Open Finding The Magic

[Nathan Clarke]

It had been a week of classes, each of them talking about magic, and not actually teaching anyone how to use it. Namely Nate. It never ceased to be unbelievable to him that despite all of the fantastical things he'd seen, he still couldn't do any magic himself. It was the biggest part of why he had his reservations about magic, about fully believing any of what he was seeing and dealing with was real. He had so many explanations, and yet so many things he couldn't argue. People flying on brooms without a crane in sight? The girl who had somehow managed to bind his legs together at the towers? The wash of cold he felt anytime he accidentally walked into what he still tried to believe were holographic projections of "ghosts". It was all a bit much. But he couldn't believe it. Not until he could do magic himself. Short of him being turned into a frog, it was the only way he thought he could believe in any of it, or at least commit to the fantasy. His brain just couldn't seem to accept it otherwise. He wasn't sure he wanted to. He didn't want his life, his entire world, to suddenly change irreparably.​

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Nate had slipped away in the middle of the day, between classes and into some abandoned room in order to try and practice a spell on his own, in secret away from everyone else. Away from the cameras that may or may not have been hidden around the school. He found one that looked like it hadn't been set up properly yet, for whatever it was they were doing in the school. Real magic, or a TV show, he didn't know. After scouring the room for anything hidden that could have recorded him, he decided it was safe, and pulled out one of the textbooks he'd been given. He flipped to a page, with a spell that the Novak girl had tried to use on the train. It hadn't worked for her, and he wanted to see if it would work for him. He pulled out his wand, giving it a suspicious look, still uncertain if it was just a stick, or concealed wires and a battery, and gave it a wave. "Wingardium Leviosa." He muttered, swishing and flicking the wand at a random chair the way the book was telling him to. Nothing happened and he tried again, a little more forcefully. Still, it didn't stir. The wand didn't sputter any sparks. Nothing happened. It felt hopeless. Why was he really here? He couldn't do any of the magic. It couldn't have been real. If it was, then they were wrong, and he wasn't a wizard. He'd always been normal. He flipped to another page to give another spell a try to be sure, and flicked his wand around the room in the hopes that something would happen, getting progressively more frustrated and angry with each aggressive wave.​

 

[Valencia Addington]

It had been a week since Valencia had arrived Hogwarts and classes began. She was confused about everything. Valencia didn't know what to think about the magic they have yet. There were floating candles, ghosts she thought were projected by some machine, flying brooms - which by the way she couldn't command to come to her hand and had found it difficult. Valencia just wanted to explore instead. And since it was between classes, she thought it was the perfect time to go investigating, especially that classroom she was in a couple of days ago.

Valencia slowly made her way to the classroom, always looking behind her, hoping that no one was following her. Once she felt like that no one was following her she made it inside the classroom, the door creaking as she turned around to close the door. When the door was fully closed, she turned around and almost jumped when she saw that someone else was here "Oh, jeez, I'm sorry. I didn't realise anyone was here." Valencia says guiltily. Maybe she can come back later and investigate, but it was a little too late for that now. She then noticed that the boy had a book of some kind in front of him. "Oh, what book is that?" Valencia says curiously as she made her way towards the book, hoping maybe it would be a book that would interest her. "Oh... those are spells. Its a load of bullocks if you ask me. What one are you learning?" Valencia says with a shrug, as she peeks at the book through her glasses. Magic was just a load of junk to her at this stage. They haven't even learnt anything here yet.

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OOC: I hope you don't mind that I joined in!

 

[Salem Lee]

Salem was exhausted. She was still getting used to having to wake up and be in certain places at certain times. How everyone did this day after day she had no idea, and now she was missing breakfast for half the week because she slept in too long. Despite that, she was still having a surprisingly good time. Everything was all still very new and exciting, and while she didn't get some of her classes, especially History of Magic, she liked the idea of them.

Having a break between actually needing to be somewhere for once, Salem had been wandering around, hoping to maybe find something interesting she could write to her parents about, since writing about class hadn't gotten pretty boring pretty quick, when she heard a door opening and closing down a quiet corridor. She was being nosy, but Salem couldn't help but peek her head into the room and see what was going on. It looked like it was just some of her classmates and Salem was at least pleased so see some familiar faces. "Oh, hey, is this some sort of secret club or something? Book club?" She asked, glancing down at the book the boy had.

 

[Nathan Clarke]

Nate jumped at the sound of the door creaking closed behind him. Embarrassed, he tried to hide his wand behind his back, ashamed to having been caught trying to practice magic, as if it were real. "Can't you knock?" He remarked defensively. He had half a mind to close the book back up on the spot and keep the girl from seeing what he'd been looking at, but it was too late, and she also appeared to think it was a bullsh*t as he did. His draw almost dropped. "You know it's all fake too?" He asked incredulously. "Holy crap. I thought I was going crazy. Everyone I talk to tries to tell me magic is real, but no one can prove it." He shot an uneasy look at the door. Could he even trust this girl too? Everyone had to be an actor or something, or too stupid to realise they were having their leg pulled. What if she was one of them, sent here when he specifically was trying to be alone to gain his trust? He considered it for a moment, and decided it wasn't worth fighting. He needed someone to talk to who wasn't batsh*t insane. "I'm not learning any. You can't learn magic, so there's no point. I was just...pretending." Nate lied. Was it far from the truth? He was just going along with the whole made up wizard thing. Testing, for science. "It's all an act, you know. My parents work on television and movies. This whole school is scripted." He told her, in case she hadn't caught on entirely. "Why -" He continued, closing his mouth quickly when another girl walked in. This was starting to get very suspicious. He shot the first girl an almost accusatory look, as if it was her fault for being followed in.​

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[Valencia Addington]

"I'm sorry," Valencia says a little guilty, as she didn't mean to scare the boy. It had looked like that he was trying to hide his wand or something, but that failed a little miserably. "Well, of course, this is all fake. The flying brooms and holographic people flying around the castle? It doesn't make any sense. Sounds like this is a huge prank of some kind. So you're not going crazy." Valencia says with a shake of her head, she looked around the familiar room, nothing had really changed since the last time she came here. She listens to the boy about how he wasn't learning magic. "There's... no need to lie. I tried one the other day. A light spell or something. It didn't work" Valencia says with a shrug as she leans herself on a random table nearby. The boy was about to say something when he stopped speaking halfway. Valencia was a little confused until she turned around and saw it was another girl. "Oh, Hello," Valencia says with a friendly smile and awkward wave. She turned back to the boy, as he was looking at her like it was Valencia's fault. "What...? I made sure no one followed me here. This isn't my first rodeo in this room. I've been here before" Valencia says with a shake of her head with a small smile, before turning back to the girl. "I'm not sure if you'd call this a secret... club..."

 

[Salem Lee]

Salem had only caught part of the conversation between the two other kids and she had no idea what was going on. "Oh, are you guys trying to learn a spell then?" She asked, trying to put the pieces together with what she'd heard. Salem stepped further into the room, taking a curious look around. She hadn't gotten to see much of the castle yet outside her house and classrooms. It was hard enough to get to those places, let alone find time to wander around. The castle was huge, and Salem wondered what this room might have been used for previously. "This'd be a good room for a secret club," She said, looking back at the pair who were looking at her strangely. Salem covertly checked her shirt to make sure she hadn't gotten food on it or something before ruffling her hair, checking that was all in place. "What?" She eventually asked, not sure why the boy especially was acting so oddly.

 

[Andromeda Reyes-Shirey]

Andromeda wanted to go home. She hadn't wanted to go to Hogwarts in the first place, but oh no - she couldn't suppress who she was inside, or some rubbish like that. Simon suppressed who he was inside. What was the difference? Why did he have a choice? Being a kid was so, so unfair.

Looking for something to fill the short break between her classes, Andromeda ventured up to the second floor corridor. She hadn't been aiming for that floor, but the staircase had its own ideas and she was curious to see what was down there. As it turned out, a whole lot of nothing, apart from the headpeople's offices and the prefects' common room, neither of which she ever hoped to set foot in. She pushed open doors arbitrarily, hardly bothering to look inside - until she heard voices. She pressed her ear to the wood for a moment, thinking a class might be in progress, but that certainly wasn't the impression she got from the phrase 'secret club'. Without waiting to hear more she shouldered open the door. "What's going on in here?"

 

[Nathan Clarke]

Finding someone who sounded just like Nate was fantastic, and almost too good to be true. Maybe it was. There was a lot he wanted to say to her, if not for the interruption by the other girl, who sounded way too obsessed with the idea of a secret club. He hastily closed his book, unhappy that people had found him trying to practice fake magic and brought it up so obviously. Were there cameras in here? Were they trying to humiliate him on TV? His face reddened, and he opened his mouth again to say something, before another girl wandered her way in. "For chrissake." He scowled. This was just getting ridiculous. "How can this be a great room for a secret club if everyone's finding it?" He said, crossing his arms across his chest. "None of your business." He told the new new-girl. "There's no secret club. There's no learning any spells, because none of it is real. You can't learn any magic because it doesn't exist. Tell them." He looked at the first girl, gesturing with his hand toward the other two, in case they hadn't caught on, or were actors playing the part. "It's all holographic projections, portrait gifs, mechanical stairs that move. The owls are obviously trained, everyone knows you can train pigeons to send messages. Everything's done with computers and machines and magnets and....infrared light. I'm sick of everyone in this castle acting like it's all woo-woo wizard bogus." Nate spoke, getting progressively more fired up. He was sick of it all, how everyone treated him, like he was the stupid one for not believing in fairytales, and now that someone was finally here who thought the same thing, he felt validated, like he could safely vent, only for it to be spoiled by these other two.​

 

[Valencia Addington]

Valencia was actually glad that there was someone else who thought that this was also the fakest thing, EVER. This place made absolutely no sense. Why would you have a school in a castle? That sounded like for the old century or something. It was strange. "We weren't learning any spell. We were just reading up random words that make no sense" Valencia says trying to cover up what was happening in the first place, but it was probably no use anyways. Well, they were random words that were supposed to make some sort of magic happen, which obviously isn't true by that fact that it didn't work on her nor did it work for the boy beside her. She was about to say something when she noticed her dormmate walk in. Valencia didn't know what her name was, but she did look familiar. Valencia was about to respond to the other girl's question when she was interrupted by the boy's sudden outburst. She had never seen anyone this mad and outrage before, and it made her quite shocked. She was going to speak up when the boy told her to speak up about this fake magical place when she was interrupted yet AGAIN, as he continued on to speak. She looked around to see if anyone else was going to speak to so she wasn't interrupted before she spoke herself. "As he said, this is all fake. It doesn't make ANY sense what so ever. The supposedly floating candles are held by invisible wires, and the talking portraits have someone behind the walls so it seems like they are speaking. so this is obviously fake. There is no science behind this"

 

[Eoin Armati]

Eoin didn't like magic. He didn't like the sound of it when he had first heard about it and he had been convinced for the longest of times that it was actually all nonsense and people were pulling on his leg. But the longer he had been at Hogwarts and the more and more he had seen, the more he doubted that. It was hard to come up with a logical explanation for some of the stuff he had seen around the castle, what he had seen people do right in front of him. He'd seen his Transfiguration Professor turn into a man from a dog in an instant and he still couldn't see how there was a Muggle explanation for all of that. And not to mention he had taken to his textbooks and tried some of the simpler looking spells. And had actually managed to make Lumos work. And he had been certain he had looked over his entire wand and didn't see any small light blub which could have produced the light. So, as much as he didn't want to admit it, he might have to believe that all of this was real. But that still didn't mean he had to like any of it. "The words aren't made up," he pointed out as he pushed open the door to the abandoned classroom after hearing the conversation going on from the outside as he had passed, "A lot of the spells have a basis in Latin, if you must know." Which he had been surprised to find out when he had first flicked through his textbook. "And sorry to shoot you down, but I do have to disagree. I looked behind one of the portraits and there was nothing but a wall there. And you saw Professor Summers turn back into a human from a husky right in front of us in a split second. How are you going to explain that one with science?"

 

[Salem Lee]

Salem had to admit the boy had a point as some other kids joined them in the room. "Maybe you guys should pick a better spot next time," She offered helpfully. As he continued, Salem was completely lost. She had no idea what holograms or gifs were, but he seemed very passionate about the whole thing. As did the other girl he'd originally been talking to. She did at least manage to figure out they seemed convinced that magic wasn't real somehow, which Salem had to laugh at. She definitely wasn't the best student in their year by far, but even she knew the basics. Like that magic was real.

Another boy joined them in the room, but at least he seemed to have a better handle of what the other two were talking about. "Oh is Professor Summers an animagus? That's so cool," She said, excited at the mention of it in class. Transfiguration sounded difficult, but at least that was something to look forward to. "But wait, are you two saying you think magic is.. fake? Why? That's like not believing in- In air." She knew not everyone grew up in magical families, well used to keeping magic a secret herself from people like that, but Salem was still baffled at the idea that anyone could be a witch or wizard and just.. not believe in magic.

 

[Andromeda Reyes-Shirey]

Andromeda didn’t have to read between any lines to figure out she wasn’t welcome. But what offended her more was the terrible things that proceeded to come out of two of the kids’ mouths. Magic didn’t exist? Oh, of course - Andromeda’s mother had died all of her own accord. Or better still, the whole thing was some elaborate prank, and she wasn’t really dead at all. The Ravenclaw seethed. How could they be so ignorant?

”Because they’re stupid,” Andromeda answered the Gryffindor, folding her arms. ”Maybe someone should curse them. Then they’d know magic is real.”

 

[Nathan Clarke]

Yes, yes, yes! Everything Valencia said resonated with what Nate believed, and he nodded in agreement, as if to say, obviously. Again, as if someone had put up a sign on the door that said "party inside!", another kid rocked up to the not-so-secret room, and Nate let out an audible groan. He hadn't wanted anyone to find him, and now it was like he was a magnet for attention. The producers probably wanted to have eyes on him at all times, he deduced. He must have gotten away from the cameras after all. "Mnyeh mnyeh mnyeh latin. No one asked, dude." He scowled at the boy. "They don't need to have people hiding behind the portraits, poindexter. They can hide speakers inside. Obviously there aren't hundreds of people hiding in the walls, it'd be too expensive to hire that many people." He didn't know who Professor Summers was, and had to guess it was one of the classes he didn't have that semester. Animagus sounded like another fake word basically made up on the spot. The Gryffindor girl was probably trying to give context for the audience, watching or listening. Whatever. He glared daggers at the girl who called him stupid, when he was one of the only intelligent people in the room. "You're stupid. Is that why you've got half your head shaved? Did someone take out half your brain? Idiot." He said venomously. "Someone did try to curse me, and guess what. They failed. No one can do any real spells. They hide magnets and things in your uniform to make you think magic is working on you, it's not." He uncrossed his arms to gesture at his own, very normal clothes from home, and folded them back up again. He was never donning that stupid uniform again. "I know all the tricks they use. My parents work in movies, and I've seen all the videos. I'd prove it if they weren't using an EMP to take out all of the electronics. If someone turned into a husky then it's just more holograms. Anyone who believes in magic needs to go back to kindergarten. Air is real, magic isn't. Grow up." Nate's hands balled into fists in anger, kept tucked under his folded arms. It was so frustrating not to be believed when he knew the truth. He wouldn't be deceived for the entertainment of others. The last thing he wanted was to end up in some Youtube fail compilation. No one would let him forget it if he genuinely believed in wizards and dragons.​

 

[Eoin Armati]

Eoin did have to give the boy a rather rude glance at the way he decided to respond to the information he had just given, "I was just saying. No need to be a jerk about it." There was no point in being rude about the whole thing. Eoin had thought it was perfectly interesting to know that the spells they were supposed to be learning weren't just funny made-up words and actually had some linguistic sense to them. But it seemed as though there were some rather differing opinions about this magic business, which he supposed was understandable, but he couldn't help but think the boy was being rather naive about the whole thing. How blind to the world did you have to be to try and deny things which were happening right in front of your eyes? "There aren't any magnets or hidden speakers, and trust me, I saw a dog turn right into a human right in front of me and that was not any hologram. And if you're saying there was some sort of EMP, then how do you explain these electronic speakers and holograms working? Doesn't make sense, does it?" At first, he had his suspicions that things weren't just as they seem, but he had come to change his mind. Some of the things he had seen just couldn't be explained by science or technology. And after doing magic himself, he couldn't really see how any of this could be some big trick. "Think you're the one who needs to grow up," he did have to add at the end, though that was said more as a mutter than anything else. He didn't want to offend anyone. But at least it seemed as though some of the other girls in the room weren't of the same opinion that magic was just all made up.

 

[Valencia Addington]

Valencia's eyes widen with every time everyone spoke, and it was getting overwhelming for her. She didn't mean for this to get out of hand or anything. "Oh gosh. Professor Summers from a dog to a human, that was scary. Something I wasn't expecting. Interesting, but scary" Valencia says with wide eyes and a slight giggle. She was still a bit nervous going to class now because of the professor's form. Valencia also wondered if there was also other professors or students who were animagus - was that what it's called? That's what she heard from the Gryffindor girl She turned to the Gryffindor girl. "Well, It's not that I don't believe it. I can see it with my eyes. It's more to do with, I don't like magic, I guess" Valencia says with a shrug, as she looks down and sounded a little guilty for what she said. She didn't mean to offend anyone. And guessed that what she said was a little too far, especially for those who had grown up with magic and all. "I haven't really come to terms or grown up with all of this, so I just find it unusual," Valencia says with a shrug. She just wanted to go home now, be with her mum and all. She quickly turns towards the other girl in the room with wide eyes and a tiny gasped. She didn't want to be cursed or being "stupid" as the girl had mentioned.

 

[Salem Lee]

"Aw, that's not nice though," Salem reasoned when one of the Ravenclaws suggested they jinx the others. It was pretty silly they thought magic was fake, but she didn't think that would help. She had to agree the one boy was being a jerk, what she could figure out from his conversation didn't seem very nice, when it wasn't just plain confusing. "Wait, do you think this is all set up just to trick.. you? That seems like a lot of work for a joke," She said after spending a moment processing things.

The other Ravenclaw mentioned not liking magic and Salem was even more lost. "Why don't you like magic?" She asked. "Did someone jinx you?" Salem probably wouldn't have the greatest time if her first exposure to magic had been getting jinxed, but parts of it were still fun. "There's lot of good magic, promise. Like brooms and cheering charms and chocolate frogs," She said, listing them off on her fingers. Maybe these two just needed someone to show them all the cool stuff at the school and they'd stop talking about weird stuff.

 

[Andromeda Reyes-Shirey]

This boy was, without a doubt, the rudest person Andromeda had ever met. The way he mocked Mashed Potato boy gave her more than enough cause to shove him, but then he turned on her. Blood rushed to her face. "It's braided, not shaved, are you blind as well as stupid?" she said, taking several steps towards him. She couldn't really shove him, not without getting into a lot of trouble, but her hands itched and the temptation was rising by the second. Only the thought of the disappointed letter she would receive from Simon stopped her.

"You just said you thought it was fake," she said to Valencia, exasperated. The only fake thing in here was her, agreeing with the majority as soon as it turned on her. Andromeda turned to the Slytherin, latching onto something the Gryffindor had said. "No one would go to all this work just to prank you. You're not that important, even if your parents are in the movies. Admit it, you're wrong."

 

[Nathan Clarke]

Nate had to roll his eyes. "You're sure about that, smart guy? Did you go around the school with a metal detector? How do you know there's no hidden magnets or speakers." Unbelievable. He hadn't personally seen anyone turn into a dog, though the first girl seemed to back the statement up, and she was the only one he could trust. "Could've been a hologram, you don't know. Could've had a screen in front of him that made it look like he turned into a dog with a projection or video, so how would you know?" He waved a dismissive hand at the nerd. "EMP, something else messing with certain frequencies and waves, whatevs. We don't know!" He argued. He couldn't believe it until he saw it, and even then, how could he trust it? Unless he was physically holding on to the dog as it transmerged or whatever dumb magic name they'd given the subject. He huffed, leaning back against a dusty table, and spared a glare for the girl who insinuated everything was about him. "It might be. I've seen The Truman Show. It could be a social experiment. I don't think it's all to prank me, I think its a whole production with other kids like me. It's not that hard to believe. There's tons of shows about tricking people, haven't you watched any?" He questioned her. Someone else had acted as if they'd never watched TV in their life, and he found that hard to believe.

When the girl with the braided-and-not-shaved head took a step toward him, Nate reflexively pushed himself off from the table and took a step to the side to get some distance, folding his arms again defensively to try and act like he wasn't bothered. He hadn't actually given her enough attention to realise the detail, just that it seemed shorter on one side. "Whatever, you look like a bogan." He scowled, though it was quickly changed as his jaw dropped in horror, his one and only ally betraying him. Just when he thought he'd met someone actually sane, she turned out to be another fake. If she'd been sent to get his trust, she'd almost earned it. How could he be so stupid? "I can't believe you. All of you. You're such liars. Seriously, chocolate frogs and cheering charms? Might as well say "sugar, spice, and everything nice". I'm not stupid. These-" He pulled out his wand and gave it a silly wave in the air to demonstrate just how ridiculous he thought it was. "Obviously have wires in them too, to make them light up and make little sparks, that's it. There's nothing magical about it. Torches and lighters and sparklers can do the same thing. I'm not going to be convinced with dumb parlour tricks, and if you're all falling for it, or paid to be a part of it, then I'm the only smart one here. Look, I'll even prove it if it'll shut you all up and get you to leave me alone." He all but shouted, taking his wand between both hands. He bent it, its already curved ash wood helping to bend it further. It had been described as sturdy, and he was looking forward to proving how wrong that was too. He heard it crack and splinter, though there was nothing visible on the surface. The tip sputtered a spark or two in protest, and all of a sudden, with a horrifying snap, it hung limply in two almost separate pieces. His heart immediately sank into his stomach. There was no real reason for it, it proved nothing, but it suddenly felt wrong, like he'd made a huge mistake. He stared at it in dumbfounded silence.​

 

[Eoin Armati]

"I think I would be able to tell if there was some magnet hidden in my clothing. And if there was, you can't exactly turn it off so it would always be magnetizing things if that was the case." Honestly, this boy was just being ridiculous about the whole thing. Being unsure about how it all really worked and hating magic was one thing, but simply refusing to believe it despite everything was just incredibly stupid and naive. Though he did give one of the girls a look as she said that brooms were supposed to be a good thing. Now that was not really something he could agree with, just the prospect of flying made him feel quite uncomfortable and their first lesson had been bad enough for him. He was not going to get any joy from sitting on a broom a bunch of feet up in the air with nothing under his shoes by air. "I was sitting in the front row, I think I would have been able to see if there was some sort of screen or something in the way," he knew what he had seen and Eoin trusted his eyes more than anything. But clearly, the boy wasn't going to believe that either, he was just being completely ridiculous about the whole thing and still refusing to believe that magic was actually real, pinning it down to muggle technology.

Eoin did have to snort as the annoying boy went on to explain that this might be some huge prank or a social experiment. As if, that was even more ridiculous than believing in magic as far as he was concerned. But then the boy went and did the unimaginable, he actually went and snapped his wand. Eoin just blinked, taking a moment to actually process what he had just seen, staring just as dumbfounded at the almost completely snapped wand. Just watching that had felt wrong, an uncomfortable feeling in his stomach as he swallowed, unable to take his eyes off the limp wood in the other boy's hand. "I don't see any wires," was all he could offer to break the uncomfortable silence in a very unhelpful sounding mutter.