Should I be taking notes? on Quidditch Pitch

A Memory

November 20, 2020 10:45 PM

Muggle medicine is good enough. by A Memory

OOC: CW: Reference to injury, abuse and gaslighting BIC:

It was easy to fall from a broom and it was a long way down sometimes if you did. Quidditch players didn't usually just straight up fall; if they hit the ground, it was because a bludger or a player had knocked them down. It was still possible though, and the person walking onto the pitch that afternoon might have been confused thinking just such a thing had happened as they approached to find a silver figure of a man, crouched on the ground as if caring to someone who had fallen a great distance, as in fact he was. Well, for a given value of 'caring'. There was no broom around, and, actually, there was no man around. Only the unseeing silhouette of a man with light hair and angry eyes, his face and expression both turned downward, were anywhere to be seen.

"I got it," he called angrily over his shoulder, dismissing someone only he could see from coming over to help as well. In a quieter voice, he spoke to someone at close range, his hands out as if to support a small person and his eyes fixed angrily on a point between his arms. "Yeah, it looks pretty bad," he said coldly, pausing as he received a response an onlooker couldn't hear. "No," he scoffed, shaking his head and pulling his hands away roughly. "No, Lyn, you did this to yourself. You're always so stupid. Well, here's one more good reason to think you're a squib," he growled. "Stop crying. You don't get to cry when you mess up. Look at how upset you made your mother." He pointed back over his shoulder at whomever he'd dismissed, as they apparently hadn't gone very far. "That's your fault, Lyn. The last thing your mother needs is to have to deal with the hospital, and I'm not taking you. You'll have to make do with a bandage. No no no." He held a finger up, interrupting the person he was talking to. "Nope. Squibs don't get magical healing. You get a bandage and you get a scar. See how you like it then. Maybe it'll teach you a lesso-- STOP CRYING."

His voice range out sharply across the Quidditch pitch as he raised it to a shout and raised his hand as if to strike at the figure unseen before him. Then he paused, apparently thinking better of it, and put his hand down. "Eh, you'll learn your lesson without that. Won't you?" he demanded.

OOC: New rule: instead of having two sub-threads, this post is set up in a class-style format. There should be a max of two responses, either separate (two people posting directly to the memory) or interactive (one thread with two characters in it).

22 A Memory Muggle medicine is good enough. 0 A Memory 1 5

Billy Cobb

December 07, 2020 7:13 PM

Should I be taking notes? by Billy Cobb

Billy nearly burst out of the building and ran for the pitch. Finally! Outside again! All this time cooped up inside was really starting to wear on him. He could breathe free again. It felt good. He began to pump his legs and just run for the sheer joy of it. Some trees and plants and stuff would be great to jump over and around and such, but no such luck around here. He could get a school broom though and fly about a bit. That's always fun! He steered his legs that direction and quickly skidded to a halt. There was a ghost on the field.

It was a man... sort of? He seemed angry? He was holding something but wasn't. It looked like he was and he was looking at whatever he wasn't holding. "Hey mister?" Billy asked the man. The man didn't react to him at all. What was this? Hmm.. was this some sort of new lesson thing the professor were doing? Great more learning.. at least it was outside. He watched and tried to figure out what he was supposed to be learning from this.

The 'man' was talking to whatever he was holding... so, probably whoever he was holding. It was an odd lesson, why leave out the other person who was clearly talking to the man? Ah! The missing person was named 'Lyn'. He didn't know any Lyn's. She was apparently a squib? He knew that term, they'd explained that. It was a wizard that couldn't cast magic... so, not really much of a wizard. But, apparently not a Muggle. Hmm.. Lyn had apparently did something bad... and got hurt! Pa usually got mad when Billy got himself hurt as well, so that made sense. Pa wasn't much one for Hospitals either, granted the closest one to home was a good two and a half hours if the truck was workin' right. Ma and Aunt Dot's healing skills had always been fine.

The man kept on talking and.. Ah-ha! That must be it! Squibs couldn't be healed with magic. Hmm.. probably a good thing to know just in case he was around any that got hurt. He'd have to use a bandage like this man was suggesting. He wondered if Squibs were immune to other kinds of magic as well. That would make them different than Muggles.

Billy winced at the man's shouting and instinctively moved to try and stop the man's hand from falling. He may be angry, but that didn't seem right. Especially if this Lyn was already injured. He was beginning to think that this man wasn't very nice. But, if he was supposed to be learning here.. he didn't want to let Ma and Pa down.

2 Billy Cobb Should I be taking notes? 1519 0 5

Heinrich Hexenmeister

December 09, 2020 5:46 PM

No. This is what is called a bad wolf. A very bad wolf. by Heinrich Hexenmeister

OOC: Though it hasn't come up yet, I am setting this by fuzzy time after the conversation with Ellie since he didn't think of this weird ghost experience when he was talking to her. BIC:

Heinrich headed out to the Pitch to meet up with Hilda. The last time they gone over her homework together in the Prefect Lounge, she had complained they never did anything fun together at school, so he had arranged to go flying with her today. He was kind of looking forward to it. He did fun things with Evelyn quite frequently, and he did things for his own enjoyment on his own as well (though not many people outside of Aladren would call all of those activities 'fun'), but Hilda was right. He and his sister had sort of gotten into the habit of eating together and doing schoolwork together, but not really doing much else together, unless one counted Quidditch practice. Even there, though, she was generally with the Beaters while he was with the Chasers, and they didn't interact much.

Today they would have some good high-quality sibling time together.

Eager to get to it, Heinrich showed up at the pitch a good ten minutes before they had agreed to meet. Hilda was rarely late, but she was even less likely to be this early, so he didn't really expect to see her right away. It would give him time to warm up a little, and tend to his broom, which had . . . well, it had not been neglected exactly, but neither had it been a priority between RATS prep, spending time with his girlfriend, doing homework, running the Dueling club, and fulfilling his duties as prefect, library monitor, and potions assistant. Hilda would chide him for not taking good care of it if she saw it as it was now.

Before he could do either of those things, he noted he was not alone on the pitch. There was a younger kid out here already. One of the first years who tried out for the team. Hilda had mentioned him a few times, as he was the newest beater reserve. Billy, that was it. And beyond Billy there was . . .

A very bad wolf. A very dead bad wolf. Heinrich had been to his funeral. Having her dad turn up here as a ghost was the very last thing Evelyn needed. Heinrich wondered if he knew enough to banish him back to his place of death or at least bind him until a teacher could deal with him properly. Ideally by exorcising him completely, though he was pretty sure that wasn't possible. Professor Wright would probably be able to set up wards to keep him off the Sonora grounds, though, and Heinrich had no doubt he would be willing to do so. He just needed to get Mr. Stones contained or gone first.

His wand was in his hand with no memory of drawing it. He approached quietly, obliquely, letting Billy be the main point of the ghost's focus, not that he seemed terribly interested in Billy. He was still debating between casting an immobulus charm and a containment charm when the Mr. Stones shouted, "STOP CRYING!" and made as if to strike someone.

"Stupify!" Heinrich cast almost out of reflex, the spell passing through Mr. Stones without any effect, and only narrowly missing Billy who had darted closer as if to physically stop the ghost's attack. "Stay back!" he called in warning to the boy, keeping his wand pointed at Mr. Stones. "He was a bad person in life, and it is unlikely that death has improved him. I am going to try to contain him."

1 Heinrich Hexenmeister No. This is what is called a bad wolf. A very bad wolf. 1414 0 5

A Memory

December 10, 2020 7:54 PM

You don't know anything. by A Memory

OOC: CW: Previous CWs still apply. BIC:

The ghostly figure of Mathias Stones nodded, satisfied with the response he received from the unseen figure before him, and then stood. He didn't extend a hand to help the other person up, although his gaze followed her to a standing position and showed that the person was very very small. While the modern counterpart had only ever reached about five feet tall, this rendition must have been only a child. The figure was unfazed by the spells shot at (through) him and he frowned with contempt at the smaller person only he could see.

"Knock it off, Lyn," he sighed. "Now say you're sorry." He paused, frown deepening. "Because you were very stupid and you need to apologize for that. You're going to be better now, right?" He took a breath and continued, his voice dropping into a mutter. "Merlin knows you'll have a reminder to carry around with you. It's just your arm that got messed up?" He sighed at the answer. "Then wipe your face and straighten up. Kept your pretty little face safe and that's the important thing for my career, eh?" He grinned a bit, raising his eyebrows at her, but the expression dropped and he turned his head as another figure approached.

A woman about the same age as the man but much shorter was hesitant as she came into view, her hands wringing nervously together and her wide eyes darting from the man to the same place the man's had been, the height of a small child. She forced herself to release her hands and they moved instead to push her light-colored hair over her shoulder. When she spoke, her voice was small but otherwise sounded very much like the modern version of the person she addressed.

"You alright, Lyn?" She glanced to Mathias again before cocking her head sadly at the small, unseen figure of her daughter. "I know you said to wait, but I saw you get up and--?" Her eyes got impossibly wider as they fell upon the injury. "Oh my-- we have to get her to the hospital!"

"No, she's not going," Mathias said with a devil-may-care shrug, his expression daring his wife to argue the point. "You can get her some bandages."

The woman blinked and withdrew, shocked. Then, swallowing hard as she resigned herself to what she knew was being withheld, she nodded. "Alright. Come on, let's get you some bandages," she said, stepping back. Her moving eyes demonstrated the path her daughter took between mother and father, with a notably wide berth given to the latter, and Mathias followed her away from the scene a few feet before they both disappeared in a swirl.

OOC: I wasn't sure whether Heinrich's attempts at containment would wait until they were walking away/wouldn't work at all/etc.?

22 A Memory You don't know anything. 0 A Memory 0 5

Billy Cobb

December 12, 2020 1:37 PM

This is an odd lesson. by Billy Cobb

Billy was downright confused by all this. A spell shot through the ghost an almost hit him. It didn't seem to bother the ghost, so maybe it wouldn't have bothered him either. But, one of the older boys was shouting at him to get away from the ghost. He stepped back and saw that it was one of the prefects, and a Qudditch chaser... Henry? No, that wasn't right. He was one of the people that had come the whole way from Germany! Heinrich! He backed away as the ghost kept talking.

Heinric knew who he was, and Billy did have to admit, that he didn't seem very nice. Billy looked up to the older boy, he'd know what they should be doing. Judging by the serious look and the way he was holding his wand, this might be a Defense lesson, not a charms one. That was an improvement. He drew his own wand and did his best to mimic the older boy's stance and expression. If that ghost did anything bad... more bad, he'd be ready.

Then another ghost appeared, they talked and vanished. He didn't want to fail at this point, so he kept his wand pointed where they had disappeared. "What was that all about?" He asked Heinrich found his best to keep an eye open for trouble. "There lessons like that of'en?"

2 Billy Cobb This is an odd lesson. 1519 0 5

Heinrich Hexenmeister

December 21, 2020 7:00 PM

It is a life lesson. Those are rarely clear. by Heinrich Hexenmeister

Billy thankfully backed up away from Mr. Stones. Heinrich focused on the ghost again, eyes narrowed, wand pointed menacingly. However, Mr. Stones hadn't reacted at all to the first spell, and Heinrich didn't think he'd been dead long enough not to at least reflexively dodge even if a stupify wouldn't have done a thing to his ghost. He hadn't even scowled or anything. At least, not at Heinrich anyway. He seemed completely unaware Heinrich was even there.

The conversation with Ellie tickled at the back of his mind. Like ghosts, she had said, but not ghosts.

Heinrich readied his containment charm again but realized he had nothing inside of which to contain the ghost. If he was a ghost.

His certainty of that took another hit when another ghost appeared out of nowhere. A woman, who seemed able to see whatever it was Mr. Stones was seeing. A woman who looked remarkably like Evelyn. A woman, Heinrich would guess, who very well might be Evelyn's mother, but, last he'd heard, Charity Stones was not dead.

And this scene that was playing out was not unfamiliar to him. Evelyn had told him about this happening. Not in this much detail, of course, and he did not think his subconscious mind was creative enough to have come up with dialogue all on its own, so he was pretty sure this was not his fault any more than the German duelists had been.

But it was kind of unnerving both instances were so closely tied t him.

For right now though, his first priority was getting Mr. Stones' ghost - or whatever it was - off of the school grounds before Evelyn had to see it. He cast an immobulus charm at Mr. Stones and both of the silvery figures disappeared in a swirl. That wasn't exactly what he thought was supposed to happen, but he wasn't entirely sure what immobulus did to ghosts - or whatever these things were - either. But Mr. Stones wasn't here and that could only be a good thing, right?

Heinrich was still frowning at the space where Mr. Stones had been and wondering how urgent it was to get Professor Wright out here to do whatever could be done to the wards to keep malevolent spirits away when he realized Billy was talking again.

He missed the first part, but he figured the second question followed the same vein. "That was not a lesson," he stated. "I am not sure that was even a ghost. What you learn should learn from it is that when something happens that you do not understand, and it seems bad, you tell a prefect," he tapped his own badge for that office, "and they will report it to the professors. I am going to go do that right now. Did you want to walk back to the school with me, or are you all right staying out here?" He looked around warily, but there seemed no further trace of Mr. Stones or the woman. "It seems to be gone now and Hilda will be out here soon." She was also a prefect, but he figured her beater's bat and high ranks in Intimidation would count for just as much in reassuring the first year that she could handle whatever bad stuff might still be lurking about the pitch.

1 Heinrich Hexenmeister It is a life lesson. Those are rarely clear. 1414 0 5