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.
Kassia came quietly to dinner, shaken by her memory. It was so different than any other memory she had of her mother. Had she really been like that once? Kind and witty, and so loving? So accepting of her father where others may not have been? Kassia had never gotten to see her mother as the brilliant doctor she had once been. She only remembered her... after the diagnosis.
The question that kept Kassia up at night banged around in her head louder than ever before. Could she just reverse personalities like her mother had, fifteen or twenty years from now? Her chest felt hollow. She didn't even want to eat, but forced herself to. If she went to her dorm now, she'd be in tears. Being around other people would force her to remain level-headed.
She settled down near Lindsey Bryce, noticing that Reena Ashworth was not near her. They'd been so inseparable this entire year. No doubt this was something to do with Seabrook. Ordinarily Kassia wouldn't be poking such a sleeping bear, but she was eager to distract herself now.
"So. Nighttime class, is it? Looking forward to it?"
Post by MJ Birdwhistle on Nov 11, 2022 8:24:01 GMT 10
"Oh! I went to the Greenhouse this morning. I love it in there and it's fun to look after our own plants, isn't it?" She chimed in when Charlotte asked Ezra about his afternoon and he talked about the Greenhouse.
She had felt bad she hadn't had time to plant something else but it was the end of the school year anyway. Next year would be a fresh start!
"I've been studying mostly but I did try one of the rooms in the Spiral Tower... It was kind of creepy, there was a wolf and the room was very dark." MJ explained to them both before taking a big bite of her dinner.
Post by Lindsey Bryce on Nov 11, 2022 8:42:57 GMT 10
Lindsey glanced around for Reena or even Sinead, but she hadn't seen either yet. As she settled in for the dinner, the thoughts of getting back to the Artifact room was weighing heavy on her. She rubbed her fingers together after eating a few pieces of fruit and looked quickly over towards someone who spoke.
She was slightly surprised by the question, though maybe that was just because she was focused so much on the Slytherin Talisman in her bag.
"Oh, aye... quite excited about it, but nervous as well, ye kin?" she said in her highland accent while she cut some food on her plate. "How was the last class for ye?" Lindsey asked the older student before she took a drink of her own juice.
Kassia rather enjoyed listening to Lindsey's accent. The highlander accents were so much nicer than lowland Scotland. She didn't know it well enough to place the location exactly, having always lived in Edinburgh. Besides, no accent could be worse than Glaswegian.
"I didn't have the... pleasure of taking Care of Magical Creatures last year, so you'll have to let me know what this mystery creature is." She dusted a crumb off her shoulder that had magically appeared there. "I had potions class. It was... illuminating."
Not wanting to discuss potions class any further than that, she deftly changed the subject. "Not enough Scots in this school. Whereabouts are you from, exactly? I'm afraid I don't know the Highlands well."
Charlotte must have touched on a good subject, because he spoke about going to the greenhouse. She had to admit, she had enjoyed going herself and found herself listening intently to him as he spoke. When MJ piped up about her going this morning, Charlotte felt a little sad about not going herself. But, she did have the chance to try and go during the summer with Mr. Gilbert.
The words about the Spiral Tower had Charlotte feeling cold. She didn't like the idea of a wolf being in the castle. It made her think of the large dogs that were on her parents estate and she felt a panic pull into her chest. It wasn't enough to make her visible upset, but enough to make her duck her head a little and eat silently.
"We are doing some studies after dinner in our dorm tonight," Charlotte commented, trying to get the subject off of the whole wolf thing.
Post by Lindsey Bryce on Nov 11, 2022 9:04:20 GMT 10
Lindsey smiled at the older student when she spoke about not taking the class last year. She noticed a lot of people hadn't taken it who were older than her. She had enjoyed it, but she didn't know what she wanted to do with herself the following years. Did she want to continue with it or focus on another avenue of learning?
"What did Snape have ye brew today?" she asked in regards to the potions class comment. She found potions to be enjoyable, even if Snape wasn't always too happy. He had given her a book to study and she recalled that it was still in her bag. "He allowed me to borrow a book this morning," she said as she pulled it out and show Kassia. It would be good to take a look at it tomorrow morning.
Kassia hadn't been quite quick enough to change the subject, but Lindsey was fine with speaking to her about her home.
"Highfield is where my ma's family is from... But me da is from an area east of Inverness, but he's lived in Highfield since before I was born when he married my ma," she said with a bright expression on her face. One could tell she loved speaking of her family and took great honor in telling stories about them. "We normally visit them in the summer now, but use to, we spent a great deal of time there all year around."
Kassia internally cringed at Lindsey's response, but decided it was best she know about it. She would have appreciated some warning, herself. Just because Hogwarts was difficult for her did not mean it had to be awful for the younger years as well.
"A potion that makes you remember a very early memory. One that you have no current recollection of. Some students loved it. Others found it unbearably painful."
She wrapped her slim fingers around a steaming mug of tea, listening. Lindsey obviously loved where she was from, so Kassia tried to steer the conversation that way. "I'm afraid I'm unfamiliar with Highfield, but I know Inverness is beautiful. My Papá's family settled near Stirling, but he moved to Edinburgh when he married my mother."
Saoirse scratched her hand as she entered the Great Hall, then jerked when it became painful. She looked down at the puncture wound she had just reopened. Oh, right. The room that had gone poorly for her. At least she had successfully collected her plants from the greenhouse before dinner.
She found herself ravenous, and started gnawing at some steak as soon as she sat down. Saoirse gazed across the room and out the windows, thinking of the destroyed Quidditch field again. It had been in her thoughts quite often since her adventure in the castle. She wasn't quite sure what to make of it.
Orla had taken longer than usual going from class to the dorms because her transfigured book-box was...well, cumbersome. The lid was top-heavy and it kept straining on the binding, so by the time she dumped it uncerimoniously onto her bed a few of the pages were already crumpled or folded.
Despite this, she was quite pleased with it. Transfiguration was not a subject that Orla was particularly fond of; it was fiddly and often required more than one casting, plus the results were rarely something she really wanted.
She was chided at home for her disregard, and she knew that Transfiguration magic was much more than just trinket boxes and candlesticks; still, it was hard to make her brain focus when they weren't at least being taught how to transform themselves into animals...
The Hall was full of chatter, a din that Orla had grown used to over the year. She spotted a space and slipped onto the bench at the Slytherin table, already biting into a pasty before she had sat down.
"...nighttime class, is it? Looking forward to it?"
Orla dipped her rapidly disintegrating pasty into some red sauce and looked up through her fringe. Kassia was sat across from her, speaking to another girl - Orla thought her name was Lindsey.
She listened in on the conversation, reaching for a mug of steaming potato and leek soup next. Eager to appear as though she was definitely not eavesdropping, Orla began to flick pastry crumbs off her jumper as her envy grew; a nighttime COMC class sounded dreamy.
Post by Ezra Ashworth on Nov 11, 2022 13:25:19 GMT 10
Ezra could not help but to smile as he heard that MJ had visited the greenhouse that day too. What a coincidence! He only thought it a shame that they had gone at different times of the day.
"Mhm," he hummed his agreement around a spoonful of ice cream. Once he had finished that bit of ice cream he added, "It's fun seeing what the different seeds sprout up as."
He wondered if one day he would be able to identify what kind of ingredient he would be able to get from each different seed. That would be very handy to know, he was sure.
As MJ went on to talk about the spiral tower and its mystery rooms, Ezra's sight drifted upwards, as if he could see the tower through the ceiling and walls. There was a wolf up there?
He could easily remember his own visit to that tower and the animal that he had come across. Just how many animals did Hogwarts have hidden away in rooms? He itched to find out.
He was about to comment as such, to tell the other two about the goose that he had met there days ago, when Charlotte changed the subject.
Ezra swallowed another bite of pasta and decided to just go with it. Studying was a fun enough topic to talk about too after all.
"Yeah?" he asked, his focus back on his plate and the slowly melting ice cream that was creeping towards his pasta. He nudged his remaining pasta into a higher pile in an attempt to keep them separate. "What're you studying?"
Post by Arthur Hocking on Nov 11, 2022 14:42:22 GMT 10
Arthur was worried that he wouldn't get the chance to eat much before he had to be in class. He waved at the people he recognized at the Hufflepuff table, but otherwise this was strictly business, and that meant he had to fill his plate with a dinner that would be both quick to eat and nutritious. Tastiness would be a plus, but Arthur had some doubts about his foods mixing together.
He tried to nod his head when the conversation needed him to, but really all he was thinking about was what Professor Fairburn would have them do. Maybe it would be an easy class, and they would simply be petting dogs or cats? They weren't really magical, since Muggles could have them, but Arthur imagined it would be a nice way to get some stress relief at this point in the school year.
Post by Grace Babineaux on Nov 11, 2022 14:48:59 GMT 10
Dinner, dinner, dinner. Grace felt like the meal was standing in the way of a good night's sleep, which she needed after being busy with classes and cards that hurt your hands when you put them in boxes. Speaking of boxes, Grace had managed to hang onto hers, even though it wasn't the best transfiguration. She had gotten rather attached to it, even if it wasn't perfect.
Grace plopped down next to Saoirse. "Hey Saoirse." she said, thinking about dinner. She put some chicken and green beans on her plate. She didn't know what it was about the Hogwarts green beans, but they were rather lovely. Grace wished they could take them home for leftovers. Not that her mum's weren't good, but it was nice to have things. They'd probably spoil.
Thinking about her mum's cooking made Grace think about home, which she was missing. Even though she'd chosen not to go home during the winter for that holiday break, she still wished she could've done two things at once or been in two places at once. Regardless, home was what was on her mind.
"Are you doing anything over the summer?" Grace asked Saoirse, wondering if her fellow Gryffindor had any plans to be adventurous. Grace would probably be out helping her mum garden or talking about school with her dad. She did like explaining wizarding things with him, because he always listened. It was nice.
Saoirse was absolutely destroying a plate of mashed potatoes when Grace sat down next to her. She managed to swallow her mouthful before smiling at her. It felt like it had been some time since they had properly sat and talked together, especially since she was the first friend Saoirse had made at school.
"Hey." Saoirse frowned, not having put much thought into the summer with all that had been happening at Hogwarts.. "Uh... I probably have to see my grandparents. Oh, my dad has a girlfriend now and he wants me to meet her!" She tried to hide how nervous she sounded at that. "But... that's it. Any plans for you?"
Post by MJ Birdwhistle on Nov 11, 2022 20:20:16 GMT 10
MJ continued to eat as Charlotte and Ezra talk, but at his question, she added, "I'm going to focus on Potions tonight, I think. I made a studying schedule so I would give every subject a fair chance."
It was the kind of thing she would probably have done at a muggle High school if she had gone. Her thoughts wondered then, to her twin brother Max. Would he be studying for his upcoming exams too?
For once, MJ is unsure. But she shrugged away the thoughts and went back to her dinner. It didn't take long for her to finish the main part and then she looked for something delicious to have for dessert.
She spotted banoffee pie and grinned. MJ took a slice and added it to a plate with some whipped cream. Then she picked up a fresh fork and started to eat. She wanted to make sure she finished her dessert before dinner was over!
"Do you think you'll study tonight, Ezra?" The question was asked while she broke a forkful off her pie and dipped it into the cream.
Post by Lindsey Bryce on Nov 11, 2022 23:21:15 GMT 10
Lindsey found the potion exciting, but wondered herself what memory it would reveal for her. Her father had always been one to talk about her past, about her toddler years. Her mother had taken pictures and there was a whole album of moving pictures that was kept in a little box in their family room.
"I canne wait for my chance to try it," Lindsey said as she thought about how it could reveal anything. Well, maybe it was random? It could have been a bad memory, right?
As Kassia spoke about Inverness and about Stirling, Lindsey smiled at her.
"Ack," This sound was more from acknowledgement and certainly didn't sound like a bad sound when made. 'I've been to Stirling for some Highland Games... Me father loves history and I've been dancin' for years, they do wee competitions... Stirling is a nice place," she said as she drank some of her own juice.
"My ma and da go to Edinburgh a few times a year, my dad likes to take me about all the historical places... The Causeway is a favorite of his," Lindsey said as she recalled the summer before she left for her first year of Hogwarts. They decided to drive to London before going to Diagon Alley and he had convinced her mother to stop in Edinburgh, where he took his walk and visited as many sites from the 1700s he could.
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