September 1, 1893 - Ravenclaw Tower Common Room, after this and a while after this

Pen dreaded this. Going up this tower. Not having her twin join her. After a few steps up, she had begun shaking slightly again. Part of her was just sure that she had offended at least several of her... fellow Ravenclaws. She didn't know how to explain what she was experiencing. To be honest, this wasn't a new experience. It felt like she had lived with the stares and side comments all of her life. Due to how she was, who her father was, how big her family was. What didn't give people ammunition to judge her and keep a warry eye out.

Still, she would now have to live with these people. Feeling incredibly alone. Fresh tears started slowly slipping down her face. Deep breaths. She wiped her tears away and took deep breaths. Her hair had been slightly fixed, with some house elf magic. No pin. No yellow. Pen felt incredibly exposed without it, but she would have to make do. Her feelings towards yellow was incredibly mixed. Debating sleeping in her school robes to avoid the color after all of this. But what about the dreams? What did all of this mean for the dreams? She began biting her lip again. Making a conscious effort to avoid tugging on her hair again.

After stumbling through a riddle — the entrance seemed to take pity on her and made it easy, which she greatly appreciated — she made her way into the common room and looked around. It would take someone that was outright actively avoiding paying attention to not notice just how petrified she looked as she gazed around the room. Who would she even talk to? Should she simply cower in a corner?

For the Ravens!

  

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Magic by Athena

His interaction with Hyacinth and her terrible sister had threatened to ruin his evening entirely, but thankfully his new housemates had managed to cheer him up by the end of the feast. Ultimately, Tony allowed himself to enjoy the chatter and he sucked in as a sponge all the information thrown around the table. He was told that the professor who had come to his aid was Professor Pembroke and that he taught Muggle Studies and he'd been told how to get to his office the next day. In truth, Tony was not sure if his housemates were pulling his leg, as there were descriptions of moving staircases and talking portraits, but on the way to his common room, he witnessed it all.

The Ravenclaws made their ways up a tower, so they'd had to take quite a lot of flights of stairs to get there. Tony's calves were aching from all that stair-taking! He'd never thought he'd do this much of walking indoors in his life. Then again, he'd never been to a castle before. The closest thing had been seeing Buckingham Palace from afar.

They had been shown to their bedrooms, informed of the curfews, but otherwise allowed to hang out at the common area at the very top of their tower before it was time for bed. If it wasn't his first day, Tony might have plopped right into bed to rest his aching legs, but he was too excited to have more interactions with his Housemates.

He'd sat with some familiar faces, introduced himself to some new people, when someone familiar entered the room.

Poor Miss Penelope Valenduris!

The two hadn't interacted that much during their shopping trip, as he and Hyacinth had hit it off immediately and sort of wandered to their own bubble, but he remembered that Miss Penelope had been very nice, albeit quiet. She had made a spectacle of herself after her Sorting, and while at the time Tony had had to deal Miss Amarantha Valenduris having called him a mudblood, he now felt bad seeing her lonely and scared like that.

He would have jumped to her aid before, but now couldn't help but feel wary about extending a helpful hand to a Valenduris again. He didn't want word to reach that dreadful older Valenduris and to have to deal with her bigotry again! In truth, unlike Amarantha, Professor Valenduris and Hyacinth and even Penelope had been so very welcoming to him. Or had they been merely to be polite, because Professor Valenduris was the Deputy Headmaster and it was his job to be nice to muggleborn first years?

Given all that, he didn't find the strength in himself to approach her, though he decided to be friendly with her nonetheless, if she joined them. He smiled awkwardly and hoped one of the other students would break the awkwardness by calling her their way.

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Everything about today was truly magical; more so than any storybook she had ever read and it still felt like a dream, though by now she had decided she wasn’t going to pinch herself any longer. From the moment she got onto the platform - though she did have an awkward accident involving another first year - to the train and the weird new sweets she got to try, to the sorting where she was hoping against hope that she would be in Ravenclaw, the same house that Professor Foxwood, the man who told her all about Hogwarts was in charge of. And she had gotten her wish! She felt she’d look awfully silly in the blue ribbon he’d given her, which she wore tied in her braids like a badge of honor, if she had been in any other house, since they each had a different color, not blue, representing them; Hufflepuff was yellow, Gryffindor was red, and Slytherin was green.

Autumn looked around the tower in amazement, she couldn’t imagine how high up they must be but she felt like a princess in a tower, waiting for her knight to rescue her! Though, she had to admit in second hand robes, with ruddy freckles, and bright carrot-shaded hair, she didn’t feel much like a princess. Penelope, the poor girl who had a fit in the Great Hall? She looked like a princess, and Autumn’s heart ached for her; for what were you to do when your most trusted friend was separated from you? She only knew one set of twins - two boys whom she didn’t like very much that lived on the farm adjacent to them - but she figured they must be closer than most as they were the same age and likely would be expected to do everything together.

“Hello, Tony!” she called, waving to the boy she’d accidentally crashed into on the platform back in London when she saw him in the common room, “I hope you’re feeling better.” At the table, she obviously had been aware that he’d been called something not so nice and it made Autumn sad because he seemed like a nice boy, and not one of the kind of boys she wanted to punch. She then turned to Penelope, who’d joined them in the common room, and she took it upon herself to approach her with open arms. “Hello, Penelope, right?” she asked, “I’m Autumn Fairfax, it’s nice to meet you. Do you want to sit with me and Tony?” She supposed she just sort of invited herself to sit with the boy without asking, but she hoped he didn’t mind, “I’ve got some snacks left over from the train, I dunno if you got to eat when you left, but you’re welcome to have some.”

  

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Beautiful Set by Athena ♡ !

For the most part, Pen dedicated even more energy than usual to specifically not make eye contact. Try to keep herself small. While it hadn't been a realistic fear, she was immensely glad that a huge crowd hadn't gathered to ask questions or tease her. Instead, only one girl came forward thus far and introduced herself quickly.

Pen hesitantly looked up and gave a small smile. Gratitude radiated in small waves, flashing in her eyes. "Hi." she said softly. The proposal seemed promising and she gave a small nod. The house elves had offered food, but her distress made her appetite disappear before speaking with papa - which hadn't helped matters either - and then coming here. However, the mention of food now made her stomach growl slightly.

What did they have though? She always had to be careful of what she accepted for food, which left her incredibly insecure. Still, she followed Autumn when prompted and sat by her and Tony. She'd remembered getting a glimps of the interaction between him and her cousins, but everything was so overwhelming that paying attention was out of the question. She gave a small, shy smile of greeting, but little more for now.

  

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Magic by Athena

Her feet wiggled into the carpeting, feeling the familiarity soak in between her toes. Taking off her boots was the first thing she did once Millie returned to the common room after the feast that night, finding the comfortable chair near her favorite end table. It was one she could relax in while letting her skirts fall far enough down to conceal her bare feet. At least mostly so in the past.

Millie was surprised to find her hems lowered enough to hide her feet entirely this year. All she had to work to conceal was the satisfied grin that grew over her face, already flushing warm with the comforts of Hogwarts life once again. True comfort might have given her a book to read as well, but they were still all packed in the luggage down in her rooms. So for now, the young witch could settle in to pass the time idly amidst the chatter still surrounding the events from the Great Hall that night.

"I certainly don't miss my first year," Millie found herself saying to the fellow Ravenclaw seated nearby to her. Maybe part of her was finally feeling a bit sorry for the first year who had sunk into hysterics upon being sorted into Ravenclaw. She had pieced together the reasoning afterwards, the Valenduris girl was a twin and neither found their place in the same house. Maybe if Millie had a twin, or a sibling close to her age, she might be able to really understand.

Or if someone wrote a book about it.

"There's so much to do and explore once you get your bearings." Millie felt somehow world-wise and experienced somehow, especially compared to the first years starting to gather in another set of chairs across the room. No more new classes this year, no OWLs to stress about yet. No, her fourth year was going to be smooth sailing for the young witch. "And it's not like the rest of your House won't help, either, Ravenclaws are the perfect resource for new students."

She left that hanging there, not entirely sure why it needed to be said. Just to get it off her mind and into the air, perhaps. Or perhaps Millie felt a need for others to hear that there wasn't anything to be hysterical about yet. She rubbed the necklace at her throat thoughtfully, letting her eyes drift over the room and to her companion sitting nearby.

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It was Miss Autumn that broke the ice, inviting Miss Penelope to sit with them. He returned her smile with a shy smile of his own, feeling like he was meeting her for the first time after his altercation with Miss Amarantha. He didn't want to step on any toes, especially when Miss Penelope had proven to be so sensitive!

He overheard an older girl talking and it was clear they were talking about Miss Penelope. He didn't want for her to feel bad, he didn't believe her hysterics to be her fault. No one would act that way unless they were very upset and while Tony couldn't relate with her reasoning, he sympathized nonetheless.

"I tried a Chocolate Frog for the first time," Tony offered in the train snack conversation. "The frog got away before I could eat it, which I'm sort of glad about, because it feels strange eating something that seems so alive, but I got this card!" He procured a card of Dilys Derwent from his pocket. "She was a healer and Miss Hyacinth told me they're the wizard doctors." It pained him to talk about Miss Hyacinth, when their friendship had likely been ended that evening, but he figured that dropping a familiar name in the conversation would make Miss Penelope ease up a bit.

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After saying goodbye to Francesca, who was going the complete opposite direction as she was in Hufflepuff, Jessamine found herself walking alongside Millie Potts, one of the few younger years that she didn’t entirely dislike, and still gossiping about what had happened during the sorting. She thought back to her own sorting ceremony and replied, “I don’t think anyone was so dramatic about their placement in my year, but then again, it’s old news so perhaps it slipped my mind.” For someone who was so great at keeping secrets, especially her own family’s secrets, she loved gossip and spread it like wildfire. She was quite pleased with her sorting when she got it; Ravenclaw was a respectable house, full of intelligence and wit. But, she supposed, as she sat down and spared a glance to the pitiful first year girl, there was always a chance of a few spoiled apples in the bunch.

“What did she think was going to happen? They’d share a bed like in the nursery and they’d hold hands going to class like infants? I blame Professor Valenduris’s wife, personally. If she hired a nanny who stopped this atrocious behavior early, she wouldn’t be throwing tantrums at eleven,” Minnie sniffed, watching as the young girl was greeted by a pair of first years and invited to sit with them. She nodded in agreement to Millie’s points; there was so much to do at Hogwarts once you got into it and so many ways to carve out your own identity if you cared to try, but you were expected to be mature enough to handle that at eleven years old and clearly Miss Penelope thought she was still five years old and was not ready to be away at school.

Minnie folded her arms and leaned back on the seat, feeling a bit tired after the feast, but not enough to head to bed just yet, “It’s not like they’ll never see one another again. They’ll have lessons together and they can see each other outside the common room. I just think she ought to give us a chance, don’t you? If she doesn’t get thrown out for her fit or at the very least put in remedial etiquette courses to correct her poor behavior, it’ll be proof that there’s some obvious nepotism at play.”

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Autumn gave a toothy smile to Penelope when she seemed to respond well to her welcome and even said hello to them after she led her over to where she and Tony would be sitting. It was clear that the girl was very shy and while Autumn was the polar opposite of that, she would do her best to make sure that she felt included and safe among friends. It made her so angry that the whole school was whispering about the girl and making it sound like she committed some awful crime just because she was scared of being in a different house than her sister. Of course, Autumn didn’t have the same sort of etiquette training as upper class girls did, so she supposed it was far more taboo for Penelope to act in the way that she did than for Autumn to.

“They’re such an odd idea, aren’t they?” replied Autumn, referring to chocolate frogs when Tony brought them up; she’d never thought someone wanted to eat something that was in the shape of a slimy amphibian and was at least partially sentient. “Ooh! That’s an interesting card,” she looked over the one Tony showed them before pulling out the one that she got and showed it to them both, which was Glover Hipworth, “Apparently he invented a potion to cure the common cold.” She was interested to hear that doctors were called healers, as she’d never heard that before. She looked to Penelope this time and pulled out some of the sweets she’d saved from the train and offered her pick of the lot. Truthfully, most of it was bought by the student who shared her compartment, as Autumn only had enough coins to afford one treat, but that student let her keep what they didn’t eat since they said she ought to try it as a muggleborn. “I’m sure you already know this stuff already,” she aimed her statement at Penelope, wanting her to feel included in their conversation, “It’s just so interesting because until a few months ago, I had no idea all of this existed. I mean, imagine my surprise when I turned my sister’s toy into a real pig!”

She seemed to be enjoying her time with (hopefully) her new friends, but she couldn’t help but freeze up a little when she heard that annoying laughter of one Miss Parkinson as she entered the common room alongside Millie Potts. Autumn was used to being picked on for being a working class farm girl who always had dirt under her nails and had all the social graces of a fussy baby sheep, but she knew she could take it. What she did not like was hearing Jessamine mock Penelope not even a few feet from where they sat for something she could hardly control and Autumn knew that she was a delicate girl who couldn’t take it the way she could. “Excuse me, everyone,” she excused herself from both Tony and Penelope, then said to Penelope before she fully stood back up, “Eat some of the chocolate, you’ll feel better. Chocolate always cheers me up.”

Autumn walked over to the place where Millie and Jessamine were sitting and she said, probably louder than she needed to, her hands balled up in fists, “What’s your problem?” She was known for being impulsive and too much of a hothead when was upset and she had that fire in her eyes as she looked directly at that posh brunette’s face, “Can’t you just leave us alone? Imagine how…how pathetic you have to be to pick on someone younger than you? Penelope could use our support right now and here you are, being a total… a total… a total bitch!” She was startled by her own bad language, but she was truly furious.

The following 2 users Like Autumn Fairfax's post:2 users Like Autumn Fairfax's post
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Beautiful Set by Athena ♡ !

Gratitude radiated from Pen towards Autumn and Tony. She listened and nodded along. Becoming even more enthusiastic when he mentioned healers. Yes! Healers were the people that helped and, well, healed. She took a moment to think. "Why do muggles call them doctors?" she had a genuine and innocent tone to her inquiry. She wasn't critical towards muggles but had little exposure as one so young and having a hard time with change enough as is.

She gazed at the treats offered and was glad for the variety. She took a couple of licorice wands and started gently nibbing, knowing if she didn't, she might get sick from the tension still trying to calm that held her body tight. "I don't like chocolate frogs. I give them to Parthenope. She lets me keep the new cards, though! I hope Merlin isn't sneaking through my collection." She wasn't sure what her brothers were up to. She didn't mind them going through her stuff, but they had to put them back exactly where they found it or she would know and that would stress her out.

Thus far, she was heavily focused on the treats and her thoughts and the people she was actually talking to. So when Autumn excused herself, Pen was excused at first. She couldn't help but watch as she wandered off, and then she heard the conversation and paled slightly once more. She took to nibbling on the licorice wand absent-mindedly to keep herself from hyperventilating.

  

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Magic by Athena

If there was something Minnie Parkinson excelled at, it was being a mirror for frustration. Millie found herself satisfied by the Ravenclaw gossip queen going on about their Valenduris member, it seemed to mend the small wounds in her house pride from the night. The young witch had been just as alone and worried about measuring up on her first night in the tower three years ago, at least Penelope Valenduris had a sister her age to bear it with.

What Millie would have given to have compassion, not just advice, from her cousin and brother in her first year. Maybe that was why she frowned when Minnie started going too far.

"Well, it didn't cost us house points or anything," the young witch pointed out. Her toes dug into the soft carpet beneath her feet. Throwing a first year out of Hogwarts was quite drastic, too drastic for her taste. "Could have been worse, she didn't turn anyone into a toad like—"

The strained voice of the red-haired, now Ravenclaw, girl reached her ears, and Millie was surprised to see Miss Fairfax right in front of them. And even more surprised to see her more red than usual, down to the arteries standing proud against her balled fists. Her eyes widened in alarm and she held a breath, not knowing what might occur next.

Ravenclaw was not the chaotic, emboldened disaster that was Gryffindor.

"and here you are, being a total… a total… a total bitch!”

Millie found herself dead quiet, stunned by Autumn's language. She glanced around, grateful that Professor Foxwood hadn't stepped into the common room. And that there wasn't a prefect to be found.

She rose before realizing it, finding her hands wrapping around one of the younger girl's fists. Millie knew what to do then, leaning in close so she could lower her voice to a whisper. "Don't. She will ruin your life."

"If you need more chocolate," Millie said in a normal voice, leaning back to glance first to the first years and their chocolate frogs, and then back to Autumn, "My cousin just married Mr. Honeyduke and she sent a bunch of goodies with me. They're in my trunk, which ought to be in our rooms already!"

The young witch give Autumn's hand a gentle tug, if she wouldn't come with then perhaps others would get the message about the rooms. They could all use a good night's sleep before doing something really drastic.

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   Basil Foxwood

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Jessamine didn’t notice Autumn, at first, when she first excused herself from her group of friends to come and confront her and Millie for talking about Penelope, but it was hard to miss her when she was now standing right in front of them and looking as red as a tomato. Minnie raised a single eyebrow at the girl, as if she was rather unimpressed with the first year’s question about what was wrong with her for speaking her mind; she hardly thought someone as ill-bred as this country girl had any room to speak, but that changed when she called her a rather nasty word that no young lady ought to be speaking.

Her face darkened somewhat and she pushed herself from her seat and rounded on the girl, using her height to her advantage, “What did you just call me?” She could see Millie out of the corner of her eye grabbing onto the redhead’s arm and perhaps trying to defuse the situation, but Minnie was not about to be disrespected by some country bumpkin with muggle blood. “I know you didn’t call me what I think you did,” she hissed at Autumn, then turned to sort of glare at Millie for mentioning chocolate and yet still trying to defuse the situation. Perhaps getting into a fight the first day wouldn’t be a good idea, especially as it would be unbecoming of a lady, but she wasn’t going to just move on like Millie wanted her to. “I’ll give you five seconds to apologize before I make you regret crossing me, you ill-bred cow,” Jessamine practically demanded.

The following 2 users Like Jessamine Parkinson's post:2 users Like Jessamine Parkinson's post
   Basil Foxwood, Millie Potts

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Tony couldn't answer Miss Penelope's question, because frankly he didn't know. He just knew that they were called doctors. It was as natural as the sun being called "sun" and water "water".

Tony would have answered Miss Penelope, but chaos errupted when Miss Autumn called the uppity older brunette a bitch. Tony was quite frankly shocked at the language, even though he though the older girl very unpleasant.

The other girl tried to diffuse the situation, but the older girl seemed ready to draw blood. Who knew what she might do to Miss Autumn who, while feisty, was just a first year like him with minimal knowledge of magic. Besides, he worried that all the noise would upset Miss Peneleope.

"Oh, stop it, both of you! Do you want us to lose points amongst ourselves?"

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The following 1 user Likes Tony Lawrence's post:1 user Likes Tony Lawrence's post
   Basil Foxwood

A smart girl would try to attempt to explain to Penelope that doctors were called doctors because they just were, a smart girl would ask Penelope who Merlin was and offer her a different kind of sweet, perhaps from Millie’s offered collection, a smart girl would listen when she told her that Miss Parkinson would ruin her and listen to Tony when he told her that they would all get into trouble if she didn’t stop, and a smart girl would have stood down and did anything else when the taller, older girl with more magical ability than she did stood up and challenged her, but perhaps tonight Autumn just wasn’t a very smart girl.

If the rest of the common room wasn’t already staring at them, they certainly would now because Autumn started yelling loudly in anger after staring her down, as if it was some sort of war cry from one of her books, and jumped Jessamine, kicking, hitting, pulling hair, scratching, biting, just everything all at once in a very short amount of time. It was as if she had no self control, but Autumn was furious that this girl was picking on Penelope and that for no reason at all, had been saying cruel things to her at the house table during the welcome feast. It was unbecoming of a young lady to resort to using fists instead of magic, sure, but if Millie could still look like a lady after punching that street urchin back on High Street, so could Autumn.

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   Basil Foxwood, Jessamine Parkinson, Millie Potts

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It was all going downhill incredibly quickly. Only moments before, Pen was finally beginning to make friends aside from her sister and the children that her parents hadn't placed in front of her and told to go play. Today was a disaster of master magnitude. She had told her father that something bad was coming. Was this it? No, that didn't feel right. Something worse loomed over Pen and she could only hope that her twin wasn't actually involved. She was torn with looming on the future and watching the present in horror. Pen was getting paler by the second.

She wished that she was braver. She wished that she was her twin. Or Autumn. Someone brave and selfless. Able to speak out and bluntly share her opinion on the matters. Speak up for herself when Miss Parkinson had been speaking ill and threatening her friend. Perhaps being a voice of reason like Tony. But she was neither. Instead, she curled in her seat and felt the tears rolling down her cheeks once more. Pen felt like a coward. Feeling the most hatred for herself than ever before.

The following 1 user Likes Penelope Valenduris's post:1 user Likes Penelope Valenduris's post
   Jessamine Parkinson

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Magic by Athena

Matilda had taken up the first years to show them the common room and then left to do some first-night Prefect rounds. Little had she known all the chaos would be found when she stepped back through into the Ravenclaw common room – just in time to see the redheaded first year launch herself at Jessamine Parkinson like a hissing cat.

“MISS FAIRFAX!” Mattie yelled (– and whoever had thought she would have to put on her Extra Special Prefect voice on the first night of the year?). “Take your hands off Miss Parkinson at once, or I’ll have to Stupefy you myself!” (She had already pulled her wand out ready to cast a simple knock-back jinx to separate the two, not entirely sure that words would adequately sink in.)

The gaggle of Ravenclaws this year really were going to make her embarrassed to be one, weren’t they?

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The following 5 users Like Matilda Farris's post:5 users Like Matilda Farris's post
   Aldous Crouch, Autumn Fairfax, Basil Foxwood, Jessamine Parkinson, Millie Potts

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Okay, despite the fact she rounded on the redhead and started berating her to apologize, Jessamine had no real intention of actually fighting her; she was a lady, not some sort of street thug; she fought with gossip, secrets, and nasty words and was perfectly capable of making the first year wish she never arrived at Hogwarts if given the chance. But, it seemed that Autumn didn’t get the memo about how ladies fought because in seconds she was on the ground next to the sofa, fighting off a rabid first year who had torn her robe, bloodied her nose, bruised her eye, bit her arm, and pulled her hair. “Get off of me you freak!” she shrieked, pushing and kicking, just trying to get Autumn off of her. She heard some yelling that didn’t seem to be coming from Autumn, which was Miss Matilda Farris entering the common room and trying to reestablish some order, but she could hardly hear her over her own screaming as she tried so hard to fight the girl off, “Stop it! You’re hurting me!”

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   Autumn Fairfax, Basil Foxwood, Millie Potts

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