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Old 03-28-2010, 12:23 AM   #12 (permalink)
Cassirin

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Join Date: Sep 2003
Location: *Nom nom nom*
Posts: 43,196

Hogwarts RPG Name:
Mercer Branxton
Ravenclaw
Seventh Year

Ministry RPG Name:
Genevieve James
Minister's Office

x7 x8
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Made of Awesome | Ern-la the Best-wa | TZ's Apogee

SPOILER!!: Response to quotes!
Quote:
Originally Posted by Mad Eye Touz View Post
......................but what if he *DID* fall in the fountain?!??!??!

Man. I don't even know where to start. Maybe with YOU are the BLUE in *MY* rainbow? Guh. hehe I don't even know if it's FAIR for me to be all FANGIRLY over this, but I'm going to ANYWAY.

It was worth the wait, but I sure am glad I pestered you to DO IT tonight. hehe

Inner!Old Lainey is having a nostalgic moment of regret about those spoons.... "Should have kept one.... just one..."

Bet she sends CJ to school on the first day with SPOONS on him. hehe

Guh. Okay. So. THe window... scene. And just the descriptions? Are good. You're epic, you KNOW I THINK SO. I like Rae being all, "THIS IS THE PROBLEM. How do I fix it?" on top of her TRUNK TOO.


.... I should stop before I say I *LIKE* EVERYTHING. haha

...

I did though. Mmf.
I love your fangirling. I honestly can't wait for you to read this update just so you can get all excited again.

I bet Rae has the spoons. Ask her later.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Droo View Post
Oooo you brought Lainey back too!!! OMG this is going to be getting soooo good. It's great already, but now I know... it's going to be awesome.
How could we have a Rae story without Lainey, huh? Hehe.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Celandine View Post
GUH UH GUH.

For SO many reasons.

I mean I KNEW you were doing this, but I totally didn't click that you'd... like STARTED and stuffs. OMG.

*reads furiously* Its soo good Ern. You write so well, you inspire me to be a better writer and also to have FUN while writing because I totally get the impression that you enjoyed this.

I'd start fangirling and saying how Cassandra Rae was the best headperson ever but I don't want to offend your other inner headperson XD
Hey, Tegz? I started it, ok?

Most of writing this fic is a LOT of fun, although as we talked about, rewriting RPed stuff is sometimes very hard. Luckily, Touz trusts me to edit her. Hehe. Or so I say.

You inspire ME, Tegz. Good thing we're both so inspiring.

Quote:
Originally Posted by D.A Forever View Post
Eeeeeeeeeee! Amazing as ever, Miss Ern! I knew immediately at the 'mother' thing Lainey said that, it must mean she's a mum now too, and then the boys.. EEK. SO very cute! .. Sorry, got really excited. Now I wonder, who Colby's dad is. I remember something from back in Hogwarts maaaany terms ago that makes me think I know who no, not Lord Voldemortist or at least hope!

Anyways, oh gosh. It's sort of a KNOWN thing but seriously? Brennan is SO mean, poor Cassandra! And Lainey and her mum, that was surprising. I honestly didn't think that would be Lainey until her name came up. Though when she started talking, it shouldn't have even been a question to whether or not that was her.

I love how you manage to not only make the scenery of what you're writing come to life, but the friendships and bonds you're writing of as well. It's hard not to smile when reading Cassandra and Lainey's conversation. And lastly *writes too much*

^^ LOVE those lines. For some reason, I absolutely adore Alec.
Colby Jack's daddy... is not a mystery, I promise. I just choose not to say (but I would tell you if you guessed right). He is someone you may know, if that's what you're wondering.

And yeah... Brennan is a jerkface, and the major uniting theme of this fic would have to be the relationship between Rae and Lainey, so I hope I caught the tone of that correctly.


I know there are some lurkers out there who are reading and not commenting *stares at you*. Just waving hello would be great to know you're there, although I would write this just for me (and clearly Touz... haha).



Chapter 3: The Mud Lotus


"I'm worried about Mo," Sophia draped herself across the tuft of grass beside Cassandra's blanket and stared up at her mother with an expectant air. She wasn't prone to dramatics, so statements such as this had a special sort of significance.

The three children and their mother had escaped from the house as soon as the weather was warm and the ground was dry. Or nearly dry. To be honest, it didn't matter where they went, the children were bound to find the only existing mud puddle on the entire estate.

"What about Mo?" Cassandra used the girls' pet name for their younger brother, knowing that no attempts on her part or Doyle’s had ever convinced the twins to call Marcus Orion anything but Mo. Perhaps when he was older and able to choose for himself, the boy would decide once and for all what he wanted people to call him.

"He's... I'm worried that he's stupid," Sophia drew herself up into a seated position, posture erect. Her blond hair was pulled into two severe pigtails, the part in her hair as mathematically precise as her father's often was. Even the spiral of her curls seemed measured out. Getting her ready in the morning had grown to be a tiring activity, and Cassandra left the girl to her own tireless ablutions.

Cassandra wrinkled her nose at her daughter. In spite of her best intentions, writing time was most certainly delayed for the day if they were going to have a whole conversation about Mo’s shortcomings. She knew that writing on this excursion had been a daydream anyway. "Your brother is NOT stupid."

"He is. A little," Sophia decided.

"I'm not worried 'bout Mo," Genevieve launched herself at her mother for a sticky hug and kiss before tucking and rolling across the grass. "He's definitely stupid. We should get rid of him and try again. New brother. New brother. NEW BROTHER."

She started a chant that involved both her fists and her heels, and Sophia politely chimed in with a clap. From his mud puddle, Marcus Orion remained entirely unconcerned. Or else the thick mud that covered him tip to tail was stopping up his ears, and he couldn't hear that his sisters wanted to get rid of him.

"Your brother is very clever," Cassandra insisted, leaning back on her hands and tilting her face to drink in the sun. Do not murder the twins. Do not. Do not.

"He can't read," Sophia held up one finger. "He can't speak any French. He can only count to twenty with his shoes off."

"He believes you when you tell him that mud pies are real pies," Genevieve piped up, and Cassandra gave her son a horrified look. Surely not...!

"Marcus Orion!" From across the glade, the little boy waved wildly at her, sending mud spattering the nearby trees. His grin was very white in his dirty face. Cassandra stuck out her tongue at him, and he responded in turn. His tongue... his tongue was black with mud.

"Don't you eat any more of that mud, Marcus Orion!"

A good mother would turn her severe expression on her daughters, who were giving each other gleeful and unrepentant looks. Instead, Cassandra scrubbed at a grass stain on her trousers.

Quietly, she continued their conversation from before. "I don't want you to call your brother stupid. Not everyone learns in the same ways or at the same pace. Just because he doesn't know the things you know..."

"The things we knew a full year younger," Sophia said, waving those extended fingers again to emphasize exactly how behind their younger brother was. "Tell the truth, Mummy. Is he adopted?"

The physical similarity between Marcus Orion and his father was unmistakable whenever the two were together, and Cassandra couldn't contain a snort of amusement. "He's not. He's just as much my baby as you two are."

Genevieve shoved the pixie-slash of blond hair from her forehead and grimaced at being called a baby. She wore her hair short, and it was a wonder it ever got brushed in her hurry to get moving in the morning. Of late, however, the child was making more of an effort, and her hair was longer than it had been in years, most likely a result of her overhearing her twin being called adorable by the doting Cooper grandparents.

If Sophia was adorable, then Genevieve must strive to also be adorable.

"What does it matter if he isn't clever in the way you two are?" Cassandra shrugged. Pointedly, she avoided looking at her son, who was now making a sickly splash-squelch-squish sound. Honestly, she had no desire to know what it was he was doing at the moment.

Instead, she pulled their picnic basket to her side and removed sandwiches wrapped in crisp wax paper. The girls accepted theirs with eager dirty fingers, and Marcus Orion gave a wail of despair at not being fed.

"If Mo is stupid, he might not be a Ravenclaw. Or even a Slytherin," Sophia informed her mother. She unfolded the paper around her sandwich and quickly folded up the edges to make herself a little box, balanced on one knee. The expression in her somber gray eyes said quite plainly that Sophia found it a fate worse than death to be improperly sorted.

Cassandra gave herself a mental head slap. After over a decade as the Headmistress at Hogwarts, it had never been more apparent to her that house divisions were pointless and often dangerous. It bred unhealthy competition along with the healthy, and it made children live up to stereotypes or expectations that were often unreasonable. And somewhere along the line, her own children had picked up those stereotypes.

She blamed Brennan. He had always been obsessed with being a Slytherin, to the degree of decorating his Ministry office in hunter green and silver filigree.

"What house would Alena have been in?" Genevieve's sandwich was already gone, disappearing in a few short bites. The child didn't have a voracious appetite, but simply had no interest in dawdling over food when there were better things to do.

More with the house discussion. It seemed obvious to Cassandra that they were due for one of those 'you can be whoever you want to be in spite of what the vintage apparel tells you' conversations.

"Hufflepuff, I suppose," she mused, taking a moment to seriously consider the question. The girls were devoted to their older 'sisters', a pair of teenagers the Branxtons had taken into their home less than two years ago. The Angelov sisters were Bulgarian, rescued by Cassandra just prior to her final retirement from the Auror special forces. Their mother was dead, and it broke Cassandra’s heart to leave them behind. Luckily, Doyle was a pushover for lost causes just like his wife.

The teens were officially Cassandra's wards, rather than being adopted so close to their coming-of-age, and she worked diligently to introduce them to British Wizarding society. The older sister, Alena, was 19 and training to become a translator. She was a sweet, tractable girl with a delicate face that matched her demeanor. The young woman was also intensely protective of her younger sister, to the degree that Cassandra was sure she had saved both girls more than once before finally leaving Bulgaria.

"Hufflepuff?" Both twins wrinkled their tiny snub noses, and if their snobbery hadn't been so offensive... it would have been hilarious. Sophia elaborated. "Hufflepuffs are duffers, Mum."

Duh. Clearly.

"You mustn't say that," Cassandra dropped the remaining sandwiches back into the basket and rose to her feet. Her wand was out in a moment, and with a flick, Marcus Orion was hovering over his mud puddle. "Now, my darling hellions. We are all going inside to take a nice long bath. And I don't want to hear anyone called stupid or duffers for the rest of the day."

"What about moron?"

"Or idiot?"

"Stupid?"

"Ignoramus!"

Sigh.

***


From the very beginning, the idea of houses did not make sense to me. Over time, it has grown to be somewhat abhorrent. And yet, in spite of my protestations, the school governors will always prefer time treasured traditions over a single woman's voice speaking of human paradigm shifts.

I view it thusly: How can a hat, clever as it may be, look at a child of 11 and anticipate who that child is destined to be at 17, let alone at 40? Why do we give so much power to a simple fold of cloth and brim? At the declaration of the Sorting Hat, we house children based on one defining characteristic, which soon becomes their only characteristic. Imagine the irreparable damage done to a child's ego if they can't live up to the standards set by their house mates, especially when they believe that being clever or noble and loyal is the only thing about them of note. We deny children the right to be well-rounded and whole, asking them to be just ONE thing. Imagine the richness children are denied by being expected to interact almost exclusively with those who are most like them. And imagine the ways we restrict and stunt their emotional and social development by allowing house-related biases and stereotypes to develop and then expecting children to fulfill those same beliefs.

But I digress. I was speaking of MY sorting, rather than sortings in general.


***


"So... what house do you want?" Cassie plaited and unplaited the honey blond hair at her temple, pretending unconcern. It was a VERY SERIOUS question, even if they all pretended that it wasn't. Where you ended up after sorting pretty much determined whether or not you could ever be important or make friends or be taken seriously.

Like... what if she was destined to be a Hufflepuff? She might as well just lock herself into her trunk and ship herself home. How much postage would that take?

Anjelica raised an eyebrow in an expression that Cassie very much wanted to emulate. Maybe when she was alone, she would be able to practice that face in the mirror. Although... chances were good the mirror would taunt her for it. Stupid talking mirrors always wanted to sound like your mother and tell you that your face would stick that way.

"My mum's a nutter," Anjelica sighed. "She wouldn't ever tell me what House she was in. She said it would 'fog my pathway' or some such craziness. I don't know. Mum says the hat is all knowing and that I shouldn't worry about it. Have I mentioned she's a nutter?"

"Once or twice." At least Anjelica’s mother showed up, right? And someone helped her carry in her trunk and kissed all over her face when the train was about to leave. Maybe her mother was a nutter, but she showed up. That counted for a lot.

The girls fell silent. Maybe... because Anjelica’s mother hadn't ever TOLD her which house was the good one, maybe she didn't know! Cassie dropped the braid she was working on to lean forward eagerly.

"My brother was in Slytherin, and he says it's the most respectable house." Hear that? Most. Respectable. Surely that was what Anjelica wanted too. "I think I want to be in Slytherin too."

"Maybe you shouldn't worry about your brother," the other girl said softly. "Mum says to always be your own person."

Cassie's eyes went wide. What was this sacrilege? Not listening to Brennan was like ignoring the wise words of Merlin and the sonorous ones of Circe, all at the same time. It just wasn't DONE.

"I love my brother," she protested, although it sounded weak to her own ears. Why was she defending Brennan? Anjelica didn't KNOW him, so she didn't know that he was perfect. She'd see. "I guess... it might be good to be in Ravenclaw?"

From the pile of discarded silver bobs and bits on the floor, Anjelica fished out a rather ugly charm that looked like a spoon that had been overheated and melted into puddle of burnt metal. "Here. For luck. May you get into the house that best suits you."

Cassie fastened the charm to the front of her robes before settling back into her seat. "I wouldn't be a very good Gryffindor, I don't think. I'm not brave. You seem brave." Only... she didn't want Anjelica to be a Gryffindor either. If she was in a different house, maybe they wouldn't be allowed to be friends, and Cassie desperately wanted to stay close to the only person she'd met at Hogwarts.

"I'm not," Anjelica insisted. "I'm not brave."

Silence again, although it wasn't the scary kind that Cassie felt she needed to fill up with clever words. It was sort of comfortable. They weren't either of them brave, which meant they could probably stay together.

"Do you... do you know a lot of people going to Hogwarts?" Cassie asked. She touched the good luck charm with one gentle finger. Maybe Anjelica already had lots of friends.

The other girl tilted her head, her dark hair sliding across her forehead as she gave Cassie a skeptical look. "I live a very, very sheltered life. Interesting, I suppose, but sheltered. So that's a no."

"We should be friends, then," Cassie said adamantly. "Because then there's already someone we know and there's already someone to sit with at dinner." Meeting people seemed like such a hard thing. Wasn't it a grand idea to walk into Hogwarts with a friend? And then maybe the Sorting Hat thing would know that she had a friend and would keep them together.

"We should. But, if you get there and you find better people to hang out with, I'll understand. Mum says that it happens and to not worry with it. So, no worries." Anjelica smiled at Cassie, but it seemed to the blond girl that she wasn't really pleased by the idea. "I'd like to be friends though."

Cassandra Cooper was a loyal little soul, even without the expression on Anjelica’s face. She couldn't imagine there being better people at the school, or so many better people that she wouldn't have time for Anjelica Lainey.

"You'll always be my first friend, though. And that's important."
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