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
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Headmaster Brockert
Returning Feast
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Headmaster Brockert
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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.
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Joella Curtis
Midsummer ball in mind.
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Joella Curtis
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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.
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Lionel Layne
Not so much on mine.
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Lionel Layne
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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.
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Joella Curtis
Midsummer ball no longer in mind.
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Joella Curtis
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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.
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Lionel Layne
What are you thinking about now?
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Lionel Layne
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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.
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Joella Curtis
The social and academic failures of last term.
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Joella Curtis
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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.
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Lionel Layne
That's not a very cheery topic.
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Lionel Layne
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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.
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Joella Curtis
Are curious questions better?
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Joella Curtis
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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.
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Lionel Layne
Better than being gloomy.
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Lionel Layne
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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."
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Anonymous
Family is a fun topic... for some.
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Anonymous
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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.
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Lionel Layne
Others might not like it so much.
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Lionel Layne
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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.
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Joella Curtis
Food is an even better topic!
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Joella Curtis
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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."
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Lionel Layne
I agree.
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Lionel Layne
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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.
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Joella Curtis
A healthy appetite.
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