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 Oscar Tinkle on Jan 26, 2024 10:39:53 GMT 10
Even though it was oh so cold and the grounds were still covered in a worrying blanket of white, Oscar felt more relaxed than he had in a good while.
Breakfast had been delicious that morning. His new jumper was extremely comfortable, somehow seeming to radiate the warmth of a Nanna hug. And the rest of his presents had been just as nice and thoughtful as the traditional jumper that he looked forward to every year too.
All of that was great and definitely added to his more relaxed state, but there was one other factor that trumped it all.
The previous day he had managed to spend the whole day tucked away in the Hufflepuff common room, with a nice warm fire and several art projects to keep him company. Spending the day doing an activity that brought him such joy had definitely been the right choice. One that had helped him to brush off most of the stress that had built up so far over the year, and left him in just the right mindset to enjoy Christmas.
And how had he chosen to spend Christmas itself? Well, after much thought he had decided that a break from the common room was probably the correct choice. Something that he had been proven right by when breakfast appeared with special star-shaped pasties as a reward.
Oscar had claimed one right at the table (a yummy butterscotch filled one), and then squirrelled away another for the walk to his first destination of the day. That one turned out to be filled with gooey chocolate brownie, and he finished it just as he reached the astronomy tower.
What nice timing.
He wiped his fingers with the napkin that he had carried his treat in, stuffed it away in his pocket, and then began to look around for any sign of a silver chest.
He had decided that the right way to spend his morning was by using up one of the keys that had been burning a hole in his pocket. He had been gaining a collection of the things and, since it was Christmas, had decided that it was okay to finally make use of one without the guilt of picking it over various forms of studying for his exams.
Okay. So there was still a tiny bit of guilt. But that was normal, right? And he managed to mostly silence that voice with the reminder that he had done some actual productive studying the previous day while he had been waiting for his Gramps’ present to dry. A rare achievement for him when the books and notes that he tried to force himself to study from often left him frustrated.
Oh! There was a chest!
Any thoughts of study guilt could kindly go away, he had a key to try.
“Let’s see what you hold then.” He muttered as he stooped down to attempt to unlock it with his silver key.
The cache box was tucked away in a shadowed corner, beneath some spiral stairs -- a place most wouldn't think to look, yet the silver key seemed to draw one to it.
Once the key was inserted, it became stuck in place. Magic surrounded the box, then a game etched itself onto the wooden lid.
----- --- ----- -- --- ----- ----
Writing appeared along the front:
"To unlock resources within, speak the passphrase once devised. Six errors you are allowed, if you wish to uncover what we've disguised. Be warned, however, as words hold power when drawn from what you cannot hide."
How to Play
Inspired by hangman. Each turn, your character says a letter that may be part of the phrase. They also provide an example word starting with that letter. The word isn't relevant to the phrase, but strengthens the magical connection to the key.
You're allowed 6 incorrect letters then you must attempt a phrase guess, though you're allowed to guess sooner if you're confident you know the answer.
An unlocked cache contains 4 ingredients, 2 game pieces, 1 food item, and a Bubble-Head potion.
Although playing a mini-game, this is still an RP-thread. The example words provided with each letter guess should be relevant to your character - such as "R - for rainbow" drawn from a childhood memory of a rainbow, or a rainbow-coloured object they're fond of.
Post by Oscar Tinkle on Jan 27, 2024 23:25:13 GMT 10
With the chest and its task revealed to him, Oscar sat himself down to get comfortable for the game.
Word games could go one of two ways from his experience, either letters would line up nicely and words would be obvious, or he would forget all words in existence. He hoped that the chests’ puzzle would be the former, but just in case it didn’t, he did not want to add being awkwardly crouched the whole time to the task.
Once he was comfortable in front of the chest, he squinted down at the lines etched into the lid. He hoped that if he stared hard enough then something obvious would jump out for him, even though there were yet to be any letters.
When that failed to give him anything, he figured that he should probably start with some letters. Which one first though? Well, vowels had to be there somewhere, he thought, so why not start at the very beginning. That seemed like a very good place to start.
“A,” he said, “for.. art.”
That seemed like the obvious connection to him, since not only was it what he had spent the previous day playing around with, new supplies for more also made up the biggest part of his present from his parents.
Post by Oscar Tinkle on Jan 28, 2024 12:21:16 GMT 10
Well that didn’t do as much as he had hoped it would. A single ‘A’ had filled in one spot, leaving twenty-six others still blank, with no clue on what they could be.
There was only one thing for it then. He had to try more vowels.
Oscar absently traced letters on the floor in front of him as he tried to think of which to try next, and what word could be used to power it.
‘E’ was probably the logical step, if he wanted to go in order. It seemed a good enough reason for him anyway. But what word?
“E for.. England?” he tried. It was where he had spent most of the time every year before he hit Hogwarts age, so that meant it should be powerful enough, right?
Oh Merlin he hoped so. If it wasn’t then boy was he going to struggle with words for the rest of the letters.
Post by Oscar Tinkle on Jan 28, 2024 22:39:34 GMT 10
With England assigned to the letter E, and whole words still without vowels, there was only one place that he could really go from there. Unless he wanted his Nonni to find out somehow and accuse him of favouritism, or of forgetting them, or something else ridiculous like that.
“I for Italy.” He told the box, hoping that it would have the same power behind it when it was mostly only the summers that he spent there.
They were good summers though, normally. If he ignored the unhappy looks and the comments that would get shot at his dad from time to time. And the pranks that were all just a bit of fun. And the poking and prodding at all of the little bits of him that left him feeling like he was not quite good enough sometimes.
If he ignored that, which he could, because they were his family and he loved them. Even Enzo.
Post by Oscar Tinkle on Jan 28, 2024 22:46:26 GMT 10
What next, what next? S, he thought. That was a fairly common letter, right? One that people normally guessed in hangman. But what word began with it?
Unfortunately Oscar found that his mind was suddenly quite blank of all words.
“S for..” he tried, hoping that something would jump out at him to finish the sentence. When inspiration failed to strike, he let out a sigh and dropped his head back to stare out the window in frustration. Only to pull a face as he saw what still covered the grounds.
“Ugh, snow,” he muttered, his nose wrinkling. Surely it had to warm up soon, right? And then the snow would go away for another year.
Wait.
It took him longer than he would like to admit, but finally he turned back to the chest with a blush on his face as he realised.
“Snow,” he said. “S is for snow.”
It was only after he had finally found a word to fill the letter, that other words sprang to mind too. Swimming, sweets, spaghetti. There had been so many options and, out of all of them, he had gone with snow. Ew.
Post by Oscar Tinkle on Jan 28, 2024 23:55:00 GMT 10
Oscar considered the gaps that had been filled in so far, and those that were staring at him blankly. With how things lay, nothing was jumping out at him to connect things.
Maybe it called for more vowels? Vowels were good.
“O for owls.” He said, making sure to think of Merc and the daily chaos that was the owl post.
He was definitely not thinking of the panic that was that years exams. No siree,thoughts of them were off limits for the day.
Post by Oscar Tinkle on Jan 29, 2024 11:31:44 GMT 10
Well that was helpful. At last he could see where some words could take shape. Nothing that made sense to him as a sentence yet unfortunately, but he could at least see how some could be actual words rather than a mishmash of unconnected random letters.
Enough so that he thought he knew where to go next. Maybe. Hopefully.
“H for.. hat?” he tried, one hand reaching up to absently tug down his beanie at the mere mention of it. Was the touch his way of double checking that his trusty hat was still there? Maybe. He had to be sure though after he had mentioned it.
He did not want to lose the thing. His precious hat was a constant through the cold months, smushing down his curls and helping to keep his head warm. He would be lost without it, of that he was sure.
Post by Oscar Tinkle on Jan 30, 2024 10:23:35 GMT 10
Oscar was relieved when the H’s appeared in place and it looked like he had been on the right track. He was pretty sure that he knew the first two words, so it was quite a relief that he did not have to completely change his line of thought.
If he could just figure out the rest of the sentence then he would be golden.
But how was the best way to go about that? Did he pick a letter that was missing from the words that he thought that he knew? Or could he figure it out without that if he just tried hard enough? It was worth a try..
Those who… What? Steer? Sleep?
Those who.. something.. do not.. something… Wish? Fish?
Wait.
Oscar frowned at the chest.
Could it be?
Maybe just one more letter, to check that what he was thinking was right.
“T,” he said, nodding his head slightly. “For trunk.”
That was the first thing that sprang to mind for the letter. And why wouldn’t it? Every year his life was packed away into one when he had to decide what to take to school.
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December
