A Colossal Time-Out, Closed <3 Options

[Alfanora March]

_________________ HoNaRoTer Level Three _________________
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It had been nearly impossible to sneak away to the owlery while in Diagon Alley, and even harder to get an owl to take a message away with no specified recipient. "Just take it to anyone! Someone who goes to Hogwarts, or went there! I don't care, just please take it to someone! I'm grounded!"

The owl had finally taken off, maybe understanding, maybe just annoyed and preparing to chuck her letter into the nearest lake. Writing it hadn't been hard, as her parents were used to seeing her light on at night, and she'd written it when she was supposed to be asleep. She still swore the monsters would get her otherwise, and had nightmares with it off, if she could sleep at all.

Hi, my name is Norie! I found out from a nice lady who works at the Ministry of Magic that I am going to Hogwarts this year! I hope this letter finds you well. I'm sure it is something of a surprise, but if things go the way I want them to, I'll have an owl rushing this to you tomorrow.

You see, I am grounded. I was at a park with my cat, Colonel Mustard, and he got away, and when I went after him I got lost. Then I got more lost and visited Diagon Alley which was amazing! You should go there sometime. Oh wait, you probably have.

Anyway, Musty and I got home really late and found out that Uncle Edward found my backpack at the park and Mum and Dad were so scared I ran away that they called the police and everything and oh they were SO MAD when I came walking in with the cat behind me! It was dark and I was scared but I rode the KNIGHT BUS home which was kind of cool, but I was still really glad to be home even though I was in trouble.

So yeah, like I said, I'm grounded. Can't do anything for three weeks, but they usually break down before that. I just really wanted to see if I could get someone to write to me so I'm not so bored. I can't even use the computer. Will you please write back? I want to know what Hogwarts is like! Are there dragons there?

Hope to hear from you soon,
Norie

She kept her night stand stocked with cat treats and a jar of bacon bits, hoping to be able to coax any reply owl to stay long enough for her to write back. She wouldn't be back to Diagon Alley soon, for sure, and she had no idea how to summon a post owl.

This post has been edited by Alfanora March: Jun 7 2012, 04:37 PM

[David Roiben]

David had just been getting ready to hit the sack for the night when he heard a strange tapping sound on the window next to his bed. That was weird. Mail was always delivered at Breakfast, not at bedtime. This owl was about twelve hours too early! He took the envelope from the bird, noted that it had no address written on the outside, and opened it up, the bird sitting down on the stone windowsill as he wrote.

Hello, Norie!
My name is David, I’m a Ravenclaw second year. Congrats on coming to Hogwarts next year! I am, in fact, quite well, though a bit tired, as this letter found me getting ready to go to bed a bit early.

Getting grounded is pretty bad. I used to spend my life grounded, being forced to just sit in my room all day, never leaving, forced to have food brought up to me and to use the bathroom attached to my sleeping chambers. You have a cat? I do, too! My cat’s name is Chavakook. I got him the day we all came back from Hogwarts last year.

I have been on the Knight Bus in the past, it’s a real blast (literally. That noise it makes when it moves from place to place by magic?). I would suggest that while grounded you do something important, like read your Hogwarts textbooks, or write poetry. And you should get used to not using your computer. When you’re at Hogwarts, the only muggle-like contraption that works is the iWiz, which is a music player. I’m not quite sure how it works, but there’s a spell that causes all sorts of muggle contraptions, like computers, and cell phones, and video games, to go haywire. So it’s good to practice living without them.

Hogwarts is amazing. The amount of magic you learn, even in just one day, is amazing. I’ve learned how to put my own special mark on things, and to make things float in mid-air, and how to take someone’s wand away from them, and how to knock things over. It’s really amazing. Unfortunately, though, there are no dragons, although that would be incredibly amazing.

Sincerely,
David

(SO SORRY FOR THE DELAY!!!! (IMG:style_emoticons/default/sad.gif) )

[Alfanora March]

Norie hadn't expected a reply, really. That owl had seemed rather frustrated by the end of their exchange, and she'd figured that, realistically, he had probably just dropped the letter in the first available sewer grate and played hooky for a few hours before returning to his postal job. She was naturally thrilled to open her window (despite the central air being on and her dad's frequent grumbling about her cooling off the neighborhood on their dime) to let the bird in, even though he immediately pooped on her night stand then fell asleep after devouring some Captain Sam's Salmon Bites.

Dear David,

It's good to meet you and I'm really happy you wrote back! I heard Ravenclaw is the smart house, is that right? I don't know too much about that yet, just that there are four houses for people to live in while they go to school. Are they nice houses? I hope they are big enough and there are enough bathrooms, we have two and a half in my house and it's still not enough sometimes with me, and my four brothers, and my mom and dad. Isn't "two and a half bathrooms" a funny term? At first I thought it meant everything was cut in half in one, but it just means there's not a shower or a tub. My mum calls it a powder room sometimes, but that's kinda weird too. Anyway, I hope the houses are huge. I don't know about having to share a room with strangers, I hate sleeping in the dark and some people hate sleeping with a light on, and I want to get along with everyone. Plus I'm kind of messy and my brother Quincy, for example, is a real neat freak and that drives him crazy. Does it look like this at all? Those are our pets by the way, but I don't think Mum and Dad will let me bring them along.

Here, she sketched a castle with four tall houses arranged around it like a little town. She even included a sidewalk and driveways and shrubs like her own neighborhood. Getting into it, she added herself standing next to one of the houses, waving, with Colonel Mustard the cat and Sparrow the mastiff to either side of her, their names indicated with arrows pointing to their heads. She--and the pets--were a bit large for the scale of the drawing, and the castle was probably quite small when compared with the houses, but she was a kid after all.

I have been reading my textbooks and they're really interesting! Everything about Hogwarts sounds amazing. I'm really excited to learn to fly, I always have dreams about it. Is everybody really nice there? I'm going to miss my friends, I grew up with a lot of them. I'm not really afraid to meet new people, but I don't know what they'll be like. Maybe some of them are a little nervous, too.

She paused, and considered erasing that last bit. Not having known David long--if one letter exchange even counted as long--it seemed almost personal to let on that she was nervous. But, she left it, figuring she hadn't admitted to losing sleep over it a few times. It really hurt to leave her old friends behind with barely an explanation. They all knew and accepted her obsession with Happy Little Horses, her insecurities over being alone in the dark, her appetite for nearly anything made with potatoes... In the end, she left it, since she really did want to know what type of reception she might expect.

I've never thought about writing poetry! I'm not very good at it, but I'll try....

There once was a girl named Norie,
And if you listen I'll tell you her story.
She got herself grounded,
But found a way around it,
Now things might never get boring!

Okay, so I know it doesn't quite rhyme at the end, but I gave it a shot. Maybe I'll have time to think of a better one by the time you write back. Will you send me one of yours?

Oh, one more thing! Is the food good? And should I bring a flashlight in case I want to get a turkey sandwich from the fridge for a midnight snack? It helps me sleep (because of the triptoefan... I don't know how to spell it but it makes you sleepy) and I don't know if there are nightlights in the hall like we have at home.

Your friend,
Norie

(no problem at all, thank you so much! (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wub.gif) )

[David Roiben]

Dear Norie,

It’s not a problem at all! I’m not too big on sleeping, anyway. Yeah, Ravenclaw is generally the house for the smarter folks, but not everybody always fits the stereotype of their house. I know some Gryffindors, for instance, who are terribly afraid of the Forbidden Forest (that’s this forest near the school that we’re not supposed to enter, because there are lots of dangerous creatures and the like). And when they say houses, that’s not quite what they mean. The houses of Hogwarts are more like… families, I guess. Each house has a common room, where everyone can just hang out, a few bathrooms, and then dorms, one per gender per year. So if you were sorted, let’s say, into Hufflepuff, then you would share a dorm (it’s like a really big bedroom) with all of the other Hufflepuff 1st year girls. And there are torches spread all over the castle, so it never really gets dark. There’s no electricity, though, so nightlights wouldn’t work, anyway.

He looked at her drawing. Apparently, she had some pets, whose names were Colonel Mustard and Sparrow. He could tell because they were labeled quite clearly. But she didn’t quite get the whole “house” concept.

That’s not quite how it works. Like I said above, they aren’t really houses. The Ravenclaw and Gryffindor dorms are both in towers, and the Hufflepuff and Slytherin dorms are supposedly in the dungeons, but I’ve never actually seen the entrances to those two. But in terms of your drawing,

He pulled out another piece of parchment and his copy of Hogwarts, a History and began to sketch a more accurate version of the school, labeling everything he could remember.

It’s really more like this. There are five towers, the Headmaster’s tower, the Ravenclaw Tower, the Gryffindor Tower, the North Tower, where the Divination classroom is, the Astronomy Tower, and the West Tower, which is the Owlery. It will all make much more sense when you see it for yourself.

The textbooks are amazing, and first year is great, because everything is so new. Anyway, I’ve got to go to sleep now. Feel free to write back, and I will respond in the morning.
Good night,
David

PS: The food is delicious, but no midnight snacks. There’s a curfew.

Quickly, he sealed up the two parchments, gave them to the owl, and collapsed on his bed.

[Alfanora March]

Dear David,

I'm sorry it's been a few days since I've written, but Mum was up and about when I got your reply, so I had to send the owl away. I told it to come back later, but I really didn't think it was going to after a couple days. But then a different one brought me a flyer from a shop where I put my name down on the mailing list, so now I'm back in business!

I did a little bit more reading since I wrote last, and I understand a little bit better about the Houses now. Your picture makes it so much easier to understand though! Why do you think they put the Slytherins and Hufflepuffs in the dungeons? I hope I can stay in one of the towers!! Dungeons are usually damp and dark, and even if there are torches everywhere like you say, it doesn't seem like it would ever be really bright there. No electricity seems like a bummer, but maybe I can get Quincy (that's one of my brothers) to record my shows and catch up on them while I'm on break. There are probably enough things to read and do at Hogwarts to keep me busy, but if I always have to go to a place that most castles consider jail all the time, it's going to be weird.

You said you aren't big on sleeping, does it make you nervous to not see what's in the dark too? I have trouble sleeping sometimes unless the light stays on. But sometimes it helps a lot to sleep because then I'm not thinking about what might be in the dark to get me. Well, not completely, sometimes I have nightmares which makes sleep seem really bad, then I'm up the rest of the night. I guess at least if I was stuck in the dungeons all the time there would be other people around, so I might not be the first person a monster would eat. Monsters like variety, you know, and I don't have a lot of meat on my bones. Maybe they would pick the fatter kids first.

It's too bad about there being a curfew, but I guess I'm not really surprised. There are always rules, rules, rules. I don't get why there are so many rules in the world! It's so much easier to break them by accident. Have you ever gotten in trouble for anything at Hogwarts? I've had to write a lot of lines and stay after class at my old school. If you break enough rules, do they make you leave the towers and live in one of the dungeon Houses? I don't think it works like that but I don't really know for sure; I don't want to get moved around for bad behavior or anything. It's hard enough to sleep in a new place until you're familiar with it.

I can't write anymore right now, Mum wants me to go grocery shopping with her, but I'll send this letter now in case I don't have a chance later. Sorry for cutting off like this!

Norie

[David Roiben]

Hey, Norie!
Sorry I haven’t written in a while. Life’s been pretty hectic around here, I’ve been hanging out with friends and the like.

If I’m not mistaken, the four founders of Hogwarts, after whom the four houses are named, chose the location of and constructed their own house’s common rooms. So it would seem that Helga Hufflepuff and Salazar Slytherin felt more comfortable underground, and therefore constructed their dorms there.

Dark doesn’t make me nervous at all, but it’s never really dark at school. There are candles everywhere, which gives the school a sort of glow. It’s kind of cool, actually. But there are no monsters here. Not that I know of, at least. I think way back in the early 1990’s, there was some sort of big snake roaming around, but that Harry Potter killed it. And there might be monsters in the Forbidden Forest- that’s this huge forest on the edge of the grounds where we’re not allowed to go- but you aren’t supposed to go there anyway, so that shouldn’t be a problem.

I, luckily, have never gotten in trouble at school. The only thing that can happen if you get in trouble is that you’ll lose house points and maybe get detention. House points are a big deal, though. There’s this big competition, and the house with the most points wins, and there’s a big trophy, and yeah. It’s a big deal.

Again, that’s not quite how houses work. At the beginning of your first year, there’s this really awesome magical hat, and he looks into your brain to decide which house you belong in. And then he announces it to everyone, and you go sit with your house, and that’s your house for the entire time you’re in school. For life, really.

Anyway, I really must be going. Feel free to write back if you have any more questions.

David

[Alfanora March]

Hi David!

Gosh… I really guess I’d better start paying more attention to the history portions of my textbooks, I had the whole wrong impression of things all around. I’m not really sure how anyone might feel more comfortable underground than out in the open, but I guess if they got to choose where their house went, it makes it a lot better than thinking they were banished to the dungeons. But I bet you can see how I’d think that, right! So many castles use their dungeons as a bad place, it only seemed logical to me. But there must be something good about it, or they wouldn’t have picked there. Maybe they were both afraid of heights and wanted to stay away from the towers!

Also, I’ve been thinking a lot about what you said. I’ve always thought monsters had to be in dark places and at night, but the things you are telling me seem to go against that. Like if Harry Potter (I know who he is! I read about him!) fought a big snake (and that sounds like a monster to me!) inside the castle (and you say there are always candles and torches!) then maybe it isn’t the dark exactly?

And then you said about how there’s a Forbidden Forest and if there are monsters in there, it can’t be the dark that makes them exist because it can’t be dark all the time. I mean, it can’t be NIGHT all the time, there are probably shadows and stuff, but it’s still got to be daytime in the daytime. And I bet the monsters don’t just disappear and reappear based on the time of day because that would be impossible! At least I think it would be.

So all this time, I’ve been thinking it had to be dark for monsters to come out, but maybe I shouldn’t be so afraid when the sun goes down, just because the sun went down. My brothers got me scared of the dark when I was little because they told me monsters would get me in the dark. I guess I’m getting a little old for that, anyway.

It sounds amazing to get Sorted. If I get into Ravenclaw, do you think we could be friends? I’d love to be friends even if I don’t get in Ravenclaw, if you wouldn’t mind that I was in a different house. The House Points thing sounds exciting and competitive, too! I’d love to help my house win a big trophy, I’ve never won a for-real trophy in my life! Even though I’m sure I can’t take it home, I bet my mum and dad would be really proud I helped win it.

I think I’m going to try and get over being afraid of the dark before I get Sorted. I really don’t want the other kids to think I’m a baby over it. And thank YOU for not calling me a baby over it. I’ve been feeling bad about it lately and you gave me a boost. Why have I been afraid at night when I’m perfectly okay during the day? I’m not afraid of monsters then, because I’ve never seen one. And I’ve never really seen one in the dark, either.

Thanks again, David—you don’t even know how much you helped me!!!!

Ever thankful,
Norie

[David Roiben]

Dear Norie,

Don’t worry about it. Most kids never read the history books, because they think history is “boring.” Oh, how wrong they are. History is tied for my very favorite class, right up there with astronomy. But I think only kings and other rulers would have used their dungeons as prisons, because other people would have had nobody to put there, right? You can’t have just anybody throwing people in jail because they don’t like them.

Harry fought the snake in the castle, yes, but supposedly he fought it in a place that wasn’t even supposed to exist, something called the Chamber of Secrets. So there probably isn’t very much late there, since it’s all secretive and hidden and the like. But I’ve never been in the Chamber of Secrets (you need to have this special power that lets you talk in the language of snakes, and it’s not learn-able. You have to be born with it or something), so I wouldn’t really know.

I’d be happy to be your friend, regardless of where you’re sorted. Enjoy your little bit of rules-free freedom before school, and see you in September!

You’re ever so welcome,
David

(I almost signed that with my real name. Oops.)

[Alfanora March]

Norie had a lot to think about during her correspondence with David. For one thing, just his telling her his favorite classes had piqued her interest. Her primary school had never offered astronomy, and despite her nervousness over night time, she had a distinct interest in finding out what else there may be in the big, wide universe. If she was going to be a sky pirate, there would inevitably be times she would have to fly at night, so she should start getting used to the stars and moving around when it was dark instead of sticking just to the daylight hours.

As she got ready to reply to the latest letter, Norie decided to take her pen pal’s words to heart. Holding her breath, she turned off the bedside lamp and managed eight whole seconds in the dark before her heart started pounding and she was pretty sure she was hearing a monster’s breath from one corner. With the light back on, she realized it had probably just been her own scared breathing, because it hadn’t stopped when the dark went away, just seemed less menacing.

This was probably going to take some time, but Norie endeavored to be over her silly, little-kid fear before summer was over. In fact, in her next reply to David, she told him of her plans to start working on it, and thanked him again. She wanted to let someone know her intentions so she’d be motivated to face the beast.

(LOL!!! I almost do that with PMs ALL the time. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/tongue.gif) ))