Head of House Speech on Aladren Commons

Grayson Wright

October 21, 2020 1:03 PM

Head of House Speech by Grayson Wright

By the end of the Feast, Professor Wright was quite ready to seek his own room, where he could ignore the already-growing piles of official work he needed to get through in favor of more interesting work in the growing piles of notebooks and scrap papers accumulating on the other side of his desk. Before he could get on with that, though, he had a speech to give. He gathered the new Aladrens together, smiling mildly at them, hoping this came across as welcoming and reassuring and not just odd. He always felt odd smiling too much, but nobody else had ever really said anything about it, so maybe it was all right.

"Hello again," he greeted them. "If you'll follow me, I'll take you to Aladren."

He led them back out of the Cascade Hall and along the corridor, pausing for a respectful nod to the portrait of Tavarius Mims, who already had his ledgers ready to record the new year's points for the four Houses. "The new Aladrens, Professor," he informed the portrait. "I hope they'll give you many more reasons to add points than they do to detract them from our ledger." He refrained from much other comment, aware that Mims was a staunch Crotalus supporter and not wanting to alarm anyone who would be too prone to wild speculation based on the personality of a portrait.

"Professor Mims," he told the students after bidding the portrait farewell. "He taught Arithmancy here a long time ago - that's the study of numbers in magic - and someone painted a portrait of him. When wizards do that, the portraits can be enchanted to keep something of the personality of the subject. Professor Mims keeps track of House points in his books; as far as I know he can't alter them of his own accord, but it's always best to be polite to him anyway.."

As they proceeded deeper into the school, he greeted other portraits as well, introducing the new students as a group - "this year's new Aladrens" - and telling the students who those portraits' occupants were, as the oil-and-canvas memories of witches and wizards of the past could be very helpful to new students learning the layout of the school. Finally, though, he stopped outside a pair of doors leading into a room he had pointed out on the main tour, a room he expected most of them would remember.

"As I told you earlier," he said, "these are the doors to Sonora's library. What I did not mention when we were with all the others is that the entrance to the Aladren dormitories is concealed inside the library. Be careful not to let members of other Houses see you coming and going," he advised, mainly as a formality. He doubted many people who wanted to know went more than a few weeks without figuring out where the other Houses were, but there was the form of things to be observed. Tradition, honor, excellence and all that. Besides, it was a good challenge for the nosy to try to find the other Houses without getting caught looking for them, or else a good way to break them from being so nosy. "Follow me a bit further now...."

Luckily, the way to the entrance did not take any particularly advanced knack for navigation: if the students kept going long enough in a straight line from the front, they would eventually reach the very back wall, which was where the door was hidden. He had made one specific trek through the stacks thousands of times, though - it was the same one he had favored when he was a student - and so reached the correct place on the wall with almost no effort, pointing to a very worn book which nevertheless was still clearly labelled Birds of Prey.

"Here is the doorknob, for lack of a better word," he told them. "To enter the common room, just take this book in your hand and pull, and - " he demonstrated, and a whole section of wall slid away, revealing an entranceway. "Then you can gain access to our common room."

The shelf slid back into place behind them as they entered a spacious room decorated primarily in blue and black. The room was dotted with sets of tables and chairs, a few sofas, and bookshelves on several walls. He had looked over the shelves when he took over as Head of House and had made a few additions, so the common room library covered a variety of interests students might have - subjects related to magic, yes, but also other subjects, including history and literature and Muggle math and science. He had also decided to have several periodicals delivered to the common room for general use. The first issues of these, along with hodgepodges from earlier deliveries and his own, older collection of such things, were on a few stands around the room. He led the new kids to the rug in front of the hearth and waved for them to take seats in the immediate area. Since he was not exactly declaiming to a vast crowd here, he took an armchair himself so he was more or less on their level instead of looming over them from the rug.

"Once again, welcome to Aladren," he said. "As your Head of House and an alumnus of this House, I hope you will all come to see Aladren as a second home. This is our common room - where you can sit, meet with others in our House, do your homework, play some chess - whatever you want, within reason. If we continue thinking of this as a home, the common room is like your living room, with a few extra details since this is a school - that bulletin board, for instance." At least, his parents had never put up bulletin boards in their house; perhaps some did. "The bulletin board's useful if you want to find a study partner or start a group. You'll also see the sign-ups for clubs and teams and announcements about school events there. If you want to start a club or post anything else for other Houses to see, just let me know and I'll work it out with the other Heads of Houses so they can post it on their bulletin boards too.

"My office is through that door over there," he said, pointing to a door set into one wall. "There's an outside entrance from the corridor around the bend, too, if you're with someone from another House or just already passing that way." By which he really meant if you'd rather not advertise to everyone in the common room that you want a word with me; he assumed that would be obvious enough without an explicit statement even with first years. "If you have any questions about the school or any other concerns, you're welcome to come talk to me - as Head of House, I'm here to be your default adult to contact, and to act as the middleman between you and the administration, when that's needed," he explained. "However, any professor would be happy to help you if you prefer, or if I'm not available, and our House prefects are also here to help you. You can recognize them by their badges. Their names are Heinrich Hexenmeister and Ness McLeod and, since earlier at the Feast, Sophia Priory, be sure to congratulate her if you see her.

"The dorms are through that door over there." He pointed. "When you get in, you'll see there's a hallway that goes two ways. Dorms for girls are down the hall to your right, and dorms for boys are down the hall to your left." He didn't know of any special situations in this year's class, but he chose to use the form of words he had developed for a student in a previous year just in case. "You can only walk down the hallway that your room is located on. If you walk down the other one, you'll fall through the floor and end up back in the common room. They tell me it's not a very soft landing, so I'd recommend you don't do that," he said matter-of-factly. "Your room has your year number - this year, that's a 1 - on it, so it should be easy to find. The second years will be in all your classes as well as being your neighbors, so I'd recommend being good neighbors," he added.

"That's a lot of information, I know, so you'll probably be glad to hear that's the end of this speech," he said. If you have any questions, please feel free to ask them. If you don't have any questions, though, then meeting adjourned - you can look around the common room, or go check out the dorms. Your trunks will already be in the correct rooms."

OOC: OOC: Welcome to Aladren! You can now post your character on any of the boards, though they do not have access to other common rooms outside of HoH offices. You can also continue your conversations at the Feast and at Orientation thanks to the magic of what we call "fuzzy time" - as long as two threads are supposed to happen at different times in character, you can write them at the same time as an author. If you have any questions, just ask in Chatzy or on the OOC board. Have fun!

Subthreads:

Hello Roommates! by Rosalynn Tellerman with Lorena Abernathy, Isla Brockert

16 Grayson Wright Head of House Speech 113 1 5

Rosalynn Tellerman

October 28, 2020 6:11 PM

Hello Roommates! by Rosalynn Tellerman

Rosalynn had sat with Lorena at the Feast, but as their Head of House gathered them up to show them to their new home away from home, she noticed there was a third girl who had been sorted into their House. She gave this new acquaintance a smile as they walked out of the hall and whispered, "Hello, I'm Rosalynn," during one of the lulls when Professor Wright wasn't actively speaking as he walked them through the halls of the school.

They went through the library again, straight back to the far wall from the entrance, so that was easy enough to remember. She also appreciated that their dorm rooms were handily close to the library because she definitely wanted to get a better look at what was on offer some time when she wasn't a part of a tour group.

Birds of Prey. She hoped she'd be able to remember that, but if she recalled correctly, Aladren's House mascot was a Hawk, so as long as the whole shelf wasn't full of books about raptors, she should be able to make an educated guess by association.

Knowing how the Dewey Decimal system worked, the shelf at least probably was all about raptors, but maybe magic libraries organized their books differently. She couldn't say she'd ever been in one before. Well, she'd just have to pull at all of them until she found the right one, she guessed. There weren't so many that trial by error wouldn't work.

She entered into the House Common Room, and appreciated that this was very nearly a part of the library in its own right. It was a nice color scheme too. She'd always liked blue.

She listened attentively as Professor Wright explained the final things he thought they need to know tonight, and when he asked for questions, she couldn't come up with any. He'd mentioned their things were already in their room, which had been the one thing still nagging at her.

"I guess we head up and see our new room now?" she suggested to her new roommates when Professor left them to their own devices.

OOC: If consensus is reached that we do want to go to the room, feel free to say Rosalynn comes along (or leads the way if your characters are uncomfortable doing so).

1 Rosalynn Tellerman Hello Roommates! 1520 0 5

Lorena Abernathy

October 29, 2020 5:51 PM

This will be fun! by Lorena Abernathy

Lorena looked around the Common Room as they entered and realized she wasn't quite paying attention to what Professor Wright was saying because she was so interested in her surroundings.

After traversing several halls and being introduced to the inhabitants of the paintings on the walls (how weird was that?).

They had gone through the library to get to the hidden Aladren house entry. Now she really felt at home! Why, she could step outside the door and have everything she could imagine to read! She had passed some interesting titles on her way by and wondered how much time she would have to dig into the books just to enjoy reading.

She heard Professor Wright mention that their things were already in their rooms. He had mentioned dorms - did that mean she would share her room with other girls? That should be a fun experience, especially if all the girls were the same year. In her experience, older kids liked to tease the younger ones.

She wandered around the Common Room and noticed that there were numerous shelves of books in here and a number of comfy looking chairs set around the room, just inviting her to snuggle down and read.

She glanced over and noticed Rosalynn visiting with another girl who had been sorted just that evening. Lorena wandered over toward the two other girls and said "Hi Rosalynn! Hi, I'm Lorena," she said turning to the other girl.

"I'd love to see our new room! Let's go." Lorena wasn't quite sure how to get there, although the directions seemed simple enough, but she thought it would be nice to go with the others anyway.

48 Lorena Abernathy This will be fun! 1510 0 5

Isla Brockert

November 11, 2020 3:06 PM

I hope so by Isla Brockert

Isla was not sure how she felt about her Sorting. On the one hand, Aladren was cool. Full of smart and quirky people and to be considered the former was very flattering even if it was by a semi-sentient potion rather than another person. Plus, her father, whom she admired greatly and related to more than her siblings did-he being the one to come up with a vowel theme for his children, which she thought was awesome and clever as opposed to Esme who thought it was strange-was an Aladren. As was Grandfather, who tended to be very proud of his grandchildren being sorted into his house.

Problem was, Topaz was an Aladren....and Topaz was also a total psychopath who resented anyone else being considered as smart as she was or in any way equal or superior to her. And by "anyone" being considered as smart, that usually meant Isla (or Emerald or sometimes Olaf because the former had also been an Aladren and the latter did nothing but read but mostly Isla).

And it wasn't as if there weren't areas were Topaz was far superior to and more skilled at than Isla. Such as manipulation, bullying, psychologically abusing and damaging people and just all around being a terrible person. The older Aladren was absolutely amazing at those things!

Another thing Isla was a bit wary of was having roommates. Now, the first year was willing to give people (who weren't Topaz or Uncle Eustace) the benefit of the doubt and the odds of them being her kind of Aladren rather than her cousin's were good, as only one percent of people were psychopaths. However, she had also heard Topaz's Roommate Horror Stories. Of course, Isla could not completely fault the other girl, as the first year would have put better odds on running into another psychopath than she would Topaz actually getting along with a roommate regardless of said roommate's personality.

As for the rest of those closely related to her, they didn't have roommates they were close to. Of course, Allegra didn't have and Ruby hadn't had roommates at all but Esme, Jasper and Sapphire weren't close to theirs either, though Jasper hoped to fix that. For her sister's part, the third year liked hers fine though her roommate preferred Sapphire seemingly. Which was good since Sapphire thought her roommate wasn't interested in her at all.Of course the main thing Esme had said about her roommate was that even though Sadie was Muggleborn, she was quiet and polite and much more likeable than the only unrelated pureblood in their class.

Anyway, Isla had noticed her roommates sitting together at the Opening Feast. However, while she had wanted to join them, they were sitting a little too close to where Topaz was for the first year's comfort as it was within her best interests to stay off her cousin's radar.

That brought up another interesting point. She was going to have to warn her roommates about the older Aladren. Isla felt she had a moral obligation to do so. Even if Topaz never ended up paying attention to them.

While they were walking up to their common room, one of the other two girls whispered an introduction to Isla. Isla responded, without thinking, "I'm Isla Brockert of the-" then cut herself off when she realized Rosalynn had not introduced herself that way. Isla had been trained her entire life to use that introduction, but non-purebloods sometimes got all offended when they did. Even though they were just doing what was habitual at that point and didn't mean anything nasty by it. Still, even though she should not have to be ashamed of who she was and hide it-nobody should,except possibly Topaz and Uncle Eustace- Isla did not want to alienate her roommates.

Professor Wright gave his speech, letting them know where their dorm was and who their prefects were, names that did sound familiar to the first year, although Heinrich less than the other two-Allegra had said he was nice enough while Topaz said he exercised poor judgement in the company he kept-as Sophia Priory was the great-great-granddaughter of the Brockert family patriarch and Ness was....well....um, Topaz's roommate.(The rest of the words Isla had heard said about the sixth year were very colorful and inappropriate for proper young ladies to repeat). She would remember to do as instructed and congratulate Sophia.

Anyway, once he was done talking, the other first year girl came over and introduced herself to Isla who, this time, was prepared. "I'm Isla. Nice to meet you." She looked at Rosalynn. "Both of you." She nodded in agreement with the suggestion to go to their room. After all, her stuff was waiting for her, including her puppets. "Let's check it out." She turned up the staircase and headed towards their room. "I hope nobody has an objection to puppets. I have a huge collection. They're my hobby." Isla remembered very well what Topaz had said about her roommate had reacted to hers. Puppets were a lot nicer than dead animals and the first year didn't know why they would be objectionable but some people, for some strange reason, thought they were creepy-of course, Isla's second cousin Liesl thought creepy was something to be embraced but that was...not typically meant as a positive descriptor.

11 Isla Brockert I hope so 1521 0 5

Rosalynn Tellerman

November 11, 2020 6:47 PM

Me too! by Rosalynn Tellerman

After Rosalynn had introduced herself, her roommate who wasn't Lorena introduced herself as Isla. Specifically "Isla Brockert of the" and then cut herself off, but it didn't matter because that was plenty enough to tell Rosalynn she had a pureblood roommate - and one presumably related to the Headmaster as well. Hopefully, that wouldn't be a problem. Many purebloods were perfectly good people and Rosalynn had to hope that Isla was one of them, otherwise this was going to be a very unpleasant seven years.

She put it out of her mind for the rest of their walk to Aladren, and she'd almost forgotten it entirely until Isla introduced herself to Lorena as well. This time she didn't use the pureblood formula, which Rosalynn was going to optimistically chalk in as a Good Sign. And anyone who had puppets couldn't be all bad, right? "Puppets are cool," she assured the other girl.

They all agreed to go up to their new room, and did so. Rosalynn spotted her stuff next to one of the beds, and felt a moment of relief to have it all with her again. There wasn't really anything in it that was irreplaceable if it had gotten lost, but it was her stuff and all she had with her to remind her of home. She went to her suitcase and flopped it up onto the bed then opened it up. Dad had done some extension charms on it so it held a lot more than it looked like it could, and she began taking out some framed photographs.

The first one she put out on the stand beside her bed. It had a little girl, maybe four years younger than Rosalynn was now, surrounded by two middle aged people who both bore enough resemblance to her that there was little doubt they were the girl's parents. All three were smiling at the camera, and not moving, marking it as a muggle photograph. Rosalynn hadn't changed a huge amount since it was taken, so the other two Aladrens would have no trouble recognizing her as the little girl. Rosalynn had always liked this picture, not least because of Cinderella's Castle in the background. It was taken during the one trip they'd taken to Disney World in Florida, which still ranked as the Best Vacation Ever ^TM.

The second one she hung over her bed, and in this one, Dad and Mom were dancing together, him wearing a tuxedo and tails with a top hat, her in a sequined white dress that somehow suggested both 'dance costume' and 'wedding dress'. They were younger here than in the one with her, and they moved gracefully within the frame to music only they could hear, marking it as a wizard's photograph.

The third thing she took out was a top hat that looked very much like the one Dad was wearing in the dancing picture. This she draped over one of her bed posts at a dramatic angle. Dad was never anything but dramatic. Around the opposing post, she placed a pair of jazz boots that were tied together with a bit of string. They were obviously used and too big for Rosalynn to wear. She adjusted them so the string twirled around itself and the shoes hung artistically off the bedpost. Mom was never anything but artistic.

She stepped back and looked over the small arrangement, nodded in satisfaction that this would do for now until she had more time to personalize her space, then turned back to her roommates before taking out the next item laying in her suitcase.

"Do either of you still sleep with a teddy bear?" she asked a little nervously, deeply hoping at least one of them would answer in the affirmative.

1 Rosalynn Tellerman Me too! 1520 0 5

Lorena Abernathy

November 21, 2020 2:24 PM

I'm already having fun! by Lorena Abernathy

“Puppets are super cool!” Lorena agreed. How awesome was it that Isla had such a unique and fun hobby? Lorena didn’t really do much herself, other than stick her nose as deep into a book - any book - as she could get it. “It doesn’t have to be tonight, but can you show them to me later? Can you do the thing where they talk and you don’t move your mouth? The ventriloquist thing?”

They got up to their room, and it looked like the beds were assigned to them, because Lorena noticed all her stuff next to one of them. That was crazy! She had actually almost forgotten about her luggage, since so much had already happened since they arrived. Meeting Augustine not-the-soccer-player and the whole Orientation thing, the big Feast starting to get to know Rosalynn, and all the school itself had to offer? Yeah, her brain was feeling a little full.

She noticed that Rosalynn started unpacking and decorating, and that seemed like a smart idea, so Lorena followed suit. She decided that the first thing she would do was unpack her clothes so that it didn’t all get too wrinkly and she’d need to wash it again (not knowing that the prairie elves around here did the laundry anyway, but also not wanting to make any additional work for anyone). She purposely left her stuffed animal in the bag, a rising self consciousness blossoming in her.

Until Rosalynn specifically asked if anyone kept a teddy bear. Lorena breathed a sigh of relief. She wasn’t the only one! “I do!” she confessed, running back over to her bag and pulling out the toy. It was a white rabbit with an orange nose and blue overalls. “This is mine. His name is Bunny. Not very creative, I know, but I’ve had him for a very long time.” It was silly to admit, but also, her brother had told her people would probably make fun of her for keeping it so long, and she felt a bit vindicated at this moment. “What about you? Isla?” she added. “Do your puppets all have names too?”

12 Lorena Abernathy I'm already having fun! 1510 0 5