entrancelogs | [OPEN MINGLE] Or perhaps in Slytherin

[OPEN MINGLE] Or perhaps in Slytherin

Who: Slytherin House! (And friends and visitors, of course!)
Where: Slytherin Common Room, Quidditch Pitch, various places around Hogwarts
When: Duration of the event
Rating: G (will edit as necessary)
Summary: Slytherin open log!
The Story:

The Slytherin common room was a long, low underground room with rough stone walls and ceiling, from which round, greenish lamps were hanging on chains. A fire was crackling under an elaborately carved mantelpiece ahead of them, and several Slytherins were silhouetted around it in carved chairs.

The common room has changed, somewhat, from its historical description, thanks to the decorative powers of one Mettaton. Though it still extends beneath the lake and thus retains a greenish, aquatic cast, it's much more brightly lit, its cold, damp atmosphere replaced with dazzling MTT-brand warmth. Even the giant squid, occasionally peering in as it does its rounds of the lake, seems just a shade more glamorous inside such a charming space.

Students - and a ghost or two - can be found nestled within its confines, plotting mischief around the fire, studiously doing their homework (as good students do), or perhaps trading Chocolate Frog trading cards. Though Slytherin is not especially well-known for its wide-open, trusting nature, Slytherins are known for not snitching on each other; if a guest or two were to creep in for a while, then odds are, nobody saw anything.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[Clementine is a much younger student. She needs help with studying most things, and she trusts fellow Slytherins more than most people. She's in the common room with a quill trying to write out her Transfiguration homework but failing miserably.

It's why the black cat sitting on her homework doesn't actually bother her any.]

Cool cat.

[ katherina picks vasilka up and off the table before she can press her paws all over clementine's homework. she has a knack for messing up a finely written essay with her paws — somehow she gets them all dirtied without even going outside — and often leads to late night rewriting before the homework's due the next morning. katerina doesn't want that for clementine, especially given how much of a nuisance it is to find a pot of ink when the one being used has been tipped over by the swish of a feline's tail. ]

[ vasilka stretches and the flops in katerina's arms like she's a rag doll. ] She's possessed. [ she looks down at her cat and rolls her eyes before choosing to ignore her. ] At least now you know if you ever transfigure into a cat, not what to do.

Thanks for plucking her off. Homework's not going well anyway, but-

[Clementine doesn't want it to be all ruined even if she's only got a few sentences down. She's tapping the quill on the side of the table as she bites down on her lip with a smirk. She'll be sure to not do that if she ever manages to transfigure herself into a cat.

That seems a long way away though.]

Can you transfigure yourself into a cat?

I can't transfigure myself into a cat. But I can take the form of my Patronus.

[ she has a knack for the classes that rest in the branch of reshaping yourself. she has an interest in it, becoming someone or something else, and seeing whether or not those around you were as observant as they liked to boast. ]

[ she can say, with incredibly unwavering confidence, that the slytherins who pride themselves on being observant are the most oblivious of them all. ]

[ vasilka remains flopped in her arms, tail moving slowly as she does as annoying cats do — she wriggles. would she want to be a cat? if her owner was someone who liked to pamper, she thinks she'd enjoy the attention. ] It's not as easy as McGonagall makes it look. Even turning a clock into a rocking chair is difficult magic, but you'll get it if you keep practicing.

What's your Patronus?

[clementine already looks starry eyed at the thought. she'd love to have that ability to transform herslf, but she's no good at transfiguration. she's only really good at defending herself tbh which is useful, but it's not-

it's not everything.]

I'm going to keep practicing.

I don't want to be-- [she makes a face, huffs out a breath] ...weak.

A fox. [ which isn't necessarily the most intimidating of animals. snakes elicit fear, but they're easy to defeat given what type of snake they are. lions are ferocious, but easily cleaned of their fur, and so is any other animal form. katerina hadn't been disappointed when she discovered her patronus was a fox. ]

It's not as easy as it looks, Clementine. [ her voice is a little gentler. she understands that fear; appearing weak in the wizarding world closes many doors. she'd been disowned for allegedly being "weak", but katerina's since learned she'd been intimidating in her strength. ]

You're not weak. You're only weak if you let yourself. [ she shifts where she sits, vasilka a light weight in her arms as she remains cradled. she doesn't need time to think on how to approach this. what would she say if clementine was elena, expressing her own fears of being weak in a subject she simply needs to turn around on its head to look at? ] What's your favourite subject?

[clementine nods when she explains. fox's are cunning. it makes sense. they're smart. they know how to handle a situation better than most]

It looks pretty easy. [the admittance is quiet but there. she folds her arms across her chest though and then nods in understanding.

she doesn't want to be weak. she won't let herself.]

Defense against the dark arts. [any class that lets her defend herself, lets her survive, she loves those classes most]

Defense is just like Transfiguration. There's some differences, of course, but they're all the same, at the end of the day.

[ being in hogwarts for seven long years means you pick up on a few things. katerina has been observant enough to try and pick apart the similarities and differences in the methods taught to hone a certain ability or understanding within a subject. each lesson has been constructed to help pave a way into a life that's one worth living. transfiguration and defense against the dark arts should, in her opinion, be taught side by side. ]

Maybe look at Transfiguration like a defensive spell. [ she fiddles with vasilka's tail, then leaves her be, letting her simply be weight in her arms. her cat moves, but she cares very little to pay attention to her now. ] You have to concentrate. You have to enunciate clearly. You clearly have a skill in being able to think on your feet if you're any good at duelling. Think of Transfiguration as a defensive tactic. You want to transform the ground beneath someone's feet so you can gain the advantage. You want to turn the chair they're about to sit on into a flower in a pot because it means you're safe.

[ these are all possibly close to being too aggressive of suggestions for ways to go about playing in the playground of defense against the dark arts, but it's how katerina has always viewed it. it's how she'd applied herself to it, and it's how she continues to do so, despite oftentimes being reminded duelling is all about learning how to rely on your instinct than it is to kill. ]

Apply what you know about Defense Against the Dark Arts to Transfiguration. Making a subject work best for you doesn't make you weak if it means you're looking at it in a different way to someone else.

[clementine quiets as katerina speaks, and it's clear she is listening with rapt attention to every single word. it makes sense to her in a way little else has when it comes to transfiguration. clementine understands survival. she understands defense. she knows sometimes the best defense is a good offense. sometimes a person has to fight with whatever they have and any tools they can come up with. she never thought to apply other types of magics in that same way as a means to survive and to defend herself and to keep herself safe.

before she ever had magic, she had to learn how to do that.]

That's a good idea. Okay, I'll try to look at it like that instead. I never thought about how alike they can be before. [And she's kind of sad Katerina is a 7th year, which means she doesn't get to learn this stuff from her beyond this year.] You're really smart. You know how to defend yourself and to keep yourself safe.

[it's clear by the way clementine speaks that this is a very, very important skill to her if not the most important.

it's the reason she's in slytherin at all. she's not much for ambition but there's nothing she values more than being clever and resourceful, knowing how to survive no matter what.]

You're pretty smart, too.

[ katerina smiles. she knows she's both smart and stupid, and oftentimes that intermingles together. she doesn't tell clementine that sometimes what appears to be the smartest choices can also be the ones that are the most damaging. her choice to refuse to believe in the blood purity spiel of her father's ideas had lead her to become disowned, and, in turn, her sister had ruined her life for the sake of standing up for her. ]

Always remember to work to your own advantage. I have the worst time paying attention in Herbology, but once I realised some of the plants could be used to either heal or defend me, I started to listen. [ she laughs lightly. ] It's still the most boring class.

[clementine smiles when she says she's pretty smart too, because she likes katerina, and she wants her to think she is smart too. coming to hogwarts, it's already changed her life, because people in slytherin understand. they know what it is like. they know what it means. she nods, because it's how she wants to operate. it's how she has been built to operate. survive at any cost, know how to survive.

she laughs a little at that.]

Herbology is really boring, but yeah, even the plants can help you survive. I should listen closer. History of Magic's pretty boring too. [She makes a face, because she can't figure out how to turn that one around. Maybe figure out what old wizards did and learn from them...]

[ katerina's smile doesn't waver, but her expression shifts with an arch to her brow. ] And how do you think History of Magic can help you?

[ instead of telling clementine, she figures it's possibly best to see if she can change the way she perceives it. it took katerina a while to figure out how to manipulate the subjects to be of interest to her. potions had required a patience and a skill set of relying on others to supply her with the ingredients she needed, and she'd learned how to negotiate and be sneaky when stealing bits from another student's table because her partner ruined their first batch. ]

I could learn from other wizards and witches' mistakes and victories. Learn about tools they used. [history is a lot of talking about old magical inventions and goblin and giant wars. she grimaces a bit as she turns it around in her head. history is hard because there's no practicality to it.] Information is powerful. You can use it against someone. [to know their weaknesses, to know their past.] I could recite it to someone and make them fall asleep...

[she's joking with that last one.]

[ she smiles at that. how many times had aleksander picked up one of her books and read to her on the most trivial of things? she's fallen asleep one too many times with that tactic, not that clementine needs to know. ]

You don't have to follow in someone's footsteps, but it's always good to know what's already been done. Time's your best weapon, and you never want to waste a second of it. [ in the real world and at hogwarts. katerina's learnt her experience here is what she makes of it, and while she has regrets over missed opportunities, she's reaped what she's sown. she wouldn't change any of it. ]

History of Magic's always going to be dull unless you're really interested in it. But don't count it out. You could learn something, even if it's just a small thing. [ she shrugs her shoulders. her words come out quicker, as though she's simply sweeping them into the air with her good humour. ] And if it ever gets really dull, I used to make up grand stories about the wizards I was learning about. Did you know Helga Hufflepuff had an affair with a squib?

I think it's smarter to not completely fall in someone else's footsteps. You take the best steps from different people and then you make your own, because no one's going to live what you've lived. [no one is going to want the same things. no one's going to be in the exact same situations. she likes to be aware though, to be on the alert.

it's nice to always have magic on hand in case something happens, but sometimes magic fails. clementine tilts her head to the side with a laugh at the final suggestion.]

No. They obviously don't want the truths to come out in the textbooks. Have to keep it hush. So does that mean all the founders have some entertaining dark secret up their sleeves? [Cause they should all have a made up story. Affair with a squib.] Maybe Godric had a bunny phobia.

[ katerina smiles — clementine gets it. that's the lesson she had learned from a history of magic, even defense against the dark arts. never follow directly in the footsteps of another, because it can always lead to failure rather than success. ]

[ pursing her lips, she tilts her head and draws her brows together as she ponders clementine's question. ] Definitely a bunny phobia. [ she pretends to take it seriously, even though there's nothing serious about it at all. leaning forward, she whispers mock conspiratorially, ] Salazar had a bit of a boot fetish. And it's not the kind of boot fetish you might be thinking of.

[clementine understands survival more than she understands anything else. it maybe wouldn't have always been that way if life had been different, but there's not much use in thinking about ifs.

she smirks as she leans in too, listening to this whisper as if it's the most serious thing in the world. however, the face she makes afterward is likely very amusing.]

Gross. [and then more seriously, closer to truth.] That guy was kind of the worst for founding our House. Worried about the wrong things.

Why don't we change that?

[ katerina arches her brow, remains leaned in. the best thing about being able to create these types of stories to make untouchable and unrelatable people interesting is everything and anything's within reach. if she wants to make godric gryffindor a man who had incredibly horrible taste in clothes, she'll do so, even if it's recorded by numerous accounts he'd been impeccably dressed. ]

Salazar Slytherin never found our House. A woman did. And he took the credit for it, since she had better things to do. How does that sound?

[clementine smiles as she leans in like that. the smile tugs wider across her face as she speaks, and then she nods as if in affirmation, as if in confirmation of it all.]

That sounds like what actually happened.

It sounds like the type of rumor I want to start to spread. [in reality, because it's so much better than the truth even if it's tragic because the woman should have been the head. anyone but salazar should have been the head of the whole house.]

[ this is why katerina likes clementine. she's not so bound by the rules of the school — there's respect to be held for the founders, but it doesn't have to go any deeper than that. salazar slytherin has undergone many characterisations throughout the years that this one hardly dents his statue at all. ]

She was too busy travelling the world to be the head of any school. [ she flicks her hand, as though that's to imply that's much greater than setting a legend for herself. but some of the better legends are the ones that are much more quieter in tone. ]

[ pursing her lips, she looks to clementine, wanting to know her opinion. ] Does that make her sound important? It's missing something.

[clementine smiles and then her mouth parts a bit at the question, liking that she asks and that she wants to know the answer. she tilts her head, thinking seriously about it.]

It makes her sound very important, but it's missing why she was out there, travelling the world. It doesn't even have to be anything legendary.

Maybe she just always wanted to see the world before she died so she did. [because getting to do what she always wanted to do was far more important than a school. it was her own ambition.] Or maybe she was looking for some rare potion ingredient. She was the best person to ever do potions.

The best.

[ katerina's smile remains wide and mirthful. clementine has a point — not every adventure needs to be grand, or one for this history books. she oftentimes forgets she can be whoever she wishes; she can be someone who has books dedicated to her work, or someone who only impacts a few dozen. ]

[ she's always wished to be the former, believing there to be power in that, but katerina has since discovered perhaps size is merely just a number. ]

See? Our friend's using her best skills to further her own survival. [ she leans back in her chair, finding she thinks clementine's onto something. ] All you need to do is follow her example. Use Defense for Transfiguration. Be someone who doesn't need to boast of your accomplishments like Salazar and the other House Founders did. [ she leans forward again, and flicks her hand into the air as she shrugs. ] Or be loud and boastful. You just proved to me you have what it takes to take the world by storm.

Hurricane Clementine has a nice ring to it, don't you think?

[clementine quiets, taking in katerina's every word. she never thought about the future. she never thought about doing great things. when seh was tiny, she played pretend in many different ways and then life changed and became survival. she thought about hogwarts in the same way (this is how i can defend myself and stay safe) instead of thinking about what she can do.

the whole world could open up for her. lee taught her how to survive. her parents loved her unconditionally, but no one has ever told her she could 'take the world by storm' before.

she smiles then.]

I really like it.

[her smile widens.] You're amazing. [she's sad katerina is going to leave after this year.] What do you want to do? Take the world by storm or something else?

[ katerina smiles, and it isn't one that's smug. slytherins are thought to be conceited, but she finds herself touched, and a little embarrassed, by clementine's words. katerina may spend her time talking herself up, informing her friends of her own amazingness, but she's never quite been on the receiving end of such compliments. ]

[ she doesn't answer clementine right away. it's a question she finds she's begun to become frightened of, even though she's not afraid of anything. ]

[ she thinks to lie, but instead shrugs her shoulders, and her expression becomes thoughtful. her tone is lower, quieter, ] I don't know. [ she looks down at vasilka, who is the only being she has confided this to, and still finds her cat has no advice for her. ]

[ she looks up at clementine, ] I guess that's the adventure, isn't it?

[clementine wonders if people ever really know. it seems like slytherins are expected to have ambition and know what they want out of life and believe they will get it. it seems smarter to her to not assume that they'll be king of the world. or that they will be the most powerful wizard ever. she doesn't really know what people aspire to be. she thinks she just wants to be happy one day, to feel safe. and maybe to do something really great once that's been achieved. it feels more possible here at hogwarts when she's reminded of what the world and life is really like.]

That's okay. [it's okay she doesn't know, but clementine smiles at that. it's quiet but warm. she doesn't dispense warm smiles very easily. they don't come naturally to her.]

Sounds like something our friend might say. [the woman they made up who actually founded the house of slytherin before heading off on her own adventure into the unknown. what greater triumph would there be than to find what you want and to take it?]

[OPEN MINGLE] Or perhaps in Slytherin

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

(no subject)

(no subject)

(no subject)

(no subject)

(no subject)