Surprise by Anon
The holidays had been very dull. For years, he’d never really noticed. The elves came and went, same as ever, muttering their little worries under their breath to amuse him. They had always seemed so funny. But now… Now he’d discovered something so much richer. The students were like a tantalising buffet of all the finest delicacies and richest flavours. Two weeks left alone with nothing but the elves was like two weeks on bread on water. But today, it was the day of the feast.The students settled to their meal, a stern warning from the Head falling on innocent ears. And whilst they tried to shake it off - to eat, drink and be merry, whilst everyone was busily looking the other way, there was work to be done.
Nothing too big to start off. That was the fun of the feast - to have a little of this, a little of that. And these… These seemed to be somewhat universal problems. Perhaps he could stir up some more feelings along similar lines, beyond the ones he knew about. The cork boards were blank in most of the Common Rooms, or at least had been before dinner, with the notices from the first half of term removed, ready for a fresh start. He smiled, looking at them - clean, pristine, just waiting for the first announcements. And he had plenty.
On the Aladren board, he scratched a heart containing a question mark. He could have added an ‘E’ with an ‘A’ but he suspected there were a few students to shake up with the suggestion that more feelings were about to be spilt.
Subthreads: What a lousy surprise. by Jax Donovan with Lena Westley
"I see," said the blind man by Clark Dill
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Surprise
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Jax Donovan
August 10, 2015 7:11 PM
What a lousy surprise. by Jax Donovan
Jax was in a foul mood. This was not anything new. Jax was either in a foul mood or he was indifferent. Rarely were his moods something other than those two things. For anyone who happened to catch him in any other mood than the two already discussed, they should be rather proud of having done so. It was like finding buried treasure without a niffler or trying to locate the needle in the hay stack without the use of magic. It was rare and basically impossible to see Jax in any other mood.The wagon ride back to Sonora was always a difficult one for Jax. He was tired and ached as it was, so the bumps and bangs along the way never helped him feel any better. Plus, saying good bye to his mother was always such a difficult task for them and Gia (as much as she never wanted to admit it) had the hardest time of all. She always put on a brave face and smiled and cheered, but anyone who was paying any attention to her could tell that she was suffering. Jax, being the only male of the family, had the duty to protect her and his mother, but he always felt like he was doing a lousy job of it. He only hoped that his father was proud of him thus far in his life.
Deciding not to set around the Aladren table and listen to the drabble of his peers, Jax sat at the table long enough to listen to the Headmaster’s speech and grab a piece of bread before he hurried out of the hall in a quick pace in order to avoid anyone asking him any questions. The last thing Jax really wanted at the moment was small and pointless chatter from someone. He knew he could at least find some quiet in his dorm room. Even if his roommates happened to be there instead of at the feast, they rarely bothered him. Every once in a while, Barnaby seemed curious about him, but Jax avoided him whenever he felt like his roommate was getting too close.
When he was in the common room, Jax was looking around for a place that was relatively secluded even after people came trekking in when something on the notice board caught his attention. The board was completely wiped clean of all the nonsense from before midterm except for something marked on it. Moving closely, Jax realized that it was the same sort of graffiti that had been going around the school last term.
He looked at the heart and the question mark for a moment, trying to figure out exactly what the point of it was. Was it questioning love? Or was it indicating people were in love? He felt that was pretty obvious. This school was full of hormonal teenagers, of course there were going to be some with feeling.
He hadn’t known how long he was standing there before he realized someone else was with him. It was only then did he realize that it might seem like he had been the one to scratch the new note onto the board. “Apparently whoever’s been doing this is in Aladren.” He commented, trying to seem casual about it. “What’s the point of this?”
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What a lousy surprise.
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Lena Westley
August 11, 2015 3:29 AM
What a Lousy Secret by Lena Westley
Leaving the returning feast early, Lena walked the nearly empty halls in silence. Which was nice. Talking with others, as she’d recently discovered, could be a nice way to spend some time but a crowded table in an even more crowded hall was still not her idea of a fun place to be. As she made her way to the common room she’d been tempted to stay in the library but decided reading on her own bed was more comfortable. She didn’t need new reading material either as she had brought the books given to her this Christmas back with her. After entering, she saw the boy standing in front of the notice board and headed towards it with the expectation of there being something of actual importance.She’d been standing there a few minutes, not in a terrible hurry to read just yet, and tried to see what had the boy so absorbed. For the life of her it looked like a plain old cork board with nothing new on it. At last he spoke “Apparently whoever’s been doing this is in Aladren. What’s the point of this?”
Was he talking about the ongoing vandalism of school property? If so was that heart on the cork board what had intrigued him? That hardly seemed like vandalism. What’s more it didn’t really seem like a secret. Saying so Lena replied “Maybe there isn’t a point. This isn’t much of a secret if it is one. Even if it is, it’s too vague to cause much uproar.” None of the secrets had caused her any internal distress so she couldn’t really empathize but this heart with the question mark- this just seemed sappy. “I mean, what does that mean? Are they questioning what love is? There should be initials if it’s gossip, shouldn’t there?”
She didn’t see the point really. She was starting to see the merits of friendly conversation; she saw the point of breaking out of one’s comfort zone. What eluded her still, and always would, was why anyone would engage in these things with the intent of stirring up negative feelings. There was no gain in making someone else unhappy, you didn’t become happier. Well, unless you were taking revenge on someone or you were a twisted person. The first couldn’t account for how widespread the gossip had been though. The second was too awful to contemplate. Lena was not a Teppenpaw but she still didn’t want there to be someone that malicious around her.
“It’s probably best to ignore it. Should we cover it? I mean. . it seems pretty harmless, I don’t know if it will upset anyone. Maybe it will be okay even if we leave it. Neither of us were upset by it after all.” Making no attempt to cover it she just stared at the heart wondering if it had even been the same perpetrator.
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What a Lousy Secret
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Jax Donovan
August 11, 2015 6:09 PM
That is also true. by Jax Donovan
Although Jax’s face remained rather blank, on the inside, he was frowning at the girl. He was aware that a heart and a question mark scratched onto the board wasn’t much of a secret at all, which is why he was questioning the point of this to begin with. The main issue here wasn’t the heart at all but the fact that an Aladren was the one who was trying to divulge all of the secrets of their school peers. Jax had higher respect for his house than he did for the others because they were supposed to be intellectual, but if one of them was going around and spreading these possible rumors, he would be ashamed to be associated with them.“We have a philosophical vandal?” Jax jested when she asked if they were questioning love. He hadn’t meant to throw the tease out there, but it had slipped into the air without him actually realizing he was the one saying it. “Sorry.” He said quickly, not wanting to seem harsh. He didn’t know why he cared to correct himself, but he did it nonetheless. He was tired and he really wished he hadn’t been tempted by this work to figure it out and be caught in a conversation with another person. He had purposely left the hall in order to avoid conversation in the first place.
The only thing that Jax could think of as to why there were no initials was probably because the last heart that was carved into the tree had all the students who had those initials called into the office to talk with the Deputy Headmistress regarding the vandalism to try to seek out who it might have been. Jax had talked to great length to Gia about it and how upset she had been at the idea of getting into trouble for someone else’s doing. He had become upset at the carving just thinking about the idea that someone was messing with his sister. It didn’t seem like the staff had found their culprit though since more writings had continued to appear.
Jax shrugged. The responsible thing would be to go and tell Professor Pye about the vandalism that was now making its way into the Aladren common room, but Jax didn’t really care about whether or not the heart was removed and he knew that the Professor was likely to find out soon enough by someone else’s word of mouth. Jax didn’t see any reason to get involved in it any further. “It’s obviously meant for someone, even if it is vague. It doesn’t affect me because I am not harboring any feelings for another person, but I’m sure someone here is.” Jax commented lightly. “It might have been left vague as a way to bother multiple people at once instead of just a select few. Or the person that it was directed to had such a unique initial that they didn’t want to give it away so easily.” These were just guesses and Jax might be completely off.
“Then again, maybe it’s not even vandalism. Maybe this is some secret communication between two people in love.” Jax suggested. That was just stupid. Why would it have needed to be a secret to begin with? “Like a Pureblood Traditionalist and a Muggleborn. Can’t be seen together, etcetera.” He shrugged again, not really sure where he was going with it.
Love was stupid in his opinion.
“I say, just leave it. Like you said, it’s too vague to really bother people and if someone is bothered by it, then they must know that it’s for them.” Jax stated. “Professor Pye will deal with it.”
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That is also true.
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Lena Westley
August 12, 2015 2:55 AM
Then again. . . by Lena Westley
“We have a philosophical vandal?” Lena wasn’t so sure. She still thought this one seemed so . . . lacking that it hardly seemed like the malicious secrets that had been carved into school property, and it definitely didn’t seem as bad as far as vandalism went. As the boy went on about how this little heart was probably intended to stir someone up, Lena couldn’t get past the fact that it was so little. She was no expert on gossip but she sure as heck would have needed a bigger clue for her to even know if it was intended for her. Not that she was the target either.“Well there’s nothing proving that this was even written by the same person. Cork boards always had things like this back home. I’d hardly call it vandalism, digging some cork out of a cork board.” That wasn’t interesting, the question mark was. Did it mean the person didn’t know what it was, didn’t understand the feeling? That a love they had, like a friendship, was turning into a different kind of love?
What had started out as neutral pondering turned to something else. She didn’t feel well suddenly. She felt like rubbing her chest but refrained, hearing the boy say “Then again maybe it’s not even vandalism. Maybe this is some secret communication between two people in love.” She wanted to agree, say she hardly thought it needed to be inspected further but stood instead in silence. “I say, just leave it. Like you said, it’s too vague to really bother people and if someone is bothered by it, then they must know that it’s for them. Professor Pye will deal with it.” Good.
Normally she wouldn’t have even noticed the heart (she hadn’t noticed the initials in the Labyrinth’s entryway after all and still wouldn’t have known about it had announcements not been made) and normally she wouldn’t be bothered. But. . . this wasn’t for her, she knew that, but. . . that didn’t mean it didn’t unintentionally raise something in her. Not excusing herself first, she had already started to leave the boy standing there when she remembered herself. “I’ll send him a note. Goodnight.” It wasn’t friendly, it wasn’t good manners but she didn’t care. She was too distressed.
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Then again. . .
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Clark Dill
August 13, 2015 4:29 PMClark Dill
AlumnusHouse: Aladren
Written by: Nathan
Age in Post: 14
Birthday: Who knows? But he celebrates it in November
"I see," said the blind man by Clark Dill
Clark walked right passed the bulletin board without seeing the heart inscribed around a question mark, despite slowing down to glance at the board in case any announcements had put up regarding the Concert. The Headmaster hadn't mentioned it in his speech, and Clark hadn't heard anything more about it since the sign up sheet went up. This was perhaps because he hadn't signed up and preparations were well underway behind the scenes, but he was mildly curious and feeling just a little bit guilty for not putting his name down.He'd had valid reasons to abstain, of course: he had plenty of other commitments to his schedule without adding in concert practices (not least of which was Science Club which demanded way more planning time than he initially anticipated when he created it), he had no known talents for any kind of performance art, and he didn't want to look like he was trying too hard to earn prefect next year. Still, he'd watched the sign-up sheet, mostly to make sure Oliver hadn't signed up if he was being perfectly honest, and wondered if he should put his name down anyway.
But the bulletin board had nothing on it, and he would have sworn to that in a court of law. If a police sketch artist asked him to describe it, he would have just said it was an empty corkboard, and gave its dimensions, textures, material components, and colors (probably with far greater precision than most people who didn't regularly fill out transfiguration tables would) but if specifically asked if it had any graffiti on it, he would have just stared blankly and been utterly unable to say either way with any certainty. He might have been able to logic himself into believing there hadn't been any, since this was Sonora and not a metro station. On the other hand, he'd been in enough metro stations, he might have been equally likely to logic his way into saying there must have been graffiti or he would have noticed its lack. But neither case would have given the sketch artist anything further to add to his drawing.
Clark simply didn't see it. His brain dismissed it as unimportant and didn't register it into memory or surface thought.
What he did do was settle into one of the common room chairs with a book and start reading, killing time as he did every evening at Sonora, so as to minimize the amount of time he had to spend conscious in the room he shared with Oliver.
He hadn't managed to engross himself in it yet, though, when he heard someone say something and looked up to see someone looking at the empty bulletin board with far more interest than he felt it deserved. Curious, he marked his place and stepped closer to see what about the empty board had caught his Housemate's attention.
"What?" Clark asked, hoping for a repetition of whatever missed statement had pulled his own attention from his book, and some clue as to what they were even looking at.
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"I see," said the blind man
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....Okay. by Jax
Jax stood and stared at the girl next to him (well, more like side-glared at her as he wouldn’t feel it necessary to actually look at her fully) trying to gauge her reaction. It seemed to him that she actually took his comment seriously. She did know how to read someone who was only joshing, right? She understood what sarcasm was, right? People did detect that inflection in one’s voice, didn’t they? Maybe he hadn’t done it correctly… Jax was a stoic person, but he at least thought that someone could read that much about him. Besides, she was the one who made the comment of the person questioning love! He was only making a play off her own words. This is why he didn’t like talking to people…Jax wasn’t sure what her definition of vandalism was if she didn’t think someone carving something into someone else’s property was considered vandalism. He wondered if she would still feel that way if instead of a heart carved into the board if it had been some mean spirited phrase had been scratched into the surface would she still think it wasn’t vandalism? Was it the subject of the carving that made the difference?
Anyway, it wasn’t the heart itself that Jax had a problem with. It was too vague for it to really bother people and didn’t seem to be directed at any particular individual. What he felt was the bigger issue, the true picture, was that someone in Aladren was defacing school property. Even if it was just a stupid little heart that no one would think twice about. Jax didn’t like the idea of someone in this house finding out secrets and spreading them across the school. Giving out crush information was one thing (because, as embarrassing as it was, most people already if a person like someone else), but outing someone’s sexuality or their parental relationship was crossing a line. Jax and Gia’s future rested on no one finding out what he was. Now, he wasn’t sure if he could guarantee his secret would be safe.
Jax nodded his farewell to the girl when she stated she would send Pye a note. Whether or not Pye got rid of the heart would be another matter. He could just take the same casual response about it that this girl had and, in a sense, Jax had as well. Jax would just have to see how serious his Head of House took his duty to protect his students. Feeling that he had already exhausted himself with people, Jax retreated back to his dorm room for some peace and quiet.
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