| 17 September 1942 |
[Dec. 23rd, 2008|07:31 pm] |
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It doesn't look like Ximena is going to come back, and I really don't blame her. It's impossible to learn anything here! Astronomy was cancelled last night for another drill, which of course they didn't tell us about so everything was just chaotic. I feel so responsible but there was nothing I could do. If it had been a real raid - well! I do hope that doesn't happen because we are completely unprepared. |
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| 14 September 1942 |
[Jul. 28th, 2008|01:35 am] |
| [ | mood |
| |  worried | ] |
More classes have been cancelled so that we could have a lecture on how to keep the castle safe, which would have been reassuring because it seems that the demon got in because somebody invited it and so long as nobody does that again we shouldn't have another one. But then we also had instructions on what we're supposed to do during evacuation drills.
Of course I'm a prefect now so I'll be responsible for leading people to safety. I do hope the castle co-operates--Miss Peverell said it ought to, but it has always seemed to me that the stairs move in just the wrong way when I'm running late. |
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| 12 September 1942 |
[Jan. 16th, 2008|05:10 pm] |
| [ | mood |
| | worried | ] |
I should be in Artificery right now, but it's been cancelled. Professor Goyle has had to practically take over the school, because so many things have gone wrong since last Saturday, when the most exciting thing I had to look forward to was a picnic with Giselle and Miriam, and the only thing I had to worry about was who was sending me strange packages.
I kept telling everyone I wasn't cursed, but I really wouldn't be surprised if there is a curse on Pelby - it seems like all the bad things happen to us! Giselle has killed herself (I keep wondering if I missed something at the picnic, but she seemed the same as always!), so has Claire Jeannot, poor Professor Blackwell has died...I don't know what to do! |
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| 11 September 1942 |
[Dec. 13th, 2007|10:54 pm] |
| [ | mood |
| |  puzzled | ] |
Tom Forrester is acting odd today. I wanted to ask him about the new girl, because she's one of mine and I don't even know how to talk to her, but he just ignored me.
Strange. |
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| 10 September 1942 |
[Oct. 27th, 2007|10:15 pm] |
| [ | mood |
| |  determined | ] |
I'm so glad it's not the third and fourth-year boys I have to worry about. Even though I hadn't really been paying attention to the younger students, I heard about the trouble they got up to.
On the other hand there's no question of any of them going mad - at least not in a way that's likely to be dangerous. I'm not sure about the girls - I'd never thought much about Claire Jeannot one way or the other, or any of the other girls in that year. Now Minerva wants us to watch them for unusual behaviour, when I don't even know what their usual behaviour is like. I don't even know where I'd look if one of them went missing!
It must be so much easier to be a St Hilda's prefect. They all like each other and stick together - I can't imagine one of them getting lost. Even Caerleon and Avalon students can find reasons to be with other people. Not Pelby, though, and I'm as guilty of it as anyone. Well, not any more. They're my responsibility now, and I'm going to look after them. |
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| 8 September 1942 |
[Aug. 26th, 2007|11:57 pm] |
| [ | mood |
| | worried | ] |
The only thing to go right today is that I didn't get another package, and I'm not even sure if that's a good thing. Claire Jeannot went mad and now she's dead, and what if whatever's been trying to drive me mad gave up and went after her instead?
Or what if it's something else? Everyone who was in Beasts says the Canadian Auror says there are other kinds of magick that we've never been taught. Nature magick, using the spirits of animals that show up to get revenge when you've offended an animal. I've never offended an animal, have I? Other than using them in Potions - oh God, what if that's it? All those mice... |
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| 5 September 1942 |
[Jun. 28th, 2007|12:21 pm] |
| [ | mood |
| |  content | ] |
I had fun. I miss going to Hogsmeade, but I think I’ll be able to make it until Christmas. It helped I think that the day was fine and we could picnic. And that Garnier wasn’t half as hostile as she usually is. Granted, she was still odd but at least she wasn’t looking for pixies under my bed. (I really don’t want to know how much hashish Lu had gone through that afternoon, do I? At least she had the grace not to smoke it in our room.) And we had a very satisfactory conversation about Arithmancy, followed by a debate on just how many lemons Scalara must suck each morning to get her particular expression. I said five, Garnier said six, and Miri laughed at us and said that Scalara wasn’t going to have lemons during wartime—but really, a scowl like that can’t be natural.
And then Miri started to sing “Three Little Maids From School Are We” which confused Garnier utterly, because she’s never even heard of Gilbert and Sullivan. Well, I’d only been vaguely aware of them before Miri so that’s not so unusual. I told Miri that I hoped she wasn’t thinking of suggesting it for the school choir, because there was no reason that people would think singing about the Japanese was anything but unpatriotic, even if they are mostly plaguing the Chinese and the Americans and not us. To which she made a face and said she wasn’t stupid, thank you.
She’s at the Great Hall now of course. First rehearsal of the year and all that. And Garnier went God knows where to God knows what, like she usually does. But I’ve found myself an out of the way chair and I’m content to just sit and think and watch fish.
I think the best part about today was that there were no surprise parcels. |
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| 3 September 1942 |
[Mar. 21st, 2007|01:09 am] |
| [ | mood |
| |  jumpy | ] |
Oh God. Please tell me the whole year isn’t going to be like this. Last night after Enochian I had to dash back to the dormitory to grab my Astronomy text and it was there. A box was there. One of his boxes only I didn’t know it and I opened it and oh God, it was a little skull. I just stood there in the doorway, shaking, and Miri found me there and sat me down in a chair and I babbled and babbled and babbled at her and I ended up missing all of Astronomy—and now I’m going to have to go to Stuart and beg forgiveness. I can’t take much more of this.
What kind of person would do this sort of thing? Snake skeletons and little skulls and— and— birdshite and he’s insane, he has to be. He’s devilishly clever at hiding his tracks and all I know is that he goes to school here. Or she. It could be a she. Miri thinks it’s just someone playing a sick joke, trying to wind me up, but I’m starting to wonder if it’s serious.
The younger girls like to call it my voodoo curse. After last spring it’s become almost a joke to them. But it’s not a curse. None of the ‘presents’ are cursed. They’re all utterly mundane skulls and skeletons, if you could call such gifts mundane. I’d almost be relieved if there was magick on them because that would be something I could handle. Something that made sense. This doesn’t make sense at all.
I have to get myself together. Class will be starting any minute now and I can’t let this affect my schoolwork. No more than it has already. And why is that Caerleon boy staring at me? |
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