Open Ye Olde Yearbooks

[Eugene Nestor]

Eugene had been told about these old yearbooks by the leader of the yearbook club, he hadn't given much thought to how old the school was, or it's old students, but seeing the yearbook from the year before had made him so curious about ones even older. So he'd come to the library, delving deep into their yearbook section and looking through the old ones. He was constantly fidgeting in his seat over the excitement on the page. It certainly seemed in all the ones he could find that there were professors who'd been at the school for AGES. He had also found students in it that he knew were now teachers at the school which felt so wild to him too. He had a few open at once, just staring at each of the pictures in turn, the fact pictures could move was something he'd known for a little while in this world, but seeing the older pictures, students from years before smiling and moving in front of him, he thought it was so cool. He would have to get a magical camera or someone with a magical camera to help him take a picture of him and his cousin so he could have a moving one with her. It would be so cool. ​

 

[Ivelisse Burleigh]

If Ivelisse had her way she would've seen every single place in the castle at least twice already by now, but giving how short she had been at the castle she knew that was in all ways impossible. Nevertheless, she still tried to go places she hadn't been to yet before, between or after class. Today was no exception. With her intention to be the best student in her year she knew she would eventually be spending a lot of time in the library, so it only made sense that was her chosen location of the day. Iva had struggled a little in making her way there, annoyed when the stairs moved just when she didn't want them to, but had now reached the library. She looked around in amazement when she entered. It definitely looked huge, but she still wondered just how crowded it would be in there once exams were around the corner. After quietly moving passed the rows of bookshelves for a little while and inspecting the workspaces she was about to leave when she noticed one of her classmates inspecting a bunch of old yearbook, which certainly piqued her interest. "Are you looking for someone in there?" She whispered, giving the boy a smile as she slid into the seat across from him and picked up one of the closed yearbooks to flip through. "I reckon my dad's in some of these."

 

[Eugene Nestor]

Eugene looked up and spotted on of his classmates in front of him, her name escaped him but he he was sure she was one of the slytherins. He shook his head, ”Not really bro, I’m just looking, it’s fascinating,” Eugene told her with an eager expression, and simply he did find it very interesting. ”Oh yeah? Do you know what year it would’ve been, roughly?” he asked curiously, perhaps he had it in front of him or perhaps it was one of the few left on the shelf, ”They’re fascinating, like seeing the old students waving at us in these old pictures, it’s wicked” he said, it was clear in his tone that he was only just managing to hold back his excitement over what he’d been looking at, ”Professor Styx doesn’t appear to change much but others do,” he said, showing the girl what he’d been looking at specifically, he’d been looking at some old club pages and to the groups of students that had been involved in them. He wondered where most of those people were, their stories, he wondered how many of them had liked music. ”I’m Eugene by the way,”​

 

[Ivelisse Burleigh]

Ivelisse nodded when the boy said he was just looking. She could see why flipping through the old yearbooks could be fun. It took her a couple of seconds to try and come up with an answer to his question, mentally trying to do the math of how old she thought her dad was and how long ago he would've been at the school. "I think he started somewhere around thirty years ago." She finally responded, perhaps a bit more confident than she actually was about her own math. Nevertheless, she was sure they'd be able to stumble upon him in one of the yearbook from around that time. "I guess it is pretty cool." Iva agreed with her classmate. Flipping through old yearbooks to look at people who once had been at the school definitely wasn't something she would've ever come up with herself, but it did actually sound like fun. She was also quite eager to see if she was actually able to find her dad in them now, curious as to what he would've been like when he was a student at the school. "That would explain why he looks so ancient. Maybe he has some sort of secret potion to keep him from aging." She laughed when the boy mentioned professor Styx, looking at the page he was showing her. Even if she tried she would have no idea how old her head of house was, but her classmate was definitely right about the fact that the man had looked the same for quite a while now. "I'm Ivelisse." She introduced herself in return, giving the boy her most charming smile like she usually would at introductions.

 

[Eugene Nestor]

Eugene nodded as she said thirty years ago, he grabbed some of the older ones and pulled them forward, before passing them to the girl, ”These ones might have him in there,” he told her, as he didn't know who her dad was or what he looked like, he was sure it was better for her to look them up and see what she could find. He definitely thought it was more than pretty cool, but he wouldn’t keep going on about it. ”I think he’s actually a vampire,” he didn’t know much about vampires but he thought that could definitely explain why he looked so the same throughout. Eugene could tell by some of the surnames that Professor Styx very clearly had a big family, he wasn’t sure if they were all kids of his but there were a number of Styx’s throughout the years. He smiled at the girl, Ivelisse, as she introduced herself back to him. ”Good to meet you. Do you go by Ive?” he asked, he thought that would be a little easier to remember and say than Ivelisse but he would only do so if she didn’t mind. ”Did you know there used to be a friendship club in the school?”​

 

[Ivelisse Burleigh]

Ivelisse excitedly took the yearbooks from Eugene when he offered her a couple of old ones her dad might be in. She had obviously seen pictures of him from when he was younger at her grandparents house but to actually see him in the yearbooks sounded like a lot of fun. Especially since she wasn't even sure if he had been in any of clubs of whatever. She knew he had never been part of a quidditch team but that was about it. Iva started carefully flipping through the first of the yearbooks whilst still listening to what the boy had to say. She took a second to consider what he said about professor Styx. "Could be." She responded with a small nod. "Maybe we should investigate." She added with a soft chuckle. Even if she liked to think she knew a lot there was very little she actually knew about vampires. She didn't specifically think the professor was a vampire but without evidence she also couldn't say that Styx wasn't. "Yeah. Ive, Iva, I'm cool with whatever really." Iva shrugged casually. She knew her name might be a little complicated so she had always been fine with whatever version of her name people created. When Eugene mentioned a friendship club she couldn't help but laugh, quickly covering her mouth with her hand and looking around if she had angered anyone by being loud. They were still in the library after all. "A friendship club?" She asked at a more respectable volume. "How would that even work? Like were they already friends? Or was the purpose of the club to make friends?" Iva added, her mind going over the various possibilities of what the idea of the club might have been.

 

[Eugene Nestor]

Eugene wasn’t sure a person, a student should investigate a professor but he couldn’t help but think it could be rather fun, and perhaps would turn something up. ”How would we?” he asked, ”Shall we ask if the librarian has books on vampires?” that way if they had books they would know what to look for, what to watch out for and how to make the ultimate decision on whether he was or not a vampire. Eugene smiled at the girl as she said that Ive or Iva were fine, he wasn’t sure between the two which he would go for, but Ive felt a little more in line with her actual name, so perhaps he would go with that for a while. He found himself laughing a little with her, and then a little at her reaction to laughing in the otherwise quiet library. ”I think the idea was to make friends,” he said with a little laugh, ”But who knows, maybe the purpose was do things with others that make you better friends, like fighting a dragon or something,” he couldn’t imagine it was that, but this was a new school with lots of new and varying people. Perhaps it was just that.​

 

[Ivelisse Burleigh]

Ivelisse had been joking about researching whether professor Styx was a vampire, not exactly believing he could be. It seemed more likely he just had some secret anti-aging potion stashed away somewhere but at the same time she couldn't help but wonder what they would find if they actually looked into it. "I think that'd be a good start." She nodded when Eugene mentioned asking the librarian, feeling like that would be the easiest way to get some information. They could look for books themselves, sure, but with the size of the library that could take ages and unlike Styx they did age in looks. Iva was relieved no one had come over to give her a stern look after she had burst out laughing, not keen on making a bad impression when she had only been at the school for a little while. "I guess it's not like super weird." She responded with a small shrug when she thought about Eugene's answer. "I mean a club for making friends could actually be cool." She added, ideas about how things would've gone swirling through her head. It wasn't like she thought she'd have much difficulty making friends on her own, but still the possibilities sounded promising and it made her wonder what had eventually killed the club. "Why do you think the club doesn't exist anymore?"

 

[Eugene Nestor]

Eugene nodded in agreement, when they had a moment he would ask the professor about books on vampires and they would be able to start their search on it. He was sure they could find the books on their own, but it would be quicker to just ask the librarian to find the books for them. He gave a little shrug and a little nod, it was a bit weird but he was also sure that it would be quite good. Perhaps a better version still of the muggleborn support club. ”Maybe some clubs are just by the people at the school in the moment and when they graduate the whole idea of it graduates with them,” he could think of that as being the reason. ”What club would you start?” he asked Ive, he knew he’d start a music club, separate from the arts club and only for music.​

 

[Ivelisse Burleigh]

Ivelisse listened as Eugene gave his view on why the club might have ended. "Yeah, probably." She nodded in agreement. She guessed his idea made sense, even if it did sound a little sad. What if there had been some super cool clubs in the past that had just ended up disappearing when the kids who started them left? Maybe she needed to look into some more yearbooks to see if there was anything she was missing out on. "Don't know." Iva answered with a small shrug at his question. Perhaps if she'd think about it for a little while she might actually come up with a solid idea for another club, her ideas were always great after all, but right now on the spot she couldn't think of anything. "Why? Are you thinking of starting a club?" She asked, eyeing Eugene curiously. As their conversation went on she mindlessly continued flipping through another yearbook, stopping when she realized she had actually noticed something before flipping back a couple of pages. Iva snorted when she reached the right page, looking straight at her dad's face in the yearbook. His twelve year old face, definitely not the face she was used to. "Look." She tried to keep her laughter down as she turned the yearbook towards Eugene, not to keen on getting kicked out of the library for being noisy. "That's my dad. What a dork." She pointed at the picture, the movement showing her dad wasn't paying attention and barely managed to smile in time. "Are yours somewhere in here as well? Or did they not go here?"

 

[Eugene Nestor]

Eugene shook his head, ”I mean if I did it would be a music club, for sure bro, but I don’t intend to start one,” Eugene thought he was probably too young to have his own club at least one that would have him needing to be in the yearbook. He peered at the fact she pointed at and he looked at it. He wasn’t sure how close to Ive this boy looked but he’d never really been going at telling when people were related. It was pretty interesting to look between her and the picture. He shook his head at the question. ”No...eh, my mother’s family aren’t magic and I have no idea who my dad is, or what his family might be,” Eugene said with a shrug, only upon being magic had Eugene even given half a thought to who his dad perhaps was or had been and if he could have magic. It wouldn’t change anything certainly not how he was raised, but it didn’t stop him thinking about it.​

 

[Ivelisse Burleigh]

Ivelisse nodded when Eugene mentioned a music club. She guessed that could be cool for people who were into that. Although she was sure there was already some sort of club that involved all things creative, positive she had heard her sister talk about that. It wasn't difficult to understand a seperate club just for music might sound attractive to certain kids though. "I mean if you want to play with others you can always start a band or something." She replied with a shrug when he said he wasn't intending on starting a club. It sounded incredibly ambitious for a first year anyways and if he had been thinking about the idea of a music club to connect with others she was sure there were plenty of different ways to do so. "Maybe if you're good they'll let you play at the dances." Iva added casually, even when she thought the idea did sound pretty cool. She nodded when Eugene talked about his family not being magical. At least as far as he knew. "That's cool." She responded, before realizing that was a weird thing to say after he mentioned not knowing who his dad was. "Uh, I mean the your mom being a muggle part, not the whole not knowing your dad thing. I guess." She added quickly.

 

[Eugene Nestor]

Eugene grinned at her, ”I definitely want to start a band!” he told her excitedly. He hadn’t thought about if they’d like them perform at the dances, he was sure that they wouldn’t but it could be cool if they did allow that kind of thing. ”That would be neat!” he told her. He shrugged at her statement, he didn’t care about his dad, of course he’d given it a little thought currently but at the end of the day it didn’t matter. ”Is your mum in these?” he asked Ive, he had noted that she hadn’t mentioned her, only her father so he wondered after saying if perhaps he shouldn’t have said anything about it. At the very least if she didn’t have a mother, in the same way he no longer had his or how he didn’t have a father then there was a way for them to bond over it.​

 

[Ivelisse Burleigh]

Ivelisse chuckled softly at Eugene's enthusiasm about wanting to start a band, figuring it was likely something he had been thinking about before. "I mean if you end up playing the school dances with a band you'd obviously have to give me a shout out." She shrugged casually when he seemed excited about that as well. If he somehow did start a band and was able to convince whoever was in charge of the dances to let them play she wouldn't mind a little attention. The whole dance thing was her idea after all. "Nah." Iva shrugged when Eugene asked about her mom. "She's a muggle. But she's not really around a lot anymore." She continued as casually as possible. She didn't care though. Well, she did care but mostly because she had always felt a little angry towards her mom for never being around after her parents got divorced. "I guess we balance each other out a bit." She said with a small grin, trying not to let the situation get too deep. "I mean you've got your mom and I've got my dad."

 

[Eugene Nestor]

Eugene nodded, ”Of course, the founding idea of it was yours,” he assured with a light and mostly joking tone. He nodded as she went on to talk about her mum and he felt sorry that her mum wasn’t around much, though it did seem that she got along well with her father and that was at least something. He grimaced a little at her last statement. He felt like she was trying to make a bit of a joke, but he gave a little ah sound. ”So, eh, my mother’s dead….I’ve got my cousin, she looks after me. she’s the best. ” he spoke a little quicker than normal, slowly down as he spoke of his cousin. ”It was a while ago, she doesn’t give me a bedtime, we stay up late, she’s great, I’ve got her and we’re good,” He hoped that wouldn’t have ruined the mood. ​

 

[Ivelisse Burleigh]

Ivelisse grinned when Eugene agreed, now definitely hoping the whole situation would actually come to be. Having her name called out in the front of the entire school sounded like something she would love to get used to. Nothing wrong with a little attention after all. Especially not when she earned it. Her face quickly fell when he mentioned his mother was dead though, almost wanting to slap herself even though there was no way she could've known. "Oh. I'm sorry." Iva grimaced, although she instantly felt a little better about her mistake when he mentioned living with his cousin who definitely sounded like fun so far. "That's cool." She nodded, shooting him a smile. "What does she do? My dad's a magizoologist so y'know if you ever wanna see some cool creatures up close I'm your girl." She joked, trying to quickly manoeuvre away to a more fun topic.

 

[Eugene Nestor]

Eugene gave her a little shake of his head, there was no way she could’ve known that about him and he knew that she didn’t mean anything. He also knew that it was long ago enough now that someone talking about it, him mentioning it wasn’t going to upset him at all. Eugene had no idea what a magizoologist was, but if he could give it some though it seemed rather obvious. He thought it would be really cool to see the creature, ”I’d really like that!” he said, he wasn’t sure if she was actually offering, but he wanted to see them, he wanted to be able to know the creatures in this magical world. ”My cousin works in a restaurant, she’s a waitress,” he told Ive, it wasn’t as glamorous as being a magizoologist, ”But she’s also at university,” he added. ”What kind of creatures does your dad look after?”​

 

[Ivelisse Burleigh]

Ivelisse grinned at Eugene's response to what she had said about magical creatures. She was sure her dad wouldn't mind her bragging about his job, but at the same time he probably wouldn't be very happy if she was to invite just anyone she met over. So far she hadn't even invited anyone though and she knew he loved talking about his creatures so if she just so happened to invite one or two people she didn't think it would be too big of a deal. Iva nodded when he mentioned his cousin being a waitress. It wasn't a super cool job or anything but she still thought it was a respectable one. "What's she studying for?" She asked curiously, always having been a little interested in muggle universities and how different things were at those. "Mostly harmless ones." She chuckled as she answered his question. "He helped a friend look after some at first because we lived in a muggle neighbourhood, but then my mom left and we moved so now there's a few. The mooncalfs are pretty cute."

 

[Eugene Nestor]

Eugene had to think for a moment, his cousin had said but he always struggled to remember, ”Something in history I think, she’s told me, but I’m not sure,” he said. He was sure it was either something in history or something close to history or social sciences. He thought she might study music but she’d gone for that. Had Eugene stayed in the muggle world, and stayed at school, he knew he’d have likely wanted to study music. He nodded as Ive said he looked after mostly harmless animals. ”What do mooncalfs look like?” he asked curiously. He half wanted to write it down so he could seek out the books on it later.​

 

[Ivelisse Burleigh]

Ivelisse wasn't quite sure how many options there even were at muggle universities so she couldn't possibly blame Eugene for having to think about her question for a second. "Sounds.. interesting." She nodded when he eventually answered. Personally, she wasn't much of a history fan and if she was being honest she found it rather boring. Sure, it was important but still. That didn't mean she was going to talk badly about the fact that his cousin decided to study history of all things though. People were allowed to have different interests after all. "They're weird." She chuckled softly at Eugene's question. "But like in a cute way. They have these webbed feet and a long neck. I reckon it's kind of hard to visualize if you haven't seen them." She added, quickly looking around to see if they happened to be anywhere near some books about magical creatures. Unfortunately, they weren't. "Oh! And they have these huge eyes." She grinned, holding her hands next to her own eyes to indicate how big they were.

 

[Eugene Nestor]

Eugene shrugged, he wasn’t sure he was right and he wasn’t sure if it was interesting, but it was interesting to his cousin so that was enough. He nodded as Ive went on to describe the mooncalfs in a way that he was not sure still what they looked like. They seemed they could be interesting but he also thought they probably just looked really really odd. But it made him want to look them up and actually see what they looked like. It would have to be interesting and it would have to be fair cool. ”Wow...Are there lots of magical creatures?” he thought the question was probably rather dumb but he was new the world and the fact there were just all of these possible creatures that he could interact with and knowing if there were lots of them or just some would certainly be useful for him. He just hoped Ive wouldn’t mind the question.​

 

[Ivelisse Burleigh]

Ivelisse wondered if her description of mooncalfs had given Eugene any sort of impression of what the creatures actually looked like. Probably not, seeing as the way she had described them still sounded incredibly vague. Especially to someone who had probably never even seen any type of magical creature before. At least not a lot, that much she was sure of. "Oh yeah." She nodded in response to Eugene's question which only seemed to confirm that he knew very little about them. Which made sense, seeing as she was pretty sure he had grown up in the muggle world from everything he had said so far. "There's tons of them." She added with a smile, still kind of proud that she had quite some knowledge about them. At least enough to be able to brag about her dads job and all. "I'm sure there's books on them in here. There's even a whole elective on them." Ivelisse continued, quite content with how knowledgeable she seemed to be coming off in this conversation.

 

[Eugene Nestor]

Eugene was a little worried there was simply too much he needed to learn about. There was so much in the magical world and he was curious to learn about a lot of it. Eugene nodded when she said there was a class about it. That would be useful, but from his own reading he’d have to wait until third year for that, and that was such a long way away. ”Will you take it when you can?” he wondered if Ive would be interested in learning about such things formally when her dad was clearly involved in things like that. ”Do you know what other electives there are?” he knew they had to pick some, and from his listening to other conversations he knew that there were only a couple and one was about muggles that he knew he’d be unlikely to take.​

 

[Ivelisse Burleigh]

Ivelisse took a moment to think about Eugene's question. She knew the class was an elective and she had heard her dad and sister talk about it tons of times already, but she hadn't even considered whether or not she would want to take it herself as well. "Maybe. My sister does. Might be an easy pass but I'm not sure I'd like that." She answered, still thinking about it. It would also be a great chance to show off so perhaps she needed to start seriously considering it. At the same time she still had plenty of time to think about that. "I know there's divination. And then there's some stuff like runes and arithmancy too. I'm not sure if there's any more, I only remember a few my dad and sister talked about." Ivelisse answered with a small shrug, trying to break her brain over what exactly the electives were. Her sister had difficulty picking them so she they had been discussed extensively back at their home but apparently she had been skillfull in blocking out those conversations. "Oh and there's muggle studies." She suddenly piped in again, remembering the elective. "But I guess that's not much use for you. Unless you are looking for an easy pass."

 

[Eugene Nestor]

Eugene nodded as she said she was thinking about it, that her sister took it. He nodded along as she listed some of the classes. There were names of things that felt familiar but he was sure probably weren’t what he thought they were. He really doubted that Arithmancy was actually like any of the muggle math classes he’d been in. But muggle studies, that was probably like studying a language. So he would likely get an easy A or whatever the top grade was, but he didn’t think ti would be fun to learn about stuff he already knew. ”No, not that an easy pass wouldn’t be nice, but like I’m here to learn! So I should you know, do classes I’ll learn in,” he told her excitedly. ”And I’m going to guess that Arithmancy isn’t like, maths, like addition, subtraction, equations, like arithmetic?” he asked, she might not know the answer, but she definitely seemed more knowledgeable than him about all of this magical world. ​