Testing the boundaries

[Beaumont Karhunlappi]

Beau had had a great first night in the castle. Even though he'd arrived late, he'd met most of the guys in his House, learnt some amazing things about magic, that he couldn't wait to learn to do himself, and had been amazed at the awesomeness of the food available at breakfast that morning. With nothing to do until class began later int eh day, he decided to try out the hallway outside his House common room. Skateboard in hand, he checked to ensure there weren't any staff about and let it clatter to the ground. The echoes from the enormous hall clapped back at him and he grinned. He pushed off and sped along the hallway, the acoustics exaggerated the sound of plastic wheels rolling on solid concrete and the walls seemed to roar as the cool dark air rushed over his face.

 

[Angela Marion]

Angela yawned, still not fully awake from the night before. Who knew that the smart people could be so loud, you would think they would be the ones early to bed. She wanted to get out to the grounds to do some more work on her guitar, because she had broken her ukulele string the other day. She heard up ahead some echoing, like the smack of something against the ground. She looked down towards the stairs and back; guitar practice could wait.

"Hello!" She called out in a sing-song voice. Her pixie-like voice echoed off the walls, like chimes in the wind. She approached a bit more, sure to stay close to the walls.

 

[Beaumont Karhunlappi]

Beau thought he heard someone call out, but couldn't be sure, his skateboard was making too much noise and the walls were echoing it back at him. Then, it seemed out of nowhere, a dark-haired girl was in front of him. He turned suddenly, trying to skid to an impressive stop, but he lost his balance and fell on his but. His skateboard, however, skidded to a halt just in front of the girl, who looked Japanese. He looked up at her from the cold floor. "Hi, like my dismount?" he asked, trying to pretend he'd fallen on purpose.

 

[Angela Marion]

A boy appeared in front of her, and Angela stiffened a bit. He seemed just as suprised as her, on a count that he had fallen on his butt. She smiled and put her foot on his skate board, doing the only thing she knew how to do. She stepped on the end and the skateboard came up to her hands. "Yeah, i totally give you ten points." She offered her free hand to the boy to help him up. "Are you okay?" She asked.

 

[Beaumont Karhunlappi]

Beau was pleased when she gave him ten points, and reached up to take the hand she offered. "Aw yeah, I'm fine. As long as that's ten out of ten, and not out of a hundred!" He smiled widely as she helped pull him to his feet. He didn't realise she was taller than him until he was properly standing, but it didn't bother him. He was at the age when most girls were taller than him. Besides, when he was on his skateboard he usually misjudged people's heights. He reached over and took his skateboard from the girl's hand. "Thanks, you just surprised me a little there. I'm Beau. Are you a Hufflepuff, too? You like to skate?"

 

[Angela Marion]

She nodded. "Of course it is. No one can do a perfect butt-dismount. You are the first i've seen." She joked. It sounded a bit lame and she regretted making the comment. She pulled him up and noticed he seemed shorter then her; but that was normal, even with her shrinking height. "Well I'll try to be louder next time." She commented before he bombarded her with questions. She smiled and laughed a bit, the silvery sound echoing a bit. "No, I'm a Ravenclaw, and if i tried to skate, i'd end up with a broken hip or more."

Angela had always been a bit of a klutz, never good at much really. She did gymnastics and things like that, but she usualy tripped on dismounts. She smiled at him and said, "it's a pleasure to meet you Beau."

 

[Beaumont Karhunlappi]

Beau liked the girl immediately. He didn't usually talk to girls much, but she was confident and willing to play along with his dumb jokes, so Beau felt comfortable. "Aw, it's not that hard. I've only ever sprained my ankles and my wrists, no breaks yet. You wanna go?" he offered the board back to her and kept talking. "A Ravenclaw? What's that like? You a nerd or something?" Beau didn't mean that in a harsh way. Joking with people was his way of making friends. "Pleasure to meet you, too" he mocked the formal-sounding phrase, "You too smart to tell me your name? Or can I just call you "The 'Claw?"" he smiled broadly. He didn't think about how lame he sounded. Beau rarely thought about his actions. He just did what felt right at the time.

 

[Angela Marion]

((Eep, sorry, i forgot about this one *face-palm*))

She giggled slightly, her hand covering her mouth a bit. "Really, that's a lucky break." She emphasized the word break a bit. What was today? National Lame Joke Day? He asked if she was a nerd, because he must have figured Ravenclaws were strong in wit; which they were. She had already figured the boy was a Hufflepuff, so as she felt her cheeks turn pink, she formed a reply in her head; soon saying, "I don't know, you're a Hufflepuff, are you a softy." It didn't come out rude, in fact, even if Angela had tried it wouldn't have. She was smiling too much.

"I'm Angela." She answered his comment without loosing her smile.

 

[Beaumont Karhunlappi]

((No worries, I've been pretty busy anyway))

Beau laughed out loud when the girl made a lame joke on the word 'break.' His older sister and his father were always swapping puns, and he found them hilarious in a really dumb way. He laughed even louder when she asked if he was a softy. "Aw, no way! You can't do a perfect butt-dismount like that if you're a softy." he smiled widely at her. He'd never had a conversation this long with any girl other than one of his sisters before, and he was shocked that it was so easy. The way his friends all acted, you'd think most girls didn't even live on Earth, let alone speak English, or, shock-horror, act like normal people you could have a normal conversation with!

"Angela," Beau rubbed his chin and looked up into the distance, pretending to think. "It's okay, I guess, but can I still call you The 'Claw? It has a certain ring to it..." He smiled again before dropping his board to the floor and asking again, "You sure you don't wanna try? It's easy."

 

[Angela Marion]

Angela rolled her eyes and commented. "Ya-huh, because you have to have cushion on your but so it wont hurt." She didn't know what brought up the lame joking side of her, but it was something about Beau that made her want to smile. He had a bright and funny air to him, something she had only seen in her father; which was sort of a sick thought because she found him cute. She looked down for a second, the pulled a hair tie off her wrist, fastening her long black waves into a messy bun.

"Okay fine, The Claw it is." She actually like the nickname, it was kind of nice. And he was rigth, it had a nice ringtone to it. "But no, i don't think i should. Knowing me, i will get on it, and some flying monkey will come and push it, and i'll go barrelling down the stairs." She laughed a bit. it did seem like something that would happen to her. Especially since she hated monkeys with a fiery passion. "But you look like you're pretty good at it. i mena no flying monkeys yet."

 

[Beaumont Karhunlappi]

Beau laughed again at Angela's comment. He was pleased when she consented to being called "The 'Claw" and thought, when she tied her hair back, that she was going to take him up on his offer and have a go at skating. He had no idea where she got the idea of flying monkeys from, but couldn't help letting her comment that he seemed pretty good at skating go to his head a little.

"Yeah, I've been skating for years. It's the best way to get around," he grinned. "So if you don't skate, what do you do? D'you like rugby? Or TV?" Beau's world was fairly limited. Despite having a relatively wealthy upbringing, he paid little attention to anything other than what he was interested in, which was skating, sports and TV. He could add magic to that list now, and added, in his usual style, a bunch of new questions before she had a chance to open her mouth and answer the first ones. "What do you think of Hogwarts? Did you know about magic before you came here? Can you do any magic tricks yet?"

 

[Angela Marion]

She nodded at his comment about having been skating for years. In truth, she hadn't even ever set foots on roller blades. Angela snickered a bit as Beau bombarded her with more question. In a joking tone she said, "You don't ask very many questions, do you?" She took a breath and began answering.

"Yeah i enjoy watching TV, and when i say that, i mean it used to take up 80% of my day. And then i got into gymnastics, and dance, and i also love music." She paused. "I do karate too, but most of my fighting is freestyle." She had done so many more things that she couldn't count, but she didn't want to brag too much. "And as for Hogwarts and magic, I'm okay with the school, but i don't know any magic. But i do know this one." She said seeming to pull a quarter out of thin air. She had learned that delicate trick from her father many years ago.

 

[Beaumont Karhunlappi]

Beau grinned as Angela joked with him and answered all his questions in one breath, almost as fast as he had asked them. He wasn't at all interested in gymnastics or dance. He liked music, but not enough to make a conversation of it. Karate was mildly interesting, and he was about to pull a martial arts pose when Angela pulled a strange coin from the air.

Beau had to quickly hide his amazement as soon as he realised it was just a silly trick like the ones his uncle Juho-Pekka had played on him when he visited last summer. He hoped Angela hadn't noticed that he had, for a split second, thought her trick was real magic. He was interested in the coin though. It wasn't like the New Zealand currency he had used at home, or the wizarding galleons he was slowly becoming accustomed to. "Where's that from then?" he asked, reaching out to take the quarter from Angela's hand and have a closer look. "Where are you from?"

 

[Angela Marion]

This boy, unlike most people she talked to, seemed genuinely interested in what she had to say. She laughed when he seemed a bit stunned by the trick. She was sure it was fake, everyone knew the trick. He asked where she, and the coin were from. She giggled a bit, glad to explain a bit about her heritage, to someone she could actually relate to.

"It's a yen, well a 50 yen coin. See that hole in the middle, and then there's writing on it. That signifies it's amount." She then looked around. "Don't tell anyone, but I'm from Japan." She grinned at the brown haired boy and then thought to ask; "where are you from?"

 

[Beaumont Karhunlappi]

Beau thought he remembered something about Yen from a school project a year or so ago. Its symbol was a big Y with two lines through the stem. He laughed when Angela whispered not to tell anyone where she was from. He thought it was obvious at least that she was Asian, and he probably would have guessed Japan if he wasn't afraid of insulting her in the case of getting in wrong. "How come you don't want people to know? Japan's cool, they have amazing comics. But how come you speak English so well? I though Japanese were supposed to be all like 'flied lice!'" he joked, unaware of the vast differences between the Chinese stereotype he'd just quoted and the reality of Angela's life. He answered her question: "I'm just from Dunedin." He continued to examine the coin, turning it over in his hand, then held it out for her again. He didn't stop to think that someone at school in New Zealand might not know where Dunedin was, or that she might be asking about his heritage, not just his hometown.

 

[Angela Marion]

She laughed a bit. "Because I'm a spy." She said in a joking tone. She didn't take offense to his mix up of stereo typing, she had heard it a lot. But if he had said that around her friend Darian, he might've gotten decked. "I speak English well, because i lived in England for a little with my family. Luckily, i didn't pick up the accent. Not that there's anything wrong with it, it would just be weird. And also, i don't like rice, i watched this movie, where the was maggots in the rice." She shuddered.

She didn't mention having the ability to speak french also, she didn't want to seem like a show off to him. Then he mentioned where he was from. She took the coin from him, her thin fingers barely brushing his hand and then asked, "where's that?" She ahd learned about a lot of places, but not Dunedin, maybe it was a small town.

 

[Beaumont Karhunlappi]

"Ah, of course, a spy." Beau laughed. "Does that mean you're gonna have to kill me now that I know?"

"Aw, Dunedin? It's in the South Island. Near the bottom. But not way way down, like Invercargill or Gore or anything. It's the sixth biggest city in New Zealand. How long have you been here? Did you just come for school? It seems like there aren't that many Kiwis here at all. How come you came here instead of another magic school?" Beau couldn't help it, his questions just poured out of him. He loved getting to know people.

 

[Angela Marion]

"No, you can become a spy too!" She said clapping her hands together once in front of her. "AS long as you are up for initiation." Angela wasn't usually in this good of a mood, but Beau brought out a different side of her. The side she had before her father died.

She nodded and listened to his rants about his homeland. Apparently, talking about it brought up more questions. He seemed to be full of them. The teacher's would adore him. "I've been here for at least five months, i live on the Marion estates, not to far from here actually." She said with a little smile. "yes, i just came for school. Better then being closer to home." She hadn't meant for that last part to come out, so she just continued talking as if it hadn't. "I didn't necessarily choose here, here chose me." She said, it was quite a funny story.

"And what about you? Didn't you want to go farther away, be more adventurous?"

 

[Beaumont Karhunlappi]

Beau laughed, "'Course I'm up for initiation. Sounds like fun!" He listened to her continure, "Marion Estates? I don't know them. I'm not from near here though. What's wrong with being at home? And how did 'here choose you'?" Angela seemed like an interesting person, and the way she'd said that made it sound like there was a bit of a story to it.

"I just found out about the school a few days before the term started. My birthday's at the end of August. This is far enough away. It takes 10 hours to drive to my place, plus 3 hours on the ferry, or just over and hour to fly. I didn't even know there were other magic schools until I got here. I guess there must be one in most countries though?"

 

[Angela Marion]

She smiled and giggled. More questions. No one had been this interested in her since Skyle had come to town. She thought for a second and then answered. "Well then get mu a chimpanzee, because i have to hit you with one for it to work." She grinned, it was the first thing to come to mind. She hated monkeys though, they scared her so much. "Well i don't really call it home. Not much to go home to." She said, remaining a bit secretive. Even though Beau seemed cool, she didn't want to tel him everything.

The last one was the hardest to answer. "Well, you know. It's the only letter i got. After getting it my mom attempted to tell me about Beuxbatons, a french school, but it was so incoherent that i didn't understand it. Sarah, my new Guardian, went there also, but didn't want to talk about it either. I just wonder why i didn't get a letter from Beuxbatons, or anywhere else." She sighed, and then listened to him. Apparently he hadn't known about other magical schools until arriving here.

"I figured there were more. Why else would they put the country name in it right?" She shrugged. "Anyways... why were you skateboarding in the hall? Wont you get in trouble?" She had been curious for a while, but they were talking so much that she ahd forgotten to ask.

 

[Beaumont Karhunlappi]

Beau laughed at Angela's mention of hitting him with a chimpanzee. Where did she get that idea from? Bizarre! I like it!. He thought it was a little odd that she seemed cagey about her home and family. It perplexed him; he'd always been a straight-up kind of kid. Even when he knew he'd get in trouble for it, he always told the truth. He didn't see the point in lying or keeping secrets about yourself, it seemed like too much effort. And anyway, when you have five siblings any secret you try and keep will only be discovered and turned against you. Waste of energy.

"Well, if you want you can stay at my place in the holidays. My mum and dad love having guests. You'd probably have to share a room with my older sister but she's alright." He didn't understand her need to keep a secret, but he wanted to help in any way he could. It was natural for him to offer a place to stay. His house had been home to so many 'strays' throughout the years, he thought it was normal.

The thought of getting a letter from anywhere else didn't occur to Beau, but when Angela seemed worried about it, he immediately jumped in with what seemed to him like a harmless explanation. "Maybe they only send you a letter if they know you speak the language? Or maybe you have to apply to those other schools. This place is just new, that'll be why they send letters out, otherwise no-one'd know about it, would they?"

Angela's last question put a grin on Beau's face again. "Well, as our Head Boy told me last night: Rules are made to be broken! I can't imagine being at school and not getting in trouble. It just wouldn't be right. Are you sure you don't wanna go?"

 

[Angela Marion]

She smiled when he laughed, at least he had a sense of humor. Many people who she knew back home were much to serious, always wanting to push you aside to achieve better goals. The only person not like that, had been her dad, but he wasn't around. She looked at her rainbow converse for a quick second, then looked back up and smiled at him, a bit shocked. No one had ever offered anyhting like that that wasn't family.

"uh... uh yo-your home. Why would you want me there. Aren't you afraid i might be diranged... i would be." She giggled a bit. She had covered up the truth with the truth. Smooth. If she could handle someone with a sense of humor like Beau, who made lots of jokes, then she could handle anyone.

She found one fault in his theory, she spoke french. But she didn't want to brag. She usually didn't brag about things like that, it made her feel bad that the other didn't know as mush as her. Not that they were stupid, but they might feel less about themselves or something. "Maybe," was all she could say to that.

"Really? i haven't met our head boy, or girl, or anyone really. I don't know many people around here yet." She looked down again then back up. He had asked her again. "I'm sure. Besides, i'd hurt myself, i know it. I would fall right off."

 

[Beaumont Karhunlappi]

Beau laughed, "You'd have to be trying pretty hard to be more deranged than my family! I'll tell you a secret: My dad may be a doctor, but he still thinks he's going to be superman when he grows up! And I have three sisters and two brothers. When it comes to deranged, you've got nothing on them." He smiled at Angela, then shook his head when she refused yet again to try the skateboard. "You'll never be able to do a perfect butt dismount if you don't start somewhere.
"I met the Head Girl when I bought my wand. She works at Ollivander's. Her name's Kiera; she's really cool. The Head Boy's in Hufflepuff. He's hilarious, you should see the magic tricks he does! His name's Alex Cullen and he's really friendly. Don't worry, it's only the first week, there's heaps of time to meet people. Just tell them you're The Claw, and they'll like to straight away." He grinned. How could anyone not be in a good mood in a place like this?

 

[Angela Marion]

She smiled as he talked about his family. She couldn't believe that his dad was a doctor, and she just had to tell him. She tried to say it excitedly, but it was still hard to talk about it. So instead of a nice peppy voice, it came out meekly. "My father was a doctor." She sounded so small when she said it. She mentally cursed herself and then smiled. His family sounded so great compared to her broken home. She didn't recall the woman whom had helped her with her wand, she didn't exactly have the best memory.

"Well all i can hope is that when i meet them, i remember their names. It'll be so embarrassing if i don't." She giggled a bit. "I've already perfect the butt dismount. I mean, i can do it standing." She grinned at him. In honesty, she just didn't want to make a fool of herself in front of him. she hated getting laughed at.

 

[Beaumont Karhunlappi]

Beau noticed Angela's face change when he mentioned his father. The she said, in a strange little voice, that her father was a doctor, too. Was. He had been a doctor. "Was? Wow, if he's superman now, don't tell my dad, he'll be gutted the position's been filled," he joked, but then reached out to Angela and touched her arm. She looked sad. "Are you okay? I was just joking. What happened to your dad? And seriously, don't worry about my family. We're Will, Amelie, Oscar, Joli, Tess and me, but mum and dad forget half the time."