Picture snapped of Guitar Tunes PV Santario

Alan would only nod again. The reply only made sense, so it definitely made sense that she likes likes him. He smiled slightly at her. "I think it sounds correct, that you like him more than a friend because he is your best friend!" Alan had no clue what he was agreeing or not agreeing to, but apparently Sanny knew what it meant to like like someone. So now he had his answer, liking someone in a special way means, if they inspire you.

"I like a lot of people, but I don't actually have that many friends, so I would be happy to be your friend as well!", he grinned at her, before looking back at one of the photographs. "So... is he good at flying?", he asked curiously, wondering, if he might be able to teach him. No way he would get close to that Flying professor, if he could avoid her. That just seemed to be of no use, because Alan just completely could not stand her. "if you developed some more pictures, I would love to see them by the way!", he informed her, brushing his hair back. It was still rather short, since he just cut it before the year started again, but it would grow, since he would not try to cut it by himself. He wanted it to look nice after all.

San internally sighed with relief because it seemed that she had reasoned out properly what like like meant. Or so she thought anyway, and if this older boy who was around what? Thirteen? Said it sounded correct then obviously she must be correct. In essence, Alan was not wrong either Rook did inspire her, and he brought out portions of her personality that she didn’t have a chance to know until she had come to Hogwarts. All this time she had been afraid of making friends because she didn’t think that she would be good at it or good enough for it. People tended to think that way when you spent all of your time alone and she just assumed that that was how it was supposed to be.

Now however she had at least four friends that she could think of. Rook, of course, her best friend, Dale who had been her first friend ever, then there was Gris whom she had met by happenstance, and lastly, now Alan was swiftly becoming friends. It seemed she had a penchant for collecting lions as friends. When Alan asked if Rook was good at flying, she nodded her head. “Of course he is! He isn’t the Gryffindor Quidditch Captain for nothing you know. Why?” She was curious as to what would make Alan want to know how well Rook flew. When he said that he’d love to see more photos when she had them developed, she would smile again. “Of course you can!” She loved to share her photos with people.

"So he is the Captain for Gryffindor?", Alan had not known that. While Alan thought flying was cool he had always pushed the topic away from himself, especially in conversations as he had no intention to face his fears or have anyone find out about them. However the young lion was now determined to challenge himself and proof that he had it in him to actually fly without fear and maybe having help with his goal would not be the worst option he had, especially if it meant making another friend.

"I was going to ask him whether he could help me to learn flying, because I am really bad at it and well knowing that he is the captain means he is used to instructing and coaching people, so maybe I could give it a try? Especially since our teacher is not always that... suited to teach us stuff...", he mumbled, a slight nervousness could be picked up from the little tremor in his voice or by the way he avoided eye contact with the girl. "So yeah, the pictures, I would really love to see more of them, if you had no other goals you could have been a great reporter or photographer! For Quidditch games maybe, then again it is also possible to do that as a hobby...", he would ramble a bit, trying to get away from the topic, dreading her asking him if he was afraid of flying.

Santario nodded as he confirmed that Rook was the Captain of the Gryffindor quidditch team and when Alan mentioned their flying teacher she couldn’t help but grimace. She picked up on his nervousness, but she wouldn’t point it out as that would be far too rude. “Oh no! I cannot stand her. I don’t blame you for not wanting to learn from her. She can’t even show up to lessons on time. It’s like she doesn’t take us seriously.” She huffed crossing her arms clearly not liking the teacher spoken about. “I don’t see why you couldn’t ask him. I couldn’t tell you if he would say yes or no, but if you don’t ask him you will never know. The worst that could happen is he could say no and then you would be right where you are not, but you’ll have an answer.”

She tried to give him an encouraging smile because she knew sometimes Rook was not always the most approachable person but if it was done on the quidditch pitch then maybe he’d have a shot. “Try to find him on the training grounds like in the early mornings. He’s always training.” She shrugged as it was no secret that the Gryffindor Captain trained every option that he got. More often than not San joined him on days that weren’t a Slytherin practice days or a Gryffindor practice day.

He brought up her photos again and she flushed slightly not used to so much attention to things that she did or to her in general. “I do plan on getting photos of the quidditch games as long as they aren’t against Slytherin because obviously, I can’t be taking photos during my own games.” She laughed at the image of herself trying to either take photos from the bench or while on her broom in from of the goalposts. 

Alan nodded vehemently, relieved that she did not get angry for him speaking so rudely bout a professor. Well he still did not know her, so for him everything he told her could affect their starting friendship negatively. He had met people who took school too seriously and forgot how to live at such a young age already, so he was happy with the way Sanny reacted.

"I agree she can be so very rude and is just weird with her weirder obsessions!", he pointed out with a huff. Hopefully he would not have to deal with Professor Bercegaey too often from now on and if, he would avoid any discussions with her.

All she did was talking about how great she was and about some guys, which was just weird to Alan. She was supposed to teach them, not have a tea.

"I will try that… I think" he said, which in itself might not be completely true. He would have to learn the basics by himself first, because he did not want to seem like an awful beginner in front of the captain, or Rook. The boy seemed to be okay, if a little confusing to the third year.

"You're on the team?!" He asked her excited.

Santario nodded her agreement about the flying professor and again when Alan stated that he might try to approach Kyle. When he asked her if she was on the quidditch team she smiled. “Yeah I am a second-string Keeper for the Slytherin team. So I’ll only get to actually play if the other team knocks our first-string keeper down for the game. I love to practice though. I normally do extra morning practices with Kyle as long as it isn’t a day where Gryffindor or Slytherin trains. We may be friends off of the field but when it comes to entering that pitch all external relationships are left at the gate.”

That made it easier because a loss on either side didn’t affect their friendship it was all apart of the game. If anything one beating the other only made the one who lost prouder of the one who had won. From the outside looking in their friendship seemed a little insane, but it worked for them and in the end that was all that mattered. “So what about you Alan? Any other hobbies besides creatures and learning how to play the guitar?” She could tell that he didn’t enjoy the conversation being shifted onto him, but at the same time how would they get to know each other better if he didn’t want to talk about himself?

Alan looked at her and nodded. "The Keeper is the person who looks for the- wait no... that is the Seeker. The Seeker looks for the golden ball and the Keeper is the person who keeps the other team from making a goal?", he asked in a mix of curiosity. He had never really bothered to learn Quidditch terminology, because it just reminded him of his fear. He had always tried to push everything that had to do with his fears away instead of facing them, but he did not want to do that anymore. He always got jealous of Quidditch players, who could fly without worry of falling down and he hated it; not the Quidditch players, but the feeling of jealousy. He did not want to feel that way anymore so he had to learn how to get over his fears.

"Hmm... I like exploring new places and well... I usually go running if I have the time, but I am also very curious about Flying, I just never got over-", Alan stopped and cringed slightly. He was just about to admit his fear of flying to her, to someone who was on the Quidditch Team, that would have been so embarrassing! "Uhm... n-nothing", he mumbled ashamed, as his cheeks reddened a bit as well as the tips of his hair.

Santario giggled at Alan as he tried to remember what the positions were. “So there are the Chasers who go after the red Quaffle and try to score points. The keeper guards the goals, then you have the beaters who try to smack bludgers at the opposing team; keepers and seekers tend to be higher targets. Then lastly you have the seekers who find the golden snitch and of course, end the game.” She now, because of Kyle, now had a tendency to prattle on and on about quidditch if given the opportunity. He had instilled a deep passion for the sport in her, not that she was complaining.

She caught it, his abrupt cut off on words, but she knew better than to just bring attention to it. That would be far too rude of her to do to someone she had just met. Instead, she focused on the first part of his sentence. “I love to explore too! Really that’s why I ended up here today, it was mainly because it was an area I hadn’t wandered to yet. Quidditch training takes up a lot of my time now. That and homework and hanging out with Rook. So when I do find myself with the free time I try to wander and find new places to take photos of.”

Alan was barely listening, he tried and of course he understood what she was telling him, but while it made sense, it was still difficult to remember. He knew what Seeker were and Keeper and Beater and whatever the other positions were called; but it was kind of difficult to stay focused. So he was just listening and nodding his head from time to time as she was patiently explaining what he had missed in Flying Class, because he could not deal with listening to his professor for longer than a few minutes.

"We can discover the castle together then; don't worry I am in my third year and still sometimes find places that I have never been at before... the castle is somewhat alive so I don't think you can completely discover it anyway! But there are a lot of secret passageways", he explained, rambling a little. This was a subject that he could talk about and the Marauder's Map was a great help finding those places. It didn't make it much easier, he still had to find the passageways but at least it would show him the area they were located at. Alan would smile at her softly, hoping she would accept his offer, because he imagined it to be a lot of fun.

Santario would give him a nod when he suggested exploring the castle together. “I think that would be a wonderful Idea! I’m more than sure that you have found places in your two years ahead of me that would take me that long to find.” She thought about when she might have time again to go exploring. The quidditch match was coming up soon and after that in October things would no doubt be a little busy especially with the Masquerade and Kyle’s birthday at the end of the month. “Hm, Things are getting a little busy with Quidditch practice and all my extra training with Rook, and homework…”

She reached up and tapped her lips with her index finger as she thought. “Hopefully we can do it soon, but I have a small feeling it might take longer given how our schedules differ. I’m still getting used to it honestly. I was used to a private tutor at home.” A subject she regretted bringing up as it passed her lips. She didn’t enjoy talking about her home life, not because her home life was bad, but because she was a little embarrassed by being isolated the way that she was. Kids thought she was silly when she didn’t know the kinds of games that they knew. Or when she was more formal and mature than she should be because that is what she was used to being around. She was so thankful that she was gaining friends that were helping her to feel like the kid that she was supposed to be.