Evelyn Stones
October 22, 2020 8:32 PM
WE DID IT. [Professor Wright] by Evelyn Stones
Evelyn arrived excited and cheerful but there was no time to accomplish her goals just yet. As soon as dinner was finished though, she went back to her room, took off her robe, and practically sprinted from her dorm. With the necklace from Heinrich, a nice grown-up style dress on - one of her last bids farewell to the summer weather she would soon watch pass by from inside classrooms - and one hand clutched tightly on a folded sheet of paper, she ran from her room all the way to Professor Wright's office. She was mildly out of breath by the time she arrived, due in part to the fact that she'd worn flats tonight and didn't quite have the same grip as she would have in her sneakers. Nice shiny floors were a fair bit more slippy than sidewalks anyway.She didn't wait to catch herself though, practically banging on Professor Wright's door as she arrived to it, and pushing it open without waiting for a response. "Can I come in?" she asked excitedly, eyes squeezed tightly shut because that seemed like the appropriate response to barging into what equated nearly to someone's private rooms. When she was sure it was okay, she opened her eyes and trained them on the professor, waving the piece of paper. It was folded still, which made it basically useless to do, but she couldn't help the excitement. She even made a little squeaking sound as she beamed at Professor Wright.
Darting across the room to him, she pulled it open and passed it to him, hopping a little in place. He probably already knew, because he was a teacher and because she was on his roster but--
"I PASSED!!" she squealed. "Even the practical part of the exam! I passed my Charms CATS with an O!"
It was one of three Os on her list; Charms, Care of Magical Creatures, and Herbology had all received such grades. Other classes had not fared as well, although she'd managed an E (which was funny because she thought that basically anything she accomplished exceeded her own expectations) in Transfiguration, Defense Against the Dark Arts, Astronomy, and Muggle Studies, and an A in Potions. It was her poorest grade and it made her immensely happy because she wasn't about to continue a class that she'd only ever had an interest in because of her mother. It made her a little sad because Heinrich was undoubtedly continuing in it, but still.
"We did it," Evelyn squeaked when Professor Wright looked up at her from the paper he'd had thrusted at him. "Thank you so much," she added, jumping forward to give him a hug. It was the sort of weird hug that went thud because suits were funny that way and there was a lot of padding between her and the charms professor, but it was fine. She didn't hug him long because she was pretty sure hugs were good for him and he'd consented to them as a general rule, but he didn't seem to especially know what to do when receiving one. "I'm an adult! And I'm alive! And we did it!" She paused to take a breath, settling some as she grinned up at one of the best humans she'd ever met. "Thank you so much," she grinned. "For everything."
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Evelyn Stones
WE DID IT. [Professor Wright]
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Grayson Wright
November 01, 2020 5:36 PM
*You* did it! by Grayson Wright
Gray had known, of course, that Evelyn had passed her Charms CATS. While the rosters for the Advanced classes weren’t set in stone until after the students in question returned to school and finalized their schedules, the teachers received word of which students were eligible some time before then. He might or might not have cheered a little when he had seen her results – not only that she had passed, but that she had done so with flying colors. It had been severely tempting to jump the coach’s starting whistle and send written congratulations.Despite this, his first thought when Evelyn burst into his office without even waiting for him to respond to the knock was that something was wrong. “Of course,” he said, a bit alarmed, when she then stopped to ask if she could come in. She looked happy, at least, that was good –
Passed. The results. Things made sense. He was smiling broadly even before she shoved the paper at him.
She had not just passed his class – technically, she’d passed all of them. For a moment he was surprised that Potions was her lowest grade, given it didn’t require wandwork, but nevertheless – she’d passed everything, and she had passed almost everything by a significant margin. He looked up, delighted, and was not entirely surprised when she went for a hug. He gave her a brief squeeze about the shoulders in return, happy to see her, for once, indisputably, incandescently happy.
“You are all those things,” he agreed, beaming at her, after she summarized her situation. “I’m so proud of you – for all of this. I may have helped, but you did most of the work to get all of those. I knew you could – and now you have.” Still beaming, he handed her paper back to her. “Which classes are you planning to continue with?” he asked. “And – your summer – I hope it had more things going for it than just being survivable?”
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Grayson Wright
*You* did it!
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Evelyn Stones
November 02, 2020 9:10 PM
I certainly didn't do it alone. by Evelyn Stones
Evelyn couldn't help grinning and she didn't try. Professor Wright, despite his usual reserved demeanor - seriously, was this an Aladren thing or what the heck? - was actually grinning as well and it felt impossibly validating. It wasn't like everything was necessarily going well - Heinrich hadn't gotten Head Boy and there were absolutely feelings being had there - but everything was going a lot better than she could usually say it was at the start of a new school year.Her face almost hurt from grinning when Professor Wright told her he was proud of her. She wanted to close her eyes and make that a memory that she could replay again and again and just keep forever. It felt so good to hear and to feel and everything was just right. It sort of made her want to cry but usually crying was reserved for real crappy times and she didn't wanna cry now. "Thank you, sir," she said, her voice watery despite her determination. "I don't think I'll ever get sick of hearing that. I'm-- I'm so happy," she finally said, breathing a happy, contented sigh.
She nodded, when the question turned to more practical things, like her class schedule. "All of them except potions," she said. "I was a little nervous about divination, but I kind of want to meet the new professor, and I think that . . . I dunno. I always liked muggle stories about the supernatural and I think it's kind of fun. I don't like to see my own future but I don't mind doing it for other people." She shrugged, a little self-conscious about continuing with that subject since it was so much less solid than some of her other classes, but she also sort of thought it could be helpful for her future studies. She was also head of the gardening club on her own now, and continuing with dueling, and overall going to be very busy still, but she wasn't going to emphasize that to Professor Wright; he seemed like he would probably worry about her. It was really nice to have someone worry about her.
"And my summer was good," she added with a sheepish smile. "Spent it in Vermont of course, and had my birthday with them and then with Heinrich." Her smile turned into another grin. She wasn't about to show off her necklace to the professor but she did feel like she was carrying around a hug just by wearing it. "CJ's getting big," she added a little more wistfully. "How was your summer, sir?"
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Evelyn Stones
I certainly didn't do it alone.
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Grayson Wright
November 05, 2020 11:15 PM
Everyone can use a hand from time to time. by Grayson Wright
“Excellent,” said Gray, his tone unusually warm with approval. “I’m glad – you should be happy. And proud of yourself as well,” he added, hoping she was that, too. Being proud of yourself could create happiness, but they could also occur separately – if she regarded it all as a lucky chance, or attributed too much of her success to his work with her and not enough to her own efforts, then she might not also experience the pride she had every right to experience.Even so, he was surprised to hear how much of her courseload she planned to continue with. “You’ll have a very impressive resume if you master that schedule,” he said. “I’m sure you can do it, but make sure you take time to relax every now and then.” He chuckled and then added, “I say, as the Head of Aladren,” he acknowledged. His House was not the one best known for relaxing; there were plenty among their numbers who would have looked at him as though he had grown a second head for that statement. And for that matter, while he had always thought of himself as idle compared to some of his classmates when he had been in the House…well, the fact he’d rarely disliked a job he’d had didn’t change the fact they had been work. Some had taken significantly more hours than corresponded directly with the pay, and that had been even before he’d somehow ended up in his current situation: running his classes, running office hours and such, being Head of House, with a contract in place demanding he complete a draft for the latest Charlotte Ayleward by May (he’d gotten a lot done over the summer, but had not completed it, and preferred to rewrite it from the top at least once before anyone else saw it), and for some reason thinking of taking on more projects…. “At the very least – take time to relax away from the parts of the work you enjoy least,” he amended, thinking that was a more useful solution. “As for the future – well. I’ve always wondered if the idea that knowing a prophecy makes it come true is the truth, or if it’s just to make ourselves more comfortable with the idea of the inevitable,” he admitted. This was a plot point he might work into one of the books, someday…. “Do let me know if you figure out the answer,” he joked.
“That all sounds very good – happy belated birthday, by the way,” he added. “Welcome to adulthood – in a lot of ways it’s life as usual, only you’re expected to act like you don’t have a sense of humor a lot more often, and they expect you to dress like this.” He waved vaguely at his own attire. He’d put off dressing like a grown-up till past thirty, but had felt obliged to do so after coming back to school, and now he was stuck with it, along with the whole ‘Professor Wright’ persona that went with it, one which he was pretty sure aged him at least twenty years…. “Mine…? Oh, yes. Summer. I had one of those. I suppose. Mostly I worked on some writing projects,” he added vaguely. He assumed she would assume this meant he was working on textbooks or something along those lines; he supposed there would be no harm in actually admitting what his side job was, except that it felt vaguely strange to do so even before he thought about what a hard time he’d had maintaining a straight face when his mother had gotten hold of the first Charlotte book and been curious about whether that was really what teaching was like….
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Grayson Wright
Everyone can use a hand from time to time.
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