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last online May 19, 2024 0:06:44 GMT -7
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Aug 14, 2017 15:23:36 GMT -7
Post by Deleted on Aug 14, 2017 15:23:36 GMT -7
One of the things that had surprised Oona about the magical world was that, occasionally, people didn't really die; they became ghosts instead. They were dead to the extent that they weren't living and breathing, but they still maintained a physical presence… of sorts, anyway. What little she understood about it was that most of them were chained to a specific place, like the Hogwarts ghosts were to the school, and that most of them had feared death enough to keep themselves from going to the “other side”—whatever that meant to other witches and wizards. The most talkative of the Hogwarts ghosts, in Oona's experience, was probably Moaning Myrtle, but even she couldn't be understood half the time for all of the crying she did, and—not surprisingly—most people weren't too eager to talk about their own deaths, anyway.
As of the start of April, however, there had been a new addition to the faces seen floating about the castle's corridors, much to Oona's shock. Although she hadn't known Ethan Johnson well in life, Oona certainly felt as though she had known him after his untimely death. His face, like those of the other murdered students, had been all over the Daily Prophet ever since, and it seemed strangely fitting that he would come back to Hogwarts upon the first anniversary of his death.
Although it wasn't entirely possible to crowd somebody who was a literal ghost and could float away on a breeze, Oona had overheard some of the school's staff urging her fellow students to give Ethan some space while he grew accustomed to the afterlife.
With her classes to occupy her, Oona didn't think much about bothering Ethan. Many of his friends from school were still around—about to graduate but able to keep him company nonetheless. It was almost as though he hadn't died at all, sometimes, though Oona guessed that floating through walls was a new experience for him.
It was in the middle of the month that she found herself alone in Ravenclaw Tower one night. Oona knew that she must have fallen asleep while reading, for—when she realized that she was awake—she saw that she had been using her book as a pillow. She sat up then, prepared to wander to bed before she fell asleep again, when the temperature of the room felt as though it had dropped significantly.
Expecting it to have been caused by a strong gust of wind, she looked around and saw that nothing had been blown across the common room. Instead, there was the silvery apparition of Ethan Johnson seated across the table from her. “Hi, Ethan,” she commented with a yawn. “When did you get here?”
@ghostethan
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last online May 19, 2024 0:06:44 GMT -7
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Aug 18, 2017 6:47:16 GMT -7
Post by Deleted on Aug 18, 2017 6:47:16 GMT -7
It was halfway into the month of April, and Ethan was still getting used to this ghost thing. At first he tried to avoid going through walls as much as possible, but he soon realized that was a big waste of time. Instead he decided he should probably embrace it and started experimenting with all of the things he could go through. It was basically everything unless they had some special kind of enchantment on them, he assumed. He had made a good friend, Seamus, who was helping him write letters and read books. It actually wasn't that bad, he had a lot of friends willing to help him research his ghost life now and how to figure it out. He wasn't sure if he had some of that unfinished business that ghosts were famous for... Well, he had a small idea... Annie. He constantly worried about his little sister while he was at Hogwarts, and now he worried about her even more because she had been told over a year ago that he was dead. He couldn't bear the thought of how that made her feel. The look on her face. If anything, he was almost positive that this is what brought him back.
He was contemplating this, while experimenting how to look like he was sitting in a chair. While doing this, the girl across from him, Oona looked up, and said hello, asking how long he had been there. He shrugged, "I'm really neither here nor there," he explained. Then he smiled a little, "only a few minutes. How are you?"
@oona
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last online May 19, 2024 0:06:44 GMT -7
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Aug 18, 2017 18:58:21 GMT -7
Post by Deleted on Aug 18, 2017 18:58:21 GMT -7
“I'm really neither here nor there,” responded Ethan, which Oona nearly took as a reference to his ghostly status; he was there, though, or he wouldn't have been capable of responding to her. “Only a few minutes.” At least, she thought, he hadn't been sitting there and watching her sleep, she thought momentarily—or was that just a “Muggle pop culture vampire” thing?
He asked her how she was, and she shrugged her shoulders—half stretching—in response. “Knackered,” she answered him, “apparently.” If her having fallen asleep on a book had been any indication, she had been more tired than she'd realized. Her little nap had rested her, though, so she contemplated going back to her reading.
“Do you miss school?” Oona then asked, wondering what it must have been like for him to be floating around Hogwarts all day, when he should have left school shortly after the time of his death. If she were him, she probably would have tried to attend some of the classes she would have missed, though she assumed that it would get boring to do that more than once—at least until the curriculum got an update.
@ghostethan
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last online May 19, 2024 0:06:44 GMT -7
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Aug 25, 2017 6:22:19 GMT -7
Post by Deleted on Aug 25, 2017 6:22:19 GMT -7
Oona said she was knackered, which made sense since she had fallen asleep. In all honesty, he hadn't even realized she was there until she spoke. He was too busy feeling sorry for himself. She asked if he missed school and he shrugged, "I only had two months left when I died," he reminded. "So, there isn't much to miss. Plus, I've haunted a few classes here and there," and by 'haunted' he meant just listened and watched.
He paused for just a second, his brow knit together, "what I really miss is Quidditch," he said softly. He could still sit in on classes and learn, but he couldn't experience the thrill of the game by any means. He couldn't do anything but watch, and that wasn't the same at all.
@oona
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last online May 19, 2024 0:06:44 GMT -7
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Aug 25, 2017 18:56:40 GMT -7
Post by Deleted on Aug 25, 2017 18:56:40 GMT -7
“I only had two months left when I died,” Ethan reminded her. That didn't leave him much to miss, he said, and Oona supposed that he was right. He had seen and done almost everything that Hogwarts had had to offer him. Almost. In some ways, Oona guessed that it must have been strange for him never to get closure—not finishing school, not moving on to the actual dead. He seemed to be in good spirits about it—as much as someone could be. “Plus,” he added, “I've haunted a few classes here and there.”
Oona laughed slightly. If he was going to embrace his ghostliness, then all the better for him. She didn't think that he could have been too frightening to see in a classroom, though; nearly everyone but maybe some of the first-years knew who he was.
It was being able to play Quidditch, Ethan expressed, that was what he really missed about being alive. Being a ghost now, he would have floated right on through a broomstick, Oona considered. She had never had any particular interest in the sport—or in any sport, for that matter; joining the Ravenclaw team and practicing all the time would have meant sacrificing time that she could have spent on ten other topics. That wasn't to say that she despised Quidditch, though. She went to the matches that didn't interfere with her reading plans and understood enough to know the basics of gameplay. (Once, she had tried to make a list of all of the different tactics and what they actually meant—during a match—but the action had moved too quickly for her to differentiate between them all.)
Just because he couldn't play didn't mean that he couldn't do other things. “Well, you're deadly at flying,” she reassured him, another joke unintentionally added to the one she had intended to make as a result of her choice of vocabulary. On a more serious note, she suggested, “You could teach lessons.” As an added bonus, the Bludgers wouldn't hurt him.
@ghostethan
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last online May 19, 2024 0:06:44 GMT -7
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Sept 1, 2017 7:48:19 GMT -7
Post by Deleted on Sept 1, 2017 7:48:19 GMT -7
Wait was she... making a pun? She wasn't smiling or anything... was it on accident? Then she suggested he teach lessons and he cocked his head to the side. "You mean like... flying lessons?" he asked, his eyes widening a little. He had wanted to be a Quidditch player after graduating and then retire early to be a Professor. He could, maybe, skip the Quidditch player part... his mind was wrapping around all the possibilities of his own death that he felt like a million jolts of electricity were going through him.
After a moment, he cleared his throat and straightened up, "I mean, that's a thought, isn't it? It would certainly make my death much less... boring," he suggested. He hadn't really been bored, though, just depressed. But depression could easily lead to boredom since it was so hard to get up and do anything with himself. Since he was a ghost there wasn't much he could DO anyway.
@oona (i can't keep up with the long posts with him hahah hope that's okay! Oonathan5ever)
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last online May 19, 2024 0:06:44 GMT -7
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Sept 1, 2017 11:03:51 GMT -7
Post by Deleted on Sept 1, 2017 11:03:51 GMT -7
“You mean… like flying lessons?"
Even if he couldn't actually use a broomstick himself, Ethan understood the way it was meant to work. He understood Quidditch strategy and the rules of the sport, so she didn't see any reason why he couldn't be hired. There was his age, though it seemed pointless if Hogwarts was going to discriminate him on that basis. He was dead; he wasn't going to age, and having some sort of a job was better than idling around. “I mean like flying lessons,” Oona repeated.
“I mean, that's a thought, isn't it?” Oona could tell that Ethan was mulling it over. “It would certainly make my death much less… boring.”
“You could be a referee, too,” she thought. He could keep a better eye on the game than anyone else, not being limited to the ground or to a broom. “Maybe it wouldn't work if there's wind or rain,” she laughed, but any other time was probably alright.
@ghostethan
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last online May 19, 2024 0:06:44 GMT -7
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Sept 3, 2017 16:54:25 GMT -7
Post by Deleted on Sept 3, 2017 16:54:25 GMT -7
Oona confirmed that this is indeed what she meant, and Ethans mind was still boggled. She suggested that he could be a referee too and he nodded, then actually laughed too when she said it might not work with wind or rain. He smiled at her, "you're pretty smart, Oona... I don't think I'm quite ready for that yet but... it's definitely worth looking into you. You've given me a new outlook on death," he cracked his own joke now, smirking a little as he did.
"What about you? What do you want to be when you graduate?" not that he was really implying that he'd ever graduate, but the term applied to her. She was still living, after all. She was a few years younger than him, so he honestly hadn't talked to her that much so he didn't know that much about her or her life plans.
@oona
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last online May 19, 2024 0:06:44 GMT -7
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Sept 4, 2017 17:31:29 GMT -7
Post by Deleted on Sept 4, 2017 17:31:29 GMT -7
Ethan complimented her on her intelligence for thinking up a possibility for making his death somehow enjoyable or productive, and Oona had to smile a little. It wasn't the first time that she had been told how clever she was, but usually it was by people who were significantly older than she was—not by someone who could be considered a peer, almost, if not for his death. “I don't think I'm quite ready for that yet,” he told her, “but... it's definitely worth looking into. You've given me a new outlook on death.”
In a way, Oona thought, Ethan must have been going through the stages of grief for himself. He hadn't been dead for much more than a year. Moaning Myrtle had been dead for decades and still lamented her misfortune; Nearly Headless Nick still bemoaned that he hadn't lost his head at all. Still, just as the school's bathrooms had become Myrtle's “place”, Oona didn't doubt that Ethan would find his eventually.
“What about you?” he asked. “What do you want to be when you graduate?”
“I haven't decided yet.” There were so many options, and part of her thought that she might want to become a professor so that she could just keep learning all the time. Oona couldn't say for certain, though. She still had another year before she had to narrow down her courses to focus on what would best suit her chosen career path. “My mam is a librarian, and my dad's a science teacher, though,” she explained to him. “Sometimes, my dad sends me work to do for fun. I like it, but there's so much that I don't know about the magical world.” She paused. “Hogwarts can't teach us everything. Uagadou teach their students how to become Animagi… The Durmstrang students learn the Dark Arts…” How many branches of magic actually existed?!
“I want to research everything,” she told Ethan with complete sincerity. “The Ministry has got the Department of Mysteries,” she considered, supposing that working there would allow her to learn more than most people, “but I think I would want to speak about my job, you know?”
@ghostethan
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last online May 19, 2024 0:06:44 GMT -7
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Sept 7, 2017 23:09:01 GMT -7
Post by Deleted on Sept 7, 2017 23:09:01 GMT -7
Oona smiled a little at his compliment, which made Ethan smile more. He always liked making other people happy, and of course he only did it with honesty. He never said something he didn't think was true in at least some capacity. And Oona had indeed been smart and made him feel better, so the compliment was honest and he paid it.
She answered his question about what she wanted to be with plenty of explanation. He understood all those things. "I agree. I'd want to speak about it," he nodded. "Maybe there is some kind of job you could do that travels schools. Like an expert lecturerer on a specific topic," his brow furrowed in thought. "Something that all schools would benefit from having a specialist come in to speak on. You could stay for a month and learn how that school works and what magic they specialize in as well as teaching," actually that sounded pretty awesome to Ethan.
"And what kind of stuff does youe father send you? Does he teach High School or..?" he added in question. He always thought science was a pretty interesting subject.
@oona
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last online May 19, 2024 0:06:44 GMT -7
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Sept 8, 2017 11:56:17 GMT -7
Post by Deleted on Sept 8, 2017 11:56:17 GMT -7
“Maybe,” thought Ethan, “there is some kind of job you could do that travels schools.” That kind of thing existed in the Muggle world, Oona knew, though it was usually at universities where people did things like that. “Like an expert lecturerer on a specific topic,” he elaborated. But then there was another question: What would be her subject of expertise? “Something that all schools would benefit from having a specialist come in to speak on.” Ethan continued to explain the idea. “You could stay for a month and learn how that school works and what magic they specialize in as well as teaching.”
Oona thought about how she could make that idea a reality. It wasn't as though she could just say that that was what she wanted to do with her life and have it happen like that. She would have to get to the top of her career and become well-respected in order for schools to want to have her there. The natural place to start, of course, was right where she was: Hogwarts.
The Muggle schoolwork she did was just an added bonus of having parents who were academically inclined themselves. “And what kind of stuff does your father send you?” Ethan asked. “Does he teach high school or…?”
“He teaches Physics and Chemistry at senior cycle,” Oona answered. In other words, most of her father's students were about Ethan's age—sixteen to eighteen, roughly. “Mostly, he sends me chemical equations to balance, but I could do those in my sleep.” (It was a slight exaggeration because she actually had fallen asleep earlier.) “Chemistry is like Potions,” she said, “except without the Flobberworm mucus. I think that's why I like it.”
@ghostethan
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last online May 19, 2024 0:06:44 GMT -7
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Sept 8, 2017 23:27:01 GMT -7
Post by Deleted on Sept 8, 2017 23:27:01 GMT -7
He nodded as she explained what kind of science her father taught and what age group. "I wonder if he'll teach my sister. She'll be a senior in two years," he explained. She mentioned that she could do the chemical equations in her sleep and he laughed. He nodded as she mentioned that Chemistry was like Potions. "That makes sense. I've tried to keep up with muggle education a bit. I mean, I tried," obviously, when he was alive. "It's hard being a muggleborn and not learning all the same things as your neighbors in schools. I tried to keep up," he explained again.
He chuckled, "muggle 'potions'," he emphasized with a grin, "is a little less disgusting sometimes. At least the ingredients aren't as bad, I mean." he explained. "Maybe you could show me some of the work sometime. That sounds fun," and actually like it could be really comforting.
@oona
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last online May 19, 2024 0:06:44 GMT -7
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Sept 9, 2017 20:13:12 GMT -7
Post by Deleted on Sept 9, 2017 20:13:12 GMT -7
Hearing Ethan's comment about wondering if his younger sister would have her father for a teacher, Oona paused. “Are you from Dublin?” she blinked. He had never sounded Irish to her, but it would have been a really small world if his sister attended the same school at which her father taught. Most people at Hogwarts seemed to be from England or Scotland, but Oona supposed that that was what happened when the Ministry was in London and Hogwarts was in Scotland wherever it was actually located.
Ethan shared that he, too, had tried to keep up with the Muggle education that he would have gotten if not for being a wizard. He said that it was hard, and Oona nodded in agreement. “It is. There's Arithmancy, but that's not the same as regular maths,” and regular mathematical abilities were still necessary. People had to work in stores or in offices where they had to add and subtract, at the very least.
Because of the differences between the magical and non-magical worlds, it made it even funnier for Oona to hear Ethan call Chemistry “Muggle Potions”. He was right that the ingredients weren't so unusual—or “disgusting”, as he put it—as the magical ones. Oona didn't think that anyone in the Muggle world used leeches anymore.
“Maybe you could show me some of the work sometime,” Ethan suggested. “That sounds fun.”
Oona was about to ask him when he was free, only to remember that he didn't really have a schedule. Literally speaking, he went where the wind blew him, and, unlike her, he had no need for sleep. “It is fun,” she said, thinking that she could probably come up with some basic problems on her own that were based on the ones her father had sent her. “Have you done Chemistry before?” she asked. “You know the periodic table of the elements?”
@ghostethan
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last online May 19, 2024 0:06:44 GMT -7
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Sept 11, 2017 14:40:13 GMT -7
Post by Deleted on Sept 11, 2017 14:40:13 GMT -7
Ethan shook his head and laughed at her question. "No, but now I know you are so my sister won't be meeting your father," she chuckled. He was raised in Surrey, but his mother was from Dublin. "I've been there quite a lot, though. My mums Irish," he explained. It was an amazing place, really. "But yeah, Annie goes to school in England," he explained.
Oona agreed that it was just hard to keep up, saying that Arithmancy wasn't the same as regular maths. "No, it isn't. And when I'm trying not to let my muggle friends know I'm a wizard I don't want to look like an idiot when they talk about muggle things," he reiterated. So, he tried to keep up. That wasn't the only reason, of course. He wanted to know about things, he wanted to learn. Not that it really mattered now. He wasn't going anywhere near the muggle world ever again.
She confirmed that doing the work was fun, and asked if he'd done chemistry before and about the periodic table. He nodded, "I've done some here and there. When Annie first started learning it I tried to do some of her homework with her, for myself and so she had another brain to work with," he explained.
@oona
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last online May 19, 2024 0:06:44 GMT -7
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Sept 11, 2017 18:28:12 GMT -7
Post by Deleted on Sept 11, 2017 18:28:12 GMT -7
“No,” Ethan answered her; he wasn't from Dublin, but his mother was Irish. “But yeah, Annie goes to school in England.” That answered the question of whether or not his younger sister would have the opportunity to be taught by her father, though Oona supposed that there was always the possibility that his family could move to Dublin—or that hers could move to England, not that that was too likely.
Ethan explained that the differences between the two types of mathematics became most apparent when dealing with Muggles, like when it came to maintaining that he was still perfectly “normal” and not a wizard. He talked about his Muggle friends as though he hadn't died—unusual, maybe, from her perspective but understandable nonetheless.
Chemistry, on the other hand, was something that he probably could have gotten away with not knowing, though Ethan said that he'd done some of the work that his sister had been given at school. Oona doubted that his sister's work had delved too far into the subject at that time, though, considering that it would have been a year or longer since Ethan had actually done anything Muggle-related.
Oona was sure that what she wanted to say next was going to be a strange question, which was precisely why she chose not to give that disclaimer before speaking; she didn't want to scare Ethan off. “Do your family know that you're a ghost?” It probably wasn't the sort of thing that Hogwarts could go around divulging to everyone. To his community at home, he was probably just dead, but maybe ghostliness was more closure; she couldn't say.
@ghostethan
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