A Sweet Reunion PV SCARLETT Closed

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[font=times new roman]OCTOBER 14TH
@Lucia Fox

Things were going smoothly at Hogwarts, for once. The students of Beauxbatons, Durmstrang and Ilvermorny had arrived and were now frolicking the halls of Hogwarts, filling the corridors with American accents, rapid French and stilted English. The broom race had finished and the event was rather epic. It was only two more days until the Autumn Ball.

Scarlett had heard many things about the Secret Blossom Ball from last year. She had heard plenty about mosps and trauma and fire but hadn't actually been there, due to reasons still unknown. And now the Autumn Ball was coming up. There was the possibility of danger (she had heard stuff about hags) of course, but it was still exciting and was to be her first ball. Apparently, there were going to be two separate events - the 'fun' side and the masquerade. Scarlett's aunt had caught wind of the ball and mailed her an outfit before she had even decided which dress code to follow. So for the night, she would be in a dress. Wearing flowers in her hair. And jewelled sandals. Heading over to the Costume Party was now a definite.

The thing was, Scarlett was getting bored. It had been around a month since all the exciting stuff happened - like S.W.A.G and Quidditch and duelling. She even missed the thrill of hexing Prefects and getting into fights with Beckett, which showed how desperate she was for a little adventure. Maybe Scarlett would have to go back to her old ways. Her old Troop ways. Don't wait for trouble to come - hunt it down relentlessly with a bat in your hand.

Speaking of the Troop, Scarlett missed them. A lot. Over summer, a ratty little redhead named Georgia had gained the trust of the Troop. This Georgia kid was everything Scarlett couldn't be - smart, witty, cool, hard-working and worse of all...

Kind.

Georgia was insufferably nice and treated Scarlett with respect. But Scarlett being Scarlett had turned her nose up at this wannabe and told the Troop her thoughts. Surely they would understand, surely they would banish her from their tight-knit group! Nope. They had all thought that Scarlett was being childish and jealous, so she naturally left them in a fit of rage. After that, they hadn't come to comfort her or even confront her. It seemed she was forgotten.

Hogwarts was a great escape from friendship issues at home. Who needed annoying ex-friends when you had great people right here at school? Indeed, she felt rather alright, bustling along with the other Gryffindors for their next lesson, Transfiguration. The energy was buzzing and the sun shining as chatter and laughs filled the hallways. Someone had just told her a silly joke and she had laughed.

"That's got to be the silliest joke I've ever heard," cracked Scarlett. "So you know, this Darth Vader guy is not-"

She was interrupted by a loud calling of her name and barely had time to register what was happening before a figure crashed into her and hugged her. She stumbled back, confused. Her reflexes worked on overdrive as she got ready to punch this touchy-feely stranger-

But that voice. She - she knew that voice. Didn't she?

Scarlett then saw the person hugging her. The guy who had made the joke looked awkwardly at the two girls before saying, "Erm, are you good here? I can make up an excuse for Professor Lian if you want."

"That would be fine," said Scarlett, grinning and hugging the figure back before she let go. "And I'm good."

***

"Cassie!" cackled Scarlett gleefully. "I should ask what you're doing here! I've known about the magical world from the beginning!"

Cassie Heather McGregor-Martin was a member of the Troop, and the only Muggle one. However, that didn't stop her from scaling up the ranks and becoming a best friend of Scarlett's. She had moved to France in 2018 to the devastation of everyone, and Scarlett had exchanged letters with her for a while before she severed the connection. And now...that previously-thought 'Muggle' was now walking round Hogwarts.

Once the initial celebration had cooled down a bit, Scarlett asked, "Since you moved to France, are you attending Beauxbatons? And - and why did you stop sending letters?"

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English=#26687E

French=#72267E

Interacting with @Scarlett Aden
Hair, trousers and t-shirt, coat

Cassie gaped at her friend. "You have?!" she asked in amazement. "You knew about magic, and wands, and Beauxbatons, and Hogwarts, and-" There was so much Cassie wanted to say, she found it hard to squeeze everything out. "Did you tell any of the other Troopers?" Her eyes sparkled in discovery. "Are any of them magical?" Another discovery followed. "What about Fiona? And your parents? Are they-" The girl stopped, drawing a breath. So many questions. "Oh, thank goodness you're here, I thought I'd never see you again." The muggleborn was being serious; she had missed Scarlett and the Troop ever since she moved to France, and even more so since they stopped exchanging letters. That was one of the reasons, she suspected, that she had thrown herself so whole-heartedly into activities at Beauxbatons. To convince herself that the magical world was worth loosing contact with her friends from London. But now, it seemed, she could have both.

"Yes," Cassie said, in French as a joke. "I found out about... all this..." - she spread her arms wide as if to encompass the entirety of the magical world - "a little before my eleventh birthday. Best. Present. Ever." She grinned, remembering the incredible moment when she'd discovered that magic was real, and she had it. Then her face fell slightly at the mention of letters. "Well, I thought you were muggles... There isn't a Muggle post office near Beauxbatons, I couldn't send letters and I didn't know... I didn't know."

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interacting with @Lucia Fox as cassie
mentioning henry knight, lainey wilkes, fiona aden

Ah knowledge was a nice thing to have. Looking at her childhood best friend, Scarlett knew that this was what best-friends-that-suddenly-moved-somewhere-else were meant to be like. Nothing like Knight, no. Scarlett grinned almost unable to hold in her excitement. "Yes, yes, I knew everything!" she half-squealed, half-shouted, her speech barely fitting in between Cassie's list of magical items. "All of the Troopers are magical, and Fiona is magical, and Godric's Hollow is technically - well - magical!"

As the two girl slowed down a bit, they became slightly less frenzied as Scarlett grinned at Cassie again, Cheshire style. "Me too, me too," Scarlett choked out. Cassie had stopped exchanging letters all of a sudden, and it hurt. Scarlett had been plagued with doubts about their friendship - did Cassie not like her anymore? Had she made better friends to occupy her time with in France? Scarlett had pushed the thoughts away and went on with her ordinary life, like Cassie surely did in France. But she never forgot the girl, her best friend.

Scarlett listened to what Cassie had to say, with a thoughtful expression on her face. "Yeah, that makes sense. Muggles don't exactly react well to owls carrying their mail," she cracked with a wicked smile. "And imagine an owl having to fly over the Channel!"

Scarlett began to talk more, firing questions at Cassie, genuinely curious. "Oh my gosh, you go to Beauxbatons now right? And you're a broom racer? And are you going to attend the Autumn Ball? Who are your Beauxbatons friends? Are there, like, houses at Beauxbatons? There are at Hogwarts! I got sorted into Gryffindor, the brave kids squad, kinda. It's soo cool! No but seriously, you should have SEEN how much Lainey cried when you went and -"

She stopped ranting sheepishly to let Cassie speak. But she couldn't resist having another hug. "Oh I've missed you so much," said the Gryffindor and she engulfed her friend in a hug.

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English=#26687E

French=#72267E

Interacting with @Scarlett Aden
Hair, trousers and t-shirt, coat

"Godric's Hollow is-" Cassie gasped out, amazed, then squinted - an old habit of hers. It meant that she was thinking hard. "Oooohhhh!" she said, apparently having discovered something huge. "There was a war memorial-" Cassie Heather breathed, eyes shining. "It used to flicker, sometimes. I thought my eyesight was doing somethin' stupid, I went to the optitions and everything- woah, was that magic?"

Cassie cracked a grin at Scarlett's joke about owls flying over the channel. "Well... I may or may not have spent a year sending school owls all the way from Beauxbatons to Durmstrang..." she revealed, looking up to the ceiling and whistling innocently.

It was now Scarlett's time for questions, it seemed, and Cassie just managed to fit in one-word answers before the redhead carried on. "Yes- yeah- ugh, unfortunately- um- no- oh cool- you said- OW!" Scarlett had engulfed Cassie in a hug. "Need- to- breathe-" gasped out the muggleborn, who wriggled out.

She began walking - in no apparent direction, but just to give herself something to do. [Assuming Scarlett follows her. If she doesn't, Cassie'll just stay where she is.]
"How come you're so tall?" Cassie asked in mock-horror, just to make conversation. Standing on her tiptoes, she measured the difference between them with her hand. "Positively disgraceful." she added in French, subconsciously showing off a bit. Look at me, I'm still cool enough to be your friend.

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@Lucia Fox as Cassie

"Yeah, of course it was magic!" laughed Scarlett. "It's a statue of the Potters - they built it after the Second Wizarding War to commemorate Harry and the Potters and stuff. What did it look like to you then?"

This was just so amazing. Scarlett never thought she would see Cassie again after the now French girl had stopped writing, but Cassie was here! In the flesh! In Hogwarts! With her! Scarlett would definitely write to the Troop after this. Which gave her an idea...but she would propose the idea after they had finished chatting together like they were seven again. "OoOoOh, why Durmstrang?" asked Scarlett, wiggling her eyebrows, a trick she could do. "Do you have a pen pal? Is it a boYyYy?"

Scarlett was really very fabulous at making jokes about boys and boyfriends. A lot of her friends seemed to be in romantic relationships already, and Scarlett had to admit to some insecurity about that, but she had leaped over that challenge. She didn't need romance right now. Adventure was her style. After Scarlett's quick-fire questions and a quicker-fire hug, Cassie started to walk and Scarlett followed as Cassie had conversation.

"I wouldn't call myself tall," said Scarlett, raising her eyebrows. Cassie was a tad shorter that her, but Scarlett was still short. "You should see these Hogwarts girls. They're all slim and tall and graceful and beautiful and earn good grades and act perfect and just - it's really annoying for some reason." Scarlett said this in a clear, light-hearted tone with a laugh, to not make it sound like she was ranting or anything. "Are French girls like that?"

"By the way, I had the best idea-" said Scarlett. "Do you want to go to the Owlery and send a letter back to the Troop?"

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English=#26687E

French=#72267E

Interacting with @Scarlett Aden
Hair, trousers and t-shirt, coat

So the war memorial had been magical then! "Oh, a war memorial mostly. But sometimes, 'specially as I got older, it'd go fuzzy round the edges and turn into a statue of this couple with a blob in their hands. Then I'd blink, and - poof - it's a memorial again. Bit confusing. Wait," her eyes widened. "does that mean they had something do with Godric's? Harry Potter? Wow..." Harry Potter was, it was widely acknowledged, one of the best Quidditch players in England, though those of Beauxbatons always maintained that the French were better. Or at least, he had been until he'd just... disappeared.

Cassie laughed and punched her friend lightly on the shoulder. "Hmm," she confirmed. "Goodness Scar, I don't like him that way! He's from some fancy posh family but he's okay really, if a bit of an idiot. You know, he asked me to the ball." Cassie flushed slightly. "I tried to say no, but I guess I'm going now. Me, Cassie Heather McGregor-Martin, at a ball! I wasn't planning on it. I have this horrible green dress with lace on it, ugh. Mum got me it, probably to guilt trip me into going. Worked I guess. But I still probably wouldn't have said I'd go-" she broke off, conscious that she was rambling. Scarlett knew Cassie wouldn't have wanted to go, so the muggleborn didn't need to explain anything to her. That was the great thing about friends, even if you hadn't been able to talk to them for a while.

"True, true," Cassie acknowledged when Scarlett said that she wasn't tall. She wasn't, but Cassie was still shorter than her. Then Scarlett ranted a bit (or, at least, Cassie thought she was ranting) and the Beauxbatons girl joined in with her laugh."Oh, definitely. All such perfect, pretty princesses," she scorned, then grinned slyly at Scarlett. "You know, I have a name for it. I call people like that Ps - the Three Ps For a Perfect Princess. Or Prince. But it's usually Princess." Cassie Heather ticked them off on her fingers. "Pretty, Posh, Pureblood. The three secrets to joining the elite."

"Oh my goodness yes!" Cassie exclaimed happily. "Woah, I haven't talked to them for ages! You know I stopped sending letters to most of you the day after my eleventh? But I couldn't bring myself to stop with you and Lains, I always was closest to you." She paused. "They- they weren't really mad, were they? I- I didn't let myself open any of their letters after a while. I figured, I'd have to let go eventually, I-"

@Lucia Fox as Cassie
banner by juniper yu

War memorial - a blob - Scarlett had to stifle her laugh though a chuckle came out. "Nah, Cassie, the war memorial was a statue of Lily and James Potter, though technically the statue's a war memorial? Well, anyways, the blob was baby Harry Potter, the famous lightning dude. And he seems to have disappeared. Something about a murder - odd. But anyway, You-Know-Who went and killed Lily and James right in Godric's Hollow! It all happened in Godric's Hollow! Cool, right?"

"And of course, all this friendliness is platonic, I'm assuming?" asked Scarlett, raising two eyebrows with a smirk. She had always envied people who could raise one, which was basically the majority of students at Hogwarts. Scarlett had tried to look suave with the one-eyebrow thing, but whenever she tried in the mirror, she looked like a rather curious demented rat. "And you're going to the ball? I mean, wow. In a frilly green dress. With a boy. That's something to write in the history books. I'm going as well, y'know? Apparently balls at Hogwarts have this great reputation for being dangerous and fire-y and traumatic so I had to go see if that was true."

"The Elite," cracked Scarlett with a grin. "Well, thank goodness you aren't posh or pureblood. Though I won't say you aren't pretty because that's mean, and you are!"

"Merlin, Cassie, no! They weren't mad! Just a bit sad, but we all got over it. And now you're back and everything is so much better! Yeah, we should go send a Howler. I think we can record our voices in them...there might be some at the Owlery! It'll be hilarious and so much more fun than a boring old letter. Wanna go? I can show you the way."

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English=#26687E

French=#72267E

Interacting with @Scarlett Aden
Hair, trousers and t-shirt, coat

Cassie blinked. "Who're- oooh, they're his parents, right? Harry Potter's parents? I don't remember much history to be honest." This was typical Cassie - she was so in the now that she often forgot that the past even existed. "Wait, a murder?" she gasped, eyes wide. She sounded more excited than shocked - again, typical of her. "Woah, I never heard anything about that. At Beauxbatons the only international thing people're talking about is SCAR. It's some sort of.... um..." Cassie suddenly realised that she didn't know the right word in English. "Squib," she said aloud. "Um, people who's parents're magical but who aren't magical themselves. I dunno the English for it." Once Scarlett had let Cassie know the correct word, she continued. "Squib, yeah, that's it - well, they're a kind of Squib rights group; I heard they're gonna make it so Squibs can go to Beauxbatons and stuff, though I dunno how. My friend Berry says they're terrrorists though." But there were more important things to talk about than S.C.A.R!

"Duh," Cassie rolled her eyes. "Ew, imagine me writing love letters. Ugh. Lettie, if I ever start writing love letters you have full permission to shoot me." Cassie nodded reluctantly, confirming that she was indeed going to a ball, in a frilly green dress (well, it wasn't all that frilly, but Cassie wasn't going to correct her friend), with a boy. "Really? That sounds a whole lot more interesting than Beaxbatons. We don't have loads of balls, exactly, but we have this fancy dinner thing at Christmas. With ice sculptures. Last year I tried to melt one. It didn't work."

"Eh," Cassie shrugged. "Not really, but I don't care." Then she suddenly realised something. "Hey, what's your blood status? You gotta be at least half, right? Cos you knew about it before school?" She made a face. "Goodness, please don't tell me you're from one of those stuck-up families. Though Fiona always seemed alright."

"Okay," Cassie Heather smiled, relieved. "Ooh, yeah, ok!" she agreed, and followed Scarlett, chattering as she went about her French grandparents, her new friends, her apparant skill on a broom - basically anything which came to mind.

outfit
speech #bf0040

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@Lucia Fox

"[font=times new roman]M[/font]e neither, to be honest," said Scarlett, grinning. "Like, big events are fine and all but do professors really expect me to memorise all those useless dates? Though one date I can name is the match when all seven hundred Quidditch fouls were committed, can you believe that? Oh, and yeah, a murder I think. Some Umbridge woman, I'm not sure..."

Cassie continued on, chatting about all of the rumours and gossip at Beauxbatons, something about an organisation named SCAR, coincidentally her most common nickname. "Never knew I was an international organisation," said Scarlett jokingly, interrupting Cassie. Her friend then blurted out a French word that Scarlett had no idea of, before explaining it. A person who had magical parents but they weren't magical themselves? That was a Squib. "Squib," offered Scarlett. Cassie acknowledged it, carrying on. The two of them had a relationship like this - sometimes one would take over whilst the other listened, as a break from their normal scheduled, chaotic conversations talking over one another and finishing each other's sentences. Apparently this organisation that held her nickname campaigned for Squib rights, though Cassie's friend Berry had told her they were terrorists.

"Good to know this organisation that goes by my nickname are rumoured terrorists," cracked Scarkett. "And I've already got the spells prepared to stop you if you ever attempt sappy romantic poetry," said Scarlett, in response to Cassie's talk about love letters. They did change the subject often - terrorists to romance. "And I did notice the casual 'Lettie' you said - funny when you don't like nicknames people give them to you even more." She shrugged. She could never stop the endless barrage of nicknames she had now, though she wasn't a big fan of them. Cassie had some very creative ones up her sleeve, it seemed.

"Did it just not work or did you not use a powerful enough spell?" questioned Scarlett, moving topics yet again. She sounded serious - pranks were always serious and a proper matter to be discussed in her eyes. "Incendio is a pretty trusty spell, but Incendio Duo has maximum effects." The last part was accompanied with a wink. "A lot of people at Hogwarts are scared of fire though, cause of some traumatizing event, which sucks."

"Oh, I never actually asked Fiona about our family." A confused look came over Scarlett's face as she tried to think of any mentions her aunt had told her about the Adens. Nothing came up. "We're pureblood, but that's it really. You're definitely a Muggleborn, right?"

And after Cassie had agreed with Scarlett's proposition, they were off. Scarlett clambered up to the owlery, chatting with Cassie about everything. Soon, they had reached their destination. "We're here!" announced Scarlett. "Cass, d'you have any idea how to send a Howler?"

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