Nora Selene Gray's Story

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Bobby Burkinson, The boy who had it all. He was everything a luscious pureblood family would want. To achieve, a feeling of accomplishment. To rule, a feeling of entitlement. To feed, the crave of hunger. These things are what made him who he aspired to be in the wizarding world. "Why would they leave me? Why would they put me away as if I was useless? Imperfect? a complete and utter nothing.." His thoughts reconciled. The air was filled with magic, chocolate cards and flavored beans being stepped on at the second, and the smell, like strawberries in the summer. He could just taste the sweet treat on his tongue, if only.

Bobby grabbed his luggage, followed by tugging lightly on his pet owl Pola."Oh come on you dumb twig! I didn't spend my last galleons on you for this!" He mumbled a slight curse under his breath entering the cruise as he walked forward, entering what appeared to be simply magnificent."Holy.." His mouth dropped in awe, nodding to himself in secret of the compartment room. He sat his luggage down, cracking his neck with a short sigh as he crossed his leg over the other.

"Now..if only I had a little mudblood to keep me company." He chuckled to himself, watching as fellow students passed by into there rooms. Bobby would have three others join him, and he wasn't one for a great conversation about simply anything so to himself, he was all that'd be needed. He pulled out his wand sitting it on the table next to him, slouching in his seat as he stared at the pouring rain, dripping and dropping against the hard steel glass. "It'll break..eventually." His snickering became depressing and his urgency to walk in such a close space became disturbing.

His ramblings came to a holt, as the woman opened the door. "Anything off the trolley dear?" He responded hastily, grinning with a slick smile that could break a mirror, shutting the door fast in the poor woman's face."I don't need anything from the fowl likes of her."He thought to himself in delight. Bobby was on the verge of being completely out of it. He was a mental nutcase that was entrapped inside, waiting to talk to someone other than himself. With no time needed he exited, walking to the back where a small crowd of student's were.

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Homesickness had already hit long ago, on the long road trip that had brought her here to this very moment. Standing with her arms crossed in the sea of swarming students. Body tucked in tightly to prevent any accidental touch between her and those who went by her - like a ghost, nobody stops to actually see her. Every year is the same, no matter how much Nora loves Magnus Grexx she always feels so alone. She finally begins moving, wading through the crowd carefully. She doesn't want to draw much attention to herself just yet.

She spots a few students she knows, not personally of course but their faces are ones she has seen quite a few times. She sees Natasha and Rose among the little crowd and raises her hand to wave, but drops her hand when she spots Abraham Delavergne there among them. She doesn't know him at all, but knows that hes Arietem and the majority of her encounters with members of that house haven't ended very well. Instead she smiles politely and continues on her way, feeling more self-conscious than ever before.

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The compartment she is in is empty, Nora is glad for it. She tucks herself into one of the seats. Content with staying in that position no matter what. The rocking motion of the ship has already began to make her feel nauseous. Nora wants nothing more than to sleep for the duration of the trip but the last time she tried to do that she woke up with a pounding headache and felt sick for days afterwards. Instead she digs in the small bag that she carried around with her, she grabs her copy of 'a history of magic' and begins reading where she left off. Even though she has already read this book about a million times since buying it she still enjoys it greatly.

'Mreeeoooww' Grumps angry meow alerts her to the fact that she hasn't let him out of his carrier yet.

The poor cat is probably itching to stretch his legs. She reaches over to flick open the latch, watching him dart out as if he thinks she will close the door on him before he can escape his prison. He meows again as he hops into her lap, his claws poking the skin of her leg. She winces and strokes a calming hand over his fluffed up white fur.

"Silly cat," She says to him. He relaxes finally, laying still in her lap. The vibration of his purring almost soothing as she goes back to reading her book and awaiting the long journey to end.

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For all of his usual complaints Teddy has never been more happy than he is right in this moment. Unlike most he actually enjoys the trip to Magnus Grexx. Even the rocking of the ship as it hits wave isn't enough to dash his mood. He noticed that very few students had made their way into their quarters yet, so he stuck around for a while chatting with various students until the weight of his backs became far too heavy and Cassiopeia began to flutter her wings in annoyance. He quickly deposits his belongings where he will be spending the duration of this trip and returns top-side to continue socializing with the other students.

Most of the first years are looking around in wonder, its easy to tell them apart by the way they seem overly excited. He remembers being that way in his first year as well. Back then he had been a chubby boy who got on every ones nerves within a few minutes. He had made very few friends during that time, and hadn't kept many of them over the years. Teddy only began to see an influx in the amount of friends he was gaining during his third year, when his over all attitude began to calm down a little.

While walking around he spots Nora Gray, looking exactly as she does every other time he sees her. Utterly uncomfortable and painfully shy. Teddy feels pity for the girl, who can't even get up the courage to talk to her peers. He doesn't approach her, figuring his presence would only make her even more uncomfortable. Instead he walks past her, heading deeper into the throng of students.

Stephen smiled slightly as he prowled through the ship. It was strange how some people just took a magical ship for granted due to repeated exposure to it. Did anyone wonder what spells were worked into this living piece of history? The sheer amount of people who took the same ship to the same destination over and over again for hundreds of years? Really, it seemed that people rarely saw beyond their own nose.

Speaking of people who saw little beyond themselves, he heard the predictable snottiness of Bobby Parkinson and the reaction it elicited in those around him. Sure enough, a group of people began to gather together in a compartment a significant distance from said fool. He smiled politely at the gathered throng before raising an eyebrow at the person he recognized as Natasha. He always liked the girl. She was downright pleasant to be around and attractive no matter how much she changed her appearance. Her abilities were fascinating. He envied her, truthfully. To control a type of magic so rare was something money or influence could never buy. Nor could hard work, he found to his disappointment.

"Sterling silver today, Natasha? You wear it well, as always" he stated before nodding politely at the others. There were some he knew better than others, but there was no reason not to be polite. Stephen pride himself on rarely ever being rude. Spotting Waylon, he grinned.

"Ah, Waylon. Has the Muggle Rite re-instituted the Latin Liturgy yet?" he asked, focusing on one of his favorite topics. Latin was the language of history and scholarship. It was still taught in many pure-blooded households and Stephen thought that Magnus Grexx should make the class mandatory. Why the Muggle Catholics had mostly abandoned the language for Holy Mass, he could not fathom.

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Bobby stood at the front of the cruise, looking on at the sight of Magnus with awe and aspiration within. He couldn't control how much his lust for returning outpaced itself. "Ah, fresh air indeed.. He thought silently to himself. He fixed his posture and licked his lips, followed by untying the knot in his freshly green tie. Bobby sniffed, once and again, finding himself uncontrollably sneezing at that. He whipped his nose with his arm, shaking his head as a sign of relief as he peaked over, noticing something strangely odd, grotesque rising to the top of the ocean losing all hope as his face changed from relief to horror within seconds.

They were humongous, rising in the league of hundreds, mermen and maid alike. All holding on tightly to their tridents and pitchforks. But they were waiting, almost as though they had been signaled. With shock came blood, as the skies lit up in a dash of multiple colors, snakes in fact, swirling around the other, almost hissing like a python in the Egyptian deserts. He gripped tightly onto his wand, turning left to face the cold that awaited him.

Men, covered in masks and smoke. Demons he thought? But he knew all too well for what was to come. Screams filled the air, followed by laughter and spells shouting left and right from one another. He fell down, watching the death eaters board the cruise one by one, filling what joy the students had with coldness, rain and death.

He pulled out his wand, breathing heavily with short pauses to catch his breath. Where were the others? Were they safe? Secure? His thoughts mesmerized and changed, crossing his arms as he hid under the cupboard by the deck, surrounded by spells shooting back and forth. "We're at deck! We're at deck!" The captain cried, stopping the cruise to a halt as Bobby exited. Pushing, following and running for his life.

"Dementors! Dementors!" A poor young girl screamed, pointing to the skies as they fell like rain. Bobby could see the carriages in clear view that would lead him to the school, safe and unharmed. He sped up his pace and ran, turning his back to see an all out war still on the cruise. "Faster, I must.." He repeated by the dozens. He could see it, the carriage just a few distances away, finally, he had made it.

Too soon the boy had hoped. Bobby clenched hard onto the carriage door, unknowingly realizing his fate would be decided right there. A word came..followed by a flash of green light. Bobby hit the floor with a face that had been filled with pink now cold like ice. He was dead.

”Not quite, yet,” the Texan replied, ”oh, but we're still holding our breaths. My uncle, the monsignor back home, says all the Masses in Latin under dispensation from our bishop. Some of my kinfolk refused to go to Mass until that dispensation was enforced. 'Course, there is definitely room for English... when German or Latin doesn't suffice.”.

"Quite true. I have a great deal of affection for the English language. With its patchwork of words and grammar from other languages, there isn't a language like it," the pure-blood noted. With that, he remained mostly quiet, observing the others and contributing to the conversation here and there. The cruise was pleasant and he was looking forward to another school year.

Then, an icy hand gripped his heart and everything went to hell in a hand basket. He cursed and gripped his wand as he watched helplessly as other students fell to an unholy alliance of Death Eaters and Dementors. In a split second he had to make a decision. Would he have a better chance of survival hiding somewhere in his compartment or fighting their attackers?

He calmly stepped out of his compartment and, spotting a group of Death Eaters, he thrust out his wand and softly murmured, "Flipindo Tria."

He watched with some satisfaction as the fools were knocked against the wall by a tornado of magic, losing consciousness. Honestly, it was a third year spell. He smiled charmingly at his friends.

"I really see this as an opportunity to cut loose, don't you?"

As he said that, he grimaced as a Dementor flew towards him. He had not yet fully mastered the Patronus Charm. It took great effort for him to produce a corpeal one.. Quickly, he drew circles in thin air with his wand.

"Expecto Patronum!"

Sure enough, a jet of white vapor erupted from his wand, halting the creature as he grinned, his patronus clearing his mind enough to allow him to regain a happier state of mind. Now then, what memory was strong enough for him to use? Ah yes, last New Year's Eve. He had not gotten any sleep that night.

"Expecto Patronum!"

Sure enough, a luminescent snake was produced by his wand. It hissed as the Dementor before lunging at it and Stephen nodded in satisfaction before he heard a familiar scream.

"Schwarz!"

He ran towards the scream and spotted his classmate and the perpetrator, his mask hiding his expression, but Stephen could tell he was enjoying torturing the boy. He gripped his wand before making a slashing motion, casting the first spell that came to mind.

"Sectumsepra!"

Stephen watched coldly as his spell made a large cut across the man's chest. He cursed when he heard a scream. Okay, it was time to lose the bravado.

"Stephen is not physically injured, but he's not getting up anytime soon," he murmured to the group, not caring in the slightest what they thought of his using a dark spell to leave a man to bleed out. He was not going to think about it now. He stepped down the hall and his heart clenched. He hadn't known Bobby well, but he didn't deserve to die.

"We can give him his last rites later. For now, we can make his enemies suffer greatly before they die."