Blind Leading The Blind [Diana]

[cara june bainbridge]

@diana

Insufferable idiots. That was what that majority of Hogwarts was. There were some real winners that went to school here, and the added bonus of the biggest imbeciles from Beauxbatons and Durmstrang didn’t help at all either. Everything was a free for all these days it seemed like, and there weren’t any signs that it was going to slow down either. She couldn’t even begin on how stupid the tournament was. How did they think this was going to achieve anything? All it did was put the highest potential witches and wizards of the three largest European magic schools all in the same place. Clearly the Ministry hadn’t learned anything after King’s Cross, or the end of the previous school year. Using adolescents as bait was a real mature thing to do by the people supposedly trying to protect them the most. So much use that had done. All it had done was add way more people to the already crowded Hogwarts than it could hold, and let everyone run rampant. This week had gone horribly. First there were the fireworks in the library, and how they managed to pull that off was beyond her, and then today someone had let some kind of smoke bomb off on the fourth floor. Cara had been on her way to class when that happened, but the corridor was quite literally cordoned off by professors telling them too bad. If she hadn’t already been running late, which was all due to a group of giggling first year Gryffindor girls, then she would have had time to find a way around. She could have sworn that they slowed down even more as she came running from behind them. Apparently being threatened by finger-removal jinxes wasn’t enough for them, because they turned their speed to a crawl.

But now it was too late, according to her watch. Being the type that preferred to not show up at all over arriving late, Cara quickly turned on her heels and headed back towards the common room. She knew what the chapter was on that they were learning about, and would spend the rest of the normal class period memorizing it. Mostly as her own sort of punishment for skipping. Her attendance had been impeccable this term, so she wasn’t all that worried about receiving a punishment. Arriving at the entrance to the common room, Cara answered the stupidly easy riddle and hopped inside. She was almost positive that the door had asked her that one before. It really need to come up with some better ones. A first year could answer half of them no problem.

Cara crossed the room, tossing her bag onto the coffee table in front of the couch. The common room was empty; no surprise because literally everyone was either stuck behind the wall of smoke or had attempted to run through it and suffered the consequences. That type of tom-foolery was not for her. Crashing onto the couch, she leaned her head up against one of the arms, stretching her legs out in the process. The book that she needed to read for class was still in her bag, but now that she was comfortable, she didn’t really care all that much to go for it. It would be a week until she had the class again anyways, so getting it done right now wasn’t that important. Plus she had re-reading to do for the next day’s class to start later. That was just as important, if not more. Massaging her temples with her thumbs, Cara let out a dissatisfied sigh. All of these people were stupid.

[Deleted]

cara june bainbridge

Diana, despite her troublesome antics, didn't skip classes. She was too bloody curious to skip any. But she did enjoy her free periods. It gave her time to take a nap, do some personal research, or.... well.... other things that she personally didn't want anyone finding out about. Disregarding those secrets though she was personally on the nap route today. And why shouldn't she? From what she could hear it wasn't a great day to get to classes. Someone had set off something in the halls. Whatever it was, Diana honestly didn't care. While overly curious she wasn't curious about this particular incident.

She'd just settled down on one of the couches in the common room, curled up on her side and comfortable as can be when the common room door opened and someone came in. Aside form herself and this new person the common room was empty. And from her current position it was almost as if she wasn't there either. You couldn't see her from most corners of the room. Diana was planning on just ignoring this other person and taking her nap but hen she heard that all to familiar sigh. Her eyes opened. Diana would recognize her twin anywhere. "Usual disgruntleness or did you get caught up in that prank I heard about?" She called from her curled up position, announcing her presence to her sister.

[cara june bainbridge]

@diana

Cara hadn’t noticed that there was another person already in the common room. She had been almost positive that it was empty when she entered. That being said, the Ravenclaw didn’t really care if there was someone else there or not. As long as they stayed quiet, she was fine with coexisting with them for the time being. Her first cue that there was another soul there was when she happened to glance over at one of the other couches. It didn’t look like it was occupied from where she was laying, and very well could have been empty, but the colors didn’t match up the way that they normally did. The second cue? The voice that came from that direction a few seconds after she had sighed. She knew that voice better than anyone else did, or ever would. “Couldn’t get around it,” Cara groaned slightly. “Who even does that kind of thing? It’s so stupid.” She knew the answer though. It was to get under the skin of people like her. By placing the smokescreen on the fourth floor, they prevented anyone from Ravenclaw and Gryffindor from getting to the lower floors, and vice versa from the other houses. Personally she thought that the third floor was a better choice because it was right in the middle of everything, but she was sure that the criminal didn’t think it through that much. “What are you up to?” Cara called back to her twin. She knew Diana didn’t have a class, because she had memorized all of her sisters’ schedules. That was just what she did. Made it easier to know where to find them if she needed to.

[Deleted]

cara june bainbridge

Diana covered a large yawn and stretched a little, letting her arms hang over the arm of the chair after. "I could probably think of a few suspects." most of which were in Gryffindor house. A normal Ravenclaw wouldn't have done something to prevent students from getting to class... unless they were seeking revenge for something. "What was If exactly?" A safe bet would be a Weasley product. Several of their products could cause this kind of fuss.

As did what Diana was doing... she finally rolled over onto her stomach and peered over the top of the couch's arm to look at her twin. "Napping or relaxing. Both seemed viable options and I'm not much in the mood to do my Ancient Runes homework." It was exactly a secret that despite being troublesome Diana was quite good at Ancient Runes. But most would say that was because of how much time she spent with the teacher. Ever since third year, Diana had spent an unusual amount of time with the teacher. "Or rewriting my paper for Defense against the dark arts. The professor didn't really appreciate my take on the Unforgiveable curses." Abother quirk of hers. Diana knew an unhealthy amount of dark arts, of course she butted heads with the teacher tasked with teaching them just how terrible the dark arts were! "So, since you're free now. What's your plan?"

[cara june bainbridge]

@diana

Just hearing Diana yawn made Cara do the same. Yawning was infectious enough as it was; she didn’t need to be mimicking her twin with it as well. The last thing she needed was some first year laughing at them for doing everything the same. While they used to stick together a lot, the past few years had been spent testing out things on their own. There was no harm in discovering individuality, was there? She certainly didn’t want to be like every other set of twins or triplets out there, and with the amount of them at Hogwarts, it only showed more. “I’m sure I could name the same ones,” she yawned again. That was getting old already. Diana asked her what it was, and Cara rubbed her temples trying to recall the physical matter of it. “Looked like a cloud of green smoke from where I was, but I saw a few people try to go through it and either pass out instantly or come out vomiting.” It was a disgusting sight for sure. She could feel her stomach lurch slightly just at the thought of it. “My guess is either a joke product or a spell gone wrong.” Probably the former. Though she had seen some awful mistakes while casting spells. Most people thought splinching while learning how to apparate and disapparate or messing up a transfiguration spell were the worst things that could happen, but there were far worse.

At the mention of Ancient Runes, Cara’s eyes flicked over to her sister, who was now staring back at her over the edge of her couch. Diana was pretty good at that class. “So have you finally decided to go into that after graduating? Professor Kamuntu could probably give you a letter of recommendation.” That was more than Cara was going to get from one single professor that she had. While her grades were higher, she was far from the top student in the NEWT-level classes. There were plenty of other seventh year Ravenclaws and a few Slytherins up there as well. Tough competition, but that was what she liked. Plus, writing fictional stories was a solo project. The most help she could get from a professor is advice on how to publish a book.

Cara’s ears perked up as Diana said that she had to redo her essay for defense against the dark arts. “Really? All because you interpreted their uses differently? There’s not much to them though. One kills, one causes pain, and one controls. Simple as that.” Cara wasn’t sure she actually wanted to know what her twin wrote, but decided to take a stab at it regardless. “What exactly did you write about?” Her own paper had been rather bland, getting into historical cases where they had been used. Almost everyone she had talked about had used the last war as their case study since there were a lot of accounts of them, but Cara went further back past the wars. Digging up historical uses was far more interesting than going with the same old material. “No idea. Nothing sounds nice right now though,” she responded, letting out a yawn. Again. It probably wasn’t going to stop at this point.

[Deleted]

cara june bainbridge

Diana held back a little snicker when she heard her sister answer her exaggerated yawn with her own. They were contagious after all. Even when you couldn't see the original source. "Great minds think alike." she answered casually, this time unable to hold back that small chuckle as her sister yawned again. It was true that the twins could be quite similar at times. But they were also vastly different. From just their personality and looks to their likes and dislikes. It probably didn't help that Diana could actually control how similar or different they looked. Her sisters description of the obstacle made Diana crinkle her nose in disgust. "Ew." definitely a Weasley product. She couldn't think of any spell going wrong enough to cause such a reaction and not being dispelled immediately by a teacher. But those Weasley products... they'd gotten pretty good at making their products difficult to get rid of.

Diana smirked a little at the idea of Professor Kamuntu giving her a letter of recommendation. Oh, if she wanted one Diana was positive she could get it. "But do what with it? Unless I want to go on to teaching eventually. Ancient Runes is more of a piece to a bigger puzzle when it comes to jobs. Like curse breaking or something." that was probably the only real contender Diana had at the moment when it came to careers.

Rolling back onto her back she shrugged to herself, knowing her sister wouldn't see the motion now that she'd disappeared behind the arm of the couch again. "That they had practical uses in modern day society and that proper instruction and exposure to the spells could create a safer community. I gave plenty of historical references that proved they'd been socially acceptable before to back my arguement and the long term benefits. But some people lack the ability to see that far into the future." Why wasn't it surprising that Diana would write a paper on that..? As for what her sister could do. "You're on your own there."

[cara june bainbridge]

@diana

“That they do,” Cara returned, rolling over onto her back and letting one arm fall off the couch. Letting it dangle there was more relaxing than laying on top of it. She yawned again as heard her twin react to her description of the smoke cloud that she had encountered. Ew was right. There was a special place in hell for the people that pulled pranks that caused bodily harm to others. She didn’t particularly care who the people getting sick were, but the fact that they were casually going about their day and then were suddenly attacked by a cloud of vomit-inducing smoke was terrible. Even worse was that it was keeping a lot of students from getting to class. That was the real reason Cara was pissed off about the whole thing. “Hopefully it’ll be cleared up before dinner. Residual smells and all.” If all the students on the upper floors were forced to shuffle through the smaller hallway to get downstairs, it was going to be a nightmare. On a good day those were crammed because everyone thought they were faster. Fun fact: they weren’t. The amount of time spent going the alternate route was just a little more than taking the stairs normally. But stupid people didn’t have the thought to time themselves.

Cara was more interested in her sister’s aspirations than she was about staying on the cloud topic. While Ancient Runes hadn’t worked out well for her, Diana was still running with it. Certainly an interesting subject though. “Curse breaking it is then,” she decided for Diana. “You have the whole Dark Arts thing down as well.” Cara swung her arm back and forth, her fingers grazing the carpet as she thought of what else to say. She always had a tough time conversing about things she didn’t know about, and this was one of those. Now if it was writing, which was where she wanted to head with post-graduation, then she could go on for hours. That would probably bore Diana though.

She snorted as her sister went on to describe what her paper had been about. The professor really got mad at her over that? “That’s rather cheeky of you isn’t it?” Cara laughed again. “I understand why the professor is having you do it over though. They don’t always like when students think outside the box.” Except that Diana’s paper sounded like it was even further past that. At this point in school, that was more than a creative imagination. Knowing her, there was probably a lot of effort put into it to make her point. And it would have been a strong point at that.

“I’ll find something eventually. Just don’t want to put a ton of effort into moving right this second.” The couch was comfortable, and not having to deal with classmates right now was a plus. “Is it me, or has Kinsey been acting weird lately. She blew up at me the other day.” Cara knew this was out of the blue and that their younger sister could walk in at any point during the conversation, but she thought it was worth having. Her last encounter with Kinsey had been ridiculous. All she wanted was for her to do well with her studies, but apparently petting her owl was more important.

[Deleted]

cara june bainbridge

Hm. Speaking of dinner. Diana was hungry. She hadntrhought about the prank causing problems in that regard.. "Well, If it isn't then we can always beg them to send food up here. They can, after all." why bother going down if they could just magic the food to the Ravenclaw dormitory.

It seemed like her aspiration was not just her decision, because Cara was announcing that it would be Cursebreaking. Had she been sitting up Cars might have seen the eyebrow raise that followed. "What if i don't want to do curse breaking?" she asked seriously, though she knew it wasn't the best answer. She wasn't against going into curse breaking after all. Though the whole darks art thing made her laugh. "Those aren't all dark arts, you know. A lot are protective charms with deadly consequences. Like a guard dog" she wasn't going to admit or deny she had the whole dark arts thing going. It wasn't exactly a secret that Diana knew more then her fair share of dark arts... but she didn't need to admit it aloud for teachers to potentially hear.

Cara laughing made Diana roll back into her stomach and peer at her sister over the arm of the couch again. "Well, this student refuses to be brainwashed into their outdated, conservative, and rigid box." she answered stubbornly. "We all have the ability to think, so they should let us. I gave them plenty of evidence proving that it could work. Maybe they should be the ones thinking outside the box." she added in that same time of voice, completely dead serious.

Rolling back into her backs be out of sight the stared up at the ceiling. Kinsey. That was... a complicated and touchy subject. Diana and Kinsey used to get along. Quite well. But ever since last spring... Diana has been keeping her distance. She didn't need Kinsey picking up on things she shouldn't. "I haven't seen her lately, so I wouldn't know." even being in the same house, and Diana managed to avoid the younger Bainbridge.

[cara june bainbridge]

@diana

Cara nodded her head slowly as her sister pointed out that they could have food sent up to them if they so desired. Wasn’t that kind of lazy? At the same time though, Diana wasn’t wrong. If the haze was still there, it was either fight the masses on the alternate route and risk becoming a victim to another prank (which wasn’t out of the realm of possibility at this point in time), or succumb to possible hunger in the common room. “How do you propose we get in contact with the house elves, with them being all the way downstairs?” Cara thought it was a valid point to bring up. Send a younger student to do their bidding? She was sure they could convince one of the third or fourth year boys to do it. They were always ogling the older girls as it was, getting them on board with a few sweet words or a promise or two would be easy. That was how she got ahold of Dominic after all.

Her eyes snapped over to Diana when she said that might not want to be a curse breaker. What else was there that had to do with runes then? It would be a step in the right direction at least, or provide her with more material to study. Independent work wasn’t the worst thing in the world. Obviously wanting to be a writer was a similar task, so she could accept that if her twin decided to follow through with it. “Just a thought, that’s all,” she yawned. Apparently those were making a comeback once again. “I have a guard dog, if you ever feel like having him test the waters on those kinds of things.” Dominic was a good boy. Misunderstood sometimes, but good. He did what he was supposed to do, and she returned the favor by giving him the attention he so desperately craved. At least someone wanted attention from her. These days it was looking like everyone was starting to get fed up with her. That would be done once there wasn’t any school work to worry about.

Cara snorted. Brainwashed was a rather strong word to use. Classes were just guidelines for learning after all. In the end they were left up to their own devices to figure out how much they wanted to take in. She saw the rest of the students, the ones that didn’t follow this philosophy, as simply people who didn’t have aspirations past graduating. That would only get them so far in life. “Maybe they should be,” she rolled her head over to look at Diana again. “But not everyone is us. They have to dumb it down for everyone else.”

It sounded like all of Kinsey’s relationships were starting to crumble. Figured. That was exactly what their younger sister was always trying to do. Trying to get people to pity her was the game after all. Poor her, with her ability that nobody but the family knew about. How’d she even expect people to feel bad for her is she didn’t tell them about that? It was ridiculous. “Looks like she’s getting two for the price of one then,” Cara sighed. “Her loss.”

[Deleted]

Diana thought seriously for a moment. Being in a tower was a little inconvenient, particularly at these times. Though the school staff in general was competent enough to actually dispel the magical prank. It was just a matter of when they got to it. "I've read smoke signals used to be quite effective." Diana jokingly answered, though it was true. Being witches though the twins could probably come up with a better option.

To be honest Diana didn't actually know what she wanted to do. She could settle for curse breaking though. Play to her strengths. But in all honesty she didn't even know if she'd be happy with the job. Much like she never liked any permanence to her own appearance, she didn't really find the prospect of settling into one career all that appealing. But who know maybe she'd surprise herself and enjoy it. At the mention of Cara's 'guard dog' though Diana laughed. She knew exactly who she meant. Dominic. The boy had a complicated relationship with the Bainbridge kids. While he played pet to her own twin he also played best friend to her. Though they were perfectly content keeping their relationship entirely to themselves, never letting her sisters in on the secret. "Are you sure you could spare him for that long? What would you do without him?" she teased instead, still highly amused by the idea of Dominic being called a guard dog.

Diana made a sour look at her sister's snort and words. Diana knew she was a bit.... spirited when it came to her opinion of most teachers and learning in general. It was a fault, really. With friends and family she was a sweet girl, but learning in general just brought out an intensity that made people go "I can see how those two are twins". "It isn't so much dumbing down as it is completely denying us necessary information. Why do adults get to know whatever they want while we're forced to take the rainbows and happy classes that don't prepare us whatsoever for how the world truly is?" okay, a bit harsh but slightly true. Diana hated that books and knowledge were denied to her.

cara june bainbridge
(Because I'm a loser and forgot about this thread entirely.)

[cara june bainbridge]

@diana

Cara snorted at the idea of using smoke signals to call on the house elves. Would that even work? Would they even know how to respond to something like that? They could be rather simpleminded at times, especially when it came to anything other than cooking or cleaning. That was what they were for, after all. “I’d like to see that. House elves stoking a fire out on the grounds to say that they’re bringing up tea and a plate of finger sandwiches.” What a sight that would be indeed. There had to be an easier way to call down to them, aside from catching something on fire or going down there themselves.

Apparently calling Dominic her dog was funny. To be honest, it kind of was. He acted like one most of the time, using force instead of words. He wasn’t completely animalistic though – he just needed attention. Like the kind that a dog needed. “I can fend for myself you know. He just makes things…easier, is all.” The last few months had gone that way, with his little disappearing act. Maybe if his brother had magic, he wouldn’t have been as sick as he was. She would never outwardly say that to Dominic, since they were friends, but it was a valid reason. She was sure that he understood that too. Magic fixed a lot of things, sickness included.

She didn’t want to say it, because Diana had a point about what they were taught, but this conversation was a little late in the game. Only two months of school remained, and they were discussing ‘what-ifs’ of days long past. Cara started to open her mouth to respond but let out a long yawn instead. This was starting to get annoying. Covering her face with her hand, she blinked a few times as it finally ended. “I agree, and I’d love to continue talking about the injustices of Hogwarts’ educational flaws, but I’m not going to last much longer here Di.” Rolling her body into a sitting position, Cara stretched her back before standing up. “We can drag third years into it over dinner, see what they think about it all.” With a shrug, she headed for their dorm room, shuffling her feet lazily the entire way there.

[Cara End]