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halothenthehorns · 4 years ago

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RITA SKEETER’S SCOOP

Harry couldn't say he was particularly happy with where the last chapter had ended. He in no way wanted to live through another blow out fight of Ron and Hermione's, his sympathetic feelings for Hagrid were still leaving him wanting to run down to that hut right now and make sure his friend was okay, and as always that tournament and the next task hovered just on the edge of his mind, ready any moment to lash out and remind him of just how much worse his life could get if he got complacent. He just knew that if he had all his memories he could be telling his family right off the bat all the bad to come, save them the trouble and worry of trying to figure this out along with him, but wanting had never really gotten him anything, so he flipped to the next chapter with a heavy mind.

Gryffindor's were much quieter on the end run of their holiday, many yawning complaints punctuating their avoided homework. Hermione was one of the few avoiding this, as the next morning Harry spotted her bushy head again. After he asked, she confessed she'd had to use nearly a whole jar of Sleekeazy's Hair Potion to keep it up last night.

"My parents would be thrilled," James chuckled.

At Harry's confused look, James realized he'd never mentioned, "oh yeah, my parents invented that." All while mussing up his own hair for emphasis.

Harry wasn't sure if he was supposed to be laughing or not, but when Lily read his look correctly she properly explained, "I do believe it was his mother's way of trying to keep her husband, and wayward son at some restraint. It didn't work, but it is how they built most of their fortune, the rest hadn't been very well kept."

"Hope someone informed you at some point you inherited the irony," Remus tried to laugh at the unpleasant reminder, though hopefully at least the Ministry at some point would have told Harry of this.

She added that it was much too much work to be doing every day,

"Can't really blame her for that though," Remus agreed.

while cuddling with her cat.

Ron and Hermione seemed to have reached an unspoken agreement not to talk about last night.

"Better than how I was picturing it," Lily grimaced.

"I was hoping for a little more than just an argument," Sirius pouted, "those two really should have more than just a talk."

"I preferred it," Harry disagreed, "at least I didn't have to deal with the awkward conversation that would have been."

"Don't be such a romantic Harry," James smirked.

Instead they were being more formal to each other than normal. Harry broke into their uneasy silence by explaining all about Maxime and Hagrid.

"Not like you had anything else to share about that night," Sirius snorted.

Hermione was at first surprised by the news of Hagrid's half-human status, but didn't have nearly the reaction of Ron.

"Okay, I'll take that," James smiled, pleased at least one of Harry's friends had their same initial reaction. She'd been that way about Remus as well, but it was always good to know that extended.

She did admit that she'd had an idea about him, of course he couldn't be a full giant as they were twenty feet tall,

Harry blinked in surprise as he tried to imagine that, clearly even the dragon for scale hadn't been accurate enough.

but she couldn't understand the prejudiced against them either, it was the same ignorance as werewolves.

"While not entirely accurate," James sniffed.

"It's a close approximation," Remus muttered.

Ron looked like he was going to argue with her for a moment,

"With what?" Sirius raised a sharp brow, clearly ready to give a snappy reply right back.

"Don't know," Harry shrugged, "he never answered."

but clearly decided against it, instead turning back to the homework he'd been ignoring over break.

"Ah the righteous and bitter end," Lily agreed.

Harry was having a hard time concentrating, but instead was starting to feel nervous again.

Harry groaned and muttered something under his breath, half wishing he could go back and dwell on that ball again.

The date of the next tournament felt a lot closer from this side of Christmas,

"Was afraid of that," James muttered, shifting in his seat a bit at the approaching thought.

and he had no clue what to do about his egg. He began opening it at least once a day to the wailing noise, but nothing new ever happened.

"You know doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result is a sign of insanity," Remus pleasantly informed him.

Harry gave him a halfhearted glare, like he wanted to demand for some better ideas, but decided he'd only be more annoyed when he actually got a good answer.

He pried at his mind for some hint of what the noise could be, but never got up to anything useful. He instead tried shaking the egg, or asking it questions,

"At least there's a different attempt," James smiled.

and still nothing changed. Then he chucked it across the room, which didn't make a difference, though he wasn't surprised that time.

"I'm sure it made you feel better though," Sirius gave a smirk he was sure was helpful.

Harry had not forgotten the hint that Cedric had given him,

"Kind of hard to forget about such an odd moment honestly," Remus agreed.

but he was not going to be taking advice from him if he could avoid it.

"And I honestly can't blame you," Lily shook her head ruefully, "but that vindictive streak is only going to hurt you."

Harry huffed and muttered something indistinct.

Cedric's advice hadn't even seemed helpful the more he reflected. At least Harry had told him outright what was coming, Cedric's idea of a fair exchange had been cryptic at best.

"Yeah, my feelings," James nodded.

He wouldn't be taking that from the man who was now walking down hallways with Cho in hand.

"Well now he's just rubbing it in," Sirius grumbled.

Lessons returned and while Harry stashed away the egg in his trunk, the golden object seemed to way as heavily on him as his bag.

"You might benefit from that though," Remus tried to say without a smile, "an idea might strike you at any time if you keep chewing on it."

"Actually, I find that not thinking on something actually leads to better ideas when it pops back up later," James countered.

"I'm sure you two could discuss this all day," Lily cut them off.

Snow was still thick and fast on the grounds as they headed down to Care of Magical Creatures, but as Ron pointed out, at least the skrewts catching everything on fire would keep them warm.

"There's the bright side!" Sirius chirped.

When they arrived though, their normal teacher was nowhere in sight, instead a new lady stood in Hagrid's spot.

"You said what now?" James demanded, trying to lean over Harry.

Harry nudged him back out of the way, still frowning down at the papers as a nasty feeling was starting to grow in him. Not towards this woman in particular...but something bad about this.

She barked at their approach,

"Well I dislike her already, using my phrases," Sirius had his eyes narrowed suspiciously at the pages and missed the groans.

telling them they were late.

Harry asked where Hagrid was, and she introduced herself as Professor Grubbly-Plank, and that she would be the temporary teacher for this class.

"Why?" Lily yelped first.

"If we knew, I'm sure you wouldn't be asking," Remus muttered, earning himself a scowl but allowing Harry to continue reading with increasing agitation.

Harry repeated where Hagrid was, and she merely stated he was indisposed.

"Indisposed," Sirius repeated the word slowly and carefully.

"You don't think this is still him being upset over Maxime?" James frowned. "I mean come on man, I'd be upset to, but this is kind of..." he trailed off with a sad shake of his head.

Harry recognized the unpleasant laughter behind him,

"Now who's the only person I can think of laughing at a time like this?" Sirius growled.

and turned surprised to see Malfoy and his Slytherins'.

"Sometimes I hate it when I'm right," Sirius finished his rhetorical question.

All of them looked gleeful,

"All of them," Lily couldn't help but groan, having grown quite tired of Harry categorizing all Slytherin's by Malfoy.

"Yep," Harry fully embraced that one this time, though explained, "but I get the feeling most of them were smiling not to see Hagrid for once. He wasn't exactly ah, a popular teacher." Harry's face showed quite clearly he didn't agree with that statement, he'd stick by Hagrid no matter his poor choice in lessons, but yes even some of the Gryffindors had looked rather relieved not to see him for once.

and none of them looked surprised to see the new teacher

"What is going on?" Remus asked slowly.

"Oh but when I ask that, you mock me," Lily grumbled at his side.

Grubbly-Plank took no notice of any of this as she instructed all of them to follow her. They treaded behind her, past the Beauxbatons horses shivering in their pins,

"I imagine those in particular aren't used to our climates," Remus muttered to himself, as their winters tended to be a bit harsher than the greater France that wasn't in the mountains. Then again, maybe Beauxbatons was somewhere in the Alps or the likes, so he let it go.

The trio followed, but Harry glanced back over his shoulder at Hagrid's cabin, noticing all the curtains drawn shut, and worried if he was sick?

Lily cooed, wriggling on the spot as she pictured the poor dear needing a cup of tea and a blanket that was across the room, too sick to go and fetch it. Hagrid was not known for falling ill, so if that was it then this must be bad. Hopefully Madam Pomfrey had been down to see him and Harry would go and confirm this.

Harry instead caught up to the teacher and again asked why Hagrid wasn't hear, and she told him not to worry about it, as if he were being nosy.

"Well normally I'd agree," James said, his tone explaining the exact opposite.

"But as you consider Hagrid a friend, I think she's being to crisp," Sirius sniffed.

Harry snapped back he was worrying, and where he was?

She pretended not to hear him.

"Well that was just rude," Remus huffed.

Instead leading them to the fringes of the forest, where a unicorn was tethered.

"Darn," Sirius sighed, "I kind of wanted to see another professional try and handle those skrewts. Prove to the lot of them it's not all Hagrid's fault they're hard to manage."

"I think I'm relieved," Remus disagreed, "since we've well established Hagrid probably shouldn't even have those. Having someone like a substitute teacher finding out about them probably wouldn't be helping him feel better right now."

Most of the girls oohed at the sight of it, while Lavender whispered how beautiful it was, and how it had been caught?

"It's not that hard if you know what you're doing," Remus began babbling at once. "What you want to do is get some raw, precious metal untampered-"

"Thank you, Professor Lupin," Sirius quickly cut him off before he launched into an hour's worth of lecture notes. "Either let the teacher talk or give Harry the highlights later when I can avoid you."

Remus stuck his tongue out at him for now.

The steeds coat was so white it made the surrounding snow gray in comparison. Its golden hooves were pawing nervously against the powder while it tossed its horned head at their approach.

Grubbly-Plank snapped her arm out, catching Harry in the chest before he could move closer as she instructed only the girls were to approach closer, they preferred a woman's touch.

"Sexist beasts," James pouted. "You know that can really hurt a guy's feelings."

Lily was giggling too hard into her hand to respond.

She and the girls continued forward, while Harry turned to Ron and whispered if he had any ideas where Hagrid was?

Ron began to suggest something about the skrewts

"I really don't think a skrewt could hurt him that badly," Sirius winced at the thought.

but Malfoy cut off behind them it was just him shamefully hiding his ugly mug.

"Wish you were," James snapped back.

Harry regretfully turned to demand of him, but then Malfoy handed out a newspaper.

"Oh this can't be good," Lily groaned, as it had yet to mean anything remotely that this whole book when it came to a paper.

Harry was getting a nasty feeling rearing inside him in full agreement with her, now positive this bit of paper had everything to do with Hagrid.

Harry snatched as he and all his doormats crowded around him to read the big head title: Dumbledore's Giant Mistake

"Oh no," Lily groaned at once with an already settling sense of doom.

"I am completely sure she did," James growled right back, his eyes already narrowing with hate for this.

"How does she have the right to do this?" Harry demanded. "First me, now Hagrid, we haven't done a thing to her, why's she doing this?"

"You're asking something that does not have an easy answer," Remus sighed. "I have no idea how to explain her, or the people who read this garbage which only encourages her."

"I still say Harry and Hagrid should do something about her," Sirius sniffed.

The paper began by stating Dumbledore as the eccentric title he was, and how controversial most of his teachers were,

James and Sirius already felt on edge, something spiteful ready to be shot out at a moment's notice as their minds flickered to one person in particular. If Skeeter was going to span this article over all of Dumbledore's appointments, this could end up even worse for more than Hagrid.

the most recent appointment that of ex Auror Moody, a jinx happy man who shouldn't be let around kids.

"Well that's a little harsh," Remus couldn't help a little smirk. "I'm sure he hasn't gotten that bad."

"Remember who you're hearing this from," Lily reminded, choosing not to point out that from what she'd heard so far, that had actually sounded fairly accurate.

Moody was a law abiding citizen compared to the part human in staff.

Harry could sense someone wanting to cut him off again with a string of protests for that statement, but Harry was getting a little desperate now to see what Skeeter was really going to say about his friend so pressed on.

Rubeus Hagrid, who admits to being expelled from Hogwarts in his third year,

"I sincerely doubt he admitted that to you," Sirius grumbled under his breath.

had been gamekeeper at the school for nearly fifty years under Dumbledore employment, but last year he'd gained an upgrade as Care of Magical Creatures teacher through mysterious influences,

"Mysterious influence?" Lily raised a sharp brow. "How about how knowledgeable he is over creatures? I say that's plenty influential."

over many more qualified applicants.

Remus felt bad about it, but honestly he may have given credit to that one at least. No matter how much he liked Hagrid, he clearly wasn't particularly good at this field. That didn't mean he wouldn't be as outraged as anyone if he lost the job, Hagrid was working on it.

An alarmingly large and ferocious-looking man,

Harry muttered something foul under his breath about that.

Hagrid had been using his title to terrify his students with gruesome creatures.

"Flobberworms and hippogriffs are hardly horrific," James scoffed.

Lily's mind flickered to the idea of the skrewts, which she'd classify as fairly horrifying, but in no way wanted to give Rita a point so didn't acknowledge it.

Dumbledore had done nothing against the man despite many student complaints maiming's, and of how frightening everyone found him.

"Only one kids gotten hurt and it was his bleeding fault, Hagrid hasn't maimed anyone!" Sirius snapped in outrage at that pure fiction.

Reports of being attacked by a hippogriff,

As that was of course what Sirius had meant, Harry forced himself to keep reading slightly louder, even though he more than agreed with the others muttered insistence that was his idiotic fault.

and nasty flobberworm bites had been given by Draco Malfoy.

"Did he really just say that?" James demanded, now looking faint at the levels of idiocy. "Anyone with a brain knows that flobberworms don't have teeth!"

"Whoever agreed to have this in the paper has got to know how much bull this is," Lily agreed.

He went on to say how everyone hated Hagrid, they were just too scared to admit it.

Hagrid clearly knew about this and cared nothing about it, as recently this year he'd admitted to illegally breeding his own invention of Blast-Ended Skrewts,

"Oh Hagrid, you didn't," Remus groaned into his hands.

Lily was rubbing furiously at her forehead, her mind suddenly scrambling to try and think of a way to get him out of this mess as she offered, "well, it could be her word against his. Unless she was somehow recording the conversation verbally, she couldn't prove Hagrid said that. Honestly I don't really believe he did, she's dastardly enough to find out, well some other way."

"That's only mildly encouraging," James huffed.

highly dangerous crosses between manticores and fire-crabs.

Remus couldn't help but roll his eyes as he thought back to first hearing about these things, and not exactly pleased he'd been right in the end.

This was a highly illegal offense that should have been handled by the Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical creatures, but clearly Hagrid found himself above such things.

Lily opened her mouth to snap something back, considered it, then closed it and slumped back. Yeah, Hagrid should pay a fine or something for that one at least, but certainly not on account of someone as vile as Skeeter putting him in this light.

All this not enough, Skeeter had even found that Hagrid was no pure-blood like he'd claim,

"When has he ever pretended otherwise?" James snapped at once. "Not that anyone should even bother asking in the first place, but even if you did he'd have the right not to answer like he does!"

but in fact a half giant, his mother being Fridwulfa, whereabouts unknown.

"Why does she know that?" Harry's frown deepened. "I didn't even think Hagrid knew that, the way he was talking to Maxime about her."

"I, honestly have no clue," Lily's tone matched Harry's. "I suppose the Ministry might have a registry of all known giants left in Britain, whether they have locations for them or not. Skeeter could have gotten ahold of that and picked any name on the list."

"What she calls facts are so loose I'd believe that," Remus shook his head in disgust.

Creatures known for being violent that had decimated their own numbers with their wars, they were also known supporters of You-Know-Who during his reign.

Harry fidgeted uneasily with the pages, thinking that this seemed truth enough with all Ron had told him as well. He thought back to how Rita had painted him in her previous articles, and his worry increased that now people would be thinking all this stuff of Hagrid as well.

It seemed that Hagrid had inherited his mother's bloodthirsty ways.

"How on earth could she say such a thing?" Remus snarled in outrage. "Hagrid's one of the kindest people you could ever meet! I can only think of a handful of times I've ever even seen him shout at someone!"

"I don't care her reasoning," Sirius snarled. "She's going to regret them."

In a shocking twist, the man had seemed to form a friendship with the fame Boy Who Lived, could this perhaps be a plot to get closer to the boy who caused He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named's downfall? Harry Potter could be dangerously unaware of his friend's heritage.

Even though Harry had really only found out less than a week after this article, it didn't change his opinion that he wouldn't have cared no matter when he found out. Hagrid could have introduced himself as such and Harry would still look at him the same way, so Skeeter suggesting otherwise only managed to grind him up father.

Dumbledore seemed to have no care of informing young Mr. Potter of these dangers.

"Dumbledore'll sooner turn on Hagrid than eat Fawkes," James snapped.

"And any students who complain to him otherwise can see the door," Sirius agreed.

Harry finished and looked up to see Ron with an open mouth, recovering enough to whisper how she'd found out?

"That's a very good question," Lily sniffed. "Hagrid's hardly spoken of this to anyone, we only know of one! Who's she been talking to to get ahold of all this?"

"You don't think Maxime did it?" Remus asked uneasily.

"I should bleeding hope not," James shot off at once. "She'd be under just as much bombardment as he is, seeing as she's the exact same thing!"

"Maybe she made a deal with Skeeter, Maxime would share all this if her name was forever left out of it," Sirius said in disgust. "Besides," he added in heavier tones, "I think that's just a little naive. It's really not that hard to work out if you do a little digging, most people just wouldn't bother to think on it. We know that Skeeter's not that kind though if she really wants to, my question is why Hagrid? What'd he do to deserve this?"

"You think it's just second hand so she could go after Dumbledore?" Remus offered. "He was mentioned just as often, his face is public enough Skeeter would always enjoy taking shots at him, and his staffing choices are a brilliant way to do so."

Harry sat there chewing on his tongue while all of this was going on around him. None of this was completely lining up with what he was feeling, something more directly involved in Rita's means to pull this off...but then he noticed that they'd mostly wound themselves down around him. Still angry as all get out and wanting to go give Skeeter a good shove up her nose with her own quill, they were now much more antsy to hear from Harry what the fallout of this would be for Hagrid, which Harry unhappily turned back to the book to oblige.

Harry though directed at Malfoy what he'd meant about how everyone hated Hagrid!

"Didn't exactly lock in on that part," Sirius rolled his eyes, "that was just Malfoy being Malfoy."

Gesturing wildly at the paper about the stupid statement of getting a flobberworm bite, they didn't have teeth!

"Which I would hope anyone with a pair of eyes reading that tosh would make them understand the level of credibility it should be given," Lily stated.

"Which is none at all," James finished.

Crabbe was laughing, clearly pleased with himself for the lie.

"I doubt he had the capacity to even come up with that on his own," Sirius snarked. "Malfoy probably spent hours coming up with that load!"

Malfoy was more than pleased with himself as he told this should put an end to Hagrid's teaching.

"What does he have against Hagrid?" Remus demanded of nothing. "He's been set on getting him fired from the beginning, and for what?"

"No, bleeding, clue," James got out through gritted teeth. Truth be told they were all well aware it was simply Malfoy seeing anyone who wasn't like him shouldn't even have the standard of living as more than a servant, but it didn't make it any less terrible to hear.

Malfoy had always thought he'd just swallowed too much skele-gro, now the parents were going to have kittens about this half-giant.

"They can all bite me!" Sirius barked.

They'd be worried about their kids being eaten.

"You'll be top of the list," James pleasantly informed.

Harry began shouting at him, but then their teacher snapped at them to pay attention.

They all startled just a bit, that paper having completely erased from their minds where Harry even was.

Grubbly-Plank was still discussing the creature, but Harry was so angry he didn't hear a word of it.

"It's good to know you don't get so easily distracted by shiny objects," Remus mumbled under his breath.

Class was dismissed, and Parvati wasted no time in stating she hoped that teacher stayed.

"Why hasn't Hermione cursed her yet?" Lily raged. "I've had almost as much reason to despise her as Malfoy lately!"

"It really does hurt that we seem to be the only ones upset on Hagrid's behalf," Harry agreed bitterly, thinking only of himself and his two friends right off the bat.

It was good to have finally gotten a proper class over something as gorgeous as a unicorn, and not monsters.

"That class has to show you all manner of creatures," Remus instantly corrected, trying to lighten his scowl like he'd correct any complaining student, "not just the pretty ones. It's not your job to like them, but to learn about them."

'Still think I could do without Hagrid introducing more of them,' Lily thought to herself.

Harry shot back at her what about Hagrid?

Parvati was unconcerned as she said he could still have his gamekeeper's job.

"That's not the point!" James shot back. "Hagrid has just as much right to that job as anyone, and he's never done something so egregious to lose it. He knows his creatures, he's just at a learning curve!"

Parvati's attitude had been very frosty towards Harry since the ball, and while Harry reflected he should have given her more attention during the night, she seemed to have had a good time without him.

"Credit that you at least acknowledged that after the fact," Lily sighed, "since I doubt you, or even Ron, apologized."

Harry gave her a blank look, it hadn't even occurred to him.

She certainly enjoyed telling anyone who would listen about her plans with a Beauxbatons boy.

"I can't even begin to pretend to care," Sirius grumped.

Hermione caught up with them in the Great Hall, going on about the good lesson,

James' temper looked ready to fire again at Hermione agreeing with Parvati, but Remus quickly cut him off, "she doesn't know about the paper yet, in fact neither of those girls did." He also couldn't help but rebuke Lily, "Give Hermione a chance."

saying how she hadn't learned half of that lesson yet,

"Now that I find hard to believe," Sirius rolled his eyes.

"I'm not shocked," James shrugged, "she spends more of her time studying spells than creatures. Can't expect Hermione to know everything."

Harry cut her off by shoving the paper under her nose.

Hermione reacted like Ron, demanding to know how she'd found out about this?

Harry had no clue, as he'd never told anyone. He guessed that she'd been mad about Hagrid not spilling beans on Harry so went looking for some on him.

Lily's mouth flopped open at the idea while James began steaming at once. "That's the pettiest reason in existence for doing this!"

"Can't pretend I'm surprised if you're right though," Remus groaned as he fidgeted with the baby in his lap to keep him entertained during this unpleasant mood.

Hermione offered Skeeter could have heard when Hagrid had been talking to Maxime.

Something was going off in the back of Harry's head as he heard that, absolutely confident Hermione was right and waiting for Ron to agree he may have picked her out.

Ron said they would have noticed her.

"I don't know," Sirius shook his head, "that garden was a slew of loose conversations that shouldn't have been overheard. I can imagine Skeeter getting away with some charms and blending in to even sneak up on a few."

Then Ron added on that she wasn't even supposed to be there that night, Dumbledore had banned her from the grounds.

"That's yet to stop her," James snorted.

Harry offered that she might have her own Invisibility Cloak,

"Perish the thought," Remus crinkled his nose in distaste of what all she could do with a thing like that. Even a cheap one could cause problems.

how she'd use it to spy on people's conversations.

Hermione pointed out that the two of them had done that.

"That was an accident," Harry muttered to himself while he saw them all try to stifle just a bit of laughter for Hermione being right on that one.

Ron blustered that had been an accident! What was Hagrid been thinking, saying all that stuff out in the open for anyone to hear?

"Well Ron is kind of right on that one," Sirius sighed. "Hagrid should have had that in his cabin or something, less chances of what happened, well, happening."

"Nobody should have been listening in in the first place," Lily shot back. "Anyone should be perfectly entitled to have a conversation wherever they want without being listened in on."

"Yeah, but the more private ones, I mean you really don't want to risk having those walked in on for any reason," James shook his head, as he thought back to all the times they'd practiced their animagus training in the Shrieking Shack for this very reason.*

Harry decided they'd go see him after their Divination class, tell him he had to come back.

"Oh, this can't be the reason Hagrid's hiding in his cabin!" Lily yelped. "I'm still convinced he must be sick on top of this, there's no way he'd..." but she trailed off miserably as they all realized that yes, Hagrid could very well be trying to hide himself away after seeing this. The idea of him losing his job because of something like this would be devastating to him.

"Is he not even going to try and fight back," Sirius pouted. "Keep going to classes until someone tries to forcefully remove him, that would be a sight."

"I'm worried that could only cause more harm than good," James sighed.

Remus was keeping himself quite for this bit at least, still hoping his name wouldn't come up amongst his friends for this paralleled problem.

When Hermione didn't immediately agree, Harry demanded of her that she did want him back.

Hermione held herself stiffly for a moment, stating she wouldn't deny having enjoyed a proper class for once,

Lily shook her head sadly, honestly feeling a bit on Hermione's side for that one. The only proper lesson Hagrid could really claim was the Hippogriffs, which had ended in disaster, and those fire-salamanders. Of course she'd have a temper if anyone tried to remove Hagrid from his position, but well, perhaps Hagrid should consider asking for some advice from Grubbly-Plank.

but hastily tacked on of course she preferred Hagrid at Harry's furious look.

"That's the least she should have gotten," James muttered bitterly, "I'd have started shouting at her."

That evening after dinner,

"I think I'm actually disappointed to have missed that evenings Divination lesson," Remus huffed under his breath, "they're usually good for a laugh."

"Not this time," Lily agreed just as quietly back.

they did indeed head down and knocked on their friend's door, but though they could hear Fang begging to come out, no one answered.

"Maybe he's out on the grounds doing his Gamekeeping as well," Sirius offered without hope. "He doesn't always take Fang to do that."

"Why would he be doing that and not his teaching?" James sighed, "He's either sick or avoiding people, and this doesn't account for both."

"Well I would hope he wouldn't be ignoring them," Lily's lower lip was starting to jut out in the start of a pout. "He must know Harry doesn't care."

They waited for at least ten minutes, Ron even trying by knocking on a few windows, but then they trudged back to the castle, Hermione demanding what he was avoiding them for? Hagrid must know they didn't care.

It seemed that Hagrid did care, as there wasn't a trace of him that whole week, and they kept with their substitute.

They were all starting to get very antsy now. Hogwarts without Hagrid just wasn't picturable.

Malfoy was gloating at every possible opportunity,

"Of course he was!" Sirius broke and shouted that very loudly. "Because we can't just go one bleeding instance without hearing his opinion about it!"

Harry was rubbing absently at his ear and Remus was having to comfort a now fussy child at the outburst, but no one really looked angry, they were all at their breaking point between the stress of the Tournament and now this. Malfoy just kept managing to push every one of their buttons.

saying such things as how Harry was the only one missing the elephant man.

Harry looked as tense and ready to snap at a moment's notice right along with his godfather if this kept up.

"You know," Remus sighed, feeling tense and snappy at having to deal with a wailing child just days after a full moon managing to give him the beginnings of a headache, caught Harry's expression and scolded both him and Sirius. "Just once I'd like to see you lot walk away from a fight. Not everything needs to end in threats."

"Hark, look who's talking," Sirius began grinning at him at once.

Remus looked more than happy to back down, looking pleadingly at the book to keep going to avoid whatever tale Sirius was fixing to share, but it was Lily who said, "No, no, I want to hear this." While reaching out and taking the baby away. Remus now let his head hang as he realized he wasn't getting out of his mouth's timing and instead began fingering his wand like he wanted to sew his lips together in preparation.

Remus sighed and slouched back into the couch, while Sirius had already began without prompting. "Well the first thing that came to my mind was this day before a full moon. Despite everyone protesting however, Moony here decides he's going to go spend a normal day in the school like everyone else, exams were less than a week away and he refused to miss out on classes." Sirius paused to give Remus a winning smile, who was already groaning and grumbling under his breath how much he hated his friends for bringing this up.

"Well by the time potions rolled around," James picked up when Sirius hesitated to long, "we'd almost convinced him to skiv that class and take a nap, we were all going to honestly, since, well since the three of us never liked that class much." By this time, he'd almost grown used to that odd cold spot that lived in his chest for having to revert that story a bit, but for the first time it in no way dampened what he was telling.

Whether Remus noticed this, or just decided to get the worst over, he finished for them, "James got me to agree just as Snape was walking past, so of course the only thing he heard was me agreeing with Prongs it was a good idea to skip class and take a nap. He called me the Marauders yes man," he finished with an ugly scowl.

"Now Moony's a grumpy little thing on his best days before the full moon," Sirius chirped when his friend seemed to want to end the story there, but Harry should know all of these details. "So before either of us could even finish blinking, Remus spun on the spot and cursed him-"

"-In front of a crowded corridor-" James tacked in.

"-which caused old Snivellus' tongue to get stuck to the roof of his mouth. It was nice having the silence for a few moments until Madam Pomfrey got him fixed." Sirius finished with the air of one finishing an epic tale.

Harry couldn't help it, and didn't really try to stop it, as he started laughing at the lovely mental image. Even Lily joined in after a moment, giggling like crazy, even if it was a tad righteous considering her ever growing hatred of him of late.

"You two paint me in such a bad light," Remus told them all tragically, though the lingering smile on his face showed no real way to contrast what his tone tried to show. "I was an angel, all the teachers said so."

"They just caught you the least," James waved him off with a crazy smile still in place, his face turning an ugly puce color for a moment before he told Harry, "ah, someone else took the fall for that, so Moony never got in trouble. Don't let him fool you though, he's just as bad as us."

Harry gave him an easy smile, it wasn't hard to guess who had been blamed judging by his dad's expression, but this had finally dragged on long enough he decided he wanted to get back to the book and see how this had played out.

There was a Hogsmeade visit halfway through January.

"Are you really telling me you didn't retaliate to any of that stuff?" Lily demanded.

"I really tried not to if I could help it," Harry muttered with regret. He'd had enough practice by now trying to avoid all things Malfoy, but it wasn't always easy.

Hermione was very surprised that Harry was going,

"Why wouldn't you?" James yelped.

"Why does Hermione seem to have a constant disagreement with you always going," Sirius rolled his eyes.

as she reminded the silent common room could help him figure out that egg.

"I doubt the level of quiet actually helps anything," Remus snorted.

Harry lied on the spot he didn't need it, he'd almost worked that egg out.

"I can't even blame you lying to her," Lily sighed, "she acts more like your mother than your friend most days."

"That's rich coming from you," Sirius told her, which she happily ignored.

Harry felt guilty as she praised him for doing so, but consoled himself he still had five weeks to really work it out, and that was plenty of time.

"Oh please don't keep thinking like that though," Lily groaned reproachfully. "That deadline will creep right up on you."

Harry tried, and failed, to look innocent of this most likely happening, leaving them all just that little more stressed than they were before, and they hadn't even be aware that was possible.

Yet if he went to Hogsmeade, he might have a chance of running into Hagrid.

"I don't see Hagrid in a Three Broomsticks mood," James disagreed.

"Maybe more like his own private storage in his hut," Sirius sighed.

They passed the Durmstrang ship on the way to the gates, and noticed Viktor Krum had decided to spend his day in swimming trunks on the deck of his ship.

"Is he mad?" Remus yelped, goosebumps erupting on his skin at the thought.

"He did say it was colder where he came from," Sirius shrugged without remorse. "If he thinks he can handle it without freezing to death, that's his problem."

"You're just so caring of everyone," Lily tisked at him.

Harry hardly noticed them, his mind puzzling why on earth he should think it a good idea to maybe pay more attention to that lake...

His slim body showed as he climbed onto the side, and dived right in.

"He's mad!" James still balked at the idea.

Harry stated he was mad as his head came to the surface.

Sirius was shaking himself vigorously at the idea as well, but was aware enough to smirk at the mimicking pair.

Hermione pointed out it was colder where he was from, this might be warm to him.

"Warm is putting it strongly," Lily shivered, wrapping her baby's blanket just a smidge tighter around him.

Ron voiced that there was still the squid to think about, though he sounded more hopeful than anything.

Causing a collective snort of laughter from all even if it was an empty threat.

Hermione noticed the tone and frowned at him, saying he really was nice, and he actually liked Hogwarts better, he'd told her so.

"Not what I'd go bragging to him about," Remus shook his head, now wondering if Hermione was either trying to, poorly, make him jealous, or actually being as ignorant as Ron about what the two of them were really dancing about.

Ron did not respond. He really seemed to not be trying to start a row with Hermione, but that hadn't stopped Harry finding a miniature plastic arm under his bed the other day wearing Bulgarian Quidditch robes.

"Now what on earth would have you making that connection?" Sirius asked redundantly.

Harry kept his eyes scanning through every shop window they passed, until finally he suggested they try the Three Broomsticks.

"He's not exactly hard to miss, even bending over something," James shook his head. "I'm sure a quick sweep would have done the job."

Harry didn't respond, he'd still been holding out hope that his eyes had been deceiving him.

The pub was as crowded as ever, but one quick sweep proved that Hagrid wasn't here either. Harry slumped his way up to the bar, feeling he may as well have stayed behind and listened to that egg wailing after all.

"I'm surprised you haven't at least tried putting water into the egg or something," Remus tried to offer when he saw how gloomy they all were getting, and at least the egg was a better problem to focus on than Hagrid. "Cedric's tip was odd, but soap and water were clearly heavy hints."

"And give him the satisfaction that he'd both asked out Harry's date, and helped Harry with this," Sirius shot back with a frown.

"Don't curse your nose to spite your face," Lily shrugged, on Remus with that one.

Harry muttered something indistinct about how unhelpful this all was.

Hermione caught sight of Ludo Bagman though, grumbling if he was ever in his office?

"I suppose it is odd to see him out of his office so much," James arched a brow, "tournament aside."

"He's allowed to have social visits, not all Ministry employees are Percy's," Remus said.

He was sitting in a shadowed corner with goblins.

"That's not a social visit," Sirius pointed out.

"Well it could be," Lily backed Remus up just for the joy of annoying the other two. "He could have goblin friends." She knew as well as them that goblins didn't have wizard friends, the two rarely interacted outside of contracts and deals, so this was indeed an odd sight.

Bagman seemed strained in the faint lighting as he spoke to the three, who all had arms crossed and looked menacing in the shade. Harry reflected it was very odd to see this outside of an event, he hadn't seen Bagman looking so tense since the night of the Dark Mark incident.

"I remember all that," Sirius nodded along. "You think he ever got his money back from whoever stole it?"

"If not, maybe that's what he's talking to them about," Remus cocked his head to the side. "Explaining what happened. Maybe they have some way to track down who robbed him."

"Wouldn't surprise me," James shrugged, "even if they don't work for Gringotts, goblins have this eerie way of tracking down gold."

Bagman seemed to notice Harry then, and quickly excused himself to come have a word, that boyish face coming back at once.

Whatever curiosity they held for his situation though vanished in that instant. They felt bad for his troubles, but his continuing to chat up Harry like this still managed to rankle them every time.

He called a pleasant greeting to Harry, saying how he'd been hoping to run into him.

"Really? Been hoping the exact opposite," Sirius grumbled, wondering when he'd grown to dislike the mention of both the Quidditch stars running around Hogwarts.

Then he asked Harry for a private word, asking Ron and Hermione to scoot along.

"What's he up to now?" James demanded, thinking that if he had to listen to anyone else giving Harry paternal advice lately he'd really lose his temper.

The two agreed, grabbed their drinks, and went for a table. Bagman led Harry into the opposite corner as far away from everyone as he started by congratulating Harry. He thanked him, but kept silent and waited for the real reason of this, as he could have done this in front of his friends.

"It's nice of him to at least start polite," Lily rolled her eyes.

Bagman seemed in no hurry to get to the point, his eyes occasionally flickering back to his goblin guests.

"What would he be nervous about them for?" Remus asked in surprise. "He's supposed to be asking for their help?"

"Search me," Lily shrugged.

Bagman noticed Harry staring at them as well, and Bagman explained that it was a nightmare trying to communicate with them as they only spoke Gobbledegook, and as he only knew one word that meant pickaxe, it was hard pressed to be talking.

"Okay, then you should have brought a translator," Sirius rolled his eyes at the absurdities this guy kept pretending was explaining.

Harry asked what they were doing then, and Bagman quickly gave a nervous laugh before saying they were looking for Crouch.

Harry only had a moment for his gut to wrench, informing him that was a flat out lie, before a quick shot of pain in his head reminded him quickly to let it go.

"Why would goblins be looking for him?" Remus questioned with a deep frown.

Lily tried to work out, "I guess I can kind of see how they'd be looking for the Head of the Department of International Magical Cooperation, there are foreign goblins after all, but what are they asking Bagman for? They should be up at the Ministry asking all of this."

"Got me," James grumbled, more than happy to move this along.

Harry asked why they were here then, shouldn't they be at the Ministry?

Bagman uneasily answered that he actually didn't know where he was.

"That's not even that surprising," Sirius snorted, "I don't think I'd call them friends."

No one did, he'd stopped coming to work.

"Wait, what?" All five of them yelped in surprise. Even Harry, who knew the least about Crouch, found this mind boggling.

"Did he die?" Lily managed to splutter out first. "That is the only explanation I can fathom for this."

"Bagman wouldn't be talking like this if so," Remus countered, his mind spinning to try and think about this mess.

"What is with the Ministry lately?" Sirius scathed. "Can't seem to find one department that hasn't wanted to make me burn the building down lately."

"At least make sure Mr. Weasley's not there," Harry shrugged much to Sirius' amusement and agreement.

He'd been gone for weeks now, his assistant Percy had been running things and telling everyone Crouch was ill.

"I'm really starting to think that you might be onto it Lily," James couldn't help but frown. "Unless Crouch has had something really big happen to him, this is the only way to explain what's up with the Crouch I know." It wasn't a particularly pleasant thought for any, but nobody argued it.

He'd only been sending in notes lately, but then Bagman quickly tacked on not for Harry to go mentioning that. Didn't want Skeeter finding out, or she'd turn it into another Bertha Jorkins story.

"And there was a time I praised that journalism and the Ministry never mixed," Lily snorted, Merlin knew Bagman was right in that instance.

Harry asked if there was any news on her, and Bagman said no, though he had people looking.

"Of course," Remus rolled his eyes, "like of course you should have months ago."

They were all feeling rather fidgety at the reminder that a body would never be found.

Harry privately thought it was about time as Bagman explained how odd it was. There were confirmed reports from her family that she had arrived in Albania, but on route to visit another person she'd vanished.

Sirius was starting to chew on his own tongue to convince himself not to start the speil of diatribe he wanted to launch because of what that vile rat had done.

They'd yet to find an explanation, as she wasn't the type to elope.

"At least that's a kind explanation," James hissed.

Then Bagman came back to himself, demanding what they were doing talking about all this nonsense.

"Agreed," Lily couldn't help but huff, "quit being a walking distraction every time you appear."

Bagman instead asked how Harry's egg was coming.

"Oh, this again," Sirius' brows shot up in surprise.

"I can't pretend I don't find it sweet he's helping you," Lily frowned, "but I still can't figure out why?"

"Playing favoritism to the Boy Who Lived?" Harry offered bitterly, though somehow even saying it out loud didn't feel right.

Harry lied again and said he was doing fine.

"Can't fault you for lying to him though," James smirked.

Bagman seemed to guess that wasn't the truth, as he lowered his voice and said he'd taken a liking to Harry, since he hadn't volunteered for any of this.

"Thank you for the reminder," Remus said stiffly.

"Where was this attitude at the ball?" James snapped, "You seemed to find it plenty of fun then."

His voice kept lowering all the time until Harry was reading his lips,

"Well he is technically cheating doing this," Sirius shrugged, "but he couldn't have found a better place to do it."

that all Harry had to do was say the word and Bagman would drop some hints.

Harry worded his answer carefully into a question, that he was supposed to be doing this alone,

"Why are you turning him down?" Lily asked in surprise. Honestly she wouldn't even blame him if he did accept the help, Harry shouldn't have been in this stupid tournament anyways, so anything and anyone he could use to survive it wouldn't be pestered by her.

"I saw him as trying to cheat too much, it just felt different than anything before," Harry shrugged, trying to understand this feeling he had about the old Quidditch player who'd been nothing but kind to him.

so as not to accuse the head of the Department of Magical Games and Sports of breaking the rules.

"Yeah, that's a good idea," Remus agreed, his pessimistic mind starting to wonder if this was some part of the tournament and Harry was being set up.

Bagman agreed that was the case, but no one could deny they wanted a Hogwarts victory.

Harry asked if Cedric had been offered help. Bagman's face flickered for a moment before he admitted he hadn't.

"Probably lying," Remus offered, then explained what he was thinking.

"Wouldn't put it past them," James agreed at once, "that's pretty tricky."

"I've never heard of anything like that in the previous tournaments," Lily cocked her head to the side as she thought it through.

"Maybe no one's ever fallen for it, so no one's ever recorded it," Sirius smirked.

Harry diverted by promising he didn't need any advice, he pretty much had it all figured out. He wasn't entirely sure of himself why he was turning down the help, but somehow asking from Bagman felt different than asking of his friends or Sirius.

"Glad I'm above him on the list," Sirius sniffed.

Before Bagman could keep trying, the twins appeared, offering to buy him a drink.

"Oh good," James brightened. "This always turns out fun when they're around."

Bagman looked disappointedly at Harry as he turned down the red heads.

"Aww, why not," Remus pouted. "I really wish we'd get to hear more about them and their joke shop already."

Fred and George looked quite as disappointed as Bagman, who was surveying Harry as though he had let him down.

"He must be a really good actor," Lily shook her head at him, agreeing with the boys he was better spending his time helping out the twins than Harry.

He excused himself from the lot of them, slipping out of the pub, when the goblins hastily followed.

"I thought he was trying to explain to them about Crouch?" James did a double take. "What's he ditching them for?" Looking quite as affronted as those goblins probably did.

"That man seems to have no mind," Sirius rolled his eyes, wondering if one to many bludgers had erased his memory of everything lately.

Harry went back to his friends and explained what happened, and Hermione was shocked at the news. Then pointed out Harry didn't even need the offer, because he said he'd figure it out already.

Harry uneasily agreed.

"You keep telling yourself that Harry," Remus snorted, "I'm sure saying it will get the job done."

Harry stuck his tongue out at him.

Hermione switched back to disapproving of Bagman, saying Dumbledore wouldn't like to hear about this cheating going on.

"I still think our idea's better," Sirius said with just a tad of pompousness in his voice no one could miss.

"It was my idea," Remus tried to correct him with a fond smile.

"Making it our idea by default," Sirius countered at once. "You know you get your best ideas just by being around us."

"Why do we put up with him again?" Lily asked the baby in her lap, who merely babbled as answer.

Then she hoped he was at least doing the same for Cedric, which Harry corrected Bagman had denied. Ron scoffed and said who cared about Diggory anyways, which Harry did agree with.

"Sounds like he doesn't need it on this task," James quietly muttered to himself.

Hermione switched to talking about those Goblins, and Harry explained what Bagman had told him.

Ron's first comment was to say Percy was poisoning his boss,

Five collective snorts of laughter were given for Ron's wit, or at least what they hoped was a joke.

as he probably thought if Crouch croaked he'd get the job.

"He'd be the youngest ever," Lily couldn't help but point out, "it's one step closer to what he's really aiming for."

"Don't encourage him," James scolded.

Hermione gave Ron a don't-joke-about-things-like-that look,

"Why do you have names for all of these looks?" Sirius demanded between cackles. "How often do you get them?"

"I made a chart once," Harry told him with an innocent enough smirk, "but she burned it and made me swear not to say."

"Well she's not here now," James pleaded.

Harry shook his head adamantly though, insisting, "oh no, I'm not doing anything to get on Hermione's bad side."

and instead said those goblins were still odd, shouldn't they be talking to the Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures rather than Crouch anyways.

"Also true," Lily agreed, "I guess the two departments might be delegating, with someone so young at the helm or-"

"Lily," James cut off his wife, "I have begged you not to try and get into office politics with me unless it's Harry's nap time."

Remus gave her a sympathetic pat on the shoulder, he'd received that comment a few times in his life as well.

Harry reminded how many languages Crouch knew, maybe they were looking for an interpreter.

"He is not the only interpreter in that Ministry," Sirius adamantly shook his head, "I cannot be wrong about that."

Ron tried to laugh her off, asking why she was so worked up over the poor 'ickle goblins now? Was she going to start another group named S. P. U. G.? Society for the Protection of Ugly Goblins?

"While a little on the nose," Remus got out through some chortling.

"Credit to Ron for thinking of them," James finished easily.

Hermione rolled her eyes at him, saying goblins didn't need anyone's help, weren't they listening in Binns class about goblin rebellions?

"Did she really just ask that with a straight face?" Lily demanded, "I've never met anyone besides her who would answer other than no."

"You know it's true when Lily agrees with us," Sirius nodded along.

Harry and Ron said no together.

"That about covers the whole school's answer right there," James snorted.

Hermione answered that they were very clever and more than capable of standing up for themselves, unlike house-elves.

Ron was no longer listening, but watching the door and interrupted to say uh-oh.

"I can imagine Ron said that often when he realized he got her into a tangent," Remus sighed, now watching Sirius and Lily uneasily as he hoped those two fighting wouldn't cause another eruption in here.

Rita Skeeter had just entered.

"That is much more cause for uh-oh," Lily puffed up at once, several things on the tip of her tongue she couldn't wait to throw at that person for doing this to first her son, then Hagrid!

She came in already chatting with her photographer, bought drinks, and went searching for a seat with the trio glaring all the way.

"You are much kinder than any of us," James snarled, "I'd have booby trapped her chair before she even knew which one she'd be picking."

"I'd pay money to see it," Lily happily agreed.

She was talking fast and looking very satisfied about something,

"Ruined somebody else's life already has she?" Sirius got out through gritted teeth.

which seemed to be why someone didn't want to talk to her?

"I cannot think of a single reason," Remus stated with transparent sarcasm.

What had he been doing with those goblins?

"Waiting for you to ask obviously," Sirius sneered.

Showing them the sights, how ridiculous that was.

"Hark, there's some blessed irony, watching her get lied to," Lily scathed. Admittedly she didn't particularly like Bagman, but he was much lower on her list than Skeeter.

Skeeter was already saying how she should try doing some digging on him, coming up with a snappy title on the spot, but needing a story to come along.

"She comes up with those titles before she even-" James sputtered off when he realized how absurd it was to be criticizing this excuse for a writer.

Harry loudly shouted that she was already set on ruining someone else's life.

"Oh Harry," Lily groaned. "Are you trying to start trouble now?"

"He's a bit of a late bloomer," Sirius couldn't help but grin, "but I'm willing to encourage this behavior, especially towards people like her."

"I wasn't going to be able to leave without saying something to her for what she did to Hagrid," Harry snapped at no one in here.

This caught Skeeter's attention at once, beaming at the sight of Harry as she asked him to join her.

"She, cannot, actually be, that, oblivious," Remus gaped at the idea that she was still putting on pleasantries around him!

Harry snapped back he wouldn't come near her with a ten-foot broomstick.

"Never get tired of your word choices," James praised.

Demanding what she'd gone and done that to Hagrid for?

"Because she got off topic of you for five seconds and needed someone else to harass," Remus sneered.

Skeeter raised a penciled brow at him, stating people had a right to that truth.

"Not at the expense of a good man's job," Lily spat back.

Harry shouted back no one cared that he was half-giant!

The whole pub had gone silent by now, Rosmerta didn't even seem to notice the drink she was pouring was overflowing.

"You know it's got to be dramatic for her not to be stepping in," Sirius shook his head.

Skeeter recovered quick enough, digging in her bag for her Quill and asking Harry if he'd like to give an exclusive piece then, on the Hagrid he knew.

"No, I mean it," Remus insisted like he was sure he was talking to a dummy. "She cannot actually think he'd still give her a breadcrumb, let alone-"

"She's either the most oblivious person in the world," Sirius shook his head in disgust.

"Or the most heartless for it not even registering," James finished.

"I choose the second," Lily sniffed.

He could give details of their unlikely friendship, how he may even be a father substitute?

James nearly snapped at that one. He was sick and tired of every single male being compared to him as of late when Harry had never even met him! Glory his son was technically the same age as him now meeting him for the first time! Sirius he'd hold back, Bagman was inconsequential and more mildly annoying, but Hagrid actually had been there for some of Harry's most important firsts! Hogwarts letter, Diagon Alley, even his first Quidditch game, and it wasn't bleeding fair. The only thing actually stopping him was that it wasn't Harry who'd thought it, just Skeeter spurting off some more. Still, it wasn't making him feel much better when he glanced at Harry and saw that he wasn't exactly looking to deny the comparison, he was too busy still glaring at nothing that he wished was Skeeter herself.

Hermione stood up, her butterbeer clutched in her hand as though it were a grenade.

"There's a pleasant thought," Sirius chuckled low in his throat, trying to help his best mate move past these constant pangs that must be breaking his heart. James didn't seem to hear him.

Shouting at Skeeter that she'd just do anything for a story.

Rita snapped at Hermione she was being a silly little girl,

"Silly little girl?" Lily raised an imperious brow. "She has no idea who she's talking to."

"I can't wait for her to find out," Sirius said with a wolfish grin.

and not to talk about these things.

"Not surprised," Remus scoffed, "of course she'd treat Hermione like dirt, she's not a name."

Skeeter knew things about Hermione that would make her hair curl.

"Then why don't you publish your article and be done with it," James rolled his eyes, clearly thinking he was calling her bluff.

Hermione did not respond, instead marching out with Ron and Hermione at her heels.

Harry glanced back long enough to see the green Quick-Quotes Quill already on the move.

"What on earth is it even recording?" Lily demanded of nothing.

"Nothing good," Remus shook his head, thinking Hermione had just picked quite a fight.

Ron warned her Hermione would now be her next victim.

"I really can't see Skeeter writing anything Hermione would care about," James sneered. "She's proven at every turn she doesn't let other people's mocking get to her."

"The only times she's snapped is when someone insulted her intelligence, or friends," Sirius nodded along, that predatory smile still dominant. "Skeeter's done both. Can't wait to see what Hermione pays her back with."

Hermione was not concerned, but instead shaking with rage as she screamed about that woman going first after Harry, than Hagrid.

"I will genuinely pay Hermione to assist with this in any and all ways," Remus cackled at the promise of this.

"Another reason you should have stuck around," Lily snarked at him under her breath. He gave her a hurt look for the shot, but wasn't going to start that argument again.

Ron said he was serious,

"There's a good idea," Sirius snapped his fingers with pleasure. "Get me involved, I need something to do with my free time, this will bring back some good memories."

"As if you aren't involved in enough," Lily scolded him at once.

Hermione could get herself into trouble.

Hermione didn't think a thing of it, saying that Prophet couldn't scare her into hiding! She was walking so fast the boys were practically jogging to keep up. Harry hadn't seen her this mad since she'd slapped Malfoy.

"I thank you for that treasured memory," James beamed. They were all still angry at Rita of course, but Hermione's reaction was pure gold to anything they could have done, or in this case were incapable of doing, so cheering her on felt best.

She went on to say Hagrid wasn't going to be hiding from her anymore, he never should have let that waste of a human do this to him!

"Couldn't have put it better myself," Lily's smile stretched so wide, she couldn't have been prouder.

She broke into a run then, back onto the school grounds, and stormed up to Hagrid's house, yelling his name and pounding on his door.

"That'll give him a start," Sirius stated ruefully, "he might even come bursting out thinking you're in trouble with that."

"Whatever gets him out," Harry shrugged without remorse.

She only got a bit of yelling in about how that foul Skeeter woman shouldn't have been able to do this to him, and to get outside, he was being- but was cut off by the door opening via Dumbledore.

Harry read that with such an astounded look that quickly flushed in embarrassment, that alone would have caused their laughter, but the thought of the headmaster getting the pleasure of hearing all of that through Hermione's screeches had already caused them all to burst. It only subsided as quick as it did, and Harry quickly kept going, so they could hear the rest of this.

He pleasantly greeted them with a good afternoon.

"Well it sort of was, there for a moment," James shook his head.

Hermione's voice was now contrast in the face of him, as small as could go as she said they'd wanted to see Hagrid.

Dumbledore's eyes were still twinkling as he stated he'd gathered that.

"So glad he could take a hint," Remus got out around his chuckles.

Then he invited them inside.

"Well it'd be rather embarrassing to turn back now," Lily smirked.

The moment they stepped over the threshold, Fang bombarded them and Harry had to ward off the boarhound. Then he spotted Hagrid slumped over the table. He'd clearly been crying, and his hair was at the other extreme, so unkempt it looked like tangles of wire.

"Actually I thought it always looked like that," Sirius snorted.

"Shut it Padfoot," James quickly shushed.

Harry greeted him, but Hagrid only gave a hoarse hello back.

Dumbledore instructed they all needed more tea, and a wave of his wand made a tray appear along with a few miniature cakes.

Harry couldn't stop his mind floundering for a moment as he really wanted to ask about this display of magic creating all of that into existence, but then he remembered his first trip to the kitchens and how the house-elves had a set up just like this, and Dumbledore had probably summoned that in his own way.

They all took seats at the table before Dumbledore asked Hagrid if he'd heard what Hermione had been shouting.

"I'm sure Trelawney heard what she was saying," Remus gave a toothy grin.

Hermione went pink with embarrassment, but Dumbledore continued that these three proved what he'd been saying, they still wanted to know him, judging by their actions to break down the door.

"Well that's going a bit far," Lily shook her head fondly, "more like dent it for now."

"Though I'm sure if he hadn't let them in, it could have escalated," James sighed with longing at how that could have turned out.

Harry blurted that of course they did! How could he let that Skeeter cow, though quickly corrected himself and apologized to his headmaster.

"I hardly find that the foulest insult you could have used," Sirius snorted.

Dumbledore simply stated he may have gone temporarily deaf and hadn't the faintest clue what Harry said, now watching the ceiling and twiddling his thumbs.

"Oh I missed this," Remus gave a breathy laugh and tried to speak all at once. None of them had even begun to forget what he'd done to Sirius, and possibly even Remus and Harry, but at least there was still the man sitting there. The true leader of the Order, the man who would stick by his friend's side no matter what and offer whatever comfort he could. He may have abandoned Sirius when he needed him most, but even now he was slightly making up for that as far as Sirius was concerned by sticking with Hagrid, and clearly still Remus on some level.

Harry went back to talking to Hagrid, saying that Hagrid shouldn't that, well that woman

"Nice catch," James winked at Harry.

get to him.

Dumbledore stated Harry was living proof of what he'd been trying to convince Hagrid of. Dumbledore had already shown Hagrid letters of previous students of his who threatened mayhem if Dumbledore did anything against Hagrid.

That still managed to increase their smiles to another degree. Hagrid had been gamekeeper for countless generations, and an apprentice to the job even before that. He'd never harmed a soul and in fact had been an honest comfort to anyone and everyone with just the tiniest offer. This in fact managed to give Sirius and James a conspiratorial look at each other, now fully intending to throw in Remus' face later when they had a better chance that the same would be spoken true of him if it had ever gone this far, not that Remus had stuck around to find out.

Lily's heart did manage a painful twang though, as she realized that she wasn't one of those to have sent such a thing, it was never a pleasant reminder.

Hagrid still sniffled that not everyone would feel the same.

"He can't honestly expect universal popularity?" Sirius raised a staunch brow, his tone carrying as much, "and even if he didn't have that much support, it should be the real ones who matter like Harry."

"Um, thanks," Harry muttered, feeling bashful at the unexpected praise and quickly reading to cover it.

Dumbledore gently scolded that if Hagrid expected everyone in the world to like him, he'd be in this cabin forever.

Lily gave a soft sigh and yet couldn't stop a smile. Happy as she was to see Dumbledore acting the way she'd always known him to again, even his wisdom filled words now weren't making his past crimes against her son feel much better.

Explaining that he hadn't his position at school for a week before he got letters of complaint. What was he to do? Barricade himself away?

"That would have been a sight," James rolled his eyes.

Hagrid reminded none of them were half-giant.

Harry snapped back that he still had some unpleasant relatives, look at the Dursleys.

"Best point you could have made," Lily griped.

Dumbledore agreed on that point, reminding of his own brother Aberforth,

"Where have I heard that name before?" James asked with his head cocked to the side.

"Err, isn't that the guy from the Hog's Head?" Sirius asked as he raked his brain.

"That smelly old guy?" Remus scoffed, "probably a name coincidence, there's no way it's the same person."

who had been prosecuted for practicing inappropriate charms on a goat.

Harry spluttered in shock at that, something very hard trying to smack his memory into thinking of something, but the others thought it was suppressed laughter at such a tale, so Harry was instantly distracted by Remus saying, "before our time, only ever heard rumors about that."

"I didn't even know Dumbledore had a brother," Lily said in surprise, then she went cross eyed as she realized, "err, Albus, because his brother would be called that too, oh you know what I meant."

Harry felt disappointed that they clearly didn't know more about Dumbledore's brother, but didn't press them for more.

That had been all over the papers, but Aberforth had never acted differently. Well, then again Dumbledore wasn't certain his brother could read, so that may not have been bravery...

This time Harry couldn't help but laugh a small bit along with the others, Harry still eagerly pushing for any details, "so you've never heard anything about Dumbledore's siblings?"

"We've only heard gossip about a brother," James said in surprise, "think my parents mentioned it once as a joke, I wasn't even sure that was true. I doubt he has even more."

Harry slumped back in disappointment, his mind clearly unwilling to let this one go though. Still, the headache won in the end and he forced himself to keep going.

Hermione put herself in then, begging Hagrid to please come back.

Hagrid let a few more tears trickle out but didn't answer.

Dumbledore took to his feet and made his answer for Hagrid, saying he refused his resignation.

"Oh Merlin, he actually tried to quit," Sirius pouted.

"Thank goodness Dumbledore doesn't let all of the best teachers walk out," James said with an obvious look at his favorite teacher, who was clearly ignoring both his friends.

Dumbledore expected him back to his regular schedule Monday, no excuses. He bid them all good evening, and then left.

Hagrid still couldn't help crying a bit, in between stating what a great man Dumbledore was.

Ron absently agreed as he asked for a cake?

"And there's Ron keeping us on point," Remus snorted to try and bring his own amusement up.

Hagrid happily pushed the tray towards him, brushing at his eyes and admitting he'd been an idiot. His dad would have been ashamed of him. Then he realized he'd never showed them a picture.

Lily couldn't help but coo with sadness for the poor dear, but at least he was finally starting to look up.

Hagrid got up and went rummaging through a drawer coming back with a photo of a much younger Hagrid standing next to a man with the same eyes, beaming with pride. Hagrid was already a good eight feet tall in the photo judging by the tree,

"Merlin, can you imagine sharing a dorm with him," Sirius shook his head. "He'd take up all the beds."

"You know what house he was in?" Harry asked curiously.

"Gryffindor," Remus shrugged, "about the only thing he'd ever share about his time at Hogwarts."

but judging by his face, hardly eleven. Hagrid explained this had been taken just after he got his letter, his dad had been so proud, as he wasn't sure if he'd be a wizard because of his mother.

"If one of your parents is magic, then you are going to be a wizard," Lily said stiffly. "It is only in extremely rare cases otherwise. I wish wizards would understand that."

"Good luck getting it through so many thick skulls," James grumbled.

Sadly he hadn't lived long after this was taken, he'd died in Hagrid's second year, before he was expelled.

Lily's frostiness at persons unknown melted at once as she wanted to go right back to comforting Hagrid for that travesty.

Dumbledore had taken care of him after that, got him this job. He was always willing to give anyone a second chance.

Sirius felt himself give a horrible little twitch, now a little bug forever going off in the back of his mind why he'd been left out of that when it seemed to be true for every other person, bloody hell the man trusted a Death Eater more than him apparently.

He'd let anyone join Hogwarts,

Remus couldn't help but flush happily as he smiled at the reminder, his mind still boggled some days even after he'd spent seven years there that he'd gotten the experience.

as long as they were magical. He knew all you had to do was give them a chance no matter their families. Some people didn't understand that, they'd hold your heritage against you, or pretend like nothing was wrong and they just had big bones like they were ashamed; but Hagrid wasn't.

"Think he took Maxime to heart," Lily sighed in sympathy, still hoping there was someone else out there for Hagrid rather than that stuck up old bird.

His dad had always told him never to be ashamed. He was right of course, and he'd never forget to live by that. Big bones, he'd show her big bones.

"Hagrid just has no filter," James chuckled lightly. "If those kids didn't know what he was talking about, it wouldn't exactly be hard to guess from all that."

"Yet we still love him all the more for it," Sirius chirped.

The three of them tried not to exchange looks, Harry would rather take fifty skrewts for a walk than admit they'd overheard him talking to Madame Maxime,

"That is the best comparison I've ever heard," Remus told him after a bit more laughter.

but Hagrid was still talking, apparently unaware that he had said anything odd.

"He's actually getting worse with years," Lily giggled, "at least by now he should have cut himself off and corrected that he shouldn't have told you that."

Now turning on Harry with bright eyes that when he'd first met Harry, he'd reminded him of Hagrid. Parents gone, and so sure he wouldn't fit in at Hogwarts.

Harry's smile was a bit more forced now as yes, he did remember all of that quite well, but he'd never been happier to be wrong.

But look at him now, school champion!

"Still don't know if I'd go so far as praising him for that," James muttered to himself, now wanting to curse Skeeter for a whole other reason. She just had to put that poisonous little thought in his head, now he was even feeling resentful of Hagrid!

He looked at Harry for a moment and then said, very seriously,

Sirius worked furiously for a moment before actually putting on a fair impersonation of Hagrid's West Country accent, "well if he can be me, then I can be him."

Everyone was plainly distracted from whatever they'd been thinking to either groan at him, or in Harry's case to laugh, which had been the whole point so Sirius smiled, more than pleased with himself.

that what he'd love more than anything was for Harry to win, to show them all you didn't have to be a pureblood to be something.

"Err, I'm fairly confident I don't know any of the other champions blood status," Harry said in surprise.

"It's the principle Hagrid's going for," Remus shrugged, "you are an underdog of sorts being the youngest."

"Actually Fleur would make his impact better," Sirius couldn't help a little smirk, "being part human and all with her veela status."

"I like Harry better, so let's stick with him," Lily chuckled.

Gently asking how Harry was doing with that egg?

Harry quickly fudged like he had to everyone else, and Hagrid gave his first real smile.

"Worthwhile lie," James beamed anew, he really couldn't stay mad at Hagrid after such a sweet little speech.

Claiming, 'that's my boy.'

...okay, maybe he could a little, but at least his tick of annoyance went unnoticed.

Lying to Hagrid felt even worse than anyone before, so as Harry went up to his dorm that night, he decided it was time to shove his pride away. He couldn't let Hagrid down, it was time to check out Cedric's hint.

"Was wondering when you'd break on that," Lily chuckled, giving her baby's nose a friendly little tweak as Harry got up to hand the book to Remus.

HPHPHPHP

*maana999 offered the question of where that was being taken place if not the Room of Requirements, this had always been my running idea.

#Harry Potter #fanfiction #GoF #Marauders #reading the books #James Potter #Remus Lupin #Sirius Black #Lily Potter #Jilly

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pamalamherron92 · 4 years ago

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20 Repetition Examples Worth Repeating (+10 Repetition Types)

We see repetition examples everywhere — in books, movies, music, and even commercials.

Advertisers use repetition to craft catchy slogans that entice us to buy. Musicians use it to create songs that get stuck in our heads. Politicians use it to persuade nations.

But you?

How can you use repetition to spice up your writing and make it memorable?

I’ll show you how.

But first, we need to start with the basics. So let’s define repetition then jump into some examples.

Shall we?

What is Repetition?

Repetition is a literary device where words or phrases repeat for emphasis.

There are several types of repetition. For instance, alliteration is the repetition of consonant sounds.

You might remember this consonance example from your childhood:

“Sally sells seashells by the seashore.”

Sound familiar?

But repetition is used for more than just childhood tongue twisters. If used correctly, it’ll strengthen your writing by:

Emphasizing your message

Boosting memorability

Adding rhythm

Linking ideas or topics together

But I should issue a warning.

There’s a fine line between repetition and redundancy.

For example, take the following paragraph:

He raced to the grocery store. He went inside but realized he forgot his wallet. He raced back home to grab it. Once he found it, he raced to the car again and drove back to the grocery store.

“Raced” is repeated, but it doesn’t strengthen the sentences. Instead, it sounds like the author couldn’t think of better word choices.

What follows, then, is too many filler words that confuse the reader and lose their attention.

Now compare that redundant paragraph to this repetition example:

It was the best of times,

it was the worst of times,

it was the age of wisdom,

it was the age of foolishness,

Do you see how compelling that is?

It’s the opening to Charles Dickens’ novel, A Tale of Two Cities.

Dickens’ repetition draws his readers in and encourages them to keep turning the page.

Can it do the same for you and your audience?

Yes.

Let’s show you how to replicate this with more examples.

10 Types of Repetition with Examples

Repetition is an umbrella literary device that includes more specific types of stylistic tools, like alliteration, epistrophe, diacope, and others.

And here’s a hint:

Each type of repetition serves a unique purpose. The one you choose depends on what you’re trying to convey.

So let’s talk about that next.

1. Anaphora

Anaphora is the repetition of words at the beginning of successive clauses.

It’s common in music, poems, and children’s books that have a rhyming element.

For example, Nico and Vinz’s song “Am I Wrong?” features this anaphora:

So am I wrong for thinking that we could be something for real?

Now am I wrong for trying to reach the things that I can’t see?

Listen to how catchy this line sounds below:

youtube

Anaphora can also be used in speeches to motivate people. Dr. Martin Luther King’s ‘I Have a Dream’ speech included this repetition example:

Let freedom ring from Stone Mountain of Georgia.

Let freedom ring from Lookout Mountain of Tennessee.

Let freedom ring from every hill and molehill of Mississippi.

See what I mean?

Repetition not only emphasized Dr. King’s point, but it made it more memorable and quotable.

2. Epizeuxis

Epizeuxis is the repetition of a word or phrase in immediate succession.

Winston Churchill used epizeuxis in his address to Harrow School:

Never give in. Never give in. Never, never, never, never-in nothing, great or small, large or petty-never give in, except to convictions of honor and good sense.

How’s that for a commencement speech?

Churchill was known for his inspiring speeches that were packed full of powerful words and rhetorical devices.

But while repetition examples are common in speeches, they don’t stop there. Writers have used repetition for ages.

For example, in King Lear, William Shakespeare wrote:

And my poor fool is hanged! No, no, no life!

Why should a dog, a horse, a rat have life,

And thou no breath at all? Thou’lt come no more,

Never, never, never, never!

In the scene above, King Lear is grieving the death of his daughter. The use of epizeuxis is a perfect choice for this scene because it strengthens the emotion.

3. Epistrophe

Epistrophe, also called “epiphora,” uses repetition at the end of independent clauses or sentences.

Many writers and speakers use epistrophe to drive home their points.

Abraham Lincoln achieved this in his “Gettysburg Address”:

Government of the people, by the people, and for the people, shall not perish from the earth.

Powerful, isn’t it?

Many musicians also love using repetition to add a regular rhythm to their songs and make them catchy.

And they’re right.

We see it in Beyonce’s “Single Ladies” song:

‘Cause if you liked it then you shoulda put a ring on it

If you liked it then you shoulda put a ring on it

Don’t be mad once you see that he want it

4. Negative-Positive Restatement

A negative-positive restatement states an idea twice, first in negative terms and then in positive terms. These are typically “not this, but that” statements.

For example:

“Ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country,” said John F. Kennedy.

Another famous negative-positive restatement comes from Martin Luther King. He said, “Freedom is not given; it is won.”

5. Diacope

Diacope is the repetition of a single word or phrase, separated by intervening words. It comes from the Greek word thiakhop, which means “cutting in two.”

My favorite example comes from Michael Jordan. He said:

“I’ve failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed.”

Jordan first said this in a Nike ad. You can watch this short commercial below. I promise you won’t be disappointed:

youtube

Speaking of commercials, Maybelline uses a diacope in their tagline when they say, “Maybe she’s born with it; maybe it’s Maybelline.”

6. Epanalepsis

Epanalepsis repeats words or phrases at the beginning and the end of the same sentence or clause.

For example:

“Control, control, you must learn control,” said Yoda in The Empire Strikes Back.

Check it out:

youtube

Epanalepsis puts a heavy emphasis on the idea you’re trying to convey.

It also uses the “primacy” and “recency” effects which means the first and last thing we hear is more likely to stick in our minds.

Some politicians love this technique. Politicians like John F. Kennedy.

He used this repetition example in his address to the United Nations:

Mankind must put an end to war — or war will put an end to mankind.

7. Epimone

Epimone uses repetition to dwell on a point. It’s commonly used in stories where a character is pleading or commanding someone to do something.

We saw it in Oliver Goldsmith’s play, She Stoops to Conquer:

I tell you, sir, I’m serious! And now that my passions are roused, I say this house is mine, sir; this house is mine, and I command you to leave it directly.

Epimone is also used to illustrate persistence. For example, in Webster’s address to the Senate, he said:

The cause, then, Sir, the cause! Let the world know the cause which has thus induced one State of the Union to bid defiance to the power of the whole, and openly to talk of secession.

8. Polyptoton

Polyptoton involves the repetition of words that derive from the same root word.

Here’s a famous quote from John Emerich Edward Dalberg-Acton:

“Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.”

Remember that one?

“Absolute” and “absolutely” are different words, but they derive from the same root word.

Polyptoton is common in headlines and book titles too.

Heidi Murkoff’s popular book on pregnancy is titled What to Expect When You’re Expecting

Here’s a screenshot of the cover page:

9. Antistasis

Antistasis uses repetition to contrast two ideas. It derives from the Greek meaning “to stand against” or “opposing position.”

For example, when someone asks you:

“Are you working hard or hardly working?”

That’s an antistasis example because it contrasts two ideas on work.

Advertisers use this technique too. The tagline of the Starkist Tuna commercials was:

“Sorry, Charlie. StarKist wants tuna that tastes good, not tuna with good taste.“

Do you see how the combination of those contrasting ideas makes you stop and think?

That’s the goal.

10. Antanaclasis

Antanaclasis repeats the same word or phrase but with a different meaning each time. This repeated phrase is also known as a pun because it’s a play on words.

Benjamin Franklin used it when he said, “Your argument is sound, nothing but sound.”

In the first part, he said the argument is solid. In the second, he discounted it as noise.

Vince Lombardi, a famous football coach, also used antanaclasis when he stated:

“If you aren’t fired with enthusiasm, you will be fired with enthusiasm.”

See how easy that is?

Stating the same phrases in a different way makes them wittier.

Examples of Repetition in Literature

Surprise, surprise:

Some of the best repetition examples come from books and poems.

It didn’t take long for many of the world’s most famous writers — like Shakespeare and Maya Angelou — to understand the power of this rhetorical device.

For example, Romeo and Juliet, Shakespeare used repetition when he said:

Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow.

Oh, woeful, oh woeful, woeful, woeful day!

In F. Scott Fitzgerald’s novel, The Great Gatsby, he used repetition in successive phrases to emphasize his point:

The apartment was on the top floor-a small living-room, a small dining-room, a small bedroom, and a bath.

The repeated word “small” highlights to the reader how tiny Tom’s apartment is.

Maya Angelou also knew how to use this literary technique to her advantage. In her poem, Still I Rise, she said:

Leaving behind nights of terror and fear

I rise

Into a daybreak that’s wondrously clear

I rise

Bringing the gifts that my ancestors gave,

I am the dream and the hope of the slave.

I rise

I rise.

This repetition in poetry emphasizes Angelou’s main point and signifies her strength.

Famous Examples of Repetition in Pop Culture

Repetition is common in music because it makes it easy to sing along with the lyrics.

Here’s an example from Elvis Presley’s “Hound Dog”:

You ain’t nothin’ but a hound dog

Cryin’ all the time

You ain’t nothin’ but a hound dog

Cryin’ all the time

We also see repetition all the time in movies.

Why?

Because it gives us quotable movie lines that stand the test of time. Here’s a famous repetition example from Taxi Driver:

You talkin’ to me? You talkin’ to me? You talkin’ to me? Then who the hell else are you talkin’ to? You talkin’ to me? Well, I’m the only one here.

Hear this quote in action:

youtube

And then, of course, another famous repetition example comes from the James Bond series. James Bond always introduces himself as “Bond. James Bond.”

Why Write with Repetition?

Let me ask you:

If there was an easy way to be more memorable, would you do it?

And if you could easily add emphasis to your message, would you do it?

Of course you would.

Just by using repeated patterns in one sentence or paragraph, you can:

Make your point more convincing

Increase memorability

Add flow to your writing

Make your words rhyme

Link topics or ideas together

Think of it this way.

There’s a reason why some of history’s most famous speakers used repetition. Winston Churchill, JFK, and Martin Luther King used it because it works.

It makes your writing more persuasive, quotable, and memorable. And in writing, that’s considered the triple threat.

Ready to Put These Repetition Examples to Work?

Using repetition is simple.

Start by choosing an idea that you want to emphasize. Then repeat words that stress that idea and make your prose more quotable.

But a friendly reminder:

Don’t overuse repetition. Just use it on thoughts or ideas that you want to carry a significant impact, or else it’ll lose its effect.

Remember my redundancy example from earlier?

You don’t want to look like a lazy writer who couldn’t find a better way to word your message.

Instead, use it like David Schwartz when he said:

“The mind is what the mind is fed.”

See how that works? Now go try it for yourself.

You’ve got this.

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gameofthrawns · 8 years ago

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A Night with the Hunters

A/N: Off on a plane tomorrow, so I’ll post this now. For tarched’s HTTYDArtAugust event, Prompt 3: Campfire.

This actually works for both this prompt and the next one, as does the next story (sorta). This was originally for the next prompt, but I switched them out because people will probably be expecting a story about Dragon Hunters for a prompt titled “The Hunters”, and I’d sooner sell my fedora and mason jars than do something so obvious.

I hope you kinda like these random OCs, as they’ll probably be showing up in one of the later HTTYDArtAugust prompts.

“So where are you from again, boy?”

Hans hid his frown with a swig of ale. He hated being called that. It was accurate, but still, it made him feel small, especially surrounded by these four strangers. Also, it was the second time the older man, Rolf, had asked that question, and Hans didn’t doubt that he was simply trying to make conversation.

Well, it couldn’t hurt.

“Polder,” he replied.

“Hmm...” Rolf intoned, scratching his red beard in thought. “I vaguely remember the name. It’s one of those, um—”

“One of those Teuton Kingdoms,” Sigrid said quickly, shooting a proud glance at Rolf, who simply scowled. “All marshes, worse than living in a pile of yakshit I’ve heard. It’s no wonder you look so skinny.”

He didn’t bother hiding his frown this time.

She shrugged. “I guess you’re still tall, so you’ve got that going for you.”

Hans regarded the woman with a little more admiration than he knew was reasonable. Perhaps it was her bright blue eyes, her...shiny golden hair, her sharp, pale face—but not too sharp and pale because that would be unpleasant—and...something. He was quite bad at this, and there was only the campfire’s light to go by right now, but he had seen here earlier today, on the docks when he first arrived on this “Dragon Hunter Island”. He remembered enough to know that yes, she was certainly pretty.

Or perhaps it was because she was sitting among four men, men who hunted and killed dragons for a living, yet she did not avert her gaze or flinch when she spoke with them, for she was a Dragon Hunter herself. She was, in fact, the only woman Dragon Hunter he’d seen so far. Was she the only one in the entire...tribe? Or whatever this organization considered itself.

“Stop ogling, lad,” Rolf said with a knowing snicker, and Hans’ eyes snapped from the sigrid back down to the crackling fire faster than he thought possible. “Sigrid can and will castrate you with a rusty knife if you keep it up.”

“I’m okay with looking,” Sigrid corrected. “Just don’t touch.”

“All right, back on topic,” Snorre said loudly, but quite cheerily. So far, he’d been the most amicable boss Hans ever had the pleasure of knowing, though perhaps it was just the ale. “So your name’s Hans, and you grew up in yakshit. What else?”

Hans scratched his head nervously. “Why are you all so, uh, curious?”

Snorre picked a piece of chicken out of his beard. “You’re a part of our...team—what does Viggo call them?”

“Squad,” Rolf corrected.

“Yes, squad. We’re not herding sheep. We’re fighting men, dragons, sometimes men riding dragons...”

That got a grim reaction out of everyone else.

Hans had heard of this strange alliance between certain Vikings and dragons. Just the thought of it slightly terrified him, but apparently the reality was even worse. He had prayed he’d never have to fight them.

Well, just his luck.

“What about these dragon hunters?” Hans asked.

“We try to fight them,” Snorre said. “We usually lose. Well, not us specifically, as we’ve only ever faced them once. You know what I mean, us Dragon Hunters as a whole.”

“It’s usually the same five or so dragons and riders,” Sigrid added. “They’re all probably your age, maybe slightly younger. Their leader’s a boy, brown hair like yours, I recall. Rides a Night Fury.”

“We need to know if we can count on you. Do you know what happened to the man you’re replacing?”

“No,” Hans said, suddenly nervous. It probably wasn’t going to be easy for Hans to meet the expectations set by—

“Raven-starving coward!” the man sitting just beside him suddenly shouted. Hans had somehow forgotten both his name and presence.

“He died,” Snorre said plainly. “We were gathering Changewing eggs on an island when we were attacked by their mothers. He tried to sneak away with the eggs while we were fighting our way out, and then...” He punched into his own hand. “Bam, right into the rest of the pack. Justice of the gods, I tell you. I still pity the fool.”

“Well I certainly don’t,” the paranoid man snapped.

Snorre just shook his head. “Aye, turns out we didn’t know him as well as we thought.”

Never mind, then. So it was the opposite problem: they’d been betrayed once, and that had made them cynical and suspicious of him.

“Well...all right,” he said reluctantly. “I was born in Polder.”

“You said that already,” No-Name said.

“Ivar, enough,” Snorre commanded. Ah, yes, that was it. Ivar.

“Never really knew my parents,” Hans continued. “My mother died giving birth to me, and my father died from fever soon after. So I lived with uncle and his family.” He laughed bitterly. “He always hated me, blamed me for my parents dying, so his family hated me too. Just...constant beatings and...”

He shook his head to clear the unwelcome memories, but they stubbornly clung to his mind. “I slept outside,” he said, his voice slightly softer than he would’ve liked it to be, “even in winter. And I prayed to the Savior, our Lord. I prayed every day to be taken away to a better life.”

Snorre nodded grimly. Ivar’s mustache twitched in sympathy. Sigrid poured herself some more ale.

Rolf snorted. “Which side of the family tree?”

“I don’t remember. I don’t even know how old I am anymore. Mercenaries invaded the village when I was twelve. Said I wanted to join them before they even entered the village, and I guess they liked my...what’s the word, enthusiasm. Never looked back.”

“So how’d you get here?” Sigrid asked, leaning forward. “How’d you learn to speak Norse so well?”

Hans had to admit, he found her interest quite flattering. “Well, um, I did not stay with those mercenaries for too long. I joined the Visithugs very soon after, and then I ended up on some trader ship as just muscle. Basically I went from one job to another job to another job. And now...” He shrugged. “I am here!”

Rolf rubbed his mustache thoughtfully. “What a delightful tale, truly special. Sounds a good bit like Ryker’s upbringing, doesn’t it?”

Hans remembered that name. Ryker was the second-in-command of all the Dragon Hunters, the massive hulk of a man who’d greeted the new “batch” at the docks, made a very brief and uninspiring speech about never underestimating a dragon’s cunning and following orders to the letter and watching out for each other. So basically, about five sentences, if one counted “I’ll make this quick” and “All right, dismissed” as part of the speech.

“No, no, you might be thinking of Viggo,” Ivar said dismissively. “Or you’re pulling all this from your ass, as usual.”

Rolf was scratching his beard again. “But aren’t they brothers?”

“I thought Ryker’s family got eaten by dragons,” Sigrid muttered.

“He was a good Dragon Hunter who got rich and left the business early,” Snorre said, staring directly at Hans. “Land, wife, kids, love and happiness and sunshine. Then the dragons had their revenge and burnt it all to the ground, so he’s back.”

“Lost his land, his family...and love and happiness and sunshine,” Ivar repeated for emphasis. “That’s why we hunt dragons, boy. So more men don’t end up like Ryker. He’s just...not human, anymore.”

Snorre loudly sighed. “The boss’s life story is his business. We’re not old ladies, here, so why are we gossiping over rumors? While still on this island, too? What if Ryker’s nearby and hears us?”

“We offer the new guy as a sacrifice,” Ivar suggested. That got a chuckle out of everyone, even Hans.

“I thought they were Templars,” Rolf said suddenly.

“What now?” Hans felt compelled to ask, much to the others’ dismay.

“Ryker’s family was assassinated by the Templars,” Rolf continued, “because he was rich yet openly defied your savior god.”

The others around Hans groaned, but he himself was only somewhat paying attention. There was something he wanted to ask, something important.

“Odin’s fucking beard, Rolf, cut it out,” Snorre practically hissed. “Every time...You know, we don’t even know if any of these stories are true.”

Hans bit his lower lip, thinking hard.

“No, no, I’m serious, I distinctly remember someone saying he crushed a man’s skull with one hand—”

“What about all of you?” Hans blurted out. That wasn’t quite the way he’d wanted to phrase the question, but his nerves had somehow gotten the better of him.

Ivar raised a bushy eyebrow. “What about us?”

“Do you mean, how we became Dragon Hunters?” Sigrid offered.

“Yes,” Hans said. Sigrid gave a small, understanding smile, and just like that, his confidence had returned. “I would like to know how you became a Dragon Hunter, too. All of you. Starting with...Sigrid?”

She frowned. All right, perhaps too confident. “Please?” he added, almost childishly.

Rolf and the others chuckled. “Oh, Hans, my friend,” he said, clearly amused, “we’ve been trying for the past two years.”

“I mean, it’s just a bit unfair, seeing as how I have told everything—”

“There’s an old Roman proverb: It’s not wise not to pry secrets from a woman,” Rolf said with an air of wisdom, “or from cold-blooded killers. Sigrid’s probably both.”

“I feel like you just made that up,” Hans countered.

“Of course he did,” Ivar said with a snicker.

“Ivar, don’t tell me you’re siding with this boy over your old friend—”

“Enough,” Snorre grumbled. “Enough, please.”

Hans shook his head in slight annoyance. “Look, I’m just asking—”

“I have a brother at home,” Sigrid said quietly, and everyone else instantly fell silent. It was only now that Hans realized how small the fire had gotten.

“Sven was three years my younger, I think,” she continued. It’s been too long, but you remind me of him, Hans. My mother died giving birth to him, and I guess my father loved her too much, and it made him so cruel towards Sven. But never to me. As I grew up...he said I looked so much like Mother.”

Hans swallowed the lump in his throat. “So why did you...leave?” he asked carefully. “And your brother is still...”

Sigrid was frowning again, even harder than before. And this time, there was no laughter to break the tension

“Don’t push your luck too far, son,” Snorre said humorously. It was false, of course, but it still helped. “We've already tried. Trust us, the guy before you? He tried. Wasn’t able to sit properly for a week, I think.”

Ivar plucked at the tip of his mustache, slightly grinning. “And now him betraying us makes so much more sense.”

“Anyways,” Rolf said excitedly, “on to happier subjects.”

Snorre snorted as he threw more kindling into the campfire. “Like your life story?”

“No...I mean yes, exactly that!” Rolf slapped his knees. “You see, dear Hans, I am a man of truly noble blood, my lineage extending all the way back to Emperor Maximillian the Fourth himself—”

“Yakshit.”

The rest of the night went along much like this, arguing and debating until the fire finally died out for good, and the “squad” retired for the night. Hans made sure to say a brief prayer before settling in his furs.

He slept soundly for the first time in a while, actually, assured in the knowledge that he was surrounded by four friends.

#httydartaugust #httyd #rtte #tarched #fanfic #henchmen lives matter

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because-cur-non · 8 years ago

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Top 5 scenes/ moments/ sections of dialogue from RF?

I’m gonna answer this under a cut!

1) Mulligan with Hamilton in loco parentis (I love Mulligan. I love Mulligan having his shit together more than these kids. Someday I’ll do a bonus thing of when Hamilton was staying with him. This is honestly maybe my favorite scene in the whole damn thing because I just love Mulligan so much.)

Mulligan was silent while he composed a message neutral enough to sound like it could have come from anyone and sent it. He pocketed Hamilton’s phone and let him sit quietly for the rest of the ride. He paid the driver, led the way into his building, and let them into the apartment. It sounded like one of his flatmates was in his room but otherwise they were alone. Hamilton dropped his bag on the floor and collapsed face-down on the sofa.

“I hate this,” he moaned.

“We’ll sort it out. Take off that jacket, the sleeves are too long for you. I’m gonna hem ‘em while we wait to hear back from ‘im.”

Hamilton dropped the jacket on the ground without getting up. Mulligan sighed and picked it up, taking it over to the sewing machine on the table.

“Like raising a friggin’ five year old…”

“Fuck off.”

“You gonna throw a tantrum?”

Hamilton raised one hand to flip him off.

“I can’t think, Mulligan,” Hamilton complained as the machine whirred. “Me.”

“Thanks for implyin’ the rest of us are a buncha idiots,” Mulligan said, his back to him as he worked.

“You know what I mean.”

“So you forgot your keys, big deal. Said you were sleep deprived anyway. Too much fuckin’ on vacation?”

“Just once. Wasn’t that. That didn’t help.”

Mulligan didn’t say anything, waiting patiently for Hamilton to start up again.

“Maybe I am sick,” he finally said, turning his head to the back of the couch and touching his face. “He said I felt hot. I get sick every winter anyway, fuck winter.” He struggled to take out his dry contacts. “That must be it.”

“Lovesick, maybe.” The machine stopped and Mulligan inspected his work, looking over just in time to see Hamilton reach over the armrest and drop the contacts to the carpet. “Oh, come on, I don’t spit on your floor.”

Hamilton left his arm hanging and Mulligan dropped the jacket on top of him.

“Try that when you’re done whining and tell me how it is.”

“‘Kay.”

“You done whining?”

“No.”

“I’m getting a beer. I’d offer you one, but it’s illegal to give alcohol to children.”

“You’re a jackass.”

Mulligan came back into the room, popping the tab on a can of beer. “You’re being a baby.”

“I fucking lost my work keys and I can’t get into my apartment!”

“That’s not what you’re really complaining about, Hamilton. I might not be a hotshot genius like you, but I’m not a moron. Move your legs over.” Mulligan sat heavily on the couch next to him. “You like the guy?”

“Yeah.” Hamilton’s voice was heavily muffled by the couch cushions.

“You like him a lot?”

“Yeah.”

“Things get a little too real spending that much time with him?”

Hamilton paused. “Yeah.”

Mulligan patted his leg. “Suck it up,” he said sympathetically.

2) CVS (First, this is the start of the islands/ocean theme. Second, look at these boys, this is back before they’re all over each other, that hand on the shoulder was Intimate. Someday I’ll also go through and pull things to show the progression of their sleeping habits.)

Laurens pulled him down, running his thumb over his high cheekbones and then his fingers through his hair. “You’re gonna get wrinkles,” he teased, “you’ll turn gray.”

“I’d be a silver fox,” Hamilton replied. “All the girls’ll be lining up at my door.”

“‘Girls’?”

“Yeah, I banned you after you made fun of my hair.” Hamilton rolled away from Laurens onto his back. “It’s like a sauna in the city at this time of year. I’m melting.”

“I thought you’d be used to it.”

“Trade winds.” Hamilton waved one hand dismissively in the air above his face. “And not all of this cement for the heat to just bake you in.”

Laurens propped himself up on his elbow, watching Hamilton’s face.

“I bet winter was a surprise.”

“Ha. Yeah. I stepped off that plane and—d’you know what, John? I saw autumn leaves for the first time in my life. Squirrels. CVS, for chrissake. All this shit that I had this image of in my mind because of course I knew about it, I’d seen it everywhere, and that’s the thing, isn’t it? No one in New York cares if I went to Gore’s of St. Croix, but I’ve got CVS already engrained somewhere in me and it’s beautiful, the flow of power. Soft power, John, recognize our maps and naturalize our flora and fauna and without even realizing it your center of balance is off.”

Laurens was quiet and Hamilton tucked his hands behind his head.

“You know what?”

“What?”

“You’re right, four hours isn’t enough. I don’t know what I’m talking about.”

“That’s not true.”

Hamilton closed his eyes. Laurens waited for a minute to see if he would say anything else, then lay down once he heard his breathing slow, putting one hand on his shoulder in spite of the heat.

3) Inappropriate sick flirting (Okay this isn’t like a CLASSY option or anything, but I crack myself up every time with Hamilton’s attempt to deflect-by-flirting here and I’m a sucker for sickfic, so. Shrug.)

Laurens, like Lafayette, woke before his alarm. He had gotten up late that night to take his headphones off and close his laptop, and then alternated between dozing and playing on his phone for a few hours, not willing to wake Hamilton if he was so soundly asleep. It wasn’t until he heard the second coughing fit that he got up and pulled on a pair of pants.

“Alex?” He knocked on the bathroom door. “Are you okay?”

“I’m fine.” He sounded a little strangled.

“Are you sick?”

Hamilton started coughing again. “I’m fine,” he repeated after a minute.

“Alex, come back to bed. Do you need something to drink?”

“I have water.” Laurens could hear him put the mug down on the side of the sink for emphasis. “And my laptop. I’m fine. Go back to sleep. I don’t want to keep you up.”

“I’m awake now.” Laurens tried the handle but it was locked.

“I don’t want to make you—” Hamilton cut himself off, clearing his throat and taking a drink.

“I thought you said you weren’t sick.”

“Said I was fine.”

Laurens sighed. “Look, if I’m going to get sick the damage is already done. I have to go in an hour. Just come back out. I feel weird talking to you through a door.”

There was a pause, then Hamilton opened the door and stepped out, all false-casualness in sweatpants and a pullover, taking a sip from a university mug. “Hey, J. You’re up, I’m up. What’re the odds. Wanna fuck?”

Laurens gave him an incredulous look. “No.”

4) Masculinity (Would you believe I wrote all this shit about gender before thinking critically about gender in my own life? Like, jeez, it’s one of Hamilton’s main recurring issues and the one I always identified with the most. Anyway, it was a toss up between this and the argument he has with Laurens at the end of the chapter, but it’s the same deal really.)

“What did I say wrong?” Lafayette asked. “I didn’t mean anything bad. I was teased a lot too, you know, but I’m happy for the two of you. I like being in a relationship like that. The closeness, the cuddling…”

“Yeah,” Hamilton said sharply and more directly than he meant to, “‘cause you’re not being treated like the freakin’ girl!”

Lafayette looked at him in surprise and Hamilton, embarrassed, turned away.

“Shit,” he said, walking towards the platform. “Don’t tell him I said that. I didn’t mean it like that.”

“John doesn’t think of you as a girl.”

“I know that.”

“Well, if you know that…”

Hamilton didn’t say anything.

“Do you think other people see you that way?”

“Fuck other people. How should I know what they think?”

“You would make a very bad girl,” Lafayette said.

“Shut up.”

“I don’t think anyone sees it like that except for you. John certainly doesn’t.”

“I know—look, fine,” Hamilton said, accepting that he was just going to be that annoying guy having a fight on the subway. He dug a quarter out of his pocket and tossed it into a street performer’s open guitar case to try and balance his karma out. “So he doesn’t, great. I feel bad, okay? I know he doesn’t—I like when—It’s just the way other people react sometimes. Like I’m…” Hamilton paused, gesturing helplessly as he tried to find the words. “…Less than him. Like with his friends, I liked that on the whole, it was great, I’m glad he had a good time and they were chill. But there were a couple moments where it was like they were almost making fun of me.”

“They teased me, too,” Lafayette protested.

“Bully for you.” Hamilton saw Lafayette’s hand twitch towards his pocket and he sighed. “Go ahead, write that one down. It’s dated, that’s probably why you haven’t heard it yet.”

Lafayette tucked the box under his arm then took out his notebook and copied the phrase out.

“I know it’s stupid,” Hamilton said, making an effort to lower his voice. “It shouldn’t matter. There’s nothing ‘feminine’ about it and even if there was, that’s not a bad thing. But it’s weird, okay, and I don’t like it. It’s not about being with him,” he went on after a pause in which they both waited as the train loudly pulled up. “I just hate being made to feel like less of a man for it.”

Lafayette cocked his head to the side, considering this. They got into a car and took hold of a pole near the door.

“Fucking bullshit heteronormativity,” Hamilton complained as the car pulled away, taking a step to the side for balance. “Gender doesn’t function in a void, Lafayette. In a perfect world none of this would matter and also I’d live in an apartment that didn’t leak heat during the winter.”

Neither of them said anything as the car rattled along to its next stop.

“You know what’s extra bullshit,” Hamilton started up again as the train stopped. “I fucked him today. I should be the one getting all the accolades. Instead it’s just, oh, look at the little guy, he’s so cute. Bullshit,” he muttered again, tugging his scarf down. “Doesn’t always bother me,” he added. “I dunno, I know you didn’t mean anything by it. Wasn’t even the tone. I don’t know.”

“I think you’re very masculine.”

“Thanks.” Hamilton still sounded sullen.

5) Out (Is it weird to say that I consider this part “a classic”? This is the thing that got me by far the most amount of comments and, I mean, Laurens earned it.)

“God damn,” Humphreys complained, freshly dressed and sitting next to Laurens on the bench between the rows of lockers and working at a knot in his neck. He tipped his head to the side so that fine braids slid like a curtain over his hand. “Don’t get me wrong, Laurens, I don’t want to blow my shoulder out, but you don’t even know how much shit I would have gotten into if I had gotten a month and a half off.”

“Dirty shit,” Tench laughed. “Go back to your farm, find some of those sheep?”

“Shut up,” Humphreys said, laughing as well. “That was a business plan.”

“Yeah, the oldest business in the world. Sam, catch.” Another player walking by caught his wallet without missing a beat. “I owe you ten.” The money was taken and the wallet was tossed back. Tench dropped it in his bag.

“Anyway, like I was saying, it’s not that I envy you, just those extra six weeks.”

“I hear you,” Tallmadge agreed, coming back from the shower in just a towel. “It’s hard to visit my girlfriend during the week. It takes so long to drive down, it’s really only possible on the weekend, but then, okay, so we can’t fool around as much as I’d like. Not that I’m actually ready for the monastery like our boy Laurens,” he teased, shoving Laurens playfully as he opened his locker. “How’re you holding up? I’d have assumed you just weren’t interested if I hadn’t had to listen to you for all these years.”

“Sainthood’s a real lonely road,” Tench added.

“Hey, come on,” Laurens protested, not really thinking about what he was saying, “My boyfriend’s all over me too, I know what it’s like.”

There was actually a moment of stunned silence in the locker room during which time Laurens braced for—

“You aren’t single? Hey, look, it only took five years! That means there’s still hope for you yet,” Tallmadge said loudly, slapping a passing first year, the younger of the two Trumbull brothers, hard on the back. “If you bitch about not getting a date one more time, I’m not stopping your older brother from whaling on you.”

Laurens watched in relieved surprise as various conversations picked back up around him.

“That explains why you haven’t gotten any personal fouls so far this season,” Tench teased him.

“So can we know who it is yet? Or is it still a secret?” Tallmadge dropped his towel to change, facing his locker. “I want to know who tamed the stallion.”

“‘The stallion’?” Humphreys was packing his bag. “Oh, come on, and I’m stuck with the sheep?”

“You wrote that paper, you brought this upon yourself,” McHenry said, breaking away from his earlier conversation and pushing up his glasses. “So who’s the lucky gent? I’m with Tallmadge, he deserves a Goddamn medal for finally wearing you down.”

“Alex,” Laurens started, caught between embarrassed and incredibly grateful. “Alexander Hamilton.”

“Hamilton… The guy with you at the trustee dinner? Short,” Tench said, gesturing his height. “Wavy hair? We went to André’s after.”

“That guy?” McHenry cut in. He tugged at the collar to his shirt and glanced down at himself, feeling the tag sticking out in the front. “Shit.” His voice was muffled for a second as he pulled it off over his head, flashing well-defined abs and two faint scars curving under his chest, then put it back on. “He works for the dean, doesn’t he?”

“Secretary to the president,” Laurens said, tentatively bragging a little.

“I thought he was with your roommate?”

“André’s his friend, he said that was just a rumor.”

“Obviously,” Tench rolled his eyes at Tallmadge. “Know-it-all.”

“Hey, André,” Humphreys called as André, also in a towel and with his hair wet and down in his eyes, showed up. “Did you know Laurens’ been holding out on us?”

“Uh.” André looked quickly at Laurens, who stood up.

“All right, all right, that’s enough.”

“So how is it?” Tench asked, ignoring Laurens’ protests. “Does he just want it all the time?”

“What?”

“You said he was all over you,” Tench pushed. “Did you have to give up your rule?”

Laurens reddened slightly. “No.”

“What? So, nothing? Not at all?”

“All season?” Tallmadge asked. “I take it back, he’s the saint, not you.”

“Wait, you did fuck though, didn’t you? You were together at the dinner, right?”

Laurens, still standing, not sure what was really stopping him from just walking away, felt an excited rush of camaraderie. “Yeah, we were, and we did. The night before,” he added before he managed to second guess himself and lose his nerve, “I fucked him so good he cried.”

Another shocked silence, then a delighted whoop of laughter.

“That’s our boy!” Tallmadge pounded Laurens on the back as he grinned, simultaneously self-conscious and proud.

“Damn,” Humphreys shook his head. “And here I thought we were going to need to give you a talk about the birds and the bees before you graduated and got sent out into the real world.”

“Maybe we still do,” Tench said. “Laurens, let me make this brief: you’re a moron.”

Laurens frowned, unsure. “What?”

“You said it yourself, he’s all over you. Go take advantage of that opportunity, man! You’ve waited long enough.”

“I had sex in high school,” Laurens protested weakly.

“Yeah, you know, you told some of us that story,” McHenry pointed out, “and while it sounded like a real great time, half a decade has passed in between.”

“He’s pretty cute,” Tallmadge agreed as Laurens stared at him in disbelief. “Long eyelashes.”

“Since… Since when do you check out other guys?”

“Relax, please, I sat next to him in lecture once. I remember because they friggin’ cast shadows on his face.”

“Uh-huh,” Laurens said, not sure at all about what to do with that.

“You do want to sleep with him, don’t you?” McHenry asked. “This isn’t another basil farm incident, is it?”

Laurens looked over at André, who studied the ceiling.

“No, uh,” Laurens said eloquently. “The sex is—it’s good. I enjoy it.”

“Then go fuck your boyfriend,” Tench told him, a little louder than Laurens would have preferred. “Seriously, Laurens! Did you hit your head when you ripped your shoulder out of its socket? He wants to, you want to, that grand tradition you thought you were holding to is a bunch of bullshit—no one actually does it. If you’re so concerned about your stamina then don’t sleep with him the night before the game! Jesus!”

“His girlfriend’s on study abroad,” André reminded Laurens, nodding his head at Tench.

“Right.”

“Lucky son of a bitch,” Tench muttered, zipping up his bag forcefully and slinging it over his shoulders as he stood. “Right, I’m starving. You getting breakfast, Laurens?”

Laurens smiled. “Sure. Sounds good.”

#this is like a sampler or some shit #revolutionary fuckboys

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theticklishpear · 8 years ago

Photo

(A table of contents is available. This series will remain open for additional posts and the table of contents up-to-date as new posts are added.)

Part Seven: Don’t Neglect Action

Since dialogue is one of our main tools for passing information between characters about what’s happening not only in the plot but also in terms of character arcs and development, our stories can start to feel as though the action scenes are just cushions between talking scenes. I myself have felt sometimes as though I’m just hopping from conversation to conversation. It can be difficult to know when you’re striking the right balance between action and dialogue.

Know your focus.

Generally a scene will have a purpose to perform within the story as a whole. Maybe it’s to have a certain event take place or to showcase a character’s change in perspective. Think about what your goal with a scene is--and more often than not, a scene will have more than one! Depending on what the main point of the it is, a scene will tend one way or the other naturally, born out of that purpose.

Not every big developmental moment is built out of a dramatic conversation. The temptation toward melodramatic lines like in TV shows and movies is huge, but it can be just as powerful to keep something in just glances and actions your characters take. Conversely, not every moment comes out of a visual reveal. Don’t feel like you have to change the focus, but do consider new and interesting ways to serve that focus and whether its natural tendency toward narration or dialogue is the best option for it this time.

If it feels like your story is suffering a little from too many scenes of one or the other, try finding another way to convey the information that is the focus of the scene whether that’s switching a conversation to something more focused on your characters doing something or the other way around, toying with the trope may reveal a new way of doing things you hadn’t considered previously.

Stay aware of your flow.

It’s hard to do while writing, but luckily, first drafts aren’t meant to be carved in stone, so during your re-reads and re-drafts, make sure you’re concentrating on and conscious of the scenes that are built mostly of dialogue or action. It seems so tempting to alternate them, but creating that kind of rhythm can become wearing and predictable for the reader, and it really will start to feel as though you’re just hopping from conversation to conversation with pillows of action between (or the other way around). Instead, find ways to blend the flow together by finding scenes where action can happen at the same time as a conversation. Often, two scenes can be combined and their dual goals achieved simultaneously. It’s not the first idea that comes to us, but in much the same way that two side characters can be combined to the same functions, scenes may work better in your story by working together. Give it a try when you feel like the flow of a story is stunted by a split focus.

Dialogue and action work together.

Perhaps the most obvious of advice is simply the reminder that these two techniques--narration and speech--work together. While it’s certainly an option to have a scene exist completely as dialogue, or an entire scene solely be narration of action, “best practices” for writing say that you should try to mix the two into each of your scenes. The focus of your scene isn’t the only thing in there--there’s also the wind up to the focus and the transition out of that moment and into the next scene. Find ways to interweave actions with your conversations and the other way around so that things still continue to happen. The last thing we want is for our stories to come to a dead stop so two characters can talk.

Think about how you can give action to your characters. Not just any action, however, but action that progresses the story. Can you still describe the environment while they talk? Can you still give tidbits of backstory while they discuss? Can you observe mannerisms and culture and speech habits while they argue? Can they continue their banter while continuing to work? Blending narration with your dialogue will help you avoid the use of things like emphasis formatting and overuse of ellipses. Instead of relying on those tricks, your narration will provide the pause in beat that the ellipses represents. You’ll build your action and your characters in scenes together.

Distance matters.

Narration interspersed with dialogue can provide a unique challenge in that you’re asking your audience to pay attention to two threads at once: what’s being said, and what’s being done. It doesn’t seem too complex, and on the surface, it’s not, however it’s important to keep in mind with dialogue that the phrases being said by people are meant to be in response to each other (most times). Spreading the responses too far apart from each other with description and action can lead to confusion; readers may have to step back and reread the dialogue from before in order to see how the responses are related. That’s no good; it pulls your reader right out of the immersive experience you’ve built for them.

Ideally, narration in amongst your dialogue lines should be kept short: a couple of sentences, a minimal paragraph at most. If you do have to separate the lines substantially, try to recall what’s been said previously within the character’s response. Maybe they repeat part of the question, maybe they ask for clarification, maybe they’re sarcastic, who knows. Keep your audience connected with the conversation as best you can. Yes, you want it to feel like a natural conversation, but if your characters take the time to do something or observe something that takes more than a couple of paragraphs before getting back to what they were talking about, probably not even they are going to remember exactly where they left off. Help a reader out.

Next up: Remainder sentences!

#writing #writing tips #dialogue #posts by pear

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hqjoshua · 5 years ago

Text

east high tour

TAGGING: Kiernan @hqshipkas, Josh.

LOCATION: East High School, Salt Lake City, Utah.

TIMEFRAME: February 22nd, 2020

NOTES: Josh gives Kiernan a tour of East High.

Kiernan couldn't believe her luck when she was invited to get a set of the High School Musical franchise. Sure, she had only been invited because a different show was being filmed on set, but still. She had arrived in Utah early Friday evening, and almost immediately had been whisked away for breakfast. Again, at her insistence. She hoped Joshua didn't mind. He was nice enough to offer her the tour in the first place, and she wasn't about to deny the offer to tour the halls that the iconic movie series took place in. As soon as they walked into the building, she was almost beside herself, taking a map and racing ahead to the first part that she wanted to see: the cafeteria. She swiveled on her heel to face her tour guide, back pressed against the same railing that Sharpay once stood at. "This is the most brilliant thing I have ever seen in my entire life."

Joshua was excited to have Kiernan visiting him in Utah, they had formed an almost instant connection. Dinner on Friday night when she flew into town had been fun. Breakfast foods were, in fact, better at night. As they walked into East High on Saturday morning Josh could see the excitement on Kiernan's face and it was adorable. "Isn't it amazing?" he replied with a smile, looking around at the space that had become his home away from home. "Is this where you start breaking out into song for the first time on the tour?" he asked with a smirk, prepping his phone to film her if she planned on bursting into song.

Kiernan let out a sigh, spinning around to get another look at the cafeteria. She could picture it so vividly, even from this angle. It was almost like she had been there during the original filming. All she had to do was look down and she could see the tops of people's heads as they sang about summer vacation and being unable to like more than one thing because of high school cultural pressure. "It's the best," she sighed. "Like tiny little Kiernan would never even be able to fathom this." She shook her head, looking down at the map. "No, but I could bust out the what time is it dance if I really wanted to. As Gabriella, though, not Sharpay." She pouted. "Everyone always told me I was Sharpay because I was blonde when I was clearly Gabriella. Though now I guess I'm very Chad."

Joshua watched as she took it all in, the cafeteria he had filmed in a few times before already. He remembered when he had stepped onto these sets for the first time, it was a whirlwind. "I'm glad you can fulfill little tiny Kiernan's dreams," he said with a smile. "Please bust out into the What Time Is It dance," he added with a laugh while she pouted. "You're totally a Gabriella, hair color means nothing," Josh explained. "Why are you Chad now?" he asked, curiously. Josh was still waiting for her to break out into a song but wanted to hear her reasoning behind being Chad.

Kiernan nodded, her fingers smoothing over the map that was already starting to fold and wrinkle under her excessive use. She would have to get another one, totally clean, for memory's sake. Maybe frame it. That's what normal people did, right? Frame tour maps from a high school that was once a filming location for the most iconic Disney movie trilogy of all time? "I will, maybe, if we can make it down there." She gestured the cafeteria, turning towards him with a grateful smile. "See? Thank you. Hair color means absolutely nothing, it's the personality that matters. Although you check both boxes." Kiernan shrugged. "I don't know. He's either super laid back or super intense for no reason about something that makes him happy. Like, you either fall asleep painting a set or are yelling about what team you are. No in-between."

Joshua “We can totally make it down there,” he smiled, grabbing her hand and leading the way down the stairs. They’d blocked the set off for filming which meant when school was in session, students had to eat in another area of the school. “Hair color means absolutely nothing,” he said with certainty as they walked down the stairs. “I check both boxes? For which characters?” he asked with a raised eyebrow. Josh listened as she explained why she was like Chad right now, a laugh escaping him at her reasoning. “So you’re like Chad because you’re hype about this tour?”

Kiernan followed Josh, rolling her eyes playfully. "You know, when I said I could it didn't mean I wanted to." Still, she followed him, if only to teach him the dance that she hoped he didn't know yet. "You check both boxes for Troy. You fit his personality, both in real life and in character, and you have the same hair color. You couldn't be more Troy even if you tried, man. Like, you could try to be Ryan and you'd still look like you were Troy doing an impression of Ryan." She shook her head, gesturing around them. "I'm hype about life, man. Like, the experience of everything that's happening.

Joshua chuckled, "Well, it's too late. We're here now, show me what you've got," he teased, listening as she went on about him checking both boxes. "Oh, I see. Yeah, I guess you're right. I'm the whole package," he teased again, winking at her. "It's good to be hype about life. Isn't this just about one of the coolest places you've ever been to? I bet all of your friends are going to be so jealous," he added. Josh looked around at the cafeteria seeing it through Kiernan's eyes just like he had when he had arrived here on the first day of season one. "Where to next?" he asked, wanting to let her pick even though he was supposed to be the tour guide.

Kiernan shook her head, covering her face with her hands. "Oh no, I—I'm too shy," she said, whispering. "No one is allowed to look at me while I do anything." Still, her feet couldn't help but walk straight towards the cafeteria tables, her fingers brushing against the plastic as she hummed out the last chorus in "What Time is It". The lightning wasn't quite the same, and there was certainly no Zac Efron around, but it still felt like a dream. "That's what I said, isn't it? I mean if the show was about their kids you'd be Troy and Gabriella's son for sure." She sat down at the table, looking down at her map. "Well, we were outside...we're in the cafeteria..." she looked up at him. "Maybe the gym?"

Joshua smiled as she shook her head, covering her face with her hands before going on about being too shy. "You're adorable," he said, looking at her with a goofy grin on his face. He watched as she walked towards the tables, fingers gliding across them. Josh began to sing along, quietly and under his breath as she hummed. "Yeah, I guess you're right, but I feel like Olivia could be their kid too," he replied. "Yes, the gym. Gotta getcha head in the game," he chuckled, reaching out for her hand to lead her back up the stairs and through the halls to the gym. They passed by the classroom that had been used for Troy and Gabriella's homeroom in the movies, "There's Ms. Darbus' room," he pointed out, stopping for a second in case she wanted to go inside.

Kiernan shook her head, putting her fingers to her lips. "Shhh, people might find out my secret." Kiernan nodded. "That's true. If it were about their kids you guys would be Troy and Gabriella's kids. Except you would be the smart singer and she would be the athlete, which goes against stereotype for them." She nodded again, pointing at the gym on the map for emphasis in response to his statement. "Exactly, getcha head in the game." Now standing, Kiernan took Josh's hand and tried to push past the butterflies that swelled in her stomach, walking with him down the hall. "Really?" She poked her head into the room. Without the set decorations, it just looked like a boring classroom. "I hope she had good summer plans, like Jason asked," she said.

Joshua chuckled, "Oh no! We wouldn't want that," he said with a grin. "Ooh, yeah I'd love that. We should always be going against the grain of stereotypes. Joshua burst out laughing as she repeated his 'getcha head in the game' phrase. It sounded so silly, but still held a lot of sentiment obviously. When she took his hand, he felt nervous, but it was a good kind of nervous. He just hoped his hand didn't end up getting clammy. Nodding his head at her classroom as they stopped in front of the classroom that had belonged to Ms. Darbus in the movie, he realized now that it looked kind of boring when it wasn't all done up. "I hope so too," he replied with a smile, leading her out of the classroom and towards the gym. Once they were standing in front of the gym doors he grinned, "Are you ready for this?" he asked, pausing for dramatic effect before he reached his hand out for the door handle

Kiernan shook her head, her eyes wide. “No of course not. Can’t give away all my secrets.” The hand that wasn’t holding Josh’s was keeping a tight grip on her phone as she took photos of the lockers and hallways. Even if they had no significance in the long run, it was still part of history. “Do you think we can see Sharpay’s locker after this? And the weird hallway stairwell they were in for part of What Time is It?” Even the smaller sets had to be photographed. She nodded, holding her phone out in preparation. “Come on, don’t keep me in suspense.” She lifted their joint hands, pushing down on the handle and pushing open the doors. She took a deep breath. “So many memories. Like how do you not walk into this room and think, like, ‘holy shit they filmed so many dance numbers here.’ Like how do people handle going to school here every day?”

Joshua watched as she kept a tight grip on her phone, chuckling to himself. "It's a good thing phones have so much storage these days, wouldn't want you to run out," he teased. "We can literally go anywhere you'd like," he replied with a smile. "I'm the tour guide, but this is your tour," he added. "Suspense is the best part," he teased her again, stepping forward as she lifted their hands to push open the door. Her reaction was priceless, "I mean, you get used to it," he joked, "But I think most of the kids who go here don't really understand the hype, which is wild," he added. Watching as she took in her surroundings, "It was pretty awesome getting to use the gym for our last two episodes," he recalled. "Are you jealous?" he smirked, walking over to the closet where he knew the basketballs were. Josh had been sure to get a key from production so he could really give Kiernan the grand tour she deserved. "Show me whatcha got, lunkhead basketball boy," he teased, grabbing a basketball and placing it in her hands.

Kiernan nodded, already trying to attempt to twist her thumb to snap a photo of the hallway. She knew she should be enjoying the time she was spending with Josh rather than just recording it with her phone, and she was and she would, when all of the main tour was said and done and they would have time walking around the school and she would have time to let the excitement wear down. "See that's the thing, I don't think I could ever get used to it." She stepped in. Like Ms. Darbus' room, it just seemed...normal. The lighting wasn't as intense and dramatic, certainly, but she still couldn't help the overwhelming feeling of childhood excitement that took over. "Are you kidding? I mean you get to work here, like all the time. How does that not freak you out? Compared to like...demonic castles and woods and shit." After sufficient photos were taken, she tucked her phone away, just in time to take the ball from Josh. She chuckled, rolling it around in her hands. Without warning, she took off, heading down the court and occasionally dribbling the ball. "Gotta catch me first!"

Joshua smiled, "Oh yeah, this is way freakier than demonic castles and woods and shit," he teased. "It's crazy and I definitely still have moments where I'm like in awe that this is my job, but I don't know, we've made it more of our own now," he added, unsure of what he was really trying to say. Of course, it was crazy that they filmed in the very school where the most iconic DCOM trilogy was filmed. Joshua still couldn't believe that this was his life, but before he got too lost in thought and caught up in sentiment Kiernan was racing down the court telling him he'd have to catch her first. "Challenge accepted," he said, running after her. It didn't take long, but he did give her props for a valiant effort. Once he caught up to her, hands wrapped around her from behind, he laughed - out of breath - as she shrieked. "Caught ya," he said, turning her around in his arms and really looking at her. If this was some rom-com moment, this would've been the part where he kissed her and that's exactly what he wanted to do, but he didn't want to mess this up.

Kiernan scoffed and rolled her eyes, though she was smiling. "I would agree with you, but both of our shows somehow involve more singing than even I expected. I mean, the phantom of the opera is not a musical I'd expect to be in a show like Sabrina, but here we are." As she ran down the court, Kiernan hardly had time to look behind her to see if Josh was catching up before she felt his arms wrap around her. She squealed, kicking and complaining as she was caught and put back down on the gymnasium floor. The butterflies she had been trying to push away all afternoon had flared up once, and she smirked at him. She was never overly bold or presumptuous, but if she didn't take a chance now who knew when she would get another? "You know...at the risk of sounding a bit too high school..." she pointed behind her. "Do youuuu wanna go make out behind the bleachers?"

Joshua laughed at her next comment, "I mean, did you not expect my show to have as much singing as it did? It's literally a musical series," he teased. As Kiernan squealed, kicked and complained about being caught he couldn't help but laugh even harder. Seeing the smirk on her face left butterflies in his stomach. At her next words, Josh almost lost his breath. "I would love nothing more than to sound a bit too high school with you," he smirked, grabbing at her hand to pull her towards the bleachers. This particular cluster of bleachers he pulled her towards happened to be the same bleachers Gabriella stood up in during the opening sequence of the third movie. He would point that out later, for now, he only had one thing on his mind. Once they were behind the bleachers, his hands fell to her waist, looking her in the eyes as he leaned forward, capturing her lips with his own.

Kiernan shook her head. "By both shows I meant mostly mine. Because again, Phantom of the Opera." It was used as a distraction in the context of the scene, but it wasn't something she could ever see herself doing full time again. She was much better at the dramatics and fancy costumes. Sally Draper had set her up for that, and now Sabrina was pushing it forward. If anything, she had spent more time in fancy, dramatic costumes than she spent out of them and in casual clothes or costumes for filming. She grinned as he agreed to her suggestion, letting him pull her across the gym. No one in the DCOM trilogy had done anything like this. It was supposed to be a serious moment. She hadn't been in this situation with anyone in a while. She should be nervous, but all she felt was a kind of giddiness she hadn't experienced...well...since she was of the age to be in a building like this. She hadn't gone to proper high school, but she wasn't that far away from the age of kids who were getting ready to graduate. In another life, she would just be another girl flirting with a boy and sneaking around an empty high school. Another girl, who, if she didn't stop overthinking, wouldn't get to kiss said boy underneath the bleachers. She smiled as she was pulled closer, leaning up on her toes and taking his face in her hands as she kissed back.

Joshua smiled, nodding his head at the next words out of her mouth. He knew that a moment like this had never happened in the trilogy, the lead characters hadn't even kissed on camera until the end of the second movie entirely, but this was something that felt like they had been building up to for a while. Josh couldn't remember the last time he had been in this position, he hadn't had too many girlfriends and the last person he had kissed had been for work. He felt her take his face in her hands as she kissed back, but his eyes were closed so he hadn't caught the adorable way she leaned up on her tiptoes. Josh's hands traveled up her waist until one hand was cupping her cheek and the other was running through her short blonde hair, deepening the kiss as his hands moved.

Kiernan knew that she needed to breathe eventually, but even the impending idea of passing out couldn't stop her from kissing Joshua. It did, actually, feel a little bit like high school, or at least what she thought high school would be like: sneaking around while the school was empty to get up to no good. When she finally pulled away, she only took a moment to catch her breath before leaning forward again. An idea had formed in her head, but she couldn't bring herself to, at the very least, formulate words. "Okay," she mumbled, deciding to just forego choosing speaking over kissing and instead do both. She leaned in to kiss Joshua again, telling him her plan in between kisses. "I still wanna go to the theatre...and Sharpay's lockers." Kiernan smiled. "But then I wanna go back around and do this in all the places we didn't get to." She wrapped the fabric of his shirt in between her fingers. "You game?"

#p001: east high tour.#hi i suck

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claudeleonca · 6 years ago

Text

How to Write a Paragraph in 2019 (Yes, the Rules Have Changed)

Writing is tricky.

The same piece of content that earns you an A+ on your midterm would be marked as spam or deleted from a blog editor’s inbox.

Why is that?

Well, one reason is what constitutes a good paragraph differs from medium to medium.

How to write a paragraph for your college professor is different than writing a paragraph for a popular blog.

The good news?

In this post, you’ll learn the differences. We’ll go over paragraph writing for the digital age, and we’ll touch on the basics you need to know for school, magazines, and such.

But first, let’s look at why the rules for paragraph structure have changed…

Why Paragraph Writing Changed in the Digital Age

The main reason for the paragraph’s evolution is the way we consume media.

When we’re online, an onslaught of ads, pop-up notifications, cat videos, and vapid celebrity gossip are all competing for our attention.

As a result, writers have had to adapt.

Shorter paragraphs. More transitional words and phrases. Variation in rhythm.

Consider the drastic differences between this teacher-pleasing page from Habits of a Happy Brain (affiliate link) and this online article by Tomas Laurinaricius reviewing the same book:

In short:

When we open a book or magazine, we’re usually at home or somewhere quiet. We’ll set aside some time and give it our full attention.

But online, we scan content and decide, within seconds, whether to stay or go.

To survive in digital media, writers have to account for shorter attention spans and increased competition.

So, now that we understand the why, let’s look at the how.

The Rules of the 2019 Paragraph

Rule #1. In Digital Media, Short Paragraphs are Mandatory

Online, one of the easiest ways to instantly turn off your audience is to present them with a big wall of text that has few breaks and little white space.

We have adapted to expect and prefer paragraphs that are short because they look and feel easier to read. Short paragraphs are easier to scan, and they allow readers to consume the article in bite-sized chunks, which helps maintain their focus.

Consider, for example, the ease with which you can read the introduction to this article by Mel Wicks:

Yes, Mel Wicks uses empathetic language and easy-to-read prose, which no doubt enhances her clarity. But you can’t ignore the sense you get just by glancing at her article that it will be an easy read.

This is the effect short paragraphs have on readers.

In the above article, Mel’s introduction has ten paragraphs. The longest paragraph is 42 words, and seven of them have only 12 words or less.

So, what’s the new standard? How long is a paragraph in 2019?

Well, in digital media your average paragraph should be between two and four lines. You can go over and under — some paragraphs are just one powerful word long — but stay close to that average and you should be fine.

Paragraph Length in Print Media (Or, How Many Sentences are in a Paragraph?)

The length of paragraphs in school papers, books, magazines, and other print media is a bit larger.

How much larger?

It’s no longer the hard-and-fast rule it used to be, but writing paragraphs of three-to-five sentences remains the standard practice.

Rule #2. Rhythm Dictates the Next Paragraph

Rhythm is the new arbiter of words. It determines where paragraphs end and where new ones begin.

Rhythm in writing is hard to teach. It’s not an exact science and doesn’t follow hard rules.

The more experienced you become as a writer, the more you’ll develop your rhythm. But in the meantime, you can follow these basic guidelines for when to start a new paragraph:

1. Variation

While you want to keep your paragraphs short in digital media, every paragraph doesn’t have to be (or need to be) short.

In fact, switching between short and long paragraphs will make your writing sing.

Here are a few noteworthy rules of thumb. You don’t have to follow these perfectly, but they’re worth remembering:

If you just wrote one or two paragraphs that are four lines or more, shorten the next few paragraphs.

If you just wrote one or two paragraphs that are only one line, lengthen your next few paragraphs.

And if you just wrote three to four paragraphs of similar length, shorten or lengthen your next paragraph.

Too many same-sized paragraphs in a row will bore your reader. It doesn’t matter if it’s too many small paragraphs or too many long paragraphs.

Consider this excerpt from Jon Morrow’s post on earning passive income online:

See how he perfectly balances between short and long paragraphs?

Now imagine if the same excerpt was structured this way:

The reason I put “passive income” in quotes is I think the term is a little misleading.

Almost nothing is totally passive.

While you may not personally be doing any work to receive the money, someone is.

And there’s usually at least a little bit of management overhead.

For instance, I’ve gone on record saying this blog averages over $100,000 per month.

From that total, about $60,000 of it is technically “passive income.”

Even though all of these paragraphs are short, this text feels monotonous.

Too many short paragraphs make a reader feel like they’re on a rollercoaster ride with no destination — they’re moving fast but they quickly get confused about where they’re going.

Ultimately, you want to guide your reader. And the only way to do that effectively is to recognize when your reader needs a few short paragraphs, a long one, or a bit of both.

Paragraph Variation in Print Media

Varying the length of your paragraphs in school papers, magazine articles, and books isn’t a commonly-discussed writing method, but it’s good practice.

Whether it’s your teacher or professor, a magazine subscriber, or a bookworm; every reader appreciates variation. Try to mix up the length of your paragraphs.

It’s a small change that can have a big impact.

2. Topic

While topic was once the ultimate indicator of paragraph change, it is now one of many. Topic is still critical for clarity. If you change paragraphs at a topically awkward time, the split disturbs the reader.

Take, for example, this excerpt from Liz Longacre’s article:

Blogging is a battle.

A war to get your ideas the attention they deserve.

Your enemy? The dizzying array of online distractions that devour your readers.

This battle is not for the faint of heart.

There are so many learning curves. Plugins you’ll need to install. Social networks you’ll need to employ. Marketing techniques you’ll need to try.

Imagine these paragraphs were structured like this instead …

Blogging is a battle.

A war to get your ideas the attention they deserve.

Your enemy? The dizzying array of online distractions that devour your readers.

This battle is not for the faint of heart. There are so many learning curves.

Plugins you’ll need to install. Social networks you’ll need to employ. Marketing techniques you’ll need to try.

Notice the difference in how you read the original paragraph versus the variation.

In the original, the last paragraph tactfully emphasizes the difficulty of learning how to start a blog. But in the variation, you take a mental pause between “There are so many learning curves” and “Plugins you’ll need to install.”

And it feels off, doesn’t it?

The last three sentences are examples of learning curves, which means they are topically linked to the phrase introducing them (“There are so many learning curves”).

In digital media, readers still expect topics will — for the most part — stick with each other.

Paragraph Topics in Schools, Colleges, and Universities

Topics play an even more important role in print media; specifically, in academia where each paragraph has an introduction and conclusion.

In school, we’re taught to use the following paragraph structure:

Topic sentence (the overarching idea of the paragraph);

Supporting sentences that provide detail to support the paragraph’s idea;

Concluding sentence to repeat and/or reinforce the topic sentence.

Here’s how it looks in practice:

Pizza is the world’s most versatile food. If you hate vegetables, you can get pizza overflowing with different meats. If you’re a vegetarian, you can get pizza with onions and peppers. And if you’re daring (and a little crazy), you can get pizza with anchovies and pineapples. Name the topping, and you can probably put it on a pizza.

The first sentence (topic sentence) tells the reader what to expect in the paragraph. The next three sentences (the supporting sentences) support the topic sentence by providing additional information. And the last sentence (the concluding sentence) wraps the paragraph up in a bow by mirroring the topic sentence.

3. Emphasis

Short paragraphs naturally add emphasis.

They can be used to highlight ideas you want the reader to take note of, but they can also be used for dramatic effect.

For example, check out Jon’s introduction to How to Start a Blog in 2019: Research Reveals 20X Faster Method:

What if I told you there’s a new strategy for how to start a blog and make money, that’s 20X faster, requires no software or technical expertise, and costs absolutely nothing up front? You’d think there must be some hidden catch, right?

But there’s not. It’s totally real.

Jon’s introduction asks the reader a question with a long paragraph. And then, for emphasis, he adds: “But there’s not. It’s totally real.”

This paragraph conveys a dramatic turn of events. The shortness of the paragraph emphasizes this.

The longer paragraph preps the reader for the punch, and the short paragraph brings it home.

You don’t always have to go from a long paragraph to a short paragraph to create emphasis. You can also use a gradual decline in word count and finish with your main point. This builds the reader up to the punchline.

Here’s another example, taken from The Brutally Honest Guide To Being Brutally Honest.

The author, Josh Tucker, decreases wordcount over three relatively short paragraphs to bring attention to his final sentence: “How you end the discussion can make all the difference.”

Think of paragraph length in the same way you think about the rest of your writing. Your word choice, sentence length, and paragraph structure all have a massive impact on what your article communicates.

Paragraph Emphasis in Print Media

The need to emphasize points in your content isn’t just for digital media. It’s great for academia and print media too.

Ultimately, paragraph emphasis is up to the creativity of the writer. Paragraph length is simply one tool at your disposal.

Another tool is italicizing or underline words in your content. Just be sure not to overdo it.

If you use too many italics or underlines, they can overwhelm your readers. Plus, they’ll eventually lose effectiveness.

Writing a Paragraph Readers Will Love Isn’t Hard

Not anymore, anyway.

Despite the difficulty in grabbing the attention of today’s digital readers, you now know how to turn visitors into content absorbers by crafting easy-to-read paragraphs — paragraphs that are short, rhythmic, and varied.

And, you now know a few pointers for what it takes to craft content teachers, professors, and editors in print media will adore.

Know your audience, and know how paragraphs should be constructed for said audience.

Do that and you’re golden.

Readers will appreciate your courteous writing and — dare I say? — they’ll keep coming back for more.

About the Author: Lover of all things communication — speaking, writing, and listening — Mike is currently the founder of MB Content where he helps businesses create significant, consistent and valuable pieces of content. You can see more of his work at Carrot, follow him on Twitter, or join his email list for entrepreneurs at Booktrep.

The post How to Write a Paragraph in 2019 (Yes, the Rules Have Changed) appeared first on Smart Blogger.

from SEO and SM Tips https://smartblogger.com/how-to-write-a-paragraph/

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grabey · 8 years ago

Link

Samsung has a new voice. And it has world-changing ambitions.

Pressing it will activate Bixby, Samsung's new voice assistant. Once activated, Bixby will help you navigate what's arguably the most sophisticated piece of technology you own — the smartphone in your hand.

If Samsung gets its wish, though, Bixby will eventually do much more than just help you order Lyfts or set up complex calendar appointments. The long-term vision is for Bixby to act as a kind of uber-interface for all of Samsung's products: TVs, wearables, washing machines, even remote controls.

Samsung designed Bixby with a specific goal in mind, one that veers away from its fellow voice assistants — Apple's Siri, Amazon's Alexa, Microsoft's Cortana and the Google Assistant. Those platforms were generally built to help users quickly perform common tasks ("Remind me to buy milk") and perform search queries ("What's the capital of Brazil?"). Bixby, on the other hand, is all about making the phone itself easier to use, replicating the functions of many apps with voice commands.

Yes, Siri et al. already do that to a certain extent — you can easily set a reminder with your voice, for example — but the voice integration typically only handles the basics. The goal of Bixby is to voice-enable every single action in an app that you'd normally do via touch, starting with Samsung's apps. So, not just "set a reminder to buy pickles at 6 p.m., but "Set a reminder on my Shopping List to buy pickles at 6 p.m. and make it repeat every week, then share the list with my wife."

Bixby speaks

Injong Rhee, CTO of Samsung Mobile and the architect behind Bixby, says the voice assistant is nothing short of an "interface revolution," freeing users from hunting down hidden functionality within menus and hard-to-find screens.

"Bixby is an intelligent user interface, emphasis... on 'interface,'" Rhee says. "A lot of agents are looking at being knowledgeable, meaning that you can ask questions like, 'Who's president of the U.S.?' A lot of these are glorified extensions of search. What we are doing with Bixby, and what Bixby is capable of doing, is developing a new interface to our devices."Although it makes its debut on the Galaxy S8, it will soon spread. Rhee sees the Bixby button eventually spreading to all kinds of smart-home devices, from TVs to refrigerators to air conditioners.

"Anywhere there is an internet connection and a microphone, Bixby can be used," he says. "There is some technology in the device, but a lot of it lives in the cloud. That's why the range of devices goes beyond just a smartphone. It means it can be in any device we produce."

Samsung began work on Bixby about 18 months ago, Rhee says. It grew out of the company's S Voice tool, which has been on Samsung phones since 2012. (The timing might explain why Samsung's smart fridge — announced right around then — failed to deliver on its planned integration with Alexa.) S Voice hadn't progressed much over the years, but then last year Samsung acquired the much-hyped Viv Labs and its sophisticated assistant, a strong indicator of the company's renewed interest in voice control. However, Rhee says Viv's technology is planned for future updates to Bixby and doesn't have a role in the initial release.

The name Bixby came out of Samsung's focus groups, but it was actually their third choice overall. It was the top pick among millennials — a demographic the company is specifically targeting with the Galaxy S8 — so it won out. (Rhee declined to say what the other names were.) It's also distinctive enough, with hard consonants, for it to work well as an activation word. Bixby, which will initially speak just English and Korean, is intended to be a user's "bright sidekick," helping them navigate their devices in a more natural way.

"[What came before], it's been people trying to learn how the machine interacts with the world, but... it should be the machine learns how the human interacts with the world," Rhee says. "The learning curve shouldn't be steep."

All talk, all action

For an app to be considered Bixby-supported, every possible touch action needs to be mapped to a voice command. Rhee explains that, for a typical app, there are about 300 different actions the user can perform. That doesn't sound too bad until you consider there are around 15,000 different ways to perform them. And the ways to verbalize those actions number in the millions. That's a lot of stuff to map out.

Still, Samsung says it's up for the challenge, at least as far as its built-in apps are concerned. But what about third-party apps? Considering the amount of development work, will Snapchat or Facebook ever work as well with Bixby as Samsung's apps?

Rhee says Samsung has a plan to get third-party apps talking to Bixby, and an SDK to be released at a later date will introduce tools that make the mapping much easier. He also suggests Viv's technology can help here, too.

"Viv Labs is coming in by way expanding our vision into third-party ecosystems. It doesn't necessarily have to be all of the touch commands that they can perform. At a minimum, [Bixby will perform] the basic functionalities: like the settings, or changing the language from English to French."

On the Galaxy S8, a total of 10 apps will be Bixby-supported, Rhee says, with a second "wave" coming a few weeks later. Out of the gate, users will be able to use Bixby with Contacts, Gallery, Settings, Camera, Reminders and a few others.

Another way Bixby is different from its peers: it will be aware of what you're doing on the phone and suggest different actions depending on what's on screen. So if you press the button while, say, looking at a single photo in the Gallery, editing and sharing controls are probably more relevant to you than searching. And if Bixby doesn't understand every aspect of a complex command, it will take you as far as it can rather than just hitting you with a "Sorry, I didn't catch that."

All this "awareness" brings up an important question: How much data is Samsung collecting about you? Rhee says most user-specific data is kept on the device, but, as a cloud service, Bixby needs to store some information in the cloud. It's not yet clear what the exact breakdown is.

The button

Having a dedicated button for Bixby brings a number of advantages. For starters, it means Samsung won't have any need for Clippy-style pop-ups directing users to the assistant — people will inevitably find it on their own. It also ensures there will be far fewer accidental activations than if Bixby were mixed into a home button — something users of Siri are all too familiar with.

"We actually have done a lot of research to have the Bixby button as part of the home button like our friends in Cupertino," Rhee says. "A lot of people find it a little awkward to use it in public. The home button is a very overloaded place — there's a lot of functionality into it. Having a dedicated button really removes a lot of friction."

And since the idea is to press and hold, lifting your finger when you're done, Bixby will know definitively when you're done speaking. Still, there will also be a wake-up phrase — you can just say "Hi Bixby," to activate the assistant at any time.

It's the dedicated button that really epitomizes Samsung's approach, and if it indeed ends up on all Samsung products, Bixby will become much more than just a smartphone assistant — it'll become the gateway for Samsung to finally, truly become a major player in the internet of things.

Sure, Samsung has had its "Smart" devices for a long time, and its low-power Tizen OS is ideal for powering the many products with connections to the internet. It also acquired SmartThings in 2014 to strengthen its IoT brand.

But until now, Samsung has lacked a gateway for its customers to really take advantage of that interconnectivity. For most, it's hard work hunting down the right settings on your phone to connect a smart TV to an air conditioner, but what if you could just tell Bixby to do it? And if you can talk to it from all those devices — asking any question or even making phone calls — then you're really onto something.

"It's actually omnipresent in a sense," Rhee says. "Even if I speak to Bixby in, say, a washing machine, you can still do a lot of things that you do on your phone. For instance, you can say, 'Bixby, send a text to my friend Michael,' or 'Make a phone call.' That's the vision."

The more capable assistant

Amazon and Google already know this, and the success of Alexa and buzz around Home are a testament to the unquestionable efficiency of adding voice control to devices. But Samsung, with its high standard of controlling all functions of a device via Bixby, might end up with the advantage. Alexa, for all of its "skills," often falls short of full control (you can turn on or dim LED lights, for example, but might not be able to select specific colors), so the market has room for a more capable competitor. Of course, how and when Bixby will mix with third-party products and services remains an open question.

"Philosophically, what we are looking at is revolutionizing phone interfaces," Rhee says. "We understand our applications better than anybody else out there — that's why we started with our own technology, but going forward we have plans to work with our partners."

Eventually, Rhee says a Bixby app might come to non-Samsung Android phones and even iOS, possibly partnering with Google Assistant for search-related queries (though he cautions Google and Samsung haven't "gotten to the specifics" on how that would work).

At the same time, Bixby control could extend to all kinds of smart products, not just Samsung ones. That would probably take a level of cooperation with competitors that Samsung hasn't really shown before, but if Bixby becomes ubiquitous in the long term, whatever OS this or that device is running will become less relevant.

That's a future Samsung is clearly hoping for, since software has traditionally been its weakness. Samsung may be a chief Android partner, but it's struggled to differentiate its many services from Google's, and the company lacks an OS of its own (Tizen notwithstanding). Samsung's browser, Samsung Pay, S Health — they're all duplicates of Google products, and are widely regarded as inferior.

That's why Bixby may be the best thing to happen to Samsung software in a long time. If customers respond, Bixby could, in the long term, finally get Samsung users to think of its phones as Samsung phones rather than just the best-performing Android phones on the market. All Android vendors try to differentiate to some extent, but Bixby's app-simplifying skills and potential IoT capabilities are a compelling sell.

Bixby represents an important step for Samsung when it comes to services: finally a good answer to "Why should I use your software?" Effortless voice control of everything — not just your phone — is a tantalizing promise, and if Samsung can pull it off in the long term, its "bright sidekick" might end up being the only assistant we actually want to talk to.

Writer: PETE PACHAL

from Blogger Why Bixby will be the star of the Samsung Galaxy S8

#Tech

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markalbueba · 8 years ago

Link

Samsung has a new voice. And it has world-changing ambitions.

Bixby speaks

All talk, all action

The button

The more capable assistant

Writer: PETE PACHAL

#Tech

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justinharst · 8 years ago

Link

Samsung has a new voice. And it has world-changing ambitions.

Bixby speaks

All talk, all action

The button

The more capable assistant

Writer: PETE PACHAL

#Tech #IFTTT #Blogger

0 notes

itmanco · 8 years ago

Text

Say hi to Samsung Bixby, the new voice assistant in the Galaxy S8 Samsung has a new voice. And it has world-changing ambitions. In the upcoming Galaxy S8, users will find an extra button on the left side of the phone, just below the volume controls. Pressing it will activate Bixby, Samsung's new voice assistant. Once activated, Bixby will help you navigate what's arguably the most sophisticated piece of technology you own — the smartphone in your hand. If Samsung gets its wish, though, Bixby will eventually do much more than just help you order Lyfts or set up complex calendar appointments. The long-term vision is for Bixby to act as a kind of uber-interface for all of Samsung's products: TVs, wearables, washing machines, even remote controls. SEE ALSO: Samsung Galaxy S8: all the leaks in one place Samsung designed Bixby with a specific goal in mind, one that veers away from its fellow voice assistants — Apple's Siri, Amazon's Alexa, Microsoft's Cortana and the Google Assistant. Those platforms were generally built to help users quickly perform common tasks ("Remind me to buy milk") and perform search queries ("What's the capital of Brazil?"). Bixby, on the other hand, is all about making the phone itself easier to use, replicating the functions of many apps with voice commands. Yes, Siri et al. already do that to a certain extent — you can easily set a reminder with your voice, for example — but the voice integration typically only handles the basics. The goal of Bixby is to voice-enable every single action in an app that you'd normally do via touch, starting with Samsung's apps. So, not just "set a reminder to buy pickles at 6 p.m., but "Set a reminder on my Shopping List to buy pickles at 6 p.m. and make it repeat every week, then share the list with my wife." Bixby speaks Injong Rhee, CTO of Samsung Mobile and the architect behind Bixby, says the voice assistant is nothing short of an "interface revolution," freeing users from hunting down hidden functionality within menus and hard-to-find screens. "Bixby is an intelligent user interface, emphasis... on 'interface,'" Rhee says. "A lot of agents are looking at being knowledgeable, meaning that you can ask questions like, 'Who's president of the U.S.?' A lot of these are glorified extensions of search. What we are doing with Bixby, and what Bixby is capable of doing, is developing a new interface to our devices." Bixby architect Injong Rhee, CTO of Samsung Mobile. Image: Pete Pachal/Mashable Although it makes its debut on the Galaxy S8, it will soon spread. Rhee sees the Bixby button eventually spreading to all kinds of smart-home devices, from TVs to refrigerators to air conditioners. "Anywhere there is an internet connection and a microphone, Bixby can be used," he says. "There is some technology in the device, but a lot of it lives in the cloud. That's why the range of devices goes beyond just a smartphone. It means it can be in any device we produce." Samsung began work on Bixby about 18 months ago, Rhee says. It grew out of the company's S Voice tool, which has been on Samsung phones since 2012. (The timing might explain why Samsung's smart fridge — announced right around then — failed to deliver on its planned integration with Alexa.) S Voice hadn't progressed much over the years, but then last year Samsung acquired the much-hyped Viv Labs and its sophisticated assistant, a strong indicator of the company's renewed interest in voice control. However, Rhee says Viv's technology is planned for future updates to Bixby and doesn't have a role in the initial release. The name Bixby came out of Samsung's focus groups, but it was actually their third choice overall. It was the top pick among millennials — a demographic the company is specifically targeting with the Galaxy S8 — so it won out. (Rhee declined to say what the other names were.) It's also distinctive enough, with hard consonants, for it to work well as an activation word. Bixby, which will initially speak just English and Korean, is intended to be a user's "bright sidekick," helping them navigate their devices in a more natural way. "[What came before], it's been people trying to learn how the machine interacts with the world, but... it should be the machine learns how the human interacts with the world," Rhee says. "The learning curve shouldn't be steep." All talk, all action For an app to be considered Bixby-supported, every possible touch action needs to be mapped to a voice command. Rhee explains that, for a typical app, there are about 300 different actions the user can perform. That doesn't sound too bad until you consider there are around 15,000 different ways to perform them. And the ways to verbalize those actions number in the millions. That's a lot of stuff to map out. Still, Samsung says it's up for the challenge, at least as far as its built-in apps are concerned. But what about third-party apps? Considering the amount of development work, will Snapchat or Facebook ever work as well with Bixby as Samsung's apps? Rhee says Samsung has a plan to get third-party apps talking to Bixby, and an SDK to be released at a later date will introduce tools that make the mapping much easier. He also suggests Viv's technology can help here, too. "Viv Labs is coming in by way expanding our vision into third-party ecosystems. It doesn't necessarily have to be all of the touch commands that they can perform. At a minimum, [Bixby will perform] the basic functionalities: like the settings, or changing the language from English to French." On the Galaxy S8, a total of 10 apps will be Bixby-supported, Rhee says, with a second "wave" coming a few weeks later. Out of the gate, users will be able to use Bixby with Contacts, Gallery, Settings, Camera, Reminders and a few others. Another way Bixby is different from its peers: it will be aware of what you're doing on the phone and suggest different actions depending on what's on screen. So if you press the button while, say, looking at a single photo in the Gallery, editing and sharing controls are probably more relevant to you than searching. And if Bixby doesn't understand every aspect of a complex command, it will take you as far as it can rather than just hitting you with a "Sorry, I didn't catch that." All this "awareness" brings up an important question: How much data is Samsung collecting about you? Rhee says most user-specific data is kept on the device, but, as a cloud service, Bixby needs to store some information in the cloud. It's not yet clear what the exact breakdown is. The button Having a dedicated button for Bixby brings a number of advantages. For starters, it means Samsung won't have any need for Clippy-style pop-ups directing users to the assistant — people will inevitably find it on their own. It also ensures there will be far fewer accidental activations than if Bixby were mixed into a home button — something users of Siri are all too familiar with. "We actually have done a lot of research to have the Bixby button as part of the home button like our friends in Cupertino," Rhee says. "A lot of people find it a little awkward to use it in public. The home button is a very overloaded place — there's a lot of functionality into it. Having a dedicated button really removes a lot of friction." And since the idea is to press and hold, lifting your finger when you're done, Bixby will know definitively when you're done speaking. Still, there will also be a wake-up phrase — you can just say "Hi Bixby," to activate the assistant at any time. It's the dedicated button that really epitomizes Samsung's approach, and if it indeed ends up on all Samsung products, Bixby will become much more than just a smartphone assistant — it'll become the gateway for Samsung to finally, truly become a major player in the internet of things. Sure, Samsung has had its "Smart" devices for a long time, and its low-power Tizen OS is ideal for powering the many products with connections to the internet. It also acquired SmartThings in 2014 to strengthen its IoT brand. But until now, Samsung has lacked a gateway for its customers to really take advantage of that interconnectivity. For most, it's hard work hunting down the right settings on your phone to connect a smart TV to an air conditioner, but what if you could just tell Bixby to do it? And if you can talk to it from all those devices — asking any question or even making phone calls — then you're really onto something. "It's actually omnipresent in a sense," Rhee says. "Even if I speak to Bixby in, say, a washing machine, you can still do a lot of things that you do on your phone. For instance, you can say, 'Bixby, send a text to my friend Michael,' or 'Make a phone call.' That's the vision." The more capable assistant Amazon and Google already know this, and the success of Alexa and buzz around Home are a testament to the unquestionable efficiency of adding voice control to devices. But Samsung, with its high standard of controlling all functions of a device via Bixby, might end up with the advantage. Alexa, for all of its "skills," often falls short of full control (you can turn on or dim LED lights, for example, but might not be able to select specific colors), so the market has room for a more capable competitor. Of course, how and when Bixby will mix with third-party products and services remains an open question. "Philosophically, what we are looking at is revolutionizing phone interfaces," Rhee says. "We understand our applications better than anybody else out there — that's why we started with our own technology, but going forward we have plans to work with our partners." Eventually, Rhee says a Bixby app might come to non-Samsung Android phones and even iOS, possibly partnering with Google Assistant for search-related queries (though he cautions Google and Samsung haven't "gotten to the specifics" on how that would work). At the same time, Bixby control could extend to all kinds of smart products, not just Samsung ones. That would probably take a level of cooperation with competitors that Samsung hasn't really shown before, but if Bixby becomes ubiquitous in the long term, whatever OS this or that device is running will become less relevant. That's a future Samsung is clearly hoping for, since software has traditionally been its weakness. Samsung may be a chief Android partner, but it's struggled to differentiate its many services from Google's, and the company lacks an OS of its own (Tizen notwithstanding). Samsung's browser, Samsung Pay, S Health — they're all duplicates of Google products, and are widely regarded as inferior. That's why Bixby may be the best thing to happen to Samsung software in a long time. If customers respond, Bixby could, in the long term, finally get Samsung users to think of its phones as Samsung phones rather than just the best-performing Android phones on the market. All Android vendors try to differentiate to some extent, but Bixby's app-simplifying skills and potential IoT capabilities are a compelling sell. Bixby represents an important step for Samsung when it comes to services: finally a good answer to "Why should I use your software?" Effortless voice control of everything — not just your phone — is a tantalizing promise, and if Samsung can pull it off in the long term, its "bright sidekick" might end up being the only assistant we actually want to talk to. WATCH: Samsung's wireless earbuds double as a fitness-tracker http://ift.tt/2ml5hpQ By Samy Morsy

from I.T MAN http://ift.tt/1cjthd7 via IFTTTBy Samy Morsy

#IFTTT #FacebookPages

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readbookywooks · 8 years ago

Text

Both Together

ALYOSHA left his father's house feeling even more exhausted and dejected in spirit than when he had entered it. His mind too seemed shattered and unhinged, while he felt that he was afraid to put together the disjointed fragments and form a general idea from all the agonising and conflicting experiences of the day. He felt something bordering upon despair, which he had never known till then. Towering like a mountain above all the rest stood the fatal, insoluble question: How would things end between his father and his brother Dmitri with this terrible woman? Now he had himself been a witness of it, he had been present and seen them face to face. Yet only his brother Dmitri could be made unhappy, terribly, completely unhappy: there was trouble awaiting him. It appeared too that there were other people concerned, far more so than Alyosha could have supposed before. There was something positively mysterious in it, too. Ivan had made a step towards him, which was what Alyosha had been long desiring. Yet now he felt for some reason that he was frightened at it. And these women? Strange to say, that morning he had set out for Katerina Ivanovna's in the greatest embarrassment; now he felt nothing of the kind. On the contrary, he was hastening there as though expecting to find guidance from her. Yet to give her this message was obviously more difficult than before. The matter of the three thousand was decided irrevocably, and Dmitri, feeling himself dishonoured and losing his last hope, might sink to any depth. He had, moreover, told him to describe to Katerina Ivanovna the scene which had just taken place with his father. It was by now seven o'clock, and it was getting dark as Alyosha entered the very spacious and convenient house in the High Street occupied by Katerina Ivanovna. Alyosha knew that she lived with two aunts. One of them, a woman of little education, was that aunt of her half-sister Agafya Ivanovna who had looked after her in her father's house when she came from boarding-school. The other aunt was a Moscow lady of style and consequence, though in straitened circumstances. It was said that they both gave way in everything to Katerina Ivanovna, and that she only kept them with her as chaperons. Katerina Ivanovna herself gave way to no one but her benefactress, the general's widow, who had been kept by illness in Moscow, and to whom she was obliged to write twice a week a full account of all her doings. When Alyosha entered the hall and asked the maid who opened the door to him to take his name up, it was evident that they were already aware of his arrival. Possibly he had been noticed from the window. At least, Alyosha heard a noise, caught the sound of flying footsteps and rustling skirts. Two or three women, perhaps, had run out of the room. Alyosha thought it strange that his arrival should cause such excitement. He was conducted, however, to the drawing-room at once. It was a large room, elegantly and amply furnished, not at all in provincial style. There were many sofas, lounges, settees, big and little tables. There were pictures on the walls, vases and lamps on the tables, masses of flowers, and even an aquarium in the window. It was twilight and rather dark. Alyosha made out a silk mantle thrown down on the sofa, where people had evidently just been sitting; and on a table in front of the sofa were two unfinished cups of chocolate, cakes, a glass saucer with blue raisins, and another with sweetmeats. Alyosha saw that he had interrupted visitors, and frowned. But at that instant the portiere was raised, and with rapid, hurrying footsteps Katerina Ivanovna came in, holding out both hands to Alyosha with a radiant smile of delight. At the same instant a servant brought in two lighted candles and set them on the table. "Thank God! At last you have come too! I've been simply praying for you all day! Sit down." Alyosha had been struck by Katerina Ivanovna's beauty when, three weeks before, Dmitri had first brought him, at Katerina Ivanovna's special request, to be introduced to her. There had been no conversation between them at that interview, however. Supposing Alyosha to be very shy, Katerina Ivanovna had talked all the time to Dmitri to spare him. Alyosha had been silent, but he had seen a great deal very clearly. He was struck by the imperiousness, proud ease, and self-confidence of the haughty girl. And all that was certain, Alyosha felt that he was not exaggerating it. He thought her great glowing black eyes were very fine, especially with her pale, even rather sallow, longish face. But in those eyes and in the lines of her exquisite lips there was something with which his brother might well be passionately in love, but which perhaps could not be loved for long. He expressed this thought almost plainly to Dmitri when, after the visit, his brother besought and insisted that he should not conceal his impressions on seeing his betrothed. "You'll be happy with her, but perhaps not tranquilly happy." "Quite so, brother. Such people remain always the same. They don't yield to fate. So you think I shan't love her for ever." "No; perhaps you will love her for ever. But perhaps you won't always be happy with her." Alyosha had given his opinion at the time, blushing, and angry with himself for having yielded to his brother's entreaties and put such "foolish" ideas into words. For his opinion had struck him as awfully foolish immediately after he had uttered it. He felt ashamed too of having given so confident an opinion about a woman. It was with the more amazement that he felt now, at the first glance at Katerina Ivanovna as she ran in to him, that he had perhaps been utterly mistaken. This time her face was beaming with spontaneous good-natured kindliness, and direct warm-hearted sincerity. The "pride and haughtiness," which had struck Alyosha so much before, was only betrayed now in a frank, generous energy and a sort of bright, strong faith in herself. Alyosha realised at the first glance, at the first word, that all the tragedy of her position in relation to the man she loved so dearly was no secret to her; that she perhaps already knew everything, positively everything. And yet, in spite of that, there was such brightness in her face, such faith in the future. Alyosha felt at once that he had gravely wronged her in his thoughts. He was conquered and captivated immediately. Besides all this, he noticed at her first words that she was in great excitement, an excitement perhaps quite exceptional and almost approaching ecstasy. "I was so eager to see you, because I can learn from you the whole truth - from you and no one else." "I have come," muttered Alyosha confusedly, "I - he sent me." "Ah, he sent you I foresaw that. Now I know everything- everything!" cried Katerina Ivanovna, her eyes flashing. "Wait a moment, Alexey Fyodorovitch, I'll tell you why I've been so longing to see you. You see, I know perhaps far more than you do yourself, and there's no need for you to tell me anything. I'll tell you what I want from you. I want to know your own last impression of him. I want you to tell me most directly, plainly, coarsely even (oh, as coarsely as you like!), what you thought of him just now and of his position after your meeting with him to-day. That will perhaps be better than if I had a personal explanation with him, as he does not want to come to me. Do you understand what I want from you? Now, tell me simply, tell me every word of the message he sent you with (I knew he would send you)." "He told me to give you his compliments and to say that he would never come again but to give you his compliments." "His compliments? Was that what he said his own expression?" "Yes." "Accidentally perhaps he made a mistake in the word, perhaps he did not use the right word?" "No; he told me precisely to repeat that word. He begged me two or three times not to forget to say so." Katerina Ivanovna flushed hotly. "Help me now, Alexey Fyodorovitch. Now I really need your help. I'll tell you what I think, and you must simply say whether it's right or not. Listen! If he had sent me his compliments in passing, without insisting on your repeating the words, without emphasising them, that would be the end of everything! But if he particularly insisted on those words, if he particularly told you not to forget to repeat them to me, then perhaps he was in excitement, beside himself. He had made his decision and was frightened at it. He wasn't walking away from me with a resolute step, but leaping headlong. The emphasis on that phrase may have been simply bravado." "Yes, yes!" cried Alyosha warmly. "I believe that is it." "And, if so, he's not altogether lost. I can still save him. Stay! Did he not tell you anything about money - about three thousand roubles?" "He did speak about it, and it's that more than anything that's crushing him. He said he had lost his honour and that nothing matters now," Alyosha answered warmly, feeling a rush of hope in his heart and believing that there really might be a way of escape and salvation for his brother. "But do you know about the money?" he added, and suddenly broke off. "I've known of it a long time; I telegraphed to Moscow to inquire, and heard long ago that the money had not arrived. He hadn't sent the money, but I said nothing. Last week I learnt that he was still in need of money. My only object in all this was that he should know to whom to turn, and who was his true friend. No, he won't recognise that I am his truest friend; he won't know me, and looks on me merely as a woman. I've been tormented all the week, trying to think how to prevent him from being ashamed to face me because he spent that three thousand. Let him feel ashamed of himself, let him be ashamed of other people's knowing, but not of my knowing. He can tell God everything without shame. Why is it he still does not understand how much I am ready to bear for his sake? Why, why doesn't he know me? How dare he not know me after all that has happened? I want to save him for ever. Let him forget me as his betrothed. And here he fears that he is dishonoured in my eyes. Why, he wasn't afraid to be open with you, Alexey Fyodorovitch. How is it that I don't deserve the same?" The last words she uttered in tears. Tears gushed from her eyes. "I must tell you," Alyosha began, his voice trembling too, "what happened just now between him and my father." And he described the whole scene, how Dmitri had sent him to get the money, how he had broken in, knocked his father down, and after that had again specially and emphatically begged him to take his compliments and farewell. "He went to that woman," Alyosha added softly. "And do you suppose that I can't put up with that woman? Does he think I can't? But he won't marry her," she suddenly laughed nervously. "Could such a passion last for ever in a Karamazov? It's passion, not love. He won't marry her because she won't marry him." Again Katerina Ivanovna laughed strangely. "He may marry her," said Alyosha mournfully, looking down. "He won't marry her, I tell you. That girl is an angel. Do you know that? Do you know that?" Katerina Ivanovna exclaimed suddenly with extraordinary warmth. "She is one of the most fantastic of fantastic creatures. I know how bewitching she is, but I know too that she is kind, firm, and noble. Why do you look at me like that, Alexey Fyodorovitch? Perhaps you are wondering at my words, perhaps you don't believe me? Agrafena Alexandrovna, my angel!" she cried suddenly to someone, peeping into the next room, "come in to us. This is a friend. This is Alyosha. He knows all about our affairs. Show yourself to him." "I've only been waiting behind the curtain for you to call me," said a soft, one might even say sugary, feminine voice. The portiere was raised and Grushenka herself, smiling and beaming, came up to the table. A violent revulsion passed over Alyosha. He fixed his eyes on her and could not take them off. Here she was, that awful woman, the "beast," as Ivan had called her half an hour before. And yet one would have thought the creature standing before him most simple and ordinary, a good-natured, kind woman, handsome certainly, but so like other handsome ordinary women! It is true she was very, very good-looking with that Russian beauty so passionately loved by many men. She was a rather tall woman, though a little shorter than Katerina Ivanovna, who was exceptionally tall. She had a full figure, with soft, as it were, noiseless, movements, softened to a peculiar over-sweetness, like her voice. She moved, not like Katerina Ivanovna, with a vigorous, bold step, but noiselessly. Her feet made absolutely no sound on the floor. She sank softly into a low chair, softly rustling her sumptuous black silk dress, and delicately nestling her milk-white neck and broad shoulders in a costly cashmere shawl. She was twenty-two years old, and her face looked exactly that age. She was very white in the face, with a pale pink tint on her cheeks. The modelling of her face might be said to be too broad, and the lower jaw was set a trifle forward. Her upper lip was thin, but the slightly prominent lower lip was at least twice as full, and looked pouting. But her magnificent, abundant dark brown hair, her sable-coloured eyebrows and charming greyblue eyes with their long lashes would have made the most indifferent person, meeting her casually in a crowd in the street, stop at the sight of her face and remember it long after. What struck Alyosha most in that face was its expression of childlike good nature. There was a childlike look in her eyes, a look of childish delight. She came up to the table, beaming with delight and seeming to expect something with childish, impatient, and confiding curiosity. The light in her eyes gladdened the soul - Alyosha felt that. There was something else in her which he could not understand, or would not have been able to define, and which yet perhaps unconsciously affected him. It was that softness, that voluptuousness of her bodily movements, that catlike noiselessness. Yet it was a vigorous, ample body. Under the shawl could be seen full broad shoulders, a high, still quite girlish bosom. Her figure suggested the lines of the Venus of Milo, though already in somewhat exaggerated proportions. That could be divined. Connoisseurs of Russian beauty could have foretold with certainty that this fresh, still youthful beauty would lose its harmony by the age of thirty, would "spread"; that the face would become puffy, and that wrinkles would very soon appear upon her forehead and round the eyes; the complexion would grow coarse and red perhaps - in fact, that it was the beauty of the moment, the fleeting beauty which is so often met with in Russian women. Alyosha, of course, did not think of this; but though he was fascinated, yet he wondered with an unpleasant sensation, and as it were regretfully, why she drawled in that way and could not speak naturally. She did so, evidently feeling there was a charm in the exaggerated, honeyed modulation of the syllables. It was, of course, only a bad, underbred habit that showed bad education and a false idea of good manners. And yet this intonation and manner of speaking impressed Alyosha as almost incredibly incongruous with the childishly simple and happy expression of her face, the soft, babyish joy in her eyes. Katerina Ivanovna at once made her sit down in an arm-chair facing Alyosha, and ecstatically kissed her several times on her smiling lips. She seemed quite in love with her. "This is the first time we've met, Alexey Fyodorovitch," she said rapturously. "I wanted to know her, to see her. I wanted to go to her, but I'd no sooner expressed the wish than she came to me. I knew we should settle everything together - everything. My heart told me so -I was begged not to take the step, but I foresaw it would be a way out of the difficulty, and I was not mistaken. Grushenka has explained everything to me, told me all she means to do. She flew here like an angel of goodness and brought us peace and joy." "You did not disdain me, sweet, excellent young lady," drawled Grushenka in her singsong voice, still with the same charming smile of delight. "Don't dare to speak to me like that, you sorceress, you witch! Disdain you! Here, I must kiss your lower lip once more. It looks as though it were swollen, and now it will be more so, and more and more. Look how she laughs, Alexey Fyodorovitch! Alyosha flushed, and faint, imperceptible shivers kept running down him. "You make so much of me, dear young lady, and perhaps I am not at all worthy of your kindness." "Not worthy! She's not worthy of it!" Katerina Ivanovna cried again with the same warmth. "You know, Alexey Fyodorovitch, we're fanciful, we're self-willed, but proudest of the proud in our little heart. We're noble, we're generous, Alexey Fyodorovitch, let me tell you. We have only been unfortunate. We were too ready to make every sacrifice for an unworthy, perhaps, or fickle man. There was one man - one, an officer too, we loved him, we sacrificed everything to him. That was long ago, five years ago, and he has forgotten us, he has married. Now he is a widower, he has written, he is coming here, and, do you know, we've loved him, none but him, all this time, and we've loved him all our life! He will come, and Grushenka will be happy again. For the last five years she's been wretched. But who can reproach her, who can boast of her favour? Only that bedridden old merchant, but he is more like her father, her friend, her protector. He found her then in despair, in agony, deserted by the man she loved. She was ready to drown herself then, but the old merchant saved her- saved her!" "You defend me very kindly, dear young lady. You are in a great hurry about everything," Grushenka drawled again. "Defend you! Is it for me to defend you? Should I dare to defend you? Grushenka, angel, give me your hand. Look at that charming soft little hand, Alexey Fyodorovitch! Look at it! It has brought me happiness and has lifted me up, and I'm going to kiss it, outside and inside, here, here, here!" And three times she kissed the certainly charming, though rather fat, hand of Grushenka in a sort of rapture. She held out her hand with a charming musical, nervous little laugh, watched the "sweet young lady," and obviously liked having her hand kissed. "Perhaps there's rather too much rapture," thought Alyosha. He blushed. He felt a peculiar uneasiness at heart the whole time. "You won't make me blush, dear young lady, kissing my hand like this before Alexey Fyodorovitch." "Do you think I meant to make you blush?" said Katerina Ivanovna, somewhat surprised. "Ah my dear, how little you understand me! "Yes, and you too perhaps quite misunderstand me, dear young lady. Maybe I'm not so good as I seem to you. I've a bad heart; I will have my own way. I fascinated poor Dmitri Fyodorovitch that day simply for fun." "But now you'll save him. You've given me your word. You'll explain it all to him. You'll break to him that you have long loved another man, who is now offering you his hand." "Oh, no I didn't give you my word to do that. It was you kept talking about that. I didn't give you my word." "Then I didn't quite understand you," said Katerina Ivanovna slowly, turning a little pale. "You promised-" "Oh no, angel lady, I've promised nothing," Grushenka interrupted softly and evenly, still with the same gay and simple expression. "You see at once, dear young lady, what a wilful wretch I am compared with you. If I want to do a thing I do it. I may have made you some promise just now. But now again I'm thinking: I may take Mitya again. I liked him very much once - liked him for almost a whole hour. Now maybe I shall go and tell him to stay with me from this day forward. You see, I'm so changeable." "Just now you said - something quite different," Katerina Ivanovna whispered faintly. "Ah, just now! But, you know, I'm such a soft-hearted, silly creature. Only think what he's gone through on my account! What if when I go home I feel sorry for him? What then?" "I never expected-" "Ah, young lady, how good and generous you are compared with me! Now perhaps you won't care for a silly creature like me, now you know my character. Give me your sweet little hand, angelic lady," she said tenderly, and with a sort of reverence took Katerina Ivanovna's hand. "Here, dear young lady, I'll take your hand and kiss it as you did mine. You kissed mine three times, but I ought to kiss yours three hundred times to be even with you. Well, but let that pass. And then it shall be as God wills. Perhaps I shall be your slave entirely and want to do your bidding like a slave. Let it be as God wills, without any agreements and promises. What a sweet hand - what a sweet hand you have! You sweet young lady, you incredible beauty!" She slowly raised the hands to her lips, with the strange object indeed of "being even" with her in kisses. Katerina Ivanovna did not take her hand away. She listened with timid hope to the last words, though Grushenka's promise to do her bidding like a slave was very strangely expressed. She looked intently into her eyes; she still saw in those eyes the same simple-hearted, confiding expression, the same bright gaiety. "She's perhaps too naive," thought Katerina Ivanovna, with a gleam of hope. Grushenka meanwhile seemed enthusiastic over the "sweet hand." She raised it deliberately to her lips. But she held it for two or three minutes near her lips, as though reconsidering something. "Do you know, angel lady," she suddenly drawled in an even more soft and sugary voice, "do you know, after all, I think I won't kiss your hand?" And she laughed a little merry laugh. "As you please. What's the matter with you?" said Katerina Ivanovna, starting suddenly. "So that you may be left to remember that you kissed my hand, but I didn't kiss yours." There was a sudden gleam in her eyes. She looked with awful intentness at Katerina Ivanovna. "Insolent creature!" cried Katerina Ivanovna, as though suddenly grasping something. She flushed all over and leapt up from her seat. Grushenka too got up, but without haste. "So I shall tell Mitya how you kissed my hand, but I didn't kiss yours at all. And how he will laugh!" "Vile slut! Go away!" "Ah, for shame, young lady! Ah, for shame! That's unbecoming for you, dear young lady, a word like that." "Go away! You're a creature for sale" screamed Katerina Ivanovna. Every feature was working in her utterly distorted face. "For sale indeed! You used to visit gentlemen in the dusk for money once; you brought your beauty for sale. You see, I know." Katerina Ivanovna shrieked, and would have rushed at her, but Alyosha held her with all his strength. "Not a step, not a word! Don't speak, don't answer her. She'll go away - she'll go at once." At that instant Katerina Ivanovna's two aunts ran in at her cry, and with them a maid-servant. All hurried to her. "I will go away," said Grushenka, taking up her mantle from the sofa. "Alyosha, darling, see me home!" "Go away - go away, make haste!" cried Alyosha, clasping his hands imploringly. "Dear little Alyosha, see me home! I've got a pretty little story to tell you on the way. I got up this scene for your benefit, Alyosha. See me home, dear, you'll be glad of it afterwards." Alyosha turned away, wringing his hands. Grushenka ran out of the house, laughing musically. Katerina Ivanovna went into a fit of hysterics. She sobbed, and was shaken with convulsions. Everyone fussed round her. "I warned you," said the elder of her aunts. "I tried to prevent your doing this. You're too impulsive. How could you do such a thing? You don't know these creatures, and they say she's worse than any of them. You are too self-willed." "She's a tigress!" yelled Katerina Ivanovna. "Why did you hold me, Alexey Fyodorovitch? I'd have beaten her - beaten her!" She could not control herself before Alyosha; perhaps she did not care to, indeed. "She ought to be flogged in public on a scaffold!" Alyosha withdrew towards the door. "But, my God!" cried Katerina Ivanovna, clasping her hands. "He! He! He could be so dishonourable, so inhuman! Why, he told that creature what happened on that fatal, accursed day! 'You brought your beauty for sale, dear young lady.' She knows it! Your brother's a scoundrel, Alexey Fyodorovitch." Alyosha wanted to say something, but he couldn't find a word. His heart ached. "Go away, Alexey Fyodorovitch! It's shameful, it's awful for me! To-morrow, I beg you on my knees, come to-morrow. Don't condemm me. Forgive me. I don't know what I shall do with myself now!" Alyosha walked out into the street reeling. He could have wept as she did. Suddenly he was overtaken by the maid. "The young lady forgot to give you this letter from Madame Hohlakov; it's been left with us since dinner-time." Alyosha took the little pink envelope mechanically and put it, almost unconsciously, into his pocket.

#BrothersKaramazov

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