Can a Guy get Directions to Adventure? PV W/Leo Fin

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Pay attention to the details of life - every sunrise, every sunset, and everything in between - or it will be gone before you even realize what you had

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

It seemed like Leonard was beginning to enjoy himself, evidenced by the slowly growing grin on the Slytherin's face as the conversation continued. That often became the case with people that spoke with Marshal for long; most couldn't resist at least a smile here and there, sometimes for varying reasons, but a smile was a smile.
Marshal was enjoying himself as well. This was certainly a better pastime than exploring the large castle alone. Friends had a tendency to make everything better.

So they could make a carrot dance, but apparently there was no known way to make it sing. No matter.
"That just means that it will be even more exciting when we learn how to do it," Marshal said, undeterred. "Like you said, we'll figure it out. Easy is overrated anyway.
He thought back to what his parents had taught him, that nothing good comes easily. You have to give a little to get a little. And besides, it was a lot more fun to accomplish something difficult than something that was simply handed to you on a silver platter.
Leo added his hesitance to have a dragon outside his dormitory, and Marshal countered, "No, it'll be fine. All you have to do is put a muzzle on it until- wait," he cut off the sentence, throwing his head back to look at the ceiling in disbelief, "There are mermaids in the..." Seeing nothing of the sort in the ceiling above them, he realized that Leo only meant the ceiling in his dormitory.
Squinting, he looked back at Leonard. "How does that work?" Then he held up a dismissive hand. "You know what? Never mind. We have more important things to worry about." Not that magical tango was going to be a thing either, apparently.

It was then that Leo mentioned something else, yet another thing that brought Marshal to excitement beyond all reason.
"Dueling club? You mean dueling with magic? Sign me up!" He didn't really know any spells yet, but that seemed unimportant at the moment. He'd figure something out. "Where do they meet? When do they meet? And how could you not want to join? As far as I can tell, that sounds like the most fun thing to around here, other than quidditch and flying, but I'll worry about that later."
Right then, Marshal decided he wanted to do something other than stand around here. There was enjoyment to be had, and now he had someone to show him exactly where, a friend to drag into ridiculous situations at any and all times. Well, that's how Marshal viewed the relationship, at least.
"Let's go somewhere, Leo. You know where the action's at, so take me to the best place for it. I bet we won't even die!" The Gryffindor had his most convincing face on. Eyebrows raised - check. Cheesy grin - I think you already know that's another check. Leonard simply couldn't refuse.

@Leonard Oaksworth

He nodded when the other said easy was overrated. While the choice of words was strange, and certainly not what he would say, the sentiment was shared nonetheless. Leonard, while loving efficiency almost as much as he loved his own relatives, also knew that the quickest way wasn't always the best. While Marshal's liking of the idea was more likely to be based on levels of fun, judging from the glimpse of his personality the Slytherin had caught during their conversation, his was based on accomplishment. Clashing views, but then again, complimentary colours were comprised of opposites.

"Yeah, yeah, I'm sure we can invent a spell for that. After all, it's just Latin and Greek words smashed together with some moving of a pointy stick," he said, bringing out his own wand and tapping the tip with newly found curiosity. Making an entirely new charm for something biologically impossible would be hard, yes, but it could happen. After all, if one could summon light and fire at will, surely making a vegetable sing a tune wouldn't be a waste of time. And with the blonde's seemingly endless amount of jokes and smiles for morale boosting, nothing was outside the realm of possibility.

Leonard held back a chuckle as the other looked up to the ceiling, thinking his eyes would be met with the unexpectedly scary mermaids. The boy could be likened to a golden retriever, in many ways: light haired, easily excited, a permanent goofy smile. Though, golden retrievers did not usually have such an interest in extremely dangerous activities. Or maybe they did. Leonard didn't have much experience with dogs.

"I'm pretty sure dueling is for each house, so I'm not really sure where you'd sign up for it. Maybe the bulletin? The common room? As I said, don't know. And, Marshal, we definitely seem to have different meanings of fun. I mean, airplanes make me feel queasy, but flying on a small piece of wood and straw twenty feet above the ground while having the imminent danger of leather balls and wooden clubs around your face? Not for me, though I'm sure you'd love the thrill."

"But, action? Now I do know where that is," he said, a wider, and for lack of a better word, sinister look coming across his face. They had been talking about initiating another member the year previous. "What if I were to tell you, completely hypothetically, there was a secret club of pranking in this school? Oh, and there's a very low chance of dying there. Hypothetically, of course."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Pay attention to the details of life - every sunrise, every sunset, and everything in between - or it will be gone before you even realize what you had

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

@Leonard Oaksworth

Leonard mentioned something about the actual execution of creating a new spell. Of course it flew entirely over Marshal's head, but he was encouraged that Leo seemed to know somewhat what he was talking about. As someone who did things like 'read books' very little, it was good to have smart friends. Such friends with brain power could redeem many situations, if given the chance. With that in mind, Marshal would give his new friend plenty of chances to do that very thing.

"Right, the sticks will do most of the work, I'm sure," he replied, despite the fact that he was entirely unsure. "We'll just wave them at our vegetables in random patterns every time we eat dinner. We're bound to figure something out eventually!"
Of course he knew that his proposed plan wouldn't exactly be the safest approach, what with random wand movements likely causing random effects and all, but risk always had to be measured against reward, and the way he saw it, the reward of creating a band out of undesirable food was much greater than the risks of indistinct wand movement. Then again, he hadn't been around wands all that much to this point, but learning through explosions was half the fun!

Leonard seemed to enjoy his curiosity and utter lack of knowledge concerning all things Hogwarts. It was quite possible that the Slytherin even saw him as a fool. Marshal understood that possibility, and was perfectly fine with it. He knew himself quite well; as such, he knew that he wasn't truly dense, as others might see him. He simply had a way of going about life that suggested as much. Whatever those around him thought was of no consequence.

Leonard explained that he knew next to nothing about the dueling club, which was rather unfortunate. He did say, however, that every house was able to get involved in it, meaning that Marshal had hope. He simply needed to locate either a flier or someone who knew what they were talking about, as he most certainly did not.
The second-year wasn't wrong about what Marshal would find enjoyable.
"Come on, you just can't let yourself think of it that way! There's no danger if you learn how to avoid the death balls without hitting the ground in the process." He jabbed a knowing finger at Leo. "We'll make an adept flyer out of you yet. But first, I need to find a broom."
He was still quite irked at his personal lack of flight-enabling sweeping tools. To have possession of such a thing would mean freedom and seemingly endless adventure. He had to find a way to get one somehow.

Leo's grin grew, but not only that; it seemed to morph into something more.. something almost morbid.
In spite of the less than trustworthy expression from the older student, Marshal's eyes widened in unmasked excitement. "Pranking?" he exclaimed, failing to lower his voice to the volume that Leonard had favored. Hopefully it wasn't terribly important that the secret remained... a secret. "That sounds like more fun than anything else I've done around here so far! And believe me," he grabbed at his collar in an almost cocky fashion, "I could add plenty to a prank club. My dad would be disappointed if I wasn't a master in the art." He then glanced around the area before leaning closer to Leo, finally lowering his voice. "Where might this secret club meet? Hypothetically, of course."

Leonard took a mental note to search the library for instructions and guides for the topic of creating spells, since it seemed the lion was serious (for lack of a better term, since from their conversation it was apparent serious was a word almost never applied to him) in their new after-school activity of managing a band of grocery goods. While he didn't care much for most other members of Marshal's house, if one of the random swish and swings of a stick ended in the entire table exploding, it was reason enough to be concerned.

"Well, perhaps not dinner. The previously mentioned rule about not having wands out also applies during food breaks, and someone sitting near could easily mistake that as you wanting to start a fight with them. I've had my fair share of very scary Gryffindors that I accidentally looked at for a second with my hand in my pocket who thought I wanted to go at it, fist-to-fist."

It would be hard to think such a face would ever want to even think anything negative concerning people. Golden retrievers just didn't work that way. They wished to make friends of those who loved them, those who took a glance at them for even less than a second, those whose faces would puff uncontrollably if they were within five feet of the fur, those who pushed them away with all their might. Such was the singular use, it seemed, of the other boy's brain. Or rather, the first, the other being reserved for his sole mission of getting into as many dangerous situations as possible.

"You can check the janitor's closet for one," he suggested with a flat tone, not at all seriously. "Maybe a mop will do fine. I'm not getting on one either way, I'd rather keep my face's features the way they are right now. Still rooting for you to get on the Quidditch team, though."

As long as it's not me getting hit by death balls and the ground, he thought.

"Your dad sounds a lot like mine, he'd be right offended if I didn't join some sort of practical joke making," he admitted. He made another mental note to try and not let his father know of Marshal's existence for fear of their conjoined power. "Well, hypothetically, I could introduce you to one of my co-founders this Saturday at the Courtyard. He's a lion as well, so maybe you'll run into him sooner. He wouldn't give up the secret, though, we're very underground. We could practice blowing stuff up there. Sound good to you?"

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Pay attention to the details of life - every sunrise, every sunset, and everything in between - or it will be gone before you even realize what you had

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

@Leonard Oaksworth

Marshal was quickly tiring of all these rules he was hearing about. It seemed that the professors around here quite enjoyed the concept of giving their students shiny things, then telling them to lock said shiny things away in a box, never to be touched or seen. But at least the students knew that, if they really needed them, they had those shiny things, if only they could remember where they put them.
Marshal was not a fan of the concept. In his opinion, shiny things weren't supposed to stay shiny and new. Rather, they were supposed to be used and played with until they turned into dust. After that, you could remember how shiny that thing was at the beginning, and that was enough.

He couldn't help but roll his eyes at Leo's mention of the rule against wands at breakfast.
"Is there any time we're allowed to use our wands?" He asked incredulously. "Maybe when we're about to get mauled by a man-eating unicorn or something?" He raised a finger. "Throw me out of school if you want, but I will battle that unicorn with my magic. That would be something to write home about."
He had hoped to write a veritable novel's worth of notes home to his parents about his wondrous adventures at Hogwarts, but it was starting to seem more like he would be writing a short story instead.

He grinned slightly when the Slytherin talked about possible fights being started by bringing one's wand out in public.
"Don't worry about that," he said dismissively. "I have ways of settling people down. Tell them a good joke, and they'll be too busy laughing to remember why they're angry! And if that doesn't work, just tell them how much you love them.." While he had used the first approach in the past, he hadn't yet had occasion to use the second. He was certain it would work, though.

He could tell that Leo wasn't entirely confident in his suggestion to try to fly a mop from the janitor's closet. Marshal had given that exact idea a lot of thought up to this point, but he wasn't going to admit it now. He merely smiled once more.
"I'm sure the janitor and I are going to get along great," he said cheerily. "I'm willing to bet that he's an old quidditch star, and I'll get him to teach you that there's nothing to be afraid of, aside from the reason why he sustained a career-ending injury. That's not important."
Where the story of the crippled janitor had come from, the boy wasn't sure. He was only certain that the man would have gone pro, had his career been given a chance to bloom.

In other news, Marshal was officially determined to meet Leonard's father. He sounded like a splendid fellow. He could even bring his own father. Maybe the two of them would hit it off...
He was definitely going to the snake's house eventually, but that could wait until later. At the moment, he was more interested in the alleged prank club. Blowing things up certainly sounded more interesting than skulking about the corridors like an unsuccessful bandit looking for his next query.
"Secrets? Explosions? Secret explosions? Leo, I have this dream at least twice a week." He glanced around suspiciously, then narrowed his eyes at Leo. "I am awake, aren't I? I'm fairly certain I managed not to drift off during my last class." Deciding that it was best to shoot for the stars, dream or not, he reached out with one hand, offering to shake. "In any case, you've got a deal. Set up that meeting, and I'll be there. If Saturday comes within the next few seconds, then I guess this really is a dream. If so, I'll remember it fondly and take it as a sign that I should start my own prank club."

@Marshal Mozor

It was with slight surprise Leonard found that Marshal was, indeed, capable of resentment. Based off his first impression of the boy, and his first impression alone, it was an anomaly worthy of being held with the chances the squid in the lake was actually a cyborg sent from the future. Instead of being incredibly terrified, however, as his reaction would be if the squid was revealed to be a cybernetic product of time travel, he was curious, beginning to think of the many opportunities that were unfolding before him to satisfy the blonde's apparent love for any sort of adventure. Hopefully, by day's end, he'd know if those adventures were specifically limited to the rule-following ones.

"Well, I, personally haven't been in that situation before, but I'd assume they'd allow students to defend themselves in the face of this theoretical man-eating unicorn. I wouldn't say it's likely to happen, though. Unicorns are usually pretty peaceful unless you attack them, then it's time to get trampled," he glanced back at his pocket with a more melancholy expression, the one containing the then-dormant, soon-to-be-exposed-to-fire stick. It hadn't been too long ago that he'd managed to sleep through a horrific spider attack, managing to make the all-powerful piece of wood into merely a remembrance of his failure to use it even when presented with a situation not unlike the one Marshal had presented. "Of course, there are many, many other violent things that could maul you, so better keep that wand at the ready, even if you might not get to use it."

Shook back to reality by the lion's sustained grin and concerningly offhand reassurances that a funny enough quip or a confession of love would manage to pacify any ill-tempered student that had noticed the dangerous twig in one's hand, he narrowed his eyes in pure, unrestrained doubt. Not even the best of theatrical actors would manage to suppress the judgment, Leonard believed. No matter, for with all the confidence put into the words, the other didn't seem to need validation. The snake could only hope the methods wouldn't be used too soon; a dead Gryffindor would be of no use to him or their little pranking organization.

Another statement based off questionable assumptions was made, this time embarking on an adventure to (further) fantasy land where the janitor had a life worthy of a novel and an accompanying film. Leonard decided to humor the outlandish idea that time around, for compared the previous proposition, it had a much lower fatality rate.

"If he's got a background that interesting, I'd gladly come with you to practice. No promises I'd be practicing with you, though. Absolutely no way in the seven hells I'm getting on any flying sweeper, mop, broom, or otherwise. As I said before, not breaking any body parts is loads more fun than you'd think. But, you know, my dad always says to follow your dreams, even if they lead you to some strange, strange places."

Leonard nodded as his recruit stated strange, strange facts about what went on in his mind during the night. Frankly, it was one of the less concerning things he'd heard in the first few hours of being in the castle again.

"Oh, believe me, Marshal, this isn't a dream." He stopped himself before telling the other it was a nightmare. A Gryffindor who was too scared to do anything, even if with this particular Gryffindor it seemed to be something impossible, was also no use to him or their organization. "If it were, there'd probably be a giant loaf of bread destroying some buildings in the distance. That happens often in my dreams, don't know about you. Anyways, It'd be an absolute hypothetical pleasure to hypothetically introduce you to our club's hypothetical co-founder."

A small jolt of happiness struck him again, filling him with the strange urge to put a fist in the air. It was almost guaranteed Alec would be thrilled with the new recruit, and even if almost guaranteed was now defined by a fifty percent error rate, that was closer than he'd ever been to fifty-one. It would seem his rare moment of contentment wouldn't last long, however, as the already dim light from outside disappeared completely, signaling that evening—and food—had arrived.

"Dinner's coming soon," he remarked. "As much as I'd love to hear more about our janitor's plight, we'd better get moving. Soon enough all the other seats will be taken, and I'd rather experience whatever accident ended his career then sit next to that lad from Charms class who makes just as many explosions as we will in our hypothetical pranks."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Pay attention to the details of life - every sunrise, every sunset, and everything in between - or it will be gone before you even realize what you had

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

@Leonard Oaksworth

While Leo was rather quick to discredit his killer-unicorn scenario, Marshal was unwilling to relinquish the exhilarating image so easily.
"Well, that's your opinion," he said, though the Slytherin's statement was likely fact, rather than opinion. "You can never be too prepared. When we inevitably run across a murderous unicorn on a rampage, you'll be grateful that one of us was ready for it. And besides, even a peaceful unicorn might not appreciate being ridden." The last comment was intended to be light-hearted, though it may well have been more ominous than anything. He was almost certain there were an ample amount of rules against taking a mythical creature for a joyride, but he was entirely certain that he would be unable to control his impulses if faced with such an opportunity. No rule would have a hope to change that.
The further mention of beasts better known for their vicious tendencies did nothing to curb his enthusiasm. If anything, it made him wonder just how much more exciting it would be to ride a violent creature than a peaceful one... Something to be logged away for future consideration.

The look of blatant doubt that graced Leo's face at Marshal's assured methods of peace-making skipped by the young Gryffindor's notice completely, leaving him sure that his newly acquired friend had every confidence in him concerning the matter. And why shouldn't he? Throughout his life, Marshal had never gotten into a fight, unless you counted that one time his friend's nose had run into his fist, of course. But that could hardly be passed as a fight, seeing as it consisted of only a single punch. Then there was the added fact that he had been convinced said friend was a demon from the underworld, set on sending himself and his three other friends to a fiery grave. So he figured any actions taken had been justified.
Again, there was also the very real possibility that he had simply never noticed that another individual wanted to engage in any sort of altercation. Recognizing anger had always been a pleasantly absent skill for the young boy.

On the subject of Leonard following him to practice with the brilliant janitor, Marshal grew exasperated, his arms raising in the air to reflect as much. "Well, if you don't practice with me, then that kind of defeats the purpose of, you know," he now reached toward Leo in an imploring gesture and added, "practice. And believe me," the snake almost certainly did not, "I don't plan on breaking any bones. That's what practicing with an underappreciated old man is for - to become a master." Growing more serious for the first time in the conversation, the boy folded his arms across his chest. "Even if you do get hurt once in a while, it's better to look back on an injury than a what-if. I don't want to live with regret because I was too scared to grab life by the horns and get what I wanted. I'll bet that's what your dad meant when he said to chase your dreams." He shrugged, a grin spilling over his lips once more. "But what do I know?"

The information Leo revealed about his nighttime visions elicited a need for Marshal to rub his stomach. "Sounds to me like your subconscious is trying to tell you you're hungry. That's why I never go to bed on an empty stomach. It does things to you." His tone grew almost haunted with the last words, though it disappeared with the idea of becoming a proud member of this alleged prank club. "Forget the hypotheticals. I'm way too excited for that!"
The timing of dinner's arrival couldn't have been better, as he was still rubbing his stomach absently. "Oh, right! The best part of the day!"
Without hesitation, he darted away, headed for the Great Hall, and tossed over his shoulder, "I'll race you there, and I'll try to find that kid from Charms class while I'm at it! I want to talk to him."
Unfortunately, he was not likely to win the race, nor find the aforementioned kid from Charms class, as he was running in the perfectly wrong direction.

Marshal has vacated the thread