Dragon New Warm Mountain I Believe in You (Yvonne)

[isabel alejandra moreno-hughes]

Early July 2028

Initially, Isabel found it easier to live in the dormitories at LIFE rather than at home with her parents in London for her first year of NEWT-level studies. She had anticipated moving home before beginning her second year of her NEWTs, but she came to the realization that she would be better off finding someplace to live in Hogsmeade. There were a few reasons for that, including that it would be much more difficult for her to focus on her studies if she had to ensure that she wouldn't get in trouble with the Ministry for doing magic in the presence of Muggles. She couldn't deny that she would have felt safer living in London with her mother and father, but she also couldn't risk her reputation in the magical world if she wanted to continue working towards a career in its law enforcement.

The idea of living entirely on her own felt scary, though, especially in Hogsmeade. Being that the village was fully magical, there was never any telling what might happen there. If dragons came back into the picture or if any number of other things came to pass, Isabel knew that she would want to be living with other people. Hogsmeade didn't really have much in the way of student housing, so to speak, but she managed to secure herself a furnished room in a shared house with some other LIFE students.

Honestly, Isabel wasn't even sure where to go about buying bedding and home décor and those sorts of things in the magical world, so she brought some with her to Hogsmeade from Muggle London alongside the rest of her belongings that she would need. It would make the house in which she would be living feel a little more like home, or so she hoped. The other major question was if she would get along with the other people with whom she would be living, though she had dealt with that before, at least.

Wanting to double-check that she had reached the right address so that she wouldn't be breaking into somebody else's property by accident, Isabel set her trunk on the ground beside her and unfolded the piece of parchment she'd stuffed in her pocket with the instructions she needed written on it.

yvonne rae de snaijer

[yvonne rae de snaijer]

━ callin' it quits now, baby, i'm a wreck━

GRADUATING FROM HOGWARTS FELT RATHER surreal for Yvonne De Snaijer. She had been through enough throughout her teenaged years. Parents dying, forced to move to England to live with her grandmother, Ilvermorny closing temporarily so all of her friends moved over, separation from her twin, falling stupidly in love with her 'enemy' at the time...Simply a lot!

And while the De Snaijer was excited to leave Hogwarts and LIFE behind, to move on and figure out her life...She knew what she wanted to do next within a few short weeks of graduation. Recalling telling her plans to Gideon and watching as a smile formed from her boyfriend, Yvonne felt like it was truly the right path, even if Lila didn't think so. Regardless of her grandmother's opinions, Yvonne went on, beginning magical training at LIFE that would prepare her to become a magical therapist at St Mungos when her time was over.

Though for her living situation, she knew a change was needed. She couldn't stand living with her siblings that followed Lila's every word no longer. So when the idea of a shared house with other LIFE students came around, Yvonne took the opportunity to dive right in. Moving in her things just a few days prior, with Gideon's help no less, Yvonne began walking through the streets of Hogsmeade that led up to the house. There were a few NEWT studies kids and others that were doing extended courses like her own, but a girl standing at the porch of the house caught her attention.

"Excuse me?" Yvonne called out as she walked closer to the house. "Are you moving in today?.."

| isabel alejandra moreno-hughes |

[isabel alejandra moreno-hughes]

Early July 2028

"Excuse me? Are you moving in today?"

Isabel turned her head upon hearing the sound of someone else's voice directed towards her. She quickly realized that the voice in question belonged to another girl, and Isabel recognized her as an Ilvermorny transfer student who had been in the year above her at Hogwarts and then again at LIFE.

"Yes…?" Isabel answered the older girl. She wasn't totally sure how she was supposed to respond, but she had done her best to confirm that she was at the right house. Coming across as too eager and only then finding out that she was in the wrong place would be mortifying, and she didn't want to jump to conclusions and think that the girl wasn't being friendly.

A part of Isabel didn't really feel old enough to be moving into a shared house with other people her own age, like she was a fraud or doing something worthy of suspicion, even though she knew that she was old enough to be doing so by the standards of the magical world. Per the paper she was holding, she was supposedly in the right place, so she hoped that the older girl wouldn't give her any trouble for being there.

"Sorry," Isabel added. "Do you live here?" Mostly, she wanted to make sure that there wasn't a problem with her being there. She thought that it would be sort of awkward if the girl didn't actually live there, though maybe she just happened to live somewhere nearby. At least then she would know one of her new neighbors.

yvonne rae de snaijer

[yvonne rae de snaijer]

━ callin' it quits now, baby, i'm a wreck━

SMILING AS THE GIRL CONFIRMED she was moving in, it didn't take long for the De Snaijer to piece together who the girl was. But just for the sake of not looking ridiculous or insane for potentially knowing who she was, Yvonne decided to introduce herself. "Yeah!..Yeah I do live here!" She smiled, fingers fumbling for the keys in her pocket, giving them a slight shake as she stood by the girls side.

"I'm Yvonne..but I feel you already know that..You went to Ilvermorny also right?" The De Snaijer smiled softly then, using her keys to unlock the door before them, turning to face the girl while her eyes looked down at her belongings. "Do you need help bringing these in?"

| isabel alejandra moreno-hughes |

[isabel alejandra moreno-hughes]

Early July 2028

Before Hogwarts had been forced to close temporarily to rebuild, it had been slightly easier to get to know the students in the other years. Everyone who was in the same House saw each other, even if they didn't always interact, and there wasn't the separation between MAGIC and LIFE. Isabel hadn't been good about getting to know the Ilvermorny transfer students who had come to Hogwarts, but that had been her own doing. She had been afraid that something would happen to them as it had to the students from Beauxbatons and Durmstrang who had come for the Triwizard Tournament, and she hadn't been completely incorrect in the end—just off with her timing.

Isabel had nothing against the Ilvermorny students as people, and she knew what the ones who had transferred to Hogwarts had been through firsthand. She didn't really understand why anyone would have wanted to come back to Hogwarts if they didn't have to, but she guessed that the same could have been said for her having come back to Hogwarts from Beauxbatons after the year she'd spent there.

The older girl answered her and said that she did live there, pulling out a set of keys. She seemed more pleasant than Isabel had expected, and she also said that her name was Yvonne. Yvonne asked her if she had gone to Ilvermorny, apparently thinking that she had.

It was possible that Yvonne had mistaken her for someone else. Isabel knew that a lot of people had gone to Ilvermorny because it was probably more culturally similar to Hogwarts; plus, they would already know some, if not most, of their classmates. For Isabel, Beauxbatons had been the right fit, given her Galician background on her mother's side.

"Er, no, sorry," Isabel apologized to Yvonne, feeling bad about having to correct her when she was being so welcoming to her. "I went to Beauxbatons whilst Hogwarts was closed," she explained. "I recognize you from Hogwarts, though." She put away the parchment in her hands, picked up her trunk again, and shook her head as politely as she could in response to Yvonne's having asked her if she needed help. "I've got it, thanks," Isabel assured Yvonne. "I'm Isabel, by the way."

yvonne rae de snaijer

[yvonne rae de snaijer]

━ callin' it quits now, baby, i'm a wreck━

FEELING BAD THAT SHE HAD confused Isabel for someone else, a red flush crept onto the De Snapper's face, highlighting her embarrassment. "Oh- Oh..My mistake then." Yvonne began, lifting her hand to scratch the back of her neck. Isabel did look incredibly familiar, but who she confused her for was just on the tip of her tongue.

Regardless, Yvonne found herself nodding, smiling small as Isabel mentioned that she looked familiar from Hogwarts. "Makes sense, I moved just before Ilvermorny shut down for a while so..lot of chaos." Smiling at Isabel's reassurance, Yvonne kept the door open anyway, just to make it easier for Isabel to bring the trunk inside. "Nice to meet you..What do you plan on studying?"

| isabel alejandra moreno-hughes |

[isabel alejandra moreno-hughes]

Early July 2028

Yvonne apologized for her mistake, but Isabel didn't mean to make her feel uncomfortable. There were a lot of people who had attended both schools, and it was surprising that it didn't happen more often. The brief confusion over where she had gone to school didn't affect their conversation for long, luckily. Yvonne didn't seem as though she had been embarrassed past the point of no return, which was good for Isabel's potential embarrassment, too. Starting off on an awkward note with one of the people with whom she would be sharing a house wouldn't have been fun. "Makes sense," said Yvonne in relation to what she had said about recognizing her from Hogwarts. "I moved just before Ilvermorny shut down for a while," she explained, "so… lot of chaos."

It sounded like a lot of chaos. It had been a lot of chaos just having so many of the Ilvermorny students at Hogwarts; Isabel couldn't imagine starting at Ilvermorny, having it vandalized without students there, going to Hogwarts, having it destroyed with students there, going back to Ilvermorny, and then going back to Hogwarts. Going from Hogwarts to Beauxbatons and back to Hogwarts was enough of an experience.

As she held open the door for her, Yvonne said that it was nice to meet her. "What do you plan on studying?" she asked.

"Oh, I'm starting my seventh year… Or 'second year at NEWT level' now," Isabel answered her as she carried her trunk into the house. Some of the terminology used at Hogwarts had changed the previous year, and having to get used to MYSTIC and MAGIC and LIFE was a change for everyone rather than being an adjustment for her just because she was Muggle-born. So she wouldn't block Yvonne from getting inside, Isabel stepped aside with her trunk.

"I'm hoping to study Law Enforcement after my NEWTs," she continued, setting down her trunk again until she could figure out where her room was. Talking about her future plans was more interesting than talking about finishing up the schooling that she had been expected to complete at Hogwarts before the Ministry's educational overhaul. "What are you studying?"

yvonne rae de snaijer

[yvonne rae de snaijer]

━ callin' it quits now, baby, i'm a wreck━

DESPITE FEELING A LITTLE EMBARRASSED for her mistake, Yvonne had learned that with time, one couldn't let mistakes or problems bound them. Especially since they were always due to happen. Though, she simply hoped that the awkward note that the two were starting off from wasn't going to affect them in the long run.

As Isabel explained that she would be starting her seventh year / second year of NEWT level, Yvonne nodded. So she was..older than someone. It felt kind of rare these days to meet someone that was actually younger than her, considering for the majority of her life, she was the younger one compared to others. Despite her twin of course, as Yvonne was the older twin.

"Law Enforcement.." Yvonne repeated, a little quieter. She had considered the same, especially since her parents were Aurors when they were alive, but considering the trauma behind it and the fight to still help people to some capacity, she had chosen Magical Therapy instead.

"I'm studying magical therapy..so I suppose to become a therapist?..Not as cool as Law Enforcement but..I wish I listened to people more when I was younger instead of..holding hatred and other emotions I suppose so..Now I want to help others."

| isabel alejandra moreno-hughes |

[isabel alejandra moreno-hughes]

Early July 2028

Yvonne's voice merely echoed Isabel's after she had mentioned that she was interested in joining the ranks of those in magical law enforcement upon completing her NEWT-level studies. It was sort of nice that she didn't obsess over it, Isabel thought. Careers with the Department of Magical Law Enforcement were highly sought after, and the reactions she got from her peers were mixed. She wasn't setting her sights on becoming the next great Auror; she simply knew that she wanted to make the magical world safer for people like her, Muggle-borns who had been forced to figure out how to survive in a world of which they had known nothing.

In reply to her question, Yvonne explained that she was going to LIFE to study magical therapy. She said that she knew that it wasn't as "cool" as what Isabel was planning to do, but she gave a very candid description of how she had come to her decision and how she wished that she hadn't held in her emotions as much when she was younger.

To some extent, Isabel had known that some form of magical therapy existed, just not to what extent. Madam Macmillan was the counselor at Hogwarts, and there were some sort of psychiatrists—if one could call them that—at St. Mungo's to deal with people who had literally lost their minds to curses or backfired spells. At the same time, a lot of magical people seemed horrified by the thought of doctors as she knew them in the Muggle world, which had left Isabel in an awkward position as a Muggle-born. She couldn't just go to a non-magical mental health provider in London and explain that she was actually a witch and that she was dealing with severe trauma from no shortage of events that had occurred at her wizarding school. She would have broken magical secrecy that way, and she probably would have ended up committed to some sort of institution with diagnoses related to her supposed delusional thinking.

Isabel thought it was actually pretty cool that Yvonne had decided to take that path. "That's great," Isabel told her. "It's… really important to have therapists." Frankly, magical therapy sounded to Isabel like something that she probably needed herself, though she wasn't sure about mentioning that in her first conversation with a girl with whom she was going to be living for a while. Everyone who had been at Hogwarts when Elaine Dupree had set it ablaze had been affected by it; she wasn't unique in that way. That reinforced just how needed mental health professionals were in the magical world, though. Having magical abilities didn't make them exempt from needing someone to talk to or from needing whatever potions could be made to accomplish what psychiatric medication could in the Muggle world.

yvonne rae de snaijer

[yvonne rae de snaijer]

━ callin' it quits now, baby, i'm a wreck━

IN THE DAYS THAT LED up to Yvonne's initial graduation from Hogwarts, the realisation of what she wanted to do with her future settled in quickly. At the time, the only people that knew were her counsellors and Gideon - especially as Yvonne's friendship groups had grew thinner the longer she was at Hogwarts. At one point, it was even difficult to communicate with her own siblings. Even her twin.

Everything was a little different now though, Yvonne was 'free' in some aspect, trying to find her own footing outside of the household she had grown up in the last few years. Hearing Isabel's response only left a wide grin on the De Snaijer's lips, something that was most definitely rare in her younger years. "Thank you..I don't know it.." Yvonne stopped for a moment, her smile still wide. "It felt a little silly, when I came to terms with everything, about what I wanted to do..but now I feel confident about it."

Clearing her throat, the De Snaijer then lifted her arm, guiding Isabel to where her room is. "You're just a little further down the hall. Are..you sure you don't need help moving in?"

| isabel alejandra moreno-hughes |

[isabel alejandra moreno-hughes]

Early July 2028

Surprisingly, Yvonne admitted to her that she had thought that the idea of becoming a therapist was silly at first, but she said that she had become more confident in her decision since then. Though she wasn't in the same position, Isabel imagined that it must have felt a little strange initially. Everyone at Hogwarts felt equally qualified—and unqualified—to talk about trauma anymore. The good thing about the establishment of LIFE was that witches and wizards could get training for just about anything they wanted to do. It gave them all options, which Isabel appreciated. She hadn't had any say in being a witch, but she got to choose her career like most people in the Muggle world. There was no Sorting into careers or a requirement that she had to do this or that with her life just because she had been put in Gryffindor.

After they had been talking for a bit, Yvonne indicated that her room was just down the hall. Isabel nodded and picked up her trunk again, ready to head in that direction. She also asked if Isabel was sure that she didn't need any help moving in.

Really, Isabel didn't want to waste Yvonne's time. If she didn't have anything better to do than help her move in, then she didn't mind the assistance. Of course, Isabel didn't want to word her response in such a way as to suggest that she might have thought that Yvonne didn't have anything better to do, though; she didn't want to offend her.

"Er… If you'd like?" Isabel replied, wanting to give Yvonne the option of saying no. Moving in wasn't anything that she couldn't handle on her own, but having someone else on hand would make the process go faster. There was no reason for her to turn Yvonne down. She didn't have anything with her that she was worried might get stolen by her or anyone else, nor did she have anything to hide.

yvonne rae de snaijer

[yvonne rae de snaijer]

━ callin' it quits now, baby, i'm a wreck━

YVONNE DIDN'T MIND PROVIDING HER help here and there, even though they had the best kind of help in the palm of their hands - or more so their pockets. Yvonne simply wanted to come across as friendly, especially since she would be living alongside Isabel and whoever else moved into the share house.

Yvonne used to find situations such as her present incredibly awkward, especially since she hated speaking to other people. But considering how much she had grown compared to her younger years, the De Snaijer felt different. "I don't mind..I don't have much else to do so.." Yvonne didn't want to overstep also. If the girl wanted to be left alone, Yvonne would leave just as fast as she came in.

| isabel alejandra moreno-hughes |

[isabel alejandra moreno-hughes]

Early July 2028

Yvonne herself said that she didn't mind and didn't have much else to do, so that was settled, then. Isabel didn't have to feel like she was imposing on her new flatmate and would get some help moving in. "I tried not to bring too much," she explained as she walked with her trunk in hand to her new bedroom. She was used to having a trunk full of belongings from Hogwarts and (temporarily) Beauxbatons, so she knew it wasn't practical to overpack. Also to her advantage was that, unlike before the fire, she could go home to get anything she needed or swap out items in her wardrobe without having to wait for Christmas or Easter.

After readjusting her hold on her trunk, Isabel opened the door to her room. She wasn't expecting much, but she was pleased to find that the bedroom was in good condition. It hadn't been trashed by whoever had lived there previously, and the furniture didn't look like it was falling apart. "Alright," Isabel nodded, pleased that she wouldn't have to repair anything before getting unpacked. She could probably clean it up just a bit, but it wasn't visibly dirty.

yvonne rae de snaijer

[yvonne rae de snaijer]

━ callin' it quits now, baby, i'm a wreck━

YVONNE SMILED AS ISABEL ALLOWED her to help, it overall made the De Snaijer feel more comfortable as she finally felt like she wasn't overstepping boundaries. As Isabel headed on in, Yvonne trailed behind, smiling small and helping out with Isabel's other luggage. Nothing felt too heavy but the brunette still wanted to help wherever she could.

"I get the feeling..I had a lot of luggage the first time I moved here but..as the years went on, I stuck to a trunk and a backpack." The De Snaijer still remembered the uncomfortable feeling she got whenever she had to ask for help from someone that wasn't her siblings.

"It's fairly clean right?..It never used to be this way apparently..But now they make sure there's no..charmed frogs coming out of no where."

| isabel alejandra moreno-hughes |

[isabel alejandra moreno-hughes]

Early July 2028

Yvonne said that she knew the feeling. She had arrived with a lot of luggage initially but had gotten down to using just a trunk and a backpack, she explained. While Isabel imagined that it was more convenient that way, she was also sort of horrified by the thought of only having that much. She knew people did that sort of thing on gap years, when they backpacked around Thailand or Peru or somewhere like that, but it felt more necessary in that context than in Hogsmeade. Maybe out somewhere in the countryside for a Duke of Edinburgh's Award (or whatever the magical equivalent of that was), but even that was temporary.

"It's fairly clean, right?" Yvonne asked of her bedroom. So far, so good. "It never used to be this way apparently…" she added. "But now they make sure there's no… charmed frogs coming out of nowhere.

Isabel really, really hoped that Yvonne was joking. "I'm not sure that my pet toad would like frog neighbors…" She didn't want to make a fool of herself if it was only a joke. She wasn't sure how Sapito, a toad who had never known anything other than the relative luxury of his little amphibious life, would interact with frogs from outside. "Erm, not that I think he'd be discriminatory or anything…" And she wasn't trying to be, either. Sapito was a toad. He probably wouldn't care.

yvonne rae de snaijer