Snow-Flecked Singing PV Graci Laren

Graci simply adored spring and music. Most people didn't like spring because they had allergies, but Graci didn't have allergies. She just liked flowers. The bees were cute till they stung you, though Graci minded her own business so that wasn't the problem. What bugged her was the melting snow that made everything muddy.

Mud was her enemy, always getting her shoes muddy. How inconsiderate. So one thing she particularly didn't like to see when everything was getting more sunny was snow. Not out her window, no, but in the rehearsal room.

Graci was just minding her business, humming songs through the halls, wandering aimlessly— as she so often found herself doing. It was one of her favourite songs, one she had memorized and therefore didn't need a muggle device to be played. 'Meet me at our Spot' by THE ANXIETY.

Her humming abruptly stopped when she saw the snow in the rehearsal room. Graci slowly creaked open the door, staring at the fluffy flakes. "Is that... snow?"

It was so pretty Graci almost didn't want to step in it. Almost. She tried to step in areas where the snow was thinner, not wanting to disturb the piles that looked so pretty. Won't be so pretty when it melts, though someone must have a spell to clean stuff like that up.

"How do you plan on picking this all up?" Graci wasn't trying to sound rude, though it could've come across that way. And she was genuinely curious as to how she planned on cleaning it up.

Graci walked towards the girl, hoping she wasn't interrupting something, though she most indefinitely was. Welp, it's far too late now, I might as well make a friend out of it.

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OOC notes: It's a bit shorter than I would've liked, but I'm working on lengthening my posts

coded by @Eugenia Karageorgiadi

Wednesday, May 28, 2025

English - Thoughts

@Graci Laren

Rehearsal Room

XXXThe snow was beginning to build up in a little piles, the smooth surface twinkling under the light of the candles perched on the chandelier above Eonaria's head. She continued humming, crouching down to scoop up a handful of snow. It was so satisfying, being able to hold the cap of a perfectly-formed snow dune. It was just as cold and biting as real snow, and now that she thought about it, she really should have brought gloves. Sadly, they remained in the tower far above her, in her dormitory.

XXXThe warmth of her fingers began to melt the outer layer of snow, causing it to partially turn to ice through pressure and heat. Huh, kind of like diamonds. Eonaria started to crush the handful of snow into a snowball, which was really more like an ice cube at this point. She tossed it away, and it landed in the remnants of its former snow pile without a sound, only a shadow indicating the hole it had created.

XXXCrunch. Crunch. The faint sound of snow compressing reached her ears, and Eonaria looked up, startled. Another Gryffindor girl stood in the Rehearsal Room, probably here to investigate. Eonaria recognized her from, well, around Hogwarts. She didn't know many of her classmates' names, but she could definitely remember faces.

XXX"How do you plan on picking this all up?" she asked, approaching her. Eonaria paled first, then flushed in embarrassment, standing up. "Um... well, I suppose I'd use magic..." What spell was there to clean up snow? Would she have to melt it first and then somehow siphon the watery mess away? Her mind ran through all the cleaning spells that she learned-- which wasn't many. The Bubble-Producing Charm probably wouldn't help here, I don't know if the bubbles vanish after or if they leave behind an additional mess of bubbles...

XXX"Scourgify, maybe?" she questioned, glancing around. Eonaria wasn't sure if that would clean up snow, but it was worth a shot... later. She wasn't going to banish away her beautiful snow yet! Well, what if doesn't work? Does this warrant detention?? Eonaria, as a mostly-sometimes-usually-preferably rule follower, was deathly afraid of detention. Okay, maybe not deathly. The detentions she had heard about didn't sound too bad, but the bad part was the crushing weight of disappointment on her and her family's standards. She would love to get through all of Hogwarts without a single detention, though it was extremely unlikely. Eonaria already had a few close calls that she only avoided due to the absence of authority.

XXXEonaria rubbed her cold, damp hands together, now regretting picking up that snow. It was always a struggle in the presence of wintery goodness: you desperately want to touch that fluffy-looking, powdery snow, but it turns out cold and wet and sad at the end.

.・-: ✧☾♩♪♩♬　. 。・゜✭・.・✫゜・。.　♬♩♪♩☽✧ :-・.

Graci slowly made her way around the room, taking in all the snow.

"That might work. I'm no expert with spells, though, and I can hardly remember what scourgify does. The name of it suggests that it scours something. Hm, yes, that sounds about right, cleans stuff up, if my memory serves me."

Graci smiled at the girl, hoping she didn't mind Graci's tangent. "Sorry, I talk a lot. It's just thinking out loud, though. I hope you don't mind. What made you want to have all this snow anyhow?"

With all the snow in the air, and a bit of cold stinging her nose, she got thinking of Winter time and Christmas. The Carols specifically and back to family traditions. The twelve days of Christmas beforehand, watching 'A White Cristmas', and for some reason Nacho Libre.

The latter movie was probably really weird, but Graci thought it was funny. Zoe- and their mom wouldn't watch it, preferring to read a book and have hot chocolate. But Graci and her dad would always have a good laugh about it, even singing Nacho's horrible song with him. 'Ramses' number one he is not dancing at the party~'.

Graci shook her head, gosh, it WAS messed up. Yeesh.

She looked back at the girl before her, hoping she didn't notice her zoned out state. "I'm Graci, by the way, and you are?"

Wednesday, May 28, 2025

English - Thoughts

@Graci Laren

Rehearsal Room

XXXThe snow continued to drift down around them, uncaring of the sudden appearance of a second witness. It seemed that chilliness was now radiating up from the snow piles. She shivered slightly. Maybe an Incendio would be helpful. Eonaria listened to the other girl ramble, slightly bewildered. "Uh... yes. It scours and washes things. I mean, you can neither scour nor wash snow, but... maybe it'll work...?" Maybe Scourgify just cleans the snow, as in... cleaning it... like purifying it... and not actually cleaning it up? It would be extremely embarrassing if she casted cast? Scourgify and then the snow just got whiter.

XXX"Oh, it's fine. I sometimes talk a lot, too." Eonaria said nervously, waving it off. "Um, the snow is for... er..." She glanced at the fluffy snow piles around them, covering the entire rehearsal room. What kind of plausible explanation could she give for this mess? "...I like snow. And I think winter passed too fast." Eonaria plastered an awkward smile across her face, taking a deep breath and hoping she didn't seem too weird.

XXXThe other girl seemed to get lost in her own thoughts before quickly introducing herself as Graci. Eonaria nodded, relieved to have something she was familiar with: introductions. Many, many introductions. She had seriously underestimated the number of people at Hogwarts. She had seen Graci around in the common room and classes and things, and now she finally had a name to match the face. "It's nice to meet you, Graci. I'm Eonaria," she recited with a shyer smile than the horribly nervous one before.

XXXA snowflake nearly landed in her eye and she quickly wiped it away. She was sure there was a lot in her hair, too. Eonaria smoothed down the top of her hair, suddenly self-conscious. Here they were, two Gryffindor first years, standing in a snowy room in the middle of spring. Actually, they were closer to summer-- June was in just a few days! She drew her wand with a sigh. I guess it is time to clean up now... Does Graci not like snow? Is that why she's here? To tell me to get rid of it?

.・-: ✧☾♩♪♩♬　. 。・゜✭・.・✫゜・。.　♬♩♪♩☽✧ :-・.

Graci used her sweater she had wrapped around her waist to mop up a little bit of snow so she could sit on a stray chair, not wanting to slip on the cold ground.

"Winter did pass really fast. though... this whole year did, really. It feels like just yesterday I was getting my wand. Or getting sorted. That was quite a shock."

She was reminiscing again on the few days after the sorting. All rather blurry to her now. Gryffindor was never expected of her. Everyone was thinking the reverse for her and Zoe. I was always supposed to be a Hufflepuff, but the hat showed them, didn't it.

Graci was rather glad that she was in Gryffindor. She would've been okay with any house but this seemed much more lively, more like family. Though she supposed that Hufflepuff was more so, but she didn't particularly care.

"It's nice to meet you, too, Eonaria. And I didn't come in here just to be a jerk about 'oh, how're you planning on cleaning this up' in case you were wondering. I was just curious as to why there was snow inside. I don't actually mind snow all that much except for when it melts. Everything turns all muddy and gross. it's even worse before it warms up and is just gross looking brown slush."

Graci shuddered at the thought. she always enjoyed the seasons seprately, but never the in between. Well... that would be lying. The only thing she didn't like was the winter-spring transition and was trying to justify it.

Eonaria seemed nice enough. Maybe a bit quiet or just curious. Or she was wondering why Graci hadn't just left already. Both plausible. Ish.

I should simply stop thinking. That would solve all my problems. Or I'd be like a jellyfish. No brain, just floating in the abyss of my skull where my brain should be. Sounds peaceful. Or boring. But if I didn't have a brain I wouldn't know.... Merlin, NONE of that made sense. Maybe I AM mentally ill. Eh, who cares.

Zoning back in, Graci looked around her. She had only been in the rehearsal room once or twice before, and not for very long. Her trumpet had been gathering dust under her bed for a few weeks now. Hm, I should probably do something about that one of these days.

Wednesday, May 28, 2025

English - Thoughts

@Graci Laren

Rehearsal Room

XXXEonaria listened to Graci's comment, nodding along. "Yeah... I mean, we're graduating in one month. One month and two days." She herself almost looked horrified at the prospect. She did not feel like an entire year had passed. Eonaria had definitely learned things academically, but she didn't really think she had grown as a person... so did she even grow at all?? At least I grew in height...?

XXXHogwarts honestly hadn't been anything like she thought it would have been. She had been imagining magic everywhere, more experience, more hands-on. And while that did depend on the subject of the class... Eonaria felt like she alternated between speeding through work and lagging behind every other month. It was a weird experience. Did other people feel like that? She didn't regret her time here at all, though.

XXXEonaria nodded shyly, her cheeks flushing as Graci voiced the answer to exactly what she was thinking. Did it show on my face?? "Well, I'm quite relieved you're not here to yell at me," she joked nervously. "Um..." Considering they were inside, the snow would probably start melting quite soon. In fact, it was probably melting already. But it's not turning to brown slush, I promise! "There's not much dirt to turn it into brown slush," she commented, nudging some of the fluffy flakes with her shoe. Then, all of a sudden, the most brilliant idea struck her. I mean, it's not particularly brilliant, it's just... an average idea? Eonaria lit up slightly. "Would you like to, um, play with me?" She asked tentatively.

XXXWhen it had snowed over winter break, there had been the most perfect field of white across the property. Sadly, no one had come out to join her-- other than her cat, the precious baby, but she couldn't exactly make snowballs or go very far, as the deep snow made her sink all the way so the snow went over her head so that Eonaria had to tug her out of it. Eonaria tucked her hands behind her, nervous.

XXXThe very question she had uttered sounded incredibly childish, like a 7-year-old asking to play with dolls. There was definitely a better way to say it, but she couldn't think of another variation. Eonaria didn't have much experience asking that question. She only hoped that they weren't too 'grown up' to request such a thing. They could just keep replenishing the snow with magic, and then clean it up with magic. And if Scourgify really didn't work, they could... er... Incendio it and then clean it up with the paper towels from the lavatory? Or levitate it out of the castle somehow? Is it possible to levitate liquid off of the floor...? Even if they could, Eonaria didn't think she was experienced enough for it.

.・-: ✧☾♩♪♩♬　. 。・゜✭・.・✫゜・。.　♬♩♪♩☽✧ :-・.

Sorry for being late too!

Graci liked how expressive Eonaria's face was. Not that her every emotion was shown, but that it was clear when she was in thought. Then again, most people were like that, but each did it differently. Some people really did show every emotion on their face. Some talked their thoughts out. And some schooled their expressions so well you never knew how they felt. Which always made Graci wonder what made them do that.

"I mean, I'm not a prefect or anything, obviously, so I really have no reason to yell at you. And I'd gladly play with you, though wet robes are rather unfortunate. But snowballs can't do too much physical damage. Only to my pride. Though I'm presuming there won't be much left of it by the end of this. I'm rather clumsy so slipping is probably in my near future." Graci was laughing, trying to subtly form a snowball.

It's been so long since I had a proper snowball fight. Zoe, Mum, and Dad hardly ever go outside in the winter. Too busy reading and the like. I never liked that, too much sitting, expected to just read for hours on end. Usually she ended up going outside in search of Makayli or Lindin who never really wanted to freeze their fingers off either. Boring, in her opinion, though Makayli usually ended up out there building snowmen.

Ah, those were the days. It's a shame I didn't go out more this winter. Well, there was the snowball incident, but we don't think about that. Revenge is still in order.

Graci wasn't being too subtle, but she never was one to be sneaky. Which was why she had thrown a snowball at Eonaria. Maybe not the best choice, considering they could've caught and put in detention at any time for it, but she'd had detention before,, and she had faced worse things.

Just so long as I don't get expelled. I think I'd cry. A lot. And that would be quite embarrassing.

She usually wasn't one to be ashamed of crying, but in front of a lot of adults... eesh, not an experience she wanted to face any time soon. It wasn't that she was a goody-two-shoes, but owling her parents about detention was not her brightest moment. Graci didn't cry exactly, but she had fretted the whole time before she got her letter back. They weren't too mad, considering it was just curfew but...

Graci was hit out of her thoughts with a snowball and quickly retaliated.

Wednesday, May 28, 2025

English - Thoughts

@Graci Laren

Rehearsal Room

XXXEonaria's thoughts flashed back to another situation with wet robes, after getting caught in the rain. Emiline had cast a spell to dry their robes... but what was it? Aer... Cali? After a moment of a concentration, the rest of the word unfortunately did not come to mind. She probably wouldn't be able to cast it properly, anyway. "I can't fix damp robes," she apologized. "I mean, I could set them on fire but that's.. probably not optimal. Ahem." Eonaria shook her head, lighting up slightly when Graci agreed to play with her.

XXX"You could always dry your robes by the fireplace in the common room!" she suggested. She scooped up some more snow to form into a ball before throwing it at the other girl, aiming for her chest. Eonaria's throwing strength wasn't the greatest, but at least it wasn't anything like trying to throw a Quaffle halfway across the playing field. Not that she played Quidditch. She didn't.

XXXHer first automatic thought was to aim for the head, but it wasn't very nice to get hit in the face with snow. She ended up missing anyway, the snowball hitting Graci's arm. The other Gryffindor retaliated, throwing her own snowball. Eonaria tried to duck, but somehow managed to trip over a particularly solidified pile of snow, both getting hit by the snowball and also falling down with a yelp. Her hands hit the snow. Cold!! She leaped back to her feet with a giggle. "Oops!"

XXXEonaria brushed some of the powdery snow off of her robes and then shoved her hands into her hair. Hey, it's just convenient heating. Efficiency, you know. She'd never had an actual snowball fight. Well, there was that time she threw a handful of snow at her brother, but it was not a ball, and their parents put a stop to it almost immediately. It felt like she was catching up with childhood in Hogwarts: sneaking out to watch the stars, eating candy, getting in trouble, participating in teamwork, going out with friends, everything. Eonaria only felt a little bad about it.

XXXShe took a deep breath, drawing her wand. Her fingers were kind of numb from the snow, so she couldn't quite grasp it properly. Eonaria had just the idea up her sleeve-- figuratively-- on how to escalate this snowball fight. "Nive Percutio!" she incantated, waving her wand in a circle. Luckily, the wand movement was nothing complex. She conjured three snowballs, which dived for Graci like homing projectiles.

.・-: ✧☾♩♪♩♬　. 。・゜✭・.・✫゜・。.　♬♩♪♩☽✧ :-・.

Graci hadn't laughed as she did in a long time. And had not had an enjoyable snowball fight in ages. I don't know why people don't do this more. Food for the soul, this is, food for the soul. Either laughter or throwing cold yet fluffy spheres at people was what did it for her, but this was arguably one of her favourite days of the school year thus far.

"I don't think setting them on fire would work, but maybe sitting by one would." Graci could still engage in civil conversation when throwing snowballs at a new maybe-friend, but once a snowball hit her face, it was full on war.

Her throwing wasn't too accurate, but when she did happen to get a hit in, it was spot on. Eat snow, Eonaria. Or magic snow that we're probably going to get in trouble for soon.

"Do you think we could get in trouble for this? I mean, it might not damage property, but I'm sure prefects or teachers would find this a prime time to dole out a detention."

Graci just hoped they heard any footsteps in time to Scourgify all the snow away and say they were just practising, or were going to before they realized they forgot their instruments. That doesn't seem like a very foolproof plan, but it's better than nothing.

Her fingers were growing colder by the second, but she didn't mind. She noted Eonaria was smarter than her, and was actually attempting to heat up her hands. Is this a Gryffindor thing? having random snowball fights and not caring if you get into trouble? Eh, Zoe might've done it, but even then, she would rather just leave to read. Makayi and Lindin would, but they're muggles so....

She wondered why more people didn't have impromptu snowball fights. It really was quite fun, especially when you had a literal spell to make snow/snowballs?!?!

Graci wondered if her halfblood-ness was showing, as her first reaction wasn't to grab her wand. It was still twisted in her hair, holding it up and out of her face, while Eonaria was pelting her with 'Nive Percutio'.

"Agh! Alright, alright, you win!" She was being bombarded with snowballs, giggling and trying to not fall into the snow piles. I digress, that was not how it was supposed to end. Surrender is not a good look.