On The Outside | Jack & Jace

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November 10th 2024

Jack stood on the edge of the forbidden forest and gazed through the trees, wondering what lived beyond the shade of the darkness and branches provided. He knew, of course, that the place was forbidden, and he was sure that it was forbidden for a reason, however, he was so curious, and, as long as he didn’t go further in than he could see out, he should be safe, shouldn’t he? His logic seemed pretty sound to him. He wondered how watched they were exactly, while out and about during the day. Surely there wasn’t a teacher watching at all times, and, if there was and he got a detention, at least he’d be able to say he went into the forest. What if there was something cool, just waiting to be discovered behind the cloak of branches? The Ravenclaw boy drew is hand out of his pocket and muttered, “Lumos”. The tip of his evergreen wood want lit up and he waved it towards the forest, wondering if he could illuminate anything, however, the light didn’t help. The darkness was too far away.

@jace

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Jace needed to get out of the castle. He’d felt the urge all day, the need to get out into the fresh air and see what he could get himself into. He knew lots of people didn’t like to go out this time of year. It was starting to get more chilly outside, but to Jace that was kind of comforting. He was from Alaska at all. Besides that, having fewer people outside meant that he might be able to explore the grounds a bit more, which always sounded appealing to Jace.

Not knowing where exactly he wanted to go, Jace found himself wandering the grounds. Naturally, he gravitated toward the Forbidden Forest. What? It seemed natural to him that he would, considering the fact that they labeled it “forbidden”. Didn’t these Brits know that doing something like that would make adventure-seekers actually want to go into the place? Apparently not, but it did.

As Jace drew nearer, he froze when he saw a familiar figure standing near the edge. He narrowed his eyes as he tried to figure it out. Everything clicked about a second before he saw light erupting out of the end of the boy’s wand and Jace nodded. He made his way toward the other boy, trying to be careful. Jack was basically Jace’s role model. He was smart, loved the outdoors and Jace basically considered him as an older brother. Thus, the need to see if he could scare him. “What are you doing?” he asked when he was only a few feet away, his voice a little louder than normal. Jace couldn’t help but smirk, hoping he got the older boy to jump at least a little bit.

JOHN ELLIOT CLARK

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Jack would have jumped when he heard the voice of his younger friend from back behind him, but he had heard someone’s footsteps crunching in the leaves as he made his way over here. “Oooh, nice try, kid. One day.” Jack said with a smirk, knowing what Jace was trying to sneak up on his friend and scare him. He did believed that one day, the younger boy would be successful, but today wasn’t that day. “You ever been in there?” Jack asked his friend, turning to look at him and waving his over with his wand. He could take a guess that Jace hadn’t, but he couldn’t be sure. He knew that the young man was adventurous and liked to explore just as much as Jack did himself. He wouldn’t put it past Jace to want to go into a place that was labeled as forbidden.

@jace

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“Awwwe man! I thought I had you this time,” Jace groaned when he realized that somehow Jack knew he was there. “I will get you sometime,” he promised, hoping that he’d actually be able to follow through with his promise. Jace wasn’t entirely sure if he would, since his friend would be leaving school at the end of this year, which was a shame even though it was a good thing for him. Jace would miss him though. He sighed, but Jack pulled him out of his thoughts with his next question. His eyebrows furrowed as he looked at the forest. “No, but I want to. They keep telling me it’s “forbidden” though and I don’t want to get caught.” Jace grimaced slightly, then turning to look at Jack. “Have you?” Maybe if Jack went in some other time, he would be willing to take Jace in with him. “Would you take me in with you?” he asked preemptively, before Jack could answer his question. Jace couldn’t help it, he wanted to go in the forest and if there was an older student that would take him in, it would be with Jack. He watched his friend with wide eyes, hoping the answer would be yes.

JOHN ELLIOT CLARK

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Jack admired the young boy, and he valued their friendship. Jack saw a lot of himself in Jace and was glad that the kid was adventurous and knew how to take a joke. It was a lot easier hanging out with people who were good for a laugh. Jack confirmed Jack’s suspicions that he had never been in the forbidden forest, but that he wanted to go. Jack should have figured that if anyone was going to want to break the rules with him, Jace or Eli, or maybe the both of them, would. “I haven’t yet… I was thinking of going now… wannah go?” he asked, raising his eyebrow. He knew that the young boy had just asked Jack to take him with him, but he didn’t know if he was prepared to go now or not.

@jace

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Out of all the people he could have run into outside, Jace was glad that he found his friend Jack. Ever since they’d moved to Hogwarts, he hadn’t been able to find himself with the other boy as much as he wanted. Back in Ilvermorny, it was almost like Jack had taken him under his wing. They explored and did all sorts of things. Not all the time, but often enough that Jace considered the older student a good friend. His only worry was that sometimes he might get on the other student’s nerves, but since Jack never said anything about that or did anything to suggest he felt annoyed, Jace didn’t really worry. His eyes lit up when Jack said he was thinking about going now. “Yes! If you’re going in now, I want in!” Jace answered enthusiastically, stepping closer to the edge of the forest. He really hoped the older boy wasn’t teasing him, because that would be really annoying for him. Jace was so excited!

JOHN ELLIOT CLARK

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Jack liked his time at Hogwarts thus far, the thing he found the most odd was the way that the sorting hat sorted them all. He and his best friend Eli had been in the same house in Ilvermorny but now they were sorted into separate houses. And Jace, who wasn’t in the same house as them at Ilvermorny, was in a totally different house here as well. But all three of them, Jack had thought, were pretty darn similar. Jack supposed that he was sorted into Ravenclaw because he did like to think a lot, not just about whatever popped into his head, but he liked to contemplate philosophy and his place in the world and what various things meant. He wasn’t the best student, but he was a rather deep person when he wanted to be.

Jace was interested in Jack’s random idea to go into the forest, spur of the moment, on this chilly November afternoon. Jack couldn’t really think of a reason not to. Sure, it could be dangerous, and surely it was called forbidden for a reason. But he was confident that as long as he stayed in sight of the tree line he would be fine. Eventually, he wanted to go in deeper, but today wasn’t that day. He knew that he would need to plan better before that. “Got your wand?” Jack asked the younger boy before stepping into the cloak of trees, illuminating the tip of his own wand once again.

@jace

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Jack seemed to be a little pensive today, but that wasn't a bad thing. He was probably debating whether or not he actually wanted to go into the Forbidden Forest. Jace wanted to. He didn't particularly want to go on his own- which was a pretty good explanation for why he hadn't already gone in- but he felt this sort of itch to go into the place. Any place named "forbidden" was asking for people to come. Besides that, Jace had already explored the majority of the castle and the grounds. At least, he thought he had. The castle was a lot bigger than he'd originally thought, but he was fairly certain he'd seen a good portion of it in his explorations. 

He nodded at the older student's question, pulling out his wand and following Jack's example. "Always have it on me," he muttered in response. He stepped forward carefully, wanting to see what was so scary about this place. After a few steps in, he turned to Jack with an extremely confused look on his face. "Why is this place forbidden? I thought it'd be a lot scarier," Jace commented. That shack he'd visited in Hogsmeade with Toby had been far more scary than this place was. At least, so far.

JOHN ELLIOT CLARK

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Jack felt just about the same way that his younger friend seemed to feel. It wasn’t scary or even all that dark, but his eyes were still fixated on the cloak of black lurking in the distance. “Because that’s where it gets good.” Jack suggested, nodding towards the thicker trees, smoke seemed to be trickling out of the forest there, or maybe steam or fog. They were still on the inner skirt of the forest and the edge of the Hogwarts grounds were right behind them, if they weren’t careful, they could still be seen in the treeline and someone could still get them into trouble. “Let's go in a bit further and see if it gets a little more interesting.” Jack had heard that there were creatures and magical plants in the forest here, he knew that something good had to exist within the veil.

@jace

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The forest really wasn't that scary at all. Maybe it was just because they were standing on the outskirts, but Jace found himself mildly disappointed by the lack of excitement, even this far in. Maybe they just said that to keep the students in places that were more easy to keep track of them. This was lame and for the first time Jace found himself disappointed in his new school. Why label something forbidden if nothing was wrong with it?

However, when Jack suggested that "that" was where it got good, Jace looked to him instantly, eyes flicking quickly to where the trees grew more thickly. A small smile grew o his face, "I think you're right," he answered, tone soft as he started to move a little closer to that part of the forest. Jace didn't really want to be in danger, but he did want to have a good time. He didn't even think about how he wasn't alone until Jack suggested they go further in. Jack looked back to him, nodding firmly. "Yeah, I like that idea," he agreed, excitement obvious in the way he moved a little more quickly towards that part of the forest.

It didn't take long to get closer to the trees and Jace felt the hairs on the back of his neck prickle as he continued to move. He wasn't scared, but his adrenaline pumped as he looked around himself curiously. What was in here that was causing this feeling. "You feel that?" He asked his friend, looking over to Jack before stopping for a second and looking around. "Are you spotting anything interesting?" Jace looked at the ground, eyes widening when he saw hoof prints in the mud. "Jack, come look at this," he added after a second. Centaurs? Or something else?

JOHN ELLIOT CLARK

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Jace agreed with Jack that they hadn’t even gotten to the good parts of the forest yet, even through they were quite a few meters in already. There had to be a reason that the forest was forbidden. If it wasn’t dangerous, then word would have gotten around the students and everyone would ignore the rule and just go into the forest all of the time. The fact that the two of them were the only two there had to mean that there was actually some danger to this. They kept walking in further and as they walked, they separated a little bit, Jack went a bit further ahead and turned back when jace asked him to come and look at something he had found. Jack went back over to join his younger friend and glanced down at what the Gryffindor was pointing at. “Hoofs, looks like centaurs maybe?” Jack nodded with a small, unconvincing shrug. He hadn’t ever seen a centaur in person before so he had nothing to compare it too. They weren’t hostile towards humans mostly, but, Jack still didn’t really want to cross him. “Maybe werewolves?” he teased. They didn’t really look like paw marks, but maybe jace would fall for it.

@jace

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Jack seemed to be walking carefully, which Jace really only noticed because he was walking behind his friend. The fact made Jace want to walk more carefully, pay more attention to his surroundings. It made sense and was definitely the smart way to do things, since neither of them had ever been in the forest before and there were probably dangerous creatures inside. It was because he was being careful that he found the print on the ground. He looked at it closer, nodding when Jack came over and suggested that maybe it was a centaur. His mind was racing. "Or, or it could be a unicorn. Do they have those here do you know? What other creatures have hooves?" Jace's mind was on one track, but he was fascinated. The mystery was what intrigued him. Jack spoke again and Jace looked over to him, rolling his eyes. "Werewolves don't have hooves," he argued. Then he quickly leaned down to make sure it actually did look like a hoof mark in the dirt. "You still wanna go further?" Jace asked as he straightened up.

JOHN ELLIOT CLARK

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Jace caught on to his little joke, pointing out that werewolves didn’t have hoofd. He supposed he couldn’t convince the boy of a rare crossbreed which was only located in the Scottish highlands near magical schools. “Could be a unicorn.” Jack agreed, nodding his head. It was just as likely, he guessed. But he figured that centaurs were more likely be this far out of the veil of darkness lurking a few hundred feet further on in the woods. “Yeah, we can go a bit further. I don’t think we should go past where we can see our way back, though. If we want to do that, we should prepare a bit more.” He admitted. Jack did love an adventure, and he loved being spontaneous, but, he liked his life a little bit more. "Come on then." he pressed on wards.

@jace

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Jace nodded when Jack gave another suggestion, this time saying something that actually was plausible. Jace wasn't sure if he thought there were Unicorns here in the Forbidden Forest, but there could be. He'd heard there were all sorts of creatures out here, after all. He grinned when Jack agreed that they could go a little further. "Yeah, that's probably a good idea," Jace agreed, rising to his feet and deciding to leave the footprint behind. He was still going to keep an eye out for any signs of which creature it was. Maybe there would be some hairs on a bush or something. Jace snorted a little, "We can plan that for another time." He wasn't sure when that would be, but if he ran into other people that were interested, Jace would probably come with them too. He couldn't help it. This place was so intriguing. 

Grinning, Jace stepped forward with Jack, looking carefully from side to side. He didn't see any hairs, or even any other footprints on the ground. Then again, it was starting to get a little darker, so he wasn't entirely surprised he couldn't see much. "You see anything?" He asked Jack, figuring that they would have to stop soon, unless they saw something interesting. He glanced behind them. He could still see the light at the edge of the trees, but barely now. 

JOHN ELLIOT CLARK

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Jace agreed that it would be a good idea to prepare better and come back a different day if they ever wanted to go further into the cloak of trees ahead of them. But in the meantime today, they did press a little further, Jack kept a careful eye behind them, just to make sure they could still see light through the trees and he wouldn’t get them lost. If he were on his own, he wouldn’t care about getting lost, but because he had the younger boy with him, he felt a lot more responsible. He shook his head when Jace asked if he saw anything. “Nah, I think it’s a bust.” he told the younger kid, just about ready to give up. “Let’s turn back for today.” he decided.

@jace