[OPEN MINGLE] Or perhaps in Slytherin

[fulllifeconsequences]

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.

Comments

[consumes]

That's a strange feeling to have. You're not scary. Certainly not more scary than the drop. [damon, also, is not intimidated, and he's not going to fling himself off the tower how ever this conversation goes. she might still try to shove him off of it, but he's still here regardless of the threat, how ever much weight it actually had.

he narrows his gaze at her, catching sight of that teasing smile on her face. she's a mystery, and he's still not sure if he's worked out exactly how she feels. she's protective of her sister as she should be, and that's- it's what is most important.]

All kinds of things. [there's a little smirk in response to the teasing smile, knowing she's taking the piss out of him, but he doesn't rise to it. he can't really repeat it. wouldn't want to. it means opening himself up in a way that-- he's not usually like that.] I'm not much of a talker usually, and I can tell you prefer to be alone so...

[he'll leave.]

[kralitsa]

[ katerina doesn't know what she wants, so she decides she would like the opposite to what damon predicts for her. she wishes to be alone, but she wishes to have company so she can't dwell on her own loneliness. it's a fine line she straddles, and so she decides to pull him back. ]

Tell me.

[ she looks up at the sky, as if for inspiration, before she turns her gaze on him again. ] How far have you fallen from the Salvatore purist tree?

[ the petrovas and the salvatores should go stargazing together sometime. her father would like his, and visa versa, she thinks. but it gives katerina much pause; she isn't interested in having to come back to hogwarts to splatter damon salvatore all over the dining hall to showcase a petrova isn't to be toyed with. ]

[ or, at least, this petrova isn't. her father would think her too soft for such things. ]

[consumes]

[damon stops in confusion when she continues the conversation. she is... providing the opposite of what he predicts. he thought she'd appreciate the fact he was walking away.]

I'm a Hufflepuff in a tree of purist-obsessed Slytherins. I don't like my father, but who does? [That's not new. He's never liked the man. As far as he can remember, it's always been mutual dislike]

I've fallen far.

[kralitsa]

You're a Hufflepuff.

[ anyone who knows anything of katerina petrova would know disliking fathers is something she does best. but she's never fuelled that particular rumour herself. ]

[ the thing is, being placed in the opposing house to your family's usual sorting isn't anything profound. it proves nothing to katerina but the sorting hat either wishing to cause trouble or it identifying traits a kid had been too blind to see for he'd been groomed to look at himself a particular way. ]

Your House gives me little insight into which way you'd turn if you were given an ultimatum. [ it's merely a fact, one katerina thinks many of the students of every year doesn't quite get. being a hufflepuff only highlights to katerina damon values hard work and loyalty, that he's a boy who sees himself and wishes to aspire to be known for those traits. she has them herself, but she's placed her emphasis on being known for something else entirely. ] Would you pick family over what you believe is right, simply for the nostalgia?

[ basically: would you pull a katerina petrova and be disowned. it's not necessarily a hot trend. ]

[consumes]

[damon figures what she says now is her way of confirming those rumors or at least playing upon them. he folds his arms across his chest, rolling it around in his head. when it happened, it felt so damning, and he chose it. he doesn't say those words out loud. the sorting hat considered him for slytherin too, but damon chose hufflepuff, because he wanted a reason for why his father has always been so damned disappointed in him.

because he wanted his father, his family to hurt in some way.

his gaze darts up sharply at the question]

No, I wouldn't pick my family.

I have never been loyal to them.

[it's part of why he seems like such a fail hufflepuff, because he has no loyalties. if he did, he'd be endlessly, intensely loyal (and elena will fill that role), but for now, he's purposeless]

You didn't pick yours. I wouldn't pick mine either.

[kralitsa]

[ she studies him for a moment, and doesn't so much as sneer when she easily corrects him, ] I did pick my family.

[ that's the problem with people in the wizarding world these days, they're all so single-minded. the ministry of magic is so determined to keep its feet in its own pond they miss out on the innovative opportunities colliding with the muggle world would present them. ]

[ the families of those in hogwarts look upon her and see her having defined her family, but she hasn't at all. katerina's family consists of her mother and her sister, and someone else waiting for her outside of these four walls. it'd taken her a long time to understand she hadn't been disowned by those who had mattered most. ]

[ when she looks at damon in that moment, she sees a reflection of herself. young, angry, lost, and troubled. katerina remembers struggling for too long with her father's decision. ]

I didn't pick what the world wanted and expected me to pick. There's a difference, Damon.

[consumes]

[there's a pause then as he understands. her father isn't her family. elena is her family.] Because you picked Elena. Because your father doesn't count as family, but your sister does.

[family has had such little meaning to him as a word like something he couldn't grasp, something that had negative connotations. because that's what he had known it as. purity. forced loyalty which he could never get behind. it's his brother that ties him to any loyalty at all, but his brother holds much more affection for his father than damon does.

he believes their father can become better. can be reasoned with one day. damon doesn't, but he's clashed with the man for longer than he can remember even when he didn't try to argue, even when he did nothing at all. he knows it's what he has to do now, convince stefan to leave his parents behind. they can see what the world asks of them when they're free from that influence.]

That was very brave.

[kralitsa]

[ when it's said aloud like that, katerina finds herself discomforted. she doesn't want it to be something she's praised for. it isn't something she wants people to know and talk about. her business is her own, and yet, despite keeping it as close to her own chest as possible, many within the wizarding world have found out. ]

[ it's katherine's turn to become uncomfortable now. she'll wonder, much later, if it had been of her own doing. ]

[ leaning her head back against the wall, she looks up at the sky and says, almost too mocking, ] Some say brave, some say stupid. [ she shrugs her shoulders and doesn't care to offer what she thinks. katerina often teeters between thinking it had been the best decision she had made and the one that had damned her for the rest of her life. ]

My father will always be my family. I have his name. [ she looks at him, and shakes her head. ] I don't share his legacy. Maybe that's why I don't find you so boring. You have the potential to show loyalty in a manner Hufflepuffs never do.

[consumes]

[damon can see why it's not a moment she could be fully proud of even if it would take bravery to do it. sure, it's not exactly smart either, but their families are the types who will use force and pressure to get them to do what they deem is right. they don't have much freedom being caught up in their own families. freedom exists outside of these boundaries.

it's where he wants to be someday even if he's not sure what it would take to get him there.]

There is no escaping it entirely. Even if you changed your name, you would remember. [what it was like to have her father, what it was like to be removed from her family.] I had no idea you didn't find me boring.

My family doesn't have my loyalty. They never will.

[kralitsa]

[ katerina thinks that'll change eventually. when she'd been hurt, no one had her loyalty, not even herself. the only thing she was loyal to was her hurt feelings, spurned on by the anger of being disowned for pursuing what she thought her family had been trying to teach her in their own ideals and with their own stories. ]

[ but it's possibly hard to discern what it is they'd wanted as a whole. mother wanted her to be free-spirited and live, while father had wanted her to be bound by his own rules of how to shape her own life. ]

[ it's that expectation, that unfair assumption, that almost tethers damon and her father together. but damon's isn't as binding as her father's had been. ]

[ it's kind of amusing to know she's almost unreadable, just as she's always wanted to be. she arches her brow, lips curved upward, as she says not too unkindly, ] Haven't you heard? Don't judge a book by it's cover, Damon. Just because it's brightly coloured doesn't mean the story's as happy as you'd expect.