Closed Hexwizard at Hogwarts? Open to Koldovstoretz iNPCs

Dialogue: English - #1b087d | Russian - #8f0000 | Finnish - #00804f

Interacting with: Irina Onisimovna Afanasyeva (@Lavinia Cloven)

Ever since the announcement about the oddly-named Hexwizard Tournament, Tarja could barely focus on anything. She spent most of the time - during classes and outside of them - either talking about it to anyone interested, or just fantasizing. Her fantasies were grand, too - she would become Koldovstoretz champion, and carry her school to victory with her intellectual, magical and physical prowess. Tarja Akimovna would become famous! If there was a monetary prize attached to the victory, she would also be rich. Her parents would be so proud; she would make sure they wouldn't struggle financially anymore - maybe buy them a nice house with the prize money. And get a Firebolt for herself! All she needed to do was sign up through some magical cup, get selected as a champion, and then win.

Of course, she suspected that a lot of the other students in all six schools had similar dreams. Who wouldn't? It seemed like most of her friends would enter their names into the competition. She was encouraging every single one of them to do so, and even trying to convince the ones who were a tad doubtful. Participating in such an event, judging by its most recent history, was once-in-a-lifetime possibility, after all. And a chance to prove that Koldovstoretz was just as good as any of the other, older and richer schools. They were also told something about making international friends, forming connections and collaborating, but Tarja didn't really grasp that part so well.

As she approached the lake, having just gotten out of a detention for forgetting to do her homework and then not paying attention in class (third time this week), her mind was once again buzzing with imagery of gloriously defeating the other champions in every single task. The details on what exactly those tasks looked like were a little fuzzy, but that didn't matter. There was a content smile on the girl's lips and her eyes were wandering the surroundings absently, without really focusing on anything in the real world. That is, until she noticed a fair-haired figure sitting alone. A fellow broom racer! While not exactly familiar with the upperclassman, Tarja at least knew her name; and for her, that was a close enough relationship to interrupt someone's peace by initiating a conversation.

"Greetings, Irina Onisimovna!" the eleven-year-old piped up. "May I join you?" she asked, already brushing snow off of a large rock to create a mostly-dry seat for herself.

"I'm so excited about the Hexwizard Tournament... are you? It's all I can think about," Tarja confessed happily, taking off her gloves, putting them on the boulder to serve as a cushion, and finally sitting down. "I'll definitely put my name in that Fiery Cup, or whatever it's called. So glad that there's no age limit this time. I'm really looking forward to our next visit to Hogwarts. Do you intend to participate?"

Her gleeful expression dropped somewhat when she realized, belatedly, that Irina Onisimovna was part of their school's delegation when the horrible attack happened in Hogsmeade. Some people she knew probably perished there, perhaps even her friends. Chatting so cheerfully about visiting the British school wasn't the most appropriate thing to do.

"I know that Hogwarts is a dangerous place and they have some serious issues with security. But they would surely take extra safety measures when organizing such a lengthy event, wouldn't they? Even their Ministry of Magic might get involved, I heard it did last time, at least..." she trailed off, a sudden thought popping into her head. "Do you think we'll be spending the whole year over there, or just visiting for each task?" It would be quite an exciting prospect to spend a whole year at a foreign school - her English would improve considerably, and she could probably get a chance to sneak into that alluringly-sounding Forbidden Forest; the possibilities for adventures would be endless.

• ᴠᴀᴅɪᴍɪʀ ᴍᴀʀᴋᴏᴠɪᴄʜ ᴠᴏʟᴋᴏᴠ •
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Koldovstoretz School Lake - 24th February 2022
Dialogue: "English" | "Russian"

The cold had never really bothered Vadimir, not ever. Even during the freezing cold of winter, the youth had been perfectly fine with his environment and the temperature it provided. Since he was little, Vadimir had had a strong constitution and physicality, so maybe that had something to do with it. Still, the weather at the moment didn't worry Vadimir one bit, as he sauntered from between some distant school huts.

Dressed in a worn school uniform, a light blue rubakha shirt and grey pants with thick boots, Vadimir sniffed and spat on the ground as he rubbed the knuckles of one hand. Those knuckles were reddened, the skin darkened from an impact, as the youth smirked and kept on his way. From behind, several older students stood nearer the buildings and stared at the back of Vadimir, one of them with a bloody nose that he wiped with a sleeve.

"Leave the younger students alone," Vadimir called, as he glanced back over his shoulder. "Or I'll keep using your face for a punching bag."

It wasn't everyday that Vadimir went to the assistance of others, he much preferred to let others fight their own battles. But when a first year was being bullied by three senior students, that's when Vadimir had no problem stepping in. Besides, he enjoyed a good brawl, it helped clear his lungs and made him feel refreshed - especially after such a boring day learning, when all the youth wanted was to be outside and practicing his broom flying...

Huh? Who's that?

Across the way, beyond some muddy pathways and patches of grass, Vadimir saw two students near the lake. They were seated, speaking, and he decided - with nothing else to do - to make his way over. Vadimir recognized one of the girls immediately, as he sloshed his way across the mud, his thick boots keeping the wet out effectively, before he stepped onto grass and rubbed the soles to clean them somewhat. Once within conversation range, Vadimir gave a lopsided grin and called out:

"Hey, Darya," Vadimir used the nickname for Tarja Akimovna, something of a sign of their closer friendship and lack of need for traditional name use. "How's the water? Frozen over yet?"

On the way over, Vadimir had heard some of the final words the pair shared, and decided it was an interesting topic. He would join in. There had been some excitement about the Hexwizard tournament in the Hogwarts country, and Vadimir hoped he was able to travel there to take part, though a lot of students at Koldovstoretz felt the same...

"It's a shame what happened to the Quidditch team, Irina Onisimovna," Vadimir said with a more sombre expression, as he looked to the other - older - student. He crouched down at the edge of the lake. "You have my condolences for your loss of friends."

Without another thought, Vadimir plunged his bare hands into the water and began to clean them. For the other two, if they cared enough to notice, the youth's right hand had had specks of red on the knuckles - blood, most likely. He was now washing it off, splashing the cold water over the skin, and humming under his breath. Then Vadimir glanced their way:

"I do not think our students would be there all year. That is a very long time to be away from our school... but are either of you planning to go? To Hogwarts, for the Hexwizard tournament?"

Interacting with:

Irina Onisimovna Afanasyeva (@Lavinia Cloven) | Tarja Akimovna Blavatsky (@Liana Kerr)

February 24th, 2022

Irina absolutely loved the lake at Koldovstoretz, it was so peaceful and such a great place to go to clear her head. Today, the entirety of the Hexwizard announcement was racing through her brain and thoughts about going back to Hogwarts were circling her mind. It was going to be a struggle to go back there, but in the end Irina knew that for herself and for her school, she had to visit again.

Sitting on the ground with her thoughts whirling a hundred miles an hour, Irina didn’t know that someone was walking towards her until she heard a peppy voice greet her. Irina immediately let out a small sigh at the fact that her peace was disturbed, and turned towards her fellow broom racer. The odd thing that stuck out to her about the greeting was that Tarja had used her middle name to formally address her. It was a rare occurrence for Irina to hear that name since it wasn’t commonly used and she personally hated the name. It reminded her of the fact that her dad had left her and even though she didn’t care much about him anymore, the name always stuck out like a sore thumb. Raising her eyebrows inquisitively, Irina responded kindly, “Hey Tarja! You know we’re friends right? You don’t have to use my middle name to address me. And of course, you can join me!”

Smiling at Tarja, Irina watched as she brushed a small layer of snow off of a rock to make herself comfortable. Before Irina could think ask a question, Tarja mentioned the big topic of the day, the Hexwizard tournament. “Of course, who wouldn’t be excited for it! We get to finally show off how much of a powerhouse Koldovstoretz is.” Then Tarja said the one thing that Irina was dreading to hear. She knew it was going to happen but Irina’s small smile faded when Tarja mentioned that she would put her name in. Irina did not want her schoolmates to risk their lives participating in this tournament, yet there was very little that she could say to convince them otherwise. Muttering under her breath, Irina let out a fairly incoherent phrase “Maybe there was a good reason that there was an age limit.”

Looking back up at Tarja, Irina spoke clearly this time “I hope you know what you might be getting into when you enter your name. I’m not trying to sway you against it-” Irina lied through her teeth, “-just making sure that you know people have died in this before. I guess you could say that I’m excited, I am looking forward to putting my name in the pot. It would be an honor to be Koldovstoretz’s champion.” Irina would be honored but the real reason was that she wanted to be the champion was so that no other student would have to go through the danger posed.

Seeing that Tarja’s peppy expression dropped a little, Irina could almost tell what was going to happen. She was going to talk about the deaths. The deaths of 17 classmates that Irina had experienced first hand. There were so many people that wanted to give her condolences and Irina would have to try and accept them without breaking out into tears or a mess of shouting.

Still trying to be attentive, Irina tilted her head to the side as Tarja didn’t talk about the deaths but rather the lack of security that Hogwarts had. Oh boy, Tarja had picked the topic that Irina could rant on for a long long time. Irina scoffed a little at the notion that Hogwarts would improve their security, Hogwarts never gave a care about safety. About to go on a rant about Hogwarts, Irina stopped herself as Tarja changed the topic of discussion. “I honestly don’t know, I want to say that it’ll be all year but then we wouldn’t get the same learning that we get here. And trust me you do not want to experience the classes at Hogwarts. I haven’t seen them myself but the students that they produce are not nearly as well trained as we are. And since we’re on the topic of Hogwarts, I highly doubt that they will take any more safety measures. That school doesn’t give a damn about anyone’s safety.”

Irina was not one to swear without reason and she felt a bit bad about this one but it was necessary to keep her from ranting at Tarja. She hated that school to her bones, yet she had to go back because it let her watch over the safety of everyone she cared for. Talking a long breath, Irina calmed down her bubbling anger and fixed her face back into a small smile. Hearing another person join their conversation, Irina looked over shoulder to see who she remembered to be another one of her broom racing teammates. Taking to messing with her gloves while Vadimir talked to Tarja, Irina zoned out of the conversation until the words were addressed to her.

There it was, he was talking about the explosion, and he, as many had, only mentioned the loss of the quidditch team. Giving him a moment to continue before she lashed out, Irina listened to another person give her condolences and use her middle name in the process. For something that rarely happened to occur twice in the span of a few minutes, Irina was confused. Letting out a huff of her anger, Irina respond dryly, “Thanks for the condolences Vadimir. You do know that you don’t have to use my middle name, we are on the same racing team. Also, it wasn’t just the quidditch team that died, after that day I was only living member of the broom racing team.”

Leaving that to soak in, Irina almost wanted to make an exit before something was said that sent her over the edge. It was already an emotionally taxing day and it would just be worse with 2 younger kids bringing up the bombing. Deciding to stay where she was for a little while longer, Irina went back to fiddling with her gloves for entertainment. When Vadimir asked his next question, Irina responded with a curt, “Yeah I am.”

I am so sorry for how late this is, I was really busy then I lost my muse for a while. I’ll try to respond quicker next time.

Камила Явлинская viewtopic.php?p=372443#p372443
Russian| English

Kamila loved the grounds; the landscape was so beautiful, and the air was so peaceful. She knew it would be the perfect place to take her mind off the hexwizard tournament and get some homework done. When Kamila got onto the grounds, she immediately heard a group of students talking about the hexwizard tournament knowing this would be the perfect place to express her excitement Kamila ran to join them. She decided that she could get her homework done another day.

Kamila approached them deciding that it would be a polite thing to do she introduced herself. "Hello I'm Kamila Yavlinsky," she said pausing and adding. "I am so excited about hexwizard tournament. I am definitely going to put my name in the fire pot I can't wait for Koldovstoretz to win! Because even if I don't get picked it's obvious that Koldovstroretz will win!"

Kamila knew she could rant about the tournament all day, but she also knew that no one would want to listen to her chatter for hours on a single topic. She instead brushed some snow off a rock and sat down next to the group. "Are any of you planning on putting your name in the fire pot?" Kamila asked realizing not everyone wanted to risk their life in a tournament.

Dialogue: English - #1b087d | Russian - #8f0000 | Finnish - #00804f

Interacting with: Irina Onisimovna Afanasyeva (@Lavinia Cloven) | Vadimir Markovich Volkov (@Aurelius Leeds) | Kamila ? Yavlinsky (@Marina Oriel)

A delighted grin appeared on Tarja's face. Irina considered her a friend! Usually, it was the other way around - she would begin talking to people too familiarly before getting properly acquainted, without waiting for a permission. But her teammate being older by over three years, a certain level of respect was due. "Right, roger that, Irina!" There was no way she would turn down a permission to address someone by their first name.

Unsurprisingly, the older girl was also - seemingly - thrilled by the announcement of the Hexwizard Tournament. Who wouldn't be, really? It was difficult to catch what she mumbled about the age limitations, though; all Tarja gathered, judging solely by the facial expression of her companion, was that it was a negative reaction. "What's that? Surely you're not too worried about the increased competition, now that younger years can also participate! I mean, if they kept the age limit they chose in 1994, you wouldn't be able to put your name in the cup, either. It seems really quite unfair to only allow those of age to be the champions, especially when the tournament happens so rarely - all of us might already have graduated by the time the next one comes around."

But of course Irina wasn't the selfish type. It turned out she wasn't concerned about possible competitors, only about their well-being. "Yes, I've read a little bit about it - I know what happened last time," she nodded eagerly. For anyone who knew Tarja, hearing that she willingly sought out literature about a given subject should be a clear indicator of how interested she really was. "Hopefully, no Dark Lords will come back from the dead during this event. Doing that again would be just so... unoriginal."

It seemed that her comment about security at Hogwarts awoke some half-buried rage in Irina. That was only to be expected, given how last summer's visit ended. "I have wondered why do we, and the other schools, keep visiting Hogwarts when it's so unsafe, actually," she admitted. Were international relationships really worth risking the loss of more young lives? It didn't really bother Tarja that much, and she would certainly be upset if their headmistress suddenly announced that there would be no more visits to the British school. But it was still an inconsistency that even the most inattentive of kids could grasp.

At the call of familiar voice, her face brightened and all serious conversation came to a halt. "Hi, Dima," she greeted him happily, the sight of his bloodied fists causing amusement rather than worry. "Did you start the fight or finish it?" Even though she didn't like uncalled-for violence, Vadimir's aggressions were something she generally tolerated, or even approved of. She'd never seen him beat up an innocent newbie - usually his punches were reserved for bullies who had it coming.

The topic shifted back to the Hexwizard, which was fine by Tarja. She exhaled with dissatisfaction at Vadimir's reasoning that they wouldn't stay abroad the whole year. It would have been such great fun. They would have the time to form all the connections their school seemed to want so much, too. "Oh, I'm definitely going. Can't wait to put my name into the fiery cup. Irina will put hers in, too!" she announced, failing to consider that it might have been something the upperclassman should share herself - or not share at all, if that was her preference. "How about you?"

Another newcomer joined the conversation then, causing it to restart. "Hey there, I'm Tarja Akimovna," she grinned amicably. "I'll put my name in, yeah. Have you been to Hogwarts before?"

My turn to apologize for the wait - had some busy times at work. Hopefully that doesn't happen again, but if it does, I'll at least make sure to inform everyone of my absence.

• ᴠᴀᴅɪᴍɪʀ ᴍᴀʀᴋᴏᴠɪᴄʜ ᴠᴏʟᴋᴏᴠ •
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Koldovstoretz School Lake - 24th February 2022
Dialogue: "English" | "Russian"

Vadimir wasn't usually very good at gauging other people's reactions or moods. He tended to take what was said at face value, not really thinking about much beyond words or actions, so his condolences to his fellow student had - essentially - been purely respectful, not much else. In truth, the Russian boy hadn't really known those lost in the attack, nor did he know much about the details surrounding it, so when Irina Onisimovna clarified, Vadimir could only nod.

"Terrible things happen," Vadimir said in a quiet tone, as he looked down into the water. He glanced to Irina. "Especially around Hogwarts, it seems. If we all go, we will watch each other's backs, yes? You can bet on that, Irina."

It didn't take a rocket scientist to see that Irina didn't want to speak about the topic, the discomfort evident even for someone like Vadimir, so when Tarja asked about the fight - and who finished it - Vadimir offered a wink before he responded:

"Finished, of course," The Russian boy said as he stood up and wiped his damp hands on his school shirt. He studied the knuckles, saw none were hurt or broken, which was good. "Some older students decided to pick on younger ones... nothing unusual for bullies. I always enjoy giving them a bloody nose for their effort."

It wasn't long after that another student arrived near the lake, her name Kamila Yavlinsky, and she seemed excited about the Hexwizard tournament. She had some spunk, for sure, which made Vadimir offer a grin as she explained the plan to take part and put her name into the fiery cup. Both Tarja and Irina seemed to plan the same, which was promising, as they were skilled students with strong Russian morals...

"I will also put my name into the fiery cup, people will remember Vadimir Markovich Volkov!" Vadimir announced, as he walked over toward Tarja and sat down near her. He looked between the others, eyebrows raised, as he asked. "Part of me thinks these Hogwarts people took so long, because they realize how bad their reputation is becoming. With the tragedies. Maybe they want this one to go well... or maybe they've just been too caught up in their own castle splendor to care until now."

Vadimir scoffed.

"Either way, this is our chance to show what Koldovstoretz and her students are made of... I can't wait."

Interacting with:

Irina Onisimovna Afanasyeva (@Lavinia Cloven) | Tarja Akimovna Blavatsky (@Liana Kerr) | Kamila Yavlinsky (@Marina Oriel)