Closed An Extra Tour

[Alice Holland]

Alice had taken over the Firstie tours from Kauri after he graduated, and this was a natural extension of that. A professor had asked Alice to show around a new transfer student in her year, and Alice had been happy with the opportunity. It was nice to show firsties the way, but they generally were a bit too young to really be friends with. A girl her own age was a lot of fun, and Alice was excited to show her around. She smiled as she lead her into the corridor on the first floor. "So your name is Ava, right? And you're in Ravenclaw? That's so funny, you must have met her already but there's another Ava in your house and year. But her full name is Avaria, is Ava short for something with you too?" She asked, looking at the blonde curiously. "Oh, this is the first floor, you'll find a few important classrooms here. History of magic, Defence Against the Dark Arts and Muggle Studies, that classroom is over there." Alice pointed at the Muggle Studies classroom as they passed it. "And the flying professor has her office here too, though I doubt you'll need to talk to her as we don't have flying. But she's my cousin." Alice said with a grin.

 

[Ava Lancaster]

This was hardly Ava's first tour of a school, and the repetition was beginning to become something of a bore, despite how moderately useful it was to know where at least some of the castle's points of interest were. She thought herself independent enough to explore and learn her way around on her own, and was able to be far nosier without someone else around to watch her every move. It was with reluctance that she followed a Hufflepuff prefect through the first floor, her attention more focused on the portraits rather than whatever the girl was saying to her. "Mhm." She nodded. Yes, she was in Ravenclaw. What had given that away? Could it have been the blue robes? The girl's powers of observation were simply astounding, it was a surprise she wasn't in Ravenclaw herself. She barely registered her mentioning that there was another Ava in both the same house and year, continuing to nod to show she was paying some modicum of attention. "We must have so much in common." She remarked idly. Avaria must have been one of the girls in her dorm. The meet and greet hadn't exactly been a high priority on her list. Well. It wouldn't do to have two. Ava was Ava. She'd have to ensure her "dormmate" was made perfectly aware. "Avada." She said, returning the tour guide's look with a deadpan expression. She'd leave her to figure out if she were serious or not on her own.​

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The Ravenclaw's focus swung back to the classrooms they were passing. Very mundane, as she'd already learned of the subjects the school offered. It was beginning to seem more and more as if HNZ were merely a carbon copy of the original Hogwarts. She was curious to know if it also held its own variant of a basilisk-guarded chamber in the bowels of the castle, or if the founder had skimped out on that aspect. "You refer to your flying instructor as a professor, here?" She inquired. Now that was curious. Her eyes searched the supposed office as they passed by, though what a flying instructor needed an office for, she couldn't be sure. "How quaint. Holland, was it? Isn't that the name of your countries Minister?"​

 

[Alice Holland]

Alice shrugged at the girl's words. "You have to have something in common, to both get in Ravenclaw." She said as she kept walking. Alice had grown up with Diana, and wasn't easily phased by sarcastic comments. So when the girl said her name was short for 'Avada', Alice just made a non-committal noise. She had no idea if it was true or not, but guessed there was a decent chance it wasn't. It didn't really matter anyway, Alice was just trying to make conversation, and she was determined to keep it going. "Yep, she's Professor Holland." She said at the girl's next question, pointing to the sign on the door as they passed it. "See?" She didn't really see the strangeness of calling her a professor, as she did teach a class. And as far as Alice knew, she was just as capable as any other professor of taking points and giving detention. Alice knew she had taken points from Eric two years ago, as Grace had complained about that to her parents while visiting. Alice nodded. "Yes it is." She said lightly. "She's my mother." She added, before turning a corner. "Look, here we have the classroom for History of Magic, it's taught by Professor Alcott-Ward for our year." She went on. "He's a new professor to me, so I can't tell you much about him yet. My sister says he makes a lot of unfunny jokes though. Do you take History of Magic?" She added, not sure what subjects the girl would have chosen.

 

[Ava Lancaster]

"Ahuh." Ava mused, as Alice reaffirmed that her cousin was, in fact, a flying professor. It was quite different from the coaches and instructors she was used to, and she had to wonder if there was more to her role than teaching first years the basics of flying, as they did in other schools. So far, it only appeared to her to be another small oddity of "Hogwarts Two", feeling more and more as if it were trying too hard to be taken as a serious institution, instead of a rip-off of a greater school. "Is it true that this school relies on the original Hogwarts loaning them the Sorting Hat, instead of creating their own system?" It was another point that had made the whole castle seem quite sub-par. Did they really lack the magical capability to create their own hat, or a unique system? She stifled a yawn as the girl continued to talk about another of the professors, though while she'd so far been a rather uninteresting guide, her comment on the fact the Minister was her mother was quite interesting indeed. A professor and the Minister of Magic for relatives practically screamed goody-two-shoes, but the latter gave her something to pry into. "I do. I'm curious to learn about the countries' own magical history. I've heard very little so far." Quite, she'd almost began to wonder if New Zealand had any wizarding history at all. "So, what is that like, being the Minister's daughter? It sounds like it would be exhausting." Ava inquired. She could only assume it meant no end to family photo-ops and appearances in the media, or other involvement in Ministerial affairs. The Ravenclaw knew very little about Minister Holland herself, with how brief her time in New Zealand had been so far. If she had to take a guess, she was no doubt the same as every other Minister, imposing their unnecessary restrictions on magic.​

 

[Alice Holland]

Alice noticed Ava didn't seem too enthusiastic, but decided to chalk it up to nerves of being in a new school. Either way, she was going to do her very best to give her a great tour, even if she wasn't too interested in it. Alice smiled as the girl said she was interested in the countries' magical history. "Then that's the perfect class for you." She said brightly. "There's also a bunch of information in the library, which is on the fourth floor. Would you want to go there next on the tour?" She had been planning to simply show every corridor, but wouldn't mind skipping a bit to show the girl something she was actually interested in. The next question she asked was one Alice had gotten a lot over the years, and she gave her usual answer. She laughed a little. "It's really not that different than before." She said, even if that wasn't entirely true. "I don't see much of my mother's work at home, especially since I'm at Hogwarts most of the year. She's pretty busy now, but I know it's all for important reasons." She knew by now that she shouldn't say anything that could be interpreted as negative, in case it found its way into a magazine. "But it can be pretty exhausting, you're right." She added lightly. "But pretty awesome too."