01 [Friday at Hogwarts! Week 2!] 01 [September 16, 2016.] 01 [After dinner and some time in the common room with his housemates, Vesper makes his way down the slightly twisty path he typically takes to get to one of his favorite rooms. Maybe he expects to find someone there. Maybe not. Regardless, it's quite clear some sort of presence *is* in the room, as when he approaches the closed door, he can hear a cello from the other side: the same few measures, increasingly faster. Is it magic? Or something far more mundane?] 01 [Start!] 06* Vesper pauses outside the door, listening through a few repetitions. He's surprised at first, then almost wistful, outside where no one can see him. Then he adjusts his school bag over his shoulder and taps on the door. Apparently that was mostly to give notice, though, because he opens it without waiting for a response from inside. He pokes his head around the frame with a curious expression. 06* Eliana has stopped and is looking up at the door. She's sitting on the edge of one of the less plush chairs and was clearly just playing the cello. A stand with sheet music blocks some of Vesper's view, and Eliana's still in her school uniform - though the robe is in a pool on the floor. 06* Eliana's eyes light up when she realizes who she's staring at. "Vesper!" 06* Vesper smiles back at her, because really, who can't smile at a greeting like that? "Hello, Eliana. I'm sorry to interrupt. I didn't know you played the cello." 06* Vesper finishes coming inside, shutting the door behind him and setting his bag down in a chair. He doesn't sit down himself yet, though. 06* Eliana notices the bag and fidgets with her bow a little. "Yeah. Were you going to work on stuff? I can pack this up and move to another empty room." 06* Vesper shakes his head and puts up his hands in a gesture of denial. "Oh, no, don't worry about it. I was actually half-hoping you'd be here, anyway." He sits down now, in a chair where he can actually see Eliana around her music stand. 06* Eliana 's attention follows Vesper to where he sits. "Really?" she asks, her voice slightly incredulous. 06* Vesper nods and smiles at her. "Really. I wanted to ask you about something." 01 Okay. 06* Eliana leans forward to hang her bow on the stand, then pulls her cello back into a more relaxed position - leaning on her so she doesn't need to hold it up. 06* Vesper 's brow knits as he thinks. "Your uncle, the one who's been helping you with your school stuff - you said he knows about magic, right? And his name is DiSano?" 06* Eliana nods. "Yeah, Nerius DiSano." 01 He wasn't born with any magic, but his family was magic, and that's why he knows about stuff like this. He doesn't talk about them very much. 06* Vesper nods, still thinking. "That makes sense. I was just thinking - DiSano's the name of an old magic family. Mostly Slytherins. I thought maybe he was related to them." There's a DiSano in Slytherin now, actually. She's just a little older than you - her name's Violetta. 06* Eliana blinks. "Really? That'd make her my cousin. Is she nice?" I don't know, I don't know her that well. 06* Vesper smiles at Eliana. "But I thought you'd like to know you might have family in Hogwarts." 01 Yeah! Maybe I'll talk to her sometime. Um, as soon as I find out what she looks like. But we all share the same common room, so it can't be that hard. 06* Eliana picks her bow back up and starts loosening it. "I bet she's smart. Uncle Nerius is really smart." 06* Vesper nods. "I'll try to point her out to you sometime. She's in second year, has blond hair." 06* Eliana nods and rambles a bit: "I wonder if she has a pet. Uncle Nerius told me I *had* to have a pet when I came to Hogwarts. He said almost all of the kids have one, and Gwen and Portia and Luke all have pets." She turns her attention to Vesper suddenly. "Do you have a pet?" 06* Vesper shakes his head. "No, I don't." He doesn't offer an explanation. Not everyone does, though lots of people do. 01 Well, yeah. I don't think I *needed* one. I mean, I never had a pet before. But Uncle Nerius got Wort for me as a present when we found out I had magic, and- I'm glad he did, anyway. 06* Vesper smiles. "Yeah, it can be nice. Or so I hear, anyway." He grins at her. 06* Eliana looks down at her hands briefly. "Yeah," she says softly, then she looks back up at Vesper as something else occurs to her. "Does this mean you use the school owls? Or do you have a family owl? Your family's magic, right?" 06* Vesper's face tightens very briefly at the mention of his family, but then the expression is gone. "I use the school owls. My family is magic, and they have an owl, but it stays at home so the rest of my family can use it." 06* Eliana nods, then pushes another question forward: "Do you not like them?" 06* Vesper pauses for longer this time, thoughts obviously turning behind his eyes. Eventually he sighs. "It's...sort of complicated. The short answer is, we don't agree about a lot of things." 06* Eliana nods. "Yeah," she says, resting her chin where her cello's body meets the neck. "I don't agree with my family about a lot of things, too." 06* Vesper looks at Eliana briefly, but he *doesn't* ask. Instead he offers with a smile, "Maybe you'll get along better with Violetta." Speaking of which... I'll point her out to you, if you're a little less difficult to find. 06* Vesper gives Eliana a faint, wry smile, and then turns serious. "I know you're making yourself scarce because everyone else is avoiding talking to you, but things'll be a lot better in the long run if you try to mend some bridges, at least in your own house." 06* Eliana straightens from her slouching. "But I'm not hard to find," she says, a little confused. 01 Besides, I don't have any bridges to mend in Slytherin. 06* Vesper raises his eyebrows. "Because you never had any to begin with?" 01 I have one with you! But yeah. 06* Eliana reaches up to tug at her hair a little. "You can't really destroy something that isn't there in the first place." 06* Vesper folds his hands together and leans forward, elbows resting on his knees, as he considers his words. He says carefully, "Most of the time people start out with a neutral relationship, don't think anything much about one another either way. Sometimes that changes quickly, sometimes not. But you *can* get worse from a neutral relationship." 06* Eliana frowns. "Most people aren't me." She reaches for her case and starts putting the cello away. 06* Vesper considers that. "Do you mean that you think badly about most people before you've even talked to them? Because I can tell you most people don't think badly about *you* then." 01 How do you know? Everywhere I've ever gone, most of them do. And *yes*, I know that I'm only eleven and I have my whole life ahead of me and maybe things will magically change. But I haven't seen a spell that does that yet, and if I find one, I don't think I want to use it. 06* Vesper snorts. "That's not what I was going to say." 06* Eliana mutters, "That's what everyone else says," while she clasps her case closed. She reaches forward and picks up the sheet music, setting it to one side before she starts collapsing the stand. Yeah, you don't get along with a lot of people - because you're prickly and blunt and so a lot of people sheer off before they really get to know you. But that isn't *inevitable*. You're friends with Luke - I saw you sitting over at the Hufflepuff table yesterday, and it didn't look like he was the only one talking to you, either. And having even just one or two people you're friendly with can go a long way towards making things better. You've got me, but what I can do for you with your peers is limited, because most of them don't know me. 06* Eliana rolls her eyes. "Barry and Indra are scared of me. Zan just likes arguing." 01 You don't have to do anything for me. I'm used to not having friends. I'm not saying I *have* to. I'm saying I want to, because I like you. 01 I- oh. 06* Eliana stops right in her tracks at that, collapsed stand sliding into its own little bag, and she looks at Vesper for a moment. "Because I'm smart, right?" 06* Vesper smiles at her. "Among other things. I'm sorry, I'm not trying to lecture you. I really am just trying to help." 01 It's okay. 06* Eliana pulls the drawstring on the bag, then sets it on her knees and takes a deep breath. She looks at Vesper. "Okay. So... people don't have to dislike me." 06* Vesper nods and rests his chin on his hands. "Honestly...some people still will. But that's *always* true, for everyone. Your friend Luke's older brother Matthew *really* doesn't like me, and I haven't got a clue why. But not everyone will. You're really honest, and some people won't like that, but when you really like someone, it shows." 06* Eliana nods, and she wrinkles her nose. "I don't think Matthew likes me, either," she admits. 01 Maybe he just doesn't like Slytherins. And- okay, so people know I like them when I like them. How does that help? Try paying attention to your classmates, see if there's someone you think you could like and maybe be friends with. I know you don't like your roommates, but maybe one of the boys in your year. 06* Vesper pauses. "You probably don't like approaching people, but maybe we can deal with that whenever you find someone you'd want to approach." 06* Eliana nods, relaxing a little more. "Okay." Pause. "I can try." 06* Vesper spreads his hands. "I don't guarantee success. But...nothing ventured, nothing gained, as they say." He smiles a bit at Eliana. 01 Yeah. I guess it can't hurt much. But... if I try, and it all gets messed up, you *have* to help me deal with it. And not be too obvious about it, okay? 06* Vesper nods firmly. "Absolutely." He grins. "I *am* good at being subtle, when I want to be." 06* Eliana fidgets with the collapsed stand. "I know. Way better than me." 06* Vesper smiles at her. "I can help you with that, too, if you like." Or not, if you don't. 06* Eliana blinks at the options. "I, um." Pause. "I don't know?" 01 I guess it couldn't hurt to know how. 06* Vesper manages not to chuckle, but the crinkles around his eyes deepen. "Probably not. That's the sort of thing that's easier to learn by observation than someone just telling you, though. You could watch me in the common room and talk to me about it later, I guess." 06* Vesper 's expression turns wry. "Though I feel a bit silly saying you should watch me." 06* Eliana blinks. "Why? I listen to you all the time." 06* Vesper shrugs. "It just seems egotistical." But it's true that it's a good way for you to learn, if you want to, because I'll explain things to you afterwards if you ask. 06* Eliana snorts a little at the egotistical remark, and that's the only warning before she bursts into laughter, right over Vesper's own words. 06* Vesper blinks at this, and then he just sits there watching her, bemused, until she finishes laughing. 06* Eliana gets a look at Vesper's face and she claps her hands over her mouth, which just results in her laughing some more. 06* Vesper waits patiently until the laughing fit is over, though his bemused expression deepens. 06* Eliana calms down, mostly, then takes another look at Vesper's face and falls into a series of giggles. She manages to suppress those in (relatively) short order, though. 06* Vesper smiles at Eliana. "I say something funny?" 01 Y- yes. 06* Eliana giggles again and stops herself. "Um, you said it just seems egotistical." 06* Vesper blinks. "Why's that funny?" 01 Because it's not egotistical! Not really. It would be egotistical for *me* to say that you should watch me, but you saying that I should watch you when it comes to this stuff makes a lot of sense. And you're Head Boy, anyway, and have a lot of friends. You're obviously doing something right that I'm not doing. Or maybe people just like you more, but there's a reason for that, too. That's true. But most of the time I don't say that quite so bluntly. People don't usually take well to it. 01 Then they're dumb. 06* Vesper laughs. "Maybe, but that doesn't change the fact." 06* Eliana nods, and her expression becomes thoughtful. 06* Vesper tilts his head and gives Eliana an inquiring look. 06* Eliana gazes past Vesper for a while before she realizes that he's looking at her. "Just thinking," she says. "You said that them being dumb doesn't change that people wouldn't take well to what you said, even though it's probably the truth." 06* Vesper nods and waits. 01 That's one of our primary differences. You care about what people think and how they react to what you say, even if they're stupid or wrong about it. I... care, too, but I think I care a lot less. If I cared more, maybe it'd be easier for me to make friends. 06* Vesper nods. "Maybe. It's not always that I really care what people like, say, Evangeline, think of me. It's also that I recognize that my life gets more difficult if I alienate most of the people around me. It's cause and effect." Of course, it depends a bit what you want out of life. If you want to be a politician, say, you need people to like you. If you want to be a farmer or something, it's less important. 06* Eliana is still wearing that thoughtful expression, though she's not zoning out over it. "Yeah, that makes sense. But putting that extra effort in for people I *don't like* would be really hard, too. I don't know if that'd actually make my life easier. It might just be a lot harder internally. I mean, I don't think I can be friends with Giulia and Portia and Gwen, even if I really worked at it." Pause, and she looks at Vesper. "Do you want to be a politician? Do wizards have politicians?" 06* Vesper nods. "Wizards have politicians, and...I haven't decided yet. I'm planning to apply to work in the Department of Mysteries, but I don't think I'll stay there permanently. And yes, making yourself be friends with people you really don't like is often more trouble than it's worth. You'll notice that I don't ever talk to Evangeline any longer than I have to to be polite. But you can maintain minimal decent relations even with people you don't like - make sure they respect you, at least." 01 Huh. I think you'd be a really good politician. But you'd better run on a really good platform or I won't vote for you. 06* Eliana is totally, adorably serious when she says that. 06* Vesper grins at her. "Well, if I ever do become a politician, I will consult you." 06* Eliana brightens at that. "Good! Then if we agree, I'll totally vote for you!" 01 What's the Department of Mysteries? It's one of the departments of the Ministry of Magic - the government for magical Britain. Their job is basically to try to learn about all kinds of things wizards still don't completely understand - time, death, prophecy, that kind of thing. 06* Eliana's eyes widen. "Really? Wow. And you want to work there?" 06* Vesper nods and smiles, eyes glinting. "Yes. I imagine you could discover all kinds of things there." 01 The research sounds awesome. What do you have to do to get in? Do you know what methods they're using? Maybe you could get a head start! 06* Vesper shakes his head. "They're called Mysteries for a reason. No one's allowed to talk about their work there to anyone outside the department. It's dangerous, some of the stuff they research. And basically, you have to make the highest score possible on a certain number out of a list of NEWT tests." 01 Newts, like the animal? Sort of, it's spelled the same. They're the tests you take your seventh year in Hogwarts, to show what you've learned in different classes. Usually there's a written part and a practical demonstration part. 06* Eliana nods. Tests - that makes sense to her. 01 Sounds like it's really hard to get a job in the Department of Mysteries, then. 06* Vesper nods. "Yep. My friend Seamus could do it hands down, I bet, but he doesn't want to. I'm not sure if I'll make it or not." 01 Seamus... he studies with you a lot in the common room. And he's your roommate, right? He's really smart, but I don't think he's smarter than you are. We're smart in different ways. He's better at classes than I am. I'm better with people. I'm good in classes, and he's good with people too, but he's *really* good at classes. And I'm really good with people. 06* Vesper grins. 06* Eliana nods. "And I'm not good at either of them." Brief pause. "Yet, maybe." 06* Vesper smiles at her. "Yet. Good way to think. And that's assuming you aren't good in class yet - Professor Slughorn told me you made the best Boil Cure potion in your class your very first day." 06* Eliana blushes slightly and looks down to fidget with her tie. "That's because his class doesn't need a wand, a whole lot. At least right now. Making potions so far is just measurement and timing and paying attention... it's not *that* hard." 06* Vesper snorts. "You're underestimating how hard paying attention is for some people. Actually, you've probably seen that in your potions class - people who do badly at it because they don't pay proper attention. Believe me, being able to really pay attention is a rare and useful trait." 01 Yeah, I know. It just doesn't seem that special to me. 06* Vesper smiles a bit at her. "I know. But don't sell yourself short. If nothing else, you value my opinion, right? *I* think you're worth my time, and I have no interest in mediocrity." 06* Eliana nods, and she sits a little straighter. "I know," she repeats. Brief pause, then, "Do you know if the Department of Mysteries is working on anything that has to do with genetics?" Never mind that he'd JUST SAID that Mysteries are a mystery. 06* Vesper blinks. "I don't know what genetics are." 06* Eliana tries to not look too disappointed. "Okay. I guess it's one of those non-magical things. Professor Sykes didn't know, either. He said I should ask his brother, but I figured I'd ask you first." 06* Vesper nods, though he's not happy he's disappointed Eliana. "Always worth asking. But yeah, if it's a muggle thing, Bill Sykes would be the person to ask." 01 Did you take his class? Is it any good? His brother said that it's not a sciences class, but... 06* Vesper shakes his head. "I didn't, no. There were too many other things I wanted to take." I heard other students say he's a fun teacher, but I don't know much more than that. 06* Eliana frowns a little, though not at Vesper, then she brightens. "I'll just ask. It's a while until I can actually take the class anyway." 06* Vesper nods. "He might not know if they study it in Mysteries, specifically - like I said, nobody knows much of anything about what they do - but he might be able to tell you if other wizards study it." 01 Yeah! Because I think it's pretty likely whether someone's magic or not is genetic, or at least a predisposition to it, because everything about a person is genetic, *really*, or at least that's what I read online after I looked some stuff after we did this thing in science class about what color eyes your kids would have! 06* Vesper blinks. "Interesting. You'll have to tell me more about it sometime. Right now, though?" He looks over at his school bag. "I really need to get some work done." 01 Yeah? 06* Eliana looks at the bag, too, and then realization dawns. "Oh! I'm sorry!" She stands and starts getting her things together. It's all right. Like I said, I wanted to talk to you, too. And you can stay if you want to keep practicing, I actually like it. I just can't usually get much work done in the common room because of all the people. 06* Eliana looks like she's about to leave, then Vesper says that, and she looks at him. "Really? I, uh..." She fumbles for words, then manages, "I'm not that great yet, and practicing's *really* not a performance..." 01 And you study in the common room a lot. I thought you got stuff done there all the time. 06* Vesper smiles. "It's okay. You don't have to stay if you don't want to, I'm just saying it doesn't bother me. And yeah, but I don't work as fast there. Sometimes it helps to have other people to talk stuff over with, but some stuff it's easier if I can just concentrate on my own." 06* Eliana nods. "That makes sense." 01 Okay. 06* Eliana settles back on the chair and starts unpacking all of the stuff she recently packed up. "Just let me know if I'm distracting, okay? I can leave. I don't mind." 06* Vesper nods and reaches for his bag, giving Eliana a smile over his shoulder. "All right. It should be okay, though." 06* Vesper pulls out a couple of books and a half-filled scroll along with ink and quill and settles himself in to get some serious work done. Concentration lines are already forming on his brow. 06* Eliana smiles back, just a little shyly, and starts setting back up. Three octave harmonic scales soon fill the room. 01 [End!]