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DaniDiNardo · #1 (**permalink**) 12-04-2018, 11:03 AM

Ever wonder where your dirty underpants wind up? Just down the corridor, not terribly far from the kitchen, the door to the laundry room can be found. What you will find in this room will, likely, not be a surprise. Within are no Muggle washing machines or dryers. Instead, front and centre, are large tubs with accompanying wash boards and sticks. A bizarre system of clothes lines fill the back of the room, beside which tables and large hampers await.

If you happen to wind up here on your House's laundry day, you will see your clothes -- hopefully labelled -- and the clothes of your fellow housemates being washed and dried by a team of house-elves. It is not uncommon to hear them bickering with each other or joining together in a motivational song to help make the job get completed quicker. First the clothes are scrubbed squeaky clean with soap and steaming hot water. They are next hung to dry and then neatly stacked on one of the large tables to be folded and placed back in the hamper to be returned to their owners.

Students are always welcome to be proactive and do their own laundry or at least lend the house-elves a hand. There sure is a lot of laundry to do!

astrocat · 01-13-2021, 09:18 PM

Ash wasn't doing her laundry. She was hiding. She might get in trouble if she did laundry the muggle way. She was just sitting there in a corner, looking at her art. My better other half, my most important memory, phoeven, surrounded. So much art in her sketchbook.

She sang a song.

"No more second chances
We have nothing left to say"

um... what came after........... uhhhhh......

"This victim I'm becoming
I can't even recognize"

No, there was a missing part. She kicked a wall. Partially because she couldn't remember the words, and partially because she just felt like kicking a wall. This school was the worst. And it was bad and horrible. People always said that muggles hurt wizard kids into not wanting to do magic, but nobody ever said anything about wizards who hurt wizard kids into not wanting to do magic. And Ash thought that was dumb.

She kicked the wall again. For good measure. It hurt, but not enough for Ash to care. She said several(many) words that first years should not repeat though. More to let off emotional pain than physical pain.

griffin · 01-14-2021, 04:24 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by astrocat

Ash wasn't doing her laundry. She was hiding. She might get in trouble if she did laundry the muggle way. She was just sitting there in a corner, looking at her art. My better other half, my most important memory, phoeven, surrounded. So much art in her sketchbook.

She sang a song.

"No more second chances
We have nothing left to say"

um... what came after........... uhhhhh......

"This victim I'm becoming
I can't even recognize"

No, there was a missing part. She kicked a wall. Partially because she couldn't remember the words, and partially because she just felt like kicking a wall. This school was the worst. And it was bad and horrible. People always said that muggles hurt wizard kids into not wanting to do magic, but nobody ever said anything about wizards who hurt wizard kids into not wanting to do magic. And Ash thought that was dumb.

She kicked the wall again. For good measure. It hurt, but not enough for Ash to care.

Devin was in quite the pickle because he had managed to spill soup on and fall over in the mud in his last two clean uniform shirts that should have lasted him until laundry day. He couldn’t wear a shirt he had already worn again either, because those things were STINKY. Who knew shirts could collect so much body odor? There was way too much old sweat trapped in those shirts to even consider wearing them again before washing them. People would look at him funny or complain about the smell if he did. So here he was wearing an old t-shirt with a Chinese fireball dragon on it that would occasionally flap its wings or send flames dancing across the shirt, bringing his uniform shirts down to the laundry room in hopes of finding a house elf who might be able to help him with an emergency load of washing. Especially the soup-stained and mud-stained shirts, because those ones looked harder to clean.

As he poked his head into the laundry room, however, he found not a house elf but a girl who looked to be no older than himself kicking a wall. ”Oh, sorry. I was just looking for the house-elves who do the laundry.” He hovered in the doorway awkwardly, holding his armful of dirty (and rather smelly) shirts. Clearly he was interrupting something here. "Uh, are you alright?” He gestured towards her foot. Kicking that wall had to hurt quite a bit, judging by some of her more colorful language he had heard on his way in.

astrocat · 01-14-2021, 04:39 AM

Ash shrugged. "Oh, well I'm not a house-elf. Sorry." She said it very normally, as if she hadn't just been rage-quitting everywhere. Hmmm, she wasn't being subtle enough. This person was asking if she was okay. "Oh my foot? My foot is fine. I've been through worse physical pain." Mental pain though? No. Her HEART was HURTING. The ANGST. "I was just... kicking a wall... for fun... on purpose... like normal happy people do all the time... very normally." Kinda true? Well. She had kinda botched this. Let's be honest, nobody in their right mind kicked a wall really hard on purpose. There was pretty obviously something going on here. "Uhmmm.... I'm Ash. Nice shirt I guess?" Ash had been on fire before. Not because of a dragon though.

griffin · 01-14-2021, 10:17 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by astrocat

Ash shrugged. "Oh, well I'm not a house-elf. Sorry." She said it very normally, as if she hadn't just been rage-quitting everywhere. Hmmm, she wasn't being subtle enough. This person was asking if she was okay. "Oh my foot? My foot is fine. I've been through worse physical pain." Mental pain though? No. Her HEART was HURTING. The ANGST. "I was just... kicking a wall... for fun... on purpose... like normal happy people do all the time... very normally." Kinda true? Well. She had kinda botched this. Let's be honest, nobody in their right mind kicked a wall really hard on purpose. There was pretty obviously something going on here. "Uhmmm.... I'm Ash. Nice shirt I guess?" Ash had been on fire before. Not because of a dragon though.

Well duh, of course she wasn’t a house-elf. ”I can see that.” House-elves were quite distinctly different in appearance from young witches. Between her height, normal human sized ears, and clothes there was no mistaking her for a house-elf.

Say what now? Kicking a wall for normal reasons? That sounded like a very thinly veiled excuse for… well, something. Whatever it was, it wasn’t really any of his business to pry further. ”Uh… Alright then…” Was it too late to leave and just pretend like he hadn’t seen anyone in here? Honestly he was a little creeped out by how nonchalantly she seemed to be shrugging off, or perhaps masking, the pain. She was acting kind of weird.

He really needed to get this emergency shirt washing done though, or else he would be in trouble tomorrow for not having proper uniform for class. Especially given the, er, new leadership the school was under, Devin didn’t want to take any chances on things that would normally probably just lose him a few house points. He wouldn’t put it past the scary headmaster and his henchmen to MURDER him and leave his body to rot in the dungeons - and not the nice parts of the dungeons like the potions classroom or the Slytherin common room - for some small offense. Rosier had suggested that uncooperative students would meet an untimely and excruciating end, after all. So yeah, Devin wasn’t going to risk his life over dress code violations.

Looked like he was stuck here with this slightly unsettling girl until his shirts were clean. Devin slowly shuffled his way over to the laundry tubs and dumped his pile of shirts in, still keeping an eye on the girl with the strange behavior. Ash. Her name was Ash, and she liked his shirt! ”Oh, um, nice to meet you, Ash. I’m Devin.” And his nickname was Dev, but he didn’t feel like he had reached a nickname basis with the casual wall-kicker. ”Thanks. It’s one of my favorite shirts.” It had been a birthday present from his dad. Obviously it was the coolest shirt EVER because of the awesome dragon on it! Now, uh, how was he supposed to actually wash these shirts? Where was his mum when he needed her? He had never actually had to do his own laundry before. Was that the sort of thing his mum should have taught him before he went to school? It wasn’t like he could just go asking his head of house for laundry advice either, seeing as the Gryffindor head of house was Mr. Scary Headmaster. Couldn’t just casually pop into Rosier’s office and say ’hello headmaster sir, I know you’re probably busy with your coup but would you be able to show me how to do my laundry?’ Was there, like, soap or something here that he could use? Were there spells for cleaning clothes? ”Er, don’t suppose you know how to do laundry?” How awkward to have to ask for help from the weird wall kicking girl who clearly hadn’t been expecting to be interrupted.

astrocat · 01-14-2021, 10:37 PM

Ash slouched on the wall this time instead of kicking it, doing that cool person thing where you lean on one foot and have the other one with the sole to the wall at knee height. She was quite proud that she knew how to do it, and one of her rare smiles started to show. "Devin." She said it so that she would remember the name. "Cool." She tried to figure out how to act even MORE normal that she was already looking, which was very easy because she was acting very weird. She paled at the question. "Between you and me, I've always used a washing machine." And he BETTER NOT repeat that to anyone unless he wanted her to DIE. She cleared her throat, playing off her whisper as a scratchy throat in case somebody else was listening. "There are spells for laundry that we have access to, because we are wizards and we have magic... and stuff like that that makes us... ummmm... cool and stuff like that." She said it loudly, just so that any passing alliance members wouldn't come after her. She looked at the boy apologetically. "Or you could do it by hand, in a sink or like on a washboard. The really, really old way. I sort of know how to do it. it's been a while though. I wasn't planning on doing my laundry today." She chose not to specify the real reason she was in here, lest the boy find her weird. Ash TRIED to make everyone like her. And it worked like, 90% of the time. STaTisTiCS. SHe decided to be helpful and likeable. "Maybe you could use aguamenti, um, and then put soap on it, and then use aguamenti again."

She decided that now would be a good time to put away her sketchbook. She tucked it into her fireproof robes.

griffin · 01-15-2021, 12:40 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by astrocat

Ash slouched on the wall this time instead of kicking it, doing that cool person thing where you lean on one foot and have the other one with the sole to the wall at knee height. She was quite proud that she knew how to do it, and one of her rare smiles started to show. "Devin." She said it so that she would remember the name. "Cool." She tried to figure out how to act even MORE normal that she was already looking, which was very easy because she was acting very weird. She paled at the question. "Between you and me, I've always used a washing machine." And he BETTER NOT repeat that to anyone unless he wanted her to DIE. She cleared her throat, playing off her whisper as a scratchy throat in case somebody else was listening. "There are spells for laundry that we have access to, because we are wizards and we have magic... and stuff like that that makes us... ummmm... cool and stuff like that." She said it loudly, just so that any passing alliance members wouldn't come after her. She looked at the boy apologetically. "Or you could do it by hand, in a sink or like on a washboard. The really, really old way. I sort of know how to do it. it's been a while though. I wasn't planning on doing my laundry today." She chose not to specify the real reason she was in here, lest the boy find her weird. Ash TRIED to make everyone like her. And it worked like, 90% of the time. STaTisTiCS. SHe decided to be helpful and likeable. "Maybe you could use aguamenti, um, and then put soap on it, and then use aguamenti again."

She decided that now would be a good time to put away her sketchbook. She tucked it into her fireproof robes.

Devin nodded in understanding at Ash’s comment about using a washing-machine. Obviously she didn’t want to draw attention to herself for using muggle devices, and he was no snitch. The tattletale kind of snitch that is, not the quidditch ball. Not a snitch to the Headmaster or his thugs, anyway. All the students were in this together, and he was going to do what he could to protect his friends and fellow students. Snitching on his siblings to his mum if they were annoying him was another matter, however. He leaned in closer to Ash to whisper back, ”And between you and me, my mum does all the laundry at home so I don’t know how to do laundry by myself.” He couldn’t even write to his mum to ask her how to do laundry because his beloved owl Babs had seemingly been OWL-NAPPED by Mr. Scary Headmaster. It had been quite a shock to find the owlery empty when he went to try to send a letter home to his sisters. WAS HIS OWL OKAY??? Given Mr. Scary Headmaster’s attitude about all the students being disposable, he feared the worst for poor Babs as owls were likely even more disposable than children to these cruel, muggle-hating thugs who had taken over the school.

He was a wizard. He could use magic to clean things. Except, he didn’t actually know that many spells that were useful for housework and cleaning. Did they teach that stuff in charms class? Because learning practical life skills like how to do your laundry with magic would be super useful. ”Yeah. Cleaning magic and stuff.” Devin nodded in agreement. ”Uh, I guess spells only really help if you know how to do them though. Do you think scourgify works on tomato soup stains? And soap and water sound like a great place to start.” He had ABSOLUTELY NO IDEA how to get stains out of clothes. Maybe a cleaning charm would remove the stains and then he could use soap and water to wash out the pubescent boy body odor stink?

astrocat · 01-15-2021, 01:08 AM

Ash smiled even more, stifling a laugh. He didn't need to be ashamed of not doing the laundry. Most of the kids here probably didn't. "Well aguamenti creates water. And scourgify can put soap in somebody's mouth I think? I don't know where I heard that, could be wrong. But maybe it would clean clothes too, probably. And if the spells fail you could use a sink probably. Or you could do both. I dunno." Problem solving! Ash was good at it. Ash was good at almost everything, actually, save for keeping her mouth shut. "Wait! Odoris Subsito gets rid of smells, and that's what most people wash their clothes for anyway." She was crushing this 'being helpful and nice' thing.

griffin · 01-15-2021, 02:21 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by astrocat

Ash smiled even more, stifling a laugh. He didn't need to be ashamed of not doing the laundry. Most of the kids here probably didn't. "Well aguamenti creates water. And scourgify can put soap in somebody's mouth I think? I don't know where I heard that, could be wrong. But maybe it would clean clothes too, probably. And if the spells fail you could use a sink probably. Or you could do both. I dunno." Problem solving! Ash was good at it. Ash was good at almost everything, actually, save for keeping her mouth shut. "Wait! Odoris Subsito gets rid of smells, and that's what most people wash their clothes for anyway." She was crushing this 'being helpful and nice' thing.

Dev smiled back at Ash as he listened to her ideas on how he could do his laundry. HIS MIND WAS BLOWN at how absolutely brilliant Ash was. ”Wow! I hadn’t even thought of that! You’re really smart!” It was somewhat of a relief to him that Ash had thought of the spell to get rid of smells, because other than the noticeable stains, the smells were what he really wanted to get rid of. Not that he would admit that though, because it would be EMBARRASSING to tell a girl about his body odor concerns. Besides, she would probably be able to smell it for herself if she got close enough to his dirty laundry pile. ”So, I guess I’ll start with aguamenti and then try the other spells?” He pulled out his wand and pointed it at the tub he had placed his dirty shirts in. ”Aguamenti!” The results were... less than desirable, as just a sad little trickle of water dribbled from his wand. "Oh." How embarrassing. Maybe a whole tub of water was a bit more advanced than he could manage.

astrocat · 01-15-2021, 02:44 AM

Ash shrugged, but secretly she was pleased. People thought she was stupid all the time, but she was only reckless. Not dumb. She knew what the consequences of her action were, but she did them anyway. Basically, she was crazy. But her spell work was good. She offered no comment on the boy's mostly failed spell. "I can help you, if you'd like. I practise aguamenti a lot, in case I catch on fire again." What a weird thing to say. Ash did have fireproof clothes. And her skin looked a little unusual, come to think about it.

Ash told everyone everything about herself, so it was insane how mysterious she could be without trying.

griffin · 01-15-2021, 03:08 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by astrocat

Ash shrugged, but secretly she was pleased. People thought she was stupid all the time, but she was only reckless. Not dumb. She knew what the consequences of her action were, but she did them anyway. Basically, she was crazy. But her spell work was good. She offered no comment on the boy's mostly failed spell. "I can help you, if you'd like. I practise aguamenti a lot, in case I catch on fire again." What a weird thing to say. Ash did have fireproof clothes. And her skin looked a little unusual, come to think about it.

Ash told everyone everything about herself, so it was insane how mysterious she could be without trying.

Devin smiled upon hearing her offer for help. It was kind of her not to comment on his failure. Yes, help would be nice. ”Thanks. Help would be much appreciated.” There were other spells he was good at, he would swear on it! Just not that one, apparently. Hopefully he would be able to cast the other cleaning spells successfully to prove himself after his shameful performance issues with his wand. ”Again? As in, you’ve caught on fire before?” He had so many questions about how she had managed to catch on fire. Was she prone to spontaneous combustion in acts of uncontrolled magic? Maybe a spell gone wrong or a childhood accident? It would be rude to ask too many questions that she might not want to share the answers to, so he would have to save his further questions.

astrocat · 01-15-2021, 03:40 AM

"Okay then." She cast the spell, and a powerful gush of water slammed into the tub, splashing a little back onto her. She lessened the water pressure. No need to go overboard. As stated, Ash practiced this one more than necessary. It was helpful when you were burning, trying to erase drawings from your arms, thirsty, etc. "Oh yeah. I've been on fire. There was the time I was in a duel on my first day of school and got set on fire. And also the time when I burned down the forest and set myself on fire. Hence the fireproof clothes. I don't know how to un-burn clothes." Those were quite traumatising experiences, but this year was much worse than anything that happened then. She shrugged, almost nonchalantly. "It wasn't as bad as it sounds. Or at least I don't remember it being bad. Perspective, I guess?"

griffin · 01-15-2021, 05:48 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by astrocat

"Okay then." She cast the spell, and a powerful gush of water slammed into the tub, splashing a little back onto her. She lessened the water pressure. No need to go overboard. As stated, Ash practiced this one more than necessary. It was helpful when you were burning, trying to erase drawings from your arms, thirsty, etc. "Oh yeah. I've been on fire. There was the time I was in a duel on my first day of school and got set on fire. And also the time when I burned down the forest and set myself on fire. Hence the fireproof clothes. I don't know how to un-burn clothes." Those were quite traumatising experiences, but this year was much worse than anything that happened then. She shrugged, almost nonchalantly. "It wasn't as bad as it sounds. Or at least I don't remember it being bad. Perspective, I guess?"

His eyes widened at the amount of water Ash was able to produce with ease, marvelling at her adroitness with the spell. ”Thank you. You’re really good at that.” Dueling on the first day of school? With fire spells? Did she even know any spells to defend herself with yet at that point? Devin’s brow furrowed in a concerned expression. ”That’s a rather mean thing to do to someone, especially on the first day of school.” Poor girl. There was a good reason duels were only supposed to happen under supervised defense against the dark arts practice settings. Although this year who knew what could happen. Maybe Headmaster Rosier would make them all duel to the death. Oh dear, she had been caught up in that nasty spirit business? ”Wait, that was YOU?” Of course he’d heard about the spirit-possessed students setting fire to the forbidden forest last year. It was hard not to hear about those things. Rumors about forest fires spread like wildfire, after all. Pretty obvious what was happening by looking out any window on the forest side of the castle too. ”A lot of stuff doesn’t feel as bad compared to, you know…” His eyes scanned around the room, checking for any shadowy figures who might be watching them. There was no telling when it was safe to speak freely. He was going to assume never. Today was NOT going to be the day he got murdered for criticizing Rosier’s regime.

astrocat · 01-15-2021, 06:07 AM

"Yeah well, it's a useful spell. You could use it for lots of stuff. Washing clothes, getting a drink of water, putting out a fire, cooling off, self-defense..." It was a surprisingly useful spell. Especially when you were on fire. "Yeah well. We were in class AND supervised actually. Loser lost their wand for a week. On the plus side, when I went to the hospital wing, they didn't notice and forgot to take my wand." Ha. Small victories, right? "That was me." The kid who set the forest on fire. Yup. The one and only, super-friendly, very angry, accident-prone, full of angst muggleborn child that everyone referred to as Ash. Why did they call her Ash? Lots of reasons. It was very fitting. And "Ash" clearly had some sort of reputation. They might not know her, but they all knew what she'd done. "I must admit, when I walked into the first day of class this year, I did not expect the headmaster to threaten to send me on a 'one way trip to the afterlife. Painfully.' How do I even top "craziest first day of school" next year? I have lots of impressive records to uphold." Unfortunate records.

griffin · 01-15-2021, 06:50 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by astrocat

"Yeah well, it's a useful spell. You could use it for lots of stuff. Washing clothes, getting a drink of water, putting out a fire, cooling off, self-defense..." It was a surprisingly useful spell. Especially when you were on fire. "Yeah well. We were in class AND supervised actually. Loser lost their wand for a week. On the plus side, when I went to the hospital wing, they didn't notice and forgot to take my wand." Ha. Small victories, right? "That was me." The kid who set the forest on fire. Yup. The one and only, super-friendly, very angry, accident-prone, full of angst muggleborn child that everyone referred to as Ash. Why did they call her Ash? Lots of reasons. It was very fitting. And "Ash" clearly had some sort of reputation. They might not know her, but they all knew what she'd done. "I must admit, when I walked into the first day of class this year, I did not expect the headmaster to threaten to send me on a 'one way trip to the afterlife. Painfully.' How do I even top "craziest first day of school" next year? I have lots of impressive records to uphold." Unfortunate records.

Sounded like the “supervision” wasn’t paying all that much attention. Wand loss for a week? Sounded like a rough punishment, considering wands were required for most lessons. Still nowhere near the severity of punishments Mr. Scary Headmaster was threatening. ”Oh, wow. What a year.” He leaned in a bit closer to hear Ash’s whispered words. ”It is quite disconcerting.” He was being very conservative in his word choice, because he was no idiot and he knew the headmaster would sooner do away with him than let him run around the castle sharing what he really thought, but he hoped Ash would understand that behind his careful diction he was really thinking about how horrible the headmaster was. People who threatened children and hurt animals were the worst of the worst. ”It’s Hogwarts, so I’m sure something will happen to top that. Like the whole castle flipping upside down or a whole herd of hippogriffs running rampant in the great hall or something else weird.” They really couldn’t get a peaceful term, could they?

astrocat · 01-15-2021, 07:02 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by griffin

Sounded like the “supervision” wasn’t paying all that much attention. Wand loss for a week? Sounded like a rough punishment, considering wands were required for most lessons. Still nowhere near the severity of punishments Mr. Scary Headmaster was threatening. ”Oh, wow. What a year.” He leaned in a bit closer to hear Ash’s whispered words. ”It is quite disconcerting.” He was being very conservative in his word choice, because he was no idiot and he knew the headmaster would sooner do away with him than let him run around the castle sharing what he really thought, but he hoped Ash would understand that behind his careful diction he was really thinking about how horrible the headmaster was. People who threatened children and hurt animals were the worst of the worst. ”It’s Hogwarts, so I’m sure something will happen to top that. Like the whole castle flipping upside down or a whole herd of hippogriffs running rampant in the great hall or something else weird.” They really couldn’t get a peaceful term, could they?

Ash nodded. "If hippogriffs run rampant, I'll either get squished or blamed. I'm negatively involved in most things here, anyway." Yes, most accidents or interesting things had the words A S H L E Y F O X written in bold letters all over them. And no, supervision never paid attention to Ash. Or maybe Ash never cared about supervision. It depended on the situation. Either nobody tried to keep her in check or nobody was able to.

griffin · 01-15-2021, 06:08 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by astrocat

Ash nodded. "If hippogriffs run rampant, I'll either get squished or blamed. I'm negatively involved in most things here, anyway." Yes, most accidents or interesting things had the words A S H L E Y F O X written in bold letters all over them. And no, supervision never paid attention to Ash. Or maybe Ash never cared about supervision. It depended on the situation. Either nobody tried to keep her in check or nobody was able to.

He eyed her suspiciously as she commented on her negative involvement in the school. ”Oh? You’re not with them, are you?” Them here referring to the muggle-hating neo-alliance, of course. That was the only negative involvement he could think of in the school right now. As far as he knew none of the students supported them, but one could never be too careful these days. And to think Ash had been so helpful with his laundry. Surely she couldn’t be among the ranks of those child-torturers?

astrocat · 01-15-2021, 06:22 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by griffin

He eyed her suspiciously as she commented on her negative involvement in the school. ”Oh? You’re not with them, are you?” Them here referring to the muggle-hating neo-alliance, of course. That was the only negative involvement he could think of in the school right now. As far as he knew none of the students supported them, but one could never be too careful these days. And to think Ash had been so helpful with his laundry. Surely she couldn’t be among the ranks of those child-torturers?

Ash laughed harshly. "You think I would team with someone who threatened to kill me?" She pointed at her face. It said 'liar' on it, and there was a noticeable bruise underneath her chin. "I'm not as dumb as I act, y'know. I know who my friends are. I'm also a muggleborn, so..." She looked at the ceiling and sighed. That was quite the bruise. "By negative involvement, I meant that bad things happen to me, usually because of me." AS IF she would ever say a truthful word in favor of the cult. That would be betrayal, of her best friend, a muggle. And she refused to betray him, or even say a harsh word in his direction. Once you had saved someone and they had saved you, you stuck together. And that was the way it was.

griffin · 01-15-2021, 07:18 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by astrocat

Ash laughed harshly. "You think I would team with someone who threatened to kill me?" She pointed at her face. It said 'liar' on it, and there was a noticeable bruise underneath her chin. "I'm not as dumb as I act, y'know. I know who my friends are. I'm also a muggleborn." She looked at the ceiling and sighed. That was quite the bruise. "By negative involvement, I meant that bad things happen to me, usually because of me." AS IF she would ever say a truthful word in favor of the cult. That would be betrayal, of her best friend, a muggle. And she refused to betray him, or even say a harsh word in his direction. Once you had saved someone and they had saved you, you stuck together. And that was the way it was.

Another oh that was you wave of realization washed over Devin as he recalled the incident in question from the first day of class. ”Well, some might for fear of their lives.” The threat of death could be a pretty powerful motivator in forcing people to do things against their will. He gazed in shock at the bruise on her chin. It was horrible what the headmaster had done to her. What a frightening time to be a muggleborn. ”I won’t tell.” Not that it mattered because the headmaster had access to the school records so he would know anyway, but as a matter of principal Devin still wouldn’t betray a friend. ”Oh, so you’re quite accident-prone then.” He wasn’t sure if that was exactly what he would describe as negative involvement, but it sounded like there was some level of recklessness or clumsiness involved.

astrocat · 01-15-2021, 07:41 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by griffin

Another oh that was you wave of realization washed over Devin as he recalled the incident in question from the first day of class. ”Well, some might for fear of their lives.” The threat of death could be a pretty powerful motivator in forcing people to do things against their will. He gazed in shock at the bruise on her chin. It was horrible what the headmaster had done to her. What a frightening time to be a muggleborn. ”I won’t tell.” Not that it mattered because the headmaster had access to the school records so he would know anyway, but as a matter of principal Devin still wouldn’t betray a friend. ”Oh, so you’re quite accident-prone then.” He wasn’t sure if that was exactly what he would describe as negative involvement, but it sounded like there was some level of recklessness or clumsiness involved.

"Oh I definitely do that. But only enough to make me passably compliant." Disrespectfully respectful. Respectfully disrespectful. "Don't worry, it's common knowledge. Last year, I ran around acting almost like a muggle, so I'm sure everyone knows by now." Back when there was Fake Trent. "I don't know if I'm 'accident prone'. More like, 'I don't have self-preservation until it's already too late'. Accident prone implies clumsy accidents. Lack of self-preservation implies recklessness and bad decision-making skills, which is wayyy more accurate." Unnervingly accurate. "Or maybe not bad decision-making skills, but a lack of regard for what the right decision is." Ash could do WOrDs. See?

griffin · 01-15-2021, 07:55 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by astrocat

"Oh I definitely do that. But only enough to make me passably compliant." Disrespectfully respectful. Respectfully disrespectful. "Don't worry, it's common knowledge. Last year, I ran around acting almost like a muggle, so I'm sure everyone knows by now." Back when there was Fake Trent. "I don't know if I'm 'accident prone'. More like, 'I don't have self-preservation until it's already too late'. Accident prone implies clumsy accidents. Lack of self-preservation implies recklessness and bad decision-making skills, which is wayyy more accurate." Unnervingly accurate. "Or maybe not bad decision-making skills, but a lack of regard for what the right decision is." Ash could do WOrDs. See?

Acting like a muggle? As in not using magic at all? Perhaps he would learn more about that later, but given the circumstances and the feeling that the hoods might pop up at any moment, it seemed rude to interrogate her any further on the matter. Lack of self-preservation, huh? ”Are you sure you’re not in my house?” Sounded like a very Gryffindor thing to him. He was sure he would have seen her before in the common room if she was, though, so she couldn’t be. Thank Merlin he had more self-preservation instincts than some of his housemates with regards to this school takeover. Or perhaps he just lacked the guts to take a stand under threat.

astrocat · 01-15-2021, 09:08 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by griffin

Acting like a muggle? As in not using magic at all? Perhaps he would learn more about that later, but given the circumstances and the feeling that the hoods might pop up at any moment, it seemed rude to interrogate her any further on the matter. Lack of self-preservation, huh? ”Are you sure you’re not in my house?” Sounded like a very Gryffindor thing to him. He was sure he would have seen her before in the common room if she was, though, so she couldn’t be. Thank Merlin he had more self-preservation instincts than some of his housemates with regards to this school takeover. Or perhaps he just lacked the guts to take a stand under threat.

Acting like a muggle, as in, using only muggle things 90% of the time. There was never a more obvious muggleborn than Ash, probably. "I think I would work in any house but slytherin, because I'm not that ambitious. But the sorting hat was like, "You're smart and now you're a Ravenclaw", and I didn't really care about what house I was in enough to question it." She was brave, loyal, and smart(also crazy but that isn't a house), and she had friends in all of the houses. Houses weren't that important. "I would fit right in in Gryffindor. I stand out in Ravenclaw, but it still fits." Ash was a very philosophical person. She thought about these things when she wasn't busy getting out of trouble or being mopey.

griffin · 01-15-2021, 10:01 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by astrocat

Acting like a muggle, as in, using only muggle things 90% of the time. There was never a more obvious muggleborn than Ash, probably. "I think I would work in any house but slytherin, because I'm not that ambitious. But the sorting hat was like, "You're smart and now you're a Ravenclaw", and I didn't really care about what house I was in enough to question it." She was brave, loyal, and smart(also crazy but that isn't a house), and she had friends in all of the houses. Houses weren't that important. "I would fit right in in Gryffindor. I stand out in Ravenclaw, but it still fits." Ash was a very philosophical person. She thought about these things when she wasn't busy getting out of trouble or being mopey.

Hmm, so she was a Ravenclaw. Seemed legit given her good problem-solving skills. ”I’m in Gryffindor. I think other houses would have suited me just as well, though. The hat put a lot of thought into Slytherin and Hufflepuff for me. Dunno what specifically tipped the scales in favor of Gryffindor, maybe it chooses randomly when the decision is that close. I guess ultimately it's not who we are to start with that matters, but the people we surround ourselves with. Learning similar ways of thinking to them, similar views on life. Or learning about what makes us different and unique and understanding the world better through that. So maybe our own traits when we start school don't determine how much we'll eventually fit in with the rest of our house. Do you think the hat can really see that much about our character?” Maybe the hat just randomly distributed houses and had been playing an elaborate practical joke on the students and staff of Hogwarts for thousands of years, and students had shaped their identities around its descriptions of what students in that house should be like. A sort of self-fulfilling prophecy, if you will. At the end of the day, houses were really just for administrative organization such as assigning dorms and dividing up responsibility for managing all the students among the heads of houses if you thought about it.

astrocat · 01-15-2021, 10:12 PM

"I don't think that houses mean a lot. Intelligence might be my dominant trait., but it isn't my only one. So I could have the exact opposite personality to a bunch of other people in my house. I bet the hat can see our traits, but the picking is just arbitrary. Unless it's too obvious." See, the requirement for being in each of the houses were not binary, or mutually exclusive, or whatever. "I don't understand why people are averse to certain houses. Like, lots of people don't want hufflepuff, or slytherin, or whatever, and it doesn't make any sense." Like, being in a house didn't guarantee you were a good or bad person. "But they need some sort of way of sorting us, and it's bound to be arbitrary in one way or another."

griffin · 01-15-2021, 10:54 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by astrocat

"I don't think that houses mean a lot. Intelligence might be my dominant trait., but it isn't my only one. So I could have the exact opposite personality to a bunch of other people in my house. I bet the hat can see our traits, but the picking is just arbitrary. Unless it's too obvious." See, the requirement for being in each of the houses were not binary, or mutually exclusive, or whatever. "I don't understand why people are averse to certain houses. Like, lots of people don't want hufflepuff, or slytherin, or whatever, and it doesn't make any sense." Like, being in a house didn't guarantee you were a good or bad person. "But they need some sort of way of sorting us, and it's bound to be arbitrary in one way or another."

”Yeah. I don’t think it means anything really. People aren't that simple, don't realistically fit into nice little categories like that. They just need to assign dorms and heads of house to take care of us somehow. I suppose the aversion to specific houses must have something to do with the stereotypes of each house. Or maybe if there’s someone you really don’t like in that house. I guess some people have, like, family legacies or whatnot where they might want to be in a certain house as well.” That could go either way, whether someone wanted to be in the same house as a parent had been in or avoid the house a sibling was to avoid being stuck in their shadow or whatever other reasons people had. He really hadn’t cared much which house the hat put him in. Honestly he wouldn’t be surprised if the only reason that the sorting hat hadn’t thrown Ravenclaw into the running as well would be because it would be just plain embarrassing for a hat whose only job was to assign him to a house to admit that any house would suit him just fine and it didn’t really matter, because that would put the sorting hat out of a job and tarnish its reputation.

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