Closed Part One: In Which the Trouble Begins pv mahl

Date: 20 April 2024 Time: After dinner

Interacting with: @Astra Norrick Mentions: Hermes

English | French Thoughts

The weather was really fantastic today, and Mahlioz couldn't have been happier to be enjoying it with Astra, sharer of her braincell. Away from everything else. Ignoring their duties, which spanned from homework to duelling practice to actually adressing the stupid flighty thoughts in their mind that they didn't understand. No, all that could be done later, when it was rainy and freezing. It was too beautiful a day to ruin with those sorts of things.

"I've been pretty good, thanks!" She... wasn't sure that was not a lie, though she wasn't sure if it was either. If she didn't know, it couldn't count, right? "Oh, yeah, it was alright. Did I... did I tell you I was moving?" Ah, shoot. Already heavy topics. How to lighten it now? "So I got to take advantage of my house a little more than usual. It was fun, I got a bunch of chocolate for Easter, I think my parents were using it as a way to apologize." They were lingering on the topic too much. Mahlioz had never been great at leading a conversation.

Unfortunately, it needed to be done, because the subject desperately needed changing. She glanced around for a good distraction, and found one without too much difficulty, as it was jumping and bounding around in the grass. "I seriously can't believe I hadn't known about Hermes before! He's. So. Cute. I'll have to introduce you two to Eusèbe at one point." She hesitated. "Well. Unless Hermes eats bunnies. I don't know much about cats." Ironic, for a kid with a (magi)zoologist as a mother.

Pushing their green frog hat on a little more to battle the cool breeze that had just passed by, they added, "What about you? How is everything? What have you been up to? Apart from keeping your extraordinarily adorable cat a secret from me." They faked indignation before letting it drop with a laugh.

Date: 20 April 2024 Time: After dinner

Interacting with: @Astra Norrick Mentions: Hermes

English | French Thoughts

"Uh... France," Mahlioz winced, before quickly adding, "But I'll get to keep going here! I'm staying with a family friend during the school year." Which didn't make it any easier. Well, maybe a little bit easier - Mahlioz did not want to lose this place and these people that she loved so much. But they'd been living in that house for thirteen and a bit years.

The proposal to have Mahlioz stay at Astra's was tempting as heck. "That would be awesome, but I think my parents have already decided." They seemed keen on ruining her life by moving - why would they try to make it any better for her? At least that's how it felt like. But she would ask, that was for sure. "Thank you though. Seriously, I appreciate it."

"Well I really, really like him back," they replied as Hermes began brushing up against her ankles. From the way Astra's eyes lit up at the mention of Eusèbe - it was crazy neither of them had known either of them had pets - it seemed she was going to like him just as much as Mahlioz did Hermes. "Yeah! He's named after a character in a comic book series I love." Astra's cat seemed way too kind and adorable to try and eat Eusèbio. "Eh, I'm sure he'll be fine. He was chased by a ferret once - he'll manage a little rough playing." He was kind of terrified of the two ferrets who lived in their dorm now - hopefully he'd be fine with cats.

"Ah yes, of course. Met any alternate universe us-es recently?" She grinned. Actually, now that they thought about it, a few too many questions were beginning to rise in their mind - were the other Mahliozes moving, too? Were they also having gender crises? But she pushed away the questions for now. They were for another time. Right now, she wanted to relax with her friend. "It's so nice outside today." It almost felt like nothing could go wrong.

But of course, it was Hogwarts. Something could always go wrong.

Date: 20 April 2024 Time: After dinner

Interacting with: @Astra Norrick Mentions: Ruby Cazares, Hermes

English | French Thoughts

The look of shock on Astra's face followed by a relieved laugh and a "thank god" was enough to make Mahlioz's heart melt. She wasn't exactly sure why she was all that surprised - the two were friends, weren't they? As evidenced by the fact that they were hanging out together, that was how friends worked. It was just that after too long without seeing each other, Mahlioz always had a sort of irrational fear that their friends didn't care about them as much anymore.

Obviously that was not the case. "Ceasing to exist properly" was certainly a way to prove that, and Mahlioz couldn't help but smile bashfully. "Pffft, thank you." The sentiment was most definitely reciprocated. In fact, it was so much so that at Astra's joking proposal of running away, Mahlioz almost considered it. Yes, they were themselves, and yes, that meant they were terrified at even the prospect of breaking a rule, but this felt almost worth it. Almost. "Thank you."
Perhaps she would take her up on that, another time. It occurred to her that she really did not know as much about Astra as she would have liked - did she have siblings? Had she known about magic before Hogwarts? And if seeing her friend's house came with the answers to those questions, that couldn't hurt.

"It's called De Cape et de Crocs, it's French!" They knew for a fact it could be found at Hogwarts' library (then again, what couldn't?) because they had began reading it in first year before getting interrupted by a certain older Slytherin. It was amusing remembering that now. It felt like a whole lot more than a year and a half had passed. "Ah yes, the bravest. He was named after a bunny with a sword, after all. It's... a heck of a comic." She grinned.

Mahlioz might have been unofurtunate enough not to know all that much about Astra, but they could tell something was up after the quantum police talk. A wonderful day, just like us. Was that true? Mahlioz was dreading the summer holidays, and though they were getting rather good at ignoring their problems and pretending it really was a wonderful day, the problems were still there. Was Astra doing the same thing? The girl seemed deep in thought after their playful conversation about alternate universes, and it didn't seem like it was purely about other dimensions.

Mahlioz was hesitant to ask. There was, of course, the good chance she'd completely misunderstood and that Astra was just fine. But two years had taught the Slytherin enough about this school being full of awful things that she often didn't know about. It was just... they were having such a good day. What if she made Astra mad by asking? They themselves would not have wanted her to ask them if the roles were switched.

But this was her friend. So she opened her mouth to begin formulating a question - except Astra got to speaking first. "Hermes?" Right, the cat. Mahlioz looked around. "Uh. Yeah, no, me neither." Uh oh. "He was chasing a bird earlier, I think? Going that way." They pointed to the last place they had seen the creature bouding around, slightly further from the castle than the two Slytherins. Slightly closer to the forest at the edge of the grounds.

Getting up and dusting themselves off, Mahlioz continued to look around. "Hermes!" Obviously, no response, as Hermes was a cat. Right. Well, he was at Hogwarts and named after the god of messengers, so there was no harm in hoping he could speak. "He can't have gone too far. You want to look for him?" She had no idea how cats worked, maybe they came home on their own. But it was getting close to curfew, now that they thought about it.

Reducio

You're all good, I am also sorry for the lateness got a bad case of writer's block, but I am back! As an apology, here's the original Don Eusèbio from the comic lol, I hope you appreciate his magnificence