Absit Omen RPG

Harri dug into the end of term feast whole hog. It would be the last big meal she's be able to enjoy until she returned to the castle. Her father was on a health kick lately. With Harri away at school for most of the year, Dudley had gotten back into boxing, which meant meals at home were often rather bland. Even with the holidays coming up. She used to be able to depend on Grandma Petunia and Great Aunt Marge to spoil her but since discovering she was a Wizard she saw her father's family less and less. Her mother's family on the other hand were all hippies and always ate weird healthy stuff.

As the Headmaster called for quiet, Harri leaned back to get a better view past some of the larger students. She had no real connection to the wider wizarding world outside of Hogwarts and was curious as to what Greyfriar could say that could help save her life.

Harri had been looking forward to Dueling Club since the year first started and was beginning to think it wasn't going to happen when the first meeting was finally announced. Being a weekend Harri was wearing her typical casual wear - baggy jeans, a loose Jersey and her favourite Man U knit hat over her short brown hair - making her look like any of the other boys in her year.

She listened to the worries of the younger students and chuckled, adding in her deeper gravelly voice, "Just cause you ain't seen the bodies, doesn't mean there aren't any." She gave a wicked smirk to Feliks, who had loudly professed that Storm wouldn't kill any of them.

She watched raptly as Orunis and Storm prepared to showcase a duel for them, not bothering to try and find a partner yet. She could worry about that later or let someone come to her.

Harri was thoroughly proud of herself and beamed a little under the Professor's praise though there was something else he had said that completely stole her attention, "Whoa, whoa, Whoa, hold up." She turned in her seat to look at the Professor directly, "Did you just say we'll learn to do magic without saying the words?!"

This was one of the greatest things Harri had heard since coming to the magical school. While she had been completely thrown off by having to concentrate so hard on annunciating properly, the thought of silent magic blew her mind. There were so many more pranks she could get away with if she didn't have to yell out the spell each time.

"Why can't we learn that now?" She had a feeling she knew the answer he was going to give her but that didn't matter. She had been given a glimmer of hope that she was going to hold onto for dear life.

Harri had been enjoying her role as Gryffindor. As the other founders spoke she was busying herself with her sword and stroking her beard. She was waiting for her cue even if she hadn't exactly paid attention to (or memorised) the script. She let out a chuckle when Wesley started improvising. She was pretty sure that hadn't been in the script. She decided she liked the little Hufflepuff already.

She listened closer when Bobbie spoke knowing that her lines would be coming soon. She opened her mouth, sure it was her turn when Felik jumped on stage looking impressively creepy. She had never seen Metamorphmagus magic used so proficiently.

After he delivered his line she heard Rowena gasp and her own skin crawled. She didn't know the full extent of the word but knew it was bad. She lifted her sword and pointed it at Feliks. It wasn't the real sword of Gryffindor, nor was it even sharpened but in the hands of the scruffy second year it was still intimidating. Through gritted teeth she spoke, "Call off your beast Salazar or I'm taking it's head!"

The script had been officially thrown out.

Harri listened to the Professor's correction and scribbled something in a piece of Parchment she had tucked inside her textbook. She had been scolded for writing in the margins of her text last year and had since adopted the habit of slipping parchment in so she could still make notes. She was surprised she still managed to score house points and let a smile curl her lips. She supposed the slip up hadn't been too bad and she was still mostly right. Still, she was thankful for a Professor that still rewarded mostly right answers.

She started to make her potion, following the instructions in her text. She paused as the Professor spoke and marked down on her parchment the bits about dosages and splitting them amongst people. Once done she stopped and stared at Darkfall as he began making his own potion. How cool was that? It didn't take long before he started climbing to the top of her favourite Professors lost. He was definitely more likable than the cold, strict red head they had last year.

She turned her attention back to her potion. She couldn't tell you the magical properties of all the ingredients and she likely couldn't identify them if they weren't labelled. However she could follow instructions and so her potion was progressing rather well. Any time she had down time - time when she didn't need to be actively doing anything - she watched Darkfall work. She was transfixed by how effortlessly he moved, creating his potion as if it were something he did every day. Then again it likely was.

Harri had to admit, Akira had a good point. What happened to wix' s that spoke other languages? Granted most spells were pretty much just Latin so it Wasn't like they were in English to begin with but what about those with accents? She Wasn't exactly posh speaking herself and plenty of her elementary teachers had called her lazy when she talked. She often slurred her words or used too much slang. What if someone had a Highlander accent? Those were nigh impossible to understand. Would they have difficulty performing spells?

Harri shook her head and tried to focus on the task at hand. She rolled the words over her tongue a few times, now far more self conscious of how she pronounced things before actually trying the spell again.

When she twirled her wand this time and put extra focus on her annunciation, the half beetle half button in front of her turned completely into a button. She let out a small wooo as her spell succeeded. Perhaps her classmate was onto something. She'd have to pay a little more attention to how she said her spells and not just how she moved her wand.

Harri unrolled her parchment and looked over the red marks made in the margins. To be honest it was a lot less than she had anticipated. Either she was really good at making things up or she had actually retained more information than she thought the had. She tried to make note of the mistakes she had made before slipping the parchment back in her bag and pulling out her textbook.

Harri opened her text to the page indicated before rising from her seat and walking over to the store cupboard. She glanced between the board and the cupboard as she filled her arms with everything she needed to make the potion. She loved collecting and preparing ingredients. While it Wasn't as cool as using her wand there was something extra magical about turning simple ingredients like twigs and bogeys into honest to goodness magical potions.

She placed them out at her desk in front of her cauldron and started to prepare them. At the Professors question she raised her hand, "The stronger version is caught Draught of the Sleeping dead. It's wicked powerful and really hard to brew. I heard about a kid here, during the war, that put himself in a coma after making it wrong."[1]

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[1] - Cillian  Cuthbert

Harri liked Transfiguration and she certainly liked Professor Singh. Her head of House was a sweet guy and was never too hard on her whenever she got in trouble. He always seemed to have a sort of 'kids will be kids' mentality to him. Which often made learning much easier for her. Not to mention this was a class she was allowed to use her wand in!

Harri bounced in her seat as he came around and handed out the beetles. Once hers was placed on her desk, she sized it up. It was rather big, she didn't know what type it was (who knew the different species of beetles anyway?) but it was trying to flee her desk. That just wouldn't do. Harri plucked the beetle and gently placed it back into the middle of her desk, only this time on it's back. She watched it's many legs wiggle as it tried to catch purchase on any sort of surface before swishing her wand. She didn't want to seem cruel or anything, she just wanted it to stay in place while she worked.

As she spoke the spell and finished her waving her wand around, the rather large beetle stopped wiggling. It's hard shell flattened and widened out some, taking on the appearance of one of those large fancy coat buttons (The kind that would be found on Grandma Petunia's Pea Coat) Unfortunately it still had legs and started wiggling them once more, this time a little more vigorously, "Bullocks."

History of Magic, for the most part, was boring. Harri had a hard time paying attention in class the previous year and only really got involved anytime the conversation or subject matter veered toward the Second Wizarding War. Learning about her namesake had been much more interesting to her. It was something she knew was important but information that her father couldn't really tell her about.

This year however Harri was trying a little harder. Mostly because she wanted to learn more about their werewolf teacher but also because he made learning more interesting. Their current project was a perfect example of that. They were acting out history instead of reading about it. Harri had joined Feliks' group and leaped at the chance to play Godrick Gryffindor. (Sure, he was the founder of her own house but it was mostly because she got to wear a beard and hold a Sword)

As Feliks asked if they were ready, Harri was busy swinging her sword, "Good to go, snake boy."

Harri's agitation dissipated as the Professor spoke again. She was surprised at how easily he had acquiesced to her request. She had met with so much resistance in the past. It had gotten to the point where her father had stopped introducing her as his daughter so that they could avoid the whole situation. The older generation seemed to have a tough time dealing with these sorts of situations. Even some of the Professors at Hogwarts had found it difficult.

She gave him a small roguish smile, "Thank you Professor." She added softly before bending her head, grabbing her quill and setting to work.

Her summer had been an active one. She had delighted in making up stories for her muggle friends about the fancy private school she now attended and she got to spend some time with her cousin Harry and his family, along with a sleepover or two with Teddy. With all of that, the last thing on her mind had been her lessons. Which meant she was having quite the difficult time trying to remember what she needed to write down.

Eventually it came to her, or at least most of it did. She decided to fill in the blanks with anything that sounded right before rolling up her parchment and placing it to the side of her desk. She took up her wand again and fiddled with it. She couldn't help herself. She knew that potions was mostly a wandless subject but after having spent her whole summer not being allowed to use it, she took every opportunity she could to hold onto it.

Harri had laughed along with the other students when the new Professor reacted to her inquiry. It was nice to have a Professor that had a good sense of humor. Especially on one of her favourite subjects. Who didn't like potions? As a muggleborn it was one of the bigger draws to being a wizard for her. She liked hands on magic, it felt more involved and real than waving her wand and having something across the room blow up.

Her expression fell however and she visibly bristled. Her wand, which she had been fiddling with while waiting for class to start let off a small spark. She set her jaw and added, "Ain't no Miss. It's jus Harri." She glanced over to her fellow Gryffindor Harrison Bagnold who had started going by Harry as well. The last thing she wanted was to be known as the girl Harry, "Actually jus call me Dursley." She looked down at her parchment gripping her quill and dipping it in ink before adding under her breath, "never miss."

Harri entered the Potions Dungeons as they were called into the classroom. Her school robes hung a little loose around her slightly taller frame, though her sleeves had been rolled up to her elbows. Her beloved Man U knitted cap sat over her short and shaggy brown hair. With a bit of dirt under her nails and a bruise on her elbow, a scrape under her eye, she looked just like any of the other boys in Gryffindor.

She took a seat and pulled out her book, quill and parchment. Then she spoke up without really thinking, "So if yer here does that mean teachin in this school really is cursed? No one seems ta teach longer than a few months anymore." She had heard from some of the older students that Storm had cursed the school when he came. He was the longest running Professor and everyone else only lasted a few months, a year at the most. Having only been at the school for a year herself  (and having seen teachers come and go) she was like to believe them.

When Gwenna snapped her teeth at her, Harri simply chuckled. It seemed as if the boy she had been talking to wasn't interested in possibly getting into trouble on their first night back at the table. Harri on the other hand was curious to see if anything had changed about the forest while she had been away for the summer.

"Can't be dragons, they'd burn thee whole thin down." She munched on some more food, "ghosts Though, pretty sure there's ghosts in there and not like the happy ones we got here." She looked down the table to see if she could catch sight of Sir Nicholas. The high and mighty guardian of Gryffindor tower caught her eye and rolled his own so hard his head wobbled.

"I'm sure we can sneak out while the prefects are busy trying to get the firsts years to the tower. Offers a good distraction."

There was nothing but mischief shining in her dark eyes as she looked between Gwenna and Noah. The pair were in the year ahead of her, which meant she didn't really know them yet but if they were anything like their older housemate Mairead, Harri was all too eager to get to know them.

Harri was happy to be back at school. She had grown about an inch over the summer but was still rather small compared to the rest of her year. She had also had to get a new school uniform, this time not having to argue about not wanting to wear a skirt. She was also able to get her blouse in a size bigger than it should be so none of her annoying developing curves would show. Her tattered knit cap was placed over her scruffy brown hair as she sat at the Gryffindor table with her fellow house mates. She took stock of all the faces that were no longer there.

She heard the murmurs amoungst the students as the bear of a man addressed them, "Is he really a werewolf?" She had heard that their old Care of Magical Creatures Professor had been one too but she wasn't old enough to take the class and one glance at the staff table was enough to confirm the siblings Donovan were no where to be seen.

After the speech was made she looked across the table to Gwenna and Noah, "From what I've heard, there's giant spiders and centaurs in there."

“Or you could see how much you can tell them and get away with.”

Harri's eyes lit up and she eagerly tucked a scruff of brown hair back under her knit cap, "Can I?" She had only sort of been listening during History of Magic when they mentioned the Statute of Secrecy. She knew she couldn't tell her muggle friends about her being a Wizard but there were likely a few things in the grey areas she could talk about. After all muggles already believed in ghosts and vampires and stuff like that. Perhaps not like adults but some of her mates still did. She could have loads of fun with telling them that she had met a ghost. One that regularly told her off at that.

She nodded back to Ambrose, "Yeah I could still send letters, I think. I don't have an owl though. Maybe Teddy can lend me one. He said I could visit him and his Grandparents any time I wanted, so that could be fun." Ever since meeting the older Gryffindor he had insisted on them being family even if they weren't actually related. She still wasn't entirely sure how their connection actually worked. His dad had been best friend's with Harry's dad but also his teacher? In the end it didn't really make them anything but she also enjoyed whenever he called them cousins. It was like how your parents called their friends kids your cousins.