Sugar Haze [Archie]

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June 9th, 2027

Visiting Hogwarts was a little different after the unexpected remodeling had been done. Gone were the days of needing permission, or at least that was what it seemed like to her as she cautiously passed under the gates that separated the grounds from Hogsmeade. Carrying a bag of cookies under her arm, her intention was to head up to the castle and speak to her brother. It was a planned visit, of course, but she still felt strange stepping by the gate and strolling across the grounds. The fact that it was summer and she had never see the campus like this as an adult definitely added to the weirdness of it all.

The students that were around were all older and part of LIFE, which, as she understood it, were the sixth and seventh years and then those that wanted additional education for specific fields. Or maybe they were just gluttons for knowledge. Who was she to judge though? She was just a baker. Her place in the world had been set the second she started living with her aunt all those years ago and she wouldn’t have it any other way now. Cursebreaking was for crazy people, like Archie, and the same could be said about those getting into law enforcement now. Seeing older children walking about the campus that she recognized was definitely odd too, as normally they were on the other side of the counter from her. But now she was in their element.

After asking an older looking student if they knew where ‘Professor Vector’s’ office was and getting a shoulder shrug as a response, Nova pulled her phone out and rapidly typed a message to her brother: OUTSIDE. WHJERE DO I GO. She hit the send button before noticing the spelling error, and immediately rolled her eyes at it. Between that and her caps lock being permanently locked in place from the charm on it, every single one of her messages made it look like she was angry. So when she wanted to be upset over text it didn’t translate all too well. Wavering in place in front of the front entrance of the castle, Nova held her phone in one hand and the cookies in the other, arms crossed as she waited patiently for a response or a sign of her brother.

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[octavian archimedes vector jr.]

someone told me

there's two sides to this life

june 9, 2027
nova hypatia vector

Archie stood and looked down at his desk. Stretching his arms, his body started cracking and popping like an Egyptian tomb caving in. While reviewing his lesson plans for the remainder of the summer term, he had lost track of time and sat down longer than intended. He wasn’t incredibly athletic or anything, but he was used to going for a walk when he could rather than sitting in a room all day. The morning had been spent on the M.A.G.I.C. campus, conferring with the other Heads of Houses. That part was still new to him, the previous Ravenclaw Head of House had more or less fled during the attack the previous year, and Archie had been offered the position before the start of Summer classes.

As he re-reviewed his plans for ”Calculus, Catacombs, and Cursebreaking,” his phone buzzed in his pocket. A message in all caps, very distinctive of a few people he knew. But he was expecting someone. I’ll be right down.’ It was easier than explaining where his office was. There were a handful of turns and a staircase, and while Archie had familiarized himself with his surroundings quickly—not everyone did. The habit of a Cursebreaker, he supposed. To know which direction you were facing and where you were in relation to an exit. So down the stairs and a few turns later, he was outside but didn’t immediately spot her. Archie walked around the corner of the building and spotted the familiar blonde hair in front of the adjacent structure.

Students roamed around them, not paying them much attention, minus the occasional greeting from one of his students. While he taught courses at L.I.F.E., he also interacted with the younger students. ”Nova!” Archie got his sister’s attention, but he kept walking to where she stood. ”Sorry, it takes a day or two to get used to the layout.” At Hogwarts, one quickly fell into a rhythm of essentially walking to class automatically. Walking like your feet were charmed to take you where you needed to be, the castle's layout was quickly learned despite how daunting it must seem at first.

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Despite the students on campus being older ones, Nova was positive that her typical glower unnerved a few of them, because they quickly altered course and basically sidestepped from where she was waiting at the entrance. It wasn't her fault that she had a permanent scowl on her all the time. That and she was perturbed about her phone being broken and not knowing where she was going. Archie's quick response back that he'd be right down eased her frustration greatly, though didn't completely remove it from her face. One final student managed to catch the crack of a smile that appeared at her brother's text, and seemed more disturbed by that than anything else. Nova could only shake her head at the mysteriousness of it all.

In a matter of moments, she heard her name called, her brother striding towards her from the inside of the castle. That definitely drew a couple looks from students, probably aware of their professor more than her. "That's it? she responded, exasperated at the thought of it taking more than 'a couple of days' to remember everything that had been added to the campus. "It's a bit overwhelming if you ask me," Nova added. Glancing up at the castle, it definitely felt similar, but not at the same time. She had to shield her eyes from the glare of the sun, the towers of the school out of sight due to their new height.

"How've classes been going?" It had only been a week since the start of the new term, but it felt like ages since she'd seen her brother. All the prep work involved seemed to consume virtually all his time. Plus the twins were back to school now too, which meant more than half the family was currently at Hogwarts. She sort of hoped to see them today as well, if they weren't busy of course. "Oh...here," she handed over the bag of cookies. "Decima made them since she couldn't come."

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[octavian archimedes vector jr.]

someone told me

there's two sides to this life

june 9, 2027
nova hypatia vector

Archie always wondered if his lack of culinary skills had been replaced with a very keen awareness of his surroundings. It really had not taken him more than a day or two, a week at most, to acclimate himself to this new environment. Was it faster to walk North and then turn at the tree to reach his office? Or perhaps he wanted to enjoy the shade but a slightly longer walk if he went South. But they all had their strengths, he supposed, especially in this family. Seven siblings who all might have had the same name and their father’s blood but were all so very different. Not that Archie would blame the triplets, his brothers, their mother was a force to be reckoned with, to say the least.

”Yes, well, apparently, the students use something on their mobile phones to help them get around.” Archie responded with a shrug. Since he didn’t get lost, there was no need for such a thing. While he wasn’t averse to technology, Archie didn’t go out of his way to gain any special expertise on these phones and such things. ”Some of my students will be very disappointed when they learn they can’t use their phones while in some cave in the middle of nowhere.” The witches and wizards who worked to adapt these devices had done a good job, but they were no match to ancient magic or very cursed places. ”They’ve been going well.” Just last week, he showed his class an artifact, still cursed but not life-threatening, and how it would make a phone start sparking until it stopped working. ”The younger students don’t begin until September, so it's not as busy now.”

He’d been used to teaching third years and above at Hogwarts before. His only adjustment was that his youngest students were now sixteen. The Professors of the MAGIC campus still had some time to prepare. ”Thanks.” His eyes lit up as he grabbed the cookies, not waiting to grab one to take a bite. Even though he knew to expect something fantastic, it didn’t mean he ever grew tired of the baked goods from the shop. Still, he wanted his Aunt to stop by one day to see the school. ”I’ll see if I can drop by to see her this weekend.” An outward thought, but he was glad Nova was here as well. ”What about you?” Archie asked, finishing that first cookie as he took a few steps forward so they could walk a bit, and Archie show her around. ”Still working all the time?”

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"Hogwarts has GPS now?" she repeated back to her brother, in disbelief that such a thing was possible. She had needed a map for her first two years, constantly getting lost while trying to get from the Great Hall back to the Ravenclaw tower. And now all the students had to do was turn their phones on and open an app. Incredible. Nova blinked the shock away, still lost that life had gotten so much easier for the average student. All it took was the castle burning down and a bunch of their friends dying, apparently. Wonderful progress. Archie seemed to find it funny that there still wasn't access to the internet everywhere, and she tended to agree. Since the introduction of the magi-phones, she could already see how obsessive people had become. Staring down at their phones like silly muggles whilst waiting in line at the bakery. The students were apparently worse. "They'll survive. We did," Nova added.

Her brother stated he'd stop by on the weekend, causing her to bid her head. Decima would definitely be there, at least before running off to watch the afternoon's Quidditch match. It didn't matter who played, as long as she could get good seats. As for how'd she been, well, nothing ever changed. "Same as always," she shrugged. There was no point in telling him about the two failed first dates she'd had in the past month, both products of Blishwick's dating app. The problem was that she somehow kept drawing the attention of Ministry grunts. There was nothing wrong with the ones that had real jobs, but this lot were the paper pushers. They were all so boring. They'd rather talk about office drama instead of something actually interesting. Merlin, she'd even talk gobstones with someone at this point. "Oh, right. Benny stopped by last week to catch up, but that's about it. He's probably sold half of your students the books for this term." The other half coming from Mina. "So about this tour...how many stairs do we have to do to see your classroom?"

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[octavian archimedes vector jr.]

someone told me

there's two sides to this life

June 9, 2027
nova hypatia vector

Archie shrugged. He hadn’t really looked into it, but his internal compass had always felt well-calibrated. So, the need for his phone to inform him of what direction to go felt unnecessary. Again, he stressed to his students, especially the future Cursebreakers, that one couldn’t rely on many external factors while trying to survive. ”Yes, well, you know how teenagers are.” Every year, Archie saw the same things. Teenagers crying over lost love or a bad mark on an assignment. If only such things were the actual end of the world, they made it out to be.

”Is he still at Flourish and Blotts?” Archie always wondered about the youngest Ollivander. Veronica never spoke much of him regarding her family business, but seeing him behind that counter rather than dealing with wands felt odd. But, it wasn’t his business, he supposed. But he recalled seeing the boy running around with the Fortescues during Archie’s summer breaks as all the kids would gather their coins for whatever treats his Aunt baked. ”I’m sure all the new courses are helping all the bookstores these days.” As well as helping the students, though Archie knew he’d never been busier in his life. ”Thankfully, not many.” He said with a confident grin. ”But we can leave the stairs for last.” Archie turned a corner, and they arrived near one of the main LIFE buildings. ”Many future Cursebreakers have classes here, Ancient Runes and all that.”

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Unfortunately, she saw the indecision side of teenagers far more often than not. They’d come into the bakery and stare at the display case forever, only to order some fancy drink she was incapable of making because they seemed to think she was a Spellbucks (when in reality they only sold the coffee). Even worse was when Witch TV sent an intern over with dozens of orders, as if the tiny little bakery was capable of making all of that. Nova had no qualms about simple coffee drinks, but some of them were…complicated. They mostly all came from teens that didn’t know any better and inconsiderate working adults her age. She really didn’t understand either of them at all.

”I think only part-time?” Nova wasn’t exactly sure about that. Did Flourish and Blotts even have full-time workers? Mina always seemed to be there, and if it wasn’t her, Benny or the other girl that worked there were in instead. She didn’t even know the one’s name, but the poor thing seemed to be wary of everyone. Which made sense, considering her coworkers were the other two. Mina and Benny weren’t exactly know for being normal, and their energy was a tad ridiculous at times.

She nodded her head at the mention of more books being needed for school now. ”You should see it right now. I’ve never seen piles that high of everything required. They completely blocked off the section on household charms and potion making.” That was sort of her favorite aisle in the store too, because she was always finding something new to incorporate into the bakery. A cleaning charm to make closing a few seconds faster, or some hundred-year-old mixing spell from a potions book that could double for baking. It was honestly sort of surprising how interchangeable a lot of it was at the end of the day.

Archie said that they didn’t need to take the stairs just yet as they approached an enormous building that absolutely did not exist only a few years prior. With the entire landscape of the campus changed so drastically, she was having difficulty placing where they currently were in comparison to what she remembered. ”So where you train the next generation of history nerds, yeah?” she joked. Cursebreakers were more like, crazy history nerds with plenty of screws loose though. She had always wondered if that came before or after the training, because her brother had been relatively normal his entire life. ”And to think, the younger students aren’t even back for another three months…it’s going to be so busy here.”

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[octavian archimedes vector jr.]

someone told me

there's two sides to this life

June 9, 2027
nova hypatia vector

Archie nodded. He hardly kept up with the activities of kids he'd grown up alongside in Diagon and Horizont Alley. The age gap made it a bit difficult, if he was honest. Almost like an entire generational difference. "I imagine he helps Veronica as well?" One could assume it seemed to be the tradition in that family. Plus, Archie had been around enough to remember the other brother, but he'd not seen him in years. Their interactions had been minimal at best in any case. ”Merlin…” the mental image populated in his mind quickly. And he knew that part of that was his fault with the courses he'd designed.

"I suspect it'll be overflowing soon…not all the courses were posted right away." The school still searched eagerly for staff for full and part-time considerations. And Archie was still developing more of the Cursebreaker curriculum, which would also require more textbooks. "Obviously." Archie responded to his sister's remark. That was one way to refer to Cursebreakers, and not inaccurate. "It will be pretty crowded, we'll get all the trainees as well from certain departments." The staff had their hands full, but Archie looked forward to it and was glad to take part in building something. Considering their father had spent so much time with his destructive actions, this was a welcome change of pace.

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Nova tried not to think about Veronica Ollivander at all. The wandmaker only reminded her of Harmony. The two of them would get along swimmingly if they didn’t already know one another. Merely thinking about a situation where they became friendly made Nova shiver on the spot, goosebumps appearing on her forearms despite the warm June sunshine. Nova had spoken with Nell about the two before and got the impression that they had very similar situations growing up around their respective ‘authority’ figures. Uncanny, even, at times. The only real difference was that Nova was often times subjected to the fact that Harmony was her stepmother. No one ever said she had to follow the other woman’s rules though. She wasn’t required to breathe the same air as her either.

”Maybe? I get the impression that the bookstore is his main job and that everything else is just to keep him busy throughout the week.” One of these days she was going to sit him down and ask him about everywhere he currently worked. There were times where she was walking through one of the alleyways and he was helping out in a shop she’d never seen him in before. Forever a job drifter. All to pay for weed and caffeine. To be fair, she would do the same if she had the time.

She felt sort of bad that she had never really been as interested in Ancient Runes and History of Magic as her brother had been. Obviously, she did well in his class when she took it. That didn’t prevent jealous whispers at all about how there being nepotism in regard to her grades. As if Archie didn’t grade her harder than the rest of his students that year. ”Fascinating…think I should convince Decima to let me open a secondary shop in Hogsmeade to try and get all of that business?” It would never happen, at least not with the brand new Spellbucks location. Jimbo Blishwick had beat her to the punch once again. Nova swore he could actually see the future instead of just people’s love lives. He was almost too good at guessing where business would start booming.

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