Chocolate-covered friendships pv Cynthia Beaufort

date: 1/25/23 | place: Grounds | #ba9826= Aurora(English) | Thoughts= Italics

"I agree, there are other things in life that you can do and talk about other than Quidditch. There's an endless myriad of possible topics: art, photography, writing, puzzles, books, movies, the weather, music, even school! Of course, some of those things might not interest you if you weren't raised as a muggle..." I wanted to add "plus genealogy", but on a normal day, I wouldn't have been interested in the slightest, and I wasn't sure how many kids my age were. The answer was probably none, ha. I laughed at Cynthia's joke, or at least, I was pretty sure it was a joke. "Junior professor? Eh, maybe, but I do my homework, that's for sure." I was not a Ravenclaw, I was more of a Hufflepuff and a Gryffindor combined, so it seemed. "Ok, maybe the weather in England, especially London, isn't that great, but you can partly blame the smog for that. And climate change. Either one..it's very different from the landscape in places like Ireland, it's very beautiful. And you're right, the weather at the celebration wasn't too great either, by normal standards..." I wasn't even sure why we were talking about the weather, but it was even weirder how it was a little interesting. "Well, er, I guess they are 'novel', if you put it that way..." I really had no opinion on the subject. Sure, the celebration would've been more fun if we hadn't been late...I wasn't really late to things anymore, which was good. "Do you often have celebrations like that where you live?" I asked. I could only imagine what it was like to be a pureblood, living in a nice manor somewhere...that was how my Mum lived, maybe I could ask her sometime...

interacting with: @Cynthia Beaufort
mentions: @

‘Photography, huh?’ Cynthia raised an eyebrow. ‘Even with wizarding photography our extremely traditional family always preferred portraits to those. I mean they would hire an artist to draw whichever scene they wanted and I would have to pose for hours on end!’ Cynthia pretened to swoon. ‘Anyways I do want to learn more about that. I like art. I’m good at watercolour and I’m in Kayla’s art club too! What are movies though?’ Cynthia paused on that strange word, movies. Her mother never liked muggles, but still stressed the importance of the study of them. Still, Cynthia had never heard this word. No, that wasn’t right… she had, hadn’t she? ‘Movies…’ she guessed, ‘Are like films?’ Cynthia shook her head and smirked, ‘Well, add genealogy to that list and it would be perfect.’

Aurora had just agreed that the weather at the celebration was not so good. ‘Well, most of it was indoors anyways, so I guess it was okay…’ She trailed off a bit. The picnic was nice, wasn’t it? ‘Normally in Oxford it is more beautiful, especially in the Autumn months. And living so close to the university; the architecture is really pretty, like the Radcliffe Camera or Christ Church College. Though sometimes that can mean bustling and ever so annoying muggle students as well.’ She laughed a bit.

Aurora asked whether they often had celebrations like that. ‘Yes, yes we do.’ She said, then started to elaborate. ‘Most only allows pure-bloods, but I find it so silly that muggle-borns and half-bloods cannot go. I went to the Virtanen’s Yule Ball, which was a delight. My father was very keen on meeting Opeila… I’m not sure why. Opeila and I met only once but when William — that’s my father — heard how, he was seemingly charmed by that prefect. I’ve been to quite a lot of parties… this one was the first I ever hosted. Before I didn’t like going, because I just remained with my family and do what they told me — boring. But when I went to the Virtanen Yule Ball, I danced with Kim a bit. He was alright at dancing, and it would be lying to say I did not enjoy it.’ She realised she was rambling and stopped herself, though she was finished anyways.

@Aurora Griffith

date: 1/25/23 | place: Grounds | #ba9826= Aurora(English) | Thoughts= Italics

"Yeah, photography! I think it's interesting, but I'm not obsessed or anything." I said. I thought that wizarding photography was a lot more interesting than muggle photography, though I had nothing against it. It was so cool how you could just make the pictures move like that! I had gotten a wizard camera with a developing solution for it- I hadn't been able to use it yet, but I hoped to soon. I laughed at Cynthia's remark about the family portraits. "That sounds very uncomfortable! I think that only 10 minutes or so of that would drive me mad." In my mind, that sounded like a very proper form of torture, honestly, but I couldn't say the same for Cynthia. "I like art too! I don't often do it, but when I do, I love to paint. I think that watercolors look very pretty." When Cynthia had asked about movies, I had to remember that purebloods raised like her didn't really know about the muggle world. "Yeah, movies. They're a muggle technology, also known as..." Cynthia took a guess. "Movies..." she said, "Are like films?" "Yeah, they are actually! Best muggle invention ever, no offense. I personally love movies, it's basically moving pictures put on a screen. They're made for entertainment, and actors play different characters in the film. A bit like a play, but on a screen, with special effects." I hoped I had explained it right. One of my favorite muggle films was Star Wars, or more specifically, Episode IV, A New Hope. My all-time favorite was Return of the King, from Lord of the Rings. Don't blame me for liking the classics. "Oh, yeah, it would be perfect! I was thinking of adding it to the list, but I thought better of it, haha. Of course, those are all things that I show interest in, but tell me, besides dueling and art, what are you interested in?" I asked. I really did want to know. I was holding out a very subtle hope that Cynthia could be my friend, but how was that going to happen if I didn't try to get to know her better? Then Cynthia started talking about her home near Oxford University. "Oh, really? I've seen Oxford before, during the summer. It really is very pretty." I said, laughing a little with Cynthia when she said her next words. Then she talked about the parties and celebrations at her family's home. She also talked about some Virtanen Yule Ball, about someone named Opeila, who I had never met, though further listening led me to believe that she was a prefect at Hogwarts. And when she said that she had danced with Kim, my eyes widened. So it was a small world, huh? I didn't really know him that well, but it was funny how we all knew the same person. "Wow, that sounds fun. I've always wondered what it would be like to be a pureblood," I said. The question was though...would I like it if I was? And would I have been born and raised the same way? I wondered what it had been like for Cynthia and her family...

interacting with: @Cynthia Beaufort
mentions: @Kim Sato, and very briefly, @Opeila Winters