21 Feb 2022, 14:49
HoM Study Buddies
Winter Break happenings with @Samantha Salwis
These Ravenclaws and their questions. He was used to it by now from Sam and by Clair and was okay with it. In fact, he liked the inquisitive nature that they had.
"To be honest, I've been writing the letter for awhile now I just haven't gotten it to where I want it to be. Pretty much, it says that I feel there was a connection that night and that I think he felt it too; that he knows who I am and I know who he is and perhaps we can get together sometime to discuss it." Okay, maybe his Aunt Maggie should be notified of his sort of thing but somehow it seemed better, or maybe easier, to leave her out of it for right now. It was just a letter, what harm could a letter do? Maybe when it was time to actually meet up he'd tell her about it. Maybe.
"The whole thing IS weird," he agreed. "But like, I don't have my mum, you know? And if this is a chance to know one of my parents then I want to know them." There was this void there his whole entire life and here was a man who was not only half of who he was but an important half as he began to navigate this world of being a dhampir. In the coming years he'd change and his adult fangs would come in and the unsettling aura would appear and all those things that someone like his father might actually be able to provide some advice and insight on.
He smiled as Samantha then spoke about her break. Grandparents. Sister. She had that family that he yearned for but even though she described her sister as annoying and stupid, he could tell that she loved her dearly.
"It went well. I spent the first half of it catching up with old friends, picking up some games of hockey, hanging out. I had lots of conversations with Aunt Maggie and told her about my year so far, at least in detail since she already knew from letters. I got back to Church several times. I sang at Christmas mass and we had our large Christmas Dinner where we invite lots. I visited a former librarian that I knew from Youth Book Club and gave her a gift. I went to visit Clair Fernandez on her family farm in Carslile, England and discovered that I never want to live on a farm. And I met with Haley at a bakery for a date." It was a lot of things. Lots of fun, lots of reconnecting, lots of love.
Still that was a rather good place to end it because he didn't know what else to say after that. He remembered thinking he'd see how that date went with Haley and try and discover his feelings, on whether or not their relationship was salvageable. Honestly, he wasn't sure.
Be kind to one another. (*iNPC is Miles Thatcher)
23 Feb 2022, 11:50
HoM Study Buddies
@Simon KincaidSimon already had a letter? "Can I see it?" It had left her mouth before she could think, she just wanted to know. Samantha had this desperate need to learn and know everything she could. It wasn't like she could help, but she still wanted to know what Simon wrote to his dad he had only met once. "You want to get together? With a stranger?" she asked surprised, not sure if that was the best idea.
When Simon told her that he wanted to know at least one of his parents, Samantha understood him a little better. She always had a hard time placing herself in other people's shoes. She could only see things from her perspective, but this time she understood Simon. She would want to know one of her parents too if she was in his situation. "That makes sense," she said as she gave Simon a little smile.
Still a little down from the lack of letters from Vivian, Samantha tried to listen to Simon's story about his break. The friends and hockey did reach her ears, but she hadn't really listened yet. Only when Simon talked about his aunt her attention was back. Samantha was quite interested in Simon's aunt, he talked a lot about her and she seemed really nice. On top of that, Simon had written in one of his letters, back when they were only quill palls, that his aunt always got him different sweets to try.
"Why don't you want to live on a farm?" a little giggle escaped her mouth. Simon seemed really sure about not wanting to live on a farm and Samantha wondered why. Farm live would probably be not something for her as well, but she was curious why Simon didn't want it.
4 Mar 2022, 22:54
HoM Study Buddies
Asking the opinion of @Samantha Salwis
"And besides, if I meet up with him and we get to know each other, then he's no longer really a stranger, is he?" Simon expressed his thoughts as he grabbed his bag and began to go through it. She wanted to see what the letter had said and being someone who wrote EVERYTHING down, he certainly had in his notebook something as important as this letter. He pulled out a notebook and now flipped through the pages.
"Here it is," he said when he found it. "Now the one I sent was with a little slower handwriting but here's my first draft of it. I ended up not changing any of the words once I got up to this point."
Reducio
January 8, 2022.
Mr. Adrian Hawthorne
Babilistow Delivery Office
Babilistow, England, UK
Dear Mr. Hawthorne,
I’ve written this letter to you nearly a hundred times before. Once it was sent, only to come back by Royal Mail marked address unknown. I found myself at the Royal Mail West End Delivery Office, where I brushed my hand against Post Office Box 14040, a box that I believe you were once familiar with; a box that you have visited before; and the box that let me down in trying to contact you. This was the forwarding address given at the Delivery Office and it is my hope that this letter finally reaches you.
I initially got the first address from some letters found within a box that you unintentionally left at my doorstep in South Kensington on the night of July 14, 2021. If you’re still reading at this point, something tells me you’re beginning to understand the direction in which this letter is heading.
I imagine I know who you are and I am quite certain that you know who I am.
And yet - This is a subject that I feel would be better addressed in person, as I always seem to fall short to put into words what I’d like to say in writing. Hundreds of crumpled up pieces of parchment would bear proof to such failure.
This is a conversation to be had that has been a long time coming; nearly thirteen years in the making. I have recently returned to school from just having Winter Holiday but perhaps we can meet over my Spring Holiday or even out towards Summer.
If this letter reaches you, and you feel the inclination to return my correspondence, I do ask that you please use the alias of Professor Nicholas McKay. He is the Director of the London College of Music and I believe that my aunt will most certainly forward any mail from him to me in an expeditious manner.
Hoping this letter finds you well as we enter into the new year,
S.E. Kincaid
January 8, 2022.
Mr. Adrian Hawthorne
Babilistow Delivery Office
Babilistow, England, UK
Dear Mr. Hawthorne,
I’ve written this letter to you nearly a hundred times before. Once it was sent, only to come back by Royal Mail marked address unknown. I found myself at the Royal Mail West End Delivery Office, where I brushed my hand against Post Office Box 14040, a box that I believe you were once familiar with; a box that you have visited before; and the box that let me down in trying to contact you. This was the forwarding address given at the Delivery Office and it is my hope that this letter finally reaches you.
I initially got the first address from some letters found within a box that you unintentionally left at my doorstep in South Kensington on the night of July 14, 2021. If you’re still reading at this point, something tells me you’re beginning to understand the direction in which this letter is heading.
I imagine I know who you are and I am quite certain that you know who I am.
And yet - This is a subject that I feel would be better addressed in person, as I always seem to fall short to put into words what I’d like to say in writing. Hundreds of crumpled up pieces of parchment would bear proof to such failure.
This is a conversation to be had that has been a long time coming; nearly thirteen years in the making. I have recently returned to school from just having Winter Holiday but perhaps we can meet over my Spring Holiday or even out towards Summer.
If this letter reaches you, and you feel the inclination to return my correspondence, I do ask that you please use the alias of Professor Nicholas McKay. He is the Director of the London College of Music and I believe that my aunt will most certainly forward any mail from him to me in an expeditious manner.
Hoping this letter finds you well as we enter into the new year,
S.E. Kincaid
The Hufflepuff reached over across the table and put the notebook on the table space in front of her so she could easily read it. He appeared calm and collected, but he felt nervous having her read it. She was not only a Ravenclaw so her intelligence out-powered his own, but she was a good friend of his and her opinion mattered to him. Maybe he should have had her read it first, make any changes or critiques. Maybe there was some sort of big flaw in there and that's why he had yet to receive a response. Maybe he never was going to receive one.
"I uhh - "he paused, knowing he was showing his apprehension there with that pause and wished he hadn't. He never liked seeming vulnerable, but then again who did? "Maybe I shouldn't have sent it." Too late now though, it had been sent. Whether it was delivered to his father or not, he didn't know, but Adrian Hawthrone had; in fact, gotten the letter.
"What do you think of it?" he asked in a whisper after a moment, giving her some time to read most of it.
Be kind to one another. (*iNPC is Miles Thatcher)
7 Mar 2022, 17:55
HoM Study Buddies
@Simon KincaidA little nod showed that she agreed with Simon. "You are right, we were strangers long ago too." It hadn't been that long ago that the two hadn't known each other, they knew each other for maybe a year now, but for Samantha, it was long. When Simon started to look through his bag, she waited patiently. She wanted to read it, and as soon as the Hufflepuff had found his notebook she took it from the table.
The letter started with a very formal greeting, which Samantha would never use for her dad. Of course, she and her dad had a different relationship than Simon and his father. She giggled when she read the next part. "did you really write it almost a hundred times or are you exaggerating?" she teased her friend, before continuing reading. Simon had made sure he didn't forget a single detail, that was for sure. The specific number of the box and the date showed how much her friend had cared to get everything right. She quietly read the rest of the letter until she reached the part of Simon asking his dad to use an alias.
She looked up in surprise, did her friend go behind his aunt's back? She understood not telling his aunt, but this was just wrong. His aunt took care of him and loved him so much and he didn't tell her about this important part of his life. "Why the alias? Don't you think that is a bit reckless?" The brunette remembered what Eun-ji had told her when Samantha didn't want to tell her parents about her being cursed. What if her parents would find out another way? What if Simon's aunt found out about it from somebody else? That would get her friend in a lot of trouble.
Her friend seemed hesitant as he said he maybe shouldn't have sent it. Samantha didn't want to make her friend feel bad, but she did agree with it a little. She didn't think the last part about the alias should have been added. Instead of making her friend worry about something he couldn't change she smiled at him. "You already sent it, so it does no good if you worry about it. Now you just have to wait." She deliberately didn't say he shouldn't have sent it and only told him not to worry. She knew if she would have told him he did good by sending the letter, he could see she was lying. It was better not to say anything than lie to her friend.
26 Mar 2022, 13:05
HoM Study Buddies
Study sessions with @Samantha Salwis
"No, I really probably wrote it about a hundred times. Maybe more," he said. He thought back to all the times he sat down and wrote a couple words and the times he got paragraph after paragraph but those never made it to the final cut. The final cut seemed impersonal in his opinion, but really, what did one say to someone they've never met? What did one say to a father who you went nearly a lifetime without knowing anything about and they went nearly - what was it for a vampire, an eternity? - without knowing you existed.
Simon could pick up on Samantha's apprehension. She was probably right. Nearly everything he had read about vampires wasn't good and here he was trying to reach out to one. He wasn't so sure that Aunt Maggie would support it and there was a reason for the alias and that showed guilt. He was making up lies to get around having to tell her and that wasn't a good thing.
Still, he had to know.
Hopefully Samantha wouldn't find too much fault in him for it. He didn't mind her asking such questions though. She was a Ravenclaw and inquisitive and he liked that she wasn't afraid to speak her mind. Plus, it's what true friends did.
"I doubt I'll get a reply. The last one was sent back and this one is probably no different," he said, trying to justify his decision to send in the first place.
Simon opened up his History of Magic textbook and began to flip it to their current chapter. He was ready to be off the subject of absent unknown fathers and vampires and deceiving his aunt and feeling bad for it.
--------------------------------------------------------
Saturday, March 26, 2022.
The days did pass and he didn't hear a thing. Although, this time it wasn't a kick back by Royal Mail with a return to sender so in the back of his mind he wondered if maybe, just maybe, the man on his staircase that one Summer evening in London did receive his letter. Perhaps Adrian Hawthorne was somewhere trying to figure out the next move on whether to acknowledge a son or try to retain ignorance.
A LOT had been going on lately. Turning thirteen. The Valentine Day Tea Disaster. The Breakup with Haley Rose. The Broken Nose. The Somewhat Dating with AngelFyre McCubbin. No Letter.
Simon came to their usual study spot a little early and collected some books on their most recent topic and then sat down to wait for his Ravenclaw friend to join. It had been awhile since he saw Samantha and it would be good to see her again.
Be kind to one another. (*iNPC is Miles Thatcher)
29 Mar 2022, 19:36
HoM Study Buddies
@Simon KincaidHer friend had been busy breaking girls' hearts and she had been busy with school, dueling, trying to avoid a certain idiot, and quite literally running into them. Samantha hadn't followed the drama from the tea party Simon had a big part in creating. When it had happened she had been busy crushing over a girl she had never met before and trying to have a good time with Vivian, who hadn't been extremely talkative. She wasn't one to listen to gossip, so she had remained mainly clueless about the drama, which was fine by her. Of course, she cared about her friend and wanted to know how he was doing, but listening to gossip wouldn't create a very reliable picture.
So that's why she decided to ask him directly. Their study session was already planned so she didn't need to go search for Simon. If she was being completely honest, she was extremely curious about what had happened, but she tried to hide it. She didn't want to be all gossipy like her sister. But if the things she heard were true, she would be very disappointed in her friend. Samantha liked Haley, she had been nice the few times they had talked, so she didn't want to see Haley hurt.
"Simon! Hi," she waved at her friend, who was already sitting at their usual table, with a big smile. Even with the drama surrounding him, she was still happy to see her friend. She loved talking with him, which was more her talking them him, but still. Simon was a great friend and he had an extremely interesting life. She also needed to ask him about his dad, there were so many things she needed to ask and they also need to study! Samantha wasn't sure if she would be able to ask everything, study, and talk herself, but she hoped it would work out.
She sat down next to her friend and didn't waste a second. "So, I heard that something happened on valentines day with you and Haley," she asked, not caring if Simon wanted to talk about it or not. She wanted to talk about it and she needed to know it, so her friend better told her. "Also you need to tell me if you already got a reply to your letter, okay?" she said bossily.
1 Apr 2022, 14:06
HoM Study Buddies
Playing catch-up with @Samantha Salwis
The letter.
He had been focused on that letter every single day since he had sent it off and yet somehow that was the easier topic at hand to address. It was easier than backtracking to the events that happened on his Thirteenth Birthday ad how everything came crumbling down so quickly, so harshly. There were an infinite amount of possibilities on how that night could have ended and every single one of them would have been better than how it had ended. Almost.
"No letter yet," he said, smiling softly. The lack of a letter was not a smiling manner, but seeing Samantha was and he got up from the table and came over to her, wrapping his arms around her and pulling her in for a warm embrace that the held for quite some time. He had missed her and hoped all was well with her. "I'm actually starting to think a reply is not going to come," he whispered before pulling back, his eyes connecting with hers for just a moment. Knowing he was probably showing a bit of vulnerability, he went to go sit back down.
And so that was enough talk about that. Not that it would be followed by an easier topic. She was asking about something that happened on Valentine's Day. Oy, that was probably one of the worst days in Simon Kincaid's entire life.
He sighed, pulling himself forward on the tabletop and bringing his hand through his hair as he did so and just watched her, a bit of sadness maybe showing. "Well, I..." Where did one begin?
"I met this girl," he said and paused, realizing how cliche that sounded and he smiled a little, glancing down. "AngelFyre. AngelFyre McCubbin. She's a Hufflepuff. Anyway, we hit it off pretty strong right away and I thought that, you know, it would dissipate some; but it didn't. Those feelings just seemed to grow until I was thinking about her nearly all the time and well, that's not right. It's not right to be thinking of someone like that when you're with someone else. So, even though I've still got feelings for Haley, I was going to end our relationship but after Valentine's Day. No one wants to be broken up with just before Valentine's Day. So I just had to hold on."
"But the day before, Haley and Clair threw a Birthday party for me and I think Haley seemed to pick up on some vibes from me and AngelFyre so when the Tea Party came and I was seated right directly between them...well, by then I knew she knew and she knew I knew she knew." Was he being confusing? "Then I guess she had gotten a note from AngelFyre meant for me that professed feelings and as the night grew, there was love potion laced cupcakes and AngelFyre admitting her feelings under a spotlight through words and song. After which, the potion began to wear off and she ran out, embarrassed, and then Haley left, upset. I followed Haley and the night was beyond repair. The breakup was long coming, unfortunately."
"So I broke up with her and I ended the night in the hospital wing because she broke my nose. And uh...it's hard because I still - " he looked around, making sure that no one was eavesdropping here, "- I still have feelings for her. But anyway, the next day I asked AngelFyre to be my girlfriend and she didn't accept. She's placed us on a sort of hold so we can establish and us before an official us, I suppose. I'm still claiming to be her boyfriend even if she has yet to accept me as a boyfriend."
"And that's the tragedy of the love life of Simon Kincaid: Synopsis." He smiled to her but it was a small nervous sort. She was going to think of him a moron. "We are at least going to the Ball together. But anyways, enough about me. Tell me everything and anything that's been going on with you."
Be kind to one another. (*iNPC is Miles Thatcher)
2 Apr 2022, 16:54
HoM Study Buddies
@Simon KincaidWhile hugging Simon back, Samantha kept shifting her weight from one leg to the other, unable to stand still. She was very happy to see Simon and needed answers to her questions. When her friend said he started to think there was no reply coming, she gave him an encouraging smile. Though she didn't fully agree with the way Simon handled things, she didn't like seeing him lose hope in something he found important. "Your dad is probably busy writing his letter a hundred times and making sure it is the perfect letter before sending anything back to you, just like you did when you wrote the letter. And also, it probably takes some time before the letter even arrives here, so there is nothing to worry about, okay?"
Simon started talking about the valentine drama and Samantha quietly listened. Her elbows leaning on the table and her face resting on her hands, she looked at the Hufflepuff who was now talking about another Hufflepuff. Samantha couldn't understand how you could think of somebody nearly all the time. That was weird, at least according to her. Excluding the tea party, Samantha didn't have any experience with love and she didn't understand how Simon was able to have feelings for multiple people at the same time. Samantha nodded as Simon talked about nobody wanting to be broken up before valentines day, she could understand that a little. Honestly, this talk about love was far from the brunette's knowledge.
Samantha had been at his birthday party, so she knew what the boy was talking about. Trying to remember if she had seen any vibes coming from Simon and this girl, Samantha realized she was blind to things like that. The only way she knew somebody liked someone else was if they said it or if they were kissing in front of her face, something she rather not saw. It didn't sound like Simon had a very fun time at the Tea Party. It sounded like there had also been mistakes with the letters at Simon's table, just like there had been at hers. There had been love potion in the cupcakes? Samantha looked at her friend in shock. Was that why she had felt so weird when looking at Delphinia?
She was sad that Simon and Haley broke up because she had thought they were a nice couple and she had even married them at her first ball. Haley was nice, but when Simon told her that she broke his nose Samantha immediately sided with her friend. Sure, he hadn't been the nicest, but she shouldn't have punched him! The brunette was a little biased since Simon was a good friend of hers, but still, breaking people's noses was never good. He had feelings for a girl who broke his nose? That didn't make any sense. Samantha was even more shocked when he told her he had asked AngelFyre to be his girlfriend the next day, her sister didn't even move that fast from one boy to another. Why would he even want to be somebody's boyfriend, it clearly only created drama.
The Hufflepuff concluded his story by calling it the tragedy of the love life of Simon Kincaid: Synopsis, which made Samantha smile a little. Enough about him? No way, he couldn't expect her to listen to him talking for so long without her having at least a few questions and remarks. "First, I have some questions and things I need to say before we are going to talk about me." she said bossily. "Okay, so when did you meet AngelFyre? And how can you have feelings for her and Haley at the same time? Honestly, I don't even know how you know you like somebody." There was another burning question she wanted to ask but she would first let Simon answer her other questions.
"Also, you said something about love potion in the cupcakes? Was there really amortentia in them? Because I had this weird feeling after eating one," Samantha's head turned red thinking back to the tea party. "There was this girl," she said nervously as she looked down. "And I had talked to her before, but after I ate the cupcake I realized how pretty she was and I got all nervous and my palms were sweaty." Should she even tell this to Simon? Would he make fun of her? No, Simon would never do that, he was her friend. She felt her heart pounding as she continued talking. "I told so many things just to impress her and it was so weird. Is that what it feels like to like somebody? And was that because of the amortentia?" she asked nervously. If there was one person who could answer her it was Simon, who knew a lot more about love than she did.
24 Apr 2022, 15:18
HoM Study Buddies
Wanting @Samantha Salwis to explore the idea of love/attraction
"Maybe. Maybe there was some truth to it too?" Simon asked, venturing possibly. "I was given it once, at the first Blossom Ball as you remember," he smiled a little but it faltered because it was a good memory with Haley and well, those had come to an unfortunate end. "For me it only exemplified and strengthened feelings that were already there."
Were.
Past tense.
No, they were still there. Simon snapped out of it though. This wasn't about him. He was there to help his friend in the moment. "I guess what you should focus on is how do you feel now? That moment aside and any apprehension or embarrassment you might have felt - what do you feel now when you think of her?"
Simon was glad that some of his friends were finally coming around to the point where they were thinking of relationships and crushes and love. He had caught that bug VERY early on and maybe had always had it. He was the boy at age four who was holding hands with a girl in the hallways or trying to kiss her out on the playground. He was the boy that had his first 'official' girlfriend at age 9.
So many thought he was crazy. So many were surprised with how many girlfriends he had had, how many girls he had kissed, and so forth. But finally, FINALLY, they were all coming around to that same point and for Simon, it wasn't only just raging hormones, but also a quest for immeasurable and unfaltering love.
Be kind to one another. (*iNPC is Miles Thatcher)
26 Apr 2022, 20:22
HoM Study Buddies
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With doubt in her eyes, Samantha listened to Simon, not knowing if she liked Delphinia or if it all had been fake. What Simon said made sense, he had already liked Haley before he married her at the ball, so maybe her feelings had a bit of truth in them too. Still, it felt wrong that the first person she liked was because of some stupid potion that had been in her cupcake. Sulking, Samantha quietly hated the person that had gotten the amortentia in her cupcake and ruined the first time she had ever liked somebody.
The Hufflepuff was a great friend and immediately thought of a way to help her. How did she feel now when she thought of Del? The brunette was quiet as she tried to focus on the feeling she had when she recalled the pretty girl. The way Delphinia laughed had sounded like music to her ears and how the beautiful smile on the sweet girl's face made her smile too. Samantha remembered exactly how the first year had given her flowers and a blush appeared on Samantha's face as she looked away from Simon. "I-" the girl that always knew what to say know didn't know how to describe the feeling to her friend. "Like nervous, but also happy and like, I want to be with her? Or like, I don't know," she admitted.
Before she had even dared to speak out loud about the possibility of liking somebody, she had searched the library for books about love and how you knew you liked somebody, but they had been useless. "The books were so vague about how it feels to like somebody, they didn't help me at all," she told Simon. "And now I am stuck with this weird feeling." She sighed, she hated asking for help but she hated not knowing things even more. Besides, this was Simon, he could be trusted and he wouldn't make fun of her, so it was okay to tell him this. "What does this mean, Simon?" she asked him desperately and a tad dramatic. He should know. He had already been fake married before. He was the expert. She knew nothing. She hated knowing nothing. She hated this feeling.