Open Hollow

[Jerara Tapsell]

Jerara had been very, very surprised by the post he’d received towards the end of the holiday. It had been unexpected, Jerara could admit that he had maybe wanted it. That he had thought about having it, but the teen had never actually thought he’d get it. The teen had fully expected his only friend to get the badge. They were similar in a lot of ways, they’d always competed lightly, achieving similarly in classes, being from similar non-magical backgrounds and both working hard in different aspects of the school in the hopes of achieving something. Jerara hadn’t been as surprised when they’d both gotten the prefect badges, but now, Jerara had head boy badge and Tristan didn’t have anything. Jerara had always thought that his lack of involvement in school things would be why he wouldn’t get it. Would explain why Tristan would’ve been the better candidate. But, then again, even in saying that, Jerara was active in places, he was part of clubs and he attended school events. He just also tended to do his own thing at them, like reading and revising during brotherhood things, or using the duelling to just see how spells worked. He spent time at the events like the Yuleball, halloween and the valentines dance, but so did so many other people - so did most of his year group and specifically Tristan. Jerara had been more educationally driven, he read and studied with his team. He read everything and anything he was curious about, finding that the Hogwarts education lacked in certain subjects so he had to fill the gaps it left. He’d always liked reading and learning because this new world presented him with so many things he’d never known about.​

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The head boy had seen Tristan during the sorting ceremony, and knew he’d seen the badge on his chest, and really Jerara couldn’t help the little sense of pride that he felt over having achieved such a position, he hadn’t worked for it, but he had worked. Relentlessly from very early on. His grades had started off lower as he got to grips with an entirely new world where every new subject had distracting branches. He’d improved his grades, taken all the classes, he’d been working during the brightstone weekends and during each of the breaks. So what if he didn’t have as many friends, hadn’t engaged with as many professors or students, like Tristan had, he’d worked hard for everything. It just had never been with this position in his mind as the end goal. Jerara still felt frustrated by it, he knew his friend was avoiding him, and he felt frustrated that the tentative friendship they’d built back after their fight had been mostly crushed. Jerara didn’t want to be ungrateful and ask for it to be given to his friend instead, but he didn’t want such a position to ruin the only friendship, true friendship he’d ever had. Certainly Jerara couldn't particular comprehend on a badge could mean so much. Jerara knew he was a bit of a loner, usually with his head lost in his books. Thinking about this that and the other thing, and wondering why there wasn’t one breath dedicated to teaching them about some of the darker branches of magic. Tristan was the only person he could talk to, especially since Ellie had been graduated a whole year now.​

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Jerara wanted to talk to Tristan but he knew his friend was avoiding him, and really Jerara wasn’t sure that if they did talk that anything productive would come of it, he didn’t want to fight with him - not again. He didn’t want to argue with him. Jerara had tried finding him in the prefect’s common room, but it was a half hearted attempt in looking for his friend. He had a book under his arm and decided to head back up to Ravenclaw, or well the ravenclaw area. Eventually he got to the north tower, not a place he usually tended to go, Jerara had always spent more time where he could sit with a book and study, but he had a book and sitting on the window sill would be as good a place to study. The teen looked out the window, seeing vaguely the reflection of the head boy badge on his uniform, he was still somewhat in surprise over it, trying to figure out what he’d done to deserve it over Tristan. The head boy sat awkwardly on the ledge, with long lanky limbs going a bit everywhere as he rested his book on his lap and turned to the page he was on. The book was old and worn, it wasn’t a book he’d ever finished, but it was a second hand novel. The one he’d been reading before he’d moved on to almost entirely magical books, it was an old book about the history of agriculture in northern australia, he picked off where he’d last stopped some six years before, reading had always brought him more joy and peace that any person, event or class could. He could jsut sit and read and the title of head boy wouldn’t matter at all.​

 

[Beata Yakovleva-Ives]

Beata Yakovleva-Ives was tired of Hogwarts New Zealand, and she wanted to leave the school. She felt like the school was not helping her be her best. Bee felt like she was at her worst. Her grades were already terrible, and she was not going to be able to do anything with her life after she graduated. Her parents weren't disappointed in her, but it was not like they had held her to higher standards in the first place. Gary was spiraling out of control, and he refused to answer any of her owls, which was frustrating for her. She loved her father with all her heart. He was one of the only people who cared about her wellbeing, especially since he adopted her after the fire that killed her biological parents. Beata rarely ever differentiated between the two because she almost always was talking about her adoptive parents, the ones that decided they were going to love her no matter what.

The pink haired girl sighed as she continued up the steps. She was far away from Slytherin, but it was not like it was past curfew, so that did not matter. There was a frown on Beata's face as she entered the North Tower. She realized the Head Boy immediately, and she put a smile on her face. "What's up, Head Boy? Whatcha readin'?" she asked as she skipped over to the boy, peering over his shoulder. Beata was good at hiding her emotions and compartmentalizing the things that were bothering her. It was what Gary had trained her to do. She did not know that how she approached the guy would probably bother him, but she was always open for correction, which is what Eliza had taught her.

 

[Jerara Tapsell]

Jerara had been pretty engrossed the book that he had been reading, it had always been pretty easy for him to get engrossed in whatever book he had. He got drawn in by the story it told, the information it was telling him. It was easy to forget about the world around him when he could just read. It was good, it took his mind off this new badge, this new position he held. Well, that was until someone called out for him, well. Not necessarily him, since the voice just said head boy, but he was that for this year so it was for him. Jerara took a moment to react, not used to responding to the title. He definitely hoped that no one would call him that in the future, certainly while he still tried to navigate whether he deserved it or not. ”Just Jerara,” he replied before holding the book up a little so that this girl, whom he didn’t know would be able to see what it was. The teen knew that this girl wasn’t a ravenclaw and he knew she wasn’t in his year group. He’d have seen her in his classes. It would be impossible that she just didn’t do the two that he hadn’t taken on to the NEWT year. ”A Brief History of Agricultural Practices in Northern Australia,” the boy read out, he could figure that most people would find the book immensely boring, but Jerara had always liked learning about everything and anything, so even if this book would send most to sleep, Jerara was determined to finally finish it.​

 

[Beata Yakovleva-Ives]

Beata couldn't help but think that something was up. The was no real reason a person would be all alone unless there was something that they needed to think about. Bee was the type of person that needed someone to be by her side as she went through her emotions. Her father was a therapist after all. He had taught her everything that she knew. Beata nodded as the Head Boy corrected her. She only knew who he was because of his title. She found those to be very important, as they were what she wanted to have eventually. "Agriculture. That's like farming and irrigation systems, right?" she asked curiously. She was personally not interested in the subject, but she was only curious because Jerara was. It would help her get some common ground with him. "What are you doing all alone up here? Not that you aren't allowed to, just curious." she asked. She hadn't realized that she had not introduced herself, but there was always time for that later.

 

[Jerara Tapsell]

Jerara nodded in reply, ”Yeah, a bit pointless for someone in the magical world,” the boy replied with a little shrug, ”But it’s one of the few books, I never finished before, so I’m finishing it now,” Jerara offered as to why he might be reading such a thing. He was surprised a little by the bluntness of the girl’s question. He was alone. He was on his own. He didn’t mind being on his own. He had never minded it really, he’d interacted with other people, and spent time in social situations but in saying all of that, he had also been pretty alone. He didn’t have that many friends - possibly even fewer now. ”I like reading on my own, it’s a good way to relax the mind and to you know, read,” Jerara didn’t think he was being quite as head boy as he could be. But, he just wasn’t feeling it, there was too much fresh confliction in his head for him to be able to concentrate properly, on being what he was supposed to be, if he even really deserved it. ”I like being alone,” Jerara seemingly concluded with a little shrug.​

 

[Beata Yakovleva-Ives]

Beata shook her head, not thinking that it was pointless. "I mean it's useful for everyone. Magic can only help so much. There are something things, like farming that humans must do. We have to work for some of the things in our lives, you know?" she said in an unsure tone. Jerara did not seem to want company, but she was not so easily pushed away. She did not have an expectations of the boy, but she was having a hard time keeping up with his sad energy. "Well too bad kitten because we are going to play a game!" she told him excitedly. The game she had in mind was a classic one that middle schoolers played. "Truth or dare? Chose wisely because I don't hold back!" she told him and wiggled a finger at him.

Out of Character:

Sorry this is so short! She was being difficult.

 

[Jerara Tapsell]

Jerara wasn’t sure what to make of this girl, she was agreeing or try to insist that it might be of some use, but he knew that magical practices would be different and this wasn’t a how to guide, it was a history book. He imagined that it didn’t change a whole lot but perhaps enough. He would’ve thought that she’d just leave, after all, he wasn’t being particularly friendly towards her. That wasn’t particularly nice of him or particularly head boy of him, but he wasn’t feeling like it, he couldn’t find the energy that this girl appeared to have. He frowned at her, ”A game?” he shook his head at her, especially as the girl asked him the mundane question of truth or dare. He rolled his eyes hard at her, that was such a childish game. ”Fine, truth,” the boy answered, he knew that he was under no real obligation to reply honestly to the question, how would she even know if he was lying or not if he did. Jerara didn’t need to be honest with anyone whom he had just met randomly, someone whose name he didn’t even know.​

 

[Beata Yakovleva-Ives]

Beata had not thought that she would get this far with Jerara, so she had not prepared any type of invasive question for the Head Boy. She wanted to get to know him as well as make him uncomfortable, which were two goals that did not really go together. However, she was going to think of a really good question! His eye roll made her roll her eyes herself. She thought for a minute before she opened her mouth to speak. "When you want attention from your significant other, what do you do?" she asked confidently. Beata personally was not into relationships, and Jerara seemed like a person that wouldn't be either. Beata did not know how she would even answer the question. "And you have to answer the question, or else I will take points." she joked. However, she knew that she was unable to take points because she was not in his position, but she just wanted an answer, whether or not it was truthful.

 

[Jerara Tapsell]

Jerara looked at the girl as she asked a question, he rolled his eyes a little at her. His mind briefly cast to Ellie and what he might do with her. He’d always just asked or sought her out. It hadn’t been like anything else. He didn’t know if he should say as much, he didn’t really care to answer and he knew that she couldn’t take points from him. He just shook his head a little at her, ”I ask,” he replied simply, giving a little shrug as if it was the most obvious answer. He didn’t want to get into it, didn’t feel the need to explain any further to her. She didn’t need to know that he’d only ever really ask if he knew that he wouldn’t be bothering the person, he didn’t feel the need to add anything about how he didn’t currently have a significant other, or anything of that sort. He didn’t feel the need to say anything about Ellie. He shrugged a little, ”Truth or dare? I guess,” the boy asked her. He figured he might as well just lean into it a little. Maybe he’d find a way of getting out of it while still playing the game. He hoped he would.​

 

[Beata Yakovleva-Ives]

Beata was disappointed at Jerara's answer, but she was going to have to deal with it. "How boring! I was expecting something more spicy." she said quietly. But she quickly moved on to see which of the two options she would choose. She was a daring person, so she believed that she should chose dare. "How about dare?" she said with a sly smile on her face. He hoped that he did not make her do anything crazy, but a part of her hoped that he would because that was just the type of person that she was.