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Post by Medieval Kevin on Feb 13, 2015 7:21:59 GMT -8
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Post by Hollywood Heidi on Jan 22, 2016 20:20:24 GMT -8
NEXT DAY
FIRST DAY OF CLASSES
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Post by Hollywood Heidi on Jun 10, 2017 22:49:45 GMT -8
Morning classes on the first day of the school year have finished.
Everyone is released for lunch break.
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Post by Hollywood Heidi on Apr 23, 2018 21:25:15 GMT -8
Classes on the first day of the school year have finished.
Everyone is released for the remainder of the day to relax, socialize, work on their assignments, and gather for the evening meal.
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Post by Hollywood Heidi on Apr 24, 2018 20:34:09 GMT -8
Anya had been escorted to the library and left to her own devices. The Headmaster's attention was continuously being sought out, particularly so with it being the start of the school year. Anya was unprepared to attend classes until Marius or someone assigned by him accompanied her to a place he'd called Diagon Alley for necessary supplies. The other students were in classes, the professors teaching.
Until Marius' schedule calmed and until a tutoring routine was put into place with Gwen, what better place to learn about Hogwarts and the world it belongs to than Hogwarts' library? And what a library it was. Anya didn't think she'd ever seen so many books in her life. Shelf upon shelf, row upon row, level upon level. Stacks of books were piled everywhere, slowly lessening as books magically flew from them to shelve themselves.
Marius had recommended Hogwarts: A History as a good starting point. He'd even retrieved a copy for her before dashing off once again.
As she read, she'd find herself pausing to comb the shelves for books that went into more detail on particular things that peaked her interest, bringing them back to her seat and skimming them for a bit before returning to the large history book. The pile of books around her grew slowly but steadily. The time had gone by peacefully, the quiet whooshing of books floating by and shelving themselves the only sound.
Anya became aware of the fact that her solitude had come to an end as students had begun to trickle in. Classes must have ended and some students had settled into work on their assignments. Soon after, she'd come across another mention in the history book that had her up and skimming the shelves again. Magical creatures. Anya was still so enthralled with the fact that there were magical people that she hadn't even begun to imagine other possibilities. She'd met a House Elf, but she hadn't considered the possibility of what other magical creatures there may be.
She'd found a large section devoted just to magical creatures and skimmed the titles on the spines as she moved slowly down the aisle with increasing awe. Words such as unicorns, centaurs, griffins, merpeople, pixies all jumped out at her as well as dozens and dozens of other creatures she'd never heard of.
Anya came to a dead stop when her eyes fell upon the spine of a book with the title Dragon Species of Great Britain and Ireland. "No way," she whispered to herself. She moved closer, getting up on her toes and strained to reach it on the higher shelf, all the while wondering how in the world huge, flying dragons could be existing in Great Britain without anyone realizing it.
Anya's fingertips barely grazed the edge of the book. She was just short of reaching it. Why were there so few ladders, she wondered, and none near her current location? 'Because levitation appears to be one of the first things you learn,' Anya thought with frustration as she saw a young girl on the other end of the aisle breezily magic a book down from a high shelf before skipping out of sight. "Fantastic," she sarcastically muttered under her breath, placing her free hand on a lower shelf and pushing herself up just the teeniest bit more onto her toes. It didn't improve much. The tips of her fingers barely reached the bottom curve of the spine and she was only managing to budge it at an agonizingly slow pace.
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Post by DarkSideCookie on Apr 26, 2018 5:42:41 GMT -8
** Callum enters from classes **
Callum was used to spending some time in the library after classes almost every day, instead of straight heading for the Great Hall to have lunch, like most of the other students did. He just needed this time for himself, especially after such a day. Not that he wasn't used to having a brush with his lovely family members, no, it had been something else that made this day kind of special.
There had been still laying this unusual smile on his face, long after their paths had parted with both heading for their own class. And even now, as he quietly sat on his regulars' table in the library, it hasn't completely vanished.
He was just reading in Fantastic Beasts And Where To Find Them, while gnawing at a toothpick, kind of a habit during studies or just reading, when a girl suddenly attracted his anyway only half reading-centered attention. Callum looked up from the pages and instead watched the other student trying to reach one of the books in the nearby aisle. For a while, he was just observing with amusement, as she drolly made every effort to reach a book in the more highly situated shelves.
Eventually, Callum rose from his seat and approached the girl in need. He was not a shy person, but as refusal was the dominating demeanor he was met with, he didn't get social very often.
"There are actually three possibilities. Being early to catch one of the ladders, improving your levitation skills or being lucky enough someone's watching and feels sympathetic enough to help instead of just enjoying the show.", Callum spoke up to her from the side, once he had reached her, by now not seeing more than long brown hair. Then, before she even could have reacted to his words, Callum took the book of her interest out of the shelve.
"Dragons, huh?", he said with a look on the book's cover. "Mostly misunderstood creatures." It was just then, when his gaze turned away from the book and instead got a glimpse of the girl he was talking to. He had seen her before. She had been with his father, demanding him to show her around.
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Post by Hollywood Heidi on Apr 28, 2018 11:13:10 GMT -8
"There are actually three possibilities. Being early to catch one of the ladders, improving your levitation skills or being lucky enough someone's watching and feels sympathetic enough to help instead of just enjoying the show.",
Still having been in deep concentration with her painstaking progress, or lack thereof, she hadn't realized it was her being spoken to until he was halfway into his comments. Feeling a bit sheepish, she turned to give her thanks but then saw who it was and stiffened. He was busy observing the cover of the book so she was unsure if he knew who he was helping and therefore she didn't know if it was a random act of helpfulness or an extension of an olive branch after the way their previous and also initial meeting had been.
"Dragons, huh?", "Mostly misunderstood creatures."
So they were real! Curiosity was killing her. She wanted to ask questions, dive into his apparent knowledge of them, but stubborn pride wouldn't let her. Anya took the book from his hands and gave a curt "Thanks" as she brushed passed him and started back to her seat.
She was irked at herself for having lingered a moment longer than she would have, seeing her curiosity as a weakness in this particular moment. The realization that the first thing he'd done was to help her when she'd made the proclamation that she could manage on her own at their last parting made her grumble.
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Post by DarkSideCookie on May 3, 2018 4:50:22 GMT -8
With a curt "Thanks" the book was already ripped out of his hands. That was at least how it felt like. Callum wordless watched the girl passing him and having a seat on one of the nearby's tables. He might haven't noticed her before, because of that pile of books around her, surrounding her like a wall that seemed to collapse every minute.
And then he did something actually unusual for him. With a smirk on his face, Callum walked over to her one more time to keep her company. At first he didn't say anything; instead, he carefully lifted one of the piled books and had a doubting look at its history thematized title, before he eventually spoke up again.
"You shouldn't waste your time with this schlock. You'd be surprised how much this world's history resembles the muggle's." Then he made a short pause to have an intent look at her, not held back by her rather dismissive look at all. "Let me guess: You've just been torn out of a world you thought was normal, brought to one where everything looks like it would be special. And now you're trying to imbibe every wee bit of it." While he was talking Callum's eyes were scanning over the book pile's spines now and then. It seemed, with the book right in front of her, she had finally found the real interesting range of literature.
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Post by Hollywood Heidi on May 4, 2018 21:00:35 GMT -8
Anya opened her newest book on dragons and pretended to become absorbed in it. She'd heard his footfall come to stop beside her in the quiet library and she could feel his presence beside her. He was looking through her selection of books and even when he picked one up, she continued to pretend to read, not with an air of a cold shoulder as if implying she was blatantly ignoring him but rather a passive one as if it was perfectly normal for him to be hovering and nosing through her books.
"You shouldn't waste your time with this schlock. You'd be surprised how much this world's history resembles the muggle's."
Anya took a moment to spare him a glance with the pretense of acknowledging his words without appearing to take much stock in them. In actuality, she'd used the opportunity of a glance to try to get a read on his motive. He'd completely shut her out in the Great Hall, barely acknowledging her existence when his father had tried to introduce them. Why was he suddenly taking an interest? Did his daddy finally coerce him into it or was he standing here of his own free will? No, she wasn't getting the impression he was standing here grudgingly.
"Let me guess: You've just been torn out of a world you thought was normal, brought to one where everything looks like it would be special. And now you're trying to imbibe every wee bit of it."
"Normal," she scoffed in response to his presumption of knowing what her world had been like. "I was torn from my normal world when I was seven. Nothing's been--" Anya cut herself off. In her prideful haste to prove to him that he knew nothing about her, she'd inadvertently revealed a far more personal glance into her life.
"I like this world," she said, glancing briefly his direction before looking at the books, taking in just how many she's amassed, "but I've got years of learning to catch up on." With a resigned sight, Anya leaned back in her chair and turned her attention to him. She crossed her arms and attempted to look serious but the corners of her lips quirked in amusement. "Aren't we supposed to be sharing a hot dog in this scenario?" she asked, eluding to his comment in the Great Hall.
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Post by DarkSideCookie on May 5, 2018 5:41:29 GMT -8
"Normal,"
The tone with which she was repeating his choice of wording didn't slip Callum's attention. Just as he thought. As similar as both their worlds history was, as was it their growing up in them. And yet another proof both worlds weren't as different as everyone stated; as his own family was used to say over and over again.
"I was torn from my normal world when I was seven. Nothing's been--"
Suddenly she stopped in the middle of her sentence. Maybe a little bit too personal for a first conversation, wasn't it? But yet again, her story didn't seem to start that different from his own. The age around seven could actually exactly have been the time when he had felt like have been torn out of his hitherto normal world as well (at least the normality he was taught by his father and the rest of proud sorcerers and witches), because it had been the time when he started to create his own opinion and to build his own experiences. Experiences though, that mostly have been characterized by repudiation; And yet, a repudiation that never had caused him to join in his family's way of thinking. In Callum's opinion someone hating one of those worlds had to hate the other as well, because, deep in the core, they were the same.
Callum hadn't realized how much his mind had wandered from one topic to another, before his conversational partner suddenly leaned back in her seat and gave him a different look, one that was looking like a mix of seriousness and at the same time the failure at exactly that.
"Aren't we supposed to be sharing a hot dog in this scenario?"
In the first moment Callum looked back at her with slight confusion; not because he wouldn't remember his own former words, but rather because he still had to collect himself after he had drifted that far with his thoughts before. It didn't take long though, until an amused grin flashed over his face, one a lot more apparent than hers. "The hot dog's aren't actually that bad."
After a short pause, in which he leaned a little forward and rested his elbow on the table between them, he added more seriously: "Believe me, I wouldn't have done you a favor by showing you around. Bad enough someone might have seen you with the other Malfoy." Callum let out a quiet chuckle at that, not containing any other sign of real joy though.
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Post by Hollywood Heidi on May 5, 2018 14:58:43 GMT -8
"The hot dog's aren't actually that bad."
Callum's grin was infectious and she found herself grinning back.
"Believe me, I wouldn't have done you a favor by showing you around. Bad enough someone might have seen you with the other Malfoy."
Anya understood all too well what it was like to be ostracized for something beyond your control. Finding out he dealt with it too made it easier for her to open up enough to allow for the possibility of friendship.
"Pfft," Anya said with a roll of her eyes and an expression that said exactly what she thought about those someone's. "If it means upsetting people who look down their noses from their pedestals, then I'm going to have to insist we be friends," she said with determination. "How about we start over. Hi, I'm Anastasia. My friends call me Anya." She gave a warm smile and offered her hand, waiting to see if he'd accept it along with the offer of potential friendship.
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Post by DarkSideCookie on May 6, 2018 2:34:49 GMT -8
"Pfft,""If it means upsetting people who look down their noses from their pedestals, then I'm going to have to insist we be friends,"
Callum wasn't actually sure what kind of reaction he had been expecting or if one at all, but admittedly not this. His joyless chuckle grew into one of fresh amusement once again. Not only did she seem like someone who wasn't really aware of what the name Malfoy did portend, also did she seem to be someone not caring even if she knew. Now, that was something new. He liked that.
"How about we start over. Hi, I'm Anastasia. My friends call me Anya.", she suddenly said and introduced herself with her hand offered to him.
Even though it would have been the least to say he wasn't exactly used to this, Callum didn't hesitate to take her hand right away and to give it a shake. "Hi, I'm Callum. If my friends spoke our language, they probably would call me just Callum, as I don't even wanna imagine a nickname for that." A nickname such as Cal for some reason made him think of a simple-minded beefcake. And why would a name, comprising two syllables only, have to come with a nickname anyway? His statement as for his friends speaking another language he left open.
"Well, who knows? If it wasn't him who told me to, I even might have given you that tour. Maybe we can put that hot dog scenario into actual action next time we feel like it?", Callum added with another grin. It felt almost outlandish to grin without being sarcastic at all. But it felt good.
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Post by Hollywood Heidi on May 6, 2018 16:15:10 GMT -8
"Well, who knows? If it wasn't him who told me to, I even might have given you that tour.
Anya's memories of her parents consisted of only happy ones. She couldn't recall having problems big enough to have remained in her memories but in observing her peers, she had noticed they always had one complaint or another of not seeing eye-to-eye which only seemed to increase as they got older. Having no parents of her own for a decade, she sometimes forgot to add the potential of parental issues into the mix.
She grinned with a new understanding of their first meeting. "Well, I'm glad to know it was because of him and not me."
"Maybe we can put that hot dog scenario into actual action next time we feel like it?"
"Anytime." She sat there and grinned back, studying him until she felt awkward with the silence. And with having caught herself studying him. Socializing wasn't her strong suit and she guessed it wasn't his either. Anya grasped at a topic, settling on the thing that had caused their paths to cross again.
"So," she said, casting her eyes down to the book while distracting herself from the awkward moment by tucking her hair behind her ear. Anya pushed the heavy book between them then looked back at him. "Tell me about dragons. I get the impression I could learn more about them from you in five minutes than the hours it would take to read this monster of a book,” she said, tapping the open page of the book.
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Post by DarkSideCookie on May 7, 2018 10:59:19 GMT -8
"So,"
Callum was somehow feeling glad when she spoke up again, as the sudden silence between them had started to feel a little awkward for some reason. Maybe he just wasn't used to this kind of conversations, actually a fact out of question.
"Tell me about dragons. I get the impression I could learn more about them from you in five minutes than the hours it would take to read this monster of a book,"
Callum had to come up with another grin about the way she pushed the book between them and prompted him to give her kind of a cram course, saving her the time and trouble of some more reading, so to speak.
"Okay, listen. First unit is some exclusive info you won't even find in any of these books.", Callum started in a meaningful way, as he waved her a little closer, waiting for her to do so, while he was leaning a bit forward himself. "They like the scent of marzipan, but they hate cinnamon. They very much like to be the centre of attention, but they hate to get talked about when they have no chance to overhear." As if he had to take care of exactly that mannerism, his voice lowered into a whisper-like tone more and more. "And last but not least... They can be extreme sleeky fleabags." Of course, all of this info was adapted for only one dragon.
And so Callum should have known better, because, as if on command, Ralph peeked out of his sleeve for one little moment. One might think it was just imagination, but the little dragon really seemed to have some kind of resentful expression on his coriaceous face.
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Post by Hollywood Heidi on May 16, 2018 11:27:33 GMT -8
Anya rested her chin on her palm and had leaned closer when he beckoned her to. As he spoke, she'd leaned closer and closer with increasing intrigue on the detailed information he had on dragons, as well as the fact the volume of his voice had gone into a whisper by the end. It was as if they were secretly conspiring, though no other students were near enough in the gigantic library to have overheard them even at a relatively normal volume.
Just then, she caught a movement in the corner of her eye at table level where Callum's arm rested. Anya leaned back a bit to try to get a better look at what had caught her eye. Thinking Callum might be unaware that some small creature had hidden in the sleeve of his robes, Anya carefully reached out and took Callum's hand, lifting it slowly so as to not scare or hurt whatever it was she'd seen in the shadows of the sleeve until the bottom of the sleeve rested even with the table. "You have something..." she started to explain but was concentrating on the little creature whose head was peaking out. The rest of the creature was concealed in the shadows of the sleeve. It looked to be a lizard of some sort?
Anya crouched down in her seat so her head was more even to the creature. "Hi there," she said gently. Anya slowly placed her free hand palm up on the table near the creature and tried to coax it out. "Come on out. It's alright." She smiled and had spoken softly. The scar on her upturned palm was tingling just from being near the creature so she knew whatever it was, it had magical qualities.
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Post by DarkSideCookie on May 22, 2018 4:25:29 GMT -8
Callum was totally put off by Anya's sudden move to grab his hand and slowly lifting it. He actually would have realized it was because of his dragon pet hiding in his sleeve, but as Ralph was in the habit of wandering around all inside his robe anyway, so that he sometimes couldn't say for sure where his little friend just was, and this whole nice conversation thing was still something completely new for Callum, he was just slightly confused until his opposite revealed the meaning of the sudden physical contact.
"You have something..."
Callum answered with not more than a grin, watching her actions to get a look at what was concealed in the shadows of his sleeves with silent amusement. By then, he had no idea that she actually could see Ralph's whole head already. "Do you do this a lot?", he eventually commented on her funny wobbling in her chair, not expecting a serious answer to that of course.
"Hi there,""Come on out. It's alright.", she finally addressed the little dragon directly once her own head had become more even to it.
"Don't mean to disappoint you, but Ralph's not so..." Callum stopped in the middle of his sentence, surprise visibly written on his face, when Ralph suddenly toddled out of his sleeve, right towards the stranger's upturned palm. His coriaceous friend wasn't exactly coy but, after all, a wild creature that wasn't quite used to any company except his.
~~~
Ralph seemed to be drawn to this human, to something on its palm at that (something Callum not even had realized up until then). A rune easily could get misconstrued as an odd looking scar. But the creature of fire knew better. There were a lot of different symbols on it, but there was one rising his interest. With this high level of curiosity, the dragon continued his steps without recoiling at anything around until he finally has reached that symbol, hidden amidst some others. For a moment he was just thoughtfully staring down at it, as he suddenly took a slight breath to spit a tiny flame into it.
~~~
"Lumme!", Callum called out deeply appalled at once, already in the move to fetch the dragon back and give him a scolding...
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Post by Hollywood Heidi on May 25, 2018 23:13:06 GMT -8
"Don't mean to disappoint you, but Ralph's not so..."
So Callum did know the creature. That eliminated any concern Anya had for alarming him or the creature hiding in his sleeve. She glanced back up to Callum but with his words trailing off and her eyes catching the motion of the creature moving out of Callum's sleeve and toward her open palm, her attention was back on observing the creature.
Surprise flitted across Anya's face as the creature was fully out of the shadows. "Is that a..." she broke off, watching the little being in fascination. "No way," she whispered just as she had when she'd first seen the book about dragons on the shelf. This looked exactly like a dragon, only miniature. Well, to her immediate consideration, she thought it far too small to be an actual dragon, but who's to say what was considered normal amongst the actual existing magical creatures versus how they were portrayed in books and movies by non-magical people in the non-magical world?
Ralph, as Callum had referred to the creature, seemed to take a liking to her. She smiled at that, watching Ralph toddle enthusiastically toward her open hand, his gaze fixated on his destination but when he reached her hand, he seemed to pause and consider it. Before she had the chance to wonder why he suddenly seemed to take pause, the little dragon emitted a little flame into her open palm.
"Lumme!"
In her fascination of the creature, she hadn't taken the time to consider the connection it had to what was probably her biggest fear. With her pyrophobia, Anya was frozen in terror, her face turning pale as the blood drained. Her mind pulled her into a state of consciousness withdrawn from the reality of her physical surroundings. Unable to move in her current state, she hadn't withdrawn her hand. She felt disconnected, as if she was watching herself out of body through the haze of a dream. But the story didn't progress as expected. The fire didn't engulf her hand, nor did it spread like wildfire, ravishing everything in its wake as it did her home so many years ago.
Anya's hand twitched as she started to come back to herself, the little flame hovering above her palm dancing at the movement. She'd only been out of it for mere seconds and now more consciously watched the flame and the strange glow it cast on her palm just as it began to die out. When it did, she realized the glow on her palm had not been the light of the fire. A part of the intricate design of her scar had taken on a glow of its own and slowly began to fade.
She stared, baffled at her own hand then to the little creature who appeared to look quite pleased with himself before finally bringing her baffled gaze to meet Callum's.
**********
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Post by Hollywood Heidi on May 26, 2018 10:26:34 GMT -8
Nearly two months have passed.
Yesterday, October 30th, the delegates from the other schools had arrived for the Triwizard Tournament and a celebration feast was held in the Great Hall where the Goblet of Fire and Triwizard Cup were presented.
Today, October 31st, 2017, the Goblet of Fire remains available in the Chamber of Reception for interested participants to drop in a parchment with their name until the Hallowe'en Feast tonight.
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Post by DarkSideCookie on Jun 9, 2018 10:15:18 GMT -8
While everyone else or at least the majority of all students was in the chamber of reception, pooling around the goblet of fire to either throw their own name inside in the hopes for becoming someone, at what, in the case they really got chosen, they might lose their life with a chance of approximately fifty per cent at least, or watching and rooting for their friends to do so instead (Either way, to him the Tri-wizard Tournament wasn't more than a challenge for suicidal idiots and people with a highly developed attention syndrome), Callum spent his time in the library to once again dig a little deeper into the research of the symbols on Anya's hand. For him, this was much more of a useful task. He had no idea where Anya was herself right now though, as they normally were poring over books and scripts together. Eventually, Callum paused the studying with a sigh. Meanwhile, a good stack of literature had started to gradually cover him. Through a small fissure in that wall of parchment, Callum managed to peek at the clock hanging on the wall on his right. "Bloody hell...", he muttered to himself. He had been sitting here for hours already. Well, the library never was as much of a busy place as some others around the school, but using the chance of actually no one being here seemed to have let him completely forgotten the time. Callum gave a hearty yawn before he turned his attention to the inside of the sleeves of his robe. "Hey sleepyhead, it's time for..."
Then a realization had him wide awake all of a sudden. "Ralph?... Uh-uh..." ***Callum exits to several corridors and unlocked rooms until the search for his little friend makes him end up in the Chamber of Reception*** |
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Post by Hollywood Heidi on Nov 15, 2018 23:09:48 GMT -8
A few hours have passed.
It is now time for everyone to gather in the Great Hall for the Hallowe'en Feast where the Champions will be announced.
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Post by DarkSideCookie on Dec 9, 2018 4:50:17 GMT -8
And yet again Callum's nose was stuck in a book while everyone else was gradually gathering in the Great Hall to find out whose death wish was going to come true. A stultifying tone escaped him, paired with a shake of his head before he drew his attention back to the book in front of him and at the same time not because all the while he was sitting here he actually pondered over something completely different. ... I think something is about to happen to her ...Callum snapped the book shut all of a sudden. Not only was the mere echo of his father's voice in his head displeasing him, but above all his words were. What would the headmaster want from Anya? And whatever it might be, was that linked with the symbols on Anya's palm? Also, Callum couldn't help but wonder why his father had reached out to him with that suspicion in the first place. Definitely not because he was just nice.
Usually, Anya and Callum had no secrets with each other but if he told her about this, she probably would get herself into more danger even. Well, if there was anything true about all of this anyway. He had to find out alone.
Where was she right now by the way...? Not that they actually would have had an appointment or sort of, but usually they just both were spending most of their time here while everyone else... uh no... unless... That tournament thing hopefully wasn't exciting her too much. "C'mon, we gotta go.", Callum suddenly turned to the little dragon, napping at the bottom of the pile of books right next to him. At first, Ralph opened only one eye but when his human started to let the reading matter fly back into the shelves one by one, he slowly moved his sleeping place to the inside of Callum's sleeve. ***Callum exits to the Great Hall*** |
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Post by Hollywood Heidi on Mar 23, 2019 20:28:53 GMT -8
The night passes. It is the morning of the next day.
Classes are postponed for the week to welcome the visiting schools during Tri-Wizard Championship.
A special visit to Hogsmeade is scheduled for today.
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Post by Hollywood Heidi on Mar 24, 2019 12:11:04 GMT -8
Anya had gone to bed early and so had woken up early. The way things had gone last evening, with Scorpius dropping by for another reign of terror followed by most likely alienating the cute guy who'd shown interest in her, she hadn't felt much like socializing and so had gone to bed after rushing out of the Great Hall. Normally she would have sought out Callum to talk out what was bothering her but they'd had a little tiff before all that other stuff had happened. Of all those things, that bothered her the most.
Hoping that whatever had been bothering Callum would have faded with the light of a new day, Anya had come to the one place she could usually find him. But no Callum. No anyone, for that matter. With classes on hold for the week and it being a special visit to Hogsmeade day, it was a ghost town. She wanted to go to Hogsmeade, but not without Callum. It just wouldn't be enjoyable on her own. So she'd wait here and hope he'd show up before departure time.
Anya dropped her satchel on the table and fell into a chair with a sigh. She dug through her satchel, grabbing a quill and shuffled around a bit longer before remembering that she'd lost her journal. On another sigh, she pulled out a loose sheet of paper and passed the time recreating from memory drawings of the runes overlaid on her palm that she and Callum had been able to decipher so far.
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Post by DarkSideCookie on Apr 19, 2019 13:04:08 GMT -8
Callum had been pissed for another while after his admittedly grossly overstated departure from the festivities of last evening. Then at some point, he had come to question himself about what had been bothering him so much. Actually, he'd had no answer to that. The rest of the evening though he had spent alone. Neither had he come up with a good way to apologize to Anya (of course not to the guy at her side as he didn't care about him at all) nor had he been willing to break in on something he rather not wanted to see. Callum shook these thoughts about last evening off again and tried to concentrate back at the bookshelf right in front of him. Yes, he was here. And yes, he had been here for already quite a while, hoping for his best friend to enter just like she had been hoping to see him here at their secret place to meet. Just the difference this time was that Callum had spent most of the night lying awake, actually for no real reason or at least none that would have changed over from subconscious to conscious mind yet, and therefore felt actually too tired to use any spells for easy things just like the searching through the shelf of books. After all, this actually had been proved to be less easy than anticipated. At least when it was usually your wand that did all the work for you. How the hell were muggles coping with their everyday life?
Eventually, a noise coming from the door made him pause once again. He wasn't able to see who was entering from his angle of view, but the quiet sigh filling the silence around was too familiar to not recognize. Callum tried to remain as quiet as possible when he was moving one of the books inside the shelf aside to peer through the blank space and get an inconspicuous look at Anya who had thrown herself into one of the chairs at their regular table. He watched her for just a little while longer when suddenly he felt kind of stupid. But coming out of his hideout now would give away that he had been watching her for at least some minutes of not doing or saying anything. And before Callum could have made a decision on his own, the little dragon in his sleeve was taking the decision for him instead. With a swanky landing, Ralph accompanied Anya at their table. And Callum could have sworn that his scaly little friend had sent a mischievous grin towards him before. That little rat... |
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Post by Hollywood Heidi on Apr 20, 2019 18:44:38 GMT -8
With her mind wandering back to Callum again, she'd found herself distractedly retracing the couple of drawings she'd managed to get down again. Where was he, she wondered? Why had he gotten so upset with her? He'd never been upset with her before. Even after that first initial meeting where she'd told him off and walked away, he'd still approached her in a friendly manner. Had she done or said something? She was starting to wrack her brain on anything she'd said or done in Callum's company that led up to last night when her attention was drawn to a little creature landing on the table near her.
"Ralph," she said with an affectionate smile as he adorable waddled toward her, glancing once toward the bookcases before seemingly grinning back at her. "What are you doing here?" she asked, holding a gloved hand palm up on the table for him to hop into. "Is Callum here, too?" she asked. As if in answer, Ralph climbed his way to her shoulder and with a tiny claw, lightly yanked a strand of her hair in the direction of the bookcases. It was so adorable that Anya couldn't help but giggle as she got to her feet and headed in the direction she'd seen him glance back in.
"Callum?" she inquired hesitantly. She looked down one aisle then the next, finding him there. "Hi. I didn't know you were here," she said, still speaking hesitantly and feeling a bit awkward after their fight last night. Ralph settled himself a bit further back on Anya's shoulder as if trying to hide in her hair, though with no notion as to why he might feel the need to hide from Callum, Anya thought he was only playing around and being silly. Anya chuckled and tried to angle her head to catch a peek of him but it was an impossible feat. "I feel like a pirate witch. Or is it a witch pirate? Are either of those a thing?" she asked, trying to break the tension with corny jokes as she looked back at Callum.
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Post by DarkSideCookie on Apr 21, 2019 11:00:26 GMT -8
When Anya was talking to Ralph, Callum actually didn't know what to do. It was like he couldn't move, but he knew that he couldn't just stand in place and watch them like he wouldn't be there either. What had this damned dragon been thinking he was doing? And that after his collegial performance of attacking that beefcake of a Durmstrang. The fact that Callum was hating that guy a little too much was still something belonging to the things that hadn't changed over from his subconscious to his conscious mind yet. Rather did it feel like a natural reaction to him - almost like an instinct that wasn't to question.
"Is Callum here, too?", he suddenly heard Anya asking. Of course, there would have come the moment that she asked this. Also, he couldn't hide in the bookcases forever, or could he?
Out from the little blank space he was watching them, Callum tried to gesticulate and silently telling Ralph to not reveal that he was there when he saw his treacherous friend doing just that by yanking a strand of Anya's hair in his direction. Oh, he had understood very well. Callum quickly put the book back into the blank space and cursed the dragon behind in silence.
"Callum?" And when he heard her coming closer and calling his name, he pulled out another book to pretend to have been reading in it. Unfortunately, he had no idea what the book's title was and which was even worse - he held it upside down.
"Hi. I didn't know you were here,"
"Oh, hi.", Callum greeted her back with a wide grin, maybe too wide to not appear suspicious though. Also, this awkward feeling towards each other seemed to be something that they shared. For a short moment, Callum's eyes were wandering towards Ralph who was hiding in Anya's hair, giving him a look that said we'll talk about that later before he drew his attention back at his best friend.
"I feel like a pirate witch. Or is it a witch pirate? Are either of those a thing?"
Callum felt a lot more at ease when she suddenly started to break the tension with making a joke. Actually, the tension between them didn't feel like something right anyway. So why were they acting this way lately? And yet again this was a question whose answer to it remained in the subconscious area of his head.
"You might be the first making it a thing. I personally like pirate witch. It has a nice ring, don't you think so?", he joined in her joking with another wide grin.
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Post by Hollywood Heidi on May 4, 2019 10:44:17 GMT -8
"Anastasia, the not-so-intimidating pirate witch. Least feared person to sail the seven seas," she said, in a narrator voice whilst squinting off into the distance as if picturing it. Anya grinned with amusement as she looked back at Callum. Ralph took that moment to leave her shoulder and find new perch on top of the book Callum held. Anya assumed he didn't much care for the idea of a life at sea. The little guy didn't always know serious from a joke.
And Anya was completely clueless to Ralph's intentions. His current perch drew her eyes to the book in Callum's hand. She tilted her head slightly in question when she looked back at Callum, walking over and sidling up to him to glance down at the open pages. "Do some of these books have some sort of magically hidden messages when you hold them upside down?" she asked, looking up at him curiously. Standing right alongside Callum, feeling the warmth radiating off him while looking up at his face, Anya barely registered that Ralph abandoned the book and took perch again on her shoulder, partially hidden in the curtain of her hair.
She always seemed to realize too late when she made a mistake like this. Anya needed to work on getting rid of the annoying crush she'd felt toward Callum for a good while now. She'd managed to keep it at bay, pinned deep down and at a minimum. If only she could just snuff it out completely. They were best friends and his heart was set on someone else. Still though, she supposed there was no harm in enjoying little moments like these since the feelings were one-sided and he had no clue of the feelings she hid. There was nothing wrong with cozying up to a friend or even with fun flirting. As long as she didn't let it go to her head. Or worse, her heart.
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Post by DarkSideCookie on May 4, 2019 11:40:16 GMT -8
"Anastasia, the not-so-intimidating pirate witch. Least feared person to sail the seven seas,"
"Who says you're not intimidating? Don't you see the fear upon my face?", Callum played along with feigned shock although that turned out rather miscarried. He loved to be jokingly like that with her though. And he was glad that they still could be like this after their little argument the other day. Callum anyway had no idea what actually had come over him there.
When Ralph changed from Anya's hair to the top of the book in his hands, he was a little surprised. Was this an attempt to reconciliate after he had stepped him in the back before? It was only soon that Callum would be getting disabused.
And when Anya suddenly walked closer and sidled up to him to glance down at the open pages of the book, there was a moment in which he felt a warmth rising up his head. He tried to not think anything special of this though. "Do some of these books have some sort of magically hidden messages when you hold them upside down?"
"When I...?" It hit him like a hammer only then, his eyes quickly meeting with Ralph's who had decided that it would be the best to disappear back into his hideout in Anya's hair. Callum coughed slightly before he finally turned the book the right way up and decided to just ignore her question which might not be the wisest but the easiest thing to do. He just couldn't make her think that in the magical world it was common to hold a book upside down to get some sort of hidden message. If he did, there would be following a lot more unpleasant conversation in which he had to put this right unless he could live with the fact that everyone would eye her like she was a flipping idiot.
"So - uh - are you gonna head to Hogsmeade with everyone else?", Callum suddenly asked to change their topic of conversation. He actually hadn't decided himself yet if he wanted to go or not. Without Anya going, he probably wouldn't be having fun anyway. But why the hell was this question made him feel like he would have asked for a date or something like that. What an odd thought at that, wasn't it? Well, because they were friends...
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Post by Hollywood Heidi on May 4, 2019 12:31:04 GMT -8
His topic change made her forget about the book as she was reminded why she'd come here. "Oh, actually," she said, forcing herself to step away from her cozy spot right alongside him so that she could face him. Maybe also because it made it easier to form coherent thoughts and sentences when she wasn't standing so close. "I was looking for you to see if you wanted to go with me." It wouldn't be fun to go 'with everyone else' as he'd stated. Only if he was there, too. "Uncle Marius was called away so I wanted to see if you'd be my tour guide." She'd become accustomed to calling him that at this point. Marius had always managed to hold her back from accompanying her schoolmates, insisting on it being a good time to catch up on years worth of missed lessons or insist on being the one to take her the few times she'd gotten to go. "I expect the full student experience; mischief, shenanigans, high jinks, butterbeer," she said, ticking each item off on her fingers while feigning a serious tone as if interviewing him for the job.
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Post by DarkSideCookie on May 4, 2019 13:51:30 GMT -8
The relieve about have gotten away with this change of topic was actually diminishing along with her next words as those managed to get his mind completely elsewhere, namely at a journey together with her to Hogsmeade.
"Uncle Marius was called away so I wanted to see if you'd be my tour guide." As her number-two choice? Well, totally fine with him as long as the Durmstrang dude hadn't been her number-one choice. And there it had been again. This animosity that constantly was dominating his thoughts recently.
"I expect the full student experience; mischief, shenanigans, high jinks, butterbeer,"
"The full monty!", Callum stated with a wide grin. "But no liability for irreversible damages just like smile muscle stiffness, insurgent behavior or general nonsense."
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