People! Competition! Yay! on Defense Against the Dark Arts

Professor Levy

June 19, 2010 11:07 PM

Beginner Level: Lesson II by Professor Levy

Coming back from midterm was harder than coming back after summer break. At least it was in Erika’s view. For midterm, she only had a limited amount of time with her girlfriend and some of that limited time was spent in the hustle and bustle of holiday shoppers as she tried to get her own holiday shopping done. Thankfully, she didn’t have anyone on her list that was hard to buy for or else she might not have gotten to spend much time with her family at all. And the time she did get to spend with everyone was only a teaser to make her wish it were summer where she could relax and spend everyday with them. Looking over the students coming in, she was sure they probably felt much like she did and weren’t quite ready to get back into the swing of things, which is why she had planned an easy lesson for the day.

It wasn’t her normal style. She much preferred hands-on learning to theory, but she thought that today would be a good day for a simple review as well as to begin introducing the second years to the dark creatures they would be learning about next year. Once everyone was seated, she passed out the papers in her hand. “Welcome back, students. I trust your break was enjoyable and you’re probably not quite ready to get into the full swing of things quite yet, which is why today we’ll be working on a crossword puzzle. I assume everyone had had experienced with doing these, but if you haven’t, it’s quite easy.”

With a flick of the wrist, a one by one crossword puzzle appeared on the board with the second letter of the down clue intersecting with the first letter of the across clue. “As we can see by the across clue it’s a red fruit said to keep the doctor away. Anyone venture guess?” With the correct guess, she said, “Right. An apple so we would put apple in the boxes that match the clue going across.” Another wave and the letters appeared in the appropriate area. “So, then we see that the second letter of our down clue is an A and the clue is a yellow fruit enjoyed by monkeys.” She waited for someone to give the correct answer. “Exactly. Banana. Then, we would fill that in. Now, this is a very simple crossword, but you get the idea.”

Erika waited a moment for anyone to object to understanding and then continued on, “Your puzzle focuses on spells that we’ve learned this year as well as some dark creatures that we’ll learn about in Intermediate DADA that I wanted you to become familiar with. The first one to turn in their puzzle in completely correct before the end of class doesn’t have to do the homework assignment for today. You may work in small groups of two or three if you would like. I expect everyone to turn in the puzzle by the end of class regardless if it’s finished or not. Also, before you leave, please be sure to pick up a copy of the homework assignment from my desk.” She pointed to a stack of papers. “Please begin.”

OOC: Please adhere to posting guidelines. Points will be awarded based on creativity, detail, etc. I’ve given a copy of the crossword puzzle below. Answers can be given through posts and if you would like to try to be the first person or group to actually finish the puzzle, a list can be given instead of actually filling out the puzzle. For anyone solving the puzzle, spaces count as a box of their own. Have fun!

Subthreads:

Happy Happy, Joy Joy by Alessa Hinckley with Demelza Eagle

People! Competition! Yay! by Rachel Bauer with Theo Manzana

Having difficulties.... by Sam Bauer with Neal Padrig, Pecari

A stressful situation by Autumn Collins with Brad Hayman (Aladren)

Happy to be back by Jane Carey with Dorian Talsky

In it to win today. by Raines Bradley, Crotalus with Jessica Zeworth [Pecari], Raines Bradley

I'm way better at word searches by Tristan Volkmann (Pecari) with Delilah Kerrigan, Pecari

Refusing to compete by Kirstenna Melcher

This is easy...sort of. by Dulce Garcia (Teppenpaw)

0 Professor Levy Beginner Level: Lesson II 0 Professor Levy 1 5

Alessa Hinckley

June 20, 2010 5:36 PM

Happy Happy, Joy Joy by Alessa Hinckley

It was with resignation and a bit of trepidation that Alessa entered Defense. She could appreciate the reasons for the class as she knew there were dangerous creatures and dangerous people out there. Even muggles could be a threat, as had happened to her Uncle Barnabas years before Alessa was born.

It actually made her feel a little iffy on muggles. On the one hand they had killed her uncle. On the other hand, Uncle Bernard, Barnabas' twin brother, had gone and married one and Aunt Honeysuckle wasn't too awful. She was a little strange but then, so was Alessa.

Maybe muggles were just like wizards, without magic. Some were good and some were bad.

She took her seat and sighed to herself. Just because Alessa appreciated the point of Defense, didn't mean she liked the class. It consisted of way too much athletic activity for her tastes and not only was it not proper for girls to take part in such things, more importantly, Alessa wasn't very good at them. Doing them was like torture.

When Professor Levy began the lesson, Alessa's face lit up. A crossword puzzle! The Aladren loved doing puzzles and if there was one thing she was good at, it was remembering facts and trivia. Lessons like this helped salvage her grade after she didn't do so well on things like playing dodgeball.

Alessa joyfully turned her attention to her puzzle. She was feeling even more enthusiasm over this puzzle than usual just because she was so glad not to have to do anything athletic. She didn't even care that there was something of a competition to get the puzzle done first as it was something Alessa actually had a shot in and even if she lost, it wouldn't be the end of the world if she had to do her homework.

She filled in fourteen across (Lumos) and was so happily engrossed in the puzzle that it took her a moment to realize someone was speaking to her. "I'm sorry, did you say something?" Alessa asked

11 Alessa Hinckley Happy Happy, Joy Joy 150 Alessa Hinckley 0 5

Demelza Eagle

June 20, 2010 6:32 PM

It's the end of the world as we know it by Demelza Eagle

Since DADA was probably the only subject that Demelza really excelled in, she always looked forward to the class. Plus, Professor Levy often provided a fun, hands-on lesson that Demelza could always relate to. Basically, DADA was like music class at her old Muggle school: the only class she actually cared about. Well she did care about her classes, but especially defense. she hoped to be an Auror one day and capture all the mean and crazy people in the world, including that guy who tried to kill her, her little sister, and her cousin this summer. She had decided that defense was the most important subject that she should learn about anyway, because it was the most useful for safety in the real world.

But when the class actually started, Demelza frowned because she was very disappointed. The dark brunette Pecari thought that Professor Levy was being rather lazy for not actually coming up with a real lesson, but Demelza couldn't do anything about that. Then again, the fact that the first team done got to skip homework did make the lesson a bit more interesting. Demelza knew that she wouldn't be the first one done, even though Defense against the dark arts was her favorite and best subject. She wasn't very good at testing.

Looking to see who she sat next to, she hoped that it was someone smart. Oh, and just her luck! She sat next to one of the girls that Nina suggested she ask for help in class! Demelza was in a bit higher spirits, but she decided she wouldn't ask for help until she really needed it. She began the crossword puzzle, only filling in the answers that she knew. 6 across was obviously 'confundo; 14 across was 'lumos'; she thought that 3 down was 'Petrificus Totalus'; 5 down was 'point me'; 7 down was 'Expelliarmus'; and 10 down was 'protego'. Demelza smiled as she realized she was almost done. Most of the spells were very easy: she remembered learning a lot of them in the past year or so.

Then, however, came the hard part: the magical creatures. Yeah, she had no idea who all of them were. The Delawarean turned to the smart girl next to her and asked, "Do you, by any chance, know what 13 across is? I don't remember learning about there creatures," she said, rubbing her chin. At first the girl hadn't heard her, so she repeated herself. She was lucky that Demelza wasn't hyper, but that was probably due to the fact that doing crossword puzzles didn't exactly excite the second year with ADHD.

0 Demelza Eagle It's the end of the world as we know it 157 Demelza Eagle 0 5

Rachel Bauer

June 20, 2010 7:18 PM

People! Competition! Yay! by Rachel Bauer

Rachel didn’t exactly regret staying at Sonora over the holidays, or even lying to her family about why and using Veronica’s family situation in the story, but she was glad that everyone was back now. Having a room to herself made her perhaps more accustomed to solitude than the average student, but it had still been a little disconcerting to note how empty the hallways and major rooms were when, tired of reading, she had occasionally ventured out and wandered for entertainment. She had gotten to know several of the portraits over the two weeks, and while that wasn’t bad – portraits made useful contacts; especially trustworthy ones could function as a quick source of information, and it was faster to check facts from the slightly less reliable than it was to look them up with nothing to go on anyway – it was nice to have more people around who weren’t just echoes.

Having so few around for a while had done her good, though. The time alone had allowed her to get her balance back in a way she never could have with the little ones being constantly under her feet while her dad tried to make up for lost time, his family tried to figure out how to relate to her at all, and her mom, stepfather, grandfather, step-grandmother, and half-aunts all pretended more different things about each other and their sets of relationships than there were people in the entire group. All looking at that tangle again would have done was persuade her to swear off even a first marriage again, and that wasn’t fashionable or advisable.

She was hoping for an active class to help her get any edge to her concentration that she might have lost over the holidays back, but instead, they were given a crossword puzzle, with the result that she felt both disappointment and a slight thrill of challenge. She wasn’t the very best at crosswords, but she had always been persistent about fiddling with them until the words came to her, and one that only focused on beginner Defense would have to be relatively easy. If she had even a half-decent partner, she was sure they’d be able to wipe the floor with all of the other groups. Even if it was as easy as she thought it might be, she needed to be social, and a bad partner would lead to unnecessary arguments over the answers.

Fortunately, of the people in the room she knew enough about to really make a judgment, that only really crossed off Raines and Demelza, neither of whom was especially nearby. Better to avoid the first years – they would know Sam, whose talent for wordplay would have made him the perfect partner for this if not for his surname and all the fabric quality his sweatshirt didn’t have – but the only one she absolutely could not work with under any circumstances was her cousin, who was also not seated in her immediate vicinity. Satisfied that she was relatively safe, and still a little irrationally warmed by having a large group of people around again, she decided to be charitable and give her neighbor an honest chance to be useless instead of assuming that would be the case straight off. “Hey,” she said brightly. “Want to work together on this?”

16 Rachel Bauer People! Competition! Yay! 154 Rachel Bauer 0 5

Sam Bauer

June 20, 2010 9:05 PM

Having difficulties.... by Sam Bauer

He had, to the best of his knowledge, no paternal family to receive presents from, but the combination of cultural influences on his mom’s family made the number that came in from them large enough that Sam didn’t really feel he had been short-changed over the holidays. He had, in fact, done better than usual, since Aunt Emily had been unusually generous, and his only real complaint about any of his presents had been the sheer amount of red in his new clothes. Sam understood that Houses were serious business, and supposed his mother might be right about the color suiting him, but he thought his parent and associated relations might have forgotten what color Sonora uniforms were. He had been at breakfast before he realized his new sweatshirt looked a lot more seasonal with his robes than he would have ever deliberately intended it to be.

Still, he had shrugged off worse. Being called a Christmas tree for a few days was much, much better than earning the nickname “Percy Jackson” (not to mention a really annoying would-be Annabeth who, to his mom’s complete dismay, had believed magic was real before she saw enough weird things happen around him to convince anyone but an adult of it) two days into a new school year and having it stick. The trick was just to make a joke out of it, at least as long as he either didn’t notice that the commentator was twice his height and weight and had no sense of humor or didn’t feel into self-preservation that day. He was, therefore, in a fairly good mood as he headed to Defense Against the Dark Arts.

Professor Levy taking it easy on them surprised him – he had always seen her as strict, the sort to consider it a bonus if they were a little distracted, so she could lecture them more about how the Dark Arts were going to eat them if they were still on a sugar high from the holiday of their choice – but he wasn’t complaining. He’d gotten a few novels from Uncle Jake, and while the plots had been okay, the “middle of whatever word” for a letter in the answer to a riddle trick had gotten old a long time ago, and the crosswords in the Daily Oracle were still too hard, which made this a good way to deal with residual dissatisfaction on two fronts.

As he was looking the paper over, he realized Professor Levy was doing a demonstration on the board, and got in the answer to the banana clue before going back to the real clue set. This didn’t look too difficult; if he could keep count of the squares, which would eat into his time a little, he thought he would finish fairly quickly. There were a few it might take a few tries to work out the precise wording of, but…He scribbled in his first answer, ‘redcap,’ into two across and then frowned when there was an extra space at the end. Erasing it – if Muggles could be given credit for nothing else, it was creating writing utensils that didn’t permanently ruin a document on the first mistake – he looked at three down and found that “Petrificus Totalus” fit perfectly into the seventeen squares. The “p” fit with his original answer to two across, but unless he was supposed to leave the space in red cap and not in the immobilization spell…Well, unless he'd misspelled something or miscounted something, then one of them had to be wrong.

All at once, he became aware that someone next to him was saying something, breaking his concentration so abruptly that he jumped and missed the end of the message as surely as he’d missed the first part. Holding his breath for a second, he tried to look marginally less like he’d just almost had a heart attack. With a roommate the size of Nic Sawyer, despite the lack of aggressiveness toward him so far displayed by said Nic Sawyer, Sam didn’t want to get a reputation for being any weaker than he could help. “Say what?” he asked, still feeling slightly confused and, though he didn’t think he sounded it, a tiny bit annoyed.

16 Sam Bauer Having difficulties.... 163 Sam Bauer 0 5

Theo Manzana

June 22, 2010 1:08 AM

Oh joy!! by Theo Manzana

Theo was smart, at least he had been told numerous times he was and his marks reflected it, but this term something was different. This term he had gotten fantastic marks in all but one class, Defense against the Dark Arts. For some reason the class wasn’t contacting with him, he could understand Charms, Transfiguration, Care of Magical Creatures, and Potions, heck he even understood Herbology when Mama taught it to him, but he couldn’t grasp Defense Against the (stupid) Dark Arts. So he entered the classroom the day term restarted with a scowl upon his face. He knew they would be doing something he didn’t understand.

He plopped down in his chair and bit his lip ready to face whatever Professor Levy threw at him. Surprisingly enough she threw a crossword puzzle at them. He smiled; he could do a crossword puzzle no problem! His face turned from a scowl to a small smirk, this was awesome at least in his mind and he began to fill in some of the answers quickly. He had just stuck his quill in his mouth and thinking over the clue Goblinlike creature that loves bloodshed when someone next to him said. “Hey want to work together on this?”

Theo looked over at the girl and recognized her as Rachel Bauer his fellow second year and housemate. Though they had never actually spoken Theo knew who she was. “Um..sure.” He said with a smirk. “Do you know what a ‘Goblinlike creature that loves bloodshed’ is?” He asked with an arched eyebrow.

0 Theo Manzana Oh joy!! 0 Theo Manzana 0 5

Neal Padrig, Pecari

June 22, 2010 2:50 PM

You're not the only one... by Neal Padrig, Pecari

Always one to appreciate a good word game, Neal was more than happy to start working on the review crossword instead of learning something new. He usually got pretty distracted if he didn’t have something new to stay focused on, but this was actually something he did for fun so he couldn’t complain. Maybe, if he got done soon enough, he could doodle little pictures on the side of what each word was or did. Things like a little fire for the answer ‘Lumos’ for fourteen across or a lock with another lock over it for four down’s answer of ’Colloportus’. This was the only class he hadn’t sketched anything on a paper he had to turn in, so he decided he had better fix that before he forgot.

Neal had just started to try and draw in a Grindylow (the answer to eleven down) on the side of his paper when he frowned, realizing it didn’t look right to him. He reached in his bag for his DADA book to reference but couldn’t seem to find it, which was weird since he usually just left all his books in his bags.

With a casual shrug, Neal looked up from his bag and over to the person next to him. He was pretty sure his name was Sam and he was in Crotalus, but he never actually met him so he thought it’d be weird if he called him by his first name. Plus, he looked like he was concentrating really hard on the puzzle, so maybe it was best to just ask quickly and not make the other guy wonder how he knew his name.

“Sorry to interrupt you there, but do you have your book on you for this class?” Neal asked, hoping he didn’t sound bossy or anything. Sam didn’t answer, so he tried again, albeit a tad louder. “Hey, do you have your book on you? I don’t have mine and –“ He sighed when he noticed he was still being ignored. So against better judgment he used his year-mate’s name. “Hey, Sam, are you really focused on the puzzle that much –?“

Sam looked as if he just got whacked in the face with how dramatic his reaction was. Neal’s own eyes widened as Sam jumped in his seat. Was it his appearance again? Why people were so disturbed by bloodshot eyes with bags under them was as confusing at this school as it had been at his other one.

Hoping to not shock Sam any more, he just repeated himself. “Uh, sorry to shock you,” he said awkwardly since he had no clue what he did to surprise Sam in the first place. “But hey, do you have your book for this class with you that you wouldn’t mind letting me look at? Mine’s not with me, and I wanted to check something in it.”

0 Neal Padrig, Pecari You're not the only one... 0 Neal Padrig, Pecari 0 5

Sam Bauer

June 23, 2010 12:44 AM

I'm sorry to hear that. by Sam Bauer

"Book," Sam repeated. Of course he had the book. It was class. He was supposed to have the book. He could understand the temptation to leave it in his room, since Defense was usually more of a physical than a bookish class, but better safe than sorry. Besides, he never knew when he was going to have time to work on the homework he hopefully wouldn't have to do today. "Yeah. I have the book. Books are good." He took his book, the rather battered condition he had bought it in partially concealed by a blue cloth cover, out of his bookbag and put it down on the edge of his desk for his new associate to take to avoid the chance of getting too far into the other guy's space.

Neal. That was Other Guy's name. Sam had a thing for names and faces, and he'd been around everyone in his year enough that he'd learned them all. He might still have to take a second to remember the names of people he hadn't interacted with or seen around Crotalus a lot, but he had yet to miss anyone completely. He took pride in that, especially since he had never placed highly on anyone's list of the socially adept or cared enough to try to rectify the situation.

"No worries about the shocking," he added. "Just - be careful with that." He gestured to his book. Any chance of appearing remotely not lame flew out the window with that statement, but even if he hadn't always had a reluctance to allow other people to touch his stuff, his mom would have his head for a table decoration if something happened and she had to buy him another one. "The binding's a mess." He glanced over at Neal's paper, just to see how steep the competition was, and allowed his tongue to follow his brain from one topic to the next without much of a link in the middle. "Are you answering those at random, or is there a pattern?"

16 Sam Bauer I'm sorry to hear that. 163 Sam Bauer 0 5

Rachel

June 23, 2010 1:35 AM

They're the things that make the world go 'round. by Rachel

Rachel had briefly considered Theo Manzana as a potential ball date in their first year, but then Cynthia had given her Jethro, so she'd written Theo off as Alessa's without contest. She'd gotten the impression he was smart, though not in enough detail to compare his brain to hers, and at least moderately tolerable, but there any pretense at any relationship between them ended. Getting to know him last year would have entailed spending time around Crotalus, a thing that wouldn't have been in her best interests while her favourite aunt was around, and acting as though she'd been Sorted into Aladren was habitual now.

Smart and moderately tolerable were all she was asking out of anyone today, though, so she was glad he had accepted her offer and expected this to go fairly well. "I'd say...Red Caps," she said, turning a little bit further around in her chair and crossing her ankles out in front of her to settle in to work. Dark Creatures were, as Professor Levy had mentioned, more for next year than this one, but Rachel tried to stay as far ahead as she thought she could safely manage, and this was the class she had the best instinctive grasp of. Potion fumes gave her a lot of headaches, Transfigurations were, depending on that day, either cool or really frustrating because they made her think fast about several things at once, but this stuff came easily.

Scanning the list, she found one, to her surprise, that she genuinely didn't know what to do with. Pushing down an ever-so-slightly paranoid certainty that she was losing her edge with a mental promise to study longer than usual this week, she tapped the slot with the feathered end of her quill. "Four down," she said. "Do you have any ideas? I can't remember ever covering a locking charm." She tried not to sound too surprised by that. Her magazines, not to mention her mother, said that people found the impression of knowing everything to be very unattractive, and making someone known to have some level of connectedness resent her could be even stupider than locking her entire extended and immediate families, along with all associated in-laws, in a box with her.

16 Rachel They're the things that make the world go 'round. 154 Rachel 0 5

Autumn Collins

June 23, 2010 7:12 PM

A stressful situation by Autumn Collins

Autumn sat nervously awaiting the beginning of Defense class. There was no class that stressed out the curly haired first year more. The whole premise of the class was to learn how to protect oneself against dark creatures and dark magic and she appreciated the value in that wholeheartedly. The idea of going up against such things terrified her.

However, while Autumn knew she wasn't in any real physical danger in class, she was anxious about Defense for another reason. She had a tendency to overthink things, to second guess herself, and this was an area of magic that required people to think on their feet. Autumn was terrible at that. In fact, in situations like that, she would freeze up and become unable to think at all .

To make matters worse, in this class, she had to sometimes work in groups in these situations. Autumn was constantly worried she was going to break down and people would hate her. She was terrified that they would tease her and she would become the class outcast whom everyone made fun of and Autumn really didn't want that. She wanted to be liked.

It was why she preferred to remain in the background, so nobody would notice if she screwed up.

Hearing that today's lesson would be a review crossword puzzle brought only slight relief to Autumn, relief that was quickly diminished by finding out that they would be competing against each other. She didn't care about being the best but she didn't want to be the very worst and Autumn was pretty sure she was near that in DADA as it was.

To make matters worse, it had to be done by the end of class. What if she didn't know something and turned in an incomplete puzzle? Autumn's grade would suffer then.

Miserably, the Crotalus turned to her puzzle. Her face fell further as she read the clue for two across. For the life of her, Autumn could not remember what a goblinlike creature with a love for bloodshed was.

She fought the urge to cry, as she simply could not allow herself to break down in front of her classmates. Autumn was a Collins, for Merlin's sake! More importantly, she did not want to be a laughingstock.

Perhaps, she should ask someone else for help. It wasn't really a matter of too much pride, it was just that Autumn was worried that if she asked someone to work with her on something, they would turn her down either because she wasn't an asset to the assignment or because they just plain didn't like her.

But the assignment had to be done. Autumn summoned her courage and turned to the person next to her. "Will you work with me on this?" She asked timidly.

11 Autumn Collins A stressful situation 164 Autumn Collins 0 5

Brad Hayman (Aladren)

June 24, 2010 12:48 AM

Stress Reliever to the rescue! by Brad Hayman (Aladren)

Brad walked into the Defense classroom and took a seat, excited for the day’s lesson. Defense was such a great class. It made him feel like a true superhero because everything he learned had to do with offensive and defensive spells. It was action-packed, just like a comic book! The other classes were fun and all, but he just didn’t find them that applicable to real life. Changing buttons into pebbles was cool and all, but there wasn’t much to it. Defense could come in handy when Brad graduated and started fighting evildoers on a regular basis, putting all these hardcore spells to use.

He really wished he could've used them on his stupid cousin. When he’d gone to his grandparents’ house for Christmas, his awesome uncle Lucas got him a huge collection of Iron Man comic books. His cousin Jerry was a complete and total villain, so he’d decided to grab the comics right out of Brad’s hands and tear them up! The first-year had wanted to cry, but he wouldn’t. Heroes didn’t cry. Heroes had standards!

So instead, he’d punched Jerry in the face…and Jerry had punched him right back. Mom and Pop had not been happy about that, and neither had Jerry’s parents. In fact, Brad's parents had grounded him for the rest of midterm after that.

He didn’t regret it, though. He loved his comics, and he wasn’t going to let Jerry push him around. What if Superman had let Lex Luthor get away with taking over the world? What would have happened to all those innocent citizens? Life as they knew it would have come to a halt!

In conclusion, he was proud of his black eye. It made him feel extra hero-like!

Brad frowned and slumped in his chair as Professor Levy started the lesson. A crossword? Seriously!? This class was supposed to be awesome and intense, not word-tastic. Ugh, he thought, his frown growing as the teacher went on. Once she was finished, he looked down at the crossword for a moment. His mind immediately shut off, the words blurring together into a giant, black mess he didn’t care about. He so didn’t want to do this…How was this going to help him save the world someday!? He sighed in exasperation.

“Will you work with me on this?”

Brad’s ears perked up at the sound of someone’s voice. He turned to see a nervous-looking girl; she looked like a damsel in distress, but he had no idea how to save her from this crossword.

“I guess so,” he said unenthusiastically. “Not that I don’t like you, I just don’t like crosswords. Or any writing assignments, really.” He frowned again. “I’m Brad Hayman, by the way,” he introduced himself, giving her a small smile despite his disappointment in the lesson. “Aladren first-year. How ‘bout you, Damsel in Distress?” He always used comic book-related terms to describe people whose names he hadn’t yet discovered.

0 Brad Hayman (Aladren) Stress Reliever to the rescue! 0 Brad Hayman (Aladren) 0 5

Alessa

June 24, 2010 5:42 PM

And I feel fine by Alessa

Alessa suppressed a groan-which would have been rude and unladylike-when she saw who was speaking to her. Demelza Eagle was probably the loudest, most hyper girl in their whole year. She was probably more hyper than most of the firsties too. Demelza got on Alessa's nerves even more than the other Pecaris and from she'd seen, most other people's too.

She couldn't deal with people like that for too long. They gave Alessa a headache.

Still, Demelza seemed calmer right now than usual, and for that, Alessa was grateful. For some reason, she had never been able to handle a lot of noise and action. It made her feel like her head would explode and she would need to escape. It was another reason DADA was often hard on her.

Besides, all she had done was ask Alessa a question. "I...don't have that one yet." She admitted. The Aladren had filled in all the spells first, as she knew the importance of remembering them, and creatures had never been Alessa's forte. In fact, the only reason she might have been doing better in COMC than DADA was because of the more physical lessons.

She looked back down at the clue for this one. "I think it's a hinkypunk though." Alessa offered helpfully. She was glad that she'd remembered this. It would not be a good thing to not know the answer. She had enough house pride to not want to appear stupid.

11 Alessa And I feel fine 150 Alessa 0 5

Neal

June 25, 2010 4:01 PM

At least you seem to empathize with me by Neal

Neal watched Sam curiously, trying to figure out what it was that made the boy seem so overwhelmed by a such a simple question. Maybe he didn’t like to let people borrow his stuff? That was possible, there was one guy like that in Neal’s class from his other school, back when he only thought his dad could do magic. Sam got his textbook out anyways and placed it on the very rim on his desk, almost like he was afraid to get too close to Neal.

He let his dark eyes drop suddenly from Sam to the book. It was in a worn and frayed condition at best, with only a clue cover to play shield for it. Neal liked battered things to new ones. New things had a way of making him feel uncomfortable. “Thanks,” he said to his partner, bringing it beside his paper and leafing through the pages for a good description of a Grindylow.

Sam seemed to have cooled down a bit and didn’t look so bothered with the idea of Neal going through his book after a few moments. Though he did mention to be careful with it, which Neal thought he was anyways but he’d go out of his way to be a bit more gentle with it just in case. He didn’t want to look disrespectful to anyone’s stuff, especially if they weren’t big on lending it out, which was what Neal was starting to think.

He looked back up at Sam only when he asked him a question. “I usually have a pattern,” he said honestly, liking to try and be more creative with assignments than he was. “But I didn’t bother with trying to figure one out today, no. I’m just going at random.” Deciding to make things official, he greeted himself. “Oh, and I’m Neal Padrig, I’m a first year in Pecari. I’m pretty sure you’re a first year too, right?”

0 Neal At least you seem to empathize with me 0 Neal 0 5

Jane Carey

June 25, 2010 9:23 PM

Happy to be back by Jane Carey

Defense Against the Dark Arts wasn’t Jane’s best class, or her favorite, but she still felt happy as she sat down in her usual desk and took out her wand. She hadn’t realized how much she was going to miss school until she’d gone home for midterm, and while she recognized that all the changes in the family might have something to do with her eagerness to return to Sonora, the recognition didn’t dim her feelings. For some of her many relatives, being a Carey brought that feeling of belonging to something bigger than themselves; for her, brought up isolated from the network of cousins and cross-cousins because of her foster-brother’s security requirements and her father’s preferences, it was being at school that did the trick. If she could have only looked good in yellow and not had awkward moments in the hallway with Edmond, she thought her academic life would have been perfect.

There was nothing she could do about the problem with her House’s primary color, but she had been able to avoid awkwardness with Edmond this morning by eating far faster than any proper lady should and escaping while he was still reading what, if she had to guess, were most likely the last of last term’s notes to refresh himself before beginning the second half of a class. She had done much the same, once she was safely in a corridor.

If it had been up to her, she would have gone along with his persistent attempts to act as though nothing had changed, but Mother had spent too long explaining that they most definitely had for her to feel comfortable with it. The entire situation was a logical paradox: she was supposed to be respectful and do as she was told, but what Edmond was telling her to do was be as disrespectful as she pleased and not always do as he told her to. If she did that, then she made her mother angry, and if she didn’t, then she made her brother angry – and possibly in a position to hold a grudge after Morgaine stepped aside. She didn’t think Edmond would do that, but she had heard more stories about his family than he had, and they all suggested that he might have a few more years before he jumped from arguing from emotion and saying that the length of their relationship outweighed the formalities of his position the way he was now to being openly irrational about everything. It was an impossible position, and it showed. All two of their conversations since returning had been stilted and uncomfortable and frustrating for them both, and Jane hadn’t felt up to repeating the experience right before her worst class.

Today, though, it seemed that the class was going to be kind to her. Jane smiled in delight as the crossword puzzles were passed out. For about a year before Edmond had come to Sonora, her father had given them both a copy of his paper’s crossword every morning, and the three of them had competed to see who could finish first, with Jane and Edmond pretending they didn’t know that Father was losing the contest on purpose. The official purpose had, of course, been to enhance their vocabularies, but it was – had been – also one of those rare occasions where total formality was not called for in the presence of an adult. That was most likely all over now, but the memory was pleasant enough for the assignment to get a smile.

Since partnership was usually encouraged at Sonora, it seemed likely that the professor would prefer for them to work in groups, and Jane enjoyed interacting with her classmates anyway. The novelty of having many people she could talk to instead of just one had yet to completely wear off. After carefully writing her name on the worksheet, trying to keep away from the flowery style she had been taught at home and had a few comments about the legibility of here, she looked over to the seats beside hers with a genuine smile. “Would you like to work with me today?” she asked.

0 Jane Carey Happy to be back 160 Jane Carey 0 5

Dorian Talsky

June 25, 2010 9:31 PM

I'm glad one of us is by Dorian Talsky

Dorian loved Defense against the Dark Arts, for one reason, it was the one class Dmitry was failing. He knew at Durmstrang his elder brother had taken a class very different from Defense but the brown haired boy couldn’t help but love being better at something. He couldn’t wait to get going on whatever spell they would be working on the day, he took his normal seat near the front and pulled out his books and wand, with Professor Levy he was never sure what they were going to be using. When she began the lesson and found out they weren’t going to be learning a new spell Dorian frowned.

Looking over the paper Dorian gasped. A word search?! He was good at spells not spelling! He frowned and bit his lip. Why did Professor Levy do this to him? He sighed and looked over the clues and sighed. He had no clue what half of them were, nor how to spell any of them…this was going to take a while. He ran a hand through his hair with a sigh. He looked over the person next to him and decided he had to ask for help. He was about to ask the person next to him to help him out where he heard the girl on the other side of him say. “Would you like to work with me today?”

Dorian turned with a grin on his face. “I would like to work with you.” He said in his crisp British accent. “I’m Dorian Talsky, of Pecari house.” He said introducing himself and holding out his hand like it was proper in America.

0 Dorian Talsky I'm glad one of us is 0 Dorian Talsky 0 5

Raines Bradley, Crotalus

June 25, 2010 9:50 PM

In it to win today. by Raines Bradley, Crotalus

Though Catherine’s apparently amazing ability to…perform her duty had once again prevented the holiday from being sufficiently about him, Raines had, overall, had an enjoyable Christmas, one he was almost sorry to return from. The round of parties had gone much better this year than last, he was taking charge of his situation, and, though he had enough of a thought for his father’s standards of maturity to refrain from saying so, his gifts had been exemplary. The new broom was only good for recreational purposes, what with the current opinion his family held on Quidditch, but no less nice for that, and his new watch was possibly good enough to keep running until he was formally presented with an adult’s when he turned seventeen. Yes, he was almost sorry to have to return to school after that.

Almost. The tension surrounding Catherine’s lack or possession of a male heir was too much for his nerves to have handled for much longer, especially since he knew that all another girl would mean was maybe two years going by before the question came up again. Such problems as he ran into here were at least marginally inside his control, which made even the worst of them far preferable to thinking about bloodlines.

And there were the routines. Fixed. Unvarying. Things he could count on. He had always thought of life at home as regular and ritualized, but that was before he had started attending the parties properly. Everything there was formal, but one never knew how a certain formality would be taken in the context of the wider situation. Order and disorder all at once. It was enough to make him feel slightly mad.

It shared that in common with his Defense Against the Dark Arts classes. Defensive magic was, of course, necessary, but Raines thought there were more orderly, civilized ways to teach it than things like that dodge-ball incident that was still branded into his memory. He might have to fight off an assassin if he climbed as high as he planned to, or get called out and have no choice but to accept if he was less prudent than he meant to be, but Raines did not intend to ever enter pitched battle. He did not intend to live in a society, to allow a society eventually, where pitched battle was something that was even possible. They were a civilized people, whatever certain families seemed to think to the contrary, and that should have been that, and lessons that suggested that was not that vexed him.

Happily, however, the worksheet they were to do today was distinctly free of gore and overt violence between allegedly sentient creatures. Perhaps Levy had sustained a head injury over the holidays, or had something else happen to illuminate the impropriety of a woman teaching such things. Since she also offered to let the first one done get off homework, he was inclined to think it was the first, but not to seriously complain just yet. Much of his homework felt pointless, and being excused from doing it was not a chance to be passed up lightly. He set to work at once. Hinkypunks were a familiar problem to someone from his part of the world, and he’d known lumos even before he’d come to Sonora.

0 Raines Bradley, Crotalus In it to win today. 0 Raines Bradley, Crotalus 0 5

Jessica Zeworth [Pecari]

June 26, 2010 7:35 PM

Hopefully you're okay with helping, too. by Jessica Zeworth [Pecari]

Jessica was already feeling a lot better than she had the day she came back from midterm. The circles under her eyes were practically gone, and she didn’t look so pale that she was almost see-through. She said almost because she went to Sonora, so she knew what ghosts and stuff looked like now. She was definitely not that pale, even after the worst of the miracle treatments her mother relied on. But, if her mother kept at it, being a ghost could be pretty fun, except for the whole being dead thing.

And Cooper maybe didn’t hate her all that much anymore! He probably hated her still, but the level and intensity of his immense dislike for her must have gone down, just a little, because he accepted her hat and everything. He even said that he didn’t hate her. That had to be an improvement, even though he made a point to say he hated her a lot afterwards. As far as Jessica was concerned, she had made her first friend at Sonora (even if Cooper didn’t agree yet), and that made her feel even better.

She made her way to Defense Against the Dark Arts with a bounce back in her step. The Pecari was feeling so awesome, she hadn’t even worn a scarf, wig, or hat. Just her and her bald head, the way she was supposed to be, not hiding a thing. In class, she smiled and waved at Cooper when she thought she had caught his eye.

Crosswords? Jessica pouted a little. Well, that wasn’t very strenuous…but she was finally feeling well enough to do some actual magic, and hopefully not blow stuff up in the process. Crosswords reminded her of Muggle school…and she really hadn’t liked Muggle school. She sighed and began to work on the crossword. She wouldn’t mind not having homework.

“Hey,” she said to the boy next to her. “Fourteen across is Lumos, right? I’m so bad at these sometimes. I just blank out.” The first year paused, then smiled. “I’m Jessica, by the way. I don’t think we’ve talked before.”

0 Jessica Zeworth [Pecari] Hopefully you're okay with helping, too. 0 Jessica Zeworth [Pecari] 0 5

Raines Bradley

June 26, 2010 10:28 PM

Only if there's something in it for me. by Raines Bradley

Raines was writiing 'confundo' into the little boxes meant for six across - such lovely little boxes, all exactly the same size, he had to fit the letters to them, it was such an improvement over writing on a blank page - when an unfamiliar voice sounded from the desk next to his. Finishing up his word, he paused to admire his letters and clean the end of his quill before he responded.

"It is," he said, not antagonistically. He had seen this girl around, a consequence of the first and second years sharing classes a great deal, and though he had never been quite this close to her, he was sufficiently accustomed to seeing it to not stare at her bare scalp. Though it indicated either inclinations not becoming of a lady or a disease of some kind which would also make her a poor choice for marriage, he had no way of being sure she wasn't someone he needed to be polite to anyway. Her introduction did nothing to support her being such a person - if 'Jessica,' by itself, could even be called an introduction - but she was a Pecari, who were often informal, and there were so many families that could claim some sort of status now.... "And I believe you are right that we have not. I am Raines Bradley, of the Louisiana Bradleys."

He had given that introduction more in the past two years than he had in all of his life combined before, but Raines still felt his spine, habitually kept as straight as possible to increase his height, straighten just a hair more with pride as he did so. The name 'Bradley' might not have been so highly-placed as 'Raines,' but it had never been touched by more scandal than his parents' distaste for each other, and he was a Raines, too. And now, if she knew manners, he would find out who she was as well.

0 Raines Bradley Only if there's something in it for me. 155 Raines Bradley 0 5

Jane Carey

June 26, 2010 11:29 PM

It's good to look for the bright side of a situation. by Jane Carey

Mother had always insisted that shaking hands was not to be done by young ladies, but Father said that there were times when it was no harm to take advice from Pecari and adapt to the moment. Sonora had demanded enough of that for Jane not to blink at the extended hand, though her elbow still stuck out at an awkward angle as she took it. One day, she was going to figure out how to correct that, if only so she could know she knew.

"Dorian," she repeated, her own mild Virginia drawl giving the word a slightly different sound than he did. "That's a very nice name. I'm Jane Carey, of the Virginia Careys, of Teppenpaw House."

She included the last bit only because he had; her parents, and it seemed the family in general, hadn't been very happy to hear about her Sorting. Everyone did agree, though, that it was better her than Edmond. The rest of his other family would have turned on him in about three seconds if he'd had what it took to get into Teppenpaw, because to the Savannah Careys, that would make him weak. The family histories gave a clear impression of diplomacy being something that branch needed desperately, but it seemed they didn't see it so.

They had better not see Edmond as weak, either, or at least not do anything to him if they did. Morgaine frightened her very much, but if she hurt Edmond, Jane's understandings of revenge tragedies lead her to believe she'd be able to cope with that fear long enough to repay the injury.

"I'm good at puzzles," she told Dorian, not bragging. She was better than Edmond, and since Edmond was the smartest person her own age she knew, that meant she was good. "My father has me practice them a lot. You needn't worry that I - " she paused for the barest second, remembering which phrase to use - "won't carry my weight. Would you like to take the acrosses and I take the downs?"

0 Jane Carey It's good to look for the bright side of a situation. 160 Jane Carey 0 5

Jessica

June 29, 2010 5:26 PM

My awesome company? by Jessica

At his response, Jessica smiled and filled in her crossword. L-u-m-o-s. Yay! The sense of accomplishment she got after doing something right always made her feel good. It was her favorite part about school and stuff. Even if it was a pain sometimes, getting good grades and doing well and all those kind of things usually created good feelings, and she liked those a lot.

“Thanks.” She managed to say before he continued. "And I believe you are right that we have not. I am Raines Bradley, of the Louisiana Bradleys." The halfblood tilted her head to the side just a little. So, very proper and long introduction. He belonged to a state, too. That meant he was probably a pureblood or super stuck up. Oh well, she didn’t mind at all!

“Um…Jessica Zeworth…I don’t belong to a state or anything, sorry.” She was pretty sure he wasn’t a Pecari; she hadn’t seen him around there. She glanced at her crossword again. She didn’t know what thirteen across was. Even though ‘lamp post’ fit the description and the number of boxes, she was pretty sure that wasn’t the right answer at all.

“So…” She said slowly. “You’re really good at crossword puzzles?”

0 Jessica My awesome company? 0 Jessica 0 5

Autumn

June 29, 2010 7:54 PM

My hero! by Autumn

Autumn was pleased to see that the person she had spoken to was an Aladren and that he confirmed to her that his name was Brad which was what she had thought it was. Remembering people's names was a very important thing, regardless of whether or not the person was pureblood, halfblood, muggleborn or even muggle.

Not that Autumn had ever met an actual muggle. Lily's mom was one, but according to Lily, and for that matter, their father and Grandmother Amelia, Lily's mother was not someone that Autumn would want to meet. Not because she was a muggle, but because of she was-well, the first year was not allowed to use words like that.

Still it was rude to not remember someone's name. Unless you had some serious memory issues-like amnesia or having destroyed your memory with certain substances-or they were not people you had met more than a few times, it showed a lack of respect for the other person, like they did not matter, like they were not worth remembering

Autumn blushed as he referred to her as a damsel in distress, something about the way Brad said it did not make it sound like an insult where he thought she was weak-even though she knew she was. "Autumn Collins, first year Crotalus." She replied, nervously brushing her curly brown hair out of her face. The fact that Brad had sounded unenthusiastic did not exactly help to decrease Autumn's anxiety but she was glad it was because he disliked crossword puzzles and not her.

She just hoped the latter would remain true. So far, Autumn had not done too horribly with talking to people. She thought she'd got on with Nadi and Jane both well enough but that did not mean the streak of luck would continue. "I can take or leave them myself." Autumn admitted. It was just that she preferred them to well, the stuff they usually did in DADA.

But what they were doing did not matter that much when it came to the fact that they were being timed and competition was involved. Autumn had given up the idea of winning right out of the box but she still didn't want to fail. "Do you mind if we don't win this?" The Crotalus asked. Autumn feverently hoped so,it would help her feel a little less nervous, a little less sick to her stomach if she was working with someone who did not care about winning.

11 Autumn My hero! 164 Autumn 0 5

Raines

June 30, 2010 10:53 PM

I prefer money or an unspecified future favors. by Raines

The statement that she didn’t belong to a state was enough to throw Raines slightly off balance; for a moment, his expression slipped into open confusion before he remembered himself and smoothed it once more. How did one not belong to a state? Either one was from the United States, and was thus part of a state by default, or from another country, which was another kind of state and likely had internal divisions into named territories anyway. Everyone at least had a town, or a city generally close enough to affiliate themselves with.

The only possible way to make that make sense was to assume that she was Muggleborn and that he knew even less about Muggles than he thought he did. They had not featured greatly in his education – they had, in fact, barely factored in at all, and why should they have? He’d never even seen one – but he had been under the impression that their maps looked more or less like those wizards used, and that they lived in some kind of familial and larger social units, which would logically lead to familiarity with the concept of being from somewhere. So that did not really make it make sense, either, and Raines did not like to admit that he might not know as much about something as he thought he did anyway.

Perhaps it was cultural translation. Nothing in his studies had indicated that people from other places did not use branch labeling the way his country did, but nor had anything indicated that they did. International etiquette was something he hadn’t covered yet. Yes, that would do for an explanation.

“I seldom use them,” he said when asked about crosswords. “I do have an adequate vocabulary and grasp of mathematics, though, and that seems to be all that is required.” He wrote ‘acclaro prastigiae’ in the squares for twelve across and, reluctantly because of the way it would slow him down, gave in to her apparent desire for conversation. “Do you enjoy them, Miss Zeworth?”

0 Raines I prefer money or an unspecified future favors. 0 Raines 0 5

Brad

June 30, 2010 11:39 PM

That's <i>exactly</i> what I am! by Brad

“Autumn—I like that name,” he decided with a nod and a smile. “Can’t go wrong with seasons! You ever met anyone named Winter or Spring? It stinks that no parents seem to pick those names for their kids. I think every season deserves some representation!” He felt very passionately about the issue. One day, when he had children, he was one hundred percent sure he was going to name them after the seasons. It was simply the just thing to do!

“Oh, I don’t mind if we don’t do it at all!” he told her, pushing the crossword aside. “Hate the things, myself…Unless they have to do with comic books, of course, but this one doesn’t.” The redhead shook his head and gave the crossword a disapproving look. His green eyes shifted their focus back to Autumn, looking at her with curiosity.

“You a comic book fan?” he asked, eyebrows raised. “I’m a fanatic, myself. Can’t get enough of ‘em. They’re really the best kind of books out there. They’re fun and exciting, and they don’t make your brain hurt with lines and lines of description—the artists give you all the description you need in their epic drawings! I can’t even remember the last time I read any other type of book.” He’d ignored his book assignments throughout his elementary school years back in Kansas. He didn’t have time for boring stuff like that when his huge collection of comics kept him so occupied. His parents were never happy with his English grade come report card time…

0 Brad That's <i>exactly</i> what I am! 0 Brad 0 5

Tristan Volkmann (Pecari)

July 01, 2010 4:06 AM

I'm way better at word searches by Tristan Volkmann (Pecari)

Tristan didn’t know how he was supposed to get his grade up in DADA when he had to do boring stuff like a crossword puzzle for credit. He read the top of the page and frowned at the title. He didn’t want to work on boring review stuff. If he wanted to ‘review’ he’d go to the library or study or something. But he had better things to do, like Quidditch, so obviously he wasn’t ever going to review on his own if he could help it.

Tristan really didn’t want to do the assignment, but if his parents saw he wasn’t doing better in school who knows what they’d do to their only son. Probably make him get a tutor over the summer or something, which would be a waste of even more of his time. Suddenly motivated to avoid this happening, he got out a quill and inkwell and put his bag and Quidditch magazines to the side. If his summertime was spent with tutors, it meant less time with his private Quidditch coach. That’s not something he wanted to even think about happening.

He started to do them in order when he got stuck 6. He couldn’t remember for the life of him what the answer was. “Did you get number 6?” he asked the person working next to him, hoping to get a hint or something.

0 Tristan Volkmann (Pecari) I'm way better at word searches 0 Tristan Volkmann (Pecari) 0 5

Sam

July 01, 2010 5:36 PM

Empathy is my middle name. by Sam

Randomness. Maybe that really was the key. All of his old teachers had been fond of saying that he should take what questions might come during that year's Standarized Tests in the order that the answers came to him, and while he'd always been too prone to marking in the wrong row of tiny blue bubbles when he left some blank, it appeared to work for his yearmate and many a Muggle schoolchild. Since the nature of the puzzle demanded that he have blanks in many places no matter what order he took the questions in, the strategy might bear re-examination for a day.

He was distracted from this line of thought by the formal introduction. Apparently, he was either wrong about their social structure supporting the assumption that everyone knew who everyone was, or he came across as being really unobservant. There wasn't much to do but go with it either way, though, so he extended his hand. "Right," he said, with his customary half-smile. People who smiled too widely disturbed him; they looked fake, like Rachel. Who might well kill him if he introduced himself as...."I'm Sam Bauer, Crotalus. Nice meeting you." Neal might be on the formal side, but Sam doubted he'd introduce himself as 'Samuel' to the presidents.

As for the other thing, well....Bauer wasn't such a weird name as all that. There was no real reason for anyone to hear 'Bauer,' look at him, and immediately assume that he was anything to Rachel even in the highly family-conscious magical world and on days when he wasn't wearing printed t-shirts. She was tall, blonde, pretty, all-magical, and designer, and he was...none of those things. Well, he had, on one occasion, been called pretty, but that had been an insult, and even if it had been true, he still wouldn't have borne the slightest resemblance to his alleged first cousin. He thought her reputation was fairly safe from the short, openly half-blood, dark-haired dork in the corner.

Plus, really: what were the odds that a Pecari from first year even knew who Rachel was? Aunt Emily was paranoid, and Rach talked like she was the biggest thing since portable wands, but from what he'd seen, her only real friend was that Veronica girl, and everyone else had their own friends and in-clique problems. Not much noticing Rachel and commenting on her faked blood status seemed to happen.

Noticing an answer for four down he hadn't been able to think of when he'd glanced at Neal's puzzle, however, had happened, and he felt something like the second cousin of guilt and obligation. Sam understood the practical benefits of careful, near-failsafe cheating, but he had never felt right about exploiting them. Beside, dude had his book. "Want to pair up for the rest of this?" he offered. "Looks like we're both pretty good at these things, so we might finish that much faster." And that meant no homework. Quite the prize, and worth risking social interaction to get.

16 Sam Empathy is my middle name. 163 Sam 0 5

Delilah Kerrigan, Pecari

July 02, 2010 10:55 AM

I'm really not. by Delilah Kerrigan, Pecari

When Delilah heard that they were going to be doing a crossword puzzle, she couldn’t help groaning. She might not have minded it so much if she could actually do crossword puzzles, but she did, as they involved that pesky thing called spelling. This is why she much preferred practical to theoretical lessons, as once she knew what the spell was; she could manage to get it. Unfortunately, it wasn’t up to her to what the lesson would be. It was up to Professor Levy who had decided on the crossword puzzle. What else could she do, but try? She just hoped her dad thought it was enough since her grades really hadn’t gotten any better than they had been before.

Pulling out her quill, Delilah scanned down the paper looking for one that she knew and knew how to spell. She thought she might know number two, but she wasn’t a hundred percent on the spelling so she continued on. She dismissed most as not knowing how to spell the words and a couple on not actually knowing them. Finally, when she got to number fourteen, she nearly cheered out loud. Yes, she not only knew the answer, but she knew how to spell it. Quickly, she jotted down L-U-M-O-S in the box. The only other one she got was five down and put in P-O-I-N-T—M-E. Aside from those two, she was definitely going to need her book, making her feel like if she couldn’t do the simple review, there was no way she was going to pass the test.

She was digging through her backpack when she heard a voice next to her. Glancing up with her brown eyes, she noticed Tristan, a boy that she was on the Quidditch team with. Well, she was an alternate, so generally not so needed, but still around. Though, she did miss quite a few practices in favor of studying. Dad’s rules and all. She gave him a quick smile before checking out which one he was talking about. “I think it’s Confundo, but I’m not sure. I can’t remember how to spell it,” she replied. That was the story of most of the items on the page. She had an idea as to answer, but just wasn’t sure since she couldn’t spell the words. It was going to be a long class period.

0 Delilah Kerrigan, Pecari I'm really not. 0 Delilah Kerrigan, Pecari 0 5

Kirstenna Melcher

July 03, 2010 6:15 PM

Refusing to compete by Kirstenna Melcher

As Kirstenna heard the lesson for Defense, she groaned inwardly to herself. Generally speaking, the Teppenpaw did not care if a lesson was practical or theoretical, though Kirstenna felt she did better on spellwork than lessons which required reading, writing or attention to detail, like in Potions. Potions, she felt lacked any opportunity to be creative.

The problem with this lesson, however was not that she had any real issue with crosswords. It was that, once again, Professor Levy had turned the day's activity into a competition...and Kirstenna was tired of it. Why did everything, particularly in this class have to be about who was the best? All it did was make people who weren't as good at something feel bad about themselves and give them self-esteem issues. (Even though Kirstenna did appreciate that the nature of a crossword gave a chance for those who were less athletic and more intellectually oriented to be the winners.)

That was it. Aside from Quidditch, Kirstenna was done . Done with competition. She would do the lesson-as she had no objection to the crossword puzzle itself and it would make centuries of her ancestors roll over in their graves and prove her grandparents right about her if she refused-but Kirstenna would do it at her own pace and not care if she finished first. As much as she would be glad to not do homework-if she didn't, she would have more time to hang out with her friends-it was more important to take a stand, so to speak.

And it didn't stop there. Kirstenna would no longer compete in anything else. She was not going to try to get house points or worry about losing them. And she certainly wouldn't try to win any other competition in a class. Not even if the prize was a million Galleons and a million points for Tepp.

Kirstenna turned to her crossword and filled in the ones she knew, which wasn't really that many. Ideally, she would work with someone, she liked working with others, but at the moment, Kirstenna didn't want to bother anyone-even Brian or Sophia-in case they cared about winning as she did not want to hold them back.

She looked at four down, this one was really stumping her. Kirstenna was not one to read ahead in her text really, but this was one she was supposed to know now. It was too bad she couldn't take this for Quentin to help her with later but those were the breaks.

It was probably a good thing Kirstenna didn't care about winning as this particular clue was holding her up. She heard the person next to her speak. "Pardon? I'm sorry I didn't catch what you said. You don't happen to have the answer for four across,do you?" Kirstenna asked.

11 Kirstenna Melcher Refusing to compete 161 Kirstenna Melcher 0 5

Autumn

July 03, 2010 11:36 PM

Which is what I need by Autumn

"Um, thanks." Autumn replied."I haven't met anyone named Winter or Spring-or Summer either but I really haven't met that many people." She looked down at her desk embarassed. Brad might think her terribly sheltered for not knowing many other people. Of course, had she been born in a different season, she might have been named Winter,Spring or Summer.

"Actually, I probably should have been named after a plant or flower, as my older sister is Lily and my younger sister is Willow." Autumn generally felt like the oddly named one out of the three, something she generally did not like being. Of course, it could have been worse, as her sister's best friend had a younger sister named Strawberry. Besides, even though Autumn immensely hated being different in any way, she had always thought her name suited her. She couldn't imagine being named Rose or something.

And even in a class full of people with fairly normal names, Autumn's was not the most unusual, she was pretty sure that honor belonged to Kirstenna Melcher, and even her roommates had more unique names than she did. Previously, Autumn had never heard of the name Nadi-she'd heard of Nadia but not Nadi-and the world wasn't exactly full of Cosettes.

Actually, Autumn was sort of afraid that her name was not unusual enough with her year and house group and if things were based on names (which Autumn was sure they weren't and which would have been a silly way to sort things), she and Kirstenna probably should have switched rooms.

The fact that the Crotalus first year boys were named Sam and Nick was immensely comforting. Unless, of course, those turned out to be short for something other than Samuel or Nicholas.

Which brought her to another question. "Your name is nice too. Is Brad short for Bradley?" Autumn asked.

"Well, we kind of have to do the puzzle." She replied. The first year bit her lip, hating to disagree with Brad, as she didn't want him to get mad at her or think she was bossy. (Which would be strange, actually, Autumn was less assertive than everyone she knew, even Adam or her aunt Oleta.)

"I mean, I really do not want to fail." She added. Failing a class was unacceptable to her, not because anyone in her family would get mad at her, but because Autumn would be mad at herself. "I just don't think I can do this well enough to win."

Autumn shook her head. "I've never really read much for comic books." Admittedly she was more the myth and fairy tale type, though she probably should have been outgrowing the latter. "But artwork? Really?" She totally got what he was saying, as Autumn definitely preferred a clear picture of something rather than a general description of how it looked. In fact, she was better at doing things that way herself. It was one reason Autumn loved to draw and paint. She could paint a picture of something much better than she could describe it using words.

It surprised her too, to hear that Brad didn't read much for non-comic books. After all, he was an Aladren. Aladrens generally liked reading didn't they? But Brad seemed much more like a Teppenpaw as he was pretty nice and didn't like reading books or crosswords. "I'd like to see that." Autumn admitted shyly. "The artwork in the comic books, I mean."

11 Autumn Which is what I need 164 Autumn 0 5

Neal

July 06, 2010 1:58 AM

‘Appreciates Empathy’ is mine by Neal

Neal nodded at Sam Bauer, Crotalus. “Nice to meet you, too,” he said in return. Sam seemed a bit high-strung, but didn’t come off a bad guy. At least his introduction was casual and relaxed. Maybe it just took him a while to warm up to people. Neal watched in mild amusement as the other first year zoned out and seemed to get stuck in his own thoughts. Not wanting to interrupt his thoughts in case they were anything important, Neal went back to trying to determine answers for his crossword.

It didn’t take very long for Sam to snap out of it and fix his focus back to the task at hand, or rather back to the DADA worksheet. Neal tilted his head at the proposition, his bloodshot eyes tracing lines between his paper and Sam’s as he thought about it. After a few seconds, he smiled good-naturedly. “Sure, I don’t mind working together,” he told the other first year nonchalantly in his flat voice.

Sam seemed nice and he never had a problem with partnering up before, so it wasn’t like he had even considered saying no. He was just confused about Sam asking to work together. With how nervous Sam came off, he hadn’t expected to be asked to team-up on his freewill anytime soon. To show he was alright with it, he changed the angle he worked at so he could look up at Sam easier so he wouldn’t have to crane his entire body to the side to show he was listening.

Sam mentioned how he wanted to finish faster, probably to win, and Neal laughed. He didn’t really care about winning. He’d never been that competitive to begin with and being at Sonora hadn’t really changed that. Still, Sam had been decent enough to lend his book out to a complete stranger with a bad case of bed-head and wrinkled robes, so it wouldn’t kill him to return the favor. “Sounds like a plan.” He stopped caring about his doodles as he wracked his brain to start making some connections. He started to fill in an answer, making sure to let Sam in on the changes he made to his puzzle. “I’m pretty sure thirteen across is Hinkypunk.”

0 Neal ‘Appreciates Empathy’ is mine 0 Neal 0 5

Jessica

July 06, 2010 12:40 PM

Um...I don't have anything for you by Jessica

Raines didn’t seem to be much of a talker. Sonora was really weird like that. Most boys she had met here didn’t enjoy talking much or whatever. Cooper was a really good example. Well, maybe not. She was pretty sure Cooper didn’t enjoy much of anything, so his dislike of conversation didn’t really count for much. Raines just looked as if he preferred to keep to himself.

Maybe that was why Jessica preferred having guy friends. They didn’t really…gossip or whatever. She hated hanging out with girls sometimes. Insulting gossip usually revolved around her bald head, and that just got annoying. Guys were just easier to hang out with.

“I guess I like them.” She replied, frowning at her practically blank crossword. “My brain just doesn’t work right with them sometimes. I blank and I can’t remember anything. I like word searches more.”

It was true. Jessica still couldn’t think of another answer, which stunk because all of the clues sounded familiar. Word searches required less thought, more concentration. She liked that about those. Concentration was something she was really good at, as long as she didn’t run into a big distraction!

“You can call me Jessica.” She added. “Miss Zeworth sounds so formal!”

0 Jessica Um...I don't have anything for you 0 Jessica 0 5

Brad

July 06, 2010 1:28 PM

I'm glad to be of assistance by Brad

“You’re welcome,” Brad replied with a smile when she thanked him for the name compliment. “Well, at least you’re different from them,” he said when she told him about her sisters’ flowery names. “Your name’s unique—I think that’s the word?” He tilted his head slightly, wondering if his word choice was fitting; he wasn’t exactly a walking dictionary.

“Your name is nice too.”

“Thanks!” he replied brightly. “Yeah, I don’t like Bradley, though—it sounds dorky. Brad gets the job done better.” He nodded decidedly.

The redhead frowned when Autumn insisted that they do the puzzle. “But it’s so boring…” He frowned as he looked at the crossword again. He looked back at Autumn; she seemed pretty concerned about completing the assignment. Well, he didn’t want her to be a Damsel in Distress. He supposed he’d have to just suck it up and do it. After biting his lip for a moment, he said, “Okay, we can do it.” His attitude remained unchanged, but he tried his best to pretend he was at least a tiny bit interested in doing the work. He slid his crossword back to the center of his desk. He furrowed his brow at the quill and ink on the side of his desk, taking out a pencil to use instead. It wasn’t like this was a formal essay or something—thank God—and it would be a pain not to be able to erase his answers, especially when he had no idea what he was doing.

“Aw, that’s a shame,” said Brad when Autumn revealed she wasn’t a big comic book reader like he was. Comics held a vast world that sparked the imagination, and the Aladren thought everyone should read them. They were as vital to Brad as food or water.

“I’d like to see that. The artwork in the comic books, I mean.”

“Oh—I have some comics right here!” he said excitedly, reaching into his book bag and pulling them out. “Which one do you wanna see—The Dark Knight Returns #1, The Flash #123, or Adventures of Superman #500? Personally, I like the Superman one the best, ‘cause he’s my favorite hero.” He grinned, very happy to discuss comics with someone.

0 Brad I'm glad to be of assistance 0 Brad 0 5

Raines

July 09, 2010 10:36 PM

Not even a small favor? by Raines

Raines' eyebrows rose again at the permission to call her by her first name. "We have not been acquainted for long, Miss - Jessica," he said with difficulty. Technically, the address he'd just given was only correct if she was not an eldest daughter and he needed to distinguish between them, but it was the closest he could bring himself to following her directive. "Formality is considered appropriate for ladies and gentlemen who have just met in this country."

He could think them without much difficulty, once he had a definite feeling on the person, but speaking first names, in general, made Raines uncomfortable; half the time, it was all he could do to call his roommate 'Theodore' instead of addressing him as 'Mr. Manzana' even after living with him for a year and a half. Using a first name with no title to keep the owner at a distance implied a degree of intimacy that made him uncomfortable even when it involved married couples. Just hearing some relatives doing that in family gatherings was enough to make his skin crawl, and he couldn't even imagine his parents using each other's names in public. They hardly ever did in private.

"Have you had any luck with number five down?" he added as an afterthought, considering the matter of names settled definitively. If she came here for schooling, then she had presumably done so with the understanding that certain cultural differences would have to be adjusted to.

0 Raines Not even a small favor? 0 Raines 0 5

Autumn

July 11, 2010 6:30 PM

And I'm glad you are. by Autumn

Autumn nodded. The thing was she didn't like being unique. Unique was a euphemism for different and people who were different got picked on and excluded. They didn't make friends. That was what had happened to Nina's older brother Adam and in fact, Nina herself. Autumn's cousin, whom she would have thought would have been popular as she was similar to the type of person Lily said became popular at Sonora, aside from that she was nicer and less arrogant, had confided in Autumn about she felt left out among her roommates because they were on the Quidditch team and Nina was not allowed to play.

Still, nobody made fun of her for her name being different than Lily's and Willow's and Autumn was happy about that. It wasn't real likely that they would either, as Lily was long graduated and Autumn would be by the time Willow got here. The only one who knew was Brad now and he seemed to think being unique was a good thing.

"It's not on purpose. That my name is different, I mean." Autumn explained. "My sister Lily had a different mom and her name is for some long dead ancestor, Lilith Brockert. Then when my sister Willow was born, it was a name my parents liked. They wouldn't have singled me out as different or deliberately gone with a theme anyway." The Crotalus felt comfortable telling Brad this, she felt comfortable with him.

She continued. "But if you want to be called Brad, then I'll call you that." It didn't matter to Autumn, if that was what he wanted. She wanted him to like her and she would not do anything to ruin her chances of that.

"I'm sorry." Autumn apologized, when Brad said the puzzle was boring. Suddenly, she was worried again that he wouldn't like her if she insisted they do it, but she didn't want to get in trouble. "It seems like a lot of it is review." She added, hoping that would make it seem easier for him. "If we get it done fast, we won't have to worry about it." That would be good for her too as Autumn was a worrier. "Then we can talk about names and comic books and whatever else we want."

"I guess I'll look at the Superman one then." She said, going with Brad's recommendation. Autumn had never heard of any of those things, and she assumed they were muggle comics. However, she didn't want to tell Brad she hadn't heard of these comics because she was afraid he wouldn't like her.

11 Autumn And I'm glad you are. 164 Autumn 0 5

Brad

July 12, 2010 12:39 AM

What a nice balance by Brad

Brad listened curiously as Autumn explained the origin of her name. “Doesn’t matter if it’s on purpose or not,” he replied. “Your name’s different either way, and that's good.” He smiled at her reassuringly.

“No need to apologize,” he told her. “You haven’t done anything wrong, Autumn.” He didn’t like it when people felt that they were wrongdoers if they were perfectly innocent. Wrongdoing was reserved for evil souls, like Lex Luthor, the Green Goblin, or the Joker—the thought of the Joker sent a shiver down his spine. His parents hadn’t permitted him to see The Dark Knight movie because they’d deemed it inappropriate, but he’d still seen snippets of it in TV ads. The Joker’s face—especially those eyes—had made it impossible for Brad to sleep at night when he’d first witnessed the ad. Michael, one of his six older brothers, had dressed up as the Joker for Halloween a couple years ago. Brad wouldn't admit it, of course, but the costume had scared the jeepers out of him, and the nightmares had returned for a solid couple of weeks afterward. As he looked at Autumn, he decided there was no way on earth that she could possibly stoop to such a low, terrifying level as the Joker's!

Brad tried to resist the urge to frown because he didn’t want Autumn to feel bad, but he couldn’t help it as she suggested that they get it done fast. He wasn’t good with puzzles, so there was no way he was going to be able to do it quickly. But since Autumn was so eager, maybe it wouldn’t be so hard.

“All right,” he said with a nod, smiling in anticipation when she mentioned that they’d get to discuss comics once they finished. “Good choice!” he added when she picked out the Superman issue. “You won’t be disappointed by that one, lemme tell ya!” He grinned enthusiastically.

“Let’s get started, then…‘Goblin-like creature that loves bloodshed’—the Green Goblin!” he exclaimed immediately. He looked to 2-Across in excitement, but there weren’t nearly enough boxes to fit the supervillain’s name. “Nuts!” he said, snapping his finger.

0 Brad What a nice balance 0 Brad 0 5

Sam

July 12, 2010 2:43 PM

What a happy coincidence. by Sam

When Neal laughed, Sam wasn’t quite sure what he had done to amuse, but decided to be charitable and assume he had done something amusing and wasn’t being made fun of. It wasn’t like there was much he could do about it if he was, anyway – he was still smaller than most people in his class, which made fighting stupid from a purely strategic point of view, and his mom would be just as inclined to kill him if he somehow won as she would if he lost – and he quite liked the bland pleasantness with which he usually saw Sonorans treat each other and with which he was generally treated. Upsetting that when he wasn’t completely sure it would lead to friendship was far from something he felt like doing.

“Eh, you know, plans and Crotalus,” he said lightly. Sam had never thought of himself as a planner, not really, but supposed he could see how the House label applied if he squinted. On the rare occasions that he flirted with the limits of the rules, he usually had an exit strategy that minimized the possibility and severity of any punishments, and his mother had always fondly, exasperatedly commented that he could talk his way out of anything on the spot if he had to. Maybe he subconsciously planned a lot more than he thought he did. It was as good an answer as any, since he was pretty sure he didn’t meet most of the House’s definition for being a respectable member of society.

He was fairly cool with that.

Neal’s answer to thirteen across fit both the blanks and the clue, so Sam nodded. “Agreed,” he said, writing it in. “I’m pretty sure six across is ‘confundo,” he added, counting squares and finding them in agreement. “Mom had to use that one way too much when I was in Muggle school.” That and memory charms had been all that, on a few occasions, kept people from taking Lacy Johnson and her certainty that he was a wizard or a demigod or whatever other non-Muggle entity she was taking him for that week seriously; he’d always been….emotional, and the average Muggle schoolchild had a better ability to spot pushable buttons than a trained interrogator from the U.N.. Sam had suggested, more than once and in all seriousness, that his mom follow up on the introductory Obliviation course she’d taken when he started kindergarten and get some real money out of her ability to fool the populace, but she was apparently happy in her current non-career.

16 Sam What a happy coincidence. 163 Sam 0 5

Dulce Garcia (Teppenpaw)

July 13, 2010 7:01 PM

This is easy...sort of. by Dulce Garcia (Teppenpaw)

Dulce sat in her usual spot, the middle seat farthest to the left near the wall. She considered this spot to be the blind spot for professors. Rarely was she ever called on to answer anything and for the most part, people just left her alone. It wasn’t that she feared she would be wrong with her answers, she could care less if she was, and it wasn’t that she cared what people would think of her because other people’s opinions never gave her a sleepless night. It was more of the fact that she just didn’t want to answer. It was plain and simple. She didn’t want to be spoken to and she didn’t want to speak.

So, sitting in the classroom, Dulce’s light eyes gazed at nothing while she listened to the Professor’s lesson. Whoever didn’t understand what a crossword puzzle was should be thrown in Azkaban. And that certainly wasn’t something they could call a ‘muggles’ game because those puzzles were in the Daily Profit and in all those witches girl magazines. She would know, her mother and sister did them all the time. And sometimes her father would let her help when he did his on Sunday mornings.

As soon as they were given the okay to start the puzzle, Dulce dug right in, ignoring everyone else around her. She had no plans on partnering up.
1. Stupefy
2. Red Cap
3. Petrificus Totalus
4. Calloportus
5. Point Me
6. Confundo
7. Expelliarmus
8. Pogrebin
9. Kappa
10. Protego
11. Grindylow
12. Specialis Revelio
13. HinkyPunk
14. Lumos
15.

Dulce only had one more to do and she would have completed the entire puzzle all on her own, but she was stuck on the last one. What spell freezes a person? She would have put stupefy, but that had already been used and it didn’t necessarily freeze them so much and knocked them right out. Besides, this one had an S in it.

A frown twitched at the corners of her mouth as she thought about what the answer was. In the midst of her thoughts, Dulce became aware of the attention her neighbor was currently giving her paper. Casually, Dulce placed an arm over her answers and glared at the person beside her. “Yes? Can I help you?”

0 Dulce Garcia (Teppenpaw) This is easy...sort of. 0 Dulce Garcia (Teppenpaw) 0 5

Autumn

July 14, 2010 6:51 PM

And balance is good. by Autumn

Autumn smiled. Brad seemed so nice and easy to talk to and generally, that was the type of person she preferred to be around. The Crotalus felt uncomfortable around people who didn't seem so. Chelsea, for example, was someone Autumn felt massively intimidated by even though she'd never actually said anything mean about Autumn. She did,however, say mean things about Lily and Nina, who had always been kind to her.

She didn't completely agree, however, that it was good to be unique. Maybe in terms of her artwork which was an expression of who she was inside but usually when all were the same except one, that one got singled out and made fun of by the others.

Not that her sisters did that to her, ever. Willow looked up to Autumn and Autumn looked up to Lily, even though she knew she would never be as bold and brave as her older sister. Yet the first year still admired her.

Autumn also felt something like relief when Brad said she had nothing to apologize for. She was always somehow worried that she did. She wasn't sure why, Autumn had never been a scapegoat at home and nobody treated her poorly there. Still, for some reason Autumn couldn't stand the thought of someone blaming her for something.

She grinned genuinely at Brad. Autumn could tell he was as passionate about comics as she was about her painting and drawing. The Crotalus also somewhat envied his ability to be so vocal about what he loved. Autumn generally didn't share her artwork with many people or even that she did it. Some people might make fun of her for being artsy (and shy) rather than athletic (and outgoing).

"I think it's red cap actually." She replied. Autumn was not entirely sure. Professor Levy had told them that the creatures were things she wanted to familiarize them with but they weren't at the moment."I know the spells a little better." She admitted.

11 Autumn And balance is good. 164 Autumn 0 5