Head of House Speech on Teppenpaw Commons

Nathan Xavier

August 10, 2014 6:32 PM

Head of House Speech by Nathan Xavier

Nathan led the way out through the large main doors of the Cascade Hall into the grand entrance hall with its portraits of the Founders and the corridors and stairwells to different parts of the school. From here, there were actually several ways to get to the commonroom. This year, as he had last year, he picked the route that he thought might be the most helpful to them, if not the shortest.

He headed toward one of the corridors, leading the new students down a hallway lined with doors, which he pointed out as being some of the classrooms they would utilize for potions, Defense Against the Dark Arts, and, on days when it was not held outside, Care of Magical Creatures. He stopped at a cross-corridor, and pointed further down the way they had been going. "The Transfiguration rooms are further down that way. This is the way to the hospital wing," he added, leading the students down the side corridor.

Before they reached the medical wing, though, he stopped at a staircase leading up. "Our common room is up here," he said, starting up the stairs. He stopped partway up and turned back to the students following him. This was the difficult part.

He pointed at the step underneath him. "This is the entrance to our commonroom," he stated, with a slight air of someone not expecting to be believed. He hadn't quite believe it himself when he'd been told, and even a year later, it still seemed a bit odd. "Look for the little diamond-shaped chip in the stair," he added, giving them the advice he'd been given for finding the right spot. "Now we do a jig to get in." His tone had changed to one that sounded more than a little bit apologetic. "This was not my idea."

As the school's groundskeeper, Nathan's job was reasonably demanding in a physical sense. He could lift heavy bags of dirt and walk around the labyrinth for hours without needing to sit down too often, so he wasn't completely out of shape. However, he had hit his forties and had about fifteen or so extra pounds around his middle that were not strictly necessary and 'graceful' was never a word anybody had ever accused him of being.

"You don't need to be good at it," he reassured the first years. Even now, he was in no stretch of the imagination good at it, and his attempt at the jig looked more like an elephant having a seizure than a dance. "You just need to get the steps in the right order." Merlin knew his own rhythm was awful and his timing inconsistent, so he knew for a fact that these were not necessary for successfully navigating the entrance. "You step like this, this, and, uh, this, then click your heels, and tap, and tap, and shuffle. And you repeat that twice more. You can get an older student to show you how to do it with the right tempo, if you'd like, but everyone just do the steps with me now. This, this, and . . . this, click, tap, tap, shuffle. This, this, and this, click, tap, tap, shuffle." After the third iteration, the wall slid open and revealed the Teppenpaws' Sonora home.

"Everyone in," he ushered and followed them through the opening once they were all inside. It slid closed behind him, looking just like a blank wall except for the doormat lying on the floor next to it. "Getting out is much easier," he informed them with no small amount of relief that he didn't need to teach them another jig. "You just step on the mat."

He moved further into the room, and waved around the room they found themselves it. It was decorated, predictably, in the house colors of yellow and maroon. The fireplace looked cozy though, and the couches and armchairs were comfortable (he'd even slept on one of the couches last night when his cat had decided the bed was hers, so he could testify to their comfort first-hand). "This is your common room," he introduced the students to their new home. "Your dorms are up the stairs, girls to the right, boys to the left. Look for the room with your year number on it so, one, in your case. Don't go up the wrong staircase. You'll get dumped back in here if you even try."

He pointed out the bulletin board hanging on the wall near where they'd come in. "That's the board. It'll have important information on it like club announcements, Quidditch sheets, and so forth. Teppenpaw has had some trouble with getting Quidditch players lately, so I'll be running the try-outs and naming not only the team, but the captain from the results of that." It had been Aubrielle Thornton and Carter Browning who were supposed to run the team last year, but he hadn't seen them come back since the Incident last term, so their positions were open now.

"Teppenpaw also has some prefects, who wear badges identifying themselves as such. They're named Aria Yale, Carter Browning, and Julian Umland." Of course Carter Browning seemed to no longer be present, but a new one had not yet be named and Mr. Browning hadn't formally left the school so his name remained listed for that position and Nathan dutifully repeated it. Teppenpaw hadn't had three prefects in a while anyway, so he was sure they could make do.

"Just a couple more rules, then I'll let you get settled in and acquaint yourselves with your new home for the next seven years. Curfew is at 10. You don't need to go to sleep then, but you need to be in Teppenpaw territory and quiet. Otherwise, we lose House points. You get those for good behavior and achievements and lose them for bad behavior and the House with the most of them at the end of the year gets a trophy. Uh. . . Breakfast starts at seven. Each of you should have gotten a class schedule and a map with your acceptance letter, but I've got more in my office there," he pointed out the door to the Head of House office, "if anyone needs them. I'm also available, either in there or out in the Gardens, if you ever need me for anything. I'm here to help. Are there any questions?"

Subthreads:

Greeting people! by Aiden O'Neil

1 Nathan Xavier Head of House Speech 28 Nathan Xavier 1 5

Aiden O'Neil

August 12, 2014 8:29 PM

Greeting people! by Aiden O'Neil

Aiden had been having a lovely conversation with Eva at the Teppenpaw Table in Cascade Hall when they were interrupted by their Head of House, Mr. Xavier (Mother might not be too pleased his Head of House was the Groundskeeper of the school, but he planned to leave that part out of his dutiful letter home), called them forward. Aiden was so full of excitement that he thought he would float straight into the sky. This was going to be his home for the next seven years. He couldn’t really complain about life back home. Being the only child to his parents, only grandchild to his maternal grandparents, and the last in line for the Mathers fortune (not to mention, the attention he obtained from the O’Neil side), Aiden was a pampered boy, which showed in his chubby features and top of the line clothing. But, even with all the attention back home, going away to school meant that he was finally growing up.

He was so excited to have potential roommates, playmates, friends, and classmates that he just couldn’t wipe the wide smile on his face that showed off his unfortunate set of teeth. So far, he had met Eva. Eva was very nice even if she was a Muggleborn. Aiden was not going to write home about that part either. His parents were lenient regarding blood status but only to a point. Friends would be okay (his ‘Aunt’ Tally was a Halfblood, after all), but it could never ever go beyond that point. Aiden wasn’t really thinking about girls anyway for that to matter, but it was still a rule that his parents had put into his head a long time ago and he didn’t feel comfortable with the idea of breaking it.

He followed as quickly as he could behind the Groundskeeper, trying to remember everything that was being told to him while memorizing where the classrooms were and how to get there (Aiden was not good at multitasking and so, was not actually doing much of anything to help himself.). Everything about the school was fantastic. It was what his mother had told him. There was a scare last year involving the school that his mother had gobbled up like one of her soaps that had his parents second guessing whether or not to send him here, but then things were resolved and his mother deemed it okay to come. He was pleased that she did. He felt he was going to meet a lot of great people here and have a good time with it.

Aiden hesitated, however, when he was told that he would have to do a little dance step to get into his common room. Aiden, in his current condition of hefty, was not made for dancing. He was going to embarrassment himself pretty terrible when he did it in front of his housemates. He definitely tripped up a few times and by the end of his go, Aiden was puffing, but at least he got the footwork down. The rest of the Head of House speech was fine and Aiden didn’t have to do anymore exercise, so that was a bonus. Once Mr. Xavier was done talking and Aiden essentially forgotten everything just told to him, he took a few moments to look around at his surroundings. This was amazing!

Spotting another, presumably, first year, Aiden made his way over with a grin, “Good evening!” Aiden exclaimed. “This place is pretty fantastic, right?” He asked, making sure he wasn’t the only one who appreciated it. “I’m Aiden O’Neil of Northeast O’Neils.” He introduced himself pleasantly.

6 Aiden O'Neil Greeting people! 287 Aiden O'Neil 0 5

Savannah Brockert

August 20, 2014 2:19 PM

Being greeted! by Savannah Brockert

Once the Teppenpaws were called, Savannah stood up, exchanging a glance with her twin as Scarlett walked away with the Pecaris. She felt a twinge of sadness, it been expected as they were very different girls-though could have been possible for both to be in Crotalus which had types of people who were extremely different from each other-but the truth was that the twins had never really been apart before. Hopefully, Savannah would make great friends in Teppenpaw, and at least Serena was there.

She followed the Groundskeeper, Mr. Xavier, whom she'd never treat with anything less than respect, to the entrance to Teppenpaw. It hit her that not only would she not be in a room next to her twin but that she wouldn't even know where Scarlett's room was . It was a mind shattering thought to Savannah. She never would know either, wouldn't even listen if the Pecari tried to tell her where her house was located, but she wouldn't put it past Scarlett to try and find out the entrance to the other houses.

And for the first time, Savannah knew that she'd have roommates. She'd seen quite a few yellow girls-yellow people in general, more than any other house-and she just hoped they all got along. For all she'd heard about the school over the years, from all her family, the first year felt as she was going to the unknown just as much as any other first year, even ones whose family hadn't been going there forever. Savannah just happened to know more actual details of the school then some.

Including a rumor that had been apparently proven true. She hadn't known precisely where the Teppenpaw common room was of course or about the little diamond chip in the stairs, but she had heard that they had to dance to get in. Though like all pureblood girls, Savannah had had dance lessons, she had not learned this one because it obviously was only for Teppenpaws and nobody knew that until they were Sorted. One could suspect but never be certain. Plus, the focus had been on ballroom dancing and not any sort of jig.

It wasn't that difficult for her, but it was definitely rougher than any ballroom dancing she'd done. Dancing was not one of Savannah's specialities. Her sister seemed to like it the best of all the lessons they took, but Scarlett,while having a lot of energy, didn't even really have the patience and attention span for that. The Teppenpaw was less likely to make mistakes, she paid more attention to detail, but never for something that required this much quick thinking while doing. She usually preferred things like embroidery and cross-stitching to dancing in general. Savannah even had to admit she felt a little bit tired and winded and one boy was even puffing.

Mr. Xavier's speech seemed pretty standard and when it was done, the previously puffing boy came over to Savannah.

Good evening!” Aiden exclaimed. “This place is pretty fantastic, right?” He asked, making sure he wasn’t the only one who appreciated it. “I’m Aiden O’Neil of Northeast O’Neils.”

She grinned back. " It's pretty nice." Savannah agreed. "I'm Savannah Brockert, of the Western Brockerts." She introduced herself, reflexively curtseying at Aiden, whom she knew to be from a good family. It was just proper manners after all.

11 Savannah Brockert Being greeted! 286 Savannah Brockert 0 5

Aiden O'Neil

August 22, 2014 10:45 PM

Enjoying a chat. by Aiden O'Neil

Brockert… was she related to the Headmaster? She must have been. His mother said she had gone to school with the impossibly large Brockert family. His mother hadn’t said much about them other than to be nice to them, but Aiden was nice to everyone, so he didn’t think that would be a problem. His mother had gone to school with many of his peers’ relatives, so he wouldn’t be surprised by some of the names he was going to hear here. The Brockerts were discussed only casually with Aiden, mostly because he felt that they thought he was too young to worry about things. His mother roomed with a relative to a Brockert and had been, as she put it, friendly with one another, but once they graduated, they had gone their separate ways. Other than the various rumors that often came with Purebloods, Aiden’s mother didn’t have much to say on them. But then, she rarely spoke about anyone in general, except to say who to be polite to. His mother was weird like that, but Aiden didn’t mind. If his mother made negative remarks about anyone, that would stick in his mind over anything else. It was better that she was so vague.

“It’s a pleasure to meet you, Miss. Brockert.” Aiden replied, finding it strange to call someone his own age like he would one of his parents’ friends. At least she wasn’t a Muggleborn like Eva. He had enjoyed talking to Eva though, so he supposed he wouldn’t have minded had Savannah been one, but then he might have felt that everyone in this house was Muggleborn or Halfblood and he would have trouble meeting the right sort as his parents wanted. If there were many of his classmates who were not Pure, Aiden felt like he’ll end up doing something that he wasn’t supposed too. Thankfully though, his parents were not as strict as some Purebloods because they tell him to be polite and making friends with everyone was just fine with them. This left Aiden feeling much more at ease about everything. He might mess up every now and then but his parents were very forgiving of him.

“My mother is an alumnus from Sonora. She and my God Mother, Auntie Tally, always told me stories of their time here. My mother was in Crotalus though, but Auntie was in Teppenpaw.” Aiden stated, making conversation with his new housemate. “It’s really strange to see all the things they talked about for myself. Like the waterfalls of Cascade all or the Labyrinth Gardens! I think I’ll explore those after dinner tomorrow.” This last bit was mostly to himself rather than to Savannah, like an afterthought of a ‘To Do List’ running through his head.

“Did your family mention anything to you?” He perhaps should have asked if she had siblings or parents that went to Sonora to explain the school to her, but she was a Brockert (a clear relation based on not only the name but the blood status to the Headmaster), which meant that somewhere along the way, someone would have mentioned the school to her.

6 Aiden O'Neil Enjoying a chat. 287 Aiden O'Neil 0 5

Savannah

August 26, 2014 3:11 PM

Me too by Savannah

She smiled, Aiden seemed really nice,which she supposed was to be expected. Still, Savannah thought she was going to really like her new house, even without her sister. "You may call me Savannah if you'd like." She offered. The first year wanted to be on friendly terms with her housemates and people in general.

"That could be fun." She agreed about the Gardens. "I know my twin sister is looking forward to it. " Scarlett was much more enthusiastic about adventuring around than she was but she wasn't completely opposed to going out there,during the day of course. "I'm more interested in classes and making friends." It was true, she was enthusiastic about learning magic. She'd seen it around her her whole life and to be able to do it herself would be amazing. Savannah supposed she could have been in Aladren, now that she thought about it, but honestly, she was glad to be where she was if she couldn't be with Scarlett.

"Oh, yes. I've heard a lot. Is there anything particular you want to know?" The first year asked. She didn't want to come across as a know-it-all. Nobody liked them. Admittedly, she really didn't either. "I mean, I've had lots of family here." Savannah added, so any knowledge she had seemed more explainable if she seemed to know too much for Aiden's tastes. She really didn't want to seem off-putting. "I still do. Some of them more closely related than others, but lots of first cousins."

The Teppenpaw decided not to mention being related to the Headmaster because first of all it was pretty obvious, secondly because it seemed like bragging or trying to call attention to family connections, thirdly because she wanted to minimize any accusation of nepotism or expectation of special treatment for befriending her-Savannah wanted people to like her for herself-and finally because it wasn't that close a relationship and she didn't really even know him at all. Besides, even Serena and Chaslyn were scared of him. Of course, the latter seemed to be cowed by authority figures and admittedly, the older Teppenpaw was kind of the squeamish type. Not that Savannah disliked her cousins, but she wasn't blind to their flaws. Plus, he seemed like the sort one didn't mess with.

11 Savannah Me too 286 Savannah 0 5

Aiden

September 07, 2014 12:29 AM

That's good! by Aiden

“That sounds nice.” Aiden stated when she gave him permission to use her first name. “I prefer Aiden.” Really, he had only ever been called Aiden, but now that he was with his peers where they were likely to call him Mr. O’Neil, which was weird and he didn’t want people calling him what they typically called his father. That wasn’t very fun to him despite his love for his dad. Aiden was only eleven. He didn’t really see the point of calling or being called ‘Mr./Miss’ when he was this age. His dad liked to tell him that sometimes the rules that they followed were very old and severely outdated, but they followed them anyway because that was what they did. Aiden supposed that as he grew older these rules would make more sense to him and come easier to him, but for the time being, he always had to remind himself to follow them and not to ask too many questions to anyone other than his parents.

Despite Aiden being friendly to everyone, he didn’t have a lot of social interaction with people his own age. His parents did their rounds with social events and his mother often had tea with her peers, but Aiden wasn’t around many others his own age. His first day at Sonora was already proving difficult for Aiden to keep to the rules that were set before him by society since he never had to really worry about them before. He hoped that no one noticed any flubs that he might have along the way. So far, though, Aiden had met some nice people, so he didn’t think they would mind any.

“Oh, you have a twin?” Aiden asked, interested in this fact. He didn’t have any siblings but he always thought having a twin would be fun. “I want to explore the whole school, not just the gardens, but I figure it might be more interesting to explore those.” Aiden advised as he thought it over. His Auntie told him that the school had secret passages that she used to explore. He wanted to see if he could find them himself as she had refused to tell him there whereabouts. She said half the fun was discovering them. The Gardens offered more when it came to species and water holes and would likely take him longer to explore as he probably would get lost.

“No, nothing specific.” Aiden answered her easily. “I was just curious if whether or not you had been told anything.” He explained. “My Mother only told me stories of what she and her friends did, but it was sort of boring girl stuff. No offense.” Aiden added. He meant no harm with his comment, he just wasn’t interested in girl things at this time in his life. ‘My Aunt though, she says this place has hidden passages and wild creatures and things. Did any of your relatives talk about that stuff?” He asked Savannah. His aunt might have been pulling his leg. She sometimes liked to give him a hard time.

6 Aiden That's good! 0 Aiden 0 5

Savannah

September 14, 2014 4:00 PM

Agreed! by Savannah

She nodded. "I prefer Savannah." She smiled. Maybe she and Aiden would get to be friends. He was nice and he was even from an appropriate family. Of course, the former was somewhat more important to the first year. She could be polite to those who weren't part of pureblood society, but she didn't really want to spend time with anyone who was nasty no matter what their background. Not that Savannah was that afraid of being picked on-if there was ever a situation where she couldn't take it, she always had her twin for back up- it was just something she didn't want to spend time and energy on. She didn't even want to spend a lot of time with someone who was nasty to others. "Miss Brockert would get confusing anyway. In addition to me and my sister, there's also my cousins Serena, Amity and Chaslyn. Serena is in Teppenpaw and Chaslyn is a year older than us. You probably won't ever interact with Amity, she's a sixth year Aladren."

"Yes, her name is Scarlett. She's in Pecari." Savannah replied. Having a twin was great. Even though they were incredibly different, she couldn't imagine being closer to anyone, even her future husband. Especially as it was highly unlikely that she'd marry someone she was in love with. That only rarely happened in pureblood culture and it was something she had to accept. If the first year was lucky, she'd marry someone she knew. Neither Chaslyn nor Serena had good options at Sonora. However, it wasn't something she really thought about that often. She was only eleven.

Of course, having a twin and a lot of cousins did not mean she wanted to stick exclusively to family and become clannish. The first year still did have to meet respectable people after all Still, she was curious. "Do you have any family here?" She knew of the O'Neil's to be an important family, but that didn't mean that Savannah knew the names of every last one. "Or any that will becoming?"

"That could be fun. Maybe I'll come along." She answered. The Teppenpaw wasn't opposed to the idea of exploring, she just wasn't as interested in it as she was other things. "I mean, if you don't mind." Savannah added. She wouldn't want to insert herself into something if someone didn't want her there. Her feelings might be a little hurt if she were rejected, but she didn't want to force herself on anyone.

"That's okay. I guess I'm not really that interested in 'boy stuff." Aside from Quidditch, Savannah wasn't entirely sure what would be considered boy stuff but that was besides the point. "I'm not sure about hidden passages but I have heard tales of creatures in the gardens."

11 Savannah Agreed! 286 Savannah 0 5

Aiden

September 22, 2014 8:02 PM

Glad we are on the same path. by Aiden

Aiden thought it was pretty fantastic that Savannah had a sibling, a twin even, here at Sonora! Being an only child, Aiden had often wondered what it would be like to have siblings to entertain him (especially during boring adult things), but then he realized that if he had siblings, he would be competing with them all the time and that seemed less fun. It was one of those thoughts where he thought he was missing out on something but then realized he had it pretty good, that happened off and on throughout his lifetime. Usually, this was when he was around his distant cousins. They had larger families than he did and he thought that was pretty cool. Definitely could never get lonely that way. Not that his parents let him be lonely. His mother spent plenty of time with him during the day and his father helped him with homework in the evening.

On top of having a sister here, Savannah also seemed to have a slew of female relatives. Aiden wondered if most people here had families so grand as the Brockerts. His father said there were some new bred for the sake of breeding, without purpose, but just for number, but she also said there some like them who kept their families quaint. Aiden knew his parents had been unable to have more children, but he didn’t think they would have had more than two anyway.

“Oh no, I’m the only one here.” Aiden replied with a grin. “My cousins are at a school up North. My Father’s school. The family likes to have them close. This is my Mother’s old school. She wanted me to experience it myself, so Father agreed to it.” Aiden said, happy about it. His cousins were okay, but they were older and would have ignored him anyway. “I don’t have any siblings either, so no one else will be coming. Not that I know of, anyway.” There was a chance that his family will decide to send some of their relatives to Sonora in the future.

“I don’t mind. It’s better to share experiences with someone than not to.” Aiden said. That was something he had heard once, but it made sense. This way, he had someone to talk to while he explored. It was more fun that way.

Aiden’s grin widened, “That’s too bad, ‘boy stuff’ is so much fun to do.” He teased.

6 Aiden Glad we are on the same path. 0 Aiden 0 5