[Feb MP] Animal can't speak for themselves (Benny / open)

so we have to speak for them.

It had been over a month ago that Trudy had first learned the transfiguration spell Vera Verto but she still felt quite strongly about it. The fact that sentient creatures were transfigured into objects didn’t go down well with her. She had talked to her mentor, Rowen, about it, but the older girl did not seem to mind the animals’ wellbeing as much as Trudy did. The second year thought that it was cruel to animals to transfigure them. She hadn’t received any really satisfying answers as to whether or not it hurt the animal to be transfigured into a goblet and whether or not they were still sentient in their changed form. Even if it did not hurt, did not feel like dying - Trudy felt positive that it was very likely still traumatic.

However, Vera Verto was hardly the only cruel thing that magical people did to creatures. They hunted magical creatures, even rare ones, to get wand cores, potion ingredients, skin to create protective clothing… there were so many things that did not feel right to the Ravenclaw and she was unwilling to just quietly accept that helpless creatures got hurt or killed. She had to do something about it.

The girl had spoken to a few people about this, had even written to her magizoologist mother about her intention to form a club for the prevention of cruelty to animals, and was determined to take the initiative and do as much about it as she could. Her mother’s words of encouragement served to motivate the girl in a way that she wanted to fight.

Fortunately some of her friends shared her feelings on the matter and so she had invited them to join her in an empty classroom to work on a little campaign to create posters and pamphlets to get the attention of the Hogwarts staff and fellow students.

With Benny's help Trudy had put some desks together, laid out some parchment and placed quills and a few ink bottles containing different colours in the middle of the now huge table. She looked around and gave a semi-pleased shrug. The campaign was only just starting. It would be more impressive once the first posters and pamphlets were done and could be shown off. The girl felt strongly about this and already envisioned herself as a future politician or an activist for animal rights.

"That should do it," she muttered, "I guess we can start working on the posters and pamphlets now." She smiled nervously at Benny, wondering if he knew how much it meant to her that he was helping her with this.

Although she felt nervous (and was quite scared that barely anybody would join her cause), she sat down, pulled a huge scroll of parchment closer and began to work on a poster, drawing the picture of a raven.

@Benny Rivera

[OOC: This is open for anyone who wants to help Trudy with her animal rights campaign. Second years are, of course, particularly welcome as she'd have addressed them in the first place.
This is what she just started working on]

When Trudy had asked him to help out with her campaign, Benny had been all too eager to accept. While he didn't share her passion for Animal Rights, he wasn't a total monster. And the more she explained it to him, the more he wanted to stand up for all the helpless creatures. Benny was a good kid, but some things did not occur to him unless spelled out. He had done the Vera Verto spell in class, he had even thought it was interesting to watch, but he had not considered the animal's feelings until Trudy told him to.

He agreed to help her and even offered to make some flyers for the cause (he had just perfected a spell to animate his drawings, and he wanted to show off a little.) Helping her pull the desks together on the big day, Benny hoped there would be a good turnout. He could tell how much this meant to his friend, and he wanted her to be happy with the outcome. Either way, they were spreading information, so even if it was just the two of them, he still felt like it was a good use of free time. "I've got a good idea for a drawing," He told her when she said they could get started and pulled some crinkled parchment from the pocket of his uniform slacks; he hadn't had time to change.

"What do you think?" He asked, showing her a couple of rough sketches of a goblet changing back and forth into a rat, a big red X flashing over it.

“Oh?” Trudy asked excitedly as she turned to face her friend, eyes wide with curiosity. “What kind of idea?” The girl was relieved that Benny was here with her. This campaign meant a lot to the young Ravenclaw. She was just discovering her own voice and the fact that she had an opinion that some people shared.

Benny showed her his drafts of animated sketches and Trudy nodded eagerly. “Oh I love this!” she exclaimed brightly. “This looks great!” She exhaled loudly, her eyes shining with glee.

“I was thinking of something similar,” she confided in Benny and pushed the drawing of the raven in a struck through circle towards him. “I wanted to animate this, too,” she admitted, pausing briefly. “Seems like you can help me with that.” She beamed at her friend. While Trudy had practised the spell herself, Benny seemed to have perfected it already. Surely the pamphlets and posters would turn out great and get the campaign the attention it deserved.

The fact that Trudy not only seemed to approve but liked what he had created made Benny smile brightly. He'd been working on the animation charms for months, and it was such a treat to see it paying off. He loved to draw, but the magic just made it that much better. Silly cartoons thrown at JR during Potions were fun, but this seemed like a much better use of Benny's skills. He pulled a stool toward Trudy as she explained she was thinking of something similar. As he turned back, plopped down on the seat, and saw what she had pushed over, Benny's smile grew. "That is great!" He exclaimed, nodding quickly and awkwardly, half-standing to pull his wand from the pocket of his slacks.

"Do you want the raven to move or like the red circle to flash?" Benny was slowly learning how to apply to spell in layers. Honestly, the fact that he had worked was an absolute miracle (and he had no idea how it had happened). He knew how to make the rat change into the goblet and the x move, but how he'd made both happen at once was a mystery. And he hoped he could replicate it now so as not to let Trudy down. "Or what were you thinking?"

Trudy beamed at her friend as he exclaimed that her drawing - or her idea and not so much the drawing? - was great. The girl wasn’t sure what it was but the approval felt quite encouraging. The whole campaign was her idea, but she was only able to realise it with the help of her friends and other students who shared her beliefs.

“Thank you,” she said, still smiling widely. “I actually wanted to draw a goblet and let the raven transform into a goblet to show the vera verto spell. Do you think we can do that somehow?” She looked at Benny hopefully. If he wasn’t able to help she felt she’d most likely ask an older student in the common room later. However, she hoped that they’d make it work somehow.

“I really dislike that spell,” she added, frowning a little and shaking her head disapprovingly. “It’s so pointless and cruel.”

"Oh, I think we could make that work, somehow," Benny imagined they could figure out the spell to animate all of that if they worked together. He knew some of it, and Trudy was a Ravenclaw, which meant she could figure anything out through the power of studying, right? It was like their superpower. Benny smiled at the witch next to him, honestly excited about the work they were doing but also about his new friend.

They had become friends at camp over the summer, but this would seal the deal, and Benny liked the idea. Trudy was excellent, and she was caring, and she had been cool when they were all telling scary stories around the campfire. And now she was fighting for those who couldn't fight for themselves, and naturally, that spoke to Benny. He appreciated her fight. "Yeah, that spell sucks," He agreed, less eloquently than she had put it, and brushed some of the hair from his face. "When will we ever use it, anyway? I mean, if we were going to use it in the first place." He let out a soft chuckle, pulling another piece of parchment his way to make another drawing and continuing.
"I mean, I've been thirsty before, but I don't think I have ever been so thirsty I wanted to drink out of a toad glass." Yuck.

Trudy’s big smile grew even wider as her friend announced that he thought they could make her idea work. That was just perfect! The girl felt quite joyous now and actually thought that the campaign would be successful if she managed to make the posters look just the way she wanted to. Everybody had to see her point then.

She nodded eagerly as Benny stated that he, too, thought that the spell vera verto sucked. “Exactly!” Trudy exclaimed when Benny said that he had never wanted to drink out of a toad glass.

“It’s one of the most pointless and cruel spells we’ve had to learn so far,” Trudy said, shaking her head. “Just imagine how it must feel to be turned into an inanimate object. Imagine how suddenly you have no heartbeat anymore, cannot breathe… I wonder if they still feel things then. No matter if they do or don’t. It has to be traumatic, right? Just think how it would be if you were turned into a thing and then came back to your normal self…” The smile had faded from her face now that she thought about how cruel the spell was.

Benny didn't like the thought of being turned into a thing or of the animals still feeling things when they were, and he noticeably shivered as Trudy went into detail about it. "yeah, it's just awful," He added, shuddering again at the thought and hurrying to get back to work. At this rate, they would have a good amount of posters done in time, but Benny wondered if it would be enough. Suppose it would change hearts and minds if anyone would even pay attention to them.

"We should make them flash, maybe have sound, I'm not sure how to do that, but I bet we could find something in the library," Benny wanted to make sure everyone saw the posters. He wanted people to think about what he had just been thinking about. If they could put themselves in the toad's shoes, maybe they would understand. It made sense in his mind.

"Maybe we could go to the library later?"

“It is, isn’t it?” Trudy said, looking quite upset. “I imagine it must feel like dying or torture to the animals. There are unforgivable spells like Crucio that we are not supposed to use but this one is okay because we only use it on animals and not on people?” Her cheeks were reddened now as she was feeling quite aggravated by the thought of it. The more Trudy thought about this spell or all the other things they did to animals and magical creatures the more determined she was that she needed to do something.

“Yes,” she agreed immediately. “Making them flash sounds like a good plan. We need to make sure that they attract as much attention as possible.” She nodded as Benny mentioned that they might find something about how to achieve this in the library.

“Sounds like a good plan,” a grateful smile spread across her face as she looked at her friend. “Thank you for helping with this. I really appreciate it a lot and I’m sure the animals would, too.” She was hopeful that they would actually achieve something with their campaign.

Trudy spoke about the cruciatus curse and other unforgivable ones, and Benny held back a shudder as what she said hit him. He hadn’t thought of it that way before, but once it occurred to him, he felt even more motivated to join her cause. “Yeah! Your right; why is this okay, but those aren’t?” He didn’t get it, but he supposed anyone who asked the question would feel the same way. They had to feel the same way.

“Animals should have just as many rights as people.” He declared, nodding angrily at Trudy. “I hate that wizards mistreat animals just because they look different or speak a different language….” He swallowed, looking down at his hands, his skin darker than hers and the ink he’d accidentally gotten all over his palms. The world sucked sometimes, and Benny felt powerless against it sometimes, but right now, he felt strong. Bolstered by a friend, a shared cause, and Gryffindor spirit, the little wizard, raised his eyes again.

“We need to make sure everyone understands, Trudy.”

Benny said what Trudy thought - that animals should have just as many rights as people. She nodded eagerly, glad that her friend agreed with her.

“Exactly,” Trudy said, her eyes watering with tears of compassion for the poor animals that were tormented in class. “I don’t get it. Why do people put themselves above other living beings? Just because they cannot speak for themselves it doesn’t mean that they are worth less. I’d like to see what would happen if we had to practise transfiguration spells on each other. What do you think, how long would it take until the first owls from concerned parents would reach the school?”

She offered a weak but grateful little smile as Benny said that they’d need to make sure everyone understood what they had both realised.

“Yes,” she agreed, “yes, we need to fight for them. I won’t give up until we’ve really achieved something. I don’t mind if I get in trouble doing so. It’s definitely a worthy cause, after all. People need to be aware of it.”

Benny couldn’t imagine how anyone felt comfortable mistreating animals now. It wasn’t as if he had been cruel before speaking to Trudy, but the boy hadn’t spent a lot of time thinking about it either. And now that she had pulled the wool from over his eyes, he felt like it was all he could think about. Fighting for their rights felt like the most essential thing in his tiny twelve-year-old world. He sighed and settled into his seat a little as she continued.

“What kind of trouble do you expect we will get into?” He wondered, but Benny was far from backing down at the thought of it. While he didn’t go out looking to lose points for his house, he figured this was as worthy a reason as there ever would be. “What do you think about making more stuff? Like more than just posters….” Benny scrunched his nose as he considered his own half-formed plan. “I don’t have any sickles, but if we can get more parchment and stuff from a professor, maybe we can make things and put them in all of the books in the library. Like small versions of the posters, you know, what are they called like….” Benny racked his brain for the word pamphlet but shrugged and continued.

“Could put them all over the tables in the Great Hall too, then other students won't be able to ignore them, you know?"

Benny asked what kind of trouble she was expecting and Trudy shrugged. It wasn’t like she thought that they deserved to get in trouble for doing the right thing. She just had a feeling that some adults, Hogwarts staff in particular, might find it silly that some second years wanted to change the world and made posters to hang up all over the castle.

“I am just not sure if the school staff will appreciate the posters,” Trudy responded. “I mean, we are right but I guess it’s inconvenient for those responsible to deal with this and change things. Which means that we’ll have to try twice as hard to force them to act, of course.”

Benny’s idea to make other things than just posters was great. Trudy’s eyes lit up and she nodded eagerly. “Yes,” she exclaimed brightly, “those are such a good ideas. I also thought we could make some pamphlets and throw them down from one of the highest staircases so people can catch them as they walk through the school.”

"Pamphlets, yes! That's the word I was looking for," The wizard said enthusiastically as Trudy finished her thought and he smiled. They were really on to something here, and Benny wasn't even worried about getting into trouble anymore. Okay—he was still worried about it— but he felt invincible with Trudy by his side. Like nothing could (or should) stop them and that was a powerful feeling. Standing up abruptly, the Gryffindor moved about the room as he rummaged through some cabinets and drawers looking for more things they could use.

"Do you have any more parchment?" He asked with his eyes still on the contents of the drawer. Half a chess set, some old shoelaces, and some green ink. Benny snagged the ink and left the rest behind before joining her at the work table again.

"We should do the pamphlets now so we're ready to launch everything all at once, right?" Benny smiled eagerly, bouncing on the soles of his beat-up sneakers. "I like the idea of dropping things off the stairs too so that everyone will see them. Like confetti but like with purpose, you know?" Benny hadn't felt this energized about something since the Quidditch try-outs and at least art was something he was actually good at. It was a great feeling, to be a part of something, and even though he hadn't seen it coming, it felt right.

“Yes,” Trudy said, opening her school bag and pulling out a few pieces of parchment. “Not many, though,” she said, sighing.

“Mhmm yeah, I think doing everything at once makes sense. So people cannot really avoid the topic anymore.” Trudy was so relieved to have Benny on her side. He was such a great help and he seemed to consider the cause as important as she did herself.

“We should try to find a sponsor,” she thought aloud and then looked at Benny as she contemplated her thought. “Do you think that would work? We should really find someone to sponsor this. Maybe a shop… Maybe…” Her eyes lit up and she grinned mischievously.

“Do you know this toy shop in Hogsmeade?” she asked. She hadn’t been there very often as she couldn’t go on Hogsmeade weekends yet but she had visited this paradise for children with her parents.

“They sell these cute plushies like Edna,” she blushed a little as she mentioned her erumpent plushy which Benny probably still remembered from summer camp.

“Maybe they’d be willing to sponsor some parchment for this cause…”