Map of Argyllshire
 

Just a random post, feel free to join him ^^
 

It had felt like a lifetime ago when the Hufflepuff had last looked at the map. He usually spend his time in the Technology Lounge but with the room destroyed he had no other place to go. Taking strolls down corridors wasn't ideal either these days but it beat staying in the common room.

He had a fond memory with this map. Well, not the map itself but one of the older students, who luckily for her had already graduated, had told him he would make a great father one day as he tried to take care of his baby from the muggle studies assignment. He smiled thinking about it.

Taking a seat on the floor next to the map with his back against the wall, Minjae put a hand in his pocket and pulled out a green ball the size of his palm. He threw the ball across the corridor, it hit the opposite wall and as it bounced back he caught it with his hand and repeated the process.

Throw, hit, catch. Throw, hit , catch . Throw , hit …miss.

Ash’s voice had taken him out of his concentration and the ball had hit the tips of his fingers and it bounced away. With a lazy sigh, he took out his wand and pointed it at the ball as it rolled down the corridor. A non-verbal Accio and it rolled back to him again. ”Hey Ash” he greeted. He wasn’t sure if he was that happy to see her though. Didn’t trouble seem to follow her everywhere she went?

He threw the ball against the opposite wall and stared at it as he catched it and threw it back. What was he doing? ”Throwing a ball” he answered in a simple manner. ”Its …okay. I don’t know, just okay” it wasn’t the most fun activity but anything TOO fun would surely be punished, right? ”Catch" he said as he angled the ball so that when it hit the wall again it would fly in her direction.

Just ok is not ok. The vague remnants of a muggle commercial popped into her brain. She stifled a smile. Muggle stuff wasn't welcome here. She caught the ball easily. Unlike her little brother, she had hand-eye coordination. Ash tossed the ball back at the wall to go in Minjae's direction and sat down. "Cool." Monotonous. Honestly, Ash liked doing stuff that didn't require thinking. Thinking was disappointing. "Throwing stuff is cool." So was kicking walls. But playing catch ws less weird than kicking walls was. Minjae didn't seem like the kind of guy who kicked walls. Did Ash seem like the type who would kick walls? Maybe.

”This is nice” he said with a small yet sad smile playing on his face. The corridor was empty apart from them for now and the Hufflepuff enjoyed this little moment. It was just a simple game that they couldn’t appreciate anymore these days and he hoped that no one was going to ruin it. Just one day he’d like to have some hope. Everyone was on edge and stressed out, with good reason of course. Minjae had outbursts of emotions as well. He felt angry, sad, confused and helpless. Sometimes he had to hide in an empty classroom and he would cry for a few minutes before returning. Of course, Ash did not need to know this information. It was embarrassing enough.

”I guess…yeah” he said as he caught the ball that Ashley threw against the wall and he threw it right back. ”You’re not bad at this” he said.

"Yep. This is chill." She felt meh. It was obviously a bad situation, but relatively, everything was fine. Ash was glad Minjae hadn't admitted to crying in classrooms. Because then Ash would also have to admit to crying in closets and laundry rooms. And no way she could say that. People who hung out in closets could see for themselves anyway. "Well, I like sports. I dunno if this is a sport, but it uses the same skills." Eyesight. Motor skills. Strength. Patience. She reached up and caught the ball, stretching her arm out to catch it. Her height worked in her favor. If she kept growing this much, she would be over 6 feet tall.

”Its definitely not better than playing video games though” when compared this was actually a pretty boring activity. He would never be able to forgive Rosier for what they had to do to that room. Actually, he was never going to forgive him for anything. He didn’t even care if somehow he had a tragic backstory like in the games he used to play. He was pure evil and deserved everything that was coming for him when the Aurors came. He was sure that someone must have noticed something by now.

”I ...wouldn’t count this as a sport. But i do agree that it uses the same skills” he said after catching the small ball again and bounced it on the floor and watched it fly up to the ceiling. Would the Ravenclaw jump to catch it this time? . ”I’m not really a fan of sports” but that did not mean he didn’t appreciate it either. ”Which sports do you like? Muggle sports or Wizarding sports?” Didn’t you have to be really tall to be able to play certain sports? Standing at 5’5 and knowing he wouldn’t grow anymore, Minjae knew that a career in sports would not be for him. Not that he actually wanted that ….

Ash didn't care about anyone's sad backstory. She had a sad backstory, and she didn't torture children. And she didn't take advantage of her privilege to torture other kids, which was more than some people at this school could say. "When I grow up, maybe I'll play video games professionally, and give the money to charity." Ash could do anything really. Sports, art, music, video games. "I love most sports. Except for golf." Golf was boring. "I would like quidditch more if the were no bludgers. Which is ironic, because if I played quidditch, I would be a beater. Mostly I just like surfing. And every other personal or team sport ever." Ash was only one inch shorter than Minjae, and she thought that that was funny. But she chose not to point that out. There were plenty of sports that short people could do. Football, Martial arts, surfing, most of them actually. She did not reach up to catch the ball. Instead, she chose to wait until the ball was at an appropriate height to catch it. Work smarter, not harder.

Playing video games professionally? He had never thought about that option but it sounded appealing. But then he thought of his father and he sighed. It was bad enough that he had been the first in his family to not take over the company as CEO so if he heard he was interested in playing games professionally.... Goodbye trust fund.

"I have absolutely no idea what i want to do after graduating" he sighed. Maybe he should talk to his Head of House some day for career advices?

He laughed as she mentioned quidditch without bludgers but that she'd also be a beater if she were on a team.

"oh right! You told me you liked surfing when we met in Diagon Alley" he had forgotten about that. "I wish i had known that these nutcases were running around the castle back then" he sighed heavily. "I wouldn't have come back" he said as her watched as she caught the ball without jumping up. That was disappointing.

"Do you know how to do the Engorgement Charm?" he asked as he pointed at the ball. "We could enlarge it and pass the ball to each other" with their feet instead of hands "Everything sucks already, might as well have a bit of fun while were at it"

Or was having a bit of fun forbidden as well?!? -__-

Well. Ash's father might be upset if he thought she would play video games professionally, but he didn't really talk to his children... so Ash was still absolutely gonna get the inheritance. "I wouldn't have come back either. Hey, maybe one day, I'll get expelled for fighting, and they'll snap my wand, and then I have an excuse to stay away." She smiled. Good joke, wasn't it? Sick joke too. But sick jokes were the only kind Ash knew how to make now. "Preferably, I'd like to graduate, but... there are more important things. Like survival." She stared into space, longing for anywhere that was far away from here. "I think I do. Then we could kick it around, like soccer or football or whatever it's called."

"That's not funny" He said as he frowned at her. No one wanted their wand to get snapped, wasn't it like a part of you? The thought that he'd lose his Alder wand would be devastating for him.......OH! Oh wait! , she was just joking . Weird sense of humor this kid had. Then again his humor was a bit dark as well, which was odd considering his personality. "Yeah, survival is everything now" he said slowly as he too stared in to space. "But its important to look at the bright side in these times even if it is small, don't you think?" he felt like such a hypocrite saying this because his own head was filled with doom, despair and hatred.

"You can do the spell"he said while gesturing at the ball in her hands. He could do it himself of course, non-verbally even but he wanted to see if Ash could do it since she was a second year. "Just ..err..try not to let it explode please. its the only ball i have ..."

"Yeah it is," she said, smirking. It was true. It was hilarious. The funniest thing she had heard all day. Could cheer anyone up. Which was sad. "I do look at the bright side. I'm alive, and my arms work. So it's all fine. Plus, when everything is sad, things that usually are bad jokes get SO much funnier. Even puns." Ash cast the make-stuff-bigger spell. The first one worked, but not as well as she would have liked. So she cast it again to make it bigger. "Don't worry. I hardly ever explode things on accident."

"........Lets agree to disagree then" he said with a big sigh. Maybe he was getting old and boring but he didn't see how it was funny. It was quite sad to him. He was glad that she looked at things at the bright side though. Though he didn't know for sure if she was saying that to make him feel better. He watched as she attempted to enlarge the ball and didn't say anything when the first attempt had failed in making it big enough to pass it back and forth.
He did snort at what she said though. "On accident.... so what you're saying is you blow stuff up on purpose?" he grinned. "Nice"

"Is it ready?" he asked while pointing at the ball and got up from the ground. He walked a further down the corridor and positioned himself somewhere at the middle "Ready when you are. Just....err...try not to break anything, cause...you know" He didn't want anyone to hear anything.

It really wasn't funny. But when you were in a position like Ash's position, everything not horrible was hilarious and awesome. If you did something bad and got yelled at instead of hexed, Ash would consider that the greatest success ever. "I try not to. But sometimes, exploding stuff is fun." Or forced. What Ash meant was, she had never messed up a spell that exploded. She had cast many unwanted explosive spells though. "I'm ready. Don't worry, I have aim. And, despite all evidence to the contrary, I have lots of self-preservation too." She kicked the ball at him. Hopefully he was decent at this game.

Minjae nodded his head. He understood where she was going with this. "I used to vanish stuff all the time when i was your age" He said. "I didn't do it on purpose it just...happened" But these days he had been training and he was getting better at controlling his magic and even realized he had a small gift for non-verbal spells. He smiled a little when she mentioned having self-preservation. "Alright, i'll trust you" he said and watched as the ball rolled his way and when it got close to his foot he kicked the ball....against the wall.

"Errr..." he scratched the back of his head as he walked after the ball. "Sorry" he said before giving it another kick and this time it did roll in her direction. "How have you been holding up this year?" he asked, continuing to make conversation .

Ash kicked the ball back, slightly faster this time. "I'm okay. Haven't been crucio'd yet. Which is actually impressive, because I'm Ashley Fox and Ashley Fox can't make smart decisions." But hey, it had all worked out. Everything she was getting in trouble for, she got off easy. She got away with showing support for muggles, she got away with being snarky to the hoods, and she got away with fighting purebloods. So while her situation was the depths of despair, she could feel some sense of pride with her life. The worst warning she'd faced was a wand to the neck. So yeah, she was doing great. She smirked at him. "I'm going to have such a best-seller when I write my memoirs. And I'm going to have so many stories to tell nobody. Because my closest friends don't even know what this is. They just think I'm crazy. Which honestly, is not that inaccurate." She laughed out loud this time. She was full of jokes today, wasn't she? "How are you doing?" Choose wisely, Minjae. The walls have ears.

”I beg to differ. The fact that you haven’t been crucio’d yet means you are smart enough ” he said with a shrug of his shoulders. They weren’t exactly friends who stuck together everywhere they went but he had heard talk about what she had been doing. If anything, the hufflepuff secretly admired the young girl for her defiance because the older he got, the more he thought things through before he acted which resulted in him bubbling up emotions until they exploded. ”I'll know though” he said as he stopped the ball with his foot and stepped on it. ”You have friends here too and they will understand your stories. I hope you remember that Ashley” he suddenly made a face ”Wow I sounded like an old man” he laughed.

How was he doing? Minjae looked behind him to make sure they were indeed alone . ”Oh you know, everyday is a struggle between complying with the alliance and wanting to send non-verbal hex their way” he said. Sometimes he would fantasize sending the dancing feet spell their way during classes so that everyone could have a good laugh for once. The consequences of that was what scared him though. ”But I’m not stupid, i know what will happen if i try” he kicked the ball back, harder this time because he was getting frustrated. ”I just want to see my family. Check if they are alright. I hate that we have no means of contacting them”

"Well I am a Ravenclaw, apparently, so everyone thinks I'm smart. I don't know if being smart translates into making good decisions though. I know what the right decision is, and then I just do the opposite, not gonna lie. But I have a guardian angel who sits on my shoulder going 'nonono don't do that' whenever I do something too crazy." Because you know what Ash did? She did more and more crazy, high-adrenaline, high-risk stuff until she thought she would actually die, and then she started over and repeated it. Smart? No. Workable? Yeah. "Yeah. Some of us." Not all of us. "Some of us." He should watch out too, lest he make the mistake of thinking all the kids were on the same side. "You don't sound like an old man. You sound like a therapist. It's funny." She kicked the ball back. "I want to see if my best friend is alright. He doesn't know about the no-letters thing, so I'm really hoping he hasn't chosen to send me anything. They could trace it." Luckily, Ash had stuff in place to make sure that her best friend didn't come close to the wizarding world. She never talked about it with him, and made sure all of his letters were forwarded by her bodyguards. Because when you love someone, you have to make sure they stay far away from your torture. "I'm scared, you know. Because to escape, you have to revolt, and to revolt, you have to be okay with casualties. And I don't want anyone to die for me, whether they're kids or ministry workers. But at the same time, a lot of us will die if we never escape. I think about it a lot, but I haven't found any loopholes yet. Because the alliance will fight to the death, but I don't want us to die fighting. So the only way out is to win. But winning is dying." She shrugged. "There's always a way. It's just only accessible from outside of here, which is why I can't see it yet." And she believed that. Nobody won a war by accepting defeat. If you were careful and had help, you could always find a way out. Being careful was why she was whispering. She had that part down. Now she just needed to trust that someone out there was coming with help.

Being smart definitely did not translate into making good decisions, he had to agree with that and from what he had heard the girl had not made the best moves over the course of the year but at least she wasn’t killed yet. That had to count for something, right? He smiled a little when she mentioned having a guardian angel on her shoulders because sometimes the Hufflepuff thought the same way. As a muggleborn, he had thought he’d get singled out far more often but except for feeling terrible in classes thanks to the anti-muggle regime, he hadn’t had any real trouble. Some of us…. That hit him, hard. Minjae frowned again. ”I’m aware not everyone here might be against them but…” but what? That the ones who chose the Alliance were not thinking straight? That was just wishful thinking. He understood not everyone saw what he saw in muggles.

This time, his ears turned a bright red color when the Ravenclaw said he sounded like a therapist. It reminded him of Aboli .She was the first person to have listened to his problems at home. It also made him remember their date and well….he was glad Ashley spoke further. It was one thing to talk about wanting to escape and see your family. It was a whole other thing when Ashley suddenly started talking about revolts. He wasn’t sure where she would be going with this but the moment he heard that word, alarm bells went off in his head. Was this how Schmoe had felt when he had went off on an angry rant in his office? He grabbed his wand and waved it around, casting a quick "Muffliato" over them both just in case. Better safe than sorry.

He hadn’t kicked back the ball yet because he was too busy listening to her words. He too had been looking for a way out of the castle. But everything he thought of , the Alliance had thought about as well and he hated it. And if they did find a way to escape, it was going to be a bloody and deadly mess. ”I don’t want others to die for me either…” he said softly after a while."Even the thought of having to go against them scares me so much. They have far more magical experience than us. Not even going to mention that they use Dark magic and like you said, they will fight till death" it sucked, all of it and he wanted to be home right now " I-i don't want to die and i know i can't kill someone either...But i also don't want them to rule our lives." Ugh . Come to Hogwarts they had said. It would be fun! He kicked the ball hard against the wall , the angle of it made it roll back to Ashley. "What is so bad about muggles and us muggleborns anyway? I honestly can't see their point of view. You know what, i'm proud to be muggleborn" There. He had said it.

jeez my philosopher of a child is making this kinda long
 

Good thing for the silency spell. "They don't care about any of us. And some kids here know it, and still try to harness the power of the cult to hurt other kids. Even though it could backfire right back on them. Like torture. How could you, being a kid here, in this position, try to get some other kid tortured or killed? I don't...." Cue voice crack. "...I don't get it." She did a trick shot back at him. Why? Because it looked cool. "It kinda seems like it's not worth fighting back, because if I'm going to die regardless, trying to stop it is just killing you. Dying for a cause only matters if you win later. If you die and then lose, it means nothing." If she was in a situation where she was about to be killed, and someone else was standing next to her and didn't fight it, she would get it. They would be right. Cut your losses and live to fight another day. "They'll never rule our lives. Either we win or we die. That's all there is to it. We won't ever have to live with our failures. Because failure is death. Winning might also mean death. We're all going to die one day, anyhow." She laughed, unexpectedly, partly because she sounded funny and partly because she was trying to suppress her instinct to kick a wall. Her foot twitched slightly, and her eyes drifted to the wall.... no. Do not kick the wall. "That's all going into the quote book. I sound like a philosopher." Okay, but she REALLY wanted to kick the wall. Distraction distraction distraction. uhhhh. "There's nothing wrong with being a muggleborn. They're just generalising. Muggles and wizards aren't good or bad. They're just people, who can be either." Since when was she like, one of those people who gave big speeches at political events and stuff? "Anyway, if I die, my best friend will never know how, and maybe that's a good thing for him. Maybe they'll wash his memories." It would be sad though, because they had promised to stay together forever, like besties did. Well, if she failed, maybe they'd all die.

we love her XD
 

His head was starting to hurt with all the information that the Ravenclaw was saying. He had never seen her this talkative before but he was glad that it was getting off of her chest. It sounded like she had been cropping these feelings up for quite some time now and he knew from personal experience that that was never a good thing. "Wait" he said. "Slow down. Who is trying to get other students to get tortured or killed?" had he missed something? Apparently he had.

"Fighting back against injustice is always worth it. Standing up for yourself has a lot more value than people realize" at least he thought so. Well, he couldn't argue with her when she said that they were all going to die one day anyway. "Look at it from the positive side. THEY will die one day as well" Since Rosier and his goons were human as well. Humans with the biggest ego he had ever witnessed.

Minjae gave a little applause at the trick shot she was doing with the ball and as it rolled towards him he let it roll on the top of his shoe and kicked it back carefully. He was scared that the alliance would do far worse things than just wipe her friend's memory but he kept his mouth shut. They didn't truly know what the Alliance wanted just yet. Dominance over muggles and trying to strip muggleborns off of their magic, sure. But there HAD to be more , Minjae was sure of that.

"Would you do it?" he suddenly asked as the question plagued his mind again. "If you could somehow make a compromise with them to keep you and your best friend alive and safe...would you join the alliance? I mean, i highly doubt they want a bunch of kids on their side but humor me for a second. Would you? "

Ash wasn't in the mood to talk about it. "People who are going to regret their life decisions in the close future." Promise. Or maybe a threat. "Yeah, but I kinda want to die after that. Not before." Especially since she was younger.

She hadn't meant that the alliance would wipe her friend's memories. They would just kill him. She meant that if she died but won, the government would make him forget. But now, onto making a deal with the devil. "I wouldn't do it," she said, without hesitation. "I know it's fake. It would probably end up in some kind of sick scheme where I have to kill him. Dunno. It kinda reminds me of whatshisname. Snape. He made a deal with that one guy and look what happened to his crush." Slip of the tongue. Whoops. "If anyone says, 'join me and I'll keep you and the people you love safe', it's a lie." Duh. Very common muggle movie trope.

Minjae waited for her to spill some names so that he could make note of who to trust and who not to trust. But when she said nothing except for 'people' , the seventh year raised an eyebrow. That had not been helpful at all.

He waited, curious for her answer to his question and she said exactly what he wanted to hear, the Hufflepuff grinned from ear to ear. Definitely a Ravenclaw this girl was. "You are absolutely right!" he said though didn't mention the fact that he hadn't even thought of them possibly lying about safety at first but now that he thought about it, it would be something that they would do. Merlin's Beard, He wasn't naive right?! "I will fight anyone who dares to mess with people i care about" and he cared about many people.

"But who is this Snape though?" he asked, scratching the back of his head in confusion. "Is he famous or something?"

"I'd rather they fight themselves. Why die killing them when they can do it instead? Bet half of them suffer from intense paranoia." What if Lucien Rosier was secretly a muggleborn who hated purebloods? What if he had tweeted 30 years ago about how great muggles were? What if they thought he did? Bye bye, child torturer. "I think this guy Snape had a weird crush on Harry Potter's mom. He worked with pureblood supremacists, and they killed both of them, and also James potter. Or at least I think that's what happened. Never cared much for history. Until it repeats itself, or whatever." They all ought to learn more history, these pureblood supremacists. Voldemort failed. Grindelwald failed. Muggles had brooms made out of plastic that didn't give you splinters. Seriously, open a book or something.