16.7.24
Morning
English & Japanese

After being signed up for that horrendously bright tent, Sara would find himself on solo walks. It was much more bearable to open his eyes when his vision wasn't being attacked by saturated colours. To save his eyes, he had been wearing sunglasses indoors often. The plastic nose pad made the bridge of his nose red. He was unsure if this was going to cause headaches in the future. Therefore, creating distance between the carnival-inspired tent was necessary. 

He wore his usual thick jersey. Not that he needed to. The magical part of the summer was that the snow somehow never made you too cold. A blessing really. He was often shivering whenever winter came. It just happened to be the closest jacket he could grab. Regardless of the weather, he was always one to cover up the best he could. Personal preference. And to hide muscles. For sure.

His hair had grown somewhat longer since he last came to Hogwarts. Still ruffled in different directions, with touches of snow decorating the tips of it. As usual, people tend to part way wherever he walks. Years of it happening, and he never particularly grew less uncomfortable about it. So as usual, he opted for a pathway that was much less populated. Finding a secluded area away from the hustle and bustle of camp. 

He opened his palms, the slight snow falling magically from the sky and melting into his palm. Leaving traces of its touch, cooling his hands ever so slightly. His mind couldn’t help but wonder back home. He didn’t need to travel far before seeing a cat or two. How lovely it would be to be able to bring a cat. That was only a luxury given to the Hogwarts students. On occasion, Sara took an hour to muster up the courage to ask some of them if he could see their cat. Alas, they quickly fled before he could even say a word. He settled with watching them from afar. Like..really far.

He took a deep breath and saw the air exit his lips. A soft gaze on the snow beneath his shoes. Realising how contrasting the colours looked. How lovely it would be. 'Blending in as easily as snow did', he thought. Then perhaps people would be less quick to judge his intentions before he even tried. He couldn't help but let his mind drift to the topic in particular. It's not as if he could escape it. It was hard not to ponder that way when back home, his best remedy was the street cats that prowled and wandered around like they owned the place. He told himself to simply focus on the peaceful atmosphere instead. Deep breaths, and his hands open palmed for snow to fall on.

@EmmaLee LeDames

EmmaLee woke up feeling energized the next morning after arriving at camp. She was sharing a tent with pretty much all of her international friends and it definitely looked like she was going to make friends with the other occupants as well.

The only international friend who wasn't sharing her tent was the one she had made at the Spring Ball, Sara Kohana. She had tried to spot him at the opening feast last night, but even though he was definitely taller than most of the people here and had an immediately recognizable presence, she had missed him somehow. Therefore, she had decided to find him as soon as possible when she got up this morning. She dressed in a long-sleeved, billowy, lace, white shirt tucked into a turquoise high-low skirt, and her brown hiking boots and headed out of the tent.

As she dressed, Minx, her large, fluffy white cat, pranced around her, energized by her owner's energy, and when EmmaLee rushed out of the tent, not paying attention to anyone else who was or wasn't awake by this point, Minx bounded after her, never one to be left out of anything EmmaLee was excited about.

For a good part of the morning, EmmaLee wander around the tents and then the campground to find Sara. She had figured that he would be tenting with the Mahautokoro Quidditch team and she was pretty sure that she found their tent, a blazingly colorful circus theme, but Sara didn't seem to be in there. Either he was tenting somewhere else or he was out.

Her next searching place was the breakfast table. She figured that what Stephen said about growing boys always being hungry probably still applied to the even upper years, so food was probably the next bet, but she didn't see his towering figure here either. She grabbed a blueberry muffin and headed elsewhere to look.

After a while, and half her muffin, EmmaLee wandered her way to a more secluded part of the stadium and saw someone standing with his hands open to catch the falling snow. He looked kind of serene watching the snow fall delicately into his hands as the summer sun blazed overhead, only touching the magical flurries to set them atwinkle like stars. As she came closer, she saw that it was definitely Sara Kohana and smiled. "Found you." She said, probably not loud enough for him to hear, but she did begin to trot towards him and stick her arm up to wave.

"Oh-ay-you go-zeh-masu!" She called loudly, attempting to say "good morning" in Japanese as her Papa Victor had taught her over the brief say at home before camp, but the moment it left her lips she knew she'd said it wrong. She had been having particular trouble with trying to learn Japanese as she intended because their sounds didn't match up well with her French pronunciation of things. She kept tripping up and saying them like they were French words. EmmaLee covered her mouth and giggled as she came closer to the older boy.

"That was not right at all, was it?" She said, looking up at him with another giggle. "Good morning, Sara. I found you!" She said with a wide smile. "'Ow are you?"

16.7.24
Morning
English & Japanese

His thoughts were pulled away by the subtle sounds of footsteps approaching him. At first, he tensed, thinking he had taken someone’s spot or something. But hearing a familiar voice with awfully pronounced Japanese made the tension in his shoulders leave. He turned around, his eyes softening at the sight. The smallest twitch in his lips graced his features. Almost a smile, if he didn’t have a habit of forcing down a smile.

“Emmalee..” his gruff voice completely contradicts hers. Yet there was a hint of warmth. More relieved to see her care about how she completely butchered the pronunciation. He had heard from her letter that she had been learning Japanese. It was enough to make him smile for the whole day. How could he not? Part of him felt that after he helped her during the spring ball, she would naturally drift away. They were from different schools after all. Sara was not the best at initiating the maintenance of a friendship. It was almost usually entirely up to the other person most of the time. Sara wasn’t one to refuse such a refreshing event. Anything to put his mind to rest from his previous thoughts.

“No… it's a good start” he said honestly. “[color##705fa5] I’m fine, Emmalee..how are y[/color]-” he froze immediately, his face hardened at the sight of fluff trailing behind her. Almost blending with the snow if not for big eyes and brown ears. He inhaled his breath sharply, his fingers pointing to the cat. “ Is that.. A cat…”.

With the naked eye, most people would probably run. Take their cat and flee in a different direction. Sure it's the firm tone, the tall height, but above all, it's the intensity in the eyes. Ones that could send chills down anyone’s spine. But to a trained eye- perhaps with an observant friend- it was obvious what Sara was doing.

He was excited. He was so excited he was doing everything in his bones to stop himself from making too much movement as if the last thing he wanted to do was scare the cat away. It’s so cute, he thought. I want to hug it..so bad. So… so bad…. . Being deprived of cats for too long had totally made him lose it. As if all his earlier pondering poofed in the air at the sight of the fluffy creature.

@EmmaLee LeDames

EmmaLee chuckled again and waved her hand dismissively as Sara as he reassured her about her pronunciation. "You can tell me it was awful. It's fine. That's how learning goes." She said with a wind grin. She clasped her hands behind her back and raised a curious eyebrow as her friend froze, looking directly past her at Minx, who was making her way through the snow behind her owner.

Minx had taken to leaping from snow mound to snow mound, seemingly finding a particular kitty joy in sending the snow up in a flurry around her. Being the fluffy monstrosity she was, Minx had always enjoyed the snow and making a large mess of it whenever it fell in the garden in New York or Glasgow.

For a moment, Sara looked almost scared of the animal. The sharp breath as his face grew tense and he pointed abruptly as Minx approached them could have sounded like fear and EmmaLee almost shooed Minx away, not wanting him to be uncomfortable. On further study, though, EmmaLee could see the small twitch up in Sara's flat, serious mouth and a slight twinkle of excitement in his eyes. She went on almost a gut feeling that this was Sara's version of excitement, not fear.

"Ah, yes," EmmaLee said with a small giggle. "she came with me to find you. Her name is Minx." She explained, turning to the cat, to him, and back again. "She's very friendly."

EmmaLee put her hand down and made a "tchtch" sound towards Minx, who turned from a fresh leap into a snow pile and bounded over to her girl. Minx bounded over, used EmmaLee's hand almost as a springboard to get onto her shoulder in one practiced motion, and perched there carefully. EmmaLee lifted her hand calmly to steady the animal that was as large as her own head.

"Wanna pet 'er?" EmmaLee asked with a bright smile up at Sara.