Closed Authentic Ambrosia PV Sylvie O’Niell

• Interacting with @Thomas Baines •

Nobody would be sneaking up on Thomas Baines today. He would be getting something worse!

If Thomas wanted peace and quiet as he slaved away over his cauldron cooked ramen, he would not be getting it anymore. It was too late to even pretend he wasn't there, because as soon as he would look up again to view his surroundings, he would see Sylvie O'Niell in the distance, blabbering on to herself as if she were with she took a little stroll around the grounds. There was nothing out of the norm happening there. As soon as her eyes fell on her friend, an extremely wide grin would spread across her face.

There would only be a couple moments of solace before the sound of boots stomping rapidly toward the poor Ravenclaw boy grew louder and louder as a shrieking menace barreled into him, nearly knocking his soup. "THOOOMAAAAAAAS- OOF-" She cut herself off with the force of her bear hug. She was out of breath now...

"What are you up to? Why are you making... What ever this is... Outside?" The girl went to go stick a finger into the cauldron of boiling liquid with the intention of tasting it.

"THOOOMAAAAAAAS- OOF-"

...

...

...

There is no peace on this godforsaken campus.

Hardly responding verbally as his best friend came in with the grace of a WWI fighter plane landing after a hard-won battle, Thomas let out a quiet "oof" of his own as he narrowly avoided taking a dive into his noodles. While Sylvie was taking the opportunity to step away, he allowed himself a smile, obscured by the fact that he was currently turned away from her. Any trace of such an expression was naturally wiped clean off his face as he faced her, replaced with mild annoyance and an eye roll. "Hello."

"What are you up to? Why are you making... What ever this is... Outside?"

Ah yes, a loaded question indeed. What was Thomas up to, what had the lad been stewing out here at such an hour, it certainly didn't resemble any sort of potion though the boy was currently mixing it with a stick he found on the ground. In his defense, he forgot a spoon! Regardless, the Ravenclaw took a few moments to ponder how he ought to answer such a line of inquiry. How much did Sylvie know about the recent Hogwarts shenanigans? More importantly, how perturbed would she be to find out? The burden of knowledge was one the young wizard didn't particularly like to bear, certainly not alone at the very least, especially when Thomas currently had no evidence aside from the journal of an older, suspicious acting student.

"Hmmm, well what do you think? I'm cooking, of course," he answered, honest and plain in his tone. Not a word was false, after all! Thomas swatted Sylvie's hand away as she moved to dip her finger??? In the boiling water????? "It's hot."

"I've recently come to the conclusion that making your own food is good for you." Also true, but a lie by omission is still that, a lie, and Thomas hid the mild guilt on his face by turning back to the cauldron and stirring. For all the boy's desires to be a cold, stoic, stone-faced individual... Well, a single eyebrow on Thomas' face held more emotion than the entire countenance of the most gifted Hollywood actors! It was a flaw, in his eyes, his inability to hide anything he was thinking about. "As for the outside comment, where else? I'd probably get yelled at if I tried it in the dorms, and we're not exactly allowed into the kitchen y'know." Plus, the outdoors gave him the chance to think uninterrupted... Usually. Sylvie wasn't the sort of company he minded, though, so it was hardly an issue.

@Sylvie O’Niell

• Interacting with @Thomas Baines •

It didn't exactly cross the girl's mind that the cauldron of clearly boiling water would be hot. Or maybe she thought it just wouldn't matter if she happened to stick her finger into it, being immortal and all. (She wasn't.) Still, she pulled her hand away upon being smacked, gasping and pulling it to her chest. "How DARE you," she shouted. "I'll remember this." (She wouldn't.) The girl was simply being dramatic; it was nothing Thomas hadn't experienced before. "Anyway, I know it's hot, doofus. I just wanted to taste it!" Her wand twirled around between her fingers.

"I've recently come to the conclusion that making your own food is good for you."

"Why are you making your own food though, the food at lunch seemed pretty healthy earlier! I don't think veggies are that bad for you." She thought about it. Were potatoes a veggie? Root veggie, maybe? Like carrots... Before she got too lost in that train of thought and completely missed Thomas' reply, she zoned back in. "Besides, it'd be a lot quicker to just get served something. You look like one of the poor house-elves in the kitchen."

House-elves were a topic for another day, however. Sylvie has many thoughts and opinions about the poor creatures that tended to keep house within the residences of wizard families here. She had even more thoughts about the people who kept them in the first place.

"Why are you making your own food though, the food at lunch seemed pretty healthy earlier! I don't think veggies are that bad for you."

"That's not the issue..." Thomas commented ominously, impossibly vague as per usual.

"Besides, it'd be a lot quicker to just get served something. You look like one of the poor house-elves in the kitchen."

He frowned. The reliance on house-elves always made the Ravenclaw feel a little bit gross inside. They were sentient creatures after all, and it seemed at times that few offered them the respect and autonomy they deserved. However, once again, that was hardly Thomas' primary concern. An activism campaign was hardly something the thirteen-year-old boy could jump-start, that was a thought for another time maybe. "I actually don't mind it. The Great Hall is too loud sometimes." Admittedly the boy did have trouble with the ambient noise and chatter that came with dining in the common area.

Pausing his stirring for only a moment, Thomas took a good, hard look at Sylvie and regarded her, eyes squinted as if he was trying to read her mind somehow. Of course, he wasn't capable of Legilimency, and he was far from just... Generally empathetic... So it was a struggle for him. Ultimately, he opted for the direct route, usually he wasn't a horrible liar but to his good friends, he always felt guilty hiding things from them. Especially someone like Sylvie, he trusted the Gryffindor more than probably anyone at Hogwarts. Even more than Callie, his dueling partner, and undeniably one of his closest friends. Aside from Sylvie, debatably his only one.

As a certain Callie Jensen crossed the boy's mind, Thomas' expression faltered a moment. The memories of the forest weren't exactly far removed from his thoughts. It was all his fault, wasn't it? Her curse, her grievous injury, 90% of the harm that had come to the girl traced back to him in some way. Arguably, even the pain she incurred throughout dueling, although that was at least partially Callie's fault herself as she had signed up for the sport. Still, as her partner...

Quiet for a while as his conscience barked at him and forced him to contemplate his remorse, Thomas blinked a few times as he tried to un-derail his train of thought. "Um, where was I?" Oh, yes. He was going to tell his Gryffindor friend something. Right.

"So... You know how I don't trust the administration here," Thomas began, reintroducing Sylvie to his common conspiracy theory. He had likely raved about the subject to her at length, likely against her will. How Hogwarts staff was hiding things from the student body, how all of the strange happenings constantly got covered up, none of it added up to the boy and he always had a certain mistrust of authority figures. "Well, I had the chance to read the journal of an older student after our Common Room got sacked. His name's Vladimir Athanatos, fifth-year Ravenclaw, I and a few others trailed him into the Forbidden Forest a few years back." A memory far from fond. However, Thomas harbored no regrets about the situation, even if his poor casting and general silliness did occasionally cause more harm than good. He learned a lot that day, and it created the foundation upon which the young boy built his conspiracies.

"Well, apparently he knows things others don't... He's suspicious, yeah, and no one trusts him. I don't even really trust him, since I think he's affiliated with some shady crap if I'm being honest," namely, hags of course. Thomas didn't know how much Sylvie knew of the situation, and admittedly he knew very little himself. Most of his ~facts~ were little more speculation, after all. "Still, a lot of what he wrote in the notebook aligned with some of the things I suspected. Apparently, someone is putting something in the food. Not sure who, not sure what just yet, but I'm not eating it if I can avoid it. Especially now that we have access to Hogsmeade this year, makes avoiding eating the poison Hogwarts feeds us a lot easier..."

There was a momentary lapse in his speaking, a brief moment of silence as his demeanor changed dramatically. Panic crossed his features as Thomas realized how much he had just said. Visibly distraught, the wizard's clumsy, erratic nature when stressed came out in full force as he gestured wildly with his hands."You've gotta believe me, I know it doesn't make any sense, I don't have all the information myself, but..."

Thomas paused, unsure of where to conclude his info dump. Instead, he opted to allow Sylvie to digest the gravity of his words. He knew he sounded crazy, it's why he had refrained from sharing his thoughts all this time, but there was palpable desperation in his tone that made it seem like the boy was begging to be believed.

@Sylvie O'Niell

• Interacting with @Thomas Baines •

There weren't many things Sylvie took seriously. As a matter of fact, it was very hard to get the girl to take anything seriously at all... But if there was one thing she would never take lightly; it was her best friend's feelings and concerns. Thomas never was one to be entirely transparent and Sylvie knew this well, but when he seemed to stare at her for a moment (and not in a "are you daft" sort of manner), she knew something was up. It wasn't every day her friend would share something of this sort with her and she was going to shut up and listen!

"Well, I had the chance to read the journal of an older student after our Common Room got sacked. His name's Vladimir Athanatos, fifth-year Ravenclaw, I and a few others trailed him into the Forbidden Forest a few years back."

It was hard not to raise an eyebrow at that. The Forbidden Forest? When did he do that? Sylvie knew just how dangerous it was there- they forbid going there for a reason, she supposed. What bothered her about it was the fact she'd not heard about any of this for so long. Had she really been so far removed her first and second year? She had, in fact; being tied up in her studies and struggling silently with her own mental health until recently kept her from her closest friends for quite some time. It just hadn't hit her until now.

"Well, apparently he knows things others don't... He's suspicious, yeah, and no one trusts him. I don't even really trust him, since I think he's affiliated with some shady crap if I'm being honest. Still, a lot of what he wrote in the notebook aligned with some of the things I suspected. Apparently, someone is putting something in the food. Not sure who, not sure what just yet, but I'm not eating it if I can avoid it. Especially now that we have access to Hogsmeade this year, makes avoiding eating the poison Hogwarts feeds us a lot easier..."

The gryffindor began to look increasingly uncomfortable as Thomas continued, having not spoken a word as she allowed him to info-dump on her. This wasn't something Sylvie would have expected in a million years, the idea of the food being served at Hogwarts having been tampered with, but the girl would blindly follow Thomas to the end of the Earth if she could.

"You've gotta believe me, I know it doesn't make any sense, I don't have all the information myself, but..."

She wholeheartedly accepted his theory into her mind without question, though her processing the information given was not yet complete. She still took a moment to stare at him, his frantic plead finally bringing her back to the land if the living. She intoned only a couple words. "Don't worry, I believe you." Thomas would know Sylvie never lied, so she didn't have to say much else on that, instead opting to sit down on the ground next to where he stood.

"What do we do...?"

The new idea's sowed into Sylvie's mind bothered her, deeply. What was in the food? Poison? Something more nefarious? That was likely. Poison would have been found out much too quickly and she likely would have fallen ill by now. "We can't tell our parents... Right?"

"Don't worry, I believe you."

The boy breathed a sigh of relief as Sylvie professed her belief in his downright bizarre claims. It had been something weighing heavily on his mind since he had the chance to read the older student's journal, and the relative isolation of heading back home briefly before the summer camp at Hogwarts had set Thomas' mind on fire. He glanced behind the Gryffindor as if trying to see if anyone was approaching before his typical, unfocused gaze found his friend yet again. Thomas also sat down, perhaps it would be more conducive to brainstorming.

"What do we do...?"

"I'm really not sure... I didn't want to make any drastic decisions alone," he admitted. It was a rare show of his hand, confessing that he didn't know what to do and that he sought out the better judgment of anyone else. Independent to a fault, Thomas typically never asked for input from others on any decision, much less one this significant. Recent times had begun to allow festering worms of doubt to take refuge in the folds of his grey matter, and he hardly trusted himself to be around his friends. How else could he react, given how dire Callie's circumstances were after trusting him?

Sylvie was an exception to the rule. Thomas had known her before his terrible spell of bad luck and poor decision making, and she hadn't yet borne witness to the consequences of his free will. Unlike so many others recently, the Gryffindor would not be pushed away. Besides, no matter how hard Thomas tried to be cold and uninterested in others, humans were (regrettably) social creatures, and he sought out some form of companionship. Besides, for all the intelligence and foresight he would have liked to possess, he was still only thirteen. So much of the world to see, so much yet to learn. Perhaps the perspective of another thirteen-year-old would prove to be useful.

"We can't tell our parents... Right?"

Thomas shook his head. He had come to this conclusion himself awhile ago, knowing that his mother would likely have removed him from schooling had she heard half of what happened at Hogwarts recently. For better or for worse, she cared about the boy, and Thomas refused to lose his chance at learning magic and uncovering what exactly was happening. "Not my mom, at least. She has absolutely no idea how the magic world works, she doesn't realize that danger is part of the job description." It didn't have to be, but Thomas had already acclimated to the feeling of constant danger. Scanning his environment for threats, paying closer attention to his surroundings than whatever he was meant to presently be participating in, it had grown to be part of his routine. His grades had fallen naturally as a result, but he didn't care much for performance in school anyway.

What did Thomas plan to accomplish? He truly had no idea, perhaps this was another reason why he sought Sylvie's counsel. Selfishly, he wanted to make sure that just his friends would be safe and secure. A larger part of his mind, the curiosity that had gotten him placed in Ravenclaw all this time ago, wanted desperately to understand what was going on with all of the happenings at Hogwarts. Strange creatures in the woods, a curse without a cure, students acting in ways that were inexplicable, break-ins and arson, it all had to lead to something.

"There's more, um, information. I can tell you more of what I remember if you'd like. I'm just really not sure what the first step is now, I've been thinking all summer and I'm still confused."

@Sylvie O'Niell

• Interacting with @Thomas Baines •

Sylvie fidgeted with her wand, rolling it about in her fingers as she thought about everything she was told. No, she couldn't confide in her parents. Magically adept as they were, unlike Thomas' mom, the parents knew each other. Of course, they knew each other. They spoke over coffee and stupid things like brunch and if Sylvie told her old man, he would surely tell Thomas' mother... Out of the question.

So then, what was there to do?

The whole thing confounded the girl. She couldn't wrap her head around it... "It just-" she started, nearly at a loss for words until the apples of her cheeks grew red against the tan of her skin. "It doesn't make any damn sense!" The secrecy of their conversation kept her from shouting as loud as she wanted to. "And- and I'm not talking about the whole thing that happened with you and the dude with the diary that you mentioned... I'm talking about the fact that I," her hand practically slapped against her chest. "Have never heard a single damn thing about it. Not from a teacher. Not from the damn headliner!" Though she spoke of herself directly, it was clear she wasn't just upset about her own ignorance. Her foot kicked out as she ranted on frustratedly. Sylvie always had a bit of an explosive temper, and what she didn't understand made her afraid, and being afraid made her upset. What else was swept under Hogwarts' filthy rug?

At the thought of the headliner, the girl went quiet before gradually breaking out into a fit of flabbergasted laughter. "GOD, and you know what they said in the October issue? Hah! They wrote a segment called "The True Enemy of the Students," right? They talked about all the damn hag attacks and TERRORISTS, right? Yeah. Well, after that, they have the gall to go on to talk about how there's a, quote, "subtler, more pervasive threat," in our midst."

She rubbed her temples. "Procrastination, by the way. That's what it was. Why wouldn't they make what's REALLY going on public? You can't tell me nobody has come forward..."

"It's all their attempts to pacify us, I'm sure the other magical schools around the world think we're a bunch of bumbling idiots. May I remind you that there are literal American wizards, and they of all people are laughing at us!" Even in duress, Thomas would never forget to rag on people from the United States. It was in his bloodline, as someone from the United Kingdom, arguably his birthright.

Beginning to pace a little, waving his spoon wildly as he spoke, the young Ravenclaw boldly decreed, "It's all stupid! I mean, what, does the Ministry assume we're all just going to keep quiet and politely graduate with all this mischief and muck all about the school? If it were up to me, I'd break down the Headmaster's door and demand answers, but they'd probably just lock me away and call me crazy for the rest of my life. That's what they do to the people who ask too many questions, you know."

Thomas felt no risk in pouring out his conspiracy-ridden heart, he knew that his secrets were safe with Sylvie. At the end of the day, the boy was a raving lunatic, barely holding himself together and keeping up the act of a functioning student and member of wizarding society. Without the crutch and structure of school, unless his state of mind were to be remedied somehow by his graduation, who knew how truly erratic his behavior would be? Only time would tell, it was perhaps a great blessing that his wand possessed unicorn hair at its core rather than something that would feed off of his emotions.

"I wish it was easier to get information from people and distribute it. Real information, not just gossip and rumor. But..." Simply put, Thomas had no friends, and he bordered upon misanthropic. He had joined the dueling club as a way to practice his martial magic freely and applied for vice-captain in the interest of getting to know people, but only his former goal seemed to find any purchase. Perhaps his peers could tell there was something odd about this boy. Tom's behavior could certainly be off-putting. Or, in his mind the more likely answer was equally as insane as everything else: perhaps they were all working for them. The nebulous them, Thomas didn't know who they were, but he had discovered their influence some time in the past year.

"I dunno. It's all garbage. The Headliner's just a mouthpiece for official communications, just like every other media source out there. None of it's worth reading, anyway."

@Sylvie O'Niell

• Interacting with @Thomas Baines •

Sylvie didn't mind listening to Thomas' woes... He was verbose and scatterbrained as usual- she had to make sure she processed all his big words and lengthy thoughts. "Do you think that maybe the teachers are being manipulated?" She tentatively asked, looking back at the expansive castle behind the two of them. "I mean, like. They eat the food too, right? Maybe we're all victims here of some sort of terrible awful evil plot to create wizarding slaves to the machine that is the magical hierarchy." She looked back at Thomas. She was completely serious.

To the average outsider, they pair probably looked stark raving mad... Sitting on the dirty ground, paranoid and distrustful looks being shot at any passersby. Cooking outside when there was perfectly poisoned food within the stone walls of their magical prison- I mean, prison- I mean... Home... :3

Anyway.

"Maybe I'm overthinking it... But I feel like the students aren't the only ones in danger- Harry Potter, for example. He was framed! Wrongfully! That man risked his life for this school- For the good of all of us, and they've thrown him to the wolves." She wrinkled her nose. She'd not heard about anything new about that lately either.