Closed Don't be suspicious

Zennon clocked Arvel stepping behind him, he was probably still feeling a bit overwhelmed by whatever had caused his sudden anxiety earlier. He was aware that sometimes it didn't have to be a specific situation or moment, and that sometimes it just happened. That was how it had been with Rowan, especially after Elsie and their dad had died. He'd learned pretty quickly that sometimes she just needed someone to hold her hand and tell her everything was going to be okay, or that she wasn't being silly for how she was feeling - Zennon wasn't really ever sure if his presence made things worse, but Arvel hadn't told him to leave, and that had been enough for him. He turned his attention to the girl on the chair, leaving Mania to Tinsel's care for the moment. "Callie, that's your name, right?" He asked the girl, making sure he was lower than her, providing her with some comfort at not feeling smaller than she probably already did. "I'm sorry everything happened this way, I wasn't aware of your situation, can you confirm for me please, that you don't know about magic, you don't come from a magical family, is that right?" He didn't want to explain things to her if she already knew, that would just make her feel stupid, but if her confusion was genuinely because she didn't have the knowledge, he would know a bit more about how to move forward with this, if that was what she wanted from him. He wasn't really equipped for this, as a pureblood and someone who had spent the majority of their time in the magical world, he didn't know a lot about this situation and none of his friends really had the same problem. Leda was a muggleborn of course, but she'd had Olive to help her, so it was a lot different in that case. Poor Callie seemed to be starting from scratch. He hoped he could repay the universe here for the kindness that had been Leda and Mervyn. He wasn't sure what he would have done without Leda in his life at the exact time she'd been in it. "Callie, I promise I can help you, I just need you to look at me, and answer my question, okay?"​
 
Callie felt some of her anger soften as Mania confessed why they were really there. The blame wasn't all hers. Let's face it - Callie would have come in with or without an accomplice. If anything, it was her fault for acting as though she knew what she was doing. She'd been so sure it was all a set-up, she'd hardly stopped to consider how she might feel if it wasn't.

"It's not her fault. I wanted to come in. I wanted to see some magic, because I saw the books floating in the book shop, but that could have been strings, or magnets, and everyone's being really secretive. All I know is what the woman told me when she came with my letter. But my nan freaked out on her, so she didn't really get to finish." Which made her nan's change of heart all the more unsettling. What had happened to make her think magic was real after all? And why was she so angry about it? "Nia was just following me. She won't get into trouble, will she?" Nia was the closest thing Callie had to an ally around here. It was probably a good idea not to ruin their friendship before it even started. She looked Healer Baros in the eyes, distrust and defiance shrinking back to reveal a more genuine vulnerability. "I don't know. I don't know... anything."
 
Arvel didn't try to avoid Zennon any more, but the vastness of the hospital made it so their paths seldom crossed anyway. Only half a dozen times had Arvel heard him talking to patients. Even so, he noticed a stark contrast in his demeanour - all the usual roughness was gone, replaced with the firm but gentle concern of a parent. Did it come naturally to him? Was it an instinct? How did he know what to do? Why couldn't Arvel have been blessed with even a fraction of that man's intuition?

He looked down. The child with the snake seemed to be talking to him. "I..." he started. It was an effort to get anything past the lump in his throat. He was no expert at forgiveness, but he did know a little bit about friendship. "I think she probably will. Yes." He watched the snake coil around her wrist, wondering at her lack of fear; Arvel could never have been so brave at her age. Now, he reached out to pet Tinsel gently. "It's amazing. It's a gift," he said. He believed that, now - that speaking Parseltongue was a gift - and he hoped the girl would always think so too. He smiled, dropping his hand. "She likes you."
 
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The shame seemed to wash away slowly and her eyes remained on the snake but she heard Callie's soft protest. Trying to take the blame, but really it was a combined effort at this point. She hoped though that even after this whole situation they could become friends and rely on each other at school when the time finally came. Looking up at Arvel, or well to her Pom, Manias eyes softened and she smiled back at him. "You think so? I like her as well, but I also think Pim likes you. Now I am no adult but you guys seem like good friends at the very least you two care for each other. I take it you attended school together?" The last bit was more of a statement than a question. "I hope I make friends, some that will last me a life time. I have grown up hopping from one school to another, just like switching countries. The only long term friendships I have are my sisters and well they are great and all but I want real friends too you know? Ones that I do not have to say goodbye to after a year." Perhaps she was too open but for some reason the man seemed like one she could speak to. Though he was quiet there was this sort of profound loneliness in his eyes and even though he didn't say it he looked like he needed a friend, she was not trying to befriend him of course, but she figured she could offer him some conversation. "You are so beautiful and sweet, aren't you?" Mania turned her attention back to the snake, speaking softly.
 
Zennon smiled lightly at Callie, she wasn't sure about magic, maybe it could be a trick, but maybe he could help to show her that it wasn't. "Neither of you will get into trouble, not now, you're with me, and if you're with an adult, it's fine, right? I won't tell anyone you shouldn't be here if you won't," he said, softly, his tone only slightly conspiratory. "I can show you some magic, and I can try and prove that it's real, and if you want, you can ask me any questions you have and I can try to answer them. I'm sort of on a bit of a break right now anyway, so you aren't keeping me from my work either, and then maybe we can get you somewhere that's a little better than the wards, huh?" He said, holding up his wand again. "This is my wand, do you want to hold it for a second?" He asked, holding it out to her. It wouldn't work for her, but she might feel the magic from it, it wasn't just an ordinary stick after all. "Can you see how it doesn't quite feel like a regular stick?" He takes it back from her when she gives it up and then waves it, silently casting Lumos. (Mostly so she doesn't get the idea to try the spell herself, it's simple, but even a bad lumos could cause problems.) The tip of his wand lights up, and he let her look at it, pointing out there weren't any buttons, or switches, and she could wave her hands along it and she would feel nothing. He doesn't let her hold it though, because the spell would drop, "I can't let you hold it whilst its lit like this, because the spell would stop, but can you see there's nothing making the light except for me? For magic?" He had a couple of other harmless spells he could show her too, if this didn't work.

Tinsel, off to the side with Arvel and Mania, flicked her tongue at being pet by the bigger human. She glanced in his direction, and if Arvel can read the look of a snake, she's almost curious, happy he'd pet her, before she turned back to the smaller human, her tongue flicking against her arm in response.​
 
That cheeky smile which was an almost-permanent feature on Callie's face gradually returned. She often got the feeling that adults could be divided into two categories: those who took their title very seriously, and those who wore it reluctantly to disguise that they were, in fact, big children. She took the wand, conscious at once of a warm tingling in her palm. Was that magic? And was it coming from the wand, or did the wand draw something latent inside her to the surface? "I can feel it," she said. It was an unusual sensation - uncomfortable, almost. She handed it back to Healer Baros, who gave it a wave, and just like that, the tip began to glow. Callie examined it closely for a bulb (or as closely as she could without blinding herself), but there was nothing. "That's amazing. But... I don't know. You could still be faking it. Make something else appear. I want to see that again." Was Nia seeing this? She needed Nia to see this.
 
Friends? Zennon didn't want to be Arvel's friend. Zennon just took pity on people who were feeling overwhelmed; that much became clearer by the second. Any chance of real friendship had sunk years ago - and since dragging it up from the depths would require Arvel to turn his thoughts and feelings into coherent sentences, it was doomed to be a wreck forever. Besides, why would Zennon want to spend time with him? Friendship was supposed to be give and take, and Arvel had nothing to contribute. A girl like Nia, on the other hand, with her boldness and loquacity, would have no trouble at all making friends, provided she occasionally gave them a chance to speak. "I don't think you've much to worry about," he said, glancing at the ground near her accomplice. "Seems like you've already made one."
 
Mania saw some flickering happening on the healer and Callie's side, but she was way too focused on the snake. Every second she looked at her she just felt herself falling deeper in love with the species. How could something so beautiful and gentle have such a negative reputation, of course they were venomous some but that was besides the point. When the snake flicked her tongue on her arm Mania's mouth fell open, if her eyes could they'd turn into hearts in this moment. Her whole body filled with happiness from that simple little gesture on the snakes part and it was all she could do not to start bouncing off of walls.

"Yeah? I do like her, she's nice and fun, I just feel bad. I should have thought my actions through and what effect it may have on her, though I did not know of her background. Just thought she'd be a curious kid like me, bursting at the seams at the prospect of finally learning what the adults in her family already knew." She had seen her sister, Hera, fall in love with her studies and she was so excited herself. Her mum was a good healer, a talented witch if she dared to say so. Her dad though well, he was muggleborn, while good at magic, he had taken to writing. He was quite a good author she supposed and they liked to see the world, her parents, which was why they were always on the move growing up. All in all Mania was just looking forward to learning it all herself and making some place her own, a home she could always return to after breaks. "You too Pom, I quite like you. You seem like a kind person and I hope that you know that." Nia directed her gaze back to her friend again, wondering whether Callie would like to pet the snake too. She'd ask once the healer was done explaining and showing the girl some tricks.
 
She wanted something more, he could provide. Zennon leaned back on his heels, and held his hand out between them, "watch," he said, directing her attention to his hand before waving his wand again and conjuring two visitors badges with the names Callie and Mania on them, that way she wouldn't be able to wonder if he'd just had them all along. "Here," he said, holding hers out to her, she would be able to feel it, and see that it was real. "That's called conjuring, it's a form of what we call transfiguration magic, which you will learn once you go to Hogwarts, but not for a few years yet." He said, pulling his wand back and placing back up his sleeve. "How do you feel?"​
 
"Like someone turned my brain into jelly," said Callie automatically. She couldn't deny it any more. Not with the visitor badge in her hand, her name written cleanly across it. Magic was real. Magic was real, and she, Calliope Cartwright, was a witch.

It was a lot for a jet-lagged eleven-year-old to absorb. "Thank you for this," she said, holding the badge to her chest. "But I think we should probably go, shouldn't we? Nia?" For the first time in several minutes, Callie looked up at her friend. "Oh, I see," she grinned. "You've been making new friends without me. She's cute. Can I hold her? I've never held a snake before - you'll have to show me how."
 
Arvel was trying to give the girl his full attention, but he was obviously distracted. He'd never seen Zennon like this before. No, that wasn't true - Zennon had always been kind and considerate. It was the warped lens through which Arvel had for many years viewed him which made him seem cold and arrogant. Why did he do that? Why did he judge Zennon's entire character based on a single second in time over ten years ago? He would have been the first to complain if Zennon did the same to him - and it wasn't like he'd have struggled for something to hold against him. You couldn't turn a page in Arvel's history without finding a stain.

I'm not, he thought. I'm not a kind person. But he wanted to be. He was trying so, so hard. And if some kid could see that in him after five minutes... perhaps it wasn't a completely hopeless case.
 
Mania smiled as Callie finally seemed to be her normal self again, good. She extended her arm that held the snake and felt this weird feeling when the healer hissed or well spoke to the snake she supposed, and the snake as if in answer slithered to Callie. "Wow, that is so cool." She breathed out, still not fully able to comprehend the man was a Parselmouth.

Turning to Arvel there was a smile on her face as she took a step closer to him. "Thank you, for keeping me company while Pim was helping Callie." She said before throwing her arms around him, perhaps it wasn't the smartest thing to hug adults she had only just met but he looked like he could use a hug. "I hope that I can see you around again, you really have a special kind of aura to you. I hope that one day you can see it yourself too." Nia said as she detached herself from the hug.

"And Pim, thank you for helping Callie and for introducing me to Tinsel, she is so beautiful and I think I quite fell in love with her." She said turning to the man with darker features and giving him a hug in turn. "I am sorry for any trouble we caused but I am also grateful to have met you two, you were so kind and helpful. I hope that I'll see you around more." She spoke, still holding onto the hug. Once she departed from it she scurried over to Callie and looked at the snake. "She is wonderful, isn't she? I want one soo bad, are you okay? You look better. I am sorry for confusing you, I should have known better, can we still be friends?" Just like that her talkative side, jumping from one topic to another, was back as she started walking towards the door putting her badge on. "Oh Pim, what is your name? Other than Healer Baros and Pim of course." Nia called to the healer whose name she had not yet caught, not that she'd really use it anyways. He was now Pim for her just like Pom was Pom.

(GM approved by Zazz)
 
Zennon was glad they seemed to have moved away from whatever issue had been underlying all of this, and especially that they seemed to have averted giving a child not only an identity crisis but probably a panic attack as well, which wouldn't have been a great end for the day at all. "You can keep that badge by the way, I've charmed them to say whatever you want them to say." He said, standing up to move away from the girl a little, and almost because he was developing a little bit of a cramp in his leg. He turned to Tinsel, "come and escort the girls out, once they're appropriately far away, come on back." He hissed to her, watching as she unfurled herself from Mania and headed over to Callie instead.

He was slightly taken back when Mania came over to hug him next, but he patted her softly on the shoulder. "Don't worry about it, just... maybe don't go walking into anymore restricted areas, huh? They're usually restricted for a reason." He added, trying to impart some adult behaviour on the two kids since he wasn't about to turn them into security. He handed Mania her badge. "I'm Zennon, it was wonderful to meet both of you. Make sure you look after each other when you head to school, huh?" He could see the makings of a Gryffindor in Mania, but he suspected he could see some in Callie too, though one could never be too sure. The sorting hat was the expert after all, and he couldn't read their intentions and thoughts like the hat could. He'd have to find out from Finley later, because now he was kind of invested.

He looked back over at Arvel, a strange look on his face, but he didn't want to try and start interpreting his looks now. "Hey, if you're feeling better, do you want to go and get lunch?" Maybe one of these day's they'll talk, but it probably won't be today.​
 
Whatever Callie wanted it to say? Had Healer Baros just given them a free ticket into any building they liked, including straight back into this one? His follow-up remark about staying out of restricted areas sounded more like a joke than serious advice, but Callie intended to heed it anyway. After what she'd seen the man do with the flick of a wrist, she had a feeling they were lucky they hadn't seen any complicated magic, or magical injuries.

She touched her wrist to Mania's, shivering as the tiny snake explored her wrist. For a moment, their forearms were bound together by its body, and then Callie alone was holding it. "It's not as slimy as I thought it would be," she said, rotating her arm to admire Tinsel's pattern. She lifted her eyes to laugh briefly at Mania. "Are you joking? We're friends now - Tinsel says so, and I'm not arguing with Tinsel. She makes the rules. You know, I didn't think they'd let people have snakes in a hospital. If they let them in here, do you think we can take one to Hogwarts? If we get a well trained one - like this." On that note, the snake slithered up to her shoulder, then made its way down to the ground. "OK, I guess we should go. Thanks Pim and Pom," she said, because she'd forgotten the other man's name. "It was nice to meet you. Sorry for sneaking in, and stuff. We probably won't do it again."
 
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Arvel looked at Zennon, help me written in bold all over his face. What was he supposed to do? Pat the girl on the head like a dog? Push her off? Fortunately, before he had to make that decision, Nia released him, tottering off to subject Zennon to the same embarrassment. Kids. What did she even mean, 'a special kind of aura'? For all she knew, Arvel could have slaughtered puppies in his free time. She had a lot to learn about the world. But... maybe it was best she didn't learn it all too quickly.

Lunch? Was Zennon talking to him? Of course he was - who else would he be talking to? Still, Arvel glanced over his shoulder, in case someone had approached from behind. No. Definitely him. "Oookay?" he said. It wasn't supposed to come out as a question, but there were so many questions in his mind that the question mark just sort of popped out. "I mean, yes. Great." And now he sounded sarcastic. This was why he just didn't bother.
 
Mania beamed at Callie, they were friends yay. She had not lost her to her foolishness and she absolutely loved the idea of sneaking in a snake to the school. "You know I was wondering the same thing, surely nobody would throw a poor snake out if we brought one in?" Her voice was both innocent and menacing in it's tone, she had just broken so many rules and was not yet on the clear but already planning to possibly break more if they didn't allow snakes. Nia took note to the name, Zennon, and then to his warnings. Though they sounded more like suggestions, but she had no intent to sneak into buildings like this again. She was beyond glad they had ran into these two and not some others who might not be as kind and understanding. With that Mania turned around and saluted the two men, signaling she understood and then continued on her merry way. The year ahead was surely going to be an interesting one and now she had someone beside her she was sure she could count on inside the school walls, her excitement for what was to come grew. Tinsel followed them all the way and she had no doubt in her mind that Pim aka Zennon had told the snake to escort them all the way out, she didn't blame him of course. "Bye bye Tinsel, I love you, I hope we can see each other again." Mania said as they reached the front entrance, she crouched down to give the snake a few more pats before having to leave her behind.
 
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