Setting New Goals

[Tristan Collins]

The chapter of dating Kauri was over, though it definitely hadn't had the neat ending Tristan had been hoping for. He wasn't heartless, he did feel somewhat bad for hurting the boy so much, but he was also irritated with himself for even dating someone so... soft. In the last weeks he had already been considering ending it, though he now thought that would have been messy no matter how he had done it. The boy had liked him way more than he had anticipated, which was good for his ego but had also felt a little suffocating. Despite everything, he still felt the most for Vivian. Sometimes he wished the boy would just start being more social and work harder in class. A lot would be solved if he was just able to date him openly.

But this way did leave a lot of doors open for the Hufflepuff. He now had time to look for someone else to take to the dances next year, someone that was a little more eye-catching than Kauri. He wanted people to look at them and be jealous, though he also knew that would be more of a challenge. Thankfully he had someone in mind, but he wasn't sure if she would be open to the idea yet. That was why he was on the Seventh Floor today, seemingly hanging out for no real reason. He was hoping October would show up, either coming down from the Ravenclaw towers or from the Heta Omega room. He leaned against a windowsill, his nose in a book, though he wasn't really focusing. He glanced up every few moments to see if the person passing him was October, but so far no luck.

 

[Jerara Tapsell]

Jerara was pretty pleased with how the semester had gone, having spent time with Ellie, being in a relationship with her was great. The ravenclaw had been working on in several areas of his life. He was happy in his relationship and he was studying hard in all his classes, well all but muggle studies which was the easiest class that he had ever done. The boy had also been reading a lot of book about the unforgivable curses that they had been doing in the defence against the dark arts classroom. It had been interesting to watch, and really Jerara couldn't get the image of the flash of green and the spider dead. How much of magic could do that, there were so many questions, but once again Jerara was hitting walls every time he got to a certain point. The books in the normal section of the library would lead him to books in the other section of the library, the place he couldn't go without a note from a professor.

The boy was heading back to the ravenclaw common room, with a handful of books under his arm, when he spotted Tristan stood seemingly waiting on someone. Admittedly he'd lost contact with him over the past semester, they'd grown somewhat distant and he hadn't spent much time with him. He was sure they'd both been busy, with their studies and for Jerara with Ellie and he was fairly certain that Tristan had been dating someone too. "Tristan!" the ravenclaw greeted him, "What are you doing?" he asked, he didn't really mind what the boy was doing, he was just hoping to talk to his friend, maybe vent some concerns he had about the magical world, since tristan was the only one who usually agree or got what he was saying about it.
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[Tristan Collins]

Tristan looked up as someone called his name, though he knew immediately it hadn't been who he had been waiting for. He smiled as he saw a different Ravenclaw approached. Jerara wasn't October, but he definitely wasn't a bad person to talk to. Tristan considered him one of his oldest friends here at the school, and one of the few that really understood what it was like to be a muggleborn student here at the school. It was a little embarrassing to remember how clueless they had been in their first year, looking for books with information about muggle things. Tristan had pretty much embraced the wizarding world since, and he had a feeling Jerara had too. "Jerara, hello." He said with a friendly smile. It had been a while since they had talked. "Not much, I was hoping to run into someone." He said with a casual shrug. "But I was just about to head back, I don't think she's showing up." He wondered if Jerara could perhaps help him with October. He didn't think the two talked much, but they were both Ravenclaws. "What about you?" He asked with a small smile. "You're seeing a girl in my house, right?" The girl in question was a sixth year, which was something to envy at least a little. Tristan had only openly people in the year below him. Perhaps it was time to switch that up, he wouldn't want to seem like he couldn't get anyone his own age or older.

 

[Jerara Tapsell]

The boy smiled back at Tristan, a friendly smile that he usual did with his friend. He didn't much care for whatever his friend was running around doing, he heard rumours, but Jerara didn't care what he did. "Who?" Jerara asked mostly out of curiousity, wondering who he was seeing, maybe Jerara knew where they were or how to find them. He shifted the book weight, "A girl?" he then added, surprised that Tristan would wait around for someone, he was relatively attractive right? Not Jerara's type obviously, but attractive. "I was heading back up from the library," he moved the books slightly to help indicate that, nor really bothering to raise them all too high. He nodded, "Yeah, Ellie, she's wonderful," he replied with another nod of his head, not that he didn't like talking about things like that with Tristan, personal lives but they hadn't really been that sort of friends. Or had they been and Jerara had just ignored all he'd said about partners. It was possible. "How've you been finding the semester?" Jerara was sure that Tristan like himself was finding the new semester just fine, easy to deal with, and no more difficult than the last, though he did wonder if the other boy had any particularly in-depth opinions about certain classes.
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[Tristan Collins]

Tristan laughed softly when Jerara asked if he was waiting for a girl. He shrugged, a mysterious smile in place. "This time, yes." He said casually. He was not shy about letting people know he liked both girls and boys. As far as he was concerned, that was nothing to be secretive about. It was the choice of partners that seemed more important to him. If he surrounded himself with popular and respected people, he would be popular and respected too. "I was hoping to run into October." He admitted with a small shrug. "You don't happen to know where she is, do you?" He doubted it, but it never hurt to ask. He nodded when Jerara mentioned his girlfriend's name. The girl had never really stood out to Tristan as very interesting or notable, but he obviously wasn't going to say that. "Seems friendly." He commented instead. It was kind of fun to talk about this with a boy his own age, even if Jerara didn't seem too interested. He moved on with the conversation when the other boy did. "Same as usual. Not very interesting or challenging." He said honestly. "Defence has been dark lately, but nothing I can't handle obviously." He still remembered the lesson where October had been put under the Imperius curse. It had made him very uncomfortable, mostly because of how much he would hate to be put under the curse himself. "What about you?" He was fairly sure Jerara took a few classes he didn't. Though in Tristan's opinion, he had the only useful ones covered.

 

[Jerara Tapsell]

Jerara smiled at him with what he said, and nodded at the name, "I'm pretty sure I saw her in the ravenclaw common room when I left, could go in and say you're looking for her," The boy offered. He wasn't close with October, but they'd spoken a bit and were friendly enjoy that this sort of request wouldn't be too odd. He also didn't much care what would follow with her. He wouldn't peer into what Tristan had planned for October. He did nod along, "Yeah, she's friendly," he did maybe love her, he was young and unsure but he liked her a lot. He didn't however want to bore Tristan with his own love life, though he would listen to Tristan if the boy really wanted to talk to him about his. He had agree with the sentiment of how this semester had been, same, not very interesting. He didn't think it defence was dark persay, "Muggle studies has been a joke, I question why I took it," Jerara said conversationally with a roll of his eyes. He didn't want to just launch into his own thoughts about defence against the dark arts, but he really couldn't help it, "I didn't think the curses were particularly dark, well, they were, but we didn't go into to how they ended up being created, or who could cast them, if you needed to be evil or really emotional. I think possibly you could even have exceptions to it and why weren't we allowed to try casting any of it. They're forbidden sure, but Professor Styx was allowed to. They are all sinister, but there are spells that wipe memories and spells that turn people to stone, diffindo in charms cuts a person. Any of those could be used as sinisterly as the defence spells," Jerara stopped, having mostly finished what he wanted to say and thinking it probably a good idea he stop talking about it. "There are things they just don't teach us. This is the first indication of real dark magic we learned. Why don't we actually do more? A better name for the class is Defence against curses"
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[Tristan Collins]

Tristan was a little disappointed to hear October was in the Ravenclaw common room, the one place he couldn't casually pretend to run into her. He shook his head at Jerara's offer. THat would look like he was trying way too hard. No, when he asked her out, it would have to happen in a more natural way. He wondered if Jerara didn't want to talk about his girlfriend, as he didn't really elaborate on the subject. Well, that as fine with him, he wouldn't ask more details.

He smirked at Jerara's assessment of Muggle Studies. "Oh, I agree. Muggle studies is a complete joke." He said with a small, careless shrug. "But at least it's an easy O on your list, you know? Probably looks good to future employers." And it would make it less obvious that he was a muggleborn. At least, he hoped so. But Jerara's words about the curses they had learned chilled Tristan a little bit. Not particularly dark? He had to disagree. Of course the teachers wouldn't go into detail on how to cast spells designed to hurt or kill others. He was especially concerned when Jerara expressed interest in trying the spells. But then he tried to dismiss it. He was a Ravenclaw after all, of course he would want the most information he possibly could get. "I mean... these spells were darker than those." He said after a moment of hesitation. "The one that turns beings to stone is reversible and also no longer in use, and we haven't actually learned the memory charm. Diffindo isn't meant to cut people necessarily and is usually used to cut other things." He wasn't sure why he was defending the subject, but what Jerara had said made him uncomfortable. "The unforgivables are, I assume, unforgivable because they have no other possible uses than to torture or hurt people. I guess they could teach us more about it, but I can imagine why they wouldn't want us to see those spells as normal, or know how to do them." He glanced at his friend, wondering how serious he was about this. "I mean, it is called Defence Against Dark Magic. Not 'Learn Dark Magic spells'."

 

[Jerara Tapsell]

Jerara nodded, "What happened between you and the guy you were seeing?" he decided to ask after Tristan had certainly shared in his opinion of muggle studies. it was a good class to have, and if it was easy it was good, but it was just so dull at times. Jerara got very little enjoyment from any of the reading which was rare, given that he'd be happy to read about anything. The boy shrugged, he could see that maybe Tristan didn't share his line of thought as much. He knew he'd maybe be an outlier when it came to thinking about such things, "But, it's the intention right? They are darker than other spells, yeah, sure, but any spell could be twisted to be negative. Maybe if they spent more time learning about the spells, there would be counter curses or ways to defeat them," Jerara was thinking out loud. He wanted to see it, he wanted to find out more. The books were so limited.

He sighed a little at it, "But during this entire semester they didn't teach us how to defend ourselves against those spells," he countered, "All we learned were the spells, if they're willing to teach us about the worst spells, the most unforgivable spells, they should be willing to teach us other things to do with the dark arts," Jerara wanted to know more, it was clear that he had a real thirst for finding things out. "I just want to know more," he said, which was all, he didn't think he'd learn it for the purposes of being evil, but he just wanted to know more about it and learn all that he could about all branches of magic. He just wanted to learn as much as he could, "The library is also useless for this, I bet there's more in the restricted section, but I don't have a good enough excuse for going,"
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[Tristan Collins]

Tristan's expression froze slightly at Jerara's question, but he made sure to shrug carelessly. At least rumors weren't doing the rounds, apparently. That was good. "It simply didn't work out. He was a little too childish for me." He said with a small sigh. "Sweet kid, but not really the right fit." He glanced at Jerara, wondering what he was thinking. He was relieved to hear Jerara argue his point from a very academic point of view. It was just what he had thought, Jerara simply wanted more knowledge.

Tristan sighed. "I suppose you're right about that, but I think knowing about them and being able to identify them is also a form of protection. They want us to know what they are, so we can avoid them. I assume." He shrugged, he didn't really know at all what Professor Styx had wanted to achieve. He smiled and clapped him on the shoulder. "I know you do, you incurable Ravenclaw." He grinned. "I could say nerd, but I'll be nice. Afraid I can't help you get into the restricted section, though." He smiled apologetically. "No clue."

 

[Jerara Tapsell]

Jerara wondered what it would be like to go out with someone who was childish, Ellie was older than him so she was more likely to see him as childish than the other way round, and he found everything she did endearing. So he couldn't understand something not being the right fit. That was a little weirder to him than anything else, but he also didn't date in the same manner as Tristan, he'd been a little flirty, if you could call it that with Beaubelle, but aside from Ellie there wasn't really anyone else for him. The teen was just sure that there were things about Tristan's life that he would never understand or care to try to understand what it was like to be him and to do what he did, "Can I assume you've set your sights on October then?" the boy asked.

This was likely to be the same way back too. He could tell somewhat that Tristan didn't care much for what they learned, or just didn't care in the way that Jerara cared. Perhaps he cared a little too much about learning and what they learn as well as what they didn't learn but that would be all for the sake of everyone, for everyone to eventually learn more. There was some flawed logic in how they learned, and he didn't think they covered nearly enough for how much magic there was. The only limitations he'd found was you couldn't create money or food. The boy gave a small smile, he knew it was better to maybe not mention that he still really wanted to try the spells. he knew he'd get into trouble, so much trouble, but he wanted to give it a shot, maybe once he'd graduated? The boy nodded with smile as Tristan called him a nerd, "It's password protected and you need a good reason to be there," He shrugged, "It's dumb, why have the books here if I can't use them,"
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[Tristan Collins]

Tristan wasn't sure if his love life interested Jerara at all. He seemed not to date around, from what he had seen, which he couldn't really get. Why shackle yourself to just one person at such a young age? It was definitely more boring to be seen with the same person over and over. No one would bother to talk about that, to see it as interesting. His eyebrow quirked up at the boy's statement. "That makes me sound like a shark, or something." He joked, not really liking the way he described it. "But I'm interested in her, yes. She's one of the prettiest girls in our year." That much was obvious to him. Even Jerara with his girlfriend would be able to see that, surely.

Tristan liked his schoolwork well enough, but he only did it as a way to get to his goals. Sometimes the material they learned was interesting, but he only studied to pass the exams and get good grades. Jerara wanted to learn more, see beyond the school curriculum. While Tristan could respect this, he didn't really understand. He shrugged. "Maybe we can figure out some way to get in together next year." He said with a small smirk. "I can be very convincing, you know." He didn't really care about the restricted section himself, but seeing if he could convince a professor to get in would be fun.

 

[Jerara Tapsell]

Jerara didn't care much about whether it did or didn't make Tristan sound like a shark, he didn't much care about that. He just knew that it was maybe more obvious that Tristan was going for her, and why shy away from it. Be bold about it or something. He nodded, "I guess yeah," he agreed, though he was now thinking about all the other girls in the year and realising he didn't pay much attention to them, or anyone really, he was usually focused on books or on Ellie, so he didn't notice others, not from a lack of wanting just more from having other things to do with his time than look at girls. Though, he guessed for Tristan he spent a lot of time looking, having a partner was said to bring status, so maybe that was what he was looking for in these partners, male or female. Jerara was too busy to think of things like that, there was just too much to read.

The boy was however interested in the prospect of getting into the restricted section with Tristan, if the man could convince a professor to let them, then surely they'd be able to get in. Then he'd have access to way more books for a little period of time. He knew it wouldn't be enough time, but he'd see some titles and be able to expand himself from there. "I might take you up on that, see how convincing you really can be," Jerara moved the books slightly, "I should get back to the dorm, if I see October I'll be sure to mention how great my good friend Tristan is, what a friendly and intelligent friend he is," the boy smirked lightly as he said it, before giving a small wave and walking away.
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