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Post by nico on Apr 22, 2007 19:44:33 GMT -5
Nicodemus sat in the Library like it was a lounge. He held a book in one hand, his other hand was distractedly ruffling his slicked back hair into a messier style. He was the same handsome boy from last year except a lot taller and maybe a little less chubby around the cheeks. His soft gray eyes showed little interest in his DADA book and it was clear he would be much happier talking to someone. He wasn’t exactly sure of what else he could be doing but the library was a fairly public place, there was a good chance someone would walk in, a girl if he was lucky, and he would have an excuse not to study. Studying was important, that was the only reason he was forcing himself through it. Having a dear friend killed by dark wizards makes you study defense harder. Still, that was his brain talking and he wanted to listen to his heart. His heart was telling him to go find Maria, or possibly Aslin. Any female except Sprightly really.
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Post by alexishannah on Apr 25, 2007 15:34:33 GMT -5
Alex peeked into the library excitedly, and slightly out of breath. She had run down the halls of Hogwarts from her twin sister, Alyson, simply for amusement. Aly was a stick in the mud, in her opinion. Everything was so amazing and awe-inspiring at a school for magic. Ghosts were flying around everywhere, funny-looking Professors looked down at her sternly, and there was always magic going on. Usually, she would find someone levitating their books or practicing charms in the hallways, and Alex would always stare in wonder.
But the library was a place she hadn't yet explored. She couldn't remember anything about libraries. Maria always said that Alex would someday remember everything, but for now, Alex was just enjoying remaking all of her memories. The library smelled stiff with dust and old book scent. She recognized the smell a little, and that always excited her, but no memories came rushing back, so she stepped inside. Bookshelves filled the room, and she went to pick one up, but instead looked over at a boy who was sitting and reading. He looked rather bored, so Alex walked over to introduce herself.
"Hello?" Alexis interrupted softly, not wanting to be rude. The Healers had taught her lots of things about manners in St. Mungo's, and she still wanted to make them proud. "Um, hi. I couldn't hope but notice you sitting here reading, and it looked rather boring! And I wasn't doing anything important, so I guessed that I would come and introduce myself! I'm Alex." She held out her hand kind of awkwardly, because she didn't know whether he'd shake it or not.
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Post by alysonmelissa on Apr 25, 2007 15:48:58 GMT -5
"ALEXIS!" Aly shouted up the stairs, sprinting to try and catch up with her twin. Straight, golden hair flying through the air, she came to a halt at the door of the library. "Alexis!" She whispered loudly, not wanting to interrupt those reading. "Where are you?"
The color drained from her face when she saw where her practically mental sibling was. She almost bolted. Aly still wasn't used to living with witches and wizards, and the sight of her sister socializing with them was enough to send her into a frenzy. Biting her lower lip, she reached over and touched Alexis's shoulder. "Alex, let's go . . . now." She said pointedly, hoping her sister got the point.
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Post by nico on Apr 25, 2007 19:26:29 GMT -5
“Well, what a pleasure to meet you, Alex darling” he shook her hand warmly as he set his book in his lap. “I’m Nicodemus Grey, but you can call me Nico, all my friends do” he grinned at her sweetly. His mind was working as he tried to remember where he had heard the name ‘Alex’ before. He almost had it when he decided he should put the girl’s rather jumpy warder at ease. “Don’t worry, doll, I’m a good guy. I don’t bite… well, I do but I’ve had all my inoculations” he chuckled softly “Seriously though, you needn’t worry… I’m sorry, I didn’t catch your name?” he asked grinning up at her.
He liked to think he got along with everyone. The idea of someone being afraid of him was extremely disagreeable; it went against everything he wanted to be. After all, he was hero-boy. He was the one that had saved Aslin from herself, he was the one that protected Sprightly, and he was the one that had promised to be there for Maria and her sisters. Like it or not these girls were going to like him… which didn’t actually make sense but he wasn’t overly concerned with that minor glitch in his otherwise fine mission statement.
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Post by alexishannah on Apr 25, 2007 20:51:20 GMT -5
Alex grinned childishly, but then again, she didn't know how else to smile. "It's a pleasure to meet you, too, Nico." She mimicked. Then she heard the familiar nagging voice of her twin sister. Turning her head quickly, she squinted, thoroughly annoyed. "Awww . . . come on. We shouldn't have to go so soon."
Sitting in the chair next to Nico, she introduced her rather terrified looking sister. "This is Alyson, or Aly for short. Sorry. She's a little bit too stern. I don't know what's got her so scared of people around here. Aly didn't act so scared when we visited her-- I mean, our house." Smiling, she recalled all of the friendly faces at her home. "Sorry about that. Me and Aly are sisters, and I only got to my house for the first time this summer."
She realized she was kicking the legs of her own chair and quickly stomped her feet on the ground to stop them. The Healers had told her it was a childish habit, as had Maria on many occassions, though Alex had caught Maria doing it several times as well. "So, what's it like living here? I mean, I've only been here for a bit, and I guess you've been here before, 'cause you knew where the library was . . ." She drifted off a bit, and looked at the cover of one of the books. It was dust coated and reminded her of the one in the . . . Where? Something said, and Alex forgot about the book and where she had seen one like it.
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Post by alysonmelissa on Apr 25, 2007 20:57:59 GMT -5
He spoke to her quite smoothly, but it only made Alyson more nervous. She didn't know much about these people, but there wasn't much she could do. Her sister had already been pulled in by the boy-- Nicodemus, he had called himself-- and Aly didn't see how she could convince Alex to leave. "Yeah, I'm Aly." She said softly, and sat down next to Alex, still rather nervous. Her eyes quickly darted to the exit, just to make sure there was a way out in case of an emergency. Then, she relaxed her shoulders just a little.
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Post by nico on Apr 25, 2007 22:48:17 GMT -5
“Wait a minute” he snapped his fingers “Alex and Aly, you’re Maria’s sisters! I’ve been wanting to meet you two, I’m a good friend of your sister. Now that I know who you are the family resemblance is right there” he grinned again, but noted Aly’s discomfort. “You know, Aly, you really don’t need to be afraid. I’m a nice person, most people here are. Oh, but if you meet a girl named Sprightly you might want to sort of stay out of her way. She’s mostly harmless if you don’t make her angry but… she’s out of her head. Ever since she lost her father God only knows what would make her angry” he decided to give them fair warning. Sprightly was a good friend of his but lately she had been prone to fits of rage and the last thing he wanted to for jumpy Aly to make a wrong move. Sprightly could give anyone a bad impression of the wizarding world.
He cleared his throat and turned to happier things “As far as living here, it’s amazing. There’s an awful lot of castle to explore, the stairs can be kind of tricky the way they move and sometimes they lead to different places on different days of the week. I’ve never been in a place so completely saturated in magic and I’m a pureblood. The grounds are beautiful, excepting the forest which is a black death scar on the landscape. Stay away from the forest. Oh, and the Quidditch Pitch, I need to get you girls up on brooms. Flying, I know you’ll love it” he was lying through his teeth. He hated the stairs playing tricks on him, especially the one that always caught his foot and flying was simply not his thing. Still he sounded happy and honest, which was important. He was, after all, trying to sell Hogwarts as a great place.
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Post by alexishannah on Apr 28, 2007 11:01:55 GMT -5
Alex grinned. "Yep. Maria's our big sister. She's so excited to be here! I've heard tons of things about Hogwarts from her, but it was just so hard to imagine when it was just put into words."
She saw Aly shifting nervously beside her and rolled her eyes. Alex knew she ought to feel sorry for her, but didn't see what there was to be frightened over. Sure, they had been attacked by wizards, but nobody at this school had pulled out a wand on her yet, so she wouldn't worry. "Sprightly?" Alex asked, or maybe stated, in curiosity. "Oh, I know how she feels. We lost our father last year, too. 'Course, Maria probably already told you that."
"Ah, exploring!" Alex's grin grew even larger. "That's pretty much what I've been doing all morning. I just happened to stumble upon the library. I don't recall-" Alex thought back. "I don't recall ever being in a place as big as Hogwarts. It certainly is enormous!"
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Post by alysonmelissa on Apr 28, 2007 14:53:30 GMT -5
Aly still seemed a little uncertain, but decided that he couldn't be all that bad. After all, Alyson recalled Maria talking about Nico, now that she thought about it. His warning about a girl named Sprightly was something Aly would keep in mind, though. "No, Alex." Aly said softly, trying to warm her tone a bit. "You haven't been anywhere as big as Hogwarts before. I never have either. It seems . . . well, is it just me, or does it seem bigger on the inside than it does outside?"
Aly stopped. "Other than the stairs, I haven't really seen any magic yet. Is it very, um . . . dangerous?"
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Post by nico on Apr 29, 2007 11:05:33 GMT -5
“Dangerous… well yes. I’m a lot of things, but a liar isn’t one of them. I suck at it anyway. Magic is dangerous but everything is. Magic can't be by its nature anything, it's a tool and no tool is good or evil. It's just something to be used, how it's used is what makes it good or bad. Like a hammer, you can use a hammer to aid in building a house and that’s good, or you can use a hammer to break someone’s fingers to splinters and that’s bad. There’s nothing inherently bad about magic, dangerous sure, but not bad” he smiled softly. “Hey, let me show you something, a friend of mine taught it to me” he took out his wand and looked warily around for the librarian “Mariposas” he intoned quietly. Small bluish butterflies shot from his wand tip and fluttered aimlessly around the room. “Not a thing dangerous about that” he said proudly
He was careful to skirt the issue of the castle being bigger on the inside than the outside. Ever since had had gotten hold of some physics and theory books he knew he would preach for hours about ‘wizard space’ and tesseracts and other violently boring things. He was supposed to show the girls the exciting elements of the wizarding world, leave the teachers to show them the boring bits.
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Post by alysonmelissa on Apr 29, 2007 14:09:39 GMT -5
Aly listened to what he had to say. He seemed to forget about the castle, but most likely she was right, and magic caused the castle to be larger on the inside. It was interesting, of course, to learn that the magic itself was only considered a tool. Still, though, she flinched obviously as the boy pulled out his wand. She couldn't help it, even though she was beginning to trust this boy a little more.
Mariposas. The word sounded so poetic. A little gasp escaped as butterflies began to fly across the room, seemingly appearing from the wand. Alyson blinked as one fluttered nearby. She wanted to touch it, just to be sure that it was real, but didn't, for fear of hurting the fragile creature. Aly realized she was gaping and quickly shut her mouth with a snap. Despite her own fears, she wished she had her wand with her, just to see what she could try to do with it.
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Post by nico on Apr 29, 2007 19:15:12 GMT -5
A smile lit up his face "You like it!" he exclaimed happily "I thought you would. If you'd like I can show you how to do it later, there's a complicated little flourish you have to do with your wandtip but once you get the movement down it's fairly simple. If you concentrate hard enough I'm led to believe you can make them any color you want, even multiple colors. I haven't been able to do that yet but I've seen it done" he explained with a grin, his grain faded as he remembered what Maria had told him about her sister.
It was all flooding back to him now, though his own tragedies had pushed those of the Farmer's from his mind the things Maria had told him were coming back. Aly had experienced an unforgivable curse, she hadn't spoken for... he didn't know how long. Alex had apparently lost her memory and as she had reminded him, they had lost their father. No wonder Aly was so jumpy, no wonder she had flinched at the sight of his wand.
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Post by alexishannah on May 2, 2007 19:51:49 GMT -5
Alex watched in wonderment at the beautiful sight before her. She recognized these. These were butterflies. Unable to remember where she had seen them before, she simply smiled warmly and turned for Alyson's reaction of utter horror. It didn't come though. Her sister actually seemed in awe of the sight.
Then she saw Nico's face. It was one she recognized all too well. "No." She muttered, shaking her head a bit. Alex recalled the looks on the Healers' faces, as well as those from her sisters, mother, and brother. They were all the same. Pity, worry, and maybe a frightened note. It was always that way, and Alex wanted to cry. She knew she couldn't remember anything, and she knew it was a serious problem, but that face ruined it everytime. "I-" Her eyes stung a bit, and one of the butterflies fluttered onto her shoulder. Suddenly she stopped. Why was she crying?
Alexis blinked the tears away and leapt from her seat, walking briskly down the aisles of books. She didn't know how to look for one in particular, though, so she merely looked at all of the covers. Even reading was hard for her. It just wasn't easy to remember. Angry, she whipped a book off of the shelf and jammed her face into it, not comprehending the words, but also not appreciating the pity-filled looks everyone gave her.
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Post by nico on May 3, 2007 12:52:43 GMT -5
If there was a single thing Nico was good at dealing with it was girls, particularly ones that were upset to the point of hysteria. While Alex was pretty far away from that point he had a pretty decent idea of how to cheer her up. Maria he had hugged and consoled, she’d needed to grieve. Aslin he had yelled at and pushed around, she’d needed a reality check. Sprightly… he had gotten the worst of the blood and dirt off of her and hidden the evidence, maybe he hadn’t dealt with that perfectly. What Alex needed, he was fairly certain, was for Nico to act happier.
“Hey, kid, you were the one that said reading these books looked boring. I’m about one hundred percent sure you were right on that” he pushed the book away from her face and grinned down at her. “Let’s do something else, do you know how to dance? If you don’t I could show you. After all, what are libraries for if not dancing? Uhh, don’t actually answer that, I wasn’t thinking of libraries” he offered a hand down to her. With any luck the sheer absurdity of the situation, coupled with his charming eccentricities, would at least bring a smile to her face. If it didn’t then, by God, he would find something that did.
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Post by alexishannah on May 5, 2007 20:35:16 GMT -5
Alexis looked up angrily, but saw the grin on his face. Anger was not something she held onto easily, she realized very quickly. He mentioned dancing, and Nico really looked like he wanted to make her cheerful again. So, she took his hand and let him pull her up to her feet. "No. I don't know how to dance." She said, smiling a little bit, but laughing at the library comment, though she didn't know enough about libraries to determine whether or not people were aloud to dance in them.
"Well, wait!" Alex said, pausing a bit. "I did see a little dancing once. Just recently. I think it went a little something like this . . ." Alexis twirled around a bit, and did a little curtsy. She had seen it somewhere, but it seemed to fit with the word 'dancing'. Pulling herself back up, she blushed. "Was that anything like dancing?"
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