Valentine's Pen Pals sign ups only

Joseph eyes widened in surprise as he noticed his friend Avery walking up to him, slipping a card into his open hands before promptly striding away to continue exploring the gallery. Watching her figure disappear into the hustle and bustle of chattering students, Joseph beamed, fiddling with the card in his hands. Avery. A simply incredible person whom he didn't think about as often as he probably should. He had to say, he had never expected anything to blossom out of a brief encounter in the greenhouses, but well, here he was, smiling at the simple truth of it all. She was the first person in Hogwarts he'd ever felt was truly a friend. Could he even express his gratitude in words?

Casting his gaze over to Avery's card, Joseph ran a finger down it's smooth surface, reading through the note with a thoughtful expression. It was a simple letter - nothing too fancy or extraordinary, but a heartfelt message from a treasured friend nonetheless, and that was all that mattered to Joseph. Oh well, suppose it was his turn to do the writing now.

Ambling over to the booth cluttered with writing materials and a scattering of muggle tools he had forgotten the names of, Joseph clicked his tongue inattentively, reaching for a parchment and a quill before hurriedly scribbling down a note for his dear friend. It was short, maybe even a little messy, but it would do for now. Nothing a heart sticker or two couldn't fix. Hopefully she doesn't mind, Joseph thought to himself, his eyes narrowing in disdain at his atrocious handwriting as he haphazardly pressed a beautiful heart-shaped sticker onto the parchment. That totally made it so much better.

Well, good enough. Now time to go Avery-hunting.

Reducio

Hey Avery!
Haha so glad to be your pen pal too! Thanks for inviting me to share a cabin with you, you have no idea how much it means to me. Guess I'm not exactly thrilled about being the only boy in the cabin but hey at least it's gonna be an interesting experience for me either way. And the fact that you and Lyanna are around make it a lot more bearable.
See ya!
Cheers,
Joseph

@Avery Gray

Role playing as Sabrina Ortega from Castelobruxo

the fearful should always be feared

English • Spanish

@Elisa Wagner as Clément Cantegrel brief mention of @Scout Fu-Hai as Zyair Ona'je

February 12th, 2025

all Sabrina's actions/thoughts are in character

Why, why, why had Sabrina subjected herself to this? All respect to the French citizens, but she already had a hard enough time understanding English sometimes, and now she was more than likely to be paired with some French kid! How was she going to understand them? Not everyone was bilingual, after all.

Sabrina made sure to drag her feet, drag out the process, of walking to the art room in Beauxbatons. And, well, she wouldn't say they did a horrible job of setting up. Just not out loud.

Sabrina awkwardly found herself in the corner, watching everyone else. Her green eyes caught on one of her cabin mates, but she turned her head the other way. Everyone seemed to be frantically scribbling some note, chatting, or drawing something.

Why had she signed up for this?

It wasn't like she was going to meet someone who made her heart flutter like Zyair had, she knew better than that now. Even if someone didn't turn out to be completely awful, Sabrina still knew she'd keep her distance, maybe even consider them a friend eventually.

If she were lucky, that was.

Zoning out about how she wouldn't find another Zyair, she heard a voice call her name. Her eyes landed on a boy, a French accent intertwined with his words, who looked to be around her age.

Great.

She forced herself out of the corner and slowly raised a hand. "Um, yes. Hi. I'm- I'm Sabrina." She cursed herself silently for stumbling over basic words.

She walked up to him. "We were paired together?"

Role-playing as Clément Cantegrel from Beauxbâtons

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__◇ IC Date: February 12th, 2024

Speech: #580803 ◇ __

__◇ Thoughts: Italic	Mentions: @Sage Willows ◇__
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Fortunate enough for Clément, he did not have to search long for his pen pal partner. Barely a few moments after he had called out the name, a girl of average height, with wavy black hair and tanned skin approached him. She introduced herself as Sabrina, and followed immediately by asking whether they were paired together.

Though the French boy was far from fluent in English, he understood, or at least thought to have understood, what the girl meant.

"Yes! We are pen pals!" he announced brightly, showing her the paper heart with Sabrina's name on it. "So, what school you are from?" he asked in the same cheerful tone. Though the girl in question's English seemed better than his own, he thought to have distinguished a slight accent - from where, he had no idea, hence his question.

"I'm Clément, from Beauxbâtons, as you maybe notice already", he continued after the girl answered to his previous question, chuckling slightly. He was indeed conscious of the heavy French accent that marked his speech. All while talking, he gestured this new acquaintance towards the tables with snacks and drinks. These were among the first things Clément had noticed when entering the room, and already he was getting hungry just with the sight of these delightful snacks.

We might as well eat and talk all at once, Clément thought.

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Interacting with @Sage Willows.

Nora walked into the art gallery, laughing to herself. She’d just received an owl from one of her best friends, Mahl. Nora had been thinking of pick-up lines for the better part of the week and had bragged to her friend about a particularly good one. It went as follows: “Are you French? Because Eiffel for you.“ Needless to say, Mahl was appropriately appalled, maybe because she was French…but they also seemed to find it funny, as they suggested that Nora use it. So hey-- a win was a win.

The room was set up with several lantern-lit tables, including ones with paper, craft supplies, and even snacks. However, it was the one in the center that caught Nora’s eye. A Pinterest-perfect cauldron in the shape of a heart sat in the middle, surrounded by flowers and filled with paper hearts. Other students were coming up to it, taking a paper from inside, and then going off to one of the other tables to start working. Nora assumed this was how she was going to get her ‘pen pal’.

First, however, she needed a drink. Wandering over to one of the tables, she looked at her options. Hot chocolate… Hot chocolate… and hot chocolate.If there was anything else, Nora didn’t see it, but then again, her vision wasn’t very great. Alright, hot chocolate it would be. She grabbed a cup and took a cautious sip. Maybe not cautious enough, because she burnt her tongue.

Nora approached the cauldron and suddenly started to feel very nervous. What if this person didn’t like her, or worse—she didn’t like them? She’d created all these impossible scenarios where her pen pal was exactly her type or her ideal best friend, but that wasn’t realistic. She’d built up this mystery person so much in her head that they had the most likely outcome was that they’d disappoint her. That wasn’t fair to them.

Taking deep breath, Nora did her best to shake off her worries. Sure, they would probably not be the best possible person, but they also probably wouldn’t be awful. The chances are, she’ll at least make a new friend, and if not, oh well—there were always other ways to make one. Before she could second guess herself again, Nora walked up to the cauldron and pulled on of the little paper hearts out. Sage Willows. She didn’t recognize the name, but it was pretty. Very pretty. Willows were one of the best trees, Nora thought.

Nora sat down at the table right across from the cauldron, and began to sip her drink pensively. What should she write? Should she be funny, or genuine, or flirty, or a combination? Hell, she didn’t even know if Sage liked girls, or would just see this as a friendship thing. With that in mind, Nora should probably play it safe. Just be friendly, be herself; that’s all she had to do. And if she didn’t like, she could at least make it look pretty with stickers and the other craft supplies. Okay, here went nothing:

Reducio

Dear Sage,

Hey! My name’s Nora, and I’m a second year at Hogwarts. I’ve never heard of you before, but I’m really excited to get to know you! Your name sounds English, so I assume you’re from Hogwarts, or Ilvermorny? Maybe Koldovstorev? In any case, I hope you can read this okay (my handwriting is pretty bad, so I’m sure that wouldn’t help if English wasn’t your first language lol).

I guess I should tell you a bit about myself! I don’t really do too many school activities, other than a few clubs, but my hobbies are reading, crafting, puzzles, acting and, recently, running! I used to do more before Hogwarts, but I can’t really complain; I love my school. Charms in particular is my favourite subject. I don’t quite like Potions (not very good at it), or History (I make out okay, but it’s dreadfully boring), but all the other subjects are fairly fun. And I love my roommates! Their names are Mahl, Mells, and Qrow. I’ve been rooming with them for two years, and I couldn’t ask for better.

I hope we get to meet sometime, I don’t really know what to ask because I haven’t read your letter yet… but if you do go to Hogwarts, what house are you in? (I’m a Slytherin). And let me what you think of Beauxbatons, assuming you’re not French; I think it’s really pretty here, though the French accents are killing me a little. Anyways, I can’t wait to continue this!

Sincerely,

Nora.

P.S. What do you think of this pick-up line: Are you French? Because Eiffel for you. Hahaa, pretty fun, right?

Then, she set to work decorating, with all the glitter and stickers she spotted. Nora was all about color coordination and tried to find as many green and pink ones as she could. Green for Sage’s name, and pink for Valentine’s. Green was a bit tricky, but she managed to put something reasonable together. After nearly twenty minutes of work, she was finally satisfied and sealed her letter. She approached the drop-off box but hesitated. She’d love to meet Sage, but Nora had no idea what she looked like. Instead, she hovered around the box for a second, waiting for whatever reason. If no one approached, she would put the letter in the box and go back to her table to enjoy some snacks.

912 words. #420c55.

date: 12th February time: evening word count: 790 outfit: x

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interaction: @Aodhan Shaw | [Jamie Saeng] | mention: @Evpraksiya Vinogradova | @Oliver Armani |

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The entire day had been a total blast! Not only had arriving at this French school been so much fun (Novalie had never been to a real tea party before!), she also ended up sharing a room with her dearest friends. The only thing left to do was to talk Oliver into sharing his bed with her! Because deep down, he wanted to cuddle just as much. Sometimes, Novalie knew, the Slytherin could be a little shy. She'd take care of that later. Now, to top it all off, her feet led her to the school’s elegant art gallery, the designated meeting place for the pen pal program she had eagerly signed up for the moment she heard about it. Or at least, her feet tried to lead her. I had taken her a few wrong turns (a trait her pet spider had definitely inherited from her) before the redhead finally arrived - bumping into someone right as she stepped through the doorway. "Whoops!", Novalie came to an abrupt halt, looking up at the boy, though he wasn’t much taller than she was. Flashing him a bright grin, she casually slid past him into the room and winked, "Too many people around here, huh?" Without feeling the need to interact with him any further - or to apologize for running into him -, Novalie turned her attention to the gallery. The first thing that sprang to her eyes was a beautiful heart-shaped cauldron in the center of the room, marvelously decorated with flowers around it. The Ravenclaw barely noticed the surrounding tables as she made a straight beeline for it. She looked inside, noticing that it was filled with tiny heart-shaped papers - probably containing all the names of the people who have signed up as well. Normally, she wouldn’t have hesitated to stick her hand right in, but just as she reached out, something else caught her attention: A letter. With her name on it. Blinking in surprise, Novalie pulled her hand back and picked up the envelope on the table instead. It was really for her! It seemed her pen pal had been quicker than her. With an eager smile, the Ravenclaw opened the letter and began to read. Jamie Saeng from Tenusa? That was sick! She had never talked to someone from that school before. Where even was it located? It sounded kind of tropical... Judging by the elegant and polite writing (and the heart at the end), Novalie had a feeling that Jamie had to be a girl - she at least appeared a lot like Evpraksiya to be honest, all graceful in the way she expressed herself. Excited, Novalie plopped down at the table before her, grabbed everything she needed, and set to work on her reply. Reducio Dear Jamie, I'm sooo excited to have a pen pal I don’t know yet! You’re from Tenusa? Where is that? I’ve never heard of it before. And how do you know how to write in English? Does your school teach it? Man, I wish Hogwarts taught us another language. If I could choose, I think I’d want to speak Novalie paused. What language did she actually want to learn? She had never really thought about it before. Leaning back in her chair, she stared up at the ceiling, contemplating all the possibilities... until- Aha! She snapped back to the letter instantly and continued writing. Reducio Hindi! Do you know it? If so, please teach me! If not, what language do you usually speak? Anyway, I totally agree - Beauxbatons is crazy huge and enchanting, and the macarons? Top-notch, not gonna lie. There were even more at the tea party this afternoon. Were you there? We might have crossed paths! What do you look like? Did you wear a dress? Have you seen someone with blue hair? Oh! I have an idea! Let’s meet up tonight! We can explore the school while everyone else is asleep. Maybe we’ll even find the kitchen with more candy! How about it? If you’re in, meet me at the entrance at 11! Sincerely, Nova P.S. About my name - my mom told me it had something to do with catching butterflies or something like that, but I don’t really remember. Does your name have a special meaning? 'Jamie' kind of sounds like 'Jam', doesn't it? I bet you looked really sweet when you were a baby for your parents to name you that! Happy with her letter, Novalie folded it up, slipped it into an envelope, and scrawled the recipient’s name in big, bold letters. Now - time to look around a bit more before meeting up with Jamie. She was sure the other girl wouldn’t turn down such a fun offer!

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Novalie leaves the thread.

Role playing as Sabrina Ortega from Castelobruxo

the fearful should always be feared

English • Spanish

@Elisa Wagner as Clément Cantegrel

February 12th, 2025

all Sabrina's actions/thoughts are in character

Pen pals? Well. This would be interesting.
Sabrina nodded as he spoke, chewing on the inside of her mouth like she normally did while contemplating something. He didn’t seem… awful. Yet. But that could change. God, why did it always have to change?
“Castelobruxo,” she articulated, her Bolivian accent running over the syllables like syrup. “Have you ever been to South America? It’s beautiful there, very different from here. The heat,” she paused to click her tongue. “Heat like that should be a sin.”
The weather, while a vaguely bland topic to converse on, seemed to be the best Sabrina could do. She’d found the French weather to be slightly tolerable, the break from the sweltering humidity of the southern hemisphere would do wonders for her. The climate of France in general wasn’t entirely unappealing, just the holiday it was accompanied by.
“Good to meet you, Clément,” Sabrina said, struggling slightly to pronounce the French name the same way her male acquaintance had so easily. “How are you finding all the visitors? I’d love it if everyone came to Castelobruxo for a change, though the amount of people could be frustrating.”
She would follow him over to the tables topped with foods and drinks of sorts. Nothing like what she had back home. She grabbed what she figured to be a croissant and looked over its flaky cover. Interesting, she thought.
“So, Clément,” she said after taking a bite of her pastry. “Let’s get right to the point, yes? We both know many of these people are looking for something more than friendship, others just happy for a friend. What did you come here looking for?”

date- February 12th, 2025 location- Beauxbatons

interacting/mentioning- @Nora De Carie ooc notes-

After sending off her letter to a soon to be not stranger, Sage fidgeted with her nails. They’d gotten shorter than she would have liked, stubby from the absentminded picking. She’d have to figure out some nail growing spell to make them presentable.

After a few minutes of nail-biting, Sage would raise her eyes to look around the room. Strangers, strangers, hey wait- nope another stranger, someone who looked familiar, and another stranger. Great. Wondering why exactly she’d thought this would be the best use of her time at Beauxbatons, Sage looked over to the little mailbox where she’d put her letter for Nora.

Standing there by the box, her eyes found a dark haired girl, presumably older than her but not based on height. Still not knowing who her assigned pen pal was, Sage wondered in the back of her mind if this stranger may know Nora De Carie.

Sage stood and approached the girl, reaching out to tap her on the shoulder. “Excuse me?” she asked. “Do you by any chance know who Nora De Carie is? I’ve been assigned as her pen pal and I’m unfortunately. unfamiliar with her.”

She would wait anxiously for whatever the girl had to say, hands at her sides as she tried to force herself to not look so nervous. She didn't even know this Nora character, she had no reason to be nervous. But, in the meantime, all her hopes relied on the dark haired and blue eyed girl to direct her to Nora De Carie.

12 February, 2025

It being his second international trip, Kavi thought it best to make better attempts to try and meet some friends, this time, preferably not under the context of fighting for his life and trying to prevent a score of other kids from dying. He was quite thankful this event was held far away from the dangers and lingering memories of Hogsmeade, but still provided a chance to catch up with the others. He had done some of that himself already, in his cabin, though he wasn't exactly sure how he felt about all of it. Well, he wasn't really sure how he felt about anything, with the full moon messing with his head and all. He was nervous, sure, about as nervous as he was about his new pen pal.

He stood head and shoulders above the rest, only increasing his worry. He had hoped to meet someone whom he could share his thoughts with, have an intelligent conversation. No offense to the younger years, but they were exactly that: younger. Unbeknownst to him, he was experiencing the exact same fears as his pen pal.

Kavi gave a brief wave to one of his schoolmates, Jamie, who was on his way out, before making his way to the cauldron, taking a heart.

Aly Salinger.

He turned the heart over in his hands, giving his hands something to do as thoughts instantly flooded his head. He didn't know anyone named Aly, so at the very least he was meeting someone new, which he supposed was a plus. Even the younger years could have something exciting to share, though he wasn't keen on the idea of babysitting another... he already had his sisters to look out for. But when he took his seat, he was shocked to find something else altogether: a letter, with his name written on it in deep purple ink.


Kavi wildly looked around the room, hoping he was wrong at first and had missed someone his own age. But finding no one, he dejectedly opened the letter, mentally preparing himself. Maybe one of his sisters could have a new friend. But his anticipation of disappointment left him pleasantly surprised as he read through the careful purple script, a smile playing at the corners of his mouth, before his heart sank again as he finished reading it.

His pen pal was his age, which was great news, but wanted to meet up tonight, after everyone had gone to bed. Tonight, during the full moon. Of course, he couldn't tell her that, though, so he had to come up with some other way to reject her. But it was only for the night. They could meet tomorrow. Surely that wouldn't be an issue.

He himself took a quill to pen his response, opting for a deep mahogany ink, in spirit of the holiday.

Reducio

Dear Aly,

It would seem we are on similar adventures. This is only my second international excursion, so I was hoping to meet some new people, if only for a short while. My elder sister is a firm believer in pen pals and the excitement they bring- I hope we, too, can have something similar and continue our correspondence past this brief visit.

Rest assured, I am not eleven, nor a first year. In fact, I am far from it, at seventeen, though I do have a younger sister that age who is doing exactly what you described, though I know sometimes things do pan out for the best.

I am quite looking forward to finding out more about you, but until then, I'll leave you with a little bit about me: I'm a sixth year at Tenūsa, I enjoy potions, poetry, and old Muggle literature. I have five siblings, three of whom are on this trip with me- maybe you'll spot us around?

And lastly, while I would love to meet you at the fountain tonight, I unfortunately have pressing matters I need to attend to this evening. I hope you will grace me with your presence some other time- perhaps tomorrow night? I am truly looking forward to meeting you, whenever that may be.

Yours,
Kavi Kattimani

He, too, placed his letter in the box, hoping it would find his pen pal before nightfall. He truly felt terrible that he couldn't meet tonight, or even properly tell her why, but there was no way he was going to tell her about his predicament. That was a surefire way to never have a friend again. No one knew, and he would like to keep it that way. It was for the best.

@Aly Salinger

@Aodhan Shaw (Jamie Saeng)