Forum Thread

[I should also mention that when Alyss is actually online, she doesn't tend to post. Also mentioning that first years can go to Hogsmeade and are allowed in their house Quidditch groups. Try not to make your character perfect-perfect at everything.]

Clarisse glanced into the cauldron full of blue-colored liquid. As Callie waved her wand expertly over the potion, Professor Lacroma had checked their area. "Very good, girls! Fifteen points to both Slytherin and Gryffindor." He announced. "I suspect that you two will perhaps get an outstanding on your O.W.L.s." He mused. Not me. Just Callisto. She though to herself.

---

As Arashi stirred the cauldron a final time, the potion turned a light blue. "Very good, Mr. Zadkiel, Ms. Grey, although it could be a touch ligh-." He paused as the potion took on a lighter shade of blue. "30 points to Ravenclaw," he muttered as he stalked elsewhere. "I suspect a surprise from both of you during your O.W.L.s."

Mia closed her eyes in relief. Luckily, the powdered dried nettle she added had counteracted the sudden rush in ingredients just in time. Still, she mused, Timmy had several things to answer for.

---

Mia is generally good in each subject, but the ones she truly excel in are Transfiguration and Charms. She does reasonable well in Astronomy, but that is her true weak point. Hours of studying go into this subject to keep her grades up.

(This is possible, I know someone like this in real life)

Unfortunately, she's deathly scared of heights, which is probably due to her parents trying to hang her from a high tower when he was younger.

---

<I guess I'll just use her as a sort of NPC or something>

Timmy and Alyss stare at the now dark blue potion. "Yikes..." said Timmy, "What should we do now?" asked Alyss. Timmy reads the book carefully "Ahh... We stirred it five times counter-clockwise, instead of clockwise..." says Timmy. "Let's take a risk, what if..." Timmy stirs it ten times, clockwise, and it turns the correct shade of light blue, as stated in the book. "Yess!" Timmy and Alyss high-five with both hands.

"Quiet down, please." Professor Lacroma comes to inspect. "Good job. And nice work on saving it at the last minute. 15 points to Ravenclaw and 10 points to Gryffindor."

<Anyway, Timmy's flaws are more on his personality. He's a little proud, isn't that good at making friends, and he usually hurts other people's feelings without knowing. Also, in the Flying class, do we have to use the school's brooms, or can we use our own broom? (If we have one)>

---

[Hmm..let's see. It's been a while since I worked on Callisto.

She's a potions prodigy with an unusual knack for subjects that involve spellwork. Approximately, her level of Potions is of a 7th year in Hogwarts. Emphasis on approximately. This is due to the fact she's been messing around with potionmaking since she was three years old. Her dad also owns a chain of apothecaries in the Middle-East, encouraging this. Spent most of her childhood in the tropics, surprisingly didn't develop an accent.

Her second best subject would be DADA. The fact that there weren't many famous female duelers/duelists is a sore spot for her, so she started practicing spells she randomly picked up from her dad's old DADA spellbook when she was around five years old. She's at least two years ahead of the normal first year, and has a well spread out knowledge of jinxes, hexes, and a few curses already. She can't perfectly cast every single one of them (that would be overpowering), but she can do enough damage to incapacitate one full grown wizard.

Third subject: Transfiguration. Her family has always had a natural aptitude for the subject, so only logical that Callie was at least decent at it. Her dad also is the Transfiguration professor at Hogwarts, so that also influences her to work on it. At least a year ahead in this subject.

Callie is simply decent at the rest of the subjects, except for Herbology. She struggles with this subject, and often has to seek help from her younger nature-loving cousin, Bella, who is not yet at Hogwarts. History of Magic she is fine with, though sometimes the number of notes one has to take can be stressful. No matter how boring the subject is, Callie's always been interested in the wizarding world's history due to the fact she was mostly raised in the Muggle world. Charms and Astronomy, she struggles and survives just fine. Callie's not really good at approaching people, preferring to keep to herself and her studies. She's a book freak, so sometimes people mistake her for a Ravenclaw since she carries at least four with her everywhere. When engaged in conversation, she can be talkative and defiant, and definitely sarcastic.

I think I went overboard with that...LOL. Anyway~]

Callie glanced around the room warily. It was almost completely obscured from her vision from all the steam coming from the cauldrons. Others had already finished with their potion, and Professor Lacroma rather generously kept giving out points. Callie shrugged this off - there would be more chances to gain points in the future.

Much to her surprise, there was the sound of a cauldron exploding somewhere near the back of the room.

"Feet up!" Professor Lacroma barked, and with a swirl of robes, he rushed to the back.

Callie was way ahead of him. The Cure For Boils potion was a painful one to mess up. She had learned that when she was a mere baby, playing around with weird looking and oddly scented ingredients. Her knees up against her chest, Callie cautiously watched (though that damn steam fogged up her vision) as the professor managed to drag two students out of the way before they stupidly got touched by the orange colored potion. A few angry words were said, and luckily, Lacroma managed to vanish the contents before they spread any further. A timid looking boy and a red-faced girl were reprimanded so harshly by the professor, Callie almost flinched.

"Congratulate yourselves for losing your House hard earned House Points!" the professor raged. "Ten points from Ravenclaw! Each!"

When the students opened their mouths to protest, the professor shot them a death glare (though it possibly could be a grimace, Callie couldn't tell through the steam) and cut them off. "Instead of daydreaming, both of you should have checked the instructions! Not only did you forget to take the cauldron off the fire, you added how many porcupine quills? Thirty! You added thirty porcupine quills!"

Callie was feeling really, really bad now for those two. She barely helped not flinching when the outraged professor passed by. When she deemed it safe, she carefully set her feet back on the floor silently. "Well, someone has a temper," she mumbled to Clarisse beside her.

Without another glance, she scooped out a crystal vial from her pocket and ladled some of the cauldron's contents into it. Before the professor could see, she pocketed the potion. She would compare it to some of her old potions later, and one could never know when one needed an extra potion.

[edit: oh yeah, about Flying. She's a bit of a natural in it, which is pretty weird since she's a study freak. Flying gives her the feeling of being free from anything that is weighing her down, so she loves it. It's more of a hobby that a sport to her, but she might consider joining the Quidditch team during tryouts.]

---

Amanda was partners with Thomas, who kept staring at that pure-blooded Slytherin blonde. Thanks to her partner's activeness, they were still working on the horned slugs. A part of Amanda wanted to slap Thomas across the face for being so distracted, but that wasn't in her nature. She couldn't do it--another reason she was sorted into Hufflepuff. Carefully Amanda stirred the cauldron once. She lifted it off of the fire and added in those horned slugs. It's so stuffy in here, Savage grumbled from her schoolbag. Well you'll just have to deal with it. Amanda thought with a glance at her idle partner.

Savage climbed out of her schoolbag and onto Thomas's shoulder. Hey, you! Gryffindor boy! Wake up! Savage squeaked into his ear. Amanda's partner saw the mouse and screamed in a surprised high-pitched tone. Savage leaped off his shoulder and scurried back into Amanda's schoolbag. Professor Lacroma walked over to them, his left eyebrow raised. "Something wrong, Mr. Westhrop?" He asked. Thomas turned scarlet. "I... Uh... No, sir." He replied. "Minus five points from Gryffindor. Get back to work, Mr. Westhrop, and stop staring at Ms. LaRue." Prof. Lacroma chided and walked away. Gingerly Thomas added the porcupine quills into the cauldron.

Thomas idly was about to add the horned slugs. "No, Thomas! I already--" Amanda began, but he dropped them in with a sigh. Amanda's hands clutched the sleeve of her robes, embracing herself. The cauldron carried up steam and it exploded with a bang. Thomas squeaked, and Amanda glared at him. The teacher had finished scolding another group, which only made them unluckier. He strutted over to them once more and began to rage.

"Alright, which one of you added more horned slugs without taking the cauldron off the fire?!" The teacher yelped. Thomas's face once more grew an ashamed scarlet, his face pinched up. "I did." Amanda said before Thomas could open his mouth. He stared at her. "Thirty points from Hufflepuff." Professor Lacroma said a bit to loud, and slid her a paper. Amanda scanned through the paper and sighed. First class of the year and I've already earned myself a detention, She thought.

---

Mia jumped slightly as she heard the explosion, glancing towards the back. "Get up," she hissed, dragging her partner up onto his stool with difficulty as she reigned in her Metamorpmagi magics. She gasped as Amanda was handed a detention slip, but wisely kept her mouth shut, noting the look on Professor Lacroma's face.

"Ms. Rinestone, Ms. Grey, bring me samples of your potions," the professor said, his tone leaving no room for argument.

Mia meekly ladled the blue potion into a vial, bringing it to the professor, noting the look on Callisto's face. The professor handed the vials to the pair, who gulped the concoction down.

"Be grateful your classmates' potions were successfully brewed," he snapped, watching the boils disappear. "Class dismissed."

Mia cleared the station, hurrying outside to catch up with Timmy.

---

Arashi smirked when they managed to surprise the Professor with their potion, pleased that they were able to get the right shade at that particular moment. It was also nice to know his partner's last name, as he'd quite forgotten it. He was just wondering what to do next when he heard the Professor blowing up at someone else - the perfect cue to take a sample of his own. If asked, he'd say it was in case of sabotage - he'd heard enough stories of rowdy pupils throwing ingredients into the cauldrons of others - but he actually just wanted a sample of the potion. Besides, he could see that somebody else was doing it, so there was precedent.

Once he'd gathered a sample for himself, Arashi wondered whether Ms. Grey would mind it if he followed her to their next class. He would rarely admit it without prompting, but he had a rather abominable sense of direction - not a good thing in a labyrinthine old castle like this one - and she was now someone he'd recognise.
-------------------------------------------------------------

(Arashi would probably do best in classes revolving around taking care of something - like Herbology or Care of Magical Creatures - and have a knack for Potions (though not to the same degree as others). His main problem with Potions is that he has this constant temptation to tinker, which could blow up in his face quite easily. He doesn't do well if he thinks something is boring - which could actually depend on the teacher (I don't know what we're doing with History in that respect). Astronomy, well, he's not great at it. He really likes the stars and the moon and all that lot, but he has trouble finding things in the starscape if they aren't pointed out. So, to summarise, he's a smart cookie with bad direction, and things tend to go wrong if he gets bored or tempted to tinker - his family have a history with that.)
-----------------------------------------------------------
(Ninja'd)

Startled, Arashi allowed himself to be dragged mainly because it seemed the simplest solution. It would be bad for his pride to cause a fuss and turn out to be in the wrong - and Mia seemed to know what she was doing.

After the fuss was over, and he'd helped clear the station, he tried to follow Mia as discretely as someone with purple hair could.

---

Huffing slightly, Mia fell into step besides Timmy. "I saw your staring earlier," she hissed. "What do you know? And don't change the subject, or so help me, I'll hex you into next week."

As she turned around, her eyes caught a flash of purple. Her eyes narrowed, but she cast a privacy charm anyways, to ensure the conversation would not be heard and spread all around the castle.

---

Callie quickly handed the labeled blue potion to the professor before following the rest of the students out the door. She didn't need to wait for any compliments or praise from the professor - she knew she'd at least get an Exceeds Expectations for her grade. She had no idea where Clarisse had gone, but Callie shrugged it off.

She had cleared up their station with a lazy flick of her wand, having done it before so many times. To be honest, she had no clue whatsoever what the next class was. Looking for her schedule in her bag would prove too troublesome, she decided, so Callie ventured the next best option - following the rest of the Gryffindors. It was fairly amusing to know that the rest of her classmates were completely oblivious to her straggling behind them stealthily.

Flipping open The Dark Arts Outsmarted once more, Callie kept one eye on her book and one eye on her path. She'd done this numerous times before, and she had grown to block out the irritating noises caused by her surroundings. Pleased to find the paragraph she had been hunting earlier at breakfast, Callie proceeded to scan the sentence with renewed vigor.

In her haste to figure out the question that had been puzzling her all week, Callisto made one unfortunately wrong step and found herself bumping into one of the Slytherins.

"Watch where you're going, filthy Mudblood!" The boy hissed, turning around to face her.

If one values his life, aggravating the quiet bookworm was a big DON'T. Showing her your face was also not advised.

A satisfying crunch echoed through the hallway as the Slytherin found himself stumbling backwards with a newly broken nose.

"Do repeat what you said please," Callisto stated in a menacingly calm tone, her fist clenched tightly by her side.

Blood dotted her fist, and her hair had gone into a flaming red, golden sparks dancing among the strands. Her eyes were a frightening molten gold that seemed to pierce harsher than any spear. The Slytherin let out a whimper and scrambled to his feet, stumbling through the rest of the crowd in absolute terror.

---

[And there goes my flair for dramatics.]

---

Mia had confronted Timmy, probably about the staring. "Oh, well... umm... You have this sort of hair... enigma."

Mia stared at him, the kind of stare with one of the eyebrows up. "I think I phrased that wrong..." said Timmy.

They were just following the rest of the students to the next class, in fact, they were one of the last in the group. Timmy saw a Slytherin walking towards the Hospital Wing, all bloody and bruised, and he knew Mia saw the sight, with a girlish "Oh..." "C'mon," said Timmy "He probably deserved it, anyway."

<WHAT CLASS ARE WE GOING TO NEXT?!?>

---

I don't know, Charms? (Someone make up the professor, I'm not good with last names)

---

Mia stared at Timmy in disbelief. "Hair enigma?" she repeated. "When did you see this and exactly what happened to my hair?" she asked, palming her wand, before turning behind her. "Arashi, you can stop trying to hide. Purple hair is a very large give-away."

As she spun around to the sound of a crunch, she stared at Callisto's face, framed with bright red hair dotted with gold. Narrowing her eyes, she sent a wandless tripping jinx at the Slytherin, who face-planted directly onto the floor. Closing her eyes in satisfaction, she turned to Timmy. "What were you saying?" she asked sweetly, her wand tip starting to glow slightly.

---

(Howabout Professor Widdershins?)

Arashi watched the injured Slytherin with a degree of pity - he didn't know them, but they were in pain. He wouldn't have wished them to have been in an explosion, even one of temper, but nor did he really know any way to help. True, they had been rather rude to another student, so he supposed they'd earnt their pain - he merely wished that the offended party had retaliated more... subtly. It was almost a relief when Mia addressed him. "Indeed, miss Mia? It is not so much concealment as lack of intrusion that I was going for, but I must confess that you are quite correct. Is there a problem?" It was around about then that Mia cast a tripping jinx on the already-injured Slytherin - which Arashi might not have connected to her if he hadn't been as close as he was. His eyebrow raised, he contemplated this - it was quite impressive for an 'ickle firsty' to be capable of wandless jinxing. "Was that really necessary?" He asked delicately, "Or were you making a point? He was already experiencing the effects of retribution." He was internally rather alarmed by the flaming hair one of his classmates seemed to have, but he was forcing himself not to react to it. She didn't seem to need putting out, so he could simply swallow his shock and process it later, when people weren't spontaneously combusting.

---

Clarisse heard the mutters of ''flaming mud-blood'' from the other Slytherin children. She forced herself through the crowd, to find the heart of the chatter. It was Callisto. Her hair was engulfed in mystical flames, which golden sparks tinting it. Her hair reminded Clarisse vividly of a phoenix, although she wouldn't say directly to Callie's face that she liked her flaming hair better than her natural hair.
A proud-looking third-year boy made his way to face Callisto with a scowl. "Flaming mud-blood! How dare you filthy Slytherin halls with your--" Clarisse silenced his by sstepping in front of him with her wand pointed threateningly at his neck.
"Knock it off." She hissed. The boy's eyebrow raised, and he chuckled and looked back to the crowd. "Please, like you'd betray your own house nether less beat a third year." He smirked. Clarisse gave him a murderous glare. "Incendio!" She shouted, her wand thrusting towards the boy's robes.

It let aflame, the fire crackling and burning his robes up to his stomach before a clear voice cut out the spell. A female professor was let into the scene, as she sent a glare at Clarisse. "That was a welly-performed fire-making spell, and it would've been rewarded if it had been cast during Charms. However, you decided to do it outside of class, as well as directly on a student." She snapped.
"It wasn't directly on him--" She began, but the professor made a grunting noise that sounded like a growl. "Both of you, to the head of Slytherin house. The rest of you, go along to class!" The teacher barked. Without another word, Clarisse followed the third-year with a scowl.

---

(Hmm, wait for the others to say something...I don't know..)

Mia smiled cryptically, twirling her wand around her fingers. "Honestly, at least half of the people who were trying to follow me received several unexpected...spells from trying to do so due to their...questionable reasons. I suggest you not forget which family I belong to. As for the jinx, well, blood prejudice has had a long history in my line, and was the cause of several deaths. The effects of retribution were felt, yes, but Callisto is very clearly angry, and he is from a family known for prejudice. It would take a lot to penetrate through his skull, and after the last war, I'm sure we would not want a reason for another one. He could serve as the rallying point for the pure-blood supremacists."

At this point, Mia switched her gaze to the students in front of them. "I'm surprised you even noticed it was me at all, actually. Most people have to see me take out my wand and cast a spell to notice.And, yes, I was making a point. This prejudice should have died down after the last war."

Mia now looked at the altercation between the Slytherins, waving her fingers slightly, "Another one to watch out for," she murmured.

---

Thomas wasn't quite excited for herbology. His mother once let him plant a daisy, which was the closest to Herbology he'd ever been. And the daisy died within one day. He checked his partner list. He had been paired with Arashi. Thomas sighed, not bothering to hope that he was partners with Clarisse in his next class(es). All first-years were suppose to be in Greenhouse One, although Thomas was just following the regular Gryffindor first-year group, judging them by size.

---

To be honest, Callisto was pretty grateful for Clarisse's interference. After all, that little potion accident didn't just cause a genetic mutation in hair and eye color. It had started the Animagus process...or was it really still called Animagus process? In her deepest, most private thoughts, she was...or would become...an Animagical.

"Actually, dunderheads, the word "half-breed" fits me better. And I'm not even a Mud-blood...I've got wizarding blood "purer" than half of the existing so-called pureblood families," Callisto thought darkly.

As the crowd began to disperse, Callie snapped out of her anger just enough to hurry and catch up to the professor, who she had narrowed down to be the Charms professor. She vaguely heard one of the Ravenclaws - wasn't she one of the renowned Grey household? - say something to a boy beside her, but Callisto blocked out most of the noises. She had long since discovered that her being agitated...did not end well for the people around her, friend or foe.

All her senses, both magical and Muggle, had been enhancing themselves rapidly. Half the time even the soft caress of a breeze through a window would keep her awake, and it honestly frustrated Callisto to the point that angering her was possibly fatal.

You hurt your best friend. You can hurt anyone.

Callisto shook the voice away. She didn't need anyone to remind her of Dustin, and what she had done to harm him.

When she deemed it safe enough, she let some magic seep into her muscles, and suddenly her hand was wrapped tightly against the professor's wrist.

"Professor...?" Callie was surprised to find her voice so...calm.

The adult witch turned around in surprise, frowning at her. "Callisto, I have been informed of your situation by your father himself. You don't need to repent for any actions," the professor gently said.

"No. It's not about me. It's about her," she jerked her head in the direction of Clarisse. "She was defending me. If she hadn't interfered...well, I'm pretty sure the staff has been informed of what I can do."

The professor's lips tightened slightly, but she curtly nodded. "Miss LaRue! Callisto has offered to vouch for you. You're free to go. As for you, Mr. Sallows, you are not too lucky. Purposely trying to make the fire burn higher...I expected people of your age to be more mature about blood prejudice. Especially during these times," she added the last thing under her breath, so only Callie could hear.

As she steered Sallows away, the professor nodded in acknowledgement at Callie. "Do try to keep out of trouble, Miss Rinestone."

Callie felt herself release, to her surprise, a laugh. "Trouble finds me," was her simple reply.

Turning to the Slytherin girl, who was very likely confused at the turn of events, Callie felt her smile drop. With a quick glance around, she noted that only she, Clarisse, that Grey girl, and two other boys were in the hallway. "Sorry, I can't explain right now. Too many people. If you want, meet me at the library during break," she mumbled loud enough for the Slytherin to hear, but not for the remaining students.

Shaking her now dark hair out of her eyes, she rushed past the rest of the remaining students, pausing only to pick up her fallen book. Callisto momentarily locked eyes with the Grey girl, noting with grim satisfaction that the girl's appearance seemed to flicker beneath her enhanced vision. With a look that clearly said "We both have enough problems as it is, let's leave each other alone", she moved past them. Unfortunately, she brushed against one of the boys, and even more unfortunately, made contact with something ice-cold.

"Metal . Belt buckle, maybe?" Callisto thought, biting back a screech of pain.

She had grown exceedingly fearful of anything made of pure metal the past few months. And it wasn't because of any normal phobia or anything. Hastily making her way out of that damned place, Callisto felt the small voice in the back of her head laughing.

Too weak to handle all this power being given to you, little girl?

[Pros of potion accident: Enhanced senses, ability to sense passive magic, and of course, enhanced magic abilities that make her slightly bipolar
Cons: Random spontaneous combustion, short temper, loss of sleep due to being unable to adapt to new heightened senses, somewhat bipolar, paranoia (is that the word?), fear of real metal, and contact with aforementioned hurts and could possibly kill her.

Doing my best to not make her seem overpowered. Poor Callisto's not really stable...]

---

"Is that so? I must confess myself surprised. I'm afraid that descendants of Squib lines are not typically encouraged to be familiar with the who's who of the Wizarding world, as we are typically expected to be as magicless as our forebears." Arashi responded archly, "As such, I have no idea what the Grey family is known for, and I only know that to be your name because I have heard you referred to as such. In the case of the jinx, well, I was at close range, and the son of a Squib must often be wary of the warning signs of impending spells - after all, there are those who would gladly jinx or hex a Squibs' son on the sly. Being as you are clearly better informed about that individual's family history and temperament than I, I will defer to your judgement on this occasion - at least until I have sufficient information to draw my own conclusions. Now, is this the way to Herbology? Oh, or is it Charms?"

---

[She's not overpowered if:
1) Can do a fully-pledge patronus at years 1-4
2) Learned over three of the O.W.L/N.E.W.T level spells
3) Remembers Harry Potter/ Granger/ Weasleys. (Knowledge is power.)
4) Etc, etc.]

Before heading off the Greenhouse One, Clarisse sent a thankful look to Callisto. At the library during break. Clarisse's head reminded. She was a bit curious to know the girl's past, not for the power that beholds through rumors but just for her own knowledge. Callie didn't seem very keen to trusting people. At least, less keen then Clarisse was. And she hadn't even trusted Rosetta... She mentally slapped herself out of her thoughts and trudged to Herbology.

---

Mia's eyes flashed briefly. "Herbology. And I suggest you familiarize yourself with family histories in the Wizarding World, or you may find the business end of a wand pointing at you everywhere you look. For your information, however, the Grey family are a pure-blood family dating back to the 1900s. We are known for abilities in Charms and Potions, with proficient wizards and witches in wandless magic every few generations. Most of us were known for being pure-blood supremacists, but that changed after the Second Wizarding War. We are also known for another rare family gift, but I'll leave that for you to find out. I am currently the only surviving Grey. Impressive that you are able to identify that sign, but beware. Most of the time, duelists will not be so obvious."

Mia turned to Timmy. "Meet me in the library during lunch," she muttered. "We still have a lot to discuss."

---

Amanda walked into Greenhouse One, completely ready for Herbology. It couldn't be much different than planting strawberries like she did at home, right? She took a seat near the front (Amanda wasn't the kind who'd sleep in the back corner), and peered behind her shoulder. The strange thing was that a lot of people were late. Or was it maybe that she was early? Amanda looked at the professor's desk. It was empty.

But Thomas was in the desk a few rows behind her, sucking on his quill (strange habit!) and glancing around the room as if waiting. He was probably waiting for that blonde Slytherin girl, who he secretly had a crush on. Although not very secretly, since probably all of the first-year knew except for the ignorant people and Clarisse. Amanda was a bit tempted to tell the pure-blood, but she held back for two reasons:
1) She was a pure-blood, and in Slytherin. Amanda had to find out what happened the hard way.
2) Thomas would probably raise hell on her. And wasn't he good at DADA?
3) What good would it do?

Amanda dug in her schoolbag, and pulled out the crinkled schedule. She skimmed it quickly, and apparently her partner was that was in Gryffindor. She let out a breath of relief. Crystal wasn't a Slytherin, so she was more clear on the possibility of insults and sneering. She looked over at Thomas, and cleared her voice in pardon.
"Thomas, I've been wondering... How are you and Clarisse doing?" She asked, kindly. The boy's face turned red, which made Amanda regret asking. "I-i... Its none of your business!" He said in a whining voice, his jaw muscles tensed. Amanda shut up after that.

---