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Post by Fiona Faine on Apr 21, 2009 1:28:53 GMT -5
The tall ceiling of the castle hallways weren't as sinister as they had been in September when Fiona's feet shuffled along them, echoing softly. Learning that she was a witch had been one isolated incident, but since she'd traveled on the Hogwarts express, she was constantly finding stranger and more amazing thing along the way. It was almost like living a fairy tale... except for the homework part. Now two months into the school year, she was adjusting well, and was getting along with most of her classmates, though her housemates were confusing sometimes. A few had asked her if both her parents were magical, and there were a number of Slytherins that seemed shocked when she told them that neither of them were. It had taken her a few days to work up the courage, but she was glad when she finally asked someone why they had reacted that way. The concept still confused her a bit, but she was now more careful about answering questions about herself.
The classmates that had enlightened her had also stirred up a bit of curiosity. History of Magic seemed the most likely place to look, but they were talking about goblins in class at the moment. An older Ravenclaw had recommended Hogwarts, A History to her, and now Fiona found herself scanning the shelves for the right section. It frustrated her a little bit that not only was there so much information to know about herself, but that there were so many other kids her age that already knew it. She had a look of determination when she reached the right isle and squinted to scan through the titles. She stopped dead in the middle of the isle, frowning at the book she was looking for. Of course. It was about 4 shelves up and way out of her reach, especially for her who was smaller than most of her fellow First Years. How was anyone supposed to learn stuff like this?
Suddenly inspired, she took out her wand from her robes and tried to recall all the instructions from the Charms lesson. Swish and Flick, right? She waved her wand and cast, "Wingardium Leviosa" in her tiny voice. She looked up expectantly, but saw the book barely twitch under her power. She huffed a little in frustration, placing her hands on her hips. She had don better in class during the less, and she wasn't sure why it wasn't working.
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Post by Henry Lordings Jr. on Apr 21, 2009 3:05:55 GMT -5
Henry's walk through the halls of the school toward his ultimate destination within the library was a bittersweet one at best. The sudden realization that exactly two months had passed already in his final year at Hogwarts had struck him like a freight train, and had ruined his good mood. He wasn't angry or anything, but he felt quite downhearted about the thought of the end of his educational career, and the end of the last year of his residence at a place that was, perhaps, his favorite place in the world.
Five years was far too short a time to spend in such a wondrous place. He found himself cursing the time he had spent in the Salem Magical Institute. He found he could remember every detail of that boring, uninspiring place even now. Every hall, identical to all the rest, came back to him as clearly as though he was standing in them at that very moment. Their tiny archives that could hardly be considered a library, which contained only textbooks, was, perhaps, the most haunting image of dullness.
Hogwarts was, in contrast with the institutionalism of SMI, a symphony of the unexpected and inspiring. He almost envied the first years who were just now starting their educations. He knew Hogwarts now; he knew it's halls, he knew it's classrooms, he knew it's grounds, he even knew many of it's secrets. His knowledge of the library was, however, most impressive of these. He had always had the innate ability to memorize large volumes of books, and the Hogwarts library served this ability with shocking effectiveness. Though five school years had been spent memorizing the place, he still didn't know the place front to back as one might have expected him to.
His desire to slake his curiosity found him walking almost absently through the doors of the library yet again on a day of freedom for him. As he had no prefect duties to which he needed to attend, he decided to devote the day to the expansion of his knowledge of the library; a task that was impossible to truly complete.
He moved through the library with the thought of looking up a few little details in the history section, a place he hadn't delved into in a long time. He passed row after empty row until he heard a tiny little voice chanting one of the most basic, and initially tricky, spells in the wizard's arsenal. He found his way into the isle devoted to school history and saw small individual looking intently up at a row high above them. A smile split his face at the sight; he had forgotten long ago how tiny he had been in his first year at SMI. He had probably had an inch or two of height on the girl in the isle when he was her age, but he till had had the same problem she was now having on more than one occasion.
He turned down the isle and scanned shelves opposite to those she was looking at. He ran his index finger along a row of books, but he was really trying to covertly determine which of the tomes on the rows outside of the girl's reach that she was trying to get a hold of. It didn't take long for him to figure out that she was intently trying to get a hold of a fairly basic requisition for a muggle-born student: Hogwarts, a History.
He turned, reached clean over her, and pulled the large tome down, offering it to her, spine first. He had affixed a kindly expression on his face, and straitened his glasses while saying: "This what you wanted?"
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Post by Fiona Faine on Apr 21, 2009 17:59:14 GMT -5
Standing there, Fiona tried to remember every detail of the lesson, and couldn't figure out where she had gone wrong. She lifted her wand again, and was about to recast the spell when a very large boy appeared at the end of her isle and walked towards her, smiling. Her wand hand fell slightly at the sight, and she bashfully stepped back as the boy reached up and plucked the book off the shelf and offered it to her. Big blue eyes look up at the boy with a bit of apprehension. "Yes," she said trying not to sound cross, though a small fold appeared on her brow. She glanced at the book before accepting it, not realizing how big it was. Being so small made everything appear much larger that it was at first glance. "I was going to get it down," she said defensively. She hadn't asked for help, but now she had to be good like her mother expected. "But thank you," she added genuinely. She actually was grateful that someone had helped her, she had a small mental image of her spell going wrong and more than one book toppling over to land on her head.
Now that she had safely gotten hold of what she was looking for, she actually took at the boy who had helped her. He was certainly much taller than she was, but she could also tell that he was much older. In muggle grade school, no one had ever been more than 3 years older than her, so living and going to school with legal adults was something that had taken her a while to get used to, though it still seemed odd to her sometimes. But the more she watched them, the more impatient she was about learning the next spell. She was excited about using her wand like they did almost to the point whee she studied almost every day. Of course, there were days where studying was the last thing she thought about, but she had her motivated moments where she got her work done on time. Her eyes lingered on the red crest on his robes for a split second before her own shy smile appeared on her face. The Gryffindor's were usually nice to her, even the older ones.
She opened the book to a random page and was put off by the tiny font that told the history of the school. The interest she had carried with her when entering the library was now knocked down a bit by the large task of reading this whole book. She looked up at the boy with a bit of disbelief. "Have you read this before?" Who would want to do that?
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Post by Henry Lordings Jr. on Apr 21, 2009 19:14:12 GMT -5
"Several times," Henry said with a nod. "it's an excellent source of information about Hogwarts and the achievements of it's graduates for anyone who can wade through it...it is a little dense."
Hogwarts, a History was the kind of gold standard text that was nearly impossible to avoid reading. Eventually somebody was bound to hound you into perusing the thing, though it was a daunting amount of information. Newer revised versions which included the information about the second Voldemortian War and how it effected Hogwarts were even more daunting a task. Henry wasn't at all surprised by the girl's reaction to the book's contents.
"If there was something in particular that you were looking for information wise, I might be able to help."
It was fairly easy to tell when someone was slightly overwhelmed by a particular text. Henry had always found that asking someone for answers was much easier than perusing page after page of dense information. His almost religious scouring of the library's information over the course of five years was purely a hobby. When he really wanted to know something, and he needed an answer quickly, he rarely turned to a book for said answer.
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Post by Fiona Faine on Apr 22, 2009 2:10:53 GMT -5
Fiona's jaw dropped a little when the boy said he'd read it more that once? He couldn't possibly be that boring. She glanced at the page in font of her and felt her eyes cross a little bit. It barely had even pictures. Maybe this page was just particularly wordy. She flipped to the next couple of pages, and saw the occasional image in motion, but still found that the proportion wasn't to her liking. She wondered how long it would take her to look through it, and was trying to decide which parts she was really interested in. Maybe she would read other parts of it later, but she couldn't imagine House History and things related to it to be too long. At least that's what she hoped.
She looked up again at the older boy and tilted her head, considering his offer. Some of the older Slytherins had not been very nice to her, especially when it pertained to the Slytherin History. There were others who were more than nice, but the other experiences had her worried. She looked at the large book again, and decided she really didn't want to spend forever trying to find what she was looking for. "Do you know where the section is for the History of the school Houses? You know, like Slytherin and stuff?" She shifted the weight of the book to the other arm, but found it uncomfortable because she still had a hold of her wand. "Ugh, I need a table." She put her arms around the large volume and started walking towards the table at the end of the isle where she'd deposited her bag.
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Post by Henry Lordings Jr. on Apr 22, 2009 12:59:08 GMT -5
"Right over there," said Henry, indicating the indicating the area in which stood the studying tables. "go ahead and grab a seat and I'll pick some stuff out that might help..."
Henry picked a few small volumes off of the shelves that he thought would be a bit more helpful than the basic overviews of the four houses that Hogwarts, a History offered. After he finished collecting the proper volumes, he made his way over to the study section where the tables stood, and quickly found the girl he had been talking to, the large text of Hogwarts historical information lain open before her on the table at which she sat.
"Right then, these should help out if you want to know about Slytherin. This one..." he held up a small, black leather tome emblazoned, in silver leaf, with the seal of Slytherin House. "this one is The House of Snakes, it's a very detailed accounting of Slytherin history and it's most prominent alumni."
He placed this small book down onto the table and slid it across to the girl. He then held up a rather more tattered looking volume whose spine bore peeling gold letters which formed the words: The War of Four.
"This one here is about the period that was called 'The Great Divide' by some. It was essentially the time during which Salazar Slytherin tried, more aggressively, to force his views upon the other founders of the school and enact strict blood restrictions upon those accepted into the school. It never actually turned into a war, but the final result was that Salazar left and never returned. It's a fairly interesting read."
He now had only on book in his hands. The small, green silk covered volume bore no title nor on it's front, nor on it's spine. It's identity was known to him only because he had read it before.
"This book is a biography of your house founder by an unknown author. Whoever wrote it obviously did not want credit for doing so, and, because of this, we really can't tell how accurate the information is for certain, but based off of the true historical information we know, I would guess that it's pretty accurate. It's called The King of Serpents. While it doesn't have a very inventive name, it does provide a unique insight into a man who was otherwise pretty mysterious."
He took the seat opposite the girl and slid the stack of books that now rested on the table across toward her. Though these books numbered three, they didn't even come close to being the size of Hogwarts, a History, which was a monster of a book by any standard.
"As for that," Henry indicated the large, open text before the girl. "I believe all the information about Slytherin house is between page two-hundred forty-nine, and two-hundred fifty-seven. Of course, as I've said, I've read that one, and I have read all of these, so I can answer any questions you might have...at least, I'm pretty sure I can."
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Post by Fiona Faine on Apr 22, 2009 19:23:53 GMT -5
Lifting the book in her tiny arms to place it on the wooden study bench, Fiona was satisfied that someone was going to help her out. Her interest was steadily diminishing with every step she had to carry the huge tome. She let the boy lead her to the closest table, but then suddenly found herself alone. She watched him walk away and consult with the many shelves nearest to them until he returned with more books. What was he thinking? This book was large and intimidating enough, but he'd decided to come back with more references than she had been ready to look at. Before she could ask him what they were, he was already talking at rate that barely got information into her head. She wasn't dull, but was growing more disinterested and a bit overwhelmed. "Wow," she said after he had given his best summaries. "I guess I didn't expect so much information about it. You've really read all of these? More than once?" There seemed to be so many better things to do than to read so much, but she supposed she would still be stuck trying to get the book off the shelf if the boy wasn't so smart.
She moved to open the largest volume and turn to the page he had told her about, and was infinitely relieved to see the crests of each House adorning the first page of the chapter. She scanned the page, and looked up to him, hoping that between the 8 pages and the older boy's brain, she could avoid the other books he had pulled out. "I dunno," she said, realizing that she hadn't quite defined her search. "I guess I just wanted to know what's so important about having magical or muggle parents," she told him. "Like what's the difference between a half blood and a mudblood and stuff." The words left her mouth casually, and she took her seat to make herself comfortable. She had only heard the word used twice, once in the bathroom and again somewhere in the common room. There was obviously a distinction to be made, and she wanted to find out.
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Post by Henry Lordings Jr. on Apr 22, 2009 19:58:04 GMT -5
"I guess I didn't expect so much information about it. You've really read all of these? More than once?"
"I've read all of them at least once. Hogwarts, a History is the only one I've read multiple times, mainly because the information is updated periodically."
"I guess I just wanted to know what's so important about having magical or muggle parents, Like what's the difference between a half blood and a mudblood and stuff."
One of Henry's eyebrows raised at the mention of the term 'mudblood' but he figured that the girl just didn't know the difference in the terms, and, especially, how very insulting that term could be.
"Firstly, you want to be careful bandying about the term mudblood." Henry said, looking at her somewhat more sternly than he had intended. "It's a very, very foul name for anyone with no magical parentage. The term itself means nothing less than dirty blood. Some individuals of pure blood lineage like to think of themselves as superior to all others, and use the term freely. I would suggest heavily against it."
His expression softened quite a bit as he continued...
"Aside from heritage, there is no difference whatsoever between a pure blood, a half blood, or a muggle born. I have known many muggle born individuals who are better at magic than any of the pure bloods that looked down upon them. Be wary of opinions of blood status; they often have no substance."
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Post by Fiona Faine on Apr 23, 2009 0:07:58 GMT -5
Glancing at the older Gryffindor, she couldn't help the look of awe that painted her small face. He was apparently very smart, and didn't find all this ridiculous reading to be a task. Maybe he read really fast or skipped pages like she did sometimes. She glanced at the Gryffindor crest at the page before her and perked a tiny eyebrow as the lion roared silently at her. She thought the Ravenclaws were supposed to be really smart. If he was this smart, then the Ravenclaws must be geniuses. She was glad she hadn't been sorted with them, because she didn't like studying much, and they probably would have kicked her out.
She looked up again when he gently chided her for using that particular term so loosely. The stern look on his face worried her and she wondered if he was going to shout at her. She listened to his explanation, and her jaw dropped slightly at the definition. She had barely understood the conversations she'd heard, since she hadn't really meant to eavesdrop, but now that he talked to her about it, she could now remember the unkind tone in which they were said. Had they been talking about her? "I'm sorry," she pleaded softly. "I... I didn't know. I just heard some girls in the bathroom say it. I didn't know what it was, honest." She clutched the edges of the book before her, worried that she had angered him, but listened quietly when he continued.
"You mean... muggleborns can be better?" He had provoked her interest again with the possibility of becoming a good witch, which was all she wanted.
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Post by Henry Lordings Jr. on Apr 23, 2009 1:16:48 GMT -5
"Some of the best were muggle borns." Henry said with a nod, straightening up slightly. "Blood status makes little difference to the cosmos. There are only two states in which humans can exist with relation to magic: with magical blood, or without, and neither is superior to the other; certainly, the purity of magical blood provides no advantage. We can all still perform magical acts, regardless of how many, if any, magical parents we had."
He was absolutely certain of one thing now: this girl was new in every way to the wizarding world.
"I'm guessing that you are a muggle born yourself?" He asked, straitening his spectacles with one hand. "I can't imagine you've had much exposure to the wizarding world before now, given your range of knowledge..."
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Post by Fiona Faine on Apr 23, 2009 1:34:57 GMT -5
Fiona's small fingers tugged at the edge of the page that started the chapter on House history, and listened intently. If she didn't pay enough attention, she reckoned she would have been lost. He sounded like he actually was a book, and if she allowed herself to space out, she'd probably lose track of what he was saying. Her other relaxed its grip on the binding now that she had a pretty good feeling that she wasn't going to be shouted at. Her relief grew when he explained that the number of magical relatives had little to do with power, though she wasn't sure if it applied to her. She didn't think she was a very good witch, though she did try.
A small frown appeared on her face in response to his question and comment. It wasn't fair that she was muggle born and that everyone else already knew everything about the Wizarding World. "Yes, I'm muggleborn," she told him, this time unable to conceal her irritation. "But I do know stuff. Loads of stuff," she added, trying to protect the little pride she had. Her head dropped and she tried to concentrate on the first paragraph. "So maybe other kids know more than me, but I think I can catch up." She wondered how many muggleborn students there really were. Only Slytherins had asked her so far, but she couldn't believe she was the only one.
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Post by Henry Lordings Jr. on Apr 23, 2009 2:00:58 GMT -5
"I'm sure you know plenty, and whatever you don't know, you'll catch onto soon enough." Henry said with a kind smile. "I didn't mean to imply that I thought you completely ignorant or anything. I just meant to say that, as most Slytherins were pure blooded, they generally know about things like blood status and such."
He drew out his pocket watch and examined it; it read half past noon. As soon as he had the time, he snapped it shut and tucked it away again. He then looked back up at the Slytherin girl once more.
"If I were you, I wouldn't concern myself with blood status; it tells us nothing, and anyone who would bother touting such is to arrogant to be paid any attention. It does go both ways, you know. Pure bloods are as likely to be squibs as muggles are to be wizards."
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Post by Fiona Faine on Apr 26, 2009 15:24:03 GMT -5
Deep blue eyes scanned the page before her, not really reading it before looking at the boy again. She remembered the slightly traumatizing experience of being sorted, and the hat talking to her before announcing her house. It was weird that the worn witch's had knew so much about her, but had been glad to have been initially welcomed to the table when she was sorted.
A tiny smile grew on her face when he assured her that blood status wasn't something of too much concern, and found the squib concept amusing. "Yea, I heard some other Slytherin's talking about stuff like that, but they get kind of quiet when someone walks past them." She shrugged, finding it mostly annoying than anything else. "Do Gryffindors talk a lot about it too?" She didn't like the idea of admitting she didn't know something, but he already suspected that her knowledge was lacking, it couldn't hurt. Her fellow Slytherins usually had something negative to say about the other houses, Gryffindor in particular, but Fiona didn't really see what they were saying.
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Post by Henry Lordings Jr. on Apr 26, 2009 18:12:49 GMT -5
"Well, it isn't the most common topic of conversation," Henry chuckled. "but it gets circulated plenty...uh...one moment..."
He had heard some scuffling and laughing from behind him and didn't need to see what was going on to tell what was happening. He slipped his wand out, and flicked it sideways at precisely the right time to freeze two first years where they stood as they ran, laughing, down the length of the library.
"This is a library, boys," Henry said, looking over at them sternly. "not a playground. No running, and keep the noise down."
He lifted the spell with another flick of his wand, and slipped it away a moment later. The two first years were looking at him slightly apprehensively as they shuffled away. One, who was a Hufflepuff, had looked as though he was going to say something, but the other, a boy Henry recognized as a new Gryffindor, had tapped his friend on the arm, and given him a warning glance. It was hard to spot, but both the first years had glanced at the small, crimson and gold pin bearing the letter P that was pinned to Henry's lapel.
"Sorry," Henry said, returning his attention to the Slytherin girl once more. "sometimes students don't know or won't follow the rules; part of the reason why I wouldn't wish the status of prefect on anyone: you can never just let it rest. Anyway, as I was saying: amusing, though they are, I have a feeling that most Gryffindors only find squibs funny because the majority of squibs are from pure blood families. Traditionally, Gryffindors and Slytherins represent the school's most outstanding rivalries. With the majority of Slytherins being pure bloods, I suppose it just naturally follows that Gryffindors would find a particular amusement in it..."
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Post by Fiona Faine on Apr 28, 2009 2:33:23 GMT -5
Normally observant, the bright "P" on the older boy's robes had slipped her attention. It wasn't until he interrupted himself to discipline the nearby first years. She suppressed a giggle as they were frozen in mid-escape and were reprimanded by Henry. There was plenty of room to run outside, even thought it was getting colder by the day; why would they pick the Library of all places? Not only was it too small in here, but it was an easy way of getting caught. Fiona may not be the brightest student, but at least she didn't do stuff that would get her caught in the act.
A dark snake slithered around the Slytherin crest as she listened to Henry, and she realized that he kind of made sense. She had not yet been on the bad end of a prank, but she had see red and green crests toss glances at each other. She didn't really understand it, but it didn't seem to bother Henry. "But I can still be friends with Gryffindors, right?" she asked, though her face immediately colored after she said it. "I mean, with Gryffindors my age." She didn't assume that Henry wanted to be her friend, and was only helping her because he was a prefect. "I have classes with them a lot"
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