right hand man [brandon]

[Deleted]

It wasn't often that Viola ventured up into the Owlery, because it wasn't often that she had to send an owl. Her father always assumed that she was fine unless she said otherwise, and Pemberly wasn't really into the whole letter sending thing anyways, especially since Viola wasn't chosen as Champion and thus had nothing to report except schoolwork, which was boring, anyways. The fact that her allergies were always irritated by the congregation of birds didn't help the case for visiting, but today was special. In his last letter, her father had mentioned that Viola's mother was back in town, which...didn't seem like a good thing. She had up and left, and now she was crawling back...why? Viola had penned quite the letter to her mother, expressing all of her feelings about the situation, and she wasn't going to rest until she was sure that her mother would stay out of their lives. As she approached the opening to the Owlery, though, Viola's eyes began to water. When she opened the door, a coughing fit overtook her. When she stepped in, she sneezed, and the letter flew out of her hand and onto the floor, which was littered with parchment scraps from abandoned letters. When Viola stopped sneezing, she groaned. How was she going to find the letter when she could barely see through the puffiness of her eyes? She needed help.

[Deleted]

Brandon was on his way to the Owlery. He had a letter to send to his friend Zander and really he was just looking for some time on his own. It felt like ever since he came back he was trying to help people and talk with them but really he just felt uncomfortable here. Callie was here, the whole reason he left in the first place and now that he wasn't the champion for Durmstrang, he didn't have something to do in his spare time. So here he was, headed up to the Owlery for some alone time, but the second he opened the door, it was obvious that he wasn't alone. A girl was there, a girl in the same red robes as him, which meant she was from Durmstrang too. He felt bad because he didn't know her. Granted, he didn't know very many people in Durmstrang, but he was trying. She looked confused and Brandon stepped forward to help. "Hey, are you alright? Can I do something to help?" He asked, stepping forward to offer his help to her.

@viola

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The arrival of someone new to the Owlery brought a whole new rush of feathers, which, to Viola, meant a whole new sneezing fit. She sneezed more times than she cared to count, only vaguely aware that the boy who just entered had asked her a question. Her sneezes lasted what felt like eons, and Viola finally looked up at the boy. She rubbed her watering eyes, trying to make him out with enough clarity that she could attach a name to the face, but she didn’t have much luck. “Can you remove all the owls from the owlery?” She grumbled. “I can’t stand these freaking allergies.” Viola sneezed again, which only emphasized her point. “I dropped my letter.” Viola told the boy with a sigh that only served to send a new slew of allergens into her system. This time it was sneezes, not coughs, that kept her from speaking the next few moments. “So if you could help me find it, that would be great, because I just want to get the hell out of here.” The sooner she found the letter, the sooner Viola could leave this allergy-ridden hellhole.

@brandon

[Deleted]

Once he was in the Owlery with her, it only took a moment for Brandon to realize what was going on. She was allergic to the birds, or at least to something in the Owlery. She sneezed repeatedly and Brandon grabbed a nearby owl and attached his letter quickly while she was otherwise occupied. Now he could help her. As soon as he knew what she needed. Honestly, he was a little confused. She wasn't carrying a letter, so why didn't she just leave the Owlery, since she was so allergic? She mumbled something about removing all the owls and Brandon smiled, not laughing only because he didn't want her to think he was laughing at her. The moment she mentioned that she'd dropped her letter, Brandon started glancing at the floor, his eyes searching for it. At first he didn't think it would be difficult to see, but one look at the ground told him he was wrong about that. There were all sorts of slips of parchment on the floor, which made this much more difficult than it needed to be. "Accio letter," Brandon muttered after a second, not really wanting to search on the floor right before she mentioned how she just wanted to leave. "Here it is," Brandon said, holding it out to her carefully, so it wouldn't drop and slip it away again. "Actually, do you want me to just send it for you?" He offered, not really sure if she would rather send it herself and struggle with her allergies or let a stranger send it for her so she could escape. Either way was fine with him.

@viola

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Viola groaned when she heard the stranger summon the letter using a spell. She should have thought of that! She was a witch, and she was of age, and she should have been thinking about using her magic. If she was really smart, she would have used a Bubblehead Charm before even coming in here, so none of the allergens could get into her nose or eyes. Ugh. She was so stupid. It was hard to think when she was so utterly miserable, though. When the boy held the letter out to her, Viola grabbed it with both hands. When the boy offered to send it for her, though, Viola immediately thrust it back at him. “Oh my god, yes, please!” She shouted. If this was someone from her school, they would probably be surprised that she showed so much emotion, and a happy emotion, at that. Viola moved towards the door, and then looked over her shoulder. “Can you meet me outside, so I can thank you properly?” That was, thank him when she could actually see his face instead of having it clouded by itchy, puffy, watery eyes. She’d also be able to say something without going into a fit of sneezing again. When Viola ran over to the door of the owlery and threw it open, it was like a switch had been flipped. She wasn’t totally over the sneezing and coughing, but it was markedly better, and after a few moments, her vision began to clear. When her savior came out, she’d be able to see him properly.

@brandon

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Brandon almost wasn't sure what happened in the moments that followed after him finding the letter. One second he was holding, then he wasn't, then it was being thrust back into his hands and the girl was shouting her thanks at him as she rushed out. Right before she left, she asked him to meet her outside once he was done. "Sure," Brandon answered, thinking wryly to himself that he didn't really have a choice, unless he wanted to hide out in the Owlery until she left, which he didn't. Once she was gone, Brandon couldn't help but chuckle a little to himself. That had to be one of the strangest encounters he'd had with someone recently. He turned and attached her letter to one of the schools owls, just using one that went at a normal speed. He assumed if she wanted faster she would have told him. He turned and went toward the door she walked out of, looking around as he left the Owlery. It didn't take long to spot her; she was standing right there. "Hey are you all right?" Brandon asked, both letting her know he was there and sincerely asking. He'd never seen someone have such a hard time just because of the owls before. He couldn't help but wonder why she went there since she was so allergic.

@viola

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Viola was glad that the boy didn’t decide to ditch her – it would have been as embarrassing as hell to have him hide out in the owlery or something just to avoid her thanks. Why he would want to avoid her thanks, Viola didn’t know, since she hardly ever thanked anyone, but hey, who was she to judge? In any case, the boy came out, and asked if she was alright. “Yeah, I’m fine.” Viola said, brushing his concern off easily. She bounced back quickly from allergic reactions – they left as suddenly as they came, as long as she wasn’t around her allergen around. “I was just stupid and didn’t remember any of the last seven years of my life before coming into the owlery. Some witch I am, right?” Viola said, rolling her eyes at herself. Hopefully the boy wouldn’t take it as permission to start ragging on her, too. Viola would hate to have to get sassy with her savior. “You’re from Durmstrang.” Viola said, gesturing to his robes, which were obviously the same hue as hers. “But I’ve never seen you before. What gives?” Maybe this guy had some interesting story to keep her occupied.

@brandon

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Brandon nodded when she said she was fine. The girl certainly seemed a lot better than she did when he'd found her inside the Owlery. Maybe all she needed was some fresh air for things to go back to normal. He shrugged when she made fun of us. "Well, I feel like everyone's entitled to moments like that. Sometimes it's easy to forget important things, when you're distracted enough." Brandon had a lot of experience with that. As a musician, he was almost always distracted and forgetting important things. He nodded when she said he was from Durmstrang, expecting what came next. "I transferred to Durmstrang last year," he explained patiently. He had to explain this many times before. "I don't think I've ever seen you before either though. My name is Brandon," he told her, wondering if he should ask for her name or if she'd just give it. He decided to wait and see what she did.

@viola

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Viola rolled her eyes when the boy said that everyone was entitled to moments of distraction. Sure, they were entitled to them, but that didn’t make it any more annoying when they happened, especially when the consequences were so damn unpleasant. The boy introduced himself, explaining that he had transferred. It sounded like a spiel he had given many, many times before. “Viola.” She replied slowly, narrowing her eyes a little at Brandon. “It’s kind of stupid to transfer in your last year of school.” Viola raised her eyebrows. “Especially if you’re just going to end up in a different school anyways.” As far as Viola knew, the only people who transferred from Durmstrang did so from Hogwarts, but she wasn’t going to assume that was true when it came to this boy. Considering he didn’t have a French accent, it was likely, but she had been wrong before, and she didn't want Brandon to correct her if she implied that he had gone to Hogwarts before.

@brandon

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She seemed to glare at him when Brandon told her he transferred. "I transferred last year," he told her. "So technically I left for my last two years of school." She probably wasn't interested about all of this, but he didn't care. She was the one who mentioned it, so he might as well. "And I didn't know the tournament was going to be this year, but I didn't want to turn down the chance, even though it meant coming back to Hogwarts." She would understand that, right? Who didn't want the chance to be a part in the tournament, in something bigger than themselves? To Brandon it was a completely logical desire. "So why didn't I meet you last year?" he asked curiously. He hadn't met a ton of the Durmstrang students, but he thought he knew most of the ones that came to Hogwarts for the tournament. Apparently not.

@viola

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Brandon corrected Viola’s misconception, and she just rolled her eyes. “Whatever.” It wasn’t like she was going to be given a test on his personal history at the end of this conversation, and even if she was, that was one test that Viola didn’t mind failing. Brandon continued on about how he didn’t know the Tournament was coming – did he not know basic math? Fifteen years after the last one wasn’t hard to figure out – but wanted to come anyways. Come back. Viola had been right about him originally being from Hogwarts, then. He asked why he hadn’t seen Viola before, and she chuckled. “I don’t like people.” Viola said bluntly. She wasn’t going to pretend just because this boy wanted to be her friend or something equally asinine. “So I don’t really hang around others a lot, if I can help it.” Hopefully that explanation was satisfying enough, because Viola didn’t feel like getting into the reasons behind her dislike of most people or anything of the sort.

@brandon

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She obviously didn't really care about why she hadn't met Brandon before, so he couldn't help but wonder why she'd asked him, but Brandon wasn't in the mood to pick a fight with anyone. Granted, Brandon wasn't ever in the mood to pick a fight, but still. She laughed a little at his question and then said she didn't like people. Well, that would definitely be a reason why he hadn't met her during the last year. Brandon had been trying to get to know people, but mostly the people who would actually talk with them. If she didn't like people, then she definitely wasn't one of them. "That makes sense," he said after a minute, not really knowing what else to say. If she didn't like people, then why did she hang around out here to say thanks. Or, having delivered her thanks, why didn't she just leave? "So what do you think of Hogwarts?" Brandon asked eventually, mostly just to break the silence. And the awkwardness. If she didn't want to talk to him, she could always just leave, after all.

@viola

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How did she like Hogwarts? Viola shrugged. “No one seems to care about me, since I’m not Champion.” She said. Brandon could interpret that the way he liked – most people would see it as a bad thing, but Viola didn’t much mind being able to fade into the background, without being known as her father’s (or worse, her mother’s) daughter and having his voice mocked to her every day of her life. “I don’t know. It just feels – boring.” Like it was an adventure that had turned out not to be much of an adventure at all. Viola had tried to make friends, at least as best as someone like her could, hanging out where she saw the Hogwarts kids and everything of the sort, but she was beginning to accept that she had been right not trying to make friends in the first place. Her personality wasn’t naturally conducive to friendship, and she was better off alone and herself than with people and having to fake to be someone who she wasn’t. “What about you?” She returned. This was his home school, so maybe he was happy to be back, or maybe he dreaded seeing all the ghosts of his past, including whatever the hell it was that had made him leave in the first place.

@brandon

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She said that no one cared about her, which Brandon would normally assume was a bad thing, but Viola didn’t seem upset by it at all. So the question was: was she putting up a fascade and pretending like it didn’t matter, or did she really not care? “Are you upset about that?” He asked curiously, trying to understand her attitude. Then she said that she was bored and Brandon could understand that. Being here from a visiting school and not being the Champion did not present very many interesting opportunities. Unless, of course, you were in his unique situation. Brandon had plenty of people to talk to and associate with, his friends from before he left. He shrugged when she turned the question back on him. “It’s weird being back here. A part of me feels like I belong here, with all my friends from before, but at the same time I don’t fit in here anymore. I still like Hogwarts, but it isn’t my school and that feels strange to me. I do like seeing all my old friends, but other than that, Hogwarts doesn’t feel like it has very much to offer me anymore.” Did that even make sense? Probably not but Brandon didn’t know how to try and explain it any better.

@viola

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Brandon asked her if she was upset about the fact that no one paid attention to her, which Viola hadn’t expected. “Nope.” She answered easily. “Literally the only thing they know about me is that I’m not the Champion. Why on earth would I be upset when they’re the ones stupid enough judge someone on one fact?” Granted, Viola wasn’t wont to let them learn anything else about her, but that didn’t change the fact that it was stupid and wrong to judge someone based on such a small portion of who they were. And as a rule, Viola didn’t let what other people say bother her. What they said didn’t change who she was, and what she was was pretty fricking awesome.

“You belong where you think you belong, idiot.” Viola said, rolling her eyes. It was really that simple. If Brandon had it in his head that he didn’t belong there, then he was going to be stuck with that notion for the rest of the year. “People aren’t going to make space for you to fit back in. You have to make the space for yourself.” And if Viola had been interested in the whole fitting in thing, that was exactly what she would have done – fought for her own space to be herself. “As for the whole something to offer thing…Sucks, but aren’t were here to learn how to make the best of bad situations or some shit?” If the purpose was only to have a Champion, the rest of them would have been shipped back to Durmstrang by now. There must have been some lesson left to learn, even if Hogwarts was still pretty boring.

@brandon