| Details for Sibling Rivalry |
| Summary: | Differing political tensions rise between brothers and friends. |
| Date: | 1938-09-28 |
| Location: | Club Room, Hogwarts |
| Related: | — |
| Characters |
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Club Room, Ground Floor
Sat Sep 28, 1938 ((Sun Sep 28 23:42:21 2013)), (Hogwarts Castle)
It is a fall night. The weather is cool and fair.
This large room has a variety of uses, and can be setup differently for each club that uses it. Large storage doors around the room each hold a different club's equipment, to be setup with the wave of a wand. When the Athletics Club is here, for example, the room is full of gymnastics, weight, and other sports equipment. When the Domestics Club is here, however, stoves and cauldrons and workstations are more likely to be found here.
Saturday evening and dinner hasn’t happened yet. The day has been quite productive, the morning having started off with Quidditch practice, and then he managed to complete the paper he was working on for Herbology, plus a little research in the library. Angelus is now in the club room, but while he had been working on some spells earlier with an upperclassman, now he’s simply just chilling. He’s sitting cross legged in the middle of the room, his wand out as he stares down at it, deeply studying it as he holds it by the vanity handle in his dominant hand and in the middle of the shaft in his other.
The Club room. A place that a shy student like Evelyn has to get used to. She has never been one to be around a bunch of people unless she had to, such as for family functions or gatherings of one kind another that she had to go to, such as a Christmas gathering at the Black's or a Malfoy function or a MacNair event. Today, she enters the room and lets her gaze slowly take in the surroundings as she softly putters forward.
Noalan spots Evelyn just as she enters the Club Room. He walks along after her, catching the door before it can swing home and follows her in. "Vyn, wait, are you heading to…?" He starts, but finds the room empty. Well, almost empty. He's not sure what he'd rather have been in the room. "Aelus." He greets, a bit stiffly.
Since Evelyn and Noalan are entering at practically the same time, Angelus’ head pops up as soon as the door opens to let the first of the two in. Simply lowering his wand so that his hands rest in his lap, the youth arches an inquisitive brow. As he shifts to pick himself up to his feet, he tucks his wand away into his robes. “What’re you guys doing? Are you working on something? Can I help?” A grin crosses over his face briefly as his blue eyes flicker with curiosity. The use of the name that Noalan uses to greet him with brings out a frown, but that only lasts for a second before he lets it roll off his shoulders.
Oh dear. Two cousins. One to be seen on either side of her! How is a girl supposed to choose where to look?! Well, at whoever she speaks to, she ends up deciding, as it's the most logical, making the most sense. Evelyn looks to Noalan. "I…I joined a club." She looks down and blushes. It's not entirely like her, but she has done it. -The Mud Club.- She signs to him. "I was hoping that…that the student leader of the club, that prefect…Briar Crocker. From Hufflepuff?" She looks at the both, but leaves it at that. She gives a little, tiny smile to her younger cousin. "Unless you want to help me study for OWL level courses…" She murmurs.
Noalan nods, closing his eyes momentarily, "I know, word gets around." He looks towards Angelus, "People have been signing up for clubs all over the place this month." Stepping further into the room he lets the door shut, "I guess I don't have to tell you both to be careful with this, that you're playing with fire." Not that Lan is in a better position any more, not once Flint became head master.
Well when Evelyn has her eyes on Noalan, and when she brings up the Mud Club, Angelus frowns with dissatisfaction, a rather cold look at the back of her head. But that doesn’t last for more than a second, and he chooses to remain quiet about it since the comment really wasn’t directed to him. An eyebrow arches at her explanation, a smile touching at his lips as he pipes up, “Crocker? I saw her working in the gardens this morning.” He shifts his shoulders easily. “But not since then.” His smile grows into a grin, his eyes glinting. “If it’s potions work, for sure,” he responds about the O.W.L.s. Shifting his eyes onto his brother, a single brow lifts in question. “Why’s that?” he asks plainly. “Shouldn’t I take an interest in our background?” His smile spreads part of the ways over his mouth.
"I um…I just uh…" Evelyn takes a deep breath in and nods. "I just…" She frowns. "People shouldn't have to deal with prejudice like that." She nods firmly. She shrugs. "I'll be careful, Lan." She gives him a little smile. To Angelus, she gives a little nod. "I'll maybe show you my um…my potions later. I've got to study more for that." She clears her throat. "For now I've um…well, got some charms work to focus on." She signs to them -Be nice to each other.- Before turning and making her way out the door.
Noalan gives an exaggerated eye roll in Angelus's direction. "You know our family history better than Flint, I expect. There are books in the home library that only exist there. You know that's not what the club's about." Lan runs a distracted hand through his hair, before answering Evelyn, "Ya, but these clubs seem too antagonistic to be productive." He watches her leave then turns back to Angelus, "What angle are you working on them exactly?"
Angelus frowns as Noalan outright blurts out his lie, giving him a glare. He only shrugs while Evelyn is there, not commenting about it. “Okay, I’m counting on it,” he says in response to seeing her potions work, offering her a smile. “See you later.” His blue eyes remain focused on her until she’s out the door, which is when he lets out a heavy sigh as he lowers his head briefly. “You know she’s making us look bad, right?” Is his first comment when Evelyn is gone. He lifts his head to look to Noalan. “Angle?” he asks with a confused tone, except that the grin betrays him and he ends up letting out an amused laugh at his brother’s skepticism. He starts to walk closer to him. “I’ve got friends in the club,” he says with a shrug. “What are you going to do?” He smirks, raising a brow. “Let Elspeth drag you down?”
"I'm used to family members making me look bad, you are my brother." Lan says back, anger tinting his voice. "So you're in such desperate need of friends that you're willing to alienate a sizable chunk of the school, put yourself in danger, and risk your future to get some?" Lan shakes his head, "Aelus, your thinking is so upside-down right now that I'm not terribly concerned when you think something I'm doing is a bad idea."
Angelus frowns deeply, clearly irked by his brother’s bad attitude. For a second his expression darkens, but it doesn’t last terribly long as a smile snakes its way over his lips. He smirks, letting out a snigger before he starts chuckling. “/I/ only accept friends who are /important/,” he comments smugly. Well, important and extremely hot. “Judging by your peasant friend you clearly don’t have standards. What went wrong with Noalan the /Third/?” he adds this in with a trace of spite. He smirks, and after walking forward, ends up taking a step or two back as he pulls out his wand. “Come on, Noah,” he says in a suddenly friendly tone. “Let us duel and show me what you’ve learned.”
"Ya, I can understand that." Lan says, agreeing with Angelus, "When you're a nobody, I can understand why you'd want to glom onto important people." His eyes glitter cruelly and the corner of his mouth quirks up slightly. No one looking at him now would have any doubt what house he belongs to. "I don't need the reflected glory of others." His hard eyes, shift to his brothers wand suspiciously. "I'll pass. Accidentally hurting you," Which he suspects will certainly happen no matter what spell he uses, "will be more trouble than it's worth."
Angelus is once again frowning deeply at his brother. A sneer twists its way onto his lips as he declines his wonderful offer for a duel. His wand is tucked back into is robes and his shoulders rise simply. “Suit yourself,” he says easily enough. “I can always ask for Dryden’s tutorage. He’s more capable anyways.” He starts walking towards the door again, letting out a sigh. When his hand touches the knob, he pauses before he opens it and turns back to give Noalan a look, tipping his head a little to the side. “I’ll do you favour, Noah,” he says, a sickly sweet smile touching his lips. “I’ll suggest Elspeth as a target just for you. That way you don’t have to worry about lessening our name.”
Noalan’s hand twitches towards his wand, but he's dealt with people trying to use his friends as targets most of the end of last year. His hand clenches and unclenches, but he doesn't draw on his brother. "You know, I think things are getting a bit out of hand here. I think I'll write home and suggest you be sent off to a school in Italy for your own safety. You're Italian is getting rusty anyways."
"What?" A brief moment of panic leaks out from the youth. Angelus' hand slips from the doorknob as he turns away from the door. "You would not," he accuses. His eyes narrow suspiciously at his brother. He's quiet as his blue eyes lock directly on Noalan's face, watching for signs if he's serious or bluffing. A smile flicks out then as Angelus seemingly decides that this threat was bogus. "Fine, Noah," he says coolly. "Don't say I didn't warn you."
Noalan shrugs, "It's a good way to make contacts, and get you out of the mess that's coming. I will suggest it. Don't worry, I'm sure you'll have fun making new friends." Lan's voice is hard and eyes serious. "If not, well, there are other options. I've never worried too much about you before, but test me, and I'll show you just how much influence I have. Don't say /I/ didn't warn /you/."
Into this heavily-charged atmosphere comes a cheerful whistle, followed shortly by Augustin. "Hullo, lads," he greets with a jovial wave. "Have either of you seen a Hufflepuff tie lying around?" He seems to be missing one from his uniform at the moment. "I thought I left… it… here…" his voice trails off when he /finally/ sees the looks the two brothers are giving each other. "Um…"
Walking in his nose in his book, is Niko, "Out of the Silent Planet" by C.S. Lewis. He gazes moves up from his book, as his eyes move across the club room slowly, taking in each one of the people within it. "Hmmm…" he says slowly, "Has the meeting already started?" he asks slowly, obviously looking confused, his eyes peering out at everyone still through his wild hair.
Angelus frowns as he gives Lan a cold stare, but he has nothing else to say. Instead, he shakes his head and lifts a hand to fix a strand of his hair, as if to show that he wasn't bothered. He steps back from the door as it opens, looking thankfully to the entering sixth year. "Oh, was that yours, Rousseau?" A warm smile slides across his lips as he nods his head towards one of the wall. "I moved so that it wouldn't get stepped on, thought someone may be back for it." His hand gestures towards him as if to say he was correct. "Don't mind Noah, he's just threatening his brother. Again." He glances back to Noalan. "You're going to end up losing your wand." Not that Noalan has his wand out right now.
Noalan steps back as the doorway suddenly becomes really crowded with entering students. Perhaps there is a club meeting of some kind today. He's forced to push down his bubbling anger at the arrival of other students, "No club as far as I know. Which one were you looking for?" Lan asks, his voice tinged with the anger he's struggling to hold back. Lans hard eyes swing back to angelus, "Not threatening. Call it, concern for your safety." He says, adding, "Don't worry about that, I'm sure dad would let me have his old wand if anything happened to mine."
"Meeting?" Gus asks, blinking at Niko for a second. "What?" And then Angelus tells him where his tie is, so he edges a bit further into the room, around Noalan, to retrieve it. "Ah! Here it is," he says, sounding relieved. He stands near the others while he flips up the collar of his shirt and starts threading the tie around his neck. "Having a family row, eh?" he asks. "Don't mind me, then. I'll be gone in a trice and you can get back to it."
Niko brings his books down to his side, his hand moving up and rubbing his chin slowly, "I must have heard wrong…" he says slowly looking around, he looks between everyone, "Oh, you two are in a disagreement?" he says slowly, looking from Nolan back to Angelus, "Well…" he starts slowly before shaking his head, "Just um, don't kill each other or something." he says with a small wave of his hand. A small smirk on his face.
Noalan lets out a disbelieving snort at Angelus. "Ya, I'm sure." He steps to the door and pulls it open. "No quarrel here, just looking out for him." He says, lifting his hands to show them empty. "I doubt anyone will fight with him now that he's got such 'important friends'. Anyways, don't mind me, I was just leaving. Flint already has a lap dog here, a Prefect would be redundant. Excuse me." He says, moving through the doorway.
"Yeah," Gus says, throwing the end of his tie around in the classic knot. "What Niko said. Killing is bad. No killing." He tugs it down and glances down to see his progress. "If you're going to maim each other, please at least wait 'til I'm not in the room." He gives them both an incredibly cheerful grin. His eyebrows climb a little at Angelus' request, and he nods. "Certainly," he agrees, being that he's an agreeable sort of person. "Why not?" He blinks at Noalan, eyebrows climbing even higher. "Flint?" he repeats, and his expression goes rather sour. "That old —" but he stops before he can say something uncivilized and presses his lips together. "Not my favorite professor," he mutters, flipping his collar back down rather vehemently. A bit of color comes to his cheeks along with a vaguely angry expression.
Niko blinks and looks between the three slowly, not sure what is really going on, his book still by his side. "Well, I mean, friendships are one thing but family is another. Maybe protecting him, is you know overstepping bounds you know?" he says slwoly looking between Nolan and Angelus. His hand move up and slowly runs through his hair, his brow furrowing slightly as his lips curl back into a smile, "I mean come on, isn't this something you two can just work out, by talking all civilized like?" he says looking hopefully between the two.
Angelus lets out a spirited laugh as he glances towards his housemate. "Sorry to disappoint you, but no, I don't want to fight. He's my brother." His smile touches his lips for a few. He lets out a heavy sigh as his gaze trails after Noalan. "At least Rousseau doesn't mind me-" Angelus cuts off and glares at his brother's back, for only a second before he shakes his head. He's not going to say anything. "Well, Flint's Headmaster now, we should probably show some respect regardless of our feelings." He shrugs, head tilting closer to a shoulder. "Right?"
Gus glances at Niko, nodding a bit. "Civilized conversation would be great," he agrees. "If only both parties /were/ civilized. But of course people who feel themselves above others for whatever reason can hardly be expected to participate in a civilized conversation," he sneers. He tucks his tie into his sweater and sends a sort of disdainful look tward Angelus. "Sorry, but if you are Flint's boy, you don't want to be seen near me. When I realized what his /club/," he fairly spits the word, "Was really all about, I let him know my opinions and got rather a lot of House points taken off." He grins, though there isn't much cheer in it, this time. "And I'd do it again in a second. So." He spins on his heel and stalks after Noalan. "Wait up, mate."
Noalan starts stalking down the hall, but pulls up short when he hears a call behind him. In a foul mood, he snaps a, "What is it?" Back at Augustin, his alone time to fume will just have to wait. "Looking for more lost clothing?" Lan asks, quite out of character with his temper flaring.
Gus stops, rather taken aback by Noalan's temper. "Fully dressed now, thanks," he replies, his tone calm. "Just didn't realize your kin was… Flint's supporter," he drawls. "Me and Flint don't agree, you see, to the tune of quite a lot of House Points. Didn't feel like hanging around for propaganda, is all." He shoves his robes to one side enough to thrust his hands into his trousers pockets and shrugs.
Noalan tries to pull back on his outbursts with difficulty. "Ya, well, I've got family in both those stupid clubs. Just a matter of time before it comes to blows with them too, and you don't need to be a seer to guess what side the prefects will have to come down on if it comes to that." He runs fingers through his hair and takes a deep breath, "Sorry about that. I needed to leave before I cursed him into a platypus, and you caught me up before I could calm down."
Gus sighs. "I threatened Flint with joining the Mud Club when I left, but then somehow my mother heard about it and…" he shakes his head. "Well. She came this close to disinheriting me." He winces, and doesn't actually seem to be exaggerating. "Father had to talk her down and…" he stops. "A platypus?" he repeats, and an amused grin flickers across his mouth. "Interesting choice. Why not a koala? They're not poisonous, at least."
"This situation isn't much fun for anyone, but it seems to have escalated since the Mud Club was created. Before that it was mostly a Durmstrang problem. Briar won't get any sympathy from me on this, no more than Aelus or Flint." He says, in a little rant. He pinches the bridge of his nose, "We need a Bastian Club for all those who just need to bunker down and ride this out." He opens his eyes again at the mention of the Poison, "That screwed up animal is poisonous too? What is wrong with that continent?"
Gus tilts his head thoughtfully to one side at the suggestion of a Bastian Club. "Meh," he says, not super impressed by the idea. "If you get that many people together, soon or later politics will start to rule it, just like the other two. Best thing is to just keep a low profile, try not to flunk your classes, and snog your girlfriend whenever you can." He chuckles. "That's /my/ philosophy, anyway." He nods about the platypus. "Dunno, but maybe it has something to do with being so far away from all the others? Maybe some wizard put all the terrifying or strange animals there thousands of years ago to spare the rest of the planet the trouble."
Noalan coughs nervously and turns to look down the hall. "That's certainly one option. I guess I'll have to put my plans to dig a fortress in the gardens on hold then. If only I wasn't a firefighter, charged by a known arsonist to keep this fireworks factory from exploding." He sighs and shakes his head, "Well, if things explode here, there may a whole bunch of new terrifying and strange animals let loose on the British Isles."
Augustin snorts at the metaphore. "Shouldn't the professors be the firefighters?" he wonders aloud. "We're just /students/. We ought to be worrying about O.W.L.S. and N.E.W.T.S. and dating and what we're going to do when we graduate, not… not fighting fires." He suddenly looks tired, and older than his teenage years.
"Ya, because I trust Flint not to give the Prefects Orders to keep the piece, or, worse, to make trouble for his undesirables." Lan starts walking down the hall, stuffing his hands in his robe pockets as he goes, "I should be going. I have someone I need to warn before dinner now."
Augustin frowns. "Listen, mate, if you ever need a hand with, er, putting out fires, just… let me know. All right?" He gives Noalan a nod and watches the other boy walk away for a moment before turning in the other direction, himself.