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.
February arrived like a gentle sigh after a job well done. The snow had fully melted by sunrise, and returned the grounds to a lush display of green. Overhead, the sun shone through the enchanted ceiling like a bright gem -- warming away a need for the beanies and gloves they'd become accustomed to the past months.
Although Ravenclaw Quidditch victory celebrations ran late into the night, most of the school rose with renewed energy and determination. Spring was finally upon them -- gone were the soaked shoes, chilled cloaks, and poor visibility. Returned were slopes of grass, budding wildflowers, and a clear blue sky. Many students, particularly those frantically prepping for their O.W.Ls and N.E.W.Ts, scrambled to make to-do lists and cross-referenced with a friend's plans.
Most of the staff were also present -- missing only Hagrid and Professor Trelawney. Professors Hathmore and Snape were deep in conversation again about something, the topic of which (as always) was anyone's guess. Professor Rivera was slouched in her seat, gripping a mug of strong tea for dear life.
Student schedules were magically assigned to everyone who sat at their house table.
Morning Classes 1st years -- Potions 4th years -- Defense Against the Dark Arts 5th years -- Care of Magical Creatures
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Afternoon Classes 4th years -- Care of Magical Creatures
Owl Post will arrive soon with the Daily Prophet. Morning class threads will be available for posting in once breakfast ends, and afternoon ones when time changes. If there aren't students in a particular year, that class won't occur; 2nd, 3rd, 6th, and 7th year classes aren't listed on the schedule.
#18 Night is skipped; when afternoon ends, the new day begins.
Post by MJ Birdwhistle on Jul 18, 2022 21:23:51 GMT 10
MJ sat at the Ravenclaw table after a good night's sleep but with an empty stomach. Skipping dinner the night before hadn't been a great idea and she made a solemn promise to herself she'd never do it again. Snacks just weren't the same. So, while she loaded up her plate (with sausage, egg, bacon, beans and toast), she also glanced at her schedule.
"Potions! Yes!" She grinned, buttering her toast and heaping some of her beans on top. MJ took a big bite, wriggling happily in her seat. Quidditch had been a lot of fun but now it was back to learning and one of her favourite classes in the morning? This was shaping up to be a pretty good day so far. She had plans for what she would do with the rest of her morning, and later on, her afternoon as well. The list was getting pretty long but MJ was confident she'd get most of it done.
Even better if she managed to do everything she wanted to do!
MJ looked up and down the table, "Does anyone have the orange juice near them?" She asked her housemates, wanting to pour herself a glass.
She glanced up at the teacher's table, seeing Professor Snape and Hathmore talking and then her head of house, Professor Rivera. Had she been celebrating Ravenclaw's win last night as well?
Last Edit: Jul 18, 2022 21:47:23 GMT 10 by MJ Birdwhistle
Kassia had oddly struggled to sleep the previous night, and had eventually given up and rolled out of bed quite early. She'd sat staring at her mirror, bleary-eyed, for at least ten minutes. After her usual hunt for blemishes and eye bags, she'd gotten ready for the day.
She had reluctantly dressed in her school robes, as she had class directly after breakfast. But she would change before her afternoon of free time. She was glad for it, with how much she had to do.
As usual, Kassia had spent the bulk of her morning on her hair, carefully hydrating each curl and making sure they rested perfectly around her face. Toning and moisturizing her skin was next, and curling her eyelashes, followed by lip balm.
She sat staring at herself for a while longer, still not satisfied. Sometimes she had days where she felt she looked revolting no matter how much she primped her hair or applied makeup. This was going to be one of them, apparently.
Kassia rose out of the chair and reluctantly made her way to the Great Hall. She wondered if the misery from Slytherin's loss had crawled into her brain somehow. Several were certainly still moping around. At least she wasn't the only one.
The walk to the Great Hall helped wake her up. Though it wasn't cold anymore, the air was still brisk and reddened her cheeks. Kassia was feeling more alive by the time she made it to her breakfast table.
She looked at her fellow serpents with disdain. Although some had already apparently forgotten the past day, a group near her looked distraught. Staring into their plates, gazing endlessly into the void, or snappish and irritable. One bad match and a significant fraction of her House became clinically depressed. Kassia rolled her eyes and shunted herself between two moody Slytherins. She started piling food onto her plate, glaring around herself at the pathetic individuals.
"OH, get over yourselves. You're all still alive, aren't you?"
Orla was in a terrific mood. The outside world was looking lush and green, the promise of spring in every early bud. She had hurried to breakfast at her usual speed, her robes over her arm and jumper tied around her waist.
The Slytherin table was packed despite the early hour, so Orla wiggled in on the end of a bench and began her favourite meal of the day. Jam and butter toast dripped stickily in a pile on her plate as she chewed thoughtfully on another rasher of bacon. A 5th year entered and complained about the sour mood that lingered from the lost Quidditch match. Orla tried not to smile and pursed her lips, agreeing with the 5th year's words but not wanting to draw her ire.
The thought "Potions!" kept whirling in her head. She tried not to bounce in her seat and kept glancing at Professor Snape, nervous excitement giving her the look of someone who'd had itching powder put down their back.
She stole glances around the hall, trying to spot other first years who she could be sharing a class with. She wondered if they knew their ingredients as well as she thought she did, then tried to recall what grew wild at home...
Wait...could she remember any ingredients??? Her mind, usually full of her Aunt's voices telling her this herb, this flower, this root, had gone eerily silent.
Orla swallowed heavily, and panic-stuffed a slice of sticky toast into her mouth.
Last Edit: Jul 18, 2022 23:42:29 GMT 10 by Deleted
Saoirse woke up with a bit of a sniffle, probably from how long she'd spent out in the cold hunting for ingredients. It made her grumpy, as she couldn't exactly do her diving training with blocked sinuses.
Unwilling to deal with her hair, she pulled it back into a messy ponytail and put on her robes. She had potions today, one of her least favourite classes. Why did this school hire professors that clearly hated students?
As Saoirse walked through the hall, she noticed the mood from Quidditch yesterday had not yet disappeared. One day she would have to sit someone down- someone who wasn't biased- and ask them to explain how and why exactly people got so passionate about slapping a few balls around.
She entered the Great Hall and sat at her usual spot, rearranging her robes. Saoirse helped herself to eggs and sausage, deciding to thoroughly enjoy breakfast considering class was going to be so rough.
The morning was refreshing and warm. There was no more sign of morning shiver, and want to stay inside a blanket only. The long winter finally ended.
Alice arrived at the great hall and took a seat at Gryffindor's table, "Good morning, Saoirse." She said, smiling at her. She served herself breakfast and started eating calmly.
The dorm was pretty casual after yesterday's long quidditch discussion. It was almost as if people had forgotten about it, and William was happy with this.
With such good weather, he wouldn't require thick clothes. He got ready for his uniform before leaving the dungeon for the great hall. He likes normal classes compared to useless events, but today he was exceptionally excited for magical creatures classes.
In the great hall, he finds a comparatively barren seat, which means no one around to disturb, but he knows that soon it will be full too with loud people.
He served himself and started eating, without caring who was sitting near him.
Post by MJ Birdwhistle on Jul 19, 2022 2:15:18 GMT 10
MJ looked over at the Gryffindor table, since they were next to the Ravenclaw one and saw both Alice and Saoirse. She waved to both girls and then held up the class schedule excitedly. Hopefully they would know why she was so happy about their lesson plan but would they share the same happiness?
She finished her beans and moved on to her eggs, watching as more students came into the Great Hall. A few Slytherin showed up, one girl from her year that MJ vaguely knew and then two older students she didn't know. She dipped some toast into her eggs and took a big bite, thinking over last night's conversation with Misuk and Charlotte.
Since Charlotte had said she had siblings who went to this school and they were in Slytherin, MJ kept an eye on each student coming in. One of them had to be Charlotte's older sister and one of them had to be her brother!
Maybe that boy who just came in, he kinda looked like Charlotte...
Last Edit: Jul 19, 2022 2:17:40 GMT 10 by MJ Birdwhistle
Post by Jonathan King on Jul 19, 2022 6:30:30 GMT 10
Joe strolled into the Great Hall, backpack hanging loosely over one shoulder. He had taken off the right strap shortly beforehand, right after he had walked the last of the stairs.
Some of his housemates had greeted him on his way, some even by name, eventhough to him they were as good as strangers. Yet he always made sure to smile and greet them in return.
It was weird getting noticed and being known.
Perhaps it Ryan had sent him ahead on his own because the match had been yesterday and the excitement had yet to die down. Joe would have been happy to wait for his friend to find his wayward sock, had he not been so hungry this morning.
He chose a seat at his house table in close proximity to Emjy and gave her a warm smile before setting down his backpack on the seat next to him to reserve it for Ryan. He handing her a jug of orance juice he had heard her ask for.
“Good morning, here you go.“
Joe sat down and checked out the food within his reach, lighting up when he noticed the hot porridge. He filled up a gigantic bowl and sprinkled some cinnamon on it before he poured himself a glass of milk.
“Did you enjoy the celebration?“, he asked Emjy between blows to his spoon of porridge.
“Ryan and I had a picnic in bed,“ he chuckled. That had been nice. Why did food taste so much better when you were warm and cozy in a bed?
Last Edit: Jul 19, 2022 16:26:29 GMT 10 by Jonathan King: life’s no picnic
Post by Reena Ashworth on Jul 19, 2022 6:49:55 GMT 10
Stifling a yawn as she entered the Great Hall, she cast a glance towards the Ravenclaw table first, almost out of habit searching for her siblings in the sea of students. Not that she‘d take the time to greet them each day but if she caught their eyes she‘d at least wave at them.
Not seeing anyone of them, she made a bee line for her own house table and chose a seat a little down from a group of defeated looking students. She caught sight of Kassia Saenz next to them and gave her a ‘You good?‘ kind of look before having to stifle yet another yawn.
She checked her schedule, despite already knowing it and cast a glance towards the staff table before grabbing an orange, an apple, some grapes and a banana for a makeshift fruit salad in celebration of the new season.
She also cracked some nuts onto it and took some more nuts to use later. Reena vividly recalled the loss of another nut yesterday and being chased by a beast as a result of it.
And yet somehow that hadn’t even been the most terrifying event of the day. She once again glanced towards her Head of House, wondering if he was informing professor Hathmore about the creep in the Forbidden Forest.
Last Edit: Jul 19, 2022 6:52:49 GMT 10 by Reena Ashworth
Post by MJ Birdwhistle on Jul 19, 2022 8:26:59 GMT 10
"Cheers." Finally! She smiles at Joe, thankful he had passed her the orange juice. MJ poured herself a glass and takes a sip. She munches on a bit of bacon before she replies to Joe.
"Kind of. I went to the Hospital Wing with Misuk and Alice met us there. It didn't take too long to get treated, thank goodness, but," She lowers her voice here, "Those two Slytherin chasers were there too, they looked so mad."
MJ giggles a little. She thinks it's silly for them to hold a grudge against them for winning, "If they were good enough to win, they would have."
She shrugs and then continues, "But I went back to the dorm room so I could get a shower and get changed so I missed most of the celebration. Charlotte, Misuk and I had our own picnic in our room too! Misuk brought us up some snacks from dinner and some stuff they managed to get from the common room as well."
It sounded like both first year dorms had the same idea.
Of course, she wasn't going to tell Joe that the main reason they had done that was to keep Charlotte company since she didn't like the noise and crowd of the common room. It wasn't her place to talk about it and it wasn't his business to know. MJ focused back on her breakfast, happy to talk with Joe if he wanted to. It seemed like his friend Ryan wasn't with him yet and that rude boy from Gryffindor hadn't shown up either (thank goodness!).
She sipped her orange juice and added some hp sauce to her plate, to dunk her sausage into as she ate it.
Post by Oscar Tinkle on Jul 19, 2022 8:51:24 GMT 10
Oscar couldn't help but yawn as he stumbled over to the Hufflepuff table to claim his seat. He wasn't sure how he was still tired, not when he'd had plenty of sleep on top of doing nothing strenuous the day before. Maybe it was a sign that he should have just gone ahead and slept through the morning to make the afternoon arrive faster?
He wished. It wasn't even that he disliked Defence, okay? It was just that he favoured Care over nearly anything else by about a mile.
As he sat slumped at the table and reached to start making up a bowl of yoghurt and fruit on auto-pilot, Oscar felt like he had missed something important. Something that was staring him straight in the face..
It was only several spoonfuls later that it finally clicked with him that he was not wrapped in several layers for once, or even wearing his favourite beanie. He was.. warm?
"Spring?" he muttered, finally looking up to blink bleary eyes at the ceiling. It was finally spring? Oh thank Merlin for that! It felt like winter had gone on forever. The change in weather almost made it worth being awake when he still felt so groggy.
Nyx did not understand the necessity of social interactions during breakfast. Lunch and dinner, she could get behind. After all, her grandmother had always insisted on spending most mealtimes together, the lingering moments between each bite filled with joyous retellings of their day. But those memories had gone sour, replaced by her grandmother and mother's inability to tell the truth; their withholding that Nyx had a first cousin, from her father's side, at Hogwarts.
It was something she didn't know she'd ever be able to get over. Nyx's mother knew how curious she'd been as a child, how much she wanted to know about her father and understand where he came from. Yet, she'd said nothing—neither had her grandmother. This left her feeling betrayed, like she'd been struck in the heart with a dagger. It it weren't for Jade finding out, she and Nyx would've never known. They would've gone on, passing one another like strangers in the hall.
Then again, how different would that have been to what it was? Jade had hardly spoken more than a few words to Nyx since their falling out months prior. It was an unresolved issue in the back of Nyx's mind, chipping away at her insides—and Jaxen's bringing up of her hadn't helped the night before, the mere mention of her name being a reminder of their miscommunication.
In between the excited chatter of her fellow Ravenclaw housemates and the chorus of scratching cutlery, Nyx strode into the dining hall, books pressed against her chest and a bag slung over her shoulder. Her frosted gaze scanned the length of her table, looking for Mathias, then Jaxen. But they hadn't arrived—not from what she'd seen at least. Annoyance formed at the edge of her pulled taut expression, the corners of her pillowy lips dragging downwards at the realization.
There was an empty seat, a couple arms' lengths away from the first years, and she took it. She'd never sat with them, nor did she care to start, but sitting within talking distance didn't seem like too awful an idea. After all, Birdwhistle and King had performed to her liking, so they couldn't be that detestable off the pitch. Two possible exceptions to their age group, perhaps?
Post by Tobias Twiggs on Jul 19, 2022 10:36:38 GMT 10
Toby weaved around lingering students as they loitered in the entranceway, apparently refusing to take a seat somewhere where unsuspecting first years wouldn't be forced to find a path around them. He was in a hurry and they were NOT helping.
He hadn't been able to congratulate Joe on how well he'd played in the match the previous day, nor been able to celebrate with him as they unfortunately belonged to different houses. The one drawback to being in Gryffindor was all the time he missed with his best friends- he wondered what they got up to last night.
Hopefully they had fun.
Practically running towards the Ravenclaw table, he sought out the familiar faces of his flock. He found Joe relatively easily, having committed every aspect of his friends appearance to memory by now- no one had hair quite like Joe. But upon sitting down opposite, he realized that they were down one of their number.
"Hey, where's Ryan?" he couldn't hide the disappointment that edged his tone. He was looking forward to seeing both his friends that morning.
Struggling not to pout, he began to butter some toast before taking a small bite from the corner. "Quidditch was amazing yesterday Joe! You played like a pro!" he remembered to congratulate the other boy, beaming with pride as he recalled watching the match with bated breath. He'd never doubted Joe's abilities for a second, but there were some close calls that had him gasping at times- he wondered if that was why Ryan was absent.
Post by MJ Birdwhistle on Jul 19, 2022 11:54:21 GMT 10
Their captain arrives at the table, commanding attention from a few students - whether this was due to their recent win or her own reputation, MJ wasn't sure but she was in awe regardless. MJ glanced in her direction and gave her a polite smile.
Since Nyx was in fifth year, MJ didn't think it would be a good idea to start a conversation with her... Even if she wanted to. Nope, she would focus on her food and hope her roommates would show up soon. MJ didn't know where they had got to but made sure there was space for both of them regardless.
Maybe next year it would be okay for her to talk with Nyx...
But then, of course, that annoying Gryffindor boy arrives. As long as he sat at his own table to talk to Joe, MJ was perfectly happy to ignore him. It wasn't like he ever went out of his way to be nice and polite to anyone else anyway.
Even if he was Joe's friend, MJ busied herself with taking out her potions textbook and reading it over. Maybe she would be able to suss out what potion they'd learn in class?
There were a lot of possibilities and MJ was intrigued by them all, truth be told. She sipped her orange juice, done eating for now and read quietly. She was waiting for the owls to appear since she wanted to check the paper and then she'd head off for class - with or without her roommates. She didn't want to be late to Potions!
Last Edit: Jul 19, 2022 12:01:41 GMT 10 by MJ Birdwhistle
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February
