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last online Apr 18, 2024 3:45:06 GMT -7
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Sept 13, 2017 18:45:53 GMT -7
Post by Deleted on Sept 13, 2017 18:45:53 GMT -7
With due dates looming ever closer and school seeming to rush past him, Phil was beginning to feel like he would never have enough time to write his 6 essays that were due next week. Even so, he hunched over his parchment, quill scratching furiously, trying to make up for seemingly lost time. In his frenzy, his mind wandered. To Andy, to the greenhouse where his little echo flower was beginning to bloom, to Brazil, to Andy, and strangely to his housemate entering the common room. Grey and he had shared a dorm since they arrived as 1st years so it wasn't as if he didn't know the Gryffindor. But the two never found themselves "hanging out" with each other. Phil wasn't sure why... actually, it was probably because during the day the young man was almost entirely unapproachable. Night seemed to be the best time to get to know Grey, but Phil really, really liked sleeping. Something Grey seemed to spurn. The two weren't opposite... just on opposite schedules, and seemed to be enough to keep them from becoming close.
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grey xavier slater
HOGWARTS ALUM DAILY PROPHET QUIDDITCH REPORTER
693 posts
played by Colin
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last online Apr 16, 2024 20:29:40 GMT -7
WIZARDING ADULT
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Sept 13, 2017 21:16:56 GMT -7
Post by grey xavier slater on Sept 13, 2017 21:16:56 GMT -7
@philiplongbottom Clearly the professors were all plagued with the same disease: the one where they decided to collectively assign essays and final work at the same time. Grey had always thought that was done to the younger students because it was a great way to force them to learn how to multitask and get their work done at the same time. He was clearly wrong, because the professors were still doing it six years later, and he was tired of it by this point. Everything was exhausting. Which was strange to say, because most things were livelier now. That wasn’t to say that his newfound relationship with Cecelia was tiring. If anything, overcoming all of that and figuring out what he wanted had been a weight off of his shoulders. The kind that should have allowed him to focus. Except it hadn’t, and now he didn’t want to do any of his work. Senioritis was what it was. School was practically done, and while the N.E.W.Ts did matter for his destined career as an Auror, he was pretty sure he knew the right people that would get him in regardless. And then there was always the alternative job as a journalist at the Daily Prophet. Claire would call him lazy if he didn’t follow through with the Auror training though. Plus his attempts at becoming an animagus would be in vain if he simply gave up on being law enforcement. While writing did sound more enticing, helping other witches and wizards out sounded nice. He was sure that would change once he got into it for real.
The common room was exceptionally quiet this evening, and whilst there were a few souls lying about or doing work, none of them were actually interacting with each other. That was kind of the harsh, sad truth of Gryffindor once exams rolled around. Everyone actually tried to buckle down and do work, even if they disliked it. At least they were still smarter than a lot of the Hufflepuffs. His few badger friends left much to be desired. That was putting it nicely. Some excelled of course, but not too many of them stood out. Meanwhile Gryffindor had a cast of wonderful characters. No one could deny that. It looked like none of them were around tonight though, and if they were somewhere in the common room, they probably had their nose buried between the pages of a book or their eyes trained harshly on a piece of parchment. Which was funny, because as Grey took a seat in one of the chairs, he spotted Phil sitting right across from him doing just that. Grey couldn’t even recall the last time he had actually had a lengthy conversation with his roommate. Fourth year? Maybe fifth? The trip that Phil had gone on sounded fun, though Grey was having a hard time remembering where it was exactly, and what Phil had planned to do while there. Those were the little details that were lost when they weren’t communicating.
“You’re working ever so diligently over there Phil,” Grey commented as he pulled his own book out and flipped over to the page that he had last left off on. Glancing over the top of the book, Grey noted that his roommate was working on an essay, a few different subjects worth of material spread about. “Those the papers due next week?”
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last online Apr 18, 2024 3:45:06 GMT -7
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Sept 25, 2017 7:21:56 GMT -7
Post by Deleted on Sept 25, 2017 7:21:56 GMT -7
Phil wasn't avoiding his classmate, but that didn't mean he wanted to have a conversation with him either. It wasn't that he was against talking with him, it was mostly his stress over getting these papers done. And his usual humor was lacking, probably due to not sleeping well the night before. He had some weird dream he couldn't remember, but he did remember the feeling. He closed his eyes to clear his mind of that thought quickly. Phil glanced up at Grey, noting his open book. "Yeah, just like everything else. What about you? Finishing up an assignment?" He asked conversationally. Yes, he didn't really want to have a conversation, but he wasn't going to be rude. Besides, it would be better to talk than drown in his work. His eyes wandered to his paper and he let out a short sigh. He had just written the same sentence twice. Maybe he needed more of a break than he realized.
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grey xavier slater
HOGWARTS ALUM DAILY PROPHET QUIDDITCH REPORTER
693 posts
played by Colin
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last online Apr 16, 2024 20:29:40 GMT -7
WIZARDING ADULT
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Sept 25, 2017 20:55:28 GMT -7
Post by grey xavier slater on Sept 25, 2017 20:55:28 GMT -7
@philiplongbottom Grey internally groaned at the thought of every assignment being due the following week. He knew that already. And he had also just forgotten about it completely for a second. If he had planned to do his work, he wouldn’t have been trying to start a conversation with Phil. Then they would have graduated without ever saying more than a few words to each other each year. How interesting that would have been…the more he thought about it, the more he realized that was actually the majority of Gryffindor with him. There were the odd exceptions of course; Cecelia, Lily, and Finn when he was still a student. Aside from them though? No one else. That was his own fault though, and worrying about what others thought of him now was silly. Nor did he really care at the end of the day. He wasn’t there to please everyone.
At Phil’s question, Grey flipped his book over so that he could read the cover again. “Bit of light reading?” The book had nothing to do with classes, which was funny considering he had just been antagonizing over studying. “Figured I’d get things done over the weekend. Or right before they’re due.” The panic and stress was his fuel. He could blame that on the newspaper. Hammering out articles and last minute corrections at hard deadlines had made him the perfect procrastinator. It was kind of scary how good he had become at rattling out a paper the night before or the morning it was due, and still manage to get decent grades. He wouldn’t be in N.E.W.T level classes if he did poorly. Potions was the only exception. “I’m tired of it all at this point. If we don’t know the material, learning it now won’t really achieve anything. And who says we’ll be applying any of this stuff to a job?”
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last online Apr 18, 2024 3:45:06 GMT -7
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Oct 3, 2017 14:46:10 GMT -7
Post by Deleted on Oct 3, 2017 14:46:10 GMT -7
Phil laughed quietly at the content of the book Grey was reading. It wasn't a funny book, and he hadn't read it before, but it definitely wasn't a book for class. He admired Grey for having the guts to read something else. Honestly, Phil never read anything for fun during the school year. During the summer he read, but during the school year? Only if it would help him in his classes. "More power to you." he commented. [/b]"If I didn't shut down with stress when I waited til the last minute, I'd be right there with you."[/b] It wasn't that he really wanted to do his essay's, but he had tried waiting til the last minute. And that had not worked out for his grades or his mind. He had never really had an anxiety attack, but he imagined if he multiplied what he felt that day by twenty it would be something like that. "I can see how I would apply some stuff to my work... but History of Magic? There is no way I need to know why Helga poisoned a muggle town's cows. Seriously? What does that have to do with anything?" He shook his head and chuckled. The net of education was spread much to far in his opinion. "But I know how you feel. Tired. Between Homework, Andy, and catching up from my exchange trip I could sleep for a week."[/div][/div]
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grey xavier slater
HOGWARTS ALUM DAILY PROPHET QUIDDITCH REPORTER
693 posts
played by Colin
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last online Apr 16, 2024 20:29:40 GMT -7
WIZARDING ADULT
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Oct 14, 2017 19:18:47 GMT -7
Post by grey xavier slater on Oct 14, 2017 19:18:47 GMT -7
@philiplongbottom Apparently reading his book was funny. Grey could see that. There weren’t a lot of times where one could find a free hour or two to kill. Especially not as a seventh year. Those days of not having a care in the world were long gone by now. It was time to get down to business. Either that or fail miserably on exams and then life. At least that was what the professors made it out to be. He was pretty sure that while the N.E.W.Ts were important in the long run, there were plenty of other skills and concepts that had been learned over the last seven years that were far more important to a real job than the result of a paper test was. To add to that, almost every job put new employees through training; if a potential hire didn’t figure it out by that point, then it just wasn’t meant to be. That was how the working world went. Sometimes it scared him to think like that, but he had watched classmates and his sister go through the exact same thing over the last few years, and they all came back with similar comments on it. Luckily for him, being an auror these days was far easier to accomplish than it used to be, and his fall back was the Daily Prophet. Former editor-in-chiefs for the Hogwarts paper always had a decent track record with getting a job at the wizarding news organization.
“I guess we’re all different, even if we have a similar end goal,” he shrugged, setting his book down on his lap. “I get to blame working on the newspaper for most of my work getting done last minute. After these tests though, we won’t have any more, so there’s that.” Grey figured that was a good outlook to have. Once school was done, then all they had to do was get a big kid job. Easier said than done. He joined in with the chuckle about History of Magic. Phil was right. There were still classes that were a waste. Fun, but not anything super integral to their overall understanding of a job. “There are potions for that you know,” he suggested. “But it gets pretty easy when you have someone to share the pain of getting work done.” In the past, holing himself up in a corner of the library and falling asleep was the eventual outcome. Not with Cecelia around though. He felt obligated to do work when she was studying with him. He was pretty sure faking it wouldn’t cut it either, so lately there had been a lot of cramming of lessons and concepts.
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last online Apr 18, 2024 3:45:06 GMT -7
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Oct 19, 2017 20:00:17 GMT -7
Post by Deleted on Oct 19, 2017 20:00:17 GMT -7
A world where paper tests were a thing of the past. It was only a few weeks away. Just out of sight. He couldn't wait for it to get here, but also knew that once it was here, once he was graduated, everything would be different. "yeah, then we will be getting a job done at the last minute. At least it will be jobs we choose. Relevancy in work seems to keep me motivated to stay on top of it. He brushed some drying sand off of his paper. the future was so close, but so much of it uncertain. He could almost taste the anticipation around him. He wanted to get out into the real world and prove his worth. And who better to do that with then Andy? "Share the pain. I like that. it is easier to share it. I always feel more motivated when I am working with my girlfriend." He smiled at his thoughts of Andy and he bent over papers together. The light shining in a small circle around them, darkness lurking just outside. What an excellent metaphor.
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grey xavier slater
HOGWARTS ALUM DAILY PROPHET QUIDDITCH REPORTER
693 posts
played by Colin
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last online Apr 16, 2024 20:29:40 GMT -7
WIZARDING ADULT
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Oct 29, 2017 20:08:01 GMT -7
Post by grey xavier slater on Oct 29, 2017 20:08:01 GMT -7
@philiplongbottom Grey let out a small laugh at the idea of doing a real, paying job at the last minute. It all depended on what it was that they would be doing, he supposed. Going into auror training meant that he would have to be vigilant about a lot of things. For one, he already started that. The process of becoming an animagus, while lengthy, was the sort of dedication that he would need once the school paper was no longer his. Being editor-in-chief for the last few years had taken up so much time – he would miss it. The simple solution there would have been to join the Daily Prophet. That was too easy though. He wanted the challenge of doing something he had never done before, which was very Gryffindor of him, considering the fact that he had never fit into that mold before. “Choosing does make it easier. Lets us finally do what we want for once.”
He had a feeling Phil would like the concept of ‘sharing the pain’. Grey had always seen his roommate as sort of hopeless romantic, even if that wasn’t what he was about. Then again, he wasn’t sure what any of his roommates were about anymore, since that bridge of communication was rarely crossed. That was his own fault though. “Same,” Grey responded, not really sure if Phil even knew about him and Cecelia. It had been going on long enough, and it wasn’t like they were hiding in abandoned classrooms. Those were the kinds of things he didn’t understand when it came to dealing with other people. Was there a mutual sense of understanding, or did words need to be used to explicitly state the obvious? Phil was smart though, so he was sure the other boy already knew, and if not, would figure it out in no time.
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