Fandom Always: Hogwarts Roleplay (Outdated)

[Red_Delta]

Professor Kate Cole-GellertKate had been expecting a nice, simple ride to Hogwarts.She expected maybe one or two reports of students having disagreements. What she had not expected was a terrified looking first year to run into the compartment screaming about a fire.

"One of the compartments!" the boy panted. "It was on fire. Then, this girl ran inside the compartment."

The young boy seemed to be having trouble catching his breath, Kate suspected that he had sprinted here the moment he saw smoke. Professor Hiddleston spoke gently to the boy, his tone rich and soothing. After righting her robes—which she had just put on—Kate grabbed her wand and moved towards the door. Behind her, Leo moved to leave the compartment as well. A twisted scowl was planted on his lips, making him look furious.

"Leo, you're not coming," Kate told him softly, one hand on his shoulder. "I'm sure the students are already terrified, they don't need a lecture right now. Please, just stay here. I can handle this on my own."

"Fine," Leo grunted. "Just, be safe and don't be too nice."

"Leo, we really need to work on how you give advice," Kate told him, smiling. "There's nothing wrong with being nice. I'll be back soon."

Kate left the teacher's compartment and quickly walked in the direction the first year had come from. Her dark blue robes billowed out behind her as she walked. She began to smell smoke and her grip on her wand tightened. She sincerely hoped that a student hadn't injured themselves or others. That would not be a good start to the year and it probably required a written report.

"You only care about saving your own arse and we both know it, so don't you dare go all knight in shining armor on us," a very familiar voice was declaring. The speaker was hidden from view by a small crowd of people, but Kate would have recognized her voice anywhere. Kate pushed through a small group of gathered onlookers. When they saw her, many of them scurried back towards their own compartments. This left just Kate and the students who she assumed to have caused the fire.

"Usually, I have about an hour before I have to worry about students potentially burning themselves alive," Kate said announcing her presence. "Now, who'd like to explain what happened?"

 

[CaptainFailure]

Madge"Now, who'd like to explain what happened?" Professor Cole-Gellert asked. Madge's stomach flipped. She knew they hadn't done anything wrong, but she still felt nervous.

"Well, I'm not sure what happened in the compartment," Madge disclosed. "If I'm completely honest, I'm not even sure what happened out here. But, we were walking to find a compartment when we had a bit of a debacle involving the baggage." Madge glanced around at the bags that still were splayed on the ground. "As we were getting up from that, I noticed that there was smoke coming from under the compartment door. I didn't react; I feel stupid about that."

Madge felt colour rise in her cheeks. Why was she confessing this? It wasn't asked of her. She just couldn't keep the words from spewing out of her mouth.

Pausing to clear her throat, Madge continued, "Luckily, Sophia reacted and ran in. She put out the fire and dragged these guys out. I'm not positive what started the fire, or what caused it to catch."

 

[Ravenclaw]

When Kate appeared, Sophia felt somewhat as though her mum had just run in and was about to either save her or chew her out splendidly. Either way, it was a relief; she hadn't seen the professor all summer, although the two exchanged a few owls over break.

"As we were getting up from that, I noticed that there was smoke coming from under the compartment door," Madge explained. "I didn't react; I feel stupid about that. Luckily, Sophia reacted and ran in. She put out the fire and dragged these guys out. I'm not positive what started the fire, or what caused it to catch."

Sophia jumped in. "Nellie tried to do origimieto but it must've gone pear-shaped, look"—Sophia held up the sad-looking swan—"and it wasn't regular fire, so something really went wrong, and I did aguamenti and put it out, and then J—" She stopped, not wanting to throw James under the bus this early, no matter how upset she was with him. Kate knew some of their history; in fact, she had been the first one to notice that James had a crush on Sophia, and with the two of them probably looking miserable to be in the same vicinity, it didn't take a genius to put two and two together.

Spoiler: gif

Cash, however. Him Sophia had no qualms throwing under the bus.

"I asked if Nellie was stupid, I didn't think she'd tried—how was I supposed to know, she was just standing there with her wand out, looking stressed. And I was scared, not that I don't love starting out my fifth year by almost suffocating my friends with baggage and potentially watching the Hogwarts Express go down in flames, and when I saw—"

She stopped again. When I saw that James was in there, it made it that much worse.

"Well, maybe I overreacted but listen, it could've been dangerous, I don't know what might've been in there or what would've happened to them or the rest of the train if it got out of control, it was spreading a lot and I honestly thought aguamenti wouldn't be enough—and then Casimir showed up."

Sophia paused. How exactly to explain this without sounding like a four-year-old?

"Well, he just tried to protect himself!" she professed in outrage. Honestly, if his clear pride wasn't infuriating enough, the fact that he would act in his own self-interest... Sophia didn't endorse inter-house prejudice, but she wholeheartedly attributed this flaw to being a Slytherin. "And he had no business going off on me like that, he said I was taking a superior tone—I wasn't taking any tone, I was upset for—for a lot of reasons and..." Sophia stopped yet again and turned to Madge. "Don't sweat it, Mags. If anyone's stupid it's—" Nope. Read the room. "...No one," Sophia concluded tactfully, though she narrowed her eyes at Cash.

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Every year Sophia thought he might redeem himself, and every year he did something she found utterly deplorable and often straight-up rude. James reserved the right to yell at her, unpleasant as it was. They were longtime friends: brutal honesty was acceptable. But there was absolutely no excuse for Casimir's scathing remark. He was, as usual, acting like a presumptuous know-it-all, ever prickly and standoffish and a downright prat.

This, however, was not the salient point. Her beloved professor standing there in disapproval rather than happiness at seeing her was. "I'm sorry, Kate," Sophia said quietly.

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[Verdance]

Casimir's cold outrage melted into a posture of quiet deference when he caught sight of Kate. Her presence embarrassed him, not least of all because despite all efforts her class was his weakest subject. He had never caused any animals to explode or anything truly mortifying like that, but he failed in very pedestrian ways to perform most complex Transfiguration. He would rather speak to her husband any day. Around Kate herself, he mostly tried to avoid being noticed.

And then Sophia had to open that big mouth of hers. Casimir flushed deeply, from the base of his neck to the tips of his ears, and looked to Sophia with his mouth pursed tightly. His hair was frazzled from the heat and steam, and with his face turning umber, he looked overall pathetically disheveled.

"I didn't 'show up,' I was..." he ground out, before catching himself and taking a deep breath. He spoke slowly, choosing his words with care and assuming a more humble air. "Professor Gellert, I... panicked. And I am truly sorry, Nell, Jay. I had no intention of only protecting myself, and leaving you all to choke. The paper started smoking, professor, and then the seat cushion caught fire, and my only intent was to buy myself a moment to think, I didn't want... There's a Muggle saying that in the event of an emergency, one should put on one's own mask before helping another with theirs. That was what I wanted. Everything happened too quickly for me to do anything useful... but evidently not too quickly to avoid making a fool of myself."

He cast his glance quickly between Nellie and James, eyes wide and hoping they would understand. Things had been going so nicely. He didn't want James especially to hate him over such a stupid mistake.

 

[Ravenclaw]

Sophia saw red at Cash's comments. The audacity, the sheer audacity, of this insufferable young man!

"Oh, that's cute," Sophia sneered. "Apologize to them for your idiot act of self-preservation, but who cares about apologizing to me for trying to help? Did I snap? Yeah, because if Nellie had just stood there like an idiot—which, incidentally, the two of you guys did, and it looked a whole lot like she did too—then that was a really stupid thing to do. But attacking me for it—"

She looked over at Kate and faltered. The professor had long taught her the delicate art of picking her battles, and at this point—in all her fifteen years of wisdom and utmost maturity—Sophia knew that this was not a battle worth perseverating upon. Besides, truth be told, she was more upset with her supposed best friend for vilifying her than she was with Casimir's unsurprising complacency.

"Whatever," she snapped. "It was a damn fire. Let it go." This she aimed unintentionally at James, and it wasn't until she realized she was staring right at him—and did not want to know exactly what he might see in her expression—that she averted her eyes quickly.

 

[Red_Delta]

The group around her was speaking. She heard Madge explaining the situation to Kate. She heard Sophia snapping at people. But, Nellie hadn’t really heard it. Or, rather, she hadn’t truly understood any of it. She was looking down at her wand. The smooth, polished wood looked the same as it always had. Yet, for some reason she hadn’t been able to put out the fire. She was also frustrated that she had screwed up on the origami spell.

Nellie shifted uncomfortably, foot to foot. She pondered what could have caused such a weak water spell. Looking up she made eye contact with Kate. She opened her mouth, intending to say something. But, the words wouldn’t come out. Nellie shut her mouth, feeling stupid.

“It was just a fire,” she said, finally finding her voice. “But, it was my fault. I’m sorry, Professor. I really don’t know what’s happening to me. When I tried to put the fire out, my spell wasn’t strong enough. I’m usually much more proficient when it comes to spells. I would never have put any of my classmates in danger.”

“I’m not looking to place blame or enact punishment,” Kate said, calmly. “No one set the fire intentionally. There was no malicious intent behind a simple spell.” She looked around the group, trying to make eye contact with each of the students. She continued, “I wouldn’t blame anyone for an accident. Nor would I blame anyone for acting their instinct to protect themselves.” She looked at Cash.

Nellie nodded, swallowing the lump that had formed in her throat. She was glad that the professor was being so understanding, but she did feel as though the argument had led to Sophia’s efforts being overlooked.

“Professor, while it was an accident, without Sophia it probably been a much worse accident,” Nellie blurted out. “No matter what any of us have said, she deserves some credit.”

“Thank you, Miss. Lane,” Kate responded. Then, she once more addressed the students as a whole, “I know you are all young and impulsive. You’re filled with feelings that you may or may not understand. I understand mistakes and accidents and I also want you to also understand that they can happen. But, I will not tolerate fighting amongst students. It’s the fastest way to break up friendships. Do I make myself clear?”