Thoughtful Seclusion [open]

[sttran]

It was Sunday evening.

Félix, after returning to the Ravenclaw common room after dinner, sank into one of the armchairs before the fire and took out some of his school work; the only thing that he had not yet finished for tomorrow was a drawing of a niffler for Care of Magical Creatures. Félix, while he appreciated the visual arts, had a great deal of trouble drawing and painting. He did not particularly want to complete the drawing, and stared into the fire, his quill held loosely in his hand.

After perhaps a quarter of an hour of thoughtless staring, Félix returned to his senses as his eyes slid back down to his still blank bit of parchment. He began to sketch a rough outline of a niffler. As he drew, it occurred to him that he always had trouble with arts of the visual variety; he had trouble appreciating it, and had trouble creating it. He couldn't even doodle in class when he was bored; he would just acquire a sort of stupor and stare off into the middle distance, not thinking about anything.

Meanwhile, Félix's quill had dripped ink onto his pinstripe suit, and his niffler was in an irreparably embarrassing state, so he crumpled up his paper and threw it into the fire. After watching the edges curl and the parchment being consumed by flame, Félix put his things into his bag, and got up, dusting off his clothes absently. He made his way to his dormitory. His bed was the one next to the window. He saw a certain beauty in the world that he felt his room-mates did not and, before he left the dormitory, his eyes swept across the grounds, which were enveloped by velvety darkness.

Félix re-entered the common room and stared at all the commotion without really taking it in. He sought a more secluded place where he could collect his thoughts and relax properly. After standing stationary for a moment, considering if there was such a place at this time, Félix put on his overcoat and left the common room purposefully.

Five minutes later, Félix was surrounded by owls. They seemed to be the one animal that he understood, and that understood him. He had a particular favourite tawny, who was perched right in front of Félix as he had entered the Owlery. The tawny fluttered onto Félix's arm, and the latter stepped forward to survey the grounds, which were as beautiful as ever, even in the darkness of night.

[lillian]

Lillian was a mess this fine day. She had some homework to attend to, and well a few other things, such as sending a letter to her ‘relatives’, really her grandparents, about a place to stay this summer, posing as… well she forgot by now, but it was in the letter so it should be alright. Her parents always told stories about how great both pairs of grandparents were, but Lillian was stuck with the English father’s side.

Lillian fumbled through all of her papers and found the letter, and sealed it in an envelope, then throwing it in the pile of her papers. Lillian picked out a piece of Potions homework for Slughorn and wrote her name at the top. Explain the difference between… well a lot of these potions ingredients, then write the correct procedure of how to brew the Draught of Living Death. Lillian began outlining the paper, before getting bored and putting it away. She always did this, and eventually would get it done once she got back to it. Usually it was choose one, get bored, then choose another, and eventually she would reach the first one again, unless it was already finished. At least she wrote a good 12 inches of it, even if it called for 18.

Lillian picked up her letter once more, and decided to send it now, after having wrote it days ago. She walked up the stairs and into the grounds, where she headed for the structure called the Owlery. It was her understanding students could send letters there. Personally she hadn’t been at Hogwarts much before she came to this time, and was taught by the rebels, so Hogwarts hadn’t been her school. In some subjects she was farther ahead, and some she was behind, such as in Transfiguration.

Lillian hurried up to the Owlery and picked a random owl to send her letter, the prettiest one of course. Her decisions weren’t always based on that, since she didn’t know much about owls, or really care which one was taken. She noticed a boy from her time here in the owlery too.

“Hey, I’m Lillian McCoy,” Lillian greeted.

[sttran]

Félix jumped as he heard a girl's voice behind him. He jumped so badly, in fact, that the tawny owl perched on his arm flew away with a screech, and he dropped his hat onto the floor. He was about to stoop to pick it up when he decided that it would be more polite to speak to the person who had just entered first, so Félix turned around quickly and saw a girl he had only seen once or twice before standing in front of him. Inwardly, he groaned. It was nothing against this girl, of course; he just had a very strong dislike of speaking to strangers.

However, he reasoned with himself that speaking to strangers was inevitable, because that is how friendships are formed. He also had quite a kind temperament, because nearly everyone intimidated him, and the last thing he wanted to do was to get on anyone's bad side. Félix decided that there was no reason for this girl to terrify him, and that it would be quite rude not to speak to her, as she had started the conversation anyway. All of these thoughts rushed through his head in the space of a fraction of a second.

So, he put on a smile, hoping that it was not too artificial, and said, "Hi, I'm Jean-Jacques, but you can call me Félix if you want." He bent down to pick up his hat and dusted it off delicately. After a short pause, he said awkwardly, "It's really nice out tonight."

[lillian]

Lillian was surprised at his surprise of her greeting him, but Lillian knew some people like that. And well, she got along with a lot of people, including those who jumped such as he did. Wow that was a bit a rambling and confusing in her mind, but she just went with it. Lillian was a pleasant person, unless you got on her bad side, then she could be outright rude to you, start a fight and wind up hurting you, which seemed to happen a lot.

“Nice to meet you, Félix!” Lillian replied happily thinking that he must be French or something like that to have the name Jean-Jacques since both Jean and Jacques were French or if she was wrong, sounded Frech at least, though she was sure she heard Jean being a French guy from the future in a television show, and Jaques in a book about the French Revolution, so it made sense that he would be French.

“Very nice, though I liked it better from where I was from, since we were let outside when it was darker more than here,” Lillian said looking up at the sky, smiling to herself about how awkward he was acting, but shrugged it off, not worrying about it, feeling that it didn't really matter unless it made him uncomfortable.

[sttran]

Félix was very conscious about how he was acting. As Lillian spoke to him, he realised that his right hand was in his pocket and quickly removed it. Then, there was the problem that he didn't know what to do with it; his left hand was spinning his hat absently. He then thought that perhaps his hat-spinning made him appear bored, so he stopped, and then let his hands fall loosely to his sides. He felt very uncomfortable, but tried his best to hide it, and continued to smile.

As Lillian spoke, Félix began to fall into one of those usual stupors that he encountered daily in his classes. His eyes glazed over, but he was still looking at Lillian. After a slight pause after she finished speaking, he realised that it was his turn to speak and and he came back to earth with a jolt. He was quite unaware of what Lillian had just said, but he remembered the sound of her voice and replayed it in his head.

"Oh, sorry," he said with a nervous chuckle, "I guess I'm just in my own little world over here. Anyway, where were you before coming here?"

Félix paused and, thinking that he could trust her, said, "Don't tell anyone, but I was walking outside once at dusk, and lost track of time. I didn't get back to the castle until ten o'clock." He was becoming more comfortable socialising with her every minute. She seemed nice enough.

[lillian]

Lillian watched as he changed his actions as he talked, but decided not to mention it. Lillian didn't really care too much about what he was doing, nor if he was listening, but it was nice to know that she wasn't just being ignored as she seemed to be wtih others around her. Lillian didn't like making enemies, but they seemed to just be like that to her.

"America, the United States," Lillian answered, knowing they weren't supposed to reveal their true place of origin, which hers was sometime in the future. Lillian was actually not too affected by this time change, weirdly enough. She was still a new person to Hogwarts, just like she would've been. She would probably have to live on her own, which life in the rebel camp was like it, so it seemed to only have miniscule effects on her, though she wanted to see her parents again, and them know of her as their daughter, but that wasn't too big of a desire.

"That's great! Were you looking at the stars or something?" Lillian asked. She loved the stars and wanted to become an astronaut, or something similar when she was older. It would be cool to be a witch and an astronaut. That would be great.

[sttran]

Félix waited nervously for Lillian's reply, as he was beginning to regret revealing that he had once done something that he wasn't supposed to have done. However, she said nothing of it, and Félix was beginning to get more comfortable, as Lillian steered the conversation in an interesting direction (interesting for him, anyway).

"Ah, America," said Félix, a tinge of his French accent coming into prominence, "I've never been there. I'm more of a home person myself. If I'm not at Hogwarts or in England, then I'm in France." He paused and reminisced about his life in France, in the country. He quickly stopped his daydreams, however, because he didn't want to return to the embarrassing position of having no idea what Lillian had just said to him.

"Well, I suppose I wasn't really doing anything in particular that night, although I suppose the stars were quite nice," said Félix, "I just love walking, especially in nature, and especially at night. Things seem to have an entirely different beauty at night. Anyway, I don't see why we're not allowed out in the dark; no one would go out in the dark if they were frightened of it. This seems to be one of the only places in this castle where you can touch the night air."

He fell silent and looked wistfully out the window, aware that he had just spoken to someone he had barely met in one breath, more than he had spoken to anyone else, except for perhaps his father.

[lillian]

Lillian was smiling, not too largely though like some people she knew to do. Lillian thought that Félix was quite nice. And her guess of his county of origin was correct, at least it was a country he liked, whether he was born there or not. Lillian watched him, not focusing too much on him, but enough to tell that she was interested in what he was saying. Lillian had a hard time focusing at times, since she was slightly ADD, but right now it seemed easy.

"It was a beautiful place, when you weren't fighting for your life," Lillian replied, then quickly avoiding what she had just said, not wanting the conversation to turn so serious as death and all that bad stuff, "I was to France once with my parents, wish I could go back there, it would be geat. It is a very beautiful place." It was true, though when she was there it was a battle witht he rebels where she had snuck out to watch and her parents almost died a couple of times. Luckily the rebels won that battle, and Lillian snuck back to the camp before anyone noticed she was gone.

"Well I think it has to do with the forest, and with..." She paused thinking of what people in this time called him, "You-Know-Who. Who knows if someone snuck in, like Sirius Black did three years ago." Lillian barely recalled the amount of years ago it happened, since they learned Harry's history when they were young.

[sttran]

((My apologies for the very late reply; I've had some family stuff to attend to. I'm back now.))

Félix was thinking about how much he had just been talking. He was lost in his thoughts, wondering whether Lillian thought that he was so talkative that he was annoying, or perhaps that he was egotistical. Thus, he was not paying attention when Lillian began to speak.

However, he came back to earth when he heard her say something about fighting for her life, and furrowed his brow. Why would she be doing that? Although he was the curious type, he was still far too shy to inquire about her words, so he just continued to listen to her speak. "Yes, I've heard wonderful things about America," he concurred, "It seems as though there is a lot more open space over there; Europe is much too crowded. But I live in a smaller area in France, so I enjoy it quite a bit. It's not far from some big cities, but it's a nice size. What area did you visit in France?"

When Félix heard Lillian's explanation for a possible reason why they were not allowed out at night, he said, "Ah, I see. I suppose that makes sense. The school doesn't want to get in trouble with someone's parents if their kid was in danger." He paused, considering this, then added, "Well, I think that the school should trust that whoever is going out late at night understands possible consequences. They can't deprive us of the right to enjoy nature."

Félix was becoming very comfortable speaking with Lillian. This was the first real conversation that he'd had with anyone, let alone a girl, for several months.

[lillian]

((It's ok I understand completely!))

Lillian smiled happily, thinking that Félix was quite nice. It was nice talking to someone finally in this time. Mostly since she was here she had been avoiding most people, since she had the tendency to mess up a lot of things. Lillian was happy to finally talk to someone, other than the professors. At least she was starting to be herself again. She was a very talkative person at some points, though not all the time. Really it depended on who she was talking to.

"I believe it was in the area near Paris, though not in Paris," Lillian replied thinking about it. At least that was where she believed the battle was, though she was sort of sure that it was there, "America is sort of spacious, though there are still quite a bit of people there." Lillian was a bit clueless when it came to the actual America, so she just pretended the time she came from was known to everyone as America, or something like that, though she had to still be careful about what she said about back at home.

"Up until we're adults, technically we're like property to our parents, and just because something can walk and talk, doesn't mean that they won't be mad if it gets damaged in some way," She mused, though she didn't like the thought of her being someone's property, "But I don't like that comparison much, but it gets the point across, I suppose."

[sttran]

Félix was quite proud of himself for carrying on a conversation with Lillian for so long. He corners of his lips even curled up a little bit, trying to warm up to her a bit more. He listened to her speak and, after deciding that there was not really much to say in response, said, "Ah, that makes sense. I guess I just like being a bit more independent. Well," he sighed, "I suppose I've only got a few years to wait. How old are you, anyway?"

After an awkward pause, he decided to change the subject, having exhausted the previous one. "What's your favourite class here?" he asked. "I personally prefer things with a bit of structure, especially arithmancy, for instance. Potions isn't bad, either. But I quite dislike things like History of Magic because it's just rote memorisation."

He paused again, and then asked, "Do you have any interests other than school work?"

He put his hands in his pockets as he realised just how chilly it was outside. As he waited for Lillian's reply, he slipped on his overcoat absentmindedly, but tried to appear as though he wasn't getting bored talking to her.

[lillian]

Lillian was happy for talking to this guy for this long. She could tell that he probably hadn't talked too long to anyone, but Lillian didn't mind. Her mind was wandering to all sorts of things, but given her ability to double task she was fully into talking to this guy as possible.

"I'm sixteen, just turned sixteen," Lillian replied with a smile, "How about you?" If she were to guess he'd be about the same age as she was from the way he looked. Maybe fifth or sixth, he didn't really seem like a seventh year.

"I hate History, it's just so boring. Potions is ok, but I like something with some practical use, like DADA, or something to let your imagination wander, like Astronomy!" Lillian replied with a smile. History was terrible, and she was terrible at it, even if she knew most of it, including what would happen in the future.

"Well if you don't count figuring out a way to explore the galaxy, or what is out there, then there's that. Oh and I like to go explore anywhere and everywhere," Lillian replied letting her mind wander again, though staying in the conversation, as she was great at double tasking.

((Sorry the reply isn't the best, but I felt you should have a reply ))

[sttran]

"Ah, I'm fifteen," Félix said, "fifth year."

He nodded in agreement as Lillian expressed her dislike of history, her neutrality about potions, and her fondness of Defence Against the Dark Arts and Astronomy. "Interesting, I've never been much of an Astronomy person. I think it can be beautiful, but sometimes I just feel so overwhelmed by the size of the universe and wonder what we're doing here. Compared to the rest of the universe, the earth is just a speck of dust, and we're sort of like individual atoms of that speck." He took a deep breath, and continued, "I guess I'm not opposed to thinking about stuff like that, but it's just really terrifying for me to wrap my head around, I suppose."

He fell silent. What Félix had said was true; thinking that he seemed to have such little impact on this universe made him feel insignificant and it made him question what he had to accomplish, or what the point was of accomplishing anything. However, despite these thoughts going through his head, he agreed wholeheartedly when Lillian said that she loved exploring.

"Ah, me too!" Félix said enthusiastically. He then thought for a moment and then said, "Well, I guess I can scare myself really easily, but as long as I don't let my imagination take over, then I'm usually okay. We should go exploring around here together sometime, or maybe in Hogsmeade. There are lots of quirks around there. Around here, too."

((hint hint...I think it'd be sort of fun to rendezvous somewhere else, but only if you want to.

Also, sorry for the really sporadic replies lately. RL has been a bugger.))

[lillian]

"Fifth year too, even though I am slightly older than 15," Lillian replied with a smile. So they were in the same year, that's a nice thing to know, especially when she was considering him a friend.

"That's true, which is why I am so fascinated by it, think of all the lives one could affect if they didn't just affect Earth, but the whole universe!" Lillian replied thinking of how it would be cool to meet aliens, or something like that. She was adventurous and though she did frighten herself sometimes by the thoughts of how insignificant she could turn out to be. "But it does make use all seem so small. Even the smallest speck of dust can make the biggest differences." It was something her mother told once when she was very little, and it really helped her out when she was thinking that all she was doing was being a silly little idealist with dreams bigger than one could ever accomplish.

"That'd be real fun! We could always go to Hogsmeade, there are a lot of fun things there," Lillian agreed thinking of how much fun she had in previous days, and how much more fun it would be with Félix with her. That'd be very great, and she loved the idea.

((Yeah! That'd be fun! These two do get along quite well! Either one of use could make a new thread, if you want, just say the word and I'll make it!

And it's ok, I've bee quite busy anyways ))

[sttran]

Félix was glad when he heard that Lillian was about his age. He was always very nervous around older people, especially with older girls. He wasn't quite sure why, because he never thought of himself as a very self-conscious person who tried to impress everyone (he actually preferred to keep out of the way).

Anyway, Félix was also glad when Lillian agreed that going to Hogsmeade was a good idea. He liked Hogsmeade, although he didn't know why; whenever he went there, he just went to a restaurant and studied or read. He was sure that the experience would be much more entertaining with someone else with him, and was glad that he had suggested it.

"Okay, so it sounds like we'll make this idea real," he said. "I guess classes start up again tomorrow, so how about some time next weekend?" He was always very busy during the week what with school and the like, and he wasn't quite sure that they were allowed to go to Hogsmeade during the week anyway.

Félix never really liked to spend a lot of time doing things other than studying over the weekends, either, although he was fond of long nature walks, and that was all. He decided that it wouldn't kill him to make an exception this week, though, and he thought that it might be fun anyway.

After a pause, he said, "Well, it's getting kind of late. I guess I'll see you later!" He donned his hat, pulled his coat closer around him, and left the owlery.

((You can reply to this if you want, but this is my last reply in this thread. You can start a new thread in Hogsmeade whenever you like, and assume that a week has passed anyway. See you there!))