Open Unforgiving Unforgivables

[Professor Minnie Calida]

Minnie had come straight to the library after the last defence against the dark arts class. She had to stick to her schedule, she didn’t have the time to meander away from it, but her heart wasn’t in it at all. It felt silly, she felt silly, watching a spider die wasn’t like a big deal, it was just a spider. But it wasn’t like crushing it with a book, or wasn’t like being careless. The class had felt senseless. The whole unforgivable curses felt so senseless to her. It just felt awful. She had never experienced death and she had obviously therefore never experienced death in that manner either. A minute of sitting in the library had just told her that she wasn’t going to manage to study in the oppressive silence, so she’d grabbed a few things she might need and headed to the great hall. ​

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Minnie wanted to go to the kitchens, but students weren’t supposed to be there and she didn’t want to break the rules. Going back to the dorm or common room would result in little work getting done, but the great hall, she couldn’t exactly hide. She would feel the pressure of the eyes to work. She didn’t know why seeing the unforgivables had put her so on edge, why this had affected her so deeply but it had. She guessed she was probably the only one, everyone else in her year just seemed so much together than she ever felt. She sat down at the edge of the ravenclaw table, ignoring how her hands shook as she put her notes and books in front of her. Maybe it was just the finality of it. Like there had been no way for the spider to escape, there would’ve been little chance even if it could move, the spell was so quick. She tried to concentrate on her books, and get the necessary work done, but Minnie knew she was making little progress. Most others would’ve probably taken the afternoon to compartmentalise it, but she didn’t have the time for it. She had to work.​

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OOC: This topic immediately follow this lesson: https://hogwarts.nz/threads/fourth-years-lesson-four.100379/​

 

[Ryan Fisk]

Ryan was trying his hand at people watching, something Nicole said was creepy but Ryan asserted was an important skill to have if he wanted to be observant. It was difficult though, since most people were just boring and Ryan was finding it hard to focus. Things had improved slightly when an older Ravenclaw student had sat down near him, her behavior a little odd though her face seemed mostly composed. Ryan watched her intently for a few moments while she arranged some books with shaking hands before seeming to just stare at them. "Did something happen?" Ryan decided to ask, scooting closer to her, unable to contain his curiosity.

 

[Professor Minnie Calida]

Minnie looked towards the voice that spoke to her spotting a younger boy speaking to her and almost getting closer to her. She put on a polite and friendly smile and just shook her head. This boy was too young to know about what had been seen and she didn’t exactly want to bring it up with anyone either. Well not with someone who hadn’t been there. ”No, nothing, I’m fine, just too much coffee,” she lied making sure to keep the forced smile, moving her hands to just grab the book, and the quill and begin revising, or attempting to. Everyone else was going to have it so much more together than she was managing and she didn’t want to involve someone else in it. "Exams definitely get more difficult the older you get," It wasn't even a lie, they did. It just wasn't what was going on here. ​

 

[Ryan Fisk]

Ryan tilted his head as the girl responded, wishing he was better at reading people. He had heard caffeine could make you all jittery though, so her story did kinda check out. Now Ryan was just disappointed, sighing when she alluded that her only problem right now was worrying about exams. More students needed to have more interesting problems here. Ryan wasn't interested in finding out about exam worries, he wanted to know who smuggling pygmypuff hybrids under their beds or rigging the school's snitch to explode on contact. Exciting things like that. Maybe the girl was nervous because she'd secretly stolen the exam answers and now needed to make a convincing show of studying so no one would expect anything when she aced everything. "Oh, okay," He said slowly, realizing he should probably answer her, even though his eyes darted around her books before glancing at her bag, looking for anything that might be an answer key. "And that's... All?" He asked again, giving her a pensive stare he'd seen Styx use on kids lying about their homework.

 

[Professor Minnie Calida]

Minnie hoped the boy would buy it and then leave her alone. She couldn’t unload all of what she felt on to a young student. They didn’t deserve her doing that. Not just because what they’d learnt about was meant for older students, but she couldn’t imagine it would be right of her to do that. This kid didn’t need to know what was causing her distress. It wasn’t like he would understand either really. Not yet. She didn’t want to end up in a discussion where they didn’t get why she was frustrated by it. So her emotions would just feel silly in the face of it. She gave a little smile and nodded. ”Of course,” she lied, he had a slightly unnerving look but she ignored it. She then plastered a fake smile on her face, ”I’m Minnie,” she extended her hand to him. Pleased that it didn’t seem to be shaking nearly as much. She could push down her emotions, she needed to just focus on her revision and nothing else. ​

 

[Ryan Fisk]

Ryan didn't bother hiding his disappointed expression when the girl assured him there was nothing else afoot before introducing herself. "Ryan," He said after a beat, taking the girl's hand to shake it quickly. She was a lot less interesting now that Ryan hadn't been able to spot any signs of illicit dealings and he sighed. "What are you studying?" He asked instead, peering at her books. Maybe she was learning about something she shouldn't be and that'd why she'd been acting a bit odd. Though then again, as his sister had pointed out, Ryan still wasn't the best judge of behavior. And besides, if he wanted to study stuff he wasn't allowed, he probably wouldn't be doing it in the great hall. Though perhaps that was the point, no one would suspect her here. Shaking his head, Ryan realized he'd zoned out again, turning his attention back to Minnie so he wouldn't miss her actual response.

 

[Professor Minnie Calida]

Minnie didn’t care that he was visibly disappointed by her lack of sharing. She wasn’t going to do it, she nodded at the introduction and gave a polite smile. ”Defence against the dark arts, I’m doing the homework,” she said, she would need to and though her concentration still wasn’t on it, she would do what she needed to to get it done. ”What are you doing?” she couldn’t visibly tell what he was doing, if revising or if just sitting in the great hall watching others. She wasn’t sure she cared all that much about what it was but if it kept the conversation in a certain place she wouldn’t mind it at all. The teen could always manage talking about books and revision and she could do it now too. ​

 

[Ryan Fisk]

"I like that class," Ryan said, leaning a little closer to Minnie's books to try and read her handwriting. "We actually got to try jinxes on each other this year," He added. Ryan had tried to convince some his roommates to let him keep practicing on them, but for some reason his friends were less inclined to agree, which Ryan didn't get. It wasn't like he wouldn't let them practice on him in return either. At least he'd gotten to try out some spells in the duelling tournament, even if Nicole had groused at him when he'd lost. "What's your homework?" He asked, looking back at Minnie when he realized he'd spaced out again. "I've been people watching," Ryan added, not breaking eye contact with Minnie now, just for emphasis on which people he'd been watching.

 

[Professor Minnie Calida]

Minnie nodded, ”It can be fun,” she answered. She had liked Jinxes, perhaps not just casting them on people but had enjoyed the theory that came along side it. She liked theory but where she then went to say that she liked theory, she hadn’t liked it this semester, or well, that wasn’t even true, she wouldn’t have enjoyed the theory much, but she enjoyed it less with his demonstrations. They had been why she had in the end not liked it. ”It’s just on curses,” she then frowned when he said he’d been people watching, that was why he had spoken to her, had noticed likely her slight distress but she couldn’t say anything about it. ”do you people watch often?” she asked him, holding his gaze though she didn’t particularly want to. She would’ve in any other occasion asked if he’d seen anything but she could only imagine that he had noticed her and that was why he was now speaking to her. She didn’t want to invite that at all. ​