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Post by Elsie Beren on Jun 19, 2015 0:28:31 GMT -5
It had taken Elsie a good two days to actually find the school’s gardens, but once she finally did, it was like being home again. The herbology teacher had been more than a little surprised to receive a request to do menial work in the gardens, instead of being sent there as a punishment. She had been allowed, and almost immediately assigned to the roster for the most dangerous greenhouse when she explained what experience she had had. After keeping your sister safe from a very hungry and very angry sand dragon, working in the greenhouse was comparatively a breeze. Beyond that, the teacher said that if she worked in the gardens on a regular basis, the teacher would get the school to pay her as an official assistant! If she could have the same success with the Care of Magical Creatures teacher, she could have a tidy sum of money to do with as she pleased.
Now, however, the sun was starting to get very low, and she had to get back to the dorms to clean herself up for dinner. Going to the dining hall in filthy overalls and muddy boots was more than even her self-confidence could manage. She struggled up the hill, and didn’t notice that someone was nearby, having a much more relaxing afternoon.
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Post by Hallie Keating on Jun 19, 2015 0:40:02 GMT -5
Thanks to the help of Samuel, Hallie found herself being able to not only complete, but understand her school assignments on a daily basis. However, whenever she did need help, and none of her roommates were around, he would always make time to meet her in the courtyard or in the dining hall to help her out a bit, for which she was extremely grateful.
Today had not been a day filled with study sessions and books in her face. Actually, it had been quite the opposite. For one reason or another, the majority of her classes had released early, and by the early afternoon, she found herself with tons of free time. Seeing as how her first week of school had passed, she had the idea of writing to her family back at home, whom she was sure would be just thrilled to hear from her. As she had peacefully on the grounds of the Academy, she stopped mid-thought and placed her quill on her paper, only to notice another girl slowly trudging up the hill, looking a bit on the dirty side.
"It looks like you just lost a fight to some kind of mud monster," Hallie called to the girl, giggling a bit.
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Post by Elsie Beren on Jun 19, 2015 0:56:42 GMT -5
"I think a mud monster might have left me a bit cleaner. It will never cease to surprise me how easily dirt can get everywhere," she laughed, taking a break from her walk. How had school let her get this unfit this fast? She'd only been expelled from her old school like three months ago. There was the fact that the plant bed she'd been working on had been neglected by the seventh years who had been using it for a big assignment, but surely N.E.W.T. Herbology students shouldn't be allowed to be that bad. "I don't think we've met. I'm Elsie." She took one of her gloves off, and offered the girl her hand to shake. It occurred to her that this fairly obviously rich girl might be making fun of her, but she'd made enemies by jumping down someone's throat too early far too many times before to make that mistake now.
A light brush down part of the overalls let a cascade of dirt roll down onto the grass, far enough from the girl as to not disturb her. "I just moved here, from Australia." And I've only managed to make one friend so far, was what she didn't say. Mary was lovely, but one friend was not going to get her through the rest of the time that she would have to spend here. And Mary herself had claimed that she was an outsider, not someone who would be super helpful in a crisis. Which Elsie attracted like this girl probably attracted boys. Exactly the right person to make friends with if you want a reputation boost. A good rep boost, that is.
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Post by Hallie Keating on Jun 19, 2015 1:07:31 GMT -5
She offered a small laugh again, all the while running a hand through her unruly locks of red hair. Normally, she'd take the time to style it just how she liked, but today, for her, had been quite the lazy day, so she had decided to leave her hair natural and wavy. Hallie extended a hand to the new girl, flashing a friendly smile and then watched briefly as Elsie sat down next to her. Her gaze quickly shifted over girls' clothes and boots, silently wishing that she herself had it in her to walk to the gardens andget dirty just for the hell of it.
"I'm guessing you love Herbology," Hallie commented, motioning to her clothes. "I can't say I blame you. My mother has a sort of garden back at home, and when I was little, I used to spend my time sorting through the various plants with her." For a moment, she allowed herself to reminisce about the times when she was younger. Her mother would set aside some certain day during the week just to spend time with her, and that day was usually spend outside or in the garden.
"Australia?" She asked, raising a soft, sculpted eyebrow at Elsie. "How fascinating. I'd love to travel there one day. Do you miss it?"
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Post by Elsie Beren on Jun 19, 2015 2:02:29 GMT -5
Sitting down, Elsie had a momentary panic about her appearance- but then again, the girl seemed to be in a relatively dishevelled state. By which she meant the girl still looked perfect, but with a slight rumple to her, hair let down. It was how the mega-rich socialites relaxed, and Elsie let herself have a moment of bewilderment at how they managed to relax in a state more composed than she ever was. Elsie set about arranging the overalls and boots into something approaching a proper position before she looked up at the girl again..
"I'm not sure I ever got a choice. My father runs the worl-" Wow, were you really going to brag about that? "-he runs a big magical farm, so I've sort of grown up surrounded by people with a passion for magical plants and animals." She refrained from saying that a garden was nothing like what she did, that was just bratty. "I'm pretty good at it too. It's the one thing here that makes me not feel like a total incompetent." The library was a good example. As was any number of failed interactions with some of her classmates. She just didn't get the social norms here.
Asking if she missed her home would be like asking if a caught fish missed the water. It was her, the red dirt, the drought-plagued empty plains, her family. "Yeah. A bit. I didn't really want to come here, but you don't get much choice when you get expelled from the only school on the continent."
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Post by Hallie Keating on Jun 19, 2015 21:16:46 GMT -5
To say that she was impressed was an understatement. Hallie had never met anyone with such a unique and exciting talent. The only thing even remotely interesting that she knew how to do was knit, and play a tiny bit of the harp. Still, to her, those paled in comparison to actually be talented in Herbology. Judging my her appearance, the girl seemed to love what she did, and, in a way, Hallie envied her for it. To be able to do whatever it is that brought you joy? What a dream that was.
Her expression changed dramatically as she caught wind of the girl's explusion, and arched both if her eyebrows in repose. "You were expelled? Why?" Hallie tilted her head a bit. "What could you have possibly done to be unable to attend any school in the whole country?"
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Post by Elsie Beren on Jun 20, 2015 20:56:26 GMT -5
"To be fair, there's only the one magical school on the continent, and my parents didn't want to send me to one of the South East Asian schools. I'd be at a bit of a disadvantage there, really." How could she possibly put her misdemeanour in a positive light? Failing that, how did she make it sound not quite as bad as it actually did? Elsie wasn't sure that was at all possible. "I might, slightly, have incited a brief rebellion for about a week. Nobody was badly injured or anything, the teachers were being really harsh and the classes didn't make any sense and... Things just weren't good. The teachers were Brits, too. Aussies have a reputation for sticking it to the Brits."
Elsie realised that the Americans had fought to stick it to the Brits, but that wasn't what she had mean anyway. It was since then that they'd been the ones sticking it to the Imperials, the Diggers refusing to salute British officers who didn't deserve it, things like that. She would have sworn that they had sent their most incompetent wizards to teach the Aussies, too.
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Post by Hallie Keating on Jun 20, 2015 22:23:39 GMT -5
Hallie's eyes widened and then lit with intrigue. How interesting to know that someone had the brains and the will to start something that could have become so revolutionary. To say she was impressed was a bit of an understatement. The girl before her had started and uprising in her school, and what had she done? Talked back to her parents once or twice? She wanted to roll her eyes at herself. Her victories seemed so small compared to her new friend's.
"Wow," she simply stated, shaking her head a bit while staring into the grass. "You are brave. Honestly," Hallie continued, taking the time to look at Elsie. "I don't think you should have gotten expelled from your school simply because you wanted things to be different." With that, she gave the girl and encouraging smile, then held out her hand.
"How rude of me to not introduce myself. I'm Hallie Keating, sixth year Aer House."
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Post by Elsie Beren on Jun 20, 2015 23:23:06 GMT -5
"Well. It's not like the headmaster was going to publicly admit that a little girl got the better of them. Can you imagine how embarrassing that would have been?" She had heard, though, that a few of the worst teachers had been sneakily sacked at around the same time she had been expelled. Hopefully when her older sister's first letter got to her, she'd find out if her sacrifice had made a difference at all. She had high hopes, but she knew just how resistant they could be to change.
"Nice to meet you. Elsie Sayer, fifth year Fuego. I think. The word still sounds funny on my tongue." She shook Hallie's hand for the second time, pleased that she would no longer have to refer to her as 'the girl' in her head. "They just aren't any good at different. I guess most of us are pretty much the same like that." She certainly knew that if she had the chance to go back to the normal of her life back home, she would have no hesitation in leaving the change that America would bring behind her.
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Post by Hallie Keating on Jun 20, 2015 23:53:43 GMT -5
She cringed at the thought of what might have happened to her if indeed the Headmaster had indeed allowed Elsie to get the better of him and of the school. Punishment for such a thing was probably harsh and vile, and it was then that she realized she would have rather not thought about it. Instead, she listened to Elsie's words, and found herself turning her head and frowning a bit; not necessarily in anger or sadness....but rather, in thought. The girl was indeed right. No one that she had personally known of had it in them to go against society and how they were raised in order to change. Instead, they would much rather accept complies and a mediocre lifestyle. The idea of settling for anything less upset her greatly.
"I agree," Hallie replied, pulling up a fistful of grass between her fingers. "I feel as if people aren't strong enough to face the challenges that come along with change."
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Post by Elsie Beren on Jun 21, 2015 0:42:03 GMT -5
The mostly-healed scars that she had at the base of her spine seemed to flare up as they spoke in depth about her rebellious ways. They were, at least, a reminder that her father would have pulled her from the school even if she hadn't been expelled. Scarring the child of a wealthy parent was an easy way to get expelled, and the Headmaster had looked more than a little worried when he realised how badly he'd handled the situation. She tried to scratch one subtly, but quickly gave up. It wasn't worth embarrassing herself. "It's like we're all so obsessed with keeping things the way they are, we don't even think about ways it could be better."
Elsie had lots of ideas on that particular subject, and she'd heard that there were women in the big city that thought the same way. They'd just got the right to vote, two years earlier. Of course, back home they'd had the vote up to twenty seven years ago, something that she held with no small amount of pride. Her mother had been one of the first women to vote. "I hear that there are lots of girls who are more than up for change. Everyone says things have been different since the War."
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Post by Hallie Keating on Jun 21, 2015 1:04:45 GMT -5
Again, Hallie found herself agreeing with Elsie. It was true, in a sense that no one wanted anything to change. For one reason or another, it apparently sounded appealing to live in a closed off bubble with everyone and ever thing being the same for generations to come. She could see it in her own family...her parents, living the remainder of their lives unhappily, her aunts and uncles, living their own lives at mediocre, unsatisfying standards...it just made her want to work that much harder to achieve what she wanted to do with her life.
With a nod, Hallie turned to reach into her bag, pulling out a day-old newspaper. "They talk about it on the cover. About how women deserve more of a say in what happens in the country. It's our home too, correct?" She asked, sighing a bit, then handing the paper to Elsie. "I'm not sure what will happen. It'd be nice to see the female race just take over. Men are clearly not as intelligent," she joked, letting out a laugh in the process.
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Post by Elsie Beren on Jun 21, 2015 7:32:29 GMT -5
Quite happily, Elsie took the newspaper. It took a significant portion of her self restraint to not immediately start reading it, which she figured would probably be rude. Especially to someone like Hallie. Probably. But she had given it to her, and maybe she wanted to talk about the specifics and- oh never mind. She'd read it before seeing Hallie again, and they could enthuse about it. After all, they were only talking about general things right now, weren't they? "At least we can vote. Not that I'd put it past them to somehow exclude our votes from counting. They'd probably bother to go to the effort, just to stop us from putting our two cents in."
It truly said something about how things were run when Hallie's suggestion that women run things was a ridiculous joke. Elsie's mother certainly ran her father, surely a woman could do a good job running things. Having children wasn't everyone's dream, there had to be things that the rest of them could do. Running the world didn't seem like a bad option to her. "If some men are to be believed, the ground with crack open and demons will walk the earth. Wish I could talk some sense into them, 'cause I've dealt with dragons, and half the time they're like big, grumpy, fire-breathing cats. Hardly the end of the world."
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Post by Hallie Keating on Jun 21, 2015 19:11:35 GMT -5
Everything in her mind completely faded away at the mention of dragons. Hallie quickly turned to face Elsie directly, then leaned forward, grabbing one of the girl's hands in the process. "Dragons?" She exclaimed, her eyes wide and alert with the desire to know more. "You work with them, or have worked with them? You are so unbelievably lucky!" She told Elsie, offering her a bit of an excited smile. "Perhaps you could train the dragons into just burning all the men," she then giggled, pulling her hand away and back onto the grass, "since you said they're really nothing more than fire-breathing cats. If I didn't know any better," Hallie shook her head in partial disbelief, "I'd assume you were saying dragons really aren't that dangerous."
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Post by Elsie Beren on Jun 21, 2015 20:00:19 GMT -5
Hallie's immediate and incredible enthusiasm certainly made Elsie feel important, but she wasn't going to lie to her new friend. "Well. I mostly worked with little ones. But I assume the bigger ones are pretty much the same. And if you think that a flying, fire-breathing cat wouldn't be dangerous, you've never had a cat or a dragon." The little dragons were pretty spectacular, even if she did have a couple of burns from them. Her father had never let her deal with them once they were actually able to fly though, you had to go through a lot of training to be allowed to handle an adolescent dragon. "But I think the dragons would be quite happy to burn anyone, if you pointed them in the right direction."
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