Space Exploration Disaster [Sarah & Rhys]

[eleanor gwendolen ollivander]

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September 10, 2016

"Ollivander! Oliveira!" The professor's voice cut through the Potions classroom right as the shared cauldron clattered onto the cobbled stone floor, the hot pink liquid splashing all over the neighbor's pant legs. Instantaneously, the material on the pants dissolved and the newly exposed skin turned forest green. They had already been warned multiple times that this potion was dangerous, something not to be trifled with, and had been asked once to move their cauldron further from the edge of the table. Despite doing so, the violent bubbling of their joint potion experiment had rocked it off and onto the ground, spilling everywhere. Nell looked on in horror as her classmate was quickly rushed off by the professor, a warning sent to her and Sarah that they were to stay behind in the classroom until everything was sorted at the Hospital Wing. The half an hour of panic that followed was not fun, to put it kindly. The end result? Both of them now had detention on Saturday, at the herbology greenhouses. She just hoped a letter wouldn't be sent home to her parents, if that was how this detention thing worked.

"They won't send a letter home, will they? I've never had a detention before..." she said to Sarah for what had to be the tenth time that morning, as they stood outside of the greenhouses with a set of brooms and matching dustpans. The herbology had already taken their wands so they couldn't cheat by using magic, and for the first time ever, Nell was wishing she'd brought one of her test wands along with her. They were finally at the point where they didn't explode when casting simple charms, the various trials of mixing cores and woods that her family didn't normally use in their work. Veronica had shot daggers through her over the summer when she tried asking questions regarding this. Her sister was of the opinion that the Ollivander way was the only way. Nell thought otherwise. "I really hope they don't send a letter home..." she said again as she leaned onto her broom. Apparently they were waiting for one more unfortunate soul to arrive, and then they had the day to clean all seven greenhouses. Perfect way to lose a Saturday at the start of the term.

sarah jane oliveira & rhys alexander greyback ● 383 ● Song by Artist

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[sarah jane oliveira]

September 10, 2016

Leave it to Nell Ollivander to be such a swot as to worry about getting an owl home from Hogwarts about one measly detention. Sarah had lost count of how many she had, and she knew that her parents hadn't been notified every time. If they had, they would have sent her a few Howlers by that point. Besides, sweeping the Herbology greenhouses wasn't much of a punishment, really. There were dead leaves and maybe some twigs, sure, but it was all meant to be dirty regardless.

Remaining nonchalant about the circumstances in which they had found themselves thanks to what had happened in Potions, Sarah wished she could have slipped Nell some Calming Draught to keep her from carrying on. No one was going to chop off her fingers or anything, and she rolled her eyes as she looked at the greenhouse in front of them, knowing it would be easiest to begin by going in numerical order.

"I really hope they don't send a letter home…"

"Oh, for Merlin's sake! Will you shut up, Nell?" Sarah groaned, gripping the handle of her dustpan. "You can stop whinging. No one's going to care," she emphasized. Not even the other student who'd been on the receiving end of their mishap was going to care in the long run. Worse accidents happened at Hogwarts daily. Whoever else was supposed to be there with them needed to show up already, if only so that she could be rescued from having to listen to Nell fret over nothing.

rhys alexander greyback
eleanor gwendolen ollivander

[rhys alexander greyback]

If I had seen my reflection

As something more precious

September 10, 2016
eleanor gwendolen ollivander
sarah jane oliveira

Rhys’ head still hurt a bit. The nurse had given him that look and not even asked what he had done to land himself in the Hospital Wing again. Unfortunately, while Rhys was taller than the previous year, he still could hardly have a fair fight with three seventh-year boys where two played Quidditch. The other was just bigger than him. The whole ordeal had left him in a foul mood, and he’d missed Potions as well. The class wasn’t difficult for him, but it wasn’t as interesting as some other NEWT-level classes. Still, now he was behind on a Potions assignment, and skipping dinner the night before had not helped his mood at all as well.

As a result of the fight, which technically Rhys had started, he had detention. Which was to nobody’s surprise. They’d taunted and pushed his buttons until he’d snapped, and they walked away without punishment. The Professor had taken his wand, and he approached the greenhouses where Rhys heard someone yell before he even approached. The voice sounded like Sarah’s, and he wasn’t surprised to hear it at detention, but his only shock was that she’d gotten here before him. Throughout the past five, going on six, years at Hogwarts, the two had received detention more times than they could count. Remarks and jokes about werewolves and Fenrir Greyback would cause one or the other (sometimes both) to react, and there they would be polishing trophies and plaques or cleaning the cauldrons for the Potions Master yet again.

Turning the corner, he grumbled. The Professor had taken his wand since forced child labor apparently built character. But, they were not alone. One more figure looked nervous about being there, and Rhys knew why. ”Nell?” He wondered if he had heard the instruction correctly for a moment. Why was Nell in detention? She didn’t get detention. Rhys had avoided his friends since that fight. So he didn’t know what had happened for all of them to be there at that moment. ”What are you doing here?” Rhys asked curiously. Eleanor Ollivander didn’t get detention. His blue eyes landed on Nell and then on Sarah, who looked more annoyed than usual, and then he looked back at Nell.

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[eleanor gwendolen ollivander]

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Nervously chewing on her thumbnail was the only correct thing to be doing in the presence of Sarah, especially when it was just the two of them. Despite being roommates for their six years at Hogwarts, Sarah scared her. A lot. Even though she was taller than the other girl, Nell knew her scrawny frame could be snapped in half by the Oliveira girl if she wished. The only thing impressive Nell had to show were the woodworking callouses on her hands. But no one wanted to see those, and they'd do nothing for her in a physical altercation with Sarah.

Being forced to partner up in Potions was tolerable, and she hadn't minded it at first. Now she hated that such a situation had ever occurred. Rhys was usually her Potions partner, but he'd been absent from class. And that was how they'd ended up here, with Sarah finally having enough of the repetitious whining Nell was still doing. "You don't understand. While no one cares that you get them anymore, my parents are going to freak. I have a repu-" She wanted to say that she had a reputation to uphold as an Ollivander. Her parents were already disappointed in Frankie, even though that wasn't his fault, and trying to maintain the same caliber that Veronica laid out was difficult enough. Getting a detention meant having a smudge on her record. Minuscule, sure, yet still a mark.

The reason her complaint was stopped mid-sentence was because their third parolee had arrived. Of course it was Rhys. She probably should have seen that coming. Instead of responding to him, she pulled her terribly chewed thumbnail out of her mouth and shot a quick look at Sarah before back down at her friend. Hopefully he'd understand what that meant. That her being here was Sarah's fault, because why wouldn't it be? Saying that out loud wouldn't go over well though. She dreaded what her dorm mate would do to her if she caused too much of a kerfuffle.

sarah jane oliveira & rhys alexander greyback ● 338 ● Song by Artist

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[sarah jane oliveira]

September 10, 2016

"You don't understand. While no one cares that you get them anymore, my parents are going to freak. I have a repu—"

"Nell?"

Sarah turned immediately when she heard Rhys's voice, grateful that she didn't have to listen to a lecture from Miss Perfect about her so-called "reputation". So Rhys was the other student who had ended up in detention with them! While Sarah figured that she probably could have guessed as much, she was relieved that she wouldn't be stuck with some first-year who would be sniveling the entire time about how unfair it was to have to be in detention when Gobstones—or whatever first-years played to entertain themselves anymore—existed.

"What are you doing here?"

Offering Rhys a mischievous grin, Sarah looked to Nell and butt in. "There was an accident in Potions," she told him, wishing then that he hadn't been absent from that lesson to see it for himself. Granted, he must have seen the aftermath in the Hospital Wing. "You alright, Greyback?" she checked on that note, teasing him. "Should we trust you not to knock yourself out with a broomstick?"

rhys alexander greyback
eleanor gwendolen ollivander

[rhys alexander greyback]

If I had seen my reflection

As something more precious

September 10, 2016
eleanor gwendolen ollivander
sarah jane oliveira

Nell was explaining the real issue when Rhys arrived. He was still confused as to why she was here. The girl never did anything wrong or out of line, even with her random small fires and explosions in the Common Room. But they’d never been an issue, and nobody complained. She looked at Sarah wide-eyed, and Rhys looked at the other werewolf as well. And before he could ask, Sarah happily explained what had happened. ”An ‘accident’?” Rhys wasn’t terribly convinced. And he’s spent enough time with Sarah in and outside of class to know better, plus all the detention they had served together.

Sarah mocked Rhys before he could ask for clarification, and his face changed from disbelief to annoyance. His brow furrowed, and he frowned slightly. ”I’m fine.” Even if his hands were healed, the memory of the bruises and cuts were still there. But he walked over to the corner where the brooms and dustpans were and grabbed one of each. ”I know how to sweep.” His answer was short. They’d had this detention before the previous year. ”Who’s head did you dunk in a cauldron this time, Sarah?” Rhys knew both the girls well enough by now, and Nell’s nervous disposition told him this was Sarah’s fault somehow.

Rhys grabbed an extra broom and walked past Nell but handed it to her before starting sweeping at a different spot. ”Here. The faster we get this done, the sooner we can leave.” And without magic, this would take some time. Rhys, at least, just wanted to get back before he fell even more behind on his homework. The full moon was a week away, which always meant a few days when he felt too sick to do anything productive.

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[eleanor gwendolen ollivander]

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While the spilled cauldron was an accident, as Sarah put it, it had been an avoidable one. Nell knew she should have been more careful in keeping it away from the edge
of the table, but keeping an eye on both it's position and whatever Sarah was throwing into it at the same time was impossible to do. If it hadn't fallen, it would have blown up at some point. Probably. The bubbling hot pink liquid hadn't looked the best when it all went down, like a giant volcano of Pepto-Bismal waiting for its point of eruption to hit. She wanted to argue that it didn't have to happen, but Sarah was already directing questions at Rhys. He didn't sound convinced that the accident was actually an accident though. "It sort of was..." she stated quietly. Merlin, that was going to make it look like Sarah coached her on what to say.

The only silver-lining in this detention was that sweeping barely registered in her brain as a punishment. An owl home was ten times worse, obviously, but she'd grown up cleaning the wand shop's floor. It was second nature to her by now, and the only problem she had with the broom gripped tightly in her hand was that the bristles looked worn down and poorly. If they were trying to clean up dirt, that was going to be a problem. If only it was sawdust instead...

Into the first greenhouse they went, brooms and dust pans in hand, with Rhys asking who the person was that got the brunt of the Potions class incident. "Juniper McGonagall," Nell responded as she started her sweeping. Broad brushes across the floor had her entire area clean in a matter of seconds. Maybe the broom wasn't as wimpy as she thought? "Why weren't you in class?" she directed her question at Rhys. Because that was honestly the biggest mystery at the moment. Aside from her new criminal record.

sarah jane oliveira & rhys alexander greyback ● 326 ● Song by Artist

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[sarah jane oliveira]

September 10, 2016

Rhys sounded awfully skeptical about what had happened in Potions class, even though he hadn't been in attendance. Whatever he had been through in the Hospital Wing, it was also apparent to Sarah that he wasn't really in the mood for jokes. (That was a shame; it would have made the whole experience of being in detention more enjoyable.) He said that he knew how to sweep, which was fair, and then asked whose head she'd dunked in a cauldron that time.

"No heads were dunked into cauldrons, by the way," Sarah laughed as Nell mentioned that Juniper had been their (unintentional) victim once they were in the greenhouse. "This one just… bubbled over a bit, and Nell and I were partnered." Alphabetical order was the order of the day or something, but it didn't really matter anymore.

Obviously ready to get his punishment done and over with, Rhys started sweeping before her or Nell. Nell, clearly not one to be outdone, looked to be doing well for herself. Sarah wondered if she had gotten stuck with two Ravenclaws who had taken the places of her housemates without her knowledge of it, but she, too, began sweeping a short distance from the other two as Nell asked why Rhys hadn't been in Potions with them when this had gone down.

eleanor gwendolen ollivander
rhys alexander greyback

[rhys alexander greyback]

If I had seen my reflection

As something more precious

September 10, 2016
eleanor gwendolen ollivander
sarah jane oliveira

Nell answered the question directed at Sarah, and he almost turned his entire body to look at her. Truthfully he'd been kidding when he'd suggested someone's head was dunked in a cauldron, though Sarah denied the fact very quickly. McGonagall. Rhys frowned slightly. If there was a ever a student he steered clear of--it was the relative of their Headmistress. Fortunately, Rhys never risked being partnered with her when alphabetic order was used. The Potions Master only employed that tactic with the class was rowdy. But, naturally, Nell had questions of her own, and Rhys paused.

A little bit of pink crept into his face, not out of embarrassment but really just the anger he still kept at bay about the incident. " Idris." His response was terse. A boy in the year ahead of them. In Rhys' opinion, the boy had the intelligence of a can of broom polish, but he was much larger than Rhys and liked to push his buttons. ”Got into a fight and had to see the nurse.” It wasn’t anything new, but Rhys couldn’t help his temper.

Normally Rhys worked with Nell on most potions. She was calm and precise, which helped him during their assignments. And really, Nell had been one of his first friends. He hadn’t even known she was an Ollivander at first—which had shocked him as his wand was still brand new from the shop. ”How did you two get stuck working together?” They weren’t exactly friends from what Rhys knew. The idea that they would lock eyes across the room and wordlessly agree to work together just didn’t seem possible. Rhys kept sweeping, though he glanced over and saw Nell’s quick progress.

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[eleanor gwendolen ollivander]

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"Another fight?" Nell glared at him from across the greenhouse, her broom stopping at her feet. Her pacifism kept her from so much as thinking of pointing her wand at another person (the only exception being her sister when they were both younger) and a fist fight was out of the question altogether. Who was she going to hurt with her twig-like arms? The most damage she could do to anything was carving out the core for a wand. Magic clearly being her only talent between the two, even that wasn't enough to actually do something to another person. The worst she could do was maybe angrily shoot a jet of water at annoyances? Rhys tended to do the opposite, which was using his fists. Now that she thought about it, Sarah too. She didn't want to jump to conclusions since she liked to think she knew both of them decently enough, but hopefully that wasn't a werewolf thing. Punch first, as questions later. The two of them did have a lot of detentions over the years.

Bending over to sweep her first pile of dirt into the dustpan, she responded to Rhys, "Alphabetical order. So our potion turned the partner you were supposed to have green, and burned through her pant legs." If they really wanted to get into the finer details of the what-if scenario had Rhys been there, in all likelihood it would have been him in the splash zone. He would have laughed at it before the burning sensation fully kicked in. Nell moved her sweeping closer to Rhys and she leaned in, keeping her voice low, "The school won't send an owl to my parents, will they? She wouldn't give me a straight answer on it." Having Sarah hear her ask that again was practically begging to be yelled at. Especially when this was what, a dozen times now?

sarah jane oliveira & rhys alexander greyback ● 314 ● Song by Artist

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[sarah jane oliveira]

September 10, 2016

Sarah couldn't believe that Nell was shocked that Rhys had wound up in another fight. It was Rhys. Of course he had. Then again, being so new to detention, Nell probably didn't keep track of how often the rest of her classmates got in trouble—just as long as she didn't get a letter home.

At least the circumstances of their having ended up sweeping the greenhouses that time weren't because of a fight, or Nell would have been blaming her the entire time. It could have been far worse for them and for Juniper McGonagall, but who among them hadn't gone to the Hospital Wing for treatment for some little hiccup during class? It was a Hogwarts rite of passage, just as detention was.

As Nell and Rhys conversed, Sarah went about her business sweeping what she could, aggressively swishing the broom against the floor. A mop probably would have been more useful than a broom, though, with the exception of all the mud using a mop would probably create. Sweeping up leaves that were only going to be shed again was tiring, and Sarah didn't really see much point in keeping it clean to begin with. Still, she made sure to keep in mind that it could have been worse. They weren't having to deal with dragon dung fertilizer or repot anything, so she would just keep doing what she'd been doing until it looked cleaner than how they found it.

eleanor gwendolen ollivander
rhys alexander greyback

[rhys alexander greyback]

If I had seen my reflection

As something more precious

September 10, 2016
eleanor gwendolen ollivander
sarah jane oliveira

Rhys didn’t meet Nell’s eyes, knowing very well the look she was giving him. If anything, Rhys hunched over a bit more as he swept, which wasn’t great for his posture but more of an instinctive move. ”I don’t do it on purpose…” He muttered, frowning and finally looking at Nell. ”They just—you know how they are.” It annoyed him to no end to think about how they pushed him around and basically poked him until he snapped. His temper was not something he had under control. Thinking about it made Rhys sweep more forcefully than was needed.

Nell explained how they both came to join him in detention, and he stopped sweeping for a moment. Alphabetical order? Rhys didn’t like the idea of turning green—as if he needed something else to make him a target. ”I’m almost glad I got into a fight…” He muttered under his breath. As he turned to start sweeping in a different area, Nell moved closer and asked a question in a quieter tone. Rhys shook his head. It wasn’t a definitive answer—seeing as he doubted the orphanage cared whether he ended up in detention or not. ”No…” One detention was hardly a massive disciplinary issue. ”One detention isn’t that big of a deal.”

”They might if one of your test wands gets out of hand, though.” Rhys reminded her as he went back to the spot he was sweeping. It was too much for the small dustbin, so he had to make multiple trips before he got started on the last corner.

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[eleanor gwendolen ollivander]

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Nell never understood why it was so difficult to just not punch anyone. She also didn't understand what it meant to be a werewolf. Her two detention companions had a lot more going on than just the usual teenage angst, and she knew that couldn't have made life easy at all. And anyways, who was she to complain? Everything for her had been easy in life. Nell knew she had an advantage over most other kids her age, the privilege of a centuries old family business waiting for her to graduate so that she could start in on it. Not that she would ever actually run the business as long as her sister did. Wandmaking was still in her future though. Getting a detention was agonizing, and she could only imagine that punching another student would really put her in a bad light with her parents. Plus she would probably hurt herself more than the other person.

"Yeah but we could have actually hurt her..." Nell whined. Accidents happened all the time at Hogwarts. They didn't happen often with her, unless it was 'one of those test wands' like Rhys was pointing out. Even then, an exploding stick of wood was usually done on her own accord and only she ever got hurt from it. Juniper had always been nice to her, and dropping a vat of acidic, instantaneous green liquid on her without apologizing was still making Nell's head spin. "I think we should find her and say sorry again," she directed her idea towards Sarah. In the end it was only going to be her, but at least she could have a clear conscience. It was an accident after all.

Finding a new pile of dirt a few feet away from Rhys, she swept in silence for several seconds. What else was there to add now? This detention has put her to work and made her want to prostrate herself in front of Juniper McGonagall. Bungling a potion so much that you chemically burned a relative of the Headmistress was definitely a new low for her. Was that worthy an expulsion? She didn't actually know.

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[sarah jane oliveira]

September 10, 2016

Rhys had far more patience for dealing with Nell than she, Sarah knew. She could only tune out what the two of them were saying so much, given their being stuck inside the stupid greenhouse. From what she wasn't able to complete ignore, she could hear that Nell hadn't taken her instructions to stop whining, and Sarah could only imagine how close Rhys actually was to wanting to punch Nell, too.

Nell was going on about how they could have actually hurt her. Sarah wondered what rock Nell had been living under not to realize that people did worse things accidentally literally every day and that they had just managed to bother their Potions professor just enough to get an actual punishment. People fell off their broomsticks in Quidditch matches and got knocked out cold for days at a time. There were spells to sprout antlers and joke products that could inflict far more damage than one little potion. They hadn't shoved poison down Juniper's throat or anything. She had been perfectly fine.

"I think we should find her and say sorry again," she then said, and Sarah turned her head.

"Why?" Sarah questioned before she could stop herself. "Juniper's alright." She underwent worse at every full moon and had for years, and it wasn't as though anyone had shown her any sympathy for that, except for her fellow werewolves. Juniper couldn't possibly be so sensitive as to care about what had happened.

rhys alexander greyback
eleanor gwendolen ollivander

[rhys alexander greyback]

If I had seen my reflection

As something more precious

September 10, 2016
eleanor gwendolen ollivander
sarah jane oliveira

Like his other friends, Nell had finally reached the point of lecturing Rhys and asking why he was always fighting. To which Rhys would respond that it wasn’t his fault. A bully would find him regardless of how he reacted, but he could never stop himself before simply snapping and seeing red. And what was he to do when he got pushed or tripped, or his bag charmed to rip open? He’d managed to keep his cool when someone thought it would be funny to transfigure a wall clock into a floating full moon. Rhys existed, which seemed to bother some people.

Rhys was annoyed at receiving detention again. He was annoyed that his hands still hurt despite the Nurse’s spells and treatments. ”She’s fine.” Rhys insisted as he stopped sweeping to turn and look at his longtime friend, who insisted to Sarah they needed to apologize again. With a heavy sigh, he explained. ”The Nurse had just finished treating her when I got there.” And McGonagall seemed in one piece and fine except for bandages on her leg. But no missing limbs, transfigured facial features, or other things Rhys had seen go wrong in class.

Sarah seemed even less sympathetic than Rhys, who turned back around and swept the last of his corner. ”Nell—you know how she is. If you try to apologize, she’ll tell you a hundred ways you and Sarah got the potion wrong, so what’s the point?” For a Hufflepuff, Juniper McGonagall wasn’t very nice. Rhys had accidentally bumped into her in Charms once, and she told him his form and incantation were wrong after telling him off for not watching where he was going. Before that, Rhys had the misfortune of partnering with her in Transfiguration during his third year. After that, he stuck close to Sarah and Nell or his other Hufflepuff friends. ”I’m going to start in the next greenhouse.”

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