We Are Circling (OPEN)

[Deleted]

May 1, 2025

There was little else to say other than that the academic year was drawing to a close. Little had been said for what was to happen with regard to Ilvermorny, and—even as one of its staff members—Clarence knew no more about the matter than the rest of those who had come to Hogwarts from the American wizarding school so many months before. Although he was admittedly aggravated not to have any idea as to what was going on, he also knew better than to push the buttons of the bureaucrats in MACUSA. They had proven to him long ago that they were far from interested in being helpful in any substantive way, and so he kept his distance. It was literal—in that he was an ocean away from the majority of the American government, save for a number of Aurors and various other law enforcement officials who had been brought over in late December—as well as figurative.
 
The man sat in his office, reading an old book that had been worn from how many times it had been read and handled, its pages yellowed and a few probably stained or torn, in truth. It was one of the books that he had brought with him—not from Ilvermorny itself, because of what had happened to it, but from Massachusetts—an old version of a historical account of Ilvermorny’s founding. It was odd to read it then, so far from its subject. If Ilvermorny did reopen, Clarence did wonder if he would go back. The Hogwarts students hadn’t driven him from teaching after so many decades, no. It was simply that he wondered if he might have been better served elsewhere. Back to his own community, his own people? That was one thought, certainly. In Britain in some capacity? He didn’t think that was as likely, but, then again…
 
Regardless, there were still weeks to go before the school year—as it was—came to a close. It was time enough for answers, in more respects than one. Clarence flipped the book closed almost in time with the sound of a knock at his office door. That was right; he had set aside time on that Thursday for a meeting.

OOC: Open! This can be as boring or as lively as you want. Just run with it. Haha.

[Deleted]

YOU HAVE EVERYTHING I SAY FALLS RIGHT BACK
INTO EVERYTHING I'M NOT
IN THE SWING OF THINGS
BUT WHAT I REALLY MEAN IS
NOT IN THE SWING OF THINGS YET ―

Iphigenia had hated going to Hogwarts for even one year. She didn't like the accents, the way the Hogwarts teachers taught, none of it. She wasn't stupid, but around the UK kids, she felt like she might as well have been from Mars. Spending her seventh year there would be the worst, absolutely the worst. She was losing her opportunity to be Head Girl at Ilvermorny, or Head Girl at all. She was certain that Hogwarts only wanted one of their students as Head Girl, and she couldn't blame them. With no clues on whether they would be going back or not given, she decided to contact her most trusted professor, Clarence.

"Hi." The American girl said, opening the door. She gave a small wave. Even though her parents had known Clarence, and she had known him since she started at Ilvermorny, she still always felt a little awkward talking to teachers, even ones she trusted. "I was wondering, if we could, um, talk about Ilvermorny?" Iphigenia wasn't going to admit it, but she was feeling a little homesick. Maybe talking to one of the constants since moving to Hogwarts would help, "Or about Native American Magic. Whatever works." she laughed, already feeling a little silly. It wasn't like they couldn't have talked any other time.

216 words. @clarence .

by sixsmith.

[Deleted]

May 1, 2025

Not all of the students who had come to Hogwarts from Ilvermorny had taken a liking to the school. As much as it seemed to bother some of his colleagues that they hadn't embraced their new environment, Clarence understood. None of the Ilvermorny students had asked to be sent to Hogwarts; they had been given it as their option if they wanted to continue their schooling. Aside from a handful of families who had the resources to educate their children from home for an indefinite period, many had taken it. Despite the murders and devastation, it was what they had been given.

The student who had asked to meet with him was Iphigenia Rose Bush, a Plains Cree and Saulteaux student in her sixth year. Clarence knew her to be intelligent and responsible, though she seemed to have had her difficulties in fitting in amongst her peers at Hogwarts.

"Hi," she greeted him upon opening the door. "I was wondering, if we could, um, talk about Ilvermorny? Or about Native American Magic. Whatever works."

Clarence got to his feet and wandlessly moved the chair on the opposite side of his desk back so that Iphigenia could sit. "Come in, Iphigenia," he nodded, putting the book that he had been reading away.

@marilee
OOC: Just to make sure you're aware, this is about two weeks IC before the quarantine was announced.

[Deleted]

YOU HAVE EVERYTHING I SAY FALLS RIGHT BACK
INTO EVERYTHING I'M NOT
IN THE SWING OF THINGS
BUT WHAT I REALLY MEAN IS
NOT IN THE SWING OF THINGS YET ― May 1, 2025

Iphigenia felt a little bad for disturbing Clarence, even though she had already known she was going to speak with him that day. Everything else at Hogwarts and in the UK felt unfamiliar and foreign to her, she was glad whenever she was near anything from home, or anything from somewhere a little closer to home than Hogwarts was. Still, just the one year wasn't horrible. It gave her some flair for when she would be a MACUSA intern, or a healer. She hadn't quite decided. Something successful, though, like she'd always dreamed of when she was a child. "Hi Clarence." she said a little lamely, sitting down in the chair.

"Um, a bit of an odd question...do you know if we're going back to Ilvermorny next year? I mean, it's not like I don't like Hogwarts." Iphigenia said, quick to cover up her own discomfort. She didn't want to seem ungrateful, after all, this was one of her only options to continue schooling. At the same time, though, she wanted to scream at the Hogwarts people to fix her school instead of sending her to theirs. "I just, I miss home so much, and I think it would be a lot better for everyone if things just, if they went back to the way they were before those people stole everything."

222 words. @clarence .

by sixsmith.

[Deleted]

May 1, 2025

Iphigenia greeted him again before she sat down in the chair across from him, immediately starting in with her question. She prefaced that it was an odd question, though the question itself wasn't odd at all to Clarence: She wanted to know if they would be going back to Ilvermorny for the next school year.

She spoke quickly, adding that it wasn't that she didn't like Hogwarts. Clarence couldn't blame her there, either. It wasn't what anyone from Ilvermorny was accustomed to, and—aside from the fact that they had been gracious enough to allow him to continue Native American Magic—that often felt like the extent of what had been done to accommodate the ways in which things had been taught at Ilvermorny, not least for the students who were Native American themselves.

"I just, I miss home so much, and I think it would be a lot better for everyone if things just, if they went back to the way they were before those people stole everything."

It was the sort of comment that gave Clarence pause. Although Clarence inferred that it was the damage done to Ilvermorny itself of which Iphigenia spoke, there was plenty more that had been stolen over the centuries for their peoples. Out of respect, it wasn't his habit to hold eye contact, but he nodded gently at what she had to say and waited until he was certain that she had finished speaking.

He understood her frustrations completely, though he knew no more than any of the students. "I haven't heard anything yet," he answered her. It wasn't the answer that he wanted, either. It would have been appreciated if MACUSA could have relayed something about what would happen. Students needed to plan to return home or make arrangements to stay in Britain, if that was what was going to happen. "I've considered contacting MACUSA," he admitted, "on behalf of all of us here." Clarence wouldn't have been surprised if they had been fielding letters from students' families for months, anyway, with everything that had happened.

@marilee

[Deleted]

YOU HAVE EVERYTHING I SAY FALLS RIGHT BACK
INTO EVERYTHING I'M NOT
IN THE SWING OF THINGS
BUT WHAT I REALLY MEAN IS
NOT IN THE SWING OF THINGS YET ― May 1, 2025

Iphigenia's hands balled into fists. She should have suspected an answer like that, after all, Ilvermorny was so far away, and even though it had been a year, she knew the damage must have been extensive for them to have not let students go back after the first few months. She just wished there was more news, that he could inform her so she knew what she was doing. How was she supposed to be the president of MACUSA at this rate? It had been one of her dreams, and she thought that if she was in charge, she could do things better. She was clever, smart, she could've come up with a way to fix things. She had to. But she was just a sixth year at a foreign school where people talked oddly and nothing really made sense to her. She felt stupid compared to some of the Hogwarts people when she did something they usually didn't, and she hated it. She never wanted to feel stupid.

"Would you?" she asked hopefully, "My parents were going to, but their MACUSA representative is so slow, he'd take ages just to send the message, and then it would take ages for my parents to send it to me and it would be horrible, Clarence." Iphigenia didn't expect good news. After all, if they could've gone home, they would've, but she really, really wanted to end her last school year in a place that felt more like home. She was sure she would get along with the UK students eventually, but for now everything still felt weird, and that was after a year of going to Hogwarts.

276 words. @clarence .

by sixsmith.

[Deleted]

May 1, 2025

The tension that Iphigenia felt was evident in the way that she had clenched her hands into fists. Clarence wished that he could have said something to reassure her that everything would be alright, though her anger appeared to fade as she clung to the hope that perhaps he would get through to someone in their government sooner than her parents would. "Would you?" she asked him. "My parents were going to, but their MACUSA representative is so slow, he'd take ages just to send the message, and then it would take ages for my parents to send it to me and it would be horrible, Clarence."

"I can't make any promises that they'll respond to me," Clarence reminded her. He couldn't get her hopes up too high, lest they be dashed by what was out of both of their control. He couldn't make anyone at MACUSA reply back to him in any capacity. Chances were that they would send back some non-committal answer to thank him for his enquiry, and that would be that. He had been through that innumerous times, though the buttons that he had pushed there weren't the same people who were responsible for education.

If he had the power to get MACUSA to respond to him in any productive capacity, Clarence knew that he would have made use of it decades before. Maybe then he would have had some closure about what had befallen his sister, though the hope of any answers or justice faded with each year that passed. Besides, of the MACUSA Aurors he had seen in Britain, few were old enough to have known anything about his sister's case. He had been just twenty-six in 1972; Dotty, his sister, had had her life cut short at thirty-three.

Fortunately, there was no murder at hand, though Clarence questioned why MACUSA continued to communicate so very little. It wasn't as though they were the only ones at Hogwarts, though he knew that it was likely just a trivial problem for some families. The ones who could afford to arrange Portkeys for their children at a moment's notice were the same ones responsible for the decision-making, at the end of the day. They weren't the ones who had to think through the logistics of getting their children home from a different continent and possibly having to turn around and send them right on back to Hogwarts in September.

"I can only hope that the MACUSA officials understand that some of their own children are here at Hogwarts," Clarence noted. "You would think they would have an interest in bringing them home."

@marilee