Of Course, It's Magic After All

[Tholomyes Fontaine]

Tholomyes was just having one of those mornings, he'd spent half the night reading his school books, and he was just having a moment. He felt hopeless, and pointless. What was this place, why were areas forbidden, why did the pictures move. No amount of questions to his sister could've prepared for this school. He had his wand in his hand, but all he could currently make it do was light up. Nothing else. It was stupid, pointless and reading through some of the books, he couldn't help but wonder why on earth they taught some of it, what about everything else, the boy remembered his sister talking about the lack of normal classes, but where on earth were the poetry classes, or langauges, he liked those things and he couldn't find any of it. It wasn't even like he could continue with his latin lessons, which might just help him in this situation at this school. After all, from what he was learning from the books about the spells a lot of them were latin in origin, so surely that meant that they would actually learn latin too. He'd been holding out for at least that, but seeing his timetable, he knew that he wouldn't be able to do that.

The boy had been wandering the halls, with nothing better to do with his time, but just wandering around, and the ravenclaw was sort of hoping that soon he would find something to do. He was looking for a project, looking for something to occupy his mind, because he just wasn't feel the school books, and even doodling on the corner of the bits of parchment wasn't something he wanted to do with his time. He was wandering on the fifth floor, when he spotted a door, he entered it, and noticed it was an old, dusty looking bathroom. The boy didn't need the bathroom, but he figured that while he was here, he might as well wash his hands, it never hurt to do that. He tried the first tap, and it didn't work, then he tried the next one, and the next, until he'd tried all of the taps, and discovered that none of them worked. Theo stared at them, "Typical" he said, bending down under one of the sinks, and just beginning to touch things, he had no idea what he was doing, but he couldn't understand why this bathroom would be open, if none of the sinks worked, "Typical magical school, with stupid taps that don't work, what's the point in a bathroom, if nothing words, just close it, fix it, or change the purpose of the room," he was muttering in French, using the bottom of his wand random hit the pipes, maybe he just needed a book of some sort to help him, and he might just be able to fix this place.
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[Alessio Benivieni]

Alessio felt like he needed some sort of sanity from this place, he was a muggle born and although proud of it, he missed his home terribly. The longer he was in this place the longer it was away from his parents and his younger siblings, Al knew that with every passing second he was growing further and further away from his parents. He decided writing a letter to them wouldn't be so bad; after all, if he explained to them all about the wizarding world surely they would be able to adapt to the situation that all four children were magical a little faster? Alessio could only hope for the best for his parents. He didn't understand why it was him of all people - why he had to be the first one to show signs of magic within his family after generations of the Benivieni family being normal, as it was, or as normal as his family could get. At least his sister younger than him by a couple months was here too, and the Hufflepuff was glad for it, he didn't think being here alone would help him with how he was feeling. In fact, it kind of made things worse. But he wasn't here alone and although he wished he was in the same house as Marcella he was grateful for having his twin with him, especially as they were closer. Even if his sister wouldn't be here - thankfully she was - Alessio would make sure that they'd still be as close as before and not grow apart like he did with his parents. But he didn't need to worry about that. His Ravenclaw sister was with him, so it did make the overwhelming feeling a lot more bearable than if she weren't here. So far so good. It wasn't that Al didn't like this place, in fact it was the complete opposite - he loved it here. It was way more than he could've asked for. Hopefully his education at this school was worth the trouble coming all the way to New Zealand from Italy. He hoped he would be able to learn more French, as he could understand it fluently and speak it a little. He loved being bilingual; it was one of the things he was proud of.

The older Benivieni sibling wanted to take his mind off things, as usual, he was over thinking everything. He started to make his way around the castle, looking at several portraits in wonder, how did they manage to move? Were they real people? Alessio was truly amazed if they were. Or had been. Either way, it was something else that Alessio was to be surprised for, as if this whole place wasn't overwhelming enough, apparently the castle was so big that he soon lost himself and didn't know where he was. The twin just sighed and rubbed his eyes; trying to remember where he was was all pointless, so he just wandered around, finding new places to discover. Moments later he found himself at a door, and Alessio Benivieni's curiosity got the better of him. He pushed open the door only to find another boy around his age already there. He looked around and noticed it was a bathroom. Great, maybe resting here from the amount of walking he did couldn't hurt anyone. Maybe making a new friend couldn't do anyone any harm either, so he walked up to the boy slowly, and heard he was speaking in French. Probably to himself. Al didn't blame him though, he did it all the time. Luckily he understood what we was saying, so he replied hesitantly in French, not wanting to scare the boy, "Hello, is everything all right?" He couldn't decipher whether his French was okay or not, he did kind of have to wing it, it was a long time since he last spoke French to someone. It probably wasn't the best, so instead he added in English, a little quietly, "I'm Alessio by the way. Hope you don't mind my coming here." He was also beginning to have suspicions of this place, why put so many doors and different rooms if one could get lost so easily? The questions were never-ending, the poor boy could only hope to get his answers soon enough while he was here, it could be better to find out more about where he was, he hated not knowing. He wanted to find some sort of stability in his life at the moment.

 

[Tholomyes Fontaine]

Tholomyes really didn't know how to fix a sink. He was just tapping at the pipes below the sink, just trying to get them to work, seeing if he could move anything with his hands, but he knew that no matter how hard he tried he had no idea what was wrong, or therefore how to fix it, but in his mind, surely the magic could fix it, if it was simply plumbing then why hadn't it been fixed then, there had to be plumbers in this magical world surely? The young ravenclaw obviously didn't know, he didn't if there was a guy or girl they could call that would fix this issue, he couldn't imagine just calling a muggle, could they even get into this school? In all his time at school, he had taken a few woodwork classes, but never had he taken anything else. He didn't have any books on this, since the young ravenclaw had never imagined that he would ever need to try to fix a sink, but he found himself trying to fix it. It was perhaps just his confusion about this new world he found himself in and a deep desire for it to be anything else. He wasn't sure what else he was supposed to do, he wasn't sure if he even liked the magic, he wanted to be able to do something, and he couldn't do a thing. Theo sighed heavily as he smacked the pipe hard with his hand, his hand was becoming fairly raw, but it didn't really bother him as he was trying to get the pipe fixed.

A voice sounding, startled the boy and he sat up suddenly, smacking his head hard off the pipe, rubbing it as he looked out from where he was under the sink, noticing a boy stood not too far from him, he was speaking in broken French, and Tholomyes frowned slightly before the boy then continued in english, "I'm alright," he replied in english rubbing his head where he'd smacked it, he held out his hand to the other boy, "I'm Tholomyès," he introduced his french showing as he pronounced his name, "Most people just call me Théo" the ravenclaw added, knowing the simpler version of his name would probably be better. He leaned back down on the ground looking up at the sinks, before just getting out from under them and standing next to Alessio, "I don't mind no, it's a bathroom after all, doesn't matter," he told the other boy motioning to the room, "But none of the stuff works, none of it," he exclaimed in a tired sounding voice, as if he couldn't believe none of it was working, "What is the point of all this magic if it can't fix this bathroom, so the stuff in it works," he complained to the other boy. Hoping the boy wasn't some pureblood type that would have his blood for saying something like that, but if he was, that would be just fantastic.
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[Alessio Benivieni]

Alessio shook the boy's hand, and smiled at him when he said his name. It sounded like a name that was used back home, by - what was the word magical people called it? Muggles, wasn't it? The boy shook his head to clear it. He frowned when Théo said that nothing was working. Surely they had a way of fixing the bathroom and especially the sinks in this place? Alessio was even more confused now. Al was hoping that Théo was more like him in terms of blood status; he was pretty convinced after he said what Alessio had exactly been thinking.

The young Hufflepuff furrowed his eyebrows. "Surely they have a way of fixing it, I mean, how do witches and wizards do so much more powerful things and they can't even make a bathroom work out of all things,". He still couldn't figure it out, surely they would have some sort of plan if they couldn't fix the sinks. "This is just plain confusing, who doesn't have a bathroom that works? Even back at home they have people who fix such important things." Alessio might have said too much but at that point he was too deep in thought about the situation at hand than to notice.

 

[Tholomyes Fontaine]

Théo looked at the boy who had joined him, and was glad to see that he seemed to agree with what Tholomyes was saying about the matter. It made him feel less insane, it really did, he just shook his head at him, "It's insane," the boy told him, nodding his head in agreement, finding it truly insane that this school of magic, couldn't in any way figure out how to fix this bathroom, how complicated could it be? Theo bent down slightly and looked at the sink, opening and closing the tap, just not comprehending why it didn't work, "I was thinking about trying to get a book about plumbing or something, see if I can't fix it, it's going to bug me, but it would be pointless really," he told the other boy with a heavy sigh. Feeling just hopeless when it came to it, and of course this was the magical world, he couldn't fix this sink any more than he could figure out this magic thing. No matter how much he was reading, it just didn't help him understand it, or come to grips with it. It just wasn't working for him. It was annoying, and the boy felt hopeless.

"I'm a ravenclaw, by the way," he told Alessio, "I don't know if that's important, I feel if we were sorted it must be," the ravenclaw was still staring at the sink and then folded his arms over his chest glancing at the other boy. Wondering if this boy could be any better at figuring it out, "I don't see the point really, I mean what purpose does it serve telling me I'm in a house with an eagle as the symbol." he complained, barely able to keep the whine out of his voice, "Not these sinks, just nothing is going right, nothing works" he continued, sighing heavily, then glancing back at the other boy, "I'm sorry, I just can't believe we're surrounded by all this magic and these sinks don't work, like what is the point in this room if the sinks don't work,"
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[Alessio Benivieni]

Alessio nodded in agreement. "It would annoy me as well, if something doesn't work, they should think about fixing it. But no matter," he said shrugging a little bit. He figured it was a little useless. It wasn't like these magical folk thought about these things, maybe they didn't exactly care either, Al knew they probably had bigger things to worry about. Ah well, it was still confusing the poor Hufflepuff boy. He didn't think he would really get over the fact that he himself was one of them.

Alessio let the boy finish, he understood how he felt, in some occasions he felt the same way. What was the point in having a place where something vital such as sinks didn't work? "I'm in Hufflepuff. You know," he started, "I don't even know what all of the houses symbols are for. And why they sort us according to personality traits. I mean, does that mean they're telling us how to act or what to be like? It's kind of unfair." He looked at Theo then. "I agree with you there, though, it's not so fair to pin all of this information about a new world for people who had no idea it even existed. It really doesn't make sense, does it, it just makes everything so much more confusing."

Sorry, not my best, whoops

 

[Tholomyes Fontaine]

The boy nodded at Alessio's words, of course this school should think about fixing it, it didn't matter if they didn't, but they should definitely have it somewhere within the school agenda. Somewhere within the school there should definitely be someone willing to try to fix this, someone with a little more experience fixing magical pipes that Theo and his new friend, after all they were first years, they weren't to know much anyway, and what little that Tholomyes knew about plumbing was definitely not enough to help in this situation, he had no idea how to fix these pipes and more to that he didn't even know if muggle skills would ever help these pipes get fixed, after all this was a magical school, this was a magical bathroom, and if nothing worked perhaps it was beyond the help of the people around him. perhaps this bathroom was magical, and therefore didn't itself want to get fixed, it was making the stuff not work, but the Ravenclaw boy thought that was even worse, was this sentient? Really? That was crazy. He shook his head, hopefully not, he'd seen how huge mechanical robots were, this was a bathroom, he didn't want to know what it could do.

Tholomyes glanced round at him and flashed a small smile, he didn't know why they had houses, but the other boy was a Hufflepuff, whatever that meant, though he seemed to go to explain it to him, or that it was based on personality or something, "It's silly really," he told the other boy, "I might be like the people in my house, but I'd rather not have to be like them, or pin too much to it, I'll just let everyone down," he told the other boy, though he was discovering that he was very similar to them, since he too did just love books, and though he wasn't overly academic, he loved art, and he loved poetry, he loved discovering things and doing things. The boy was cynical, and he was glad that the other boy didn't seem to think any less of him for it, "SO much new information, it's just so much, this school is just a death trap, and now this bathroom, why doesn't anything in here work," Tholomyes was almost desperate for something to work, but he knew that it just wouldn't, "This room is going to drive me insane,"
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[Alessio Benivieni]

Alessio's thoughts veered away from the broken bathroom, as he decided to name it, and were instead on the four houses and as he heard from a couple of his fellow first years, it sure was based on personality traits. Sure, it was a magical school and he understood that the only way to be sorted into a house fairly would be by personality so that whoever got sorted into the house they were meant to get sorted in, they'd be able to fit in and be surrounded by people like them. But didn't someone mention once that opposites attract? So surely, there were students who didn't exactly fit into their houses. Or maybe the sorting hat - whom Alessio was still trying to wrap his head around at such an object existing, a talking one at that - had been in this world far longer than the rest of them, even the headmistress as it should've sorted her into a house during her time at Hogwarts, right? So if the hat had been here for long, surely it knew what it was doing and where to put the new students. It had to be correct then, even if those students had no idea why they would even remotely fit into their house. Alessio shook his head; it was enough thinking as it was, as usual, he over thought things. It was the reason why he felt like he didn't belong in his house. Glancing at his new friend, he realised he had said that last thought out loud.

"I feel the same way, I mean I'm not always honest and I would've preferred being with my sister in Ravenclaw, I just thought I belonged in that house, you know, like I love reading and learning but I guess the sorting hat must've seen something in me that I didn't notice before. Sorry, I guess I like to talk too much, just like my twin." Alessio cracked a smile. After Théo mentioned the bathroom, Alessio's thought went back to it and he suggested going to another bathroom if this one refused to work. "Maybe another one would work, surely there are loads of them in a castle so big."

 

[Tholomyes Fontaine]

Tholomyes look between the other boy and the broken and not working sinks. He wasn't sure what else to do about it, it was just frustrating him, and he wasn't sure what else to do about it. He didn't know anything about sinks and this was going to bother him so much if he didn't manage to at least try to figure it. He listened along with what he was saying, "You have a sister in Ravenclaw?" Theo asked, "I have a sister in Gryffindor, but she's a fifth year and prefect," The young ravenclaw told the other boy, "It must be pretty cool to have a twin, and for them to be at school with you too, I mean in the same year," he continued, though this conversation was good distraction from the fact that this bathroom was becoming frustrating and just awful. He wanted to do something, but he very literally couldn't.

The young boy grinned happy at the other boy and shrugged at him, "Well, yeah there are plenty, but that's not really the point is it?" he told him as if that was entire thing he'd been saying during this whole conversation, "I mean, yeah, I assume there are plenty of different bathrooms that can be used, but it's just frustrating that nothing in here works," he told him, "I mean, why doesn't any of it work?" he walked up to one of the sinks and turned the tap, to the fullest it could go, and nothing poured from it, "If you were in charge of a school would you not use this space for something else?" The boy looked back at Alessio, "It is just typical of magic, to be able to do all these other things, for people to fly and a roof which changes, but for a bathroom to not work and for it to not be used for something else," Theo shrugged, "I'm sorry, I just, this magic thing is just throwing me off,"
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