4pm
Saturday 19 Sept

Figaro's corner of the dormitory had been described as a disaster zone, an archeaological dig, or with simply a gutteral 'ngh'.  Figaro wasn't tidy, his bed was never made, and his belongings were piled in, under, on, around and above his bed and wardrobe.  He was laying on top of it all in a state of weekend sloth, without a shirt and just a pair of pajama trousers.  His hair was scruffy and unwashed.

He had a Quidditch magazine propped up on his chest, a Montrose Magpie whizzing back and forth on the front cover.  There was a bag of crisps at his side, some of them on the sheets.  Three Owl Standard was playing loudly from the Wireless.  He was humming along, chiming in at the chorus when his brain wasn't occupied on reading.

After a bit, he finished up the bottle of butterbeer.  He sat up to set it on the ground, and dig for another.

"Oi, Seto - want another?"  He held it up, prepared to toss it over.

Today was one of the few days Seto was actually lazing around inside his dorm rather than in the common room. But for once he had actually felt like being lazy on his own bed, rather than being lazy inside everyone's living room. It wasn't so bad, really. Fig had showed up at some point and the two Hufflepuffs had spent the better part of the afternoon doing absolutely nothing. Puff was having a good time too. The whole time the music had been playing the little guy had been rolling around and squeaking.

"Oi, Seto - want another?"

"Ya know it," Seto replied, catching the bottle as it was tossed over to him. Carelessly he pulled the top of and tossed it to the floor. He took a long drink and brought the bottle down with a satisfying sigh, setting the bottle between his thighs. "God I love the weekends," Seto said, adjusting himself, placing his arms behind his head. "Oh yea, did ya talk to Dusty yet?" He asked, looking over at Fig. "What'd the ol man say?"

Figaro grinned at the nickname that was going around for their new yet old Head of House, Professor Sandusty.  Most agreed he was nice if not very involved.  Moreso than their previous heads.  They'd all been queued up to have a one-on-one.

"Yesterday," he said as he laid back down with his magazine.  There was some bombastic article about new Beaters' bats coming out next spring that were meant to be the ruin of the sport as anyone knew it.

"Tried to get him to play favorites in our favor so I could get an O in his class.  Don't think it worked," he said.  "Wonder what all was in my file, though.  Seemed to think I had a reputation for scalliwaggery."

Fig lifted his arm and scratched under neath it daintily.  "Preposterous."

Zel was not in the mood to socialize with anyone, so when he entered the dormroom, he was honestly not happy to see Seto and Figaro. The platinum blond ponytail that he had last year was gone, and replaced with a typical, mildly shaggy haircut. He had lost weight since the previous year, leaving him looking much more malnourished, skinny, and lanky than he usually did. Although he was abnormally tall, he was also so skinny that it he looked nonthreatening. The werewolf dropped his bookbag onto his bed and sat down at the foot of his bed. He was sure not to make eye contact with his two roommates.

He had been particularly careful around them—he went out of his way to avoid changing in front of them, even going as far as changing in the boy’s bathroom stalls. It wasn’t that he particularly disliked or liked his roommates; he just did not trust them enough. Zel also thought so lowly of himself, that he felt like he did not deserve to trust anyone in the first place, which was a sad thought. In his backpack were several books about werewolves that he had checked out from the library—he did not mind if the staff knew. It was inevitable—they had to know as a safety precaution. 

Although he wasn’t speaking, he was listening in on their conversation. Quidditch. He always enjoyed watching the games, though he never was the athletic type. Playing Quidditch to him, would simply not be as fun as watching it.

"Yesterday. Tried to get him to play favorites in our favor so I could get an O in his class.  Don't think it worked. Wonder what all was in my file, though.  Seemed to think I had a reputation for scalliwaggery."

"What?" asked Seto with mock surprise. "You? Scalliwaggery? Why I wouldn't believe that ina million years!" he cast the other boy a grin. It was no real secret that the fellow Hufflepuff had a habit of rule breaking. Although Seto imagined that Dusty Sandusky probably embellished a little bit. Nothing Fig did was that serious.

Seto noticed that Zel had entered the room. Not that he would say anything. After six years Seto wasn't sure he'd ever heard the boy speak unless directly asked. Which was fine by his standards. If he didn't want to speak he didn't have to speak. Easy as that. Seto imagined that he had it hard enough as it was anyways.

"Kinda surprised he said he ain' gonna play favorites though," Seto continued, redirecting his attention back at Fig. "Bloke seemed mighty interested in us Puff's comin' out number one this year. I wouldn' be surprised if he gave us all some leeway."

Fig looked up when one of their stranger badger brothers came in.  Zel Tremble.  Zel was tall and pale, like Ligeia, but unlike the Ravenclaw albino, Zel was quite ant not, apparently, obsessed with death and decay.  Figaro could never sort that kid out and eventually just left him alone.  His peculiarity often made him the subject of what Figaro figured were harmless jokes. 

"Alright, Zel?" he greeted without commitment.  He had already turned back to his magazine.

"Old Dusty's plan is to coach us to a victory with hard Hufflepuff work ethi-  oh shit! Thank Merlin!"  Figaro interrupted himself and gave his magazine a thwak.

"Wiedman finally signed on for another year with Falmouth.  Bloody hell, had me worried there, he did.  Bastard."  Figaro shook his head.  Dominik Wiedman was his favorite professional Quidditch player, a Beater for his favorite team, The Falmouth Falcons.   There'd been no news if he'd continue on for an 11th year, but it looked like he'd finally wised up and signed.

“I’m fine. And you?” Zel asked. He had been to visit Herschel about his whole situation less than a week ago, and it was still weighing heavily on his mind. The last thing he was, was fine. However, Zel wanted to get his minds off of his thoughts, and off of his troubles. He felt like… Maybe, just maybe, it would be nice to start a conversation with his roommates? It wasn’t like they were complete strangers, he had known them for years.  However, the werewolf hadn’t the faintest idea as to what to talk about. They were fans of quidditch, whereas Zel was never really one for sports.

Seto shrugged at Zel. "Pretty good personally," not that he ever really fell below 'pretty good'.

"Hufflepuff work ethic?" Seto asked, tone playful. "Dunno, mate. Between me you an' Razzy I dunno how much work we get done, le' alone how much coachin' the ol' man has in him." With a grin he took another swig from his butterbeer. Hufflepuff work ethic indeed. Still, Seto didn't plan on losing the cup this year, but that was mostly because he figured Razzy would be a good coach, not because of Dusty.

The mention of Wiedman piqued his interest. "Yea? Sounds like the Falcons'll have a good team this year. I hear they gotta Japanese gal from the Tengu's playin' chaser. Maybe they'll give the Magpies a run for their money." Seto took another swig, finishing the bottle which he simply dropped to the floor.

"Still, I figure the Magpies'll win this year. Should be a good season though."

 

Figaro scoffed and chucked a bit of rubbish towards Seto, an empty tin from some strange and bizarre snack that Figaro had nicked from the kitchens a week ago. 

"Bollocks to your Magpies...!" he barked as he let the projectile fly.  Speaketh not against the Falcons lest you find yourself tinned!

He shook his head and mumbled something about Seto being as bright as a snapped wand.  What was he thinking Magpies...?

"So what you hear, mate?" he asked, casually.  "Wonder if Jazz Hawke ever got her wand back.  Did you hear she got straight up mugged over the summer holiday?"

His heart began to pound his chest. After his nice conversations with Ollie and Sophie, he was feeling like now was a good time as any to talk about his lycanthropy. But at the same time, his roommates were focused on other subjects. Zel also wasn’t quite sure how to break it to them. However, he tried to go along with the conversation. Maybe if he was a bit more social, he could bring it up casually.

“Haha. Casually. That’s a good one.” He thought bitterly. Zel could not imagine that subject being brought up casually. If anything, he’d bring it up in an awkward manner that would cause him eternal embarrassment.

“She got mugged?! Was she hurt?” Zel’s eyes widened. Jazz had always seemed like a sweet enough person, and he didn’t like the idea of anyone mugging her.

"Aye, heard all about that one," Seto said grimly with a nod of his head. "Ohh ya. Was pretty brutal from what I hear. Right in the streets," he commented towards Zel. "Heard it was some curse that solidifies ya or somethin'. Apparently head boy Comer found her and dragged her to St. Mungos." Of course everything he knew was based on rumor. Speculation. How true any of it was was yet to be seen.

Not that that stopped him from repeating what he had heard. "But someone told me the firstie Comer tutors wound up with the wand! The way I heard it was he realized it was hers during the first lesson and he managed to get it back to Jazz." Seto gave a small shrug and flashed a grin. "Dunno if it's true or not. Would be pretty wild if it is though, aye?"

Seto leaned back against his pillows, content he had done the rumor justice. "Any idea who did it? There's been talk of a few muggings lately, figure it's the same person?"

Figaro looked over at Zel again, who seemed interested in talking after all.  He still looked as off-put as ever, though.

Seto told the tale, nearly the same as how Figaro had heard it, and Fig interjected his agreement.

"Yea, like turned to stone..."

And, "Took her wand, and everything."

But then, "That's bollocks - the Aurors probably just found it," referring to the wand just somehow ending up back at Hogwarts in the hands of a firstie."

"Heard about it from Fauna Blake, being an Auror now and everything."  Fig was quite proud of his connection to Fauna and his other Auror 'big brother type' Adon Eleor.  Made him feel like he was all connected up somehow into the pipeline of vital, important information. 

But now he felt out of the loop.  "What? Who else got mugged?" Fig asked - how'd he miss that.  "Are you talking about the Wizengamot bloke who got turned inside out?"[1]

He looked back down at his magazine.  "Crazy bloody world we live in..."

1.	Aug 3 - WIZENGAMOT ELDER FOUND DEAD

“Yeah. Crazy.” Zel could feel his hands shaking, and he sat down on them so that the shaking wouldn’t be visible. Muggings, werewolf attacks, dead students on campus—what was going on? Zel was wondering why the world seemed so messed up, and so… Chaotic. It really made him anxious, though he realized that was probably just a part of life. There was always going to be some sort of drama going on, some bigger than others.

“Wait—someone got turned inside out?” his pale face somehow turned even paler. That was not a mental image he was enjoying. “Who?” Zel looked at Figaro, as if he expected Fig to know who the person was. After all, he did have his ‘connections,’ didn’t he?  Zel looked down at his feet—it seemed like so many people had problems, and it really put his life in perspective. He was lucky—there was a headmaster who allowed werewolves to attend. Just the year before, he would have been expelled, like Ollie.

He chewed on his bottom lip, “Heh. So.. Wha-what do you blokes think of Olllie?” Zel asked timidly, not giving eye contact to either one of the boys.

Figaro shrugged when Zel asked more about the inside out sod found up in the Tower of London.  Ligiea Canterbury had seemed to know him, but Figaro had no clue who he was - just that he was on the Wizengamot and that sounded important enough. 

And then out of a grim topic, the subject of one of their Hufflepuff sisters came up.  Olivia Foley.  She'd missed her fifth year, but everyone seemed really happy to have her back.  Kind of a funny question, when Figaro took a second to take it in.  She'd been in their year since first year - Zel Trumble should know her just as well as anyone.

Figaro's response, though, was his typical sense of humor.

"Love her.  Gonna marry her one of these days, I swear."  He gazed up at the ceiling apparently imagining nuptials.  "She's a lovely one, she is.  Heart-breaker.  Lesbian.  Werewolf.  The perfect wife." 

He was grinning daftly from ear to ear, joking about his good buddy Ollie.  Yea, Fig loved her to death, but not like that.  They were mates.  That was all.  And who didn't love Ollie?

"Nah, man, nah," Seto replied to the mention of the Elder who'd been turned inside out. Gruesome way to go, man must have made some enemies. "I mean I heard abou' tha'. But when I was in Diagon 'few days before term I heard some ol' witches talkin' about their daughters who worked at hospital." It wasn't as if he couldn't over hear them the way they were going on about it. "Said some others showed up with injuries claimin' to be robbed."

Seto gave a shrug. He didn't know how true it had been. But he figured every rumor had a grain of truth in it. At least that's what people said. That may well be a lie in itself. Still, spreading rumors was something the Hufflepuff did well.

"Oh, Ollie?" he asked idly. What did he think of her? Interesting question. "Never really though' abou' it," Seto admitted freely. She was never really someone he had spent much time getting to know. Didn't exactly play with his flirtatious nature the way the other girls did. "She's nice enough, I s'pose. Not really my type o'gal, but I can see why Fig'd like her."