Véspy Wespy

[.magnarock.]

Welcome to 4G

He stood, uncertainly, windswept brown hair across his face, just inside the doorway of a cosy, fire lit dormitory. The room had vaulted ceilings with exposed beams of dark wood that must have witnessed the dawn of education and hundreds of years of school life by the looks of them. This was completely different to Hogwarts, the colours for one thing; far from the gold and red theme, and it seemed more like a mixture of a common room and a dormitory, with bookshelves, a sofa by the fire and various other interesting articles of furniture.
There were other boys there too, regarding him warily from the corner of their eyes with the air of lions who are uncertain as to the nature of this new species on the savannah. Eventually, one spoke, English, but accented with his native country, “So… you’re th’new guy ‘n?” he said, raising his eyebrows slightly and ending the sentence with a small grunt of a question marker. The new boy nodded flicking his fringe from his eyes, and another boy, with a shock of ginger hair, came forward from his position in the midst of where they had been sitting.
“Well, I hope you find Véspeíre school of magecraft lives up to its high expectations.” he said pompously in Irish, clearly proud of the fact he was attending it and not caring the slightest if the new kid couldn’t understand the language.
Another boy looked unimpressed by his friends’ formalities. “Yeagh, whatevhr speckies” he muttered sarcastically, making his way over to a sofa, away from the others.
‘Speckies’ scowled slightly before turning back to the new kid, “Ignore him.” he said, pointedly, now in English. “He’s just jealous because all know he’s a bogger and can never come to this school without ‘help’”
“Better than bein’ banjaxed ouva.” He muttered to the floor.
“I’m Ciarán Quinn” said the red head, ignoring the annoyance in the corner. “This is my cousin Máeleachlainn Quinn- he’s in Ceoilta- this is called Lee Dhíel,” Ciarán indicated the boys in turn, “and that langer over there is Frey.”
The new boy nodded, before extending his hand “I’m Sei Carters” he replied.

[.magnarock.]

The next thing he knew he had been wrenched by his arm across the room to a large wooden board, Glíásta ceannaires meitheal – house captains of Glíásta, was inscribed into the dark wood. He followed the eyes of Ciarán upwards and gaped at the picture.
“I thought as much!” He called across the room to his friends in Irish.
“Is it Carters Carters?!” One of them, replied incredulously as they joined them.
“Ohmygod! It totally is!”
“Your dad was the Esiloquiser in the car crash!?”
Sei stood there, blinking, understanding about four words of what had just been spoken, although three of them weren’t technically Irish and two of them were actually one word that had just been repeated. A good start by all means.
“Oh for gods sake, can’t he speak Irish? Where’s he been living? England?”
“Probably. We’d better speak in English for him then. He might be loaded, or have a body guard.”
Sei picked up the world Béarla, wonderful, they might start speaking English soon.
“Umm, sin bí mi –wait- mo, athair.” He gestured at one of the pictures on the board.
They nodded supportively, wanting to be on his good side; people still talked about Téadoir Carters after all.
Sei, pulled a, now what am I going to say, face.
Ciarán took the initiative and spoke in English.
“So you’ve have lived in England unti- since the crash?”
“Er, yes.” He replied, pretending he knew all about it. “Was there a lot written about it in the papers here?”
“Exponentially amounts. And all over the world.” Ciarán had clearly memorized the first phrase and seemed a little pleased that he had had a chance to use it.
“Oh?” Sei nodded, surprised, and glad that he would know finally be able to read into the events he barely remembered. Ciarán had spoken to him again by this point, the others hanging on their every word.
“Who brought you back to Ireland?”
“Umm.” He thought for a moment. “My foster father.”
They nodded knowledgably; families had been a topic they had revised earlier today.
“So your dad is actually dead then? Cause I heard he’s living away from the public because it got too much.” Came a soft spoken question from a boy Sei had memorised as Lee.
“Um, no. He’s dead.”
“Oo,kay. Sorry.”

At this point a gaggle of excitedly giggling girls came into the room along with Máele-somthingyhiggleypiggleyaeinn who had disappeared out of the room upon being ordered something in Irish by his cousin.
“Sin a é.”
Sei had just about time to translate it- that’s him- before the girls had crowed round and were looking at him in a mix of awe and sympathy.
“Is he really dead?”
Lee filled them in on the truth and they spoke in English afterwards.
“Ohh, tha’s a cat. We’ll think he have faked it.”
Sei nodded, this was probably the result of some sensationalist gossip magazines, but where the cat came into things he couldn’t say.
“You look like him too.”
They pressed closer and jabbed fingers at the broadly grinning photo of Téadoir splashed across the pages of an old magazine.
“Definitely his nose.”
“Not his eyes though.”
They were now well past the normal boundaries for personal space as they peered into his eyes.
“Wow, you mum must have been beautiful eyes.”
“Dark green is the colour!”
There were giggles and some incomprehensible comments in Irish. After a few nudges, a girl with muddy brown eyes and tight corkscrews of ginger hair stepped forward a bit and batted her heavily mascarad eyelashes.
“Can you make some Esiloquism for us?”
The others soon joined in.
“Yeah!”
“Le do thoil!”
“Please.”
“Sweet pleeeese?”
Sei chewed his lip.
“Well. I’m not sure if I can.”
“But you’re related to him!”
“Isn’t it in you genetics?” Once again, the lesson about families was proving the students of 4G invaluable.
“Well, I’ll try…”
They squealed and quickly settled themselves upon the sofas, devouring him with their eyes.
Sei took a breath and waved his hand. Murmurs of ‘ar wand’ which was easy enough to translate went up.
A little black smudge appeared on the carpet. They gasped, pointed, flapped and squealed something in high pitched Irish.
Pulling a face, he tried to imagine something for it to become. It shifted vaguely and became a splodge with limbs and a head. More excitement. The splodge jerked what could loosely be described as an arm.
“It waved! It waved!” They chorused. Even the quiet boy, Frey, had taken an interest.
Sei felt himself going a little red from all of the attention and the splodge swayed bashfully.
An ‘awwww’ went up from the girls and the splodge faded away.
They all clapped but within seconds they had resumed questioning.
“Did your athi taught you?” “-woowww, he didn’t!!!”
“Can you teach me?” “-awww, garbage.”
“Why can’t anyone else do it?” “-so it’s a special power!!?”
“What do you do?” / “-it must be!”
“Where do you live?” / “-I love that village! My grandparents live in the near of there!”
“How old are you?” “-So younnng!” –giggles went around the room-
“What’s your favourite food?” / “-whats that?” / “Sharon? Do you knew?” / “Ohhh, yummy! I love apples turnover too”
“Can you spoke Spanish? Like your mother?” / “We know her because she was in the news too.” / “-squeee~- it sounds such sexy!”
The girls eventually remembered that they hadn’t introduced themselves and made a great deal out of this.
The curly ginger haired one was Siona. Her dark haired and even paler skinned friend was Bél. Sharon was the one who spoke almost perfect English and had a tangled strawberry blond mess tied back from her face with a hair scarf. The one in leaning on her shoulder was called Lucy and never used the right tenses. She was also in Ceoilta like Máeleachlainn.
A loud jangling sound could be heard from the corridor and Sei jumped, the others groaned.
“Night guyyys!” “Nighty!” “Sleep tight.” “Get lost to your dorm!” “-Back atcha! Eejit” “Night night!” Came their Irish calls as they peeled themselves away from the sofas and left the room. Lee slapped a hand on Sei’s shoulder in a friendly manner.
“You don’t go with the girls.-We wait for them to come to our room.” His friends sniggered and a short exchange of explicit Irish went straight over Sei’s head.
“But Ciarán’s not fussy.” Hysterics erupted from Máeleachlainn as Ciarán chased a giggling Lee angrily up the stairs.


The remaining days until the beginning of term passed quickly, possibly aided by the fact that there was only one, Sei noted as he finally lay in his bed that Saturday night, after some disturbing antics and hysteria from his housemates. Ciarán was snoring sporadically in the next bed across and quiet sounds of heavy breathing could be heard from the other boys in the room.
What kind of retarded school begins on a Sunday? I’m so glad it wasn’t on today, I’m shattered already.
Tell me about it, try putting up with it for four years.
Sei sat upright in his bed and looked around wildly.
I just thought that… in my head, in the inside bit of my head… not the bit people can hear…
Oh, sorry. Maybe it’s because everyone here is so used to going to that part of peoples minds.
You mean, everyone can hear these thoughts?
Well, yes, t’be frank. You develop another layer of inward thought after a while, so it balances out… Sometimes
You mean people keep getting further and other people keep making thicker walls?
That’s how the cookie crumbs
Pardon?
It’s an idiom, in English, isn’t it? Sorry, I must sound a bit like an idiot now.
No, no, wait. You meant ‘that’s how the cookie crumbles
Ahh, right, yeah, that’s the one. Gratitude
Umm? Buíochas right? We say thanks most of the time…
Sorry, I’m not the best at English in my class.
You’re better than that Ciarán guy.
Hah, him, he just thinks he’s so much better than everyone. Just because his dad is part of the ministry. Him and the others were just seeing how bad English they could get away with. He just slags him off when he’s not there though.
Sei couldn’t help feeling a pang of missing Cenizo.
A friend from your old school?
Hmm, yeah. His dad is the minister in England
B’jaesus! I’ll bet you’re glad you’re his mate then.
Well, I don’t really think he thinks of me as a buddy, but…yeah, I do miss him.
Ahh, well. I could er, be your buddy. If you don’t mind Ciarán getting all pissy.
He doesn’t really strike me as someone too friendly.
Nah, bit touchy that guy… He can get you banjaxed a cat if you even look at him funny.
Ummm? What does banjaxed mean, I’ve heard it a lot today.
Well, it’s kind of… broken, or messed up, I suppose.
So he’ll beat up my cat?
Oh yeah, it’s another word in English! But, a cat means a lot.
Oooh. –oh. That’s not so good.
Don’t worry about it then.
Sei heard a yawn from across the room and realised who he must have been talking to.
I’m turnin’ in, night, Seí
Codladh sámh, Frey
My name’s actually Frankie, Frankie Freyesen
Oh, well, I guess you already know my name…
Er, yeah. Was I staring much? We don’t really get much drama in Ireland. Your dad was… sorry. You probably don’t want to think about it.
Oh, don’t worry. I just wasn’t expecting everyone to know, or recognize me. It must’ve only been a small article in England because I’ve never had anything like today before.
Well. Codsmh then, Sei
Sei didn’t even want to try to mimic the funny sound of the shortened goodnight he had just received and went for the safer option of the English version.

[.magnarock.]

*******

Half an hour later, Seí was sat between his new friends at one of the several benches in the dining hall of Véspeíre Manor, shovelling a spoonful of what seemed to be an incredibly popular cereal at the school, was sickeningly sweet, leaving a strange taste in his mouth after swallowing.
Across the room, a group of students, late to the fourth year shift of breakfast but seeming to care nothing for the time slot they had been allocated. Seí had been told that if you tried to get breakfast after the set times your hands turned green for the day although he had yet to see any green fingered first years. The leader, a tall boy, with dark blue eyes and loosely styled black hair, had various other badges underneath his house emblem, a purple cross over an orange rectangle.
Ciarán nudged Seí and leant closer to talk quietly. “That’s the head boy in our year, Dean James. He’s the highest ranked out of us lot in year four.”
“He’s Captain of the First team for Quidditch too.”
Seí couldn’t help but notice a hint of bitterness in the way he was speaking; perhaps they were rivals in some melodramatic and tragic tale.
“That’s his girlfriend, Moira Todd, next to him, the ginge with the huge-“
He paused and shared a mean grin with his friends before they spoke together: “Smile.”
“Yer a bunch of feckin typical blokes.” The girl sitting with them accused comically. “Don’t listen to them Seí, it only makes ‘um worse.”
They swore colourfully in return to this, and then laughed amiably
Seí felt a little uneasy but Ciarán smiled and continued analysing the group for him whilst they glided over to seats at a table which had been bypassed by the rest of the year.
“The blondee git is Sean Leight. Utter feckface, thinks he’s the bleddy king of this place.” Ciarán remarked darkly, with a kind of humorous jealousy.
“Why’s that?” Seí asked, feeling a little curious, and slightly betrayed by the boy’s smiling face and laughing stature.
“Cause he’s got more money than makes sense.” Lee added. “He’s one of the families that keep this place doing whatever the hell they feel like.”
“I’m surprised there isn’t a badge for that too. The feckin’ beggars’ got enough of them.”
Seí peered around his own table, and then the one across the large, wood panelled room. Sure enough, most of the people at that table had numerous badges under what he had assumed as the badge which marked your house.
“What’re they all for?” he queried, trying to slip subtly into the accent they were all using and away from the English accent which now sounded so out of place.
“Well, these’re for yer house. Y’know Glíásta, Ceoilta or Dlisthíoc. We’re all in Glíásta, the one for kids who can adapt and change quickly and not look like eejits in the process.”
Seí raised his eyebrows; it was a little like Hogwarts after all. “ So what’re th’others for?”
Lee grinned and told him. “Ceoilta’s have all got a great sense for how people are feeling, and reading deeper into situations than some peopl’d do.”
“Basically the gushy slices.” Ciarán added to some laughter.
“And if you’re in Dlisthíoc, it means yer a quick, manipulative little arse wipe, who’s good at getting anything out of anything or anyone.” The girl who he recognised a few moments later as Sharon added in with her good humoured voice.
“Aka. Leighty over there. Another reason he’s only got friends cause of his money.”
“The guy who looks like he’s come straight off Baywatch is Lee.” Sharon said, sighing slightly. “He’s the other Lee though. This one here’s the main man!” She said, thumping the dark haired boy’s arm next to her. “Also ‘cause you couldn’t miss him he’s so fecking tall.”
Lee shrugged and replied. “I’m just long boned.”
The group spluttered into hysterics and Seí laughed along too, not quite sure why it was so funny.
Sighing and wiping a tear from his eye, Ciarán turned back to Seí. “But yeah, d’ya feel a little more in the crowd now?”
“Yup.” He nodded, smiling.
“ Go, maith.” He replied, looking up at the gigantic, ornately carved clock which was bolted onto the wall.
“Urgh, guess we’d better start shoving off.” Sharon muttered as deep chimes twinkled through the hall with the solemnity and magic of the ancient bells encased by the clock.
“Guess, yer right.” Ciarán returned. “But no hurry; first lesson back’s always in year groups, tellin’ us how we shouldn’t have babies or do crack or stuff.”
“Lol! D’ya remember last year!?” Lee said, laughing.
“When they-“ Sharon cringed and they spoke together before corpsing into fits of laughter. “Handed out the condoms.”
“And the survey!”
“Ohh, lol!”
“We trashed the British average!”
“Isn’t that what we always do?”
Seí smiled, trying to place himself back into the conversation after his initial shock. “What average did you guys trash?”
They giggled with all the feeling of an inside joke.
“Ok.” Ciarán said eventually. “When a man and a woman, or whatever combo you swing for, love each other very much-“
“O-kay!”
They laughed again. “Basically the average percentage a’ kids of our age focking is 48 percent.” They sniggered. “It’s a wee bit lower in Ireland, and at Véspeíre it’s over 80 percent.”
Seí raised his eyebrows slightly, trying not to show his sheer mortification that … if there was someone else standing with them, all but one would have had sex.
“I know, lol, we’re pretty open about stuff here.”
He nodded as they began to drift from the dining room.
“You’ve done it right?” Lee asked casually.
For a fraction of a second, Seí considered lying, but decided they would probably figure the truth out anyway. “Er, no.”
“D’awww!!!” Squealed Sharon as Ciarán stifled a snigger. “Well don’t you worry about it- blessss ya- when the time’s right, love, when the times right.” She consoled, patting him on the shoulder, sympathy all over her face.
“Is your girlfriend a real tight gee or something?”
Seí felt as though he was beginning to dig himself into a hole. “Uh, no. I don’t have one.”
“Omigod! Lol!” An came an exclamation from somewhere nearby. They looked around and saw Leona and Siona giggling quietly, and doubling up when they saw they had been seen.
“What’s so funny ey guys?” Sharon asked, raising an eyebrow with a hand on her hip.
They managed through giggles to form a sentence. It was in Irish and Seí only grasped one or two words.
Sharon seemed to say something witty, meriting an equally icy return from the two girls, looking and gesturing vaguely at Seí occasionally. Ciarán uttered something, no doubt offensive. This received more giggles and another, more offhand comment. Lee took a threatening step forward and growled something at the two, they briefly gave him frigid glares, but soon tottered off in the direction of the first lesson.
He exhaled. “They feckin’ piss me off so much.”
“We can ruin their lives later if you fancy, I’ve got some great stuff from that shop that we’re not supposed to know about.” Ciarán comforted.
They grinned and as another bell began to chime they followed the same path that the girls had just taken. Shoes squeaking slightly on the polished wooden floors of the old house, Seí feeling quite in the dark about the exchange, he could guess that this was about his slight lack of night life, and hoped that they were not Véspeíre’s equivalent of Donna, Elsie and the other two in Slytherin.

[.magnarock.]

Eventually, after winding through numerous corridors of dark wood, filled with children wearing the Véspeíre green jumpers and house badges, they arrived at a classroom. There were about eighteen students already there, standing around lazily and talking loudly amongst themselves. As the minute hand of the smaller version of the halls ornate clock clunked up to o’clock, the sound of bells twinkled in the classroom and through the hallways, and from the gently glowing fireplace a teacher stepped out in a whirl of green, smiling at his first class of the year. A scraping sound drew Seí’s attention to a few pieces of chalk flying at the blackboard, scrawling the date and subject in a neat, but predominantly Irish to his dismay, sloped face. Those in the class went to stand behind chairs and he found himself being gently herded by his friends to where they seemed to usually sit. He opened his mouth to say something, but a quick shake of the head from Ciarán silenced him and he realised that the rest of the class were also silent as the grave. The teacher nodded, pleased, before assuming a waiting posture, arms folded and glancing occasionally at the clock. For a few seconds the class shuffled quietly, until another group of students entered quickly and quietly, taking some of the remaining empty seats.
“19,20,21. Faoi dheireadh” He muttered in a humorous manner.
Smiling again, the teacher gestured for them to take seats. “Suigh síos, suigh síos. Is everyone ready for the lesson?”
There was a general murmur of affirmation above the scraping of chairs and shoes.
“Good, good. I suppose you’ve all been looking forward to missing your first couple of lessons to learn about the nasty facts of nature.” He repeated himself in Irish before continuing. “Well, let’s crack on then shall we?”
Once again the chalk flew to the board and the lesson began.

The bells for break began and the class flooded out, giggling and making icy remarks on the fashion sense and relationships of the teenagers on the video they had watched.
Seí felt a little lightheaded, as though all the mysteries of the world no longer existed.
“You all right there Seí?” Lee asked, patting him on the back.
“Y-yeah. I don’t think I’ll ever be able to see girls the same anymore.”
Ciarán and Sharon laughed friendlily.
“Well I don’t think I’ll ever be able to see again! You covered your eyes at the right time mate! That girl had a cocktrough like a swamp!”
Sharon slapped him on the back of the head. “Not everyones bald as a baby, you shouldn’ta been starin so hard y’perv!”
He held his hands up defensively. “Oi! I didn’t ask for them all to go around showin’ off the whole plumbing works! But all I’m saying is, they’d get the message across better if they didn’t use such disgustin’ double baggers like that girl.”
Their argument rattled on as they walked to the hall they had been in for breakfast, the tables were covered with various snacks and drinks, save for a couple around which first years sat furiously scribbling at homework’s they had just received.
A pair of girls who had just been in the lesson with them came over, smiling and talking about the graphic detail of the video they had watched.
“That was gross!”
“Ueergh!”
They both wore the badges for Ceoilta, Frankie appeared through the crowd next to them and they all stood with the group Seí was in.
“I know! It was gross, and Ciarán’s being pervy as usual.” Sharon agreed and they giggled.
“So he’s the new kid right?” Asked the smaller of the two, the only person in the year Seí had seen so far who was shorter than him, the other was about his height.
“Yup, he’s Seí Carters.” Lee replied, smiling.
“Ooo, like, Té Carters?”
“His son.”
“Wow! He doesn’t look a lot like him. Lol.” She said, peering at his face quite closely.
“Can you esiloquise?” Asked the taller, blonde one.
“Kinda. He’s a bit crap though.” Ciarán said, laughing.
“Awesomes. So, introduce us then you guys.”
Sharon rolled her eyes. “This one here’s Hairy McLary and this other one’s Stinky McGee.”
A squeal of protest went up and the boys laughed.
“Well, then, just ignore Tranny Noodlemuff there, Seí. I’m Lucy Sullivan.” The short girl said, smiling warmly.
“And I’m Samantha Kirk.” The other added, less overbearingly than her friend.
“Hi.” Seí managed, a little in awe of the incredibly friendly nature of everyone here.
“Great, we’re all buds. Now give us your summer project notes Sharon, love.”
“Ugh, you’re useless, Loose. Come on then, they’re in the dorms.”
The girls departed, leaving the boys to laugh at their madness.
“I wonder where Ochly is.” Lee mused.
“Probably tryin ou some of those lines on the video.” Frankie said, grinning.
The others laughed and the conversation moved onto their next lessons, each of them bringing out the scrap of paper with their timetables on.
“So which group’re you in Seí?.” Lee asked as he brought out his own plan.
“Uhhhhh.”
Ciarán leaned over his shoulder, comparing their scheudules.
“Aww, yer not in mine. You’re probably in the wand twin track group. Ah, yeah, there y’go. You’re with Lee, Sharon n ballface there.” He said gesturing at Frankie.
“Better than beina sliceface.”
The group laughed.
“So you lucky beggars get to doss out in Irish and then do some skenny chores. I have to go all the way over to the friggin Logic block and do proper magic theory stuff, not arsin around with sparkles.”
“Oh bless the poor soldier.” Lee said, patting him on the head.
“Hey guys! You walking to T5 now?” Maeleachlainn asked, appearing from a group standing next to a snack table.
“Yup, let’s leave Mr. Proper magic to go get excited about numbers.”
They laughed and soon the hall was empty of students as they dispersed to their next set of lessons.