Professor Nathan Xavier
January 04, 2019 1:42 PM
First Year Orientation by Professor Nathan Xavier
Nathan was up far too early this morning, and it had nothing to do with his duties as Head of House or even orienting the first years. Students weren't arriving until afternoon, after all. No, his lack of sleep, and the resultant bags under his eyes were caused by have an almost three month old living in his family's quarters, which had seemed quite spacious when they set them up last midterm but seemed less so when trying to walk a squalling infant to sleep at 2am.He probably should have let Gray do the Orientation again, but Nathan considered it his job; he'd done it most of the years since Orientation had been implemented, and he'd promised Selina keeping a baby on premises wouldn't interfere with his or Isis' work. Besides, he'd missed doing it last year due to wedding preparations, and he didn't want to miss it two years in a row.
So he tried to be mostly cheerful and welcoming rather than exhausted looking as each new batch of students got off the flying covered wagons that had brought them to Sonora from all over the country. He directed the first years off into the garden to where the Orientation was set up with tables of snacks, plenty of room to mingle with each other, and a stack of folders with important information about the school, including a map. Everyone else was welcome to head on into the school, where the library, Cascade Hall, and the common rooms were all available for them to use to entertain themselves until the Opening Feast that evening.
Soon all the wagons were accounted for, and the school's prairie elves had dealt with the luggage and putting the flying wagons away in their shed. He followed the last group of first years into the orientation area, and gave them a few minutes to pick up food and a folder.
Soon enough, though, he cleared his throat to gain their attention.
"Hello, students. Welcome to your first year at Sonora Academy. My name is Professor Xavier." He was trying to keep his sentences short and simple; partly because he was tired and they could easily drift into long rambling things that even he couldn't follow if they went on too long, and partly because they had a few foreign students for whom English was not their first language. "I am the Herbology teacher here. In a little while, I'll give you a tour of your new school, but first, a few words about it."
"Sonora Academy of Magic is a seven year secondary school. We teach Charms, Transfiguration, Potions, Herbology, Care of Magical Creatures, and Defense against the Dark Arts as our core classes. You'll be taking each of those for five years. You will begin with beginner level classes. Beginner classes continue into second year. This allows you to get to know and work with people who were in your place last year. As first years only, you’ll also take Flying Lessons. In third year, you will move up to intermediate classes. At that point, you can add elective classes and independent studies to your course load, if you want. The core classes continue to be required. Intermediate classes continue through fifth year. Your first major exam, called the CATS - the Critical Assessment of Talents and Skills, is at the end of fifth year. After the CATS, you may drop some of your courses so you may better focus on the ones you decide to pursue at an Advanced level. Your last major exam, the RATS - the Ridiculously Anal Testing of Skills, is at the end of your seventh year. You need to pass two RATS to graduate, and most colleges require a minimum of three. Obviously, that's still a long way off, but that's the overview of academics here at Sonora. You should have your schedule for beginner lessons in the green folders. If you didn't get one, they are over there," he pointed to the appropriate table. "If you need help with English or math, please tell your Head of House. Sonora offers an academic assistance program for anyone who needs it for any reason." Reasons could and have included anything from growing up in a circus with little formal education to being a non-native speaker of English. "Also, each professor will offer office hours if you need help in a specific subject."
"For extracurricular activities, Sonora has a number of student led clubs, including a Dueling club, an Orchestra, a Gardening club, an Art club, and a school newspaper called the Aronos. If you don't like those, you can always make your own. We also have a school wide Quidditch team that competes with other schools. First years are welcome to try-out, but you'll likely be on the reserve team. For those who don't know, Quidditch is a wizarding sport played on broomsticks." He realized his sentences were getting longer, but he couldn't figure out how to get them any shorter, now that they were past basic introductions. He compensated by trying to talk slower.
"After the tour, you will be sorted into Houses. You will receive a badge, which you will dip into a potion, and it will come out one of four colors. Blue means Aladren. Aladrens tend to value learning and problem-solving. Yellow means Teppenpaw. Teppenpaws are our diplomats, valuing friendship and personal development. Red means Crotalus. They believe in respectability, responsibility, and strategic planning. Brown means Pecari. Those students are often adventurous and adaptable. Not everyone fits neatly into one House or another, so try not to put too much stock into House stereotypes. There are smart Crotali and adventurous Teppenpaws. There are adaptable Pecaris who aren't adventurous. But everybody will be sorted into one of them. This is a boarding school, so you'll have a Head of House who you will look out for you and serve as your adult guardian while you're here. We're a small school, so you may need to share a room with anyone else in your year matching your House and gender. Each House also has three prefects who are appointed to help you with any trouble you may have. Your House can earn points for your good deeds and exemplary class work. Likewise getting in trouble can lose your House points. The House with the most points at the end of the year wins the House Cup to display in their Commons the following year, and may earn extra perks at the end-of-year midsummer event. Pecari will be hosting it this year."
He mentally ran through the important topics one more time and thought he'd hit most of them - it was his eighth time doing this, and he was proving he could just about do it in his sleep. "That's about it. Wear school robes with your House badge to class. The Cascade Hall serves breakfast from 6:30 to 8:30, lunch from eleven to one, and dinner from five to seven. Those times should also be on your schedules. Between those times, you can get smaller things like sandwiches and snacks. It opens at six and closes at ten. Ten PM to six AM is curfew; you should be in your House areas during that time. Unless there are any questions, you are free to chat and get to know each other until the tour, which kicks off at 5:30."
OOC (Out of Character):
Welcome first years to Sonora! You can post a reply here to ask staff questions or meet your new classmates. This thread is intended for first year students to have a chance to try out posting and get acclimated to the site before we throw you into the big Opening Feast, which is open to the entire school population and can be a bit overwhelming.
Please remember that anything that happened in the Sandbox was just practice and did not actually occur. (You are welcome, of course, to use any background information you generated about your character during these exercises such as pets, accidental magic, etc, but they have not yet spent any time at Sonora, or interacted with any classmates.)
Also of note, entering your email address when you reply will mean you get notified when someone responds. This is optional but can be useful for helping to keep track of posts. Please do NOT check the box that says 'show email address,' as this will make it public and may result in spam. Please note, that lately some reply notifications have been ending up in spam folders of email accounts. Please check your spam folders and the boards if you think you are not receiving replies
Now, go forth, new first years of Sonora! Post, enjoy, have fun! Everyone here is happy to help out, so if you've got a question, put it on the OOC board or try to catch somebody in the Chatzy and we'll try to get you an answer as quick as we can. Have fun and we’re glad you could join us!
Subthreads: I don't speak English by Hilda Hexenmeister with Johanna Leonie Zauberhexen
This all sounds very adequate. by Felipe De Matteo with Jeremy Mordue
Be yourself - everyone else is already taken by Zara Jackson with Beatriz Couthon
I see a few small problems on the horizon. by Jessica Hayles with Jake "JD" Daniels
Do I spy a familiar face? [Tag Isabella Harrington] by Theodore Flores with Isabella Harrington
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Professor Nathan Xavier
First Year Orientation
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Professor Nathan Xavier
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Hilda Hexenmeister
January 04, 2019 2:21 PM
I don't speak English by Hilda Hexenmeister
Hilda had a problem. Well, she had a number of different problems, but the biggest one concerning her right this moment was the one called English. She hated English. She really really hated it with a burning passion that sizzled with heat from the fiery pits themselves. She wanted nothing at all to do with English.America itself, she didn't mind so much. She just wished the Americans living there spoke a language that actually made sense and had rules that were actually followed more often than not rather than just sometimes when the mood struck, when there were rules at all.
The tired looking guy who pointed out where to go blabbered on and on using the thrice blasted language. Hilda didn't catch a single word. Except 'English'. The language was actively taunting her, she was sure of it. When he stopped talking, she wasn't really certain what exactly she was supposed to be doing now. She opted for taking a bite out of her cookie.
Americans did good cookies, she'd give them that, if any of them could understand a compliment offered in German.
The people around her seemed to be talking amongst themselves, and one in particular looked suspiciously like they intended to try doing that with her. But she was ready for that. Her brother Heinrich had recommended flash cards to help her with the language, and she had initially been doubtful, but then she made some, and . . . realized they would actually be very helpful after all.
She flipped through the pile she had picked out as the most useful phrases, located the one that said 'ich spreche kein Englisch' and held it up so the side that said "I do not speak English" was pointing toward the approaching figure.
Between that and the blond girl's heavy-set build and closed off stance, she hoped to avoid needing to interact with the hated language anymore than she absolutely had to.
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Hilda Hexenmeister
I don't speak English
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Hilda Hexenmeister
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Johanna Leonie Zauberhexen
January 04, 2019 8:38 PM
Same though by Johanna Leonie Zauberhexen
The man with the funny name was tired, right? That's why his words seemed sort of slurred together and like the whole speech was just one big word? She knew German tended to smush words together to make new words, but English wasn't supposed to do that. Everyone she'd met at home that spoke English, and the people she'd learned her little bits of English from, all spoke so differently than this man (that she was pretty sure said had a head in his house, maybe that's why he was talking funny).When the speech was done and Johanna Leonie settled into the sinking feeling of uncertainty that she was pretty sure was going to become familiar at Sonora, she looked around. Everyone seemed so neat and orderly here. There was no display of the sort of colors or elaboration that was so much more familiar to her at home, and the sea of green robes was a bit overwhelming. It was nothing to remind her of the foresty green she was so used to, and the fact that everyone just seemed so clean made it all feel sterile. More than anything, she wanted to kick her shoes off and scamper through the Gardens. That would be much better than listening to a speech she only half understood.
Eyeing the foods that were spread out for the first years with some amount of skepticism, unconvinced that anything she didn't know the English word for would probably taste like anything she was familiar with, she resigned to wait for dinner and turned to the nearest person. Johanna Leonie's own hair was red and wavy, but she wasn't the only person she'd ever seen and the girl's blonde hair reminded her of her mother and brother. She was broader than her brother though, and Johanna's own tall frame was thin.
As she opened her mouth to greet her classmate, she realized she didn't have any words to say. More than that though, the girl was holding a sign that said she didn't speak English. Her eyes narrowed. Was it too much to hope it was because they shared a Muttersprache?
"Hallo," she tried hesitantly. "Ich spreche kein Englisch auch." Holding up her index finger and thumb close together, she tried in the less comfortable and heavily accented language: "I speak small English."
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Johanna Leonie Zauberhexen
Same though
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Johanna Leonie Zauberhexen
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Hilda
January 05, 2019 9:42 AM
Gott sie Dank by Hilda
OOC: It is safe to assume everything Hilda says is in German unless stated otherwise. BIC:Hilda’s eyes widened in shock as the approaching red haired girl spoke German to her. Her stance loosened, the flashcard lowered, and her mouth fell open, and while she was still large for her age and built like a shotputter, she looked far too flabbergasted to be remotely intimidating at the moment.
Heinrich had said the only person here who spoke any German was a Russian girl in the year below his. Hilda had planned to plague this now second year girl in all her classes so the Russian could tell her what was going on. However bad her German was, it had to be better than Hilda’s English. She had not expected to hear her own language spoken fluently by anyone here other than Heinrich.
Judging by the German words - and the English she could mostly follow (the hand gesture clarified the one word she had completely forgotten and the rest were on the flashcard she had just looked at) - however, she thought the Russian girl might get two hangers-on instead of just one.
But it was good, so good, to know she wasn’t alone in this, that she had a classmate who was going through a similar struggle, who she could talk with. “Gott sie Dank,” she breathed out in prayer. “You are my new best friend,” she said in German to the girl whose name she didn’t even know.
“I’m Hilda,” she introduced herself in an effort to fix that small oversight. No need to drag her last name into this before Red Haired Girl had gotten to know her better. “You’re from Germany, too?” There was no small about of relief and disbelief in the question. And perhaps just a dash of anxiety, too.
OOC: Gott sie Dank: Thank God.
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Hilda
Gott sie Dank
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Hilda
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Johanna Leonie
January 05, 2019 10:16 AM
Freunden! by Johanna Leonie
OOC: I'll do the same.IC:
Johanna Leonie could've cried. "You're German," she practically shouted in their shared language. The foreign school suddenly seemed much less foreign. Between shared languages and home countries, and an instant reason to be friends, Johanna Leonie was much less lonely with Hilda around. Even the name 'Hilda' was comforting. "I'm Johanna Leonie," she added, using her full first name and shrugging lightly. People usually shortened it when they wanted to, and kept it when they thought it was nice sounding all together, so she didn't care too much what people did with her name at this point.
"I'm so glad we're in this together. Did you get what the man was saying at all?" Normally Johanna Leonie wouldn't be so fast to admit to a failing in this way, particularly when it was one she was supposed to have ironed out before coming here. In this case, her new friend was quite literally holding up a sign that said she didn't know English hardly anyway, so she was pretty sure there would be no judgment. "I caught...some of it. Just a little bit of it." She grimaced. How in the world were they going to get through classes this way? "Usually I love adventure, but this all feels like a bit much right now."
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Johanna Leonie
Freunden!
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Johanna Leonie
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Hilda
January 05, 2019 3:40 PM
Jippeh! by Hilda
Johanna Leonie. That was her best friend’s name. Very nice. Hilda liked it. Hilda liked her. She could only hope that lasted through the awkward phase of actually getting to know a person.She grimaced and shook her head when asked how much if the guy’s speech she understood. At least she didn’t seem to be alone in finding it incomprehensible. “A few words,” she admitted. “Not much.”
“My brother Heinrich is a third year,” she told her new friend by way of encouragement, “and he managed his first year without anybody around who spoke German.” It gave her hope, not because she thought she stood a chance of learning the language anywhere near as good as he had, but because she had someone to turn to for help where he hadn’t. “But he’s an Aladren,” she added, because it was a pertinent point. “They’re the brainy ones.” Hilda stood very little chance of being sorted there. Not that she was dumb. She just got frustrated and gave up too easily. It was a common complaint on her academic progress reports: Needs to put in more effort.
“If we get really stuck, we can ask him for help.” She could guess by Heinrich’s not knowing of any other Germans that Johanna Leonie had no older siblings at the school, but that didn’t mean she didn’t have any at all. “I have two brothers,” she continued. “One older, one younger. Do you have any siblings?”
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Hilda
Jippeh!
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Hilda
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Johann Leonie
January 05, 2019 4:03 PM
Du bist meine neue Familie. by Johann Leonie
Johanna Leonie sighed a breath of relief to hear she was not alone. Not alone! That was so exciting. Hilda's brother sounded wonderful, simply because he was also German and there were few things in the world as exciting as this happy coincidence right now."That's wonderful!" she insisted, excited to meet the older student. She didn't say so, but she wondered whether he'd kept his notes from first year by chance. Might be helpful. When Hilda said he was in Aladren, it clicked that the man probably did not have heads in his house, but was a Head of House for one of the four Sonoran houses. "There's no way I'll be in Aladren. I'd rather do almost anything than read or something like that."
She wasn't quite ready to admit that she was also entirely ill-suited for academia. Oh, she could do magic. All the magical Zauberhexens were skilled magicians, and that was of little concern to Johanna Leonie who had demonstrated profound magical ability in the home grown magic of her family, but anything outside the small town she'd grown up in was much less comfortable.
When Hilda asked about siblings, Johanna Leonie felt the familiar pangs of homesickness. They'd started the moment she'd embarked on her trip to Sonora in the first place and they felt much less painful now. Homesickness would be her friend here too, but it wasn't so bad when it was the reminiscing kind.
"I have one brother," she said excitedly, glad to have found more in common than language. "His name is Friederike
Albert. He'll be here next year," she added, not pointing out that that was only the case if she didn't flunk out before then. At least it would be a fun adventure in the meantime. "He has hair a little bit like yours."
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Johann Leonie
Du bist meine neue Familie.
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Johann Leonie
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Hilda
January 05, 2019 7:30 PM
Und du bist meine by Hilda
Friederike Albert. Obviously Johanna Leonie's parents liked double names as much as her own liked the letter H. "Hansel is younger than that," she told her new friend. "He won't be here for a while. He's still only six." She kind of envied Hans. He was young enough that by the time he started, he would have learned English almost as naturally as he had German. They'd been living in America for two years already. He'd started getting exposed to the language when he was only four.On the other hand, she kind of pitied him, too. He wasn't going to remember Germany hardly at all. Uncle Karl would be far more his Dad than Dad ever could be now.
"Do you still live in Germany?" she asked. "We live in Utah now, but we've only been there about two years." Since her parents got arrested and custody of them went to their Uncle who had moved to America years ago. But that was best not to bring up yet. Or ever, if possible, but that was unlikely. The Hexenmeister trial had only ended a year ago, and had been big news all over Europe for the whole year before that, especially in Germany.
"I've been trying to learn English ever since, but it doesn't make any sense at all to me, and until now I didn't really need it for day-to-day life."
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Hilda
Und du bist meine
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Hilda
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Johanna Leonie
January 05, 2019 10:24 PM
Jetzt haben wir Schwestern. [Now we have sisters.] by Johanna Leonie
"Awe, he must still be cute then!" Johanna Leonie laughed. "Friederike Albert is not cute anymore, he's a tornado. Maybe less of a tornado than I am but a tornado none the less." Johanna Leonie smiled, proud of her reputation as the rough and tumble girl where she grew up. However much her skills pushed her towards healing, and indeed so did her interests, she would still rather have dirt on her hands than a life on them.She was surprised to find out that Hilda did not still live in Germany. She couldn't imagine being away from home for the entire school year, let alone her whole life everyday now. "Yes," she said in response. "It's a very small village though. I haven't seen much of the rest of the country. If you miss it, you should come stay with us some time." She smiled widely, and the sweet, puckered face revealed her mischievous side.
Hilda's struggle with English was more familiar and Johanna Leonie nodded understandingly. "Mama and papa are healers, and they're good at what they do. Sometimes people come to us from all over the world because they want to find some hope in the forests that they can't find in the big cities." Johanna Leonie shrugged. She was well aware of the superstitious history of her family's brand of magic, and couldn't exactly hide that. "They aren't very good with the sort of magic we'll learn here, but they can heal lots of things. We've had a lot of people stay with us that speak English, so I picked it up some that way but apparently not very much. I can ask if someone wants more soup and whether their stomachache has gone away though pretty well!" She laughed at some of the more colorful terms she'd learned from patients, like raging headache and exploding out both ends at once. She didn't have to be fluent in English to know those were hilarious.
"What does your family do?" she asked, turning the conversation when she realized that she'd been talking so much about herself.
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Johanna Leonie
Jetzt haben wir Schwestern. [Now we have sisters.]
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Johanna Leonie
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Hilda
January 05, 2019 11:19 PM
Das ist gut by Hilda
Hilda laughed and agreed, "Yes, Hans is very cute. If we get to be roommates, I will show you a picture." She supposed she could still show Johanna Leonie a picture even if they weren't roommates, but it would be easier and much more wonderful if they were.Her good mood - and her expression - froze, however, when Johanna Leonie asked what it was her family did. Not only was the answer terrible - oh, they are in jail for dark magic and being professional assassins for twenty years - but they were being compared to healers, even if it was the hedge witch variety, if she was understanding the subtext correctly, which made it somehow even worse.
"Um," she said, stalling, not wanting to lie to her new friend but also not wanting the third thing Johanna Leonie learned about her to be that her parents were Those Hexenmeisters. She'd mostly come to grips with the idea that the charges against them might really be true, but the last thing she really wanted was to admit that out loud. "Well. I, ah, I live with my Uncle Karl. He's our legal guardian. He raises snakes and sells the scales and venom and stuff as potion ingredients." Even that sounded kind of almost shady, though she was pretty sure Uncle Karl was on the up and up. But then, she'd thought that about Mom and Dad, too, and their 'trouble-shooting consulting firm'.
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Hilda
Das ist gut
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Hilda
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Johanna Leonie
January 05, 2019 11:34 PM
Du bist sehr coole! by Johanna Leonie
Johanna Leonie was pretty sure Uncle Karl sounded like a badass. "It sounds like they'd get on great!" she said said, thinking how excited her parents would be to find a good source of venom and things.It didn't go over her head that Hilda didn't mention her own parents but the odds of that being for a happy reason were slim and Johanna Leonie didn't want to push. What if they had died or something? She didn't want to bring that up. "Do all your siblings live with your uncle?" she asked instead, hoping it would answer some of her curiosities in a round about way.
"Guess you'll be good in potions then?" she added, laughing. "At least if we cover some classes with background knowledge, it won't be so tough to do them in English." She spent a moment thinking as hard as she could over whether she had any similar skills to bring to their partnership, but she doubted that running really fast or using slugs to heal burns would come up very often. "Honestly, I don't know if I'll be any good at anything when there's so much to catch up on. I'm a bit worried." She frowned briefly. "It should be fun though." And just like that, a smile replaced her expression.
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Johanna Leonie
Du bist sehr coole!
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Johanna Leonie
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Hilda
January 06, 2019 1:57 PM
Du bist großartig by Hilda
It didn't seem like Johanna Leonie thought snake raising and venom selling sounded suspicious, so that was a good turn of events. Still she wasn't going to hold her breath on any adult Hexenmeister 'getting on great' with a family of German healers. Especially one that specialized in venomous snakes. Most of the assassinations attributed to mom and dad were poisonings. Though admittedly, most of those had used plant based poisons from flowers grown in their garden ("Do NOT put any of the plants out here in your mouth, sweetie" had been one of the very first rules she had learned as a toddler), rather than snake venom, but still.Hilda laughed a little bit at the idea that she'd be any good at potions based on the fact that Uncle Karl sold snake based ingredients. Which wasn't to say she hadn't picked up some brewing skills, but they hadn't come from Karl. "Not really. Some crushed scales might come up in first year, but snake parts aren't really the most common ingredients, and even if they were, Uncle Karl sells them, he doesn't brew them. I'm better set for Care of Magical Creatures than potions."
She gave Johanna Leonie an encouraging smile, "But don't worry too much, there's a second year named, um, Katerina Vor-something-that-sounds-very-Russian who speaks a little bit of German, and she's a Teppenpaw, so she'll probably be able and willing to help us out when we have trouble." That was definitely going to be a when, not an if, in Hilda's case. "And my textbook is in German, so that'll help a lot. And Heinrich says the potions mistress here labels her ingredients in like a million different languages." Technically, Heinrich had told her the specific languages that they were labelled, in but Hilda couldn't remember them all, and there had been a lot. A million was close enough.
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Hilda
Du bist großartig
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Hilda
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Johanna Leonie
January 06, 2019 7:05 PM
Oh, hör auf! *erröten* by Johanna Leonie
"I guess that's true," Johanna Leonie laughed, glad that Hilda seemed so easygoing. "Care of Magical Creatures is one of the ones I'm looking forward to the most!" she said, excited that she'd definitely have a friend there. She hadn't said anything but the idea of being roommates with Hilda was this weird mix of a total relief and a total thrill. She had a friend! And even if their friendship didn't work out long term, Johanna Leonie was sure that they'd at least have a solid acquaintanceship. This was going to be a good year and the next seven years didn't seem so daunting now."That and Herbology," she continued. "Although I don't think I'll know any of the English words for anything. I'm glad you have a German textbook, that sounds really helpful!" Her own books were well worn and had layers of notes in the margins, as they'd mostly come from her parents library of resources. She had more extra books than textbooks, despite her clear dislike of reading; her parents believed that having more resources available would make studying at an English speaking school easier and they were probably right. "The potions professor might save my hide," she laughed. "Does that mean there are lots of students who speak different languages here?"
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Johanna Leonie
Oh, hör auf! *erröten*
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Johanna Leonie
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Hilda
January 07, 2019 11:45 AM
ich mag dich by Hilda
Hilda nodded in agreement that Care of Magical Creatures was one of the more interesting classes she was looking forward to. Less so herbology, but she nodded anyway in support of Johanna Leonie's enthusiasm. She figured she'd probably do very well in Defense Against the Dark Arts, too, but wasn't sure that was something to brag about, all things considered."Heinrich made it sound like it, though he only mentioned the Russian girl specifically. I think the rest are older than us. But I'm pretty sure he mentioned at least French and some kind of Asian language were also on the potion ingredients. In addition to the English, German, and Russian, I mean."
"So um," she began, deciding she should maybe start moving in the direction of a confession, because she wasn't sure how long she had before her last name was announced loudly in front of the whole class, or worse, the whole school, and she didn't want Johanna Leonie to think she was intentionally hiding things (even if she was) or lying to her (which she definitely wasn't). "Have you ever been to Zauberstadt?" she asked cautiously. It was probably the largest purely magical town in Germany, so asking about it wasn't entirely suspicious, but it was also probably common knowledge that had been where the Hexenmeisters had lived and been arrested two years ago. "That's where we used to live."
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Hilda
ich mag dich
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Hilda
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Johanna Leonie
January 07, 2019 9:45 PM
Ich mag dich auch! by Johanna Leonie
Johanna Leonie's eyes widened at the mention of so many other languages. Even if it was only a few students at the school who spoke these other languages, it felt good to know that there were others that were at least a little bit like her. All the weight of traveling and starting at Sonora had been melting off her shoulders since she'd began chatting with Hilda, and she suddenly realized how tired she was. She stifled a yawn, but allowed a bit of contented droop to relax her back.When the conversation shifted to Zauberstadt, Johanna Leonie smiled and shook her head. "No, I've always wanted to go though," she said. "My last name is Zauberhexen," she laughed. "My mom always said the city was named after us, but I'm pretty sure that's not true at all. It's not that surprising that 'zauber' would keep showing up," she laughed. When Hilda said she used to live there, Johanna Leonie's eyes grew wide. "That's amazing," she said. "Did you like it there? I'm from Flussfelsen," she said, referring to the tiny hamlet village she'd been born and raised in. "We never got any news of anything that happened around Germany except what people told us when they were sick and came to see us, and they always said Zauberstadt is beautiful."
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Johanna Leonie
Ich mag dich auch!
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Johanna Leonie
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Hilda
January 11, 2019 3:31 PM
Mir viel Glück by Hilda
Hilda was tempted - sorely tempted - to not say anything now that she knew Johana Leonie was from a remote enough town that she may - possibly - not have heard about the trial after all. But somebody might have said something. Hilda wasn’t certain anywhere in Germany was remote enough that not even a rumor of what happened got through.It was best really to come clean before Johana Leonie found out some other way. Especially since she’d given an wide open opportunity to share Hilda’s own surname.
“Zauberhexen?” she repeated, raising an eyebrow and trying to stay casual and calm and even mildly amused about it all, like she wasn’t deeply horrified by her connection to her own last name. Pity really, that Uncle Karl was Dad’s brother instead of Mom’s. Maybe then they could have adopted his last name when he adopted them. “Combine my hometown and surname, and we get yours. I’m a Hexenmeister.”
She flinched just a little in saying it, but then plowed on, hoping to push it back into something of little consequence, like it it was just Schmidt or something. “Zauberstadt is very beautiful. We lived on the outskirts of it, on the edge of the surrounding forest. We had a nice duck pond. I named all the ducks, but they couldn’t come with us when we went to live with Uncle Karl. But he bought me new ones. Their pond isn’t as nice though. Utah isn’t very green.”
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Hilda
Mir viel Glück
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Hilda
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Johana Leonie
January 11, 2019 3:46 PM
Mit einem Freund im Dunkeln zu gehen ist besser als alleine by Johana Leonie
Johana Leonie had distinct memories of being ushered out of the family home and told to play outside when people said Hexenmeister. It was a name brushed on sickly lips with broken breath. She was not allowed to see what they had done or learn who they were, but it was a healer's job to know. She and Friederike Albert had spent a lot of time peering through windows and listening at doors, which made Johana Leonie think her parents weren't so keen on keeping them out as they pretended. Surely a pair of magical people could keep their activities more secretive than that, if they wanted to? Then, around a year ago, the name had gone. A newspaper sent by owl by a former patient told them why.There was nothing of that cursed name in Hilda's wide face though, only hesitation. Johana Leonie's mother had often reminded her children that a healer's job was as often to care for the heart of their wards as for their physical symptoms, and it was clear that that was precisely what was needed now.
"I'm glad you're here," Johana Leonie said sincerely, smiling at her new friend. "Today is the first day of the rest of our lives," she added encouragingly. She was very excited that it was no longer just the first day of the rest of her life, but of their lives as friends. It was the start of something special.
"I haven't been around the United States much," she admitted, "but ducks are good pets. Friederike Albert thought he'd trained one to bring him tools when he was trying to build a bird house outside one day because the duck kept walking back and forth with hammers and screwdrivers and things. I don't think we ever told him that the duck just wanted to get the juices off the handles. Friederike Albert had just eaten sauerkraut and got it all over the tools." She laughed fondly at the memory. "I can't imagine living somewhere that isn't very green, though. I live in the forest too. Do you and your uncle get along?"
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Johana Leonie
Mit einem Freund im Dunkeln zu gehen ist besser als alleine
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Johana Leonie
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