Overcast Kid(s)
banner by Esme Hestridge
Date: January 7th
Charms classroom
Interacting with: @Katherine Townsend
Coming back from holidays was never easy, or at least such was the case in the past. This year things have changed, and Nico longed for the warm embrace of the cosy dormitory as well as the sound of quills scratching against parchment during class, even if their current expression did not show it very well.
It was easily one of the worst Christmas breaks Nico ever experienced. Everyone in their family tried so hard to make the festive dinner merry as it should’ve been. However, it’s difficult to achieve the jolly atmosphere when the cousins who are usually the life of the party and joyfully chatting about instead seem cold and distant, and it is painfully obvious that something unspoken is hanging above the table, slowly suffocating everyone involved. The elephant, unaddressed, was slowly stepping on their necks with increasing pressure.
It was of course about Nico’s school. As much as they could go on about all the stories when they were with their parents, the same couldn’t be said when it was the extended family. They got away with the evasive answers during their first exeat, but after a few months their aunt and uncle wanted to know more - and Nico couldn’t explain that they cannot know more.
And so, the bitter aftertaste of the dreadfully awkward celebrations kept creeping in the back of their mind as they rolled around their bed, playing with the set of cards they got as a present. They had something of a collection by now, cards for tricks, regular, for poker, the souvenir ones, all proudly displayed on their shelf at home. This set was particularly fancy, crimson in colour with gold decorations. Nico wanted to chuckle thinking how well Aunt Maddie hit with her guess, not knowing that those were the colours of the house they got sorted to.
The restlessness started to get unbearable. They got up with the plans of taking a walk, wishing to seek comfort in the now more familiar stone halls. They figured it is best to start getting back into the school life, hoping it would prove to be enough of a distraction. A vague thought of visiting the library passed by their head. Quickly pacing through the common room they made their way outside, not watching the direction they were heading, probably going completely off route, but they didn’t mind. Taking the long way meant there was a possibility of running into people. Perhaps they’d find some familiar faces, or simply chat with other students to learn about how things were here during the break - they heard that some chose to stay in the castle and could take part in some fun events. Some gossip would be nice to hear as well.
For students to gossip was as certain as death and taxes, especially since there was news of a new teacher arriving at Hogwarts which Nico had mixed feelings about. They didn’t have enough time to get attached to any of the professors, but they did just about start getting used to them; with the stranger’s arrival the whole process had to begin anew. The fact that it was a Charms professor as far as they knew, was even worse. Charms happened to be their favourite subject of all and the prospect of someone annoying filling the spot and ruining the class for them forever was terrible. They already decided that they must exceed in it specifically, as they found it, along with Transfiguration, to be the most entertaining. They appreciated the practical uses of magic that Defence Against the Dark Arts or Potions offered and they enjoyed those as well, but they couldn’t help to be pulled towards the possibilities the more versatile disciplines offered. They more closely aligned with their interests after all - they saw the potential the various spells had for magic tricks. Whenever they learned one, their mind was flooded with ideas of how it could be used in a performance.
As they strolled around, something caught their ear. A faint noise which seemed so familiar, but they were certain they did not hear it at Hogwarts before. It appeared to be coming from the classroom further down the hall, its door ajar. As they got closer their heart started beating faster and their cheeks flushed. It was unmistakable - it was definitely the sound of one of their favourite songs.
Music could often be heard at Hogwarts, yes, but it was usually classical, coming either from the piano in the rehearsal room or some old gramophones. Nico’s heart shattered, their soul ripped to shreds when they realised their MP3 player did not work here; they thought they were being smart bringing it instead of their phone. The unused wireless headphones spent lonely months buried at the bottom of their trunk, having to be covered as catching a glimpse of them filled Nico with sadness of what was lost. Music was such a big part of their life, they bonded over it with both their cousin and aunt, and it quickly became impossible to live without. In such times they were jealous of Sam and any others musically gifted. Those able to strum the guitar could simply play their favourite songs whenever they pleased, at Hogwarts or not. Nico was left to hum the melodies, having to be careful not to do so unconsciously when others around them wanted to focus.
It is not surprising that it resulted in such excitement on their part when they finally heard the vaguely aggressive sounds of electric guitar which contradictorily brought them much comfort. They peeked into the classroom which seemed to be empty except for the small radio near the teacher’s podium. Taking one more careful look around, they snuck in, gently closing the door behind them. They approached the object, too enamoured to worry about how it worked or who it belonged to. The music was now much clearer and brought them so much joy they didn’t even notice when they started quietly singing along.
wc: 1008
. ‧͙⁺ . *･༓☾ . ܁₊ ⊹ . ܁ ܁ . ⊹ ₊ ܁. ☽༓･* . ⁺‧͙ .
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ability: charmer
sta 3 eva 9 str 3 wis 6 arc 6 acc 8
Overcast Kid(s)
date! january 7th, 2026. |
location! the charms classroom. |
mentions! @Nico Dawson. |
x |
★ hey, young blood! / doesn't it feel, like our time is running out? ★ ──────────
★ ─────── ★ i'm gonna change you, like a remix / then i'll raise you, like a phoenixThe end of Christmas break hit Kitty like a truck, for better or for worse.
Hogwarts was finally full of students now! It was just like she remembered, really, though she was a bit taller, now — the halls she remembered as full of life, and chatter, and people running too fast, were just as they were a few years ago, when she was an inter-school visitor. Now, however, instead of being the person tripping over her own feet, sneaking out to the Forbidden Forest or one of the common rooms or storage closets she was definitely not supposed to be in, she was the person “catching” those “trouble-makers” — an odd word for exactly the kind of student she used to be. It felt odder not to have it describe her anymore, even though there was a kind of nostalgia to it all.
On the other hand — the amount of work she had to do was a little staggering. Kitty knew it would be an adjustment: she was going from working solo, maybe with a partner or a few, on one concrete assignment at regular intervals, to basically babysitting a bunch of tweens and teenagers. The amount of prep she did (which was a lot, as she was sure the Hogwarts librarian would be willing to attest to) in terms of lesson plans and educating herself on how to educate others quickly turned out to only be part of the solution. Teaching was… different. Not entirely; things generally worked out when she had a plan, and some incidents she knew how to deal with, but there were some things she simply could not prepare for. No amount of notes, for example, would have taught her how to deal with students knowing details about the accident she had last year, and deciding to pry into it the moment they could.
Kitty probably could have predicted it, to be entirely fair to the Hogwarts student body, but there was an element of improv there that she did not quite expect. Years of cursebreaking and situations far more stressful than a single backfired spell during class, however, were still proving useful in her new job. She knew how to put out fires as they came up and how to deal with a variety of magical mishaps. She just needed to adjust for the presence of however many students suddenly sat in front of her, watching even the moves she’d rather they’d ignore.
So, though the adjustment wasn’t awful, it still left Kitty sort of out of sorts. Though she had wanted to have her classroom ready to go the moment class started, shipping delays combined with all the new information and situations being thrown at her did mean she had to put off a few things until later, and decorating was, admittedly, not too high of a priority. So, until she could get to it, the items she had purchased for her new classroom would have to wait in her living space until it was their time to shine.
Later finally came during the lunch period some two days after classes started again; with a light lunch she brought up to the third floor, Kitty was determined to finally cross this one thing off her list. She had a new chair, new curtains, and a new rug to get into the room, in addition to all the various trinkets and knick-knacks of lamps and other assorted decor: the centerpiece of which was, of course, her radio.
Music had been a part of Kitty’s life for a while. First as classical music, Tchaikovsky and Mozart and Beethoven that she used to resent when she was younger; then grew to appreciate again after getting out of her parents’ house. During that resentful period, however, other muggle magicians found a place in her heart — the loud kind that shouted along to electric guitars and drum loops that Henry and Mary Anne Townsend would have groaned at. And they did — when Kitty was in the later years of her schooling, she spent a lot of time listening to it as her own version of protest, before a brief tenure in a garage band with some friends, making that exact kind of music, hopped up on a mix of anger and caffeine.
She was far less angry now, but the music had stayed.
Listening to muggle music in Hogwarts (or any manner of wizarding spaces, for that matter) was… more of a hassle than Kitty would have liked it to be. In university, she had purchased a wizarding radio, and a friend graciously modified it to pick up on some muggle stations. It worked maybe 50% of the time, but the other 50% she spent out in primarily muggle sections of Florence, so somewhere she was actually capable of using electronics. After graduation, she also opted for a lot of muggle travel routes when she could; and it’s not like you can afford yourself the distraction of music while out on an assignment, so her music fell to the wayside.
It became a lot more prominent after her accident. Kitty lived in a muggle section of London, sure, but having access to wizarding news was always good, and she liked the ritual of radio. Picking stations, the hosts rambling, finding hidden gems on frequencies both radio and muggle. The one from her uni days was now far too dusty (and definitely fried) to work properly, so Kitty ended up getting a new one — a proper one this time, modified by an actual technician and wizard, not by a college kid with access to a wand and only a vague knowledge of the difference between Wizarding, FM, and AM radio. Her music got her through a big part of recovery, so of course, her radio was one of the first things she packed once she learned she got the position as professor of Charms.
Of course, it was the first thing she pulled out of storage and placed on her classroom’s desk for some ambiance while she worked. “You are a brick tied to me that's dragging me down / Strike a match and I'll burn you to the ground—”
The ambiance, of course, was rather loud — music from a Fall Out Boy album that came out when she was 13 and clinging to any music that wasn't what her parents wanted her to listen to, recommended by some older student back in Ilvermorny; and later played on repeat when she was 15 and feeling suffocated. Only fitting to play it now when she was 25 and rather happy with how her life had turned out, free to breathe. It was far too loud for actual classtime, but since it was lunch, Kitty figured it would be fine to let it play. If anyone complained, she would happily turn it down. No one had so far, though, so Kitty hummed along as her foot tapped instinctively to the rhythm of the song. Her wand was in hand, Wingardium Leviosa helping her levitate the shiny new magenta curtains up into their proper space.
Once that was done, Kitty had to step out; though she could have used Accio to get the new rug out of storage, she was never a fan of the Summoning Charm and its… at times unpredictable pathing. Levitating it over and getting it into the Charms classroom that way was a far safer bet. Since her living space and her class were on the same floor, she did not think it was a journey long enough to warrant turning her radio off or locking the door.
When she came back, however, the rug safely rolled up and levitating just behind and a bit above her, Kitty found there a someone in her classroom — a student, judging by the short stature and the enthused yet quiet voice singing along. She stared for a moment, unsure what to do, but was forced into action when the mild surprise threw her concentration off, and the rug fell to the ground with a soft thud.
With a swish and a flick of her wrist, the rug levitated once more. Kitty moved it out of the way, resting the thick roll of fabric against her desk vertically, before her attention moved back to the student in front of her. She smiled, the radio continuing to play.
“Hi there— did you need anything?”
esme hestridge. second year slytherin duelist. |
thales amaro. second year castelobruxo quidditch. |