Absit Omen RPG

That's kind of messed up," [Dido] commented before the big boss could. "Like, it's not a museum..."

Zeta opened her mouth to explain herself but shut it again. She had expected to be rebuffed by the adults for her precociousness, but not from someone on roller skates.

Things did not improve.

The wild-looking looking witch, Madam Ballentyne who'd been so forth-coming and understanding for SAWS, completely flattened Zeta. It got worse the further Ballentyne got in her narrative. It wasn't that the tale was upsetting - Zeta had heard Lucinda speak dreadfully of her nights 'out' - it was that both Dido and Ballentyne had completely misjudged her.

Embarrassingly, Zeta felt as if she was going to cry from frustration. Her heart pounded in her chest and she knew her cheeks were red.

Ambrose came to her defense. Bless Ambrose. Bless him all day long. First off, he had been listening to her rants. Second off, he sounded very grown up.

"Yeah, that's right," Zeta said docily after a frowning pause. The phrase 'just trying to help' sounded very stupid in her head. And she resented Dido and Ballentyne for it.

She lifted her chin, putting on self-defensive snark. "Thanks, though."

Then Zeta took a few steps back to saunter off, giving Ambrose a nudge to follow. She didn't know where she was going as the Ministry was a complete maze, but away from this spot by the announcement board and their hosts would be best.

Stymied! The group of minors had lacked subtly and had been caught by their once housemate. Zeta was partially relieved at not having to follow through on her bluff of cosmopolitan maturity and sophistication.

"Water with lemon," she ordered a little sullen, but hoping the addition of citrus would elevate the night.

It was then she caught sight of where her older sister had ended up, at the bar talking with a wizard. Zeta wrinkled her nose, immediately disliking him, but that was her tendency nowadays, disliking men as if it was a necessity to prove to herself she was over them, that she was only for girls now.

She gave Osha's hand a squeeze. "Look at that, someone's chatting up my sister," she said. Theta's body language didn't seem like she was unhappy, but Zeta felt protective just the same.

Up at the stage someone was adjusting the lights, these enchanted lanterns that could turn colors.

Zeta kept her cool while Ambrose flustered at the theatrical arrival of the leggy American witch on skates. His crush on her was horribly transparent, which made Zeta smile a little. The tall girl was one hundred percent crushable.

"I think it's a fair question," Zeta insisted at some point. She didn't mind the tall girl taking the mickey, but she wasn't going to not ask questions.

Then oh, it was Ballentyne walking up, curious about the behind-the-scenes tour going on. Zeta spoke up.

"You spoke to our club," Zeta reminded her. "Students Against Werewolf Segregation."[1] It had gone fine considering the club's history and membership seasoned with village dunces.

Ambrose was kind enough to set up her soapbox for her.

"I'm here to see things for myself. Like, to try and understand what my friends are going through."

'Friend' was doing a lot of work in this statement, but it was defensible. There wasn't a better word for who Lucinda was to her, and even though they were out of touch and had never been close, Ollie and Zel were Hufflepuffs.

"Was hoping to see the cells," she said boldly, no flinching.

1.	17 Feb 2012 - Raise Your Voice - Second SAWS Meeting

"Oh, Saaaaam," Zeta didn't do a good job hiding her emotional journey of realizing that the standoffish older Hufflepuff boy who'd lurked around the commonroom mostly by himself, was still Sam, but now a girl Sam, and then also realizing she was staring and how rude that was. The change was jarring. She tried to save it, but badly.

"Hi. Didn't recognize you. Hi. Again." Her ears pinked. What a clod!

Ambrose was beautiful to re-introduce everyone. Zeta leaned into Osha's gentle friendly affections, and Osha was, of course, so kind and charming.

Now Sam was offering drinks.

Meredith and Blake has arrived now and began snogging straight away. Zeta had heard allll about it. She was happy for them, really she was.

Thank Merlin for Heather and her head for crime. This is what people did on the Wireless, mop up messy social situations with something wetter, wasn't it. Zeta went for it.

"Oh, Sam's getting ours," Zeta declared to Meredith, leaning in. She nodded to Sam. "I'll have a martini. Osha? You want one?"

Zeta didn't know what a martini was, other than it was a proper adult beverage.

A crowd of loosely connected school chums began to arrive and the little cluster expanded. Fellow Hufflepuff Osha Warrington looked beautiful as usual, and Ambrose had showed as well. It was harder for him to keep in the social circle since he'd left school early, but Zeta knew he was still well-liked.

Osha suggested they go to Calavaras, but not as patrons. "That would be wicked," she said. Then she explained to Ambrose.

"They have full moon parties," Zeta said with a sniff and eyebrows poised with implication. "It's gross. I'm surprised you haven't heard of it."

Ambrose was on Level Four, adjacent to the Werewolf Wing.

Then they were approached by a tall girl in black that Zeta didn't recognize and it wasn't clear to Zeta who in the group she was greeting. Ever keen to make all feel welcome, Zeta smiled. "Hey."

Summer was disappearing quickly and Zeta still had so much she wanted to do. In Zeta's increasingly tempestuous mind, it felt like youth was slipping away. Home life had been as rocky, Zeta and her parents quarreling more than they ever had in the past. Her temper was ever ready, her parent's reasonable standards like shackles. Perhaps to mutual relief, Zeta spent as much time as she could manage in London at Theta's or friends' house.

Heather's manicure was stunning.  "They're terrific!" she gushed.  "How'd she get them so tiny?"

Zeta's own crow ensemble was centered around her earrings, one long black feature hanging from each ear. They were made of leather, dyed black and stamped with the right texture.

“Cool, huh?” She asked Zeta when she got close. “Wish it was guaranteed future, would like to have everything worked out.”

"It actually was," Zeta admitted to Heather. "Uncomfortably self-revealing, but cool."

Soon enough everyone was finished and the boys both genuinely unhappy. Zeta was concerned, same as Heather and Meredith. Blake was ready to go eat his feelings - Zeta nodded in agreement.

It was no secret that Blake's family was a bit of a shit-show in places, but Zeta was sure it didn't mean Blake wanted them to just all disappear. And poor Kelvin. He looked terrible, all still and stiff.

"It should probably be illegal to let teenagers have a look at it," she said, mostly to Kelvin. "What my heart desires changes every five to seven minutes. Public health issue, and everything. We're going to break it."

Zeta wasn't satisfied with Ambrose's good-hearted ideas about silver jewelry, but she didn't press the matter. Figaro Sellaphix didn't linger to chat, which was fine by Zeta.

"Maybe," she muttered in response to being asked about career prospects. The topic was coming up more and more and it was difficult to keep the questions (both internal and external) at wand's end.

Hands in her pockets, Zeta continued to take lackadaisy steps through the open space. She didn't wander too far from Ambrose, but she wasn't sticking tight to the tour.

"So werewolves come here every full moon? And do what?" she asked as they passed a bulletin board with a large moon phase chart adjacent. The bulletin board also had those little 'take one' tear-away fliers for werewolf safehouse job info and Level 4 snooker leagues. Also present was a really nice moving poster about werewolf mentors featuring the smiling face of Fauna Blake's girlfriend, Tia Gamp.

"Oh!" Zeta coo'd and booped the nose.

Where Ambrose might be trying to keep a lower profile, Zeta kept her head up and took swinging strides. Her hands in the pockets of her coat, flapping at her sides. She looked boldly around.

"What do you mean silver?" she asked. "They don't really do that, do they? That's offensive. I thought the Werewolf Wing was meant to help werewolves not, you know, wear passive aggressive accessories."

A door to one of the nicer offices opened and Figaro Sellaphix wandered out backwards. The name on the door said 'W.W. Spokeswitch'. Zeta caught a glimpse of a blonde witch exit after him in the other direction.  Figaro was grinning and straightening his glasses. She smoothed her skirt as she swished away.

"Heya, Peppers," Figaro said as he breezed by.

31 August 2012
Friday after lunch
Day of the blue moon
Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures

Cousins Zeta and Ambrose Pepper, for differing reasons, had decided that the best way forward was for Zeta to see for herself. After a summer of holidays, garden parties, trips to London, secret hip tattoos, and general procrastination, Ambrose had finally agreed to take her in.

"Calm down, Am, I am not going to get you sacked," Zeta said as she adjusted her intricately plaited red hair. She had it done up in a crown with white clips. Her earrings were large crescents, not unlike a waning moon. She wore a hip-length olive green jacket with epaulets on the shoulders. She'd chosen a crop top in navy so that a tiny tattoo high on her right hip occasionally peeked out over her trousers, a Greek lowercase zeta. (She was seventeen, her body her rules.)

"Just say it's Take Your Cousin to Work Day. Balfour won't care."

They were here to satisfy Zeta's curiosity and concern. Last year had been a wild ride for the student werewolf rights group that Zeta had taken over leading, and a really difficult time for the two young werewolf students the club was trying to advocate for. Even back before Lucinda had allegedly run away during the spring holiday, Zeta had started to feel gross over her own ignorance. She truly didn't understand what it was like to be a werewolf and staying holed up at school wasn't going to change that. She'd asked Ambrose to check things out for her[1] but his hesitating descriptions wouldn't be as informative as a first-hand experience.

Zeta was nervous that what she'd see would be upsetting or getting carried away and causing trouble for SAWS and for Ambrose. She hid these anxieties with bravado.

1.	17 March 2012 - Pepper Pride

"Of course I'll come see you, dear," Zeta said with pink petals on her voice. She found her wand on the nightstand and tapped her crown. She uttered a little incantation so her hair would braid itself into to French plaits. She'd gotten quite good at it, and it left a hand free to pull out an outfit. She chose items for layering - it was a must in the castle when moving between rooms could mean completely new climates.

"Going to that mirror thing," Zeta said referring to the Mirror of Erised and the extra credit.[1] "And there's a Send No Crows concert. I'll come see you and you come with me."[2]

Zeta made a funny face as the plaiting spell found a tangle. Zeta worked it free with her finger. The spell wasn't perfect.

"Hoping to see Ambrose, too." So many plans for two weeks. "He's said he'll look into werewolf things at the Ministry for me. Relevant."[3]

1.	15 Mar 2012 - Mirror of Erised class trip sign-ups
2.	11 Apr 2012 - Look Inside, What do you Find?
3.	17 Mar 2012 - Pepper Pride

Bless sweet helpful Ambrose. Zeta felt the gratitude for him intensely for a moment, breezing away any envy she had about his free movements through the world.

When he offered to get her more, she lifted her eyebrows. She was not the sort to pass something like that up.

"I read in the Prophet that there might be changes coming up for werewolf laws. Maybe you could find out something?"

It was a naive ask, probably. She probably over-estimated his clout at the Ministry, hadn't thought of what it must be like being a teenager in the adult world of government.

"If you can," she added. "No promises requested."

At the gates now, they had to say goodbye to Ambrose and Theta. The remaining Peppers continued on, the topic of conversation moved to other things. Of the spring holiday, of Uncle Francis, of the baby, of Eta's latest predictions concerning all three.

End

Osha, sweet on the outside, fierce on the inside. People underestimated her. Things were different for Zeta, who felt like her passion wasn't taken seriously enough, like she was just a silly girl. That made her angry, too. Girls could change the world, could they not.

"Let's do it," Zeta said, feeling blessed that Osha would agree. "I don't have any, though. We could buy some off Rhys on the train."

Rhys was in Gryffindor and was known to have a stash of mildly contraband items in a hidden compartment in his trunk.

"Then send them off directly from London. I'm going to stay an extra day with Theta before going back home."

She already had loads of plans for the too-short two-week holiday, and the pull to include a visit to Calaveras was giving her a knot in the stomach. Or maybe she was just hungry. Zeta was loathe to sit up, but she did. She let her straight red hair down from it's very messy bed-head bun and shook it out.

Zeta felt warmed and calmed as Osha snuggled up and wanted very much to feel the other girl's gentle way of looking at problems. It wasn't weak - it was thoughtful and strong. Zeta just felt angry. Like just now - Osha thought first of changing their minds; Zeta was sorting out ways to make them regret what they were doing, to feel terrible.

"It's just so mean," she repeated. "I heard it on the wireless, you know, 'how do I convince someone they should care about other people'. I just want to ..."

She tilted her head to lay it gently on Osha's.

"I wish we could go there over holiday and crash it. Stink bomb it or find some hex to make the entire place sink down into the sewer. Do it on the full moon, when they're all there laughing it up."

They'd all be getting on the train this weekend to head home for two weeks. And nowadays, Zeta was aware of when the full moons where - there would be on next Friday.

Zeta wouldn't even know how to do it, though. She'd have to sneak out on a full moon (impossible) and figure out a Floo. She could Apparate now, technically, but she didn't have the practice making the long jump from Bedfordshire to London.

"We could send Howlers." There she went again, eschewing hearts and minds for retribution. "Sorry. Just angry. You're so nice."