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.
It was a few hours after they'd returned to the Burrow from their busy trip to Diagon Alley. The kids had all been sent to their rooms to put away their new supplies, and get a start on packing their trunks for the approaching school term -- a task she had no doubt at least one of them would put off until the last minute.
After that, Alan had them feed the chickens and their new ducks -- who had grown quite a bit from their fluffy-feathered duckling days during the Christmas holidays. They still needed names, which they left up to the kids. A few of the chickens had taken to nipping at their ankles though, having gotten jealous when they spotted Bartlebee preening from where he was perched on an open kitchen windowsill.
Molly was in the kitchen / dining room, adding the final touches for dinner. She'd gone all out, as teenagers tended to be quite famished after a busy day of shopping. And there was no chance of a mere ice cream cone spoiling an appetite as bottomless as Tobias'.
She'd already taken something upstairs for the two who hadn't come shopping with them, as they preferred to remain tucked away in their rooms.
'Kids, dinner,' Molly sang out the back door.
She wasn't sure where Tobias and Jonathan had run off to, or where Amelia and Martha were either. Alan had invited Joshua to the shed soon after they got home, and they'd been working away on their own little project in there ever since. They knew better than to go near the dinner table without washing up first.
Molly finished stirring the gravy, waiting for everyone to come inside / downstairs and sit down for what was sure to be a filling and delicious dinner.
Post by Martha Twiggs on Feb 24, 2023 9:02:31 GMT 10
Upon returning home, Martha had got her owl settled and her things put away. Her trunk was already packed, clothes and books neatly tucked away but Martha knew she'd end up redoing it after dinner.
Just to double check she had everything she needed.
Bartlebee was down in the kitchen, enjoying the view out the window and Martha was content to leave him be. After all, her parents could keep an eye on him until she came down stairs again.
She heard their mum shout up and set her prefect badge on her bedside table. It would stay there, safe and sound, until she needed to pin it to her robes.
"Coming!"
Martha checked the room with a glance and then hurried out the door and down the stairs. She came into the kitchen with a smile, going to give Bartlebee a pet before turning to her mum.
"Smells amazing, should I set the table?" She offers, checking to see what her mum was making.
Amelia had found herself drawn to her favorite place outside, under a nice large tree. It had been where she had spent some of her summer the year before, though it had been with a certain young boy. She let out a sigh, figuring that summer fling would likely never rekindle. She was done fawning over the Hufflepuff boy, though she would always consider him one of her friends and likely one of her best friends...
But, it was time to start a new year after all. Sixteen was full of adventure and she was ready to head on headfirst. While her sister had been upstairs, she had wanted to be alone. Tobias and Jonathan had run off and she hoped her mother didn't pull her into helping locate them. It was now how she wanted to end her summer vacation.
The moment her mother called out that dinner was ready, Amelia looked up and over from her place. The grasses were a little tall, but she was still able to see the house easily. Standing, she brushed off her legs and hands, tossed a blade of grass and headed towards the house.
"What's for dinner, mum?" Amelia asked as she walked in, washing her hands quickly since she had been sitting in the grass and fooling with some rocks.
'Well ahead of you, dear.' Molly smiled, as everything was already set and ready to be eaten. Though she pat her daughter's shoulder in appreciation for the offer. Perhaps this was a Hufflepuff trait, as it was often Martha and Joshua who constantly offered such. 'Where's that sister of yours?'
She sighed, giving the call to dinner once again -- in case some hadn't heard it or needed the extra encouragement. Amelia appeared just before that, as if sensing her mother's exasperation.
'Roast and sides, everyone's favourite,' Molly said, checking things over as if they could have moved out of place or vanished since she'd turned her back. She wanted everything to be perfect.
Molly never sat at the table herself, not until everyone else was seated and already eating. During breakfast, she didn't join them at all though likely ate in advance to not miss out.
'Here, put this on the table. Be careful: it's hot.' Molly, with a cloth underneath it to offset the heat, passed Martha the jug of gravy.
Post by Martha Twiggs on Feb 24, 2023 16:16:43 GMT 10
"Not sure, I think she went outside earlier?" Martha smiled at her mum. And then, as if on cue, her twin appeared through the back door.
Looking over when Amelia walked in, Martha wondered where her sister had been. There were a few places she could have guessed -- the large tree favoured by Amelia being one of them.
"I can't wait to eat." She said to Amy with a grin, carefully accepting the jug of gravy. Even with the tea towel, the heat spread through to her hand.
Martha walked it over to the table with care, "By the way, I set your new books out on your bed. I hope that's okay?"
Once the gravy was safely set down, she looked over her shoulder at Amelia, "Every year it's like a new puzzle, fitting everything into our trunks."
But they always managed and a part of her wondered if magic was involved...
She then drew her gaze to Bartlebee and she was satisfied to see he was content and happy.
Amelia felt her stomach grumble at the scent and the mention of what it was. Roast was always a great meal and she found herself looking around for anything that needed doing for her parents. It seemed Martha had it all handled and looked over at her when she spoke.
"Yeah, that great," Amelia said as she thought about the unending joy of packing her bags for Hogwarts. She rubbed the back of her neck at the thought. It was gonna be a long night, but she would get it done. It wasn't like waiting until the last minute was a new thing for her.
"Oh yeah and this year we had more to the list," she said in a little bit of an amused tone before she sat down and looked at everything. Where to even start?
Post by Joshua Twiggs on Feb 25, 2023 8:04:53 GMT 10
The floo powder back home had been a lot easier to stomach. He was glad he had tagged along instead of staying put, and he brought his books etc. towards his bedroom, while also dropping off his twin brother’s at his.
He briefly asked about his well-being before returning to his own room to roughly sort through his stuff to decide what to take to Hogwarts.
A task, he did not find easy to do. It was difficult to part with the cool items he‘d collected over summer and hadn’t gotten to use for any projects yet. It was a fine line he was walking, between collecting and cluttering.
Joshua gladly abandoned the task of preparing his trunk when his dad called him again. Even better, he invited him to work a project with him in the shed!
He practically skipped down the stairs, any sign of his earlier stomach troubles forgotten at the prospect of working with his dad.
Joshua was so far in the zone, that he was only vaguely aware of his mother’s call to dinner. He had even started the next step with their work, when he suddenly remembered.
“Did you hear that?“, he asked his dad.
There the call was again, this time he had been listening for it.
With a mournful look towards his work, he laid down his tools, knowing better than to make his mum call a third time.
“Qick dinner and return, dad?“, he asked hopefully.
Joshua could already smell the roast on his way to the house and his stomach rumbled as though pettily reminding him how he had neglected it all day.
He quickly washed up and lingered at his seat, checking to see whether his help was still needed.
“Looks delicious, mum!“, he said as he sat down, ready to fill up his plate.
“How‘s Bartlebee settling in? He must think he’s found heaven with that roast smell.“
Post by Jonathan King on Feb 25, 2023 9:28:54 GMT 10
Joe had traveled via floo powder before, but he found the whole experience rather joyful. His dad preferred to apparate or use portkeys, so he didn’t get to do it a lot.
Coming back to Toby’s family’s home, he felt very welcome, the layout already familiar, as were the faces. They had a new owl, or rather Martha had gotten a new owl while they had been shopping for clothes.
He had completely missed that. It was a really pretty owl too, he wondered if he or she would get along with Fogaell.
He and Toby did not linger however. They quickly brought up his stuff to Toby’s room in the attic and Joe gave Toby the souvenir he had gotten him from Morocco: An enchanted Dune Agama figurine.
With that out of the bag, Joe could hardly contain himself and described in excruciating detail his ride on the magical beast.
How they had dived into the Sahara sand and vanished from any muggle sight, how the loose sand had rippled around the little bubble the Dune Agama had created around them and how it used a sort of magical sense to know its exact location.
He had, however, to admit that it had been a guided tour for tourists and he had not in fact tamed a wild beast. That would have been amazing though.
Dune Agama‘s were real friendly creatures.
By the time he had finished his tale, they had arrived at the river-sized creek near Toby’s house. Which was amazing?!
No need at all for a swimming pool with natural water this close by to cool off on a hot day. They hadn’t brought any swim trunks however, but Joe wasted no time in splashing a handful of creek water at Toby.
In his attempt to flee from retaliation however, Joe slipped and landed on his side in the water, completely drenching the whole right side of his spiderman shirt and the right leg of his trousers.
He had also scraped his knee, but he didn’t actually mind any of it, too busy trying not to wet himself in a different way, as he was laughing rather violently at his own misfortune.
If you went out on a summer day with your best mate and no one fell into water or scraped his knee, had you really gone out?
At some point they had made their way back, hunger being the driving force. That ice cream in Diagon Alley felt like it had been weeks ago, eventhough it had only been a few hours.
He was very happy to hear a call for dinner when they approached the house and he unwisely suggested to race Toby.
Trying to catch his breath, he arrived in the kitchen, hands propped onto his legs for support. His trousers were nearly dry at this point.
Joe was quite looking forward to eat, having fond memories of Toby’s mum‘s cooking.
He was a little uncertain where to sit however, so he waited for Toby to sit down first.
[OOC: mentions of Tobias Twiggs done with permission - - The Dune Agama was approved by staff and added to HAU lore.]
Last Edit: Feb 25, 2023 9:32:33 GMT 10 by Jonathan King
Post by Tobias Twiggs on Feb 26, 2023 8:09:35 GMT 10
Upon arriving back home, Toby was eager to begin showing Joe around. He had spent Christmas at the Burrow but things were so different in the summer- nicer, in a way. The sun was out and there was no snow obscuring the landscape, he could show Joe all his favourite places.
After dumping all of their stuff in his bedroom, they left the Burrow and Toby led the way to the creek, with Joe chattering the entire way about his summer holiday where he got to ride a Dune Agama...? He'd even bought him a figurine -- Which Toby fondly placed upon his nightstand. He did not know much about Dune Agama's so hung onto Joe's every word as he retold the story of his adventures upon his Agama friend.
By the time they reached the creek, Toby was well impressed and wondered if he too would one day get to ride upon a Dune Agama. It sounded like a lot of fun, and a lot different from riding on a broom.
Toby jumped back with a squeal as Joe attempted to splash him, only to erupt into fits of laugher moments later when his friend fell, promptly soaking himself as he sat in the gently flowing water. Joe's own laughter told Toby that he had not been badly hurt by the tumble and he soon jumped in to help him back to his feet, not caring if he got a little wet in the process.
They could not spend too long goofing off in the water, however, as soon his belly began to growl and they became aware of the fact that soon his mother would be calling them to eat. Toby didn't much like the thought of seeing the look on her face, if they rocked up late to tea with sodden clothes and dirty hands.
So they headed home, laughing and chatting the entire way. Toby wanted to talk more about Joe's summer adventures and speculation over what the new school year would be like.
Hearing his mother call them to dinner, Joe made the rather unwise decision to challenge him to a race. A thrill of excitement shot through the boy as he broke into a run, playfully slapping Joe's hand as he passed him and sprinted towards the open door.
"I win!" he bellowed, practically skidding through the doorway and throwing his arms up in victory. Then beaming at his mother, he walked straight to the kitchen sink to wash his hands in preparation to eat- and prayed Joe would have the good sense to follow him. Then he sat himself at the table, still breathing a little heavy from his race to victory and kicking out his legs, accidentally catching a couple ankles beneath the table as he did so.
Bartlebee was quite the clever owl, apparently -- as he seemed to have picked up on what his name was rather quickly, thus preened at Joshua's comment. There was a bit of meat beside him on the windowsill, either from his masterful stealth or someone had snuck him a little treat from dinner. The fact he was saving it meant it wasn't his only piece.
Molly kissed Joshua's forehead in appreciation when he praised the food. She looked a bit tired after their busy day, yet hadn't failed to go all out with dinner so they had something special tp enjoy tonight. It was one of their few remaining meals as a family before the kids were headed back to Hogwarts soon.
'Earned that, he did,' Alan added. 'I was just teaching him how to make keychains from scratch, and the theory of the kind of self-fitting charms used. He's quite the natural.'
Joshua wasn't ready to do those on his own, as the melting down spells from metal to chain was rather complex and dangerous, but Alan figured he was experienced enough by now to at least start learning to process. It was clear that the Niffler keychains had inspired him, and he truly did believe his son could make such wonderful little gifts as well.
'That's lovely, dear,' Molly smiled, though narrowed her eyes. 'But no shop talk at the dinner table.'
She was then distracted with the youngest two. 'Ah ah,' Molly tutted, checking both their hands were indeed fully clean, before they could even reach for the food.
As everyone ate, the topic mainly focused on Hogwarts -- as the new term was so close now, and there were a lot of things to prepare for or that the kids were looking forward to. The fact that it also brought with it a new Quidditch season was the highlight of the anticipation for some. But there was underlying stress as well, given that four Twiggs were now at O.W.L and N.E.W.T level.
'Are you sure you have everything?' Molly asked them, for what must be at least the third time since they got home. 'Perhaps we should have gotten another few rolls of parchment...'
Post by Martha Twiggs on Feb 27, 2023 4:41:03 GMT 10
"Already part of the family." Martha replied to her brother's question about Bartlebee. Part of her was happy that Joshua took an interest. The meat next to Bartlebee hadn't went unnoticed by Martha.
She pondered how it had got there...
Martha gave her pet owl a fond smile and then dug into her roast. As always, her mum did an amazing job. She looked at her dad when he explained the project they were working on.
Seems he had taken her comment on board!
"Can't wait to see them when you're done. You'll have to let me be your first customer." She smiled at Joshua, proud of him for mastering such tricky and advanced magic like that.
It was always fun to see how her siblings progressed.
But she quickly dropped the subject too after her mum's warning.
"Did you have fun down at the creek?" Martha added some butter to her potatoes, her question more for Joe since he was the guest. She hoped he had fun at their home, even though she worried.
It wasn't the most impressive place even if she loved it.
She was happy to let the conversation shift towards school. Martha was excited to get back to her classes and to help in her new role as prefect. She was even excited to see her siblings get to play Quidditch again...
Okay, maybe that one was a bit lower on her list but she knew it would make them happy and that was important to Martha.
Amelia watched as her siblings all began to pour into the house. While she began to put food on her plate, she listened to the conversations and paid attention to different ones. Her brother was making keychains with their dad. Joe and Tobias had returned from their adventure and she thought maybe they had headed to the creek. It had been on of her favorite places too.
When her mother mused about having everything, Amelia turned and smiled at her fondly.
"Mum, we are fine and we also can use the charm for turning leaves to parchment," Amelia said as she recalled the lesson herself in Transfigurations. If any of the younger siblings need help, she was sure herself or Martha could help them get some pieces of Parchment with that charm.
Post by Jonathan King on Feb 28, 2023 0:45:39 GMT 10
Once Joe had regained his breathing, he stretched his tongue out towards Toby in response to his declaration of victory. He followed his friend's example and washed his hands, presenting them to Mrs. Twiggs before he sat down.
"Uhh, yeah!?", he responded to Martha's question. His mouth was still full, so he took some time to chew and swallow before he continued.
"It's awesome that you guys got a creek nearby. I bet you're all great swimmers. Do you ever build floats?", he added the last part towards the one twin boy present, who he gathered from context was the builder guy.
He did not really wait for an answer however, already turning towards Toby with a plan for what to do when they returned to Hogwarts and at last were a full trio again with Ryan joining them on September 1st.
"... and then we can all juggle together and learn really cool tricks," he finished.
Taking a sip of his drink, he did not really follow the rest of the conversation at the dinner table, but perked up at the mention of next Quidditch season.
"Did you ask your dad if he could train us in Quidditch?", he whispered into Toby's ear.
Post by Joshua Twiggs on Feb 28, 2023 0:47:31 GMT 10
Feeling his face warm up, Joshua accepted his mother's display of affection with a fond smile. Forehead kisses, he mused, were an underrated form of physical affection which he much appreciated (within the safety of his home and family).
His face warmed up even more at his dad's praise.
"It's fascinating really. Sounds simple but is so effective too."
He turned towards Martha when she chimed in on the topic and put on a smirk.
"Of course! If you can affourd them, that is," he teased. They all knew he would give her one as a gift if she wanted one.
At his mum's warning, he apologised and dug into his food. Savoring each enticing little flavor in it, he felt he might need to correct his earlier statement. Bartlebee had in fact found heaven.
"I sure am looking forward to learning that charm, Amy." It sounded like a Transfiguration topic to him, a subject he quite liked. In fact, he was uncharacteristically looking forward to returning to Hogwarts this year, despite the impending doom that was his O.W.L.s.
He still hadn't told either of his parents about his ambitions to try out for Quidditch this year and he twisted the fork in his hands as he thought about how to bring up the topic. He'd tell his dad later, when they (hopefully) returned to the shed to continue with the keychains.
For now he just enjoyed the food and light conversation. Joe had asked him about building floats but before he had a chance to respond, the boy had already moved on from the topic, so he left it at that.
He did however cast a glance or two towards Amy, wondering if she was looking forward to returning to Hogwarts at all, after what tragic fade had happened to her friend at the end of last year. It had to still sit deep.
He knew, he had been shocked and he had hardly even known the guy.
Post by Martha Twiggs on Feb 28, 2023 3:02:05 GMT 10
"Glad you're having fun." She said with a smile. Sure, Jonathan had been here before but it was nice to know he still enjoyed himself.
She figured it would be hard not to have fun with Tobias as a friend.
Martha nodded at Joshua's remark. Still, she would save some money to reward him for his hard work. Even if she suspected he'd gift it to her.
He was sweet like that.
"It's a useful spell, though I might be using some of my parchment tonight to send Jaxen a letter." She admitted, looking over at Bartlebee.
She was confident he would be there and back again before she'd have to worry about getting him ready for school.
Martha didn't take too long to finish her dinner (which she enjoyed immensely) and she hung around, just in case her mum needed help clearing the table.
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