Headmistress Powell

May 01, 2009 1:20 AM
It was a beautiful evening. Sunlight streamed in through the windows of the Cascade Hall, creating a dazzling display of ripples and rainbows as the final rays of the day were reflected by the waterfalls lining the room. Sadi had made her way to Sonora in her usual fashion: Apparition. She was wearing her customary plain brown robes and her graying hair was fastened, as usual, in a neat knot at the nape of her neck. She stood quietly in the far corner of the room as returning students noisily made their way into seats, and the first years were gathered by the door. The new students were greeted by Deputy Head Professor Flatt, and Sadi honestly wasn’t sure which party looked more nervous out of the first years and Henry. She understood the anxiety; she herself was concerned that she might make some terrible mistake during her first day as Headmistress. Hopefully those present would forgive any stumbles.

When all the wagons were empty, Sadi joined her colleagues at the staff table (although she stood in front of it, rather than sat behind) and called for attention. “Settle down, please,” she said, gentle but commanding, as always. When there was enough quiet to be heard without the assistance of charms, Sadi graced the students with a smile. “To our older students, welcome back. To our first year students, welcome to Sonora Academy.” With Henry’s assistance, each new student was handed a goblet full of a clear, bubbling liquid. When swallowed, this potion would turn the drinker’s skin the corresponding color of the House to which they now belonged: blue for Aladren, yellow for Teppenpaw, red for Crotalus, and brown for Pecari.

Most students enjoyed watching the sorting of the first years. Sadi couldn’t deny that the event had held her interest more thoroughly when she’d been Head of Crotalus, and so could identify her future students, but it was nevertheless an entertaining event. Therefore she waited patiently until all the students had settled once more before returning to her address.

“As always, the prairie elves have provided us with a magnificent feast,” she said, hoping to reel in the attention of those whose minds had wandered. “However, before we eat, I would like to make a few short announcements. Firstly, I would like to draw your attention to some changes in staffing this year. Professor Flatt,” Sadi gestured towards her colleague, now seated at the staff table, “will be supporting me as Deputy Head. I ask that you afford him every courtesy he deserves.” The worry about what would happen to the school if the government-appointed Deputy were to be unhappy remained unspoken. “Secondly, I would like you all to welcome Stella Nelson, who will be your new school Counselor. If you are having troubles of any sort, students are welcome to make an appointment to see the counsellor at any time.”

"Next I have a notice for the older students. You may have noticed that Professor Huntley is not with us this year. This is because Sonora Academy will, for the time being, not be offering elective classes." Call it pressure from above, cost cutting, lack of student interest, call it whatever you like - the situation remained the same, and was only made worse when one considered the school's inability to maintain all staff members from one year to the next. "If any students in fourth year or above wish to continue learning either Muggle Studies or Ancient Runes as independent studies, please see me."

“There have also been some alterations in Heads of Houses. Professor Flatt will be leading Teppenpaw, and Professor Taylor will take charge of Aladren House.” Sadi decided that the reasons behind this decision (namely to keep assorting governing bodies content) didn’t need to be shared. “Crotalus students may welcome Professor O’Leary as their Head, and Pecari House will be under care of Professor Baer.” Again, the reasons were not explained, though this time in sensitivity to Professor Baer; Sadi felt the transfiguration professor would be more adept at dealing with the boisterous Pecaris than the obstreperous Crotalus girls.

“Your Head of House will support and guide you during your time here at Sonora, and they are assisted by prefects and the Head Boy and Head Girl.” Bringing us nicely on to the next announcement, Sadi thought, as she reached into the pocket of her robes and brough forth a small box. “Could this year’s Head Boy, Geoffrey Layne, and Head Girl, Briony O’Leary, please come to collect their badges.” Sadi smiled at each seventh year, handing over the large badges bearing the school crest, and accepting the temporary badges they had been wearing until now. She replaced them in the box, where they joined four prefect badges. “Could this year’s prefects please join me to collect their badges. Congratulations to Lucas Smythe of Aladren, Josiah Ashwood of Teppenpaw, Lutece Anthony of Crotalus, and Irene Liddowe of Pecari.”

Sadi distributed the badges with a smile and ‘well done’ for each student. She put the lid back on the box and returned it to her pocket as she waited for the applause to die down before attracting attention for the last time that evening. “Thank you for listening for so long. I have no more announcements to make, so you are free to enjoy your food.” With a wave of Sadi’s hand, each and every table was suddenly groaning under a multitude of dishes, plates and jugs, each filled to the brim with one or another of an impressive variety of foods and drinks. Enough, indeed, that no student had yet found the feast lacking, and no student was ever likely too.

As everyone began eating, Sadi made her way to her own seat, and sunk into it, relieved that the hardest part of her day was over. She poured herself a small measure of good wine, and sipped from her goblet.

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Subthreads:
0 Headmistress Powell Let the Opening Feast commence! 0 Headmistress Powell 1 5


David Lancaster

May 01, 2009 3:40 PM
David Lancaster was no stranger to long-distance travel, having moved more times in his life than he had fingers. Still, this particular journey was one for the books. The transatlantic flight took nearly eighteen hours, included three layovers, and a re-run of the same flight movie six times. But that was military airfare for you- free for dependents, retired military, civil service, and active duty personnel, but not exactly primed for personal comfort. Thankfully, the domestic flight was nonstop, gave out pretzels, and had individual telesets so that David could watch whatever he liked. He ended up staring out of the window for the most part instead, an anonymous piano piece playing through his ear-buds. A small ball of excitement sat in his mostly empty stomach, twisting and knotting with such fervor that the normally still boy was hard pressed not to pick at his nails.

He spent the five hours instead shuffling and re-shuffling a deck of cards, his fingers marked by callouses of having performed the same action so many times. It was a habit from his much younger days, when his thumbsucking was put to a stop by iodine and his security blanket was done away with in the trash. His nervous energy had to find an outlet, and as long as his card shuffling was kept silent, the habit was tolerated. The plane touched down at Phoenix International Airport- Phoenix Sky Harbor International signs on the tarmac corrected him. David bypassed the people waiting beyond the gates, their colored signs and occasional bouquets a familiar sight.

In the handicapped stall of the bathroom, David regarded himself carefully in the mirror. His face, round and full, stared back solemnly. Dark grey smears stretched beneath his brown eyes, and his brown hair, too long by his parents' standards, stuck in matted clumps against his forehead. He withdrew a tube of toothpaste and a toothbrush from his carry on, as well as a tiny bottle of shampoo- the only size allowed by airport security at check-in. Within ten minutes, he managed a fair job of re-freshing himself and donning the collared red shirt and now wrinkled khaki slacks his mother had chosen for him.

Three hours later, when he was finished with his first port-key trip ever, David found himself regretting his bathroom visit. Somehow, he didn't think a ride by enchanted wagon was going to make him any cleaner. He was placed near the back of the wagon, a swathe of light coating his left arm. He watched as the slight impressions left by the wagon's wheels disappeared into the desert's endless sand. The Sonoran desert was by no means a Sahara. The earth looked dry and patched, and yet a slim coating of sand erased any signs of their having passed. David realized he ought to try and start some sort of conversation with his fellow riders, but he felt comfortable in his silence. For once, there was no pressure to make an effort.

It occurred to him then, albeit belatedly and distantly, that his parents were very far away indeed.

The school appeared where previously there had been only a middling mesa. Involuntarily, his fingers tightened over his wrists. It matched, in every detail, the pictures his introduction packet had included: more mansion than scholastic building, David counted the two bell towers and the three arches that rose up before them. He knew, from what the pamphlets had explained, that he would soon walk through a front door and that beyond it, he would undergo some sort of initiation that would decide his placement in the school's houses. He'd read over each of the House's descriptions, and despite trying to explain to his parents that he was not able to choose his house, they still decided that Aladren would be the best choice for him, Crotalus coming in a second place. Pecari, they had deemed, sounded far too tumultuous, and Teppenpaw- well, they had no opinion of it at all and that was really censure enough.

David looked on, in silent wonder, as they were led into a room that bespoke every fanstasy story he had ever read come to life. Water fell from the walls in delicate rows, only interrupted by the flooding of light from the many windows. Prisms of color angled their way across the marble floors, and in a mechanical daze, David took the goblet that was handed to him by a smiling professor with blue eyes. His skin, a dusky tan from a summer spent taking tennis lessons, morphed into a vibrant yellow, and smiling to himself, he took a seat with the rest of Teppenpaw House. Despite the awareness of his parents' probable disappointment with his House designation, he felt pleased. His eyes returned to the panel of the professors at the front of the room, and he listened, distracted by the slowly fading yellow of his skin, as various announcements were made. He listened and heard very little of it.

Port-key and wagons aside, the enchantment of his skin was David's first personal encounter with magic, and his hands tingled and his ears buzzed with the feel of it. So this is magic, he thought to himself. This is what it feels like. This is what being a wizard feels like-

His thoughts were interrupted by a voice to his right. He missed the spoken words and stared blankly for a moment at the sudden feast that appeared on the table, literally dozens of platters loaded with every variant of dish he could think of. "Sorry- I was elsewhere," he apologized. "Mind repeating?"
0 David Lancaster Sunshine on my shoulders 0 David Lancaster 0 5

Andrew Duell

May 03, 2009 12:42 PM
Andrew looked at the boy sitting next to him who had just turned to him. He was one of the other first years that had also changed yellow. It looked like he was back to normal though, why was his own lasting so long?

"I was just wondering how long..." As he spoke, his skin finally started to shift away from matching his blond hair, and back to his normal tanned shade. "Oh, nevermind, there it goes." Andrew grinned, giving him a bit of an impish look, his hair which was once carefully under control was now freeing itself to do what it wanted with every move of the boy's head.

"My name is Andrew, what's yours?" His stomach growled at the same time, and he begain filling his plate.
2 Andrew Duell Better now 145 Andrew Duell 0 5


David

May 03, 2009 3:00 PM
"The yellow. . ." David started slightly. He'd been so focused on the sensations the potion had left him with that he missed the absence of its more obvious marker. He could think of no mundane equivalent that could read a person's personality in such a way. At least not in such an immediate way; there were personality tests and IQ tests and all sorts of other tests that had been created that could quantify an individual in some manner, but David liked the wizarding way of it. A potion that changed the color of your skin for a brief time seemed far more personal, far more friendly than a clinical score card.

"Thanks," he replied, falling too easily into a pattern he had repeated the entire summer- and nearly every summer of his life thus far. "I'm David, most recently from Aviano Air Force base. Just transferred in, so you could say this is my second move of the summer." The standard introduction, with a few additions, was given in his normal tones, the circumstances of his background having made David comfortable with the process. It was nice, though, he noted to himself, to get to share the distinction of being new with an entire class.

David regarded his salad solemnly, his thoughts considering. Perhaps. . . friendships were easier this way, with the yearly inductions and House designations. Like were matched with like. Perhaps. . . this time around. . .

Gathering himself, he posed the question: "Where abouts are you from?"
0 David Excellent to hear. 0 David 0 5

Andrew

May 04, 2009 3:40 PM
Andrew munched away contently on the food he had piled onto his plate for just a moment. Mom really needed to learn to cook like this. He had only been a homemade concoction or two away from attempting something desperate. He wasn't quite sure what that thing was yet, and thankfully now he didn't have to worry about it... for the moment.

He turned back to David, "I'm from California, Mom runs an odds 'n ends magic shop in Barstow." Andrew paused a moment to clear some more food off of his plate. "Dad's an engineer in LA."

"Your family is military?" He asked with a smile, "That's pretty cool. I bet you get to see a lot of different stuff. Where all have you been?"
2 Andrew Food is good 145 Andrew 0 5


David

May 05, 2009 2:35 PM
David tried to place Barstow, geography being one of the few subjects that he didn't need to try hard at. After spending eleven years moving, it was hard not to get a grasp of the global situation- physical and otherwise. But San Diego had been five years ago, and all he could really recollect was that Barstow was to the north and inland. Los Angeles wasn't nearly as difficult. He'd had a brief, but intense, relationship with LAX when he'd been separated from his parents during a layover in New York, at JFK. Somehow, at eight years old, he'd managed to board the wrong plane and end up across the country.

He paused, mid-chew to consider. Perhaps that had been when his magic had first manifested itself, some sort of spell or charm or whichever that made him invisible, or unnoticeable.

"Stateside, I've lived in Virginia Beach, San Diego, and Pensacola. Overseas, it's been Germany-" David touched his brow and reflected, "- twice in Germany- both times in Heidelberg, Okinawa in Japan, and now Aviano in Italy. I don't think I can really count Italy just yet, though. I was only there for the summer, really, so . . ."

He cast his gaze down the table, watching briefly the interactions of his House seniors. He found the seeming normalcy of their actions difficult to balance with the still surreal surroundings. It still seemed incredible to him that more people did not know about the existence of magic. He'd tried searching for information on the internet, one of the few sources in his life that he felt to be infinite. For the first time that he could remember, all of his searches failed. Beyond pages describing fantasy stories- which really, now that he thought about it, weren't so fantastical after all- and religious practises, he hadn't found anything that spoke of, definitely, the Magical World.

It was puzzling, but intriguing, too.

"So your mom then, she's a witch?" David asked, going back to Andrew's earlier comment. "Did she go to Sonora, too, when she was younger?"
0 David Well, <i>good</i> food is good. 0 David 0 5

Andrew

May 05, 2009 7:37 PM
Andrew listened with rapt attention as David rattled off all of the places he's been. Andrew was a little envious, he had only bounced between Barstow and LA. Not that he hadn't gotten to see some of the world when it came to visit LA, but he hadn't figure out yet if tourists were the exception or the rule from the places they lived.

"Mom is a witch," He replied between mouthfuls of food. "She didn't come here to Sonora though." He paused both eating and talking for a moment to think. "She said she came over to the U.S. when she was about twenty or so. From somewhere in Europe I think, I guess she went to school over there. I'll have to ask her when I get the chance. She's never really talked about it much."

He resumed cleaning off his plate, "You've seen some of Europe, do they have a lot of schools like Sonora over there?"
2 Andrew Relativity is a wonderful thing :) 145 Andrew 0 5


David

May 11, 2009 12:26 PM
David considered his plate, his expression thoughtful. He had experienced only two kinds of schools overseas: Department of Defense ones, and the local schools of the host country. DoD schools were fairly run of the mill; of course classes were much smaller than public schools, the teachers were generally better educated, field trips were the stuff of pipe dreams, class materials were of the highest quality, school budgets had few restrictions-

David put down his fork, bothered. When broken down, his schooling hardly seemed 'run of the mill' after all. Why had it not occurred to him before? Perhaps with parents who saw every baseline, despite varying levels of quality, as merely average, he had overlooked the obvious.

"Sorry," he said after another moment of reflection, the rudeness of his pause finally catching up with him. "I take it you mean other magic schools? I'm a, uh, Muggle-born?" David stumbled over the alien term. "So I didn't know of any of this before this past July. I imagine there must be other schools, though. World's too big not to, right?"

It seemed, though, that Sonora had its fair share of international students. Were magical academies not divided by districts like most other schools? Or was it a free-for-all in terms of registrations; as long as there was space, it didn't matter which school was chosen. Was the curriculum made up locally, or were there international standards in place? How was anything even governed? For not the first time, he felt his excitement overshadowed by the floundering lack of knowledge he had.

"Do you know how this works exactly- the school I mean?" David asked. "The information packet went over the names of the classes, but it's still pretty foreign to me."
0 David Butterfly in China = Hurricane in Florida? 0 David 0 5

Andrew

May 12, 2009 10:44 AM
Andrew smiled at his new friend and pushed his empty plate away, "A full Muggle born, huh? I'm half. My dad's a Muggle, and he has all sorts of problems with magic. That's why..." He paused for a moment. No need to bog down the conversation with that yet. So he changed subjects.

He picked up with his next statement like he hadn't just left his previous hanging mid-sentence. "I'm not exactly sure how everything here works. We get split up into houses, and take classes on how to use magic. I think mainly so we don't get ourselves into trouble with it." Andrew looked around at the hall again. "They do like to keep all of this sort of stuff secret as well. I'll bet there's a lot of training along those lines. Did you have to do a lot of that in the military?"
2 Andrew Observations based upon differing points of reference 145 Andrew 0 5