Oh What's Becoming Of Me [Lance]

[Deleted]

March had arrived but it was still rather chilly outside since it was only the beginning of the month. Zaire was still wrapped up in his cloak while sitting on the floor of the COMC hut. With his legs crossed at the ankles, he was leaning up against one of the walls of the hut with a large piece of parchment lying across his lap as he attempted to get some of his COMC homework done. It helped because he was part of the COMC club and it was their duty to take care of the creatures along with the professor. That was, it was their duty if they were trusted. He was one of the lucky individuals who had the privilege and access to the hut to take care of the creatures. He enjoyed it so much that he came her to relax often when he wanted to get away from the rest of the student body. He had an essay to write on the diricawl for the class so he though why not write about the creature while being near it? They'd obtained one for the purpose of the Triwizard Tournament, something that he had been against entirely because he'd just known they were going to put the creature in some unnecessary danger. The Weasley girl had done a rather poor job of protecting him but he'd gotten through the task mostly unscathed so now they had two of creatures in the hut. They both sat, looking at him curiously, one of them turning their heads at him; he guessed one of them was still trying to figure out if he was dangerous or not even though it had been a few weeks since he'd been coming to see it. The other had been there for a while so he was just sitting in the corner and staring now. He smirked at them before writing a bit more on his parchment. Because it wasn't technically his turn to take care of the creatures, he'd been expecting another one or two of his classmates to come by. So when he heard the door to the hut open, without even lifting his head, he spoke. "Go away. I'll cover for you today so you don't have to worry about it."

Tag; lancelot ray linley

[Deleted]

@zaire

Care of Magical Creatures wasn’t exactly Lance’s weakest subject in the world, but one that he cared about a lot less than the rest. He didn’t have any aspirations to continue with it during his seventh year. Most of his classmates had already dropped it by this point, and the dwindling number of students in it this year was rather pathetic. It was kind of sad to see so many people not interested in magical beasts, but unless one wanted to pursue it as a career, there really wasn’t a point to continue on past fifth year. He simply wanted an easy, relaxing class outside of his normal, grueling ones, and it happened that learning about beasts was the best one for that. The ones they studied now were far more dangerous compared to the ones over the past few years, but that made it slightly more entertaining than raising flobberworms. The only positive that ever came out of that lesson was learning about all the uses that flobberworms had as potions ingredients. Of course, being around the animal loving students meant that he couldn’t really bring that up without sounding like he wanted to harvest each and every flobberworms for his own greedy self. Not his fault that he was American and the worms didn’t exist over there. There were some things that six years of schooling couldn’t change.

Because of some confusion during a recent lesson, Lance found himself in need of a little help from the professor. It wasn’t anything too crazy, thankfully, but he was pretty sure he had heard part of the lesson incorrectly, and now he was beyond confused about whether what the professor said was correct or if the book was. The easiest solution would have been to ask one of his classmates, but he had time to kill, and chatting with a professor was never a bad thing. With the family issues he had in the fall, catching up and befriending the professors was more beneficial this year than it had ever been before.

Bounding across the school grounds, he approached the hut that was now used for the class, and which usually housed a good portion of the creatures used during lessons. Opening up the door, he half expected to see the professor standing in there, like usual, but they weren’t. Instead he was greeted by a voice from somewhere inside telling him to go away, and that he would be covered for today. Somewhat confused, Lance stood in the entrance and looked around until he found the source of the voice; a boy sitting on the ground with some bird-like creatures staring at him. That was…a little strange. “Cover for me?” He asked, hoping to get to the bottom of the earlier statement.

[Deleted]

There was a moment of silence that he didn't expect after he spoke. He still didn't look up then and just rolled his eyes while he continued to write his homework. Some of the people that were in the club were still idiots so he wasn't surprised that they'd been late to their time slot to check on the creatures. Luckily enough he'd been here or else they'd have starved. Sometimes he figured he was the only on that cared about the creatures in the club. And Simone. Maybe. When the person spoke out questioning his statement in rolled his eyes once again. "Yes cover for--..." As he spoke he looked up at the person, only to realize that he didn't recognize him from the club. He didn't recognize him at all actually. Blond, didn't look too much taller than him. He had some kind of lip piercing too. Some kind of rebel maybe? Zaire sized him up momentarily, an eyebrow raised before he decided to pay attention to his homework once again. "You're not in the club. You can definitely go away," he stated clearly. Who ever he was, he didn't need to be here to interrupt the not-so-quiet of the hut. Maybe he was looking for the professor? He didn't know nor did he particularly care. He shouldn't be here when the professor wasn't if he wasn't apart of the club. Zaire grimaced. He should have locked the door as he'd originally thought to do, forget the other members. He looked up at the diricawls once again, hoping to hear the sound of the guy's retreating footsteps soon.

Tag; lancelot ray linley

[Deleted]

@zaire

The boy sitting on the floor responded immediately, but cut himself off just as fast, leaving Lance to wonder what exactly he was supposed to cover for, or who was meant to be there instead of him. He was almost certain that the class didn’t have a requirement to visit the creatures during out of class hours, but he had been wrong before. That and the boy didn’t look familiar at all, so he was either older or younger. Most likely the latter if he had to guess. Lance raised an eyebrow as the kid told him that he could leave since he wasn’t in the club. There was a club for magical creatures? That was news to him. And from the attitude he was getting here, it was starting to look like his ignorance of its existence wasn’t exactly uncommon. Why would anyone want to be a part of a club where its members criticized others for simply stepping in to ask the professor a question?

Lance wasn’t exactly sure how to interpret the silence from the boy that followed. On one hand, he wasn’t really in the mood to push some random kid’s buttons over a question that wasn’t important in the first place. On the other, asking if the professor was there was a simple question, and if this boy was a good club member, he would give an answer. “Listen, I just had a question for-” Lance stopped talking as he noticed one of the bird-like creatures turn towards him, taking a few small steps before cocking its head to the side inquisitively. Lance mimicked the movement, unsure of what it was going to do with him mirroring it. “What is that thing?” he asked quietly. He could see another one moving around in the back of the hut, but so far it hadn’t taken as much of an interest in him as the one in front did. As far as he could remember, this thing had yet to show up in class, so there was the possibility that it was being saved for a future lesson.

[Deleted]

Even though he had dismissed the boy, apparently he'd decided it was a good idea to stick around anyway because he had not heard the sound of footsteps he'd expected to hear, nor had he heard the sound of the hut's door opening and closing. Zaire didn't understand how his words had gotten lost in translation so it was clear that the guy was an idiot. He continued to scribbled at his parchment when the boy decided to speak up. He still did not look up at him, though he did find himself glaring at the words on his parchment when he decided to speak up. The blond didn't even finish his sentence before he questioned him again. "You are not a member of the Care of Magical Creatures club so you do not belong in this hut when the professor is not present," Zaire took that moment to look up at the guy only to notice that he wasn't looking at him but at the diricawls in their cage. He had asked what they were right? Had he not taken Care of Magical Creatures in his fifth year? If he wasn't in Care of Magical Creatures, what was he doing in the hut in the first place? He raised an eyebrow at him. "A diricawl, not that it is important to you." There was a clear annoyance in his voice as he answered but he found himself looking back and forth between the boy and the cage. One of the diricawls had his attention focused on the boy who had mirrored the diricawl's motion. He looked like an idiot and Zaire almost snickered but his annoyance was still present. He would hate for the diricawl to become offended or alarmed by anything the boy did and decide to disappear, though it wasn't like the creature had anywhere to go.

Tag; lancelot ray linley

[Deleted]

@zaire

Stuck up prick. The thought kept reverberating through Lance’s head as he listened to the kid’s grating condescendence. Lance chose to ignore the statement that he didn’t belong in the hut right now. Sure, the professor wasn’t there, but it didn’t mean he couldn’t look at this bird creature for a few minutes. Didn’t the other boy say he was in the club here? The point of the club had to be to research and help others understand magical beasts better. If not, well Lance didn’t know what it could be about if it wasn’t one of those two. Clearly it didn’t require much participation if only one member was here.

Shaking his head slightly at the venom that was so obviously seething from this child, Lance Kept his mouth shut and decided not to hiss anything back. He had been taught at the orphanage that being combative never effectively solved anything. Being moved from America to England only served to cause enough issues as it was, the last thing he had ever needed was to get into physical or verbal altercations with other students or orphans. Georgie did a good enough job at that on occasion. In his opinion, it wasn’t worth it. Kill them with kindness was his motto. Lately it had seemed like that was slipping away, but today he was positive that he could keep it in check.

The boy said the bird was a diricawl, and while it apparently wasn’t important for Lance to know that, he still took a few steps closer to the cage that the bird was in. It looked almost like a dodo bird, the animals that were supposed to have gone extinct. Interesting…“So does your club just take care of the animals, or is it more about extensive research on them outside of class?” Lance asked. He was sure he’d get some kind of vicious answer, but he was curious regardless of what the boy said.

[Deleted]

Zaire blew a breath through his nose in frustration. The guy was quite obviously ignoring his warning that he didn't belong in the hut. he didn't want to be responsible for any of the creatures becoming riled up because of a stranger entering their space. He also really didn't want to be responsible if the idiot did anything that go himself hurt or killed so he really wanted him to leave. He glared at the blond and watched as he continued staring at the diricawl. Like an idiot, he took a few steps closer to the cage. Great. "What are you doing you idiot? You don't just approach a diricawl like that!" he hissed, his head snapping back to the cage as he watched the diricawls in hidden panic. He wasn't surprised when the that had been quite raised up on its feet a bit more and seemingly backed up further in the cage. He was surprised, however, when the one that had been most curious tilted his head in the opposite direction and hopped. his brow furrowed a bit in confusion. What odd behavior towards someone he was sure the creature was seeing for the first time. It was behavior exhibited when the bird was trying to figure out if the person was trustworthy or not. He hadn't approached the bird's cage yet for fear of frightening him off before giving it time to feel him out. He had especially expected it since this one had been put in danger by that second task of the tournament. Had the task had the opposite effect and made the bird a bit more trusting of people? The boy's words almost went unheeded as he studied the birds behavior, quill frozen in his hand. "Both." Was he trying to join? Just based on his actions he knew the guy wouldn't last. He didn't even know what a diricawl was.

Tag; lancelot ray linley

[Deleted]

@zaire

Lance felt his eye twitch slightly as the boy berated him again, this time calling him and idiot for apparently getting too close to the creature. He glanced down at the floor, judging that the distance between himself and cage was easily a solid five feet, if not more. It wasn’t like he was going to be poking at the bird or feeding it fries or something. Just because he was an American didn’t mean he was stupid when it came to animals in enclosures. Instead of firing anything back, Lance simply shook his head and stuffed his hands into his pockets. He didn’t mean any harm, and he was sure that the diricawl could sense that from him. All he wanted to do was watch it for a few minutes and then he could go on his way. What was so hard to understand about that? “And getting heated like that will scare it too,” Lance chimed back. Animals were smart. From what he had learned throughout his Care of Magical Creatures classes, they understood human emotions and words better than some humans did. Anyone with a pet cat or dog would know that. As Lance spoke, the diricawl began to back up in the cage, though whether it was because of Lance’s movements or the boy’s hissed warning was unclear. Both had happened too fast to really tell who was at fault, and that was one of the reasons why he decided to counter back. In the end, they were both partially to blame. Obviously walking close to a wild animal wasn’t nearly as bad as spooking it by yelling at it. There were proper ways to communicate rules to others, and commanding people around was not it.

Regardless, the boy still decided to answer Lance’s question about the club, though kept it rather brief. He had figured it was both, but still felt it was necessary to ask. It was better to be right both times than to be wrong and criticized for it. This one seemed to like doing that. Taking a few steps back from the cage so the diricawl would relax once again, Lance finally turned his body to fully face the other boy. “How many members are there? And how often do you meet?” When he had entered the cabin, the boy had mentioned something about being replaced. That had to mean there was more than a handful of members in the club, right? The questions were harmless ones too, and if the boy didn’t want to make it seem like their little club was full of stuck up jerks, he would answer them, even if they lacked the sufficient content to be suitable answers.

[Deleted]

Zaire watched as the diricawl backed up in the cage a bit closer to the other one and he instantly held his breath in anticipation of the bird disappearing. When a few seconds went by and the telltale 'pop' did not sound, he exhaled deeply. "That diricawl has been looking at my face for three weeks now. It's not going to be surprised by anything that I'm doing. You are a stranger, to me and the diricawl. Most things you do will shock it and make it disappear. So if you could refrain from making mistakes...," he rolled his eyes at the boy and left his words hanging in the air to imply the obvious. He doubted that the boy would refrain from making any sudden movements or stupid decisions; he hadn't even known what the creature was and yet he'd decided that it was a good idea to get closer to the creature. He could have died if it had been something more dangerous. This only made him think, even more so, that the idiot could not have been in any care of magical creatures class, or if he was, he wasn't paying any attention in them. It was a pretty basic rule not to approach creatures unless you were able to successfully identify them and, therefore, not leave yourself open for death. Zaire was still watching the diricawl's reaction to his movements though. The last thing he wanted was for the bird to try and escape. When the boy stepped back a bit from the cage, he relaxed just a bit more but not much. He would still rather he would leave altogether than take any more risks. "I don't know. And that would be a better question for the captain and co-captain of the club. I'm sure they're somewhere out of this hut. That is what they are there for." He wasn't subtle with the fact that he wanted the boy to leave. And, granted, he was a member of the club, he wasn't the person he needed to ask those questions to. He didn't have any control of the club. Yet.

Tag; lancelot ray linley

[Deleted]

@zaire

Lance was starting to get the feeling that this boy was one of those animal people. The ones that apparently promoted better understanding of creatures but wouldn’t hesitate to rip you apart for not knowing how to handle one properly. He had little patient for those kinds of people, and yet so far he had kept his voice in check today. There really hadn’t been any reasons for the criticism he was receiving, especially because he didn’t know what the diricawl was at first. Not his fault that the school hadn’t taught him that. Back to the issue at hand though. The boy was apparently claiming that the creature would be used to his movements. Lance didn’t think that was necessarily true. “Doesn’t look like it’s too confident in you.” Lance muttered. It was honestly a possibility. Maybe he wasn’t trustworthy, or his frequent outbursts like the ones he was having right now, were turnoffs with the animal. Again, they were smarter than humans were when it came to reading emotions. Any number of things could have caused the bird not to be friendly. “Because if you treat animals the way you do people…” Lance was sure he didn’t have to say more than that. The obvious was stated, and if the kid couldn’t understand that, then he wasn’t going to make it too far with animals.

The more important part of the conversation though came with the fact that diricawl could disappear. Lance wasn’t sure if that meant it just turned invisible, or if it could disapparate similar to how wizards could. In his opinion, either or would be pretty damn cool. He didn’t ask any more questions past that though, because their talk shifted to the topic of the club. Lance found himself biting down on his tongue again as the other boy went on about asking the club captain about it, who he would have to find outside of the hunt. If he was that concerned about Lance’s presence, he should have just asked him to leave. Yelling at him and then trying to talk him down only made the Hufflepuff want to stand around longer and bug him. That’s what Hufflepuffs were supposed to be all about right? Socializing? “Well thank you very much then,” Lance grinned, hoping to annoy the kid as much as he could before leaving. “And the professor isn’t around right? I don’t really think you’re qualified to answer some of the questions I have.”

[Deleted]

"I would never treat an animal the way I treat humans," and he would leave it at that because he was sick of explaining to the blond boy the idiocy of his words and actions. He clearly must not have been paying attention to the diricawl and his ignorance of the bird showed because it wasn't Zaire that the diricawl was watching. The creature was paying him no mind because, as he'd said, the diricawl was getting used to his face. He kept a close eye on him though, continuing to divide his attention between the diricawl and the boy. His essay wasn't going to get done this way and if that wasn't an annoyance. He really should have left long ago; he was causing the creatures unnecessary stress. He really wondered who's turn it was supposed to have been to feed and care for the creatures because he was going to tear them down, both for having the nerve to be so late and for having to deal with him. He watched the boy for a minute more until it seemed as if he wasn't going to do anything else stupid before Zaire settled down a little bit more, placing his parchment across his lap once more. He couldn't even begin to concentrate when the boy's voice was breaking through the atmosphere again, thanking him for some odd reason before he proceeded to insult his intelligence. Zaire's nostrils flared in annoyance yet again. He knew the boy was trying to get a rise out of him. He wouldn't even dignify his question with an answer then. He'd already answered the fact that the professor hadn't been there and if he was too stupid to realized it, that would be a personal problem. Zaire started scribbling away on his parchment once again.

Tag; lancelot ray linley

[Deleted]

@zaire

Lance tried to hold back the snort that escaped him as the boy countered him. Except that he couldn’t. Sure, yeah. He would never treat an animal the way he treated a human. For some reason, Lance highly doubted that. He wasn’t skeptical about things often, but this kid’s attitude, and the way he was coming across, was both highly arrogant and aggravating. There was no possible way that someone like this could treat another human like utter shite and not do the same to animals. It was impossible, simple as that. “Keep telling yourself that,” Lance muttered as he stepped back from the cage even further and back towards the door of the hut. There wasn’t much more that he could say to the boy, seeing as it was obvious that he hadn’t been welcomed since the start. The only thing that had stuck out to him was the fact that his constant questioning of where the professor was had gone unanswered, and that it was quite obvious that the bird, the diricawl, was hungry. Hadn’t the boy said at the start that there was supposed to be a replacement club member coming in? Wouldn’t their duties include feeding the animals? The restless squawk form the bird may have been mostly agitation from Lance’s arrival, but it also sounded like it longed for something other than space. Food had a way of doing that. Lance knew that he was hungry as well, and the fact that the boy had returned his attention to whatever it was that he had been working on was enough of a signal this time. The Hufflepuff wasn’t going to get much more out of him. “Good luck with that work I suppose,” he stated flatly as he opened the door to the hut to exit. “And you might want to feed the poor creature soon, unless you want your paper to be a snack.” He had no idea if diricawl’s liked eating essays, but it was worth a shot to get one last annoyed eye-roll out of the kid as Lance shut the door behind him.

[OOC: sorry for exiting. I think it fit :3 ]

[Deleted]

Zaire rolled his eyes at the boy's declaration. He wouldn't even dignify that with a response because it was pointless. He could think what he wanted but that was the truth. Zaire cared too much about magical creatures to treat them like the idiots he ran into daily. The blond was a prime example. Animals followed their instincts and didn't question them. Therefore if Zaire were to tell an animal to do something and the animal didn't deem it to be dangerous to its survival, it would more than likely do as he said. With built trust of course, and Zaire was all about building trust with the animals he encountered in order to learn more about them and the things they could do. Humans asked too many questions and were vain enough to think they knew better. He kept his head down, still attempting to write his paper when the boy finally got it through his skull to leave. He listened to the boy's retreating footsteps and felt a sense of victory wash over him. The boy said something stupid along the lines of wishing him luck and he snorted. it was when he talked about the diricawl, saying that the creature was hungry, that he looked up. He'd just fed them when he'd come in two hours ago and made his rounds to each creature. And unless other students had been slacking on their duties, there was no way the creature should be hungry again. He gave the diricawls a hard look, watching their behavior momentarily before swearing to himself. Someone had been slacking on their duties, the bird was staring at him expectantly now and he sighed, stood up and headed to get more food as the door to the hut slammed shut. At least the idiot was gone but now he felt like an idiot for not realizing that the behavior they'd been exhibiting had been linked to their hunger. He huffed once he got their food and begin feeding them again.

Tag; lancelot ray linley
(~~The End~~)