Card Games

[Daintree Vaskevold]

Daintree was finding himself being rather bored by this school. His parents had gone on and on about how amazing he’d find this place, how enthralling he would find this magic thing that he was a part of, but truly he was just bored. Nothing had really started yet, he didn’t think there was a lot for him to fill his hours with. He didn’t have his bike, he didn’t have his computer, phone or games. There were so many hours in the day and it wasn’t like he could fill it was truly mindless things. Instead he had to make his own entertainment, and honestly though he knew his friend, Lucky really liked the little quidditch figurines, Dain couldn’t particularly understand it, if only because he didn’t know who any of the players were so it didn’t matter much to him. The slytherin had found tucked away in his belongings found a pack of cards and had taken them with him to the lake front, an area of the school, he wasn’t playing cards, in his journey outside he hadn’t found anyone he knew whom he could play with, but he wasn’t really playing. The boy was just throwing the cards, throwing them towards the water but missing every time, cards did not fly well. It was as he did this that he noticed a girl, whom he remembered from sorting, with the interesting surname and decided to wave her over, ”Hey! You want to come play?” he picked up various cards around him, not rushing to pick them all up, but at least showing what he was offering that they could do.​

 

[Xio Havoc]

Xio found comfort in the lake, and in the short time she had been at Hogwarts she quickly claimed it as her favourite spot. Even if the rest of the castle was more stunning than she had anticipated, screaming "MAGIC!" so ostensibly that it was hard not to be entranced, Xio still thought the relatively normal lake (she had yet to see that squid everyone was yapping about) edged all of the rest out. There was not much to it, other than she found that it just felt very fitting to sit and listen to her own thoughts, sorting them out and categorizing them as necessary. Sometimes she came out with her cat, but other times she sat alone, like now. It helped calm her... anxiety about school, numbing it to a faint buzz in the back of her head.

Anxiety. That's what her doctor had called it, but she didn't particularly like the label or even the word itself so much, so she decided to relabel it as the jitter-buggers. And Salazar, the jitter-buggers had it out for her! But she wasn't going to let that get her down, she just couldn't, or she would never become the greatest witch of her generation. So Xio tried to spend as much time in her happy spaces as possible, even bringing along her homework so she could be more efficient about it. She was halfway through her astronomy paper when she heard a voice call out to her.

"Hey! You want to come play?" Xio looked up from her mid-sentence crisis over the spelling of the word celestial (it sounded like there were two ls in there) to see a boy in her year and house waving her over. What was his name, again? Dmitri, if she wasn't mist– wait, did that have an e in it? Trying not to look like she was having a crisis over her inability to spelll, Xio watched as the boy gestured a kind of throwing motion with the cards. "What... What is the point of this game?" Nevertheless, she had already put aside her homework and was getting up to make her way over.

 

[Daintree Vaskevold]

Daintree had still be gathering up the cards as the girl asked him what he was actually playing, ”I was just throwing cards, but we could play snap,” the boy suggested. He’d been throwing cards because he’d been bored and without someone else to play with. Cards were social sport. You couldn’t in his mind play cards alone despite the fact that that was what he was half doing. The slytherin hadn’t played cards in a long while, there was no need to back home when he could sit with his friends on their phones or playing a video game. The magical world definitely thought it was a lot more interesting than it actually was. He had so many empty hours, hours that he definitely unwilling to fill with studying, classes or any form of revision. So, he had to find other things to do that he wouldn’t have had to in his last school. One of them was this card deck and maybe he could bring some more board games, and finally figure out why they were called that. ”There’s not like there’s anything else to do at this dumb school aside from play cards,” the slytherin added, she was already heading over to him, so he had think that she might be interested in playing with him. ”Do you know how to play snap?” he asked her but it wasn’t like there was a whole lot to the game for her to understand. He had all of the cards in his hand and began to slowly and purposefully shuffle them. It was clear he did not know how to do that properly.​

 

[Xio Havoc]

Watching the other boy gather up cards, Xio picked up a few that lay close by her feet as she made her way closer. She turned them over in her hand– wondering if it was a magical deck of sorts. She had always found cards fairly boring, just another Game Night activity that her father would insist on playing during her yearly visits. And Game Night was always boring and filled with silence, save for the sound of cards shuffling before each round. Xio held out the cards she collected for the boy to take. "Well snap can be fun," Xio said by way of answer. Again, though she generally found card games boring, at least snap had structure to it. ​

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”There’s not like there’s anything else to do at this dumb school aside from play cards." Xio was taken aback by the bitter statement thrown out so casually into conversation. "Dumb? What's so dumb about it? The castle's pretty cool, no? I mean the stairs are a bit of a woozy but once you get used to them..." Xio trailed off, leaving room for the boy to explain his thoughts. Cool was a bit of an understatement but she figured it to be a more relatable term than the most beautiful architectural structure in existence, especially if the boy really did believe that Hogwarts was dumb. "Yeah, I know how to play snap," Xio confirmed in an offhanded manner, rather distracted by the boy's methods of shuffling. "Uh, don't have much experience shuffling? I can show you if you'd like." Though Xio was often an anxious mess, her anxiety over tiny vexations often overtook her anxiety for speaking up. She hoped it didn't bother the boy too much. Xio wasn't lying: after all, she really did do a mean dovetail shuffle and wasn't opposed to sharing the skill. ​

 

[Daintree Vaskevold]

Dain shrugged as she agreed against him calling it dumb, ”Sure, the school looks nice, but there’s nothing to do,” he countered with a roll of his eyes. He was of course looking to be friendly to her, but she had picked on a little part of what he had said rather that seeing that he hadn’t meant the look of it, ”Visually it’s cool, in reality it’s dumb. I mean in all of the years of magic they couldn’t invent some magical tv or some games that aren’t chess,” the boy had played chess on a computer but it was different in person, endlessly more difficult than it needed to be and just a whole lot more boring to him, even if in the magical version the pieces destroyed each other. He was pleased when the girl said she knew how to play snap, he hadn’t particularly been looking forward to having to explain in any greater detail what snap was as a game. He’d still been trying to shuffle them when the girl offered to do it, and the boy happily handed them over. ”Sure, have at it,” Dain didn’t need to know how to shuffle cards someone else or anyone else had always done it, even a machine in Dain’s home had done it. So, he held out the pack to her, ”Do you play card games often? Is that why you know how to shuffle cards?”​

 

[Xio Havoc]

Xio actively listened to the boy's complaints, trying her best to consider his point of view. This seemed to be a rather sour point for him, but she didn't mind pushing on if they could maintain a civil conversation about it. She really couldn't just let things go like that. When he mentioned "magical tv", the young girl got a hunch: "Television? Are you a muggleborn then?" Technology like that really didn't work very well with magic around, so she supposed the boy must have grown up in a non-magical household. "And I see your point. Tvs and cell phones and um- game videos– are pretty awesome muggle technology, and it's a shame we haven't gotten around to figuring out how to get that stuff to work with magic just yet. I've thought about it too before." Once she got invested in a topic, Xio's shyness really seemed to ooze away. She continued on, excited. "But if that really bothers you so much, then you've got the next seven years at this place to learn as much as you can so that maybe you can be the one to change it." It was blind optimism, she knew that. But what was wrong with blind optimism and giving a little bit of encouragement? "And you should know that I'm quite good at researching. I could even try to help you... Wait, what's your name again? I'm Xio." Anxiety who?​

Xio smiled gratefully when the boy handed her the cards, proceeding to shrug when the boy asked her if she played cards often. She was a little uncomfortable with the thought of her father. "Yeah. In the summers my dad, brother, and I play a lot of cards– too much, honestly." She tried turning it into a joke to ease her discomfort. So far, this interaction was going pretty well and she didn't want to screw it up. "This is a dovetail shuffle. My brother taught it to me." Xio made a show of showing him exactly how she was holding the deck before splitting it into two. Gripping both halves of the deck by placing her thumb on top whilst her middle and ring fingers supported the bottom edge of the deck, she bent in both halves using her forefingers as support. She slowly loosened the grip of her thumbs, and moved them up the edge of the cards, letting the cards fall and interlock together. "This is called riffling." For extra flourish, she used a cascade finish, bending the cards whilst she kept her thumbs on top as to keep them from going everywhere. "Wanna try?" Xio held out the deck for the boy to take if he so wanted to. ​

 

[Daintree Vaskevold]

The boy frowned a little when she asked if he was muggleborn, ”What does it really matter?” he couldn’t help the words, he couldn’t assume that she meant anything bad about it, but it hadn’t felt too positive, or maybe she was just stating fact. The boy just frowned at her, when she proceeded to agree with him, but also said if he wanted something to change maybe he should do it. He didn’t think it would be possible, from what he’d gather no electricity worked in this place. How that yearbook managed to get an issue of it released every year was something he’d look forward to seeing. But, she just seemed optimistic, ”Until then, I’ve just got to figure out what to do with myself,” Daintree had not had to do that in a while, he’d always had friends to spend the time with, or a game he could play. There was always something for him to do. Something - anything really for him to spend the empty hours doing. He’d never been a fan of the so-called switching off that others had preached, perhaps he should’ve. ”Daintree,” he replied with a little smile, at least being a little friendly to Xio. He watched as she took the cards and said that she’d played cards often. Maybe magical families just played a lot of cards? He watched as she showed him two different styles of shuffling cards. ”Sure, which one would you say is easier?” the boy held the deck of cards lightly in his hands, not thinking he would be able to do either but willing to try them both. The boy had watched her do them both, but there was a difference between watching and trying, and where he’d never needed to shuffle himself by hand, she clearly had a lot of experience on it. ”And talk me through it, I’ve never done any kind of fancy shuffling,” the boy added with a little smile. It was something to do, and he’d do anything that wasn’t studying at this point.​

 

[Xio Havoc]

Xio was a bit taken back by the boy's nearly aggressive words. She had forgotten that this was a sensitive topic for some. She shrugged, not quite sure how to respond. "Well, nothing. Why would there be anything wrong with that? Just curious, after all. My dad's a squib, why would I care?" She offered up that bit of information in a rush to try to get the boy to understand that she wasn't trying to judge him. Squibs were heavily scrutinized and looked down upon by some. Seriously, she never understood the hype over blood purity. She didn't even understand why it still existed, even if it wasn't nearly as common as it had been only decades ago. Everyone had some muggle in them. ​

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The young snake decided to put the whole change the world thing on hold and agreed with the boy. "Is that why you're throwing cards, then? Fair enough." Xio never grew up with much muggle anything, least of all muggle technology, even though she had certainly heard and seen the stuff around. She couldn't imagine losing half of her hobbies in a day. "Flying is fun, I think you'll enjoy it... Most do. Well at least I do. I don't really talk to that many others, but uh, you should look forward to the lessons.. If you get really good at it, then you can play Quidditch." Xio wanted to kick herself in the face for not being able to stop her rambling habbits. Now that she wasn't talking about something she was getting excited about, Xio was rambling for a different reason. She just wanted to make another friend– was that too much to ask?​

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Xio was happy to delay their game in favour of teaching Daintree how to shuffle. "Well, to me the Dovetail is a little easier to learn, I think. It would be better if we were sitting though, so you can do it against the ground." Xio gestured and if the boy agreed, would continue to sit down. She began. "So I think the most important thing is hand position. First, move your hands to the top like this and your hands to the bottom like this." She shifted her hands in the air, trying to imitate the way she would hold the deck. Xio knew it looked a bit funny, but she was trying to get her point across.​

 

[Daintree Vaskevold]

Daintree just shrugged at her, ”You were the one that asked,” he retorted, perhaps his tone had been harsh but he had heard mixed things about how people reacted to his sort of magic. She hadn’t started or gone into detail as to why she was asking, just asked and Daintree had been a little defensive. But, he shrugged wanting to let it go. Being defensive towards this girl wasn’t going to result in him becoming friends with her, in fact it would do quite the opposite. He looked at her and nodded, before just listening as she spoke about quidditch, ”I think I’ll like flying too. I like surfing, and cycling and other sports stuff so it can’t be that much different or worse than those things, and I like those things,” he could admit that Hogwarts was presenting him with problems that he hadn’t forseen, certainly if he’d known that magic and electronics didn’t work together then he would’ve fought harder to not come. However he was quite curious about how to shuffle so he sat down at her suggestion and held the deck lightly in his hands until the girl showed him how to hold the deck of cards, so he moves his hands to hold it like he’s been shown to. ”Okay, now what?” Daintree asked, looking between her hands, his hands and her.​

 

[Xio Havoc]

Xio let go of the topic as Daintree shrugged, feeling uncomfortable with it as it stood. She itched to get a last word in but didn't want to rock the boat further, nervous she would just make the situation worse. And as long as he was willing to move on, she was too. She listened as he spoke about sports, and was glad he responded well to the idea of flying. "Surfing? That's like, um, skateboarding, right? But on water?" At least that's what she knew of the muggle sport. "It looks very athletic. And hard." Flying was probably easier than trying to balance on water, dear Merlin. "I also like cycling." It was probably the only muggle sport she was semi-proficient at, seeing as how it was also a good form of transportation and one couldn't just fly all over the place in an efficient manner. "Have you ever tried going down the Hauraki Rail Trail? I was just there this summer." It was an easy but popular New Zealand Trail that Xio and her brother made a trip out of. It was a scenic three-day trip and she was glad she went. "Okay, then you loosen your grip and move your thumbs up against the edge of the cards. They should start to rifle together, lacing and interlocking." She considered her instructions as she again tried to mimic them with her hands. "And yeah, do it against the ground."​

 

[Daintree Vaskevold]

Daintree nodded, ”Kind of,” he could admit that the two were relatively similar, though it wasn’t the same really. He thought that surfing and skateboarding combined was like flying, but the two themselves were different. He shrugged, ”it’s not too hard,” the boy allowed himself to boast to her lightly. At the question he nodded, ”Yeah a few times,” he had enjoyed it quite a lot, having done it with a few friends during several summers as they’d grown up. It was just a fun thing to do in the summer. Even if he hadn’t actually done it, the boy would’ve likely still lie about having gone. The slytherin just focused more about what she was saying with the cards. He nodded a little and then got his hands into the right position like she’d said. After a moment he attempted to do it, rifle them together to get them to interlace and interlock them together in shuffling the cards. At first he thought he was managing, but the cards cascaded in a mess out of his hands. ”Ah damn,” he groaned as all of the cards flew to the ground. At least he’d been doing it against the ground, and they didn’t scatter too bad. Dain picked up the cards, ”I can do this,” he assured her, ”let’s just start over,” Dain asked as he got the cards back into his hands.​