Deep Discussions PV Jack Burnett Closed

Jack had come to the Owlery with Christmas greeting letters for his family when he spotted a girl already there. He paused, wondering if he was inturrupting something or if he might have startled her, but then she looked down at her hand and he noticed the same thing she did; she had no letter to send.

Had she sent it already, perhaps? She certainly didn't seem to be in any hurry. Just as he was about to open his mouth to say something, and owl flew down to perch on her shoulder. She spoke to it and he listened, both curious and intrigued. There weren't very many people who spoke to animals that he knew, but he supposed if one were to have surprised him like that, he might have as well. It made him chuckle softly to himself under his breath.

He cleared his throat, hoping not to startle the girl and bird with his entrance into the Owlery, but he was eager to send his own letters as soon as possible. Walking over to the roosts, he eyed the messenger creatures before glancing back to the girl.

"Good morning," he greeted with a smile. "Merry Chirstmas. Maybe that's what your owl friend flew down to tell you."

Turning back to the owls, he asked playfully, "So, who wants to send my family in Wales a Christmas letter? There'll be a bit of Chirstmas bacon in it for you at least, I'm sure. My brother Ruka loves animals and he's sure to feed you well when you get there."

It wasn't like Jack really believed in talking to animals, but he never knew with Hogwarts' messenger owls. It was difficult to say how much they could understand with how efficiently and accurately they sent their mail from one wizard to another. It couldn't have hurt to try to talk to them, could it have? Even if he felt a little silly doing it, at least he wasn't the only one with this girl having just done the same thing.

@Lizzy Solace

Interacting With: @Jack Burnett

When told that the girl was pretty sure owls couldn't talk, Jack laughed aloud.

"Yeah? Tell that to Jake Morris. He insists animals can communicate like humans can. But to each their own, I guess." He waved vaguely up at the owls all around them. "Still...these birds must have some sort of supernatural understanding if they're accurately sending our mail all the time. Don't you think?"

He blinked when the girl apologized, about to ask what for when she proceeded to introduce herself. Then he grinned. "No need to be sorry," the Slytherin told her. "I don't usually introduce myself unless someone asks. Or they introduce themselves first," he added, thinking. "Anyway, good to meet you, Solace. I'm Jack Burnett."

He motioned to an owl to come closer and walked up to it when he noticed he had its attention. Tying his letter to its leg, he regarded Lizzy out the corner of his eye. "Decided to stay at Hogwarts for Christmas by choice, or because you had to?" he asked, not seeming to care if his question might have seemed too nosy or personal to ask a practical stranger. "I don't think I've seen you around before. Is this your first year at Hogwarts?"

Once he was finished with securing his letter and instructing the owl where to go, he stuck out his arm for the bird to perch on so he could carry it to the open window beside Lizzy.

@Lizzy Solace

Interacting With: @Jack Burnett

"He is pretty imaginitive, yes," Jack agreed with a nod. "But I find most animal lovers tend to imagine animals feel and communicate things more than they probably do." He blinked, thinking. "I wonder if animagi know anything about that. I suppose I'll find out eventually."

He smiled and dipped his head in acknowledgement when she called him by his last name which was what he preferred. First names seemed too personal a thing to him to call each other by unless people were really close with one another and he didn't particularly like getting close to other people. It just seemed to cause nothing but problems.

When Lizzy stated she 'stayed because she had to', he looked at her abruptly, wondering if it was something more personal than would have been polite to ask about. "Oh. Well, I'm...sorry if you had to come back even if you didn't want to," was what he eventually decided on responding.

Her admission that it was her first year earned another nod as he turned his attention to the owl with his letter. Telling it his address, he urged it onward with a bit of bacon which it almost nipped his fingers for. Once it had taken off and was flying into the distant horizion, Jack finally turned back to Lizzy. He answered her final question with a wry smile and held up three fingers.

"Afraid not," the redhead replied. "I'm a mudblood, but after three years, even the novelty of Hogwarts and the wizarding world in general starts to wear off. At least for me. Maybe it won't be that way for you, though." He glanced back out the window once again, enjoying the cool, fresh morning air. "What do you think of the school so far?"

@Lizzy Solace

Interacting With: @Jack Burnett

"Yup; that's right," he answered cheerfully, beaming. "Even joined a club that Pericles Dralt formed for aspiring animagi. You could join it if you were interested in becoming one too." The fact that the first year girl already knew what animagi were told Jack that she must have had some interest in the matter, though he wasn't sure how much. "I'm not such a big fan of animals myself, but I think it'd be interesting to be able to turn into one. What about you?"

He paused when she noted she 'finally caught him speechless' and then laughed. "I guess you did. Do really I talk a lot? I suppose I haven't been called 'Chatter Fox' for no reason." He hadn't realized a girl he had just met would pick up on it so quickly, though. Either he really did talk way too much or she was especially astute. Maybe it was a little of both."I guess I like talking because that's how you get to know others - even if it's just seeing how they respond." He rubbed the back of his neck, chuckling softly.

Lizzy's pointing out of the term 'mudblood' as an insult caused Jack to grin more broadly than ever, as if he'd been wondering if she would pick that up. As if he'd been waiting for it. "Oh, it is," he agreed, "but I think it's stupid to use it as an insult when the people who made up and use the term usually aren't mudbloods and the ones who are mudbloods usually have no idea what it means. So I like to use it as a normal term to get people more used to it. If everyone uses it like it's normal, then it can't really be taken as an insult anymore, can it?" He winked. "Not to mention it's faster to say and more catchy than 'muggle-born'."

Jack listened attentively when Lizzy replied with what she thought of the school. He casually leaned against the window, nodding, and his brows shot up at the mention of a brother. When she asked what it was like when he himself first came to Hogwarts, his grin returned, though a little more sheepish than before.

"Well, since I knew almost nothing about magic, it was a bit of a shock for me. I was an only child, so there wasn't anyone I knew to tell me about Hogwarts or the existance of the wizarding world before I got enrolled here. After my first year, we adopted this second year kid as my older brother because he had no family to call his own, but he was pretty clueless about the wizarding world too. What about your brother?" he questioned, tilting his head. "Older or younger? Do you two get along?"

@Lizzy Solace

Interacting With: @Jack Burnett

"Oh. Pffft. Well, now I feel stupid," Jack chuckled when Lizzy named the club. Or, rather, the 'league'. "That's cool that we're part of the same club then, though. Looking forward to seeing you around since two other members I had brought into it aren't a part of it anymore." His smile twitched and grew melancholy until she mentioned 'a whole new meaning to the phrase 'I like animals'' which earned another laugh out of him.

He beamed when she said he was especially inquisitive, apparently taking that as a compliment. "Exactly! Like one big experiment," Jack told her, pleased she had caught on so quickly. "It used to get me in a lot of trouble, though. Bullies don't like being experimented on."

"Thank you! I'm so glad you can see my reasoning behind it," the third year answered in regards to the 'mudblood' conversation. "And sure, I'd be honored if you'd use it, too! I got into an argument with Professor Galim - the Muggle Studies Professor - one time because she didn't think it would work. Here's hoping we can change her mind about it eventually."

He shrugged. "I kind of helped this one girl start a club once called the Miraculous Muggle-born Mudbloods Club, but we didn't really know what to do with it, so it sorta just fell apart. I had been hoping to get more people to use the term then, but because we didn't really ever have more than one meeting, people didn't really get to learn about it."

The Slytherin's brows rose when he heard Lizzy talk about her brother, Ben. So, he was Jack's age, then. His face fell when he heard Ben was the reason Lizzy came back and why - and that he had left without saying goodbye. "Jeez, that's awful," Jack commented, thinking again about his own brother and fights that they two had also had. It was tough having a sibling. "Ben...he isn't magical like you, then?"

He hesitated when she asked about his own older brother. "Oh...yeah, his name is Ruka," the third year explained. "He was a Gryffindor, but last year he decided to quit studying at Hogwarts and just stick to learning about muggle stuff. He didn't grow up going to muggle school, so he's still behind in a lot of things like math and stuff." Jack's shoulders drooped. "I miss him, though. He and another student named Kazuo were also part of the League of Aspiring Animagi before they stopped attending Hogwarts."

@Lizzy Solace