October 12, 2024 – 10:28 PM
October 2nd, 1894
Edge of the Black Lake
Hogwarts
You can’t trust the news
The dark midnight runways
As still as the lake of your younger years
When the sunshine was brighter
The laughing was lighter
Mo wasn't moping. Expecting to make the house team in her first year was ridiculous. There were older students with more experience and they deserved the spots. It was that simple.
It still sucked.
And so maybe she was pouting just a little bit. But she would get over it, and she would enjoy Flying Club and Club Quidditch for the time being. Those would also both be good practice for when she could tryout again. At least she had plenty of time to get used to being at school and being in a different house than Stella and Regina. She had Kaat in her house and plenty of built-in friends. This year was going to be great, despite not making the house team, she was determined.
The frustrated energy had her throwing rocks into the lake down by the boathouse. With classes just over for the day, she needed a break before she settled into some homework and dinner. Mo enjoyed being outside to stay cooped up straight through without some sort of fresh air, if not any sunshine on this particularly grey day. She could have gone for a lap or forty around the pitch, but wasn't in the mood. This was as good of an outlet as any. The more she threw and her arm grew tired, she slowed, instead pausing to look for skipping rocks. This was exactly what she'd needed.
Meandering down the banks of the lake, she picked up a few good stones and tucked them in her pocket. Looking down as she was, she almost didn't see Sinnet until she'd nearly smacked into him. "Sorry, was looking for skipping stones." She passed him a cheerful smile, despite her previously sour mood. He was a little weird, but that never bothered her.
Connor Sinnet
October 13, 2024 – 6:57 PM
Connor Sinnet — Played by MJ
Grey skies were a blessing. After a Transfiguration class that had gone particularly badly, Connor was grateful for the escape. He had wandered towards the lake. It looked different from the lakes of Switzerland or Italy. Gloomier, the water dark. Still, he sort of liked it – he was even considering taking off his shoes and socks and putting his feet in, just to try the temperature of it on the bank.
So he was looking down too, at the water lapping at the shore, when someone else’s shoes came into view, which meant they were much too close for comfort. Connor’s head snapped up, more disconcerted by the fact his yearmate, whom he had not ever spoken to directly, was smiling at him than anything else. She was one of the Pendergasts – one of the twins. He wasn’t sure which, and didn’t want to ask. It was a puzzle, then. All he needed was a clue.
“Oh,” Connor answered, in the baffled tone of someone who had never attempted to skip stones in his life. His first thought was to ask why?, but he swallowed it. “What do they look like?”
October 27, 2024 – 10:25 PM
Stepping back, Mo put her eyes to the ground again, surveying this new spot for any of her quarry. "Like this," she struggled to fish one out of her pocket, but managed after a moment. "They're flat and kinda small, but not too small." The one she had in her hand was rounded on the edges, which she thought tended to work better, but maybe that was a skill issue and not a rock issue.
"I'm trying to collect a whole bunch so I can go back to the dock and skip them." Mo explained as she bent down to examine a possibility, but dismissed it after picking it up. The bottom was much bigger than the top let on, so it definitely wouldn't work. She had to wonder briefly, if this behavior made her look a little odd, but Mo had never quite been the kind to worry about what other people thought. She needed a good outlet that wasn't flying and without the benefit of having her bow with her, she had to settle for skipping rocks. "You're welcome to join me if you like." She took another step further down the bank and bent to investigate that little crop of rocks next.
November 3, 2024 – 8:54 PM
Connor Sinnet — Played by MJ
Small, but not too small – Connor did his best not to be frustrated by the lack of specificity. Instead, he peered at the sample she had presented from her pocket, and curled his hand in itself to imagine its size, so he would recognise it once he tried.
He was also analysing her, in the same way – so he would recognise one twin from the other if he tried. She was talking enough that he thought it was the girl in Gryffindor, but then she had invited him along, and everyone said the Hufflepuffs were friendliest that way. He supposed he could ask her, but that felt weirdly like failing. “Alright,” he said, offhand: guessing her identity had given him a worthwhile reason to risk the company.
“Is it fun?” He asked, squinting at a possible rock option. He picked it up to consider it better. “Skipping stones?” She appeared to be doing it by herself, and very diligently, which wasn’t odd to him; but he felt like it might look strange to anyone else.
November 6, 2024 – 2:06 AM
Pleased he had decided to join her, Mo bent down to check a little pile of rocks a few feet back from the shore. "Sometimes closer to the water is better, they get smoothed from the waves." At least that was what her father had told her. Mo was no expert, just an enthusiast.
"I like to think so," Mo answered easily as she pocketed a potential stone. "It makes me feel better at any rate." She wouldn't be throwing quaffles for anything of importance this year, so for now, skipping stones would have to work. "Have you never done it before?" Mo supposed she shouldn't be surprised. As a young lady of the upper class, Mo shouldn't know how to do it either, but her mother was not your typical socialite and her father, well, he loved his girls too much to say no to learning an innocuous fun skill like skipping stones.
"I can teach you if you haven't." She added quickly. Mo wasn't judging, she was just curious.
December 1, 2024 – 6:03 PM
Connor Sinnet — Played by MJ
He felt more and more sure it was the Gryffindor of the pair, just from the near-constant stream of consciousness coming from her mouth: she seemed to like talking aloud about things. Connor was half-convinced she would be talking to herself about something or other, even if he wasn’t here.
He tossed away the stone he’d been inspecting, and reached for another. “No.” His tone was almost defensive in answer, but the shake of his head was abashed. No, he hadn’t tried skipping stones before – and he didn’t want her to teach him, because he didn’t want to feel stupid, and have a witness if he failed at it, but it was probably worth listening to her advice and watching her do it a few times before he tried. So, if she was going to let him hang around, he supposed he would.
He picked up another stone, proffering it to her, for hopefully her nod of approval. “What do you need to feel better about?” He asked as he did – quieter, more curious. If it made her feel better, this had to be an activity fallen upon when there was something maybe wrong.
December 8, 2024 – 6:03 PM
Mo could only shrug, not entirely sure if the no was to never doing it before or wanting her to teach him. She was going to keep going regardless, so he could do what he wanted, she supposed. "Oh," she frowned, blushing a little. "I tried out for the house team and didn't make it." She was still a little miffed about it, but as a first year, it really wasn't that big of a deal. She would keep training and play club quidditch and try again next year if there was a spot. Hopefully it would happen.
"I've been playing a long time, and I know it's not normal for first years, I was just hoping." She rambled a little, unable to look her classmate in the eye. It had been foolish to get so worked up about it, she knew that, but she was still disappointed. Busying herself with inspecting some stones, she found two she thought would work well and moved closer to the water.
Turning the stone in her hand over, she stepped to the edge, the water nearly reaching her shoes. Mo angled her body and arm so the stone would go across the top of the water let it loose. It skipped a few times against the surface before disappearing into the dark water of the lake.
December 26, 2024 – 7:49 PM
Connor Sinnet — Played by MJ
Privately, Connor thought that was a stupid reason to be upset – but he didn’t know enough about quidditch to care. And he wasn’t going to say that. “Sorry,” he said instead, because he could at least understand the annoyance of failure, generally. “I don’t think anyone takes first years that seriously, here.”
In Connor’s first month here, he had personally concluded that there were older students who were much more ridiculous and more idiotic than him or anyone his age – but he didn’t make the rules. Not yet, anyway. He watched Miss Pendergast skip her stone, and took the opportunity – risking humiliation of his own – to copy her. Stepping up, the arm movement, the stone skating outwards... and then sinking down with no skipping at all.
He flushed, annoyed. “What position did you want to get?” he asked, hoping that she hadn’t been watching too closely.
December 27, 2024 – 10:36 PM
Mo was too distracted by the sensation of successful-stone-skipping to catch the tone of Mr. Sinnet's less-than-sincere reply. It was fine. She would practice harder and get better and next year would be a different story.
There was some truth to his statement about the first years not being held in much regard. Mo had seen it herself, amongst the upperclassmen. It was like they forgot what it was like to be a first year, or they didn't care, or they had some odd sense of revenge; we went through it, so you should too. It wasn't fun, to say the least. Hopefully it would get better.
She didn't miss his poor first attempt, but she was also getting a read on him as person and so instead of saying anything, she just angled her body a little bit differently so he could see her do the right motions. "Chaser was what was open, but I really like keeper too." She wasn't built to be a beater and the seeker was taken as well. "I'd take anything though." She would manage beater if that was all that she could get.
January 5, 2025 – 7:58 PM
Connor Sinnet — Played by MJ
Merlin, she really had been set on Quidditch. Maybe this was the problem of having so many family members that had been to Hogwarts before – there were already paths to follow in; people harbouring particular expectations or particular dreams. Connor didn’t know much about the Pendergasts, exactly, except that there were a lot of them. And that this Miss Pendergast had obviously been playing quidditch for as long as she could walk.
He thought she had turned on purpose, but Connor didn’t comment, just observed and imitated. His second stone skipped once: he didn’t smile, but internally he was pleased. Offhand, then, he kept inquiring: “Did you want to join – just for fun, or do you want to be a professional player one day?” He didn’t know how likely that was, but if he had been waiting his whole life for this moment, he imagined he would have some longer-term ambitions, too.
January 9, 2025 – 1:25 AM
Mo nearly cheered when Mr. Sinnet's rock skipped once, but she was rather starting to recognize that wouldn't go over well. She smiled to herself and aimed another at the water. It didn't do much butter, but she kept at it, flicking another with better results.
"Both of my parents played at school. My Papa played professionally for a while." Not too long after they'd been born, but enough to make a good name for himself, even outside the Pendergast sphere. "I think it's fun though, I like to watch it and there's no better feeling than flying." The weightlessness, the wind, the freedom of it. Mo loved everything about it. "Have you flown before?" Some of her classmates had and some hadn't, both ends of the spectrum, but she was always curious to know what others were coming into Hogwarts with for knowledge. She was doubting the question a little, since he'd never skipped rocks before, but who knew! Maybe he never had water near his house.
January 26, 2025 – 9:05 PM
Connor Sinnet — Played by MJ
“Oh,” he said, as the weight of her parents having played quidditch dawned on him. Not from any pressure, but just from the lifestyle they would have made – where playing quidditch was an ordinary, encouraged thing. “Sorry,” he added, in case she was offended that he hadn’t known about her father. “I don’t follow quidditch much.” He’d seen a game or two on his travels with his parents, but only when the weather had been grim.
He didn’t expect he would be any good at it. Besides – team sports. “I had a broom at home,” he explained (sort of), with a shrug at her question about flying. He did not want to admit that he had never really gotten the hang of it (– he could scrape by in flying classes, but he wouldn’t miss them one bit –) and that he found the feeling rather overwhelming and dizzying, so he just shrugged again. “But I got in trouble for using it in the house, so I didn’t bother much. Outside was all forest, anyway.” Trees: good for seclusion and shade and privacy; not so good for learning to fly. (Also – could you learn to fly from books?)
February 2, 2025 – 6:47 PM
"It was a while ago, now he sponsors a team." Despite her family's love of the sport, Mo knew it wasn't everyone's cup of tea. She had the benefit of growing up in Hogsmeade too, so she could fly in her garden whenever she wanted. If Mr. Sinnet had grown up elsewhere (which she assumed was the case), he wouldn't have been able to fly quite so freely.
"Oh, yes I was not allowed to fly inside either." She chuckled, tossing another stone across the top of the water. It hadn't stopped her from trying. The hallways were good for maneuvering and control practice after all! "I've joined flying club and club quidditch, so hopefully that'll hold me over until I make the team." Merlin, she hoped it would happen at some point in her time at Hogwarts. "Are there any clubs you're thinking about?" She realized she was doing all of the talking and probably ought to give him a chance.