valesco ; a harry potter rpg

Jolene wasn't able to sleep – a common occurrence these days, and she had grown restless laying in bed, staring at the ceiling. She had been careful not to wake Henry as she rolled off the mattress and exited their room, heading towards the kitchen so she could grab a glass of water and head into the living room to sit on the couch to read. Her vision was beginning to blur as she came to the end of her chapter, and she lowered the book so that she could rub at her eyes, letting out a small groan of frustration at her body's inability to rest.

It wasn't like her, not being able to sleep. Caden used to even tease her about how he was half convinced she was part cat because of how easily she could curl up on a chair and be out almost as soon as her eyes closed. Now, she was lucky if she could catch a few hours before the sun came up. Then again, she had a lot on her mind lately...

The sound of footsteps behind her caused her hands to drop, and she looked over acknowledge her husband, who had just emerged from the bedroom.

"Hey," she greeted, her voice low, not wanting to wake Bran. She placed her book on the coffee table and shifted on the couch, pulling her legs up to her chest to make room for Henry to sit. She rested her chin against her knees as she hugged her shins, letting out a heavy sigh through her nose as she looked over at him.

"What're you doing up?"

This post is fluid time, meaning it is not set for a specific date - please state the time/date/location in the subject of your thread's first comment. There were a lot of thread ideas for the spattergroit breakout, so to help the friends list here's a group thread. Be creative, this can be the first early symptoms of Spattergroit, it can be a few days in, or toward the end of the disease. Perhaps something else entirely, but it should have something to do with the outbreak. OUTBREAK INFO

( on the flip side! )

ooc: Have a character shipping off to Paris on Sunday that wants to say some good-byes? Post here!
Ideas: Team England Party @ Grail's bar | Last minute packing | Portkey Terminal | etc.!
...maybe it doesn't have to be quidditch related? dun dunn who's taking off as well?

Spread & Share the ♥!
OOC: Cards/Gifts from your characters to their loved ones can be posted here!! Have fun!

If he believed in old wives' tales, Henry would think that his face was going to stay twisted up in thought for the rest of his life, with how long he'd been holding the smirk. His wand arm was out and stiff, levitating his desk from one corner of the room to the other, trying to...imagining...picturing...

His shoulders dropped and he threw his head back to look up at the ceiling of his new office, levitating desk remaining steady.

"Why didn't I see it before? I need a bigger desk."

A bigger desk would fit nicely along the wall with the windows, charmed so that he could see out, but that others couldn't see in. Henry lowered his current, unsuitable desk to the floor, and looked over at his brother, who had been helping him move furniture around the office space. It was important to make the place comfortable for himself, fellow employees, clients, potential clients, and of course, family. Bran had already claimed a chair as his own, and a hidden bookcase was stacked with his son's toys.

"How late do you think the furniture place in Diagon is open?" Henry mused out loud toward Seth, stepping forward to run his hands along the wood of his desk. He'd taken it in the move from W.A.G.s, but perhaps not only the size was the matter; it held too many memories, and if he wanted the fresh start he was vying for, a new desk was seeming to be necessary.

Jolene was always excited to leave her desk at the ministry, but today she had been counting down the seconds on the giant clock that hung above her row of cubicles. When the big hand finally hit the 12, and the face of the clock read 5 o'clock, she stood up so quickly that she startled the poor woman who sat directly beside her, and had almost knocked the pile of parchment she had spent the last 45 minutes meticulously organizing (because she was so bloody bored, she needed to do something to make the time go by) onto the floor. When asked why she was in such a hurry to get out of the office that evening, she couldn't contain her smile as she adjusted her bag on her shoulder, looking back to say nothing more than that she had a very important appointment to get to.

That appointment was with Henry, who had promised to give her a tour of the new building he had just purchased. She had known for quite some time now that he had quit his job right before they had left for China, and had plans to begin his own agency, but now it was actually happening! She was so beyond excited for him, knowing how miserable he had been for the longest time being stuck where he was, so when she saw him standing on the sidewalk, that smile was back, hidden behind the large scarf she was wearing. She came up behind him, tapping him on the shoulder to get his attention.


"Excuse me," she began, brows raising when he turned to face her. "I'm looking for the owner of this building," she said, looking at the office building they were standing in front of. "He's an exceptionally handsome, very successful Sports Agent – kind of a big deal," she said, turning to face him again, her dimples reappearing as she tried to bite back another grin.

ooc: Massive group thread! Where is your character celebrating NYE? Thread it here! Provide parties/events!
Known events: Ollie & Jake's house party, Witch Weekly's Sexiest Men of the Year Bash (black tie~), and...?

WHO: Jolene Flint and Henry Wadcock
WHAT: Good morning, China!
WHERE: ...China!
WHEN: Today!
STATUS: Continuing in comments to wake up Henry's muse!

( Portkey lag was not settling well with Henry )

Jolene had woken up that morning in an empty bed. It hadn't been that way when she had fallen asleep, though when she rolled over, her hand found some crumpled sheets instead of Henry. Her eyes opened, vision blurry as she stared at the empty spot where her boyfriend had been the night before, and let out a sigh. Rolling onto her back, she stretched and yawned, eventually throwing her legs over the side of the bed so that her bare feet could hit the floor. She padded along the floor of his bedroom, wrapping her arms around herself as she quietly slipped into the hallway, making her way to the kitchen so she could put on some water for tea. As she passed the bathroom, she heard the shower was on.

The thought of joining him had crossed her mind, but she decided against it, thinking he deserved to have a few minutes of alone time before he had to go and deal with the insanity he had been facing at work. After everything that had happened - the riot, the attack on Geoffrey Brand, and the Kestrels tragedy - he had been so swamped trying to take care of things for his clients.

By the time Jolene had gotten the water to a boil, she heard the shower go off. She had the Daily Prophet hovering in front of her as she gathered mugs, honey and tea from the cabinets, preparing a cup for each of them. There were a lot of angry people writing in, expressing their opinion on the Minister's decision to end the Quidditch season early. She could understand it, seeing how so many people had been hurt, and a veteran player had lost his life too soon.

She waited a few minutes before she made her way to the bathroom door, knocking quietly, knowing that Bran was still sleeping in the other room. When she heard Henry's voice on the other side telling her she could come in, she pushed the door open.

"G'morning," she said, her voice a bit raspy since she was still waking up. Her shoulder leaned against the doorframe, and she was holding her mug between both hands, appreciating the heat that was radiating from it. She watched her boyfriend move around, going about his usual morning routine, only able to see his face through the mirror he was facing. He looked exhausted…

"How did you sleep?"

At first he'd thought some fireworks had gone off too soon. From his position high above the pitch, Matt narrowed his eyes, glowering down in annoyance, thinking that the Falcons' seeker had caught the snitch, and that the Falmouth fans in the crowd had started celebrating. When he spotted the other seeker still circling near the opposite goals, Matt felt his concentration drift, pull from the pitch and toward the crowd, where the noise had sprung. With the wind whistling in his ears, it was hard for anything louder than the crowd's usual roar to pierce through, but it had definitely sounded like...

Matt pulled up the front of his broom in a harsh brake at the sight of what appeared to be fire in the northwest section of the stands. He waved toward the referee, but there had been a drive on the pitch toward the other end, both teams had full attention on the quaffle at play. No, the security team would handle it, wouldn't they? He sat, watching for a moment to wait to see if the game would be delayed, but to his surprise another fire burst from a section close by.

"Hey--HEY!" Matt shouted, taking his broom into a steep dive toward the crowd. What the hell was going on? His heart rate picked up as he felt the heat of the flames, thinking---He shook his head, hovering over the crowd, the panic. But it wasn't just people attempting to flee, no, he saw spells being shot out, angry yelling, chairs were being flung. It was madness, it had erupted in seconds but it was madness. Thinking the only thing he could do was try to help those that were stuck, Matt flew toward the edge of the stands, shouting and waving for attention, though by now the screens that displayed the game were all focused on the literal riot that had erupted.

The crowd was swelling, people didn't know where to go, and as Matt tried to grab someone, anyone, more hands reached for his broom and tugged him down. He couldn't---his broom shot up and out of reach on its own accord, a safety charm that had been trigged, and with his acceleration he ended up straight in the trajectory of a wayward spell.

The crowd went silent, but that couldn't be, because he was watching them move, fight, and yell. Why couldn't he hear them? Matt felt himself wavering on the seat of his broom, his heartbeat suddenly filling his ears. It was all he could hear, but it was slow, it sounded off measure, and his chin drooped on its own accord to his chest. A smoldering black smoke burnt through the United's sigil on his jersey, and at the sight of it the rest of his body began to shut down along with his heart. Matt's full weight leaned forward, sending himself and his broomstick on a steep and fast spiral toward the pitch.


ooc: threads can range from the players, stands, hit-wizards, healers, mediwizards, announcers, outside fans, etc. etc.! we need it to be a disaster :D

Henry frowned down at the mess that laid before him. "You're kidding me, right?"

Bran and his cousin Leanne sat in a winter wonderland of flour, mountains of it covering the entire tiled floor of his kitchen, handprints over the counters, mush of it from their poor watery attempts at cleaning it up. Henry had only been upstairs for ten minutes, thinking that the two were settled in the playroom, but no, no, they'd decided to go on a raid in his kitchen, and had come out less than victorious.

"I fix it, Daddy," Bran said, waving his paper towel in the air, looking like a defeated soldier with his white flag. Henry put up his hand to tell the two to get themselves into the bath tub, when the sounds of the spells announcing someone's arrival went off.

"Your daddy is here," Henry said pointedly toward Leanne, who looked most guilty. He waited until they could see Seth in the front window of the home before he crouched low, "Get up to the tub before he sees, you nuts."

The children scrambled to their feet and rushed out of the back door of the kitchen. Henry took in a deep breath, knowing that it was going to take more than one quick wave of a cleaning spell to get all the flour out of the numerous crevices of the kitchen. He turned and used his wand to flick open the locks of his front door, shutting the small door of the kitchen to hide the mess for a later reveal.

"You look like you stepped in front of the Hogwarts Express," Henry said, wiping his hands against his pants, knowing that he would be doing laundry later in the day.

Donovan Rookwood may have been Head Boy in 1986, had not been looking forward to his class reunion. He couldn't believe it had been 10 years - 10 bloody years - since he had graduated. Honestly, it felt like only yesterday. He missed the school, but the people? He could live without never having to see certain people from his graduating class ever again, but he couldn't very well not attend. He was sure Jolene would have throttled him if he had told her she had to host the entire evening by herself, and there were some people who were actually sentimental about this rubbish. Despite the dread he had felt leading up to that night, he had to admit that riding the Hogwarts Express beside Danielle, not to mention being in the castle, made him feel a sense of nostalgia that he hadn't entirely expected. He suspected that if he wasn't partially responsible for making sure everything ran smoothly, he might not have been so miserable. He just hadn't realized how much planning was involved. They had to figure out out the number of people in their class, and account for people who were bringing guests. That meant figuring out how many place settings there were, and try and seat people according to who wasn't going to kill each other by the end of the night, while also trying not to segregate the houses, and then there were the decorations, and- The list just seemed to go on and on, but thankfully Donovan and Jo had different strengths they brought to the table. After months of work, their efforts had finally paid off, and everyone seemed to be pleased with the end results. There was good food, live music, and there was even supposed to be a fireworks show that Dumbledore had arranged for the end of the night. All of these things were well and good, but there was one thing in particular that Donovan was looking forward to - the fully stocked, high-end open bar. It wasn't the first time the class of 1976 had gotten piss drunk on Hogwarts grounds, but it was certainly the first time they had been able to do so with permission. Students were home for the summer, and the common rooms were theirs to use as they pleased. Donovan and Jolene were even given access to the Head Boy and Girl suites. If he had his way, he and Danielle would have disappeared a long time ago to enjoy the privacy, but his wife had decided to mingle, which left her husband leaning against the edge of the bar with a half-empty glass of firewhiskey. He was scanning the crowd when he noticed someone walking towards the bar, looking just as thrilled to be there as he was. He smirked behind the rim of his glass, and took a sip. "Having fun, Wadcock?" [OOC: This thread is for anyone who graduated in 1986 from Hogwarts and +1's! The date of the reunion is actually tomorrow (the 18th) but Kristin is in a wedding and needed to post this a little early. >_> REMEMBER, RULES OF THE REUNION ARE: YOU CAN NOT SCENE WITH YOUR CHARACTERS' GUESTS, OR ANYONE ELSE THEY WOULD ~TYPICALLY~ SCENE WITH! Be creative! EXPAND HORIZONS! REKINDLE OLD FRIENDSHIPS! MAKE UP OLD "WHEN WE WERE IN HOGWARTS" STORIES, ETC. ETC.]

Who: Jolene and Henry!
What: Birthday celebrations!
Where: Jolene's apartment!
When: Tonight!
Status: Finishing in comments!

( I vote that for the rest of the night, we throw etiquette out the window... )

WHO: Henry Wadcock and Jolene Flint
WHAT: BEING CUTE
WHERE: Henry's house!
WHEN: This morning!

( A little early to be thinking about dinner, don't you think? )

Seth could feel his brother watching him. Henry had asked upon opening the door what was wrong, and he could only reply with a sigh as he shouldered by to take up residence on the couch. He thought he had planned this better, that he would know what he was going to stay. After all it had nearly been a month since that conversation with Savannah. Yet he still hesitated. Telling Henry meant talking about it. Talking about it meant he couldn’t avoid it anymore.

The last few weeks, despite trying to distract himself, Seth kept finding his mind wandering back to that evening. What he could have said differently. Trying to pinpoint just when they both just gave up. He hated everything that had happened, but he couldn’t see what he could have done differently.

“I think my engagement is over.” It was the first time he said it aloud, and he didn’t feel any better than he did when it happened. Seth avoided his brother’s gaze, opting instead to stare into his glass and watch the liquid move as he twirled the glass.

NOMINEES ★ HONOREES ★ PRESENTERS ★ WINNERS ★ AWARD

( Let the party begin!! )

Brunch had been a syrupy, sugary success, and now the kids were running off the energy in the small garden that was outside the small restaurant. Leeanne was excellent at allowing Bran to keep up with her, and Henry watched in amusement as his son attempted to hide behind a cut-in-half barrel that was not tall enough to hide his small form.

"Bran thinks he's invisible," he said to Savannah with a laugh, shaking his head before looking down at the open journal in front of him. He'd left a funny observation on Jolene's journal and he felt eager to respond to their little back and forth. It wouldn't be rude, would it? Yes, it probably would be, and after a moment of struggling, he shut the journal and looked up at Savannah with a pressed smile on his lips.

While his son had been jabbering on about Savannah (Henry was sure he had a Ravenclaw in the making), Henry also wished to pick his former/future sister-in-law's mind. She knew a thing or two about confusing relationships, and he wasn't quite ready to bring things up with his brother. Letting Seth in on the on-goings of his life often meant that things were serious and for sure, and...he didn't know if it would ever get to that point.

Did he want it to?

"Think they'll be playing long enough for a mimosa?" he said with a mischievous smirk.

Bran has been telling me that he misses his godmother dearly, would you be free for lunch some time this weekend?

- Henry

How did a pretty white dress make being married feel official?

Nora had never been very feminine, but it had taken her less than a second to accept Liddie's offer to help with the perfect wedding dress. She and Orion didn't need to have a party, but it was such a wonderful feeling to have friends and family that wanted to share in the joy of their love. Oh, she felt so silly for thinking and saying the things she had today, but she was a newlywed, wasn't she allowed to spew poetry and all that lovey-dovey nonsense?

If anyone told her otherwise, they'd be sure to earn themselves a black eye or two.

She slumped against Orion's chest in exhausted pleasure, her arms hanging around his neck as they slowly danced. The sun was beginning to set so the guests were either mingling at the tables or heading toward the castle. Dumbledore had been so pleased to have a reason to throw a party on the grounds, and had insisted on dancing to each and every song. It was a riot to see the headmaster and Professor McGonagall cut a rug, and Nora almost felt like a student again, with how tickled she was by the sight.

"I am very proud of us," she said, having practically clung to her husband all night. What reason was there to let go of him? "Two months without seeing each other. I don't know how I lasted."

ooc: Open to guests! Let me know if I missed anyone! Dumbledore is opening the doors of Hogwarts for the weekend because the students are allowed on spring break! So have fun!