away to give Ryan some space to collect his own ingredient and began looking around for anything suspicious. He and Joe would act like bodyguards until their friend was ready to leave the lake.
Post by Ryan Barrow on Jan 11, 2021 0:36:20 GMT 10
'What?' Ryan gasped nervously. 'There's a subject later about magical creatures? Er, is it optional?' He didn't like that idea. Maybe there was something else he could do instead? Who gave kids new classes later anyway? Why not now? That was just mean.
He was nervous of the new class concept, and whatever splashed around in the lake, so Ryan tuned out of the rest of the conversation. He eyed the frogs, realising he missed Hopper. It was his first friend, really. He was bit bouncy, but cute.
'Don't say that,' he grumbled when Toby felt bad. 'I don't want to think about it. We need the ingredients.' Ryan sighed, looking at the results. So Joe and Roby took one each, leaving two. He smiled, wondering if they did that deliberately for him, and collected the last two for himself.
He looked around, thinking.
'We should head back,' Ryan said. 'We've been out here a while. What if we miss lunch? Oh my god, Toby you have practice this afternoon! C'mon, let's go.' He stumbled out of the mud, clutching a metal lunchbox where he stored his frogspawn. Coming to Hogwarts, he thought bringing a lunchbox was sadly a waste of trunk space once he learned about the kitchens, but was glad to have found a use for it.
He turned and hurried to lead the way back to the castle for lunch that was surely starting soon.
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