Familiars PV Alan Vanes closed

| Tiger | Outfit

The Gryffindor was a little nervous at this point in time. He was aware of his lack of skill in aim and the actual casting of the more difficult spells. He was not as perfect with this as some of his friends who seemingly weren't able to actually fail the process of casting a spell. Alan was also quite aware that the next stage, and the first he would actively participate in, was nearing close. For this exact reason he had decided that he would spend most of his free time in the Duelling club, despite craving the outdoors and courtyard. He had however fallen for the Duelling club, entering felt like stepping into a whole other dimension and a sense of energy filled him. He would seem different, not really but he felt a lot more confident and like his skill mattered. One had to be aware in this location, spells were often flung around carelessly during practice, searching for a next best target.

But on this particular day the practice room was quiet, then again it came to no surprise as the weather was particularly nice for an autumn day and Alan had even considered to practice his spell casting outside rather than here. But he felt like this would be safer, and he could actually have a target by using the many practice dummies that were only available within the duelling room. There were different difficulties as well, that he would be able to match toward his progress. Though he wondered how fast this progress may be, as a lot of times it seemed like he had little control over his faith, his mind would wander and the distraction would open the perfect opportunity for his opponents to avoid his spell casting.

As he stepped on one of the stages and prepared a dummy to sit at the other side of his own, he would not notice how Tiger excused himself from the prefects side and wandered off to pursue another goal. The rustling and adjusting of the dummy distracted him as he found himself having a bit of difficulties to get the dummy to stand on its own, unsupported by his hands. He would need to find the balance for the object. Unbeknownst to him, Tiger had scurried off to greet a grey rat, that could also be found within the room unaware of the instincts of the rodent. Tiger had been raised well, raised to not chase the animals of the castle unless given express permission or given a command to catch something. Alan had been terrified by the though of him chasing down someone's mouse or rat or even young owl. He felt like all animals had been somewhat trained in that regards, but all sorts of training would not stop the curiosity of a cat and thus the Bengal feline loomed over the rat, sniffing it curiously. There was no danger involved there, still it might be enough of a scenario to worry a prey's parent.

@Alan Vanes

As she fell into her rhythm and the checks on Sherlock between casts yielded no change to the scene, they became more infrequent. It was tedious to remind herself to look every time and then to refocus for the next cast. The stretch of nothing happening had successfully lulled her into a sense of security.

She was midway through an incantation of Expelliarmus when a squeak sounded. That, naturally, got her attention, turning so quickly the spell impacted with the wall, missing the dummy by a large margin. Sherlock was no longer curled up on her bag, instead a short distance away with a cat looming over him. Still making a few noises, her rat had presumably done something in the realm of running, at first. But now he was stopped, and while the cat sniffed him, he was sniffing back. For a smart rat, he was too friendly, too adventurous, and probably much like her in the minutes leading up to this, had gotten used to everything being fine. He hadn't been eaten yet, after all, or even chased too often. That was mostly because of her efforts to make sure he wasn't a tempting snack for the cats and owls of the castle.

As he stood still, greeting the new animal, Bridget was crossing to him with quick steps. It looked cute enough right now, but what if that cat was gearing up to eat him? Not even fully stopping, she bent down and scooped up the grey body, both hands surrounding his form. A foot back, Sherlock was brought to the far side from the threat. Nothing bad had happened, though it might have. It was just instinct, like the quiver spreading to her fingers, evidence Sherlock had experienced some rush of fear even if he hadn't acted very well on it. She pet him with her thumb to hopefully calm him down, narrowing her eyes briefly at the feline.

"Um, whose cat?" she called out. The commotion was kind of her fault, too, she should have just taken Sherlock back to the dormitory. She would go do that now, even if she wasn't keen on cutting her practice short, but first, the owner of the animal at her feet should be alerted their pet was running around.

Alan had just been about to cast a clean knockback jinx at one of the practice dummies, when a voice called out, capturing his attention. Had Tiger been meant? Of course he would look around the room to find the source of the call and would indeed find Bridget standing close to Tiger. What chaos had the feline caused this time? He would walk over quickly after lowering his wand and when he noticed what the girl was clutching in her hands so protectively, his eyes narrowed slightly in worry. Had Tiger tried something? That would have been very unlike him. Tiger usually didn't chase other pets unless they were playing or something, but perhaps he had mistook the rat to be wanting to play? "Tiger," he called out the feline's name and his ears sprung to attention as he directed his gaze toward Alan, who would give the unspoken command of tapping his chest and holding his arms ready. The well trained feline picked up on the familiar command almost instantly as he stretched before jumping into the prefect's arms in a span of seconds.

Alan would then carefully direct his attention toward Bridget. "Hey, did something happen? If something happened I'm truly sorry, he doesn't usually act out," he promised and apologized in advance as he began to pet the animal in his arms, which was now giving off a low purr as it nestled into the boy's arms. "He's fine right? Or she?" he asked, nodding at the shivering rat within the girl's hand as he couldn't help the fond smile that found its way on his lips as he watched the tiny creature. He would have asked for its name almost immediately, but right now he was worried for its well-being rather than its name.

@Alan Vanes

It was possible, she supposed, that the pet's owner wasn't in here at all, that the door had been left cracked and a loose pet had slipped through. Thoughts of what she would do in such a situation--track down the owner? Ask around if anyone recognized the cat?--weren't left to stew long, a familiar face stepping down from one of the platforms and crossing to them. They had crossed paths a number of times over the years, mostly through clubs, and now both served as captains of their respective teams. It was mostly subconscious, but the fact he was a Captain gave him an instant leg up in perceived responsibility; where she might have questioned his thinking with his cat running around the duelling room, she was now more inclined to assume he had, like her, perhaps only misjudged in his decisions to keep his pet near.

It was clearly his cat, this not just him reacting to a situation in the duelling room, calling the name Tiger and giving a signal that cued the cat to jump up into his arms. Well-trained, that maybe what had prevented a worse situation. Now they both held their pets, her just slightly more defensively. At his question, she paused to examine Sherlock closer for any signs of injury, but just like she hadn't seen any attack, there was nothing. "He," she confirmed. "This is Sherlock, and I think the worst Tiger did was scare him."

Satisfied with her investigation and glad that Sherlock seemed to be settling down, she looked up again. Though on edge a moment ago, Alan's quick intervention and clear concern had made that go quite smoothly, dissipating any annoyance she may have had. It was hard to hold a grudge against his cat when he was smiling at her rat; she shifted her hold from a covering sphere to a bowl so he could get a better look at the grey rat.

"It looked kind of like Tiger just wanted a new play buddy," she commented after a moment. Indeed, there had been none of the stereotypical cat-chasing-mouse going on. "I just probably should have left this one in my dormitory." It hadn't seemed like such a bad idea at the time, and she'd had good intentions, but she would not be doing this again. Beyond the possibility another pet would be out and about, such a thing could distract someone mid-cast, which might end badly. And even though she'd purposefully placed Sherlock somewhere she doubted a misfired spell would fly off to, it could still happen, and she dreaded to think what a Flipendo would do to something so small.

With the initial matter settled, she wasn't really sure where to go from here. The fact was just that she didn't know Alan very well, and while she did fine when it came to friends and closer acquaintances and teammates, or if there was something else to do, a standing conversation like this tended to make her feel like discomfort was closing in with each passing second. Maybe it was just her--hopefully it was just her--but there was definitely a very real need to move past the pause that left her mostly staring at Tiger since it was easier than eye contact.

It was the room they were in that would grant her aid; they had both just been practicing, and conveniently, duelling was almost always easy for her to talk about. "Um, so." She forced herself to look at him, not his cat, while she started. "Are you feeling ready for the first stage?" That was coming up here soon, and she was certainly feeling the mounting anticipation--all the preparation that went into it, the excitement, and the nerves. This would be his first time taking to the duelling platform, since much like her he'd made the switch from Quidditch to duelling, just a year later, and she imagined that brought an extra layer of anxiety. She hadn't been watching him practice, engaged in her own, but maybe she should have. Even without game experience, he was a fifth year, and that almost always meant a level of dominance. Though, Slytherin wasn't up against Gryffindor just yet, and scouting actual duels was probably better.

Alan smiled gently. "Nice to meet you Sherlock," he offered to the rat, before looking back up at Bridget. "I guess rats and mice is a little more dangerous to keep considering that cats are roaming the castle free," he muttered in agreement. "Luckily I haven't actually met an untrained cat here yet, generally I feel like especially Tiger is way above such things, he has instincts of course but he is extremely intelligent," his voice grew confident with pride, "I actually suspect that he is part Kneazle, you know them right?"

The fifth year smiled ever so slightly, when the next question came up. So after it he felt a little nervous. Not because of her generally, but because he had not really thought about it much, but then again had thought about it far too much. "Well, it is actually going to be my first stage as a duellist, so I am quite nervous," he offered, "But I do feel ready! The fifth year sighed a little and gave a chuckle. "How about you? Ready to defeat whoever you are up against? Unless it's one of my cubs of course, then you stand no chance," he said, gaining far more confidence as he spoke and offered a little bit of banter towards her.

@Alan Vanes

Any tension that might have been caused by the scare quickly melted away, turning into happily greeting pets and discussing what a school of so many animals was like. Indeed, it wasn't the best of places for a rat, but Bridget was generally careful, today an outlying mistake, and many people took care to prevent their larger pets from eating the smaller ones, so it hadn't been much of an issue.

Tiger did indeed seem intelligent; he hadn't succumbed to blind instinct, more saying hi to Sherlock than hunting him, and his quick response to Alan's cues indicated he was well-trained. She wondered if he had been a quick learner or if Alan was a very dedicated teacher, or perhaps if it was a combination of the two. Bridget nodded confirmation that she was familiar with Kneazles, gazing intently at the cat in search of any details that might support Alan's conjecture. Exceptional intelligence was certainly part of it, and she knew there was more, but frankly Bridget's recollection of what she knew about Kneazles wasn't coming into clear enough focus to be sure. "He does seem like a very smart cat," she affirmed, abandoning her investigation after a moment. Part-Kneazle or not, it didn't really matter.

Nerves were only natural when doing something new, so she was hardly surprised when Alan admitted to them. Frankly, nerves seemed to be inescapable in the build-up to any sort of performance, no matter how long you'd been doing something. That was Bridget's experience, at least, pressure and anticipation mounting every time a stage approached. She was glad to hear he felt ready, though. It didn't exactly matter--he wasn't on her team--but having confidence in your abilities helped and she didn't wish to see him crash and burn. Doubting was only going to make you fumble, and that was where spells started going wrong. "I'm sure you'll do great."

And what about her? "I think so, yeah." She had practiced, she had experience. Experience winning, at that, that undefeated title resting on her shoulders. Bridget was not confident she could defeat absolutely anyone in the club--how many people were actually that assured?--but she felt much more comfortable with her wand than she had this time last year and had to have improved at strategizing from her scouting efforts.

At his banter, she found herself smiling. "Mm, I was going to say the same thing about my snakes. We know how to win." And they had last year's championship to prove it. Of course, it was a new year with new variables, but she'd silence the stream of logic for a while and let herself engage in a little quipping. Pride in her team wasn't hard to muster.

Alan grinned at the girl with mirth in his eyes. "Are you sure asking for two duelling cups in a row isn't asking for a bit too much?" he challenged. "Well if you are so convinced of victory, care for a small match? No fire spells though," he asked and yes, perhaps his voice and the way he acted was a little cocky. Also, he was well aware that Bridget was a year below him, but that didn't have to mean anything. She had a lot more duelling experience than he did and therefore they were probably around the same strength.

He had offered it as some kind of joke at first, but now he had gotten actually curious at the outcome of this little sparring match. He had never really experienced her in a duel before, the game during summer had been not with her in it. Maybe she would agree and it could be a good practice round for the both of them. He didn't mind practicing with others and he was a little bit nervous about his first duel that was coming up so very soon, so he was hoping that he could learn a thing or two from Bridget.