Passing Time PV Vincent Eastender Finished

Today's weather is really nice... Vincent mused as he maneuvered around the grounds of Hogwarts; he has heard that there is a lake near Hogwarts...which houses a giant squid; a shame really, he was hoping that there would be ducks here but alas. He was in no rush today, and with a book in hand he was just walking around in hopes to come across a shady area to have some down time but...

"I can't wait to begin classes and learn real spells!"

His curiousity was piqued when he heard someone, a girl, cry out loud from a distance away. He blinked, recognizing the girl from the common room, Lucy, if he remembered correctly. Surprisingly, instead of just turning the other way and avoiding people like he used to do, his feet brought him forward and before he realized he is already standing several feet away from the girl sprawled across the ground.

Vincent was going on and on in his mind that this is a very bad idea and he really should back out now before he gets himself in trouble with her-he is already the 'idiot that tripped over the door ledge', he really doesn't want anymore embarrassing mistakes to add to his already extensive list of embarrassing mistakes.

But it is different now, a part of him insisted, I am at a new school, this is my chance to be cool instead of just...this. He is ridiculously easy to convince, Vincent realized that about himself, before crouching down beside the girl with a shy smile.

He has been standing here for almost a minute now, Vincent noted with increasing dread, 'Just say hello or something!' He berated himself and attempted to just say it but instead what came out was something entirely different from what he has planned.

"W-we are already learning spells though...?" He asked softly, trying to force himself to look at Lucy instead of staring at the grass, or at the sky, or anywhere else really. "And wouldn't you have to be better than the head girl to be the best witch?" He asked curiously, allowing himself to get carried away-at least, he is trying to.

This is the first time he has seen someone announce so loudly that they would be the 'best' in any particular area; most of the children back in his village didn't stand out on their own at all, instead forming into groups that he knew them by the name of their group rather than their names. This...this is quite new to him, and he couldn't help but want to say something like that as loudly as she did.

"AUGHHHH!" Lucy screeched, brought back to the present by Vincent's sudden appearance. She was so busy screaming, she missed his first question. She flipped over onto her stomach and pushed herself onto her knees, raising her wand defensively in front of her torso. Though she hadn't been allowed to practice magic at home, she did regularly take sticks that she whittled into a rough wand shape and go through "training drills" with them. As she stared wide-eyed at Vincent, she registered who he was and, oops, that he was talking to her. 

"Wouldn't you have to be better than the head girl to be the best witch?" he asked, and she grinned.

"Well, of course! Vincent, right? You see, here's how it will work: This year I'll lie low. I'll keep people guessing - is she smart? Is she dumb? Is she just average? You know, I won't draw any attention to myself. But I will study like there's no tomorrow! And I'll practice dueling and transfiguring and all sorts of things until I'm absolutely the very best I can be. And with my determination," she paused theatrically, staring purposefully into his [blue?] eyes and continuing in a low, serious voice, "I can do anything."

She pushed off her knees and jumped to her feet, pocketing her wand. She looked down at the crouching boy, feeling the need to string him along. He seemed like the type of person that wouldn't want to offend someone, so she decided to take that angle. Giggling inwardly, she put on a show of acting hurt and embarrassed. "Why? You don't think I could beat the head girl? Is that what you're trying to say?" 

She struggled mightily to keep from smiling and to keep her face screwed up in her best pout-glare combo, which, admittedly, was not that convincing. The effect weakened further when one corner of her mouth quirked up. She inhaled deeply through her nose, fought the smile and trapped it deep within herself, and waited for his reaction.

"AUGHHHH!"

Vincent jumped back in surprise, almost landing on his butt in his haste to back away from the girl, but he had managed to stop himself from completely falling over by throwing himself forward and landing crouched on his hands and feet. And it just so happened that when he looked up, it was the pointy end of a wand staring at him.

He yelped-while this is certainly not the first time someone reacted so strongly to him, which isn't surprising with how 'ghostly' his presence could be, but it is not something that happens enough for him to get used to. He slowly shuffled back, almost getting cross-eyed at the tip of the wand in front of his face-not a nice sensation, it almost feels like he is getting his forehead pinched, not a nice feeling at all

Despite that, he managed a small relieved sigh when she grinned instead of making a creeped out face like many others before her did. He felt a bright feeling bloom in his chest when she actually remembered his name, feeling his lips quirk up into a more natural smile as he nodded along to what she said, curious.

" You see, here's how it will work: This year I'll lie low. I'll keep people guessing - is she smart? Is she dumb? Is she just average? You know, I won't draw any attention to myself. But I will study like there's no tomorrow! And I'll practice dueling and transfiguring and all sorts of things until I'm absolutely the very best I can be. And with my determination, I can do anything."

He felt his mouth open, his jaw running slack and his blue eyes widening just as realization and intrigue lit up in them. It sounded like...like something out of a book; he recalled all those happy and ditzy characters, waiting until that crucial moment to reveal just how cool they could be and defeat the enemy without batting an eye..

And Lucy is going to be like one of those characters?

His eyes sparkled, and he felt a strange empowering feeling rush through his body-so strange, that it almost made him want to sit up and say 'I want to be like that too!' without caring about what other's think, because at that moment, everything made perfect sense.

After all, if she is going to be cool and amazing in the future, the most important thing would be to pretend that she is nothing interesting and when they are going to face off against the big bad, she could just drop that persona and send a powerful spell at the enemy, blasting them into smithereens-!

"Why? You don't think I could beat the head girl? Is that what you're trying to say?"

Vincent gaped, his expression turned aghast and he immediately stood up and gestured wildly-he dropped his book in the process but really, that isn't important at the moment- and denying it, "N-no! No, no , no! I don't mean it like that! Of course you can! I-if you work hard enough, of course you can!"

He really hoped that he didn't upset her, and mentally berated himself for his careless choice of words; after all what is the point of all those reading if he ended up offending someone because he is stupid with his words?

"I-I mean that," He gulped, unsure if he should say it after all before steeling his courage, "You might not be able to right now, but in the future...?" His grin wavered slightly, worried about upsetting her more that what he already has...

Now that he thought about it, he really needs to think more before he says anything.

"Since they know m-more spells, a-and-and they learn to...um, they learn a lot more things, really difficult things and powerful spells so..." He gave a helpless shrug as he attempted to pull himself up from the ditch he had dug himself into.

"A-and then...well, um, I-I think I'll stop talking now...." His willpower finally fizzled away, and his eyes dropped to her shoulders-oh god, he didn't make her cry did he? He didn't make her mad right? Is she upset? Does she hate him now? Vincent doesn't know if he really wanted to know the answer.

Lucy watched Vincent stumble over himself, both physically and verbally, attempting to defend himself. With every sentence, her urge to laugh burned deeper and with greater intensity. It became so bad, especially when he smiled at her, that she brought her hands up to her mouth to cover the smile she could no longer contain. She clenched her teeth and shoved her tongue against the roof of her mouth, amused and slightly charmed by his urge to reassure her that he meant no harm. 

"I-I think I'll stop talking now..." Vincent said, his eyes dropping to her shoulders. A moment passed. Lucy's chest constricted as she struggled mightily to contain herself. One heartbeat. Two heartbeats. And then...

"PHBBBHAHHHHHHH!" 

An unseemly and disturbingly loud guffaw tore its way out of Lucy. While she normally didn't have a noteworthy laugh, this deep belly laugh that she had contained for far too long trumpeted obnoxiously into the air. In fact, she had expelled so much air into the single sound that she doubled over, placing her hands on her knees to intake a breath, her shoulders shaking. She looked up at him from her position, her blue eyes dancing with delight.

"I can't believe you actually believed me! Mum says I'm the worst actress she's ever seen, and Dad says I'm the second worst - second only to my mother!" she struggled to get the words out as she laughed. It didn't occur to her to apologise for this possibly cruel joke. She was far too pleased with her mundane performance. She grinned, reaching out and shoving his shoulder playfully. "You've been duped by Lucy the Great! But don't worry - I won't do it again." She paused, thinking about his initial reaction to her performance. "Why would anyone ever get mad at you for a little honesty, anyway? That seems rather silly. It would be very hard to beat head girl."

She bent down and picked up the book that he had dropped at his feet and extended it to him. "But don't worry, I'll do it anyway. Hey, I know!" she jumped excitedly, spreading her feet into a shoulder-width lunge, the book arm still extending to him in a stance that resembled a fencing position. "I could be head girl, and you could be head boy! We could take on evil forces together like... like... like awesome people!" She waved the book around, brandishing it at imaginary villains. She glanced down as if she had just realised what she was returning to him. 

"What are you reading?" she asked curiously, her train of thought completely derailed.

"PHBBBHAHHHHHHH!"

Vincent jumped in surprise, his eyes are opened so wide that they could have popped out of their sockets. What, his brain screeched to a halt, unable to even think as the girl doubled over in laughter-why does she seem to happy? His mind drew up a blank, and he was only able to stare at her until she said-

"I can't believe you actually believed me! Mum says I'm the worst actress she's ever seen, and Dad says I'm the second worst - second only to my mother!"

He gaped, and only then did it click. It seemed an explosion went up in his head, he should be annoyed probably, embarrassed even for falling for something like that, he could storm away and dwell in his humiliation and vow to never speak to anyone again; but he did not do any of that.

"Pfft," He let out a snort, biting back the laugh threatening to erupt but to no avail. Vincent couldn't help it, the laugh is infectious and barely a moment later he is chuckling at her words, "I-It- haha- it is alright. A-and a lot of people, I think, at least t-those that were at m-my town-heh."

"Thanks," He was about to take the book from her hands but then, she suddenly moved it out of the way. "I could be head girl, and you could be head boy! We could take on evil forces together like... like... like awesome people!" He is unsure if he heard her right, so he could only blink before a grin appeared on his face.

He felt like he is swelling up-but not in a bad way, it feels like something is filling his chest so full with...with lights that he didn't manage to say anything before she fired off her next question.

"T-that's a great idea!" He finally let out, "I-I mean, it is like-like those characters in the storybooks...even though they can't do anything at first, t-they became really, really amazing in the end!" He gushed, recalling all the great adventures, be it real or fictional, that he has read thus far. It all started with the main character having nothing and gaining and losing along the way-

"Oh! Um, the book?" The last question finally registered to his head, and glanced down at the book still held in her hands. In his bout, even he has forgotten about it. "Ahh..." He took the book from her hands and turned it over to the cover page. "This-" He smiled, looking down at the title printed in Times Roman font, taking up nearly half of the entire cover page.

"An Apprentice in the Wasteland".

"I-it is a story about a young girl's, Lime's adventure through the place called Wasteland with her teacher, Roy and the things they discover along the way," He summarized, "I've only read the first few chapters, but I think I like it a lot so far. I mean, it starts in a really...um, airy? Whimsy! Whimsy sort of feeling, but," He smiled, "Roy has just met up with a group called The Medics who are trying to save the world. It is starting to get a bit exciting, I think."

"Hey, that sounds really cool," she replied, peering at the title closer and committing it to memory. "Was it written by a wizard or a muggle? I don't recognise the title or the author. That's not surprising, though. I like reading, but I'm really, really slow at it." She adjusted her too-big robes, sized up for her growth spur that she usually had in the late spring.

"Say, if we're going to be head boy and head girl, we'll need to practice a whole bunch. Maybe we could even teach each other! Are there any spells that you have learned or read about that we could practice?" Lucy's blue eyes lit up in excitement. Out of everything about Hogwarts, she still couldn't get over how many people could use magic daily. At home, it was just her dad. Even then, he didn't do it too often because of his own personal philosophy about "building character." So, out of everything, she was most excited and determined to cast spells. 

She pulled out her thick wand, showing it to Vincent. "Look how ugly this thing is, though. I wanted one that was slender and whimsical. Did you know it took me six tries to find my wand? Six! None of them wanted me," she let out a laugh, clearly not sad about it in the least. "And wouldn't you know, I ended up with the one that I didn't want, either! So I guess it's only fair." She frowned down at the polished piece of wood. It was a little thicker than her thumb, making it larger than most wands in terms of diameter. It had a smooth, polished black section that would be big enough for her hand even when she became an adult which transitioned into curious orbs until it eventually tapered into a tip like a normal wand. 



"Anyway, doing magic is cool enough. I guess I don't need a pretty wand." She shoved her disappointment to the side and shrugged. "Anyway - spells. Any that we can practice?"

Vincent's face broke out into a large smile when she showed interest in his book, it always made him warm in his chest whenever someone is interested in something he enjoys; he found someone like that hard to come by and the last friend he had, back in his village, who actually enjoyed books had moved away recently.

"It is written by a muggle, my dad and I live in a muggle neighbourhood, since we aren't really close with his family." Which, had caused him to be raised in a mostly muggle environment with very little chance to interact with the magicals, a shame really, but now that he has a chance to discover more about the magical side of his family he is more than eager to delve into it all. "So a lot of books I read are written by muggles, though those written by magicals are quite good as well." He added.

He let his hands come up to clutch the book to his chest; even though he often carries a book or two around, carrying a heavy book like this 'An Apprentice in the Wasteland' can be quite tiring. Nodding along to what Lucy said, though he had to blink in surprise when she asked him if he knew any spells.

"Um, well...the teacher already taught us Lumos and Wingardium Leviosa right? Other spells, um...I think I've read one...uh, its called..." He bit his lips as he attempted to recall what he has read; it is almost amazing how he can recall every little detail about his fictional books yet he couldn't recall much of what he read from the textbooks, no matter how interesting it is.

"I think-" He pulled out his wand the same time she pulled out his. It is a simple-looking thing, not particularly think nor particularly attractive in any way. It had took him more than several tries to finally get this wand-and honestly he didn't know if he should be disappointed or excited when the want that finally chose him was this admittedly rather unattractive looking wand.


But alas, he is not one to care too much about appearance. Besides, the excitement over getting an actual wand of his own. At the mention of it, he looked at her wand-a simple thin ashy brown wand that looked somewhat crooked before straightening out into a pointed tip- and couldn't help but think of how suitable this wand would be on a dark wizard's hands with its crooked appearance , making an ‘o’ with his mouth. Six tries, he thought, “T-That must’ve b-been frustrating. Mine took about four or five tries...but I was already getting impatient.”

He let out a small laugh, “Well, um, I d-don’t think yo-yours is ugly? It-It looks really nice, and new- it definitely looks better than what I have right now,” He shrugged, twirling his wand around in his hand, “Mine is… boring, but I-I guess I am a boring person, s-so naturally my-my wand w-would be boring huh…” He shrugged, holding it up in front of him meekly, as if unsure if he should show it or hide it away.

"Ah right! Spells!" He exclaimed and quickly dropped his wand arm to his sides, "I think there is one that I have read. Nox, I think, it is supposed to extinguish the lumos spell? I'm not sure...but I think the wand movement was..." He murmured and turned to point his wand at an open area, drawing an arc before flicking up.

"Yeah, that's...that's Nox, I think. I-I mean, I haven't tried it before but...?" He turned to her, curious about what she has.

Lucy smiled as he recounted his home life. It was so interesting how much variety there was to be found among the students and their life before Hogwarts. Vincent's life seemed to be happy by the way he talked about it. 

"So a lot of books I read are written by muggles, though those written by magicals are quite good as well."

Lucy paused, holding up a finger. "Wait, did you just call them magicals? Instead of wizards? Is that... is that a term people use? I've never head it." She cocked her head, evaluating him before shaking her head. "Oh well, that doesn't really matter."

Her attention snapped back to him when he started mentioning spells. Of course, she chided herself. How could you have forgotten the most basic spells ever? Every first year knows those. She bobbed her head excitedly, hopping up and down a little, trying not to interrupt him. As she watched him trace the shape in the air, she exploded with, "We were assigned to practice Lumos and Nox as homework! We haven't learned it in class yet, but it is in our books... which I don't have with me. Oh well, we can figure it out!" 

She reached out and grabbed his sleeve, pulling him toward the shade of a large tree. It would be difficult to see if they had performed Lumos correctly in the daylight, seeing as it was bright and sunny outside. The tree would provide nice shade and a bit more visibility for their wand light. She continued to clutch his sleeve as she quickly moved over the grass, far too excited to be practising basic spells. 

She loved spells. There was something about them that thrilled her and made her insides feel warm and her chest swell like it was full of helium or pygmy puffs. When they reached the shade of the tree, she released his sleeve rather abruptly and whirled on her heel, her hair flying out in spindles as she did so, and hopped toward him.

"Do you want to go first, or should I?" her eyes widened in intensity, and they had a bit of a manic gleam.

Vincent shrugged, "W-well, I don't know really," His father had referred to his family as 'magicals' but Vincent supposes that that is the bitterness talking, he thought exasperatedly, "Wizards? Got to remember that..."

He nodded along with her, "Y-yeah," He does recall having to do an assignment, on Nox and Lumos, and thankfully he does remember the wand gesture and pronunciation of the spell...he hopes anyways. It would be quite embarrassing if he doesn't remember the first two spells he has learnt. "I-I still remember h-how to do it s-"

A small yelp came from his mouth when Lucy suddenly grabbed him by the sleeve, pulling him towards the shade of the large tree; he hastily followed after her, confused over why she would suddenly want to change location and it is only when they are standing under the shade of the large tree did his mind manage to link their previous conversation to her action.

Oh, lumos, he realized, his eyes glued to her hair and barely avoiding getting a face-full of hair to his face. The next thing he knew, she was staring at him, eyes wide almost maniacally, making him wonder if he has made the correct decision in letting her drag him along.

"Do you want to go first, or should I?"

His mouth opened, but he closed it again, "Ah-," he wonders if her excitement is infectious because despite his previous thought, he found the corner of his lips quirking up instead, "Lumos? I-I can do lumos, a-and maybe you can pr-practice Nox?" He suggested, pulling his wand out in preparation.

Taking a step to the side, further into the trees so that it is more shadowy, his eyebrows scrunched up in concentration as he recalled the movement and hesitantly, he traced the pattern in the air before calling out.

"Lumos."

Almost a moment passed before the tip of his wand lit up slowly, before it faded away. Frowning, he attempted it again while ignoring how his ears has heated up-oh how embarrassing! He avoided the eyes of Lucy, and focused on his wand instead.

"Lumos," He said slightly more forcefully; this is supposed to be a simple spell! He wouldn't let this go unless he could maintain it, whether or not there is a witness right now.

As if sensing its intent, his eyes widened when the tip of his wand brightened up-so much so that he had to squeeze his eye shut before his eyes got used to the sudden brightness. But it is unsteady still; almost akin to a flickering flame with how it would sometimes fade slightly before lighting up again.