This post's authors have general content warnings that might apply to the current post.
View Flat HTML
View Metadata
Search Post
Alli is deeply unimpressed with her House. She has the strong feeling she was put in Slytherin mostly to make up for the fact that no one would actually want to be there. Her mother has made flutteringly upset noises about her Sorting via owl, but Alli knows her mom; nothing is going to happen. She's in Slytherin, and there she stays.
Well. She doesn't have to take her House seriously. She determines quickly that her year mates are- not ideal, but at least mostly tolerable; older students are to be avoided. Carefully. She stays out of their way, and they ignore her. She approves of this setup all around.
Her first day does not get off to a good start. Binns is still teaching History of Magic (and how long has he been doing that? Alli's pretty sure her grandparents were in his class) and she cannot for the life of her summon the energy to care. He's not teaching her anything witches don't learn around the age they learn to talk, not yet. She slumps on her desk and ignores him. He ignores her right back. Small blessings, she supposes.
She arrives in Charms class not terribly optimistic. Ravenclaws are smart, they want to be good at everything. Sharing a class with them is not hardly going to make her look good. Oh well. Maybe there will be Ravenclaws who are more bearable than her housemates, that would at least improve her day.
She tromps over to a desk and slouches down to wait for class to start. Her books are in something of a careless pile, but they are at least all present (unlike a couple of the other Slytherins). The others do not quite avoid her, but there's a good number of empty desks near her. She hasn't bothered to join any of the budding cliques, and they don't really know what to do with her.
witch_please
"It requires extreme precision to work with high power wands!" he squeaks. "Concentrating on exactly how the spell should work, and not just the spell itself! Normally taught, hmm, let me see, fourth year? Practice will help, though! Practice, practice, practice." He eyes her pine wand. "First, with the pine, of course."
He puffs up, looking mildly indignant. "Still to practice! But with a borrowed wand. But with the wand, well- attention. Very careful attention! Focus on how much power the wand may have, at all times." He waves his arms rather wildly at the ceiling. "Since whatever power the wand normally draws is clearly too much!"
chanuphis
"Okay, thank you."
But since he doesn't seem to approve of the chimaera wand, out comes the pine again, and she tamely wafts the feather up again.
But since he doesn't seem to approve of the chimaera wand, out comes the pine again, and she tamely wafts the feather up again.
witch_please
Once he's gone, Alli looks over at Miranda's wand skeptically. "You'd think he wouldn't mind a little drama. You know, in between the feathers, feathers and more feathers."
chanuphis
Miranda shrugs. "At least now I know that in theory I can tell wands how much power they can draw. I though they did that all by themselves." She swishes and flicks the pine again. Her feather nudges up ever so gently.
witch_please
"Well, guess they do," Alli says, pointing at Miranda's feather, "cause if it was us throwing power around, that feather would be on the ceiling just like the last one, yeah?"
chanuphis
"Maybe it's like drinking from a straw, and the pine wand is a skinnier straw so I have to push harder to get more power out."
witch_please
"That's not a bad idea, you know. If he won't let you practice under-powering the other wand, you'll just have to overpower this one!"
Her smile is rather mischievous. She didn't get Sorted into Slytherin because she liked to behave.
Her smile is rather mischievous. She didn't get Sorted into Slytherin because she liked to behave.
planetarium
"But regular wand power is fine for getting everything done," says Karen. "Miranda had the charm right with the pine wand to start out."
witch_please
Alli shrugs. "If it's as hard as he says, you're not going to be sticking anything else to the ceiling," she points out.
chanuphis
"He said it would be hard to make less power come out of my hazel wand. It wouldn't necessarily be that hard to make more come out of the pine."
She swishes-and-flicks with the pine and gets a fairly energetic, but not nearly as dramatic as before, upward trajectory.
She swishes-and-flicks with the pine and gets a fairly energetic, but not nearly as dramatic as before, upward trajectory.
witch_please
"But I'm a Slytherin! We trust no one."
The eye roll that accompanies this may make her opinion of that particular sentiment rather obvious.
The eye roll that accompanies this may make her opinion of that particular sentiment rather obvious.
witch_please
"Doesn't matter," Alli says breezily. "I am an extremely un-Slytherin sort of Slytherin." She looks around at her year mates. A couple of them are glaring at her for chatting with Ravenclaws, but by and large they just look confused. "Betting most of us are, at that."
witch_please
"I'm sure we match on some level," she amends unwillingly. "I'd give me 'ambitious', I guess." And, in her head, and kind of a bitch, that too. "But all that Dark Magic and pureblood stuff is bloody nonsense. Best guess, the Hat stuck me here because it's still closer than the other three, but I don't think anyone would actually volunteer."
witch_please
Alli sighs. "Maybe if it stays unappealing long enough, we'll get some actual human beings? Outnumber the snobs?" she says. She does not sound optimistic.
chanuphis
"The snobs have to go somewhere, although I guess they could wind up concentrating someplace else."
witch_please
"Let's just forbid snobs," Alli suggests whimsically. "Sorry, you're a snob, no Hogwarts for you."