Susan returns to Hogwarts (Open RP with closed bits in)

[sensiblesusan.livejournal.com]

Well, the school had clearly not caught fire or blown up in her absence. Susan permitted herself just the tiniest tinge of unseemly regret at this fact and then, choosing to be entirely inconspicuous, she made her way to the room she shared with Emma.

Her roommate wasn't in when she arrived, for which Susan was sorry; she found, to her surprise, that she'd rather missed Emma, who'd been inexplicably absent in the weeks before Susan's own holiday in any case. She unpacked her new clothes, put her books back on the shelf, and sighed.

Well. Nothing for it. I'm back. Might as well get my mail and find out from Stephen what's been going on.

She took a deep breath and, fighting the urge to stay invisible, made her way to the Potions office.

((Anyone who wants to should feel free to interact with Susan as she heads down to Maturin's office. She will not read her mail until after she gets it from him.))

Comments

[thebadboyfriend.livejournal.com]

The morning after his third night in a row of heavy drinking, Logan was experiencing one of those odd, light-sensitive, still-half-drunk surges of energy and wakefulness that seem to be built into the bodies of the young in order to let them peel themselves off the floor, find their clothes, make their more pressing apologies, and find their way home. In this case, since he'd awakened in his own room, Logan had been inspired to hike down to Hogsmeade to arrange for the delivery of his new entertainment center, which he'd had shipped to the Three Broomsticks. Rosmerta had sent him an irate owl (actually, both the owl and the letter were irate) asking him to pick up his giant Muggle whatever-they-weres, and he needed to go to town anyway to buy his own owl so he could stop being savaged by everyone else's.

Heading down the staircase, he saw in front of him a familiar head of white, black-streaked hair. "Hey," he said. "Look at you. You're back!" He pushed his sunglasses up and smiled at Susan.

[sensiblesusan.livejournal.com]

"I am." She smiled, a bit ruefully. "I'd say it was good to be back, only, well. Everything appears to be as I left it, more's the pity." She looked at Logan a little more closely. "Are you all right? You're, ah, looking a bit rough."

[thebadboyfriend.livejournal.com]

"Ha. Yeah. I'm hungover. I've been kind of...occupied the last few days." He shut his eyes and rubbed the side of his nose. "No big news for you, I don't think, but I might have missed something." He squinted at her. "New clothes?"

[sensiblesusan.livejournal.com]

Occupied. Coming from Logan, and combined with hangover, Susan was pretty sure that couldn't mean anything good, but now was probably not the time to pry.

"New clothes, yes. Borrowing a page from Stephen, I suppose. Not that any sartorial choices are all that unusual here, but when in Ephebe, as they say." She looked Logan up and down once more, and added, "Speaking of Stephen, I'm on my way to get my mail from him, but would you like to meet for a drink -- or tea -- later? I'm sure there's some fair catching-up to do."

[thebadboyfriend.livejournal.com]

"Yeah, that'd be good." He was pathetically glad to see her, he realized, and if he'd been less queasy and disconnected he'd probably be angry with himself for that. He summoned up a smirk. "You should have warned me about the clothes, though. I specifically described you to Lilly as dressing like a Victorian schoolmarm." A pause. "I gave her your name, as someone she could get in touch with, for emergencies, if she couldn't reach me. She's back. Post-dead, or whatever. Lilly."

[sensiblesusan.livejournal.com]

"Oh." Of course. Lilly. The girl who -- well, that explained the haggard look and the hangover, and then some. What did one say in this sort of situation? I'm sorry didn't seem right, and congratulations was entirely wrong, and I'm glad to hear it didn't work either. "I'm glad to help any way I can," she said lamely. "Are you --" no, of course he's not all right; he's standing there with a hangover. "-- right. We should definitely talk. I'll owl you when I'm finished with Stephen."

[thebadboyfriend.livejournal.com]

"Sure, okay. Thanks." Logan leaned against the stair rail. "I'm actually on my way out, and I might end up crashing at the Broomsticks for a few hours, but I'll be back later. Maybe sometime this evening? By that time you may have some drama of your own impending."

[perpetual-smile.livejournal.com]

"Why, if it isn't Miss Sto Helit!" Gin seemed surprisingly cheerful when he rounded a corner and very nearly bumped into Susan. "You're still around, I see. How have you been?" he asked solicitously.

[sensiblesusan.livejournal.com]

"Ichimaru Gin." Oh, bliss. Things just as I left them, indeed.

"Quite well, thank you," she said blandly. "Yourself? How was your trip home?"

[perpetual-smile.livejournal.com]

"Oh, very pleasant. You really should have come. I'm sure it would have been lovely," Gin smiled.

"It's quite nice to be back here again though, especially now that I've seen you. But if I'd known I would run into you like this, I would have brought your present!"

[sensiblesusan.livejournal.com]

She decided not to tip her hand regarding her (rather odd) conversation with Byakuya just yet, and replied in a tone of calm innocence, "I'm very sorry I couldn't join you. I'm sure it was something." She arched an eyebrow. "A present, you say?" Oh hell.

[perpetual-smile.livejournal.com]

Gin had just a little, tiny, secretive smile. "Oh yes. But I don't want to spoil the surprise. It was quite difficult to get ahold of. Perhaps we can have another nice little picnic sometime and I can bring it along."

[sensiblesusan.livejournal.com]

"Yes, I daresay we could." She had to admit that she was curious as to exactly what Gin would gift her with, but the curiosity was balanced by an equal measure of dread. And the last picnic had ... well, she thought it had gone rather well, but she wouldn't put it past him to want some of his own back eventually, and -- "Owl me at your convenience, if you like, then."

[estebanmd.livejournal.com]

Stephen had finally gotten around to writing his commentary on Sir Joseph Blaine's monograph, and was sanding the pages when he heard a knock on his office door. Since he was not expecting anyone, the door was locked and heavily warded; he rose to answer it. The door opened to show a welcome visitor. "Susan! Your time away was restful, I hope?"

[sensiblesusan.livejournal.com]

"Very much so. It's good to see you, Stephen." She smiled gratefully. "Especially since I just ran into Gin in the hall. How have things been?"

[estebanmd.livejournal.com]

Stephen gave Susan a friendly hug and ushered her into the office. "Things have been ... well, things have been Hogwartsian, I suppose. Everyone is in love with everyone else, everyone hates everyone else, and no one gives a damn about anything academic. Sit down and I will just fetch you your mail now."

[sensiblesusan.livejournal.com]

Susan discreetly moved a small stack of paper from the guest chair, placed it carefully on Stephen's desk, and sat down. "Thanks for receiving it. Hopefully there wasn't too much." She sighed. "I expect it was too much to hope things might change much in a week. I'm given to understand there have been some ... interesting new arrivals."

[estebanmd.livejournal.com]

Stephen retrieved a small and not particularly orderly sheaf of sealed messages from a desk drawer and handed it to Susan. "Interesting, yes. A sentient six-legged treecat, an inebriated iguana, Judas bloody Iscariot ... nothing one should not expect to come across in the Sorting Room, really. Also, two of the Malfoys have emerged from their popcorn chrysalis, as has Minerva McGonagall."

[sensiblesusan.livejournal.com]

"The usual chaos, then." She flipped through the messages, recognising Psyche's and Logan's hand on the addressing of two ... the scratchy hand of the third (http://community.livejournal.com/hogwarts_hocus/533696.html?thread=25888704#t25888704) gave her pause. Curious, she cracked the seal and ... "Oh dear." She sighed and pinched the bridge of her nose. "Yes, things are just as I left them. Oh gods."

[estebanmd.livejournal.com]

Stephen gave a short bitter laugh. "We shall see. Perhaps it can be navigated without too many casualties."

[sensiblesusan.livejournal.com]

Susan remembered their conversation via the previous secrets board, and said, "You know that worries me, Stephen. When you use the word casualties, I know you're not using it in any kind of metaphorical sense."

[estebanmd.livejournal.com]

"You know me well enough. More to the point, you know River well enough."

[sensiblesusan.livejournal.com]

There were certain specific things that Susan knew would incite River to homicide, and she knew very well that the post-body-switch experiment with Stephen, had it gone another way, would have been one of those things. "Is it an unexpected visitor from your home world, then?" Though she knew little enough of Stephen's past, it was the only deduction she could draw; his home time and place seemed like the most logical source of a potentially fatal complication.

[estebanmd.livejournal.com]

Stephen shook his head dumbly. "I have not the faintest idea where she is from, or how we know one another, or why we remember one another. But she is here, and we do, and I'll be damned if I suffer anyone to lay a finger on her."

[sensiblesusan.livejournal.com]

Susan closed her eyes, suddenly feeling a brief twinge of vertigo; and a half-formed notion of universes, places, and times bumping up against one another passed quickly through her head. Then it was gone, and she blinked at Stephen. "It seems like nearly anything is possible here, I suppose, beyond explanation. Who is she?"