A Magic Trick

[Venn Asiah Boneheart]

Just inside Takarokaro Park. It is the first week of Brightstone, set first semester Year 2037, early October.

Venn tugged harshly on the sleeves of his robes, finding the cloths to be a little tight for him. He had dressed himself in a hurry to try and beat his sister to their point of meeting, the benches just inside Takarokaro Park, under a nice shady tree. It was Brightstone weekend, obviously, as there were many Hogwarts New Zealand student roaming the area, but none were his sister. Venn could spot his sister in whatever she wore, because he knew how she walked, and what she sounded like. She did not walk or talk particularly differently from others, but she did look a lot like him and his other family members, and often looked happy. Not many other people looked as happy as his sister did even if she were in a bad mood. To his knowledge, however, she would be wearing red robes. Or black robes with red on them, it was all the same to be frank. All the young blond could do was hope that the year would pass quickly and he would be able to finally get a wand and go to the same school as his sisters. Generally, Venn was a very patient person, but this was just not fair. Vernie was a month older than him, and that meant that she could go to school before him - they have been pushed to be an entire year apart. That was what it felt like. As if someone had just decided he was not good enough to go to school yet. It was not fair and he could not see why they could not make an exception for him or something. Did his parents even try? He doubted it.

Venn sighed as he finally reached the bench, and crossed his legs. Resting his elbows on his knees, he allowed his set of cards to slide from his sleeve, and held them in his hands. Upon discovering that he could not go to school and do proper magic yet, nor would his parents let him do any magic at home without a wand, he decided to use a different sort of magic. Muggle magic! It was all about deception and misleading others, but it was fun either way. He enjoyed reading about learning different card tricks, and while he had originally picked this up to distract him from bad thoughts, now he decided that he would keep this up. Perhaps he would continue it at school and maybe work in some real magic with all the fake magic - like conjuring a rabbit from a hat. That trick would be ten times easier if he could really conjure and disappear a rabbit. His green eyes followed the cards as he split the deck, shuffled the deck, and put it all back together again. It had also helped with his dexterity, he had improved to much, he could not wait to show Veronica.​

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[Prudence Armstead]

Prudence strolled down cobblestone paths, eyes wandering to every nook and cranny of Brightstone as she crossed through it. The young first year thought that she could get lost walking around, and still not see everything in the city before the day was done. Perhaps she would try and explore a little bit later, however she was on a mission. Her strides were purposeful as she made her way into the heart of Brightstone, looking for a directory or something to guide her to where she needed to be. Prudence had promised Veronica, a curious Lion, that she would inform her brother she could not be there. Prudence couldn't remember the reason, though she assumed that it would come to her in no time. The sound of her shoes clicking stopped now, alerting her that she was close to the place she needed to be; Takarokaro park. Roni had told her brother - Vinny, Venn, Bill - to wait on a bench there, and now all that Prudence had to do was pick him out. Scanning the park with her blue orbs, she locked eyes on the only possibility for Roni's brother. The other's in the park were much too old, teenage couples canoodling with each other on their break - Was that the Gryffindor Prefect with his woman? Maybe not. Prudence approached the young man, and eyed him over slightly before deciding to speak.

"Hi, you're Vernie's brother, right?" Prudence asked, smiling a wide toothed smile, er curls peeking out from her white cap, and blowing in the breeze. The frizzy curls got in the way of her trying to outstretch an arm at first, and as she cleared them away she offered the boy a hand to shake. "I'm Prudence, Veronica sent me." Prue waited for the boy to choose to shake hands or not before taking a seat beside him. "She wanted me to tell you that she couldn't make it today. She would the next Brightstone weekend we get though!" Prudence reassured the young man, unsure as to how he would react to Prudence giving him what she assumed to be bad news.

 

[Venn Asiah Boneheart]

Venn turned to face the owner of the voice that mentioned his sister so fondly. Not many people could get away with calling Veronica 'Vernie', as Veronica did not like just anyone shortening her name. Venn never received such treatment, as his name was much too short to actually shorten to anything. Perhaps just V, but that was ridiculous. Her smile was infectious, though, and the young boy found himself giving her a small smile back, although he knew next to nothing about her, so his guard was still very-much up, whether Veronica trusted her enough to find him, or not. He had figured that Veronica had sent her just by how she greeted him, but he remained silent as she continued, his green eyes focusing on the wilderness that was her hair. He liked looking at people's hair, as he felt that it told him a lot about them. He paused in his card shuffling to concentrate whole-heartedly on how her hair moved, finding it to be curly, healthy, and brightened by the sunlight beaming off of it. He came from a family of blond-haired people, with his siblings being blond as he was, yet he liked other shades of hair more, preferably dark browns, and reds.

He then realised that she held a hand to him, but neglected to shake. Instead, he looked at the condition of her hands. The were a little dirty, but she clearly took care of them. they had no calluses, and were not hands of a worker. There was nothing wrong with that either, as Venn too had petite hands and dainty fingers that were not used to hard labour. What new she bore was not good, unfortunately, and he was disappointed that Veronica was not able to see him, but there was nothing either of them could do. He tucked some hair behind his heads, and sat his cards in his lap. "Why was she unable to make it today? Is she ill? Is it deadly? Is it contagious?" He looked Purdence over once more, but could not identify anything wrong with her, visually at least. "Do you go to classes together? Are you good friends?"​

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[Prudence Armstead]

The small smile that Venn gave back to Prue made her excited. There was something nice about it, it was warm and genuine. She hated that she had to give bad news to him now, because his smile was so lovely. She could tell that they were going to be great friends. Unlike Venn, Prue didn't particularly study Venn, she only gave him a quick glance over. Though, there was one thing that - past his smile - caught her eyes. It was his own, vibrant, green orbs. Hidden behind black frames she noticed the color was like grass. Prue thought it was a lovely color, mesmerizing even, then again, she adored earthy tones. She loved a lot of things about nature, and though she would not do well in Herboloy, at this point in time she was looking forward to it. She once more flipped her hair back, taking her hand back from the handshake. She wasn't offended though, not even in the least. Some people hugged to greet, some cultures kissed, and if he did not hand shake it was nothing of concern to the young auburnette.

Prudence made herself comfortable, facing the boy. One leg was tucked under the other, which swung to brush the ground. She was hit with a barrage of questions, and her soft blue eyes widened, only to soften into her smile. Prudence laughed. "Curious?" She asked rhetorically.Her voice held no malice, only the same tone as it held as she laughed. "She got detention from a rather nasty professor. She isn't ill, if she was it wouldn't be deadly since the magic could heal her, and don't worry, I wouldn't bring it to you if it was!" She answered the first round as quickly as he had shot the questions at her. She was careful to answer each one, even if it was only hypothetical. "We do have classes together. I'm actually in the same house as her, which is a ton of fun! And I'd like to say we are good friends, I even let her call me Tangles. But that's top secret."Prudence gave a small, wrinkle nosed smile at her own joke about Vernie's nickname for her. Prue paused for a moment. "Can i ask you a question?" She asked, wanting to get to know the boy, since it seemed he was curious as it was.

 

[Venn Asiah Boneheart]

He mimicked how she sat. One leg tucked under the other, seated neatly but comfortably, and facing his chest towards her to show that he was listening and interested in what she had to say, otherwise he would have asked her no questions and merely ignored her. Truth be told, he had never actually ignored someone before, but he did not plan on asking people about themselves if he wasn't interested in knowing, otherwise he was just wasting everyone's time. Prue seemed to be reacting to him well, however. Perhaps Veronica had mentioned his habits in passing. He was grateful to hear that his sister was not ill, however, but detention? Vernie was not one to cause trouble, she was very nice. What had she done to get such treatment? "Detention with a nasty professor?" he repeated. "What did she do to the nasty professor? Why is the professor nasty?" He had not considered a professor that was nasty. Would they not like their job? "Do you enjoy your classes together? Why is your pet name a secret, does it embarrass you?"

Venn pursed his lips as she asked him a question, by asking him if she could ask him one. The question itself was pointless, because she had just did what she had originally asked to do, taking away the opportunity for him to answer, not that he would have. It would have been similar to if he asked his mother for a hug while he was already hugging her. Completely redundant. However, he did know what she meant, and so ignored it for the sake of civility. "Why do you want to ask me a question? What do you want to find out?"​

 

[Prudence Armstead]

Prudence watched the boy mimic her, but she didn't mind too much. It was a very comfortably way to sit for her, so he must have thought the same. The benches themselves were even pretty comfortable, considering it was a bench. Her large, blue eyes scanned over the area. She watched the animals out in the sunlight - it was a lovely sight. Prue wasn't going to be rude though, and when Venn began talking, she brought her eyes back to focus on his own green orbs. He sure did ask a lot of questions. Prudence once again took a breath before going over the answers one by one. "Yeah, the professor's mean in general. I'm sure he only means well though." She answered first. "I'm not sure what she did, tough I did hear something about ehr giving him a hug maybe? Regardless, I'll make sure to tell her to owl you so she can tell you the whole story!" Prue's lips curved into a smile and she shook her head at his next question. "No, it's just that she's the only person that I let call me that." She said honestly, with a light shrug.

"I want to ask you a question because you seem cool." Prudence wanted to ask his name, she had been for a while, but as her eyes glanced around she noticed a deck of cards. It was interesting to see the muggle cards in his hand - unless they weren't ordinary cards. After all, Wizards cards sometimes had moving pictures on them. "The cards, what do you do with them? Do you and Vernie normally play cards?" She thought the idea was sweet; playing games with a sibling. Prue grew up an only child, so she never got the chance.

 

[Venn Asiah Boneheart]

If she felt uncomfortable with his behaviour, Venn did not notice. Mimicking others was a habit of his, and he knew that some people reacted negatively to his behaviour. However, the youngest Boneheart did not care for their opinion, as his stubborn nature did not allow him to. She did, however, look as if she was okay. Usually by this time people would be getting aggravated at him and some would either yell at him, or even physically touch him, but that had not happened for a long time. He rarely spent time with other people, now. This was one of the rare moments where he was actually outside with others, and interacting with them without someone being with him to keep him in line. Unfortunately for Pruedence, and perhaps himself, there was no-one to do that for him. Her answers of the professor's behaviour left him with no more questions on the topic, as the professor seemed awful, and that was all he needed to know. He would have to speak to Veronica about the professors she was letting herself near when they next met. He was, however, visibly confused at her mentioning that Veronica had hugged the professor. Now he would really have to speak to her. She sounded as if she really needed to come home if she were hugging horrible professors.

His forehead creased slightly at her response, because he seemed cool? How could she come to that conclusion so early when having not known anything about him previously? He knew a little about her, except that she had yet to become visibly mad at hi, which suggested at least a small amount of patience. "How could you come to that conclusion?" he asked, tilting his head slightly. He followed her eyes, and looked at his very regular cards, and shook his head. He answered her directly this time, a rare moment. "Veronica does not play cards. She watches." He shuffled the cards once more, and then tucked them into his sleeve, and looked at her carefully. "Do you want to see a magic trick?"
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[Prudence Armstead]

Prudence leaned on the bench, propping her head up on her hand. Her fingers tangled into the wild curls that fell over the edge of the bench. She looked at the boy, her resting face holding a smile as it always did. The creases in the corners of her eyes were creased a small amount more, as she was truly amused with the boy that Veronica had sent her to hang out with. Not that Vernie actually asked Prue to hang out with her brother, it was more as if Prue had chosen to do so. She could have just given her message to him and then left on her merry way to explore - something drew her in though. Perhaps it was the boys effeminate looks, or maybe it was just the fact that he'd asked too many questions for her to escape. Whatever the reason was, the young lion-cub didn't mind what-so-ever that she was there. She was actually having a good time just sitting and talking. She didn't get to do that much at school as she was always running around to make it to classes on time. She hadn't realized just how large the school was until she was inside of it - and boy did she get her cardio from all of those stairs. At least she wouldn't be out of shape in her time at the expansive castle.

"To the conclusion you're cool?" She asked, staring at her lap for a moment, brushing off some dirt that had managed to get on her jeans only goodness knows how. "Well, you so far haven't insulted me, and you aren't complaining that your sister isn't here. You kind of made me feel welcomed to be a friend." She said with a simple shrug. It was difficult for Prue to articulate exactly why she said he was cool, but she hoped she had done a good enough job. Prue nodded at his direct answer, though she didn't understand how big of a deal it was that Venn had answered her as such. "A magic trick?" Being a muggle born, Prudence was putting two adn two together. "Yes! My father used to do triks for me as a child!" She moved to sit on her knees, hands in her lap. "I'm excited to see one." She admitted, it had been a while since she'd been given a treat such as a magic trick.

 

[Venn Asiah Boneheart]

Venn nodded in response to her own question. He rarely spent time with other children, because even his own mother thought him peculiar, and thought it best that he stay at home with her. They both drove each other wild, as he was much more closer to his father, who seemed to adore his eccentricities, and was much more fun than his overbearing, control-freak of a mother. He sometimes wondered how they made it work. Cool was not a word he had ever heard used to describe him. Trying, was the most common. Although, Veronica occasionally called him great. But not cool. He nodded at the explanation that was given, but thought it made little sense. "Why would I complain to you that Veronica is not here?" The only time he would do that was if she was a direct cause of Veronica's absence, but she wasn't. Therefore, it was not her fault, nor was it her problem. "And why in Merlin's name would I insult you?" Especially without provocation! He could get a little snippy, but never actually blatantly insulted people. He'd be more likely to round-about insult them. It seemed kinder.

He was a little taken-aback at her response, but it was comforting. She was just like Veronica. He slide the cards from his sleeve, and looked at them, before looked back at Prue with golden eyes. As the day progressed with this new found companion, he had relaxed more, and so his eyes had changed colour slightly to reflect this. Hopefully, she would not notice. He held the cards out for her, numbers facing down so neither of them could see them. "Pick a card, please."

 

[Prudence Armstead]

Prudence was wondering why this boy asked so many questions, though she supposed it was his nature. Everyone and everything had a nature to it. They all had choices to make about their personalities, and he chose to be fearless in the way he spoke and the questions he asked. It was actually a very endearing quality in her opinion - though Prudence always seemed to find good in people. While many would become annoyed by being asked a lot of questions, Prudence welcomed it. Then again, if she was asked a lot of questions by someone trying to be hurtful, or with a bad attitude, she may not be so eager to answer. The young, curly headed woman believed that kindness was to be met with kindness, and rudeness should not be met at all. Regardless of the way she felt or what she thought, she should only concentrate on the now. Finally, after putting about a minute and a half of thought into everything, she shrugged to both of his questions. "Well because she's your sister, and I'm a stranger. I might not be as fun. And you might be mean because you don't know me. My dad says anger is a reaction of fear." She then looked at the cards he held out.

"A card." Prudence let her fingers graze over a few before picking up a single card. She didn't look at it, and didn't show it to him. Smiling Prue put it down against her lap. "Okay! What do i do now, Mr. Magician?" She asked, rater excited to see how good he was.