Book by Book PV Jess Malters ReOpen

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By SK

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Dee groaned, loudly, expressing all her despair at the unfairness of gravity and the world in general, then bent down to start gathering the books she'd scattered across the floor back up. Hopefully the librarian hadn't seen this, she couldn't imagine that would go over well.

It took her a few seconds to notice the second pair of hands picking up books right next to her, until an unfamiliar voice addressed her. Or... was it unfamiliar? She felt like she might have heard it before. But, seeing as she didn't recognize the face belonging to it at all when she looked up, she was probably wrong. "Oh, um, hi!" Her first instinct was to deny needing help - she never (thought she) needed help, and she was proud of it, too - but the girl who had addressed her was smiling and seemed like she genuinely wanted to help, and... well. Dee's eyes swept over the remaining books on the floor, and when she looked back up, she was smiling brightly, too. "I suppose I could," she admitted without a trace of self-consciousness in her voice or face.

Piling another book onto her growing stack, Dee eyed it critically, then decided she should perhaps learn from her mistakes. "Alright, maybe five at once is enough this time," she decided, throwing the other girl another bright grin, and straightened up to put them away. At the girl's question, however, she paused, looking surprised. "Yeah, I was! Were you, too?" She frowned in thought and shifted the weight of the books to one side. "Have we met?"

It took her only about half a second of further consideration before she set the stack of books back down, and then sat down on the floor right next to it, her legs crossed. The other girl didn't seem familiar - at all - but there had been a lot of people around at summer camp, a lot of strangers, with the Ilvermorny and Durmstrang students visiting. It wasn't a big surprise that she might have missed someone - especially since she wasn't the most observant person regarding things that didn't exist in her immediate bubble.

After regarding the girl closely again, the blonde... brown? hair, hazel eyes, then shook her head. "You don't look familiar," she said matter-of-factly. "But you do kind of sound familiar. Are you a second year?" It was hard to tell while sitting, but she seemed tall for a first year. Although Dee was a little on the short side, so that might be a biased assumption. Smiling, with her head tilted to one side, as if her flood of observations hadn't happened and she definitely hadn't turned the order of how you typically met people completely upside down, Dee held out her hand. "Hi, I'm Dee! Thanks for helping me pick up my books."

@Jess Malters

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By SK

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The girl, although smiling, seemed a little steamrolled for a second, taking a moment to answer and then replying in a rush of words, but Dee only placed her elbow on the stack of books next to her and leaned her temple against her hand, watching the girl patiently.

A first year, then, huh. That explained why she had no memories of seeing the girl around before - it did however not explain how Dee had absolutely zero recollection of their previous meeting. During the stargazing event? That had been... an interesting night. More eventful than she had expected it to be, for sure. The plan had been to lie down on a blanket with her friends, eat imprudent amounts of sweets and snacks, and watch the stars. Instead most of her tent mates had never shown up, Ileen had dragged her over to get their fortune told by probably the only Professor at the school Dee was somewhat intimidated by - she'd have to do something about that at some point - and then there had been that odd... thing... for lack of better words. She still didn't understand what had happened. Ileen had later confirmed she hadn't heard the odd voice that had spoken to Dee, and she had never managed to figure out what had caused her to trip, either.

Either way - maybe she shouldn't be all that surprised that this girl had not managed to make it into the highlight reel of that night, but she somehow still took offense at her own lack of recollection. "Oh - I didn't do it on purpose." She paused, a small frown crinkling her forehead. "Probably. Honestly, I really don't remember you at all, it was... an interesting night. Sorry about that."

Her forehead smoothed out and she gave the girl an impish grin instead, blue eyes dancing with laughter. "Probably better you didn't tag along with us, anyway. Don't want to scare you off, Hogwarts will do that by itself soon enough." The statement wasn't entirely serious, but there was also a small grain of truth in her words. She didn't think anyone expected the sort of things that happened at this school at times, she certainly hadn't.

The edges of her smile softened a little at the resolute way the girl accepted the handshake, and then she grinned at the reply to her expression of gratitude. "I don't think I've ever been thanked for letting someone help me, but you're welcome. It's nice to meet you, Jess." Her eyes wandered for a moment to the books that were still scattered around them. They could wait for another moment, she decided. They were already on the ground after all, what more damage would an extended stay there do?

"So how do you like Hogwarts so far?"

@Jess Malters

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Thankfully, Dee didn't seem to mind Jess's rambling speech, and the young Hufflepuff felt a feeling of warmth and welcome spread through her as she realized that this girl would probably never even think to judge her. It wasn't as if Jess had felt overly judged at Hogwarts so far, but it was a nice thought nevertheless. It was always pleasant, she reckoned, to know that there were people who were just naturally kind and not constantly looking for others' faults, and even better to actually meet them.

"Oh, no, it's alright," Jess grinned in response to Dee's apology. "I get to meet you now anyways, so it's all good, right?" The older girl's next words tamed Jess's humor, though, and she frowned. It was clear that Dee was joking, but the Hufflepuff didn't exactly like how this was the second time an older student had warned her about the magical school's dangers. She hadn't let herself think about it much, since she didn't like where her thoughts took her when she did, but Jess had wondered about the negative possibilities of magic before, too. Yes, magic seemed nice and all when you first found out about it, but what could it mean for those people that wanted to hurt others? For them, couldn't magic just be a means to make their damage more destructive and widespread? Shaking her head as if to get rid of the thoughts, Jess quickly pushed the questions to the back of her mind before they had a chance to fully develop. This meeting was going good so far, and there was no need for her unfounded fears and worries to ruin it.

Jess blushed as Dee's next words met her ears, and she looked down. "Yeah, I guess that was kinda weird... sorry. And, yeah, it's nice to meet you too." She looked back at the girl at her next question, though, and, realizing that Dee probably didn't mean to get up and actually put away the fallen books any time soon, she sat down carefully next to the girl. "Hogwarts has been pretty cool... I mean, it's not every day you find out you're secretly part of an entire magical world you never knew about." Her voice quieted down, her eyes lowering back down to the ground again. She wasn't entirely sure why, but she felt like she could trust Dee. "It's a bit overwhelming, honestly." She lapsed into silence for a moment, her previous thought coming back to mind, refusing to be ignored. "Listen, for what you said before about Hogwarts scaring me off, like... how serious was that? I just can't stop thinking about how scary it is that magic can be used by someone who's... bad."

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By SK

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Jess seemed less bothered by Dee's inability to remember her than Dee herself was, which was a good thing, probably. The Ravenclaw quirked an eyebrow up in amusement at Jess's declaration that at least they'd gotten to meet now, like it was some sort of prize or achievement. Of course, Dee was pretty amazing, and she'd be the last person to argue that point. Or... second to last. Third? Fourth... There were a few people blind to her awesomeness. Needless to say, humbleness was not among her many qualities. It was certainly much better to meet her than many of the other characters skulking about this school.

Anyway, something about the way Jess had phrased it made it seem like a compliment, and Dee grinned in return. "Lucky you," she teased back, her eyes sparkling, before she watched the smile fade off the girl's face, replaced with a frown. She looked for a moment like she wanted to say something - ask something? - but then, amusingly, literally seemed to shake the thought off. That must have been an interesting mental conversation, Dee thought, a mix of curiosity and amusement on her face.

Jess's apology earned her a slightly odd look and shrug. "No need to apologise. You're much more interesting when you do new things than you'd be if you only did the expected, you know? Normal people get forgotten, it's the slightly strange who rule the world." Slightly strange, maybe, like sitting on the floor of the library for a conversation, surrounded by books, instead of picking them up. Jess's decision to sit down right next to her earned an encouraging grin.

The brunette Ravenclaw's face lit up with a smile at the reply to her question. "Oh, you're a Muggle-born then? Wow, that must be exciting. And a lot. I grew up around Muggles, too, although my parents are wizards, so I kind of knew all of this," she waved her hand in a vague, all-encompassing gesture that almost knocked one of the books off her neat stack in her enthusiasm, "but it was still incredible. I've never been around other wixes before, and the only magic I'd encountered was strictly restrained to my parents' house. And sometimes garden if my dad was feeling adventurous."

She floundered for a moment when Jess admitted to feeling overwhelmed. It was not something she could easily relate to, tending to take everything as a challenge, a hurdle to be conquered, while at the same time absorbing everything new and exciting like a sponge. "You'll get used to it soon enough," she said, finally, her smile softening a little. "And you can always ask for help if you need it. Me, for example. I can pay you back for helping with the books?"

When Jess didn't respond immediately, Dee had already opened her mouth, ready to provide a lighthearted change of topic, but then the question came, after all, and Dee stilled, her head tilting to one side. "Not as much of a joke as I'd want it to be," she admitted slowly. "Hogwarts is... not like Muggle school, where the worst thing to fear is failing a test. I can't really... describe it. There are things that can't be explained, people and creatures who want to do harm..." Forests that tried to kill people, dolls that tried to take your place. Other students who would try to get you to fight your friends, with way too much success. Odd invisible voices that tried to trip you into shards of glass.

Shadows, shadows everywhere.

"But I wouldn't give it up." She looked down at her hands, spread out her fingers, then turned over her hand to look at where she'd sliced her palm open in summer. Remembered the feeling of smoke in her lungs from her ill-advised trip into Muggle London, felt the phantom pain of sparks burning her ankle. "It's worth it, the magic."

When she looked up, met the girl's gaze again if it was directed at her, Dee's aquamarine eyes were more serious, more intense than before. "Don't let yourself be scared away from something amazing." Then she relaxed slightly, a small smile sneaking back on her face. "Just... don't be an idiot, and you'll probably be fine. Don't walk into the Forbidden Forest, stick to curfew, don't go wandering where you're not supposed to." She grinned sharply. "Stay away from dark places. Set fires sparingly, and preferably not on other students. Except in duels." Her fingers trailed over the back of the book next to her, taking comfort in the feel of leather beneath her fingertips. Her next words were slower, more thoughtful. "Muggles can cause plenty harm without magic. I don't think it's all that more powerful than guns or something, honestly. The bad are few and far in between, and it's the same here."

@Jess Malters

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Despite her worries, Jess found herself grinning at Dee's response to the Hufflepuff's statement that the two were meeting now. It was strangely calming, somehow, to be around someone who seemed to take everything in stride and believe in herself so easily. It almost made Jess think that someday, she could be like that too.

Apparently, though, she still had a long way to go before that natural confidence kicked in, as the apology that had seemed so obvious for Jess to make brought only confusion from the older girl. She smiled slightly at Dee's assurance that she shouldn't say sorry for things like that, but quietly disagreed. Sure, it was a nice outlook on the world to say that strange people were the ones who ran everything, but it wasn't entirely applicable to Jess's eleven-year-old life. For her, all that mattered in terms of uniqueness and standing out were, well, not to. In Jess's mind, there was almost nothing worse than not fitting in, not seeming like she belonged. It was why Hogwarts bothered her sometimes, with its seemingly endless supply of wizard-born students who already knew everything there was to know about the world Jess had only just been thrust into. She loved the marvel of the newness, of course, but she couldn't deny that she found herself longing for a more magical past sometimes.

Maybe her so-called uniqueness in this situation was actually making her fit in more with Dee, though, as sitting down on the floor got the older girl to grin at Jess. It was a nice grin, one that said that the Ravenclaw approved of Jess instead of looking down on her. She still couldn't quite pinpoint why, but Dee's approval made Jess light up inside. For some strange reason, the Hufflepuff wanted to make the older girl proud.

Her face broke into a bittersweet grin at Dee's comment about her childhood, though it dipped slightly at the acknowledgment of the wizarding world being "a lot." Yeah, it was. "What's a wix?" was all she asked, though. No need to burden Dee with her worries more than she already had.

Still, she appreciated the older girl's offer to help her adjust to the castle, and she smiled back at the girl a bit, too. "Thanks... I'm not sure how anyone can help me, like, take this all in, though. It's okay though. I kind of like it when my brain mildly panics to take in information. It's fun."

The Ravenclaw's head tilt as she thought reminded Jess somewhat of a dog trying to understand something, and she almost smiled again. Dee's words took her laughter away again, however, and she looked at the floor, missing the quick view she could have had of Dee's glance down at her hand had she been looking that way. Dee's talking paused, but Jess made no move to break the silence, and eventually the older girl's words came again, more pressing than before.

"I mean... I guess so. But still, at least in the normal wor- sorry, in the Muggle world, it takes a lot of paperwork or like illegal smuggling or something to buy guns. And then if you kill or hurt someone, there's always cameras and DNA evidence and stuff to catch you and lock you up. But here, every single person has a wand, and that's all they need to hurt someone, isn't it? And I've heard of appating or arating or something- you know, that teleporting thing that wizards can do- how can someone possibly be caught if they can just go 'poof' and disappear?" She paused, her voice growing more thoughtful and losing the trace of fear it had held with her previous words. "And it's kind of encouraged here too, isn't it? I mean, even in like Charms and Defense Against the Dark Arts, we learn spells to hurt people, like Tarantallegra. Shouldn't we be learning how to defend ourselves there, especially in DADA, and not how to actually hurt other people?"

Remembering something, she looked sharply back at Dee, her eyes wide. "Hold on- did you say you can set other students on fire?"

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By SK

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Watching Jess made Dee think back to her own first month at Hogwarts. How odd it had been to be here, away from her parents and her home. How the lack of salt in the air had kept her from sleeping sometimes, but the wonders of the castle around her had made her want to stay up, anyway. It must be a lot more intense for Jess, who'd only known about magic for a few months before coming here.

She hummed slightly, then blinked herself out of her daze at the girl's question. "Hmm? Oh. You are a wix. I am. That boy over there, too. You know, all magical folks." Dee grinned at Jess's assurance that she'd be fine, amusement in her eyes. "That's good. Still, if you have questions, or, you know, just want to rant about how little sense this castle makes, my door is open." At least figuratively, since her actual door was in the Ravenclaw common room. She trusted Jess would manage to find her if she wanted to, at dinner or in the library.

Jess's concerns about magic safety had her nodding thoughtfully. "You're not wrong. But knives don't need registration or paperwork. People can hurt each other in a lot of ways. And there are laws in the wizarding world, too, and people to enforce them. Aurors, they're called. There are ways to find out if a wand has cast a certain spell, ways to track people, too. Prisons to lock up criminals. Of course it's harder to catch someone who can disapparate, but magic helps with finding them, too, so I guess it kind of balances out." She shrugged slightly. As someone who had grown up with magic, she had never thought about these things much, had just taken them as they were. "Muggles would of course be stumped. I suppose it's on us to keep each other in check?"

She smiled slightly at the mention of the Dancing Feet Spell. As far as spells went, that one was really one of the least evil. "Tarantallegra doesn't really hurt that much, but it could be used to gain time to get away from an attacker. It's not pleasant, but more of an annoyance than anything else. And few of the spells we learn are explicitly to hurt others, they tend to stay away from hexes and curses, although some like Incendio can of course be used against others. It's not their primary purpose, though. You can use Flipendo to push heavy things, Incendio to light a fireplace. And the spells that are... well, you can kind of think about it like martial arts, I suppose? We learn with the purpose to defend ourselves, and then it's our responsibility what we do with it?" She tilted her head slightly to the other side, trying to gather her thoughts, see if her comparisons made sense. "Magic's got great capacity to do harm, but just as much to do good. Although I can't say I haven't questioned the curriculum before."

The question about fire, belated, as if Jess had only registered it at that point, drew a somewhat impish grin back onto Dee's face. "I mean, yeah, you can. Incendio sets fire to whatever you point it at. Of course you're not supposed to most of the time, but it's allowed in official duels." Her smile widened slightly, seemingly contradictory considering she was talking about being set on fire. Still, casual talk of arson would likely be one of the least weird things that Jess would encounter at this school. "Sounds kind of brutal, doesn't it? Magic somehow shifts what is seen as acceptable and what isn't, I think. We have healers, no one sustains lasting damage. And of course you can extinguish yourself if you're quick enough, although for some reason we only learn how to after they teach us how to make fire." Dee had been appointed duelling captain at the start of the year, and she was more than excited for the first stage of duels to come around, risk of being set on fire or no. "It's just part of it. I'm not going to say it doesn't hurt, because believe me, it does, but it's part of what you sign up for if you choose to duel. I think it sharpens my reflexes, my thinking under pressure." Her smile turned a trace more grim. "Which is a good thing around here."

@Jess Malters

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Jess nodded at Dee, slightly embarrassed that she hadn't figured out what a wix was on her own. It was simple, thinking about it, but Jess decided not to let her mind dwell on that. Dee had a certain air about her, a way of acting as if the world's opinion of her was no more meaningful than a single moment of thought, felt and then forgotten almost instantly, and, being around her, the Hufflepuff wished to make herself more like that, too. So: predicted wix meaning or no, it didn't matter.

She nodded appreciatively at Dee's offer to be there for Jess to come to her with any questions or comments about Hogwarts, but, sensing that the older girl was about to speak again, Jess didn't say anything. It was nice to have someone offer to help you, especially when they had no obligation to do so. Professors and older Hufflepuff prefects were expected, but their outstretched hands of assistance were like those of all of Jess's former Muggle teachers: made out of necessity and respect of responsibility, not a genuine or, probably, reliable wish to help - not that Jess had ever actually tested one of those offers. Typically, Jess was more the one giving assistance or guidance rather than receiving it, and the idea of going to someone specifically to talk about her own problems - especially an adult who really had no reason to care - wasn't especially appealing to the girl. Dee seemed to be an exception, though; the more she and Jess sat and talked together on that library floor, the more the Hufflepuff wanted to just pour out everything in her heart and let Dee tell her how to fix it. There was just something so comforting about the girl, some way her own confidence seemed to spill into Jess and reassure her that Dee wouldn't judge her, but would really listen and would really care.

The conversation, however, was far from a comfort.

Not wanting to interrupt Dee before she was done with her explanation, Jess decided to wait until the girl had completely finished speaking before saying anything of her own. Hopefully, she actually remembered all that Dee had said by the end.

She nodded thoughtfully at the Ravenclaw's explanation of knives and wizarding laws. Knives really didn't need to be registered, she supposed, though it still seemed like wands could do unimaginably more damage than a single blade could, and they weren't illegal to carry around everywhere, either. Aurors were also an interesting new learn, though Jess was certainly curious about how prisons could possibly operate with apparation - that was what it was called, it seemed - available to any wizarding criminal with enough skill to do it. Dee's point that it was up to wizards to protect against other wizards definitely made sense, though.

Seemingly offensive spells being used for practical purposes rather than hurting people was another good explanation, though Jess tried to remember to specifically talk more about the martial arts aspect once Dee was finished. For a moment, it seemed as if she was, and Jess opened her mouth to respond, but then the girl continued. It was clear, then, why she'd taken a while to think: her statement about magic's capacity for harm and help, good and evil, sounded as if it belonged in some philosophical professor's mouth much more than it did in a child's, even a wise one.

Her apparent love for fire brought Dee back to the expected innocence and eagerness of childhood, however, although Jess couldn't see how she could possibly grin at the thought of being set aflame. It certainly did seem brutal to Jess, to answer Dee's next question. The presence of Healers was reassuring, though. What wasn't was the way Dee talked about the fire hurting, her assurance that it did in fact cause pain making Jess re-think the girl's reaction to the flames.

"Wait, have you been set on fire, then? And are you a duellist?" Impulsively, Jess let her curiosity on this particular point get the better of her, but it seemed that Dee had at long last come to a rest, anyway.

"Okay, hang on. That was a lot - which is fine, thank you for telling me so much - but I need a second to, like, remember what I wanted to say." Jess sat in silence for a moment, looking off to the side as she tried to recall all that the older girl had told her. "Oh, right! Okay, so, you said that it's up to wizards to keep other wizards in check but... I guess that's the problem, isn't it? Because what if they can't? Or what if they don't want to? Like, I've heard some people around school talking about how Muggle-borns are worse than Purebloods or something, so what if someone who thinks like that gets into power? Then, wouldn't all the Aurors - that's what you said they were called, right? - be instructed to act against Muggle-borns or Muggles? What if they just jailed all the... wix… who didn't support them? How do jails even work, if apparation exists?

Um... what else was there? Oh, martial arts! I get what you mean about spells having practical uses, so thanks for explaining that, but, again, isn't leaving it up to students to decide taking a huge risk? And wouldn't the attack spells be less like, say, a karate match, and more like a knife fight with a couple of flamethrowers thrown in?

And, speaking of, what? Fire? Really? I know I already asked this, but... you? On fire? Just - how? Like, you mentioned healers, but the pain is still there, right? And I can't even imagine what that would feel like-"

Abruptly, Jess realized that she was probably bringing up memories in Dee that the older girl would rather not revisit, if they were even a fraction as painful as the Hufflepuff imagined they must be. The pause in her speech also made her realize that she'd been going for several minutes straight, taking the time for herself without even leaving a chance for Dee to interrupt, just as she had let the other girl get through her own whole speech before beginning to talk.

"Oh, sorry, that was... a lot," said Jess apologetically. "I don't mean to dump all my questions on you, and everything that you're saying is helping, really." Or, at least, it seemed to be, for the moment. Though Jess certainly hadn't simply accepted Dee's points without questioning them whenever she saw fit, she still felt significantly more at ease and protected than she had when the Ravenclaw had first brought up Hogwarts scaring her off. She wasn't sure yet how safe she would feel later on, alone in the dark of the night, undoubtedly thinking over this conversation again, but hopefully this newfound sense of security stayed with her then, too. Dee was probably a large part of that comfort, though, and Jess realized she still hadn't let her know it. Her voice turned soft.

"Thanks, Dee."