Horologium PV| D. Dragonclaw

Hearing that Damien would enjoy a Cyrus-guided trip to New York City made the duck-loving young man smile to himself. It was a softer smile than his usual brazen ebullience; he actually averted his gaze and tapped his feet to convey his joy instead. The thing he'd noticed during the past two years was that, contrary to much of his experience until then, people actually seemed to be rather pleased by his presence and, in fact, appeared to want to spend more time with him. Such a thing had been so foreign, since when he was younger, most people had simply avoided the exuberant boy's dramatic antics.

But he had grown, had matured, and those 'dramatic antics' were no longer as annoying as they were a source of fun for those Cyrus spent time around.

'Well... everywhere, to be honest.' Cyrus chuckled. 'I'm gonna spend some time with my aunt in New York, for sure, and I wanted to meet up with my girlfriend in Ireland, but after that, there's so much to explore! I want to go see Ikea, but in Sweden, and then Legoland in Denmark. I want to check out Egypt because there's so much history there, but I fear I don't trust myself to find my way around anywhere other than Alexandria or Cairo. But I really want to go to Mongolia to see just... everything. I do really need to go to a Spanish-speaking country; I've been learning Spanish and I want to practise, I just...' He sighed and stared out across the lake. 'The world is so big, so full of opportunity, and I have this opportunity to go see it. And I need to take advantage of it.'

It was then that he was struck by the age difference between him and Damien. Did the younger boy think he was just spouting rubbish because of the strong desire Cyrus had to see the world before settling into adulting? When Cyrus had been Damien's age, he hadn't even believed Vatican City was a country; now, he was preparing himself to visit come autumn.

'Ohhh, huh! I don't really have a lot of wizard friends, like from wizard families and all, so it's hard for me to know what's "normal". In the US we just drive everywhere. I prefer boats, though.'

The most horrific moment of the entire interaction so far just had to be when Damien asked... the most insane question ever... Cyrus's jaw quite visibly dropped, and he brought his hands to his mouth, horrified. 'My dude,' he breathed. 'What do you mean, what is Legoland???'

Now, dear reader, an aside: the inexplicable duckalicious duckman himself had never been to Legoland. Woe was him. However, he most certainly was aware of the beauties of Legos and their Land.

'Well, let me enlighten you. I mean, I haven't been. But... every little boy learns of Legoland growing up.' It was late. He was sleepy. He was allowed to be dramatic. 'Legos are these, like, little toys. Bricks. You build stuff with them. But there are sets, so like... uh, you're from London. There are sets you can build like cities, like there's a London one. But there are also spaceships and airplanes, which, uh, normally they fly but the Lego ones don't. But at Legoland, I hear it's like a theme park! I dunno if wizards have those. But they're cool. Lots of different things to look at and do, all centred around one specific thing. My favourite was probably Disney World, which was based around characters from stories.'

He hoped he'd explained it well, but he would certainly be able to explain it better if Damien had any questions!

His smile only broadened when Damien said 'now you have a wizard friend'. It was true – more true, perhaps, than the other boy knew. Cyrus had a special place in his very big heart for the friends he'd met at wizard school. Elias, Hanya, Slava... and now Damien. Every new friend was like a star in the sky, shining brightly and full of joy. 'I suppose you're right!' Cyrus exclaimed. 'It's neat to think about. That between these very different worlds, we are, in fact, very similar. I suppose that ought to be what it means to be human.'

Cyrus nodded excitedly when Damien likened Legos to art. 'YES! I've never really thought about it that way, but ohmygoodness yes! The only limit to what you can do with Legos is your creativity! Well, and the fact that most of them are kind of rectangular.' He wouldn't get into the specifics of how some sets had bricks that were not actually bricks at all but took different shapes. That likely would have confused Damien. 'I guess one of these days I've gotta show you! One time at Ilvermorny my aunt sent me a Mandarin Duck Lego set which was SO COOL.'

He went speechless when Damien admitted he had never heard of Disney World. This made a bit more sense, but was still insane! 'It's, uh, you know! Stories! It is a world of stories.' He was so very eloquent, wasn't he? 'Like, I dunno if wizards have this, but bedtime stories and fairy tales. And then the "world" has things based on the characters! So you could go ride a pirate boat, or dance with mice, or spin around in little teacups. My favourite is this thing called "It's a Small World", and it has these little guys who sing while you float on a boat! It's lit.'

He hoped that explanation made sense. Describing Disney princesses seemed like another level of difficult, so he was not going to try that one just yet!

'Do you know of anything wizards do that Muggles wouldn't know about? I mean, aside from magic 'n' all. Like, something a Muggle-born wouldn't know?'
Date: 12 April 2025
Time: Night
Location: Grounds
Private to: @Damien Dragonclaw

Despite the late hour of the night, the art of Legos seemed to wake Damien right up. Cyrus grinned, giggled and fought to stop himself from kicking his feet. It was so refreshing to meet an open-minded artist willing to explore the mediums of the mundane world Cyrus had grown up in. Usually it was just Ancient Greek artists this, Ancient Roman artists that. They were fine, of course; Cyrus did love himself some Lysus. However, art changed with the ages, and it changed with the cultures it came from. All of the art history nerds at Ilvermorny were so boring in that respect, and Cyrus felt that way with love. Where was the appreciation for Gilgamesh? What about Andy Warhol? Why not Steven Spielberg – why didn't wizards have a film class in Muggle Studies? There was so much room for improvement, if only people would open their minds like Damien had.

'Yeah, of course!' he finally said, no longer quite so lost in his thoughts. 'I can owl you a set when I get back home. Although, I'm like ninety percent sure there's a Lego store in the Muggle side of London. So if you can exchange galleons backwards for, I dunno, pounds and stuff, then it's something you could go do there! They have tutorials on how to make things with each set, although you could also just buy a lot of bricks and think of a design yourself.' The more he spoke excitedly, the more he wondered if he should look into advertising instead of fashion design. He'd certainly be good at it.

Cyrus couldn't help but laugh giddily as Damien expressed utter confusion at the idea of the most glorious Disney World. 'It's... magic.' Yes, he was getting a kick out of this. 'You know. A bit of whimsy in the world! Mice are cute and all. And I can't disclose the secret of the spinning teacups, but it's totally possible. I'm pretty tall, and I've fit in there!' He pondered the idea of informing Damien that these were not just any teacups but life-size teacups, but he decided against it. He would let the boy wonder.

'Oh, uh, no! Don't worry, the little guys are okay.' Was that offensive to the animatronics? Cyrus didn't know. 'It's, uh, their job! They sing because it's their work. Like how my mom was an actress or my dad's a businessman.' He wracked his brain for whatever his Aunt Teresa did but couldn't remember it for the life of him.

Cyrus nodded, enthused, when Damien mentioned magical creatures. He could already envision the pink perfection of a pygmy puff, or the duck-like beak of a Niffler, and the thought made him smile. However, Damien mentioned something he actually hadn't known of previously. 'Deathly Hallows? What's that?'

Although Cyrus hadn't really thought of the idea of the guys in It's a Small World being forced to work, he imagined it wouldn't be pleasant. After all, Disney was supposed to be a land full of joy, of whimsy! Working when you didn't want to really just took all the fun out of it, didn't it? He didn't want to contemplate it too deeply for fear of the late night bringing out some sad, dreadful thoughts – and this was a fun occasion, after all, spending the night stargazing with a newfound friend!

The look on Damien's face did momentarily stall Cyrus's utter joy towards life. Were the Deathly Hallows really such a big deal? Like, were they so commonplace he was silly for not being super familiar with them? He tried to think of where he might have heard of them before, but all he could remember was that Halloween used to be called All Hallows' Eve, and he doubted that No-Maj Halloween had anything to do with wizard pop culture. 'So is it like... a ghost? A series of ghosts, like in A Christmas Carol? Or something else?' His eyes shone with curiosity as he leaned towards Damien. 'And why are they "deathly"? That's kind of creepy.'