Meeting and Plotting (Evan)

Since she'd been in the stuffy library studying for the past couple of hours and it was a fairly nice, sunny day, Jennifer had decided to come outside and take a break. The bridges were some of her favourite places at Hogwarts and the Stone Bridge wasn't busy or loud, so she had the space to think and relax. Life was so boring at the minute. She wanted to do something, make it more interesting. All she had to do now was work out what.

When she came to the bridge, Jen stood dramatically, staring into the distance. This year, nobody had taken her socks, so that was a plus and she hadn't really had the opportunity to test whether her anger issues were still there. Sometimes she felt her blood boiling when irritating little kids bumped into her in the corridor and interrupted her plotting or something, so that was a good sign. She wanted the anger issues. They made her cool and special. And generally just better than everyone else. Which was great. Yeah.

Anyway, she needed to think of some cool plan, not worry about how cool she was. Jennifer furrowed her eyebrows, deep in thought. It needs to be interesting and fun and not boring... she mused. It needs to make everyone think of me as totally awesome. THIS WAS SO DIFFICULT. NO, IMPOSSIBLE.

This thread is closed to Evan Williams

This day was reserved by Evan for Aeromagic practice. Or more like an ordinary spell practice with WW2 planes theme. He heard somewhere that knowledge and experience can be acquired much faster when it's something interesting. So Evan had a bag full of paper Spitfires, Messerschmitts, and lots of other planes, which were actually identical. Same dirty white planes made of parchment. Each of them was meant to become a British or German aircraft at the moment of launch. Perely in Evan's imagination, of course. For other people these planes were still the same.

He was heading for the Stone Bridge, because there was feeling of height there, and Evan could observe the battle well. Bridge suited this role much better than ground or a tower window. When he reached the Bridge, he found it almost empty, just as he expected. There was only one Slytherin girl there, but it was probably for the best. It's much better to be observed and judged during the practice. I'm more afraid of failure now and therefore more productive.

Evan opened his bag and took the first paper plane. He crumbled it and throw up into the air. Then he drew his wand, aimed at the crumpled parchment, and exclaimed, "Reparo!" The parchment regained the form of a plane again and started gliding slowly. Evan aimed his want at it again and whispered, "Air defense ready. I won't let you bomb London, Krauts!" He flicked his wand and burned the plane (German Dornier Do 17) with Incendio spell. Bofors 40mm anti-aircraft gun, pew pew pew! Another incredible victory of British weapon.

Who was this peasant who dared to disturb her with his odd muttering and plane flying? Weirdo. Who does he think he is? For a couple of seconds, Jen tolerated it, hoping he'd go away soon. But he didn't go away. It looked like he was crumpling up paper planes, repairing them and then...oh...it looked like he was burning them. Kids nowadays. Back in the old days, they played normal games.

And it was going on and on. He did look quite interesting, in all fairness. And she couldn't hear herself think over him getting all excited about paper and a wand! He didn't even look like a first year either. One of the over-excited, OHMYGOSH IT'S MAGIC THE BEST THING EVER sort of kids. No, he was a bit old for that but much to young to be nearer her age. Second or third year, maybe? But that didn't matter. What mattered was him distracting her and not letting her THINK.

Finally she couldn't be nice to the irritating little Ravenclaw boy anymore, however interesting he and his little paper game looked. "What are you doing and why are you doing it here?" Jennifer asked sharply. "I'm trying to think and I can't because of your stupid little 'scrunch up paper airplanes and set fire to them and then burn this bridge down' game." Pffh. He'd got off lucky. He didn't know how mean she could be. She ran her hand through her hair, slightly intrigued and slightly scared of what was to come next.

With his his game practice Evan drew the attention of the older girl. British sky was secure again, so he had time for a good explanation speech. "Well, sorry for disturbing you. But I should point you that one can think in any quiet place. Actually, any place, noise resistance is only the matter of concentration, you know. As for my gaming theatrical spell practice, it needs some height and space. So it would be easier for you to change your thinking place, than for me, you see?"

Evan thought for a moment that it was a bit rude, but girl's tone was sharp, so she deserved it. Evan decided to continue in a less rude manner though, "I don't crumble planes for no reason. I want them to fly high, and I can't just throw a plane upwards, its flight will be lame in this case. So I throw a crumpled sheet and wait till its vertical speed is zero. It's a tricky part, because I need to hit it with the reparing spell at the precise moment. And in case of success I will have a plane that starts his flight high, has no vertical speed, and still has a horizontal one. Moreover, I can practice my casting timing. It's a complicated art to act in the right moment, you know." Phew. First part of his speech was done. Evan had to regain his breath and the girl definitely needed some time to analyse his ingenious idea. Actually, he could just levitate planes instead of crumpling an throving the them up, but it would be too easy. Moreover, he wanted to use 'Reparo' today.

A couple of seconds later Evan continued, "Well, I chose paper planes with a reason. Wizards have a lot of spells that allow movement control. And, you know, the lighter the object, the easier it is controlled. Planes are perfect for several reasons: they are light, they can fly even without magic, they are cool. So I can have fun with my make-believe war and practice 'Wingardium Leviosa', 'Impedimenta', 'Immobulis', and 'Waddiwasi' at the same time. Oh, and 'Incendio'. I'm pretty good with the last one though, so I don't actually need any practice. But it's fun anyway."

Now it was time for the final phase of his speech. Evan took a deep breath and started his glorious finale, "And I can't burn the bridge down. It's made from stone. It's even called the Stone Bridge, that should give you a clue. And stone usually melts, not burns. And even if one wanted to melt this bridge, they would need a temperature about 1000C." Apparently, Evan failed to keep his speech in a "less rude" manner. But whatever. He just liked to explain his plans, that made him feel smart.

Seriously? This boy knew his stuff. While it was stupid and irritating and made him look like a know-it-all, it was actually pretty cool. He was very good at plotting. Which could help her a lot. Jen suppressed a smile when she thought of her old plans to rule the school back in her first couple of years. Now the plotting was a bit more realistic.

"Exactly. Any quiet place," Jen nodded, smiling a little bit despite herself. "Everywhere else is busy and loud. People hardly ever come here. So either of us could move and lose our advantage. See?" Realising it might work to pull a 'poor, offended Jen', she frowned sadly, as though she actually cared that the boy was making smart remarks. Maybe an acting career would be good. Her sad face was pretty good.

It was good he paused after the complicated bit because, smart as she was, it took a while to figure that out. "That's clever. But how's it going to help you in life? If it's just a smart way to practice a couple of spells, you might as well just try them on anything. And somewhere else. I suppose it's slightly less boring than just practicing with anything. Making a game out of it." It just didn't seem worth it to her, still.

Then he was talking about why exactly, so her questions were sort of answered. "Yeah, I know what magic can do," Jennifer said, still using the slightly sad face. Didn't want to overdo it or anything. "Okay, so it means you can play your happy little make-believe game. Makes sense." But did it really need all of his sound effects and muttering? Probably. She didn't say that out loud, since he'd have another smart answer in return.

Of course he couldn't burn the bridge down, she knew that. "I was using exaggeration for effect, don't worry. But you could set fire to my hair. Which I wouldn't want. That would be worse." Nobody went anywhere near her hair ever. Jen had tried to be quite friendly and not very mean, but she wasn't sure she'd been entirely successful. Time to let out a sad little sigh and run her hand through her hair in a very stressed manner. She didn't know whether this one worked. But it was worth a try.

"I'm Jennifer, by the way," she smiled half-genuinely. "Jennifer Moss. I'm a sixth-year."

"No no no, you missed the point here," Evan started again. "If we compare the number of quiet places and the number of places that are high and have enough space, well.. You know the result."

Evan planned to continue telling her the list of reasons why he had all the rights to be here, but then he noticed that the girl looked sad, so he felt a little sorry. Moreover, she asked some questions and talked like she was listening to him. Most of people acted like Evan actually sad nothing, especially Aylee. Probably they just never bothered to listen. That's why making this girl sad was especially painful for him.

"Oh, sorry. I knew you were exaggerating. I just, well, always say some things I regret later. Maybe it's some kind of curse, who knows?" Evan said and smiled a bit sadly. "Sorry for putting your hair in danger. It looks pretty nice, so I understand your worries." In most cases Evan wouldn't leave the bridge on principle. In some cases (young age and bad manners) he would even set person's hair on fire. On purpose. But this girl was nice and well-mannered.

"I'm Evan Williams, third year," he introduced himself. "Actually, I can stop my practice if it's so important for you. I'm running out of planes anyway." Actually, Evan had enough planes, he just didn't want Jennifer to know that she managed to persuade him to leave. If he let her know it, she would try to repeat her diplomatic success again and again. And Evan didn't want this at all.

This was so working. "No, I'm sure that's not true," she beamed. Sweet, nice sixth-year. Yeah. "Sometimes...awkward things happen that we really can't stop! And thank you! I'm glad you like my hair!" Jen did spend hours on it every day, so it was good that it was working, anyway. Not that a small Ravenclaw boy would actually know...

And he was leaving so soon. Such a shame. Better not let down the act now though, if she was close to winning him over as super sweet Jen. "Well...I mean...stay if you want! I just...need some quiet so I can think." About stuff. Like sixth-years must do.

"You're welcome," Evan replied, smiling. He heard words of gratitude on very rare occasions. What a sweet girl with good manners and beautiful hair. And the most important was that Jennifer understood his problem with awkward things happening around. Or at least she said so. But Evan believed her for some reason. Trustworthy girl.

And then Jennifer said that Evan could stay if he wanted. What? That was a surprise. Is this some kind of a mind game? Evan hated mind games. Okay. She makes me agree to leave and then says I still can stay. There are three most trivial cases:
a. She knows I lied about the lack of planes and now she's just messing with me, enjoying watching my reaction.
b. She managed to change my mind once and now she's trying to do it again to determine how strong her influence is.
c. She's just a nice girl.
So staying probably isn't a good move. But, on the other hand, she probably sees through my lies, so going away would be a bad thing to do, as it means I'm ready to abandon my business just because I'm too afraid to accept that I lied. That was a difficult choice. Every option seemed to be so bad that it was difficult to compare them. So Evan decided to use "the best case scenario" strategy. Let's assume she's a nice girl. Now, with this assumption, best choice for Evan was staying, and that's what he did.

"Um, thanks. I'll stay then, if you don't mind," he replied quietly. So easy. Maybe it was the best way to deal with people: considering them nice. Evan didn't have any statistics how good this approach worked, so he decided to make his relationship with Jennifer an "experimental positive thinking friendship". For now. To collect some data so he could use statistics later.

"That's fine," Jen nodded, inwardly groaning. Maybe he'd shut up a bit after she'd told him she needed to think. She was hoping he would, anyway, even if there was no chance. Perhaps she could make conversation while he did his plane thing about something more interesting so she wouldn't be driven mad by murmuring about wars and bombing or something.

So, conversation. "How are you, Evan? Have you had a good year so far?" she asked, resting her elbows on the side of the bridge and staring out into the distance again.