(1939-10-02) Why So Sirius?
Details for Why So Sirius?
Summary: Asmund vents his frustration at the body politic of Wizarding Europe and its adverse effects upon the magical children.
Date: 1939-10-02, just prior to dinner
Location: Hufflepuff Common Room
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Characters
AsmundErica

In the late hours of the afternoon, in a common room full of students wearing adorable yellow ties, a very intense looking Asmund may be seen, sitting off to the side at a table. While he is usually a very cordial, if not outright chumy young man, he seems very intent of the book in his hands. Casual observers may note that it is a fourth year Defense book. A less-casual observer may note the shiny new Prefect badge upon his chest, if they hadn't yet known.

The Fawley boy seems unbothered by the pre-dinner rush of students dropping off books, intent as he is upon the book.

Erica is balancing upon some chairs that have been stacked in such a way that they form a ladder and scaffolding sort of platform so that she might get to plucking some wilted and past their prime leaves from a plant that's on a shelf. Not only does the Hufflepuff common room have the diligent expert cleaning of the out of sight House Elves, they have Erica Stainwright, cleaner of compulsery levels! "Asmund, could you pass up that spritzer bottle on the table there, I thought for sure I had it on my belt when I got up here."

Clearly absorbed in his reading, one of Asmund's hands tries to reach for the bottle several times, grabbing at nothing, before he realizes what he's doing. "Hmm? sprit… Oh, ah, yes." He clears his throat and stands up, bringing the spritzer to Erica, "Sorry, rather distracted by some reading." Once she accepts it, he clasps his hands behind his back, watching her work. The Prefect glances apprehensively at the stacked chairs, but rather than bracing them, he simply places himself in a position to be ready, should they topple. "What plant is that?" he asks conversationally.

The Hufflepuff House common room is a cosy and welcoming place. The large, earthy room is built in a circle, and rests almost entirely below ground. Near the ceiling, about nine feet up, are round windows set at exterior ground level so the grass and plants outside can be seen, with the Hogwarts Greenhouse just beyond. The outdoors makes its way indoors as many nooks, shelves and other surfaces house potted plants. Alternating rows of yellow and black bricks make up the circular walls, giving the chamber a striped appearance.

The room's entrance is a round tunnel extending from the cask lid door. Gold bricks with black mortar circle the doors that lead into the Girls and Boys Dormitories, the Head of House Chambers, and the two rooms reserved for Head Boy and Head Girl when they are Hufflepuffs. Cosy black-and-yellow patterned sofas and chairs are mostly gathered about the elliptical fireplace. Above the hearth is a portrait of Helga Hufflepuff toasting her students with a two-handled golden cup. The frame is highly polished honey-colored wood carved with a plethora of dancing, playful badgers. The dancing badger carved wood theme continues on over to a curved buffet table the Hogwarts House-elves keep stocked with enough drinks, snacks and treats that could stuff an elephant.

Erica giggles at him distractedly missing the bottle and smiles gratefully when it's passed. "Thank you. This… is…" She inspects the plant before hazarding a guess, "…a Sirius flower. Isn't it pretty with the yellow and black rings? I love it. Just had some wilted bits that were driving me a bit batty. But there we go, doesn't that look much more lively?" She takes the pot of the plant and shifts it around so that the most loveliest of clustered flowers is facing forward. "How does it look from down there?"

Sirius_Flower.jpg

"What is so serious about it? Does it have magical properties, or bristles?" Asmund shifts his head a bit to get a good look, "It looks great. I really like how it has our House colors on it, too." He eyes the stacked chairs again, perhaps finding them to be sturdier than he had originally assumed.

Erica has been chair stacking since first year, she's a pro! To his question she giggles again. "Not Serious." She makes a very very comical serious face. Which does look a bit like Sirius Black now that she thinks about it! "Sirius. Like Professor Sirius Black… or the Star he's named after. But isn't it pretty? It's one of my favorites. I didn't know it existed before I came to Hogwarts, but it's not magical. I've forgotten where it can be found. Should ask Professor Beery about it. He'll know." Since he's the Head of House and Herbology teacher so he did the decorating of the Common Room. Her trick in keeping the chair ladder rather sturdy is A) not moving around a lot and B) she's used some of her socks to tie the legs together at key points. So after she's done spritzing the shelf around the plant and cleaning it to a waxy shine she begins to climb down and each level is removed as she does so. "Would you mind?" Is asked with a smile as she passes the unfastened top chair down towards him.

Without needing to be told twice, Asmund begins assisting with the chairs, putting them back into their proper places. "That makes a lot more sense. That has to be the most innocent looking flower I have ever seen." He smirks lightly, though in a pre-occupied fashion. "So, planning to go to Hogsmeade? I've heard that the Three Broomsticks has seen some renovation. Returned to its original atmosphere, apparently." He slides a chair in at a table and turns to face his Housemate, hands clasping behind his back once more.

Erica is alongs after him making sure that the chairs are pushed in just right and in the exact place she thinks they should be. She's smiling sweetly the whole time and it's clear she really doesn't even realize that she's doing it. "Has it? I am more of a Madam Puddifoot regular. So I've not really been into the three broomsticks. That's more of an upperclassman hang out. Which you are now, hmm?" She smiles and humms a praising sound before adding, "Congratulations on being made a Prefect by the way." The throw pillow that got a bit squashed while he was reading is lifted up and given a good fluffing before it's put down.

It takes a moment for Asmund to process what she says as he straightens a chair, "Hmm? Oh, yes. Thank you, Erica. Very kind of you." Once it seems everything is back in order, he sits back down where his book was, plopping onto the sofa and letting out a lengthy sigh, "Not all monitering the corridors and leading first years around, of course. Have to look after the younger students. Make sure they're alright." Fawley gazes up at the plant Erica had just been helping, though his eyes look as though he is seeing something that is hundreds of miles away.

Erica smoothes out a throw blanket over the back of an arm chair and folds it so that a corner comes down the middle of the back of the chair with one little golden tassle positioned right in the middle of the back of the black leather armchair. "You're doing a really good job. I can tell that the younger students are very glad for your help. We all are." When he starts to long stare at the flowers she follows his gaze. "Oh dear, did I miss a bit of wilt?"

Chester enters from the direction of the boys dormitory, yawning and then flopping himself into an empty chair and crumpling an otherwise perfectly laid throw blanket. After a moment, Chester wiggles furiously in the chair, as if trying to burrow himself in perfectly, causing the chair to scoot out of its alignment with the nearby furniture. He glances at Erica only briefly, a sheepish look overcoming him only momentarily before he coughs politely and finds something, quite at random, to focus his attention on.

Nearby, Asmund sighs again and shakes his head slowly, "Only I worry so much about-" he glances around to make sure no one is so close as to listen in, dropping his voice a bit lower, "I worry about the Muggle-Born children. This is my first year as a Prefect, and I arrive to," he gestures vaguely in the direction of the ceiling, the castle around them, perhaps all the world, "to this? These children, this is their first impression of the whole of the wizarding world and-" Asmund stops as he notices someone has drawn nearer. Smiling politely, the Hufflepuff Prefect greets the younger student, "Baines, good evening."

Whatever it was Fawley was about to say, apparently he decides better, standing and taking a few paces around the common room, though with no destination, much like an animal in a cage.

Erica looks quite like a goldfish out of water as she witnesses Chester flopping down in the chair she just had perfect and her face twists at the sound of the chair squacking on the floor as it's bumped out of alighnment like someone just ran their nails down a chalkboard! She even gives a little shiver. But there's no verbal complaint from her. She's not too far gone in her cleanliness to not realize that chairs for for sitting. Now if someone came through and adjusted the flower pot she just angled just right she might just beam the poor sod over the head with the pot in a fit! But luckily all is well and she gives Chester a little smile of greeting and a 'oh that's fine' wave of her hand when he looks sheepishly at her. When Asmund starts his stalking she first re-fluffs the pillow just right again before she approaches the worried prefect and rests her hand on his shoulder and gives it a friendly pat. "You shouldn't worry. I think everyone realizes that it's an unpopular thing and with you helping I'm sure they feel safe. We just do what we must so they see that somehow the minority got in charge. That it shouldn't be taken for Gospel as they say. You are doing wonderfully. Chin up."

"A stupid class that we learn nothing from." Chester very quietly finishes, looking at Asmund briefly. "Time better spent in anything besides that class, I think." A smile cracks his lips, "Sleeping for instance, studying in the library… even escaping out into the woods and trying to get yourself killed! Though," Chester yawns again, "Sleeping is quite the favored activity of mine, I think." He glances at Erica again, shrugs, and tries to fix the chair without actually getting up from it, making a racket and knocking it even farther askew.

Chester's comments seem to offer Asmund some momentary reprieve from his sullen state, but only momentary. He pats Erica's hand, atop his, in a thankful gesture. "Thank you, Miss Stainwright. That is very assuring to hear." The Prefect sighs once again, though in a more resigned fashion this time. "Well, starving myself won't do anyone any good. I suppose I had better head go get something to eat." He moves to retrieve his book from the table, pausing to add, "Baines, do try to be gentle on the decour? Miss Stainwright has spent no small measure of her own time attempting to keep it tidy." While his tone may seem chiding, Asmund is wholly incapable of hiding a small smirk as he turns to climb out of the common room.

Another shy look shot at Erica and Chester stops scooting around. Looking briefly at the departing Asmund, he says softly, "Sorry."

Erica's jaw just drops when Chester mentions going into the forest and getting himself killed. Her eyes immediately well up with tears and the sound of the wooden barrel lid closing after Asmunds exit only briefly muffles the sound of her sobby breaths that make her bottom lip tremble and get sucked in and out of her agape mouth. She begins to fan at her face and try to talk in a sobby hiccough. But nothing intelligible comes out of her, she's just suddenly quit the cry baby mess. The sounds of the chair caterwauling as it's shifted around only make her worse. Her hands cap over her ears and she dramatically flops into a seated position on the couch closest to her. "Th-t-that was m-mean!" She finally manages to whimper out.

"Mean?" Chester cants his head in a confused fashion and is quiet for a long moment. "Oh. That." He cants his head the other direction and looks Erica, "I suppose that was insensitive, but you know plenty of people venture into the woods and don't get themselves killed, right? And honestly, it would be more productive to chance fate as such than go to the mudblood class." He drops his voice and mutters, "Like they can define what a mudblood can and can't do… Disadvantaged? I'll bloody show them…" He pauses his rant, looks back at Erica, "Aw, come on, don't cry! I didn't mean for it to be mean. I mean, I didn't know the boy, but honestly, I just meant that death is favorable to being treated like scum. I mean, kinda…" He huffs out loudly, "There are lots of things better than being treated like scum. Maybe not horrible death at the hands of awful woodland creatures, but it's close to being better than being subjected to S.C.U.M.S."

Erica wipes at her face and sniffles and tries to catch her breath again, she's always been a bit of a cry baby, but so far this year this is really her first melt down. She really liked Kit so she is on the over-sensitive side and the Forest has always scared her, not it petrifies her since the killing. "That's a horrible thing to say. Horrible. You know that I would love to be taught some of the spells that you get to learn? I think that the class is very unfair and I am doing what I can to hopefully help that horrible class be disbanded and the meals put back. But wanting death because you're in a pointless class is quite extreme Chester. Please promise me you won't be so foolish as that."

Standing, Chester looks at the girl, looks at the chair that he has thoroughly disheveled, looks back at the girl, looks confused, looks back at the chair, scowls, and tries to put the chair back into the state that it was before he flopped into it. He scoots it back into place and then fiddles with the blanket for a solid 3 minutes, only intermittently glancing at Erica with a confused expression. "How did you bloody…" He pulls the blanket it off and tries tossing it onto the chair with the flourish of a starving street magician. He shakes his head, pulls off the blanket and tosses it onto the chair again. Looking as if the poor blanket get swept away with the winds of a hurricane, Chester shakes his head and sighs, "To hell with it." He takes a step back and looks between the crying girl and the forlorn blanket as if his world was crashing down, "This is worse than S.C.U.M.S. Don't cry. Little girls shouldn't cry!" He takes another step back and shakes his head, "Im stupid. Look, I wont go off myself because our headmaster is evil. I was just being dramatic!" He takes a third step back, throws up his hands, and makes a loud sounds akin to Bah! and stomps back towards the boys dormitory.

Erica sniffles as she stands, heads over to the older boy and takes the frumpled blanket and uses it to swat at him, "I'm not a little girl." She's only one year younger than he is! Then another harmless swat with the soft blanket. "Don't be stupid." Swat at, "Or dramatic!" When he goes to stomp away she reaches for him to gently try to pull him back to the chair and her. She then very patiently goes through the motions of teaching him how to fold the blanket into a perfect diamond with the designs on the blanket all evenly matched up at the folds, it's a bit of a peace offering. "You're not stupid. Just angry, I know. I say things I don't mean all the time. I don't think you're mean…" She smooths the blanket down and points him towards the entrance of the common room. "Dinner Bell. Come on. Please eat too. Some Muggle-Borns aren't eating in protest. You need your strength if we're going to win. Please?" With that she follows after Asmund cleaning her face with a kerchief as she goes.

Chester emits a soft growl and begrudgingly starts to follow the girl. "Fine." A sigh and he looks at the blanket as if its a work of art, "Just don't look at my bed, okay? You'd probably pass out."

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