Haunted School
February 15, 2013 8:13 AM
Part 1 by Haunted School
The Haunted School began in the DADA classroom, a place many of the students should have been familiar with. It looked the same as it always did, only with more ghosts peeking in than usual. One each group of students entered the classroom, they would see that there was a large arrow pointing straight forward from the doorway. Though there was no visible disturbance to the classroom, once one got closer to the professor’s desk, a boggart would come around from behind, it already in the shape of the closest person’s greatest fear. It was only after one encountered the boggart that a soft, painful-sounding moan would begin. The moaning would get louder and louder until it reached a banshee-like screeching the longer the group took to identify the boggart and overcome it, preferably by using the traditional spell, but any other way of successfully subduing the creature would bring about the same result.Once the boggart was dealt with, the moaning screeches would stop and a large piece of parchment would appear on the professor’s desk. The parchment was black and the note was written in crimson ink. It read:
Nor the reflections you see,
But continue on this frightful trend,
And move to the library.
Several seconds after the parchment note had appeared, allowing time for it to be read either aloud or by each member of the group, the classroom door would creak open again of its own accord and there would be a great screech to usher the students out if they did not move fast enough. The note could be discarded; with each group, the room would reset itself ready for the next, and there would be another note appearing on the desk after their respective boggart was conquered.
Subthreads: Getting things started for Team Four by Thaddeus Pierce with Henry Carey, Francesca Wolseithcrafte, David Wilkes
Snakes on the Plains by Charlie B-F-R (Team 8) with Theresa Carey, Marcus Williams
Team 18 pep and doom by Derry Four with Brianna Japos, Anthony Carey
Team Two! by Eliza Bennett with Sullivan Quincy, Jhonice Trevear, Carter Browning, Sully
Team Seventeen Here by Keme RunningBear with Adam Spencer, Malcolm Carey, Arthur Carey
Team Seven? by William Casey with Alicia Bauer, Hope Brockert
Team one, part one, post one... by Henny B-F-R with Sara Raines, Alex Devereux, Fae Sinclair
Team Fifteen, Follow Me Please! by Regina Parker with Effie Arbon, Waverly Canterbury, Isabel Raines
Calling Team Fourteen. by Cepheus Princeton with The Anns, Gareth Whitebriar, Preston Stratford, Cepheus
Team Five by Ryan O'Malley with Angel Jareau, Sally Manger, Lucrezia Renaldi, Jude Butler
Team Nine here! by Arnold Carey with Clara Abernathy, Aubrielle Thornton, Rupert Princeton
Facing my fears with Team Three. by Kate Bauer with Wendy Canterbury, Jade Owen, Jorge Garcia
Ready Team 12? by Arista Thornton with Jay Carey, Addison Thornton
Team 19 - Guess someone should get the ball rolling by Michael Grosvenor with Mellie Goodwin, Abigail Thornton
(Team 20) Getting started. by Valerie Lennox with Virginia Bellrose, McKinley Andrews, Crotalus
Team Sweet Sixteen! by Josephine Owen
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Haunted School
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Ryan O'Malley
February 19, 2013 1:32 AM
Team Five by Ryan O'Malley
Ryan was a little anxious for the first challenge. His team had to do well. If they didn't, nobody would like or respect him. The Headmistress might hate him too, given her son was on the team and he was sure that she wanted her kids to win, just like Uncle Seth was probably secretly rooting for him and Arabella and Amity. And one of the last things that Ryan wanted was for the most powerful person in the whole school to hate him. She had the power to make the rest of his time here absolutely miserable.Plus, Ryan felt he had a lot to prove. He'd lost Head Boy, which really wasn't all that surprising. Still, he felt inadequate. Though he usually felt that way, so maybe it didn't make much difference. It was just that the Crotalus wanted to feel good about himself for once and it just never happened. He sort of doubted it ever would, thanks to his mother and sister. Years of that was just hard to magically overcome.
But he had to pull himself together and put on the confident brave leader face. Of course, Ryan really had never worn such a face before. The confident part was nearly impossible. The Crotalus did not have Amity and Chaslyn's training in acting and he had a very hard time lying to people, he was rather afraid to. He was terrified that he was going to be a miserable failure as a leader, and let the team down. The person in "charge" was most likely to take the fall if things went wrong. Unless they shifted the blame on to someone else but Ryan just couldn't do something like that. He didn't think it was right.
And now he probably had to give some pep talk. Something to be encouraging. The thing was, Ryan really had no idea how to do that. What would inspire them to well, maybe not victory as there were twenty teams and this one included him, but to at least do their best and not come in dead last. It would be particularly nice to beat Carrie's team. Just so she couldn't rub his face in it that he was inferior to her. Just so she couldn't say all the things that hurt him, the ones that echoed their mother. Or at least not give her more material.
Maybe that would inspire people! As far as Ryan could tell, everyone hated the younger Crotalus. Surely at the very least Sally and Lucrezia would want to knock her down a few pegs. Of course, the seventh year wasn't sure how to do that without it sounding weird. He should be rallying them to try their best against all teams, not just target one. Though Ryan wouldn't put it past Carrie to target beating his team-and probably Arabella's-specifically. Even though she'd probably attempt to make her teammates do all the work.
He stood outside the DADA room, waiting with his team for their turn and trying to think of what to say. And hoping that the task would not involve flying. Lucrezia said she was good at it and Sally...hadn't said she was bad at it. It was just weird that the two proper pureblood girls were the ones who'd have to do the flying. And Ryan didn't just crash into things on a broom, he couldn't get the bloody thing to get up into his hand!
The Crotalus took a deep breath. Right, inspirational. Encouraging. That might be a more difficult task than the one that the staff had planned. He could add that to the list of things he wasn't good at. "Um, okay, we can do this. We might not take it all, because there are so many teams." Some of which were down a person and at a disadvantage that way. And Amity seemed to think two of her teammates were absolutely worthless. " We all have our strengths. Sally, you're brilliant and capable of just about anything. Being unemotional is actually a strength in this case. Angel, if you can master any spell you've seen on the first try, that's a real talent. Lucrezia, you're our flier." Really really weird saying that to the one who probably qualified as the most proper pureblood girl on the team-Sally was sort of just different from others-since they typically didn't like doing that.
Ryan continued. "Um, Rory...." What had she said she was good at again? Oh yes, researching, like Melanie. "I hope you've done the research on the different sort of creatures we could be challenged by and studied up on spells to use, especially given this first part of the task takes place in the DADA room. And Jude...well, we might have some mystery to solve. That could be really handy." Merlin would Ryan prefer, despite his doubts about his own intelligence, intellectual tasks to athletic ones, they had an exceedingly unatheletic team, minus Lucrezia's apparent flying abilities.
It was their turn now and Ryan led his team into the room the way he felt he as team leader should. He gazed around. The arrow pointing at the door seemed just a bit too obvious. "Okay, that has to be a trap guys. I wouldn't step on it. They wouldn't just put an arrow on the floor, have as walk through the room and open the door. That's not much of a challenge. I'm guessing the door is locked in a way where we can't use alohamora and we have to find the key somehow."
He made his way over to the professor's desk, which seemed as good a place to start as any. That's when Ryan heard the shrill voice from behind him, his eyes grew round and the color drained from his face as he turned to face the thing he feared most in the world-his mother. He knew it had to be a boggart, if his mother really showed up at school where he was, she'd go to prison. The problem was there was no way to make that woman seem funny. Well, Carrie thought she was, but that was it.
The worst part was not just hearing these things that he should have been numb to by now, but that everyone else was hearing them too. How would they ever respect someone who was afraid of his own mother, whose mother treated him in such a way? They'd never listen to him now.
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Team Five
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Angel Jareau
February 19, 2013 7:19 AM
... by Angel Jareau
Mild anxiety flitted though Angel’s bony chest as he weaved ghostlike through the milling students, looking for team Five. It didn’t take the albino long to find Ryan, who looked more nervous than Angel felt. For him, it was just a low grade buzz in the back of his mind, like a bee flying near by. Standing silently next to the older boy, Angel studied him out of the corner of one ruby eye, careful to keep his head dipped so his observation would go unnoticed.Even though Kiva and her family were alright with him looking at them, those early childhood lessons still held sway over the pale boy and he rarely made eye contact with anyone for longer than a brief second before dropping his gaze. Ryan looked like there might bee a whole swarm of bees buzzing around inside him.
Angel said nothing about the Captain’s obvious discomfort, opting instead to watch the rest of the milling students as they waited for their turn to enter the classroom. He was glad that the first challenge was inside, at least there was no risk of sunlight blinding him, or being forced to fly. Flying was a bit dangerous for the pureblood, his body didn’t take the vertigo well and it made him feel rather ill if he went any faster than a slow walking pace. He doubted that would be useful in a competitive setting.
“Angel, if you can master any spell you’ve seen on the first try, that’s a real talent.” Angel’s wandering attention returned to Ryan when he heard his name. Yes, the little quirk was a talent, and probably the only thing that had kept him from being kicked out of Sonora when he’d first started, barely literate, and hardly able to speak coherently. Those first years, the only thing that kept him from failing flat out was his wand work. All of his written work was a wash, but his perfect scores with the practical aspect had allowed him to just squeeze by.
It had taken years of extensive tutoring, but Angel was finally able to hold a solid A in most classes, though many of the written assignments still tended to drift down to a P. That was still better than the D’s and T’s is first and second year written work had earned him.
Angel’s thoughts were cut off when team five was called to enter the room. The albino boy drifted silently in Ryan’s wake, feeling the small ball of anxiety spike in a muffled way as they passed the threshold into the unknown. At first the room appeared to be empty, but Ryan quickly pointed out the arrow, and Angel was careful not to step on it.
The anxiety started to fade when all he could see where ghosts. Those weren’t harmful, and their white washed appearance made them feel almost kindred to his bleached existence. Angel could hardly see the wispy forms, their pale shades blended in too well with the black and white world he lived in. He was only able to notice them when they moved.
The hush of the room was shattered by a woman’s booming voice. Instantly Angel’s entire posture changed. That tone was one to be obeyed at all costs, and one who would never be satisfied no matter how hard he tried to behave. His bony shoulders drooped and his head dipped into the perfect submissive, appeasing posture, even though the woman’s ire had yet to fall on him.
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Sally Manger
February 19, 2013 4:37 PM
My thoughts exactly. by Sally Manger
To say that Sally was particularly enthusiastic for the challenges was not an entirely accurate statement. She was not excited, but she was impatient to perform. The tasks themselves would, she deduced, be likely fairly trivial, a few twists here and there to keep the participants on their toes. However, it would be an easily obtained practice of skills, at least. Moreover, competitiveness was not one of her characteristics, she was sure others were more interested to victory.Primarily, the brunette’s concern for the desire of others was mostly in regards to one individual. She sensed that winning this-or at least doing well-was important to Ryan, and if she was compelled by loyalty to anyone, it was him. Sally felt a certain connection to her step-brother, something beyond what she really understood. What she knew entirely well was fact, and the fact of the matter was that she wanted to do well for him.
He was really trying, too. Ryan was not a natural leader, obviously preferring to blend into the background where prospective negativity could be avoided, but he was thus far doing an excellent job. The meeting he organized and gone considerably well; Sally was certain that she now had enough knowledge of her teammates in order to better anticipate their performance.
After his little speech, he led the rest of the team in. The Aladren walked closely, beside him but not directly, leaving him enough space ahead to show his clear dominance over the team. The immediate eyesore of an arrow was, as he suggested, a hair too obvious for her taste. As Ryan explored near the desk, Sally examined a separate corner of the room.
An outraged voice broke her concentration, and she whipped around to see an occupant of the room that had not been there before. That woman… Sally knew who she was. What she did not know was how her presence was relevant or even possible. Quick-working mind deduced it was something else, though something perhaps equally dangerous. “Boggart!” she exclaimed.
If she was correct, she could stop the situation easily. Therefore, both to test the hypothesis and to protect her brother, the sixteen year old charged forward until she could physically place herself between Ryan and his mother. Instantly, the woman began to change, and a small smile occupied Sally’s lips: a boggart. So she was correct. That smile faded almost immediately, however, as she recognized her own boggart’s form, a reality she had not yet analyzed prior.
The space where Pearl O’Malley had once stood was now occupied by a cloaked figure. Thin fingers of bone curved around a scythe, and the bright whiteness of the fleshless hand contrasted greatly with the blackness of the rest of the being. It emitted no noise, though the shouts of Ryan’s biological mother still echoed through her head. The sudden silence had been almost more chilling than the figure himself.
Sally knew who he was: this was the metaphorical Grim Reaper, a symbol of death. Her greatest fear was dying, and it was because of the confusing haze that accompanied the end of one’s life. It was an unknown. Despite the heat of her blood inspired by a wave of fear, she mentally applauded the boggart’s artistry. Fortunately for her, the fear was not processed in her mind as the average person might, and while her body physically responded, inspiring fight-or-flight reflexes, she remained fairly calm emotionally. “Unemotional,” she commented, her voice wavering a bit more than she anticipated. “Let me stay closest to it.” The sixth year did not enjoy it, but she was the best candidate to occupy the boggart.
“I cannot produce a Patronus,” she added gravely. “Not enough… happiness?” Sally did not fully intend for a question’s inflection, but under the strain of repression-an involuntary, habitual response-she could not think of the correct word she wanted. In any case, she could not emotionally decide what memories were powerfully happy. A potent, joyous recollection was vital to the spell.
“Can anyone else? Angel? Ryan?” She aimed the question at them specifically because they were the eldests excluding herself. Sally was aware Ryan hailed from a fairly unhappy history, but perhaps he had something. As for Angel, she knew little about him, but beyond her and Ryan, he was their best chance. Still, she opened the question to the whole team, just in case. “Anyone?”
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Sally Manger
My thoughts exactly.
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Angel
February 19, 2013 10:12 PM
...um... by Angel
The furious voice was abruptly cut off. Her angry tirade was over, but in the silence a moan had begun, slowly growing louder as they confronted the creature. Already the noise was starting to hurt Angel’s ears, and he wished it would stop.A cautious glance up showed that the angry woman was gone, in her place a fleshless being stood. The skeletal being reminded Angel of himself. Like the albino, the bone man wore all black, creating a sharp contrast against the white. The pale boy wasn’t as emaciated as he’d once been, but his cheek bones still cut sharp lines into his face. The major difference between them was that the stranger held a large curving blade affixed to the end of a staff.
This being wasn’t as hard to endure as the woman. Though the weapon looked quite sharp, the one holding it stood in quiet stillness, its stance and posture was unthreatening and hooded as it was, there were no eyes to glare or condemn him. If it wasn’t for the annoying noise that was steadily building, Angel would have been content with the way things were.
But the sound grew, and Sally spoke. Angel’s head tilted to the side as he studied the creature her words identified. A boggart. Another near mellow spike of anxiety fluttered in Angel’s mind, not fear of the creature but a surprising nugget of memory that her words dislodged.
Not a Patronus like Sally, Angel’s talent had one flaw. He couldn’t cast spells that were reliant upon the caster’s emotional state. He wasn’t capable of producing a cheering charm, let alone something as potent as a Patronus. Emotions simply didn’t work for Angel the way they did for other people. His emotional scale was similar to his colorblindness. He had a few notes, but not the full range. Rage was unknown to the boy, as was love. Instead he lived mostly on an emotional flat line that had very shallow peaks and troths.
Had Angel been capable of performing the incantation, he would have done it, even though he knew it wasn’t the correct spell. The albino lived to appease those around him, and to contradict another went against his nature. But, the sound was growing louder, and he couldn’t cast the Patronus.
“Not…not patronus. Riddikulus for boggarts.” Angel murmured, his voice hardly carrying over the noise in the room. Again his poster was that of someone expecting to be targeted, head down, shoulders hunched as he waited for the furious tongue lashing that was sure to follow the contradiction. The only reason he’d remembered the incantation was the fact that he’d had to rewrite the paper he wrote on dark creatures eight times. Last year he’d wanted to only turn in work that he hadn’t scratched words out on, the goal was a worthy one, but inevitably doomed to failure.
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...um...
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Lucrezia Renaldi
February 22, 2013 8:49 PM
Eep! by Lucrezia Renaldi
Lucrezia had been bouncing off the walls since the second she had woken up today. It was the day of the first challenge, and the little Italian was eager to see what the staff members had in store for them. The third-year was well aware that in terms of knowledge she had little to contribute to the team due to her small age. She knew things, but there were very basic knowledge. So, the Crotalus was going to cling to the upper years to get through the challenge. Lucrezia was going to help in the things she could, but other than that she was in for the ride of her life. The most important thing for her was having fun and making loads of new friends, which was something she was quite sure she was already doing.The smile that grazed her olive skin as she joined her team was bright enough to light up a room. Lucrezia was really easy to read through her expressions. She let her emotions take the best of her most of the time, especially around Carrie. She couldn’t stand the insufferable prat. Thankfully, her brother had turned out pretty decent, and the Crotalus had started to harbor sympathy for him, after all, he lived with her and shared genes. That had to be horrifying. So, the little Italian actually liked Ryan. He was cool and cute. She smiled up at him during his speech and stood next him to him. Having an older male nearby made her feel somewhat safer about what was going to come.
Lucrezia felt like lighting had replaced her blood. The adrenaline pumping through her system was enough to make her want to run around the school a couple of times or squeal endlessly. Her enthusiasm was taking control over her and it was obvious due to her fidgeting. What were they going to encounter in there? The team inside needed to get it going!
It was finally their turn! She squealed quite loudly and followed Ryan closely. Her eyes were looking around the room in awe. She was so absorbed by her surroundings that she missed instructions or something, but suddenly the only thing she could focus on was screams and insults. She took a step back and let the older students take care of whatever was haunting the place. The upperclassmen didn’t know what was happening, and Lucrezia was now scared. She didn’t want to face whatever horror lay ahead! If Sally and Ryan couldn’t handle it, then she definitely didn’t have an idea of what to do.
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Lucrezia Renaldi
Eep!
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Ryan
February 24, 2013 3:44 PM
Just remain calm. by Ryan
The Crotalus sighed with relief. She was gone. His sister had saved him and he shot her a grateful look. He couldn't handle his boggart at all and had been starting to feel rather panicky. Not to mention the humiliation he'd felt. Sally knew all about the cause of it all, how horrible his real mother was to him. It was why he could barely handle Carrie and tried to avoid her, because everything she said to him was something his mother had said, and it triggered all his past hurts.Now, unfortunately, his sister was in the line of fire. She was an unemotional person, which while she had listed as a weakness, he viewed as a strength in a lot of things. Ryan, being a guy and a pureblood, did his best to hide his own emotions in public, but he felt them strongly and they hurt. That was why it was so embarrassing to be unable to control them in the face of his worst fear.
Not that he didn't feel justified in it. His biological mother was a horrible person. While Ryan still didn't think much of himself, still had low self-esteem, still had years and years of what she'd said to him echoing in his head over and over at times, he had come to realize how terribly cruel that she and Carrie were. The fact that his aunts and uncles and grandfather hated her, their own sister and daughter, spoke badly of her and his biological sister was infamous around Sonora to the point where she had gotten Worst Enemies in the yearbook, not specifically with him or Arabella or Lucrezia, but with everybody . It just added to Ryan's shame and embarrassment. He was afraid of judgement for not only his many flaws, but for being related to her too. The Crotalus was convinced people hated him because of her.
In her panic at seeing her worst fear, Sally's thinking had apparently gotten a little confused. He didn't hear what Angel said, the other boy seemed to never speak that loud and there was this awful sound filling the room. However, Ryan knew what his sister was supposed to do. "Sally, you don't need to worry about casting a patronous, just making death seem funny." He didn't quite know how to do that and he turned to the rest of the team "Does anyone have any suggestions for that? Or does one of you have a boggart that can be made funny?" He knew the two first years wouldn't be able to cast the spell, they hadn't learned it yet as it was an intermediate level spell but just like with Sally, they could all give suggestions.
It probably would have also been useful if he tried teaching the two first years the spell. Lucrezia might need a refresher against a boggart too, he wasn't quite so sure about third years. Still, Ryan wouldn't want to insult her by making it sound like he doubted her. He felt they got along fairly well and that she didn't hate him because of his biological sister. So he figured she could listen along if she needed to. Instead he addressed the two first years. "Okay, Jude, Rory, I'm going to show you guys the spell to defeat boggarts." The seventh year demonstrated the wand motion and said " Riddikulus ." Ryan continued. "While you do that, you concentrate on a way to make your worst fear funny. That's what a boggart does, it manifests itself as what you fear most." He added mostly for Jude's benefit, as he knew she was muggleborn and probably didn't know about the dark creatures that inhabited the magical world.
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Just remain calm.
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Jude Butler
February 24, 2013 8:39 PM
The right post (please delete the other one!) by Jude Butler
Jude was worried, terrified, in fact. Especially since she was the worst in her group, and she knew it. Even the other first year, Rory, knew much more than she did. Jude felt like she was in the dark with everything and she feared being the reason her team lost almost as much as what had happened at the fire when she was younger…Walking up to the DADA classroom, the first year saw Ryan and went right over to him. She didn’t really want to be alone, she was so nervous and scared that she was shaking just a little bit. She gravitated to the seventh year and stood next to him. He started his inspirational speech, saying their strengths again, with which she was excited a little bit that he remembered what each of them said. Jude looked up to the boy and was glad to have met him. Their team was called and Ryan led them into the room. There were ghosts all around them and an arrow on the floor. “I won’t step on it…” she said softly to Ryan, as she followed behind him and the others.
“Find the key…” Jude repeated softly. “What if there’s some spell or something we have to figure out how to get rid of-” she started, as the group walked across the room. A shrill voice, loud and clear, made Ryan’s face white as a sheet. Then the moaning started and Angel’s posture changed dramatically. Jude watched as his shoulders drooped and head dipped down to the floor.
Sally, from another corner of the room exclaimed that it was a Boggart. Jude was confused and scared now. She didn’t know what a Boggart was, but she surely didn’t like it! Sally rushed between Ryan and the woman and suddenly the woman wasn’t a woman anymore, it was a cloaked figure, thin and bony fingers, a scary scythe in its hand and suddenly it hit her. The Grim Reaper… She shivered some more and just stared at it. It was scary, and she wanted to run, but she couldn’t remove her eyes from it. When Sally said they should let her stay closest to it, Jude wasn’t going to say no to that…
“A patronus? Happiness? Wait- I…” she started as Sally asked Ryan and Angel if they could before asking the rest of the team too. “Patronus? Riddikulus?” Jude had no idea what those things were, but she was sure she was about to find out. “How can anyone make death funny?” she said, thinking of Grandma Carol and the house fire again.
“So, a boggart is a person’s worst fear? And to get rid of it you have to make it funny?” Jude asked, her mind racing, idea planted in her mind. “Let me in front of it.” she said, after Ryan showed them what to do. She was nervous and scared, but she wanted to show her team that she wanted to try, at the very least.
Jude stepped up, head held high, in front of Sally and the Grim Reaper and the hooded creature turned into a great big ball of flames. She shivered, but held her wand out right in front of her. “Rid-!” she started, copying Ryan’s wand movements. But she never finished the word. The flames were so hot in front of her, she started to sweat. Her clothes started to stick to her and her eyes began to fill up with tears. The memories of that day flooded back into her mind and she shivered as the tears fell hard and fast.
“I- I-” she sobbed.
I can’t do this… I don’t belong here… she thought as she dropped down to the ground, still sobbing.
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Jude Butler
The right post (please delete the other one!)
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Sally
February 24, 2013 9:48 PM
Followed subsequently by the correct result by Sally
Drat it all! Apparently the anxiety of her boggart had taken a greater toll on her mental condition than Sally realized, since she had confused boggarts and dementors, calling for a patronus like a fool. She was a smart girl, and she hated appearing anything less. It was not necessarily that she cared about others’ opinions of her, but her intelligence was something on which she prided herself. She wanted it presented accurately.Ryan demonstrated the proper spell—Riddikulus, to make the boggart humorous—to their teammates, just for their personal knowledge. Obviously he had not expected Jude to step boldly forward. Sally skeptically watched the first year walk in front of her; certainly this would not end well. Did Jude really expect it to work? Maybe she had taken the eldest girl’s advice in not counting herself out for the sake of blood status, but this was definitely not what she had meant. Boggarts were higher level than any eleven year old could master.
The Grim Reaper contorted into a ball of flames, and the brunette could feel its heat from where she stood. Jude must have been baking, as close as she was. The young girl tried the spell, but her voice seemed to catch in her throat, and the incantation halted. Then she cried. That’s productive, Sally commented silently. With a glance to Ryan, inviting him to share her cynicism, she strolled into the heat, perspiration dotting her pale skin until suddenly the fire was gone.
Once again, the cloaked figure occupied its space, and where there was blistering heat now held sinister cold. The fifteen year old shivered and noted that in order to compensate for Jude’s proximity, she had to position herself far closer to the Grim Reaper than she would have liked. “Some people must have missed when I said it the first time,” Sally announced loudly, gazing over her shoulder, back to her team. “Let me stand nearest to the boggart.”
“Funny. Make it funny,” she pondered quietly to herself, redirecting her grey-brown eyes to Death himself. For a brief second she called over her shoulder once more: “Clowns are humorous, correct?” Without really waiting for an answer, deft fingers drew her wand, and she concentrated. The wittiest clown I can think of…
“Riddikulus!” The Aladren was potent. Magically, it was likely she fell on the above average side, as far as natural power went. It had to be genetic, and her mother was perhaps the strongest magical being Sally had ever met. Therefore, it was not altogether surprising when her spell succeeded.
For a moment, Sally admired her handiwork; the Grim Reaper had turned into a clown, but this clown was special. His outfit favored a blue and yellow color scheme, and the bright red nose added to the look. The facial features aside from the nose, however, were what inspired an audible chuckle from the characteristically serious girl. “That’s a good look for you, Father,” she cheekily noted.
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Followed subsequently by the correct result
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Angel
February 24, 2013 10:50 PM
done? by Angel
Some of the tension drained out of Angel when his quiet words weren’t met with an angry retort. His soft ruby gaze shifted to Ryan as the upper classman demonstrated the correct wand movements and incantation. Before he could step forward to use the spell, one of the little first years rushed ahead. Instantly, the skeletal man vanished into a roaring ball of fire. Angel gave a soft hiss of pain, his eyes narrowing to slits as the sudden explosion of light blinded him.Heat rolled off the fire in sullen waves, and Angel moved further back to escape the uncomfortable sensation. The first year’s attempt failed, and she began weeping. Sally moved forward again, which brought back the skeleton. Angel stood silently waiting for his eyes to adjust while the girl dealt with the fear inspired creature. After she casted the spell, it turned into an oddly dressed man. He stared at the new shape for a bit, but didn’t see anything particularly funny about the image.
He gave an indifferent shrug when the boggart vanished back into its drawer. Thankfully, the awful noise stopped when it was defeated and a slip of parchment appeared on the desk. Moving forward in his usual silence, Angel picked up the sheet, and without reading it handed it off to the closest team member. Reading wasn’t his strong suite, and reading out loud was even worse. Once the note was passed off he turned his attention to the crying girl. Kneeling, he reached out and ran his fingertips lightly though her hair. “Good now. Sally make boggart go. Good?” He asked in his awkward way.
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done?
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Jude
February 24, 2013 11:41 PM
I'll never do this right... never... by Jude
Jude had tried very hard to get the whole word out, but the flames had stopped her words from coming. The smoke she remembered from the house fire came in one big puff into her mouth. From tears to coughing, back to sobbing tears again. I shouldn’t have done it, I shouldn’t have tried… I’m nothing… I’m- she thought as Sally stepped back in front of her again and the horrible flames turned back into the Grim Reaper.The temperature change in the room made Jude shiver from upset, anger and freezing cold… Her arms had goosebumps, and the sweat on her face made her even colder as Sally spoke again saying that some people must have missed what she’d said about staying closer to the boggart. Jude felt like a failure. All she’d been doing was trying to help her team. She was trying to show Ryan that she was listening to him and that she believed in him and in their team. It hadn’t worked, it had only made things worse…
Sally kept talking about clowns and magically the Grim Reaper became a funny clown-like thing. Jude tried to hold back the tears that wanted to fall, but what Sally had said hurt. She had been only trying to help, and all she’d done was ruin it all. Now surely, the whole school will know that she didn’t belong there. I wish I’d have stayed home… she thought to herself as she sobbed into her hands.
I feel so alone, want home, want Mommy and Luca. I don’t feel right here and it just isn’t working… she thought, and jumped when she felt fingertips running through her hair. Jude opened her eyes and saw Angel kneeling beside her. He spoke in his odd manner and she knew that he was trying to be empathetic to her and that he was trying to be like an older brother type thing.
“Maybe… yes…” she said, with a small hiccup. “But I tried… Really, I did. But I just ruined it. I ruined all of it, and now everyone must hate me…”
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Jude
I'll never do this right... never...
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Jude
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Angel
February 25, 2013 11:56 AM
…still new… by Angel
Angle sat cross-legged next to the upset girl, his pale fingers continued to lightly brush her hair in an attempt to offer comfort. The albino didn’t quite look at her, instead focusing more on the ground, but his ruby gaze continued to flick up to her face before dropping again as he tried to gage the effectiveness of his words. It didn’t take long to see that his first attempt failed.Living with Kiva’s family had taught Angel a lot about younger children, and coping with their upsets. Usually it was skinned knees or not sharing, but the crying was the same. He’d gotten into the habit of petting their hair while he helped them work out whatever little problem had them upset. Before living with Kiva, Angel probably would have walked past the girl without offering aid, not out of cruelty but simply out of a lack of understanding what needed to be done.
Again his eyes rose to her face before dropping. “I do not hate. You are…small, not big like Sally. Sally is smart, many smart than me, she do not hate me too. She do not hate you.” His eyes dropped further. Speaking in longer sentences showed his ineptitude with the language more obvious than when he kept his words short, but he wanted her to feel better and that required more words to explain. “You learn. When you are big, you know. Still little now, not know. See?” He asked as he stroked her hair, hoping that he was able to get his message across broken bridge of language.
His speech had improved significantly compared to when he was a first year, at least now he was able to more or less form sentences, instead of offering up a jumbled handful of barely connected words. But he knew that he still had a long way to go to match the rest of the students, so he rarely spoke unless it was necessary to do so.
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Angel
…still new…
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Angel
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Jude
February 25, 2013 6:17 PM
Definitely still new... by Jude
Jude looked up at Angel and noticed that he was sitting cross-legged. His hands still brushed through her hair, and for some reason she felt like it fit. She actually liked how it felt, how he was trying to help her to feel better both about herself and in general. He didn’t really look at her, but she’d noticed in their last meeting that he barely looked at anyone, not really, anyway. At first it hadn’t worked, what he was trying to do. But then when he spoke again, telling her that he didn’t hate her, that she just hadn’t learned yet what she could do, she smiled at him.Jude looked at him and whispered so that only he can hear, “Are you sure that Sally doesn’t hate me? It sort of felt like that with what she said, and I was only just trying to help…” The first year looked down at the floor, then back up at him when he told her that she’ll learn, that she’s still little now, but when she was big she’d know.
Angel kept stroking her hair and she smiled at him. “I see now… Thank you Angel…” she said softly to him, again, so only he could hear her. “I really appreciate it… Really, I do. If there’s ever anything I can do for you, just ask… Okay?”
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Jude
Definitely still new...
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Jude
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Angel
February 26, 2013 3:58 PM
yes by Angel
Angel tilted his head slightly and glanced at her though his bangs. “Sally not hate you. Sally is…” The pause lengthened as he tried to put thoughts into words and found the task difficult. “Sally is…book. Not people.” He gave a soft huff, the words sounded better in his mind, but spoken it wasn’t right. Angel’s ruby eyes darted over to Sally before dropping again. “She good in class, smart, good at doing work. Maybe…not so good at lunch, and talk with people?” He offered hesitantly.The smile she offered caused Angel to give a soft hum of approval in place of his own smile. “Can help check homework sometimes if you can. I am not good with writing, like talking.” He admitted, a soft flush touched his cheeks at the admittance. Even though Jude was only a first year, she’d still be able to help him construct sentences properly, not to mention catch his numerous spelling errors.
Standing up, Angel brushed his robes out so they fell smoothly down his legs before offering his pale hand to Jude to help her up. “Good?” This challenge hadn’t been too bad, and it gave Angel hope for the future challenges. Sally and Ryan were both more advanced, and he could help by taking care of the first years if things got too bad. If nothing else, he knew several good shield charms and he could keep them behind him while the others took care of the problem. “It good to try, but need to be careful too. I not want you to get hurt. Yes?”
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Angel
yes
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Angel
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Jude
February 26, 2013 9:53 PM
Shield me... by Jude
Angel tilted his head and told her that Sally didn’t hate her. That Sally was a book, which Jude took to mean that Sally was book smart, and not so people smart when it came to dealing with people. “I-” she started, she wanted to try to tell him that she’d understood, when he went on. Jude smiled at him. “I knew what you meant.” she said softly. There was something about him that helped her feel better. In a way he sort of reminded her of Dane, her older brother. Dane was sort of eclectic with what he liked. He liked to keep his brown hair long and straight and was often found dressed in a pair of jeans, a pair of Vans (laces untied, but tucked into his shoes), and a striped polo shirt with the collar standing straight up. He also most often found with his scooter handles in his hand, gliding wherever he wanted to be.She’d always thought of Dane as sort of magical (before she learned that she was just that), and she looked up to him for being able to be himself in the face of what others thought. Jude always wanted to be herself, the problem was, at eleven she wasn’t even really sure who that was just yet. She hoped that she’d learn that there at school.
Angel hummed softly at her smile and then told her that she could help by checking over his homework for him. “I’d be glad to!” she told him. “Anything you need, I’m there.” she said to him, hoping to relieve his almost obvious nervousness at telling her that. Angel stood up and brushed off his robes before offering his hand to help her up.
“Good.” she repeated to him. There wasn’t anything else that needed to be said other than repeating his singular word. “I don’t want to get hurt either… I’ll try harder, and I’ll let Ryan and Sally do it all from now on. I don’t want to ruin anything, or hurt anyone…” she said to him as she stood up with his help, wiping off her remaining teardrops with her arm.
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Jude
Shield me...
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Jude
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Ryan
March 01, 2013 8:09 PM
Going on by Ryan
Jude had apparently decided to give the boggart a shot, which was surprising because Ryan really didn't think she had much confidence, especially in her own magical abilities. Yet, she charged ahead and the Crotalus was a little confused, but not too much when she wasn't able to defeat it. She was a first year. It was an Intermediate level spell and honestly, fire wasn't something that could easily made funny even though it wasn't much of a threat to older wizards and witches who knew how to cast a Flame Freeze charm. Jude apparently didn't know this and dropped to the ground crying. Ryan wanted to go and comfort her, tell her not to be scared, but he neither wanted to feel the heat of the fireball nor have it turn back into his mother. He felt a bit selfish for that but he honestly couldn't handle that woman.Sally, however, stepped closer than Jude was and it turned back into the Grim Reaper. She seemed a bit perturbed as she reminded them that she was to stay closest to the boggart. Ryan did not see this as his sister having to be the hero. She was simply the person best equipped to deal with it. The Aladren was the oldest one here aside from himself and he obviously couldn't handle a boggart at all.
It made him feel a bit useless, honestly. At least in this area but that wasn't Sally's fault and he didn't feel that she'd shown him up in the least. If it was anyone's fault it was his mother's. The result of all that she'd done to him, the way she'd treated him. The insults, the blame for things he didn't do or even know had been done. The years of eating by himself off of chipped plates because his mother didn't want him at the same table or want him to eat off her good dishes. And, of course, she only had good dishes. Nothing but the best for her and Carrie. There was the sitting in his room pretending he wasn't there while his biological sister had lavish parties, which Arabella had once cynically pointed out that other children had only attended because they wanted to go on all the rides and fancy stuff and their parents didn't want to offend a Brockert.
Sally's boggart turned into a clown and this was when Ryan smirked. He knew who Ross Manger was and what he looked like. The seventh year hated the man who'd basically taken away his siblings and hurt his stepmother. Who'd hurt her as badly as his real mother had hurt him. Nor had Ryan not liked not seeing Sally or the boys at all and only seeing Peyton sometimes, when Carrie was with their mother and he could go to Uncle Seth and Aunt Lilac's. He missed his brothers and baby sister terribly and that man was the reason. "Good job." The Crotalus told Sally.
The horrid moaning screeching sound stopped and Ryan picked up the note that appeared on the desk, reading it aloud so they could all hear. "I guess we're going to the library next." He wasn't sure what was coming next, possibly combatting books. He knew there were ones out there that scratched and bit among other things. Maybe it would be a scavenger hunt to find the answers to a series of questions within books. Which would probably take an awful lot of time. Ryan wasn't sure what it meant not to trust the looks of friends though. Maybe they'd have an army of shape shifters pretending to be the friends of the people on the team that were there to lead people down the wrong path.
He gave Jude a moment to collect herself and be comforted by Angel. Ryan was really pleased with the Teppenpaw for doing so. It was showing good teamwork, using a strength to help out someone's weakness. It was what being a team was about. However, the screeching started again and the seventh year spoke. "Okay, everyone, let's get out of here and into the library." He lead the way out the door.
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Ryan
Going on
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Ryan
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