Open We Say Our Lines, We Do the Time

[Celia Vu]

Ever since enrolling at Hogwarts, Celia's mood had taken a permanent dip. But nothing brought it down quite like Brightstone Weekends. After running away last year, she had been forbidden from leaving the castle grounds. Brightstone Weekends, then, were just another reminder of her past mistakes and the school's distrust of her. It was frustrating watching everyone go off to explore the village while she was stuck in the castle. If she had to listen to one more person rave about how great Honeyduke's was, she would scream.

The one advantage of these weekends was that the castle was left in relative peace since all the especially annoying students were usually off restocking at Gambol and Jape's. Today Celia had decided to go to the Student Lounge for some spell practice — an activity she usually had to do in one of the grimy abandoned classrooms. She was pleased to see the lounge empty this morning, and she dragged the most comfortable armchair in the room over to the fireplace. Taking a seat, she pulled out her wand and pointed it at the fire. "Incendio." Nothing happened, but she was sure she could get it with a few more tries.

 

[Leonardo Orr]

Leonardo didn't have any poclet money, so he'd decided to not bother going to the village. There was no sense in it ifhe couldn't buy anything, there would be little fun in exploring, he'd already done that in the first semester, so Leonardo had decided he would spend a little time studying, there was work he needed to catch up on, so why not. He walked into the lounge, and after glancing round at the fairly empty room, he noticed someone was sitting by the fire. They seemed to be setting it alight, or trying to at least. "I think the house elves are supposed to take care of the fire," he informed her, he had stepped over to specifically tell her that. ​

 

[Poppy Perkins]

Poppy had always enjoyed Brightstone weekends and had spent plenty of time in the village but she didn't have time to explore this time unfortunately. Even with with out having to worry about OWLs again this year, she still found herself swamped with homework and newspaper drafts to edit. She had found the student lounge blissfully quiet and as she took a seat at one of the tables. With papers laid out before her she picked one up and started to read, but was quickly distracted when she heard the incantation for a fire spell. Poppy had been a prefect for nearly two years now but she had never needed to wield any kind of authority before and for that she was grateful. But she couldn't just ignore that and quickly got up to investigate. She didn't have to go far and found Celia, one of the newest members of the paper, and a younger boy. With a nod of agreement with the boys statement she put her hands on her hips and stood up straight. "That's true." she said brightly, even though she wasn't completely sure but she tried to sound confident. "Besides its best to avoid fire charms indoors." she suggested.

 

[Celia Vu]

Despite her best efforts, Celia couldn't even summon a few sparks, which was especially frustrating since wands produced sparks all the time. She repeated the incantation, only looking up when a boy approached her to say something about house elves. "I—" but then she stopped when a second voice chimed in.

"Hi Poppy!" she greeted with a smile. She considered the Ravenclaw's comment, trying to figure out whether she was about to get in trouble. Celia didn't think there was a rule against practicing upper-level spells, but ever since Professor Corrins had given her a less than perfect grade for doing just that in class, Celia had tried to keep her practicing a secret. She had thought she'd be in the clear today with everyone off at Brightstone, but of course it was just her luck that she'd run into not one, but two other people who had decided to stay behind. "I was just trying to get some charms practice in, and I figured the fireplace was the safest place to do it," she explained cheerfully, deciding that feigned ignorance was her best strategy. "But I can't seem to get it to work. Any advice?" She did actually want charms advice, but she was ready to let the whole thing go if Poppy continued to push the issue. Celia had zero interest in getting into more trouble or annoying her editor.

 

[Leonardo Orr]

Leonardo glanced at the second voice, a much older girl, and it seemed that the other one, trying to conjure fire certainly seemed to know how this person was. Between the two, Leonardo just nodded, taking little steps back and beginning to move to a different desk to be able to get to the work that he wanted to. He didn't want to inject himself further in this girl's space, and since the conversation didn't need him. He just moved away and sit down at a different desk and took out his books. ​

 

[Poppy Perkins]

Poppy returned Celia's smile and was a bit caught off guard by the other girl's enthusiastic greeting. "Well that was smart." she agreed with an encouraging nod. If there was any place to practice a spell like that the fireplace was one of the safest, and she didn't want to sound like she discouraged practicing spells. But when she asked for advice Poppy faltered for a moment. While she had of course taken charms it was never one of her better subjects, and it had been a few years since she had practiced it herself. "It does require a lot of focus." she said thoughtfully and tapped her chin as she tried to remember as much as she could, "Is there anything on your mind that might be blocking you?" she asked and noticed the younger boy slowly moving away. She frowned and waved at him. "Oh, I didn't mean to scare you off." she said apologetically with a small laugh, Poppy hated to think he thought she was ignoring him. "What's your name?"

 

[Celia Vu]

Celia noticed the boy start to back away. She didn't blame him. If she were in his place and the person she was talking to started getting reprimanded by a prefect, she'd leave too to avoid any guilt by association. Thankfully it seemed Poppy was not about to take off any points. In fact, she seemed to do a complete 180. Celia kept the smile plastered on her face though she fiddled with her wand, uncertain whether she was allowed to keep practicing.

There actually was quite a lot on Celia's mind, but she wasn't about to share her woes with Poppy and a complete stranger. "Hmmm, nothing beyond classes, I guess." she lied. Her classes were a joke. "I just have a lot of homework this week," she added. She didn't want Poppy or the boy (if he was even listening) to get the impression that she was stupid. Celia glanced at the boy, who had taken out some books. "I guess the professors also gave your year a ton of homework too?"