Diamonds In The Sky [Ezekiel]

[Deleted]

Celeste was a southern girl in the very depths of her soul. She hated the cold and she flourished when the sun was out and temperatures were high. These were all things that were true. However, she adored the snow. It made such pretty pictures. So when she woke up to news that it’d snowed at Hogwarts she’d pulled out her camera and bundled herself up as much as she could while making sure she was able to move freely, all in the name of capturing the beauty of the fresh laid snow. Even while she had been at Ilvermorny she still managed to get up after it had snowed up in the mountains which would gift her with excellent shots. Now that she was at Hogwarts, she wanted to see if she could get some there, something memorable and unforgettable. She had always loved photography so she owned a pretty decent camera that would allow her to capture the shots that she needed. With it wrapped hanging around her neck, she made the journey from the towers to the outside area near the Black Lake, a place she’d already taken decent shots so she figured she’d get even better ones with the snow around. The chill bit at her eyes, her nose and cheeks burning with the whip of the wind. She heaved a sigh and watched her foggy breath move away from her, hoping that it wouldn’t take her long to get a few good shots. That was all she needed, just a few, because she would not stand outside any longer than it would take to get those shots. With that thought in mind, she pulled up her camera and began snapping a few pictures of the lake.

Tag: @ezekiel

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Georgia didn't always get snow, but, when it did, everyone always seemed to treat it like the world was going to end right then and there. As a kid, though, it had been pretty fun; who didn't want a day off from school? At Ilvermorny, and now at Hogwarts, that wasn't really the case. Snow was to be expected, and it was apparently something of a constant during the winter months.

That didn't mean, however, that it wasn't exciting to find out that the school had awoken to snow blanketing the grounds. Even though it was early, Zeke hadn't minded being woken up by the commotion. He, too, got ready quickly, pulling on layer upon layer over his usual clothing and heading outside to see the snow for himself.

The morning sunshine reflected off of the snow at Zeke's feet, already accumulated enough that it crunched a little as he walked on it. It was something else, and he had liked the snow at Ilvermorny, too. There was something so blissful about it, with the slight exception of the snowball fight that someone would probably start sooner or later.

Zeke kept walking until he had almost reached the lake, which had surely frozen over. He would leave the skating to somebody else, he thought; he really didn't want to test out whether or not the giant squid that supposedly lurked there was just a legend. Fortunately not on the ice but near enough to the lake to get a good snapshot of it, Zeke saw a younger girl whom he recognized from Ilvermorny. She, too, was braving the cold but had her camera out and was photographing the lake.

"It's great, isn't it?" he asked, looking out at the lake and rubbing his gloved hands together. "I know my family would love to see this."

@celeste

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It felt just like she was back at Ilvermorny, and that was equally comforting and frustrating. Comforting because, even though she enjoyed being at Hogwarts, she did miss her school and being up in the mountains. It was frustrating because it was bone-achingly cold. She kept having to pause in photography process to move around enough so that her body wouldn’t stiffen up. Laying on the ground to get a certain angle was interesting as well; she was so bundled up that she was always slightly elevated off of the ground when she tried to take her photos, causing her to have to hold her arms up just a bit higher until they began to ache. So be it, she was already suffering, a little more wouldn’t matter. At least not at the moment anyway.

She laid down in the snow once more, took a deep breath, and held her arms up attempting to capture a shot from just the right angle, the sound of someone’s voice broke through, though her concentration wasn’t interrupted. There was no accent, or at least not a British one, so she assumed that whoever it was had come from Ilvermorny like her. ”It’s definitely beautiful, but I could definitely live without the cold,” she commented distractedly, her eye still trained through the viewfinder of her camera. She held her breath for just a moment to minimize the movement of the camera before she snapped the photo. Her arms fell to her sides immediately and she pulled her camera close to her chest before she stood up and looked at who had spoken to her.

The boy standing near her didn’t immediately look familiar to her; maybe she had seen him once or twice around Ilvermorny? She wasn’t sure but she smiled. ”Can’t say my family would like it much though.” Baton Rouge had a habit of shutting down any time even a little bit of snow stuck to the ground. Her mom hated the cold. Her dad didn’t care much either way. ”Where are you from?”

Tag: @ezekiel

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The girl, who was lying down in the snow with her arms raised, answered him. "It’s definitely beautiful," she said, "but I could definitely live without the cold." Yeah, Zeke thought to himself, it was pretty cold out. That hadn't affected the girl's focus, however, and Zeke heard the click of her camera before she got up to her feet again.

After she stood, she smiled at him and said that she couldn't say that her family would have liked it. His own family probably wouldn't have liked to see that kind of snow at home, he had to agree; the bread, milk, and eggs would have been long gone from every store's shelves.

"Where are you from?" she asked him.

"I'm from Atlanta," he told her, glad that he probably didn't have to explain where that was. "You?"

@celeste

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She turned and set up her camera to take another shot of the lake while he answered her question about his origins. She couldn’t say she had ever been to Atlanta herself, never having a reason to, but it was considered the south. She imagined he probably had similar experiences with snow; she didn’t think Georgia saw a lot of it. Her eye focused through the viewfinder again, she snapped a quick picture, distracted this time by him returning the question on to her. The click of the shutter came and she instinctively knew that picture wouldn’t be a good one. ”Louisiana. Baton Rouge actually,” she replied easily before pausing and turning back to him ”It’s an hour outside of New Orleans.” She always felt the need to explain that, where Baton Rouge was compared to New Orleans. People seemed to only care about the livelier city and it bothered her a little more than it should. She loved her city.

Rocky moved away from him for just a moment, crunching her feet through the fresh snow to trail footprints away from the lake, attempting to make the shot more interesting. When she got close to him again she lifted her camera up to attempt another shot. ”Do you like taking pictures?” She focused and held her breath, capturing the scene she’d created, then turned to him, eye still looking through the viewfinder, before she snapped a quick photo. She figured the first one might be a little shaky too but she wasn’t taking any serious ones anymore. She also figured that he must have approached her because maybe he did like photography. That or he was curious as to what she was doing. ”What house were you in at Ilvermorny?” The second question was an afterthought, one to clear up any question in her head on if she should recognize him.

Tag: @ezekiel

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The girl answered him by saying that she was from Louisiana—Baton Rouge, actually. "It’s an hour outside of New Orleans," she added.

There was a really famous No-Maj song that started out by mentioning Baton Rouge; of course he'd heard of it. Though he didn't know if the girl would understand the reference, the tune would be playing in his head for the rest of the day. "It's the capital of Louisiana, right?" he asked her. "You probably get some good food down there," he smiled, "jambalaya, gumbo…" It made him miss home. There was something about Southern food in general, really; the stuff they were served at Hogwarts couldn't compare.

She asked if he liked taking pictures as she continued to take some more of her own.

"Yeah, I mean… I'm not any good at it," Zeke laughed, "but it's fun." It was easier with a camera on a smartphone, though, he had to admit. He couldn't remember ever having used a film camera besides some of those cool instant ones. "You should join the newspaper here," he suggested to the girl. "I think they have some photographers." Zeke hadn't heard anything about a photography-specific club at Hogwarts, though there were probably enough people who would have been interested in that kind of a thing to start one up.

The girl then asked what House he had been in at Ilvermorny.

"I was in Pukwudgie," he told her. "It's weird that I'm spending my last year of school as a Hufflepuff," he admitted, "but most of my friends ended up in Hufflepuff with me. The Sorting Hat couldn't've done better if it had planned it." Really, they were some of the lucky ones. He knew of a number of people who had been disappointed by the Sorting Ceremony because the hat had separated them from their friends or family members.

"You?" he asked the girl, quickly backtracking when he realized that he hadn't even introduced himself. "Oh, I'm Zeke, by the way."

@celeste

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She nodded in his answer to the question he posed about Baton Rouge being the capital of Louisiana; she had to give him props because most people didn’t even know that much. People still thought New Orleans was the capital. At the mention of food, however, she winced, her stomach aching. She missed it so much. She would literally kill for some shrimp etouffee! Both her mother and father were great cooks but they didn’t want to send any of their cooking to her. It was probably too much for the family owl to take anyway. They also had a philosophy about enjoying food freshly cooked rather, one that she used to agree with wholeheartedly but now she wished she could take it back just to enjoy some of their home cooking. ”All of that and so much more,” she said on a sigh before snapping another photo of the snowy area. ”British specific food is just not cutting it when I know all of the stuff I could be enjoying.” Even Ilvermorny didn’t cut it at times when she had serious cravings like she was now.

”I am already on the newspaper actually,” she responded at his mention of the newspaper, ”I’m a writer instead of a photographer though. It’s what I want to do for a living so the school newspaper is good practice. This is just for fun.” Not to mention it gave her future employer examples of her writing when she left school. She had been on the paper at Ilvermorny too but not many people paid attention to the younger writers and older students stories were usually favored though she had gotten a few published. Photography was a close second on something she would want to do for a living just because she enjoyed it but writing was her first love.

Pukwudgie, she had to admit, was one house she didn’t know a lot of people from just because she didn’t have many friends who were in that house when she was at Ilvermorny. The few people she’d been close to had been in Horned Serpent or Wampus and even though she shared classes with Pukwudgie students she’d never really connected with anyone from there. ”That’s unfortunate, in my opinion, the fact that you have to spend your last year in school at a school you’re not used to. It’s good that you have other friends here with you though in the same house.” She did have friends here at well but she was trying to make new ones at well. She’d gone on a ‘blind date’, one she didn’t actually refer to as a blind date rather than a source meeting, and she’d gotten to know one of the Windsor siblings. She’d also felt like an idiot once she’d realized he was Windsor but he’d been nice enough and she’d been able to grill for information on Hogwarts as well as being able to see the Daily Prophet. It was one of her favorite newspapers after all; she’d practically demanded it. ”I’m Rocky and I was in Horned Serpent at Ilvermorny but now I’m in Gryffindor.” She pulled her face away from the viewfinder of the camera and held her hand out for him to shake. ”So did you come out to play in the snow, or what?” Her voice was light with amusement; he was distracting her from the cold just enough so that she wouldn’t feel it so she welcomed the conversation.

Tag: @ezekiel

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The girl seemed to miss the food from back home, too, and mentioned how so much of the food that they had in Britain just didn't "cut it" in comparison.

"Yeah," Zeke agreed with a nod. "Don't get me wrong, the food here is edible," he laughed, "but I don't think it would kill anyone to, y'know, spice the food or something every once in a while." Salt and pepper, in other words, didn't count.

When he brought up that he thought that the girl should join the school newspaper, she said that she was already on it—albeit as a writer and not as a photographer. "It's what I want to do for a living," she explained to him, "the school newspaper is good practice. This is just for fun."

"Cool, cool," Zeke nodded. If getting into Auror training didn't work out, he wasn't sure what his back-up plan would be. Writing, considering that his mother was an English teacher, probably wouldn't be a bad option, though he guessed that he would probably apply for something else within MACUSA. He still had time to figure things out, luckily, so it didn't worry him.

The girl expressed how unfortunate she found it that he was having to spend his last year of school at a school that was unfamiliar to him. There were times when it had sucked, for sure, and Zeke guessed that it would really start to hit him in the next semester. Hogwarts was an interesting place, though he was lucky to have his old friend group with him through the adventure.

Introducing herself as Rocky, the younger girl said that she had been in Horned Serpent and that she was now in Gryffindor. She moved her camera momentarily for a handshake, which Zeke reciprocated. "Nice to meet you."

"So did you come out to play in the snow, or what?"

"Admire it, I guess?" he chuckled, rubbing the back of his neck. "I mean, it's pretty cold out here," he grinned, "but it's also kinda like being a kid in a candy store."

@celeste

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The young Gryffindor had been seconds away from snapping another picture of the scenery, taking in the words he spoke about the food they were provided with. It took her a few seconds to process the words he’d said; they broke her focus completely and she had to stop herself from bursting out in laughter. Instead she covered her mouth to hide it, her eyes watering from the amusement that bubbled up in her, and she pulled the camera away from her face to look him fully in the face. ”You said it, not me.” Her voice was muffled a bit by her hand but she was sure what she said had gotten across well enough. It was nice to know she wasn’t the only one to think so. It was why she missed home cooking so much; she wanted something with some spice in it and she wasn’t getting it consistently enough there, if at all.

His reply to her mentioning being on the newspaper was one of understanding, a confirmation that he’d heard what she said, and she felt the need to further explain. ”I was already on the newspaper at Ilvermorny too so it just made sense to join the one here. Find my people and all that.” She still felt pushed to the back, here especially considering she was only expecting to be there for the year. That couple with her age, how was she supposed to get a story published here? It wasn’t that big of a deal. At least that’s what she tried to tell herself, even when she got angry about it during pitch meetings. There was nothing quite like being stuck between the ‘child throwing the temper tantrum’ and ‘the angry black girl’.

Her eye was trained back through the camera right away; as she listened to his reasoning she snapped a few pictures, slowing circling the camera until she got him in the shot once again. ”Sure. It’s pretty and it’s cold out here.” She was momentarily distracted, looking back and forth between him and the view of the lake, him, and then the view of the castle hanging over them. ”Stand over there, please.” She was setting up a decent shot, moving herself out of the way of the lake so that he could stand there. And even though she had added a please to her request, she stood there expectantly waiting for him to stand where she need him to get the shot. ”What about you? Any clubs you’ve joined? Since it’s your last year you’ve also gotta be thinkin’ about what you want to do after this.”

Tag: @ezekiel

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"You said it, not me," commented the younger girl, who was clearly trying to keep from laughing so hard. Zeke was sure that not all of the food in Britain was so bland—and, okay, not all of Hogwarts' food was terrible; the desserts were pretty good—but he had yet to find it.

The girl explained that she had been on the staff of Ilvermorny's student newspaper, too, so it had only made sense for her to join the newspaper at Hogwarts. "Find my people and all that," she said.

Zeke understood, though he hadn't really joined any of the clubs at Hogwarts for himself. The girl, Rocky, went back to snapping photos of the snow. "Sure. It’s pretty and it’s cold out here," she said, and then she kept looking between the viewfinder and him.

Realizing that he must have been in her shot at about the same time as she directed him out of the way, Zeke stepped to where he was directed, trying not to disturb the snow at his feet too much, in case Rocky wanted more photos of where he was now standing. "I got you," he said.

Although he expected for Rocky to go right back into her photography, she asked him if he had joined any clubs. "Since it’s your last year you’ve also gotta be thinkin’ about what you want to do after this," she added.

"Clubs? Nah," Zeke answered her, shrugging. "I mean, there's—what?—the Black Students' Union and stuff, but I haven't been to any of their meetings or anything. I haven't seen any clubs for future Aurors or anything like that," though he guessed that it would be either very helpful or very competitive to be among other students who were trying to get into a notoriously difficult career. "I'd probably join if there is one, though."

@celeste