Checking up [tag Josh] on Aladren Commons

Henny B-F-R

April 11, 2013 9:50 AM

Checking up [tag Josh] by Henny B-F-R

Henny had not reported Josh and his meddled with, extra strength calming draughts to either their Head of House or the medic. It was slightly against her better judgement as, in her eyes, his behaviour amounted to experimenting with dangerous narcotics. However, she didn't think being sat down by Professor Fawcett and given a stern talking to would be something that would go down well with him. His Potions work was something he poured a lot of effort into, and to have it stopped, and to damage his relationship with its subject teacher, would probably devastate him. He would also be sure to know that she was the one who had dobbed him in. With everything that was going on with Brianna, Henny thought that falling out with her would be the last thing Josh needed. It wasn't like they were super close and he could confide all his woes with her – she wasn't even sure whether she reached the status of friend – but she was on his side. They chatted a bit. She figured that was better than nothing.

She was, however, keeping an eye on him. She hadn't forgotten the extra doses of potion that he had put away for a later date. It was easy enough to do, after all they shared a common room and were both frequently in the library. In the library, he was frequently with Brianna and, during all those times when he was in neither place, she'd never bumped into Brianna either. Of course, she was far less likely to, but it still seemed too unlikely to be coincidence. It didn't really take a genius to figure out what was going on there...

She wasn't really sure what to look for. Other than perhaps a glassy stare or him actually collapsing. She had contented herself with deciding that, if Josh's behaviour seemed to stay the same, he was probably alright. There was a bit of her brain that kept suggesting that him continuing to be emotionally level under trying emotional circumstances might be an indicator that he was abusing calming draughts. She kept telling it to shut up. So long as Josh was... still Josh, she decided to think he was ok.

“Hi,” she said, as she spotted him in the Common Room one evening, settling herself into a chair near him. She didn't really have a premise for coming over and hoped that they had got to the stage where she didn't one. A number of the times they had spoken had been due to rather strange circumstances – her trying to help with his black eye, or finding him experimenting with Potions in a corner of the gardens – but hopefully she didn't need a particular calamity in order to converse with him. “How's it going?” she asked.

13 Henny B-F-R Checking up [tag Josh] 211 Henny B-F-R 1 5

Maximilian Joshua McLachlan

April 12, 2013 5:43 PM

Answering the call. by Maximilian Joshua McLachlan

The library had been a safe haven for Josh and this year he had been there more often than not. If he wasn't in there studying himself, he was tutoring Brianna for her C.A.T.S., and if not either of those, he was researching for the potions he had been experimenting with. He had less time to do his experiments now with his advanced level classes. He hadn't dropped a single course and had taken on Muggle Studies his fifth year. It was important to him that he continue to overload his courses. He might never get another opportunity to study like this again and he wanted to learn all that he could.

This term had been going rather smoothly so far and Josh was thankful for that. His uncles hadn't bothered him much over the winter break while Josh was spending the holidays at school. He knew he would feel the pressure when he went home for the summer, but this was a nice reprieve before hell. He hadn't taken a drop of the Calming Draught since Brianna had called him out on it and told him to stop. Josh had done so not for his own sake, but for hers. Her friendship was too important to toss it away on a potion and he kept true to his promises.

It was later in the evening when Josh started getting uncomfortable in the library's wooden chairs. He usually used a cushioning charm when he had to sit in these unfortunate things, but what he really wanted was to sit on a couch and just read his book. He checked out The Potioneer's Guide to Brewing the Best Brews, a rather simple-sounding title for such a complex book, and went back to the common room. It was rare Josh found himself out here socializing with others. He only usually came out when he found the air in his dorm room too stifling with his other roommates or when he didn't want to stay sitting on his bed all evening.

It was the latter that drove him to sit on the couch that evening and he sat and read until a voice drew him away from his concentration. He looked at who had decided to sit next to him and was surprised to find Henny there. He hadn't really talked to her much except when she saw him at his worst. The last time he had really talked to her was when he had been in a delusional state. He could guess she was here to see if he was dead yet inside or something. He couldn't blame her; she seemed like a nice enough girl who cared about her housemates enough. At least for the ones who seemed to have serious problems.

"Hello," he replied. "It's going well enough." It was easier to answer vaguely. "I'm just reading up on potions." The new issue of his beloved journal hadn't come in yet and he was dying to get his hands on it. It was supposed to come by post in just another couple days. But otherwise, things were, well, on the brink of a huge change about to happen, but Josh didn't want to tell her that much. "How are you?"

19 Maximilian Joshua McLachlan Answering the call. 184 Maximilian Joshua McLachlan 0 5

Henny B-F-R

April 15, 2013 12:34 PM

How obliging of you by Henny B-F-R

Josh's answer was, predictably, vague and neutral. But at least it was also believable. He seemed to be himself, to her limited knowledge of how that looked, and was not telling her that things were going 'well enough' through gritted teeth or whilst sporting a hideous injury.

“It's going fine,” she smiled when he returned the question. She didn't have the stresses of CATS this year but had settled firmly into the intermediate class by now, not to mention the school as a whole. “Forth year's a pretty kind year.”

Although it was nice not to find Josh in the middle of a calamity, it was slightly conversationally limiting. It wasn't like they only talked about his current personal crises – in fact, they barely usually mentioned them, and then they'd managed to drift onto other topics. She passed the time of day with him when she saw him. She wasn't sure what to say right now though. The most obvious topic of the moment was the challenges but she wasn't really keen to dwell on the first one any more than necessary (and by 'necessary' she meant all the time she spent berating herself about it, as well as reliving being in the same room as a Chimera, when she had nothing else to think about). There was the upcoming ball but if she started talking about that, he might think she was hinting around for an invite, which would be embarrassing. Luckily, as Aladrens, there was always one safe and ready topic available to them before they reached the barrel scraper of the weather (even more desperate at Sonora where it never shifted from being mild and generally inoffensive to everyone).

“Anything in particular in there you're keen to try out?” she queried, nodding to the Potions book he'd mentioned.

13 Henny B-F-R How obliging of you 211 Henny B-F-R 0 5

Josh McLachlan

April 19, 2013 7:36 PM

I try. Sometimes. by Josh McLachlan

Josh had a skewed view of the fourth year. He had first transferred to Sonora then and hadn't exactly arrived as quietly as he had wanted. It had been really hard to settle in with such competitive roommates in a house where everyone was concerned with academics just as much as he was. The difficulty of the classwork had also taken him off-guard, but he had adjusted to that much quicker than the social norms. It had been different, coming to a totally new school after having left another horrible mess behind. Things had blown over since then and Josh even had a friend.

It was nice that Henny was checking in on him even if it was a few weeks too late. He didn't really know what else to talk about with her except potions. She had been the one who had asked him to talk to her about all the interesting potion theories he had read about and the hypotheses he wanted to try out.

Luckily, Henny went for it and he looked back down at his book. "I've tried most of them in class," he told her. "They're old theories that have already been accepted if not worldwide, then at least by most of the international wizarding community. It's just something to keep my brain occupied when I don't want to do any heavier reading." That sounded like he had things on his brain he didn't want to think of, and it was true. He just didn't want anyone asking him about it. "The journal's coming in in a couple days, though. I'm eager to get my hands on that."

That was about all he had to say about that without going into full detail about his current experiment. He didn't have the time or the patience to do several experiments at once, but at least he could spend an ample amount working to perfect his own hypothesis. He didn't want to fall into a blank, tense silence again even if he had nothing else to say. "Do you do any experiments yourself?" He wasn't as interested in experimenting with wandwork as he was with liquids, but he was always interested to hear of experiments no matter what form they were in.

0 Josh McLachlan I try. Sometimes. 0 Josh McLachlan 0 5

Henny B-F-R

April 26, 2013 11:09 AM

This seems like one of those times. by Henny B-F-R

She didn't need the presence of his comfort book to deduce that Josh's year so far had probably sucked. But it was possibly enough of an opening for her to try to talk to him about it. If she was brave enough. Bravery was not one of her defining characteristics. But then, nor was leaving someone to flounder when she thought they needed a friend. “I... I guess that means there's a lot on your mind. Which doesn't surprise me and... well, I know I probably don't strike you as someone to come to about it but... well, I'm a good listener and I don't blab other people's business. What I mean is, you can if you want to.” She hadn't managed to meet Josh's eyes very well through that and she was blushing furiously. She was aware that she probably sounded rather silly – Josh wasn't really one to open up and, at their ages, the age difference seemed huge. He probably thought of her as a little kid. But she'd wanted all year for him to know that, regardless of how odd a pair they made, she had his back. If needed or wanted.

“Um... no. Not really,” she admitted when he asked whether she experimented with anything. It made her feel kind of lame and boring to say as much, and was also a bit of a conversational dead end. “I do a literature course though. It's a correspondence one,” she added, keen to keep things going as well as show that she had some Aladren study credentials, even if they were less adventurous ones. “Most of the assignments are over the holidays, so that they don't clash with school work, but I get reading and study packs to do whilst I'm here. We've been doing Victorian Gothic, and Magic in Muggle Literature this term,” she added. “It's what I want to study when I leave, and it's such a shame that Sonora doesn't do it – though not many schools do, so it's not usually a prerequisite – so I figured I'd take matters into my own hands.

“Do they let you know what's coming in the next edition?” she asked, figuring that the publishers might have a rough idea of experiments that should be drawing to a close. “Anything you're particularly excited about?”

13 Henny B-F-R This seems like one of those times. 211 Henny B-F-R 0 5

Josh McLachlan

April 28, 2013 1:20 PM

Surprisingly so. by Josh McLachlan

As Henny fumbled with her words to come up with something that didn't seem too eager or too intrusive or too forward, Josh found himself amused. She wasn't looking at him and she was blushing. Merlin, it wasn't often girls acted like that in front of him. If he could count on his fingers all the girls who had fumbled with their words in front of him, he wouldn't have enough appendages. But it was usually in their attempt to impress him with their attempt at intelligent conversation. Such conversation had been very lacking at the New Zealand Academy even with Cecilia, but Josh hadn't minded it nearly as much as he would now.

It was rare that Josh would open up to anyone, but it was nice of Henny to offer. The cynical part of him nipped and tugged at his insides, trying to get him to see what Henny's real motivation was, but he ignored it. He had gotten much better at ignoring himself over the past few years. "Thanks," he said, wanting to show he meant it but not knowing how. She was much younger than him, but she still seemed genuinely interested in being there for him. Josh wasn't sure if he believed it or if Henny herself really believed it, but he could only speculate.

Henny admitted that she didn't experiment with anything and Josh thought the conversation was going to end there. He had nothing else to say, but she continued and caught his interest once more. He was more into chemistry and science than literature, but he liked books when they mattered. As an Aladren, Josh had half-expected her to be doing something extra with her class load here. Nearly every Aladren was doing something a little extra.

"That sounds interesting. Good for you," he said. "I haven't read much muggle literature myself." He tried to remember if Cecilia had ever recommended a muggle book to him, but that had been long ago. "Would you go to a university to continue studying literature?" he asked. He had thought of going to university himself, at least to keep his relatives at bay for at least another four years, but Allister had told him in flowery words that that wasn't an option.

Henny asked about the next edition and Josh had an answer ready immediately. "They don't usually tell what's next, but they did in the last issue. This one features the successful experiments of an up and coming potioneer, Alden Clutterbeck. He's put out several theories that have been accepted by the magical communities in Australia and New Zealand, but he's making his way to North America and the U.K. He theorizes mostly about the uses of different ingredients. He's the one who discovered the puffer fish's juices are actually useful. Dangerous to use, sure, but useful."

It was clear Josh was excited about this. He looked up to Alden Clutterbeck, though the famous potioneer was a little more reckless with his experiments than Josh was. Still, Clutterbeck had discovered his findings and had gotten his things published at the age of twenty-one. Josh still had a few more years to go, but he was still hoping to find something ground-breaking and do some real work after school instead of playing around with his cauldron and ingredients in the boys' dormitory.

"Sorry," he said, realizing he had been ranting it out at her. "I don't seem to have a filter when it comes to potions." He shook his head, trying to regain some of his self-control again. Potion-talk always loosened his tongue. He didn't want to talk about himself anymore. It was making him uncomfortable. "What sort of books do you like? Any favorites?"

0 Josh McLachlan Surprisingly so. 0 Josh McLachlan 0 5

Henny B-F-R

May 03, 2013 12:31 PM

It's a pleasant surprise by Henny B-F-R

Thanks. It was a simple word. And it carried no promise, nor really even any indication, that her offer would be followed up on. But it sounded sincere. He had heard what she'd said and he was thankful for it. That was enough to alleviate the tension and the slight embarrassment she'd felt, and she looked back up, giving Josh a small smile.

“Yes,” she nodded, when he asked if she'd study literature at university. “I can see myself spending the rest of my life there – y'know, one degree leads to another, then being a professor. I might just never leave! But I mean, I'd like to do all those things at different universities. Not just stay in the one building the rest of my life... How about you? You must looking to future stuff?” she asked, hoping this wasn't going to turn out to be one of those off-limits areas where Josh's life was horribly more complicated than most people's. He had brains. She thought he might have money. It should have been an unstoppable combination that opened up whatever doors he wanted. But she wasn't sure how tightly the people who controlled the purse-strings controlled what was done with the contents... She guessed that was the issue in coming from a big, important family; you could do whatever it was they wanted you to.

“Interesting,” Henny nodded, when Josh mentioned a particular inventive potioneer who was to be featured in the next issue of the journal. She remembered the experiments he mentioned as he had talked to her about them before, “I shall have to look him up. I always find it interesting how people can be... inventive like that. It's a different sort of brain to being clever.

“That's ok,” she reassured him, when he felt the need to apologise for getting too deeply into the subject. “I did ask. And I like in depth answers.

“Ah, you're probably risking as much of a ramble as I do in asking about Potions,” she laughed, when he asked her what her favourite book was. As a near-perminant resident of the library, founder of the book club and voluntary literature course student, it was a question she was somewhat used to fielding, and one to which she had devoted some time in trying to come up with a concise, but informative, answer to. “It varies... I mean, I have a few firm favourites that I can remember from my childhood but they're not always the best things I've read. At the moment, I'm working my through most of Hector Pinequill. He was a Victorian writer who wrote lots of satirical pieces on certain segments of society. Some of his comments are... surprisngly relevant today,” she said, choosing her words carefully but with a little glint in her eye. She was quite sure that Josh would understand her meaning, and that she was safe in him doing so. Although he came from the kind of family that Pinequill's work poked fun at, he didn't stick to the code of behaviour that warranted that approach. Very few people at Sonora did, at least not very rigidly. But those codes of conduct were still entrenched enough that she found the works amusing.

13 Henny B-F-R It's a pleasant surprise 211 Henny B-F-R 0 5