A Horse with No Name (Lysander)

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Alice and the Scamanders had been in the States for a few days now and they had yet to really see much. Granted, they had just finished traveling and had just arrived at their campsite. It was a nice flat area at the top of a small hill that overlooked vast, endless plains. Alice believed them to be somewhere toward the western part of the country. It was early morning and Alice was the first awake. The sun was bright and it wasn't too hot out yet for Alice to put on a light flannel over her shirt as she crawled out of her tent. There were three on the campsite; one for Alice, one for Lorcan and Lysander, and one for Luna and Mr. Scamander. There was a firepit that they had built in the middle of the site and absolutely no trees surrounding them.

As Alice looked around, she figured it had to be about eight in the morning. She stretched her arms up above her head and then stepped back briefly into her tent to grab her journal in which she had been storing her independent creature studies. She was hoping that they would be lucky enough to see a unicorn while in the plains. Alice wasn't one to go off without the group but the excitement of the trip ahead of them was just too much for her to fall back asleep. So, the Hufflepuff alumni walked to the hill's edge and sat herself down to overlook the plains. As she did, she thought she wouldn't mind if she had to wait there a while for everyone to wake up. The view was breathtaking.

@lysander

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Lysander was always woken up in the morning by Lorcan’s breathing. It was scarlet, like his voice, and a surprisingly effective alarm clock. When Lysander was just at the edge of waking, the scarlet starbursts that popped through the air were like stabs of caffeine. It wasn’t exactly a pleasant way to wake up, but it was interesting, to say the least, especially because Lorcan never realized what he was doing. When Sander wormed his way out of his tent, he blinked away the early morning light and rolled out the tense muscles in his neck and shoulders. The flap of Alice’s tent was still stirring; she obviously had awoken not much earlier than he had. Finding Alice wasn’t that hard for Sander. All of the American sounds continued to be foreign and jarring, but Alice was just as sure and steady as she always had been. She was silver, and Sander always saw her.

He followed the sound of silver to the hill’s edge, his footsteps soft and light as he approached Alice. “Good morning.” Lysander greeted, voice as quiet as his feet. He stood behind Alice, not sure he wanted to sit on the grass. The view off the hillside was breathtaking no matter what angle you saw it from.

@alice

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Alice sat upon the hillside, watching as the sun slowly found it's way up to the sky. It had to be, Alice figured, almost eight in the morning so she assumed everyone would be awake soon. Though the trek had been such a long one, she didn't want to wake anyone up. She would leave that to Luna when she awoke. As Alice waited upon the hillside, overlooking the vast plains, there was a slight morning breeze that ruffled her hairs and caused them to dance around her face. This annoyed Alice a bit, as it obstructed her view. With a little huff, Alice reached into her jean pocket and pulled out a scrunchie to tie up her thick, blonde hair in a ponytail. Her hair, she noticed, was growing more and more cumbersome since she had graduated. She had thought about cutting it all off once or twice since then...

The sound of Lysander's voice would have surprised her had it been any louder, but the good thing about Lysander was that he seemed just as quiet as Alice preferred to be and his greeting was just as quiet, leaving Alice to just simply turn and look up at him as he stood behind her. She squinted up at him, the sun growing brighter. "Good morning," she replied. She turned back to look at the plains and was going to leave it at that, but then remembered how... easy it was to talk to Lysander. And she just couldn't stop her next words. "Are you an early riser as well?"

@lysander

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Lysander realized that standing probably wasn’t the most optimal position for holding a conversation when he saw how much Alice had to squint in order to see him – the sun was at his back. It was silly for him to have forgotten that, but vacation was making his mind slower than usual. He’d need to play a game of chess or something to get it back to functioning correctly. Lysander sat down in the grass beside Alice, leaving a polite amount of space between the two of them so they wouldn’t have to explain to Sander’s overenthusiastic mother that they were not, in fact, a couple. “Yes, I am.” Lysander replied to Alice’s question. “Synesthesia makes it difficult to sleep in, because as soon as I’m somewhat awake, I see a lot of colors. The color of Lorcan’s breathing is not conducive to sleep.”

The Ravenclaw paused, chewing on his lip for a half a second before he decided to make the leap of faith and talk about the sort of things friends talked about. “I’ve been waiting for an owl from home, and I’m afraid that my impatience to see the reply is also not conducive to sleep.” It was silly how much he cared about RJ’s reply, but that was the sort of things that friends were allowed to talk about, right? He really should have thought more on what this friendship thing entailed before running willy-nilly into so many of them.

@alice

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Unlike many others, Alice didn't move away or coil in disgust when Lysander sat down beside her. There was the perfect amount of space between them and Alice appreciated that. Lysander really was a fun guy to have around. She couldn't help but smile lightly at Lysander's comment about his twin brother. "Somehow, that doesn't surprise me," she said with a small chuckle. There were times in the middle of the night where Alice felt that even she could hear Lorcan's snoring from her own tent.

Alice continued to look out over the plains, the sun rising higher, until Lysander spoke up again. He mentioned he was awaiting an owl from home. Alice wasn't a big people person, but she had always been close enough with some people to know when they wanted to talk about something and for some reason... she got a feeling that Lysander's bringing this up was something he wanted to talk about, even if he didn't know it. She looked at him a moment, her eyebrows furrowed until she finally raised one in question. "Oh yeah? From who?" She asked. She felt she and Lysander had really been making progress as friends and that they kind of had the license to discuss this sort of thing. After all, what were friends for?

@lysander

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Lysander flashed Alice a smile when she said she found it easy to believe that Lorcan’s breathing made it difficult to sleep. It was nice to have someone to commiserate about things, even if they were rather trivial. Like writing letters to RJ. Sander glanced towards Alice when she asked who he was receiving letters from, and then decided to take the plunge. They could be even better friends if he was willing to say what he wanted to say, and the Ravenclaw was interested in fostering the growth of their relationship. All he wanted was to let it grow.

“RJ Hagrid. He and I are…” Well, he had written je t’aime and while that was ambiguous…Ugh. Lysander wished he was better at reading in between the lines, because he thought there could be something with the Hufflepuff boy, but…“Well, we’re friends. I think? Either that, or we’re…I don’t know, what’s a word for more than friends?” He was really botching this whole opening up thing. “What about you, Alice? You’ve been receiving quite a few letters as well, haven’t you?” It was easier to ask Alice about her letters while he got all of his emotions back into order. Lysander wasn’t used to knowing not what he felt or thought about something, and RJ was making him question everything.

@alice

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Alice couldn't believe how much she had grown since the beginning of her seventh year. It used to be she wouldn't even talk to the Scamander boys, much less Lysander alone just based on his house, but now here she was having a conversation with someone she ended up having a lot in common with. It was nice to be able to talk to him like that. Lorcan, on the other hand, was still a different story. He was much too Gryffindor for her.

"RJ Hagrid/" As Lysander said that, Alice's eyebrows rose just slightly. She didn't mind at all that Lysander was awaiting an owl from another boy, no, that was nothing shocking. It was the fact that it was a certain boy. Alice sat there a moment, blinking at Lysander as he continued to speak until he turned the question around on her. It was funny... Lysander and Alice were so much alike and she had never realized it. From their mutual interest in animals right down to their mutual interest in Hagrids. After a short moment of silence, Alice couldn't help but let out a light laugh at the situation. "Yes," she said after another moment of laughing. "From Carcer Hagrid."

@lysander

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Well, this was certainly a plot twist. It also proved just how similar Alice and Lysander really were, something that made him feel kind of warm inside. He was happy to be anything like Alice Longbottom, especially since they hadn’t exactly gotten off on the right foot. The list of things that they had in common just got longer every day, though, including their love of half-giant boys with the last name of Hagrid. “Well.” Sander said, trying to think of something to say that wouldn’t make him sound like a total idiot. “That was not the answer I had expected.” He didn’t know what answer he had expected, in all truth, so he hoped that Alice didn’t ask. When searching for something else to say, Sander stared off into the distance. His heart leapt into his throat, and for once it had nothing to do with RJ.

Silently, Sander began punching Alice in the shoulder, gesticulating wildly towards the rapidly-approaching blur of white bodies on the horizon. He was having trouble thinking anything, saying anything, or doing anything other than flailing his arms in the most undignified manner possible. “Alice!” He finally managed to gasp out. “Unicorns!”

@alice

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Alice could not help but let out a small, light chuckle at Lysander's reaction to her saying she, too, was interesting in a Hagrid. Alice had never met someone she just clicked so well with and became fast friends. Lysander was honest, which was something Alice desperately needed in a friend. So often she felt spared by her friends because they wanted to protect her or themselves from Alice's sometimes quick to anger temper, but with Lysander... her temper hadn't really been an issue. Lysander was honest and blunt, like Alice, and she felt he never really hid his opinion from her. Not that she expected him to; he was a Ravenclaw after all, but there was just something different about him that Alice admired. It was nice to have a friend like him.

Alice must have been looking in the complete opposite direction Lysander had been looking in because when he started punching her in the shoulder, she whipped her head around to give him a scolding look that quickly disappeared when she saw the look on his face. Lysander begant to flail his arms and Alice raised her eyebrows and her eyes widened at the sight in front of her, confused as to why Lysander was making such a sign and then he finally found his words. Alice's head immediately looked out to the horizon and sure enough, there were unicorned approaching on the plains. Her heart felt like it skipped a thousand beats and she could feel butterflies in her stomach. Unicorns.

"Shhh," Alice finally managed to whisper, using her hands to gesture for Lysander to try to contain his excitement. Alice had been around a unicorn only once before and she knew they didn't take well to males. It was probably best Lysander was as still. Alice froze herself as well as she watched the unicorns stop as they began to graze out in the field at the bottom of the hill. Alice slowly turned her head to look at Lysander and an adventurous grin spread across her face. "You want to try to approach one?"

@lysander

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Sander knew that he should listen to Alice, but it was difficult for him to do. It was only because it was Alice, and not anyone else, that Lysander actually listened. He knew that she had seen unicorns before, with Carcer, so she had real-world expertise. Everything that he knew was from books. Even books said that unicorns were easily frightened, and that they didn’t like being approached by males. He should have known better. The Ravenclaw boy quickly stopped his flailing, drawing his limbs close to his chest and trying to breathe slower so his excitement wouldn’t accidentally get the best of him. When Alice asked if he wanted to approach one, Sander bit his lip to keep from shouting his answer at her. Of course he wanted to try to approach one! He settled instead for a vigorous nod, a grin splitting his face in two. He didn’t know what to do, and he figured that Alice should be the first one to go down the hill, anyways, since she was a girl, and he was a boy. Lysander didn’t know what he would do if the unicorns ran away from him, or rejected him. That would be heartbreaking.

@alice

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Seeing the grin that spread across Lysander's smile brought a big one to Alice's face as well. When she had first seen the unicorns at the beginning of last year, she could remember how happy and shocked and overcome with emotion she had been. She knew that for someone like Lysander, a person who loved animals just as much as she did, he would be feeling much the same way.

Slowly, Alice moved to stand up. She glanced back down at Lysander, motioning for him to be still for just a moment more. Unicorns, as she was sure that Lysander knew, weren't very fond of men right off the bat. She thought it best if she would approach the unicorns first to make them feel at more ease before letting Lysander approach them herself. She knew it was possible, otherwise Carcer wouldn't have been able to introduce her to them himself. Slowly, Alice made her way down the hill. Her heart was pounding... she was very nervous. She moved so slowly she was certain a tortoise probably could have beat her down the hill. As she got closer to the herd now grazing, she set her sights on one unicorn that was nearest her and away from the others by a few feet.

Alice could feel her heart pounding so hard. As she neared the unicorn, she knew she had to hide her nervousness as much as possible. The unicorn would likely be scared of her and run away if it sensed how nervous Alice was herself. She stopped for a moment, letting out a small, slow breath and suddenly the nervousness she had felt seemed to disappear in the presence of the unicorn. She got closer, reaching her hand out out toward the creature. A few more short steps and then the unicorn seemed to bow its head toward her, leaning its head into her hand. Slowly, Alice stroked the unicorn's head. The feeling she got from doing so was euphoric. The unicorn slowly seemed to warm up to Alice and that was when she knew she could call Lysander down. Lysander was calm and quiet, much like Alice. And Alice had a feeling that the unicorn would be able to tell that as well.

Very slowly, Alice turned her head to look at Lysander back on the hill. Her hand remained on its head but she slowly made one nod toward the unicorn at Lysander, motioning for him to come down.

@lysander

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People always talked about how it was agonizing for the world to move in slow motion, but personally, Lysander found it much more frustrating when he was aware of the fact that the whole world was moving around him at a regular speed, but he wasn’t allowed to join it. His breathing slowed as he tried not to move a single muscle, and the Ravenclaw entered a surprisingly meditative state as he watched his Hufflepuff friend creep closer and closer to the herd. It was hard to see from the distance he was at, but Lysander was fairly certain that Alice was trying even her own patience when it came to approaching the beasts, though one of them eventually seemed to accept her touch, and then her presence. In a brief moment of eye contact with his friend, followed by one slow nod, Lysander understood that it was now acceptable for him to try to approach the herd as well.

As much as he wanted to fling himself down the hill and start running at full-tilt towards the unicorns, Lysander knew that wasn’t doable. It wasn’t an advisable move even with a herd of normal horses, but unicorns were even more skittish. Luckily for him, Lysander loved unicorns enough that moving slowly for them, though excruciating, was worth the effort. In a minute, maybe more, he had slowly crept his way down the hillside, and found himself at Alice’s side. He was generally pretty good at reading animals, and Lysander had the feeling that the unicorn that Alice was touching probably wouldn’t appreciate having another human touch it at the same time. His hand hovered somewhere around his chest height, waiting for Alice to move, or, even better, for the unicorn to initiate contact. It was alright, Sander thought with another deep breath. He could wait forever for this.

@alice

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Alice kept her hand gently stroking the unicorn as she watched with a content grin Lysander walk down the hillside. She was very excited when she had seen the herd, but she could still remember fondly how excited she had been when she had first seen a unicorn mother and its baby with Carcer. That memory never left you. And Alice was glad that Lysander would have this memory forever.

After a moment Lysander finally joined them. Alice finished the last stroke she was giving the unicorn and slowly stepped aside so that there was nothing between Lysander and the unicorn. Alice just had a feeling that this unicorn was the one, the perfect one to introduce someone to. Especially a male. She smiled at Lysander as she saw him with his hand hovering in front of him. "Go on," she nodded once, slowly, to urge him to go ahead and touch the unicorn. It hadn't given Alice hardly any trouble at all, and she was certain it would do the same for Lysander.

@lysander

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There was nothing left standing between Lysander and the unicorn, and he felt like his entire life had been leading up to this moment, like he had been born just for this day to exist. He took a deep breath, and stepped forward, closing the distance between his body and the unicorn’s. He reached out his hand until it was resting against the unicorn’s snout. It was warm and velvety soft, and Lysander felt like something was unravelling inside of him. The unicorn didn’t pull away, but then again, Sander hadn’t really expected it to. That was his worst case scenario, but he had known that it probably wouldn’t come to pass. The Ravenclaw turned his head to look at his friend, and mouthed the only words that he could think to say at that moment: I love you. Really, it was impossible not to love the person who gave him such an amazing experience. He understood now why Alice loved Carcer.

Not wanting to push his luck, Lysander withdrew his hand from the unicorn’s snout, with the same careful patience that he had put it on. To his surprise, though, the beast didn’t resume its normal activities. In fact, it appeared to be…looking at Sander. He turned back to Alice, confused. This wasn’t supposed to happen.

@alice

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A smile slowly crept up on Alice's face as she watched Lysander touch the unicorn. In that moment, she knew exactly how he must be feeling. There was no better feeling than finally getting to accomplish that one thing you always wanted to, and when that thing was meeting a unicorn, the feeling was doubly uplifting. Alice's smile widened when she saw the look on Lysander's face. In that moment, she knew they would both never forget this day.

As Lysander removed his hand from the unicorn's snout, Alice continued to watch. It was odd when the unicorn, instead of walking away from them, stayed still. And if that weren't odd enough, it stood there staring at Lysander. Alice turned her head to Lysander and raised and eyebrow, though her eyes were on the unicorn. "This is... odd."

@lysander