You Collect, I Shoot

[Bothizar Styx]

The one thing that Bothizar did not know was whether or not he would ever get bored of shooting with his slingshot. His father managed to steal another one from his dorm when he left it on the table by the bed. Granted, he might have been shooting some first years with it, but it was still fun. It was something that has not changed since he discovered what a slingshot did in his first year. Right now, Bothizar, with a paring knife, finished his latest slingshot. The thing about being around a forest was the bark and wood could be used to make infinite slingshots. He also kept a stash of rubber bands, but lately, he have noticed that it was not doing so well as he wanted. He wanted to make the rock go faster, but he did not have the brains to do the math and fit in the variables. Bothizar would have to figure something out. While sitting by the edge of the lake, he put together the slingshot with his careful fingers, and situated the holder for the rock for when he slings his future rocks. He did not know when he would, but he would have to practice.

'All I need are some good rocks,' thought Bothizar, before he bent down and lifted one up into his hand. He placed it into the slingshot, and felt that the holder for the rock was going to hold nicely. He remembered when he first built one of these. He tried to sling it, and it bounced and hit him instead. Never had he felt something like that before. Bothizar surely learned his lesson from then on out. And, when he perfected it, he started to shoot birds because they were harder targets. Humans, they were big and bulky compared to a small bird. He loved killing them more than anything else. He once read that killing animals was a sign of becoming a serial killer. Bothizar wouldn’t mind that, but he did have some plans. He looked around the lakefront and he noticed someone. He knew this person. He kept trying to hug his father all the time. It was weird, and he did not know what to think of it, to be honest. Avie. They met once in the meeting, but Bothizar was in a foul mood and didn't speak to anyone other than a mere word or two.​

 

[Avie Mitchell]

Since he was now a fourth year, Avie Mitchell was attempting to cut down on the amount of rock collection that he was doing. The teen however had caved on that day. His need for rocks was just like the need of any other person who collected a certain item. He just was far more vocal, and it was also because he'd heard other students talking about some form of bubblehead charm which would allow him to breathe while under water, that in Avie's mind meant that he would be able to swim deeper to collect even better rocks. The teen had asked the librarian about which books the spell was included in, and though he was struggling a lot with it, he was looking through them and trying to figure out what the spell was and how to do it, but this had just meant that Avie wanted to get more rocks, and after a brief internal debate the boy gathered himself and decided to just go. He put on some shoes and a jumper, quickly grabbing his rock box and then heading out of the room. He was looking forward to this rock searching day, Avie was always happy to try to get new rocks. He truly believed sometimes that rocks were the best toy in the world.

Once outside the boy made his way excitedly to the lake front, placing down the jumper and the box, though opening it so he could see what he had as he proceeded to remove his socks and shoes before finally turning up his jeans slightly and stepping into the water. Avie slipped about on the slippery wet moss covered stones he was treading on, but this didn't stop him. He bent down and began pulling rocks out of the water and then trying to see if the were good rocks. If they were the teen would throw them to where he was jumper and the box was, if not he threw them over his shoulder and back into the water. As he ventured slightly further out, though staying mostly at the shore line, the teen slipped slightly and fell to his knees, legs more submerged in the water. He had rolled up the jeans for nothing. Avie ran a wet hand through his hair, before finish into the water to tug out a slightly larger rock that he water to see if it was too big for his collection or if it was the right size. Avie noticed as he took it out a person not to far, Avie knew this person in passing, a Slytherin. Avie waved happily at him, before going back to what he was doing. Rock collecting required his utmost attention.
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[Bothizar Styx]

Bothizar decided that he needed to get up and get some thing done when it comes down to his slingshot. He needed to get some rocks for it, and it seemed like all of these were not fitting the picture. However, his eyes loomed over to that boy once more, to see that the boy waved and smiled. And, he was collecting rocks. His mind recalled Lucien, and how the boy was tempting the other one to do bad things. Wait, this gave him an idea. Bothizar went to work on a spare slingshot, one that was mostly finished. He just needed to get the sling ready. Once he was done, he looked up to see that the boy, Avie, was still working on picking up rocks. Very good. Bothizar got up from his bottom and put the spare inside of his Slytherin robes. Sometimes, younger students were intimidated by the older ones, even if they were just a year older. Not Bothizar, but he was not what one would call 'normal' either. Bothizar approached Avie before he said, rather boldly, "You are my cousin's friend, Avie Mitchell. The dense as a rock boy." Well, that was rather rude, but Bothizar did not care in the slightest. Instead, a smirk fell across his lips.

Bending down, Bothizar picked up a rock within his pale, white hand and his dark eyes faced Avie once more, "I know something more exciting you can do with rocks other than collecting and throwing them at people, since you and Lucien picked up that habit." Bothizar placed the rock he picked up earlier into the sling and he pulled it back. He aimed ahead of the lake, and let the rock fly. Eventually, it hit the water, after what looked like miles away. Bothizar was pretty good at aiming and hitting his targets, but they were more often small animals since they were much smaller targets. He turned to see Avie's expression, wondering if he predicted that the boy would be interested in such devices as he was. Avie was a Slytherin for a reason, and Lucien's friend too. There was some badness in him, and Bothizar was determined to use that. After all, who wouldn't want to use one of these slingshots to hit people? Bothizar preferred birds because of the difficulty, but one step at a time. For now, he had to use temptation first.​

 

[Avie Mitchell]

Avie wasn't really paying attention to the other boy the one he had waved at, in fact, now that he sat in the water with the rocks all around him that was all he was paying attention to, nothing else, picking up and inspecting the various rocks of varying sizes. He didn't even realise the other boy had been approaching where he'd been sitting until he spoke again. Avie looked up upon hearing the voice and then hearing the voice say his name, he smiled at him, "Dense?" he repeated the word with a curious smile, "Do you know how dense these rocks are? Lucien said that once, but never said what he meant by dense," Avie smiled happily, he stood up and shook himself slightly with a handful of rocks. He slipped slightly on the rocks and dropped a few of them, which he then tried to pick up while moving forward towards this other boy, which then caused him to drop more rocks, Avie would've paid more attention to what he was doing but the other boy spoke, continuing with what he was saying. Avie moved forward while listening and then stumbled, as he tried to nod at what had been said but ending up slipping on the shallow water and slippery rocks and then fell forward. He dropped all of the rocks in the process of him essentially falling flat on his face, immediately the boy started laughing before sitting up slightly. Forgetting the rocks he had dropped the teen just got to his feet and closed the distance between him and the other boy.

"You're Lucien's cousin?" Avie asked happily, before then thinking about what else he had said, he thought about it, a better thing, more exciting than collecting rocks, impossible. He smiled happily at him, now interested in hearing what this person could possibly be suggesting, "What's your name?" Avie remembered seeing this guy around Slytherin house but he had no idea what it was, other than what the boy had stated, Lucien's cousin. He wiped his feet on the grass slightly and then grabbed a hand full of rocks before holding it out to the other boy, "Show me," Avie was holding them out to the other boy with an excited expression on his face, "I don't know what could be better than collecting and throwing the rocks," He had a look of disbelief really not seeing how it could possible to have more fun with them. He loved rocks, Avie really did, he had a vast collection of rocks many of which he'd pulled from the lake, so he didn't mind what this boy did with just a couple of them that he would then be able to replace. He knew that once he had that bubble head charm everything would be better. He couldn't wait to be able to swim deeper for better rocks.
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[Bothizar Styx]

Bothizar was not in the least bit surprised when the boy seemed as dense as Lucien first said. Avie would really come in handy, and provide much entertainment. Everything was as good as he pictured. Perhaps Bothizar could also find some use for him at the same time. However, that thought faded quickly when he saw Avie fall right on his face, dropping all the rocks he collected. He shook his head in response. Avie asked if he was Lucien's cousin, to which Bothizar gave a short nod. "Indeed. One of his many cousins." Bothizar was one of the pure-blood cousins, but most of Lucien's relatives were pure-blood. It was something that the Zhefarovich family was good at. "Bothizar Styx. Before you ask, yes, I am our Head of House's son. And take this," Bothizar held out a custom crafted slingshot, for Avie to take. "I'll show you the future of anything rock related." Bothizar proceeded to teach someone slightly older than him something much more enjoyable, and something that would bring even more pain in the future.

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A couple months passed since the fateful run in with Avie Mitchell. Instantly, the two managed to come together for some good times, even including Lucien. Bothizar was much more violent than the other two, which didn't bother Lucien. Bothizar was unsure if it bothered Avie. As far as he could tell, nothing bothered that boy. Bothizar was one of those that could not be bothered, except today. His father delivered him some rather bad news that shattered what little sanity that Bothizar had left. He could not handle things like this, and for a good reason. He acted solely on what he felt, and since he was angry and suffering, he delivered what he felt on anything and everything that crossed his path. It did not seem to matter what it was that crossed him. It could have been people, pets, objects, all of them, he left a trail of destruction that only appeared to follow him out to the lakefront once more. Bothizar currently sat on a tall, large rock while overseeing the lake. A gust of spring wind blew gently within his blonde hair. It remained curly and rather untidy. However, that was the way Bothizar was.

Stormy eyes swirled with disdain as he suffered through the loss of his older sister, Kailie. Kailie could not be dead. She just couldn't. Apparently, she died in childbirth to twins, and because of that, he hated children. All infants. They deserved nothing but pain and torture for putting him through this. Bothizar's slingshot rested within his hands, which only shook with the stress he was under. His mind completely forgot about his friend, Avie. Who would want to have friends right now anyway? Bothizar was starting to think that they were overrated. Ther were a means to satisfy an end. That was all they were! His hands clinched the slingshot so hard, it snapped in half under the pressure. The splinters of the wood stabbed his hand, but Bothizar barely felt a thing. Instead, his eyes wondered down to the slingshot, before he wondered if he should repair it. It was his favorite one that had yet to be confiscated. He knew the spell to repair it, but he did not bother. Instead, he rather welcomed the splinters within his flesh. It was a good reminder that he was still in this hell, and to keep thriving to make others suffer.

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[Avie Mitchell]

Avie had been feeling pretty off lately, after spending the better part of a day sitting in the Owlery waiting to see if an owl with a letter from his mother arrived the teen had been in a sort of funk, nothing had come and his mother still hadn't written to him. He would sit and play with his rocks and enjoy himself but this thought, this worry it lingered and he didn't like that, he didn't like the way it grew slowly as he played as he had fun. He didn't like the way it festered on his mind, made him stop having fun because it became too strong and suddenly it took over his mind. Thankfully a good distraction had been the friendship he'd made with Bothizar, a slytherin in the year below him, who had shown him the slingshot and thus improving rock throwing, it had become a thing which he, Lucien and Bothizar did together, and boy was Avie glad for that friendship. Even if Avie just stuck to the rock collection aspect of it most of the time, he loved collecting rocks and enjoyed it when they threw rocks at people, especially when the people had absolutely no idea about who it was throwing the rocks or where the rocks were coming from. He was using that friendship with the two other Slytherin's to help keep his mind off his worries, and by in large they were succeeding without either of them realising it. It was just good to focus on the rocks or on his friends, so whenever those slightly strange thoughts crept back into his brain, Avie would actively seek out Bothizar or Lucien. Sometimes, after seeing her in the Owlery, Avie thought about seeking out Esme. He really had plenty of people he tried to find, and plenty to fall back on if he ever needed them. He knew that even if he didn't find lucien and Bothizar, he still had countless other friends with whom he could spend time with.

On that day in November, Avie had been bored, he'd sat waiting for the mail in the great hall and when he'd received nothing, Avie had decided that he wouldn't spend any more time just moping about waiting, he would just have fun, and part of this fun was attempting the bubble head charm, which after several mis-attempts and a lot of swallowed lake water, Avie had finally seemed to have managed it. For now, he stuck mostly to areas that he could stand in, not feeling quite confident enough with the spell, eventually the teen would begin venturing slightly deeper water, but right now he stuck were he could stand or reach safety fast. When Avie resurfaced that particular time his hands filled with more rocks than he could really carry, he glanced at the water's edge and noticed the definite outline of his friend. Avie wondered what he was doing, and noticed he didn't look particularly happy though Avie thought that Bothizar looked permanently annoyed about something so perhaps it was nothing, Avie made his way towards him, walking carefully but quickly, "BOTHIE," he yelled loudly and excitedly as he walked out the water, dripping from head to toe in water. Avie did have a little problem pronouncing Bothizar's name, so he had taken upon himself to give the other teen a nickname, Bothie, Bothizar didn't like it, but Avie wasn't about to stop. Now that it was actually summer, Avie no longer went into the lake fully clothed as he did during the colder months, he was wearing his swimming trunks, something he'd brought to Hogwarts because he often needed them.

The slytherin teen wiped his feet on the grass and then, hidden behind the tree, got his towel and dry clothes. He realised as he began to dry himself, placing his dry clothes next to Bothizar, that Bothizar had broken his slingshot, he didn't see that Bothizar looked upset, he didn't notice that he had splinters in his hands, all he could see was the broken slingshot, "What happened to the slingshot?!" he asked, dropping the towel and then sitting himself next to Bothizar to inspect the slingshot. He was dripping on to the grass, his wet hair plastered to his face, yet he still reached out to take the slingshot and it was then that he noticed that Bothizar's hand had little bits of wood sticking out of them, "What's wrong with your hand? Are you growing tree bits? Does that happen during puberty? Am I going to get tree bits?" Avie looked at his own hands, turning them over, trying to see if any wood was growing out of them, but he couldn't see anything. His cousin had explained to him what puberty was, this hadn't been part of it, had his cousin been lying?
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[Bothizar Styx]

A loud yell made Bothizar flinch slightly, his reaction by clasping his hands together and driving the splinters even further into his hand. He hissed from the pain, but in his mind, he was laughing and smiling. The pain was a very good distraction from what was really bothering him. However, he did hate the nickname Avie gave him, over the fact that the boy could not pronounce his name. If need be, he could tell Avie his middle name. Dmitri. That might be easier to pronounce than Bothizar. His eyes finally looked up to the direction where Avie's voice was coming from, and it was from the water. The boy was soaking wet, dripping head to toe with water. So, Avie had been swimming. And Lucien was not around. That might be a good thing since Lucien was one of those that hated the lake. Lucien thought that the lake was very dirty indeed. Bothizar did not care for it. But, he did not care for swimming either. Bothizar preferred other activities, those of which are rather known by now. Bothizar looked down upon his hands once more, seeing some blood seep out from some of the deeper splinters. Should he pull those out? Probably. Was he going to? Nope.

Now that Avie was dry, ish, and the clothes was placed next to him, Avie's voice rang through his mind, and it took everything within him to not hit the boy then and there. Then, the questioning began, whether or not he was growing tree bits, and if that happened during puberty. Bothizar's angry face only twisted to a 'What the hell are you on?' type of look. "You are at least a year older than me. You should have already hit puberty, you blubbering idiot. I'm not part-tree. I'm a damn pure-blood."Bothizar's put downs were extremely harsh due to his short temper, especially now. "The slingshot broke because I crushed it. That's where the bits of wood come in." Bothizar reached out and grabbed the slingshot, only remembering what brought it to this to begin with. He figured that he might as well explain why he crushed it, to save himself the agony of having to have stupid questions thrown at him. "I crushed it because I'm pissed. This was the only thing in my hands that I could crush. All because my sister is f**king dead!" Bothizar's voice only increased with each word, before he finally ended with that as a shout. His hand flung his favorite slingshot into the lake, before Bothizar's heavy breathing silenced him for now.​

 

[Avie Mitchell]

Avie looked at the boys hands with curiosity as he told him that growing tree bits were not a part of puberty, Avie let out a long relieved sigh at this, it was a good thing, he was sure that it hadn't been, but knowing his cousins who often forgot to tell him certain things it had been a thought that alongside the hair that tree bits might just grow and the teen hadn't wanted that, he didn't want to be part tree in the slightest. Although the way that Bothie phrased it made him cock his head in slight in confusion, "What has being part tree got to do with being pureblood?" He looked between the boys face and his hands as he spoke trying to figure out what the one thing had to do with the other, though he didn't have much time to think about that as Bothie continued explaining what had happened, he looked at him with a confused expression, that was his favourite slingshot, what would drive him to crush it. He wanted to try to fix it, but, the spell for that was escaping Avie's mind, and he was sure that you needed all the parts for it, and with some of them embedded in the other boy's skin, he had no idea if it would work. Avie scrambled in his belongings to find his wand, but before he could, Avie was startled to a stop as Bothie began speaking, or well, increasing in volume.

Avie was listening along, trying to not be too obvious in the fact he was shaking slightly, as Bothizar's voice increased in both anger and volume. Avie disliked few things in life really, he could find the positive in most things, but he really hated when people started yelling about things, he hated when people yelled or shouted about things. He hated being shouted at most of all, though he was frequently shouted at, he just didn't like the sound it made, he didn't like the strange feeling of fear which coursed in him when people started yelling. But, in all of it, Avie listened along, Bothizar's sister was dead, Bothie's sister had died. Avie had in his mind never dealt with death before, he had never had a father to lose and he hadn't even been born when his grandparents had died, so he had no experience of it yet and he didn't know what to do. He wanted to give his friend a hug, but he didn't know what use that would be to him during this tricky time for him, Bothizar wasn't exactly a hugging person and he seemed more angry than someone needing comfort. Whenever his cousins had been angry like he clearly was they liked to take it out on each other, getting into fights or things like that, blowing off steam in that way, maybe that was what Bothie needed to do. Avie stayed silent watching the younger slytherin with a wary expression, unsure about what he was about to do. Avie stood up and put himself in front of Bothie, he gave the boy a slight smile, he took his hands and before Bothizar could pull away pulled out some of the largest slingshot bits from his hand.

The older slytherin then without any warning, wrapped his arms around his friend quickly hugging him, "I'm sorry," he said, more pre-emptively over what he was about to do, rather than saying it in the way that most people meant it. Avie knew that Bothizar wouldn't want to have any rocks as comfort, and that telling him to just look on the bright side wouldn't work either, he wasn't that kind of person. Avie knew that comforting words wouldn't work, and that would really require Avie to know some, so, he was doing what he thought would be good for his friend to be able to vent his anger, and Avie was unsurprisingly loyal to his friends, loyal perhaps in a way which if this went the way Avie thought it would wasn't exactly good. The slytherin boy gave his friend an encouraging smile and then clenched his fist, punching Bothizar square in the face.
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[Bothizar Styx]

Bothizar was about to answer Avie, when his mind just blanked. Could he really not connect between why he could not be part-tree and pureblood? Wait, no one could even be part-tree either way. Bothizar placed his palm over his forehead, and decided that Avie really needed to learn what it meant. He uttered, "No one could be part-tree to begin with. Trees can't mate with humans, or anything else other than trees. Pollination or something stupid. I'm pureblood, so I'm as pure of a wizard you can possibly get. Not a drop of muggle or anything else." That was the only way he could possibly explain it, since he believed that Avie was beyond help at this point. Trees didn't even have organs, let alone reproductive organs. Well, like humans have. Bothizar was just appalled and completely distracted over the fact that his sister was dead. Somehow, the Slytherin managed to distract Bothizar over that fact. He only smirked to himself that sometimes friends were good for something after all. Avie successfully managed to calm him down, to some degree. Bothizar still had another fit of anger within him, dying to come out, which Bothizar was holding it in. He picked at the splinters in his hand, and yanked out a large chunk.

As Bothizar threw the wood chip onto the ground, he felt Avie give him a hug. Like everyone he knew within his family, he tensed up greatly. What was Avie doing? Surely he knew that Bothizar hated to be touched unless he welcomed it. And he surely did not welcome this. The boy said that he was sorry, and wondered if it was because of the loss of his sister. "Okay." That was all he could say, and felt that hug end. Good. However, that smile was not suspicious, but once Bothizar felt that fist collide roughly with his face, Bothizar staggered back as it managed to connect with his nose and lip. Blood seeped from his busted lip and his nose. Bothizar immediately felt that white hot anger bubbling within him. Deciding that this was the best therapy he could ask for, he balled his hand into a fist, and with everything he had, punched Avie square in the face as well. Bothizar nearly fell from the force he had, before he smirked, "Thanks." He started to pick the splinters out of his hand, as he started to walk away, feeling tons better.​

Figured this was a good place for Bothizar to leave. Your post should end it?

 

[Avie Mitchell]

Avie hadn't dealt with loss in anyway personally, he hadn't seen any of his family deal with death as far as he knew, but in his experience when his cousins had been as seemingly anger as Bothizar currently was, he knew they expressed their anger by hitting one another, and so he was sure that he might be able to help Bothizar by doing that for him. Avie didn't mind so much about being hit, he knew it would hurt, but as a teen who largely was believed that he didn't have the ability to help people, wanted to try and do this for his friend. He wanted to try and bring him release or comfort in the only way he really knew how, even if that way was probably not the first that anyone ever thought of, for Avie he just wanted to help and Bothie was not the hugging type. He stood up and had put himself in front of Bothizar, where was most people might at this point reconsider or even just try to avoid it, thinking it through and realising it was a pretty terrible idea, his resolve was firm. He gave Bothizar a hug, to attempt to apologise in advance, to let him know hopefully, that whatever followed would be okay.

The pain flared up in his hand, the moment his fist collided with Bothizar's, he noticed the blood on the other boys lip and nose and went to apologise, but could not, as all of sudden, pain engulfed his cheek and he staggered and fell down onto the ground with the force of the punch. He could feel his nose bleeding, his eyes brimmed with tears at the sheer pain he was feeling. Avie had never really had a particularly high pain threshold, he sniffed loudly as Bothizar thanked him and walked away. Avie just remained sat on the ground, conflicted in his emotions, he felt pleased with himself that he'd managed to help his friend, but the pain in his face didn't seem to want to subside and Avie didn't like pain. He wiped his eyes slightly and sniffed loudly, unable to stop both the snot and the blood from spilling out of his nose. He put his hand in his pocket and took out a stone he'd kept in there from his dips in the lake, playing with it in his hand as he attempted to calm himself down, and find his feet again so that he could go inside.
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