Avoiding the inevitable (Tag: Atlas) on Cascade Hall

Headmaster Brockert

October 10, 2014 6:13 AM

Returning Feast by Headmaster Brockert

Last year, Mortimer had not really minded the break so much, but the first part of this year had been normal and uneventful, so he was back to finding the holidays to be annoying. Full of shrieking children-he had more fondness for his granddaughters than he did most people, which was admittedly not saying much, but that amount running and giggling was incredibly grating-and inane trivial conversation, false pleasantries from those who didn't care any more about how he was doing than he did about how they were.

So, though he was probably not in the majority-which was not unusual, and Mortimer didn't really care because usually the majority was composed primarily of imbeciles-he was happy to be back at Sonora. Of course, that had been the case when he'd been a student as well. The Headmaster been a true Aladren, relishing his education and now, he was an adult relishing his power.

Of course, there were parts of his job that Mortimer didn't like much. Dealing with parents-especially his cousin Pearl, who'd been stupid enough to send him a Howler when her precious little spawn hadn't made the Head Girl ballot-and students personally. Really, Mortimer didn't like people in general at all and hoped to come off as intimidating as possible to keep the students in line so he didn't have to actually do the punishing. If they were afraid of what he'd do to them, they'd hopefully behave.

Another part of being Headmaster that he didn't care for was giving speeches. More bothersome social interaction and having to at least appear somewhat pleasant. It went against every natural instinct Mortimer had. Plus, he didn't want to be too pleasant-not that he was that worried about that, his most genuine way of smiling appeared as smirking at someone's idiocy-because people would walk all over him, like they did his nephew Cory. Cory, he thought, would have made a good house elf.

"Welcome back. I hope you all had a nice holiday." At least saying that to people all through the break had given him practice at attempting to make it sound sincere. Of course, there were certain beneficial things that could be used during parties that weren't appropriate to use when he was working. "I only have one announcement to make." Mortimer was certain that he was not the only one happy about that. "The Midsummer ball will be opened this year by the prefects and Head Students as usual." Really, he didn't even know why that had to be said if it was as usual, but just in case people forgot. He'd think people would remember something that simple, but that would probably be giving most people's intelligence too much credit and he was not about to start doing that now.

Glad to have this irritation done, Mortimer sat back down in his chair and turned his attention to his meal. That was enough interacting with others for awhile.

Subthreads:

Leading the feast, apparently by Henry Carey

A problem shared... (tag Jay Carey) by Francesca Wolseithcrafte with Jay Carey

What's a girl to do? by Effie Arbon with Amity Brockert

Back again by Diana Carey

Tagging Nellie by Tristan Spaulding with Eleanor Vandenberg, Nellie

Sitting next to Annette. by Adam Spencer, Pecari with Annette Pierce, Adam

Midsummer ball in mind. by Joella Curtis with Lionel Layne, Anonymous

Avoiding the inevitable (Tag: Atlas) by Liliana Bannister with Atlas Primred

11 Headmaster Brockert Returning Feast 6 Headmaster Brockert 1 5

Henry Carey

October 11, 2014 11:52 PM

Leading the feast, apparently by Henry Carey

Once, when Aunt Lorraine had asked how on earth he dealt with injuries when the Snitch, and therefore relief, was nowhere in sight, Henry’s cousin Arnold had said Time flies when you’re having fun. This statement had not seemed to make much more sense in context to Aunt Lorraine than it had to Henry then, or did to Henry now. His sharpest memories were of times when he had had fun; it was the rest of life which seemed to jump by in huge swaths of vagueness. He was still a little surprised, sometimes, to see that Pierce and Alicia Bauer – his crush on her would have been hopeless even if he had not been anxious and awkward around people, but one of the things he had liked about last year after he stopped thinking he and Anthony were both going to die was how being up front so much had made her much easier for him to admire every day, even if it had also made her more intimidating than ever to consider actually speaking to – were not in front of the room anymore, and at home for midterm, he had been very surprised by how tall his baby brother Peter had gotten since September.

Taller and smarter, but they had still gotten along. When they had had family gatherings, Henry had contrived to help Peter unwrap his gifts, or read books to him, the same way he had since his first midterm around his youngest sibling, and Peter had still wanted him to do those things, so the holidays had managed to be relatively pleasant for him despite his first-term grades and a few nasty arguments between Jay, Arnold, and Theresa. He had stayed as far away from that business as possible, even when he had been tempted to snap back when Theresa started ranting about how he was too stupid to even know what she was talking about. He knew why his sister was angry and sad, now, but it was not his business and there was nothing he could do about it.

The ball was…well, technically something he could do something about, he guessed, as he listened to the Headmaster’s brief comment on the matter. Arbon and Francesca Wolseithcrafte would both need partners and Anthony didn’t know which of them he was going to ask, so Henry guessed he could dance one round with the other, or with Virginia Bellrose, if Spencer and Wolseithcrafte went together instead. Further dancing would depend on how fast the music was or how badly he managed to put off the girl in question during the first round, but the first song was usually formal and female prefects were right there with beggars when it came to being choosy, he thought. If it went badly, he could go back to his room and go to bed and the lady could go about her business, and if it somehow went well, then he could endure a social occasion….

If he hadn’t known any better, he might have thought he was almost thinking of the idea as something that didn’t sound all that bad, actually, but he thought it was safer to regard it as a warm-up for summer. School was quite peaceful most of the time, especially now that, as a sixth year, he was often left alone to do his work, only really being around a lot of people when he decided he should sit in the common room, something he did maybe once a month, now, or should go to a meal when the Hall was reasonably populated, done maybe once a week, and went to watch Quidditch to support his brother and his favorite cousin. He’d need practice at crowds and small talk again before he had to show up at a handful of summer parties. He no longer found them terrifying – he had been a little surprised to register that over the past summer, then surprised at himself for being surprised, all things considered – but he did often find them really boring.

As the meal began, he considered the options in front of him and remembered to smile in the direction of the people also in front of him. “Good evening,” he said, then began to put food on his plate. “I hope you had a pleasant holiday. Carrots?” Henry liked carrots – something his mother thought was funny, considering how bad his vision was without his little round glasses, since carrots were supposed to be good for eyeballs; Henry guessed he would not quite get even that right, but didn’t blame the carrots for his lousy eyesight – and might take two portions for himself if his neighbor did not care for them.

0 Henry Carey Leading the feast, apparently 239 Henry Carey 0 5

Francesca Wolseithcrafte

October 12, 2014 3:07 AM

A problem shared... (tag Jay Carey) by Francesca Wolseithcrafte

Francesca's Christmas had been the usual – an almost never ending round of social events, with Christmas itself a family only oasis in the middle of the whirl of balls, coffee mornings, dances and discussions. She loved both sides of it. The parties were full of interesting people, good things to eat and fun to be had. Christmas itself was... well, much of the same, just with a very select group of people. Barnabus was enjoying law school and she had discussed her plans to follow in his footsteps. They had spent a great deal of time talking happily about the future of Wolseithcrafte & Wolseithcrafte.

The conversation in the library before Midterm had also taken a weight off her mind. The problem of who she was going to open the ball with remained but the fact that Adam didn't want to choose either her or Ginny over the other, and wanted them all to attend as friends, as far as possible, was a weight off her mind. It had been enough to put the Boggart version of her two friends turning their backs on her to rest at last, and she was going into the new term feeling particularly happy and positive.

At the feast, she took a seat next to Jay Carey, not in the slightest bit by accident. Although they planned to stick together as friends as far as possible, they still needed an even number of guys and girls for the opening dance. She had weighed up the available candidates and figured Jay was her best bet. Keme was her own age but she knew the Carey boys – the Aladren ones, anyway – so much better. They were... if not friends per se, then on friendly terms at least. They were team-mates. And, whilst Anthony was closer to her in age, he had more options in his own year. There were a few proper girls in Jay's, but one of them was engaged, one of them was related and one of them was Carrie O'Malley. Francesca wasn't sure where the Careys stood on her family politics, although they had never been unkind to her in anyway, but she was fairly certain that she ranked below all of those in terms of controversy. It was a pleasant and novel feeling to think she might not be the most shocking choice to take to a social function.

A small smile played on her lips as Headmaster Brockert brought up the subject of the dance, making it much easier for her.

“It seems we share a problem,” she noted to Jay as the speech concluded. “And they say a problem shared is a problem halved,” she smiled. “One dance only, nothing else implied,” she clarified. Perhaps it might have been more tactful to leave the aphorism hanging for him to interpret. Really, she shouldn't ask Jay out but rather... imply that she wouldn't mind if he asked her. However, she didn't want him to think she was asking him to fully ask her to the ball, rather than simply help each other of the first dance situation. Where it was a toss up between subtlety and clarity, Francesca would always opt for the latter. She preferred to be direct and to the point – one of her best or her worst qualities, depending on whom one asked. “And no offence taken if you're not interested in asking me,” she finished, at least giving Jay a chance to feel she was asking to be asked, rather than asking. Plus she didn't want an atmosphere between her and Jay if he would rather make other plans.

13 Francesca Wolseithcrafte A problem shared... (tag Jay Carey) 250 Francesca Wolseithcrafte 0 5

Effie Arbon

October 13, 2014 7:05 AM

What's a girl to do? by Effie Arbon

Christmas should have been pleasant and, indeed, she had had to pretend it was. She had never realised how exhausting smiling could be when one didn't really feel like doing it. One had to smile all the time, of course, at social events and not necessarily be truly happy and it wasn't too bad – like walking elegantly, it was somewhat effortful but, once one had mastered it, possible to do habitually - but smiling when miserable or anxious inside was a different thing altogether.

The trouble had started when father invited them into his study on their return from Midterm. He always liked a frank and honest account of their activities at school. It would not have been his first choice to send them to a public establishment but having so many daughters he felt the need to expand their connections. However he was still rather mistrustful of a place with so many potentially unsavoury associates. Father had had an extended conversation with her when she returned home from school the first time, halfway though which she had been served tea. After she had drunk it, she hadn't been able to help but spill all her thoughts. Her answers had matched what she had told him up until that point and the majority of her interviews since had been conducted without refreshments. Being interrogated by father was not a particularly pleasant process, regardless of whether or not drinks were served, but she had come to accept it as a necessary part of returning home. It should have finished the second the study door closed behind her, leaving her to enjoy the rest of the holiday. However, as she left, she had passed Araceli, heading in. Listening at doors was of course a most scandalous thing to engage in, and especially at Father's study door but she had found her feet reluctant to move her away. The ensuing conversation had not been a pleasant one to listen to, and she wondered why she had subjected herself to it, as there was little she could do to help her sister following it. She had never heard Araceli run on so and, judging from how little her sister ordinarily spoke, and what she knew of father's interview techniques, she rather suspected her sister had been taking tea with him. That her sister had only spoken to two people alarmed her. She knew she tended towards the quiet but... that simply wasn't right. The fact that one was in trade and had a halfblood cousin at the school, and that the other was not society had concerned Father....

Her sister had been excluded from the majority of parties they had attended over the holidays, under the excuse that she was ill. Effie could well believe it when she saw her, as Araceli looked more skittish than ever and had dark circles under her eyes. She wasn't sure who's sake the exclusion was for though. She doubted that father had enough compassion to keep Araceli away from social gatherings for her own sake, and suspected it was simply a desire not to be embarrassed. She and Delphine had attended them, and the difference between her two sisters struck her forcefully. Delphine had been every bit as sheltered as Araceli but her reaction was to drink up every taste of freedom she got. Where Araceli would have shuffled meekly, head down, Delphine strode out, wide eyes turned to the heavens, admiring every detail, smiling at every person she met... Araceli, when nervous, fiddled conspicuously with her hair. When Delphine was nervous, it was perceivable only to those who knew her well, a small flexing of her fingers as if she itched to be holding a pen. Her sister was a compulsive doodler, an avenue not open to her at most social gatherings. Delphine blended with ease into social gatherings whereas as Araceli, for all her quietness, stuck out like a sore thumb.

Araceli had excused herself from the Returning Feast on the grounds of tiredness. Effie hadn't argued although she worried for her sister. Father had said he wanted to see improvement. If he didn't, he had said there would be consequences...

She tried to focus her attention on Headmaster Brockert, luckily his speech was short and rather pertinent to her. Although she had spent last term thinking of dresses and hoping to be asked by a suitable young man, Midterm's events had rather driven it from her mind. She supposed it was awfully close now, and something else she should.... Do what about, exactly? As with Araceli, she simply had to wait and hope for things to sort themselves out. Though perhaps she could make a habit of sitting next to Anthony Carey as often as possible... She hoped very much that he would ask her, and strangely felt that the events of last term might be a reasonable reason to suppose it likely. She did not think she had disgraced herself during their rather eventful Potions class. She wasn't quite sure that keeping a level head in a crisis was a desirable quality in a date, unless one held serious doubts about the event one would be attending, but she hoped the shared experience counted for something.

“Good evening,” she smiled at her neighbour, trying to put all the concerns to the back of her mind and smile convincingly. Her mouth managed it but her eyes still showed that she was very occupied with something outside of the present. “How were your holidays?” she asked politely. For all that she didn't wish to talk about her own in any great detail, it was the question one was supposed to ask when returning from Midterm.

OOC – If Effie is likely to have seen your character during Midterm, you can assume she asked how they have been since she last saw them/how the rest of their holiday was.

13 Effie Arbon What's a girl to do? 238 Effie Arbon 0 5

Jay Carey

October 15, 2014 8:41 PM

...is one more easily solved? by Jay Carey

If it had happened to someone else, Jay had to admit that the scene in the wagon might have been comical: Brandon and Diana, both sulking, at the ends of a row with him and Henry wedged in between them, Jay making pleasant small talk for the benefit of their neighbors until he realized that all of his siblings were ignoring him and had given up. Instead, he had spent the rest of the ride looking over Alex’s latest letter.

In June, it was over. For a while, anyway. He would be out of school, and in the fall, he would go to another school, where he would spend several years spending most of his time far away from his family – Henry was the only one of his siblings probably less likely to go to college than Theresa, and the others were enough younger than Jay that he could probably avoid them there, too, if they came along. Which Brandon might well not, either. He thought they might do well finding Brandon an apprenticeship of some kind, but it was too early to really think about what, and in his optimistic moments, Jay hoped that Father or Uncle Anthony or even Arthur would handle it instead of him – Arnold had, after all, apparently taken it upon himself to try to find Theresa a husband after she finally apologized to him for asking Arthur to go curse people for her, so it wasn’t as if it was impossible that someone else should take an interest in Brandon someday, and he was feeling optimistic tonight. Just a few more months and then he would have years and years during which he really had to deal with his siblings’ squabbles very little….

“Both of you smile right now,” he ordered Brandon and Diana on the walk from the wagons to the Cascade Hall. “We’re in public.” He then took his own advice, smiling as he made his way into the hall and walked along the Aladren table to a seat, greeting Quidditch players and prefects as he saw them.

The trouble between his younger siblings was, he had gathered, that Brandon had found out Diana was going to the ball with some second year – an unwelcome event Jay was reminded of by the headmaster as soon as the room settled down. He had to work harder to keep blandly smiling then. Eventually, no doubt, he would marry – he and Alex planned to make a lot of money after school, but sooner or later, inevitably, that would mean using themselves as bargaining chips, and since preserving his financial autonomy wouldn’t be an issue, it would be far easier for them to use him before her – but Jay had no interest in speeding the day along, and if he had learned one thing from Theresa, it was that girls were at least occasionally vicious when it came to the game of courtship and betrothals. He expected Anthony would spend the next few months trying to hide under benches; he was, Arthur’s muttered suspicions about the Brockerts trying to set up Malcolm as a puppet over the rest of them and how he, Arthur, would go ahead and arrange for poor Lucille to be bitten by an extremely venomous spider if he were Grandfather aside, the best-positioned of all of them in a school where male partners were already going to be highly-stalked commodities in general….

Despite these thoughts, he didn’t realize immediately what Francesca was talking about when she said they shared a problem; his first thought was that she was talking about something about the Quidditch team. The clarification surprised him.

He had half-planned to simply dance with Aria after they got there – not a formal date, nothing which could cause problems, but which would solve the problem Francesca was talking about for both of them. However, there was doubt that Francesca was a somewhat less…controversial option. Of course, there were politics, but no one close to him, he thought; he had avoided marrying into or even forming particularly strong relationships with very opinionated families so far, and his own, he had concluded, didn’t actually care what any of its members, male or female, did in private as long as they kept it private. There were always in-family rumors about this relative or that one, but all anyone asked was that the rumors not be confirmed or leaked to society in general. Could cause an issue with Lucille, if he was right about the Brockerts’ general consensus, but he doubted it, over such a small thing, and if someone wanted to start something, it would still cause fewer problems than his original – plan was probably a strong word, half-formed idea, really….

He considered redirecting her to Anthony, as his cousin would no doubt appreciate the promise that the whole thing was not the prelude to a messy affair which could only end in a wedding or a conspiracy to commit murder, but as they were both Chasers and both prefects, he had to assume there was a reason she didn’t think they should spend more time together rather than blundering into something he didn’t want to know or deal with. He would ask Anthony later, he decided. For now....

"I see," he said. It sounded to him like she had already made the offer, making him asking her anything superfluous, but... "Well, then. Shall we help each other solve the problem of needing partners for the opening dance at the ball?"

0 Jay Carey ...is one more easily solved? 0 Jay Carey 0 5

Francesca Wolseithcrafte

October 16, 2014 5:00 AM

Apparently so by Francesca Wolseithcrafte

Jay seemed to mull over her offer a little, which she supposed was fair enough. She had had the luxury of the Christmas holidays to weigh up the potential prospects, although he had had the same. Perhaps she had not occurred to him as one though. She wasn't sure who would have though and would have loved to know what was going through his head. Perhaps it was whether one ought to indulge a girl so brazen lest it become the norm. When he gave his response though, it seemed positive.

“I think that's a very good idea,” she smiled, raising her glass to him, enjoying the rare opportunity to credit what had really been her own suggestion. She was looking forward to telling Adam the good news that he didn't have to choose between them. Which in turn would probably relieve Ginny's worry of not having anyone to partner for the first dance.

“How was your Midterm?” she asked pleasantly. Now that the issue of the ball was resolved, there was no reason she and Jay shouldn't speak with each other like normal human beings, as they always had done. As she spoke, she served herself a large portion of macaroni cheese, full of bacon, with crisped up cheese and tomatoes on top. Christmas food had been glorious but she didn't need to see a roast meat or a potato for a while. Pasta was her school staple, a good food for energy on the pitch. She pitied other girls their carb free regimens. Enjoying good food was one of the greatest pleasures in life, and one she took full advantage of.

13 Francesca Wolseithcrafte Apparently so 250 Francesca Wolseithcrafte 0 5

Jay

October 16, 2014 10:28 PM

We're all just doing the best that we can by Jay

Jay returned the small toast. “Excellent,” he said, glad to at least have one issue resolved. One less thing to think about was always good; this one was an extremely small thing compared with tutoring Henry and Brandon, running the Quidditch team, keeping up with Diana in the hopes that this would prevent her from falling into bad habits in Pecari, and occasionally studying for his own RATS, but just having anything off the list made the whole thing feel more manageable.

“Oh, very enjoyable,” Jay said when asked about his midterm. For his house, it really hadn’t been that bad; Brandon was fighting with Diana now and had been fighting with Theresa before that, but other than that, it really had been quite calm. His parents had even been getting along fairly well. “Lots of time with the family, I studied a good bit for my RATS…We got to see Arnold play Quidditch. He nearly won, but took a Bludger to the elbow at just the wrong moment….” Jay shrugged. “Still, it was exciting for the younger ones,” he said.

Someone else entertaining his siblings was always welcome, so long as his sisters didn’t decide to marry Quidditch players. It was well enough for Arnold – the family would take care of him when he finally broke too many bones or just got too old to keep up anymore – but it wasn’t stable enough a way of making a living for Jay to trust his sisters’ welfare to it. Arnold had been trying to set Theresa up with fellows he knew from that world, but had assured Jay they all had some assets besides their sports skills to fall back on, and Diana and Cecilia still had the potential to do better than Terry.

“How was yours?” he returned the question.

0 Jay We're all just doing the best that we can 0 Jay 0 5

Diana Carey

October 18, 2014 1:54 AM

Back again by Diana Carey

Jay ordering her to smile made Diana want to march into the Cascade Hall scowling just to be contrary, but when she saw that Brandon seemed to have had the same thought, she picked the lesser of two evils and smiled instead. They were, after all, arguing about how Brandon was still such a kid despite being older than her, so she was hardly going to win the argument if she acted like he did.

Spite did persuade her to watch where he sat and then fond a place for herself higher up the table. She thought that no one at Sonora really cared about things like the head of the table - she assumed that was the end closest to the staff table for her purposes here - or distance from it implying status, and was pretty sure, knowing him, that Bran wouldn't even notice or catch her meaning if he did, but it made her feel a bit better.

"Good evening," she said sunnily to her nearest neighbor, tucking back her brown curls to make sure her new amber drop earrings, a holiday gift from her older sister Theresa, were visible so her classmates could admire them. Her sister's reputation at Sonora, which she had only left at the end of last year, was one Diana had been trying to avoid any association with since she got here, but she was happy enough to accept gifts of jewelry, especially when they were actually pretty. Theresa's own jewelry, the diamonds she had gotten from boys at Sonora whose parents hadn't let them marry her afterward, was usually a little too...big...for Diana, she had felt she looked ridiculous for the few seconds she'd tried on Theresa's earrings before Theresa saw her and had a screaming fit last summer, but these earrings, golden-brown beads suspended from silver, were the right size for her in addition to being close to a House color and from a completely respectable source. She could show them off all she wanted.

She folded her hands in her lap politely as the headmaster stood, but one of her feet bounced impatiently under the table - old people and their speeches were always so boring. The headmaster, though, was at least shorter-winded than most of the old people at home. Diana smiled at the mention of the ball, wondering what in the world Jay would do for a partner - he was so serious that it was hard to imagine anyone wanting to spend a whole evening with him. Maybe he would borrow Lucille....

The feast began and Diana began to serve herself. She was concentrating on not dropping a spoonful of squash casserole down the front of her robes and so didn't quite catch what someone beside her said. "I'm sorry, say that again?" she said after depositing it on her plate, gesturing toward her ear with an apologetic smile. The noise of all the many conversations starting most likely really had not helped.

0 Diana Carey Back again 294 Diana Carey 0 5

Tristan Spaulding

October 20, 2014 9:30 AM

Tagging Nellie by Tristan Spaulding

Midterm had passed as uneventfully as always with the usual holiday events. Tristan had to admit it was a little boring. Family events with Amity avoiding her mother, social events with dancing, eating, chatting...and Amity avoiding her mother. The parties themselves were okay and Tristan very much enjoyed the opportunity to play Quidditch with his Spaulding cousins, he just wanted something different and exciting to happen for once rather than the same old thing time after time. Things just kept up in the same old patterns-and he was dreadfully tired of it.

Maybe something interesting would happen at school this term. Not staff disappearing interesting necessarily, but just...something exciting. There was going to be ball, which was something that Tristan never had attended at school, and only would once. The thing was, despite what he knew would be the Headmaster's efforts for it to be classy enough, there would still be people there who weren't members of proper society...which he supposed would make it unique to any party he'd ever attend, but in what might not be a good way. Maybe they'd act up and that would be entertaining.

Honestly, Tristan really needed something to do. Even if he had signed up for Quidditch, it wouldn't have made a bit of difference as nobody else in Crotalus had. It was kind of depressing in general really that people seemed to have so little passion for the game now. He could understand that Teppenpaws usually tended to be non-competitive types, but his own house? Tristan wasn't ashamed of this, but it did rather surprise him. Though perhaps it was due to a tendency toward proper pureblood girls. Even if playing Quidditch was considered socially acceptable for them, they probably weren't the type of person who'd want to play anyway.

Not that there was anything necessarily wrong with that, one of the people he liked most at Sonora was a very proper girly girl. Someone who would hopefully want to go to the ball with him. Oh, Tristan knew that Nellie was friends with his roommate but...well, he didn't care. He had no indication that Leo liked her as anything but that and really, Tristan thought she deserved better-besides, he... really actually sort of did like her.

He scanned the hall for the other fourth year and quickly spotted her. He made his way over and sat down across. "Hey." Tristan grinned at her. "How was your midterm?" He hoped it was better than it had been last year. His own might have been a little on the dull side, but at least it wasn't awful. "There was something I'd like to ask you, would you go to the ball with me?"

11 Tristan Spaulding Tagging Nellie 264 Tristan Spaulding 0 5

Adam Spencer, Pecari

October 20, 2014 3:01 PM

Sitting next to Annette. by Adam Spencer, Pecari

After giving thought to the Midsummer ball during his holiday, Adam had decided it would be easier if he asked someone other than Francesca and Ginny. He liked them both, really, but he'd rather not risk slighting one of them by asking the other. Ginny seemed to be particularly convinced that she wouldn't find a date, but Adam didn't want to ask her and find Francesca at the ball without a date either. It was silly to think so much on this, but by the time Adam reached school, he knew who he would ask instead.

During his holiday, he had gone to one too many balls for his liking. He enjoyed the society, but constantly having to ask different witches for a dance was tiresome especially if they turned him down. He much rather preferred having his own date to these events. Charlotte didn't count since she hadn't been given a spare moment for herself much less for her brother. It had been a good way to meet new people, that couldn't be denied, but for this ball Adam was looking forward to going with a friend instead of his family. The ball had shown him there was nothing to worry about with Charlotte; she could hold her own just fine now that she was a bit older and looked lovelier than ever.

For Adam, it only seemed to make sense to ask one of his Quidditch mates. He'd known them perhaps longer than he'd been friends with Francesca and Ginny. Annette and Annabelle had been the two options since he worked so closely with both of them during the year. Though they looked identical, they had some idiosyncrasies in their personalities that had developed and become more apparent as the years passed. It made it slightly easier to tell them apart. Since Annabelle had moved on to be a Seeker, Adam had thought asking Annette would be a better shot. He wasn't sure if either of them had been asked yet, but he hoped not for his sake.

Adam went to sit next to Annette and smiled. "How are you?" he asked in greeting. Headmaster Brockert never seemed particularly enthusiastic about greeting the students, something Adam found funnier than rude or scary. He liked the Headmaster well enough, but he would never want him as a professor. This year Adam was a Prefect meaning he was supposed to open the ball for everyone else. He'd have to have a date of some sort for that.

Once the feast had started and Headmaster Brockert had quieted, Adam turned back to the conversation at hand. "Looks like the Headmaster's going to be a real joy at the ball this year," he said, amused. "Speaking of which, have you been asked yet? Would you like to go with me?"

0 Adam Spencer, Pecari Sitting next to Annette. 0 Adam Spencer, Pecari 0 5

Joella Curtis

October 21, 2014 2:38 AM

Midsummer ball in mind. by Joella Curtis

Although her mind had been rather preoccupied by social events and family festivities over the midterm break, the subject of the Midsummer Ball had been active in the back of Joella's mind. It had been an exciting prospect at the beginning of year and in some ways it still was, only now there was the issue of who she would go with. A brief mention of the event to Rolene clarified that one was by no means expected to have a date. The ratio of boys to girls at Sonora made that pretty evident anyway.

At the age of eleven, Joella could be considered a typical tween girl. She had no serious interest in the opposite sex but held frequent, fleeting admirations that were rather more for her own, private entertainment than anything else. A few nights leading up to her return to Sonora had been occupied with visions of herself attending the ball with the likes of her Quidditch teammate, Adam Spencer, or even the captain, Rupert Princeton. Both of whom were much older than her and would undoubtedly never ask her. Joella in no way desired to attend such an event with them anyway but in her sleep the idea had humoured her young mind and she pictured the reaction that she would gain should she turn up to the ball with anyone of title from one of the older years. In reality, Joella was in no position to feel comfortable to flaunt her achievements in any way at Sonora, whatever they be.

It had crossed her mind that another pureblood boy in her year may ask her to be his date on a familiar name basis but although she was a Curtis, Joella didn't really know where she herself stood on the social scale as she felt so disconnected from her much older siblings in terms of social circles. Plus, the young Pecari hadn't really thrown her name around much so it was unlikely that anyone should remember the lone Curtis girl who had found herself at school with the wrong generation. And who was to say that the few boys in her year were boys or wanted a date or cared for surnames? Joella knew for a fact that there were several other pureblood girls in her year who may well have more links within the school. In all honesty, Joella didn't really fancy attending the ball with a boy she barely knew and guessed this was a good thing for her prospects of being asked with very slim, albeit nonexistent.

Rolene had told Joella that it was likely that the Midsummer ball would not be the only one during her time at Sonora, assuming things were still run in the same way. Her sister had advised her not to worry so much about who she went with but as to enjoy herself once actually there for apparently there were plenty of opportunities to meet new people.

All things considered, Joella still didn't want to go alone. She liked the idea of going with a group of friends. Only she felt she didn't have a large group of friends to fulfil this wish. Joella considered her Pecari roommates, Scarlett Brockert and Diana Carey, both of whom were nice girls and resolved to check whether or not they already had partners. Should either of them already be part of a group, Joella saw this would be a good thing for surely it wouldn't hurt for them to accept one more?

Tucking into her meal as Headmaster Brockert seated himself, Joella felt no reason to dwell on the ball again unless she should find herself in conversation with any of her roommates or the likes. "Hello," she smiled at a fellow Pecari. "Did you have a good midterm?" Not only was it a polite question to ask, but Joella actually found the lives of others interesting when they differed greatly from hers.

8 Joella Curtis Midsummer ball in mind. 295 Joella Curtis 0 5

Annette Pierce

October 21, 2014 9:36 AM

Sitting next to Adam by Annette Pierce

They were not fighting. Fighting was far too strong of a word. They weren't even arguing. There was just a bit of disagreement between them. Annabelle had spent the entire wagon ride from New England to Arizona talking about the upcoming ball. She had thought this was an excellent topic and Annette disagreed.

Whenever Annette tried to change the subject, she would allow it . . . for a few minutes. Then, she'd go right back to talking about the ball again as soon as the conversation could naturally return there. Annette saw no indication that Annabelle had any intention of stopping this trend. And when Annette bluntly told her to stop talking about it, Annabelle looked at her like she'd just cruelly kicked her favorite stuffed puppy and just kept looking at her with this terribly dejected and hurt look until Annette let her talk about it again.

So, once they finally arrived at the school, Annette said they should sit with different people again - to continue working on their individuality, of course, and certainly not to escape further pain and torture by listening to another hour of tedious discussion about dresses and boys and color coordination.

She wasn't too surprised, then, when Adam took the empty seat beside her. As Pecari's two longest standing Chasers, they knew each other reasonably well; probably better than Annette knew anyone else in their House, aside from Annabelle. Plus, they'd sat together for the Welcoming Feast, so it seemed rather fitting that they sit together for the Returning Feast as well.

She managed not to scowl at the Headmaster when he brought up the ball, too, but he was quick about it, so she opted to quickly pretend it had never come up rather than spend even more time grouching about it. Then Adam spoke.

Annette gaped at him a little bit. She had been prepared for the very thing he proposed at the Welcoming Feast, but she was not expecting it now. They'd spent the entire last half-year working together, trying to bring the new Chaser up to speed, and she was sure, absolutely sure, and even Annabelle conceded the point now, that her sister had been imagining things when she thought Adam had any interest in her. In fact, Annabelle's current theory was that he was taking Virginia, or possibly Franscesca (though they were friends with Francesca and Annabelle felt that Francesca might have told them if she was expecting Adam to ask her), since those were the two girls he seemed to spend the most time with. In any case, there had been plenty of opportunity for him to ask her before now and he hadn't even seemed to think about it, so Annette had grown confident in her certainty that he had no interest in her at all like that.

And then he goes and asks her to the ball.

"I, I," she stammered, not quite sure how to handle this now that Annabelle was sort of counting on them not having dates. "I, no, not yet. Go with you like a date-date, or just as friends?" she asked, then thought that might sound like she didn't want to go with him, which wasn't really true at all, and she thought Annabelle might actually be happy about this change to her plans - if anything, her sister might get more excited about it than she was herself - so she hurried to add, "I mean, I'll go with you, yes, of course, but is it a date-date, or just friends?" Because she still didn't think Adam like-liked her, and she wanted to be clear on this point before Annabelle started squealing fit to destroy eardrums.

1 Annette Pierce Sitting next to Adam 247 Annette Pierce 0 5

Lionel Layne

October 21, 2014 7:57 PM

Not so much on mine. by Lionel Layne

He was not as big an eater as some (his grandmother often fussed, in fact, that he did not eat enough, at least not compared to Uncle Geoff at his age), but Lionel loved the feasts at Sonora. The food was never bad at school, but it was better at feasts, and when they were all just getting back from holidays, it had a festive feeling, like the holiday wasn’t really over yet. As many people might be at one meal during the rest of the year, if not too often, but usually people were tired – Sonora, his grandfather liked to boast, had always had a fairly high number of workaholics for its size, people like Aunt Emily and Uncle Geoffrey and Aunt Helena and his cousins Rachel and Alicia (workaholism seemed, Lionel had noticed, to run in his family, though he didn’t think he had inherited the predisposition). Regular meals were often a lot more subdued than feasts. At feasts, even the workaholics often seemed to relax a little, or at least Lionel liked to imagine they did.

He sat down at the table which held mostly Pecaris on these occasions – the one downside of feasts being that they usually sat by House; he didn’t really have anyone from another House he would rather sit with, but knew that wasn’t the case for everyone – and listened to the headmaster’s brief opening remarks. Someone might, he guessed, say that Headmaster Brockert was a man of many words, but if they were being honest, he thought they might have an unorthodox definition of ‘many.’ They were, though, fitting, at least from what Lionel knew about being older from observing his cousins: the subject of the Ball was going to occupy a lot of people for a lot of the time until summer, especially the prefects and Head Students.

Thinking hard, Lionel thought he remembered that being an issue for his older cousins, years ago, but no one in his family had to worry about that this time. Alicia was graduated and Isaac still two years away from…well, becoming prefect by default, now, since his roommate had apparently moved back to Scotland. Lionel wondered how he felt about that, and whether or not it would bother him in two years. Lionel sort of doubted it, but who knew, really; Isaac wasn’t really big on talking about his feelings. That sort of thing did not seem, from what Lionel had always seen from Isaac and Alicia, like the sort of thing they encouraged at Aunt Emily’s house.

After the headmaster sat back down, the food appeared, and Lionel started serving himself from delicious dishes without further ado. A girl – one of the first years; he had seen her in classes – spoke to him, so Lionel smiled at her.

“Yes,” he said. “I hope you did, too. I’m Lionel Layne, second year.” He carefully enunciated when he said his name so his South Carolina accent didn’t slur it into one indistinct word. Just saying 'Lionel' wasn't so bad, but once he added the extra 'l' sound in his surname, the sounds all started running together. “I don’t think we’ve talked before.”

Which was really a shame, considering they were in the same House and all the same classes except flying. He made a mental note to try to speak to her roommates and more of the first years in general for the rest of the year. It was a little late for making the current first years feel at home, he thought, and next year, he would be in the Intermediate classes and probably terrify them if he interacted with them much, but it seemed like the decent thing to do to him this year anyway.

16 Lionel Layne Not so much on mine. 283 Lionel Layne 0 5

Eleanor Vandenberg

October 22, 2014 12:26 AM

Being very glad to be tagged. by Eleanor Vandenberg

While being at home was nice, Nellie was actually glad to be back at Sonora for once. The air surrounding her parents was stifling whenever they were home. She didn’t like spending much time with them anymore especially because they exchanged these looks at the dinner table as if she couldn’t see. Whatever they were thinking, Nellie decided she didn’t care. Adults could play their own games and she would just butt out and keep to herself. She was better at that anyway. Her mare made things so much better and Nell had spent ample time riding Serena all around the countryside. She didn’t care if people looked at her strangely, being a witch riding a horse. She would enjoy herself no matter what.

Coming back to Sonora did mean facing the stupid predicament of the ball and her current lack of a date, but she would coerce someone to ask her. It was unthinkable to go without a date at her age. She would just have to depend on her looks and bring out the sparkling personality she had deep, deep inside.

The Headmaster was as boring as always and Nellie stifled a yawn. She leaned her head against her hand and sighed. When he finally finished, she quickly started to put food onto her plate. She was starving after the long trip from England to Arizona. Having to sit with the rest of her classmates who were from England had been torturous. Why couldn’t she just come in her own flying wagon? Her plate looked relatively healthy, but there was quite a bit of food. She had been graced with the advantage of eating whatever she wanted and not gaining a single pound, but her mom had warned her that it wouldn’t last as she grew older. Her dad had also kindly reminded her that stuffing herself like a pig was not ladylike, so Nellie usually refrained from eating as much as she wanted in front of other people. But if she didn’t eat right now, she would die. Besides, it wasn’t like there were people she wanted to impress around here.

Tristan sat across from her and Nellie smiled at him. “Hi Tristan. It wasn’t bad. My parents bought me a horse over the summer so I spent a lot of time with her. Christmas was pretty fun too. I went to London and got to see all the Christmas decorations.” She had complained before to Tristan about her annoying parents and grandparents, but this time she wanted to make a good impression just in case Leo didn’t end up asking her to the ball.

It didn’t seem like Nellie had to try really hard to convince Tristan, however. Her eyes widened in surprise at his question before she smiled. “I would love to,” she said, pleased that she didn’t have to try and manipulate someone into asking her. It was amazing that Tristan had decided to ask her despite all the complaining she had done. From now on, she secretly vowed, she would never share any unhappy thing with him. She didn’t want him to think she was some charity case. She was far from it. “I’m very glad that you asked me,” she said, equally as glad that she had already bought her dress over the winter break. Tristan would probably make a better date than any other boy she knew at this school. Nellie was slightly self-conscious now about the amount of food on her plate, but she tried not to mind it as she began eating. “How were your holidays, Tristan?"

19 Eleanor Vandenberg Being very glad to be tagged. 266 Eleanor Vandenberg 0 5

Joella Curtis

October 22, 2014 1:11 PM

Midsummer ball no longer in mind. by Joella Curtis

Joella was glad of her neighbour's introduction of himself as, although she recognized him, his name was not something she recalled ever having known. It was also good to know that he was in the year above her (as had been her suspicions) for she felt that she should by now at least know the names of all her fellow first years.

"Oh I did," smiled Joella. "I had a wonderful midterm." This was very much the truth as she had thoroughly enjoyed the Christmas festivities that had occupied her break. Even if she had been unable to fulfil her plans of excessive Quidditch practise, she could not really bring herself to regret how her time had been spent. Although it had only been a term since the last time she saw her friends and family, it felt like a year. "Oh and I'm Joella Curtis, by the way. First year," she added, realizing that as she did not know Lionel's name then it was even more unlikely that he should know hers. There was still much of Joella that felt brand new to Sonora and she found herself wondering if this would ever disappear during the course of the year or whether it was something that came with being in the youngest, newest year of the whole school. She had no doubt that second year would feel very different.

"No, I don't think we have," she agreed amiably. "I fear I was terribly antisocial last term anyway though. There seems to be so much to do at Sonora that it's sometimes such a struggle to keep up with everything. Well, at least that's how it has felt so far but I guess that's what you get for signing up to pretty much every club in the book." Joella grinned, aware that she was rambling a little but not particularly caring. Her determination to make acquaintances, if not friends, with as many people as she could this term required plenty of social interaction and even if the young Pecari had not set herself such a task she still rather enjoyed to talk to people, or perhaps in some cases, talk at people.

"Are you a part of any clubs?" she asked Lionel, more out of curiosity than courtesy. It wasn't that Joella was nosey but the more she knew about people the better. As she spoke Lionel's surname repeated itself in her mind and she delved into the back of her brain for any links to the name Layne. Was it a pureblood surname? Unlike her family, Joella had little care for the blood status of others and frequently failed at differentiating the "respectable" surnames from the not quite so respectable surnames which were apparently supposed to determine who she acquainted herself with. Although this was something that obviously was not going to affect her association with others what with her new aim to make a tonne of new friends. Who wanted to be without friends? Joella was certain that she couldn't afford to be picky when it came to the choosing and didn't really want to - diversity was both interesting and fun.

Joella fancied herself to be, on the whole, an agreeable girl with an open mind. Sure, she may hold grudges but these were only ever for valid reasons. And even if she was a little quick to judge this didn't usually determine a liking or disliking instantly, only a mere summary of character (admittedly sometimes wrong). Her ability to define the flaws of others was only a flaw of her own, and in all honesty who would be without flaws? It made one human. And interesting. And in many cases more appealing over all because Joella was of the opinion of many in that perfection could only ever be irritating for those in company of such a thing, and therefore could not be perfection by definition. This confusing string of thoughts meant Joella was content in her eye for faults which she labelled this as the recognition of individuality. For, whilst friends such as Audrey Montague claimed her perception of others to be offensive, Joella believed that it only made her value the good attributes of others further. But whatever her thought process may include, she tended to keep negative observations to herself anyway and therefore served a friendly and good-humoured attitude in the majority of her conversations.

8 Joella Curtis Midsummer ball no longer in mind. 295 Joella Curtis 0 5

Lionel Layne

October 22, 2014 5:35 PM

What are you thinking about now? by Lionel Layne

“Joella,” repeated Lionel, committing the name to memory. “Nice to meet you.”

Lionel smiled politely as Joella talked about being in all the clubs. That was the kind of thing he knew his grandfather would approve of, though he had seemed to prefer for his actual children to play Quidditch and focus on their studies – things the school itself recognized and could honor them for. Joella, though, still would have been given more praise at home than Lionel, as he was neither much of a club type nor an overachiever.

“I go to baking, sometimes,” he said. “It’s fun and then you get sweets at the end of the session.” He’d heard there were sometimes sweets at other clubs, too, but none of the things they focused on appealed to him that much. Granddad had tried to convince him to at least join the book club, but when Lionel read, he liked to do it on his own terms and in his own time, not to meet a deadline for a big discussion group. “Plus, my Uncle Geoff says everyone ought to know how to cook something, baking is kind of cooking,” he added. “You can bake a lot of things…I wonder if they’ve ever thought about adding stuff besides pastry?”

Fish, he knew, could be baked, and potatoes, and he assumed the meats in meat pies were baked some, too, so really, he thought it might be possible to live on baked goods, but he did not know if that was something they would ever explore in baking club.

“Do you enjoy being in a lot of clubs?” he asked, wondering what her motivation for so much activity might be if she still felt she hadn’t been social. He’d started going to baking club to become more socially engaged, so it intrigued him that Joella had been in many clubs and still felt she hadn't been very social during the first half of the year.

16 Lionel Layne What are you thinking about now? 283 Lionel Layne 0 5

Joella Curtis

October 23, 2014 5:09 AM

The social and academic failures of last term. by Joella Curtis

The name Layne rang a bell now. A very faint bell. Joella picked at her brain in an attempt to discover the origin of her distant recollection. Perhaps she had known Lionel's surname previously and forgotten. She couldn't be too sure. Or perhaps the older Pecari had siblings at Sonora that she had come into contact with or heard mention of. She resolved to ask him when the right opportunity arose. It wouldn't do to fire the question at him randomly should he not be from a Pureblood family and judge her for being so typical of those in her position.

Joella laughed a little at Lionel's talk of baking club. "Do you go solely for the sweets? Or is that just a bonus?" It had in fact crossed the young Pecari's mind to join the baking club herself at one point but memories of rare attempts to help in the kitchen at home as a young child paired with her progress so far in Potions suggested that this was one thing she should accept to be not for her. "I suppose it would be useful," she nodded in agreement with Lionel's uncle. "Although, I think it's best if I steer clear of that side of things..." And then in response to her neighbour's next remark. "Mmm, perhaps they will." Joella could not really say for she had never been to the baking club and therefore held no knowledge of what they did.

"Yes, I love it," nodded Joella, for so far she had not found her number of clubs particularly difficult to manage. Thinking of clubs reminded her of how she had originally seen clubs as a method of meeting and making new friends. Whilst her main incentive was to enjoy herself she realised now that she had not really accomplished the friend-making goal. Of course, there were numerous people who she now recognised and shared jokes and/or made small talk with but this was by no means an establishment of friendships. There was a girl named Chloe Jareau who was in both archery club and dance club with her and Joella saw no reason why she should not be a friendly acquaintance with her by now, despite their age gap, but yet she doubted that Chloe even remembered her full name. And there was Adam Spencer who was on the Quidditch team and in the dance club with her but she felt that the age gap was far too big to form any close friendship and therefore made no attempt to make him anything other than a friendly teammate. "Although I do feel that I haven't really embraced the friend-making opportunities they provide," she admitted with a rueful smile. There were surely students her own age in the clubs which she attended and she thought it terrible that she had not made attempts to initiate a friendship with them, even if it was only limited to the club it was better than nothing. And there simply had to be other so far friendless first years, hadn't there?

"I feel like I'm going to the wrong clubs now though," Joella grinned, switching the tone from slightly serious to jokey (a tone much preferred). "Sweets you say? Maybe I should face my fears and try out the baking club. I suppose it may even save me from failing Potions." Now that she made this point, Joella suddenly realised a truth in it. Her struggles in Charms had only been overcome by persistence and she could hardly expect to improve in Potions without putting in extra effort. It was something to be considered anyway.

8 Joella Curtis The social and academic failures of last term. 295 Joella Curtis 0 5

Lionel Layne

October 23, 2014 11:45 AM

That's not a very cheery topic. by Lionel Layne

“Let’s call it about even,” suggested Lionel about whether or not sweets were his primary or secondary objective in attending meetings of the baking club.

Joella seemed skeptical of her own ability to learn to cook. “My uncle says that anyone who can read can cook,” he said, pretty sure this was a safe remark – not many people came to school without at least enough literacy to make out the directions in the Potions textbooks. It was too dangerous, though that did make Lionel wonder what would happen if someone manifested the ability to do magic and then they found out afterward that the person couldn’t read. Would the school have to pay for lessons or something? School, or at least proving that one had had tutors who served the same role for the handful of students who were homeschooled instead, was even more important for wizards than for Muggles because of how important it was to learn to properly control what they could do. An uneducated adult wizard wandering around was a menace to himself, the Statute of Secrecy, and everyone and –thing else. “He taught himself out of books. ‘Course, he’s a Potioneer, so it might come naturally….”

He smiled sympathetically as she said she hadn’t taken enough advantage of friend-making opportunities. “That’s easy to do in first year,” he said, feeling very old and wise for a second and then ridiculous for feeling that way at all. For all he knew, they might be the same numerical age, since his birthday was in the summer. “There’s so much to do and learn and stuff.”

Lionel chuckled at the (he was pretty sure) joke about failing potions. “I think it’s pretty much a lot of the same principles,” he said. “Follow the directions and remember which things don’t go so good together.” Of course, in cooking, making an error of that sort was more likely to make something just taste bad than it was to kill the eater, but he was pretty sure there were some otherwise edible things that, when combined, became toxic, so really, the two were not that different. Attention span – or at least something related to it; Lionel could pay attention to things well enough, he thought, but wasn’t that great at Potions because of its emphasis on extremely fine details) and steady hands seemed to be a major component of success in either field.

16 Lionel Layne That's not a very cheery topic. 283 Lionel Layne 0 5

Joella Curtis

October 23, 2014 3:38 PM

Are curious questions better? by Joella Curtis

Joella laughed again at the subject of the sweets. She assumed Lionel was joking in his response but then again he may be genuine. Just as it crossed Joella's mind that the second year Pecari had mentioned his uncle rather a lot (she began wondering if she should know his uncle...), Lionel explained said uncle's profession and it became clear why 'Uncle Geoff' had so much relevance to the subject.

"That's what I thought," nodded Joella. "At first. But it's understanding specific terms that has proved more difficult than I anticipated. Especially words like simmer and fine - they're virtually impossible to get right." She smiled and, not wanting to sound like a total disaster, moved on swiftly.

"I guess having homework to complete for multiple classes by a certain deadline takes some doing for people like me," she grinned. "What with Quidditch and all." Joella didn't want to sound like she was suggesting herself to be an exception as she was well aware that numerous other students managed to handle a lot more than her. "All plans to make friends fly out of the window completely by the end of the first week." She paused and then added, "I do like it here, of course, but I'm glad of the midterm break - I feel it has given me a much-needed chance to de-fry my brain."

Joella wanted to ask how successful at friend-making Lionel himself had been in his first year but she realized this tactless for, in the unlikely event that he had been unsuccessful, he may not feel so obliged to continue his conversation with her. So instead she turned to her other curiosity. Surely it could be perceived an innocent inquire rather than a blood status interrogation if she made sure to phrase it right. "So, do you have any siblings here?" Joella felt certain that she couldn't be accused of being a blood obsessive from taking an interest in the relatives of a fellow classmate. And anyway, so far Lionel didn't seem like the kind to be so suspicious and unfriendly as to think that way about her.

8 Joella Curtis Are curious questions better? 295 Joella Curtis 0 5

Adam

October 23, 2014 3:43 PM

Trying not to fidget. by Adam

Annette’s reaction to his question was bewildering. Was she having trouble answering because she liked him? It was slightly possible that he was now regretting his decision of asking her as he’d never really thought of her in that light before. “Um, I meant going as a friend-date...” he said, trailing off and wondering if there was reason for panic. He was also slightly confused. Did this mean Annette fancied him? Had she hoped for something more? Adam didn’t want to offend her. If she wanted it to be a date, then he didn’t care either way. He just hoped she hadn’t been expecting that. By Merlin, being friends with witches made things complicated, but he found himself mostly in their company here at Sonora. Though he enjoyed his fellow team-mates, he thought it would be nice to have a wizard whom he was not related to on the team.

Back home, Adam had a few mates he played Quidditch with on occasion when the weather was pleasant. With wizards there was a different dynamic, one where he didn’t constantly have to watch his words or his actions. He’d never considered his female team-mates as lesser, but certainly didn’t treat them as he would Ginny’s sort. Francesca and Ginny were two different types of witches and whilst Adam favoured them both, he treated them differently. That was inevitable considering their personalities. With Annette and Annabelle, he’d hardly been able to tell them apart when he’d first met them. Dating one of them had never been an option nor had it ever been a thought in his mind.

Adam smiled, feeling a bit awkward. At least she’d accepted. “Well, great then. I hope you don’t mind, I have to open the floor with the rest of the Prefects that night. Are you a good dancer?” These things were somewhat important when he was expected to open a dance for the entire school. Ginny was a good dancer, he knew that much, and they had danced together a number of times during Dance Club. He wasn’t quite sure about Francesca, but he knew next to nothing about Annette and her skills on the dance floor. He hoped she was at least adequate; they would be dancing in front of the entire student body.

“How was your holiday? Did you go anywhere?” he asked, trying to break the awkward atmosphere that had suddenly appeared. Whether or not Annette had hoped to go to the ball as a date, Adam didn’t want to jump to conclusions and potentially ruin the strong team unit he and Annette had. Perhaps talking less about the ball was the way to go for now unless she felt particularly strongly about it.

0 Adam Trying not to fidget. 0 Adam 0 5

Lionel Layne

October 23, 2014 5:01 PM

Better than being gloomy. by Lionel Layne

“’Fine’ is a fun one,” agreed Lionel. The difficulty he always had with simmering was in fiddling with the temperature of his burner to keep the potion or potion components he was preparing and the liquid they were in just below boiling without going over, but ‘fine’ was such an arbitrary term. “So’s ‘dash’ and ‘pinch’. They’re like my great-grandma’s recipes. I guess those’re just things you have to figure out a feel for.”

He nodded sympathetically about her homework and Quidditch woes, though he wasn’t familiar with them himself. Quidditch had never really, to Granddad and Uncle Geoff and Aunt Anne’s disappointment, been really his thing. “Midterm’s always great,” he agreed. “I love getting to see my family again – “ well, most of it; even Lionel had enough sense to omit the parts about how tense things could sometimes get at home when someone said one wrong word, maybe about his mother’s childhood or Aunt Helena and Alicia leaving them or Aunt Anne (who was not really a relative at all but who he’d always been told to call ‘aunt’ because it was disrespectful for a child to call an adult family friend just ‘Anne’ but it would also be too formal for him to call her ‘Mrs. Dupree’) not marrying Uncle Geoff or whatever – “and not having any homework for two weeks and all….”

Lionel shook his head when Joella asked if he had any siblings here. “No,” he confirmed out loud. “I’m the oldest – my little sister’s not here yet.”

Technically, Amelia was only his half-sister, but since Granddad and Grandmother had raised them both, Lionel seldom thought of it that way. Neither of them knew who their fathers were, and Lionel doubted their fathers knew about them, either; he’d been born just after their mother turned sixteen, so his father had probably been a Muggle she, because she was a Squib and had not been able to come to Sonora, had gone to Muggle school to with, and who knew where Amelia had come from. Mom hadn’t taken finding out she was a Squib well – from what Lionel had heard, no one in the family had taken it well – and had been kind of going to pieces every so often ever since, leaving him and Amelia to be raised by her parents. The stress of it all had gotten so bad just before Lionel was born that Uncle Geoff had run away from home to live in California and only come back to South Carolina when Aunt Anne arranged for him to study under her actual uncle, the Potions Master Julian St. Martin, and Aunt Helena, the middle child between Geoffrey and Lionel’s mom, had taken it a step further and left the country as soon as she got out of school just after Lionel was born. She and Uncle Orville, her husband, lived in England, and Lionel had only seen her and her family twice in his life. Aunt Emily, his mother’s much older half-sister from Granddad’s first marriage, was the only one who didn’t really seem too bothered by all that, but she had spent almost twenty years before all that not speaking to Granddad because he’d left her mother for Lionel’s grandmother; Granddad hadn’t known that Lionel’s cousins had even existed until well after Aunt Emily’s own first marriage broke up and she married Uncle Jeremy and had Isaac, who was nine or ten years younger than her oldest daughter Rachel, with him.

However, Lionel had made a point of not talking about all that at school, even last year, when his cousin Alicia – Emily’s youngest daughter, the last child she’d had with her first husband Mr. Bauer – had been Head Girl. Aunt Emily’s side of the family was, since she’d married Uncle Jeremy, kind of snobby, enough so that Alicia had succeeded in getting her northern pureblood boyfriend to propose to her last year, so he hadn’t wanted people to assume too much about him because he was related to them. It was bad enough knowing how many times the name ‘Layne’ appeared on rolls of prefects and Quidditch captains and Head Boys and Girls, his aunts and uncle had all been Quidditch captains and Aunt Emily and Uncle Geoff had both been Heads as well….

“What about you?” he asked, happy to discuss someone else’s family if they wanted to talk about families and not to press it if they were not.

16 Lionel Layne Better than being gloomy. 283 Lionel Layne 0 5

Anonymous

October 23, 2014 6:31 PM

Family is a fun topic... for some. by Anonymous

"Exactly," agreed Joella, glad to find someone else who shared her troubles and even feeling a little inspired by his positivity on the matter. She was rather astonished by Lionel's mention of his great-grandmother as both of her own grandfathers had already passed away and her grandmothers weren't exactly spring chickens, which is kind of by definition anyway. Joella was glad she didn't voice this thought process, however, as she realised that Lionel never said her great-grandmother was still alive but that her recipies were still in use. Which made sense. She was certain that Mammie Curtis's songs would continue to live on in the Curtis household when her time came. Still, this was a rather depressing thought and so Joella focussed on Lionel's answer to her question.

The fact that Lionel said his little sister wasn't here yet suggested that he was sure that she eventually would and therefore, little though she may know about Muggles, Joella resolved that he must be at least Half-blood. That Lionel had no elder siblings rather stumped her. "Oh, I thought your name rung a bell," she admitted now. "You don't have any cousins here, do you?"

"Me? I have four older siblings - two brothers, two sisters," smiled Joella. She wasn't about to add that two of them were technically only half-siblings for they had always been just like an fully related family in the relationship sense so it really made no difference. Her father, Ivan, had adopted Bolivar and Frances as his own on marrying Tess and none of them had looked back since. "But none of them go here anymore as they're all so much older."

0 Anonymous Family is a fun topic... for some. 0 Anonymous 0 5

Liliana Bannister

October 23, 2014 7:09 PM

Avoiding the inevitable (Tag: Atlas) by Liliana Bannister

As she entered Cascade Hall that night Liliana was still buzzing from the impromptu kiss that she had received over winter break from the mysterious Wesley. Thirteen was a good age for a first kiss, she had decided, it was considered to be a great deal of bad luck but getting her first kiss in her thirteenth year just served to prove that sort of thing was just ridiculous. Her lips still burned every time she thought of the tall, handsome blonde wizard who had charmed her and then so unexpectedly swooped in. Just thinking about his dimples made her flush and she kept looking around surreptitiously in case anyone there was an Legilimens and was laughing at her dirty thoughts of kissing Wesley again. Cheeks pink once more, she took a seat at the Pecari table and waited for Atlas to join her as he usually did. She hadn't yet decided if she wanted to tell him. He was her best friend at school, and if she had any girl friends here then she thought she might have told them already. As it was, Liliana hadn't breathed a word of it to anyone-- her cousins would have gone mad trying to pin down the guy and get him to marry her in order to preserve her honor, and she just wasn't as close with Tanya or Noey like she had been before she'd moved to Connecticut.

Just then, Liliana caught a glimpse of blonde hair and dimples-- unmistakable dimples, over at the Aladren table and she quickly ducked down to hide her face in her place setting. She knew she had recognized Wesley's face, after all it was so similar to an Aladren fourth-year in her Intermediate class. Her eyes grew wide and she was certain her cheeks, which she had only just managed to get under control, were bright red once more. Somehow or other she had wound up kissing a relative of Emrys Lucan. Liliana began to rack her brain, trying to figure out who it might have been.

As she was thinking, a light breeze blew some loose strands of her hair in her eyes and she blinked, wiping them away before turning to see the person who had just sat down beside her. It was Atlas. She was still debating if she wanted to tell him about Wesley or not but knew it was never something she would want to bring up on her own as if she were flaunting the kiss (and thereby the ball) in front of him. She had wanted to invite him to the ball as her special guest, him being her best friend from school and all, but though her family had not had a problem with their friendship, they also had not wanted a Muggleborn attending their prestigious winter ball. About half-way through the night, when her cousins snuck their dates upstairs with contraband bottles of firewhiskey, Liliana had dashed off to her grandfather's study to hide from her two best girl friends and pen an angry letter to Atlas. She had expressed her disappointment in being left out by her cousins in it and talked about how it was weird coming back and being stuck in the middle of Tanya and Noey who were fighting as was the usual nowadays. However, her mother had found her as she was writing the letter and so Liliana had hastily sent it off, promising to write about what the second half of the ball was like.

That second letter, however, was never written because as it happened, Liliana had found a spot out of doors where she had hoped to be left alone to her thoughts, and a wizard named Wesley-- apparently a relative of Emrys Lucan as they looked so similar, found her, charmed her, and then kissed her. She blushed furiously at the thought and blushed even deeper as she realized she hadn't really been able to stop thinking about that kiss, as innocent as it had been, since it had happened. Liliana tossed her hair, which was for once not in a braid but instead pinned out of her eyes with the hairpins Atlas had given her awhile ago, back and smiled at him, trying to pretend like nothing had changed since the last time she saw him. Indeed, as it seemed, every thing had.

"Hi," she said, her smile wavering a bit as she was avoiding eye contact with him, hoping that this would prevent his asking about the second half of her grandmother's ball. "It's good to see you again."

OOC: Permission to mention Atlas granted from his author.

10 Liliana Bannister Avoiding the inevitable (Tag: Atlas) 274 Liliana Bannister 0 5

Francesca

October 24, 2014 7:45 AM

It seems to be working out reasonably well by Francesca

“Substitute the word RATS for CATS and I think your summary might serve to describe my holiday just as well,” she smiled, when Jay returned her question. “Plenty of socialising with what felt like everyone this side of the Atlantic, and a few from beyond, but Christmas itself is always just us,” 'just us' of course constituted seven people, and thus no small event in terms of the pile of presents under the tree or amount of food consumed throughout the day. “I enjoy both sides of it though. The party guests are usually interesting and the family time is fun. I'm relieved to get back to a temperate climate though. Crisp, cold mornings and snow are fun for a bit, and just right for Christmas but the novelty wears off around the time you're asked to pitch in with clearing it,” happily, the level of snow fall, and the grace period she got being somewhat on holiday even in her own home meant that her mother tended to be getting that look in her eye, and Francesca was getting sick of her nose being red and on the verge of chapping, at just about the time she was due to come back to the more temperate climes of Sonora. She liked her cold or snowy Christmases but didn't miss the miserable January and February weather.

“Yes, I read about Arnold's match in Quidditch Spectator. I always look out for his team and press my thumbs for him. It sounds like it was close though,” she commented, fairly certain that if she knew anything about her former Captain, a Bludger to the elbow counted as a minor annoyance. Still, the timing of such things could be crucial and whilst she knew it wouldn't have stopped him it sounded like it had thrown him off or slowed him just at the wrong moment. Or, if you were the opposing team, the right one.

“I'm sure they seem like child's play compared with the RATS but how did you find the CATS? Somewhere significantly north of 'walk in the park' but, I'm hoping a little south of 'near death experience'?” she queried.

OOC – I assume Arnold's team is renowned enough to appear in Quidditch magazines. Also, pressing your thumbs is the German equivalent of crossing fingers but whilst the latter stems from Christian tradition (making a sign of a cross), one of the explanations for pressing thumbs is that it represents a tricksy Goblin, and you are pressing it to hold it back. This seemed more witchy, so I'm treating it as something it would be normal for a member of magical society to say (and that, for simplicity of site canon, both phrases are equally used/understood). http://thegermanstandard.com/2013/11/15/if-crossing-your-fingers-doesnt-help-try-pressing-your-thumbs/

13 Francesca It seems to be working out reasonably well 250 Francesca 0 5

Lionel Layne

October 24, 2014 9:38 AM

Others might not like it so much. by Lionel Layne

How pleased Granddad would be, thought Lionel when Joella admitted that his surname rang a bell. He shrugged when asked about cousins here. “One, but he’s not a Layne,” he said. Aunt Emily had two fathers between her four children, but she’d been married to Mr. Bauer for the first three and to Uncle Jeremy for the last, so Rachel, Kate, Alicia, and Isaac were not Laynes, but Bauers and a Douglas. “He’s in third year, but we’re not close. You might've seen some of my aunts or my uncle in old yearbooks, if you ever looked at those, or in old Quidditch team photos and stuff. They were good at a lot of stuff.” Another option occurred to him. “Or you just heard teachers call my name off a roll and never made the connection to a face,” he added.

It would be kinder, if he mentioned this conversation at all, to only tell Granddad his first theory, though. He was pretty much sure that his name ringing a bell was about all his grandfather wanted out of life, after all. It bothered Granddad what other people thought about their family – that they weren’t good enough – when they noticed them at all, of course. Which, until very recently, pretty much nobody had. Grandmother said that he shouldn’t worry about it and should just try to be happy, because she didn’t think Aunt Emily and Aunt Helena (the first two success stories, by Granddad’s standards) were happy at all, despite being richer and more powerful than they had been when they were Laynes. Only Alicia seemed to have gotten what she wanted the way she had wanted and seemed to be happy with it, in the little they’d seen of her since she announced her engagement; Grandmother said the others, Granddad included, had gotten what they wanted and paid for it.

Lionel’s eyebrows raised a little in surprise when Joella said she had four older siblings. Five children seemed like a big family to him even with age differences, but then, he even thought four sounded pretty big and that had happened twice in his own family. “My aunt Emily’s like that,” he said. “She’s…twenty-something years older than my mom?” Uncle Geoff was eighteen years younger than Aunt Emily and his mother was a few years younger than Uncle Geoff, but he couldn't remember the exact age gap there. “I don’t know exactly. They’re just half-sisters – same father, different mothers.” He took a few bites of his meal. "This pasta is fantastic," he added.

16 Lionel Layne Others might not like it so much. 283 Lionel Layne 0 5

Joella Curtis

October 24, 2014 2:03 PM

Food is an even better topic! by Joella Curtis

"Oh," said Joella again, this time in response to finding out that there was no one else at the school by the name of Layne. But the fact that Lionel had a cousin at the school suggested to her that he was pureblood but then again that didn't necessarily follow. It didn't really matter anyway and she thought if she cared enough she would ask him straight out what his blood status was but as Joella neither cared enough nor deemed this proper she refrained from asking. "Yes, I suppose that's it." She guessed hearing teachers read his name was likely considering the amount of classes she shared with Lionel. "But I have looked in the yearbooks before too so that may also be the case."

"Wow," Joella wasn't sure if it was polite to be so blatantly astonished by someone's family circumstances but twenty-something years was such a massive gap that she couldn't help it. The fact that the women were only half-sisters made a little more sense but it was still impressive. Joella found that her age gap of nine years between herself and the second youngest Curtis in her immediate family, Lachlan, was not quite so substantial as she had previously thought. "The gap between my siblings and I is not nearly so big as that," she clarified, should Lionel believe her to be so greatly differing in age as his mother and aunt. "Lachlan, the youngest besides me, is only nine years older. And Bolivar, he's the oldest, is fifteen years older than me. But he's a half-brother." Joella would never normally use the word "only" when referring to the size of the gap between her and her siblings because to anyone else the age difference was significant. She never really recognized the fact that Bolivar was only her half-brother either but seeing as Lionel had mentioned half-sisters it sounded like this was a perfectly normal situation in his eyes. Only his mother and aunt had the same father different mothers whereas Bolivar and Franki had a different father to the rest of them which, Joella supposed, meant that Bolivar being a half-brother didn't really bear much significance on the fact that he was so much older anyway. She confused herself just thinking about it so decided to stop.

"Mmmm," Joella agreed. Lionel was a man (or rather, boy) after her own heart. Food was a far better subject than family, no matter how much she loved hers. "Would you mind passing me some more?" she asked politely as she diminished the last of the pasta on her own plate. Feasts at Sonora were one of the things she liked best. Her sisters had always envied how she could stay so insanely skinny yet eat like a pig (a pig trained in etiquette and the art of eating nicely, of course). Joella assumed it was inherited from her mother who shared her stick figure (although taller with it) whereas Rolene was more like their father who could get a bit portly if he didn't watch what he ate. Rolene had gone through a brief phase of being a little overweight (particularly around her face, interestingly enough) but had since proceeded to maintain a perfect shape with regular exercise and a healthy diet - Joella wondered if this required for Rolene's new profession as a singer or if it was just Rolene's way of marking a new beginning for her in both career and lifestyle.

8 Joella Curtis Food is an even better topic! 295 Joella Curtis 0 5

Lionel Layne

October 24, 2014 3:37 PM

I agree. by Lionel Layne

Lionel nodded as Joella explained that her oldest brother was a half-sibling. That made sense; five kids in fifteen years sounded reasonable, he thought, though he wasn't sure about the distribution - it sounded like the older one's must have been all born close together and Joella tacked onto the end for some reason. Maybe they were both kids no one had planned on having; people didn't like to admit it, but he thought that sort of thing happened a lot. She was just lucky that her parents had been, or gotten, married....

Still, his own situation could have been a lot worse. He knew a lot of wizards would have disowned his mother just for being a Squib, and that a lot who wouldn't have done that would have done so after she got in trouble, but Granddad and Grandmother had gotten it together and agreed to raise first him and later Amelia, and would even help Mom out sometimes still. They'd lecture him and Amelia about how Mom's entire life was just a string of one bad decision after another, but they had never completely cut her off, either, no matter how much they disapproved or fought with her. They were all a lot better off than they could have been.

He passed the pasta. "I was worried the food wouldn't be any good when I came here, but it usually passes inspection," he said. "Feasts are best, though. I'm looking forward to the desserts. We've had cake all week, eating the Christmas leftovers, y'know, but it was starting to get a little hard, not as good as it was."

16 Lionel Layne I agree. 283 Lionel Layne 0 5

Joella Curtis

October 25, 2014 1:57 PM

A healthy appetite. by Joella Curtis

It wasn't that she was afraid of what others would think should they know that two of the Curtis children were technically not actually Curtises because Joella knew their was nothing dishonourable about the situation - it had never been a secret as such but frequently felt to be irrelevant information. Franki and Bolivar were pureblood and surely it presented Ivan in a good light that he accepted them as his own. They had little recollection of their biological father so Ivan Curtis was in their eyes their only father. Joella seldomn thought of her two eldest siblings as half for they were just as much family as Rolene and Lachlan.

Joella had a friend who she regularly thought to be ashamed that he was only a half-brother to his three older brothers. Alistair Johnson's father had remarried a good many years after the death of his wife and there was nothing disrespectful about it. But for some reason Ali never liked others to know - although in fairness he was like that about most things.

"Oh I had no worries about food," grinned Joella. "I had years of glowing reports before I was finally able to taste it for myself." She took the pasta with a "thanks" and then served herself. "Yes, feasts are definitely the best. Ooh yes, I love dessert." She could do little other than agree and did not fear sounding greedy as Lionel seemed just as enthusiastic on the Sonora feasts as herself. "That's both the best and the worst part of Christmas," she commented. "So much delicious food but never a big enough belly to eat it all."

Christmas was about, and involved, many things. Families had their own ways of celebrating but the tradition of a massive amount of scrumptious foods was, as far as Joella was aware, universal. Apparently Muggles included. Or so her L.A. neighbour Emilia-Louise Scott told her. Emmy-Lou was Half-blood and therefore knew a little more about the Muggle world than Joella (who was so embedded in a strictly pureblood society) and the few facts Joella knew about Muggles came through her Californian friend. Emmy-Lou was two years younger than herself and Franki had always said that Joella should take anything she said with a pinch of salt. And so the young Pecari had no idea whether she knew anything about Muggles or not.

"Still," Joella shrugged with a smile. "My appetite is certainly not spoilt." She brought her fork up to her mouth.

8 Joella Curtis A healthy appetite. 295 Joella Curtis 0 5

Jay

October 26, 2014 5:20 PM

It could definitely be worse by Jay

“Ah, your family believes misery develops character, too?” Jay said when Francesca mentioned clearing snow and made it sound like an undesirable task. “I’ve never had that one – warm climate – but they find ways to keep you busy.” It was leaves at home; Jay had wondered from time to time if it was a secret test, meant to provoke them into early displays of magic, maybe even to see what kind of magic they’d instinctively use to complete an unsavory task: Banishing the leaves, Vanishing them, or setting them on fire. Back when they had all been on speaking terms, Jay remembered that Grandfather had occasionally made comments about how things could be guessed about a witch or wizard just by looking at the kind of spells he or she used most often under pressure….

If he, personally, had ever passed or failed that test, though, Jay didn’t know it. He got good grades in his classes because he worked at them – some spells came more easily than others, but there were easy and hard ones in every class – and it didn’t seem likely that he would end up under the kind of pressure he thought Grandfather had really been talking about in his adult life outside of school. Being known as a powerful wizard was important for gaining respect, he couldn’t think of too many poor wizards who got a lot of it, but for him, brains were going to be more important than anything else.

“Close, yes. Good bit of work by the Beater; Arnold wanted to shake hands with him once his arm was fixed up.” Arnold had always, in a way Jay couldn’t help thinking was weird for a Seeker, admired Beaters who could hurt him enough for it to be a significant advantage to their teams. He admired the ones who knocked him off his broom to the point that Jay prayed there was never a woman among their number, because he did not want to become a marriage counselor and didn’t think Arthur would be any good at it, either, and there was really no one else Arnold could safely turn to. At the moment, though, the biggest problem he knew of in Arnold’s marriage was the stress it caused Arnold to go home with injuries and without a victory to justify them at home, so they were safe. “I’ll tell him he’s remembered, he’ll like that,” he added; Arnold always seemed a little surprised to realize that he had fans, but not displeased.

“Quite far south,” Jay said seriously when asked about the CATS. Of course, he’d had the advantage of spending the year going over the material when he tutored Henry on it, so he had gotten in more review than he might have otherwise, but other people could study during the time he spent tutoring, so he wasn’t sure how much of an advantage that had really been. “Memorize what you can and know as much as you can about the principles behind all of it and you should be fine,” he said. Very few people who were going to have real problems on the CATS got into Aladren; it was possible, he thought, since intelligence could take a lot of forms and being independent could translate into not wanting to study what they were assigned to study, but it didn’t happen often, and even when it did, he thought most of them worked to succeed on exams just as a point of House and personal pride. “Are there any subjects you’re really looking forward to in particular?”

0 Jay It could definitely be worse 0 Jay 0 5

Annette

October 26, 2014 5:46 PM

I won't think less of you if you do by Annette

Of course he meant as a friend-date. Annette relaxed immediately, her view of her friendship with Adam restored. "No, that's good," she assured him, when he he seemed uncertain how to take her question. "See, Annabelle had this crazy idea..." she shook her head and left it to Adam's imagination what Annabelle had thought. "And, of course, Mother would have be very pleased if you did want to date-date, but I'm perfectly fine with just friends." The Spencers were, perhaps, not quite as well known as, say, their cousins, the Princetons, but for the youngest daughter of the youngest son of the New Hampshire Pierce Matriarch - and a Quidditch playing daughter at that - Adam Spencer would have been a very good catch indeed. Even Annette wouldn't have minded. At least she knew and liked Adam.

"And my mother has made certain I am a proficient dancer," she said, with a slight eye-roll. She didn't mind dancing really - she had voluntarily joined Ginny's Dance club, after all, though that had honestly been mostly Annabelle's idea. She liked it well enough, she supposed, especially the faster styles, but there was usually something else going on that she would rather be doing. If Annabelle hadn't liked it so much, Annette probably would have skipped that club, if only to put less stress on her schedule. "I promise I won't embarrass you in front of everyone."

All things considered, she was relieved when Adam changed the subject. "My holiday was pretty standard. Some parties, some gifts. Too cold to fly. I hope when we move out of our parents' house, Annabelle and I can relocate to someplace warm. I hate the winter."

1 Annette I won't think less of you if you do 247 Annette 0 5

Francesca Wolseithcrafte

October 27, 2014 7:26 AM

Yes. There could be a Manticore. That would be bad. by Francesca Wolseithcrafte

“Something like that,” Francesca smiled, not quite sure that that was her family's reasoning or philosophy but also aware that Jay was somewhat joking and that to take him too seriously might imply... well, that she was taking him seriously. “Or rather that we may as well make ourselves useful if we're going to demand bed and board. Danger signs are the phrases 'If you're not busy' or 'you look like you need something to do.'”

She smiled at his comments about Arnold, glad he was able to admire and enjoy the skill of his opponents, even when they had been used to his disadvantage. You had to be pretty ruthless and competitive to get into the professional leagues but that didn't mean you had to be devoid of humanity or admiration for the skills of people outside your own team. She hoped that maturity came with age - most of the interviews with pro players were at least tactfully put and congratulated the opposition on a good fight but how many of them really believed it she wasn't sure. Certainly, there needed to be some startling transformations if many of the cocky teenage boys she'd met at Quiddtich camps were anything to go by.

“Yes, do,” she nodded, when Jay said he would pass on her regards, “And to Arthur too. How is he?” she asked. It seemed impolite to ask about one and not the other, given they had both been her team-mates. If anything, Arthur needed more asking after as it wasn't as if she could read about his exploits in the Quidditch columns.

“Good to know,” she smiled, when he mentioned the CATS being a long way south of a near death experience. “That shouldn't be a problem, those are – fine,” she said, in regard to memorising the theory. She had been about to say 'easy' but she had learnt to avoid such words from her study sessions with Adam and Ginny. Neither of her friends was stupid but they took more time to grasp the theory than she did and she knew it would make them feel bad to say that something they didn't get straight away was 'easy' – just as it would have frustrated her to have them say the same about a practical spell she was struggling with. It just wasn't tactful. It was probably a safer word to use in Aladren but she still didn't like to come off as big-headed (especially as, unsuperstitious as she was, it felt a little like tempting fate).

“No, nothing in particular. I mean, I think I'll do fine on the theory – you can think about it, go back to it if you're not sure,” she wasn't sure to what extent Jay would know that she found practical work more difficult. He had relatives who were in her class, or had been on and off, but how much any of them observed her or bothered to gossip about it to him, she didn't know. She doubted she was a subject of much fascination. It wasn't something she was particularly comfortable admitting, as Aladrens were supposed to be good at everything, and people could be awfully judgemental about things like magical power. She was a strong person in most other respects and the last thing she needed was him pitying her or thinking her frail or inferior. Besides which, she was perfectly capable as a witch, she just had to practise hard. “I'm not particularly looking forward to being put on the spot with the practicals though. I like taking my time with things,” she conceded, as she thought she had rather conspicuously mentioned being alright with the theory. “The professors just... don't exactly create a sense of calm about the whole thing. How are you feeling about the RATS? I can't imagine they're any more laid back about those.”

13 Francesca Wolseithcrafte Yes. There could be a Manticore. That would be bad. 250 Francesca Wolseithcrafte 0 5

Atlas Primred

October 27, 2014 9:36 PM

Dude same. by Atlas Primred

The return home for Atlas was full of mixed feelings and pain from a bruised hand, both stemming from the last Quidditch game. After his talk with Liliana at the beginning of the year, Atlas had thought that things between the two of them were back to normal, better even, now that they had gotten to know each other more, but Atlas didn’t feel normal. He felt confused and flustered as to why he had cared so much about her opinion. At first, he thought it was just in a friend or a teammate way, as he respected her Quidditch skills. However he didn’t feel like he was being her friend, he just felt…uncomfortable. Luckily his family just assumed he was brooding over the loss of the game, or so they said. Katie had tried to cheer him up, and although it worked when they were together, every time she had to go to ballet practice, or to a friends house, Atlas was left alone to deal with his troublesome thoughts.

Unfortunately, things only got worse with the arrival of her letter. She seemed so upset, and Atlas felt a mixture of worry, jealousy, and annoyance that he was unable to help her, or at least hang out with her for a night. He had written her back quickly, however he had never gotten another reply. Had he said something wrong? Was her mother mad she had been writing him? Did she just want someone to vent to? Millions of situations flashed through his mind, and all he could do was put on a smile and pretend to be joyful during the holidays.

Luckily his best friend Steven came to Atlas’ rescue. He had been helping out with Katie’s Nutcracker ballet performance, and once the show was over the two friends spent every day together. It wasn’t until the end of the vacation when the two boys went to the Monterey Bay Aquarium that Atlas finally revealed what had been getting him so down. As usual, he had to cover the magical details, but other than that, he explained the entire situation from start to finish. Steven was always a good listener when he tried, and was even better at giving advice. After hearing the situation he bluntly stated that Atlas was an idiot, which although obvious to Steven, was surprising enough a statement to cause Atlas to walk face first into an exhibit window.

Atlas tried to protest but Steven shut him down each time. Steven knew his best friend, and knew when he was being oblivious verses when he was just being plain stupid. Steven made it clear in the nicest way possible that Atlas couldn’t lie to himself forever about his feelings. On the wagon back to Sonora, Atlas had pondered the wise words of his friend, thinking over just what how he felt about his best Sonora friend. He still hadn’t come to a conclusion when he sat down next to the witch in question, as he usually did every feast. Her face was unexpectedly pink as she faced him with a wavering smile. Atlas blushed a little, feeling a little overly self-conscious of both her and his own actions.

"Hi," she said, "It's good to see you again."

Atlas nodded, looking away a little. There were a lot of things he wanted to ask, but he had to play it one step at a time. He was about to respond, when he was interrupted by the Headmaster’s speech. He tried to pay attention to the speech but his attention was caught by the pins in her hair. She looked good with her hair like that, really good.

When the speech was over Atlas plopped a plushy into Liliana’s lap, looking away a little as he spoke. “It’s a blobfish, I thought you might like it,” he said wondering if he should’ve gotten her something else from the aquarium gift shop.

He dished some veggies onto his plate as she replied, thankful he had something to preoccupy himself with. “I hope you had a good vacation, I never heard back from you and you seemed pretty pissed,” he then stated.

0 Atlas Primred Dude same. 276 Atlas Primred 0 5

Liliana Bannister

October 27, 2014 10:46 PM

Rien ne pèse tant qu'un secret.* by Liliana Bannister

Atlas’ face matched hers as he sat down and Liliana immediately wondered if he had learned to read minds over the break. If he had then she had best just get it over with and avoid his getting mad at her for keeping the truth from him, but when Atlas opened his mouth to tell her that he knew all about her scandalous little affair, the Headmaster started his welcome back speech. Liliana was never gladder to hear their annoyingly indifferent Headmaster say a word before.

However, when Headmaster Brockert dismissed them to eat again, reminding them of the ball, Liliana fell back into her frantic worrying-- worrying about the last ball she had attended, worrying about who she was to go to this ball with, and worrying about what Atlas was going to say to her before the Headmaster started his speech.

Yet the words Atlas spoke next had nothing to do with her previous fears and she smiled widely at them, full of relief that he did not seem to know what had happened over the break. “It’s a blobfish. I thought you might like it,” he said while she scanned the table for an appropriate ‘entrée’ which, in France, was an appetizer. Over the break, her grandmother had stressed the fact that Liliana would be fourteen at the end of the semester and as such needed to start paying more attention to her manners. While Liliana prided herself on her ladylike behavior before she entered Sonora, she was loathe to discover that during her three and a half years in America and two and a half years at Sonora with mostly Atlas for company she had lost some of her previous ways. Grandmère had informed her over dinner her last night in England that Liliana was to spend the entire summer in France with her instead of just a month like she and her cousins normally did. You’d best refresh yourself on French courses, Grandmère had said. I plan on showing you off to all my friends at dinner parties.

“Like it?” She asked incredulously, pausing from her search to turn the ugly thing over in her hands. “I absolutely love it!” It was the ugliest thing that she had ever seen in her life and it bared a great resemblance to her transfiguration mishaps. She stroked its’ soft, fleshy fluff and sighed happily as she ran her fingers over the top of its head.

Liliana looked up to Atlas, still smiling though she wrinkled her nose at the sight of the vegetables he was putting on his plate. Liliana was as a fan of a balanced meal as the next person but the vegetables reminded her of the beginning of their friendship when Atlas had been such a wholly prick about thinking she was a stuck-up princess. She tore a piece of bread from a nearby baguette and served herself some cut carrots and light dressing.

“I hope you had a good vacation,” Atlas said as she began to eat. “I never heard back from you and you seemed pretty pissed.”

Liliana ate the majority of her carrots in silence. She didn’t mean to ignore his question but she kept trying to answer it yet every time the words died in her through. By the time she had finished and was looking for the next course, she was certain Atlas thought she was mad at him. In all honesty she wasn’t and so, she focused on finding a new dish so she could direct her attention on putting the food on her plate and avoid all eye contact with him.

“Yes,” she replied, forgetting that he had not asked her a yes or no question because she had located steaks and mashed potatoes and she planned on securing a small one so as to leave room for the salad, cheese, dessert, and coffee that was all a part of the traditional French dinner. “Doesn’t this look good?” She asked him, finding an acceptable sized piece of meat with a blue cheese sauce. “And could you pass me those potatoes?”

“Anyway, how was your break?” She asked, taking the first bite of her dinner and reaching for the pitcher of water. She wasn’t allowed to drink wine at Sonora, this was almost certain, and it saddened her because over the past few years her grandmother had taught her to enjoy the bitter taste of fermented grape juice*. “Where did you find this amazing creature anyway?” she added, referring to the present he had brought her. “That reminds me, I have a gift for you too but it’s in my trunk. I didn’t think to bring it to dinner but I’ll bring it down later tonight or you once we go back to the dorms.” Liliana was aware that she was steering the conversation away from her break as she had learned this particular talent from her grandmother. Unfortunately, Liliana was not as skilled at avoiding conversation like Grandmère Brouard was just yet and so her transition had not been as smooth as she’d have liked it to be.

OOC:
*"Rien ne pèse tant qu'un secret," is a quote from a French poet, Jean de la Fontaine. In English it translates to "nothing weighs more than a secret."

*Obviously at age 13 Liliana is not encourage to drink heavily but she was raised being allowed one glass of watered down wine at dinner in order to train her taste buds to enjoy it later on in life.

10 Liliana Bannister Rien ne pèse tant qu'un secret.* 274 Liliana Bannister 0 5

Amity Brockert

October 29, 2014 12:13 AM

Your guess is as good as mine. by Amity Brockert

Amity was really not looking forward to this half of the term. She knew that everything would be all about the ball and she knew she wouldn't have a date. People had been willing enough to dance with her at parties over the holidays but here she'd have to watch everyone else getting dates and feel really left out. It wasn't really her fault-most of them were Careys, who would have been otherwise excellent choices and her distant cousin was betrothed to their distant cousin and Rupert was pretty much a blood traitor, but it was still a bit upsetting.

The last time there had been a ball hadn't been quite so stressful. She'd only been thirteen, a second year, with most of the younger students not having dates-and quite frankly at the time she'd just been relieved to have the Challenges over with and not have to be around most of her teammates anymore. Plus she'd had Effie and Isabel to hang out with and now Isabel wasn't around and Effie would need a date-or at least someone to dance the first dance with-Amity wouldn't have that. The whole thing made her further glad she wasn't prefect.

It also bothered her a bit in general options for a date. Any of the Careys would have been wonderful partners, even Henry was otherwise unobjectionable beyond his seeming tendency to call others by their last times without any proper title such as Miss or Mr. in front of it. Other than that dreadful habit, she didn't find his social akwardness at all off-putting in itself. She'd a million times rather have someone like that than someone smug and self-satisfied like Rupert Princeton. The problem was Evan being betrothed to Lucille Carey. Never mind the extremely distant relationships between herself and Evan and Lucille and the Careys near her age. It was fairly galling that people would such a problem with that. How was someone ending up an old maid better? So long as people weren't marrying anyone with an actual biological relative which would be disgusting. There were so few PB families out there. Not that Amity had a thing for him or anything but she didn't find him mostly objectionable. Admittedly, the surname Carey helped a bit.

She still wouldn't have minded hanging out with any of them. Even though boys she'd met over the break had been nice enough, she didn't know them and there was no potential of becoming closer when she didn't see them. Amity wasn't like Arabella, who had accepted the facts of betrothals. She really wanted to be liked-and even with her cousin, she was at least engaged to someone who'd been at Sonora too. There had been potential for Arabella to spend time with and get to know Paul better. Amity would not have that opportunity to get to know her betrothed, and do things like Arabella had She wanted that. At least when Arabella was told who was she was going to marry, she was able to match a name with a face.

What if she ended up like her father, married to someone she didn't really like much? No, she had to believe Father wouldn't let that happen. That he knew too much what it was like. Father had to have her best interests at heart,right? He'd let her stay with Aunt Alice and Uncle Robert instead of forcing her home after all.

Still, what her father did or didn't do with regards to her betrothal didn't really affect the situation with the ball in the least. There were so many ways it could have been better for her. If the Raines' were around or if Evan wasn't betrothed to Lucille or at the very least if people didn't care about something so stupid when they weren't closely related anyway. Like, it made more sense on a logical level to make connections but it sure didn't help the fact that Amity could possibly sit alone at the ball all night,completely humiliated. How dreadful! And not only that, marry someone she didn't know.

But as there were more girls than boys in general at Sonora, there had to be others in the same boat and maybe some of them would hang out with her. Some of them had to be proper girls who were close to her own age. So there was that at least, even though she really would rather hang out with Effie. Amity felt it was natural to prefer the company of one's best friend to that of people she wasn't as close to. Maybe it would be okay though, even fun, though in her experience, balls tended to be about dates and finding potential suitors. That's how they'd been over midterm and summer.

Come to think of it, given that was the point of having balls to begin with, the Aladren had no idea what point there was in having them at school. There was such an uneven ratio of girls to boys and a good many of the boys weren't proper-or at least didn't act it.

She took a seat across from Effie whom seemed a bit preoccupied. When her friend greeted her, Amity blinked. It was like the Crotalus didn't even realize it was her or something. "Well, I managed to stay away from my mother, so it was fine." She looked at her friend, concerned. "Are you all right?"

11 Amity Brockert Your guess is as good as mine. 233 Amity Brockert 0 5

Jay Carey

October 30, 2014 11:45 AM

Considering we might all die if there was by Jay Carey

Jay nodded. “Serving the family, that's a good one. I’ll try that one on my youngest siblings this summer,” he said. It was a frequent topic of lectures at home, so applying it to practical exercises might be useful. He didn’t think he would be able to make any of his brothers and sisters into true believers – he was sure his father wouldn’t allow that, not after what had happened to Henry; the younger ones didn’t know, but even they knew that it was going to be bad when the Fourth died and Grandfather became head of the family, because their father had never forgiven his parents for that afternoon and barely bothered hiding that when they weren’t in public – but it might work. Appealing to their mother’s position wouldn’t work, that would just breed contempt for Mother, but if he could make them think of each other as a team….

Well, if things did go bad, but nonfatally so, when Grandfather took over, then being very close to each other despite the wide age differences between Theresa and Peter would be very important. The only way things could go bad but nonfatally so would most likely be Father splitting the family even further, and not being willing to join his new branch into the very close alliance of the existing five; the best-case scenario, from Jay’s point of view, would be another branch taking the top job away from South Carolina, giving them somewhere to go, but if Grandfather managed to take all of the Fourth’s current places, he didn’t think that would happen.

“He was well the last time we got a letter from him,” Jay said about Arthur. “He’s in Russia, now, I think. He’s expected back just before we – “ he gestured vaguely around the hall, encompassing all his relatives – “are, I don’t know what his plans from there are.”

He would certainly have options. Arthur was magically talented, quite intelligent when it came to most things unrelated to people, well-educated, reasonably good-looking and well-connected, and one of the few of their generation with access to any money, thanks to the settlement from that malfunctioning toy broom when he was four. If he couldn’t make something of himself with the deck stacked that firmly in his favor, it would be for sheer lack of effort, and Arthur had almost as little reason to want to be in a dependent position when Grandfather became head of the family as Father and Henry did. He would be a fool to sit around on his hands doing nothing while the Fourth was still alive, and while Jay didn’t think his cousin was really half as clever as Arthur seemed to perceive himself to be, he didn’t think that Arthur was a complete moron, either.

“Something impressive, I’m sure,” he added, since he expected Arthur would make at least a bit of a show of anything.

“I think they actually manage to be worse about the RATS, but I’m not too worried,” Jay said about the RATS. Not getting too worried was, he thought, one of his better traits, though he knew it helped that he knew that he knew what he knew when it came to exams. “The CATS…there’s some time limits, but I didn’t see them as very hurried,” he added, reflecting on his own exams. “For the RATS, now, I have no idea – I half expect five people to try to curse me at once during the Defense practical – but CATS didn’t seem that intense when I took them.” He had not been forced to deal with Henry curling up in a ball under a table and refusing to come out after his last year, so Jay felt it was safe to assume that his own impression of CATS was not too inaccurate, but he was not going to add that comment. Francesca had been in classes with Henry, so she might well know his brother was almost the definition of someone who did not perform well under pressure at all. If she didn't, he wasn't going to point it out to her. “Part of it is which examiner you draw, but it’s…reasonably intense, not ‘Quidditch finals in a lightning storm with the House cup on the line’ intense.”

0 Jay Carey Considering we might all die if there was 0 Jay Carey 0 5

Atlas Primred

October 31, 2014 9:25 PM

But secrets bear burdens... by Atlas Primred

“Like it?” she said pausing to look over the plushy.“I absolutely love it!”

Atlas blushed down at his plate, a cocky smile forming on his face. He was proud that he knew her tastes so well, and watching her stroke the plushy only served to prove that she was the weirdest girl in the world. He had shown the gift to Katie to get her opinion, but she had only given him a funny look, wondering why Liliana would ever want something that ugly. Lucky for him Liliana wasn’t just any girl. Although he had originally labeled her as a ‘princess’ he was happy to have found out over the past few years that she was so much more than that.

More moments of silence followed his question than he had expected. They had both gotten through their first plate without any talking, all the while he had been making a few sideways glances at her to see if she had heard him. He was about to ask her again, when she finally spoke up.

“Yes,” she replied, not even looking at him.

Atlas’ eyebrows cocked at her answer. Was she trying to make a joke? He scanned her face as she picked out her next course, a little more than confused as to if he should be laughing or concerned.

“Doesn’t this look good?” She asked him regarding her choice of steak. “And could you pass me those potatoes?”

Atlas only stared at her for a moment before nodding slightly in response, realizing she was talking about her food. He then passed her the plate, confused as to where the conversation had gone.

“Anyway, how was your break?” She asked, taking the first bite of her dinner. “Where did you find this amazing creature anyway?” she added, referring to the present he had brought her. “That reminds me, I have a gift for you too but it’s in my trunk. I didn’t think to bring it to dinner but I’ll bring it down later tonight or you once we go back to the dorms.”

Atlas blushed, when she mentioned she had gotten him a gift as well. He had to remind himself that it was only natural that friends would get each other gifts, just as he had done for her. After taking a swig of his water to calm himself he finally answered her many questions.

“Break was good. Spent it with my family and Steven’s like I do every year. Simbang Gabi was fun too, Steven’s Mom made some great Filipino food. As for the gift,” Atlas said as he dished up some chicken he hoped would fill his craving chicken adobo, “I got him when I went to the Monterey Bay Aquarium. I bet you would like it, they have a lot of cool animals there- even if they aren’t magical."

After taking a few bites, he returned his attention to his company. “Now that I have answered your question however, aren’t you going to answer mine? How was your holiday? Don't you always go to England? What about Hanukkah?” he asked, hoping for more than a one word answer.

“As for the letter,” he said taking another bite of his food, “you don’t really have to elaborate if you don’t want to, but at next time if you are going to rant at least send a follow up letter so I know you haven’t gone berserk or anything.” He smiled and gave her a light nudge to show he was joking, but somewhat not.

0 Atlas Primred But secrets bear burdens... 276 Atlas Primred 0 5

Effie

November 01, 2014 6:56 AM

I've never been that fond of guessing games by Effie

“I'm glad,” she commented, when Amity mentioned having avoided her mother for the majority of the holiday period. Effie knew that certain accomplishments were necessary to becoming a lady and she most certainly had never been allowed a slovenly attitude when it came to such things but Amity's mother took this to ridiculous extremes. It was rather sad really. Effie couldn't imagine what it must be like not wanting to be around one's own mother – who, after all, was supposed to love and care for one. But then Amity at least seemed fond of her father, whereas Effie had always regarded fathers as cold and distant authority figures, there to be respected and obeyed only.

“Yes,” she smiled, when Amity asked whether she was alright, chiding herself for not presenting a better face to the world. She could confide in Amity a little of what was on her mind of course, and was glad to have found herself so near a friendly face (it was an advantage of the Returning Feast that mingling between houses was permitted, meaning that the two of them could sit together and catch up) but it wouldn't do to be openly pre-occupied around everybody else. She doubted her friend would accept such a simple and straightforward answer, so she began trying to disentangle the various strands of what was bothering her into what it was appropriate to tell Amity at all, what is was appropriate to tell her in a more public arena such as this, and what elements of it were things that should remain in the family.

“Araceli decided to retire early. She hasn't been feeling well of late,” she reported, by way of an explanation of her slightly off mood. “I was just thinking about that. I'm sure she'll be alright though,” she smiled, putting on a brave face. She was not truly convinced of any such thing. She thought Araceli would get over the shock of finding herself spilling her deepest feelings to their father but... well, she was not convinced that back to normal for Araceli was truly alright, given that her sister had barely spoken to those in her year. She wanted so badly for it to just be nerves, the kind that would be eased with time, as they had been for her. She clung to the fact that she herself had been intimidated by school when she had first arrived but had adjusted perfectly well.

She cast around for a new topic, not really wanting to discuss her own Midterm nor her sister in any greater detail. The Midsummer Ball was the obvious topic but she knew her friend wasn't keen on the event. She had latched on to the notion that just because Effie had to have a date, she would end up alone all evening. Amity most certainly wasn't the only one who would be in that position and, as she was a perfectly nice person, Effie saw no reason why anyone else wouldn't want to speak with her. She had tried her best to convey all this to her friend but was not convinced that she had made much of an impression, meaning she had no idea what to do other than avoid the topic completely. Personally, she thought it more likely that Araceli would be the one standing alone on the sidelines though she had kept that thought to herself.

“How is Chaslyn?” she asked, having found her mind had looped back around to the subject of sisters and hoping to find herself on some neutral ground.

OOC – Permission for Effie to know Amity's feelings on the ball granted by the author, as it's likely they would have talked about it during the first half of term.

13 Effie I've never been that fond of guessing games 238 Effie 0 5

Adam

November 01, 2014 3:42 PM

I need to preserve some dignity. by Adam

Evidently Annabelle had made some assumptions about him most likely concerning his feelings. On which grounds she had based those assumptions on, he didn't know. But Annette at least seemed to relax upon hearing that he'd had no ulterior motive in asking her and Adam was glad for it. There had been potential for the situation to become awkward if she had indeed expected something more. He liked Annette well enough, but it was strange to imagine dating her or Annabelle. He wondered briefly if her comment about her mother was a very subtle attempt at saying she had hoped after all for a date-date, but he tried not to think that way. He would be glad when this topic was done with.

Adam had always looked up to the Anns as witches proficient and passionate about Quidditch. He'd liked that about them and found them to be very amiable team-mates. He wanted to love the sport as much as they did, but his brain simply did not work that way. However, it was nice spending time with them on the pitch.

As for dancing, Annette didn't seem pleased that her mother had forced her to take dance lessons. Adam hadn't always enjoyed the lessons either growing up, but he was thankful for them now. He was one of the few wizards who enjoyed balls and parties and dancing. It was a social event to find potential spouses, but it was also a time to mingle and meet new people. He'd gone to parties nearly every other day during his holiday which had been a bit tiring, but it had been enjoyable. Now that Annette had agreed to be his partner, he was looking forward to it.

It seemed as though the Anns were adamant to stay together no matter what even after they moved out. Twins were fascinating; though Adam had never wanted one of his own, he'd always wondered what it would be like to have a mirror image of himself walking around with a mind of his own. "It's cold, undoubtedly," he said. "I've always preferred spring and summer. Where would you like to eventually end up?"

0 Adam I need to preserve some dignity. 0 Adam 0 5

Tristan

November 02, 2014 2:48 PM

Being very glad to have finally replied by Tristan

"Oh, that sounds fun." Tristan replied. "A lot of my relatives like to ride horses." Though he was personally more of a broom guy himself. One could soar higher that way, up through the clouds. How fun was that, the rush of adrenaline knowing you were thousands of feet above the ground, nothing but a stick of wood supporting you. It was exhilarating.

"Actually a distant cousin of mine has a ranch." For him this wasn't bragging, it was making conversation. For all Nellie's parents seemed to rather suck judging by her comments last year, Tristan didn't think she was hurting for material things. That was how emotionally neglectful parents with money made things up to their children. Of course, the fourth year himself didn't have these issues, his parents doted on him. In fact, they were wonderful people who even allowed Amity, who had the second worst mother ever, stay with them.

That, of course, was not something he was going to tell Nellie though. He didn't want to take a chance of her feeling bad. "It sounds like you had a decent time though." For which Tristan was glad. England sounded like a much better place to spend the holidays than California where Nellie had apparently been last year. California was like where his relatives herded all the Muggles that made it past the "moat", leaving it overcrowded, polluted and full of the most superficial elitist kind of Muggles, who being that they were Muggles, had no right to act in such a manner.

Tristan smiled, in a way that was different from his generally cocky self-assured smile. This was a more genuine smile. He hadn't been really that worried that Nellie would say no, but she was friends with Leo so for all he'd known his roommate had already asked her. He did, however, manage to maintain some dignity and not grin like some lovesick puppy, though it made him quite happy that she was glad to be asked by him.

"Oh you know, same old,same old. Presents and parties. Nothing special or unique in the slightest. Obviously I'm glad nothing terrible happened but some excitement once in awhile would be nice for a change, you know?"

OOC-Sorry it took so long for me to reply, I'm a bit behind in general.

11 Tristan Being very glad to have finally replied 264 Tristan 0 5

Liliana Bannister

November 02, 2014 6:56 PM

True, so I'll let go of mine. by Liliana Bannister

Liliana desperately wanted to reach over and wipe the cocky smirk that had appeared on Atlas’ face but she refrained from doing so, wanting to have at least one special feast at Sonora where the two of them did not get into some sort of spat. Besides, the gift he had given her was quite nice and did appeal to her tastes so she didn’t think that he deserved to have that happen to him-- tonight at least. Perhaps in the future if he ever displayed a look akin to that again she would interfere but for now she was going to let it go.

Thankfully, Atlas allowed her to ramble on a bit without calling her out on it and she nodded along as he told her about his break. She wondered what celebrating Simbang Gabi would be like, if it would be anything like celebrating Hanukkah but then she decided that Hanukkah was probably loads more fun since it didn’t involve going to mass. “That sounds like fun,” she said, not expanding any further to give him anything to work with.

“Now that I have answered your questions, aren’t you going to answer mine?” He asked her. “How was your holiday? Don’t you always go to England? What about Hanukkah?” Atlas took another bite of food before continuing his barrage of questions. “As for the letter, you don’t really have to elaborate if you don’t want to, but at least next time if you are going to rant at least send a follow-up letter so I know you haven’t gone berserk or anything.” He gave her a nudge and a smile and Liliana returned the smile rather shakily.

“Right,” she said nervously. She frowned and pushed around the spinach salad she had put on her plate while Atlas was talking. “Well, it was good. England was good. Hannukah was good.” She nodded. “Yes, it was good.” Liliana dragged her fork through the salad dressing, making loops of liquid across the white of the clean part of her plate. She took a deep breath. “I’m sorry for not writing back. You must have been really worried.” Suddenly, she wasn’t hungry anymore. She pushed her plate away even though she had been looking forward to eating cheese and dessert and having her coffee after it all. She’d seen some grapes further down the table and pine nuts in the other direction, both of which she had really wanted to eat. And she’d missed the chocolate mousse she ate at Sonora-- her favorite of the school’s desserts.

“Look, something happened to me over break. Something really great and I’ve been terrified to tell you about it. I don’t know why, but I’ve been thinking about it ever since it happened and I can’t stop thinking about it so I’m just going to tell you, okay?” Liliana blushed as she turned away from Atlas and looked down into her lap where her fingers picked at a thread that was poking out of one of the buttons on her dress. She shook her head, her freshly curled hair tumbling around her shoulders as she did so. “I met a guy. At my grandparents’ ball. And he was nice, really nice.” She bit her lip and continued. “He’s fifteen and he’s a student at Hogwarts (that’s the Sonora of England,” she added in case Atlas didn’t know. “That’s where I was supposed to go if my father hadn’t been sent out to Connecticut to manage the American branch of my grandfather’s company.) Anyway, he, um, he kissed me.” She laughed uneasily. "Silly, right? You’re my best friend, I don’t know why I was afraid to tell you.” Finally she looked up from picking at the thread and straight into Atlas’ eyes. “Anyway, I'm full, do you want to go back to the common room? I can get your present for you?"

10 Liliana Bannister True, so I'll let go of mine. 274 Liliana Bannister 0 5

Francesca

November 03, 2014 7:30 AM

Hence 'worst case scenario' by Francesca

“I hope it's useful,” she smiled, when Jay said he'd try the duty lines out on his family. “It just about still works on mine – Jemima cos she tends to look daydreamish, though I think she is thinking really, probably painting things in her head. Ingrid because she hasn't, in spite of the repeated conditioning against it, learnt not to whine when she's bored. Barnabus, Theodore and I are of course always absorbed in good, self-improving books, as well as benefiting from the aforementioned buffer zone of guest status.

“How exciting,” she commented, when he mentioned Arthur's latest letter had come from Russia. She had given thought to life outside of school, of course, but predominantly in terms of what she would like to study and achieve. She had pictured the majority of it happening in America but she supposed that was really by default than anything else. Perhaps she would give some thought to how she could see the world at the same time...

“I'm sure they are,” she nodded, when he said they were being even worse about the RATS, “After all, you're seventh years, so should be approximately thirty percent more learned and more serious than us mere fifth years. Would you say it's roughly a thirty percent increase in doom and gloom?” she queried. “Legally, they can't do anything that would kill or permanently injure you, so perhaps you can take some comfort from that,” she teased, when he said expected five people to leap on him at once in Defence, “And I plan on dropping it after this year, so at least I don't have that to worry about.” She laughed when he related it to all to Quidditch. It made for a good scale. “Thanks,” she smiled, after a slight pause. “It's all what I've been telling myself anyway but it's much easier to believe it from someone else. Especially someone who's done it.

“Speaking of finals in lightning storms,” she added hastily. She wasn't one to naturally open up to people – she could be fun and relaxed with her friends, and she would confide where necessary but she wasn't big about putting her feelings where others could tread on them – and thus wanted to move away from confiding in Jay what had been going through her mind as quickly as possible. It wasn't that she didn't trust him, or else she wouldn't have brought up the subject in the first place, but she didn't feel comfortable lingering around in those kinds of conversations. “How do you rate our chances for the.... are we calling it a final? For the other match.”

13 Francesca Hence 'worst case scenario' 250 Francesca 0 5

Jay

November 05, 2014 7:09 PM

Wouldn't that be two manticores? by Jay

Jay tried to imagine a world in which any of his siblings except maybe Henry was absorbed in a good, self-improving book, at least to the point of not putting it down when he least wanted them to. He failed. “I do wish I had one of those sometimes,” he said of the idea of a guest buffer. “Though it’s not so bad these days, there’s only two who aren’t here now, and Cecilia and Peter don’t seem to think that visiting siblings are interesting enough to annoy.” There were times when Jay almost wondered if Cecilia was even related to the rest of them. His youngest sister was a prim little lady. She had tea parties with her dolls. She owned intact dolls. Someone less like Theresa as a little girl was hard to imagine, and Diana hadn’t been much better. If he hadn’t known any better, he would have sworn she was really Uncle Anthony’s daughter, not Father’s.

“I imagine it is,” he agreed about Russia being exciting. “You’d never know it from the letters, though. He’s a terrible correspondent.” His letters were mostly comments on answers to questions he’d previously asked about what was happening at home. The most original one had been the one which let Jay know that his sister thought violence was the best way to handle a breakup. Jay was glad that nothing had happened to make him be original again since.

“Something like that,” he agreed about the percentage increase of doom and gloom. “It’s…you know how before CATS, it’s all about how your CATS affect what RATS you can take? With RATS, it’s about how you’ve made your choices, and if you fail these tests? They give you the impression you have nothing to fall back on, that you’ll have ruined your whole life.” Probably not technically true, as there were plenty of jobs that RATS scores wouldn’t be that important for, but….

“I look forward to seeing how creative they can get with things that only temporarily injure me,” Jay said about his Defense exam. It had never occurred to him to drop that class; girls sometimes were taught that stuff privately after school, so people would underestimate them, but he was expected to let all the heirs and other ambitious younger sons know that he was not someone to trifle with, and Defense class was a good way to do that. Henry had dropped it, but Henry was unlikely to interact with the public much after he left Sonora, so he didn’t have as much of a responsibility to the family reputation as Jay did. He smiled when Francesca thanked him. “Any time,” he said.

Jay thought for a moment about the final game. “Pecari definitely won’t make it easy for us,” he said finally. “They’ll want it more this time.” Miss Pierce could not be happy about being beaten by a second year. “I need to decide what angle to take with our Seeker, we’ve got to work on him. Do you have any suggestions?”

Francesca was, after all, the most likely to be captain after Anthony, so it would do her good to start…practicing, he supposed. He thought she might have it harder than most, if only because she would be an anomaly: he had gone through a lot of old trophies and team pictures earlier in the year while researching the new recruits, and Jay had been learning to feed himself the last time a girl had been the sole captain of the Aladren Quidditch team. It wouldn't help that the last girl had lost more than she’d won, either. Aladren had done very well the year Jera Valson was co-captain, though, much better than the year her male co-captain had been alone, so maybe that would be noticed, though in a way, it might make Francesca seem even more unusual if it was, since he was pretty sure Jera Valson was now old enough that they called her Professor Valson…..

All that had to bring its own pressure. No one with sense would envy her whatever she got out of it besides that, he thought, unless she was truly tough and didn’t notice it as much as he thought he would have. It was bad enough just being related to Arnold; he remained convinced Arnold's reputation was why Anthony wouldn’t take on Seeker. Even being too close to an anomaly drew attention, and Anthony was closer than he was.

0 Jay Wouldn't that be two manticores? 0 Jay 0 5

Atlas Primred

November 05, 2014 10:03 PM

Let the storm rage on, the cold never bothered me anyways. by Atlas Primred

For a moment, Atlas was worried that they would spend the rest of the conversation in an awkward limbo. "Good," didn’t tell him anything about what had been happening in her life, and as her friend, it bothered him that she was stiff-arming him. He somewhat regretted bringing up her vacation again, as she seemed all too hesitant to talk about it. Although he originally thought she was a pampered princess, from all the time they spent together over the past few years in addition to their multiple getting to know each other talks last semester, it appeared that she had the same stresses, and pains as any other teenager he knew back in Santa Cruz. He prided himself that he knew what life is really like for her at home- or at least as much as she felt comfortable telling him, for it showed just how close they were. However, at the present moment he felt as though he didn’t know who he was talking to at all.

Atlas grimaced as she made designs on her plate, wondering what secrets she was keeping that made her this uncomfortable. He decided to think back to the letter, maybe it was her being left out by her cousins. She hadn’t explicably said it, but he could probably assume that Levi was in the group of her cousins that had ditched her that night, perhaps this is what was bringing her down? Or maybe it had to do with her two girl friends, she often complained about losing touch with them, perhaps it had reached the final straw? All of these were reasonable, but he wouldn’t know unless she said anything herself, as it was all just speculation. He heard his company take a deep breath, as he held his, trying his best to listen attentively and pick up on any subtle cues.

“I’m sorry for not writing back. You must have been really worried. Look, something happened to me over break. Something really great and I’ve been terrified to tell you about it. I don’t know why, but I’ve been thinking about it ever since it happened and I can’t stop thinking about it so I’m just going to tell you, okay?” Liliana said as she blushed, turning away from Atlas' face.

He could feel his heart beating in his ears, and the weight of her words was hanging heavy in the air. He was oddly excited, but at the same time very worried. He hadn’t really been that concerned about her lack of contact, at least not to the extent that she was probably thinking, but now that she was talking like this he couldn’t help but feel concerned.

“I met a guy. At my grandparents’ ball. And he was nice, really nice.” She bit her lip and continued, but it fell on deaf ears as Atlas couldn’t get past the words 'met a guy'. He could hear her talking, but he wasn’t paying attention anymore as he shuffled through his own feelings on the situation. All Atlas could do was stare at the side of her head, for the feeling in his stomach implied if he moved he might throw up. However, one sentenced caught his attention as if someone had just screamed his name using a megaphone.

"...he kissed me.”

There it was- the final blow, the K.O., the finishing move. If she had been trying to grab his attention she had definitely succeeded. Liliana Bannister now had his full attention. Her uneasy laughter that followed only helped to make him more uncomfortable, just where had he kissed her?! How?! Why?!!? Was this the beginning of an arranged marriage? She had told him herself that she wouldn’t be opposed to the idea, but he always thought it as like when Steven said it would be opposed the idea of skydiving. A nice thought, but never really going to happen. Steven just wasn’t the type, and Liliana… well…

"Silly, right? You’re my best friend,” she continued, “I don’t know why I was afraid to tell you.”

Atlas wasn’t sure why, but this statement hurt the most. In theory nothing should have hurt, he should have felt happy for his 'best friend' but he wasn’t. The knot in his throat was proof of that. He wasn’t happy for her at all, but he wasn’t mad or worried either. Instead, Atlas felt overcome with disappointment. Her eyes caught his own glazed over pools of brown, as he looked away, hiding his face beneath his auburn hair.

“Anyway, I'm full, do you want to go back to the common room? I can get your present for you?" A moment passed before he cleared his throat, getting ready to try out his acting skills.

"That’s cool Lil," he said as nonchalantly as possible, awkwardly patting her on the back. He didn’t want to give anything away, these feelings were his problem- not hers. She was just sharing ‘good news’, and Atlas didn’t want to start a fight he knew he would never win. “And sure, let’s go. I’m done eating anyways,” he said standing up to leave, his appetite having completely vanished in a matter of moments.

0 Atlas Primred Let the storm rage on, the cold never bothered me anyways. 276 Atlas Primred 0 5

Nellie

November 06, 2014 1:49 AM

Glad to have something to reply to by Nellie

Tristan was very understanding, one of the many traits she liked in a boy. He was different from his roommate, though Nellie was lucky that they were both pure and well-bred. It was just a shame that neither of them were on the Quidditch team; that would have solidified her respect for them.

Owning a ranch seemed like hard, dirty work, but at the very least his relatives had magical creatures. Nellie only had her dog and horse. It would be nice to have relatives who owned a ranch. Then she could visit it often if she wanted to without being forced to take care of the animals or take charge of the ranch itself. Tristan was lucky in that sense.

Now that she had a date to the ball, Nellie couldn't wait to shove it in Leo's face. She wasn't mad at him or anything, but she liked to think she was wanted by more than just him. Other boys liked her for who she was, and he was just too late. She couldn't wait to tell him, though she wouldn't mind if Tristan got to Leo first. Tristan's holidays sounded pleasantly mundane. At least a party would have spiced up Nellie's holidays, but it was nice to take things slow for a little while. She could, at the same time, understand Tristan's sentiment. If it was always the same thing over and over every year, she would get bored quickly.

"I understand," she replied sympathetically. "Did you get any good presents this year?" Presents were, in Nellie's case, extremely important. If her stock wasn't good enough, she usually guilted her parents into remedying their mistakes by buying her something else. This year had been pretty decent with a pretty watch and a floating lantern to put into her dorm room. There were a number other decent gifts and candies as well, but Nellie had left them back home. "Are you looking forward to being back at school?" she asked, interested for once in someone else's life. Now that she thought about it, she really didn't know a whole lot about Tristan. Maybe now would be the time to get to know him better.

0 Nellie Glad to have something to reply to 0 Nellie 0 5

Amity

November 11, 2014 4:58 PM

They're a bit too much work for me. by Amity

“Yeah, I got the impression she didn’t want to see me any more than I did her.” Amity replied. It was as if because Amity couldn’t be the daughter her mother wanted, Mother wanted nothing to do with her. The thing was that when in each other’s presence during their family gathering, Mother did everything she could to passively aggressively insult her. Then there had been the gravy incident, where a bowl of gravy had flown up and dumped it’s contents over Mother’s head. The sixth year had really had nothing to do with it and was quick to turn over her wand to prove it since she was quite obviously the prime suspect. She remembered how upset Chaslyn had gotten, sitting there shaking with tears streaming down her face as Mother yelled at Amity.

What had been even more heartbreaking was later that night when Kira had come to her sobbing, saying how sorry she was that Amity had been in trouble when she knew that she herself had done it. Kira hadn’t meant to but she’d gotten angry and the next thing she knew there was more gravy on Mother than on the turkey. The Aladren had done her best to soothe her cousin, saying that nobody could prove it was her, with all the underage witches and wizards about and for all they knew Gabriel who was only a few weeks old had done it. The thing was that Kira had said it was because she hated how mean Mother was to Amity and that was really what had really made the ten year old angry and she couldn’t control her magic at all when she felt strong emotions. It honestly really touched Amity’s heart that her cousin cared about her so much.

She frowned. “I’m sorry to hear that. I hope it’s nothing too serious.” She knew her friend’s younger sister to be incredibly shy, Scarlett didn’t think she’d ever heard Araceli speak at all. To be sick on top of things would just make things harder. “Maybe she should see the medic?” The Aladren suggested. The idea that a parent would ignore a child’s medical problem, merely force them to go on, was abhorrent to her being that it was something she’d seen first hand. Of course, maybe it was a little different when someone was going back to school so they didn’t have to start late. It would have to be something pretty serious to keep the student home once school resumed.

Amity could certainly understand, she worried about her sister a lot as well-and almost as if on cue, Effie asked about Chaslyn. “She’s...I don’t know. I mean, I see her here more than I do on break, now that I’ve gone to stay with my aunt and uncle.” It was as if the second year was too afraid to speak to Amity in Mother’s presence. The Aladren wasn’t disowned but her mother sure treated her like she was. Mother had less control over Father than she did Chaslyn so at least he’d greeted her with a big hug and they’d had a nice chat catching up. Not that Amity never wrote to him but it was nice to see him in person.

“But, I’m...honestly kind of worried about her too. She doesn’t seem well either, really stressed out and I’m sure the holidays were even worse for her.” Amity remembered how they were for her back when she still lived with her parents. How much of a relief coming back to Sonora was. The difference between her and her sister though, was that Chaslyn would keep doing what Mother wanted and the Aladren just didn’t think her sister could keep that up.

11 Amity They're a bit too much work for me. 233 Amity 0 5

Francesca

November 16, 2014 8:53 AM

I suppose, but you could just keep adding manticores by Francesca

“Same,” she nodded, “On both counts, actually. Although year after next they’ll both be here. And Teddy might not agree about the annoying part…” She had tried to get out of the habit of referring to her brother by his family nickname, especially around people who actually spent time with him but she often slipped up. “Ingrid definitely annoys him but I’m fairly sure she doesn’t do so on purpose,” she clarified. “When do yours arrive?” she asked.

“Yes, and I’m sure as soon as we move on to university, they’ll claim they were all for nothing and it’s what we do there that will really count, in spite of the fact that which university we are attending will have been determined by our previous, but now apparently irrelevant test scores.”

She lifted her glass, taking longer than she might have to have a drink as he asked her about their Seeker and she gave it some thought.

“For the match itself, pressure off,” she decided, pleased that Jay was seeking her opinion. She knew he most likely didn’t need it, and had Anthony to go to if he was unsure. This was more for her benefit than his. But that care still pleased her. He saw her as succeeding his cousin in the assistant role (it was usual for it to pass to the next oldest but she had heard captains could veto the choice if they felt strongly about it) and he wanted to give her some practise. “We’re in the unusual position of being able to lose the Snitch and still win the cup. Lots of points about the Chasers and Keeper being able to make a difference even if we miss the Snitch. No Seeker, and certainly no Aladren Seeker, could possibly be cloth-headed enough to think their points don’t matter, and I doubt any of them truly let themselves off the hook whatever you say. I don’t think you could make a first year, in his first cup match complacent. But you can help him relax and know he’s not going to be hounded out of the commons if he misses it, and that should help him do better, and recover faster if he doesn’t. For training… I don’t know. I guess I don’t really know how to train positions other than my own,” she admitted. Sure, she’d seen Seekers diving after ping pong balls and other such exercises but she couldn’t call to mind anything other than what she’d seen Clark recently do… “Though I guess some agility won’t hurt him. He’s still pretty green as a flier,” she added, wanting to satisfy the need to have an answer for every question asked, “What were you thinking?” she asked, curious as to what Jay had had in mind and how close she’d come. It was Quidditch, not a maths problem, and there were probably a number of arguments for or against every idea, and thus not necessarily a right answer, but that didn’t stop her wanting to have got it, or at least for her ideas to be seen as good ones.

13 Francesca I suppose, but you could just keep adding manticores 250 Francesca 0 5

Effie

November 22, 2014 1:04 AM

Name something that isn't by Effie

“Oh, no, she'll be fine. She just needs some rest,” Effie answered, the reply sufficing for both Amity's statement that she hoped it was nothing serious and her suggestion that her sister ought to see the medic. Being prodded and poked and asked a great number of questions about what was troubling her was the last thing Araceli needed.

“Poor her,” she sympathised, over the fact that Chaslyn seemed stressed out and had probably had a miserable break. Given Amity's tales of her mother, and now that Chaslyn was her sole focus, she could well believe it. She felt a little bad, as she felt Amity told her more about her family, about its problems, than she was comfortable in telling her. Though she supposed Amity knew that their father put pressure on them with regard to making good connections... She just did not specify the way in which that pressure was sometimes applied. It also made her wonder, with concern, whether there were things behind the closed doors of the Brockert household that Amity had never told her about.... In all likelihood, there were. She wished she could think of something to suggest but she was as bereft of ideas to help Chaslyn as she was Araceli. Short of achieving every ideal their parents had for them, it seemed like there would not be much let up for either girl, and that outcome seemed impossible – for Araceli because she seemed currently incapable of acting on what Father wanted of her, and Chaslyn because the expectations were always going to be beyond the humanly possible.

“Sorry, I seem to have picked a rather gloomy topic,” she apologised. Although of course Amity was her best friend, and someone she could talk to these things about, she had still always been taught that serious and depressing conversations, or ones concerning overly personal matters should be avoided. That was at dinners and tea parties and such – one was, implicitly allowed to cover them in private – but her teaching had always had the undercurrent, the implication that such nastiness generally need not be discussed because it simply didn't happen in a civilised household, and no one wished to hear the appalling and anomalous examples where it did. For all that she really rather doubted that was true – she had also been taught that every family had its secrets – it still embarrassed her somewhat to discuss such things. She felt dirty, like she was spilling out secrets that shouldn't even exist, and for all that she suspected many families did similar things, she was still afraid of revealing her family to be beyond the pale, or to be so herself for talking about it. For all that everyone had such secrets, no one was supposed to admit it. “Do you have anything more cheering to tell me about?” she asked, trying to smile brightly.

13 Effie Name something that isn't 238 Effie 0 5

Amity

November 28, 2014 3:52 PM

Doing so would also be too much work. by Amity

"Good." Amity replied. She had no reason to think any more was going on than what Effie had said so she didn't push the issue. Not that she wasn't still sympathetic. The Aladren could only hope that Araceli didn't push herself too much, the way her own sister would if she was in the first year's shoes. Amity, of course, would go to the medic just to get a note to make sure she wouldn't get in trouble for not going to class. Not that she really ever got sick much.

She nodded. "I know." She wished she could make the same assurance that Effie had about Araceli, that Chaslyn would be fine but really the sixth year wasn't so sure. Amity doubted her sister would ever be fine, unless she escaped their mother and Amity knew she'd never do it. Chaslyn was trapped and the Aladren worried about her all the time. Even though her sister never complained, Amity knew there was no way she was all right. She knew from personal experience that it was just too much. Even taking into consideration that people liked different things, Chaslyn didn't look happy. Not at all.

There was nothing she could do. Nothing. She was completely powerless to save her sister from what was likely to be a lifetime of misery. Even when Chaslyn was married, Mother would still be harping, still be expecting more than either of them could give her. Amity would never be willing to give it but her sister always would. The second year craved approval.

The more she thought about it, the more she worried-and the more frustrated she became. Angrier. Amity wanted to help her sister, to get her out of this situation, but she just had no way of doing so. Finally, something possibly worth the effort and nothing could be done.

"It's all right." She assured Effie. "Let me think of something." Amity kind of needed the distraction of something happier. Distraction from her worries about Chaslyn and hatred of her mother. Nothing came to mind very quickly though. The Midsummer ball provided her with absolutely no joy whatsoever and quite frankly, she was dreading hearing about it all term. "Um, I'm really glad we don't have big exams this year." Amity replied. That was certainly a happy thought. "Not that that's news but that's...something positive. I mean, nothing really big happened that you wouldn't have seen."

11 Amity Doing so would also be too much work. 233 Amity 0 5