Open Some Magical Organisms

[Ralph Easterling]

This morning he had gone to the great lawn to look for new plants to add to his herbarium, but not finding what he was looking for, he walked to the edge of the lake. There you could study new species of fungi and other moisture-loving plants that no one paid attention to, but which were full of unknown secrets and unusual properties. And look, quite by chance, the Ravenclaw had stumbled upon a moss-like lichen of bright green color, “wolf lichen”.

”Unbelievable...” Ralph stated quietly, sitting on his knees on the ground, wetness soaking into his clothes. ”Unbelievable.” He continued to wonder about the location of European lichen here in New Zealand.
The lichen that had been plucked from the edge of the lake drew a soft moisture into his palms and was now blacking an ever darker color. It was the first magical plant he managed to find on the school grounds without asking the professors for help! But that's not what the story is about... The incredible part is that it was able to grow in this climate zone. The boy sat on the ground and twisted the unusual plant in his hand and tried to remember its magical properties, distinguishing the book on magical herbology taken from the library. Beside Ralph was a large basket almost full of other mosses and lichens, wet and full of soil.

@Cassius Styx

 

[Cassius Styx]

Cassius Styx walked outside to get some of his running in. He needed to get his running in to stay in shape so that he could keep his training going. Cass trained martial arts so he needed to be strong and have more stamina. Cass did not bother wearing his school robes since he did not want to have that flapping around his legs. He stretched everything including his hamstrings and shoulders. Everything he needed to prevent a cramp. And off he went, in a good speed to run around the lakefront. The area was wet but his shoes kept the water out thanks to a spell his mother put on them. Just who knew how long it would last. As he ran, he noticed something in his path. Great. He skid to a stop to see a first year on the ground. He was in the way and he could have made Cass trip at full speed, and injure himself! This was so selfish and cruel. This had to be one of the new first years. He did not want to have to interact with them but considering how this could have hurt him! Cass supposed that he should teach him a lesson. "Hey, you can't just sit down in the middle of the way! You could have injured someone important, like me. Get up and move, and your plants." Cass knew that his tone was not exactly nice, but he was not a nice guy either. His run was interrupted.​

 

[Ralph Easterling]

In fact, that's exactly what the voice that suddenly sounded so close to him sounded like. His eyes widened and his mouth tightened into a surprised 'O' shape, albeit a few seconds after the speaker had already arrived. For a moment he had thought the sound was in his own mind because he had spoken in the voice himself.
Someone had come and scared the boy so much that the lichen in his hands, the found wolf lichen, fell into the water of the lake. Oh no… However, his eyes turned upwards to see who was at fault for interrupting his pursuit, and the whole lichen picking thing was momentarily forgotten.
Did this older guy say something about sitting in the way? It sounded like he wasn't happy or was angry that Ralph was sitting in his way, obviously interrupting something important. He also said that there was a risk of hurting someone important like him. To which Ralph responded with: ”Sorry, but who would you be? If you are important, this is not the safest place to run. It's wet and slippery here."
The boy's tone and the order to move made him stand up and then knock over the basket with the picked herbs with his knee, which fell on the stranger boy's feet. No! His plants! Ralph, now standing up to his full height, looked at the place where his plants had spilled and said. "I'm sorry." Let's hope that the guy's shoes were also resistant to the wetness of the plants.

 

[Cassius Styx]

Cass rolled his eyes when the first year asked who he was. Perhaps it was just not obvious when people looked at him to see how important he was, but he would change that fast and in a hurry. Cass pointed his finger down at the nerd, "I am Cassius Styx, a pure-blood from a long line that would take you years to count back to. Therefore, things like you are worth roughly the dirt on my shoes. You should be honored I am even talking to you." Cass shook his head as if it were the most obvious thing in the world. The amount of pride the boy had was astronomical. Likely more than some of the ancient USA presidents. But this was normal for him and not just for Slytherins. He was prideful enough to probably embarrass Salazar himself. He ignored the part on how it was slippery and wet, but that was what good shoes were for. He needed to master running in all of the elements. But then the boy attempted to stand up and spilled whatever he was messing with all over his shoes. Cass started seeing red. "Look at what you did, maggot!" Cass wasted no time. In his fit of rage, he balled his hand into a fist, and aimed it at the boy's face. If it was one thing he was good at, it was hitting people in the face. Mainly Gregory, but the lucky victim today might be a Ravenclaw instead.​

 

[Ralph Easterling]

At first he thought the stranger was faking what he had just said, but when Ralph saw the finger pointed at him and heard the seriousness in the boy's voice, he knew it was no joke. The stranger introduced himself as a pure-blood whose name was Cassius Styx... Styx as his dorm mate Loki? Was Loki also a pure-blood? Ralph, in spite of the irritated stranger, flourished at the sight. "Loki studies with me in the same year and has the same last name as you. Are you related?” He didn't miss the fact that he should be honored that Cassius was talking to him, and Ralph already wanted to end this conversation himself, but what followed next was unavoidable.

Ravenclaw was the first to see Cassius' face turn red as his lichen spilled out into the field onto the boy's shoes. "I'm sorry, it happened accidentally..." But he didn't expect that the angry Slytherin would actually hit him. It happened so quickly and deftly that Ralph couldn't find himself when he was already smacked right in the face. His glasses fell from his eyes and cracked, and he clutched his nose as if to make sure it was still in place. But he saw blood on his hands. His lip was busted. "Are you crazy? Sorry, but you're weird!"
Without his glasses, he looked at the older boy and tried to narrow down his eyes to see better.

 

[Kaia Stark]

Kaia had decided to go for a walk, enjoy her last year in Hogwarts and so far, it was going really well. She enjoyed people, enjoyed the atmosphere, at least in the older years. She tried to watch how Kiara's cousins were settling down and since Kaia was close with Kiara, Kaia knew the boys. But she didn't expect to see Ralph, especially not with the Styx guy who had caused some troubles last year as well. And so far it seemed like it was just an argument so she slowly walked towards it to take care of it calmly, until the Slytherin hit him. That was when Kaia immediately fumed up. "You f****d up bastard!" She loudly called out as she pulled out her wand and aimed it towards the little guy. She didn't care how younger he was or who he was, she was older, stronger and better, and she would never let anything like this happen to the twins. He should have known better than to bully someone. "Apologize now," Kaia lowly spoke while trying to make an eye contact with him while still boiling in rage. She stood in front of Ralph, not exactly paying attention to him as she wanted to deal with the pure-blooded jerk first.

 

[Cassius Styx]

Cass felt his punch connect and did enough damage to really teach the boy who he was messing with. Now he had to go clean his shoes. He used his shirt to get some of the blood that came from the boy's face and wiped it off. Cass felt that was definitely punishment enough but to make things worse, he heard a voice. His eyes glanced up to see an older girl storming up to him, wand raised, demanding an apology. He looked her over and saw no prefect badge. He wasn't in danger. He smirked and shrugged his shoulders. "He already has. But considering the fact that you aren't a perfect, nor in my house, you might actually be talking to me. Unfortunately, it is not your jurisdiction. Besides, you should be more concerned with him than me. Plus, a seventh year raising a wand to an unarmed second year? How tactless." Cass gestures toward the Ravenclaw since he knew that it was his fault for all of this. It only made sense. So he just walked by the two since he had to go get his shoes cleaned. Shame they did this prior to charms otherwise he could have done it himself and not got all pissed off.​

 

[Ralph Easterling]

Everything would have been nice if their conversation was limited to questions about the Styx relatives, but that was not destined to happen. He felt miserable and wanted to immediately cut all ties with this crazy boy. But he heard a voice from another side that belonged to a girl. Ralph couldn't see well enough to make out the girl's face, but the closer she got, the clearer it became that it was Kiara's cousin Kaia! He also understood this by the voice. He blushed. What a bad first meeting outside the family house, wrong place and time.

However, Cassius did not apologize, but only continued to point out their mistakes and rebuke Kaia. Ralph wanted to interject that ”You have no right to talk to an older student like that! She's just like my sister and you just don't have the right to treat her like that.” He said angrily to the boy and held his hand to his bruised lip as he covered himself with more blood. He picked up his glasses from the ground and put them on his nose - they were cracked and needed a good Reparo spell. This guy was dangerous!

 

[Kaia Stark]

Kaia honestly had no idea where the guy got the attitude from but the old Styx didn't seem really much different. "Oh no, don't you dare to teach me you spoiled brat! I don't care about how younger you are or weaker, or worse, I am still stronger than you, smarter, witter. I can do way more than you can and trust me, I will deal with any consequences that will come for that. So, now, you either apologize or we go to professor Castillo and talk on a totally different note. I am sure he will be so happy that his students are so sweet to first years at the very beginning of the year," Kaia acted all sweet as she said the last sentence and then used spell impedimentia to stop him. After Ralph's break out, she just smiled at him. "It's alright, Ralph, I can handle it," she assured him. "Let me take care of him first and then we will clean you up,"

 

[Cassius Styx]

Cass had a few steps when the boy went off, which he didn't even care for. Even the girl. As far as he was concerned, there wasn't much that could be done. He yawned as he kept walking but then he heard a spell. Luckily, he was fast enough to dodge it, jumping to the side since his wand was not an option. He might have been fast but with his back turned. They were so not worth his time. He gave a small wave before running off. If he could not run at the lake front then he could find somewhere else. Besides, he knew he was magically no match for a seventh year. Now if she came after him well away from that kid, he could paint it as a seventh year picking on a second year, especially with her audacity to cast a spell while his back was turned. He was begging in his mind for her to come find him in the future. He could definitely pull a victim act. All he had to do was mimic Gregory Friend.​

 

[Ralph Easterling]

The incident unfolded and the strange guy looked like he was about to run away or avoid the problem. At least judging by his back, which it had turned away from them. Ralph felt terribly guilty that Kaia had to defend him and that she had to use the spell. Although, he really hoped the spell would hit Cassius, but it didn't. Ralph looked at Kaia as the boy left. "So do you think we need to go to the professor? Maybe it's better to leave it as it is and I'll go to the hospital to the nurse? It's nothing serious..." It didn't even hurt, only his bruised lip was slightly oozing and blood was flowing from it. Well, now he'll know that Styx is the person to avoid with a detour. And he lived in the same tower as another Styx…
He bent down to the ground and began to pick lichens back in a basket that had fallen out.

 

[Kaia Stark]

Kaia chuckled as he avoided the spell and then ran away. She was sure that for now Ralph was safe but with her graduating so soon, he wasn't safe for a long time. Maybe she had to have a talk with Evander, so he could keep an eye on Ralph. Or help Chris to learn some advanced spells. "No, I don't think we should but I can talk to head boy about it. If we go to the nurse, we will have to explain it. Come here, I can handle it," she took her wand once more. "I will pick up all you lichens and I can clean up your lip. After that, I have a potion to heal up the lip, if you want?" She offered him a plan what to do.

 

[Ralph Easterling]

Ralph was grateful to Kaia for her involvement and couldn't imagine what would have happened if she hadn't intervened. At least that Styx boy ran away and left them alone. At least for the moment.
"Do you think that the nurse will ask?" He thought that the nurse would have experienced such cases when students came to her who got punched in the face from older years. Every school had a victim and a bully.
However, he allowed the girl to take care of him, to be precise, his chapped lip. "Thank you. I wanted to collect those lichens for the herbarium. You have a potion?” Ralph asked in surprise and thought how cool that Kaia was a senior and that she had healing potions. After all, Ralph wanted to become a healer himself. He stood up and stood with his bloody face facing Kaia so she could fix it.