Star light, star bright. on Labyrinth Gardens

Clark Dill

July 01, 2016 3:02 PM

Science Club: Playing with Telescopes by Clark Dill

Clark was excited to open the new year with another meeting of the science club. The day he returned from his winter holiday in Maryland, he put up the posters adverting the next meeting. "Science Club Presents: Astronomy! Join the Science Club Friday night after dinner in the Labyrinth Gardens for an evening of stargazing! Telescopes will be provided, but feel welcome to bring your own. We should be able to see Mercury this week! Remember to dress warm."

He normally had library duties on Fridays, but he'd found someone to cover him for that night, and as much as he loved the Library, he was kind of excited to have a Friday night off for once. (He worked Saturday nights, too, so missing a shift had been unavoidable since non-school nights worked best for everyone else for late-night extracurriculars, and stargazing by its very nature required meeting after sundown.)

Well, 'night off' inasmuch as running a club meeting counted as being off, but it was a telescope day, and that was pretty close. Telescope days were generally popular since Astronomy was a science recognized in both the muggle and magical worlds, and it didn't really require a lot of extra work on Clark's part to organize. He just needed to remember to ask the elves to transport the school's supply of telescopes to the garden clearing that night, and that was that. Winter was good for it, too, because the sun went down so early so they had loads of time before curfew to make their observations.

The night of the meeting, Clark hurried through his dinner in record time so he could get out and start setting things up before the rest of the club arrived. It didn't take terribly long, though, to put up signs directing the way to the right clearing (he had picked one pretty far from the school to reduce the effect of light pollution) and putting the telescopes up on their tripods, so by the time the next person arrived, Clark was already looking through one of the scopes.

"Heya," he greeted casually. "Informal night tonight, just grab a scope." This was already the second telescope night this school year, so he expected most people who were coming came to the previous one and already knew how the work the equipment. "Any trouble, just give a holler. We've got a great night tonight for this." It was a crisp and clear January evening and visibility was just about perfect. "Mercury will be setting soon, so it's low to the western horizon. Don't forget to check it out before it goes down!"

Clark had taken his gloves off to make finer adjustments to his telescope's focus, so his fingers would have been close to frostbite by now if he hadn't put a warming charm on them, but he had so they were merely chilly when the light breeze picked up and blew over them. "I recommend warming charms, though," he added as the wind rustled through the garden hedges again. He absently rubbed his hands together for the friction heat.

"Go forth, have fun, and do science!" he concluded with a grin, waving the student toward the collection of telescopes.

He met each subsequent arrival with a similar greeting.

Subthreads:

Yoooooo by Sammy Meeks

Crazy Friday night plans by Arianna Valenti with Louis Valois

Star light, star bright. by John Umland with Farrah Welsh

1 Clark Dill Science Club: Playing with Telescopes 277 Clark Dill 1 5

Sammy Meeks

July 03, 2016 3:05 AM

Yoooooo by Sammy Meeks

Space?

Space?!

SPAAAAAAAAAAAACE!

Science Club was pretty awesome, but this was the pièce de résistance of its coolness. Studying rocks could be surprisingly interesting, and the biology of animals had always been fun, but this was a whole other level. This was space. The idea of the viewing fueled her the whole first week of classes, energizing her. I’m gonna see space if I can just make it to Friday, she told herself. And at last, here she was. Space day.

Seeing the telescopes got Sammy so excited that she immediately forgot the cold that nipped her nose and fingertips (maybe fingerless gloves, retrospectively, weren’t the best for January). Her moms had always collectively made enough that the family wasn’t really struggling, but they’d still never had enough money to throw around on expensive space-viewing equipment. But at Sonora, money was, like, never an issue. Actually, that was probably not good thinking; surely some people who went here still struggled with money. But what she meant was that overall, it seemed like the school itself had enough funding (or maybe just enough magic) to make just about anything possible. Man, magic was great.

Clark said that Mercury would be in view, so she dashed to the nearest telescope and tried to angle it just right. He also said it would be in the west, though, and she wasn’t quite sure which way that necessarily was. “Hey,” she said to a neighbor. “Do you know which way is west? I want to see Mercury, but I’m not very good with directions.”

12 Sammy Meeks Yoooooo 310 Sammy Meeks 0 5

Arianna Valenti

July 03, 2016 10:26 AM

Crazy Friday night plans by Arianna Valenti

Joining the Science Club had initially been a bit of a toss up for Arianna. On one hand, she already went to school all day, and did homework after class, and didn’t want to do anything additionally nerdy. On the other hand, that schooling only included magical subjects. She knew of course, that Mamma and Papa had a whole summer curriculum planned for Gabriel and Arianna when they returned from school. This summer was sure to be filled with whatever non-magical seventh graders learned about. But, she did kind of miss the familiarity and comfort of studying a subject that she already knew things about. And she had promised her parents she would try every club at least once, except for Library monitoring, because how dull was that? It definitely helped Science Club’s case that it was led by the super cool, super victorious Aladren Seeker. And so, Arianna Giulia Valenti had become a regular Science Club attendee.

She was unclear as to whether this was magic at work or not, but Sonora got surprisingly cold in the winter. Not as bad as New York, of course, but still cooler than she expected. So she was wearing her maroon hoodie with the white varsity stripes, black jeans, and her white Chucks. She covered her head with a camel-colored slouch beanie, hair still in the French braid it had been in all day. Just because this was kind of a nerd activity, didn’t mean she couldn’t also be cute. Besides, she had wanted her roommates to think she had something interesting going on on a Friday night. Perception matttered. Even if they didn’t hang out, she didn’t want them thinking she was some nerd.

She had also remembered the warming charm Theodore had put on her for her first Quidditch game, and been trying it out at practices ever since. She was confident she would be perfectly cozy tonight.

“Hey Clark,” she greeted her teammate in a friendly tone. She liked being able to greet older students, and liked thay they would know her, too. Especially accomplished students, like Clark, who was a Seeker, club leader, and a Prefect. His parents must be so proud, he could probably get into whatever college he wanted. Arianna wanted those kinds of options for herself, one day. That was about the extent of their friendship, though, so she moved on, glad for her warming charm as the wind bustled by. She pulled at her beanie absent-mindedly as she looked around for an open telescope.

“Hi -is that one taken?”she asked another student, pointing at the seemingly available telescope next to them.

0 Arianna Valenti Crazy Friday night plans 343 Arianna Valenti 0 5

John Umland

July 03, 2016 1:23 PM

Star light, star bright. by John Umland

On balance, there were probably more arguments against doing something fun the night before one had to get up to work the first shift than there were for doing whatever it was one enjoyed, but John had not allowed them to sway him from his purpose. He did a lot of things for the reasons he’d always done a lot of things – because it was expected of him, because he wanted to learn certain skills, because he enjoyed the stimulation of interacting with others who shared his interests in a focused environment where there was a good chance at least some of them would only engage in simplified, practical social behaviors that he could easily interpret and respond to for the length of the exercise – but Science Club was his favorite thing of all the things he did. He hoped that telescope night would be more relaxing than exciting, plus there was a chance, considering how early the sun went down this time of year, that he might relax again before bedtime even if it did send him to his books, but if it didn’t work out that way, he’d deal with it in the morning. The caffeine molecule had been placed on earth for reasons other than its negative impact on those species of insects which liked to try to eat parts of a certain species of camellia, after all.

Julian had given him a new coat for Christmas, a nicer coat than John thought he had owned in the past few years, but he put on his shapeless old brown one for the meeting. It was good for anything short of a blizzard, adaptable enough for three seasons out of the year, and it was familiar and comfortable and he didn’t mind if it got a bit battered in the course of whatever he was doing while wearing it. These factors all seemed more important to him than the relative stylishness of the thing, and he expected that everyone at Sonora whose opinion he cared about would agree with his criteria for coat selection. Certainly if the person at Sonora whose opinion probably mattered most to him (after his brother’s, of course; one did have to keep up appearances with the brother) noticed or cared how recently his coat had been made, he didn’t show it as he indicated where Mercury should be for a bit longer.

“Low western horizon,” he repeated. “On it.”

Astronomy wasn’t really John’s field. It was not that he disliked it at all, because he liked it well whenever he was doing it; it just hadn’t caught his interest in the way some things did. He didn’t think there was really much rhyme or reason to why one thing was intensely interesting while another was just enjoyable in the right company. What he lacked in innate fascination with the stars, though, John hoped he at least partially made up for in awareness of their importance. The person who didn’t understand at least some basics about astronomy stood little chance of ever being truly proficient in the other branches of magic and he really did wonder why it was only an elective course at best.

John followed Clark’s lead in removing his gloves as he examined the focus, wincing a little at the sensation of touching the cold metal as he made an adjustment before putting his gloves back on. Every now and then, the school weather behaved oddly like John thought weather for a specific time of year should, and he had known for as long as he could remember that gloves were not just ornamental things worn by rich women and professional drivers. His fingers were nothing to write home about – long, thin things, some of which had seemingly grown in slightly crooked – but he would rather not lose them to the elements. Useful, they were, plus he was used to them. He made a mental note to vigorously apply his scarf to the tip of his nose every few minutes, too, as he didn’t find it a completely objectionable body part, either. His feet, fortunately, were encased in thick socks and boots, so he didn’t have to worry so much about them.

He looked around the terrestrial sphere for a moment, acclimating to the view through the lens, before switching to the sky. The moon made a good reference point, since he had an idea of where that was in the sky from just looking up on the ground with his eyes, and from there, he went west and down, down, down….

“Is that you there?” he asked the skies under his breath, spotting a small grey disk very near the horizon. He wasn’t the best at distinguishing planets from stars or picking out the outlines of the constellations and such, but he thought he was at least pretty close to where he was supposed to be this time.

16 John Umland Star light, star bright. 285 John Umland 0 5

Farrah Welsh

July 05, 2016 7:11 PM

The first 'star' I see tonight. by Farrah Welsh

Farrah’s holiday had been fantastic. The only upset was the fact that her little sister had been super annoying, but Farrah had kind of missed her over the last couple of months, so she had let the annoyance slide for the time being. She had been able to see her friends who, of course, asked her all about her new boarding school and talked about how lame it was that the school was in the Stone Age due to its lack of email and cell phone use. She was able to get in some real ice skating on a real body of water in the real cold too. She was so very grateful for the MARS room for allowing her to continue with ice skating during the year, but having a room that changing upon request wasn’t the same as her pond at home.

She and her friends also discussed the people that she now had to spend her time with. She told them about meeting Killian and Georgia and how she was most comfortable with them (her friends poked fun at her friendship with Killian in the way friends did with the possibility of romance despite the fact that they were eleven and didn’t actually know about such things) and they discussed how she had an evil roommate who was just like the girls back home. They caught up on her other roommate who was from France and therefore, still an enigma to Farrah. Aside from the news of Farrah’s life, she and her friends discussed what happened to her old classmates. They talked about how Jenny Davis got boobs and how Chris Lewis started to get terrible skin problems. It was great!

On top of that, her Christmas gifts were awesome! She got a KiKi’s Delivery Service dress, a new book series to read, and some new skating gear. Plus, her parents also promised a big surprise gift for a summer vacation, but they weren’t going to reveal it until summer because they wanted her to keep her grades up and what better way to do that than to bribe her with a vacation?

Some of the positives that she had mentioned to those at home had been some of the offered clubs the school had. Farrah didn’t think fashion was something she would excel at so she opted to not take that club and sports was definitely not her thing. She had asked her parents if archery was doable, but neither seemed enthused to let her do that either, so that left science club. Science was something that was familiar and home-like for Farrah, so she embraced it just as she had the library duty. Clark was upbeat and she knew him from the library, so she didn’t feel super weird about being in his club, which definitely helped.

She wore her winter jacket and warm boots out to the meeting. Despite being in the desert, the weather was quite drastic. Her dad had warned her though and made sure she was prepared. She smiled at Clark and those who had gotten there before her (trying not to scowl at Arianna in the process) and made her way over to a free telescope when advised to do so. She didn’t know the warming charm, so hopefully her exposure would be limited. She glanced into the telescope and swiveled it about, making the adjustments until she spotted the planet. She made some notes in her notebook regarding the position and image that she saw, but her writing was beginning to become increasingly difficult to read due to her numb fingers. Looking around, she spotted an older student nearby. He was familiar in that she worked with him in the library and saw him around the common room, but she had never really spoken to him outside of that. “Excuse me.” She said quietly, hoping to get his attention without bothering anyone around them. Her teeth were starting to chatter, which was totally embarrassing. “Do you know that charm to keep you warm?’ She asked him. “I haven’t learned it yet.”

6 Farrah Welsh The first 'star' I see tonight. 344 Farrah Welsh 0 5

John

July 06, 2016 11:45 AM

I wish I may, I wish I might. by John

It took John, absorbed in his thoughts about what he was seeing through the telescope, a moment to realize that someone was speaking to him, and then his initial response was a blank, “Huh?” His brain caught up with his ears quickly, though, and he nodded as the dark-haired first year – Farrah, he recognized as yet more of his attention joined the party; she was one of the Assistants who worked with him on Sunday afternoons – explained why she needed his attention when they weren’t at work.

“Yeah, yeah, sure,” he said. Warming charm. Good thing to know and, under the circumstances, use. Meant they could pay more attention to what they were doing and less to not getting frostbite. “Here – “

John didn’t much like casting spells on other people, even simple ones – even when there was no reason to assume anything would go wrong, it was still well within the realm of possibility that something could go wrong, and while he didn’t, to a point, mind endangering himself, don’t hurt people had been one of the Rules for as long as he could remember – but first years generally weren’t all that great at magic. Most of them were better than he’d been as a first year, but there was a good long way between his skill level as a first year and that of a witch or wizard who could reasonably be called ‘great’. Still, it occurred to him after he cast the charm that it had probably been impolite to just cast a spell at her without asking if she wanted to try it herself first, even if her teeth were chattering in a way that suggested her hands were probably none too steady just now.

“Pretty straightforward one,” he said. “No fancy wand movements. I’d practice on – pillows and robes and stuff first if you decide to try to get the hang of it, though.” He noticed that she had a notebook. As John was only rarely without writing materials himself, he did not disapprove of this in the slightest. “Made any good observations so far?” he asked.

16 John I wish I may, I wish I might. 285 John 0 5

Louis Valois

July 10, 2016 12:47 PM

Nothing wilder than stargazing! by Louis Valois

Louis had a fairly poor track record with clubs so far, Quidditch excluded. He hadn’t really got seriously involved in anything, blaming it on a slightly cynical outlook and also probably Emmy. Not that he had any reason to blame her for it. However, this year he already seemed to be involved with more clubs, having been dragged along to fashion club (vaguely protesting, but actually quite interested to see what people came up with. You couldn’t be a Valois without having even a small appreciation for fashion, and Louis was always happy to model clothing. He was the first to admit that he had a somewhat dramatic flair.).

Anyway, there he was in the labyrinth gardens at night, having decided to give this science club lark a try. He’d been reading up on astronomy lately, wanting to be prepared for the new classes that he was definitely signing up for and half remembering a childhood enthusiasm for comets and shooting stars. He’d found the topic to be quite interesting, so thought he may as well go along to Clark’s latest science club meeting. He liked the older boy, having got to know him a bit through Quidditch, and was confident that anything run by him couldn’t be too boring.

Louis was dressed warmly in black skinny jeans, with a cosy sheepskin jacket covering a warm Scandinavian-style jumper underneath. He had a slightly ridiculous looking bobble hat on his head (a Christmas present from Emmy that he took great pride in wearing), and was also wearing a green woolly scarf and warm gloves, which immediately became useless when he got to the telescope. Clark’s suggestion of a warming charm was a good one though, and he quickly cast the charm, preferring not to end up in hospital wing minus a few fingers. He was quite fond of his fingers.

He’d just started adjusting the focus, not needing Clark’s help due to having read up on telescopes rather than having attended previous meetings, when Arianna asked if the telescope next to him was free. “Yeah, go ahead,” he replied. “It’s not like I have any friends.” He grinned to himself at that, remembering Emmy-Lou’s scandalised expression when he’d suggested that star-gazing might be more fun than intense fashion club planning. She had promised to come with him next time, though.

It seemed like the Aladren Quidditch team was out in practically full force, he mused. Well, four out of seven so far seemed a fairly high proportion. Obviously, as Arianna was a new addition to the team, he didn’t know her so well as his other teammates, but Louis had no intention of spending the evening in silence. As interesting as he found astronomy, he still reckoned it could be improved by conversation.

“So how did you find your first term here?” he asked the younger girl. “Is it too different from life beforehand? I know I found things a bit strange when I came here, and that was just coming from another country, not a different world, for want of a better word.” Louis was honestly intrigued as to Arianna’s experiences so far. He knew that certain prejudices existed at Sonora, having at one point briefly contributed to them, and just because he’d realised that who you were was more an embarrassment than a point of pride didn’t mean that everyone else had. He could think of several students in Arianna’s year who no doubt thought of themselves as better than others, although Sébastien was probably more conscious of it than Madeleine. That boy had some seriously weird hang-ups, Louis thought, having recently realised that the younger French students’ attitudes towards him were probably to do with more than shyness or nerves. Louis might be a touch oblivious at times, but even he had picked up on the serious negative vibes the Évreux boy directed at him.

9 Louis Valois Nothing wilder than stargazing! 314 Louis Valois 0 5

Farrah

July 15, 2016 10:01 PM

Have the wish... by Farrah

She thought that maybe he hadn’t heard her and she was hesitant to speak up again out of worry that he was ignoring her on purpose because she was interrupting his work with Mars and the stars. But she really was cold and if she didn’t get help, she would have to go back to the school earlier than everyone else and cut her Mars observation short, which she definitely didn’t want to do. Her mother always reminded her about frostbite and hypothermia if she was outside for too long. Magic was cool and all, but she had no idea if it had the capability to regrow her nose if it fell off from the cold.

He looked at her now and she could have sworn it was the same look that her that her aunt gave her when she had been busy reading something when Farrah started talking and thus didn’t exactly know what was being said until after Farrah had stopped talking (her aunt read a lot of things due to her Editor job so Farrah was constantly having to repeat herself whenever she was visiting but not in ‘vacation’ mode). She waited for him to cue her into whether or not he had understood her. She had observed him briefly when they worked together for the first time and found him to be a little strange in the way that Bobby Frye was strange with his bug collection, but pleasant enough, so she never thought much about it until now. At the moment though, she was quite cold and she really didn’t want to go from person to person asking them if they would cast the charm on her so that she could stay and star gaze.

However, he finally agreed and almost immediately Farrah could feel the charm take its effect after he had cast it. “Thank you!” She breathed out with a happy smile as she settled into the feeling that was slowly caressing her cold extremities. It was almost like she had taken a nice long sip of hot cocoa and it was warming her bones back up (something her Papa always said whenever he had a cup of it during Christmas). It was a great feeling and she was in love with it at the moment.

When John explained the spell to her, she listened intently to his instructions on how to perform it. She was definitely going to try practicing the spell later on so that she didn’t look like a naive child next to everyone else. “Thank you again.” Farrah said again (manners were everything, after all). “I’ll make sure to practice so that I don’t have to bother you again.” She joked, trying to not over smile and look scary, but it was hard to tell if she was or not since her cheeks were still trying to warm up.

She glanced down at her notes when he asked about her findings. She really hadn’t written too much about it since she had gotten too cold, but what she had written down, she didn’t think was really interesting enough to share (especially with an older student!). “Well, I first notated the coordinates for where I spotted it. Then I tried to take notes on what it actually looked like to me through the telescope. Like, the shape and color and if I could see any imperfections on it.” Farrah explained. “I didn’t get very far though because the cold was making me numb.” She added, in case he wanted to look at her work himself. “Have you been able to see anything?” She asked him, curious to know if he was doing a similar thing or if she was just too much of a nerd sometimes.

6 Farrah Have the wish... 344 Farrah 0 5

Arianna

July 16, 2016 8:24 PM

Would you say it's out of this world? by Arianna

Arianna smiled at the older boy and walked towards the available telescope, appreciating the sarcasm. It reminded her of her friends back home. And of course, the fact that she didn’t have many close friends here. But, standing outside in the Garden with Louis and the other guys from the Aladren Quidditch team, she didn’t feel quite so out of place at the moment.

“Cool jacket,” she complimented, nodding at him before turning her attentions to the telescope. It was a bit colder out than she expected, but she was wearing layers, and a hat, and a warming charm, and she was a New Yorker so she didn’t complain about wimpy things like that. Besides, it wasn’t much colder than it had been back home over the winter break, and she’d grown used to the cold then and it didn’t feel like so much of a shock. She supposed that this was one of the perks of not going on an exotic Christmas vacation.

Things seemed to be going fine as Arianna adjusted her microscope the way Clark had showed them, looking forward to focusing on stars and planets and forgetting about life on Earth for a while. But that was before Louis’s line of questions. Continuing to peer through the telescope, she chose to become suddenly very interested in a constellation of stars she couldn’t name. Maybe it was just a cluster of stars? They didn’t have this many stars in Brooklyn.

Louis was starting to remind her of that time she chatted with Sébastien last semester. What do you think of Sonora? What did you expect? Is it different? They weren’t questions, not really, but a single statement. You are different. No matter how hard she tried to mimic the lingo and the introductions, no matter how carefully she chose her clothes or did her hair, it was never enough. It was obvious to everyone that she didn’t belong. While she hadn’t been sure what Sébastien’s motive was, she was sure Louis meant well. They were teammates, after all. According to Gabe, that meant something. Still, to be caught like that, to be put under the microscope and inspected like some strange, exotic insect… sometimes she wondered why she was here, how a normal city girl had ended up at a magic school in the middle of nowhere Arizona. But the reason certainly wasn’t to be anyone’s source of entertainment.

“Well, there are a lot more stars here than in the city,” she joked, glancing away from her now adjusted telescope and looking back at him. She had no desire to be vulnerable in front of her teammate, and no need for his sympathy. Her grades were superb, she was in the starting lineup of a successful Quidditch team, and while she hadn’t made many friends, she’d learned more than five new braids last semester. Her parents had started bragging about her - something that hadn’t happened in over two years - and her home friends had hung on her every word over break, desperate for any crumb of information about her mysterious, Internet-free school. And there was her other research project, to keep her occupied when the other things were not enough. All in all, Arianna Valenti considered herself to be quite the success.

“Different as Sonora is, there seem to be a lot of French students here,” she observed in an inquisitive tone, desiring to turn the line of questioning away from herself. It was a diversion, but also a possible path to an answer to a question that her French roommate, Madeleine, had never answered. A semester and two new French acquaintances later, and Arianna had still been unable to figure out the French connection to Sonora. She glanced back through her telescope, but found herself much more interested in the goings-on of Sonora than anything in the sky, at the moment.

0 Arianna Would you say it's out of this world? 343 Arianna 0 5

John

July 18, 2016 8:22 AM

I wish tonight. by John

From Farrah’s expression, John decided to assume the charm had worked as intended. He wasn’t really surprised, but…one of the most interesting things about what he was doing on his own time (the phrase ‘spare time’ irritated him, sometimes; time was a limited commodity, and the only bits of his that he considered wasted were the ones he spent doing worksheets) was how the simplest charms could do some of the most complex things. The witch or wizard who’d designed that charm, probably a couple of centuries ago, had had to figure out how to warm a person up and how to stop warming that person up before he or she spontaneously combusted, fine details of which probably varied depending on the mass of the person the spell was being cast on, and yet all functions were accomplished through a simple wand movement and single-word incantation. Most people could cast it without being aware of any of that. He didn’t understand why his sister had laughed at him and called him the worst kind of nerd for regarding something similar as a kind of art.

“You’re welcome,” said John, remembering to smile before explaining the charm. He shook his head, though, when she remarked on not bothering him again once she learned the charm herself. “Don't worry about it - it’s kind of my job to be bothered,” he said, gesturing vaguely toward the badge on the left side of his robes. John had never really gotten comfortable with its presence there, but he would have had an obligation to wear it even if doing so had not proven occasionally advantageous to him. One had to do one’s duty; it was just pleasant coincidence that his happened to be to people he wouldn’t usually mind helping anyway. “Ask when you need help with things.”

John nodded as Farrah described what she had noted down so far. “Similar things,” he said when Farrah asked about his observations. “Those are very good. You could look, too, for where other things are in the sky relative to what you’re looking at, if you’re familiar with those – you won’t use this stuff much now unless you decide to grow your own potion ingredients – “ John actually did grow a fraction of his in little pots in the window in his room, purely to see if he could and so he could have a little more control over cultivars and such for his experiments, but he somehow doubted he was part of a trend there – “but it’s useful, sometimes, knowing what’s where. Plus just interesting,” he added, since he had never been that enamored of the idea that knowledge had to be immediately useful to be worth having. Aside from the possibility that any knowledge could prove unexpectedly useful, it was also just fun to know things sometimes. If some people were allowed to use 'it amused me' to justify spending hours on fixing their hair or watching other people play sport, other people, people of John's sort, had to be allowed to use the same justification for knowing some things. “Mercury likes to get pretty close to Venus this time of year - Venus should be on top, and it’s bigger and brighter - and Leo, the constellation, that’s pretty close by, sometimes it’s easy to get Mercury confused with Regulus - that’s a star. I’m never completely sure I’m looking at the right things when we do this, but it’s fun to check it against the books later.”

16 John I wish tonight. 285 John 0 5

Louis

July 18, 2016 5:06 PM

It's a whole new world by Louis

Louis accepted the compliment with a wink at Arianna, undeniably proud of his fashion choices. True, he had the advantage of his family producing some of the finest wizarding clothing ranges, but he still liked to think that no one else could pull off his clothes quite as well as he did.

Arianna’s response seemed to brush off Louis’s question, and he sensed that he might have made a mistake. “I’m sorry, that was probably far too personal,” he apologised, not wanting to make the younger girl uncomfortable. Louis himself had little concern about seeming vulnerable these days. If he was talking to someone he liked, he had no qualms with telling them how he felt about things. It was probably a reflex action rebelling against his childhood, having been brought up in a very emotionless household. The Valoises did not talk about their problems. According to his father, they didn’t even have problems. Louis was definitely sceptical of that theory.

Louis chuckled briefly at Arianna having noticed the number of French students. “There are only three, but you can blame that on me,” he said, at least partially correctly. “My father decided to send me here to make connections-” at this he made a face, not liking the idea of being used for connections but fully aware that his father saw him in that way. “-instead of sending me to Beauxbatons or letting me be home-schooled. I wasn’t best pleased then, as I’m sure you can imagine. I was a snobby little brat who felt out of place in another country, surrounded people who didn’t know me or where I came from.” He smiled ruefully, thinking back to his first impressions of Sonora and his very first conversations. “That soon changed though, and now I feel out of place going home.” And it was true. Louis hated the holidays, less so now that he had his muggle friends to escape with, but there was still an atmosphere of superiority and expectation at home that made him feel uncomfortable and pressured. “I envy you, you know,” he said, going off at a bit of a tangent. “If you’re successful you know it’ll be thanks to you, not just because of your name and your father’s habit of treading on others and putting them down just to become the best.” He laughed humourlessly but then shook his head and smiled again, not being the sort of person to dwell on negative thoughts when with other people. “But to answer your question, I guess I just started a bit of a trend. My mother probably told everyone how fantastically I was getting on at Sonora and they thought it was the place to be.”

To be quite honest, Louis had hoped for a little more from the French contingent at Sonora. He might be attempting to slightly disaffiliate himself from French society, and more particularly his family, but he’d at least known of Sébastien and Madeleine since they were little. He’d pictured himself giving wise words of advice as needed, and more importantly having people to talk French to. However, both of the younger students had made no effort to seek him out, and Sébastien had been seriously brusque when they’d briefly talked at a party over the holidays.

Looking through his telescope, which had been somewhat abandoned during the conversation, Louis tried to work out what exactly he could see. “Have you found Mercury yet?” he asked Arianna, wondering if she was having more success than he was.

9 Louis It's a whole new world 314 Louis 0 5

Arianna

July 23, 2016 2:20 AM

A new fantastic point of view by Arianna

"You're fine," Arianna nodded quickly. She would have been perfectly satisfied to stick to banter and avoid any talk that remotely reminded her of feelings. The first year liked her teammate well enough, especially appreciated his style, but he was still one of Them, one of the people who saw her as Other. She absolutely had to remember to keep her guard up, or risk being perceived as weak.

Louis, on the other hand, seemed to see no risk in divulging information, at least not to a first year, first-generation witch. She stuck her hands in her pocket, determined to keep warm if she was not going to be distracted by the stars.

"Connections?" Her eyes narrowed in suspicion, "But you're only kids. Politics can't depend on a bunch of teenagers - what if you get acne or something, is that a blemish on the family name?" Arianna, of course, already had a regular skin regimen, but she never had to worry that her family's reputation depended on it. Her old school had counted the children of some of New York’s most prominent non-magical families among its student body. But even there, the emphasis was about preparing for college, where the real networking began. Anything before that was a happy addition. There was a social hierarchy, obviously, but she doubted many of the parents cared who was the most popular girl in the sixth grade. Maybe in high school.

He continued, and she decided to keep the irony of a boy reminiscing about previously being a snob also listing his choices of top wizarding schools (as if that was normal) to herself. Once Gabe’s family had learned about his powers, Arianna’s aunt and uncle had chosen Sonora because although they didn’t understand much about magic, they had understood sports, and the school had plenty of programs and clubs for that. Arianna’s family had followed suit because Gabe was the only wizard they knew in the world, and Sonora had offered a generous scholarship. Arianna’s family wasn’t poor, but they were teachers, and could not afford seven years of boarding school on top of future college tuition. She had only been at her previous private school because Papa was a vice principal there, so tuition had been free.

She really stiffened, however, at the romanticization of her life. Envy her? Hah! He didn’t know the half of it. Louis Valois had probably never had to share a room before coming to Sonora. Arianna had slept on the top bunk in the room that she shared with her little sister for as long as she could remember. Louis had travelled off his home continent - Sonora was the furthest Arianna had ever been from home. Mamma always promised that they would one day take a family trip back to her native Sardegna, but it didn’t seem like it was going to be happening any time soon. When Louis walked into a room, people saw him as someone important to get to know. As for Arianna, she had to demand that sort of attention, whether by working hard at school or through sheer force of will.

“Well, if you're ever looking to trade,” she said with a grin, joking but also not joking, “That is a nice jacket you’re wearing.” Not that she wanted that exact jacket for herself, more that she felt pretty confident that she couldn’t afford anything near what that must have cost, unless she had found it second hand and worn, hidden away in a consignment store.

“When I am successful,” for her it had never been an if, but a when, she would not entertain any other option, “It will be after a lot of hard work. It’s up to me and Gabe to navigate everything on our own. We’ll do it, of course,” she added with a smile, her tone more factual and (maybe naive) than arrogant, “But I wouldn’t complain if it were a little easier.” The most valuable thing her family could give her was to support her ambitions, so that she could be a success one day. Even though she wished she could be anywhere else in the world when her parents had homeschooled her in non-magical subjects last summer so that she would stay on track even at Sonora, logically she knew that they did for her. Though she was frustrated by her family’s lack of power, she didn’t like when anybody else took note of it. They belonged to her, which meant she could not allow them to be seen as lesser. For instance, even though she thought Gabe was a dork, it didn’t mean she wouldn’t hex anybody else who said it. Not that she knew any serious hexes or jinxes at the moment, but she was more than willing to learn.

She hesitated. Her brain always went to the most logical thing, but also she didn’t want to upset Louis. For one thing, it sounded like he was highly influential, and for another, this was one of the few substantial Sonora conversations she’d had with someone other than her cousin in a while. Man, she was pathetic these days. So she decided to be daring.

“You could always just walk out, leave one day,” she observed, smiling slightly at her joke. Of course he would never do that. She’d seen it before, like when her friends from her old school complained about never seeing their parents because they worked all the time. Occasionally there would be the threat of running away. But at the end of the day, they would never actually trade in their extravagant lifestyles for something more simple. Had Arianna been in their place, she certainly would not, either.

And in a final answer to her question, Madeleine and Sebastien were here because Louis was here. Who was Louis’s family to have so much influence, families would send their children half a world away? She had seen the Valois brand in some of the fashion magazines she’d borrowed from the Fashion club, but hadn’t made the connection. Arianna almost felt bad for her roommate, almost. Then she remembered the beautiful trunk Madeleine had in their room, and figured the other girl was doing just fine.

Dark eyes blinked at Louis’s last question. Mercury? Oh, right. The whole reason they were here.

“Nope, no Mercury,” she laughed, and maybe it was something about the conversation they had just shared that made her feel a bit more comfortable being a little bit more vulnerable, “Really, we don’t see a lot of stars and planets back home.” To be completely honest, she wasn’t one-hundred percent sure what Mercury was supposed to look like.

0 Arianna A new fantastic point of view 343 Arianna 0 5

Louis

July 28, 2016 4:57 PM

Or are we only dreaming? by Louis

“Are you cold?” asked Louis, noticing Arianna putting her hands in her pockets. “I can show you how to do a warming charm if you need it, or you can take my gloves.” He pulled said gloves out of his pocket and flourished them, not wanting them himself as the warming charm he’d cast was less obstructive for telescope operation.

“Yep, connections,” replied Louis, grinning at Arianna’s look of suspicion. He supposed the idea probably did seem a little strange, if you weren’t brought up thinking that there was no other reason to befriend people. “Children are never too young to begin networking, according to my father. He’s a little obsessive in matters like that. You’d think I was going to be officially helping him with the family business next year if you saw what he expects.”

Louis’s father was definitely more than a little obsessive. Most other pureblood children were only expected to attend social functions and behave with decorum (when in sight of the adults…), but Louis’s father had always involved his son in the business and politics of French society.

“Acne? The Valoises never get acne. It’s a family trait,” Louis teased. “No, it’s not a big deal, especially as there are usually potions that can help.” Louis himself hadn’t really needed such potions, having on the whole fairly clear skin.

Louis smiled at the younger witch’s confidence, not doubting the fact that she could make something of herself. She seemed intelligent and confident, and more than that had the ambition necessary to do such a thing. “Stop eyeing up my jacket,” he replied jokingly, sticking out his tongue and wrapping his arms around himself. “You should try modelling, they sometimes give you things for free,” he added. Not that Louis had ever needed the free clothing (did it even count as free if your family owned it in the first place?), but having worked for things made him feel a little less self-conscious about having such expensive clothing.

“You say you’d like it easier, but what if that meant your success was at the expense of others?” he rebutted, trying to make her realise that he didn’t want to be one of the best if it meant others couldn’t have what he did. That was what Louis hated about his father and the family place in society, seeing absolutely no reason why he should consider himself any better than the next person. He’d had a few arguments with his father on this topic, particularly regarding the older man’s dismissal of muggles, something Louis thought was stupid from both a business and a moral point of view.

“It’s something I have considered,” Louis replied, smiling back at Arianna but still taking her suggestion of running away seriously. “Initially it was more a childish threat, but I do like the idea of disappearing into the muggle world and making my own way in life. But it would be impractical to do such a thing before I leave Sonora. If I’m at school they can always find me, and I don’t want to miss out on schooling.” In the last few years, life away from his father had seemed more and more appealing, but Louis valued his education, knowing that he’d struggle without it if he cut himself off from his family. Practicality had to come into consideration, or else he’d just end up going back home with his tail between his legs, which would be horrible.

“You can’t always see the stars in Paris, but they’re quite clear at our place in the countryside,” Louis replied, deciding not to mention that the Valois family had, rather excessively, more than one countryside residence. “I’ve never really taken the time to look at them like this, though.” He peered through the telescope once more, trying to find the elusive planet. “I think I’ve found it!” he cheered, feeling very pleased with his success. “No, wait, it’s moving. It must be one of those muggle satellite things.” His face changed to a disappointed pout.

9 Louis Or are we only dreaming? 314 Louis 0 5

Arianna

August 04, 2016 9:30 PM

I think you are by Arianna

“It’s fine,” she put her hands out, as always uncomfortable accepting help when she thought she could avoid it, “Working on my warming charm, but it wore off pretty quickly.” She pulled her walnut wand from the pouch of her sweatshirt and repeated the spell she had used earlier, hoping it would last longer this time. Yes, that was better.

Arianna privately wished her Papa had a business he was raising her to learn. She imagined that must be very exciting. For now, he was encouraging her to be a student, that is, when he wasn’t off at galas, fundraising for the school. There had been several galas over the holidays, while the first year had been home.

She giggled when Louis apparently took her acne joke seriously. It was helpful to know that there were potions for that sort of thing, when the time came. Her cousin, Robbie Jr, had had an awful acne breakout at Christmas dinner, but none of her other cousins (who were all older than Arianna) had gotten it too bad. Probably would have been a whole lot easier with magic. Man, she was going to need to get a job, as soon as she was old enough. Unenthused by the thought, she filed it in the back of her mind.

She was unable to keep her blushing in check when the older boy suggested modeling. Logically, the first year knew this was silly, because although she knew she wasn’t totally unfortunate looking, she was pretty average height, noticeably uncoordinated in heels (Mamma rarely let her practice) and her mane of curls was a mess to tame each morning.

Certainly not model material.

“And what makes you such a modeling expert?” she asked, skeptically. Better to put that on him, than to draw attention to her own flaws.

She adjusted her telescope again, and continued to peer through it as he asked about success. As far as she was concerned, that was just what success was. There were winners, and there were losers. She had no interest in being on the losing side anymore. The first year was almost convinced that she had spotted a planet or something when Louis started talking crazy.

“Well,” the girl looked up from her telescope, “If you’re so sure you can handle life without magic, then your challenge, should you choose to accept,” she was joking, but still genuinely challenging the naive older boy, “Is to come visit me and my real, magical-less family in New York.” He wouldn’t do it of course, it’s not like they were particularly close, and he lived a continent away. Besides, she couldn’t imagine Louis navigating non-magical life, like going on an elevator or taking the bus, or using a microwave. That would just be ridiculous.

Of course he had a place on the countryside. It was probably perfect. Now, why would anybody want to leave a life like that? She was so focused on daydreaming about life on the French countryside, she almost missed the older boy’s last statement.

“How do you know about satellites?” dark eyes narrowed inquisitively. Maybe Louis wasn’t as completely clueless as she previously thought.

0 Arianna I think you are 343 Arianna 0 5

Louis

August 08, 2016 1:05 PM

Well, don't wake me up then! by Louis

Louis was initially slightly surprised by Arianna asking why he knew about modelling, but mentally told himself off for just assuming that everyone knew what his family business was. That was exactly the sort of thing he objected to, and here he was doing it himself!

“My family own a fashion business,” he replied, not wanting to go into too much detail about how big it was. Arianna probably already thought he was over-privileged, and he didn’t want to increase any differences between them that she might feel. “I’ve been along to some of their shoots, and I’ve done a few bits of modelling for the company. Nothing too big, of course – I’m not exactly a pro!” Louis had actually quite enjoyed the modelling he’d done. Whilst he didn’t take so much of an interest in design and production, he was interested in the latest fashion trends and marketing of the products. Besides, he was naturally confident and dramatic, so found it fun to strut his stuff on a catwalk.

So, Arianna thought she could challenge Louis and win, did she? “I’ll actually be in New York for a bit over the summer,” he said, grinning slowly as he realised that not only did this give him the chance to prove himself, it would also give him an opportunity to skive off being with his father for the day. A win-win situation, really. His father was going to New York to attend various functions and meet with certain people, and in return for being allowed to spend some of the summer with Emmy-Lou, his father had decided that Louis should join him. However, it might seem a little strange to bring a 14-year-old along to important meetings in America, so Louis was sure he could wangle a day to himself. “I could probably sneak off for a day, if you’re sure you actually want to meet up with me?” he asked, wanting to check that Arianna had been serious when issuing the challenge (after all, usually he wasn’t in America over the holidays) rather than forcing his company on her. He hoped she was serious, as he liked Arianna and it would be nice to see more of his schoolmates over the holidays, something he never really got to do (Sébastien and Madeleine didn’t really count).

Besides, Louis’s knowledge was at stake, and no Aladren would let an incorrect assumption go unchallenged. Yes, he might seem like an ignorant pureblood, and to a certain extent he was – Louis wasn’t so conceited as to assume he knew everything about muggles – but he had more experience of the non-magical world than Arianna seemed to think.

“Satellites?” he replied, seemingly answering her question in an offhand way but also rejoicing in the opportunity to surprise her. “Oh, my friend – my muggle friend – JB told me about them. He’s a bit of a physics nut, actually, so I got a full explanation of how they work.” His slightly smug smile turned into a more self-deprecating one as he continued the story, never one to stay cocky for too long (although never one to completely resist cockiness). “The only problem was that I didn’t know why they were used,” he confessed. “I’d have got some strange looks if he realised I didn’t know that, though, so I had to pretend I did and then read up about them when I got back to Sonora and the library here.” Because of course the Valois library, well-stocked though it was, didn’t actually contain anything useful on the world that Louis wanted to know more about.

9 Louis Well, don't wake me up then! 314 Louis 0 5

Arianna

August 17, 2016 10:43 AM

Poor little pureblood by Arianna

The only thing that kept Arianna’s jaw from dropping now was that it had happened before. Back in her old, non-magical school, kids had casually discussed their extravagant lives, as if it was normal, as if everyone’s family had a gallery named after them in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and wasn’t it embarrassing if you only had a coat room, like the Bottas? So apparently, one of her friends at Sonora’s family had a fashion business so powerful, other French families sent their kids halfway across the world to go to school with him. And also he modeled sometimes.Typical.

“Do you have any non-magical lines?” she asked, partly trying to play it cool, partly curious if she knew of them. Non-magical people, she assumed, would buy more clothes than magical people, who could easily transfigure or charm their clothing into a different style or size. This could also explain some of the wackier outfits she’d seen in the magical world, if anyone could just design whatever they wanted on their own. Some people just had no taste.

Arianna was thankful that it was getting kind of dark outside as her eyes widened. Louis, visit her? In the two bedroom apartment in Brooklyn that she shared with her parents and little sister?

Her mind whirled. She could control the situation, make it work for her. They didn’t have to go to her home, there were so many other things to do in the city. They could go to Times Square. Tourists always seemed to love that, for some reason. Arianna thought it was… sticky.

“Yeah, let’s do it,” she agreed, partly just to convince herself, “Let’s see if you can handle a full non-magical day in New York.” Arianna never said “Muggle” partly because she never heard Gabriel say it, partly because it just sounded like a dorky word, and her non magical friends were certainly not a bunch of dorks.

But it appeared that this was not to be Louis’s first trip into the non-magical world, apparently he was a perpetual tourist, and had decided that this meant he knew enough about how non-magical things worked. Kind of like the people who visited her city, were there for a day, then confidently guide their family to the 3 train when they meant to take the 1 and suddenly end up in the Bronx. Of course, there was the possibility that compared to the people he grew up with, he did know a lot about the non-magical world. Insulated, ignorant snobs.

And yet, she would still trade places with them.

0 Arianna Poor little pureblood 343 Arianna 0 5

Louis

August 22, 2016 2:01 PM

I'm really feeling the sympathy here by Louis

Louis winced. “No, the company doesn’t exist in the muggle world,” he replied, hoping that she would leave that line of questioning. It was an issue that had led to many arguments between Louis and his father, with the young boy left feeling powerless to do anything to stop his father’s prejudices. The supposed inferiority of muggles was a belief that no longer sat well with Louis. Since having met muggle-borns at Sonora, and having made friends with his group of non-magical friends in Paris, he’d come to respect and even envy the muggle way of life.

Louis was surprised when Arianna agreed to meet up with him that summer, having been expecting excuses. But the younger girl appeared to be happy with the idea of showing him her life, which was partly a relief – there was nothing Louis loved more than escaping from his father – and partly…disquieting? Louis wouldn’t say he felt anxious at the thought of meeting up with Arianna, but he definitely felt that there were standards to be met. So far she had, even in just this one conversation, challenged him more than anyone else had ever challenged him. That was a fact that almost irritated him (why did he need to defend his thoughts and plans to her?), but also made him realise how much he valued her company. He wasn’t particularly close to anyone else with a sufficiently different background that they were able to point out his flaws and make him feel like he should make an effort to change, rather than his current practice of looking down on those around him (such as his father) for not doing so. And it was something he appreciated, so much so that he felt the pressure was on for that summer. Arianna would find out more about what he was like, and she would be on her home ground, in a place he was unfamiliar with. He didn’t want her to find him to be lacking in any way, for her to write him off as just another snobby pureblood. This was his chance to prove to her that he could be so much more.

But pushing those thoughts aside for later consideration and analysis, Louis grinned at her. “Bring it on,” he replied.

9 Louis I'm really feeling the sympathy here 314 Louis 0 5