Running Up That Hill (OPEN)

[parvati patil macmillan]

Early June 2027

The reopening of Hogwarts as three separate but interrelated educational institutions hadn't been what Parvati had pictured at first, but bringing magical education more in line with that of the non-magical world felt like a reasonable step forward. Amidst all the discussions of pedagogical approaches and restructuring, there had been talk of memorializing at least those who had died in the most recent destruction of Hogwarts. What had taken shape, however, was beyond anything that she could have imagined.

Alongside the trophies for services to the school and similar awards, it was plain to see that there were names engraved into the bricks, bricks from Hogwarts as it had stood before. The names weren't those of donors or members of the Board of Governors, though; every person who had ever died at Hogwarts had been immortalized there. It pained Parvati to realize just how many of those names were those of people whom she had known personally. It wasn't only those who had been killed in Elaine's most recent attack; the names of those who had been killed during the Battle of Hogwarts were represented, too.

It was impossible for Parvati not to feel their presence around her, as though the sound of her heels were echoing inside a mausoleum instead of a corridor of what had been Hogwarts. (It was still Hogwarts, technically speaking, except the building that she was in was called the McGonagall Academy for Gifted Illusionary Children.) There was a slight chill that ran down her spine as she blinked tears from her eyes and scanned the names. Soon, she found Shreya's. Never in a million years would she have thought that she would be seeing her daughter's name anywhere in memoriam, and the devastation of losing one of her own children hit her all over again.

She traced an index finger along the engraved letters of Shreya's name, grateful that the brick was within reach. If her daughter had had to die so young, then at least she had this memorial to remember her by.

OOC: OPEN to those who would reasonably be on campus at this point in time.

[Deleted]

Shawn had poured much of himself into the Hogwarts reconstruction process. His life had been a mess months before the attack on Hogwarts. The added guilt of not being at the school during the attack didn’t exactly help. The least he could do was work as hard as possible to help rebuild the school. At least till the point he had collapsed while on the job from overworking himself. He was barely sleeping or eating, just so focused on working to keep his mind off the many thoughts he was desperately trying to ignore. After recovering, Shawn attempted to get right back to work. Back to rebuilding the school he had loved so much. He was met with the insistence from friends that he needed to speak to someone. They all knew something was wrong with Shawn but he just didn’t want to admit it. How could he be willing to say he had such problems when others had lost so much more. What he was going through was nothing.

Eventually, Shawn did give in if only to get his friends off his back. Over time, Hogwarts was rebuilt. All while Shawn worked on himself which he supposed was the best way to put it. There were many changes to the school once it was repaired. One was the division into three different schools as well as different names. Walking the halls and corridors of the school felt so different. The guilt still ate at him as he neared the memorial part of the school. He had avoided it from time to time. Could he have saved some people if he had been here when it happened? How many? Could he have stopped something? Questions that ate at Shawn even if he knew it probably wouldn’t have changed much if he had been here during the attack. He didn’t like reading the names on the bricks, the ones that stuck out just hurt too much. Students he had taught and laughed with. People who deserved to be remembered. Still, his therapist suggested he needed to go through the memorial more. First, to pay his respects, and second, to work through the guilt he was feeling.

On one such pass through the memorial, he found a fellow staff member as she was focused upon the memorial herself. “Ms.Macmillan,” Shawn said with a pause. He never was good with formal greetings but this location wasn’t such a place for laid-back familiar talk. At least not just yet. “Sorry I didn’t mean to interrupt anything.” The list of people who had been lost in the battle for Hogwarts was well known so it wasn’t surprising she would be here with all she had gone through.

parvati patil macmillan

[parvati patil macmillan]

Early June 2027

Hearing footsteps approaching, Parvati turned around to see Shawn Ashcroft there. He addressed her as "Ms. Macmillan" despite their having been colleagues for some time. They might have been standing before a memorial, but it felt a bit unnecessary. She wasn't going to turn to stone if he were to call her by her given name. Shawn apologized, too, in case he had interrupted anything.

Glancing over to the memorial and then looking back to Shawn, Parvati shook her head to signal that he hadn't interrupted her and wiped the tears from her eyes with the side of her hand. "Shawn, you can call me 'Parvati', you know," she informed him gently. The students called her "Madam Macmillan" because she was a non-teaching member of the school's staff, but even that level of formality had fallen by the wayside with some of the other staff members. Clarence Corntassel, one of the teachers who had come from Ilvermorny and had since returned to the American school, preferred to go by "Clarence" even with the students, which had taken some getting used to.

The presence of someone else in the room helped in a way that Parvati hadn't expected. It was almost a way of grounding her in reality, reminding her that she was still among the living. "How are you?" she asked him quietly. Obviously, being where they were, it would be hard to be on top of the world, but it was still worth asking.

@shawn