A Light Coating of Snow

[Victoire Fontaine]

Victoire had been having a strange week, stranger than any week at Hogwarts she'd ever experienced, she had pushed her thoughts away during the school classes not wanting it to distract her, but Saturday morning had finally arrived and all the teen could do was just think about what had happened, trying to figure out. All she could do was try to figure out what had happened, and make heads and tails of it, try to get to the bottom of what exactly had happened and what it meant. Victoire had been sat in the common room having been unable to really sleep, she had been avoiding this room, or well, she was avoiding one person whom she shared a house with, so when it appeared that others in Gryffindor had been getting up, that others were awaking, Victoire had gathered herself, getting changed into warmer clothes more suited for the outdoors and then heading outside, not once glancing back. Her wand tucked safely in her gryffindor jumper pocket. Victoire had her lose wavy blond hair out of a bun and sitting in a messy fashion, with strands flying a little every where, it had been washed just that morning and had that softness to it that usually followed washing hair. She was wearing warmer clothes because she was heading to the cliffs, and despite the fact the weather was getting warmer since they were heading into summer, the cliffs and this time of the day would not be warm times. She knew there, at those cliffs she could clear her head, she could allow her mind to just work through it and attempt to figure out what it had all meant. Figure out her own feelings, and just know what her next step was, if she needed one. Right now, she just didn't want to see or speak to him ever again, not unless she absolutely had to.

Walking through the grounds, Victoire noticed there was a thin covering of morning dew on the grass as the sun began rising higher in the sky, giving the entire lawn a perfectly calm and perfect look, unlike how she was feeling internally. It made her long for those simpler days she had left behind in Belgium, of running around and acting like the children they had been. It made her think of the time she'd spent with Perseus playing in the snow, it made her think of all of the time she'd spent with him out here in the grounds. They were distant now, and other than an occasionally polite hello or a small smile, they didn't seem to speak anymore. She wondered what he was doing now, how he was doing, things with him had been easy, it had been simple and good, even if she had been more interested in him than he had ever been in her, it had been clear. That she could deal with, this thing with Jean, she just didn't know. He was one of her few friends at school, he was someone she liked, and whom she thought had liked her back just as the friends she'd believed they were, but Halloween had shaken that solid foundation of friendship she believed they'd had. With her mind so occupied with it all, she didn't even realise that by the time she'd made it to the cliffs the small wind had seemed to be dying down, her hair was barely moved by it. She just stared out at the water, how could one evening just change so much? She could take the insult over her costume, it was unnecessary and unkind but she could take it, it had been what else he'd said, implying that muggle things weren't good, that they were disgraceful, motioning to her costume as a reason he'd gone. She had told Jean that she was born of muggles, she had been raised muggle, why would he have said such strange things, I figured you would have abandoned such disgrace to the magical world by now...I guess I figured out why the words rung in her head. Victoire had not believed it was him but when the brother had appeared and greeted Jean with you and your little friend, Victoire had just gotten confused, and suddenly didn't know if it had been Jean or not who had said those things, she just had to assume it was, after that, Victoire had not stayed much longer.

Victoire was annoyed, she was angry at Jean, she felt like he had just been uncalled for in his words, they were friends after all, or supposed to be. He'd been uncalled for in his tone, and in his gestures to her, were they friends, or was Victoire just a victory for him to have. She didn't know, Victoire didn't know much about relationships or boys, she was fourteen after all and she had no experience with them. Victoire mostly just felt sad, she didn't want to be around her friend, the one whom she spoke her native language with, the only person at Hogwarts that she had really gotten along with well. Victoire sighed slightly as she stared out over the the water, the air was helping, and her mind was calming. The bright morning sun rising in the east brought a smile to her face, least the day was nice.
​

 

[Jean Snow]

This week had been one of the least pleasant ones that Jean had experienced in his time here at the castle, and it was all his brother's fault. Typical. Jean knew deep down that he shared some of the blame. It was his idea, after all, that had led Victoire to be mad at him even if it had been Lucien who spoke the words. And he knew that she was. Over the past week, Jean had sought her out time and again to get a chance to explain, but she seemed to be avoiding him. Jean knew what that felt like. His siblings ignored him on occasion, so it wasn't a new feeling to him. From Victoire, it was very new though, and it stung quite a bit more than he'd expected. She never seemed to be in the common room these days, though that seemed baffling to the young teen. He knew she had to get to her room some time, but try as he did, they never came across each other. And despite being in the same house which meant they shared classes, they didn't sit near each other in any of them. Jean usually ended up near a sibling or cousin, though he was ignoring Lucien in the classes they shared. Even after classes, he never managed to catch up to her. He nearly had at the beginning of the week and had called out her name, but she hadn't turned so Jean had figured she hadn't heard him. After a week, he knew that she probably had and was just avoiding him. The boy was also too embarrassed to ask one of her roommates to give her a note from him or to ask them to get her from her dorm room. So, he was in a bit of a bind as to what to do.

Rolling over in bed, Jean's eyes drifted open. It was early, far too early for him to be up on a Saturday but that was the way the week had been going for him. The Gryffindor padded around quietly, slipping into a pair of jeans and a Quafflepunchers jersey. Grabbing his wand, the boy left his snoring roommates and headed downstairs. The common room was lightly packed, pajama -clad students who were up though not willing to commit to the start of the day. Jean kept going, leaving his house and eventually the castle. The grounds were beautiful at this time of morning. Jean never noticed during the week. He was always just struggling to get to classes. On the weekends, he usually slept through breakfast so by the time he got outside, it was pretty crowded. The boy had no destination in mind and wandered for a bit, his feet finally taking him in the direction of the cliffs. He moved quietly, the light wind messing with his hair which he'd forgotten to brush anyway. Reaching the clearing, Jean spotted someone there and almost turned around. Then, he realized that it was Victoire. His stomach dropped, indecision warring within. He'd finally found her, and she was alone. It would be the perfect time for him to explain what had happened. Surely, she would understand. They were friends, after all. Or she wouldn't. Maybe she was so mad that she would never speak to him again. Lucien hadn't told him exactly what had transpired, but Jean didn't to hear it from Luc. That Victoire had avoided him for a week told its own story. Leaving her to her thoughts never crossed his mind.

Taking a few cautious steps forward, Jean spoke softly not wanting to startle her on top of everything else. "Victoire?" he began, cautiously, slowly. He took a deep breath, his nerves causing his hands to shake at his side. "I have been..." he began in French and then switched to English. Victoire was always telling him to practice it. "I have been looking for you" he continued in his heavily accented English. "Please can we talk?" he asked. Please, he added silently.

 

[Victoire Fontaine]

Victoire let her mind wander, she believed that out here at the cliffs, he would not find her, it was early enough that she didn't think that anyone would venture out here, least of all him. She didn't doubt that eventually she'd see someone else heading here and she would take that as an indication that she should leave. But, for now, she was content in thinking that she would be alone for quite a while longer before someone else would show up. It would give her time to maybe come to some decisions about everything that had happened, about how she felt towards him, how their friendship would be, and if she still even wanted to be around him. She'd barely glanced at him during the classes they'd had during the week, ignored both him and his brother. She couldn't tell the difference between them aside from their uniform since one was Gryffindor and the other Slytherin, but that hadn't made her feel any better, that was half the problem in the first place. The Gryffindor teen let out a long sigh and crossed her arms over her chest as she stared out, the light amount of wind making it silly for her to think about trying to tuck in her blond hair or attempt to tame it. Just pointless for her to do that, since she'd just be constantly doing that all the time she spent out here. While it would give her hands something to do, the girl was content with just staring out at the lake and let her mind wander aimlessly into the abyss of some calm.

It abruptly ended when a soft voice spoke, and Victoire was snapped back to reality, she glanced round and was a little startled at who it was, this school was cursed surely. The exact one person she was attempting to avoid and here he stood, Victoire wondered if she could just walk away, if she could just run avoid this conversation, but then Victoire remembered that she was a Gryffindor and Gryffindors were brave, they stood up, they didn't run. She didn't however smile at him, but instead just looked back out at the water listening to what he was saying, listening to his heavily accented English telling her that he had been looking for her, and asking if they could speak, Victoire wasn't sure she wanted to. She continued to stare out at the lake for a few silent long minutes, before she looked at Jean again, "I don't want to talk to you right now," she told him, speaking as rapidly as she could in english, "You said enough on Halloween," Victoire just glanced back out at the water, "I thought we were friends Jean," Victoire sighed slightly, the words he'd spoken still circling her mind. She didn't want to lose Jean as her friend, if he wanted to explain himself she'd at least hear him out. They'd been friends for a while now, Victoire believed she owed him a little bit of the benefit of the doubt, but Victoire was making herself clear or she believed, she didn't appreciate and was a little hurt by his words and this wasn't just something she could just forget, an explanation would be a good start.
​

 

[Jean Snow]

Jean had come to expect certain things from Victoire, a smile when he saw her and good conversation. He received neither of those as Victoire became aware of his presence on the cliffside. His blue eyes locked onto her, noting with a quickening of his heart that not only had she not smiled at him, but she turned her back to him as if he hadn't spoken. The French boy stood awkwardly in his spot, his hands tugging at the hem of his shirt as he wondered what he should do. Jean wanted to respect her space. It seemed like the least he could do considering whatever it was his brother had done. But, he couldn't just leave. No, he had to explain to her what had happened. He was sure that she would understand that Lucien had said those things, not him. The only noise in the space was the slight breeze in the air, and the infrequent crackle of some small animal moving around behind them. It was horrible, stifling. Pulled out of his thoughts as she finally broke the dreadful silence, Jean glanced up hopefully. He winced as he heard her words. She didn't want to speak to him. Jean's mouth opened and then closed as she continued. "We are friends, Victoire" he said, a pleading note in his voice. Jean took a few steps closer, his sneakers cracking some twigs into even smaller pieces. He stopped near her but still well out of range because he was worried that she might slap him at any moment.

"I" he began, and then shook his head. "It wasn't me who said those things to you on Halloween" he started again slowly, " I had the stupid idea for my brother and I to dress as each other for Halloween. Lucien never wants to do Halloween, but I managed to convince him. So, we did." Jean didn't think he'd ever do anything like that again. It was enough that he had the same face as his brother and people often confused them. There was no need for him to be the cause of said confusion by dressing like his brother. "And I was playing my part as Lucien when I came over to where you two were standing." Somewhere during his explanation, Jean had switched to his native language, finding comfort in at least being able to say the words he wanted to without the extra effort of having to translate the word in his mind before speaking it. "And he had no right to say anything about your costume. I'm sorry that he did" the Gryffindor apologized for his brother knowing that Lucien would never apologize to a muggleborn. Silence reigned as the fourth year finished. "You have to know I'd never say those things about you" he added, hoping that she had already come to that conclusion on her own. She'd avoided him for a week though, so he knew that it was possible that she hadn't. Jean knew that he should probably leave now and let Victoire to whatever she had been doing before he showed up. He couldn't just go though. Jean needed to know that they were ok.

 

[Victoire Fontaine]

Everything to begin with at Halloween had been fine, it had been good, she had been excited for it all. When she'd first started talking with Jean, or whom she believed was Jean and he had said those things she had not believed it to be him, after all she thought of them as friends. But then, the other had appeared and it had confused her, she hadn't known who was who, and of course if the words he'd spoken had been truthful or not. Victoire was a bright girl, yes, but identical twins were not easy for anyone and then the fact they were pretending that they were the other, or whatever they'd been doing, was not exactly the kind thing to do, and it had added to her confusion. It had left Victoire just confused and upset, unsure of everything. She hadn't wanted it to be from Jean's mouth, she really believed it wouldn't or couldn't be but how was she to know. She glanced at him when he pleaded that they were friends, she didn't know how true this was, she didn't know anything anymore she was beginning to think. This was weird and upsetting to her, and she didn't know what was happening to this friendship, one she really almost in a way depended on. Victoire felt reassured to a certain extent that he still considered them friends, perhaps Jean really had been the other. It would hard to tell, the brothers could be lying, Jean could've said such things pretending that his twin was him and now was just trying to get out of it. Victoire paid no attention to the sound of the twig snapping or him approaching her, Victoire was not violent though her anger was clear but she would never hit Jean, in her mind too their friendship could just be mendable, but it would take work and she didn't want to stall that by hitting him, she needed the truth and she needed to believe that what Jean was saying was the truth. Victoire tucked a few blonde strands of her hair away from her face, as Jean began speaking.

So, they had switched, pretending to be one another, or so he claimed. At least she could breeze easy in knowing that likely most of what had been said to her had been from his brother, hopefully. She didn't like sound of him at all and was glad the brother she knew better was clearly the nicer one. She continued to listen to him as he spoke, barely even registering as he switched from English to French, since both came naturally to her. They spoke in french to one another, it was one of the best things about this friendship to Victoire, so she just nodded along listening to what he was saying, appreciating the apology and as he said that she should've have known it wasn't him Victoire let out a heavy sigh, "I thought I did," She replied quietly, "I didn't believe the things he was saying, but then I guess you came along and that other boy, and I got confused, you didn't contradict what he was saying when you heard him say them, especially about my outfit," Victoire hadn't bothered even trying to speak in English, she just stuck to the language she knew best. She was looking at him, keeping her gaze on his as she spoke, "I didn't even mind the comments about my costume but he said, 'Are you into muggles or something like that? I figured you would have abandoned such disgrace to the magical world by now'," she remembered with ease, Victoire had never been picked on for her lack of magical family, she had never felt ashamed about her upbringing than in that moment, and she hadn't thought she would ever be, and it had come so soon after she had felt Jean had both learned and somewhat come to terms with the fact that she was. Victoire had felt insulted by that, "Is my family a disgrace to you Jean, or just to your brother. Should I abandon them for the magical world?" Victoire was getting upset, it was clear in her voice she wrapped her arms around herself, "Do you think the same things? Do you think of me or people like me as disgraceful?"
​

 

[Jean Snow]

When he was fairly sure that she wasn't going to fly in his direction and smack him, Jean gingerly sat himself down on a small boulder near where he had been standing. It rocked slightly as he settled onto it, how he felt which was also really uneven. Jean nodded his head slowly, acknowledging what she was saying. Victoire was absolutely right. He hadn't come to her defense, not in front of her anyway as he should have. Instead, he'd pulled his brother to the side and they'd argued for a few moments after Avie had pulled the girls away. Well, Jean had argued. Lucien didn't much care about what was happening, especially because Victoire was a muggleborn. Jean had never mentioned that fact to his brother on the rare occasion that he had mentioned his Gryffindor friend. Really, it was better that his brother didn't know certain things and this was one of those things. It wasn’t like he’d been totally aware of her blood until the school year began. Now Lucien knew though and already damage was being done. Jean's blue eyes remained level with Victoire until she revealed exactly what her brother had said. He fought the urge to slap his forehead, but he couldn't keep her gaze any longer. "I can't believe him" Jean muttered to himself, though he actually could. Jean hadn't spoken much about his own family, especially not after what Victoire had pointed out to him about her own family.

Jean was concentrating something fierce on his sneakers as Victoire continued. It was obvious that this was really upsetting her. The teen's hands were pulling on a string on the hem of his shirt. "Of course not, Victoire" Jean stated emphatically stretching out her name, eyes still on the ground, before falling silent. The Gryffindor remained silent for a long time after that. If he told her exactly how he'd grown up, what some of his family believed, he just knew that their friendship would be over. How could it not be? Finally, he looked up, his eyes were very sad. "I might look like my brother, but we are not the same person" Jean said with more frustration than was warranted for this conversation. Some of the small pebbles on the ground wiggled, his magic going a little out of control. It had been one of the first signs that had let his family know that he was developing like a normal wizard boy, and it still happened when he was really upset. This was a long-standing frustration with sharing the same face of someone who was always besting you and taking away things that you liked. Jean had taken the brunt of punishments for things that his brother had done before. It annoyed him to no end that he’d caused this one all on his own. It was his own stupid fault for this idea. "Some people in my family do believe that" he admitted in a stony voice. "And yes, I was told by some of my family members that my pureblood made me better than everyone” he stated, eyes finally lifting to look at her. Jean wasn’t going to apologize for things that his family believed. He had his own thoughts. “That doesn’t mean that I just blindly believe everything they say” he continued. “I don’t think being a pureblood makes me better than anyone nor do I think that being a muggleborn makes you worth less. That just doesn’t make sense to me” Jean finished, putting voice to things that he had been thinking more and more often. It was a constant struggle for Jean though, fighting what different family members had told him over the years along with what he was learning through his own experiences.

 

[Victoire Fontaine]

In the same way that he had no idea how she had been raised she had no idea how he had been raised, this was apparent in this conversation. Victoire had of course heard of pureblood families, but she hadn't ever been the subject of taunts relating to her blood, she stayed quiet about blood as most did. She had never been anything less than proud to be a witch, and she never been anything less than proud to have a muggle family, which was where her annoyance about the statement was coming from. They, her muggle parents, had taught her many things which she was sure would've never been taught to her had she been born into a magical family, in the same way that the opposite may be true for Jean. But the halloween feast and the words that Jean's brother had said to her had really hit home, and insulted her. She had felt confused and ashamed, she couldn't only think about if Jean really thought such things about her, she cared about him, she didn't like thinking that he thought less of her because her blood wasn't as "pure" as his. How could they repair that friendship if he thought such things about her and where she was from. How could that really be possible? It was why she had been so upset in saying it in asking, why she felt so upset about something that had happened. It was why she almost visibly sighed at his words, feeling immensely relieved that perhaps he didn't think the same. She could only imagine that being raised in a certain environment had led him to be like that, but how was Jean different then. Victoire and her brothers were different people, she knew this, but surely something was different with twins. It was just so confusing, she couldn't of course fault Jean for believing something he'd been brought up thinking, Victoire knew she couldn't do that.

At his statement, and the clear frustration she shook her head, "I never said you were," she told him, although that might not altogether be correct, all the confusion with them dressing up as each other was just confusing to her that she might've made such a statement. She obviously knew they were the same person, she knew that Jean was a friendlier person, he was quieter than his counterpart in the way he spoke, or so she believed, but then the other twin, Lucien was friends with the hyper active kid, so maybe they were both friendly just in different ways to different people. Victoire didn't look round at him, didn't glance at him at all as he began speaking, her eyes just stayed looking out at the water listening to all that he was saying. She was glad that he didn't feel the same way about it, that he didn't think of her as less because of her blood status. Victoire finally looked round at him, meeting his gaze and giving him a small smile, it was perhaps a little more strained that a smile for him two weeks before might've been, but it was a start nonetheless. She felt bad for what she'd said to him, felt bad for putting him on the spot like she had, Victoire was realising as she grew in this magical world that things were not as simple as they seemed, magic did not solve issues, like she'd believed it would. He was not at fault, like his brother wasn't either, they'd been raised to believe a certain thing, and questioning was just perhaps out of the question. Victoire couldn't probably ever understand where he was coming from about this magical thing, for her just being magical was a gift but his blood had been passed down generation after generation, there would be different element to it.

The Gryffindor teen sighed slightly, moving to sit next to him, not on the rock but the ground beside it, using her jumper as a barrier between her and the slightly damp ground, "My father once said to me, men are inherently better than women, he teaches my brothers that they are better than me because they are men, and I am just a woman," Victoire looked at Jean as she spoke, "We cannot change what our families believe," Victoire told him, trying to show that she understood that the views of his family didn't reflect some of his own, at least to a certain degree, in the same way that her views were not reflective of her father's views, "I got upset because I thought maybe you thought the same as your brother," Victoire said in a slightly apologetic tone, looking down at the ground as she spoke, "I care about you, Jean, I care about what you think of me, I know people say it's wrong to care about what other people think, but I just can't help it," Victoire felt bad for being so annoyed with him, and for all of the fanfare of the past week. She had need the time to calm down, but it felt a little silly now, all of the wasted time.
​

 

[Jean Snow]

Victoire didn't look at him at all as he spoke, so Jean couldn't tell how she was taking what he was saying. She's not running away, he mused. It was the only solace that he had, and he was going to take it. Finally, she looked at him and smiled. Jean returned her smile, slowly, hesitantly. And it didn't quite reach his blue eyes which were still troubled. As Victoire slid over to sit in front of him, Jean felt a little better. He'd never paid much attention to how much his friendship with Victoire meant to him. But, during this week, he'd come to realize how much he spoke to her and how often he sought her out for conversation. He had other friends, of course, mostly cousins once or twice removed, but there was always something to tell Victoire. Leaning his arms on his knees, Jean was slightly closer to Victoire who had settled herself on the dirt across from him. The Gryffindor listened as Victoire began to share some more details about her family.

As she spoke of her father's beliefs, Jean gave Victoire an incredulous look. He continued to listen in silence, though he shook his head. As she continued, Jean found himself sighing heavily. This wasn't the first time that he'd been lumped in with Lucien. So many people assumed that just because they looked almost exactly alike and came from the same family, that they just had to think the same way too. The sorting hat had obviously seen a difference. Jean knew that it was up to him to show the rest of the world. It wasn't that Jean hated his brother. No, he loved him very much. He just hated how easily his brother seemed to just accept what some of their family members said. He particularly hated how people spoke about what his father would say and what his father would have done. He wasn't alive to say it for himself, and Jean wasn't content to just take anyone's word for it.

A smile flirted on and off of his face as Victoire told him that she cared for him. Before she'd finished, Jean was sliding down the boulder and onto the dirt beside his friend. His back leaned against the rock, one knee up and the other leg straight out in front of him. "Victoire, I...I care about you too" he stated, his accent heavy as he forced himself to speak English. "That's why I've been looking for you all week to explain. You really are very good at avoiding people" he smirked for a moment. It was nice to finally have things out in the open. Or to start having things out in the open. Jean knew that there was still a lot he hadn't shared with her about his family. He knew that she probably hadn't either. Jean sighed again. "I'm really sorry about what Luci said to you about your costume. I thought you looked very...pretty" he stated quietly, his eyes drifting towards the ground for a moment. After a moment of being silent, Jean spoke up again. "I know it was something muggle, but what exactly were you?" Jean asked curiously. Lucien had told him what her costume was, but after looking up that word, he was certain that wasn't what Victoire was trying to be. "He's a jerk sometimes" Jean said aloud, thinking back to that conversation.

 

[Victoire Fontaine]

Victoire had not been paying attention to Jean as she had spoken. To her it was just all a matter of getting it out, the gryffindor had decided in the few minutes of conversation with Jean that while she still wasn't feeling great about things that they were a little better. Victoire knew that it was wrong to lump Jean in with his brother, she knew this now, though at the time with all of the confusion and everything else during halloween she could hardly be blamed for doing such a thing. Victoire could hardly be held to account for such things, after all, she was but a fourteen year old girl still fairly new to the world of magic, she wasn't always good at remembering all that was necessary for her to, and occasionally things like this happened. It was funny to her to, since she didn't even celebrate halloween, it was not a done festival for her back home, the whole costume thing was a carnival thing and costumes were slightly different in her experience. Victoire shook her head slightly, just as she watched Jean slide down the boulder and sit on the ground with her, leaning against the rock he'd just been sat one. Victoire just gave a small smile, a little more confidently than previously, she really did care for Jean, she hadn't realised how good their friendship had been until she hadn't really had it. The girl knew that while they weren't the closest friends could be, she was still glad for whatever friendship they had, which was why this had just been so difficult. She hadn't wanted to lose one of the few friends that she had and actually cared about, the girl despite all her friendliness did lack friends as much as she tried the girl had few friends and even fewer she cared about.

Listening to Jean speak, brought a small smile to her face, especially upon his comment about being good at avoiding people, Victoire had worked very hard to avoid him, but it had been made easier by the fact that she could go to the Heta Omega room and just hide out in there if she needed to. Or even the female dorm which he also had no access to, there were plenty of places within the school that Victoire could go to if she needed to not see him or spend any time with him. Of course it did all seem a little pointless now, given what had happened, but that wasn't a huge bother, it had just been a week of confusion, hurt and hiding. Victoire found herself blushing deeply when he called her pretty, she could barely mutter a thanks for what he'd said, glad when he then just asked what she'd been. Least Victoire could move past the comment slightly and focus on something else, "It was a wiener girl costume, we don't really do halloween in my family, or in my country really, but Brussels do an Oktoberfest and it's what a lot of people wear," She explained to him, "It wasn't particularly clear unless you know what Oktoberfest is really, I just wanted to bring a little of my culture to it," she shrugged at him, stumbling over the word Oktoberfest as she spoke in english. While having grown up mostly in the french area of Belgium her father had worked in Brussels for many years and had occasionally taken her, the Oktoberfest while largely for adults had always been good fun. At his words she wanted to nod and vehemently agree with him, but she didn't know him, even if he hated her because of the muggleborn status, she still didn't know him, "He can be, but I'm sure he didn't mean it, he was probably just trying to have fun. Plus, your brother is friends with that hyperactive one, Avie, he can't be all bad if he's friends with that boy," Victoire didn't like Jean's brother, but she didn't want to be the reason they fought, and she just believed that while Jean was clearly the nicer of the two, maybe Lucien too had his moments.
​

 

[Jean Snow]

Jean tried to follow Victoire's explanation, but he wasn't doing a very good job of it. And he was sure that it had little to do with the language she was speaking in. Jean just wasn't familiar with what she was talking about. He politely nodded, not wanting to admit to being any more dumb. He'd already asked her about her costume and didn't want to ask any more. Jean could get celebrating Halloween. It was a magical thing after all, though there absolutely was variation even amongst wizards. Jean had always loved the holiday, but his twin couldn't stand it. Jean couldn't get celebrating an entire month though. What was so special about October? "October looks like a fun month where you are from" he finally added politely.

As the conversation turned to his brother, Jean looked down at some imaginary lint on his pants. Victoire was being nice about it all, Jean was certain of that. What he wasn't sure of was how much that was for his sake and how much of it was that she had really just gotten over it all. He glanced at her out of the side of his eye but said nothing. Jean didn't really get Lucien's friendship with Avie. They were nothing alike, at least Jean didn't think so. He actually had never hung out with Avie before and had really only spoken to him in classes or to ask him where Lucien was. Jean hoped that the friendship was mutual and that his brother wasn't just using the boy. Although they were in the same year, Jean always forgot and thought he was younger. "Yea. I don't really understand their friendship" Jean admitted with a small shrug. He looked out towards the cliffs admiring the view for a few moments. The school grounds really were beautiful and now that Jean knew that Victoire wasn't mad at him anymore, or as mad anyway, he could enjoy it. Hiding a smirk, Jean spoke again. "So is this where you come when people get you mad? I want to know where I'll be able to find you if I do anything stupid again...which hopefully won't be for a long time." Jean realized what he'd said. "Or ever. Yea, I'd like that better" he added.

Out of Character:

Sorry this reply was such a long time coming. Feel free to end the RP if you'd like.

 

[Victoire Fontaine]

Victoire was beginning to really see and even understand the contrasts between his world and hers, it hadn't always appeared clear what any of them were, they had remained under the surface as she been making her way through the school. People hadn't previously seemed bothered by what she was, as born of non-magical parent, but things had always appeared weirder considering she was from a different culture than most of the people in New Zealand, but the magnitude of things and difference was really weighing on her now, between the magic and the non-magic between her home and this. She couldn't blame Jean for how he had been raised, in the same way that she couldn't really find herself blaming his brother either. She knew they were just part of an upbringing which instilled values that were taught and usually followed unquestionably. She smiled at his words as she realised that her description of her costume had perhaps not been perfect, though she had no interest in delving further into it, this only furthered her understanding of their differences. Instead she was happier just being able to let it go, and if further questions came up further down the line she would deal with them there and then. It wouldn't help anything to extend the thoughts of that night further. They had to move on as friends would and should. For what was a friendship without a little bit of flakiness in the still early stages, without just a few troubles that were easily then solved.

Victoire hardly wanted to cause trouble between two brothers, she didn't want to be the kind of person who did that even inadvertently, so she was doing nothing of the sort. Instead she just wanted to assure Jean that things were better, and it seemed only right to bring up the other boy's friend, a pairing Victoire couldn't have picked out herself, so she was sure that there was some good within Jean's brother it was just not directed towards Victoire, and would even less be so if he ever found out that she was a muggle born. Victoire could live with that, she knew that she could. Victoire looked out at the cliffs and shrugged at what he said, it wasn't the place that she usually went when she was angry today was an exception, "You'll probably find me in the library, I just needed some air today," Victoire got to her feet, "I'm going to go get breakfast, come join me if you want," Victoire wrapped her arms around herself and then began to walk away not quite sure if he was following or not, but definitely feeling lighter about things, her mind far less heavy than it had been. A whole new set of concerns and worries were present but they could be dealt with some other time.
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