Closed Either a Shell or A Rock

[Gregory Friend]

Gregory had always lived next to water, by the proxy of living on a small island, he was never that far from the beach, from the harbour and from being able to just relax at a shore front. It was nice to him therefore that there was a lakefront for him to visit. he'd heard there were cliffs but knowing his luck, he'd trip up over and ant and go flying off the side of the cliff, so the lake front would do him just fine. He liked it. The weather was obviously not great given the time of year, but it was nice to be outside and enjoying the fresh air anyway, and the air felt very fresh. The nights were really dark with basically no light pollution, it was nice. Gregory had been sleeping well. He got to the lake front in the morning of that second day. He took in a deep breath of the cool morning air, and then took a step closer to the water, slipping on admittedly a slippy rock (it had rained recently) and landing right on his backside on the stones. He let out a groan of pain..maybe coming back in the summer would be a good idea. ​

 

[Conan Burke]

Conan had enjoyed his first night at Hogwarts. He got to meet his roommates as well as eat some yummy food at the feast. Though he still much preferred his mum's cooking over anything. The newly sorted Ravenclaw thought it would be a great idea to wake up early and have a fresh look at the lake that he had been so excited to see. He was eager to search for any shells that could've washed up on the shore this morning. Conan hurriedly made his way to the lake, his usual shoe box under his arm, but just as he reached closer to the lake, he noticed someone had been lying on their back, most likely slipped or something. Conan quickly made to the person. The boy looked about his age. "Hey, you all good? You need help getting up?" Conan asked, putting his hand out towards the boy, just in case he wanted some support in getting up.

 

[Gregory Friend]

Gregory was a little damp from his fall and his butt hurt, but he wasn't that injured. He glanced at a boy who approached him, with a hand outstretched. Gregory reached up and accepted the hand, letting himself be pulled to his feet. He smiled fondly at the boy. "Thanks!" He said, wiping his hands on his trousers. He looked down at the ground and picked up the thing he'd slipped on. "I slipped on this...," he turned it over in his hand, it was wet, a little dirty, but it was nice. he thought it was a rock but it had some ridges to it. "This is a cool rock," he held it out to the other boy to take a look. "I'm Gregory, by the way," ​

 

[Conan Burke]

Conan smiled as he helped the boy up. "It's no problem at all" Conan says with a small smile and shrugs. He was a bit concerned that the boy may be done serious damage to himself, but he looked fine, so he didn't question anything. He watched as the boy showed him what he had slipped on. He adjusted the box under his arm a little, as he squinted to try and get a closer look at what he was holding. "I don't think that's a rock," Conan says with a small frown, noticing the small ridges on the object. "It is cool tho!" Conan says in agreement. "Nice to meet ya, Gregory. I'm Conan" Conan says with a smile. He was always happy to make some new friends and meet new classmates. "Are you exploring the lake?"

 

[Gregory Friend]

Gregory looked at the rock or perhaps not a rock that he was holding and tried to see how it wasn't what it very much appeared to be. "What else could it be?" he asked, offering the rock or not rock out to the boy, Conan. "Good to meet you too," he told him with a smile before nodding slightly. "Kinda, I've just never seen a lake this big...and didn't want to wait till the weather was warmer before checking it out," which was like exploring but he hadn't set out around the castle to specifically see things or look at things, more just to see this body of water. "Are you exploring?" ​

 

[Conan Burke]

Conan gently took the ridged object, giving it a quick inspection. He frowned a little as it was a little hard to identify with the dirt that surrounded the object. "It looks like a shell to me. Though it's a bit hard to tell because of the sand covering it. But it's got ridges on it. Most rocks don't have ridges like that" Conan says, as he explained about the object that's in his hands, as he then points to the ridges he can notice. He also noticed some tint in colour on it too, but not much of it. Conan looks out towards the lake as Gregory explains about the lake. "It's quite big, right? When my sister spoke about the lake I didn't think it was this big" Conan says as he spoke the lake. "I wonder what sort of creatures live down there," Conan says as he then tries to peer forward at the lake. Conan nodded excitedly at Gregory's question. "Oh yeah! I wanted to have a look around the grounds. But I wanted to come to the lake first to see if there were any cool shells that washed up the shore to add to my collection."

 

[Gregory Friend]

Gregory hadn't expected much of an explanation, perhaps just that the boy thought it could be something else, but Gregory was told a lot more than he had ever thought about. "Wow, that's cool, how would you figure it out? Like do you wash it in the water or like brush it with a toothbrush like archeologists do?" he didn't know anything about rocks or shells, and largely would just thought it looked cool no matter what. He glanced back at the lake and had to wonder too what creatures were there and how many of those would he actually know. "Probably loads of fish," he decided to say, he didn't know what magical creatures could be down there, but a lake that size had to have lots of fish. "Is that why you know so much about shells?" Gregory asked, "That's cool, how many shells you got Conan?" ​

 

[Conan Burke]

Conan shrugs a little. "Different people do different things I guess. I usually use some vinegar and a toothbrush and rinse it off with water" Conan explains with a small smile and shrug. He usually cleaned all of his shells with vinegar and water before adding them to his collection. "I think water is just fine though," Conan says with a shrug, he decided to try and rinse the ridged object in the lake to try and at least get the dirt off the object. Though he frowned a little when it didn't really do much. It seemed that the dirt and sand were stubborn to come off. Conan nodded excitedly. "I try my best to learn as much about shells as possible," Conan says with a chuckle. "I have a lot. I lost count after a while. All of them are in different shoe boxes. I was only allowed to bring my favourite shells though. Which was hard" Conan explains, frowning a little. "Do you collect anything?"

 

[Gregory Friend]

Gregory's mind was blown by how much Conan seemed to know about all of this. "How long have you been collecting and learning about them?" he couldn't help but ask. He didn't understand why he couldn't bring all of them unless the collection was truly massive. "How many favourite shells do you have?" he had to imagine it was at least one shoe box filled, and he wondered briefly if there was one box he had for just the favourite ones. He could imagine it would be a massive task to go through all of the boxes to single out the favourite ones. Gregory glanced away at the question, scratching the back of his lightly. "No...I don't," he said, he had a few very small collections of stuff, but nothing that was worth mentioning in comparison to this boy and his collection. Like he maybe a couple of cool rocks or some sea glass, but nothing like he was sure Conan had. "But I live by a beach, which has lots of shells you'd have a field day there!" he was quick to move the conversation back. ​

 

[Conan Burke]

Conan thought for a moment about Gregory's question. "I dunno, really. I've been collecting for ages" Conan says with a chuckle. He didn't exactly know when, he just knew he had been collecting since a very young age. "My dad helped me for a bit. But I've started to research more about it recently" Conan then goes on to explain. The Ravenclaw frowned a little bit while thinking. "I have a lot of favourites, it was really hard to decide. I wanted to bring my whole collection with me, but my mum made me bring one box filled with ones I really, really liked." Conan explained sadly. He had been in a few arguments with his mum before coming to Hogwarts about his shoe collection. "That's okay, not everyone collects things. Do you have any hobbies?" Conan asked with a small smile, getting to know his new friend a bit better. "Really?! That's awesome! I don't live near a beach"

 

[Gregory Friend]

Gregory couldn't imagine having a collection go on for years. That had to be pretty amazing. "Does your dad like shells?" he wondered if perhaps Conan's dad had been into shells too, if he had been interested in something similar or good at something similar which had helped encourage Conan's interests. "That's cool! Are there jobs you can do with shells, like after school?" He thought it would be cool if there was something he could do after school. It would be cool too if he had already settled on a career. Gregory who was obviously so new to this world had no idea what new options he could have for careers. "Oh...I did...but they were mostly, like playing video games, watching tv...things I can't do here," he hadn't even figured that he would need new hobbies. He needed new everything. "Where do you live?" he decided to ask. ​

 

[Conan Burke]

Conan shook his head a little. "Nah. He kinda encouraged me to get into collecting shells and stuff. I enjoy it a lot" Conan explains a little with a small smile. He was glad that his dad helped him out with his shell collection a little. He probably wouldn't have a shell collection without his dad. Conan shrugged a little. "I dunno, but I would love to have a job that did that! It would be very cool" Conan says with a small chuckle and nod. Conan tilted his head to the side a little, frowning a little. "What's a video game and a tv?" Conan asked confusingly. He had vaguely heard about it somewhere, but he wasn't paying attention when it was explained to him. Maybe it was new magical thing he was unaware of? Or a muggle thing, he wasn't sure. "I live here in New Zealand. Up in Auckland. How about you?"

 

[Gregory Friend]

Gregory thought about his own father, who had helped him get interested in movies and video games, but who had also limited his access to some. He had also tried and failed to get Gregory interested in bird watching, but Gregory hadn't been good at sitting still for long periods of time. Unable to stop himself his expression fell a little as it was clear that Conan was from a magical family. Did that mean he was supposed to treat him differently? Was he like Cassius? Perhaps not in temperment, but would he now be like him, upon learning that Gregory wasn't born to magical parents. "Oh...they're muggle things," he said, "They're not as cool as shells," he added, hoping this would be enough to get him to like him and not think him some lame muggle. "I live on Rakiura, it's an island...off the south Island," Gregory said. "Living in Auckland must be cool? It always so busy when I go," ​

 

[Conan Burke]

"Muggle things? Are they fun? What sort of games are video games?" Conan asked, genuinely curious. He didn't really have that much experience when it came to the muggle world, so he was quite interested to learn more about it. "What do you mean? They sound cool! They might be better than my shells" Conan spoke in confusion. Sure he loved his shell collection, but there were some things he thought were better than his collection. He was intrigued to learn more about the muggle world. "Woah! An island?! That's so cool! Is the island big or small?" Conan asked his new friend, curious to get to know his friend a little better. Conan thought it would be super cool to live on an island. He was imagining all the shells he could find. "Super busy," Conan said with a nod.

 

[Gregory Friend]

Gregory felt like Conan was being genuine when he was asking about video games, but Gregory didn't feel certain that just around the corner this boy would do a one eighty and decide that muggle things were beneath him or uninteresting. Nothing had indicated that it would be, Conan seemed nice and friendly, but Gregory didn't know. "Oh, they're fun, you play them on...electronics, like a computer...I played mostly kid ones, my dad didn't let me play anything more violent or gory," which he felt was fair and hopefully that was enough information to go off for him. "It's a small island, small village, everyone knows everyone," Gregory replied "Is it difficult to be magical in a place like Auckland?" ​

 

[Conan Burke]

Conan listened as Gregory explained what video games were. There were more things that Conan didn't know about which caused Conan to be more confused and tilted his head a little to the side. "Computer? What's that? Also, do you know what the internet is? Is that what muggles use? Someone mentioned it to me earlier but I pretended I knew what it was" Conan spoke, genuine to getting to know about the muggle world, as he was remembering a conversation with someone earlier. His sister had told him stuff she had learned in muggle studies, but muggle studies were ages away and from bits and pieces he heard, he thought that the muggle world was quite interesting. Conan nodded as Gregory spoke about the island he lived on. He wondered what it was like to know everyone on an Island. "Yeah, I guess. Auckland's a lot busier and has a lot more people"

 

[Gregory Friend]

Gregory knew that trying to explain it would only result in more questions, ones he would struggle to answer. The question of what a computer was, was just that, not a question Gregory could easily answer. This was partly because he didn't actually know what the easiest comparison could be for a computer for a magical person. "Ehh..a computer is an electronic device..like a typewriter, but it does a lot. The internet....," Gregory was definitely unsure how best to describe it. "It's basically like a library, and a little like a club, but you can do it all from your own home?" Gregory was doing his best to explain it plainly, but it wasn't that obvious what it was. "Does Auckland have like magical areas..like Obsidian Harbour?" ​

 

[Conan Burke]

"Oh! I see, I guess that makes sense" Conan said as he nodded a little, getting a little better understanding of the muggle technology. Maybe he could look in the library or into one of the muggle studies classrooms about these muggle things. Conan was starting to get the idea that maybe Gregory was a muggleborn as he was answering Conan's questions, which Conan had no problem with. "And every muggle has a computer in their home? I'm guessing you can search a lot of stuff on the computer if is like a library?" Conan asked with fascination. The muggle world did sound interesting. Conan nodded a little. "Oh yeah, there are only a couple around Auckland, not many since otherwise, the muggles would start to find out"

 

[Gregory Friend]

Gregory wasn't sure it made sense, but if Conan thought it did, it would mean he didn't have to explain further, and that was a win. He wasn't sure he had done a good job, but it was unlikely that this boy would ever interact with any of it. He nodded, ”It's more like everyone has a computer in their lap,” Gregory could've just said yes, but there were phones that did the same, and he didn't feel like explaining that. The Hufflepuff just nodded. ”Have you never been in the muggle world?” Gregory was learning that a lot of magical people didn't know the world they were next to, and then people like Cassius absolutely looked down on the world. ”Did no one in Auckland wonder why you didn't go to school?”​

 

[Conan Burke]

Conan's eyes widened a little at Gregory's next statement. "Woah! And they just... carry it around?" Conan says with fascination. For most of his life he had grown up around the magical world, so he didn't really have an idea of what the muggle world was like. He did ask his parents questions though, and they were kind enough to answer his questions, encouraging him to learn more about the muggle world. "A couple of times, not often. It's very different from the magical world" Conan says with a shrug and small smile. "I don't have many muggle friends. I was homeschooled before I came here, so I didn't get many questions asked about it" Conan explained with a small smile and shrug. His two older siblings had been able to experience muggle schooling, but his parents had decided to homeschool him and Fiona, which he didn't know why. "Are you a muggleborn? Or someone magical who grew up in the muggle world? What's muggle school like? Is it different from Hogwarts?" Conan asked Gregory genuinely and curiously.

 

[Gregory Friend]

Gregory nodded a little, ”Yeah, they aren't too heavy.” he said. He really didn't want to go into the details about it. Computers and everything else were not something he knew how to describe. But it seemed as though it interested Conan in a way that he wouldn't have ever imagined. Muggle things were normal to him, where he knew they wouldn't be to others. The Hufflepuff thought it was pretty logical that Conan had been homeschooled. No one in his town had been homeschooled, but it had been a small community. Gregory froze slightly at the question, he had no reason to think that Conan would find it bad that he was muggleborn….he'd certainly figured it out. ”Yeah,” he said with a little shrug. ”Muggleborn…probably,” Gregory said. ”School is very different…but I went to a tiny school, I'm probably not the best reference,” ​

 

[Conan Burke]

"That's good, that would be annoying to carry something everywhere that's heavy," Conan said with a small chuckle. Though, he decided to stop asking further about the technology. Conan nodded and shrugged with a small smile. "Nice. It's okay. I see no problem with it if that's what you're worried about. I know there can be people who can be quite... mean about that sort of thing" Conan says genuinely with a small shrug. He didn't want to scare away his first possible friend at school. He remembered his parents explained to him earlier before he left for school that there were people who judged other people by their blood status and Conan didn't like that idea at all. Conan nodded as Gregory explained about the muggle schools. "Right, I didn't think about the different sizes and whatnot. They teach and learn completely different things at muggle schools compared to here aye?" Conan says curiously as he adjusted the shell box under him.

 

[Gregory Friend]

Gregory nodded in agreement, ”I can show you, if you ever come to my house,” he said with a smile. He thought it was cool to a degree that Conan was so interested in his upbringing, and seemed to be aware of why Gregory might've hesitated about it. Gregory wondered if Conan had run into Cassius, but if not, then it meant there were more people like him. He did need to be careful. Just because he was fine, didn't mean that the next person would be. He nodded at the question. ”Yeah, I was doing maths, English literature/writing, a little Māori, some sports,” Gregory said, he wasn't sure if he needed to explain further, that seemed like more than enough classes for Conan. ​

 

[Conan Burke]

Conan's face lit up at Gregory's comment. "Yeah! That would be so cool," Conan says with a nod of his head in agreement. He wouldn't mind learning more about the muggle world. He thought it was interesting to see and learn. Though he didn't understand why there were people in the magical world that refused to learn about the muggle world. Conan nodded as Gregory listed off the different subjects that he had learnt while being in muggle school. "Woah, that's very different to Hogwarts. I think arithmancy replaces math at Hogwarts. But that's for older years and it sounds complicated. I didn't know you learnt a little bit of a different language either." Conan spoke with amazement. He thought that learning a different language at school was very cool. Maybe Hogwarts should do that.

 

[Gregory Friend]

Gregory thought it would be interesting to have someone from this world see his old world. It seemed like Conan was a good person, and it didn't seem like he would make fun of it, so it would be good. It would be intriguing to show someone what muggle life was like, if they were so interested in it. He didn't know what arithmancy was. ”I'm quite glad I no longer have to do maths, I wasn't very good at it,” Gregory added with a little chuckle. It was a familiar word, but he wasn't sure what it meant, but if Conan said it was like maths, then it had to be. ”Oh, it wasn't particularly in depth…which was a bit of an issue,” Gregory replied. ”Would you want to learn a language?” ​