You might belong in Gryffindor

[littledhampir]

Who: Gryffindors! (+ Friends/Visitors/People sneaking in)
Where: Gryffindor Tower: Common Rooms + Dorms. Gryffindor Table in the Great Hall.
When: During the event
Rating: Label as you go
Summary: Gryffindor Mingle Log
The Story:

Common Room
The common room is a circular room where Gryffindor students can relax after a long day of studying. It is full of squashy armchairs, tables, and a bulletin board where school notices, ads, lost posters, etc. can be posted. The common room is decorated in several shades of red, which is associated with the house.

There are many windows that look out onto the grounds of the school, and a large fireplace dominates one wall. The mantle of the fireplace is adorned with a portrait of a lion. The walls are decorated with scarlet tapestries that depict witches and wizards, but also various animals. There are also bookcases located in the room.


Dorms
The Gryffindor dormitories are also located in the Tower, with two doors leading off from the common room that open to spiral staircases. One of them leads to the girls' dormitory, the other to the boys'. The stairs to the girls' dormitory are enchanted to become a slide if any boy attempts to climb them, but not vice versa, since it was deemed that girls were more trustworthy than boys... (Look don't blame me it's canon)

Comments

[doorkey]

[ Given the way Coraline's shoulders stiffen slightly in reaction, she's had just enough time in school to hear plenty about the darker history of Slytherin House ]

Sorry, I just... wizards, the way they talk about muggles sometimes, like they're an extra-dumb species... they might be dull as beans most of the time, but they're still, um. I mean, we're people too, and- [ She very carefully holds her tongue ] Yeah, lets... just not talk about it, I guess.

[ But there's one more nagging itch of curiousity, which finds its way out as Beckett prepares to consult her texts for the best method.]

D'you have the snake, because of your father?

[lamiae]

I didn't say you were. Not all wizards think that way. [ yes, best to just drop it for now.

another frown, a shake of her head. ]

No, I don't. I actually have her here because of my mother, a Gryffindor like myself. She got me Meret before she died and I like having her here with me.

[doorkey]

Oh... [ Her voice softens and she hugs at her elbows. Now who's presumptuous, Coraline Jones? ]

There's a cat I know back home, but... he's not mine, exactly, he's wild, so I couldn't take him with me.

[lamiae]

Do you feed him? We have a couple of feral cats that hang out and my grandparents' place.

[doorkey]

Well... no, not really. [ Coraline admits a little guiltily- after all the help he's been, perhaps she should have. ] But there are rats around that he kills and eats, so-

So it's not like he's starving?

But the man upstairs is more of a mouse person, and the ladies downstairs are definitely into terrier dogs, so... if anyone does, it'd be up to me. Sort of hard to do that while you're far away from home at Wizard School though.

He's an awfully clever cat, so maybe he'll just show up randomly here, someday.

[lamiae]

[ man upstairs? ladies downstairs? she wants to ask, but doesn't feel like it's her place to pry that much. ]

Maybe he will. You never know with Hogwarts. We've had some interesting things happen here that are strange, even by magic's tastes.

[doorkey]

Aren't there supposed to be magic barriers and stuff around the grounds? [ She asked skeptically, wondering if the older students are just pulling her leg with half the random facts they know about the castle. ] (Even if cats can apparate...)

Anyway! [ Coraline's attention keeps wandering, then eventually zipping back to the deck on the table. ] ... So, my fortune?

[ It sort of feels a little like begging for one, by this point. ]

Please-and-carrots?

[lamiae]

[ beckett sets the book aside and rummages through her bag for the deck of tarot cards she has with her. meret slithers off her wrist, coiling up inside the bag, making it easier for beckett to do a quick reading. she draws three cards from the deck, laying them out on the couch. ]

The Eight of Swords, Seven of Swords, and Two of Pentacles.

[doorkey]

Yikes.

[ She grimaces, at the sight of the Eight of Swords. While she hasn't learned much about the cards' meanings, her instinctive interpretation doesn't seem pleasant. ]

That first one doesn't look too good.

[lamiae]

It can be, but not in this case. See how it's reversed? That's an indication of an open mind, while the upright would be the negative isolation and imprisonment. The position of the cards has as much to do with the reading as what's on their face does.

[ she points to the next card, the seven of swords. ]

See, this one is reversed, too. So instead of betrayal and deception you have some sort of rewarding challenge.

[doorkey]

Oh! [ Relief floods her face, emotions on her sleeve. ] Oh, right, I didn't realize that. So that's... better, definitely?

[ Well now she felt like a bit of a dummy for panicking. Any student of divination was probably taught about that kind of stuff very early on. Coraline only knew some of the Major Arcana, from a left-behind textbook she'd flipped through once. ]

A challenge.... like a test? Or making a new friend in one of the other houses?

[lamiae]

It could be, [ she says with an encouraging smile. that's a step in the right direction. ] The cards are more... Look at them like hints. It's really up to you to interpret how you let their message guide you.

[doorkey]

So... if it's all up to how whoever interprets it, then there's nothing actually very magical about it at all, huh?

[ She seems to deflate a little, mout firming into a disappointed skeptical line. ]

I wonder why they even teach this stuff in wizard school.

[lamiae]

[ the girl shrugs, ] That depends on how you look at it. I rather like that it's open to interpretation, personally.

[ and that this was an art that transcended the boundaries between magical and muggle, for even those in the world beyond magic's boundaries dabbled in things like tarot and crystal reading. she found it fascinating that they were able to draw results without any wizarding abilities. ]

Maybe because the objects and the process are magic, even if it's less precise and direct than other wizarding arts.

[doorkey]

Maybe.

[ She shrugs, still feeling vaguely swindled by being told it's all up to whatever she wants to read into it. That makes the whole thing seem a little bit faked. ]

Even my muggle neighbors back home read tea leaves, sometimes.