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last online Mar 28, 2024 10:54:45 GMT -7
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Sept 6, 2018 9:55:46 GMT -7
Post by Deleted on Sept 6, 2018 9:55:46 GMT -7
HOGWARTS HAD NOT ALWAYS BEEN A PLACE that Elliot remembered fondly. In fact, from the age of 11 through to 16, he spent much of it riddled with horrendous anxiety. A mess of sweaty palms and rapid breaths. Nights spent laid awake, racked with night terrors. And then, he'd started writing. And then, everything had changed. So, when he walked back on campus, almost 20 and a fully fledged journalist for the Daily Prophet, he held his head up high.
While Elliot hadn't exactly been thrilled to be appointed a case as small as a Hogwarts accident, he also didn't mind the nostalgia. Plus, he was a much better version of himself. And yes, it was his ego that made it an easier pill to swallow. He was an up-and-coming journalist. While a small student injury case wasn't exactly a prize winner, he hadn't complained much. Not even when he had to interview a handful of students for 'firsthand accounts'. He'd never been very good with kids.
Finally, he was on to his last student. With the tip of his wand, he set his recorder going, a quill in hand. He was still pretentious enough to stray away from the handy 'quick quote quills'. If he missed anything, that was what the recorder was for. People seemed less suspicious when he interviewed them without them. And the less suspicious the source, the more loose they were with their words.
"Come in," Elliot called, without lifting his head from his parchment. There was a professor outside ushering the students in and out of the room. Each had willing put themselves forward but Elliot wasn't exactly impressed with the outcome. There accounts were all wildly exaggerated, he thought. Driven by adrenaline and excitement. At best, he would get an average article out of it all. He truly hated sports.
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last online Mar 27, 2024 20:28:57 GMT -7
WIZARDING ADULT
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Sept 30, 2018 20:02:29 GMT -7
Post by mina pandora oliveira on Sept 30, 2018 20:02:29 GMT -7
@elliot XX.XX.2017 News spread fast at Hogwarts, especially when it concerned the Quidditch players and the occasional mishaps that plagued them. Mina hadn’t been at today’s match; she had been more interested in hunting Moaning Myrtle down so she could terrorize the ghost into being an extra pair of ears. That had taken the majority of the morning, and while the Slytherin girl never found Myrtle, better news found her first. There was an accident during the match. She didn’t really care how different her version was from the actual thing, but she wanted to get down to the Great Hall in time to watch the injured students levitated up to the Hospital Wing. Having dirt on someone when they were hurt was the best, because she could hang it over their heads. For fun of course.
By the time Mina made it to the entrance hall though, she realized she was too late and that the injured parties were already long gone. She was obviously bummed, but that didn’t stop her from running up to the closest person and asking who it had happened too. Mumbles and shrugs put a scowl on Mina’s face as she went from person to person, not really getting anywhere the more she inquired. That was when she saw him. The newspaper guy. The one that wrote the salacious story about Sarah. He had made her seem like a vicious animal. Like being a werewolf was still something to be feared. Those weren’t his exact words obviously, but she still disliked the fact that an article was written on her sister regardless. And he was the one that had done it.
Her eyes followed him from across the entrance area and into a room off to the side, in which an already formed line was waiting. Mina let her feet do the walking and her mouth do the talking, as she quickly discovered that the reporter guy was here to talk about the accident she had been so invested in only moments ago. This was perfect! All she had to do was wait in the line until it was her turn.
And eventually it was. Quite a few times she contemplated leaving, the smell of food wafting in her direction from the Great Hall was tempting. That could wait until after she gave the guy an earful. The wave from the professor guarding the door indicated that it was finally her turn, and Mina hurried in quickly, taking a seat across the table from the man. “Hi. I’m Mina,” she introduced herself as sweetly as possible, sticking her tiny hand across the table,
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last online Mar 28, 2024 10:54:45 GMT -7
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Oct 20, 2018 13:50:10 GMT -7
Post by Deleted on Oct 20, 2018 13:50:10 GMT -7
ELLIOT DIDN'T HATE CHILDREN BUT THEY DEFINITELY did not remind him of a very pretty time in his life. The ones he interviewed were often the same. Oozing an unearned confidence, or falling over their words in an attempt to give something that would be printed. He did not have a lot of patience for the theatrics of it all, but he had a pretty good poker face, or so he thought.
The last to marched in had a small, round face and a walk that was almost militant. Her hand shooting across the table for him to shake, so small it was almost comical. Elliot couldn't help the small smile that itched the corner of his mouth as he set down his quill and sat forward, shaking her hand. "Elliot Nader of the Daily Prophet." He felt her hand flex in his grip, as if she were trying to squeeze it painfully and he almost laughed.
"So..." He said, sitting back casually and picking his quill up once again. "Why don't you tell me about the game today." He said to start off, knowing that most students preferred a soft opening, otherwise they were derailed in to stuttering fantasy.
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last online Mar 27, 2024 20:28:57 GMT -7
WIZARDING ADULT
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Nov 16, 2018 23:01:59 GMT -7
Post by mina pandora oliveira on Nov 16, 2018 23:01:59 GMT -7
@elliot XX.XX.2017 Mina’s attempt to assert dominance in her hand shake fell short – her strength not even coming close to this old guy’s normal greeting. The false smile stayed where it was on her face though, her tenacity telling her to maintain the cover as a witness as long as possible. “Pleasure to meet you,” she said with a few bats of her eyelashes. These reporter types were tricky ones, something she had decided upon after the stories of Sarah were all over the place. They always made it seem like they had first-hand accounts. Obviously that was an impossible task, because in her sister’s case, it had just been her and the boy she beat up. The expulsion had happened in private with the Headmaster and their parents. The destruction of her wand by the Ministry, also only witnessed by the parties involved. But the papers! The newspapers, magazines, and snippets plastered in Diagon Alley said otherwise. They made it seem like they knew all of the insider details. As if they were there from the very beginning. And this guy in front of her was the one that started it all.
Her attention was brought back to reality as she was asked to talk about the game. She almost laughed out loud, struggling to keep her straight-face in the process. Like she knew how the game went! Narrowing her eyes, Mina crossed her arms over her chest and leaned back in her chair. “You’ve probably heard that a hundred times already, haven’t you Mister Nader?” she asked, knowing what his answer was already. “I don’t want to waste your time, so is it okay if we only talk about the accident? I’m sure your readers would be more interested in that anyways. They don’t care about the score or anything.” Neither did she, and the less they dawdled on the boring stuff the more time she would have to get into why she was really there.
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last online Mar 28, 2024 10:54:45 GMT -7
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Dec 20, 2018 14:21:31 GMT -7
Post by Deleted on Dec 20, 2018 14:21:31 GMT -7
THOUGH ELLIOT MIGHT HAVE ADMIRED HER attempt to appear strong and confident, all he really wanted was for the entire interview process to be over and done with. This wasn't exactly his preferred choice of material to begin with. So, he stopped appreciating her tenacity the moment she began to try and manipulate charge. His lips flattened in to a thin line, sitting back in his chair as he watched her carefully.
"A few," He nodded after a second, thinking that if he played her game a little bit he might get something better than a play-by-play. "But, it's my job to try and find perspective." He rolled his quill across the back of his fingers using his thumb, shrugging one shoulder as he maintained an aloof appearance. Let her cut straight to the chase, if that's what she wanted, it would surely speed up the interview. "But, you go ahead then," He kissed his teeth and rocked slightly on his back chair legs. "Tell us what we really want to hear."
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last online Mar 27, 2024 20:28:57 GMT -7
WIZARDING ADULT
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Jan 5, 2019 11:55:50 GMT -7
Post by mina pandora oliveira on Jan 5, 2019 11:55:50 GMT -7
@elliot XX.XX.2017 Perspective. That was a funny word to her right now, because she didn’t actually know the real way the accident had happened, so her bastardized version was going to be full of flowery words and a completely fabricated backstory to make it sound like it was more vindictive than a typical spill during a Quidditch match. Elliot was giving her free reign too, so maybe he was expecting to get all the details, whether they were real or not. Merlin knew the Daily Prophet needed a few more salacious articles. It was boring as hell these days. She certainly didn’t care what the Minister’s daily morning routine was or how to properly winter proof one’s house from pixies for the colder months. She wanted drama and something exciting to get latched onto. This was her chance, assuming it was used.
“Well, I kind of know the girl that got hurt, Missy Carlisle? Not like friends or anything, but she sits in the same area I do for meals or whatever,” Mina began, looking off to the side a little as she began to weave her story from nothing. Pinning a lot of things on Callisto when growing up had helped her fabrications reach a life-like state, and it helped to know who was involved in this case. “Anyways, there’s like, a sort of grudge thing going on between her and some of the players on her team, and I’ve overheard her saying that she was worried they wouldn’t have her back in the next match. So when I saw her get hurt, it suddenly made sense that this wasn’t an accident!” Her eyes widened as she looked back at Elliot, hands out in front of her and open, as if to show the gravity of the situation. She had to be as convincing as possible, and escalating it to such a situation as this was the only way she knew how to do it. “Basically I think her teammates abandoned her and may have put like, a hit out on her or something. Jealous that she got the lead chaser spot as a fifth year.”
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last online Mar 28, 2024 10:54:45 GMT -7
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Feb 8, 2019 7:10:19 GMT -7
Post by Deleted on Feb 8, 2019 7:10:19 GMT -7
WITH ON FOOT PROPPED UP BY HIS KNEE, ELLIOT sat comfortably, but informally. She began weaving a tale with more hesitance than he'd thought she might. Like her words were coming from the very top of her head and she had very little time to vet them. But, then again, that's how children usually spoke. Unfiltered, with lots of 'um's' and 'likes'. He didn't take notes immediately, already knowing the girls name. He'd heard from a dozen supposed 'friends' of poor Missy Carlisle.
However, the moment the word 'grudge' fell from the young girls lips, Elliot fought the urge to sit forward. His appearance didn't change bar from sudden stop of his quill, which he'd been restlessly knocking against his parchment ever since she'd started speaking. He tilted his chin curiously, his eyes narrowing as he listened more closely. "So, you're saying it was an attack?" Elliot asked, his tone suspicious as he wrote a single line down on his parchment. "That's the first I've heard of that." He said plainly, looking up and searching her face for mischief. She didn't necessarily look the type, but they never did.
"A hit..." Elliot said, as if he hadn't heard her correctly. His lips quivered in to a slight smile, and he fought the urge to chuckle. Perhaps the interview wasn't as pointless as he thought after all. It was certainly turning in to a good laugh. "That's... an interesting way of putting it." He said, tongue in cheek as he pretended to write down a few lines. "Can I quote you on that?" He asked, donning a severe expression as he sat forward, putting his foot down and straightening his spine - all businesslike. He wasn't entirely convinced, but he wanted to hear more nonetheless.
"I mean, this is quite a severe accusation, Mina." He said, pursing his lips to hide his slight smirk. "I'll need to relay this information back to your head of house." This wasn't exactly necessary, unless he had proof, but he wanted to see if she would squirm. Change her story, or even amp it up. His eyes were searching, pen poised over parchment. "They could have killed that poor girl, you know?"
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last online Mar 27, 2024 20:28:57 GMT -7
WIZARDING ADULT
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Mar 4, 2019 21:46:46 GMT -7
Post by mina pandora oliveira on Mar 4, 2019 21:46:46 GMT -7
@elliot XX.XX.2017 Of course it was the first he was hearing of it. She had made it up out of the blue! Lying was her second favorite thing to do after talking, and thank Merlin they went hand in hand perfectly. In reality, she was the one that hated Missy Carlisle. The Quidditch player was a few years older than her and obnoxious, always fawning over her older brother, Dakoda. Mina wanted that attention that the annoying older girl hoarded, and it had been like that since she had gotten to school. Always being dismissed for her older siblings’ accomplishments and misgivings. Sarah’s mishap aside, Dakoda was the shining star of the Oliveira pack. Missy knew that, and it didn’t help that she was on the Hufflepuff house team with Dakoda at all. Obviously his name was going to stay out of the lie because he would never do anything awful like that. But the other players? She had said so herself already, so it had to be true.
“Yeah, a hit.” she repeated, absolutely sure that was how she had explained it. Elliot asked if he could quote her on it, and she nodded her head fervently. Today she was going to play Missy’s friend, and fight for her. Isolating the older girl from the rest of the team was the first step, and then the friends that had supposedly set the target on her back. Mina thought it was foolproof, and a Daily Prophet article wouldn’t hurt the odds of it panning out in her favor either. The other part of this was that she could fool Elliot and get back at him for his article about Sarah, even though she sort of hated her older sister too. Only she was allowed to dislike her though.
Mina continued nodding her head as Elliot explained her accusation and what he would have to do now that she had brought it up. Like she hadn’t thought of that already in the minutes before stepping into the interview. “I just want justice for her, you know? She gets along so well with my brother, and I hate seeing her get treated that way. Nobody deserves that.” The last sentence was a little more forceful, and her attempt to hide her irritation for Elliot’s article slipped through in it. Luckily it could be passed off for her fabricated story.
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last online Mar 28, 2024 10:54:45 GMT -7
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Mar 11, 2019 10:21:28 GMT -7
Post by Deleted on Mar 11, 2019 10:21:28 GMT -7
THERE WAS ZERO HESITATION IN THE YOUNG GIRL as she gave her permission to be quoted. This surprised Elliot a little, he was still somewhat convinced that she was lying, but she didn't look it. He based this off of the fact that he'd interviewed a handful of students before her and none of them had even hinted at foul play. Accidents happened in Quidditch, it was a ridiculously dangerous game for children, but it was rarely nefarious. And yet, he still wrote it down.
"Oh, so she's your brother's girlfriend?" Elliot said, a slight smirk on his face. That hadn't been what she had said, but a part of him wanted to know how she might react. "I thought you said you didn't really know her..." This, of course, could be explained away, but Elliot felt like he was missing something. "But... I admire your thirst for justice." He gave her what he hoped was an encouraging smile.
"You'll have to stay behind, I hope you don't mind." His smile grew, teeth flashing. If there was one thing he knew about his teen years, it was that he never liked being held up for tedious matters. "Just for your Head of House to have a little chat with you." He slid out his chair slightly, squaring off his pile of notes and popping the top back on his jar of ink. "Make sure you're not wasting my time." And with that, he winked at her, hesitating a moment to see if she would retract her story before he left. If not, maybe she was telling the truth. He didn't really know her.
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last online Mar 27, 2024 20:28:57 GMT -7
WIZARDING ADULT
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Apr 29, 2019 20:47:52 GMT -7
Post by mina pandora oliveira on Apr 29, 2019 20:47:52 GMT -7
@elliot XX.XX.2017 “No, not his girlfriend,” Mina corrected the reporter. How had he managed to get friend and girlfriend mixed up like that? “My brother was on the Hufflepuff team when he was in school too, so I’d see them hanging out after practices or during meals. You know, team bonding or whatever.” She enjoyed being able to back up her lies with truth – Dakoda and Missy were on the same team. Whether they were buddy-buddy with one another wasn’t something she knew, but they had team meetings during meals all the time, and that was basically what she had just told Elliot. Mina flashed a grin when he said he admired her need for justice. Right, the justice to see some trouble stirred up between the Hufflepuff girl and her ‘friends’. That was the least they could do to entertain Mina for a few days.
Elliot repeated that she would have to stay behind to talk to her head of house, and Mina nodded her head to show she understood. That would be the real test for her lie. The professors always knew more than they let on, she only knew because they seemed to figure out her plans for trouble before she acted on them. Mind-readers, the lot of them. “That’s fine. I figured they would want to know too, once they made sure she got to the hospital wing safely.” She wasn’t going to back down now, because she would be in trouble no matter what. It was either getting caught confessing she lied, being caught in her attempt to lie, or the supposed perpetrators denying their guilt. The latter would only make the professors watch them closely and maybe break the trust between Missy and her friends. The other two were par for the course with Mina, so she wasn’t too worried about either of them. “I’ll wait here then?”
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last online Mar 28, 2024 10:54:45 GMT -7
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Jul 23, 2019 14:25:23 GMT -7
Post by Deleted on Jul 23, 2019 14:25:23 GMT -7
LEAVING THE ROOM ELLIOT KNEW THAT HE HAD nothing to return with. The professors weren't terribly keen on the press, Elliot thought, but he had a sneaking suspicion. There was something about the excitement the young girl displayed. So eager to reveal her secrets and suspicions. Plus, Elliot highly doubted that there were pupils putting 'hits' on their competition. The article already felt fantastical. If he went back with a piece of fiction his professional life wouldn't be worth living.
So, rather than search for any professors, Elliot left the room and crossed the hallway, slumping against the cool stone wall with a sigh. She'd sit there, he reckoned, pleased as punch. And while she did, Elliot twirled his wand in one hand and thought about how he might catch her out. He couldn't be certain she was lying, but it was too fantastical for his rational brain. And maybe, just maybe, a very petty part of him wanted to call the student out. He'd like that part of being at Hogwarts. When he'd worked for the student newspaper and his entire social life was spent gathering dirt and airing it on the pages. He was better than that now. Or, was he?
After a good fifteen minutes - Elliot kept a keen eye on his watch - he pushed off of the wall and straightened his shirt and tie. It was time to don his best poker face and reenter the room. She was, after all, his last 'witness' for the day. He might as well have fun for it. "Yes, okay, Professor!" Elliot made a show of raising his voice, speaking to the empty hallway with his hand turning the heavy brass doorknob. "I'll pass on the message myself and send her your way." Elliot made a show of puttering out his voice as he opened the door, slipping through the gap and closing it softly behind him.
"Hey... Miss...?" Elliot clicked his finger and screwed his face as if he were struggling to recall the young students name. "Mona right?" He said after a minute, fully aware that her name was Mina. He crossed the room and reclaimed his seat opposite her, his expression sober as he pulled the chair in and steepled his fingers in front of him.
"So..." He began, pursing his lips and staring at her with narrowed eyes. "Missy Carlisle is awake." He smiled at her, allowing a beat of silence for that simple little nugget of misinformation to sink in. She wouldn't know any better. "It seems you might have been..." He unclasped his hands and gestured with them casually as he considered his next words. "Lying?" He offered, his brows lifting, the corners of his mouth threatening to lift.
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last online Mar 27, 2024 20:28:57 GMT -7
WIZARDING ADULT
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Aug 4, 2019 10:46:52 GMT -7
Post by mina pandora oliveira on Aug 4, 2019 10:46:52 GMT -7
@elliot XX.XX.2017 Mina sort of hated being made to wait. There had been a lot of that lately. ‘Wait here while I go get the headmaster’ or ‘I’ll need you to wait while your parents arrive for our meeting’ or literally anything else in between those two. There was always a lot of waiting and it got so boring, sitting around in an empty room on her lonesome, twiddling her thumbs for an almost endless amount of time. She knew she would have to come up with some way to pass the time one of these days, because the meetings probably weren’t going to stop any time soon. As far as the school was concerned, this was just the start of them. Today’s time passer was spinning her wand around on the table, since that was literally all she could do with it. Apparently there was an infinite amount of fun spells that could be cast to kill time, but she hadn’t really bothered to pay attention to any of them over the last three years. That was all on her though. However many minutes later, she heard Elliot’s voice loudly from the other side of the door, and how he would send her in some professor’s direction after he was finished with the interview. She quickly stuffed her wand back in her robe pocket and slid herself back into a more proper sitting position, having slouched further and further down into it as the minutes dragged on. “Mina,” she corrected Elliot cheerfully as their game seemed to be continuing. She feigned surprise as he said Missy had regained consciousness, and that apparently she was lying about everything she had just recounted to him. Duh. Of course she was lying. But she didn’t know if he knew that, or if the professor he had talked to outside knew that, or if this was a bluff because she had tried to oversell the whole thing. Biting down on her lower lip, she furrowed her brows and gave the best convincing head turn that she could, “I can’t be lying, that’s what I’ve heard her say before...” she trailed off, trying to kick her brain into gear to see where she could take her lie next. “But if they want to talk to me about it, I will. Which professor was it that wanted to see me? I’ll head over there right now.” With the double-down, she stood up from her chair and headed towards the door. “I hope you’ll grill Missy as much as you did with me, you’ll see I’m telling the truth.”[END?]
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