byericacameron replied to your post “byericacameron replied to your post “new original story idea hit this...”
That's the best kind of story, I think. They're so fun to write! At least until you start adding too many subplots and make it WAY too complicated... but that might just be my problem. ;)
yehhh cuz everybody's clamouring for attention right now. and i'm just over here like calm the frak down! lol
byericacameron replied to your post“byericacameron replied to your post:For your HP AU, I want to see more...”
THE TAGS! I love them. I don't know what it was about that last section, but it really made me wonder about how they all became friends & who knew who before school started & how they all connected & found the room of requirement & ALL THE THINGS
i'm not sure it's anything special, but i have these things planned :3
For your HP AU, I want to see more of Ty & Zane's relationship and also how Zane fits into the group. LOVING this AU, btw!!!
“You nervous?”
“No?”
“Good. Me neither.”
Zane shot a concerned glance at Ty from the corner of his eye. Ty ran his tongue over his teeth and grinned nervously at Zane.
“Ty, I know your friends” Zane said carefully. “They know me, it’s not like a real introduction, just… getting to know each other better. It’s going to be okay.”
“I know.” Ty nodded and failed another attempt at a confident smile. “I’m calm. We’re just gonna have some fun.”
“Right.” Zane smirked and looked around on the corridor. “So where is this place?” He didn’t see any doors. Ty patted his hip and motioned for Zane to follow him.
“Just a second.”
As Zane scanned the corridor for anything resembling an entrance, a door started to form on the wall next to them. “You’re kidding me.” He mouthed and stared at Ty in awe. “You’ve found the room of requirement?! You use the room of requirement. Regularly? Oh my God, this is the best thing ever.”
“We call it r&r for short. Don’t geek out on me now, Garrett.” Ty grinned and gestured at the door with flourish. Zane elbowed him and hurried to the door, not bothering to conceal his excitement. He read about the room years ago, and there were times he tried to find it, but as the sources weren’t sure it even existed, he gave up soon. And now he was standing before its entrance. He pushed the handle down and entered with Ty on his heels.
The room was spacious with pillars holding up the high ceiling. On the right side, the walls were covered with mirrors and the floor with mats. The wall opposite them were made entirely of glass, looking at a scenery Zane was sure he’d never seen from the school. Also it was late afternoon when they met with Ty a few minutes ago, but the windows showed a golden dawn. In the farther left corner were puffs, blankets hanging from the ceiling like curtains, rugs and a fireplace, and most likely Sidewinder too, hidden by the blankets.
“So this is…”
“Our version of it, anyway.” Ty nodded and closed the door behind him. “We’ve been making changes, adding and taking for about five years now. By the time we leave Hogwarts, it’ll be perfect.” He barked a laugh and he sounded a bit bitter. Zane looked at him fondly. Ty, Nick and Eli had one more year in school, Kelly, Digger and Owen had two, while it was the last one for Zane. He had been so determined before Ty, to finish school and get a job at the ministry, but now he thought he’d be happy to spend one more year there.
“Ty?” Nick poked his head out from the corner. “What are you doing here?”
“Brought Zane to a practice? Like we agreed?”
Nick stalked closer, frowning hard. “No, Ty, what are you doing here? You should be in the basement. Because of your disastrous work in our latest potions class?”
The colour drained from Ty’s face in a second.
“Shit, I completely forgot. I…”
He turned to Zane, finding him looking at Ty expectantly. “You should hurry.”
“Will you be okay?”
“Oh my God, Ty.” Nick grunted and shoved Ty towards the door. “We’re not gonna kill him, for Christ’s sake, go to your class! Come on, Garrett.”
Before Ty could say another word, Nick grabbed Zane’s elbow and pulled him towards the curtained corner. Zane grinned back at Ty and mouthed “good luck”, then disappeared behind the blankets. Ty smiled at the sounds of cheering, Kelly being the loudest, and slipped out through the door. When he looked back from the end of the corridor there was nothing in the wall.
To be honest, Zane was a bit shocked when he saw the Sidewinder-corner. As he thought about it, he realised he really shouldn’t have been, because of course a team like Sidewinder would have a proper meeting place. The fireplace, rugs and puffs he saw from the entrance, but as he turned the corner, he was faced with two worn couches, an armchair, a short table almost collapsing under food and drinks and the team members sprawled on the couches, greeting him with lazy waves and grins. Nick patted his shoulder and left him standing in favour of getting the armchair for himself. Eli grunted and sat up, kicking Kelly so he’d do the same and gestured Zane to sit down between them.
“Welcome to our humble home” Kelly said as he reached for a bowl of cookies on the table that he thrust at Zane, who was still in a state of awe, looking around with his mouth open. Kelly turned so he had his back against the arm of the couch and his feet propped on the side of Zane’s thigh, then grabbed a few cookies from the bowl in Zane’s lap.
“It’s all our doing.” He waved around, sending crumbs of the cookie flying onto the rugs. “When I got here all there was those bookshelves you see – Lucky’s idea – the fireplace and a couch. And the mats over there with the mirrors.”
“How does this room work, anyway?” Zane asked, frowning. He doubted bringing in all this stuff in would’ve gone unnoticed in the school.
“Things started to appear.” Nick answered and sank further into the armchair. ”Things we needed. It took us a while to realize that whatever we thought about would appear. Well, almost everything.”
“I’m still waiting for my hydroplane,” Kelly interjected.
“Yeah, right. Sometimes it took longer, like it’d appear next time we came here, for example these blankets we hung as curtains… I brought most of the books. Kelly was bringing food, but after a while his house elf friends started taking care of it, so now he doesn’t have to sneak around anymore.”
“The décor is teamwork” Eli added, pointing at the walls, that were covered in newspaper articles, photographs, moving or still, of them and of people Zane knew from school, of people he’s never seen, posters of Quidditch players and teams, posters of their house teams. The Slytherin team was there too, including Zane and it took him a minute to realize it must be because of Owen. It felt weird, seeing himself on the wall that represented Sidewinder’s life. He forced himself to look away from the photo.
“And what’s that?”
Among the paper cutouts was a much bigger, metal board painted green with the words “Jacksonville” and “City limit” written on it. Owen started chuckling.
“Digger spent a summer in America. Came back with this and put it up here.”
“We still don’t know why.”
“It looks good, though.”
“Yeah, it does.”
Zane glanced at Digger, but the guy just winked at him and didn’t seem like he wanted to give any explanation. Zane decided not to inquire further. And frankly, he was afraid to even ask about the meter tall Hogwarts model in the corner, beside the fireplace. He leaned back and continued with the examination of the wall. Digger and Owen soon began talking quietly on the other couch, Nick started reading a book, Eli seemingly fell asleep and Kelly was eating at approximately two cookie per minute. Zane started to suspect that the only reason Kelly gave him the bowl was that it’d be closer to him. It all seemed a bit too lazy for an infamous group like Sidewinder.
“Is this how you practice?”
“I just kicked their asses, give them some time.” Kelly snickered.
“He did not kick our asses.” Owen snapped and glared at him. Kelly just took another bite from the cookie in his hand.
“I kind of did.”
“We’re practicing the patronus charm” Nick explained as he put his book down and poured himself water in a cup. “Have been for the past few days. So far Kelly’s the only one who can conjure a whole-bodied patronus and keep it up. It’s pretty discouraging. You want to try it?”
Zane was already shaking his head. “I’ve tried it a few times myself, it… wasn’t really fruitful.”
“You’re not alone” Nick shrugged and stood up. “Ty and Eli were almost able to make theirs take form once, but Owen only got some mist and Digger’s is a big cloud of smoke.”
“I think his is supposed to be that.” Owen said and grinned at Digger. “A cloud of smoke, like one you get after an explosion. That’s his meta form.”
“Damn right, brother.” They knocked their knuckles together, the Digger got up too, walking beside Nick.
“Maybe Garrett’s presence will lift our spirits enough to make something appear.”
They were just standing there, though, none of them willing to cast a spell first, then Kelly stretched, got his wand out and with a lazy flick and a murmured spell, a small, silvery ferret shot out from the tip of his wand and started running in circles around them. Zane started at him. Kelly made it seem so easy and judging by his grin, he was enjoying showing off.
“Not helping, Kels.”
“Zen, Irish, Zen,” Kelly said, imitating Ty, “Just think of your happiest memories. Think about the time Zane charmed Ty’s hair blond. That’s my go to memory.”
Nick snorted, but didn’t make any attempts to conjure anything. “Garrett, give it a go?”
“I’m not gonna go first,” Zane laughed and pointed at Eli, who raised an eyebrow at him, then pulled his wand out from his pocket and pointed it forward. “Expecto patronum!”
A large cloud of silvery mist burst out from his wand and shot out towards the opposite wall, then around the room as Eli guided it with his wand. It didn’t have a concrete form, but Zane thought he could make out four legs and maybe a tail, but the rest was just a glowing, swirling mess. Then Kelly’s ferret patronus jumped on it and it dissolve into air. They all glared at Kelly, who was sprawled on the couch, watching them with his head hanging upside down from the armrest. He grinned sheepishly, then sat up in one swift motion, made the patronus disappear and went to the Hogwarts model to gather his live ferret, that apparently just woke up and was watching the scene excitedly.
“Okay guys,” Nick clapped to get their attention, “Let’s get started.”
byericacameron replied to your post: byericacameron replied to your photo: ...
Wow. At least you live pretty close to one of the “escape routes”? I hope it doesn’t get that bad!
True! But if they do close them, we're just stuck here, no matter how close we may be. When I say "escape routes", I mean those are the only way out, ever. This neighbourhood was not planned so well. XD
Then again, during the last ice storm at one point the entire city was isolated. Montreal is an island, and they'd closed every bridge in and out because of the ice, and closed the emergency helipads and the airport. So there was just no way in or out at all, even for the military support they were trying to send in.
It's like the opening of a fucking zombie apocalypse novel. This is why I get so stressed out when we have freezing rain problems!
byericacameron replied to your photo: “Flashbacks to 1998… It looks pretty but it’s scary as fuck”:
Stay safe!!
Thanks. So far our power is stable, and we've got a regular fireplace and a wood-stove if we need it. My biggest concern right now is that this neighbourhood is surrounded by train tracks, and there are literally only two exits, and they're both underpasses. When the weather gets really bad, they sometimes close them for safety reasons. The red star is my house, and the two yellow hexagons are literally the only "escape routes" from that huge loop of railroads. I'm not even sure I'll be able to get to work tomorrow.
braidedribbon replied to your photo: “Flashbacks to 1998… It looks pretty but it’s scary as fuck”:
be safe
Thank you! ;_;
kaisular replied to your photo: “Flashbacks to 1998… It looks pretty but it’s scary as fuck”:
Why are we still dependent on an electrical grid for heat/refrigeration?
