#Leron Answers | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

katherinewilliams221b · 5 years ago

Text

For A Greater Good 12/18

gif not mine, just the text. Appare Vestigium

Summary: Kate Williams, young healer and member of the Order, joins Durmstrang’s staff at Dumbledore’s request. Her mission? Find a Death Eater and survive long enough to tell the story. Set in 1996.

Pairing: Charlie Weasley x ofc/mc

Masterlist

[Part 1] [Part 2] [Part 3] [Part 4] [Part 5]

[Part 6] [Part 7] [Part 8] [Part 9] [Part 10]

[Part 11]

–

Kate felt the coolness of the night on her lips and decided to enter the castle again. A chill ran through her body and had nothing to do with the icy breeze that crossed the threshold of the door behind her.

She folded all the scrolls as best she could and slipped them into the inside pocket where her notebook was before she started walking back to her room.

She climbed the main stairs slower than usual; many thoughts came into her mind: the danger that lurked in the recesses of the castle; the responsibility she felt to keep her students safe from a potential killer; the idea of Igor Karkarov wandering around the place even though no one had seen him; the goal of finding a secret room that only two people knew about: one had been dead for several centuries and the other was a serial killer in prison.

Overwhelmed by not knowing what her next step should be, she stopped on the first floor and gripped the staircase railing. She took a couple of deep breaths and looked down.

A shadow quickly crept down the corridor on the lower floor, but before it could disappear, it stopped short.

Candlelight showed Kent Jorgensen’s face changing from an alarmed expression to one of surprise. Kate bowed her head in greeting and hurried off towards the top of the building. She had no intention of engaging in a conversation with anyone in the castle.

She was about to reach the first floor when she saw Jorgensen again at the foot of the stairs. Her heart was racing.

She couldn’t think of anything else but hiding, so she followed her instinct and turned the corner before bending over, letting the shadows do the rest of the work. She saw the teacher looking at the place where she had been a few seconds earlier and followed a corridor in the opposite direction.

Kate let go of the breath she was holding and ran to the safety of her room. She placed her chair under the doorknob and immediately felt like an idiot. She had felt watched before, but the accumulation of things that had been happening to her since she arrived had finally had the expected effect.

Without thinking, she grabbed the quill and a scroll and, standing up, began to write,

Dear Charlie,

For the first time… I felt fear.

She returned the quill to the inkwell and crumpled up what was going to be a letter and threw it on the floor. She sat down on the bed and went over her notes.

She jumped to her feet again, remembering that she had to prepare the greenhouse activity for the lesson.

In the days that followed, many questions remained unanswered; who was waiting in the woods? Someone from the castle? It was a man, that was clear. When did she have to go? The note did not specify a specific time. How long did she have to wait for that person to contact her? Would anyone contact her at all?

Her students noticed her absence and took advantage of her distracted mind to get out of some responsibilities and leave greenhouse chores unattended. If Professor Williams was not aware of it or simply overlooked it, they did not know.

Kate visited Corentin to distract herself from Dumbledore’s map, but her spirits fell when she remembered that she had to investigate Nerida Vulchanova’s plans.

When Corentin laid them out before her, she almost decided to drop the whole thing. He didn’t exaggerate when he said that only Vulcanova knew how to move through the tunnels. The blueprints of the building were composed of twelve scrolls, four had symbols and numbers, four contained fragments of rooms, and the rest showed each floor of the castle.

“How do you know this is belongs here?” She said holding a blank scroll except for a small triangle in one corner.

“I have no idea. It was on top of the others. It could be anything….”

Kate inspected the first document, marked “the ground floor” of the building. She smiled a little and held the scroll up to her nose.

“I like the way it smells. Sweet.” Corentin raised an eyebrow at the comment and sat down next to her.

“I know there is one in this room. But it only connects to the first floor of the library,” he said, pointing to the circle representing the tower where they were, “Sometimes I use it to surprise first graders.”

She turned the paper to place the library drawing in front of her, and Corentin pointed at the symbol of a staircase.

“Where is it?”

“Right behind my desk. Behind the curtain.”

Kate held the map of the ground floor and followed the librarian to his desk. He pulled back the curtain, and they heard a faint sound of chains as the wall opened. A torch lit up the interior.

“That staircase leads to section C on the first floor.”

Kate entered the narrow nook and found that to her left was a staircase that led to the upper floor. To her right, there was only one wall.

“Tsk. I need the other scroll perhaps… or… I better go now. I have to grade some assignments, clean up the greenhouse, go to class, meet with Rhode, and go to…”

They had come back to the table while Kate was talking and started to collect the scrolls. She decided not to comment on the cryptic message Dumbledore had sent her.

She considered telling the headmistress in case she thought she knew the person she had to trust in the forest.

Could it be Corentin? No, he wasn’t the kind of person to hang out with a man like Dumbledore.

“What a tight schedule.” Kate took a deep breath and let the air out heavily.

“Yes… and now this…” She gasped and looked at Corentin with round eyes “And the AEDA! I must check the list…”

The librarian grimaced at her tone of voice, but was reassuring in his speech.

“We don’t have to do this…”

“Yes. I must. I have the impression that someone is also looking for Grindelwald’s room. We are not the only ones who know about the existence of the passages.”

Kent Jorgensen and his evening walks, Mer Yankelevich and her mysterious affairs that Libor Marek knew about, Leron Angelov and his entrance to the greenhouse, all the hours when no one knew anything about Cassandra Steiner…

Any of them could be looking for that room. Any of them could be a Death Eater.

“I’ll keep them safe.” he said, pressing the scrolls to his chest.

Kate said goodbye to Corentin and went to Class 82 to pick up the list she had hung for her students to write their names on.

“I hope they have an idea of what to do…” she said to herself before arriving.

She passed by Grindelwald’s column, now surrounded by a magic barrier to prevent it from collapsing through the crack, and continued on to the classroom.

Before entering, she saw two guards talking at a shift change in front of the lake. She hurried to pick up the scroll hanging on the other side of the door and read the names on it. Micael Angelov was the first on the list, followed by only two other students. Perhaps they could consider working together.

She went to the desk and after leaving the list on the table; she took the scrolls out of the top drawer and set about correcting their writing. She had an hour before the herbology class started.

Kate raced against time and ran to the other side of the castle on her way to the greenhouse, in vain, as she did not manage to get there in time.

“Sorry, sorry, sorry.” She exclaimed as she walked to the end of the central table. She left the scrolls on top of the wood.

“Professor Williams, you’re not wearing your overalls!” exclaimed a boy as he pointed his finger at her.

“You’re absolutely right, Jon, but you’re going to have to turn a blind eye for a moment. These are your essays.” As she said this, everyone got up to find theirs and Kate slipped into the wardrobe to put on her work clothes.

The sound of papers crumpling up under her cape reminded her of the many things she had to do after that class. Dumbledore’s map was burning in her pocket.

“I’ve made a list of the mistakes that have been repeated the most. I want to start by doing the transplant exercise again…”

Several grunts showed their dissatisfaction. She heard some murmurs saying things like “we’ve done that a thousand times already”, “it’s boring” or “we haven’t done anything else lately”.

“Do you want to do something different today?” Kate asked, resting her hip on the table. “Do you have something in mind?” Nobody answered. Kate observed how they looked at each other. With a gentle but decisive clap she said, “Get your garden shears. We’re going into the woods.”

Like a mother duck and her ducklings, Kate took her students across the bridge to the entrance of the forest. It benefits us all; she thought, to convince herself that she was not making a serious mistake.

“Alright,” Everyone crowded around her so they could hear what she was saying. “Rules: you can’t go to the lake or back to the castle without me knowing about it.”

She turned to point out the path into the forest. “You may follow the path and move away a little as long as you do not lose sight of the castle, the path, or any of your companions. If you move away, I will know.”

A little lie that served to make more than one of them look down.

“What we are going to do is this… do you have all your books?” They shook them or lifted in confirmation.

“Perfect. Let’s do what every good herbologist does: an herbarium. An herbarium is a collection of plants and flowers that are kept after they are dried, with information that identifies them. Today we must do the important part, the collection. I have brought the only basket that we own, I need someone to carry it”.

They looked around, pretending to admire the landscape so as not to be chosen to carry the basket. Michael Angelov reached out to grab it.

“Brilliant. Thank you, Michael. You have your scissors and the book to remember how to cut a plant properly. Cut a maximum of two herbs each. Be respectful of the forest and don’t abuse it. I trust you. Come on, go play”.

Nervous, but still determined to stick to that makeshift plan, Kate looked for Dumbledore’s map in her pocket. She followed the path and went into the woods.

With each step, the laughter and footsteps of her students faded away. Following the line indicated on the map, there came a moment when only her own steps could be heard. A turn to the right, a jump over a fallen log, and a few more steps led her to a clearing. The line on the map did not advance in any other direction.

The wind suddenly picked up and Kate put her hand to her chest and covered her throat with her robes. She looked up. The treetops swayed above her. They were really tall. A strange thing for the climate of the area. She took a few steps to the nearest tree and placed her hand on the wood.

The entire tree vibrated, and a golden glow surrounded it for a second. Kate smiled. They were protected with magic, a rare technique given their difficulty in execution, but if done correctly, entire areas of vegetation could be preserved for centuries.

She glanced around, looking for signs that someone had been there, but did not notice anything out of the ordinary.

Drawing out her wand, she mumbled, “homenum revelio”, but only the wind appeared.

She took a deep breath and twisted the wand slightly to prepare for the next spell. It was time to demonstrate that she had been paying attention to Charlie’s tracking lessons, and that she hadn’t just stood by and stared at him.

“Appare vestigium.“

A golden swirl came out of her wand, illuminating the area. Several scenes were played in front of her: Kent Jorgensen transforming into a hawk, a hooded figure talking to Leron Angelov, Cassandra running, Mer Yankelevich looking around, Libor Marek casting a spell, footprints of…

A creak of branches alerted her.

She stood still where she was and looked around, trying to make as little noise as possible. All she could hear was her breathing and the whistling of the wind through the leaves. She saw a glint in the branches and held her breath. A centaur appeared from among the trees.

Keeping her eye on the arrow that was pointing at her, Kate raised her arms, showing the map and wand. She did not look away from the weapon; she knew a herd surrounded her. There was no need to check.

Would he be the one Dumbledore wanted her to trust? Slowly she bent down and left both the wand and the map on the ground.

The centaur pulled the string of his bow, and Kate gasped.

“There are children in the forest! And they are my responsibility. I’m looking for someone, I don’t want any trouble,” she said hurriedly, fearing the worst. She resisted the urge to grab her wand because that would be digging her own grave.

The arrow shot out before she knew it, hitting the target effectively. Kate pressed her eyes closed instinctively.

But the pain never came.

She looked down and saw it stuck in the ground. A scroll was wrapped around it. When she looked up, the centaur was gone. She bent down to pick up the scroll and unrolled it.

Find the room and the names. There is not just one mark.

Nerida had more than one profession.

Do not return. We will not meet.

You can tell this person is a friend of Dumbledore’s, she thought.

She didn’t dare touch the arrow, so she left it where it was and set off to return to her students. She dawdled her way to the children, a little afraid of another reunion with the centaurs. She knew that they avoided humans at all costs and that this time they were just messengers, but the thought of endangering the students gave her goosebumps. She heard laughter and people talking, but before returning to them, she held Dumbledore’s map and the stranger’s note and with a wave of her wand, set them on fire.

“Professor Williams? Professor Williams!”

Kate shot out, waving her wand in the scream’s direction and found one of her students, Vivien, waiting for her to arrive. The smile on her face reassured her.

“Professor Williams, look!”

Kate mentally counted all the children who had arrived when she heard Vivien’s voice and found that no one was missing. They walked to a tree that was thicker than the rest and, with a little more inspection, Kate discovered what Vivien wanted to show her.

“Oh! Umbrella flowers!” Three small umbrella-shaped flowers floated near the tree and swayed slightly in the breeze. Two of them were pink, the other was yellow. “These are beautiful! Very good find, Vivien.”

“They look like mushrooms…” said Jon Hopkins.

“It’s a very interesting comparison because… Look inside, they have some small capsules where they keep spores. They are not reproductive, they are responsible for floating.” She turned away so they could look inside the flowers. “These are tiny, but they can be the same size as you. The cover that gives them their name protects them from heavy rain and cold.”

“They are a bit boring. In the book it says that there are plants that have fangs or claws. What do these do?” commented another student. Kate stood there thoughtfully, reproducing in her head the image of clawed umbrella flowers, and a laugh escaped her lips.

“Well, don’t you think it’s enough that they fly? If they also had teeth that would be…” She gasped, “What a great idea you just had, Ivan!” They shared some puzzled looks before looking at Kate as if she had just gone mad.

“What if I told you it might be possible… to make them have teeth?” He let them mutter to each other before going on, “it could be our project for AEDA. I’ve seen fanged geranium seeds in the greenhouse. We could try…”

“You mean…” started Micael Angelov “crossing the two species?”

“Yes. Exactly that. I’ve never done it, it could be fun, what do you think? Does anyone else want to participate?”

Kate approached the flowers and asked Vivien to borrow her scissors. With great care, she cut a strand that was growing from the inside and gave the tool back to her student. “This will be enough.”

Michael extended the basket for her to examine.

“Very good collection. Let’s see what’s in here… wolf’s bane! Interesting. This looks like wild celery… and these I don’t know. Brilliant! We already have a lot to do.”

They discussed it animatedly together on the way to the castle and Kate used their good humour to remind them that even if they had this project in hand, they would not be spared from practising transplanting between pots. The last stretch was filled with grunts and laughter from Kate.

The next day, Kate met with Corentin again, with all the intention of telling him about her escape to the forest and the information she was presented there.

The librarian received her with his own good news.

“I have found it.” He said with excitement. “Follow me. Last night I couldn’t stop thinking about…you know…so I began studying the blueprints.”

They gathered at their usual small table, away from prying eyes. Corentin pointed to the scroll.

“Here is the library, the duelling classroom, the charms classroom, the hospital wing…” He pointed at each of the rooms on the ground floor until he reached the trophy room. He moved his finger back a little and waited for Kate’s reaction.

She looked at him and shook her head. “There’s nothing there.”

“No… but if you put this on top…” He slid a scroll that had only several lines and squares drawn in no particular order, and had one edge fitted into the space on the bottom plane.

“There is a secret room a little further back.” She nodded proudly, but her happiness quickly evaporated. “But that’s what we expected. There must be dozens of hidden places here. Unfortunately, it means nothing.”

“There are at least four. I’ve done the same for each floor plan, and there’s only one match in each one. These 8 scrolls show each floor in its entirety plus the fragments of the secret rooms.”

Kate looked at the table in amazement. “Excellent work, Corentin.” He bowed his head and smiled. “I have something to tell you too.”

Corentin didn’t believe what he was hearing. He kept his calm demeanour, but Kate noticed that it surprised him.

“So a person you don’t know who he is, and whom you haven’t seen, has delivered a message to you in the woods.”

“Yes.”

“And you trust this person.”

“Yes.”

He raised an eyebrow and looked at the plans again. “Everything seems to point to Nerida Vulchanova, doesn’t it?”

“It seems so. Maybe we should start in the trophy room. There’s a painting of her there, isn’t there? Maybe it’ll give us a clue.”

“Unlikely. But we can try.” They were silent for a while, and Corentin turned to find Kate looking at him. “You mean now?”

She smiled innocently, and Corentin agreed to the little manipulation. Together they sorted out the papers before going to investigate Nerida’s painting.

The portrait received them with a small smile, as if she knew what they had been up to. Luckily for them, the room was deserted.

“Corentin, what do you know about her?”

“Well… the essential. She was a brilliant woman. She designed and built the castle as a perfect fortress. She was skilled in many disciplines; architecture, of course, the dark arts, alchemy, astronomy… It is said that she liked to sail, and that she drew hundreds of maps of the seas showing islands that only she had found.”

Kate touched the plate of her date of birth and death. “How did she die?”

“It is not known exactly. Her death was filed as ‘in strange circumstances’. The books do not agree on the date either.“

“And this one here? Is it the right one?” Corentin approached to inspect it and shrugged..

“It could be. The newest texts date from those years so…” He took a handkerchief out of his pocket to clean the plate from the dust layer it had and, as he did so, it slipped off, leaving a hole in its place.

“Corentin!” Kate gasped. He pulled out his wand and lit the hole, but it was apparently empty.

The librarian went to put his hand in, but Kate stopped him before he could do anything. “What are you doing?”

“It could be a similar mechanism as the one in the library.” Corentin put his hand inside and when he pressed, a slight ‘click’ was heard. They took a couple of steps backwards and Nerida Vulchanova’s huge painting slowly opened.

“It’s Muggle-like. It’s brilliant, if you think about it, the blood purists would never have thought of it,” said Kate.

The painting stopped moving, revealing a stone wall. Disappointment was evident on both faces. They stared at the wall for a moment without saying anything to each other, until Corentin spoke,

“There’s a reasonably simple potion for getting through walls. It’s dark magic, but I know you’d be able to perform. You need water from the lake, sopophorous beans and bottled ghost breath. Then you heat…”

“How am I supposed to get bottled ghost breath?”

“Well, you need a bottle and a willing ghost.”

“You just want to see me bang my head against the wall, don’t you?”

“It was just a suggestion…”

Kate shook her head and went over to the wall. She placed both hands on top of it and pushed to see what would happen. She felt around the stone, looking for any irregularities or anything that might indicate a mechanism similar to the one in the painting.

“Corentin, look at this.” The librarian approached and crouched in the corner where she was. The Deathly Hallows symbol adorned the stone.

“I think we’re on the right track.”

–

[Part 13]

Tag list: @eldritchscreech @meteora-fc @cazreadsstuff @the-navistar-carol @am-i-space

#charlie weasley #charlie x jacob's sibling #charlie weasley fanfiction #charlie weasley x mc #charlie weasley x ofc #durmstrang #Kate Williams

26 notes · View notes

teenslib · 4 years ago

Link

By Martha S. Jones FEBRUARY 9, 2021

Martha S. Jones, a historian at Johns Hopkins University, is most recently the author of “Vanguard: How Black Women Broke Barriers, Won the Vote, and Insisted on Equality for All.”

When I wrote a book about Black women’s long struggle for voting rights in the United States, I knew the story was partly about how racism has shaped our democracy. I never expected that a public library today would refuse to host a discussion featuring my book.

“Vanguard” recounts how many suffragists and lawmakers who sought to ratify the 19th Amendment accommodated and, in some cases, embraced anti-Black racism even as they worked to expand access to a fundamental democratic right. Jim Crow laws — poll taxes, literacy tests and more — prevented Black women from casting ballots for decades after the 19th Amendment became law in 1920.

Facing these ties between racism and democracy can be difficult. People forget that history is not merely a recounting of past events but also a battle over who writes it, from which perspective and what those stories teach about who we are as a nation.

After my book was published in September, the Louisiana Endowment for the Humanities invited me to give a lecture in connection with an educational initiative on the history of voting rights and voter suppression. My book was to be featured with five others, including “Bending Toward Justice,” a study of the 1965 Voting Rights Act by Gary May. I jumped at the chance to talk about the women of “Vanguard” in cooperation with the state’s public libraries, which make learning free and accessible to all.

Late last year, the endowment invited the Lafayette Parish library board to join its initiative — called “Who Gets to Vote?” — and offered it a $2,700 supporting grant. In December, the board approved applying for the grant — with conditions. To ensure that the program and library “remain apolitical and neutral” and to “garner community support,” a board member suggested adding “two speakers from opposing sides to offer differing perspectives.”

My book, I was sure, fit the bill. It recounts the clashing perspectives that animated voting rights struggles: suffragists against anti-suffragists, white supremacists vs. anti-racists, women countering men, and Americans opposing others of different color. What precisely troubled the board? “Vanguard” foregrounds the Black women who, for 200-plus years, struggled to expand access to political rights for all. It argues that they are among the architects of American democracy.

The library board ultimately voted Jan. 25 to reject the grant, effectively refusing to host a community discussion on voting rights. The board’s president cast the decision as an effort to “bring political neutrality back to our Library System,” saying in a statement that the local presenters “were clearly from the same side of the political debate.”

I’m not sure precisely what debate the board had in mind.

One state senator ventured an answer, explaining: “The question was raised as to the other side being represented and part of the discussion. … [T]he other side falls in the category of ‘Jim Crow Laws’ and the ‘KKK.’ ”

History is more than a matter of academic debate. Events over the past year — including pushback against the New York Times’s 1619 Project and counterprotests to the Black Lives Matter movement — illustrate the fraught challenge of unearthing racism in America, past or present.

Nor is suppression of reading material a relic of the past. The American Library Association tracked 377 “banned and challenged books” in 2019. Among these are works on the history of racism and some that take the perspective of Black Americans. Authors include David W. Blight, Lerone Bennett Jr., John Hope Franklin, Gerald Horne, Robin D.G. Kelley, Gerda Lerner, C. Eric Lincoln, Clarence Lusane, Tim Madigan, Jonathan M. Metzl, Daniel J. Sharfstein and Joy Ann Williamson. There’s one by my former teacher, the late Manning Marable. The list even includes Harriet Jacobs’s “Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl,” a firsthand account published in the 1860s.

This list is a grim reminder that Black history — its ideas and the books that contain them — is still often unwelcome. The subject rankles officials such as those in Lafayette because it is inextricably tied to ongoing striving for freedom, equality and the just acknowledgment of the perspectives of Black Americans.

“Vanguard” shows how Black women put provocative ideas to paper even in the face of marginalization and violence. Throughout American history, Black women have aimed to be of consequence. They knew that with the capacity to publish their ideas came the power to make change. They mobilized the past to create a new future. Black History Month may be a time to acknowledge the many suppressed works on African Americans — and to reflect on how history arms us to challenge racism in the present.

6 notes · View notes

goldwerdung-blog · 7 years ago

Text

A small collection of *some* of my “essential quotes”

Weaving Spiders, Come Not Here

"The owl of Minerva spreads its wings only with the falling of the dusk.” –Hegel

"If you don’t go after what you want, you’ll never have it. If you don’t ask, the answer’s always no. If you don’t step forward, you’re always in the same place." –Nora Roberts

“Yesterday I was clever, so I wanted to change the world. Today I am wise, so I am changing myself.” ―Jalaluddin Mevlana Rumi

"The white liberal and the white supremacist share the same root postulates. They are different in degree, not kind." –Lerone Bennet Jr., "Tea and Sympathy: Liberals and Other White Hopes"

"Everyone is a genius. But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing that it is stupid." –Albert Einstein

"To err is human; to forgive, divine." –Alexander Pope

"He who fights with monsters might take care lest he thereby become a monster. And when you gaze long into an abyss, the abyss also gazes into you." –Friedrich Nietzsche

“I know my fate. One day my name will be associated with the memory of something tremendous — a crisis without equal on earth, the most profound collision of conscience, a decision that was conjured up against everything that had been believed, demanded, hallowed so far. I am no man, I am dynamite.” ―Friedrich Nietzsche, Ecce Homo

"Then came Jesus forth, wearing the crown of thorns, and the purple robe. And Pilate saith unto them, Behold the man!" –John 19:5 (AKJV)

"I know who I was when I got up this morning, but I think I must have changed several times since then." –Lewis Carroll, Alice in Wonderland

"There are only two types of women - goddesses and doormats." –Pablo Picasso

"After women, flowers are the most lovely thing God has given the world." –Christian Dior

"A woman is like a tea bag - you can't tell how strong she is until you put her in hot water." –Eleanor Roosevelt

"If you want something said, ask a man; if you want something done, ask a woman." –Margaret Thatcher

"Think like a queen. A queen is not afraid to fail. Failure is another steppingstone to greatness." –Oprah Winfrey

"Because you are women, people will force their thinking on you, their boundaries on you. They will tell you how to dress, how to behave, who you can meet and where you can go. Don't live in the shadows of people's judgement. Make your own choices in the light of your own wisdom." –Amitabh Bachchan

"Women are made to be loved, not understood." –Oscar Wilde

"My cousin just died. He was only 19. He got stung by a bee - the natural enemy of a tightrope walker." –Dan Rather

"Luge strategy? Lie flat and try not to die." –Carmen Boyle (Olympic Luge Gold Medal winner, 1996)

"What are the three words guaranteed to humiliate men everywhere? 'Hold my purse.'" –Sandra Bullock "And God said: 'Let there be Satan, so people don't blame everything on me. And let there be lawyers, so people don't blame everything on Satan.'" –George Burns

"I got kicked out of Riverdance for using my arms." –Michael Flatley

Collection of John Wesley's quotes: [(1) "Make all you can, save all you can, give all you can." (2) "Catch on fire with enthusiasm and people will come for miles to watch you burn." (3) "I set myself on fire and people come to watch me burn." (4) "I look upon the whole world as my parish." (5) "Certainly this is a duty, not a sin. 'Cleanliness is indeed next to godliness.'" (6) "Beware you be not swallowed up in books! An ounce of love is worth a pound of knowledge." (7) "The best thing of all is God is with us." (8) "Though I am always in haste, I am never in a hurry." (9) "Once in seven years I burn all my sermons; for it is a shame if I cannot write better sermons now than I did seven years ago. Passion and prejudice govern the world; only under the name of reason. It is our part, by religion and reason joined, to counteract them all we can."]

"Success is simple. Do what's right, the right way, at the right time." —Colin Powell

"TEACHER SEEKS PUPIL. Must have an earnest desire to save the world. Apply in person." –Quinn, ISHMAEL: AN ADVENTURE OF THE MIND AND SPIRIT

"The how of Pooh? The Tao of who? The Tao of Pooh! While Eeyore frets... ...and Piglet hesitates ...and Rabbit calculates ...and Owl pontificates ...Pooh just is. And that's a clue to the secret wisdom of the Taoists." –Benjamin Hoff, The Tao of Pooh

"For better than impulsive Tigger... Or gloomy Eeyore... Or intellectual Owl... Or even lovable Pooh... Piglet herein demonstrates a very important principle of Taoism: the Te – a Chinese word meaning Virtue–of the Small." –Benjamin Hoff, The Te of Piglet

"Philosophy, as the thought of the world, does not appear until reality has completed its formative process, and made itself ready. History thus corroborates the teaching of the conception that only in the maturity of reality does the ideal appear as counterpart to the real, apprehends the real world in its substance, and shapes it into an intellectual kingdom. When philosophy paints its grey in grey, one form of life has become old, and by means of grey it cannot be rejuvenated, but only known. The owl of Minerva takes its flight only when the shades of night are gathering." —G.W.F. Hegel, Philosophy of Right (1820), "Preface"

"Now, if we inquire into the truth of knowledge, it seems that we are asking what knowledge is in itself. Yet in this inquiry knowledge is our object, something that exists for us; and the in-itself that would supposedly result from it would rather be the being of knowledge for us." –Hegel, PHENOMENOLOGY OF SPIRIT

"On earth there is no purifier As great as this knowledge. When a man is made perfect in yoga, He knows its truth within his heart. The man of faith, Whose heart is devoted, Whose senses are mastered: He finds Brahman. Enlightened, he passes At once to the highest, The peace beyond passion." –BHAGAVAD-GITA: THE SONG OF GOD

"A revolutionary age is an age of action; ours is the age of advertisement and publicity. Nothing ever happens but there is immediate publicity everywhere." –Søren Kierkegaard, THE PRESENT AGE: ON THE DEATH OF REBELLION

"Perhaps no one has yet been truthful enough about what 'truthfulness' is." –Friedrich Nietzsche, ON TRUTH & UNTRUTH

"If there were no eternal consciousness in a man, if at the bottom of everything there were only a wild ferment, a power that twisting in dark passions produced everything great or inconsequential; if an unfathomable, insatiable emptiness lay hid beneath everything, what would life be but despair? —Søren Kierkegaard, FEAR & TREMBLING

"Man was born free, and he is everywhere in chains." —Jean-Jacques Rousseau, THE SOCIAL CONTRACT

"The greatest thing in the world is to know how to live to yourself." —De Montaigne, ON SOLITUDE

"Where there is life, there is faith." —Tolstoy, A CONFESSION

"So it goes." —Kurt Vonnegut, Slaughterhouse-Five

"I have this disease late at nights sometimes, involving alcohol and the phone." —Kurt Vonnegut

"Political language is designed to make lies sound truthful and murder respectable, and to give an appearance of solidity to pure wind." —George Orwell, WHY I WRITE

"Life is long if you know how to use it." –Seneca

"Knowing your own darkness is the best method for dealing with the darknesses of other people." —Jung

"The history of all hitherto existing society is the history of class struggles." —THE COMMUNIST MANIFESTO

"It's useless to wait–for a breakthrough, for the revolution, the nuclear apocalypse or a social movement. To go on waiting is madness. The catastrophe is not coming, it is here. We are already situated within the collapse of a civilization. It is within this reality that we must choose sides." —THE INVISIBLE COMMITTEE: THE COMING INSURRECTION, née L'insurrection qui vient

"The order of the day," they wrote in their general statutes, "is to put an end to the machinations of the purveyors of injustice, to control them without dominating them."—Richard van Dülmen, The Society of Enlightenment (Polity Press 1992) p. 110

1 note · View note

uncrcow · 7 years ago

Text

How was American slavery used as a system of social control?

This is an excellent question and a Tumblr post won’t be sufficient for fully answering it. However, here’s an explanation and some resources to get started. Before we begin, let’s explain some terms and give a brief timeline. Slavery was an incredibly complex racial and economic institution embedded into our country’s history.

First off, when did slavery begin? It started before the concept of a white race was created in the colonial legal system. Wealthy Virginian colonists began to draw dividing lines between poor European indentured slaves and enslaved Africans. This distinction was most clear in the case of John Punch, who was an enslaved African living in Virginia. In 1640, Punch ran away with two European indentured slaves to Maryland and was sentenced to remain in slavery for the remainder of his life. This was the first instance of the legal system favoring poor people of European descent over a person of African descent. Interestingly enough, a study done by Ancestry.com used DNA analysis to suggest that Punch may be a 12th generation grandfather of former President Barack Obama.

The story of slavery is also the story of labor. More enslaved Africans were needed for tobacco and cotton farming as more land was being taken over by European landowners. Michelle Alexander notes in The New Jim Crow, “the systematic enslavement of Africans, and the rearing of their children under bondage, emerged with all deliberate speed—quickened by events such as Bacon’s Rebellion.” The facts of Bacon’s Rebellion are hazy at best. According to several accounts, Nathaniel Bacon organized indentured European servants, enslaved Africans and poor whites to overthrow the planter elite.

However, Bacon, a landowner himself, did this under the premise of taking land from Native Americans. His militia attacked neighboring tribes and the homes of the planter elite. After months of conflict, Bacon’s militia took control of Jamestown and burned it to the ground in September 1676. While the rebellion fell apart a month later, the events terrified the planter elite, especially the union of indentured servants and enslaved Africans. Consequently, they took on a strategy of social control by relying less on indentured servants and more on the importation of enslaved Africans.

This previous cases developed a legal precedent that led the House of Burgesses, the governing body of colonial Virginia, to decide in 1691 who qualified as a white man and by extension, who could have access to citizenship and property. It was essentially a bribe for poor free citizens and indentured servants of European descent. The court decided anyone without African or Indian blood could qualify as white. However, Pocahontas and John Rolfe, her husband, were exempt from this law. It’s important to note that the concept of race is specious and relatively new in the history of mankind. However, it has had lasting impacts on lived experiences for the last 400 years. These three cases set the stage for the social control of American slavery.

In terms of social control, legal scholar Bryan Stevenson describes the myriad methods of manipulation:

“American slavery was often brutal, barbaric, and violent. In addition to the hardship of forced labor, enslaved people were maimed or killed by slave owners as punishment for working too slowly, visiting a spouse living on another plantation, or even learning to read. Enslaved people were also sexually exploited.”

If you’d like to learn more about the history of slavery and its systemic impact on American society, feel free to check out these resources from the library!

Anti-Racism in US History: The First Two Hundred Years. Herbert Aptheker, CA: Greenwood Press, 1992.

Before the Mayflower: A History of Black America, 1619-1962. LeRone Bennett, Penguin Press, 1962.

Empire of Cotton: A Global History. Sven Beckert, NY: Random House, 2014 - EBOOK!

In the Matter of Color: Race and the American Legal Process. A. Leon Higginbotham, Jr., New York: Oxford University Press, 1978.

Racist America: Roots, Current Realities, and Future Reparations. Joe R. Feagin, NY: Routledge, 2000 - EBOOK!

The Half has never been told: Slavery and the making of American capitalism, Basic Books, 2012 - EBOOK!

The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness. Michelle Alexander, The New Press, 2010.

When Affirmative Action Was White. Ira Katznelson. NY: WW Norton, 2005.

White By Law: The Legal Construction of Race, Ian Haney Lopez, NYU Press, 1999.

References

Alexander, M. (2013), The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness. New York, NY: The New Press, 24.

Equal Justice Initiative (2015, July 7), Slavery to Mass Incarceration, [Video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r4e_djVSag4

Gay Stolberg, S. (2012, July 30). Obama Has Ties to Slavery Not by His Father but His Mother, Research Suggests. New York Times. Retrieved from http://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/30/us/obamas-mother-had-african-forebear-study-suggests.html

(1894, December 31). Governor Berkeley baring his breast for Bacon to shoot after refusing him a commission. Retrieved from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bacon%27s_Rebellion#/media/File:A_Fair_Mark_-_Shoot.jpg

John Punch (n.d. In Wikipedia, Retrieved November 15, 2017, from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Punch_(slave)

Moore, H.P. (31 December 1862), James Hopkinson's Plantation. Planting sweet potatoes. Retrieved from, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:James_Hopkinsons_Plantation_Slaves_Planting_Sweet_Potatoes.jpg

(n.d.). Inventing Black and White. Retrieved November 15, 2017, from https://www.facinghistory.org/holocaust-and-human-behavior/chapter-2/inventing-black-and-white

Simon van de Passe (1615, December 31). Portrait of Pocahontas, wearing a tall hat, and seen at half-length. Retrieved from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pocahontas#/media/File:Pocahontas_by_Simon_van_de_Passe_1616.jpg

(n.d.). Slavery and Indentured Servants. Retrieved November 15, 2017, from https://memory.loc.gov/ammem/awhhtml/awlaw3/slavery.html

#unc chapel hill #UNC libraries #uncRCOW #ask a librarian #slavery #american #history #plantations #bacon's rebellion #indentured servitude #university of north carolina #chapel hill #carolina

2 notes · View notes

ayzek67 · 6 years ago

Link

Funniest Test Answers by REAL KIDS | TOP 60 School FAILS (2017) - https://www.onlineseriya.com/2019/04/03/funniest-test-answers-by-real-kids-top-60-school-fails-2017/ - - Official “Funniest Test Answers by REAL KIDS” video by Alonzo Lerone. Subscribe to see new Alonzo Lerone first: http://bit.ly/22YprBz Check out important links ... source

0 notes

itsreaditandwow2 · 4 years ago

Quote

I never heard of a Romeo car.

Alonzo Lerone

#Alonzo Lerone #FUNNY KIDS TEST ANSWERS #December 2020 #test answers #Romeo & Juliet

1 note · View note

datingsitus-blog · 6 years ago

Photo

Funniest Test Answers by REAL KIDS | TOP 60 School FAILS (2017) Official “Funniest Test Answers by REAL KIDS” video by Alonzo Lerone. Subscribe to see new Alonzo Lerone first: Check out important links ... source

#funny video

0 notes

katherinewilliams221b · 5 years ago

Text

For A Greater Good 9/18

not my gif just the text (The Art of Transfiguration)

Pairing: Charlie Weasley x ofc/mc

Masterlist

[Part 1] [Part 2] [Part 3] [Part 4] [Part 5]

[Part 6] [Part 7] [Part 8]

“You’re going to get us caught. Act normal or it’s over.”

“I didn’t know what to do. What if it was him?” Cassandra, metal box in hand, approached Kent Jorgensen with a furtive look.

“It wasn’t him.” She handed him the box, “These are the ones I found.”

“Listen to me, Cassandra. How much longer are we going to hold out? One thing is... but attempted murder?”

“It wasn’t him.” He insisted.

“How are you so sure? You really don’t think it’s a possibility?” Jorgensen saw in her eyes how doubt quickly took hold, fear too, but she controlled it.

“And then there’s her. She’s not a bad girl, but she’s starting to ask questions. Have you ever stopped to think about why Astrid brought her so late in the year if not for this?”

“Stop it. You have a meeting now, right? Go.”

“It was nice of you to give her some time off... even though she’s using it to snoop around. Or did you want to get rid of her?”

“I have my moments.”

Kate snaked through the corridors until she found the meeting room Astrid Rhode had told her. She couldn’t wait to see the look on the other teachers’ faces when they saw her there.

The night before, she had been practicing one of the legilimens lessons she had received from Snape, but despite her efforts, she was unable to connect with Charlie’s mind without seeing him and knowing where he was.

On her way to the meeting, she forced herself to open her mind and let all the thoughts and emotions around her envelop her. It was overwhelming, yes, but necessary in order to control it.

She let out a long sigh of exhaustion and despair. Dumbledore did not choose well. The amount of information that was accumulating was difficult to handle, and her attempts to put it all on paper ended in deep confusion.

When she reached the right door, hidden in the darkest tower of the castle, she went to push the knob, but instead of making contact with the metal, her whole body went through the wood and appeared on the other side.

“Welcome.” Astrid, sitting at the end of a long table, greeted her. Several people were already in the windowless room.

Kate responded with a nod and the faintest rise of the corners of her mouth. Her head ached, and she looked around.

Mawut, sitting to Astrid’s left, gave her a bright smile which Kate returned. Next to her, she saw who she thought was the Magical Creatures professor.

She pulled back a few red curls from her shoulder and leaned forward, “Denise Krauss”

“Kate.” She waved.

Mer Yankelevich was looking at her intently from across the table, when Kate looked up at her, her eyebrows raised.

“This I did not expect.” She snorted and pursed her lips in a comical smile before patting the empty chair next to her.

Sitting close to Rhode and with his back to Kate was Libor Marek with his arms crossed. He didn’t bother to turn around to see who had just arrived, he just waited for Kate to sit next to Yankelevich and followed her movements.

Holding her gaze, her lips curled down in a gesture of approval.

“It’s not that surprising.” He said, addressing Yankelevich. He turned his head to look at Rhode and continued, “I have class.”

Astrid raised her eyes from her papers over her reading glasses. “There’s still time. Your students can do without you for ten minutes.”

Another body appeared through the door and Kent Jorgensen came out of the shadows.

“Sorry I’m late... Williams.” Kate couldn’t identify his expression.

Jorgensen sat down next to her and questioned her with his eyes. Kate just shrugged and forced a smile.

“Well, we can get started.” Astrid announced.

Before she could continue, Libor Marek interrupted her.

“Angelov is missing.”

“He’s always late, Astrid starts without him, and Libor gets angry because... well, he gets angry about everything.” Yankelevich whispered in her ear. Paying attention to her, she couldn’t hear the argument between Libor and Astrid.

Jorgensen bent down in front of Kate to include himself in the talk. “He gets angry because he never wants to be here.”

“And you do? We already know what we’re doing here, except for Williams, probably.”

Kate mustered all the willpower she could find and kept her mouth shut. Astrid stood up and asked for silence.

“We will continue without Angelov and Rosberg...” she continued her speech, but Kate only heard Yankelevich’s whisper again, saying she meant the divination teacher.

“It will not be necessary.” Angelov stumbled his way to the chair next to Libor. Rhode gave a sharp nod and ignored Marek’s roll of the eyes.

“I called you as soon as I made my decision. As you know, for the past few weeks, Flavia Hodges has been under supervision as a result of the murder attempts she’s been suffering from.”

Murmurings flooded the room.

“Who said they were trying to kill her?” Leron asked.

Kate leaned over to the table to get Angelov to look at her.

“Hodges herself. And I confirm it. Just like Miss Steiner. She was poisoned and then thrown down the stairs...”

“This was a while ago, Leron, where have you been?” Interrupted Yankelevich.

Kate kept her eyes on Leron, but unlike Jorgensen, his blue eyes couldn’t intimidate her. She quietly challenged him to say another word, but he turned his head to look at Mawut, who was talking.

“Do we know what she was poisoned with?” The coach demanded.

“What does it matter?” Marek retorted. Kate looked away from Libor and squinted her eyes when an idea flashed through her head.

“Yes, with Wee... I’m almost sure with a very high concentration of belladonna.”

For some reason, the conversation she heard through the door of Rhode’s office repeated itself in her head, and she remembered that someone had been stealing potion ingredients.

“Belladonna,” she continued, “is a crucial ingredient of the Weedesoros potion, not only used as a poison but also for various kinds of ailments...”

“And then how are you so sure it was with that?” Jorgensen asked.

Several conversations erupted, and it was proving impossible to keep track of them all at once. Kate looked at Astrid and in a mute agreement, decided not to give any more details.

“Does that tell you anything?” Rhode asked

Mer Yankelevich crossed her legs and shook her head. Leron Angelov rubbed his nose before scratching his neck, and Libor Marek and Kent Jorgensen shared a look.

“It tells me that the person responsible has access to belladonna.” Marek spat.

“Are you trying to say something, Libor?” Jorgensen replied.

It was time to focus on the minds of those present. Unfortunately, Kate sensed so much nervousness in the room that she could not identify where it came from. Her own feelings were interfering with the process, and she sat back in her seat in frustration.

“May I ask you something?” Yankelevich intervened. All eyes were on her. “What is she doing here?” She pointed to Kate with one of his mile-long nails. If she didn’t know Jorgensen was the animagus, she’d think Yankelevich was a hawk, because of her claw-like hands.

“That’s the next point. In light of events, Flavia Hodges will be moved to an institution where she will be protected. I have personally taken care of the paperwork and she will leave this week.”

Kate noticed how Marek turned his head to look at her, but she ignored him and continued to listen to Astrid.

“Miss Williams will take her place temporarily.” Now not only was Marek’s gaze upon her, and the murmurs and complaints erupted again.

Rhode raised a hand before she put her glasses on, effectively silencing those present.

“Now, with this settled, I must communicate to you...” She glanced briefly at Kate and after sighing continued, “that Karkarov has been seen on the castle grounds.”

The reactions to the statement were varied, and Rhode had no choice but to shut the room up again.

“Does that mean he’ll be back?” Yankelevich asked.

“He can’t come back after all that’s happened.” Jorgensen answered.

“Karkarov will not return to the school and I will make sure that he does not stain Durmstrang’s reputation any more. Now, on Flavia’s departure, castle guards will control all entrances and exits to the building, the Quidditch field and the lakes, the ship included.”

A new round of protests and grievances filled the place, and Astrid and Kate looked on.

“I remind you that this is a purely informative meeting and there is no room for debate or vote. If we can prevent the ministries from interfering with Durmstrang, I’ll do my best to make it happen.”

Marek slapped the table. “If that’s all, then I’m leaving.”

Astrid gestured vaguely so he could leave, and in the blink of an eye he had already walked through the door.

Jorgensen and Mawut were next, and Mer Yankelevich followed. Denise Krauss greeted Kate again and left as well.

Leron Angelov stared vacantly at the wall, but after a moment he got up too and left without a word, leaving Kate and Astrid alone.

“I didn’t know you were going to comment on Karkarov.” Accused Kate.

“I wanted to see their reactions.”

“And?”

“I don’t know.. Keep an eye on Marek. He didn’t like the decision to have guards. Are you nervous?”

“For my first day of school? I’m terrified. Although I still have to tell Steiner. I’ll be going now.”

Kate stood behind the desk of room 82 and tried to calm her nerves. When she proposed being a substitute for professor Hodges, she was thinking about getting closer to the other teachers and overlooked a minor detail: she would have to perform as a professor.

She had no training, no experience, and no one to give her advice.

It’s just your first day, Kate, try to know the students, and... and figure out how to teach with this useless book.

The doors of the classroom opened and Hodges’ fifteen children appeared, some fought for their seats, others sat down patiently and a small group entered pushing each other. She moved to the front and leaned on the desk and waited for them to settle. They sat quietly at first, but soon the whispering started.

“Good evening, I’m Kate Williams. I’ll be teaching your herbology classes now that your former professor is... indisposed.”

She mentally winced at the wording and crossed her legs in front of her.

“Okay, well… You won’t have a lesson today because I found out that I would replace Hodges just yesterday so…”

A girl in the front row raised her hand. “We have exams in less than two weeks.”

“I know. I’ll do my best to prepare you as fast as I can for that, but it won’t be easy. However, I’ll talk to headmistress Rhode and try to convince her to let me make some changes.”

The whispering started again and Kate shifted uncomfortably in her spot before grabbing the copy of the book she had with her and opening it to the contents table page.

“You were supposed to get to Unit 5: Soils.” She looked up expecting some sort of confirmation but received silence instead. “So that’s what we’ll try to do.”

She left the book on the table again and crossed her arms.

“How many days a week do you work in the greenhouse?” There was silence again, and that started to make her worried. “Do you go to the greenhouse at all?”

A boy from the third row raised his hand.

“Jon Hopkins, professor. Professor Marek says that Durmstrang is focused on martial magic and Dark Arts. That is over-qualified for plants, professor.”

“Of course he does…” she jumped the small step from where the desk was placed and walked through the space between the two blocks of seats. “I come from a place where herbology is also underestimated, and it is true that plants can be boring, sometimes.”

She turned around and re did the path she made, looking at the students and their desks.

“Do you know any herb or plant a bit more interesting than, let’s say, grass?” She huffed, amused at her own words, and kept pacing.

“Dev... devil’s snare?” Said a timid voice behind her. A boy was looking at her with big blue eyes.

They immediately recognised each other.

“Micael, right?” He nodded, “Devil’s snare! One of my favourites will choke you to death at the first opportunity. It will grab you with its multiple tentacles and won’t let you go…”

She walked to the desk again and hopped on it, sitting with her legs crossed.

“You will learn how to recognise it, how to escape its firm grip if you have the misfortune of encountering one. Come on, more.”

She waited long seconds and observed how they whispered to each other. Afraid of losing control of the class, she kept going,

“Have you ever heard of Venomous tentacula? Its spiky vines will try to trap anything near it. It’s not part of the program, but we can make an exception if you’re interested.”

The girl that spoke to her before murmured something to her classmate on the right, and Kate managed to catch some words.

“Ah, mandrakes. They may seem harmless with their cute little faces…. But listen to their shrieks without protection,” she snapped her fingers in the air, “and you’re history.”

She dropped her hand as she saw the expressions of pure disinterest on their faces and nodded. The clock indicated that there were still thirty minutes left in the class. However, no one had anything else to say.

“Well, you can go now. I promise to have a class ready by Wednesday and we’ll start studying for the exam.”

Everyone left the room as quickly as they could, and Kate looked at their backs as they left. The last kid who left got her attention.

“Michael, can I talk to you?” The boy walked towards her looking at the floor and secured his bag to his shoulder.

“Is it because I haven’t raised my hand to talk? I promise to get it right next time.”

Kate was about to laugh at the absurdity of the phrase when she saw actual fear on Michael’s face and mind.

“No, I’m glad you participated, it made me feel less ridiculous. I wanted to know if you were okay.”

“My wrist doesn’t hurt anymore.” He shifted in his place, still not looking at her.

“That’s not what I meant.” Finally their eyes met. “Are you okay?”

Kate knew the answer and hoped Michael understood what she was asking him. The boy nodded quickly and looked back at the floor.

“I want you to know that in my class you are safe. You can talk without fear and count on me whenever you need to.”

“Do you say that to all the students, or just to me?”

“I say that to everyone. If someone needs help, I’ll give it to them. I thought it was a good idea to let you know now.”

With an almost inaudible “Goodbye” he left Kate alone, taking a deep breath and wondering where she went wrong.

No matter how hard Kate tried to get them to learn something, she was failing as a teacher and so were her students. Few of them managed to answer more than half of the questions correctly, and yet none of them stood out particularly.

The preparation for classes, tests, and the extra hours she had used for individual tutoring had consumed every available hour since she began. She was now wondering how good of an idea it had been.

In addition, the security Astrid had implemented only caused concern among the inhabitants of the castle. Ever since Hodges’ departure, everyone seemed to be tiptoeing around, and that didn’t help her inquiries.

This is not working, Kate thought on the way to the Great Hall, and she wasn’t just referring to her competence as a teacher.

It was the first day of March and Astrid Rhode had called a meeting to inform the entire school about the most important event of the year: The Annual Exposition of Dark Arts, or as they called it, the AEDA. Today the theme, rules and prizes available for those who wished to participate in the competition would be presented.

Neither students nor teachers could hide how excited they were, and you didn’t have to be legilimens to notice.

Kate entered through the already open doors of the room. It was difficult to get to where the other teachers were, but eventually she made it and leaned against the side wall where she had a view of the whole room.

Durmstrang’s policy on the teachers’ uniform was a little more flexible, allowing her to wear her own robes as long as they were an appropriate colour, and she wore the band with the Durmstrang emblem around her chest.

Dressed in black from head to toe, and with her band firmly fastened, she went unnoticed in the crowd, and although it was not something she needed, for some reason she preferred to remain in the shadows.

“You have spoiled me.” said a low voice to her left. Libor Marek looked at her with arms folded.

“How come?”

“You’re the only one who didn’t complain about the explosions in my class. Now it’s getting harder for me to put up with those whiny mediwizards.”

Kate forced a smile that ended up looking like a grimace and waved Marek goodbye, who went off to find a free seat.

After a while, Mer Yankelevich came over too.

“I hear you’ve been having difficulties. You can ask for my advice anytime.”

“Thank you, I’ll keep that in mind.” Absolutely not, she thought.

She saw her leave and approach Marek. They had a brief conversation until he made a dismissive gesture for her to leave.

“Attention please, sit down, sit down.” Astrid Rhode pointed her wand at her throat and her voice was amplified all over the place.

After a while, everyone in the room was sitting down and ready to listen to what Headmistress Rhode had to say.

“For those of you who don’t know, every year the largest exhibition of dark arts in Europe is held at our school. Not only is it a magnificent event to enjoy, but also a valuable learning opportunity.”

A strange feeling made Kate frown. She stopped listening to Rhode’s words and opened her mind while looking around.

It was something she’d never felt before, as if a mind would just shut down and turn on again.

By the window, Leron Angelov was sitting in a chair looking at the ground. Kate bowed her head and waited for something to happen.

He grabbed the sides of the chair firmly and looked up at Astrid again, but without loosening his fists.

“Whether or not you decide to enter the competition, I encourage you to attend the event. Wizards from all over the world come to Durmstrang for this reason alone, and it’s a unique opportunity to make contacts or find your professional path.”

Kate stopped looking at Astrid again and met Jorgensen’s eyes for a split of a second. He immediately looked away and pretended to listen to the headmistress.

She shook her head slightly and couldn’t believe that Jorgensen thought she hadn’t caught him staring at her.

“Each and every one of you has until the first day of April to register and until the 15th of June to submit a project. We consider that this is enough time. Now, the theme this year will be: The Art of Transfiguration.”

Astrid waited for the murmurs to stop before continuing her speech, but Kate was distracted again.

She searched through the hundreds of faces around her, but both Angelov and Jorgensen were gone. No one noticed when Kate slipped through the crowd and left the room as well.

She looked to both sides and to her right she saw a cape shaking behind a corner. She trotted over there, but when she turned, she found no one.

The corridors were empty.

A flutter alerted her, and she turned to meet an owl flying in her direction. As it passed over her head, it dropped a card with Durmstrang’s stamps on it.

Katherine Williams has mail in the owlery

She looked again into the empty corridor and with a sigh went to the main gates to leave the castle.

Dear Kate,

We’ve had difficulties locating you, however we’ve decided not to charge you for all the inconvenience you have caused us.

Please accept this well-meaning gift, which is part of our Weasley catalogue.

Be aware of the honour of trying one of our most exclusive items. We accept a review and 10,000 galleons as compensation.

Yours sincerely,

Gred and Forge

Kate looked at the package with suspicion but opened it, anyway. It was long, like one of Ollivander’s boxes.

After removing a velvet cloth, she touched the wand with her index finger to check that it wouldn’t explode and when she felt more secure; she grabbed it.

“It’s not terrible quality.” She said to herself and pointed to a feather on the ground with it, “Merlin help me... Wingardium Leviosa.”

The stick flew out of her hand and into the air. As if it was playing an invisible drum, but replaced by her head, the wand began hitting her. She shrieked and all the owls in the tower started to get agitated; some flew off in all directions.

Slapping one hand in the air and laughing endlessly, she reached into her robe to find her real wand, as she tried to escape the Weasley’s trick item.

As soon as it stopped, she would immediately write to them so that Charlie could also receive a surprise gift.

If you are binge-reading this, this chapter is a good place to stop and go to sleep or rest

[Part 10]

A/N: I know this isn’t the most exciting chapter but there were important things that needed to be said

Tag List: @eldritchscreech @meteora-fc @cazreadsstuff

#charlie weasley #mc #charlie weasley x mc #charlie weasley x ofc #hphm #charlie x jacob's sibling #charlie weasley fanfiction #kate williams #durmstrang #charlie weasley x oc

17 notes · View notes