[emma] the day fate begins

[ARYA GILLYWEED SPORE]

Arya had an idea to do something impractical. Something that probably wouldn't end up anywhere. No purpose. Fanciful thinking. A grand romantic gesture meant for books. In other words, right up her alley.

Imbued with emotions and equipped with poetic license, Arya sat down on a lone, clean stool in the owlery and started writing. She could've picked a better spot to write this one important letter, but there was something reassuring in the way her owl looked over every so often with a curious glance. At least something was witnessing this momentous occasion - importantly, though, it was something who couldn't glance at her writing and gossip about its content.

The letter started off a bit melodramatic and then turned pretentiously grand, filled with symbolic and philosophic allusions. Midway through, Arya felt stupid and crumpled it up with a scowl. She set about writing something much more humble and simplistic.

Midway through that though, she realized that if she were to bare her soul, she could at least do it with proper spelling. Looking up to see if anyone else was in the owlery, she realized that someone was, although they were partially blocked from view by a bunch of owls.

"How do you spell "vicariously"?" she asked aloud.

[BRETT AINSLEY DuPONT]

Brett wasn't always fond of the owlery. It smelled sometimes and was always full of feathers and bird droppings. It wasn't so much that she had anything against owls, or was a fussy person, but over the past few years she'd worked her summers at a pet store and cleaning bird cages was her least favorite task. The owlery was like a giant birdcage at the top of an annoyingly long tower of stairs. But she still needed to send letters like anyone else.

At the moment she was just writing to her folks back home how much she missed muggle mail systems and how the year was going fine so far. It had just started, the newbies had been sorted and Quidditch tryouts were coming up and she planned to be on the team again.

Then someone shouted out asking how to spell something and Brett turned around as she released her owl. There was a girl sitting calmly, presumably the one who had just asked for spelling tips. Her robes were outlined in blue and Brett laughed and shook her head.

"You're asking me? You're the Ravenclaw." She said, prancing over to the girl. "Wizards need spellcheck, are there spellchecking quills? I gotta get me some..." She mused. Being a half blood meant she flip flopped between worlds even more than some others.

[ARYA GILLYWEED SPORE]

Well of course there were self-correcting quills, but it took Arya a moment to remember that because the term 'spellcheck' (which she had never heard) threw her off. But she didn't normally need those and they weren't allowed on exams anyway, so she never saw the point of getting them. What struck Arya more than the suggestion, though, was the girl's phrasing.

"'Wizards need'?" Arya repeated. "What do you mean "wizards need", don't you go to school here?" Didn't the girl count herself as part of the magical community?

And now that Arya really leaned to one side to see this strange person, she was distracted entirely by the fact that this girl's hair was very, very red. And the first thing that came to mind was that this girl must be a Gryffindor, because it felt like that's where most gingers ended up. Upon closer inspection, Arya realized that she knew this girl. At least insofar as to recognize that they were the same age, had at least one class together, and her name started with a 'b' ...

[BRETT AINSLEY DuPONT]

Brett laughed. "Yeah I go to school here." She pointed to the Gryffindor crest on her robes. "I'm just a halfblood and spend lots of time in the muggle universe." She said, not caring if she had a thing against muggle borns or not. There were rumors of gangs of people lashing out against muggles again, and slytherins were always very pure of mind. But Voldemort was long gone, a topic for the history books, so Brett never worried about her mixed blood.

Brett noticed she was looking at her hair and shying away from her. "I don't bite you know." She said arching and eyebrow at the girl. Brett wasn't harmless, but she wasn't a biter like many of the birds in here were. This Ravenclaw was rather a curious person..."And its not natural, I dye it... well I used to, but now I know a spell for it." She smiled, raking a hand through her vibrant hair.

"So vicariously?" Brett asked, harkening back to the first comment. She used her finger to trace letters in the sawdust, trying to pick out the correct letters.

[ARYA GILLYWEED SPORE]

"Strange." Arya said with a small smile. "I thought wizards and muggles were part of the same universe." Of course, she couldn't resist being a smartass. Not even with a new person.

And suddenly she remembered the girl's name was Brett, which Arya always found interesting. Was it a muggle thing? Androgynous names? Then again Arya had a middle name she never uttered aloud outside of home, so maybe she shouldn't be talking. Or, um, thinking.

So in Arya's mind, Brett went from being a random Gryffindor girl to girl of mixed blood origin, with artificially colored hair who didn't bite. All the things you can learn in under a minute, Arya thought. "It's lovely." she said, referring to the hair color. At the same time, she was thinking about all the things her grandmother said about women who color their hair. Arya's grandmother had very specific views.

"Oh! Nevermind. It just came to me." Arya said, resuming her letter. She wrote down that one word though, because now the awareness of Brett in the owlery was distracting her literary expression. Plus there was the potential for further conversation. So Arya looked up.

[BRETT AINSLEY DuPONT]

Brett chuckled. "You got spunk ravenclaw, I'll give you that." Bit of a smart ass, but Brett rather liked it. She looked a little familiar now and she was trying to place how she knew her, or if they just passed in the hallway a lot. she wasn't such a rockstar with names.

Brett didn't know if the compliment was genuine, but she didn't care, the color suited her and gave her even more house pride. All in all, it was attention getting and she liked it. Brett liked being noticed, it never bothered her.

"Do we have a class together? You look really familiar. I'm bullox with names."Brett said, hopping up onto a relatively clean crate and swinging her feet. Brett was rather short, but that also didn't bother her: small and mighty and whatnot.

[ARYA GILLYWEED SPORE]

Arya didn't know what spunk was. Her limited knowledge of the muggle world led her to believe it was a genre of music. Whatever it was, Brett said it in a good natured fashion, so Arya didn't think she was just insulted or anything.

"We probably do ..." Arya conceded, but the moment she actually rattled her brain, it immediately came to her. "Transfiguration." That's what it was. Gryffindors and Ravenclaws had Transfiguration together. And Arya remembered clearly that Brett here sat on the other side of the classroom with other Gryffindor friends. Just this week there was an incident involving a tarantula being only partially transfigured into a ink pot, and it ran around the classroom leaving spots everywhere.

"And my name's Arya." Some of her professors knew her in relation to her more famous grandfather, but her classmates normally didn't care for academic notoriety.

[BRETT AINSLEY DuPONT]

Brett smiled. Transfiguration. That was a fun class, though care of magical creatures was her favorite, though she was bummer Hagrid didn't teach it anymore, he was such a good natured oaf of a guy. "Oh yeah." She said, trying to think back to class. She mostly goofed off with her friends, which led to a disaster involved a half ink spider that Clarissa made.

"Brett." She said with a smile. It was a strange name, no matter witch or muggle. It was by all accounts an old fashioned boys name, but her dad had a thing for boyish girls, and for hemingway. Though really the Brett in The Sun Also Rises, wasn't exactly a character to aspire too, she was always sad, drunk and sleeping around. But whatever. Ayra was a much cooler name in Brett's book, but she liked her name all the same.

It looked like this Ayra had quite a bit to write and Brett wondered why."Who are you writing too? I don't much like it up here, reminds me of working in pet shops, so I tend to keep things brief." She said. Anyone who'd bought a pet for school would know what she meant, owls, toads and cats were not always the cleanest.

[ARYA GILLYWEED SPORE]

Arya took a moment to consider Brett's question. Then she answered in the most unhelpful and ambiguous way. "I don't know yet."

"I haven't gotten to know them, if they decide to respond. But they could be someone important to me. Or just a friend."

Arya decided that she was being unnecessarily mysterious, and thought it best to change the subject towards something normal and actually real.
"Don't you play on the Quidditch team?" she asked. Arya already knew the answer. Yes. Brett was a Beater. Which she found slightly unusual because she was so small. But more often than not she hit the bludgers with surprising force in the right direction, so she was just another example of one of those big things in small packages. Is that how the saying went?

[BRETT AINSLEY DuPONT]

Brett raised her eyebrows. A mysterious pen pal kinda thing? It was sort of weird considering she didn't know if owls could just leave hogwarts without an idea of where they were going. Seemed dangerous, and silly since all the same aged people would be here, or at other magic schools far away.

But then the conversation turned to quidditch and Brett grinned. Her favorite subject. She wanted to play on a famous team someday. She was partial to the Holly Head Harpies, but she'd play for anyone. "Yeah I'm a beater." She nodded. Of course, tryouts for this year weren't finalized, but she'd been the beater for the last couple years and was damn good. She was strong, even while being on the thin side and rather short. Brett was a bit of a firecracker and loved being a beater probably more than was healthy. "What a wonderful sport." She said with a happy sigh.

She knew Ayra didn't play because she would have already known the competition.She hardly seemed the type anyway, but maybe she was just stereotyping.

[ARYA GILLYWEED SPORE]

Arya returned the smile. "It's loads of fun to watch." Which was all Arya could contribute since she didn't play. Her little brother wanted to, but he was only a first year. He had a favorite team and everything. But Arya grew up rather indifferent to the sport. Sure, she loved watching it when she could, but Quidditch wasn't something that she was fanatical about. Plus, she was a horrible flyer given the fact that she couldn't help but be nauseous and frightened every time she left the ground. Flying was horrifying. Sometimes when players pull risky moves, Arya felt terrified for them.

"You're very good, but forgive me for having House preference." Not much of a surprise. Every student in the school was biased, naturally. Arya supposed that competition made things interesting though.

[BRETT AINSLEY DuPONT]

Brett laughed. "Everyone roots for their own team, no offense taken." She said with a smile. But of course, if Ravenclaw wasn't playing she probably rooted for another house. The game was more fun if you were invested in the outcome, otherwise is was just high speed chaos and you didn't know when to cheer and when to groan. Brett ate, slept and breather the game, she found it loads of fun and hoped to go pro after school. She didn't really have a second plan. Not yet anyway.

"I love it, flying, quidditch, its the best." She said with a smile, though she sorta got the impression that Ayra didn't agree, but at least she liked watching it. So Brett could like her even if she didn't play it. "Have you had flying with the new Prof yet? He's all hot and moody. Was requited to the Portugal team for a while but got kicked off mysteriously." Brett said. She was often up on gossip, especially quidditch related.

[ARYA GILLYWEED SPORE]

Arya smiled. If there was something girls could find in common, especially at their age, than it was guys. Particularly if they were older, foreign, and completely off limits, and the new professor was all those three, including completely, and unbelievably hot. It was unfair and unnatural how hot he was. Arya didn't think she'd ever seen anyone as good-looking as him in the flesh. People like that didn't actually exist, though apparently they did.

"No, I haven't actually." Arya said, not contributing the fact that she was trying to get out of that class and that she hated flying. She didn't want the talented Quidditch player to think of her as completely inept. "He is gorgeous though, isn't he?" Girls started wearing more makeup to meals in case he was also in the Great Hall eating.

The bit of gossip was very interesting. "Hmm ... well I'm sure the reasons must be personal, or something. And he didn't want anyone to know. McGonagall wouldn't hire someone who would cause a scandal." The Headmistress was super practical.

[BRETT AINSLEY DuPONT]

"I know right? Totally dreamy and off limits, and I heard him speaking Portuguese once, it was pretty hot, you know how accents can be." She did a little fake shiver. Brett wasn't a sleep around girl, but she took sex casually and crushes even more so. This professor was off limits, but totally fun to look at.

"Yeah I don't know, but it was swept under the rug, apparently his parents are big back in his home country. " Brett said. The intrigue almost made him hotter. She doubted he killed anyone or anything, sexual discretion, too much alcohol, something simple and silly. He seemed that playboy type. "Mc-G is pretty rational, so if its something bad she wouldn't have hired him, unless she also doesn't know what it was." Brett shrugged. McGonagall was pretty cool and on top of things for a woman of her age, Brett had the utmost respect for her, because she was sure she was a player back in her day. A sassy, smart type.

[ARYA GILLYWEED SPORE]

Arya smiled and nodded appreciatively in response to most of what Brett was saying since she wasn't quite sure how to respond. Small talk was one thing, but Arya was shoddy at gossip because she didn't like talking about things she didn't know. Hearing gossip was enjoyable enough, but now it was her turn to talk and she had absolutely nothing of substance to contribute.

Influential foreign parents? Scandals? Arya didn't know anything about this new teacher. She hadn't spoken two words to him yet, although she read up on Portuguese baby names in case they had children sometime in the indeterminate future.

Which meant she'd fall back to her default. Asking questions. "Wow, how are you so knowledgeable about this stuff?" Arya wondered aloud. Normally she was surrounded by people who got all their info from books. It was also unusual that Arya was learning things from a Gryffindor, even if it wasn't practical material. No offense to lion-hearted show-offs.