Outside BTP
Jul 10, 2018 15:19:03 GMT -6
Post by Snick on Jul 10, 2018 15:19:03 GMT -6
After the assembly, Esther had made her way back to her legacy house but instead of going inside, sat on the front steps of the wide porch, looking out across the grounds and to the sea beyond, and to the mysterious lighthouse in the distance.
It was not quite time for classes, nor time for eating, and quite frankly, she was perplexed. Once again, she had felt that hostile energy from Makepeace. What had she done to him? She was nice to everyone, wasn't she? The first three years at Salem Institute she had even counted him as one of her friends, and then . . . was it because she had joined BTP? Surely not. He could have pledged as well. But what was it then? She didn't have to have everyone adore her. She wasn't quite that full of herself. But she had once thought of him as a friend, and it hurt a little to feel this negativity from him all the time now. She had hoped it might disappear over the summer, but no, it seemed to have increased.
She sighed. Ever restless, she began stretching out, pointing and flexing her toes, spreading her legs, arching her back, and going through her warm up routine there on the front steps in her uniform, since she was alone, or had been when she started and had last checked some minutes ago.
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After the assembly Lex decided to go for a walk, wanting to get away from everyone. There was so much to take in and adjust to that she needed time to think. She'd briefly stopped in at her new dorm room to change out of her uniform - she would really need to try to exchange the skirt - and grabbed a notebook. She was now dressed in her normal jeans, t-shirt, and sneakers. She was also sporting a dark blue beanie and had a book bag over her shoulder with notebook and writing instruments inside. There were a few other students walking around, but most of them were in groups talking with their school friends whom they hadn't seen since before the summer.
Lex found herself at the legacy houses and noticed one of the older students sitting on the steps outside one of the houses. The girl was moving and stretching as if she was about to engage in some sort of sporting activity, yet she was still in her school inform. Lex stopped near the stops to watch her. "Getting ready for a show?" She commented, a bit dryly. She looked up a the house, it was a lot nicer than any place she had ever lived, than again, the entire school was a lot nicer than anywhere she had ever been.
"So, these are the legacies, huh? Which one's this?" She commented. Lex had read about them in their school handbook and they all seemed like places she wouldn't want to be. She was only a first year, so it didn't matter yet, but Lex was pretty sure she wouldn't be pledging for any of them in the future.
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Esther realized she had an audience. "Sorry," she said, getting to her feet. "I was just stretching out. I don't get a lot of ballet in during the school year, so I try to fit it in wherever I can. I'm Esther Black, and this is Beta Tau Phi--or Blood Traitor and Proud. Welcome to Salem Institute. And you are?" she asked with a bright smile.
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Ballet, not really Lex's thing but she managed to hold her tongue. She supposed it would be hard to be at a school that didn't have an activity you were good at and enjoyed. Lex had always wanted to partake in school sports, but she moved schools far too often to ever join a team. She had dared to wonder if now that she was here she would be able to do sport, though she supposed she would have to learn one of the wizarding ones. "Blood traitor? What does that mean?" Lex asked when Esther told her the name of the legacy. She had read about bloodlines, she knew what pureblood, halfblood and muggle-born were, but she hadn't read or heard the term blood-traitor yet. "I'm Lex Lively," she answered when the girl asked her name.
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"Blood traitor. Back in England, a blood traitor was a pureblood who liked Muggleborns, worse, even married them or had them as friends and business partners. Most of us were burned off family tapestries, disowned, and then forgotten about. Especially if you were a Black. They were the worst. Blacks were the most unforgiving of all to any family members who weren't stuck up enough. So my family left . . . well, we were kicked out. Burned off the family tree. If there are any Blacks still living in England, they don't even know we exist and don't want to know us, nor do we want to know them. So, we're blood traitors and proud of it. We like Muggleborns, always have." She grinned. "That's what's great about America. All that pureblood stuff doesn't mean a thing. But in the UK, it still does. So we send money back there all the time to help with Muggleborn acceptance. Of course, what do you expect from a country that is so backward that it still has royalty?"
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Lex was definitely starting to get the vibe that Britain wasn't popular with American wizards. Makepeace had made fun of them earlier at the assembly, saying that they wore powdered wigs. Though Lex had read a lot of her textbooks over the summer there was still so much that she didn't understand about the wizarding world. What Esther was saying to her was completely new. It was nice to hear that it was easier to be a muggleborn in the United States. "So, this house is only for purebloods, than?" Lex asked, gesturing at BTP. "Why do purebloods in the UK think they're better? Do they have more magic than muggleborns?" It made sense to Lex, if your family was only made up of wizards you must have more magical blood in you. She had been told that this wasn't true by the school representative who had told her about Salem, but she knew from experience that adults lied. She figured students would be more truthful about the matter.
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Esther smiled again, something she rather liked to do. "Oh no, If it were only for purebloods that would defeat the purpose. We would be as stuck up as the people we escaped. So it's for purebloods who like Muggleborns, Halfbloods who like Muggleborns, Muggleborns who like purebloods, and generally anyone who wants to see more intermagical harmony and help out those witches and wizards stuck in countries who still don't get it." But as she thought about it, she realized that most of their members were pure blooded or half blooded. She would have to see about changing that.
"As far as the magical purebloods in the UK thinking they are better, you'll learn about it in magical history. It goes clear back to a wizard named Salazar Slytherin. He thought that their magic was more concentrated--or truer, so they should lead, or sometimes only they should be taught. But it doesn't work that way. Either you have the gene, or you don't, like blue eyes."
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BTP sounded a bit too touchy feely for Lex. She wondered if they really did anything productive or just sat around patting themselves on the back and talking about how tolerant they were. Lex thought it unlikely that she would appreciate the help that BTP had to offer. Most of the time people tried to help it was very much uninvited and not at all actually helpful. Lex was of the opinion that people did things for selfish reasons and something like BTP was no different. The students were probably all self satisfied and thought that being part of some rich legacy house during school was actually helping people, Lex thought.
That said, it was nice to hear from a student that muggleborns didn't have less magic than purebloods. "So... how would someone have blue eyes if neither of their parents have blue eyes?" She was referring, of course, to the fact that a muggleborn, by definition, has muggle parents. She still didn't understand why she had magic when neither of her parents did. "Though I suppose bastard child isn't out of the question." She mused bluntly and unflinchingly. This wasn't quite true, though she wouldn't have been overly surprised were it to turn out the case, she was fairly certain her father was really the father of both her and James. However, in all honestly, she would have preferred to find out that some mystery wizard had gotten her mother knocked up and her father wasn't her real father.
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"But you can have brown eyed parents for generations and get a blue eyed child, never knowing whether they were heterozygous or homozygous for brown, so let's say brown eyes are Muggles. But blue eyes are Magic. All of the sudden a couple of hidden blue genes are thrown and up crops a magical child. But magical genes, like blue eyes, always throw a magical gene. See?" She grinned. "And the Muggle born Magical child is no less magical than the one with Magical parents." Except that eyes didn't work perfectly that way, as all the green and grey eyes went with blue. And there were the squibs, but they were more a birth defect than a lack of magic. Their magic was just blocked the way her father explained it.
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"Polyester!" Pratt seemed to pop up from nowhere, a shit-eating grin on his face. That wasn't the worst nickname he had for Miss Black. The worst, he didn't say to her face. He hadn't appeared out of thin air, of course. Sneaking up unnoticed was just second nature to him. Loosening his tie considerably and unfastening the uppermost button of his white shirt, the infamous troublemaker leaned against a nearby tree.
"And who is your adorable little friend?" his dark eyes swiveled to the newbie, hands jamming into his pockets. He and Esther hadn't been close friends, ever, but they did once run with the same circles. BTP had been all wet and ready for him to pledge, salivating at the mouth for a Pratt - one of the oldest pureblood families from England and (eventually) Ireland. The surname was one of the earliest recorded in history, appearing even before the use of last names had really caught on.
Not that the Pratts had ever been muggle-haters. It was just assumed. They were actually just law-abiding citizens. Once the statute of secrecy was incorporated, all ties were cut from anything and everything muggle-related. When his ancestors left England in the late 19th century for America, that barely changed. It wasn't prejudice, it was fear. Fear of being tossed into jail for exposing magic to non-magical folk. This Pratt, however, soaked up muggle things like a sponge. Television, movies, music, clothing, games... it all intrigued him beyond measure. After all, it was only illegal to expose magic to muggles. It wasn't illegal for a muggles to expose technology and such to wizards.
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She smiled, to cover the wince she felt inside when he said that. She hated that her parents gave her such an old-fashioned name, but it meant star and Blacks had this thing about giving their children star names. Her brothers had only received them for middle names, and planets at that. No, her name had to BE star. As in star of the family. But to her friends it was an old-fashioned slightly nerdy name that she always had to live down.
Pratt, in the meanwhile, had gone from promising future business leader to burnout. She didn't know what he was taking, but he seldom seemed completely focused. "Pratt, this is Lex. I was just explaining to her about Muggleborns and Magical blood. Would you care to add your two cents or have you already given your wisdom quota for the day?" she replied brightly, but with a slight barb in her undertone.
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Lex hadn't the faintest idea what heterozygous or homozygous meant, but she felt she understood well enough what Esther was saying. Somewhere in her line there must have been someone magical and that magical gene had popped up in her. It was hard to imagine part of her family line being magical when her parents and family seemed to be as far from magical as it was possible to be. Lex was about to follow up with a question that she wasn't entirely sure she wanted to know the answer to which was how likely it was for there to be more than one magical child in a muggle family.
Before she could ask, though, a boy arrived out of nowhere. Lex scowled at him when he called her "adorable" and crossed her arms in front of her chest. The conversation topic had already made her feel slightly vulnerable even if Esther couldn't know exactly why it was that Lex was so interested in knowing about magical blood. "Pratt? What is with people's names here? Makepeace and now Pratt?" She said. The way the boy was grinning Lex guessed he would live up to his name. Esther didn't seem all that enthused to see him either.
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"I like a girl with rapier wit," he waggled his brows at Esther, masking that her barb sort of hurt, before looking to Lex. "Ah, muggleborns. Without them we wouldn't have TV, video games, or decent music. Or the miracle of the microwave. A shame the ones here are infused with half-assed charms. Half the stuff you put in comes out frozen even more than when you put it in, the other half comes out charred beyond recognition."
Pratt shrugged a shoulder, then batted his bangs from his eyes. "We all came from muggles, back in ancient times," he shrugged again. "Then some badass Professor X mofo was born. Mutated genes and whatnot. Muggles thought he was a god. More and more of the mutated gene started popping up - gods, goddesses, demigods, et cetera. Anyhow, it's nice to meet you.. Lex, was it? I'm Pratt."
He held out his hand for a shake, glancing sidelong at Esther as if daring her to spill his full name or his family business.
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She ought to call him Phrixos, just because he called her Polyester, but she already got even she supposed. She would maintain her dignity and show his name more respect than he had given hers. "Pratt's a legacy too. One of the Stooges. Not a lot to be taken seriously, but always good for a laugh, and their house is seriously cool. The whole thing is upside down, even the car in the driveway. Stay away from Throckwattle, but you gotta see his house. It's awesome!" Her praise was sincere. "I would have joined it if I wasn't expected to be a Betta, and if his house had been a home for more than jokers and screw-ups." She beamed at Pratt, hoping she had both tactfully insulted and complimented him, as was her intent. She didn't take well to being mocked.
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Lex took the hand that Pratt offered after he somewhat ineloquently described magical history in a nutshell. She figured she'd be learning a much more detailed version in History of Magic, that is, if what he said wasn't complete nonsense. She couldn't quite tell if he was genuinely praising muggle technology so decided not to comment on it.
"Yeah, I've heard of Throckwattle already. Sounds pretty messed up for a school." She commented. Older students at the assembly had already warned her about it but she had yet to decide if they were actually telling her the truth. It sounded far too outrageous to be true yet so did a lot of the stuff she'd learned over the past few months. Still, she didn't plan on wandering into the place anytime soon to find out.
It was not quite time for classes, nor time for eating, and quite frankly, she was perplexed. Once again, she had felt that hostile energy from Makepeace. What had she done to him? She was nice to everyone, wasn't she? The first three years at Salem Institute she had even counted him as one of her friends, and then . . . was it because she had joined BTP? Surely not. He could have pledged as well. But what was it then? She didn't have to have everyone adore her. She wasn't quite that full of herself. But she had once thought of him as a friend, and it hurt a little to feel this negativity from him all the time now. She had hoped it might disappear over the summer, but no, it seemed to have increased.
She sighed. Ever restless, she began stretching out, pointing and flexing her toes, spreading her legs, arching her back, and going through her warm up routine there on the front steps in her uniform, since she was alone, or had been when she started and had last checked some minutes ago.
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After the assembly Lex decided to go for a walk, wanting to get away from everyone. There was so much to take in and adjust to that she needed time to think. She'd briefly stopped in at her new dorm room to change out of her uniform - she would really need to try to exchange the skirt - and grabbed a notebook. She was now dressed in her normal jeans, t-shirt, and sneakers. She was also sporting a dark blue beanie and had a book bag over her shoulder with notebook and writing instruments inside. There were a few other students walking around, but most of them were in groups talking with their school friends whom they hadn't seen since before the summer.
Lex found herself at the legacy houses and noticed one of the older students sitting on the steps outside one of the houses. The girl was moving and stretching as if she was about to engage in some sort of sporting activity, yet she was still in her school inform. Lex stopped near the stops to watch her. "Getting ready for a show?" She commented, a bit dryly. She looked up a the house, it was a lot nicer than any place she had ever lived, than again, the entire school was a lot nicer than anywhere she had ever been.
"So, these are the legacies, huh? Which one's this?" She commented. Lex had read about them in their school handbook and they all seemed like places she wouldn't want to be. She was only a first year, so it didn't matter yet, but Lex was pretty sure she wouldn't be pledging for any of them in the future.
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Esther realized she had an audience. "Sorry," she said, getting to her feet. "I was just stretching out. I don't get a lot of ballet in during the school year, so I try to fit it in wherever I can. I'm Esther Black, and this is Beta Tau Phi--or Blood Traitor and Proud. Welcome to Salem Institute. And you are?" she asked with a bright smile.
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Ballet, not really Lex's thing but she managed to hold her tongue. She supposed it would be hard to be at a school that didn't have an activity you were good at and enjoyed. Lex had always wanted to partake in school sports, but she moved schools far too often to ever join a team. She had dared to wonder if now that she was here she would be able to do sport, though she supposed she would have to learn one of the wizarding ones. "Blood traitor? What does that mean?" Lex asked when Esther told her the name of the legacy. She had read about bloodlines, she knew what pureblood, halfblood and muggle-born were, but she hadn't read or heard the term blood-traitor yet. "I'm Lex Lively," she answered when the girl asked her name.
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"Blood traitor. Back in England, a blood traitor was a pureblood who liked Muggleborns, worse, even married them or had them as friends and business partners. Most of us were burned off family tapestries, disowned, and then forgotten about. Especially if you were a Black. They were the worst. Blacks were the most unforgiving of all to any family members who weren't stuck up enough. So my family left . . . well, we were kicked out. Burned off the family tree. If there are any Blacks still living in England, they don't even know we exist and don't want to know us, nor do we want to know them. So, we're blood traitors and proud of it. We like Muggleborns, always have." She grinned. "That's what's great about America. All that pureblood stuff doesn't mean a thing. But in the UK, it still does. So we send money back there all the time to help with Muggleborn acceptance. Of course, what do you expect from a country that is so backward that it still has royalty?"
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Lex was definitely starting to get the vibe that Britain wasn't popular with American wizards. Makepeace had made fun of them earlier at the assembly, saying that they wore powdered wigs. Though Lex had read a lot of her textbooks over the summer there was still so much that she didn't understand about the wizarding world. What Esther was saying to her was completely new. It was nice to hear that it was easier to be a muggleborn in the United States. "So, this house is only for purebloods, than?" Lex asked, gesturing at BTP. "Why do purebloods in the UK think they're better? Do they have more magic than muggleborns?" It made sense to Lex, if your family was only made up of wizards you must have more magical blood in you. She had been told that this wasn't true by the school representative who had told her about Salem, but she knew from experience that adults lied. She figured students would be more truthful about the matter.
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Esther smiled again, something she rather liked to do. "Oh no, If it were only for purebloods that would defeat the purpose. We would be as stuck up as the people we escaped. So it's for purebloods who like Muggleborns, Halfbloods who like Muggleborns, Muggleborns who like purebloods, and generally anyone who wants to see more intermagical harmony and help out those witches and wizards stuck in countries who still don't get it." But as she thought about it, she realized that most of their members were pure blooded or half blooded. She would have to see about changing that.
"As far as the magical purebloods in the UK thinking they are better, you'll learn about it in magical history. It goes clear back to a wizard named Salazar Slytherin. He thought that their magic was more concentrated--or truer, so they should lead, or sometimes only they should be taught. But it doesn't work that way. Either you have the gene, or you don't, like blue eyes."
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BTP sounded a bit too touchy feely for Lex. She wondered if they really did anything productive or just sat around patting themselves on the back and talking about how tolerant they were. Lex thought it unlikely that she would appreciate the help that BTP had to offer. Most of the time people tried to help it was very much uninvited and not at all actually helpful. Lex was of the opinion that people did things for selfish reasons and something like BTP was no different. The students were probably all self satisfied and thought that being part of some rich legacy house during school was actually helping people, Lex thought.
That said, it was nice to hear from a student that muggleborns didn't have less magic than purebloods. "So... how would someone have blue eyes if neither of their parents have blue eyes?" She was referring, of course, to the fact that a muggleborn, by definition, has muggle parents. She still didn't understand why she had magic when neither of her parents did. "Though I suppose bastard child isn't out of the question." She mused bluntly and unflinchingly. This wasn't quite true, though she wouldn't have been overly surprised were it to turn out the case, she was fairly certain her father was really the father of both her and James. However, in all honestly, she would have preferred to find out that some mystery wizard had gotten her mother knocked up and her father wasn't her real father.
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"But you can have brown eyed parents for generations and get a blue eyed child, never knowing whether they were heterozygous or homozygous for brown, so let's say brown eyes are Muggles. But blue eyes are Magic. All of the sudden a couple of hidden blue genes are thrown and up crops a magical child. But magical genes, like blue eyes, always throw a magical gene. See?" She grinned. "And the Muggle born Magical child is no less magical than the one with Magical parents." Except that eyes didn't work perfectly that way, as all the green and grey eyes went with blue. And there were the squibs, but they were more a birth defect than a lack of magic. Their magic was just blocked the way her father explained it.
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"Polyester!" Pratt seemed to pop up from nowhere, a shit-eating grin on his face. That wasn't the worst nickname he had for Miss Black. The worst, he didn't say to her face. He hadn't appeared out of thin air, of course. Sneaking up unnoticed was just second nature to him. Loosening his tie considerably and unfastening the uppermost button of his white shirt, the infamous troublemaker leaned against a nearby tree.
"And who is your adorable little friend?" his dark eyes swiveled to the newbie, hands jamming into his pockets. He and Esther hadn't been close friends, ever, but they did once run with the same circles. BTP had been all wet and ready for him to pledge, salivating at the mouth for a Pratt - one of the oldest pureblood families from England and (eventually) Ireland. The surname was one of the earliest recorded in history, appearing even before the use of last names had really caught on.
Not that the Pratts had ever been muggle-haters. It was just assumed. They were actually just law-abiding citizens. Once the statute of secrecy was incorporated, all ties were cut from anything and everything muggle-related. When his ancestors left England in the late 19th century for America, that barely changed. It wasn't prejudice, it was fear. Fear of being tossed into jail for exposing magic to non-magical folk. This Pratt, however, soaked up muggle things like a sponge. Television, movies, music, clothing, games... it all intrigued him beyond measure. After all, it was only illegal to expose magic to muggles. It wasn't illegal for a muggles to expose technology and such to wizards.
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She smiled, to cover the wince she felt inside when he said that. She hated that her parents gave her such an old-fashioned name, but it meant star and Blacks had this thing about giving their children star names. Her brothers had only received them for middle names, and planets at that. No, her name had to BE star. As in star of the family. But to her friends it was an old-fashioned slightly nerdy name that she always had to live down.
Pratt, in the meanwhile, had gone from promising future business leader to burnout. She didn't know what he was taking, but he seldom seemed completely focused. "Pratt, this is Lex. I was just explaining to her about Muggleborns and Magical blood. Would you care to add your two cents or have you already given your wisdom quota for the day?" she replied brightly, but with a slight barb in her undertone.
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Lex hadn't the faintest idea what heterozygous or homozygous meant, but she felt she understood well enough what Esther was saying. Somewhere in her line there must have been someone magical and that magical gene had popped up in her. It was hard to imagine part of her family line being magical when her parents and family seemed to be as far from magical as it was possible to be. Lex was about to follow up with a question that she wasn't entirely sure she wanted to know the answer to which was how likely it was for there to be more than one magical child in a muggle family.
Before she could ask, though, a boy arrived out of nowhere. Lex scowled at him when he called her "adorable" and crossed her arms in front of her chest. The conversation topic had already made her feel slightly vulnerable even if Esther couldn't know exactly why it was that Lex was so interested in knowing about magical blood. "Pratt? What is with people's names here? Makepeace and now Pratt?" She said. The way the boy was grinning Lex guessed he would live up to his name. Esther didn't seem all that enthused to see him either.
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"I like a girl with rapier wit," he waggled his brows at Esther, masking that her barb sort of hurt, before looking to Lex. "Ah, muggleborns. Without them we wouldn't have TV, video games, or decent music. Or the miracle of the microwave. A shame the ones here are infused with half-assed charms. Half the stuff you put in comes out frozen even more than when you put it in, the other half comes out charred beyond recognition."
Pratt shrugged a shoulder, then batted his bangs from his eyes. "We all came from muggles, back in ancient times," he shrugged again. "Then some badass Professor X mofo was born. Mutated genes and whatnot. Muggles thought he was a god. More and more of the mutated gene started popping up - gods, goddesses, demigods, et cetera. Anyhow, it's nice to meet you.. Lex, was it? I'm Pratt."
He held out his hand for a shake, glancing sidelong at Esther as if daring her to spill his full name or his family business.
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She ought to call him Phrixos, just because he called her Polyester, but she already got even she supposed. She would maintain her dignity and show his name more respect than he had given hers. "Pratt's a legacy too. One of the Stooges. Not a lot to be taken seriously, but always good for a laugh, and their house is seriously cool. The whole thing is upside down, even the car in the driveway. Stay away from Throckwattle, but you gotta see his house. It's awesome!" Her praise was sincere. "I would have joined it if I wasn't expected to be a Betta, and if his house had been a home for more than jokers and screw-ups." She beamed at Pratt, hoping she had both tactfully insulted and complimented him, as was her intent. She didn't take well to being mocked.
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Lex took the hand that Pratt offered after he somewhat ineloquently described magical history in a nutshell. She figured she'd be learning a much more detailed version in History of Magic, that is, if what he said wasn't complete nonsense. She couldn't quite tell if he was genuinely praising muggle technology so decided not to comment on it.
"Yeah, I've heard of Throckwattle already. Sounds pretty messed up for a school." She commented. Older students at the assembly had already warned her about it but she had yet to decide if they were actually telling her the truth. It sounded far too outrageous to be true yet so did a lot of the stuff she'd learned over the past few months. Still, she didn't plan on wandering into the place anytime soon to find out.
