All That Glitters is Gold PV Closed

Hogwarts had started to become a tedious place. Ever since Eden's arrival at the castle, his life started to go downhill. His ideal life as a student didn't work out as he had originally planned long over the previous Summer, and the one before it. The murmurings of students irritated him, the hush whispers of ghosts sent shivers down his spine - regardless of how hard he tried to keep a straight back and show no fear. So the only solution was to seek out quiet places. Usually, the library served him well, however, at often times it was still packed with students stuffing their noses into dusty books and tomes. He couldn't resist their presence, their breaths or their panting. Every action they did, he observed.

Had he been in Slytherin, he'd have a group of friends to go from one place from another. Pure-bloods of the highest prestige. He'd know who is who and wouldn't have to worry about the people around him. His reputation would remain proudly high and clean from any muggle association. But in Hufflepuff, if his calculations were correct, there were a whole lot more students with mixed blood or none at all than pure. That enough was a reason for him to hate his House.

So instead, he had to resolve his boredom into wandering the halls of the castle like a ghost himself. He almost looked like one, might as well play the part.

Knowing how damn unfortunate he was, it came as no surprise when he heard somebody else's footsteps coming closer and closer by the second. Literally no one ever came here, but now that he did, there had to be someone else? Eden kept his head low and his eyes wide open looking for anything that seemed out of place, or for any sort of movement. His steps became slower and slower, his hands inside the pocket of his black pants. But as the trotting noises got nearer, his right hand suddenly found itself approaching his wand.

Once he turned around the corner, a gleaming gold sparkle caught his eye. But before he could provide such occurrence with all of his attention, a shadow that soon turned into the body of an actual living being caused Ed to startle and nearly lose his footing.
"What are you doing here?!" He said, his voice beaming in the utter silence, the words pouring out his mouth with a slight tremble in his accent.
"At least it's good to know that it ain't a ghost making all those weird noises... not that I'm scared of any of them, of course." He lied.

Henry really liked the glittering of the trophies, the glow of the fire reminded him of his family. They all had red hair, except his dad, which looked like fire when the light hit it just right. Besides, despite finding history boring, it was really cool to see it physically laid out before him. Henry enjoyed visual learning more than anything. This led to many disappointments, since there were very few projector type things at Hogwarts. It did help that professors demonstrated the wand movements during classes, Henry never understood movement diagrams in books.

The sound he had heard could have easily been one of the ghosts, though he really hoped not. It wasn’t that they scared him, or anything, he just didn’t like being startled. Surprised? Yes, he loved surprises. Scaring and startling? Nope, he hated the feeling of cold fear when something scared him like that. So, he was a little cautious in the emptier parts of the castle, since some of the ghosts did scare on purpose. Others on accident, which Henry could dismiss, since it was hard to know when you’d float into a room with people in it. Still, he wouldn’t put it past one of the ghosts to deliberately try and scare him.

As he approached the direction he had heard the sound, he heard footsteps approaching. That was a good sign, it meant it wasn’t a ghost coming. Unless ghosts could imitate footsteps. As he came closer to the corner, he could hear the footsteps as if they were right next to him. From around the corner came: a boy. Henry jumped, startled more by the fact that it was just another student than by the sudden appearance of another person.

“I was just looking at the trophies. I heard a weird noise,” Henry responded, looking around as if the cause might reveal itself. “Maybe I was just hearing you.” He muttered, turning to look back at the boy sheepishly. “I didn’t mean to startle you.” He offered his hand awkwardly. “I’m Henry.” Maybe this boy would help him find the hidden passageways? It could be fun to go on this adventure with a friend.

@Eden Gardener

@Henry Llewellyn

#008040

"You had to have been hearing me," Eden replied, coughing in between, as if he was trying to signal all his fears away - at least it worked with his voice as it became, somewhat, clearer. "I'm sure it's no ghost." The thought of them skulking around was being pushed to the back of his head, but kept coming back to the front, and so the cycle went on, and so did Eden's anxiety. Regardless, he tried his best to keep a focused mind and a dull face. His lips mushed together in a flat line, his eyes gazing grumpily at his surroundings until he decided it was worth his time to look at the boy in front of him. That red hair of his screamed obnoxious and that particular detail alone cringed Little Ed. If he had any friends, he wouldn't have stayed around for so long already.

"But worry not, you didn't do no such thing." Whenever the disgraced Hufflepuff ever spoke, it sounded as if he was a king speaking to the common folk. His hands were folded behind his back, his spine straight and his head help up high. All he needed was a crown. In his head, everyone around him played the role of the common folk, and he was, indeed, the king.

Before Eden offered his hand in return and formally greet the so-named Henry, which at the first hearing caused Eden to snort (as he hoped the red-head didn't catch that), a furry slash of white above his eye raised itself up in a suspicious manner.
"Blood?" He cynically asked, his tone getting cockier by the second. His eyes remained focused on the hands offered to him. He couldn't look at him properly and with respect, not until he knew what he really was.

Henry nodded, now convinced that he must have been hearing the other boy coming. It was a strange noise, but the way sound echoed off the stone walls could have made something as simple as a footstep sound alien. “I’m sure it was, but it could have easily been a ghost, right? This place is full of them!” He responded, looking around as if one might show up right then. After the small startle, he was a little on edge. He wanted nothing to do with the ghosts. The mere concept that they existed made all the ghost stories he had heard before Hogwarts that much more terrifying. He wasn’t aware that most ghosts minded their own business. That Slytherin ghost was terrifying, though.

“Oh, well that’s good,” Henry said, brows furrowing at the way the boy spoke. It was like he was straight out of the King Arthur books his mum read to him and his siblings before bed when they were younger. He had never heard an actual person speak like that; it was kind of interesting. “I don’t like scaring people, not if I don’t know whether they think it’s fun or not.” He added on, as if this was relevant or even interesting information.

It was only polite to offer a hand to shake when introducing oneself, Henry had been taught that by his dad. It was strange to him that someone wouldn’t want to shake his hand for any reason. He had only heard the definitions for the terms pureblood, half-blood, and muggle-born. He knew he was muggle-born, but he had no idea that there was any type of discrimination or prejudice against someone based on their blood. So, when the boy simply said ‘blood’ in a questioning manner, Henry was momentarily confused. “Blood? Where?” He quickly took a look at his hand and found nothing. He looked at his other hand and then pulled his sleeves down slightly to see if there was anything there. “Is it on my face?” He asked, touching his hands to his face before looking at his fingers to find nothing there. “I don’t see any blood on your face,” he added, looking the boy over to see if there was anything he was missing.

@Eden Gardener

@Henry Llewellyn

#008040

Yes yes, the probability of those eerie noises being the presence of a ghost were higher than Eden's ego. This... stranger didn't really have to emphasize on such possibility. It almost sounded like he was actually not sure that it was certainly Eden's previous movement that caused them both to become suspicious of their surroundings.
"Indeed," Eden quietly replied, trying his best to keep the topic short, "however, I do try my best to stir out of their w- actually," he took a slight pause, "I try my best to have them stir away from my way." His tone got colder and even more solid than before. But the tiny squeak in his tone, surely caused by puberty and not the fact that he was afraid of the ghosts, almost made it sound like he didn't sound so sure at all.

A yawn escaped Eden's mouth as Henry talked about his morals when it came to giving other people fright. Eden appreciated the sentimentality behind it, but quite frankly couldn't care less. Ironic, seeing as in his mind, had anyone ever tried to joke like that, he wouldn't like it. By no doubt would there not be a dramatic scene caused - probably a spell or two would come in play as well. Eden loathed jokes, and in the Hufflepuff common room, they happened far too often. This was another reason why he didn't belong there. With such incompetent, brainless fools. But that was a rant for another day.

Speaking of incompetency, the stupidness coming from this lad's mouth was rather astounding. Astounding enough to make Eden speechless - whereas the fair head almost always had something to say, this time, he just couldn't help but stutter, and then, Eden cackled in an almost mockingly manner. Almost.
"You're not being serious, are you? I believe that alone gives me an answer." His brows furrowed once again, arching like a hooting owl woken up from its slumber.
"I'm talking about blood purity, we wizards of the highest quality were born and bred to represent our community, and we still do until this day." Eden never spoke proudly about anything other than this.

He proceeded to fold his hands behind his back and straightened up in a petite and formal manner.
"I, myself, am the only son and heir of Edward of the prestigious House of Gardener. My blood dates back to when England was ruled by petty Kings." Then, his voice lowered, disappointment and boredom in his tone, adding a bit of flavour to what he intended with his words.
"You, on the other hand, I assume, are what we call the lowest breed of our kind. A muggle-born, a mudblood."

Eden couldn't stand such beings. How dare they have the rights he had. To even stand there, in his presence. It was just shameful and disgusting.

Focusing on the ghosts was a problem when Henry first learned they existed. For the first several weeks of school, Henry walked around every corner warily, hoping there wouldn’t be a ghost around it. Now, he was fine with the idea of ghosts, but every time he was reminded that they existed, he got a little nervous. He was pretty sure he had been hearing the boy, but he couldn’t help but focus on the idea of ghosts. “Yeah? That’s cool. I don’t think they’d every avoid me. They make me nervous.” Henry admitted, not shy about being a bit vulnerable. His father taught him that emotions were a part of every day life and hiding them could make things worse.

As Henry spoke, he noticed the boy yawning. Was it getting late? He had kind of lost track of time while exploring and wasn’t sure if it was getting late or not. The castle was well lit, but very little of it was because of windows, which made Henry a bit claustrophobic sometimes. Despite the large spaces the castle contained, he often felt a little trapped by the dark walls with only torches for light.

Henry was really confused by the boy’s question; he didn’t see blood anywhere. He glanced around him a little bit, as if looking for blood on the floors or walls. It was honestly kind of worrying himself over the purpose of the question. Was he serious? Henry’s brows furrowed at the question. Of course, he was serious, he hadn’t understood the question and had assumed he was seeing blood somewhere. As the boy explained what he meant, Henry furrowed his brow even more. People selective breeded themselves? “Like…dogs?” Henry asked softly, confused by the purpose of selective breeding of humans. What about love? Where was the happiness in having kids with someone for the purpose of this purity thing?

“Oh, that’s cool,” Henry said, his energy muted just a little bit by the confusion from the breeding thing. “I think my mum said something about us being related to kings. I dunno, like, a really long time ago.” Henry was unaware of the fact that a lot of people all over the world could trace their bloodlines back to kings. “Oh, muggle-born? Yeah, that’s me. Neither of my parents have magic.” Henry agreed. “I, er, don’t know what a…mudblood is.” Henry had been made fun of on occasion for his hair, but he really hadn’t ever been discriminated against.

@Eden Gardener

@Henry Llewellyn

#008040

"Of course you would so blindly compare the precise breeding of witches and wizards with that of dogs." Eden quickly replied with wit, showing no signs of sympathy to a boy who could not possibly have had a clue about such traditions. His lips curved in a manner to show that he was disgusted by such ignorance. But then proceeded to fake a little cheery smile. Something had clicked in his mind. This was almost a bit too perfect of an opportunity to pass up... to have some fun. It was wicked, and he knew that. But given the circumstances and everything that he went through the last few months, it was perfectly alright in his head to catch a break from the exhausting nature of life and destiny.

"I understand why you can... lack knowledge, on the matter," Eden tried his best to keep a solid tone and sound as if he was actually being nice. For some reason, it wasn't hard, and it came naturally.
"You know, we pure-bloods actually can sense if someone has royal blood running through their veins, and I think I can sense some in yours. It's all part of the benefits that come with blood purity, you see." His words rhymed with the few steps he took towards the redhead, until he made it to his side, facing the opposite direction.
"If you're looking for something more entertaining than staring at golden cups, I even think that the castle has some secrets which could help us discover such history. I myself adore legacies and family trees. I'm sure yours is just as spectacular as mine." That one stabbed Eden in the heart - to degrade his family and everything it stood for by comparing it to whatever stupid family he came from. A subtle snort escaped the inside of his pinky little nose.

Eden started walking forward the same way he was facing at a slow pace, his hands still behind his back, because seemingly, that was his most comfortable position.
"A mudblood is just an alternative word for muggle-born. It's actually really commonly used as well. Almost complimentive, if you ever wanna use it to make quick friends, you know?" That one deserved some sort of reward - it was one of Eden's best lies yet.

Back home, Henry had known a friend whose parents bred dogs. They had explained it to him once, but it still didn’t make sense to him. Even after what the boy said, he wasn’t sure if the breeding of witches and wizards was any different from dogs. The explanation had sounded rather precise to him. Still, he didn’t argue the point. He knew nothing about it, so he couldn’t argue about how wrong it sounded. Still, he felt a little awkward about the fact that people did that. What advantages were there to having pureblood wizards? As far as Henry was aware, though he knew very little about the wizarding world, muggle-borns and purebloods could be equal in power.

Henry listened, suddenly taken by the way the boy spoke. He seemed kind of nice, completely different from his previous attitude. Lacking knowledge was true, Henry was still new to the whole wizarding world thing. He knew very little about the differences between bloodlines. “Really? That’s a pretty cool power,” Henry grinned, rethinking his previous question about what the differences were between the bloodlines. Henry lit up at the sound of secrets in the castle. “I heard there were secret passages in the castle, maybe we could find those?” Henry was a bit confused by the statement that his bloodline could be as great, after the boy had seemed so dismissive of him before.

Henry watched the boy as he moved, turning around as he was passed. He was so collected, much different from Henry, who often wore sloppy clothing that didn’t fit right. “Really? Thanks!” Henry was glad to have someone around who knew so much about the wizarding world. Maybe they could be friends. If they both explored the castle together, they could get to know each other better.

@Eden Gardener

hex code: #475c5f

Interacting with @Henry Llewellyn and @Eden Gardener
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Spending Christmas break here at Hogwarts had not been the plan. Juniper had been looking forward to going back to London for a while - the castle was extremely beautiful and the classes were entertaining, but it wasn't the same as being at home with her family. She hadn't realised how much they mattered to her until they were a whole country away, and all term, she had been telling herself that if she could just hang on until Christmas, all of it - the homesickness, the prejudice from purebloods, the hours she spent trying to figure out her homework - would be worth it. Unfortunately, her mother had owled her a few days ago, telling her that she couldn't come home this Christmas, and now Juniper was stuck here. On Christmas day, she had tried to enjoy herself, but her mind was elsewhere and her heart was homesick. Today she was walking around the castle feeling sorry for herself, feet dragging on the stone floors and shoulders slumped forwards in a moody fashion. The dark colours of her outfit reflected her mood, with a dark green turtleneck and a circle skirt made out of thick, black material.

She wasn't really sure where she was going, exactly, and she didn't really care. Her eyes were focused on the floor and her feet, only looking up when turning corners or going upstairs. Somehow she found herself on the third floor, and upon hearing voices coming from behind an iron-grate door, some imbecile talking about purebloods having special powers or something, the Slytherin rolled her eyes and turned around as if to walk away, but then the word mudblood rang out from a sentence and she froze, heartbeat quickening with indignation. Juniper paused and lingered by the entrance, one hand clasping the handle as she listened to the conversation, a morbid sort of fascination and curiosity stirring inside of her. Two boys, by the sound of it, and quiet, rhythmic footsteps as if someone was pacing. Slowly, she opened the door slightly without a sound, still invisible to her classmates.

The other boy asked what a mudblood was, and Juniper flinched reflexively at the sound of the word used so casually in a sentence. Due to her halfblood status, she had never been called one herself, but she had seen many of her fellow students wounded by the insult and learned to despise the word and those who used it. Her blood boiled at the first boy's claim that it was a compliment. She knew that he understood very well what he was doing. What the hell was wrong with him? And the other boy was thanking him. It was too much for Juniper to bear. Unable to resist, she flung herself into the room, eyes bright with anger and door slamming shut with a loud clang behind her.

"Bullshit!" she burst out. "You know perfectly well what that word means, don't you?" Juniper directed her question towards the boy with silvery hair. Her cheeks were flushed with anger and there was a tight, furious knot inside of her. Days of pent-up frustration had somehow been unlocked by this overheard conversation, and she was unleashing it on the boy. She wanted to reach forward and shake him, maybe punch him or throw a something at him.

In the end, she did none of those things, knowing that he was very likely stronger than her and could probably overpower her. She could only hope that her words would have the same effect on him.