It wasn't exactly a short trip to the Gryffindor common room from the Arch. Sure, it wasn't the stuff of legends, exactly, but it wasn't something you'd expect to do in a few minutes. On the way, he pointed out a few of the things they'd passed. A couple classrooms, the direction to the library, but he had a feeling that even if Leon had the most awesome sense of direction in the world, it would still take a couple days (at the very least) for him to find his way anywhere. It was just like starting at a normal (read: muggle) high school or college, except the stairs moved. (ooc: ...Do they move, here or was good ol' Salazar like 'FUCK THOSE STAIRS I DON'T KNOW WHERE SHIT IS' and skip it?)
They finally got to the top of the tower, reaching the painting that hid the entrance to the common room. He glanced around, looking for any snooping rival house members, and leaned toward Leon. "The password is O'Dell. I hear it has something to do with the O'Dell lady in town, she runs a chinese food place or something." The painting, eavesdropping as always, rose to let them enter after giving Leon a look over. Apparently he approved, because he didn't make some snarky comment.
Whites climbed through, having a stretch once he was on the inside. "And this, my friend, is your new home."
Post by Leon Foster on Oct 29, 2010 22:36:10 GMT -5
Wizarding architecture was just bizarre no matter where you went, Leon realized as he followed Whites through the school. His luggage traveled along behind him, levitated and pulled by his wand which he held like the end of a leash. The Great Horned Owl atop his luggage hooted at several pictures that tried to scare her, or make conversation, or any of the myriad other things that bored portraits liked to do. Back at Salem, the architecture and the portraits were just as peculiar, but just as he had thought upon his first impression, this place was really old world.
That is to say, the place reminded him more of a setting out of a history book or a fairy tale than a school. He supposed that's what the guy who built this place was going for, or what the fairy tales were going for when they were describing the places where the enchanters would live. As he followed Whites up the (possibly moving) stairs, he wondered quietly to himself which came first.
Finally reaching the top of the tower, they stopped before a portrait of a nobleman in armor. He was about to ask Whites where they were going, because it seemed like they'd reached a dead end. Before he could do so, though, his fellow Gryffindor told him the password and the portrait swung open like a door.
"Wow," said Leon, setting his luggage down inside the spacious common room. It really was nice, all reds and yellows. It was very festive, something you'd expect to see in picture books instead of actual tours of ancient castles. The couches and chairs looked very comfortable, and the hanging shields and heraldry looked very regal. He felt proud, in that moment, to be a Gryffindor. He guessed if the Hufflepuffs were all loony and the Slytherins were all arrogant, then the Gryffindors were all supposed to be really awesome.
Awesome.
"So they named the password after a woman who runs a Chinese Food place in the town?" asked Leon once they were safely inside. "Is she the Headmaster's girlfriend, is she a really popular alumni who gives a lot of money to the school, does she make the Headmaster's favorite food, or does the Headmaster just have a really weird sense of humor?"
Leon figured he'd have to go up to the dorms at some point to put his stuff away. He wasn't sure if he was ready for Virginia to fly around just yet though. "So are we gonna be hanging out here for a while, then?" Leon said then, "because I should probably put my stuff away if we are."
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He turned and watched as Leon took in the sights, grinning himself. He remembrered when he'd visited the common room for the first time. It made him feel happy, proud of the little piece of metal that weighed down the chest of his robes. It was an odd thing, house pride. You'd think they would have done away with a system that bred such rivalry between houses, but at the same time, it served to gather like-minded people and force them to work together, building friendships and trust and probably a future. Whoever this Talon Windwaltz guy was, (well, of course he knew him, he was the headmaster--you just didn't see him on a day to day basis) he was a goddamn genius. Who would've thought to make a hat that could test personalities?
"No, no, I'm pretty sure his girlfriend is a nurse, or something. And I've heard rumors that the chinese food lady actually works for the school somehow, though since I've never seen her around in the year I've been here I kinda doubt that. No one I've talked to has known her personally, so eh. Maybe she's friends with him."
He nodded. That made sense. He could see Talon making friends with the people in town. It only made sense, after all, since he was probably the best chance they had against the random dark wizard attacks that seemed to plague the area. Of course, it could be said that those attacks were his fault, too.
"I'd say go for it, yeah. You'll be in the fifth year dorms, that's where I sleep."
Post by Leon Foster on Nov 3, 2010 19:42:22 GMT -5
"You're a fifth year, too, huh?" Leon asked, a bit of surprise in his voice. "Considering you already went here and you know all the stuff that goes on, I figured you were older than me. Guess I'm forgetting that we're fifth years, not first years...not everybody's a transfer student." He whipped his wand up again and, like an orchestra responding to the signal of its conductor, the luggage once again sprung to action. Virginia ruffled her feathers at the sudden change and gave Leon a look of clear discontent, to which the wizard responded with an apologetic glance.
"Yeah, I'll be right back," he told Whites, and he brought his luggage towards the stairwell leading to the top of the tower. As soon as Leon pulled the door to the dorms open, his eyes widened in surprise. The dorms at Firefox were much nicer than at Salem. They didn't have 'Houses' there, just dorms with two single-sized beds and enough space to fit a desk or two. Here, however, the beds must have at least been doubles, and they were all decked out with red and gold comforters and lavish pillows with a curtain hanging around the edge.
He had a feeling he was going to like Europe.
Seeing that most of the beds had framed pictures and luggage near them, Leon found a free one next to what he assumed was Whites' space and put his stuff down next to it. He may have been a wizard, but he hadn't quite learned the 'unpackio' spell yet or whatever the actual incantation was, and that meant that all of his stuff would have to come out manually. Which would take a while. Leon decided to just put it off for now.
The Gryffindor ran back towards the door of the dorm, but Virginia gave out a great cry from behind him. He turned around and saw the owl staring at him in a motherly fashion, as if to say 'you better not leave before unpacking, young man!' Leon sighed, and figured that Whites would eventually (hopefully) realize what he was doing and come up, or his fellow Gryffindor would just have to wait. He unlocked his trunks and began to sort clothes and other memorabilia from home, giving Virginia an annoyed look as he did so.
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"Yeah, fifth year." Whites nodded. It was lucky, really, that the new kid was the same age. He wasn't sure he'd relate as well to an eleven year old. He nodded again as Leon headed up to the dorms. He stood there, awkwardly swinging his arms around and looking around the common room, and finally got tired of waiting.
He headed up the tower himself, nudging his way through the door and peeking in.
"Oh, good," He started, kind laughter in his voice. "You did find it okay. I was afraid you'd gotten lost and fell in the lake." It was a joke that he wouldn't get, but it was okay. They could go over that another day. Where was that crazy fairy, these days, anyway?
He walked over to his bed, which indeed was the one next to the one Leon had chose, and sat down, looking around awkwardly without anything to do. He hadn't made his bed in the morning, and here it was all, all clean and orderly again. He wasn't really sure how that worked; it couldn't have been an enchantment on the bed, could it? He figured it was the work of some sneaky caretaker, or something, though it was ridiculous to expect a job that big to be done by a regular person. Perhaps that'd be something he could write to the headmaster about out of curiosity?
"So how are you liking Spain so far? Is it... as Spanish as you'd hoped?"
Post by Leon Foster on Nov 6, 2010 10:18:05 GMT -5
Leon was lucky that his mother had organized all of his robes in his luggage, because it considerably lessened the work he'd have to do. The Gryffindor smiled to himself thinking of how awkward it must still be for his mom, a muggle, sending her son off to wizard school with fresh, clean, folded robes. It reminded him that soon he'd have to send Virginia home with a message saying he'd gotten there alright. Looking at his owl, however, he began to worry. Was he really ready to send her across the Atlantic Ocean?
He understood that wizards' owls probably had magical ways of getting places that wasn't just "fly straight on until morning" but the idea of Virginia getting tired somewhere over the middle of the ocean and drowning was enough to make him think that his parents would have to go on without any news from him for a while.
Whites arrived just as Leon was unpacking his toiletries. The young wizard just assumed that the 'getting lost and falling into the lake' was a joke with a bit of truth behind it. Wizard architecture, again. "Yeah, it's cool. I was gonna come back down but...well, I gotta unpack first." He couldn't exactly say that Virginia made him, but the owl sure looked smug all the same.
The other Gryffindor had collapsed onto his bed, which Leon had guessed correctly, and as Leon turned to answer his question as he filled his own drawers and the chest below his chosen bed with his things. "The airport was Spanish. The drive here was also Spanish. The whole area around here is really Spanish. But here...no, not really. For one, everyone here seems really..." he stopped for a moment, as if to think, "...American. It's weird. The castle's really European, but the people are all just a melting pot of cultures so much that it reminds me a lot of Salem."
He laughed, "except much more exciting."
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"Nah, I understand. I remember the first day I got here, I actually holed up in here for a little myself, trying to make it a little more... homey." He looked around his area as if to say 'and then this happened.' A shirt or two and some socks were poking out of his trunk, shoved next to his bed as a makeshift 'dresser' even though there were places for him to put his clothes. There was a poster on the wall, a stereotypical poster one could get in anygenericamericanalternative shop.
He nodded. "Yeah, it's really weird. It's like Spain ends at the gate, and here it's weird to see Spanish anything. Well, except for the Potions Mistress. She's a local, or something." He was probably blabbing Leon's ear off, but seeing as he didn't have any close friends his age, it was rather understandable.
He sat up a little, looking at Leon. "So you're from Salem? I've heard a lot about them. I would've ended up there, too, if dear old mum hadn't decided to jump country and wind up in Europe." He grinned. "Though if you're here, instead, I dunno if that's something I should regret. Was it boring, there?"
He leaned back a little again.
"I doubt you'll be too bored, here. Even if it isn't all that Spanish."
The final piece of clothing in Leon's luggage was his Quodpot uniform, and it was noticeably different from all the other clothes he had packed. His plain black robes were timeless in form, the usual uniform of a school age wizard, and he'd packed a few standard muggle clothes for exercising in. The Quodpot uniform was rather ridiculous looking to both muggles and European wizards, as it was very seventeenth century in nature, like clothes one would expect a pilgrim to wear. Considering wizards' aversion to cultural evolution, it made sense that the standard uniform of the American game would be the same one that they'd worn when it was first invented.
Leon sighed as he unpacked it, because any humor he may have found in the uniform was long since replaced by happy memories and love of the game. Here in Spain, however, he wouldn't get to play it anymore. His mother had suggested not even packing it, but he had insisted. Having finished, he pointed his wand at his trunks and said, "Reducio." One by one the trunks minimized so that they too were small enough to fit into the chest at the bottom of his bed.
He flashed Whites a smile to show he was listening, and then crashed onto his bed. It really was as comfortable as it looked, and he stretched his body out across it. "Salem had its ups and downs," Leon said, answering his fellow Gryffindor's question, "just, it had more downs than ups. It was your typical high school, except that it was a high school for wizards. Just, there was more emphasis on the high school than the wizards, you know? Sure, it was about as colonial as this place is medieval, but that didn't really say much for the people."
Leon put his arms behind his bed, "they taught you spells, same as any other magic school I guess, but people were more interested in who was dating who and what kind of scandals were going on than actually becoming better wizards or witches. I came here because I heard I'd actually be able to test myself as a wizard here."
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He raised a brow at Leon's uniform, watching as the boy unpacked it, then folded it away. He recognized those uniforms, and though he wasn't a fan of the sport, he had to respect someone stupid enough--or athletic enough--to play such a game.
"Quodpot, huh? Can't say I'm that big of a fan. Everytime we tried to play, I was the one it blew up on." No, he much preferred quidditch, though that was weird to him, too. Why couldn't they just play a normal game, without explosives or flying through the air? Maybe something involving digging. That would be something he was interested in, definitely.
"I guess I get what you mean, though. Can't say I've had the same experience... but I guess American schools must just operate differently." He thought for a second. "It probably helps that you're not worried about, like, dying over there." He worried for a second that that was a little too much. He didn't want to tarnish the school's reputation and scare the kid away, or anything. "Not that you're uh, gonna die here or anything."
"To be honest, I'd prefer if we didn't get tested all that much." He grinned, all the same, as he continued on, obviously mildly excited at the concept. "Can't say I would hate it, either, though."
It sounded fun, as long as it wasn't something too crazy.
Teagan Offline: This board is full of nostalgia.
Aug 22, 2020 8:39:09 GMT -5
Missing the old MH: gotta say missing when MH and all that was around.
Nov 6, 2019 0:02:30 GMT -5
Willow_lazy: why tf are there 400 posts about adidas
Sept 6, 2018 17:35:57 GMT -5
Azrael: I'm not hard to find, since I'm the only one there who goes by "Azzy", I'm pretty sure. XD
Feb 10, 2018 16:44:41 GMT -5
Azrael: Dunno if anyone still pops by here from time to time, but if any of you mofos do and still feel like gettin' yo nerd on, I've been hanging around this here place a bunch recently: www.roleplayerguild.com/
Feb 10, 2018 16:44:10 GMT -5
Azrael: hold onto your pantaloons
Jul 25, 2016 5:16:43 GMT -5