Just One Yesterday (Oscar)

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Anna was excited. She finally got an owl from Oscar, telling her that he was ready to give her a history lesson. She wasn't sure exactly what to expect, but that didn't really matter to her. She realized lately that she mostly just enjoyed spending time with him. It didn't really matter what they did- whether it was a tour of the castle or making crepes- she was liking his company more and more. She felt comfortable around him and it was easy to be herself.

She walked through the castle quickly, making it to the third floor a little early. Alright, maybe more than a little early. She really just didn't have much that she wanted to do. Sure, she had plenty of homework that she should do, but she didn't really want to. So she took a book with her, in her small book bag. She'd rather study where she was supposed to meet him. That way, if he showed up early she could stop studying. 

Once she made it to their meeting place, she looked around but didn't see him. So she sat down on the floor and opened her book, trying to focus on Charms while she waited for him. The truth was, she was staring at the pages while her mind focused on other things. She couldn't stop herself from thinking about her previous meetings with Oscar, the crazy fact that they were now friends, and the tournament. She just wanted to know who the champions were already! She really couldn't focus on anything at the moment.

@oscar

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Oscar was oddly excited for the day. Normally, he didn't look forward to going into Hogwarts, since his English still wasn't anywhere near where he wanted it to be, and speaking in a foreign language all day was taxing on the brain. This wasn't a normal day, though, because Oscar was going to see Anna. He had spent countless hours poring over his history books and his French to English dictionary, and now he was finally able to give her a lesson about the history between England and France. He had a stack of parchment notes to refer to in case he forgot a word, but Oscar wasn't really anticipating needing them; Anna was pretty helpful when it came to helping him remember words he didn't know, and she didn't seem to mind if he was a little slow or if his grammar was a little sloppy.

Ozzy took the steps to the third floor two at a time, practically vibrating with energy while still trying to exude a cool, collected aura. When he reached the third floor, Oscar was dismayed to find that his pupil was already there. He hoped she hadn't been waiting for long. He hated to make her wait. "Anna!" Oscar greeted warmly. "It is a beautiful day, non? Are you ready to learn about the history of our two countries?" It wasn't exactly the most peaceful of histories, but Oscar hoped that Anna was actually excited about the lesson, instead of just pretending to be for his sake.

@annelise

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It was only a few minutes later when Anna heard his familiar voice saying her name. She closed her book with a smile, slipping it into her back before lifting herself off the floor so she was standing beside him. "Oscar, what a coincidence running into you here," she teased with a grin, fighting the sudden urge to give him a tight hug. That was ... strange. Well, not entirely. Anna really liked hugs and was always hugging her friends, but she wasn't sure how Oscar would feel about that and didn't want to make him feel uncomfortable. Not when he'd taken so much time preparing to teach her about French History. She was so excited 

She nodded, "It is an amazing day," she agreed easily. "And as long as you're ready, so am I. Where do you want to teach me?" Anna asked. She was perfectly content to sit down right where she was with him, or they could go somewhere else. It really was a nice day outside, maybe he would rather go out? 

@oscar

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Oscar smiled when Anna said it was a coincidence that they had run into each other. The third floor seemed to have some sort of magic about it, something that pulled the two of them together. Oscar couldn’t say he minded – he liked it when he got to see Anna, and he liked it even better when the two of them were alone, and he could be goofy instead of wearing the mask of seriousness he often played at.

“I am always ready.” Oscar proclaimed with a cocky smile. He often thought himself to be over prepared for things, only to find out that he was grossly underprepared – hence why he had taken so long to get ready to do this with Anna. He didn’t want to fall into his old vices. “Here is fine.” He said, nodding to the floor underneath them. Without waiting for a response, Oscar sat down with about as much grace a newborn giraffe – that was, no grace at all. He glanced down at his page of notes, and then nodded to himself. “I thought we should start from beginning.” He told her. “And the recorded beginning, for us, is Rome.” Wasn’t there a saying that all roads lead to Rome? Maybe all histories did, too. "France and England were both a part of the Roman Empire, so for five centuries, they had close economic relationships due to the fact they were under the same political entity." It was kind of hard not to trade with someone in close proximity to you, especially if you were both ruled by the same people. "So, from the beginning, we have been friends." Oscar said with a smile. The friendship was going to get a lot more messy as they went further into the history, but Oscar didn't want to harp on that too much until they got there.

@annelise

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"Well that's good," Anna teased. "I'll try not to ask too many questions," she added with a quick wink. She sat down right next to him, excited to be able to spend this time with him. She loved spending her time with Oscar, no matter what they were doing. The good thing for her right now was that she could spend time with him and learn about something that was important to him. She nodded when he started talking about Rome. That made sense. She smiled mischievously when he said that the two countries were friends from the beginning. "So that would be unlike you and me, right?" she teased with a smile. She knew it would get messy soon.

@oscar

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Oscar shook his head when Anna said that she would try not to ask any questions. “No, no.” He told her firmly. “If you do not understand, ask. And if we get off topic, that is fine. We have entire year to learn about history, and it is silly to think I can show one thousand years of time in just one lesson.” Besides, Oscar’s conversations with Anna seemed to get off topic no matter how hard they tried. They were always interesting conversations, even if they weren’t exactly what the two of them had started talking about in the first place.

“I do not know what you are talking about.” Oscar said, pretending to be ignorant about how rocky of a start the two of them had gotten off to. “Do not worry. France and England will start to argue soon.” He didn’t know why that sounded like an assurance, but it did. “Have you ever heard of…” Ozzy flipped through his notes to find the English name. “William the Conqueror?” In French, he was Guillame le Conquerant. Oscar thought that the French name sounded much nobler, but he was not one to judge. Oscar wasn’t the most noble of names itself. “He is the beginning of the arguments.” Well, if you could call an invasion an “argument”.

@annelise

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Anna smiled, "All right, then I'll ask questions as they come to me," she amended with a smile. He was right; it wasn't like they had to try and learn everything today. At least they could start and then the next time they met for this, they could pick up where they left off. 

Anna nudged him with her shoulder and rolled her eyes, "Yes you do," she teased, not about to let him get away with his pretense. Her head cocked to the side curiously. "Why are you making that sound like a good thing? England and France fighting," she added to make sure he knew what she was talking about. It was definitely an interesting way to say it. She shrugged, "The name sounds familiar ..." she trailed off. Obviously she didn't know as much about history as he did, but she had a feeling she was going to realize how much background knowledge she was missing pretty soon. Her eyebrows raised at him, "And here we go. Lead on," she teased with a smile. She was trying to focus on what he was teaching her, but it was hard to not change the subject and make little comments. 

@oscar

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Oscar had to pause and consider Anna’s question before answering. He hadn’t had a conscious reason for making fighting sound like a good thing, but the subconscious one was clear. “I make it sound like a good thing…Because fights are not always the end. Sometimes they’re the beginning.” Like for the two of them. It hadn’t exactly been that way for England and France – they were a lot more finicky than Oscar and Anna. Two countries were a lot more complicated than two people for a variety of different reasons, but since he was all about drawing parallels, he wanted to emphasize that fights, while bad, weren’t exactly the end-all be-all of relationships. Sometime, in the future, if he and Anna fought again, he hoped that she thought of this history lesson.

“Well, considering he is called William the Conqueror, you can guess what he was good at.” Conquering. “So William conquered England, which they were not happy about.” No one was that happy to be conquered, but that was beside the point. “I feel silly.” Oscar said after a pause. “It is all much more complicated than this, but I do not know how to say it. Maybe it would be easier to do more recent events?” He suggested. If they talked about something that Anna already had a little familiarity with, it would be easier to explain the nuances.

@annelise

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Anna liked his reasoning. He was right too and she knew that he was talking about them, which was perfect because they were a great example. Their first fight did make things difficult for them in the beginning, but they got over it quickly. She knew that England and France didn't get along very well with one another most of the time. "I like that," she told him simply, smiling about it. It was almost like he was telling her that if they fought again, they could still be friends. 

Anna laughed, "Yes, I can make that assumption. You just asked if I knew about him though, so that's why I said that," she teased. Why was she wanting to tease him so much? He probably thought she wasn't interested. She was, she just ... Didn't want to be a silent listener. She wanted to be a part of the conversation. Then Oscar said he felt silly and Anna laughed. "I'm sorry, I won't tease you as much. You're doing great." Then he wondered if they should talk about something else and Anna shrugged. "You're the teacher. I'm really good talking about either, but I know you spent some time preparing ... So you choose." She did not want to tell him what to do with his lesson. Besides, if she chose to change subjects, maybe it would make him feel like he was doing a bad job, which he wasn't. 

@oscar

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Oscar nodded when Anna agreed about making the assumption about William the Conqueror. “I am sorry. Next time I will not tease you for answering my question.” Ozzy apologized. Maybe it wasn’t something he needed to apologize for, per say, but he would rather not have to figure out whether or not their friendship would become stronger from fighting with each other. He liked it just the way it is.

“Well…” Oscar said, thinking. “Maybe you can tell me what you know, and I can help fill in the gaps? Make it more interesting?” A lot of the history he knew was on the Muggle side of things, so maybe if Anna knew a little about magical relations between Britain and France – like their longstanding Quidditch World Cup rivalry or the Veela laws in each respective country – Oscar could show her how they paralleled. Or maybe he could tease her by trying to predict the future, using Oscar and Anna’s relationship as the template. “Or I could just give you my notes.” He teased. “And see if you can learn how to speak French.” At least Ozzy’s handwriting was neat, so he had no shame in waving the sheaf of parchment in front of Anna’s face. When the Hogwarts student mentioned that he had spent time preparing for it, Oscar just shrugged. “It was fun, even if I do not get to share it.” It had given him an excuse to study history even more than he normally did.

@annelise

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Anna chuckled still, shrugging. "Don't apologize. I was teasing you back," she told him without shame. Honestly, Anna was a merciless tease and the sooner Oscar learned that, the better he would feel around her. Besides that, she didn't want him to feel like he had to apologize to her for everything. Especially little things like teasing.

Why was she laughing so much? Anna held back a giggle. "If you're going to fill in my gaps, you might just want to tell me everything," she told him with a wide smile. She liked history, but she wasn't particularly good at remembering any of it. She reached forward, snatching the paper out of his hand when he waved it in front of her face. "Don't you have any notes in English?" she pretended to whine at him. Really it made sense that his notes were in French. She looked at the paper even though she couldn't understand a single word written on it. He had nice handwriting. Not that it really mattered, but it was an interesting thing. Maybe if they stayed friends past this year she would see his writing frequently in owls. But really she should focus on him right now. She handed the parchment back and her lips twitched as she fought another smile. "Well if you don't want to teach me history, what do you want to do?" Her smile broke through, betraying the fact that she wasn't serious. Honestly though, she needed to act normally around him sometimes. She would have to work on that.

@oscar  

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Anna joked that if he wanted to fill in gaps, he would have to teach her everything, and Ozzy made a face. When she asked what their alternatives were, though, Oscar’s face molded into something similar to a smile. “Talk.” He said with a shrug. “I do not know much about you, Anna.” They had talked, but it was mostly about trivial things, and Oscar found that he was curious to learn more about Anna. There had to be more to her than just the classes they liked and disliked, and that was all they had really spoken about. Well, that, and how much better they both were than the other person, but that wasn’t really something that they could talk about freely. “For example: when is your birthday?” Birthdays were always a good place to start, because people had charming anecdotes about their family or something to go along with their birth story. Oscar’s charming anecdote was not all that charming, but it was a fun fact about his birthday and the zodiac signs, which most people accepted with a nod. If he really wanted to talk about something interesting, he could talk about his tattoo, but most people didn’t realize he had that, anyways.

@annelise

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Oscar was making faces at her and Anna couldn't help but laugh a little. Apparently he really wasn't in the mood to teach her about history. She shrugged when he said that they should talk. "All right," she agreed readily. What he said about not knowing much about her went right back at him. She didn't know hardly anything about Oscar, other than the fact that he went to Beauxbatons, that his mothers and father died, that he loved history but hated dueling. Well ... she might know more than she originally thought. Still, she wanted to get to know him more. 

Anna smiled when he asked about her birthday. It wasn't really a question that would start a conversation or teach him much about her, but it was definitely a start. "My birthday is on March 2nd," she told him with a smile. "When is yours?" That would be a good thing to know. Hopefully it hadn't just passed or something. Oh well, if it did she'd just do something to say "happy late birthday" to him. Not that he would really care.

@oscar

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Oscar was relieved to hear that Anna’s birthday was still a while away. He was pretty sure they were at the level of friendship where he ought to at least acknowledge her birthday, if not give her a gift, and it would have been awful if her birthday was that day or something that would highlight his bad luck just as much. She asked when his birthday was, and Oscar smiled. “A little after.” He replied. “April the nineteenth.” At the risk of sounding a bit strange, Oscar decided to tell Anna what her zodiac sign was. He only remembered the vocabulary (and the dates), because he liked the way they sounded, and he liked the way Anna’s zodiac sign sounded most of all. “You are a Pisces.” Oscar said, relishing in the snap of the p and the odd vowel sounds of the rest of the word. “I am an Aries.” Though just barely – he had been born the day before Aries became Taurus. Oscar smirked at Anna. “You are a fish.” That was the symbol for Pisces, at least. “I am a ram.” Which, honestly, wasn’t much better.

@annelise

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Anna smiled again when she found out that his birthday hadn't happened yet. Huh. Apparently she was older than him. "So I'm older than you, huh?" she said, stating the obvious. She wondered if that would matter to him. She knew that some guys were only interested in dating girls younger than themselves ... not that she thought he wanted to date her! It was just a random thought.

She raised an eyebrow, cocking her head to the side when he said she was a Pi- well, something that apparently meant fish, while his word (whatever that was) meant that he was a ram. "So what does being a fish say about me? Or being a ram say about you?" Anna asked, a curious smile covering her face. She really had no idea what he was talking about, so she was going to have to make him explain it to her. Not that she expected that to be hard. Apparently Oscar wanted to simply talk with her instead of teaching history and that was fine with her.

@oscar