Closed Peace and Qui- Oh, Nevermind pv Rodney Hughes

Dialogue: #03733b

@Astra Norrick

Sunday, October the 1st, 2023

It was a nice Sunday afternoon and I had just about finished reading the book I had checked out in the library. I turned it in and having nothing to do, I decided to find my cousins or perhaps a friend, but after half an hour of trying to do that, everyone I found was busy doing something, whether it was sleeping in our dorm, helping someone with their homework in the library, or hanging out with their group of friends that I didn’t fit into very well. And so, I decided to go outside and take a nice long walk around Hogwarts. I had already walked and jogged a few laps earlier in the morning, but another one couldn’t hurt. It would help me clear my head and I’d probably use that time to imagine some fictional movie.

As I walked around, I saw people playing with each other, drawing or writing in their notebooks, and when I came to the lake, I saw a girl reading a book. I really enjoyed watching the lake in the mornings, and it wasn’t uncommon for me to stop by to look at it. I stopped maybe five feet away from the girl that was reading, looked out upon the lake, and said “Hello, it’s a beautiful day isn’t it?” It wasn’t supposed to do much, just start a small conversation that was going to last a minute until I left, but I’ve had conversation starters give me friends in times past, and if this conversation lasted longer than expected, then I wouldn’t mind delaying the end of my walk a little.

IC Date: Oct 1
Time: about 15:00/3:00 pm
Interacting with @Rodney Hughes
Astra speaking: #136323
Thoughts: Italics
Others: Bold

Astra looked up with a small start, ripped from the conversation between Gandalf and Bilbo. "A good day indeed, in many ways," she responded, turning her head to the boy who had spoken. He was tall from her spot on the ground, muscular in a sort of lean way, but not quite lean as herself. He had dark hair and eyes. "Enjoying this lovely weather?"

She gently thumbed the pages of her book, following the boy's gaze over the lake. It was serene, tiny ripples caused by the autumn breeze lapping at the shore. Astra was in a pleasant mood, but still tired and needed a bit of a recharge. But this boy seemed nice.

Astra shifted to the side. She was on top of her robes, something her mother would have frowned upon but something that was currently keeping her rear dry, which she viewed as ultimately more important. "Care to sit?" she asked, gesturing to the spot beside her. "I find sometimes that I lose track of time and end up with sore feet from standing out here too long. An easy thing to do, wouldn't you agree?"

She tucked her knees to her chest and held her book up, finishing the page before looking around for a suitable bookmark. In her mind, she was preparing for conversation, hoping she would be able to give more than short replies. Her long responses earlier had partially been influenced by Tolkien's words running through her mind, imitating the speech of his characters.

Dialogue: #03733b

@Astra Norrick

Sunday, October the 1st, 2023

The girl, who I now recognized as Astra Norrick from my Astronomy class, replied by agreeing with me, and she even furthered the conversation by asking me if I was enjoying the weather. “As a matter of fact, I am.” I said with a smile. I looked out on the lake once more, and that’s when I heard the girl ask me something. “Care to sit?” I looked down to where the girl was pointing, and saw that a part of her robe was spread out on the ground. I figured that it was because the ground was wet, and if that was the case, then it was very considerate of the girl. I sat down and the girl continued speaking. “I find sometimes that I lose track of time and end up with sore feet from standing out here too long. An easy thing to do, wouldn’t you agree?”

As I thought about my answer, the girl returned to reading my book, and I decided to allow her to finish before beginning to speak. Although, perhaps she never would finish, but only flip onto the next page and continue reading. In my mind, I would wait a bit for her to finish her sentence, and maybe start a new one since she wasn’t reading out loud, and then I’d talk, but I never had to do that because the girl stopped reading pretty quickly. “Yeah, loosing track of time is very easy, even when you have the sunlight to tell you the time. I usually keep track of the time, but when I’m really focused or having lots of fun, then I tend to completely forget, you know? I’m Rodney Hughes by the way. And you’re Astra, right? I don’t believe we’ve personally met each other, but there’s a first time for everything, right?”

IC Date: Oct 1
Time: about 15:00/3:00 pm
Interacting with @Rodney Hughes
Astra speaking: #136323
Thoughts: Italics
Others: Bold

Astra listened to the boy talk as she looked around, finally finding a thin, dry leaf to stick between the pages. She looked up in surprise when he said her name. "Yes, Astra Norrick. I don't believe so either, but it's a pleasure to make your acquaintance, Rodney." On the subject of time, she fully agreed with him, but her mind is fixated on the fact he remembered her name from whatever "get to know you" or introduction activities she had taken part in (not by choice, of course, she'd just as soon people not know her name).

"So you actually pay attention to those class introductions?" she asked, setting her book beside her and leaning back, her legs stretched out in front of her. "Impressive feat, keeping names to faces from those things. Usually all I'm thinking about is getting it over with."

She looked at Rodney, matching the name to the face. Astra knew that name... She started to laugh softly. To the boy, Astra's merriment would be random, maybe crazy. But she would explain a moment later, saying "My grandpa's name is Rodney. I'll easily remember your name, then."

Dialogue: #03733b

@Astra Norrick

Sunday, October the 1st, 2023

“Yes, Astra Norrick.” Astra said after I had finished talking. “I don't believe so either, but it's a pleasure to make your acquaintance, Rodney.” “Same here.” “So you actually pay attention to those class introductions?” “Yes, I do actually.” “Impressive feat, keeping names to faces from those things. Usually all I'm thinking about is getting it over with.” Well, not exactly as Astra was about to find out in a moment. I continued sitting in silence, contemplating on how I was to start my next sentence, when Astra began to laugh. I looked at her and noticed that she was looking at me. ‘What’s so funny?’ I wondered to myself. Astra answered my question, saying “My grandpa’s name is Rodney. I’ll easily remember your name then.”

I gave a slight chuckle when Astra mentioned her grandpa. “I guess ‘Rodney’ isn’t that rare of a name, huh? And for the record, I don’t remember most people’s names just from the introductions. I remember more than most people, yes, but after one of those big class introductions, I need to hear a person’s name one or two more times before it gets set in stone in my brain. The way I understand it, that’s because of the fact that I’m presented with a lot of information in a single go. If I was only given a single name however, then I could probably remember it on the spot.” I sat in silence and enjoyed the weather for a bit, but then, a thought came into my head. “So, tell me a bit about your grandpa. What’s he like? Is he a healer by chance? Or was he? I’m only asking because I want to be a healer when I grow up, and if he is slash was one, than that would be really cool.”

IC Date: Oct 1
Time: about 15:00/3:00 pm
Interacting with @Rodney Hughes
Astra speaking: #136323
Thoughts: Italics
Others: Bold

She supposed it made sense, what Rodney said. He did look like an observant fellow. Likely had a great memory. If only. "Still quite impressive," she reiterated. "Names are something I... struggle with, we'll say." And it was true. She barely knew any of the people that attached to the names she had been presented with, in class or through the Sorting Ceremony, any major event. Only the ones that of people she'd interacted with, like Orion or Ulysses, or Cassi or Sylvia.

Astra grinned when he asked her about grandpa Rodney. He had, in fact, been a healer before he retired. Funny how things like that worked out. "Actually, he was a healer. Ironic, in't it?" She glanced over at the Rodney in front of her, taking in his appearance. "Come to think of it, you look rather similar." A pause. "When he was younger, of course. You definitely don't look like a seventy-year-old." She mentally face-palmed. Well that goes without saying, dimwat.

Clearing her throat, Astra moved on. "Anyway, Grandpa was a healer at St. Mungo's. He worked in the 'ICU,' so to speak. Really good at his job. He's good at fixing things in general. Really kind man, not the most patient though." To be sure, Grandpa Rodney had plenty of patience for physical problems, just didn't take any crap and was quite blunt. A trait that got passed to Hyperion, and then to Astra. How lucky.

Dialogue: #03733b

@Astra Norrick

Sunday, October the 1st, 2023

“Still quite impressive.” Astra said. “Names are something I... struggle with, we’ll say.” Astra then moved on to the topic of her grandpa. “Actually, he was a healer. Ironic, in’t it? Come to think of it, you look rather similar. When he was younger, of course. You definitely don't look like a seventy-year-old.” “Well what a coincidence. I mean, we have the same name, we look about the same, what’s next? We’re both Hufflepuffs that have an interest in duelling?” I asked with a chuckle.

“Anyway, Grandpa was a healer at St. Mungo’s. He worked in the ICU, so to speak. Really good at his job. He’s good at fixing things in general. Really kind man, not the most patient though.” “Heh. I’m very patient on the other hand, although it may not really seem that way at times. Say, what floor did your grandpa work on? If I recall correctly, the ground floor is for accidents caused by artifacts, the first floor is for creature-induced injuries, the second floor is for magical ailments and diseases, the third floor is for potion and plant poisoning, the fourth floor is for spells gone wrong. There’s also a fifth floor but your grandpa definitely wouldn’t be working there if he worked the ICU equivalent. Personally, I want to work on the fourth floor where they treat injuries caused by spells. More specifically, I want to work in the ER equivalent. Both of my parents work there and they’ve seen a lot of interesting, and nasty injuries.”

I sat in silence for a moment, looking down at the lake and enjoying it’s beauty. “You know, most people struggle with names.” I said. “I was simply lucky enough to be gifted with a good memory. But I didn’t even have the best kind of memory. No, that would be people with hyperthymesia. If you don’t know, hyperthymesia is a condition that allows you to remember basically everything. The keyword here is basically, since I’m not too sure how much exactly they can remember. The general consensus is that they can remember a lot of events in their life in great detail, so if one of us had hyperthymesia, we might be able to remember this conversation pretty well. I think it would be nice to have hyperthymesia. I mean, if you could read a school book once and remembering almost everything in it, then you don’t need the book as much while homework. Or imagine not having to take notes in class because you remember all of the important stuff anyways?”

IC Date: Oct 1
Time: about 15:00/3:00 pm
Interacting with @Rodney Hughes
Astra speaking: #136323
Thoughts: Italics
Others: Bold

Astra listened with interest as Rodney explained the floors of St. Mungo's. Put quite a lot of thought into this, hasn't he? It made much more sense when he explained that his parents were both healers. "I think he worked in the Dai Llewellyn ward. Dealing with bites, I believe? So second floor," she answered after a moment's hesitation. Grandpa had been retired for several years now and he didn't talk much about it with Astra and Rod.

Oh, Rod and Rodney are very similar. Maybe I should call him Rick? She shelved this thought as Rodney began talking again, talking about hyperthymensia. Astra was happy to sit and listen, it was one of the few people skills she was actually good at. Hyperthymensia would be great to have, she reckoned. Astra knew she didn't have it, though. Her memory was the type to remember that her bully in primary stole her textbook and ripped all the pages out of it on this day three years ago, but not when her Transfiguration assignment was due.

Very helpful, brain.

"It would be very nice to have hyperthymensia. Or just good memory. I'm rather scatterbrained myself. Well, I shouldn't say that. I do have a good memory, just for all the wrong things," she said with a sigh, bringing her legs in and crossing them. Her sweater was warm and the beanie was warm and the smell of autumn filled the air.

And though she had no plans for people, the boy beside her was proving to be not so bad of a companion. He seemed to do all the talking for the both of them, which was fine by Astra.

Dialogue: #03733b

@Astra Norrick

Sunday, October the 1st, 2023

“I think he worked in the Dai Llewellyn ward. Dealing with bites, I believe? So second floor.” Astra said. She was wrong about one thing though. “Yes, the Dai Llewellyn ward deals with creatures induced bites, but it is on the first floor not the second. The second floor deals with magical ailments and diseases like dragonpox and the like. It’s all a bit rather confusing at first.” I thought back to the first time I had visited St. Mungos. It was on the day after my eighth birthday, which was a Saturday. They showed me around and explained what happened on each floor. I asked them a lot of questions on that day, although it still took me a few days to actually memorize where everything was.

I took a deep breath as I looked around. The grass was a nice shade of green, the Great Lake was a shimmering sea of black, like it always was, and the sky was blue with a few clouds sprinkled in here and there. I thought about how I met with Astra today, about our conversation, and then, I came to a realization. Astra had never told me what she wanted to be when she grew up. Nor did I ask, but now was not too late. “Do you have an idea of what you want to be when you grow up?” I asked Astra. “There’s plenty of options out there, especially if you include muggle jobs as well.”