All Creatures Great And Small

Howard Ulysses Strout // 16 // 5th Year Hufflepuff // Care of Magical Creatures Enthusiast // Professional Little Brother "No act of kindness, no matter how small, is ever wasted."

[howardstrout-blog]

Please Feed The Animals || Dorcas & Howard

[dorcasmeadowsx]

Despite Dorcas’s calm and collected demeanour, she couldn’t help but let a sigh of relief go once Dorcas released that he was pleasant. Dorcas didn’t think she could handle it if she got paired up with someone rude or ignorant. Instead, it was a pleasure to have to accompany this younger boy to feed the Hippogriffs. Letting out a little laugh at him dropping his hand into the feed. She smiled, reaching out her own hand to shake his. Shrugging off his incident with a small shake of her head. 

In her third year, Dorcas had given up Care of Magical Creatures, she wasn’t so good with the care or actual surrounding the animals. It wasn’t that she didn’t like them. But it was as if they could sense her fear. Hippogriffs were massive. One of them could probably eat Dorcas in a whole. It was interesting how this boy took time out to go feed them. “Hippogriff feeding? I suppose you like animals then?” She inquired, turning her head to face him with a raise of an eyebrow. “I’ve never been too good with them. Maybe I’m a bit scared of them…I suppose.”

[howardstrout-blog]

If Howard had known Dorcas a little better, he would have laughed in her face at the suggestion that he merely liked animals. Howard lived and breathed animals. They were usually one of the first things that he thought about when he woke up in the morning and they were the last thing that crossed his mind before he fell asleep. “Yeah, you could say that.”

Howard began the long walk to the Hippogriff pen, assuming that Dorcas would follow him. “Oh, Hippogriffs are fine as long as you know what you’re doing. They’re very honourable creatures, you see, and they get really annoyed if they think you’re being rude. But you just have to know what to do.” he explained, not even pausing to take a breath. “When you approach it, you just have to bow slowly and then wait for it to bow back and then you can approach and feed it. Although, these ones know me so well that sometimes they just run straight over to the feed bucket without even letting me bow.”

[alice-felicite-fortescue]

Strout Sixteen | Alice & Howard

[alice-felicite-fortescue]

Alice watched Howard as he gazed at the scene before him, she wanted to remember every detail of his facial expression so she could describe it in a letter to Miriam later. She was so pleased that he looked so happy. She was yet to see if he thought everything was perfect, but at least she hadn’t screwed it up.

“Yeah, I did,” she said in response to Howard’s question. She then looked to the other side of the room, where the house elves were, and added “ok I had a bit of help, but I was part of the process.” She had wanted to make the cake herself, as Miriam had always done, but she wasn’t a very good baker and her first attempt had turned out terribly. So together, she and a few of the house elves had made another cake.

She turned back to the table she had set up, waiting for Howard to notice the presents. She’d wrapped most of them herself and stacked them in the way she thought would be most visually appealing. She could tell how shocked he was, and it made her happy that she was able to surprise him even after all these years.

“Well, they’re not all from me,” she said and moved closer to the table. “These two here are from Miriam. And this one’s from your parents. But the rest of them, yeah, they’re from me.”

[howardstrout-blog]

Howard figured that ‘part of the process’ likely meant that Alice’s role in the cake baking had began and ended and tasting, with possibly a bit of watching. He decided not to voice that thought, however, not wanting her to think that he didn’t appreciate everything that she had done for him, on this birthday and the five beforehand. “It looks lovely.” he reiterated. “Thanks, Alice.”

Howard gazed over the vast (or, at least, it was to him) pile of presents that had been carefully laid out on the table. Howard could just imagine Alice painstakingly shifting each box just a few inches to the left or to the right or back a bit, in order to get the display just right. Had the young Strout been in charge, he would have just thrown them all in a pile and called it a ‘cluttered aesthetic’. 

He approached the table and could already tell which one’s weren’t from Alice without her even saying so. Miriam’s were typically overdone, with her trademark forty-line card accompanying both of hers, as well as the bows on top having had more work put into them than the Mona Lisa. His parents’ one, meanwhile, was a lot more messy, and Howard could tell that his mother had done the rather slapdash wrapping job, instantly recognisable from years of Christmas mornings and his younger birthdays. 

“Jesus H. Merlin. How much did--?” Howard cut himself off just before he finished the question, the voices of all of his family reminding him how rude it was to ask such a thing. “Thank you, Alice. Seriously. It’s...wow.” He allowed a pause, before, “Can I open one?”

[fayecallaghan]

“I guess that’s why most people stay away from them,” Faye said. It seemed stupid to her, the person was going to die whether their family knew about it or not. “Why would he do that? Did he want to know he was going to die before he did or something? It seems like a weird thing to have fifty of.”

“Is that what you’d do if you thought you had become a ghost? Try to walk through walls and shit?”

[howardstrout-blog]

“Well, his name was Uric the Oddball. Kind of comes with the title, I guess.” At least, Howard was fairly certain that was his name. God, he was going to get a Troll in History of Magic, he just knew it. “They are kind of pretty. Maybe they were for decoration?”

“Well, I think you can shit whether or not you’re a ghost.” Howard retorted with a slight smile, completely unaware that he had just sworn in (relatively) polite company. In fact, he had noticed himself cursing a bit more recently and he didn’t mean the sort of way that would get him an A in Defence Against the Dark Arts. There was a good joke about the dangers of befriending the Scottish and Irish in there somewhere. “I’d probably try and scare my friends first. Move things around and freak them out. Rattle my chains, go boo. Things like that.”

[alittlebellatrix-deactivated201]

“Is it even remotely helpful?” James asked, tilting his head to the side before he burst into hysterical laughter, trying not to make his stomach hurt. “Or is she trying to tell you something?”

[howardstrout-blog]

Howard made a variety of noises as he tried to think of any real positive part of the book, but he eventually conceded with, “No, not really. It mostly just tells me stuff that I already know. Like make sure you’re in a quiet space and you switch off your TV. Which I will do if I can even find one.” 

“No, if she was trying to tell me something, she’d just send me a four-page letter lecturing me on the importance of OWLs and studying and whatever. In fact, you should probably be studying right now, James, even if the exams are postponed. Your NEWTs are actually pretty important.”

[ascendio-rp]

“That’s the thing,” Lucinda frowned, tone growing more sarcastic the longer she spoke. “I don’t have to worry about supporting my family if I marry into the Black family. The only thing that’ll be expected of me is my having a son and taking on the role of the doting wife.”

“I wouldn’t be surprised,” She shrugged. “The castle is too large to not have a few hidden passageways or underground rooms no one knows about.”

[howardstrout-blog]

“Oh. Right.” Howard replied in a near monotone. He did genuinely want to help with Lucinda’s unfortunate situation but he had run out of ideas, and so instead simply offered, “That’s rough.”

“Maybe if we ask really nicely, the castle will let us use one of them? I’ve always had this theory that it’s at least semi-sentient.” 

[proudtraitor-deactivated2016120]

“Really?” Arthur gave a small laugh, straightening up where he sat. “I’ll bear that in mind next time I hurt myself. I don’t think this is serious anyway, I can limp down to the hall at least.” He let his ankle go, though it still throbbed the pain had lessened significantly. He wasn’t quite sure if walking on it yet would help to get past it or only make things worse, though he had no idea if Howard knew much about sprained ankles so it seemed redundant to ponder out loud. Curiosity did catch him as the other boy spoke, however, an eyebrow raising in question as he looked up. “What’d she keep you in overnight for anyway?” 

[howardstrout-blog]

Howard glanced down to the end of the hall, mentally measuring the distance in his mind. “Yeah, I’d say so. You should probably wait until everybody’s gone, though. It’s a good thing you’re not in Ravenclaw or you’d have to hobble up all those stairs to get to your common room.” Howard smiled, noting the house colours on the other boy’s tie. 

Howard leaned against the wall, recalling the memory that was pretty firmly etched into his mind. “I fell down one of the moving staircases in first year and cut my knee open. Of course, I know now that it was fine and would’ve just healed on its own. But, instead of just going back to the common room and putting ice on it or something, I ran bawling to Madame Pomfrey and...well, then she thought it might have been infected, so she had to keep me in overnight and then people started sending me flowers and get well soon cards and...” He stopped himself, now aware that he was rambling a little. “Just make absolutely sure that it’s something that can’t be fixed with a spell or just lying down before you go to the hospital wing.”

[wariswonhq]

“Only if you want to,” Ted grinned and nodded. “I don’t know how good of a teacher I’d be, but we’re going to need replacements for the team once everyone graduates so you should give flying a try.”

Ted wasn’t even sure how Quidditch was going to work for the next term, but he was planning on playing whether the school wanted him or not. He just felt bad knowing that his replacement captain would be starting a term later. “It wouldn’t be any trouble,” He shook his head. “It’s not like I’ve exams or anything to study for. And that’s a good enough excuse to get on a broom again without risking upsetting the professors.

[howardstrout-blog]

“That’s true, I guess.” Howard shrugged and glanced towards the wall. Howard knew damn well that he would never be good enough to get on one of the under-eleven teams, let alone a Hogwarts house one. Still, it wouldn’t hurt to have some flying ability. It might come in handy one day. 

“That’s true too!” Howard replied, perking up a little. The second that he had heard of all the exams being postponed, he had dropped all of his studying materials as fast as possible. He was probably going to regret that later, but that was a problem for future Howard. “Uh...where would we train, though? I don’t even think we’re allowed outside right now, are we?”

[thefabone-deactivated20230103]

Lucius took a deep breath, silently preparing to berate the younger student for answering a question that didn’t require a reply. He frowned a little when the answer never came, having been somewhat excited about starting with someone.

“Sure you do,” Lucius rolled his eyes. The idea of further teasing the boy came to mind, but Lucius wasn’t feeling like taking things further. He took a deep breath and glanced at Howard. “It makes sense,” He shrugged. “Maybe you should write her and see if she got the dates confused.”

[howardstrout-blog]

Howard chose not to dignify the sarcasm with a response, a technique that he had cultivated over many years of hanging out with people who used it like it was going out of fashion. 

“No, because if I do that, she’s just going to get mad and think that I don’t appreciate the gift, which I do, but...” He paused to think of an appropriately articulate response. “...I don’t, kind of. Yeah. I should probably write her a thank-you note, anyway. Otherwise my mum will send me a Howler again like last year.”

[alice-felicite-fortescue]

Strout Sixteen | Alice & Howard

[alice-felicite-fortescue]

Alice continued to eat the leftover cake batter until she noticed a house elf staring up at her, obviously waiting to clean the bowl. She passed it over, somewhat reluctantly, and the house elf rushed off to clean it. She put her head in her hand and closed her eyes. Right now, she was regretting getting up this early, but she knew that once she saw Howard she’d be happy she did. She wanted everything to be perfect, as impossible as that might be.

After sitting like that for a few minutes, Alice got up in a hurry and checked the table once again. Each present was wrapped and stacked neatly, just as she’d left it. The balloons were still perfectly inflated, and still yellow and black. The ‘happy birthday Howard’ banner hadn’t fallen down. Of course everything was just as she’d placed it, there was no reason it wouldn’t be, but she was determined to make everything perfect.

There was no one else in the kitchen, excluding the house elves, which was odd as normally she and Miriam would prepare together. Alice would bake the cake, Miriam would decorate. She had considered inviting Benjy, because he and Howard were friends too, but she was worried he’d be a bit too destructive. He tended to push Howard a little too far; she’d spent days trying to fix the watch Howard had been given last year after Benjy had convinced him to throw it off one of the towers. She made it work again, but hadn’t been able to fix the cracked screen.

Alice turned quickly as she heard the doors open, worried that Howard would see all the surprises too soon and worried that it would be someone else entirely. She giggled when she saw he’d covered his own eyes and made her way over to him. She wasn’t fast enough, though, and reached him just after he’d banged into the wall. “I’m here, I’m here,” she said and guided him over to the table. “Ok, you can open your eyes now.”

[howardstrout-blog]

Howard obliged and opened his eyes to the enchanting scene before him. He had to admit, he had been having his doubts about whether Alice could pull all of this off without his sister. To be honest, he had always thought that Miriam had been responsible for most of the displays that were usually thrown together for his birthday, especially the elaborate banners. Now that he was looking at everything that Alice had managed to do herself, he found himself wondering whether the elder Strout ever actually helped out at all in previous years.

Howard’s eyes immediately crossed to the rather inviting cake placed on the table, sixteen candles in it and everything, truly a marvel of culinary genius. And there was no way that Alice had actually managed to make his herself. His friend was incredible at many things but, at least as far as Howard had witnessed, baking was not one of them. Maybe Miriam had done something after all. “Did you make this?” he asked, even though he was already near certain of the answer.

The next thing that his eyes landed on was the veritable mountain of presents that had been provided, along with a strange dichotomy of emotion. Howard obviously felt overjoyed to have so many presents just for himself but he also felt terrible at the thought of how much money had been spent on him, without him having done anything to really deserve it. 

“Oh my God, Alice.” he managed to get out. “You didn’t have to get all of this stuff for me. I...wow.” 

[fayecallaghan]

“The Irish Phoenix is another name for it, yeah.” Faye didn’t understand why it was, it didn’t come back to life like a phoenix did or burst into flames, but she knew that was what some people called it. “No I didn’t know that. I know they sing when it’s about to rain, though.”

She noticed Howard back up, but she didn’t react. At this point in the conversation she didn’t take as much pleasure out of scaring the boy. “I don’t know if that’s what you actually meant or not, Howard, but I’ll let you away with it this time.”

[howardstrout-blog]

“Yeah, they used to think that the cry, like, foretold a death in the hearer’s family.” Howard replied. He then smiled as he thought of the next anecdote. “This wizard in the middle ages used to sleep with fifty of them and one day, they all started crying and he thought that he had died and was a ghost now, so he tried to run through a wall and knocked himself out!” 

“Uh...thanks?”

[fixedsigns-deactivated20170727]

“So much to think about, isn’t that true?” she agreed, her hand touching her temple. “I’m hoping for a little good news. Something. I trust Dumbledore to make the right decisions and keep us protected, but I could use a little happiness boost.”

Originally posted by zoe-kravitzdaily

[howardstrout-blog]

“Yeah, you’re telling me.” Howard agreed, feeling himself begin to sweat over the thought of everything that had happened recently. “That’s true. Dumbledore should give anyone thinking of attacking us second thoughts.” Howard hoped, anyway.

[proudtraitor-deactivated2016120]

On a usual day, Arthur wasn’t particularly self-conscious about the way he appeared to those around him. But he was sure he looked rather foolish sitting down at the side of a busy corridor, one ankle cradled in his hand. At least he’d managed to fall over before the last period had ended and everyone flooded into the corridors, though at least one person had to have seen his pathetic hobbling over to the bench. He did feel quite foolish, keeping his head cast down as if focusing on the way he rubbed his ankle – quite tender, certainly not a sprain and fine by morning but he was beginning to think he’d have to hop down to dinner. When he finally had the opportunity to get up, that was. Though glancing up he wasn’t sure whether that would be sooner or later. “-I just twisted it, better to wait it off than try limping through the crowd.”

[howardstrout-blog]

As Howard exited the Potions classroom, he mentally cursed whoever thought that putting his most hated subject at the end of the school day was in any way a good idea. That hour or so of standing over a cauldron and throwing ingredients in while it made bubbles or weird smells felt just as long as the rest of the day combined. Thank Merlin he could return to his dorm and forget everything that he had learned in peace. 

After wading his way through the hordes of fellow students for a minute, Howard stepped off to the side a little to rearrange the books that he was carrying, as Slughorn was particularly found of giving the young Strout all the old textbooks he didn’t want anymore, claiming they would ‘help’ him. Admittedly, he hadn’t even seen the other boy below him until he started speaking. 

“Oh. Right.” Howard replied. “You might want to put some ice on it or something. Don’t go to Madam Pomfrey’s unless it starts to turn purple, though. Otherwise she’ll just keep you in there overnight for nothing. I learned the hard way.” 

[benjybofenjy-deactivated2017022]

Benjy laughed heartily. “When I get my fight club started, you are the first person I want to see in the pit. You cheeky monkey.”

[howardstrout-blog]

“A...fight club? A. Fight. Club. A club specifically made...for fighting.”

“Please tell me that this is a really bad joke and not something that you are actively planning to do. Because I am not dragging your arse out of the fire again when one of the professors finds out.” 

[crownbrn-a-deactivated20220522]

“It’s pretty useful, if you’d ask me. Could help you a lot in the future.”

[howardstrout-blog]

“Yeah, I know, but...it’s just not the kind of thing that you really want to get on your birthday, you know?” 

“I’d just prefer some sweets or something, personally.”

[flower-of-slytherin]

“Is that your way of saying taking the piss, Howard?” She giggled. “Your middle name is Ulysses? I think it’s very distinguished.” However, she could see Benjy poking fun at Howards middle name just for the banter. 

“Listen to me, Howard. You’ll be fine. The only attacks were one on Mary and one on Isa. They’re both muggle-borns.” She chose not to mention them both also being Hufflepuffs.

[howardstrout-blog]

“Maybe.” he shrugged, before sighing with irritation at the mention of his much reviled middle name. “You mean you didn’t know? I thought that everyone had found out by now. One time I came into the dorm room and they had piled up about forty copies of Ulysses, the James Joyce book? Real funny.” 

“Yeah, and my mum’s a muggleborn. To some of these nutters, I’m just half muggle. In fact, my dad’s half-blood too, so that probably just makes me, like...three quarters muggle! Oh, Jesus.” 

[thefabone-deactivated20230103]

Lucius blinked, his eyebrows furrowing together. He could care less about the boy’s birthday and would have made it known if it weren’t for his not wanting to talk to people.

“Remind me why I care,” He murmured and shook his head, not giving him the chance to answer. “And you really ought to read through the tips. They are incredibly helpful for people who look like they have never stepped foot in the library.”

[howardstrout-blog]

Howard almost answered the other boy’s sort-of question, but then reminded himself that he likely didn’t actually want an answer. Knowing most Slytherins, he was probably just being mean.

“I go in the library.” That was only half-true. Howard only went in the library when exams were on the horizon and now that they had been postponed for a few more months, studying had been put on hold indefinitely. “And it’s not like I don’t appreciate it. It’s just...not very birthday-y. If that makes sense.”

[flower-of-slytherin]

“I lost my home, Howard.” She stated, as she looked up at her friend. Her eyes red from the tears that had been pouring from them. “My parents don’t want me to come home because of who I love. They don’t want me anymore unless I am with someone else. They didn’t want me to follow my heart. I have no family anymore, Howard. I lost my family because I love him.” 

[howardstrout-blog]

Oh, crap. This was actually something serious. Howard had just thought that Camellia had fallen over or gotten a bad grade on a test or something. This was, like, earth-shatteringly, life-endingly serious. He glanced behind him in the hopes of seeing someone who could actually comfort her, like a friend or a teacher. No such luck.

“Oh. That’s...wow, that’s just awful.” Howard offered, sitting down next to her. It was only after a few seconds of silence that he finally clocked that last word. “Who do you by ‘him’?”