Open Y44 Muggleborn (& Raised) Support Group Meeting

[Aine Thompson]

Aine had previously endeavoured to be more helpful to people at the school, and it hadn't gone very smoothly. Which, to be fair, was probably in part because she was a uppity second year with delusions of grandeur. But now she was an uppity fifth year, and a prefect no less. Which, okay, that bit was a bit of a write off considering how poorly the head people were handling it. But it didn't mean she wanted to just ignore it and say that the responsibility meant nothing. She'd just go on her own and try to do something good for once. Sure, Aine was prickly and difficult and her attempts at connecting rubbed people the wrong way, but this was different. This was for a good cause, and she'd use her modicum of authority for good as opposed to making underlings miserable.

She remembered when she was in first year, one of the older students had put together a meeting for people like her who were new to magic, or had non-magical home lives and weren't used to the magical world. Or they just needed to talk to people in the same situation to have people to relate to, to let them know they weren't alone. She'd put a couple of posters for it up where she could, mostly near classrooms, in order to draw people's attention, and had set up a table in the student lounge with a few things from home - cans of soda and bottles of water, chips, lollies and some chocolates (from a last second supermarket spree before she headed off to school). Sure, they weren't in the best condition, but she hoped that might help break the ice. Food was always a good option for that.

"Uh, hi," she started, a little nervously, as people started to mill around. "Welcome everyone, have a seat, grab some snacks. For anyone who doesn't know me," and quietly Aine hoped that was a higher number than she thought, "I'm Aine, I'm from Australia - you can probably guess from the accent, hey - I'm a fifth year in Hufflepuff, and I'm an alcoholic," she quipped, raising an eyebrow. "Nah, I'm muggleborn, and the only one of my siblings to be a witch." She shrugged, looking around. "I, uh, wanted to welcome all the new first years especially, I guess you've probably got a lot of questions. Hell, I still have a lot of questions too. But, uh, why don't we go around and you can introduce yourselves, share some of your experiences if you want? Um, nobody here is gonna judge anyone for struggling or anything like that, we're all in the same boat." She awkwardly shifted on the spot, sitting back down and playing with a minties wrapper, curious to see what anyone else had to say.

Out of Character:

Hi all! I had been meaning to revive this for a bit. If your character is muggleborn or has grown up in a muggle family please feel free to join!

 

[Demetrius Wagner]

Demetrius had seen the posters put up around school and was intrigued. He remembered the group being around when he was a first year and decided to go - there'd at least be free food, if it wasn't a complete write-off. He didn't realise until he was actually at the meeting that the organiser was Aine. Ever since their last encounter he'd been avoiding her where he could (which admittedly wasn't too hard, they only shared a couple of classes). After he'd been spotted, he decided he couldn't just run away. He grabbed some chocolates before taking a seat. He was going to need it.

He looked around the room at the others wondering if they felt as lost as he did when he first came to Hogwarts. When no one spoke at first, Demetrius decided to break the silence. "Uh, hi. My name's Demetrius, I'm from New Zealand. Uh, I'm the only magical one in my family. It was really hard, especially at first, when I first came to Hogwarts. It just seemed like an elaborate prank or something. It's easier now. But I still feel weird. I guess that never totally goes away. Uh." Demetrius rubbed the back of his head. "So if you're struggling, or you want to talk about rugby or something, let me know. I can try to help."

Having opened up an uncomfortable amount, Demetrius found himself shutting off. He crossed his arms and nodded for the next person to introduce themselves.

 

[Zagreus Kohler]

Zag had been intrigued when he had seen the poster around the school for a Muggleborn support group. Even more so when he had found out that it was Aine who was actually putting the whole thing together. Zag could respect it, though was a little surprised she hadn't asked for anyone else to help. Maybe the prefect badge had given her some extra confidence to throw something like this together by herself. But Zag could respect it, and he wanted to show some support for the whole idea, which was why he had bothered to show up. Of course, he fit right in, he was a Muggleborn himself, but he had never exactly done well with opening up and talking with other people.

As he stood there, he shuffled a little closer to Aine, offering the girl a small smile as he did so. "This is a good idea," he offered, almost feeling as though he wanted to nudge the girl. But he didn't. That was weird.

Instead, he was quiet again until he realized there was silence and it was his turn. "Oh, um," he coughed, awkwardly clearing his throat before offering the room a short wave, "Hi. I'm Zagreus, I'm also a Hufflepuff and a fifth year, and I'm originally from Frankfurt. Germany, I mean. But, um, now I live in Brisbane with my Muggle mum. My dad was also a Muggle. Which makes sense given I'm.... here. Don't have any siblings, I'm the only magical one." Well, that was a mess of an introduction, and he quickly closed his mouth again, mentally kicking himself for opening it in the first place.

 

[Ewan Wang]

Ewan had been on the fence for far too long over how he was supposed to stay at school, whether he even should, and whether magic was even in his future. When he heard there was a muggle born support group, he decided to air on the side of caution, and maybe even some of the other students would have answers for him that Rion hadn’t been able to help with. It was different for her, she could do anything she wanted, and probably had a whole magical family at home waiting for her.

Entering the room, Ewan felt immediately out of place realising the students here were all significantly older than he was. “Hi,” he introduced himself politely, milling around the edge of the group and just listening to the other two boys, hoping someone else he actually recognised would be along too. Eventually however it seemed as though the others in the room needed him to make a stand. Surely this couldn’t be it? “I’m Ewan, I’m from Korea. Second year. Um, I’m in Gryffindor. No one else in my family is magical, and,” he wasn’t sure whether or not to trust this group enough yet by laying everything out there, although what did he had to lose at this point? “I live with my grandmother, it’s just us. She needs me at home and instead i’m just here, playing.” Ewan could feel the anger boiling up inside him once again, “I don’t want to talk about things from home I want to learn things that I will need when I go back home. Maths, Written Language. How do I get a job after graduation if i’ve been out of basic education since I was ten?” he asked, genuinely feeling like if no one could give him an answer he may as well go home. It was a waste of time. “I’m pretty sure “Hogwarts” won’t get listed on a muggle resume.”

 

[Aine Thompson]

Aine was surprised to see Demetrius - not that she thought anything poorly of him or thought that he didn't deserve to be here, just that she'd done such an appalling job of trying to talk to him she'd thoroughly cemented his hatred of her. She was a little more relieved to see Zagreus though, quietly feeling happy that he was there. But mostly she just felt solidarity with the younger boy who joined them, nodding sagely at his comments. She couldn't really relate to the family thing, but everything else, absolutely. "Oh my god, I could not agree more! And the currency isn't like, decimal based, so it's not like we can base any real maths on it," she added, mostly with a personal grudge against the weird system of currency. "I mean, I'm not exactly qualified to teach you, but I've got some schoolwork from home I can share?" she offered, wanting to help but not knowing exactly how. "We really ought to be able to visit our families too, I know there's the secrecy thing but at any other boarding school you get to go home on weekends or if you've got things going on like family commitments." Her siblings had all gone to boarding schools. This was more like a convent, but even nuns had more freedom to wander the outside world. "It's kind of like, an expectation you just give up on non-magical things or you just formulate elaborate lies to get yourself into further education and stuff." Now she was on another tirade of her own, and sighed, picking up a freddo frog. "Sorry, I get a bit carried away."

 

[Elodie Wynshaw]

Elodie had thought a lot about if she wanted to go to the meeting after she'd seen the flyers for it. She didn't know what she was, not really. Would she be allowed? Eventually, she'd decided to go to see it, and slipped in with a few others. Other than the girl running it, they seemed to be all boys. She almost hesitated, having not interacted much with boys in her life, but she was already here, right? She slipped over, grabbing a soda and a few snacks before taking a seat. She started wandering what she should say, and listened to the others talking. Eventually, she realised she just had to talk. She bit her lip, considering a moment before sighing.

"Um, hello," She offered a tiny wave. "My name is Elodie Wynshaw, and I-" She hesitated, before sighing. "I don't know what I am, honestly. My parents were never around... I spent most of my time alone, but this really nice man found out when I was about seven and he adopted me, and he has magic but he never went to school for it, I don't think he even has a wand, so he couldn't tell me anything," She offered a shy smile, tucking her hair behind her ear. "But um, we live in Wellington now, and I've got a super nice loft room now," She laughed a little nervously. "Sorry, um, I'm- I'm awkward." She gave them all a nervous smile, rubbing the back of her neck. "Basically I just don't know much of anything about this sort of thing at all," She decided on, nodding with her words.

 

[Callie Cardoso]

Callie had been intrigued when she had heard about a muggleborns support group. She wasn't sure what this world was entirely like yet and was keen to learn about other people's experiences. Callie found the student lounge as things were just getting kicked off. She glanced towards a girl she knew to be a prefect in her house. She listened to a few others speak, finding it interesting. Callie hadn't thought about the fact she was no longer doing 'muggle' subjects, though maths had never been her strong suit. She noted a break between people speaking and stood up to go herself. "Hi, I'm Callie, I was born and raised in New Zealand, both my parents are muggles, it was a real surprise, all of this," she gestured vaguely to the school they were stood in.

"It's cool though, like magic, and flying, the potions," she said. "My life was...boring before this, I didn't really have friends, people were just nice to me because of my parents, so there's no one for me to lie to...I don't even mind not seeing my parents," she stopped speaking suddenly, as if realising what she'd said.

There was an extended pause as Callie visibly attempted to figure out what to say next, how to move on or recover from it. "I like it here," she just said and quickly sat back down. Her cheeks a deep blush and knowing she was absolutely going to need to figure out if it was normal to not miss ones parents when so far away from them.