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Post by Henry Lordings Jr. on Jul 21, 2008 5:20:26 GMT -5
The truth of the matter was, that, while he had an identical career ambition to Drew's, Henry's parents had always been enormously supportive of his desire to be an Auror. Henry's parents, like all parents (Henry assumed), were concerned that he might come to harm in the line of his duties as an Auror, but other than that, only his father had anything to say against the decision; Henry Lordings Sr., Henry's father, and one of the world's best weapons and body armor designers, had always rather thought Henry's talent was going to waste in a career so militaristic in nature, feeling that Henry might have made a better politician, or, perhaps, teacher, but always presented it as an opinion and not an opposition to Henry's chosen career path.
"My folks aren't too thrilled about it, my mom especially," Drew said with a small shrug. "She's trying to get me to go home saying I can study there, but they have a better program here. Besides, if I go home, it'll just be easier for her to bug me about doing something else."
It was an awkward thing to have to answer, and Henry was painfully aware of it. If Henry told Drew that his parents had always supported him, then it was liable to sound pompous, arrogant, and perhaps a little snobbish, regardless of the tone with which it was said; On the other hand, if he said something like Yeah, I know, it would be a downright lie, and not a lie that deserves to be told either, but one that might lure his company into a conversation of misconceptions. Deciding that neither was quite the right way to go, Henry said.
"So what do you make of the ban on Defense Against the Dark Arts?"
Henry was fully aware of how random a question this was; It was, in the current political climate, tantamount to asking someone you do not know who they voted for in an election, it was just rude, and you generally tried to avoid it. Hoping against hope that this had not turned Drew against him in some way, Henry awaited Drew's answer anxiously, albeit a well disguised anxiousness.
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Drew Thornton
Ministry of Magic
Auror-in-Training
I didn't do it and you can't prove otherwise...
Posts: 14,114
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Post by Drew Thornton on Jul 21, 2008 15:44:57 GMT -5
Drew shrugged back, knowing it wasn't a good idea to show all your cards to someone you just met. The truth was, he was furious about it and had spent a good amount of time in Raynor's office, trying to figure out how to work around it. In the end, he hands were tied, so Drew and a few others had come up with their own solution.
"It kind of sucks seeing as I should probably be taking it if I want to get into the Academy," Drew told him. "But I'm doing a lot of studying on my own. They have the prospective Aurors take the NEWT at the Ministry over the summer and I should do okay."
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Post by Henry Lordings Jr. on Jul 21, 2008 19:55:37 GMT -5
Henry nodded, so that's how they were doing it now?, having prospective Aurors take the Defense N.E.W.T.s after they were out of school...Wait until the first and second years are graduating and they can't get a defense N.E.W.T. between them. said a savage little voice in his head. It was a mark of how much he disliked the Ministry's position as of late that such a surge of anger well up inside him.
Why is it you want to work for these people, again?
Ignoring his mental question, Henry looked around at Drew and said.
"I've always quite fancied being an Auror; It's the only career I have ever really considered."
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Drew Thornton
Ministry of Magic
Auror-in-Training
I didn't do it and you can't prove otherwise...
Posts: 14,114
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Post by Drew Thornton on Jul 21, 2008 20:11:41 GMT -5
Drew had to laugh. "Not me," he told the other boy. "When I was a kid, I was determined to be a Quidditch star... or a Dragon trainer. I think at one time I considered being President also." His family also insisted he had wanted to be a T-rex when he was three, but Drew didn't buy it and kept that to himself.
"That's pretty cool though," Drew continued, knowing that most fifth years were just starting to figure it out. Even deciding at 12 was considered young. The Ravenclaw had hardly the focus to think that seriously at any younger age. Maybe a T-Rex aspiration wasn't such a stretch after all.
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Post by Henry Lordings Jr. on Jul 22, 2008 7:36:36 GMT -5
Henry smiled to himself as Drew spoke; He remembered all too well the day he had made the decision that he wanted to be an Auror. Henry's father, ever obsessed with all things magical, had been using his newfound status as a Need-to-know (A ministry term for a muggle who has wizarding family and cannot avoid knowing about the magical world) to go to the IDF matches whenever he could. It had been the 2002 International Dueling Federation's world finals; Henry remembered his father taking him with him, as it had been almost a week since he had gotten his Salem acceptance letter, and his father and mother wanted to expose Henry to the magical world a bit.
Henry and his father had sat in the third row from the dueling ring, and were in what could have been considered a neutral audience, however, as it had been a match between Eileen Smith of the U.S., and Hans Erstürmen of Germany (One of the bitterest dueling rivalries of all time), there had been plenty die hard supporters of both sides present.
In the fifth round, Erstürmen used an illegal shocking curse on Smith, and had laid the groundwork for what happened next. There was a full on riot that had broken out between Erstürmen supporters, and Smith supporters; Though the competitors themselves simply stood by in shock as their fans jinxed, cursed, hexed, or otherwise spelled each other into submission.
Fortunately for the innocent crowd present, who had not been spared the slings and arrows of the die hard group's spells, someone at the American Minitstry of Magic had had the decent sense to send a squad of Aurors to police the proceedings. Henry still remembered the Auror captain, a man named Jordan Williamson, running up on stage, and, with a bang like an 88mm cannon that shook dust from the ceiling, and caused a tangible shock-wave to pass through the air, brought the crowd back into an orderly state.
There was something about that man that had captured Henry's attention, and it wasn't the fact he cast a spell that would put the sound of a artillery piece to shame. The fact that that man had single handedly brought order to a room of hundreds of battling bitter enemies had entranced Henry; That kind of force for peace, justice, and order was something that Henry respected, and wanted to be.
"So what changed your mind?" asked Henry curiously, he realized it might have been a rather personal question, but that did nothing to satisfy his curiosity.
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Drew Thornton
Ministry of Magic
Auror-in-Training
I didn't do it and you can't prove otherwise...
Posts: 14,114
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Post by Drew Thornton on Jul 22, 2008 17:59:18 GMT -5
Drew remembered the day presicely. He was twelve years old and bored out of his brains in Defense class. He was already well practiced in the spells Raynor was going over, so Drew busied himself with flirting with the pretty brunette Gryffindor in the next seat. Of course he got busted and by the end of the class, he had picked his career.
But the details about how he reached that decision weren't really something he cared to share with a guy he just met. Felicity, Hiro, and Charlie knew, but they were his best friends and he knew they weren't about to judge him over the incident.
"I guess I just grew up," he answered with a shrug. There was enough going on in the world to make it a valid, if not complete answer.
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Post by Henry Lordings Jr. on Jul 24, 2008 17:17:14 GMT -5
"Funny how that happens, isn't it?" said Henry with a wry smile; He was reminded forcibly of his cousin, James, who had had aspirations of being a Ballerina when he was three, and had had many changes in desire over the years, finally settling on a career in politics with an ultimate goal of being Prime Minister (Much to his father's delight); Odd choices, perhaps, for a wizard, but as James was a muggle, ballerina, and prime minister were perfectly normal career aspirations, albeit ones that were lightyears away from each other.
Henry was sure that he, himself, might have had some kind of career aspirations in the muggle world before he discovered he was a wizard, though he couldn't remember exactly what those might have been. He did faintly remember fancying the position of Maintenance Officer at his father's factory once; He was quite sure that it probably had something to do with the fact that all of the factory's machines must have appeared as large toys to him when he was younger, and the man whose rather tedious job it was to maintain them must have appeared as though he got to play with these devices day in and day out.
Casting off this train of thought, Henry returned to the present where he was still in Drew's presence, and undoubtedly looking extremely foolish in his reminiscence. He shook himself out of his reverie mentally, and returned to the topic at hand.
"So, How do you reckon you'll do on your N.E.W.T.s in Defense?" asked Henry, he was curious at how a whole years worth of study lacking Defense Against the Dark Arts training would have effected the seventh year, not that he believed a single student in the school wasn't practicing in some secret way.
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Drew Thornton
Ministry of Magic
Auror-in-Training
I didn't do it and you can't prove otherwise...
Posts: 14,114
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Post by Drew Thornton on Jul 26, 2008 1:50:10 GMT -5
It was his NEWT and the very cornerstone of his hopeful carreer. If he tanked it, he wouldn't get into the academy, wouldn't be an Auror, and wouldn't see his asipirations to fruition. At the same time, he wasn't overly worried about being ill-prepared. He had read every book in the school library, every book in Raynor's office, and all of his older sister's notes. He had even raided his grandparents' library for anything and everything he could find on Defense and the Dark Arts. He knew the information. At this point, it was all a matter of not freaking out when he was sitting in front of the test.
"I'm actually more concerned about my History NEWT," he told Henry truthfully. Even so, he had been doing his own extra work to keep up with what he should have been taught over the last year. He didn't need the score to get into the academy, but he still wanted to do well.
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Post by Henry Lordings Jr. on Jul 26, 2008 18:36:21 GMT -5
Henry couldn't suppress a laugh at this; A large, and heavily embellished T appeared in his mind's eye. The T-mark he had earned on his History of Magic O.W.L. was one of the only two blemishes on his otherwise exceptional school record. He remembered quite vividly the many hours he had spent in the History of Magic classrooms. The truth of the matter was that he had intentionally failed the History exam, he had foreseen the amount of time he would need to effectively learn defense in secret, and had sacrificed his grade in both History of Magic, and Divination, the two subjects that had the largest workloads, and were unnecessary for his aspirations to be an Auror. He did somewhat regret it, he had always gotten good marks in both those classes, but the sacrifice had been necessary, and now that he had his new work load bearing down upon him, he was glad he had made that decision.
Henry had always been good with exams, never failed one in his life, unless he meant too, of course, though it had nothing to do with how much he studied; He was just lucky when it came to exams, in his primary school years at the muggle private school, Henry had filled in the bubbles on his answer sheet in the pattern of a Mickey Mouse head out of boredom, and had received an 87% on his American History test for it.
"Yes, well, I'm quite glad to be rid of that particular subject." Henry lied, he had always been rather partial to the secrets history had hidden, but it was unnecessary, and he had to let it go. "I've personally been enjoying the advanced potions classes."
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Drew Thornton
Ministry of Magic
Auror-in-Training
I didn't do it and you can't prove otherwise...
Posts: 14,114
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Post by Drew Thornton on Jul 27, 2008 2:45:36 GMT -5
Drew had never been a big fan of History class, understanding the whys and wherefores were important, enjoying the stories of adventure and intrigue, but finding the memorization of dates to be a waste of time. His memory was good though and he usually passed his exams with very little effort. He knew that passing a test was mostly a matter of just listening in class and really not all that hard. Heck, he sucked at Astronomy and still managed to pass his OWL. He didn't say this though, knowing that some kids just struggled more in classes. Aside from that, Drew's concern with History this year was that the prof was an idiot who didn't even teach. If Drew hadn't been so good at learning from books, or if this had been an applied class, he would have been sunk.
"Tapia's pretty decent," Drew answered, thinking that the Potions Mistress was probably one of the best they had at the school. She knew her stuff and challenged them to do their best. Sure, she had a tendancy to favor the Huffles, but she wasn't too terribly unfair about it.
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Post by Henry Lordings Jr. on Jul 27, 2008 6:27:54 GMT -5
Potions, easily Henry's second favorite subject; There was something so very satisfactory about sitting down with a range of ingredients in a nice quiet room, and concoct a potion that can force the truth, induce love, cure petrification, and even make one so lucky that he need never hope for anything again. Henry had spent his entire student career trying to perfect his knowledge of these processes, hone his skill in the brewing arts that have been perfected over thousands of years. He had, in secret, taken time to work on this as well, and test theories; He had stolen many hours in the Room of Requirement to work on his knowledge, and was certain that he had made many innovations with regards to the brewing of the potions for his own personal use. The funny thing about the whole business was that he had not ever actually used any of his potions, he just made them to make them. His hobby had cost him a bit, he had an unusually large store of potions ingredients that he carried with him to and from school, all stowed safely away in a wooden cigar box that he had enchanted with several basic spells to expand the interior, and to make it incredibly light.
He looked about again, still no sign of Professor Snow, so Henry moved to a new, and promising topic. Charms.
"So what do you think about Charms?" asked Henry, the whole conversation thus far had only absorbed fifteen minutes, though Henry didn't think he could, or should stretch the encounter much further. "Reckon you'll do all right by them?"
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Drew Thornton
Ministry of Magic
Auror-in-Training
I didn't do it and you can't prove otherwise...
Posts: 14,114
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Post by Drew Thornton on Jul 30, 2008 0:14:23 GMT -5
Drew had been readying himself for a bit more Potions talk, but again the subject changed. The Ravenclaw wasn't sure if he should be worried or not, wondering if this new guy was fishing for some sort of information or if the guy was just making small talk.
"Charms is good," Drew anwered, not exactly sure what Henry was getting at. Drew had always excelled at any class that involved a wand and Snow was a decent enough teacher so the Ravenclaw really wasn't worried about that class at all.
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Post by Henry Lordings Jr. on Jul 30, 2008 5:57:49 GMT -5
"Reason I mention the two is the book I was reading." said Henry "Ancient Potion-Making Techniques of the Orient; Found it in the used books at Flourish and Blotts. It has some interesting stuff, you know, one of the things is a way that you can supposedly control the effects of your potions after you've taken them if you cast certain charms on the potions at certain stages. Supposedly, if you cast a Longevity Charm on a Polyjuice Potion at exactly the right moment during the brewing process, the potion will last forever until you cast the counter-charm to the Longevity Charm on yourself."
Henry had indeed been perusing the old book for information on old techniques. Personally, Henry had found the tips on better stirring techniques and adjustments to recipes vastly more helpful, but as he hadn't been brewing any polyjuice potion lately, he couldn't exactly test the theory. Still, the idea of a potion whose effects would last forever until you turned it off was intriguing, he could just imagine all the crooks that would like to take Felix Felicis and have it work forever.
"Course...there's a good chance it's just a steaming load, isn't there?" said Henry "But still...it's an interesting possibility isn't it?"
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Drew Thornton
Ministry of Magic
Auror-in-Training
I didn't do it and you can't prove otherwise...
Posts: 14,114
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Post by Drew Thornton on Jul 31, 2008 21:31:22 GMT -5
"The author didn't happen to be a guy named Lockhart, did he?" Drew asked with a small sympathetic smile on his face. Early on in his studies he had gone through the whole set of Lockhart books, finding them confusing just from their contradictions, not to mention they tended to go off on random topics such as hair care and smiling awards. When he went to his grandfather, the resident history expert, Grandad Thornton told him the books were a load of crap. Raynor confimed this assesment, but with different words and after a little more digging, Drew discovered the man was in the mental ward of St. Mungo's.
Henry's book didn't quite sound like one of Lockhart's, but it came awfully close. "Eastern magic is a bit different than Western magic," Drew told the younger boy. "If they're discussing Western spells and potions in a book claiming to be from the Orient, I'd probably take it all with a grain of salt."
"I really don't think Charms work with Potions quite like that either," he continued, sorry he had to burst the guy's bubble. In his own research he had heard of people taking the Polyjuice Potion for years and years to keep up a certain appearance. If it were as simple as casting a Charm on it, there would be no point to going through that hassle. "You can ask Tapia about it, but most spells and potions have limitations. I guess it's nature's way of keeping people from abusing them."
"But yeah... interesting possibility," he concluded, thinking the ramifications would be disasterous. He knew how easy it was to impersonate someone else and kind of mess with their life a little. Imagining someone doing it on a more permanent basis was downright scary.
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Post by Henry Lordings Jr. on Jul 31, 2008 22:12:39 GMT -5
Henry smiled a wry smile once more.
"Gilderoy Lockhart?" said Henry "No, no, I'm afraid this particular tome is far too old to be his handiwork."
Gilderoy Lockhart had always been, in Henry's eyes, a pompous, arrogant, and generally talentless git. The man's tenure as professor of Defense had been nothing short of a joke, and the man's career had ended with him being admitted to the long term residents ward at St. Mungo's spell damage division; Considering all the things he had 'done', Henry found it hard to believe he would be bested by a quite easily stoppable memory charm. Henry had always found the theory that Lockhart was a fraud a far more likely scenario.
"No, I wouldn't be giving it much thought either, but there are several pieces of information in the book that I have been able to prove most accurate." said Henry "And I would say that the Polyjuice Potion has spread itself far enough to allow for developments from areas in the orient...as a matter of fact...I'm not entirely sure that it could be considered a western potion, it's just as likely to have been developed in the orient as anywhere else. For that matter, the techniques of the orient are just the book's subject, as there's no stated author, there's no way to know where the book was originally written."
Henry paused for a moment, then continued.
"I find most spells and potions are only as powerful as you think they can be."
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