» Boys and Girls, Open

[Ismene Swift]

sugar; spice; everything nice

OOC | Open ideally to 2+ more students, preferably at least one of each gender.

The fourth year sat primly in a worn, wing-back chair, back straight though her neck was bent, allowing light eyes a better view of the book she clutched, hands resting in her lap. Though not nearly as frightening as that which had assailed Hogsmeade during Christmastime, the snow and cold winds were more than enough to convince Ismene Swift that her afternoon was much better spent near the warm fire of the common room than playing in the snow with her housemates or studying in the draughty library. Besides, the exclusivity of the Hufflepuff common room ensured she would not encounter her father—though she loved him as any dutiful daughter would, his recent appointment to a teaching position at the school was not something that thrilled the young lady.

It was Dr. Gregory’s book on female decorum, addressed as if a letter to his daughters, that had her attention today. It was not that Issie felt further education in that area was necessary for her, but that she found interesting the differences between the teachings of men and the teachings of women—particularly those of her mother. To behave improperly had always seemed quite blasphemous to the witch, but the evolving boundaries of propriety fascinated her, for all that she remained firmly on the conservative end of things. It was not the happily-ending love stories read by her friends, nor was it the tawdry—and quite frankly, frightening if you asked Ismene—scandalous literature some of the older girls kept tucked away in their wardrobes, but for such a quiet afternoon, it suited her just fine.

A slow creaking as the painting that shielded the common room from the castle proper opened drew the badger’s attentions from her reading, but only briefly as a group of dripping, giggling first years made a beeline for their respective dormitories. Not long after, the same sound heralded the arrival of more of her housemates as the hour grew nearer and nearer to dinner time. Some stayed to pass the remaining time in the common room, others retreated to change or nap (or so she imagined), but few seemed to pay her any mind.

TY PAM @SDS & @CAUTION + CHAMBERTEN @LJ !

[Aurora Fairclough]

Aurora had been spending as much of her free time as possible out in the snow with her friends. They'd been out participating in every winter activity they could think of: Building snowmen, throwing snowballs, catching snowflakes on their tongues. It had been one of the best days of the school year so far. The snow was why Winter was her favorite time of the year. It was incredibly cold outside and Aurora's cheeks were red, but she had a huge smile on her face as she made her way to the dormitory. Once there, she took off her extra layers of clothing and put them away in their proper places before going back out to the common room. After all the time out in the cold, Aurora was looking forward to spending some time by the warm fire before going to dinner.

She hadn't taken note of whether or not a fire had been burning when she came into the common room or not. The fireplace hadn't exactly been her focus when she entered. Aurora had been much more concerned with finding her way to her room so she could remove the extra layers she'd put on for the snow. By the time she got back out to the common room, there was a fire burning. Whether someone had lit it since she'd entered or it'd been burning the whole, she didn't know. Aurora really did care too put too much thought into it either. There was a warm fire burning, and that was all that mattered to her as she hurried over and took a seat in front of it.

For a few minutes, Aurora just sat in front of the fire with her eyes closed as she let the warmth wash over her. It felt so good after her time spent out in the snow. After she'd spent enough time just enjoying the fire, Aurora opened her eyes and looked around the common room to see who else was there. She'd separated from her friends since they'd come inside. All of them had split up with their own specific goals in mind after they'd gotten inside. Now she wanted to see who exactly was around for her to talk to. It looked like a few of her group had chosen to stay in their rooms and relax instead of joining the other students in the common room.

There was one student who caught Aurora's eye for some reason. Obviously she recognized her housemate's face. It was hard not to recognize the people she lived with, even if she couldn't remember their names. The girl who Aurora was watching was definitely one of the older students, although Aurora didn't know the year exactly. She seemed to be concentrating a book that apparently must have been interesting. Her curiosity getting the better of her, Aurora got up and made her way over to the her fellow housemate. A little nervous, like she always was when approaching the older students, she walked over slowly and quietly. Once she was standing by the other girl, Aurora opened her mouth to speak, but it took a few seconds before the words, "Excuse me...what's that you're reading?" came out.

[Ismene Swift]

sugar; spice; everything nice

Her eyes rose from the page as her housemate caught her attention, and Ismene saw quickly that the voice belonged to one of the younger girls. She smiled sweetly at the girl, who she had not heard coming, not at all bothered by the interruption—as interesting as she often found her reading, hers had never been an antisocial nature, and after so long left to her own devices, a distraction was welcome, if not, strictly speaking, necessary for her. The fourth year generally welcomed company, particularly of the younger students, who she tried ardently to serve as a good example for. She could hardly do that if she resented their company, could she?

“It is a muggle book on etiquette,” Ismene explained cheerfully to the younger badger. “Written by a man called Dr. Gregory to his daughters, on how they should address the various situations that would no doubt face them later in life.” Issie doubted the girl would find quite the fascination in such a work that she herself found, but would hardly shy away from admitting to it. After all, the youngster had asked. “I find it particularly interesting,” she offered, “because my own education in such an area came from a parent as well.”

A parent that was Letitia Swift, renowned etiquette instructor, no less!

It was the sort of thing Ismene had found herself exposed to from an early age, such an early age that it had become a part of her person far more so than something she had merely learned. For that, the Hufflepuff was glad; there had never been any question in her mind about what was and was not right, and so little risk of offending those around her or of shaming her parents. Never would she find her name in the harsh, black print of the Daily Prophet, denouncing her as some sort of harlot (she was no Molly Donovan!), and knew her sweet, behaved demeanour would likely find her a very good husband some day. Scandal would never be something associated with Ismene Swift.

TY PAM @SDS & @CAUTION + CHAMBERTEN @LJ !

[Aurora Fairclough]

Encouraged a little by Ismene's smile, Aurora found herself a seat nearby so she could talk to the older student in comfort. She hadn't moved incredibly close, though. The shyness that overcame Aurora when she was around the older students caused her to keep a respectable distance between the two of them. It would be a very different sort of situation if Ismene were one of Aurora's Second Year friends. Aurora was a much more open person around them because they were all on the same level. Most of the older students just seemed to deserve more respect, Aurora thought. This was especially true for the ones who were like Ismene: Proper. Aurora had never actually talked to the other girl before, but it was obvious how proper Ismene was just from watching her behavior.

The book certainly wasn't one that Aurora was familiar with herself. She had never been that big on reading herself, but even if she had been Aurora would probably never have run across this one. Muggle books were definitely something that she had never come across since moving to Hogsmeade. It might have been possible if she still lived near her muggle friends, but they were all distant memories now. Also, Aurora wasn't sure if etiquette would be her reading material of choice, magic or muggle.

"I've never heard of it," she replied, "What sort of stuff does it say?" Etiquette wasn't something that Aurora concerned herself with too much. She knew that someday it would be very important for her to think more about it, and so she try to pay some amount of attention to it. For the most part, though, that was something she decided she could leave until she was older. Any slip ups she made now could be excused as being young. In the presence of such a good older student, though, Aurora couldn't help feeling a little nervous and wondered exactly what she might have been doing wrong recently.

[Ismene Swift]

Ismene could not help but be surprised by the youngster’s interests; she knew that such a topic was viewed as dry by many of her peers, and that etiquette class was hardly the subject of choice for the young ladies at the school—the fourth year had always imagined that her own interests had been a side effect of her upbringing. Nonetheless, the Hufflepuff would not be the one to question interests in the area of decorum, and so maintained her friendly countenance as she offered an excerpt to the younger witch.

“Some of his ideas,” Ismene offered as if the authority on the subject, which, at times, she did think herself to be, “are rather silly, admittedly. For example, her writes that, ‘If you happen to have any learning, keep it a profound secret, especially from the men.’ Personally—” here, she leaned towards the younger girl, as if confiding a secret, “—I imagine intelligence to be quite a safe possession, as it ensures sensible children to follow. One simply mustn’t be to boastful about it, just as one should seldom be boastful of any subject.”

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note Apologies for the wait; I’ve been bogged down by school of late.
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[Aurora Fairclough]

Aurora wouldn’t have said that she had an interest in etiquette. What she would have said was that she had an interest in making friends. Etiquette generally bored her as much as it seemed to bore anyone else, though. At least, most of the other students at the school seemed to be bored by it. Ismene seemed to be the exception to that. She seemed to be genuinely interested in the subject, although Aurora didn’t know why. Of course, she would listen to what the older Hufflepuff had to say on the matter.

Now that she thought of it, Ismene wasn’t the only older student who was interested in etiquette. Many of the students Aurora looked up to acted like proper ladies, and it got her wondering about when she would have to start paying attention to her behavior too. She didn’t worry too much now, but would she have to next year? Or the year after? Or maybe Aurora was wrong and she actually should start working on it now.

She felt confused as Ismene read the excerpt to her. Aurora had to agree with what the Hufflepuff said. It was a very silly idea. “Well, of course,” she said, “Why would you want to keep it a secret?” Personally, Aurora didn’t want to have to keep it a secret. Not that she felt like she was a very knowledgeable person. School was another subject that didn’t interest her very much, but that wasn’t what they were talking about right now.

[Ismene Swift]

Ismene could have laughed at the younger girl’s conclusion, but elected to simply grin broadly instead. The youngster was plainly curious about the world around her—an admirable trait—while still well-mannered enough to approach new topics with a measure of dignity; though Issie could not have said the girl seemed overtly intrigued by the nuances of etiquette, the other Hufflepuff did, at the very least, seem to be engaging in the discussion, not simply allowing Ismene to talk at her.

“Precicely my thoughts,” the fourth year agreed. “You and I, however, are not muggles anymore than we are men—both of which, it seems to me, would have strange notions about how we witches should behave.” This much was certainly true; Ismene did not have a particularly frequent relationship with her mother’s muggle family, but interacted with them enough to know that theirs was a very different world. After all, if they didn’t have to learn magic—which was an educational struggle if ever there was one—what besides the more effeminate of pastimes could muggle girls possibly keep to occupy themselves?

Decisively, the badger set her book on the oaken table beside her. “But enough of that,” she announced. “I’m sure you don’t share my...rather fascination with the subject; I find so few girls actually do. What does interest you, Miss...?” Ismene trailed off, blushing faintly as she realized she and the girl had not been acquainted. Nonetheless, the fourth year hoped to gain brownie points for moving the conversation in a direction that might be of more interest to her young companion.

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[Aurora Fairclough]

Aurora sat up a little straighter as Ismene smiled at her. It came across as approval more than amusement to her, and the younger student was pleased to know that Ismene seemed to be enjoying her company. She was always so afraid of doing something wrong around the older students, and really wanted them to have as good an opinion of her as she did of them. They always seemed to have so much more good sense than the younger students did, and the last thing Aurora wanted to do was to make herself seem like that a silly little kid in their eyes. So to see that Ismene actually didn’t seem to mind her company made Aurora feel ecstatic, although she tried not to show it too much.

It felt even better to know that the two of them seemed to be of the same opinion, at least they were about the intelligence issue. Obviously, though, Ismene could tell that Aurora wasn’t really all that interested in etiquette. She couldn’t help blushing a little when Ismene mentioned it. It was true, and Aurora couldn’t really think of any way to say so without possibly coming off as being rude. There really was no way as far as she could tell. The best thing that came to mind was that Aurora was relieved to be leaving the subject for now, seeing as it was an area she could say a lot about.

“Oh, I’m Aurora,” she said, realizing that she had never actually given her name before the two had started conversing. Then she paused for a moment to consider what it was she was interested in. That wasn’t really something she had ever actually thought about before. Yes, she was interested in things, but now she was having trouble saying what those things were. “Well, I like spending time with my friends, and playing games,” she started, and then followed it with, “and fashion. There are so many people here with such nice dresses.” It was clear from how she said it that Aurora wished she had clothes as nice as some of what she had seen others wear. Her own were rather nice themselves, but there were others that were better. “And I like quidditch. Watching it, at least.” Not that she’d ever had the chance to play the game herself in order to find out if she did like it. It was really more because she had never really felt inclined to play more than anything else. Aurora did think it was pretty fun to watch others play, though.

[Ismene Swift]

Issie’s smile faltered at the girl’s informality, though she could not hold the youngster entirely accountable for it—not everyone had had Ismene’s particular upbringing, after all. It regrew, however, and broadened at the younger badger’s mention of quidditch, a topic for which Ismene herself had always had great enthusiasm. It came, no doubt, from her father’s involvement in the sport, both as a coach and as a player, and the great happiness with which he spoke of it. In Ismene’s mind, a man was not a man if he did not play at least casually during his life, and the fourth year had not missed a game—between any of the houses, not merely Hufflepuff—since arriving at Hogwarts in her first year.

“Oh! I very much love quidditch, Miss Aurora!” the witch exclaimed happily, “Though I, too, find myself with no desire to play—it is a very masculine endeavour, is it not?” Andren Lovegood played quidditch, as did many other noteworthy boys; William Pendergast and Frederick Prewett, in particular, who would have been desirable by their status alone, had been made infinitely more attractive, in Issie’s mind, by their involvement on the house team. Fashion was an interest the girl had only so far as was expected of her, but quidditch was something she could happily discuss at great length—and an interest that those around her were far more apt to share than etiquette.

“I myself am Ismene Swift,” the brunette offered belatedly, Miss Aurora having distracted her so thoroughly with her talk of quidditch.

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[Aurora Fairclough]

It was no surprise to Aurora that Ismene also had an interest in quidditch. Very few people in the wizarding world didn’t. In fact, Aurora had never met any, as far as she could remember. “Yes, it does seem like it,” she answered. The game, while fun to watch, seemed like it could be terrifying to play. That was really the reason why she had no desire to do so. “I suppose they’d have to be rather brave boys to play, wouldn’t they? With the bludgers?” Those were what must make it an especially scary game to play, she thought. “But it is wonderful to watch,” as long as she never had to worry about being one of the players.

“It’s a pleasure to meet you,” She told Ismene after the older student had introduced herself. Aurora tried to mimic what her parents had always taught her about meeting someone new. She was positive that was what they’d told her to say. At the very least it was what she’d heard them say before and it was one of rules Aurora did know she had to follow. “…And what do you like?” she asked, not knowing what else to say. It seemed like it would be polite for her to ask the same question Ismene had previously offered. A few seconds later she added, “Miss Swift,” figuring it would help her if she mimicked the older girl as well. She did seem to know plenty about the proper way to act after all.

[Ismene Swift]

Ismene could not help but feel somewhat at ends. What did she like? Quidditch, of course, which the youngster seemed to have decided was already an exhausted subject, and etiquette, which had already been determined was not quite as much of interest to those around her as it was to the Hufflepuff herself. The fourth year pondered for a moment before coming to the startling conclusion that she did not, in fact, seem to have any more interests. Not appropriate ones, at any rate—she could hardly say she liked Andren Lovegood in polite conversation; he was neither an interest nor hobby that would be deemed acceptable, and that would have required admitting that she liked him to anyone beyond Loretta.

“I suppose I like drawing,” Issie offered lamely. Though not particularly prodigious at it, Ismene did enjoy that particular aspect of being an accomplished young lady; nonetheless, she was not entirely convinced it was a subject about which she could talk at length. “Mind, I suspect it qualifies more as a way to pass the time than as an actual interest,” she mused further, now talking more to herself than to the witch in her company.

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