You again?

[Sebastian Rossi]

With only a couple of weeks left before Sebastian was to return to the Beauxbatons for his sixth year, his grandmother finally lifted his house arrest. When he had returned home at the end of the semester, his gran had hit him with the news that he was not to leave the house for a month because of what he had done during the school year. He had made an attempt to plead with her that he had suffered enough during the school year, but she apparently didn't agree. The only concession that his grandmother had made was to lift the ban for the week that Willow and Corvus had visited, but she had placed it back on the moment they had left.

Sebastian had grown extremely bored being stuck in the house, which was a very bad thing because the more bored he got, the more mischievous he became. Now that he was finally free, Sebastian was going outside nearly everyday. Most of the other wizards in the village either had children that were much younger than Sebastian or didn't have children at all, so he didn't have much in the way of company. This morning, his grandmother had mentioned two old friends who lived on the other side of the village who had some sons that were supposed to be about Sebastian's age.

Having nothing better to do, Sebastian decided to see if he could find one of the sons and see for himself. He began to wander the streets, waving to the old wizard who lived across the street and always seemed to look toward their door whenever it opened. Sebastian got the feeling that the older wizard liked his gran. Increasing the pace, Sebastian soon left the block where his house was and in no time, he was at the village square.

 

[Alexius Strauss]

"Constance stop nagging, I'm fine I don't need a sweater it's warm outside" Alexius called back to one of his mothers. Using plural sounded unusual but in his circumstance like his brothers, they had two mothers. They had lost their parents at a very early age and had subsequently been adopted by two sisters. They were old and set in their ways but they loved the two boys dearly, even if it always appeared to Alex that his older by a minute twin Max was the favorite. This just wasn't the case, if anything Constance doted on Alex more while Merrina doted on Max more but they loved them equally.

He closed the door of the cottage and began to walk out through the gate, deciding on what he should do for the day when he spotted a very familiar face not so far away. Walking in his very direction as well. A smile spread wide as he shoved his hands deep into his pockets and headed along the path.
"Well if it isn't Rossi, what you doing this neck of the woods?" he grinned, Alex and Sebastian had been in a bit of a scuffle about a girl no less but Alex could really careless about her. He got into fights regularly, enjoyed them immensely and had to admit the kid had potential and the fight could have been a damned good one too if his brother hadn't broken it up.

 

[Sebastian Rossi]

Sebastian had been looking down at the ground, kicking around a few stones as he walked down the path when he heard a familiar voice. Looking up, Sebastian's eyes narrowed immediately as he realized one of the Strauss twins was standing before him. I hope this isn't who gran was talking about, Bas groaned to himself. She had mentioned sons though Sebastian hoped that she had just misspoken when she'd told him that. There was no way he was going to befriend one of the Strauss boys. Max was too much of a goody-goody and Alex...well they'd gotten into a fight that had nearly resulted in him losing Trilby's friendship forever. It wasn't difficult to tell the two boys apart, and he knew that the one standing before him, grinning at him, was Alex, the same guy he had gotten into a fight with not so long ago.

"I live down that way" he said tensely, gesturing behind him. It was still strange to say that, but he had in fact been there for going on a year. " What about you?" Sebastian asked, hoping that Alex was just visiting for the day and would be gone by nightfall.

 

[Alexius Strauss]

The holidays had been looking about as choice as a wash day but now that Rossi was about maybe it wouldn't be quite so bad after all. Max was tied up with his new girl, not literally but he may as well have been so there was nothing for him to do but chores and hang about. He was already bored with apparating places and the more he had used it, the more his mothers had specifically warned him about it. Too much of a good thing and all of that. He should have listened to them, he had violent vomiting for an entire day because he had apparated everywhere from upstairs to downstairs, to the shop back from the shop. One side of the sofa to the other, he wouldn't stop and now it seriously wasn't fun any more.

"Didn't know you lived this way, I've lived here years now. Just there actually" he pointed to the house on it's own near the end of the road before looking back at Rossi. He scratched his head and decided to get this out of the way once and for all.
"Look man, about that whole fight thing. Not sorry at all about the scrap but well..." he scratched his head again, before stuffing his hands back into his pockets, "I am about the whole Trilby thing. I didn't mean any of it man. She's great really, got me out of detention a few times. Would have a track record a mile long if it weren't for her. I just heard the rumors you know, I didn't mean anything by it. Have a big mouth at time."
there that was about all the apology he had in him, any more than that and he'd probably have to thump the guy again.

 

[Sebastian Rossi]

Putting his hand in his pocket, Sebastian kicked around a few rocks as he listened to Alex. He looked up to see where Alex was pointing and knew at once that the Strauss twins were the sons his grandmother had been talking about. She had pointed him in that direction. "Oh...I uh haven't lived here long. I just moved in with my gran the month before school started last year" he replied. He didn't really want to get into the long story of why he'd come and he hoped his answer was good enough for Alex.

Sebastian was startled when he began to hear Alex apologize. He didn't know the guy very well, but he didn't think he'd ever heard him apologize for any of the fights he'd gotten into. Staring at him with a curious expression, Sebastian continued to listen without interrupting once. A wry smile crossed his face as Alex admitted that Trilby was the reason he had gotten out of numerous detentions. The same was true for Sebastian. When he'd finished, Sebastian stood silent for a moment. Then, he held his hand out in a sign of truce. "It's cool. Don't worry about it. No harm, no foul." Neither boy had received detention for the fight and it had helped Sebastian to not only blow off some steam but realize that he needed to talk to Trilby, so in actuality, Alex had helped Sebastian. There was no way he would admit that though.

"So, what were you up to?" he asked, wondering what there was to do in this place. He hadn't gotten a good chance to look around or do much with the house arrest he'd been under for most of the summer. "Anything fun to do around here?"

 

[Alexius Strauss]

Rossi spoke about his reasons for being there in their quaint little village and Alex though not meaning to be rude heard a door open behind him. His gaze shifted automatically as he saw his brother stepping outside. As soon as he possibly could without appearing like a complete mental patient, he nodded his head quickly. He shook the boys hand hastily then releasing it indicated for Rossi to follow him.

"Yeah sure come on" he picked up his pace glancing only once over his shoulder, Max was talking at the door obviously the mothers were hasseling him about his attire as well. A beaming smile then as he nudged the other boy, "come on better pick up the pace."

Alexius was a swift runner, always had been. Whatever Max could do he had always had to do better. It never equated to him ever being able to do much better but he worked damn hard all the same to attain that goal. He was by far way too hard on himself regarding his brothers achievements over his own, Alex was clever, shrewd and a dinger at certain things that Max would not even dream of doing. Racing along the road he turned off to the right, down a narrow dirt track and swiftly breaking left around the back of a condemned looking building, he raced on an even narrower dirt path. It looked as if very few actually came this way which was actually true. The brothers and maybe two others came here to go cliff diving. There wasn't a whole hell of a lot to do around Bazille but at least they had this.

The lake below was beautiful and sparkling crystals of deep blue shimmered brightly. The cliff top was steep in parts but there were plenty of areas that were viable for climbing back up again from the water. He yanked off the long sleeved ti-shirt he wore and kicked off his shoes.
"Fancy a jump?" he peered over the edge, it was roughly the same distance as the heightest quidditch hoop from the ground. It was some way down alright but the rush was amazing.

 

[Sebastian Rossi]

Sebastian followed Alex quickly and glanced back to see what he was rushing away from. His eyes fell on a boy who was standing at a door and seemed to be in deep discussion with whoever was inside the house. He realized that the guy was Maximus, Alex's brother and just as he was about to ask him why they didn't wait, Alex nudged him forward.

As Alex broke out into a run, Sebastian followed, pushing his body to try and catch up. It was obvious to the younger boy that Alex did this often because he seemed to know exactly where he was going, even finding a path that Sebastian's eyes didn't catch until he was already on it. He looked up at the condemned building, ideas of going into it and exploring one day already taking shape in his mind.

When they finally stopped, Sebastian grabbed his side and breathed heavily as he gazed upon an awe-inspiring scene. The two boys were on the side of a cliff that overlooked a lake. When Alex asked him whether he wanted to jump, Sebastian's eyes widened as he stepped closer to the edge. The water was deep blue and was obviously deep enough. As a grin appeared across his face, Sebastian nodded. "This is crazy but...hell yeah I wanna try" he said as he pulled his own shirt off and began to pull off his sneakers.

 

[Alexius Strauss]

Alexius had been increasingly getting fed up of Maximus though his brother never really did anything to initiate these feelings. They just were as if sibling rivalry had been part of their makeup when they had been born. Max was the good two shoes that everyone adored while Alex was constantly getting himself into all sorts of scrapes.

Down to his jeans he looked over at Rossi chuckling.
"Ah tis good to be crazy once in a while man" he took a few long strides back from the edge then gearing himself up he winked at his school mate, "watch out for the rocks below yeah, make sure you leap far enough away from the edge."
And with that he ran throwing himself off the edge. His body appeared at first as if it were flying, the free fall at this height was breathtaking literally. As he began to gain momentum, the water rushing up to meet him Alexius changed his position into a perfect diving form as his hands broke through the water and he pummelled downwards. It seemed never ending before he finally twisted his body upwards again, kicking his legs to get him up to the surface. He broke through effortlessly and punching the air he let out a loud whooping noise before waving to Rossi to get himself down already.

 

[Sebastian Rossi]

Sebastian placed his hands on his hips as he watched Alex take a running start and jump off of the cliff after giving him one last bit of advice. Rocks? he thought as he swallowed heavily, his adam’s apple bobbing nervously.

Watching Alex soar towards the water made him forget his own nervousness. He watched as Alex dove in smoothly and then resurfaced only moments later. When he called up to Sebastian, the younger boy gave him a thumbs-up and then backed up. He knew a running start would be a good idea because it would give him no time to think about the jump.

Taking a deep breath, Sebastian looked out over the horizon. ”Here goes nothing” he murmured as he sprinted towards the edge and jumped as far out as he could. The feeling of weightlessness was brief yet exhilarating. Sebastian waved his arms in a circle as he fell towards the water. “HOLY…” he yelled and then closed his mouth a second before he plummeted into the water feet first.

Sebastian tried to keep his eyes open underwater but found that he couldn’t. With his eyes closed, he swam for the surface, opening his eyes only after he felt his head break the surface. Pushing his hair off of his face, Sebastian grinned stupidly, the adrenaline still coursing through him. ”That was frickin awesome!” he exclaimed with a glance at Alex as he tread water. Then he looked up to the spot where they had jumped from. It was high above them.

 

[Alexius Strauss]

Alex swam back some more as Sebastian moved out of view, obviously taking a run up to the cliff edge before jumping. It was always the best option, though Alexius had plenty of times just to spite Max dove directly from the edge. Ok so he had narrowly missed the rocks once, well maybe twice but the more he did it the better he got at it. Hearing the yell he looked back up again to see Rossi jumping off and straight in. Yelling the whole way down, it was a rush after all and screaming helped to relieve the 'I'm a complete nutcase' feeling you got when you took that first step off.

It wasn't long before he had surfaced and announced what he thought about the whole thing. Alexius laughed heartily.
"Yeah it sure is. Damn right awesome" he chuckled before diving below for a bit and surfacing about five feet away from the other boy.
"You know there's some gillyweed growing in the forest, you have to know where to look of course but we can get some later and really explore this lake. I'm almost certain there's a few merpeople about but have yet to see any" he grinned lying out on his back and floating along for a bit.