A-Tisket, A-Tasket

[Anna-Jo Worth]

Annabelle Worth had only been to New Zealand once before. She had originally gone to the Hogwarts school there. She went for her first year but then transferred to Beauxbatons. She enjoyed it there, closer to England, home. But now she had plans to go again with one of her Professors. The teacher was sort of an activist and was meeting with a group in Auckland and invited the girl a long. She was intrigued, she wasn't fully sure about the group and what they were rooting for. But she also wasn't sure what she wanted to do once she graduated come Spring. She really wanted to fight for the rights of those who were less fortunate than she. But who/what were the questions. She hoped this trip would help her figure out if this group was something she was interested in or not. She was nervous, she was already 17 and had passed her test to apparate. But this was a journey to a place she hadn't been before. She had to trust her Professor in his ability getting them to the correct spot in one piece. She hadn't been physically splinched before, just a few hairs the first time she went across a room.

Meeting her Professor was easy, his office was on the first floor and most of the students were already on their way home for break. She felt a little uneasy about heading to the Professor's office, but she had a good reason and it wasn't like she was secretly dating this Professor after all. After their greeting she held onto her luggage tight and closed her eyes to concentrate her magic on following her Professor where he was taking them. Once she felt herself settled again on the ground she opened her eyes and found herself in an alleyway. The temperature was much warmer and she was glad her Professor had warned her about the temperature change. Looking over herself, she found herself all there, her luggage was as well. Her Professor was beckoning her to follow him out of the alley and quickly caught up and they headed down the street and entered just another building.

They sat down in a meeting room and Anna-Jo looked around at the faces, she knew none of the people there and hardly understood what they were talking about. But she had been introduced and then the meeting commenced. Glancing over the people, not many seemed to be of magic, she wondered then if that was true what they thought of her french Professor. Did he tell them that he lived in the area? He hadn't told her much about the people but as the introductions went around her hears picked up on a name, Aspara, she thought. That sounded like a wizard she had heard about from her Professor when they had first talked about going with him to learn more about this group he was involved in. After a seemingly businessy meeting the people dispersed and she was left in the room while other business was being taken care of. Anna-Jo wasn't sure what to do so she stayed in her seat and played with the pen she had been using to take notes.

 

[Aspara Tsvetkov]

Aspara had gotten a call from an old friend, from the early days outside of the community and had been very surprised to hear from again, they caught up if he was around, but this was the first time the other man had ever just asked when a meeting was and phrased it that there was someone, a student of his that was interested. It had intrigued the man greatly and relayed to him when the next few meetings were, assuming that it was unlikely that they would be able to make any of the ones that were soon. Aspara had put it out of his mind almost entirely, between everything happening in his life it was difficult to remember when things would happen. He was however glad it was after the break and was glad to be able to get back into the swing of things, he'd kept busy and been glad for the company of Wren during some of it, but honestly he was glad to be able to just throw himself once again fully into his work. It just however meant that when he saw his old friend that he was a little surprised and then seemed to remember why he was here and the girl that was stood a little nervously at his side, Aspara just greeted his friend warmly and introduced himself to the girl before excusing himself to take care of things that needed to be dealt with before the meeting began.

The meeting itself passed without issue, Aspara thought that the speakers had managed to keep within the time limit and he had been able to give his opinion on the matter and the overall discussion had been interesting, nothing overly new had been put forward but that was never really the case when they were at a meeting like this, it was always more for the slightly more private inner meetings of the organisation he worked for. Soon most of the people had left the room, and Aspara had been given the task of clearing up the room, he began gathering the dropped leaflets from the seats and attempting to gather the few other items discarded around the room, it was as he did this that he noticed that the girl who had been brought by his old friend was sitting still in the same chair looking a little lost. Aspara gave her a warm smile, "Anna-Jo right?" he asked as he continued to move around her picking up the leaflets, "Enjoy the meeting?" he asked her, the man had no idea what it was like to come into a meeting fresh without prior knowledge of what it was about, he'd been raised on meetings and things of the sort, though he'd been a little shy when he'd first started going to the meetings, it had just been from the fear of him being rejected. The man was always happy being able to bring in new people and introduce them to the ideas he was trying to push forward, "Any questions?"
​

 

[Anna-Jo Worth]

Anna-Jo was slightly glad the meeting was over. She wasn't used to the meeting atmosphere and found it slightly suffocating. She hardly knew what the presenters were going on about and while she tried to focus and take notes, it was hard when she wasn't sure what past events they were inferring to or the future ones either. She heard a voice speaking her name, it was the guy who sounded like his name was Asparagus, she loved the food oddly enough. "That's me and yeah," she said answering the first two questions. Her thoughts were half mixed with English and French, after going to Beauxbatons for the past couple of years she had found it odd still that she'd think in French sometimes. But nevertheless, sometimes the French had more proper sayings for the situation than English did. Boy, did she have questions. She wasn't even really sure where to start either. Her Professor had said what the group was about and for. But she hadn't heard the term before, and at school there were without the internet to easily look things up.

"Well I suppose I do. My Professor," Anna-Jo started waving her hand near the chair he had been sitting in, "Well he didn't really tell me much about the group. Or rather he did but I didn't understand more than that I might be interested. And I figured not knowing what I'll be doing with my life following graduation in a few months I'd come and see. So, what does your group do? I'll start with that question." Anna-Jo was good with pacing herself. She knew not to ask a lot of questions right off the bat. She didn't want to overwhelm the man and neither did she want to be overwhelmed with all the answers. Plus she really wanted a clear definition to the group because asking more things. Anna-Jo brushed a piece of her hair back, one that had fallen from her pony-tail holder while she waited for the man to explain.

 

[Aspara Tsvetkov]

Aspara wondered briefly as he glanced at the teen what it was like to slowly discover about the sort of things that he did, the sort of things that his group did, which was for most not something they ever touched upon. Aspara had always known it, he'd never been introduced to it in the same way that some were, others he knew in the group had been raised in families where the beliefs existed but he was one of very few active that had ever come from the sort of community that taught it from birth. Aspara looked at her and honestly thought he barely imagine doing that, he couldn't imagine what it would be like to have that kind of non political upbringing, it didn't matter in his mind what had happened subsequently while in the community he felt he was better having been raised in such a community. The man continued to tidy up around her, it was keeping everything together for the next meeting that was the most important part and he couldn't help but find it so good to be able to have it all ready for the next meeting, mostly because Aspara liked being busy and if he was busy this was a good thing.

The man just continued doing what he was doing as the girl spoke, he could imagine having lots of questions so it was only natural for him to ask her about them, to ask her what she might want to know and the man was definitely the person to ask in this group but the question stopped him short for a moment, what did their group do, which seemed like a simple enough question just that it had been a while since Aspara had had to answer such a thing, "We do quite a lot, we're a socialist group who fight oppression where ever it pops up, but added to that because we identify strongly as environmentalists we also fight on environmental issues," Aspara gave his answer with a small friendly smile, "Because we have a number of magical wizards there's a sub-section of the group dedicated to fighting on magical issues, so blood elitism, the continued mistreatment of house elves, werewolf rights, things of that sort," he told her hoping that that help to answer at the very least her first question about what they did, which he thought had correctly covered everything that they stood for, "We hold meetings, organise petitions, protests and rallies, some by ourselves others with other groups like us in the Auckland and greater area," he finished, placing all the leaflets he'd gathered at the table near the back before beginning on the posters.
​

 

[Anna-Jo Worth]

Anna-Jo listened to the man explain about the group. He did a much better job her Professor who brushed on the subject but didn't take the time to really sit down with her. She had recently written an editorial piece for the school newspaper about the continued abuse of House-Elves in the French countryside, while much more proactive help had been formed in England, it had yet to reach the country known to most for being a stuck-up stubborn type of people. He had found it fascinating and brought her in and invited her along for the meetings, saying the group was always looking for more bright-eyed eager people like herself. Looking around the room during the meeting she couldn't help but wonder if he had left out female as well. While, there had been other females like herself she had taken note to the lack in comparison to the men around the table. She made noises in response to his words as the man talked to her, she was busy taking notes while he busied himself cleaning the room up of the papers left there.

Looking up Anna-Jo noticed how much he had done while he was talking. She wondered how much faster he would have gotten it done without having to talk to her. She appreciated him answering her questions while she waited for her Professor to bring her to the hotel they'd be staying in, here in Auckland. She hoped to also get out and see some of the nearby tourist sites when she wasn't following him to meetings. It was her break after all. "I know all sorts of information on the mistreatment of house elves. And by far, blood elitism is something eradicate, no one is for the better because of their pedigree," the teen said shaking her head in distaste. She pulled out a copy of her editorial and held it in her hands as she stood to approach the man. "I wrote this editorial on the mistreatment of house elves in France, as that's where my school I attend is, it was published in French but this is the English version I originally wrote it as," she said holding out the copy. It was an article filled with facts and debunking of myths that she hoped Hermione Granger would be proud of.

 

[Aspara Tsvetkov]

Aspara remembered when he had first joined the group he now worked for, he remembered the way he'd checked what they believed against his own beliefs and he was happy in knowing that this girl was trying her best to find out what she could. He gladly told her about what they did, going into admittedly very little detail about it, before just listening along to what she said, Aspara spent a lot of his time doing just this, speaking and arguing with those around him, sometimes they were on his side and at other points they weren't. He knew that one of the issues he had before was trying to find something that had both magical and muggle issues which was much difficult to do than one might think, he believed whole heartedly that the magical world and the muggle world should exist in unity together, one world fighting against the oppressors, but Aspara didn't think such things were anywhere close to being possible, so he was glad to have found a bridge, and curious if this was the kind of bridge she was looking for too. Which might explain why her professor had thought to bring her to this meeting rather than something else, that and since the man knew him perhaps that made sense.

Aspara listened along to what she was saying as he took down the posters from around the room, gathering them under his arm as he nodded along with what she was saying, knowing information on the mistreatment of house elves, blood elitism which Aspara given his lack of magical education had little experience of, and then looked at her as she approached him, he walked back to the table and placed down the sheets of paper down as he then took the copy from her, and began to skim through it, "Thanks," he said with genuine interest on his face, he really did like that she'd given this to him, he did always like learning about struggles and even if he never actually managed to learn anything he didn't already know to him it was always good to learn more. The man nodded to her as he then proceeded to put it down, before glancing back at her, "What got you interested?" he asked, usually it was from seeing the mistreatment or from someone tell them about it, all in all, he was curious to know how it had come about that she'd written such a thing and then ended up here with him.
​

 

[Anna-Jo Worth]

Anna-Jo paused as he skimmed over her editorial for the school paper. It was always weird to watch someone read her work in front of her. So instead she turned and looked over the poster on the top of his pile. She had already read it over during the meetings. She found it interesting learning about the things they did, she herself would be more interested in magical world. The muggle world for the most part kind of lost her these days, so much was going in both she found it hard to pay attention to both. "Well we learn about it in school, the days of Granger taking over the England ministry by storm. But when I looked into how our school was doing with the house elves I found it surprising that they aren't at the same point yet," Anna-Jo said squinting her nose. Beauxbatons was far from other schools but it was still fairly behind Hogwarts. She had only rarely regretted her change from Hogwarts NZ to Beauxbatons, but in moments like this she'd rather support a school with better policies. But she was glad she made the change and she was during her best at helping the school update their regulations before she was set to graduation in the spring.

The teen would love to stay at Beauxbatons and continue her learning but she knew that the Professors had only a few more weeks of materials to teach her, after that they'd have nothing new for her. "What do you focus on in the group?" Anna-Jo asked the older man. She was curious it seemed to be a lot of variety of tasks and she wondered what sort of thing really sparked his interest. She was always wondering in the back of her mind what the next meeting was going to be about and if she'd have time to have lunch before the meeting. She did find it really fascinating the meetings, while she wasn't always sure what they were talking about, she knew that if she stuck around long enough she'd get a handle on the lingo.

 

[Aspara Tsvetkov]

It hadn't even occurred to Aspara that kids in school would ever learn about the trials and tribulations which lead to the house elves in the Hogwarts Scotland school to gaining more rights, he had always been taught that they didn't mostly by people who hadn't attended the school but to him it seemed more likely that folk wouldn't learn about such vital things rather than it being that they would. The activist nodded along with what she was saying, keen to hear about it from the prospective of someone so after the time and who really did appear to have a genuine interest in it. The man continued to read through, or well skim what she'd given him until it became clear he really just needed to sit down with it, and in sitting down with it he would manage to really understand what her argument was. It was obviously more difficult to read and listen at the same time, and he was sure she would appreciate his feedback about it more if he had properly read it. The man just however smiled, "Different places move at different rates," he agreed, knowing this from his own work and largely his own travels, it didn't matter how great a thing was,it didn't mean they were going to be at the same level in a certain field as another.

The man continued to work on what he was doing, organising the posters and when tht was done moving carefully on to the leaflets, putting them together correctly nd binning any that weren't usable. It was at her question that he for a moment stopped, taking a small breath to think about what his reply would be. "Well, we're a reactionary group," he gave as an explanation, "We aren't single issue, so we fight in a lot more battles," he was sure that this was barely what she had asked, and wondered for a small moment if she meant him specifically or what he had taken it to mean which was the wider group collective. He opted for the latter, never really being keen on talking about himself. Even within the context of the group, or within the context of what he did, "When something happens, we react to it, so we have a list of meetings and events but if something happens like an oil spill, we'll do a meeting on the dangers of carelessness with the earth's natural resources," he wasn't sure if that answered what she was asking, but it was the best answer that he could give about it.
​

 

[Anna-Jo Worth]

I'm awful, sorry for the wait

Anna-Jo was curious about what the man in front of her was sharing. He was a good looking sort of guy, probably one of the younger ones there at the meeting, although the age range did seem to vary. She was looking forward to the next meeting now, and she wondered if today they'd just hear presentations on this happening in the muggle world or if they'd get to hear some magical happenings. She was the most curious about those. She knew there were activists out there saying that muggles should know about the magical world but most still believed in the secrecy. Anna-Jo herself wasn't sure, she came from a magical family and had been kept away from the happenings of both worlds as she grew up. She didn't know much about either world, big or small, until she started schooling at Hogwarts NZ she then transferred to Beauxbatons.

"What do your meetings do to help the general public, then?" Anna-Jo was curious, it had seemed from the last meeting that most of the people there were already aware of the topic and concerned. But she was curious how the group then got that same information out to the general public, did they write in papers or online? Did they have a television news casting spot every week where they talked about these things? He hadn't really answered her question from before so she figured she'd try again. "Do you personally have any events that are in your interest?" She asked the man hoping there would be time for answers to her questions before they'd have to move on to another meeting or something else.

 

[Aspara Tsvetkov]

Aspara was definitely not aware that he wasn't exactly answering her questions, as this was his job and he did it for a living it as a lot easier for him to just talk about the group rather than himself, Aspara held strong beliefs and he was always open to the thoughts or input of others, but he was under the impression that the questions she was asking of him currently were more just questions about the group itself and not what he believed. He was split in his role between the muggle aspect of the group and then the magical aspect of the group, he had to be, as the coordinator of so much he had to be the magical sub division of it. Figuring out who was magical was a slightly trickier task but it was rarely just someone entering the group on their own, which helped the process a little. Aspara liked the muggle parts more, they were easier to fight, easier to do things, the magical side was more complicated they had to tread more carefully and be involved in different fights, the overriding fight against the state remained the same, but there were certain aspects of muggle life that just didn't affect magical people and vice versa.

At the question, Aspara stood still for a moment considering it, "Sometimes, I'll admit it's difficult to tell what impact we make, we don't get people elected which would help us be able to do more or at least destroy the current system from the inside out," he sorted the pile of posters that he had gathered, making them a lot neater than they had been as he thought more about his answer, "But we do help, whether it be in stopping deconstruction of a community centre or in providing a forum for people to help one another, to realise they aren't alone, or make the slightest change to a proposed policy, if we get just one more person involved in stopping racism or war that's a victory," he knew it wasn't likely the answer she was looking for, it was sometimes difficult to get result when people didn't quite see how much more right they were but it was always a beginning. The man knew he did more now than he'd ever done or would've done in his community, cut off from the wider world, unable to influence a thing and still thinking of themselves as far superior. At her second question Aspara chuckled lightly, not that he found the question funny just that it wasn't often that people actually took an interest in him, he wasn't the person who usually got questions asked of him, he got questions put to him they were never about him, "My interests? Well, I like the anti-racism ones, you can always guarantee a positive and welcoming atmosphere and it means interacting with people from all walks of life which is very interesting to me," he told her with a shrug, "In fact we have an organising event for an upcoming march about it in two weeks time," he looked through the leaflets until he found the one he wanted and handed it out to her, "I do also like the challenges of magical events, it's always more difficult but just as rewarding, we have a meeting about the dangers of blood supremacy next month," for this, Aspara wandered over to his rucksack, and after a little moment of searching found the magical leaflet about the meeting, "Here, I don't know how much of your term you have left, but you are more than welcome to come along to these things,"
​