3 Apr 2023, 01:37
A 1,000 Nothings = A Million Everythings
My Favorite Year @Simon Kincaid
2 April, 2023
Simon was already down in the Common Room, standing before the fireplace, his cinnamon-honeyed eyes fixed on the flames. He was waiting for her, but she was not late. He was just amazingly fast at getting himself put together. Even though he may notice she had her enchanted satchel, her hands were quite full. What she carried would have easily fit into said satchel, but they were quite delicate and she did not want them assaulted from the long list of staples she always carried in there. Magical expansion did not equate to item safety necessarily, or at least she did not think so. She did not know for certain as she had never put the satchel to the test in that way, and tonight... well, now technically this morning... would not be the time to find out. That little science experiment could wait.
She beamed at him as she made her way over to him, bringing up one hand and letting a long finger rest in front of her lips, silencing him before he had a chance to speak. She turned to the sofa and carefully set the objects down and quickly moved into his arms for a long, soft kiss. When pulling away, she tenderly rubbed her nose to his and then smiled as he softly tapped his forehead to hers, looking into her eyes. It was such a simple little thing, but it was also one of her favorite things. They did not have to speak as their smiles often said everything in those moments. Usually, however, they would dissolve into giggles as their eyes would begin to cross from the strain of trying to focus on such a close object. Knowing this, she pecked his lips once more and reluctantly pulled back.
"Happy Anniversary, Simon. You have been my absolute favorite year. I am quite certain you will be my favorite year for all the rest of my years," and she looked up at him as he gently tucked a tendril of her hair behind her shoulder. "If happiness were illegal, I would be serving a life time sentence. Oh.. wait! I guess I will be either way," and she quietly chuckled.
She grasped his hand and moved over to the sofa, picking up one of the objects and then turned towards the firelight so that he could get a better look at it in the dim light. "I made both of these floating lanterns for us to release out in the Courtyard. That is why I made you get dressed. If you look closely, you will see that yours has been decorated with doves and mine has been decorated with wolves."
She knew her boy had an adventurous streak, so the thought of sneaking out into the Courtyard at this hour would not phase him overly much, if at all. These rites of passage were important to her... they always would be... and she hoped not to get into trouble over disobeying curfew, but it was a price she would be willing to pay should it happen. Something told her Simon would feel the same.
As he was looking it over, she leaned down to get his card out of her satchel, relaying to him how important it had been to her to make their lanterns as environmentally friendly as possible. The frame was made of balsa wood instead of metal that would litter the environment, so it would be consumed with the lantern paper as well. The wax was beeswax and contained no petroleum by products to poison any creatures that may come upon its residue. The lantern paper was, of course, just parchment.
She handed him the homemade anniversary card as well. Someone had gone through the Hogwarts Express at the beginning of the year and had taken random photographs of students, which was a kind of cool thing to do actually. This beautiful moment between she and Simon had been captured and when she learned that they would be back on the train heading home for Spring break on their anniversary, this idea just seemed to make sense to her. It was more of a postcard than anything, and her mother had helped in transferring a copy of the photo to the cardstock, but AngelFyre had done the writing. The original photo was unharmed and she had a copy of that for Simon as well.
"Come, my peace dove. We have some lanterns to light."
Last edited by AngelFyre McCubbin on 4 Jun 2023, 14:07, edited 1 time in total.
The magic is real.
3 Apr 2023, 21:34
A 1,000 Nothings = A Million Everythings
A crisp clear night with @AngelFyre McCubbin
There was probably nothing more the boy loved in this world than the girl before him. No, not lemon drops, not broom racing. He was ever thankful that she came into his life and he wondered if the two ever would have met or gotten as close as they had if she had been placed into any other house, as it was in that very room that they met. Still, while she had the bravery of Gryffindor and intelligence of a Ravenclaw, he just couldn't see AngelFyre McCubbin fit better for any other house than their Hufflepuff.
He cherished their closeness for the moment then pulled away so he could take a look at the craftsmanship of the lanterns. "These are amazing," he said and paused, placing them both on the table before the fire. He then got into his own enchanted satchel and took a photo of them with his wizard camera because he wanted to remember them.
"I got you something, too," he said and handed over to her a small white squared box. In it, she would find several folded up origami hearts with an 'I love you" message coming from each. "The first anniversary is the paper anniversary and they're all colors because you've brought a rainbow of colors into my life." It wasn't as good as her photo card, but he was still proud of those little paper hearts. "Happy Anniversary, AngelFyre."
Saying her name made me realize how rarely he used any sort of nickname or petname with her and it made him smile. He already had thought on this before and knew the reason. AngelFyre was absolutely and undeniably the most beautiful name he had ever heard and nothing was going to top it.
They packed up though and departed for the courtyard. He took the dove lantern and she took the wolf one as they made their way down the corridors, his wand in his hand with LUMOS MAXIMA at the tip, lighting the way. It did cause him to squint, as wand lighting light charms and dhampirs didn't always get along, but he also didn't want any harm to come to his girlfriend, himself, or these lanterns.
They headed out into the night where there was a slight chill to the air but nothing unbearable. It was one of those chills that just seemed to make the night feel stopped in time and there was no heaviness above so the darkened night sky showed all the stars that the Scottish Highlands surrounding Hogwarts could offer.
"Are you warm enough? I brought an extra hoodie in case you should need it," he offered. He took her hand and the two slowly walked on the cobblestone to the center of the Courtyard where the fountain rested. That would be a good place to sit and let off their lanterns, letting them rise as high as the ambitions of two young lovers.
Be kind to one another. (*iNPC is Miles Thatcher)
4 Apr 2023, 18:37
A 1,000 Nothings = A Million Everythings
Here is to Us @Simon Kincaid
2 April, 2023
Her smile deepened as she saw his face light up at the sight of his floating lantern. One thing AngelFyre had keyed on early when it came to her fellow was that he loved fire, so she knew this idea would be a big hit with him for more reasons than one. She was glad he had thought to bring his camera because, quite honestly, she had not even thought to bring hers. When he had finished taking a photo of their lanterns, he then presented her with a small white box.
Her fingers deftly removed the white box top, even though it stubbornly wanted to stick at one corner, and as soon as she got it off, her heart and her eyes danced at what she saw within. "Oh, Simon! I love them. They are beautiful. We are turning into quite the origami specialists are we not?" AngelFyre listened as her fingers lifted a couple of them out and she could inspect them more closely. She loved hearing Simon explain what he was thinking when he made them, and she loved them all the more knowing it. "Thank you, my love. I love how your mind... and heart... thinks of me. That is the very best gift here," and she reached for his hand and squeezed it three times while tippy-toeing up to give him another soft kiss.
"Hey! Let me spill these around the lanterns real quick and you can take a photo of all of them together, okay? That should be a really lovely photo," she exclaimed with some excitement at her genius idea. They had been talking quite a bit about photo composition in his LUMOS! club, and she just knew this one would be a stunner.
Simon, of course, smiled and obliged and then the two packed everything up and headed out to the Courtyard. It was an absolute gorgeous night and she was glad the weather had decided to cooperate with her plans. She chortled as Simon offered her the extra hoodie he brought. The boy knew her so well. "Yes, I would like to put it on, thank you," and she smiled at him in the moonlight, "but not because I am cold."
She caught the knowing smile cross his lips as he nodded his head and draped it over the arm that was carrying her lantern, "Just can't get enough of me can you?"
"Never, ever, ever, ever, ever, evvvveeerrrrrrr!!!!" she happily exclaimed in a hushed voice just above a whisper.
Once they reached the fountain, she hurriedly slipped his Simon-scented hoodie over her head and breathed him in deeply. They both took their seats as close as they could to one another, without one of them being in the other's lap, and AngelFyre took a moment and looked up. "Gosh. Look at all of those stars. Have you ever seen anything more beautiful," and she reached a hand up as if trying to grasp a sparkle in her hand. "It is moments like these that remind me just how awesome our Lord is... and how terribly small we are." Then she turned to Simon with a heart so full of love for him and a good degree of wonder in her voice. "In all the vastness of His creation, it rocks me to my core to know that He thought enough of both you and I...loved us enough... to place us in each other's path. In the eternal everywhen amidst the infinite everywhere, here we are, you and I... right this second... together. It is astonishing; nothing less than a miracle," and her emotions choked off her last word as her eyes glistened with a chance of tears.
She cleared her throat and blinked back hard. "More than anything or anyone on this earth, Simon, you know I love you, but it is so much more than that. I am blessed to have you as mine. I am not certain I make that clear to you enough because it is not by luck or by chance or even by my own wonderfulness that I do have you. It is by the hand of the Divine and I am so grateful for that. He chose for me so much better than I ever could have," and she smiled.
Then she reached down into her satchel and brought out 2 quills, 10 small slips of parchment the size of a sticky notes, and an ink pot of dark blue ink... Simon's favorite color. He watched her curiously as she scooted away from him a bit and set it all between them. Tonight is not just about what lies ahead for us, though I look forward to that with my whole heart. Still, I wanted to give a nod to our past as well. One of my most beautiful memories about "our day" last year was the dragon effigy and what it stood for. As you noted, the first anniversary is paper, so I thought the floating lanterns would be a nice nod to this moment, right where we are but the fire would be a nod to where we were."
She reached over for her lantern and removed the beeswax candle. "It may be a little hard to see under the cloak of a starry sky, but I bet your dhampir eyes can make out the deep groove I carved around the wick. I did the same to your candle," and she leaned over over the quills and ink, moving her hand closer to him so he could see what she was referring to. "My idea was that we could write our dreams, hopes, prayers... whatever moves your heart... on these sticky-sized notes and then roll them up and fit them into the grooves around the wick. When the candles are lit, they can float and burn indelibly into the great beyond just as they did last year when the dragon effigy burned. And of course, because we discovered our spirit animals that night, I chose to use them to decorate our lanterns."
She knew she talked a lot, but Simon never made her feel like it was too much. She just wanted him to know that he was so much a part of her that nothing she did when it came to him... to them... was ever done off-handedly. There was always meaning... and often a specific meaning... to what she did.
"Now, I only brought 10 sticky-sized notes, so be judicious. If memory serves, you used 4 or 5 last year," and she playfully smirked at him as she handed him a quill and a parchment note. She picked up a quill and a note for herself and began to write.
Thank you... always... for Simon.
Keep him safe, bless all of his relationships, even the one with his father,
and help me to always love him better. Amen.
When she finished, she rolled it up and placed it in the wax groove, surprised to see Simon was still writing. She sat in silence and watched him in awe and wonder, as she often did when he was unaware she was doing so. As he finished, she reached for her wand and rolled it in her hand until she came to her sweet spot.
Standing with him and holding her lantern in one hand and her wand in the other, she first leaned over and kissed him before lighting the candle with a simple "Incendio". "Here is to the year that was and to the year that will be... here is to us." And as the lanterns began to rise, the two moved closer together, reaching for the other's hand as they always had and as they always would.
The magic is real.
8 Apr 2023, 13:20
A 1,000 Nothings = A Million Everythings
Cherish the present with @AngelFyre McCubbin
Simon's hopes and dreams had essentially remained the same since he began thinking about them and taking them seriously around three years ago. They were solid, in his mind, and he stayed true to himself, so therefore they really hadn't changed - not because he didn't want to put the thought into it, but because they didn't need to be changed. Still, it was good to remind yourself of these important pillars and Simon took the quill from AngelFyre to write them down.
Although this was a little different than before at the Midspring Festival Spring Dance last year and when they had talked about it previously. This time it was their anniversary, so therefore his hopes and dreams went to hopes and dreams of his life with AngelFyre. He didn't want to make it exactly the same and gave a moment of thought before he began to write down his thoughts.
When done, he glanced up to see that AngelFyre was done and he gave her a smile, hoping that he hadn't made her wait long. He looked to the dove lantern and saw that her note had been rolled up and placed within the wax groove near the wick. He rolled up his parchment note in similar fashion and slid it into place.I've been blessed beyond measure with this girl.
Allow me to make her happy and keep her safe.
Together, may we build up our faith, share love and encouragement, and support one another.
Let us look back fondly on the memories, cherish the present, and excitedly anticipate the future.
- Then, now, always and forever. -
AngelFyre used Incendio to light the wicks of the candles and the two took one another's hand as the lanterns began to rise. "Here is to us," Simon repeated her, squeezing her hand three times as they floated upward. It was a slow sort of floating up in the air, the flames illuminating the designs and the dove soared and the wolf roamed free in the sky, but still - they remained close together.
To think that what seemed to be an ordinary night in the Hufflepuff Common Room could grow to this was amazing. Two badgers, lacking sleep, connecting on so many levels in so many ways within a short amount of time. A year down and forever to go.
"Care to dance, Miss McCubbin?" he asked, sort of in nod to their second meeting back in Winter of 2022 in the Rehearsal Room. Simon remembered that day so fondly. It was as if their first initial meeting in the Common Room had established a connection between them, but it was in the Rehearsal Room, their second meeting, where an attraction had really begun to pull the two together. Attraction would be a good word for it, as these two were much like magnets, pulled together as often as they could.
He knew she wouldn't turn down an opportunity to dance as his girl loved it so, and he placed a hand gently upon her chin to lift her head up so he could kiss her lips softly before going over to his enchanted satchel. He pulled out his wizarding radio and was glad that at this late hour, one of the stations upon the WWN always played instrumental music. Just please don't be polka, please don't be polka.... he thought to himself as he dialed it in, but then smiled. If it was polka, he and his girl would just go with it.
Simon looked over his shoulder at her. She was there, under the moonlight, under the warmth of his hoodie, and probably missing him as much as he was missing her - even despite the fact that they were next to one another just moments before and would be back in one another's arms moments later. He loved that she loved him endlessly and that was okay - because as much of her heart that she gave him, he replenished by giving his in return.
As music approached, he looked back to the radio and slowed his turn of the dial until music began to fill the night air around them and then he walked back to AngelFyre and extended out his hand for her to take so they could begin their dance.
Be kind to one another. (*iNPC is Miles Thatcher)