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
chanuphis
"Uh," says Miranda, "about that, Jenny, if someone makes references to - mud, around you, they are being racist."
metamorphmaga
Jenny blinks at her. "...okay," she says. "Thanks." She looks at Karen. "Should we explain about Muggles? Or, if you're not planning to meet Muggles ever I guess it wouldn't matter."
planetarium
"I mean, I might meet Muggles someday? It just - doesn't come up that much. My family aren't blood purists, we're just boring and don't go to the post office watching people put stamps on things for fun when we could sit around at home playing board games." Pause. "Stamps are real, right? My cousin wasn't having me on?"
metamorphmaga
"...oh, hey, it totally isn't. Sorry, Karen! Yeah. Stamps. Paying people to carry mail instead of owls." She grins. "They're like owl treats for humans!"
chanuphis
"...They are not like owl treats for humans. Some of them you have to lick, but people don't like doing it, it's just how you make them stick to the envelope," Miranda clarifies for Karen. "Stamps are IOUs from the post office. You buy them and the post office owes you a letter-sending."
metamorphmaga
"Oops. They are not literally like treats. They're just what you give the creature in question in exchange for mail carrying," Jenny says contritely.
planetarium
"My mum says I can't have my own owl while in school because there are plenty of school owls to use," Karen sighs. "Amber lets me pet her though!"
chanuphis
"Amber is my barn owl. Renée said I could have my own owl if I would use her to write every week at least."
chanuphis
"Renée has an owl but he's always busy sending letters to her friends, and now some of her friends are in Australia, so she thought I had better have my own."
parental_guidance
"I'm 'not old enough to take care of an owl yet'," Emma says, looking slightly sour around the air quotes. "Because I have such a long history of forgetting things. Not."
chanuphis
"It's not that hard, Amber mostly hunts for herself. I just visit her most days so she remembers she's my owl, and I give her treats when she handles letters."
metamorphmaga
"What kinds are there? Are there differences?" asks Jenny. She briefly morphs her eyes into owl eyes to smile at Miranda, but shifts them back pretty quickly; it feels weird.
chanuphis
"There's all kinds of species of owls. Native ones and foreign captive-bred kinds. Some people get other birds to carry letters but mostly it's various owls. Barns are a pretty common kind."
witch_please
"Mostly the only reason to get a fancy foreign owl is to show off," Alli puts in. "There are, of course, a bunch in Slytherin."
planetarium
"That and recognizability. I think barred owls are the prettiest," volunteers Karen. "I just don't know if they have nice personalities as owls go."
metamorphmaga
"I'm sure it depends on the owl, anyway," Jenny says. "Cats and dogs do! So owls probably do too."
chanuphis
"Different breeds of cats and dogs still have different temperaments," says Miranda, "I think, so different species of owls ought to even more."