The Carving in the Tree

[Bleaire Ayres]

The feeling of familiarity that Bleaire felt in the sorting ceremony led her in the courtyard. She had followed it for hours now, and its fading again. Great! I'm tired enough to look for whoever that is now, she thought. So, she walked down the stairs into the grassy field. Only now did she notice the odd details of the courtyard... The old cement stairs had moss on them even on this hot season; each of the archways held a statue of an animal that looked like a cross between raven, lion, serpent and badger; the trees are alternately arranged in a huge circle surrounding a blue lake; and vines crawled across the ground to the center ( or was it coming from the center?)

Bleaire settled to rest herself under the shade of a big tree. It's leaves are parallel in pattern, and on its trunk two birds ( No, ravens) are etched inside a heart. She laughed at the carving. "Do they still do this?" She asked herself. She touched the carving, marveling at the sweet work and smiled to herself as she sat down to rest and see the beauty of the place and people around her.

 

[Ares Jeffreys]

Ares was unsure what to do with his day, his brother had it out much easier, easily picking whatever he wanted to do, but Ares had a struggle, he'd searched as much as he'd been willing to, and sort of reached a point where there was nothing he was specifically looking out for in the school, instead that morning he'd taken an apple from the great hall and attempted to find anything that he could do, wandering the school with the apple held in his hand, eventually his body took him out to the courtyard, he wasn't sure of this place's purpose but he didn't mind it at all, instead he was pretty happy with it, it was simple.

It was a good little place, and he was happy to have found it, finally here it was where he dug his teeth into the apple as he took a few tentative steps forward into the courtyard, letting his eyes drift between the sights in front of him with a small smile as he took it all in, the magic of the school was truly all around him, he was so happy with that aspect of it, really the magic of the place hadn't let him down. Eventually in the relatively small courtyard he stood in front of a tree with a little carving, he reached forward and touched the carving before smiling at it, it was at this point that he noticed the girl, "Oh sorry," he apologised quickly, "I'm Ares," he introduced with a smile, holding his hand out to the girl.
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[Bleaire Ayres]

While Bleaire was relaxing under the shade of the tree, she noticed a boy walking towards her but his focus is directed in the tree. She kept quiet as she observed the boy. When he neared, he put his hand in the bark of the tree, he also noticed the carving. Maybe he then noticed Bleaire since he apologized...I'm Ares the boy said while holding out his hand. So Bleaire smiled and shook it. "I'm Bleaire... It's fine. Cute huh?" She said still smiling. "Pretty sharp eyesight you have, spotting it from afar. And by the way, you have a war god's name." She added while laughing gently.

 

[Ares Jeffreys]

The young Hufflepuff smiled at the girl as said her name, Blearie and he just nodded at the statement, it was sweet, to know that something happened here that was perhaps now long gone, he thought it was pretty awesome, and he couldn't help but imagine it in his head, he however focused on the smiling girl in front of him, "I like looking at things," he replied with a bit of a shrug, "My parents decided that I should be named after a greek god, but I'm the only one of my brothers to be named so," he told her laughing gently with her, "Do you mind if I join you?" he asked point to the part next to where she was sitting, with a hopeful grin on his face, he loved making new friends, he really loved it, and given that it was so early in the term, making friends was definitely something to do.
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[Bleaire Ayres]

"Maybe they saw you're different from your siblings... O-oh, but you know, a good, special... Uhmm, kind of different. Hehe" Bleaire replied. Wow! Great speaking skills Bleaire, she scolded herself. But quickly smiled because the Puff, Ares, might think she has disorders.

Then she remembered he asked her a question so she quickly added while still smiling, "Oh, uhm, sure. I think there sure is space enough for a person and a chill war god." Then she laughed with humour.

Ares seems to be a nice boy, and he's the first one that Bleaire actually talked for this long. Maybe Puffs are really chill people. And Bleaire was looking forward for making friends, without the luck, until now. Maybe the odds are smiling upon her now.

 

[Ares Jeffreys]

Ares just nodded at her words with a small smile, "They must've!" he agreed enthusiastically, especially given that he had two brothers, it was always difficult to try to be the one to shine so it was always nice to think that his parents had seen something in him that he hadn't seen in his brothers, though both his brothers had peculiar names like he did, with Isaiah named after the bible and Xavier a spanish name, which was different to his, it was clear his parents hadn't cared much about what their names were just names they'd liked. Ares glanced at the girl as she allowed him to sit with her, "Thanks," and though he did like the implication of being a chill war god, where she was just a person, "If I'm a god, you've got to be a goddess," he told her with a chuckle, not sure how she would take it, but he didn't want to be the only god on the bench, "How are you finding this place so far?" he asked the girl with a clearly excited expression, a clearly eager expression of wanting to know how she was finding it.
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[Bleaire Ayres]

Ares smiled and seemed more interested to talk, on the other hand, Bleaire is starting to see a good friendship unfolding.

"If I'm a god, you've got to be a goddess." Ares said and chuckled, while the comment took Bleaire by surprise and she was sure she just turned pink. She quickly covered her face and let out a laugh, hoping Ares didn't see her face. "Yeah, maybe a goddess would fit me since I don't know where I exactly came from." When she realized what she had just said she faced him and said "I-I mean that -- that Hogwarts is great! Lots of good food, places, views and, most of all, assignments." She said all this with a smile hoping Ares won't pick up anything from her first statement. Then said "How about you?"

 

[Ares Jeffreys]

Ares was completely oblivious to the blush on Bleaire's cheeks at his words, he didn't think anything of his words, since if he was a god, why not her a goddess, and he looked to the courtyard surrounding them sitting with his best posture to pretend to be a god, the god he was named after. Ares glanced at her as she spoke, didn't know where she was from that was an odd sentence, but perhaps she was adopted or something, thankfully the conversation of that moved on and he didn't have to think much more about it when the conversation moved to school, "I like it, I like being a god in a school of mortals," he told her jokingly, before taking out his wand and flourishing it in a dramatic sense, before then just casting a small lumos spell, "BEHOLD! LIGHT!" he dramatically said pretending the light was so much more before just breaking into laughs, unable to hold back his laughter, hoping that Bleaire wouldn't mind his antics, she seemed a little nervous and he was more than happy to try and ease that with a little bit of false drama and some laughter.
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[Bleaire Ayres]

Bleaire also laughed heartily at Ares' depiction of, well, Ares - the war god. It was just funny and Bleaire can't resist laughing out since Ares also started laughing. She eased a bit because Ares didn't hear her odd statement or if he did, he didn't make something out of it. And she is grateful for that.

"You're a funny man Ares," she said. "In fact, with that statement, Helios would have burned Ares for taking his job." She laughed again. When she had finished laughing, Bleaire added, "Well, I'd like to be a girl version of Thanatos if I'll be a goddess, you know. With the power being death itself." Then she stood, pointed her wand at nowhere in particular, held her breath and yelled "Die ye mortal! I'm kinder than Cupid!" She then dropped to her seat almost immediately, and covered her face. Gosh! What was I thinking?! She thought. Not minding what Ares might react to her sudden action.

OOC My response took more than 2 weeks in real time. Haha. Sorry for late responses, Mom's trying to separate me from technology. But she just can't.

 

[Ares Jeffreys]

Ares blushed lightly at her compliment but just smiled warmly at her, "I try," he replied with a little hint of false bravado, just grinning lightly at the girl as she continued, "That's such a ravenclaw thing to know, are you a ravenclaw?" there was nothing meant to be mean about the statement, but knowing his brother, knowing that was something that he would say it made Ares smile, and he nodded along with what she was saying, the power being death itself was certainly interesting, but since Ares was called Ares he knew he'd always opt for the powers of Ares. The hufflepuff was a little startled by her out burst, but when she was done he couldn't help but laugh for a brief second before then pretending to die on the ground, "Thanatos hath killed me," he said speaking in the most dramatic tone he could muster, breathing more heavily as if implying that it was a struggle, "Do not leave me goddess Thanatos, do not!" he pretended to cry half curious to see what her reaction would be to this.
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No worries!

 

[Bleaire Ayres]

"Uhh... Yes, I actually am. Is it obvious?" Bleaire asked sheepishly. She didn't mean to look like a know-it-all and stuff. Bleaire looked down and was starting to consider running out of the conversation to not embarrass herself more. But she was taken out of her thoughts when she heard him laughing. Oh, so he meant that nicely... *tot-tot* Over thinker.

Ares then did a very good act of struggling and pretend crying, though he clearly doesn't know how to do the waterworks, she noted. Bleaire can't resist to go with it. So she put on her saddest face while doing her best to control her giggling, which is hard to do and she doesn't understand how she did it. She then cleared her throat and in her best girly voice said "Oh god of war, Ares, whatever shall I do?!" She then covered her face and shed tears, a trick she quite mastered in her childhood. I wonder if Ares saw a person crying for fun, she thought while still making sobbing noises, waiting for his response.


Thank you!

 

[Ares Jeffreys]

Ares wasn't meant to make her feel bad, but it seemed like she realised it wasn't a bad thing and really just a compliment about it. He smiled at her as he laughed, before he did his act, falling to the ground in front of her and doing a dying voice, he thought she might not join in, but it turned out that she did. Ares had to assume she was acting along with him, he didn't know what to do about real tears, acting along was the only other option that he had. The boy put the back of his hand against his forehead, "I feel faint," he gave a small seeming dying cough, "My dearest Thanatos, you must carry on the way of the light," he reached for his wand, and made the light appear at the end of it, handing it to her, and then just closing his eyes and pretending to lie as still as possible on the ground, he would wait a few moments before breaking into the laughter that was threatening already to bubble out of him.
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