Settle Down

[Andi Forstrom]

Spending an entire winter break on a farm in the middle of nowhere wasn't all that it was cracked up to be, and Andi had quickly grown bored of the paddocks, animals and crops that were once all she knew. Now that she had a taste of what wizarding school was like and made a few friends, returning to the farm felt like taking a huge step backwards and helping out with chores was the most boring thing she could think of. Using magic outside of school to aid in her chores would have made her holidays more interesting, but she was still too young to try and the only solace she could find in her boredom was talking to Signy and sending letters to Aodhan when she had a spare moment.

Luckily for Andi, she had made it through the holidays and had arrived back at Hogwarts ready to continue exploring the castle and generally getting up to mischief. The only thing that was missing was her partner in crime so Andi sought to find Aodhan immediately after she parted ways with Signy. She hadn't found her friend during the start of year feast, but was determined to find him afterwards while he was on his way to the common room. She stood behind a corner near the entrance of the great hall, waiting for Aodhan to walk out before she clawed her hand into one of the arms of his robe and pulled him from the crowd, into her hiding spot. "Got ya!" She exclaimed. "I'm not letting you leave until you tell me all about your holidays." Andi had missed Aodhan in the holidays more than she was willing to admit and now they had many things to catch up on and plans to make so the year ahead of them would be as worthwhile as their last. She hoped he would tell her everything he had gotten up to before they walked to the common room together. ​

 

[Aodhan Kaelen]

Aodhan's winter break had been a lot of fun. His Uncle had taken him to visit his grandparents in America for a week after not having seen them for over a whole year. On top of that, he received letter's from his best friend at school. The young Gryffindor had been writing to Andi pretty much all of their break as he had missed her greatly even whilst spending time with his grandpa and grandma. Although it had been great, Aodhan was glad that school had started again so he could go back to spending time with Andi and looking for passageways with his other friends. He had only seen his friend during the feast but was seated too far away from her to actually ask the girl about her winter break, so figured that they would probably talk to each other during the house meeting - that was until he was being pulled away from the crowd while on his way to the Gryffindor common room after the feast had ended. Aodhan smiled widely as he looked at his friend's face, and pulled her in for a hug before answering her question. ''I went to America!'' the boy told his friend when he let go of her. ''Uncle Eryk took me to visit my grandparents.'' He had so much more to tell her but figured that she wanted to tell about hers as well, even if it sounded rather dull in the letters she wrote to him.

 

[Andi Forstrom]

Andi, although taken aback by the greeting, returned the hug Aodhan gave to her. She felt her mouth open slightly with surprise when Aodhan said he had gone to America to visit his grandparents. Either her short attention span meant she had not read his letters thoroughly enough, or his writing had not done his holidays any justice. She wasn't sure which scenario was more truthful or likely, but knew that the fact remained the same, and that his holiday was way better than hers. She could not wait to hear all about it and was slightly annoyed she would need to prod her friend into telling her more. "Cool! Did you see that magic school, ilver-something? Dad told me that was in America." Really, all Andi did know about America was that there was magic school somewhere and that there had been some gruesome witch trials back in the day. "Were your grandparents nice? Did they give you candy or anything?" She asked, wanting to poke him in the chest with her finger but resisting the temptation. "What else did you do? Did you pull any pranks?" Andi clearly did not know much about Aodhan's winter break in spite of his letters but she wasn't afraid to show this and ask as many questions as she could.​

 

[Aodhan Kaelen]

Aodhan grinned when his friend decided to ask him about his winter break rather than talk about her own. ''Ilvermorny,'' the Gryffindor corrected, ''I did not, unfortunately. But my grandpa told me a lot about the school. He a professor there.'' he told her excitedly. He smiled when she asked if they gave them any candy because he could sort of figure out what her next response would be. ''Yes they did, it's in my trunk upstairs - I'll give you some tonight.'' Aodhan was glad to be in the presence of his friend again, she had definitely been missed. Andi then went on to ask him if he had pulled any pranks and nodded heavily. ''I pulled a prank on one my step-sisters,'' he said, ''You know, the one who is always trying to jinx me.'' His relationship with Belledonna still hadn't improved much, even though they had been together for some of the winter break.

 

[Andi Forstrom]

Andi nodded repeatedly as she listened to Aodhan talk about his break. She envied that it had been more interesting than hers, and was almost urged to make sure her next holidays were more interesting, both for her own sake and for the sake of showing him up. America was far more interesting than some silly farm in the middle of nowhere, and pranking a sister was more fun than passing time with silly chores. What made Aodhan's story even better was the fact that he was willing to share some of his candy with her. Although Andi had just gotten out of the start of year feast, her insatiable hunger was ever present and her stomach nearly began to rumble at the thought of eating some candy. "Damn, your holidays really were better!" She exclaimed, punching Aodhan playfully on the shoulder. "Did your prank on your sister work? We could make plans to prank her even more before the next holidays! You totally gotta get your revenge." Even the idea of thinking of ideas to how Aodhan could make his sister's life a living hell was interesting enough for Andi. Signy was practically a sister to Andi, but she would never dream of pranking her and was instead happy to live vicariously through Aodhan's pranks and even to help him prank his sister even better.​

 

[Aodhan Kaelen]

Aodhan was glad to know that she thought that his holidays were good though couldn't help to frowned at the thought of it. Andi's holidays had been just as excited really as he had never been to a farm before and therefore had never done the things the girl told him she had done in her letters. ''Oh come on,'' the Gryffindor began, ''I bet your holidays were just as much fun as mine was.'' Aodhan nodded his head excitedly when Andi asked him whether the prank on his step-sister had worked or not. ''It did, though Aunt Libby and Uncle Eryk weren't all too happy about it.'' The boy said with a chuckle. He grinned when she told him they should make more plans to prank Belledonna and agreed with that cause he had a feeling his best friend had a couple of pranks ready to be used.