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*Zoe* · #1 (**permalink**) 08-06-2016, 01:34 AM

The back alley of Hosgmeade is not bright and happy like the bustling High Street that is usually flooded with people. The streets of Hogsmeade are clean, cheerfully lit, and full of chatter with the store fronts advertising their wares. However, the alley behind the shops is dark and actually pretty creepy. If you know anything at all about the school's history with the village, then you should know that this place is to be avoided.

For those who are testing their limits or were dared to venture here, they will find dozens of rubbish bins filled to the brim with scraps of food, wrappings, or broken merchandise from the shops. Rats and bugs of all sorts are a common sight in this less visited part of Hogsmeade. Should you find yourself dumpster diving, you might come across a boggart that has found refuge in one of the bins. If you weren't scared of this dank place before, the Boggart will surely take care of that.

OOC: Please do not play for the Boggart.

*Zoe* · 10-31-2018, 11:54 PM

Praise be to Merlin that they were being blessed with a Hogsmeade weekend. How Marchand managed to convince the old man still astounded her, but the blonde-haired girl was grateful for it. They needed this.

With it now being the middle of March, the temperature was bearable. But it was not bearable enough to prevent her from wearing a light jacket. She would argue that it was something that definitely did not suit her, but it served its purpose in the end. Her blue eyes glanced up at the sound of footsteps echoing in the alley as she placed a gold coin inside the pocket of her jacket.

"Ready?" she asked the boys and the other girl when they arrived beside her, taking a moment to tie her hair in a ponytail. They had some mingling to do and a plan to put into action.

FearlessLeader19 · 11-01-2018, 12:48 AM

Aretha, hands shoved in her legging's pockets, strolled casually towards the back alley. Her hair was let down so that whatever breeze blew, it caused the hair to either ripple or sway. Of course, this depended on the velocity of the breeze. Her hand lightly nudged the gold coin which had been hastily stuffed in one pf the pockets.

Retha could already see figures ahead of her and knew she had arrived here at the Back Alley at the right time. "Hi,'' she greeted softly. This girl was very much prepared for whatever it took to get this plan in action as soon as possible!

MunchyBubbles · 11-01-2018, 12:56 AM

Phe wandered down the back alley, his lanky frame seemed to take up a lot of room in the alley as he turned his head back to peer behind him, his brown eyes looking for something, or someone before turning back and focusing on the girls in front of him.

A hand lazily flipped a gold coin in the air, before he stuffed his hands into his pockets and gave them both a rather lopsided grin.

“Hey.” He said with a nod at the two girls who were standing there. “He should be here soon.” His words, while cryptic would be perfectly understood by the two teens standing there.

“Am I ever ready.. you two all good?” He asked, his hands still in his pockets as the wind ruffled his brown hair a bit.

Suziella · 11-01-2018, 01:54 AM

Ashton, all 6 foot 4 inches of him, made his way down the back alley with a very confident swagger. Yeah he was a little late...but eh close enough. He grinned around at everyone, making his way over to Phoenix. "Hey guys." He said in his deep baritone before kissing the top of the brunette boys head.

"Ready when you are," he said with a smirk, wrapping an arm around the shorter boy's shoulders, before shoving a hand in his pocket making sure that golden coin was still there. He couldn't wait to walk around Hogsmeade and was so happy the Scrim finally let them have some time out of the castle.

sweetpinkpixie · 11-03-2018, 02:10 PM

Ever since third year - or had it been second? Fourth? The terms were all blending together for this Hufflepuff, one trauma after another melting together into a cauldron of teenage angst - Derf had been hoping to run into the boggart he had briefly encountered in the back alley once more. Part curiosity as to whether or not his boggarts form had shifted and part curious as to whether or not he could possibly befriend the creature, Derf once again shuffled his feet towards the entrance. He had to meet with a few people in a bit, so this was going to just be a quick and gritty check.

He wasn't sure if he felt more capable of breathing now or not. He really just wanted this term over....and it wasn't even the worst of terms at Hogwarts. Really, it was still rather tolerable all things considered. After almost perishing at the hands of inferi...there was not much worse.

Barreling around the corner, Derf nearly smacked right in to one of the four assembled students. Peer pressure? Was this his new boggart? It wouldn't be surprising considering how much he felt like his chest was being crushed by troll's feet after the 'conversations' he had had with Liam and Cam.

"Uh...hi. Sorry. Didn't mean to, you know, almost run into you."

Who...uh...ever this group was.

Hair ruffle.

Hi?

sarahlooo · 11-06-2018, 08:06 PM

Natalie had visited Honeydukes first because their mail was being monitored which meant Natalie wasn't receiving sweets from her mother AND they weren't allowed to take food out of the great hall. Natalie was pretty sure she had lost weight. Which was probably a good thing, but like, she was hungry.

With some gummy rope hanging out of her mouth and a little sack of candy in her hand, the Slytherin wandered down the alley, looking for someone she knew to spend the wonderful free time with. Her brother was off somewhere, probably with Cam. Derf was probably around her somewhere--

Oh, look! His blonde hair! Natalie could recognize Derf's blonde mop of hair from a country away. Chewing on her candy rope, Natalie scurried after him - though, why he was going into the back alley alone was curious. Out of mild curiousity, mild concern, and genuine desire to be around him, Natalie followed him into the darker alley.

"Hey, Derf--" Rounding the corner, Natalie stopped short and stumbled right into Derf's backside because she had expected him to make way down the alley. But he had stopped. And there were people in front of him. Like, teenage people. Errr... Who were they? They didn't look familiar. But Hogwarts was full of a LOT of people.

Natalie stepped aside from Derf. "Uhh... sorry," she said, yanking the candy rope from her teeth. It kind of looked like an important meeting. Or... a shady meeting because they were meeting back HERE of all places.

Then she glanced at Derf. Was he... meeting with them? This was awkward.

MunchyBubbles · 11-07-2018, 04:44 AM

A smile lit up Phe’s face as he turned to see Ashton coming towards him and he shook his head a bit as the taller boy dropped a kiss on top of his head and wrapped an arm around his shoulders. “Took you long enough.” He said with a soft laugh as he leaned up to whisper someone in the other boys ear, before a voice caught his attention.

Brown eyes turned to look at the interloper and for a moment he stilled. His arm moving around Ashton’s waist, almost as if he was protective of the taller boy, or needing to hold him back?

“It’s all right, we were all just leaving anyways.” He said as he tugged on his ear with his free hand. A nervous gesture he seemed to have picked up somewhere over the years.

His brown eyes traveled around the Hufflepuff Prefect to see Natalie, and he looked at her.

“No worries, Ash and I were just going to take off. ” He said with a nonchalant shrug. Any earlier oddness about the boy had disappeared.

Suziella · 11-07-2018, 05:21 AM

Ashton chuckled at the whispered comment and nodded with a shrug. This was definitely going to be a fun Hogsmeade trip. Then suddenly, they had not one but two visitors. Derf and Natalie. Ash clenched his teeth giving the Hufflepuff prefect a look of disdain, before feeling Phoenix's arm wrap around him. He looked down, and a grin spread across his features. "That's right, just leaving." He said with a grin.

"Norah, Aretha...we'll see you later." He said with a wink before, turning himself and Phoenix around and walking towards the Prefect and his little tag-along friend. He smirked at the two and shook his head as they walked past.

"See you around Derf...Natalie." He said loudly as they made it to the exit of the back alley.

sweetpinkpixie · 11-07-2018, 01:22 PM

His unreasonable imagination was nearly validated when Natalie made her appearance next and while his heart drummed wildly in his chest, he wished it would have settled on a different sort of fear. An inferius, perhaps?

Only it soon became clear that the scene before him was no boggart, though he did rub his eyes briefly when the one boy looked as though he wanted to strangle him? Uuuuuuuh...seeing as he had never seen this bloke before, Derf really didn't know what to make of that other than maybe he was perturbed that the Hufflepuff had stumbled upon this gathering of...whatever it was.

"Hey...Natalie," he said a bit warily, noting the way that the two blokes were being particularly affectionate with waist holding and such. It made him miss...Abey a little.

Ash. So that was the angry eyes bloke's name then. And two of the girls, though he did not know which was which, were Norah and Aretha. Mum rather fancied a vintage muggle singer by that name.

And then something that properly confused him happened: the bloke named Ash said good bye to them both. By name. Now, Derf knew as well as anyone that Hogwarts was a pretty big place and Hogsmeade even bigger since it was, you know, a wizarding village and part of the wizarding world at large...so it wasn't toooooootally impossible not to recognize faces and such. Plus, he was a prefect and therefore pretty recognizable himself. But...there was a familiarity to that bloke's tone. An unrequited one.

"Reckon those two have gone off to snog," he whispered to Natalie with a small shrug before looking back at the remaining girls in the alley. "Uh...hey there. Um. Derfarl but...seems like you already know that..." he greeted properly with another nervous ruffle to his hair. "Do...uh...either of you two know why that bloke, Ash was it? Yeah, why he gave me that look? Was like a bowtruckle protecting its Home Tree."

Which was a look he was VERY familiar with.

sarahlooo · 11-07-2018, 11:30 PM

Her concern for Derf only grew when she saw the expression on his face when he looked at her. Why.. was he looking at her that way? Yes, things were... odd at the moment, but they were always, first and foremost, friends. And then she saw the look that that BOY was giving Derf and she wondered for a second if this was, like, going to be a fight scene or something.

But those boys were awfully touchy and the other one seemed to calm the angry one down. And... now they were leaving...???

Natalie stepped closer to Derf, somewhat protectively and somewhat to make sure he was okay (because she was clueless as to what was going on). Then she loosely looped her arm through his and watched the boys leave, who... yeah, like Derf said, were probably going off to snog. Hogsmeade weekend and all. Probably more opportunities to do that now that they were outside of the castle.

But wait, hold on - that boy had said their names and yet Natalie didn't recognize either of them. Nor did she recognize the girls that were still in the alley that Derf was now addressing.

"Do we know them?" she whispered to him quietly, while eyeing the girls. It wasn't very subtle, but... oh well. But since Derf introduced himself, Natalie lifted her candy rope and waved it at them as a silent greeting, since they might have known her name as well.

FearlessLeader19 · 11-08-2018, 10:10 PM

Aretha looked away from all of the displays of affection between the two boys. Had she been the mean kind of person, she would have rolled her eyes so badly and or tell them off sternly. As it was, she was not so what was simply said quietly was, "Perhaps you two should... stop all of that for a while. We have something to get completed.'' Not to mention students could be along at anytime.

Such was her thought and the exact thing happened.

Aretha remained silent and only nodded to the students. She was itching for the four of them to put their plan into motion and PDAs was less important right now. If the task wasn't done soon, she would feel as though it were a perfidy to their loyalty to Hogwarts. Aretha still remained silent as Derfael and Natalie continued talking even after Ash and Phoenix left. These two weren't exactly hiding the fact that they were giving her and Nora looks. The whispers were obvious too. Uhh...

"Nora, shall we?''

*Zoe* · 11-10-2018, 03:36 PM

Nora was more than eager to get things moving. The blonde was pleased to see that her comrades had arrived in time, as indicated by their coins. Being the analytical person that she was, she knew that their plan had some faults -- there was a lot of risk that came with it -- but it had high chances of working if they played their cards right.

A pleasant smile was given to Aretha and Phoenix, but the smile wavered a bit when Ashton arrived. Of all times, now was the time to be publicly displaying affection to each other? Her mouth opened to say something, but the girl beside her beat her to the punch.

"Focus on the plan," she quickly added. "You can save that for when you're in private." They had seeds to plant, which was supposed to be their priority.

"Go ahead, Aretha. I'll catch up with you later," she said to the girl, giving her a farewell wave.

Her blue eyes then locked on Derfael and Natalie. "Hi. I'm Nora. I don't think we've formally met before. And don't mind Ash. He and Phoenix are a pair of drama queens if I must be honest. Nothing worth being concerned about."

TeafortheSoul · 11-11-2018, 07:58 AM

Heyyy! Did she just see Nat going down the alley? Bel bounded out of the quill shop when she saw her friend walk past the window, and, already mouthing the end of the new quill she had got, Bel approached what seemed to be a gathering.

Or had been one. Or was still one? A mixture of incredibly unfamiliar faces and super familiar ones. Weird.

"Hey D! Hey Nat!" Good thing they weren't alone actually or she'd wonder if she was interrupting something. Well, sort of anyway. She was also confident that they both knew well enough that they could tell her upfront if she ever was.

But for real. Who.....?

"G'day!" She offered a friendly greeting to the unknowns. Was she that out of touch that there were whole entire people at Hogwarts that she'd never even seen before?

sweetpinkpixie · 11-11-2018, 01:16 PM

The 16-year-old simply shook his head at Natalie's whisper. No, he did not know who any of these students were in the slightest. As to what one of the unfamiliar girls had to say, well....Derf's hand instantly went through his mop of dusty blonde hair in quiet lament. He hadn't been aware that it was common knowledge what all had transpired during that lesson, just that he and Jessa had walked out (along with Natalie and Zoryn) upon given permission. Even the actual act of the firing had been without an audience - something the Hufflepuff was grateful for because that display at the opening feast continued to make him feel queasy at times. So her words felt like the cruelest form of Crucio.

"........oh."

And that was all he could offer in response because soon SHE (Aretha, was it?) was leaving too. Thus, the awkward just kept piling on. When the girl-called-Nora elected to stay, he was not sure whether or not to be relieved or not. One thing he was sure of was that he was definitely confused.

And certainly unable to just brush the looks under the rug. Guilt ate at him almost every day, you know?

"Nora. Hi. Derfael," he repeated, his bright blues pausing a moment as his mind played tricks with him on the series of words that followed. "Ash and Phoenix, right. Not...a phoenix named Ash." He missed that gorgeous creature very much. "Uh...I mean. Yeah. I reckon we haven't...you've...been at Hogwarts all this term?" he questions skeptically. She, and the others, all looked around his age and yet he was certain he had never once seen them in any of his lessons or around the common room.

And then Bel's chipper voice (he could always tell it was her because no one else called him 'D') rang out in the alley. "Hey Bel," he smiled with a brief pause. "Have....you met Nora?"

And this was typically the point in conversation that he would offer up a little factoid about Bel AND Nora by means of introducing them to one another - little something he had picked up from his dad at Ministry functions - but right now he was just being an awkward duck. Sans any quacking.

sarahlooo · 11-11-2018, 11:11 PM

Kennedy was his favorite professor? What on earth did that have to do with giving Derf death looks? Merlin, Natalie was getting more and more confused by the second. Perhaps she shouldn't have followed Derf after all. Though, it was fishy, and she was curious.

Though this girl Nora, she liked. She seemed less WEIRD than the other three. And she called the boys drama queens, which honestly seemed like the truth. And she was the only one not leaving. Maybe she could tell them why her friends were so WEIRD.

A distraction came quickly when Bel all of the sudden came bounding into the alley. Natalie even smiled because Bel was significantly more friendly and less suspicious than she and Derf were being. Natalie then turned her attention back to Nora.

"I'm Natalie. That's Bel," she said, gesturing to her friend with a smile.

She was curious about this group of people and how long they had been at Hogwarts too, but Derf had beat her to the question, so she looked to Nora and waited for an answer.

Though, she did sneak a peek down the alley to see where the others were headed off to. Apparently they had something important to do, other than snogging...

*Zoe* · 11-12-2018, 01:20 AM

She had to admit that there was nothing about this gathering that wasn't awkward. Regardless, the blonde was playing it cool. That was the secret: keep calm and carry on. And that was exactly what she was planning on doing. It was all part of the plan after all.

"Nice to meet you," Nora replied to Derfael. A smile was given their way. See? Nothing weird going on here at all.

But she wasn't at all surprised by Derfael's questioning. He didn't know her. None of them did. Leave it to the boys to prematurely drop names and stir up the cauldron. "I've actually not been here very long," she explained. "Late school exchange program."

Then there was another person strolling on by, and at a rather convenient time too.

She gave a nod at Natalie and then at Bel. "Hi," she said simply.

Avoiding the potential of an awkward silence, she then looked at the three of them and asked, "So ... what is the deal with Hogwarts? It certainly isn't how it was described to me. Has it always actually been like this?" The morning exercises, the old mean headmaster, hundreds of nit-picky rules, she was referring to all of it.

TeafortheSoul · 11-13-2018, 07:35 AM

Yep this was Bel. A bit sheepishly Bel grinned and shot a thankful look at Nat. How much of a dunce did she look like not even giving her own name?

Because, yeeeeeeah Bel had really not met Nora, or... anyone else who was currently.... taking off, but that was okay. And soon the new girl was explaining where she had come from. A late school exchange program? Bel perked up, having not heard anything about this. And also, "An exchange sounds bonza! Who with?"

If it was an exchange, she'd exchanged with someone, right? Who? Because Bel was about to feel terrible if it was someone she should have noticed had gone but hadn't.

But what was this line of questioning? The deal with Hogwarts? She didn't mind answering this question honestly but shot a little look at Derf though and then said to Nora carefully, "The prefects don't have any choice but to take points from anyone doing anything considered wrong so... it would be cool if we could avoid getting D in trouble, yeah? Just putting that out there." Luckily not an issue for her. Herself and her co-captains had somehow managed to escape notice to some degree. Maybe because of all the exercise stuff, at least the bits of the school they had responsibility for kind of fell in line with all that? Bel wasn't about to ask and check though.

"Hogwarts has changed a lot recently though.... we got attacked by Inferi last term." Here, her hand went to her throat for a brief moment, remembering. "Some of the changes this term are hard, and some of it is a bit much but.... it is kind of nice feeling safe." So there was that? She liked the whole... lower risk of death thing. Even if she missed Wayland and Hawthorne quite a bit in particular, and didn't much like that kids were seeing exercise (one of her FAVOURITE things) as a gross thing and it being used to punish.

sweetpinkpixie · 11-14-2018, 03:12 AM

Late school exchange program?

The sixth year's knee jerk reaction was to feel bad for not being a better prefect and being a tour guide like he was at the start of term for first years and transfer. Granted, he would do this - offer at least - regardless of whether or not he wore a badge...but the feeling was only intensified with it. And he hadn't. Though as that guilt began to sink into his chest, something else began to surface as well as the spiral turned to guilt on not even KNOWING.

That was just it. They DIDN'T know about this exchange and apparently a group of them. Wasn't this...something...that they would have been alerted to? Especially given how tight a ship the Headmaster was trying to sail this term.

Something smelled fishy and is certainly wasn't that basket of day old fish and chips discarded in the rubbish bin over there.

So his eyes were locked on Nora, honed in really like an owl stalking a mouse. Only he had no intention of attacking...not yet. But in light of his failings last term, well his protective instincts were strong and he reminded himself of the wand in his pocket. Even if, you know, he was not of age yet.

Quite keen on how she would respond to Bel's inquiry, he gave Natalie a fleeting skeptical look before his shoulder slouched considerably. "I don't mind getting in trouble. Detention wasn't so bad. I mostly just don't want to put Professor Noble in a difficult position again," he clarified to the quidditch captain. "He is the only reason I didn't turn my badge in after the start of term." Bright blues back on the girl, Derf wasn't sure how freely he could speak with her. What if SHE was a spy of this new regime? Hogsmeade just something to lure them all into a false sense of security and freedom only to make them all run their mouths and then punish accordingly? The only thing that negated this theory from spiraling out of control was that Kennedy comment. What had happened in Astronomy was...not recently. It had been, er, November? And Nora had just said she hadn't been here very long....so how did they...

His head was starting to hurt from overthinking. Was there steam coming out of his ears yet?

"It's...loads different. From one extreme to another," explains while trying to maintain a certain level of, well, distance from his honest opinions. "I...I don't exactly miss how it used to be. Not entirely. But I'm not keen on how things happen now either. It's not, you know. Black and white? Hogwarts needs more a shade of grey...all this is now is focusing on what's wrong. Like...there is no reward or encouragement for doing right. We can only take points for breaking rules but not reward them for outstanding acts. I...sorta only really kept my prefect badge because I was scared about who they could replace me with...they could easily turn student leadership into this generation's Inquisitorial Squad, you know?"

And that was LOADS more than he hand intended to say. Was he expelled yet?

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