Connor Manning
Head Boy
Slytherin Seventh Year Quidditch Captain
something in the way
Posts: 737
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Post by Connor Manning on Apr 25, 2008 20:24:17 GMT -5
Her answer of Care of Magical Creatures as the class she liked the best surprised him a little. While he didn't see Felicity as a ' girly-girl, ' he also didn't see her as a girl who liked the get too dirty. Creatures, unfortunately, tended to get dirty. The class was easy to skate by on, Connor had recieved an ' O ' in his O.W.L. for the subject if he remembered correctly. For some reason the random information about animals just stuck in his mind. He didn't have to work too hard to remember it, which was one of the reasons he scored so well on his OWL.
He didn't know what she meant as she mentioned that she wasn't able to come to Hogwarts first. Her parents wouldn't let her? That was just silly. Wizarding parents, and even muggle parents want whats best for their children. And schooling is best, afterall. He didn't want to say anything about it, so he moved on to what the Gryffindor lass had said about her mother teaching her herbology. " That's pretty cool. Is she a herbologist? " Connor asked curiously, wondering if that was why the woman was able to teach Felicity about herbology. She had said that she worked with plants, but there were a lot of careers that involved plants.
Connor felt a little bad about his thoughts as Felicity said that her mother taught her what she could because they couldn't afford to send her to Hogwarts. That sounded terrible, but at least her mother could teach her. " At least you got some one on one schooling with your mother. " He offered up, thinking it was one good thing about being home schooled. " Was last year your first here? " He asked, thinking that if it had been her first year at Hogwarts then they both started attending at the same time. How strange.
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Post by Felicity Hjort on Apr 26, 2008 21:45:21 GMT -5
"Kind of," Felicity answered with a bright smile. She was always happy to talk about her family, and her mum was a witch, so she wasn't bothered about talking of her to others. "She grows plants in our garden and sells them to apothecaries and people who are in need of them." It was a good business, but the blonde wasn't about to mention some of those people were muggles. But that was what her mum did to bring in some extra money, she grew and sold plants, both magical and muggle, and muggle ones with magical properties. And though her mum sometimes sold to nurseries as well, apothecaries were the least likely to buy them.
"Extra schooling," Felicity answered, realizing too late her slip. Muggle schooling during regular hours and afterwards she had schooling with her mum and chores, not to mention sports, all in one day. And yet, she'd managed to stay near the top of her class...how did that happen when she could barely stay passing at Hogwarts?
"Yes, it was my first year." She came in, found a best friend, found a boy she liked, found a sport she was fair enough at, found classes she was good at, found people she really enjoyed spending time with, and managed a boyfriend. She did things in one year some people didn't even accomplish in seven, and she never thought about it. Find friends had been her main goal, and she'd managed that, everything else was bonus. She just wished her grades remained near the top like they used to.
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Connor Manning
Head Boy
Slytherin Seventh Year Quidditch Captain
something in the way
Posts: 737
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Post by Connor Manning on Apr 26, 2008 22:40:02 GMT -5
" So are you going to be persuing a career in Care of Magical Creatures? What would that entail, ya think? " Connor asked her curiously, returning to how she had mentioned that she liked care of magical creatures. If she did know what she wanted to do already then Connor would envy her a little for knowing what she wanted. He wasn't even sure what he was interested in, let alone what he wanted to do after schooling. There were things he thought it would be ' cool ' to be, but he hadn't come across anything that really caught his interest as of yet.
" Oh, that's pretty nifty. Makes sense she would know alot about plants, then. " He pieced together with a small nod. Talking about mothers remind Connor of briefly meeting Celina's mother and how she had stared a little too long at his piercings. He shifted uncomfortably as he remembered it. The day had been really good besides the brief staring. He had run into Celina by chance and then made follow up plans to attend the festival. He wondered if the Ravengirl had told Felicity but just supposed she had. They were best friends as far as he knew.
" Was it wierd coming here? " He asked, his curiousity shining through once again. He supposed that since he was spending more time with the girl in classes he might as well get to know her a little better.
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Post by Felicity Hjort on Apr 26, 2008 23:46:32 GMT -5
"I'd like to," Felicity admitted. Connor was the third person she'd told that she wanted to do something with creatures after Hogwarts. Drew and Davenport being the other two. "I thought about going into Gringrotts and being a Dragon Feeder, but Drew didn't really like that idea. And he wasn't too fond about me working as a Dragon Breeder either, I think it's because of my charms work," Felicity shrugged it off with a shy smile. "But I've been talking to Davenport about looking into research facilities that study different creatures. There's one in Kenya that caught my attention, they focus their studies on the Erumpent, but I don't like the idea of being so far from the U.K." Then again, her entire family lived there, and she didn't know any that lived outside of it, other than her mum had a cousin in the States. As for looking at places inside the U.K., none had appealed to her yet.
Nodding, she agreed about her mum. Herbology had been her best subject when she was in school, but after she had to drop out during her seventh year, she never got the chance to take her N.E.W.T.s testing, her family had done that to her, but her mum never regretted dropping out to care for them. Felicity didn't think she'd ever be able to either, but at the same time she found it slightly hard to believe her mum didn't mind not taking the exams.
"A little," she told him. Though, the biggest reason was because of how her family kept her so well protected. She was hardly allowed to walk outside alone on her own lawn, let alone walk anywhere by herself. The summer before attending, Felicity's mum finally let her go to Diagon on her own, let her wonder a bit by herself, and allowed her to wonder Hogsmeade on her own. Other than that, Felicity had never gone anywhere alone. She wasn't even allowed a lock on her own bedroom door. "But not because of usual reasons. I mean, it was weird coming here because I'm so far from family, but it was weird too because of the difference of here compared to...elsewhere."
"What about you, Connor?" Felicity asked wondering about him. "Have you been here since the first year?"
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Connor Manning
Head Boy
Slytherin Seventh Year Quidditch Captain
something in the way
Posts: 737
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Post by Connor Manning on Apr 27, 2008 20:54:42 GMT -5
Ah, so she did know what she wanted to do. That was nice, it was quite good to have a direction to be heading towards whilst in school. He was wistful for what the Gryffindor had, an idea of where she was going. Connor's mother was a writer and his father a Ministry worker, so the only two fields he knew about were that of his parents. The Ministry offered a lot of different jobs for different people, some were interesting and some seemed rather boring, but they had to be done. He hoped that whatever job or career he settled on it would be interesting. He didn't think he could take a dull job.
" Dragons? " Connor was impressed at her ambition. " That sounds crazy dangerous. " He commented with a small grin. He could understand why Drew wouldn't like it, but it wasn't dull at all. He nodded along as she talked about finding a place in Kenya that caught her interest. It was rather far from the U.K. and Connor didn't think he would like to be too far away. He had been born and grown up else where, but the UK was where he lived now. " So Davenport was pretty helpful with that and all? Wonder who I should go to to talk about career options. " He figured if anything he should probably go to his head of house.
When Felicity answered his question about whether or not it was wierd coming to the school, he could understand what she was saying. Perhaps not for the same reasons as her, but it had been rather strange coming to the school in his fifth year. He therefor shook his head at her question. " No, your first year was also my first here. " He said with a small nod.
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Post by Felicity Hjort on Apr 28, 2008 13:36:31 GMT -5
A grin crossed the blonde's face when he told her it sounded "crazy dangerous", that also sounded like something Drew would say. Some of the American way of talking, though she didn't know where Connor was from, just that he was at Hogwarts. Felicity wasn't sure if it was really dangerous though, she liked the idea of working with a creature that needed protection and that many were afraid to protect. Dragons were frightening, she'd read up on them in the library on multiple occasions when she'd been trying to figure out future options, but they were so beautiful and it would be doing something worthwhile. Working at a research facility or at least in close contact with the creatures would give her something to do for her entire life and it would be something she'd enjoy.
"Yes, she was helpful and I'm hoping she'll be even more helpful next year when we really have to decide what we want to do." Felicity wasn't interested in Herbology or Potions like she was Creatures, but she had gotten O's on her O.W.L.s for those particular classes. Her mum had been quite proud of her for that. "Maybe talk to a professor who teaches what you're interested in?" She wasn't sure what he was interested in, but that would be a good start. General helpful information that he probably had all ready figured out on his own.
What he said about being in school as long as she'd been there surprised her. She knew there were a number of transfers and they only made her wonder why so few had attended school since their first year. Celina and Drew were among two of the only one's she knew that had attended Hogwarts since their first year. Did Hogwarts really allow that many to come in so late in the year? But then again, it was possible that people had moved and therefore had to change schools. "Do you like it here?"
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Connor Manning
Head Boy
Slytherin Seventh Year Quidditch Captain
something in the way
Posts: 737
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Post by Connor Manning on Apr 28, 2008 19:10:20 GMT -5
The idea of working with dragons still seemed unfathomable to the Slytherin. He knew of one time, during a Tri-Wizard Tournament years ago there had been four dragons for the four contestants. He had also heard that there had been loads of organizing and planning in order to get the dragons from their native lands to Hogwarts for the task. Connor wished he could have seen it, he could only imagine how interesting it would be to see the dragons. He had only ever seen them in books.
" My only problem is I don't know what I'm interested in. I do well in classes, I study hard and do well, but I dunno what I really have an interest in. " It was good that Davenport had been able to help the girl, Connor just wished that he knew who to go to. There were classes he liked, but he hadn't ever come across too many things that really sparked the Slytherins interest.
Connor gave a light nod, thinking Felicity's reasonings for finally coming to Hogwarts were probably much different than his own. Her question caused a light smile to form across his face. " Yeah, I do. I like the people here, mostly. " Connor's list of friends was growing, Celina, Matty, maybe even Felicity and Drew now. He didn't know the pair too well, but knew that if he was going to be hanging around Celina more that he would probably be around them more as well. " What about you, you like it here as well? " He questioned, guessing she would just as he had.
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Post by Felicity Hjort on Apr 28, 2008 20:35:53 GMT -5
That was kind of how Felicity felt at the beginning of the year. She had no idea what she was interested in, no idea of what she could possibly do, but she finally took time to think about it properly and decided what she was interested in. If she lived in the muggle world, hopefully she would've been able to attend the university for something she could use in life, but as it was, she was now emerged in the wizarding world and it was a great feeling. Thanks to Drew asking her and she realizing she had no idea what she wanted to do with her life, she'd pushed herself to figure something out, it really was a nice feeling.
"Me too," Felicity agreed with the Slytherin. The people reminded her a bit of her other friends, but they were completely different at the same time. Celina was completely shy and so nervous at times that Felicity had a hard time comparing her to reference against any of her other friends. Drew didn't remind her too much of any of her friends, but then again, he wasn't just a friend either. The majority of people she could reference to someone else, but there were a few she couldn't.
"I like it a lot," she answered with a smile. "It's different, but kind of the same. I mean, obviously my family isn't here like at home, but it's nice."
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Connor Manning
Head Boy
Slytherin Seventh Year Quidditch Captain
something in the way
Posts: 737
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Post by Connor Manning on Apr 28, 2008 20:47:51 GMT -5
" Well, what I mean is... I know what I'm into. It just doesn't seem like the things I do could be jobs. " The list of things he was into was relatively short, quidditch, writing, some of his lessons and... no, that was about it. Quidditch was fun to play, but nothing he would want to turn into an occupation, writing was interesting but again; nothing he would want to do. His lessons, though. That could be something to focus on. He made a mental note to think about his lessons and decide what, if any of them, he wanted to focus on.
It was nice to hear that Felicity liked the school as well. Connor had heard of some people not getting along very well at the school for whatever reasons. " It's kind of nice, though. Beauxbatons was alot different from here, but I don't really miss it. " At times he missed his old mates from Beauxbatons, but that was even becoming less and less frequent. " So did you and Celina know each other before you came to Hogwarts? " He asked her curiously, wondering if they had known each other for a long time or for a shorter time.
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Post by Felicity Hjort on Apr 28, 2008 21:05:18 GMT -5
"What do you like?" Felicity asked innocently. What was the Slytherin boy interested in? There were a number of things she liked to do and thought she wasn't half bad at, but they weren't things she wanted to do as a form of employment for the rest of her life. She liked being editor of the school paper for the year that she'd done it, but she didn't think editing or writing was really her thing. And she loved playing sports, but she really didn't think she could have a career choice in that department. Quidditch was fun, but she wasn't very good at it, and though she was really good at other sports, she was interested in taking those up as a course of employment.
"Beauxbatons?" she asked curiously, not sure what it was. Assumption told her it was his previous school, but she didn't know whether it was muggle or magical. And it was a little sad that he didn't miss it, Felicity terribly missed her other school though she liked Hogwarts a lot. But at her other school she didn't have to put up with people putting a wand up to her.
"No, Celina and I only met last year," Felicity answered with a smile. Actually, there was only one person she knew before Hogwarts. "Alexander Cronon, from Hufflepuff, I knew him before coming here, but no one else."
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Connor Manning
Head Boy
Slytherin Seventh Year Quidditch Captain
something in the way
Posts: 737
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Post by Connor Manning on Apr 28, 2008 21:26:46 GMT -5
" Hm.. " Connor lightly hummed as he once again thought of the list of things he liked. He supposed that one of his favorite classes had to be Transfiguration. " Hobby-wise I'm into Quidditch, a couple of other sports, writing, and.. I s'pose my favorite class is Transfig. My mom's a writer, so I kind of know some stuff about the process and all. Quidditch, I'm okay at the sport but not great. " Connor wasn't always sure on what his mother wrote exactly, he just knew that some of it was information such as writing magical Encyclopedias. She also wrote for her own pleasure, stories and random articles for magazines.
When it came to sports he was more of a spectator rather than a participant. He did enjoy playing Quidditch, though. When Felicity questioned the term ' Beauxbatons ' he assumed she didn't know what it was. A lot of people didn't, not knowing much about other wizarding schools other than their own. Then again, he doubted many people knew too much about Hogwarts, either. " Beauxbatons is another wizarding school. " He informed her with a small nod.
" Really? You two seem really close. " It usually took Connor a while to become close friends with them, but Felicity and Celina did appear to be rather close. She mentioned the Hufflepuff lad, and Connor briefly remembered him from the Prefect's meeting. " I didn't know anyone before coming here. Making friends seemed terrifying. " He confided with a small laugh at how he had been during his fifth year.
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Post by Felicity Hjort on Apr 29, 2008 0:30:06 GMT -5
When he started on about sports, Felicity perked up a little. She loved athletics and was a little surprised the only sport actually played at the school was Quidditch, surely there were more wizarding games than just that. Her mum wasn't a fan of sports though she supported Felicity's love of them, but it was a little sad for the girl that there were no get-together pick-up sports for everyone to enjoy now and then. Over the summer she wasn't able to participate in the neighborhood round-up for Saturday morning sports because she'd had to work, and that meant a long time without doing it. Maybe she could talk some people into doing it with her though...
"I like Transfiguration as well," Felicity told him with a happy smile on her face. It was a fun class and the only wand class she did well enough in. "But you like writing? Maybe you could work for the Daily Prophet? Or maybe become a famous author that only requires Hogwarts students to buy your books for nearly every class?" The last part was a bit of a tease, but she wouldn't minded knowing that one of her classmates had become a famous author.
"Oh," was all she had to say about his previous school. She knew there were other ones, Drew had even discussed his parents schools with her, but she had yet to know all of them. Was it even possible to know all of the wizarding schools? She wasn't sure.
"We are close," Felicity told him with a smile. They'd met at the right time and Felicity had pushed enough so Celina wouldn't be able to get away from her very easily. They'd shared in a lot of memories together, confided in one another on most occasions, and knew each other's pasts pretty well. Promises and sacrifices were made between the two, but they were awfully close in a year's span.
"Really?" she asked him about friend-making. She had no problems making friends, she wasn't very shy and she didn't mind making a fool of herself normally, but then again, that was all before January. Had she changed so much since then that it wasn't the same anymore?
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Connor Manning
Head Boy
Slytherin Seventh Year Quidditch Captain
something in the way
Posts: 737
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Post by Connor Manning on Apr 29, 2008 20:22:22 GMT -5
Connor had figured out that Transfiguration was a generally well-liked class. He didn't know the reasons why, it was a rather hard class when it came down to it, but Connor enjoyed it all the same. At times it appeared that everyone liked the class, which was fine by him. He would rather everyone like a class than dislike it.
He gave a small nod when she went on about him perhaps working for the Daily Prophet. Or an author who's books were needed by Hogwarts Students. He grinned at her little joke, saying, " Well, I wouldn't mind that at all. I'd imagine those authors have got some rather decent spare change kicking around. " Some authors didn't do so well, some did decent, like Connor's mom. And some were just plain rich, whether it was because the book was just really good or it was needed by Hogwarts students at the beginning of every new year.
Even through talking about careers and such, Connor still couldn't make heads or tails of what he wanted to do. There were so many options, so many ideas.. It was hard to focus on one thing he would like to do. ' We are close. ' Connor thought it was rather nice, the two of them being close. He was rather glad that he had stumbled upon Felicity in the lounge, because if he and Celina hung out more as he wanted, then he would be seeing the Gryffindor around more as well. It was best to get along with everyone.
He nodded again and confirmed what he had said about making friends. " Sure, I was so used to Beauxbatons and all my friends there that it was strange to think of having to make new friends. It wasn't hard, though. " It had been much easier than he would have thought to make friends at Hogwarts.
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Post by Felicity Hjort on May 1, 2008 15:50:43 GMT -5
"True, they likely do," Felicity agreed. Having grown up with not a whole lot of money, she wasn't sure what she'd even do with it if she actually had it. Pay bills, put some away, store some somewhere, and maybe buy something she'd always wanted. But what was something she wanted? As far as she was concerned she had everything she could ever really need; a house, family, friends, someone she really really loved and who loved her, as long as bills were paid and food was on the table she didn't need a whole lot of money. Though, it was sure to come in handy some point in life. What if when she had children they wanted to go to university? She would have to help send them, well, if they all lived in the muggle world. Did wizards have any type of university? She'd have to research it.
"Would it be grand to have extra money lying around for every whim?" she wondered aloud. Would he think so?
"I've been friends with most of my friends for a long time, too," she told him, though not clarifying whether she was muggleborn or half-blood, she knew there was no way he thought she was a pureblood, she wasn't that good of an actress. Actually, she wasn't any good at all, even drama class usually had her working the backstage. "But I thought it would be a neat new adventure to dive into. I mean, you don't know who you'd meet until you've met them, right? Maybe someday Celina will be a famous harpist and Drew the most well-known Auror, and you might be the author all the school kids will be buying books from."
A large smile plastered her face as she grinned up at Connor. It was possible, she didn't really know him but maybe someday she wouldn't be wishing she hadn't gotten the chance to talk to him because here they were.
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Connor Manning
Head Boy
Slytherin Seventh Year Quidditch Captain
something in the way
Posts: 737
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Post by Connor Manning on May 3, 2008 23:07:49 GMT -5
Connor’s mind wandered to the authors he had remembered buying books from in the years past. A lot of times the school required that all of the years have the same series by the same author. He supposed it would work out well for both the author and the school. It would reduce the amount of competition for school-books, though. Which brought another question to the Slytherin’s mind, why didn’t Hogwarts buy books and lend them out to the students for classes? He had heard of some muggle schools doing as such, they would give the students their own books, and then collect them at the end of the year. He supposed it would be rather costly for all of the students.
Connor’s attention worked its way back over to Felicity when she started speaking again. “ I think.. that would be rather nice. “ His family was well off, but his parents saved a lot of what they made. Connor and his sister hadn’t grown up spoiled, but they did have a somewhat more than average childhood. His parents were actually rather strict about money, teaching both children to work for what they got. He recalled one summer working off and on for his mother to clean their entire house including the messy old garage and basement. Connor had rearranged everything from the dusty old picture frames to the old forgotten boxes. He had done it all, among other things, to get his ipod. He knew he was fortunate, some people did those types of chores without any sort of reward at all.
He grinned at her idealized picture of the future. It would be nice, and interesting of course. Connor didn’t quite know if he could see himself as an author, but then again he wasn’t sure yet what he wanted to do. “ And you could be a great… dragon tamer. The first one to ‘ tame the beasts. ‘ “ He said with a short laugh. He knew it was impossible to ‘ tame the beasts, ‘ but a fun thought all the same.
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