| Details for Chocolate and Baseballs |
| Summary: | Gerald's boredom is interrupted by Alphard being Alphard. Cue chocolate and chit-chat. |
| Date: | 4th of Ocobter, 1938 |
| Location: | |
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Saturday! Nothing to do but lay around, be useless…and study, if you're Gerald. Despite the open books and notebook beside him, it seems even he takes a break sometimes. His bag rolled up behind his head, the teen can be found lounging in the grass near his things, the threat of a nap looming heavily in the near distance. He's always tired. In his hands he rolls a baseball. That's right! A Baseball. Color that for an odd thing to see. Or..according to a few people this week it is.
Laying on his back, he tosses it into the air, catching it lazily as he gazes beyond the grounds toward the clouds. It's an act that screams boredom..and coupled with his untucked shirt and lazy demeanor, he's been bored since he woke up.
It does happen, even to a bookworm.
"What are you gonna do, cry? No wait.. really? You're.. you're crying. Hah.. ha… hahaHAHAHAhaha.. What's -wrong- with you? Merlin's beard…" The sigh was as noisy a sigh as a sigh could ever be. It screamed tribulations of epic proportions. "You know I -should- beat you up, just for your own good. What kind of weak little wimp starts to cry -before- I even touch them? Handle a few kicks and punches and you might learn that it's not the end of the world. No?"
There were tears, and sobs, and they were getting louder and more panicked. The fifth year Hufflepuff cowered in the shadow of the tall Black.
"Oh fine. Fine. Just gimme the chocolate bar and get, and I'll pretend you didn't look at me wrong."
Of course, there would be noise. And not just any noise..THAT noise. Lifting his head, Gerald allows his eyes to adjust as he takes in the sight..and he frowns. "Bloody hell…" It's not a common phrase on his lips, but as he climbs to his feet to does mutter a few more expletives below his breath. "Black..what the hell man?" Enter Gerald..and absolutely no energy at all. "Seriously? Everyone looks at you the same, man. You're paranoid." Or..something. Gerald does reach to help the smaller student up.
Alphard's eyes narrowed a little as he watched and heard the approach of Gerald. For a moment it looked like he was going to take exception to the intervention, but then he looked down at the choclate bar he'd already recieved, and apparently decided he'd already gotten what he wanted. With the eerie calm of a borderline sociopath in the making, the Black pealed back the wrapping and then took a chew, all the while watching the pair. He shrugged.
"Come on, Cornfoot." Chew, chew, chew, chocolate making his cheek bulge. "He really -was- giving me the evil eye. I'm not paranoid. And look.. are you -really- helping little.." He paused, frowned, had to rack his brain real hard for a name. "Johnson? Phonson? Bumson? Whatever. Something with a son in it, right?"
The Hufflepuff shook his head. "A-a-abbethy."
Alphard shook his head. "No, no. I'd have remembered Abberthy I think. Anyway. You're not really doing Johnson any favors, you know. The only way he'll learn to fend for himself is if he does it himself."
"Yeah well, consider me an enabler." Gerald mutters, watching the smaller student, though he does sigh..heavily. "You need to run away." He then adds to 'Abberthy', "At some point survival of the fittest /does/ enter the equation." He also turns to send Alphard an equally baneful glance. Particularly he eyes the candy bar, which turns the look from baneful to utterly exhausted. "…." yeah..there are no words, but it does summon a second sigh.
"Oh well. We can't all be perfect," Alphard said. He watched the kid run away, and if he noticed Gerald's baleful stare (worse than the one that had gotten the Hufflepuff in trouble truth be told), it was ignored. "Here, have some chocolate. You look like you could use it." He broke off a couple of pieces and then offered them in Gerald's direction. "Chocolate makes everything better. So what's eating you up? You look like you've not slept in days."
Gerald chuckles below his breath as the younger student darts away, though no sooner is the kid gone than does Gerald's expression shift..and he laughs a bit louder, "You're not right, Black." He adds with a shake of his head. He does take the offered candy though. It's chocolate!! "But ya know, one day you're gonna cross someone who's gonna hex the hell out of you." So to speak of course. Gerald also motions back toward his things, taking the talk that direction as he turns to move, "Just tired, I guess. I think too much. It encroaches on my sleep. The results exhaustion and a short attention span." He then pauses, "I know how you feel about half-bloods, but do you know Eibhlin Shine?"
Alphard settled in next to Gerald comradly enough, walking and talking back to where the other sixth year had left his things. Acting as if he hadn't just bullied a kid out of his candy, acting as if he wasn't still eating said stolen candy. Acting like everything was perfectly normal. Then again, perhaps in Alphard's life, this -was- normal. His shoulder lifted with a dismissive little shrug. "Then I'll try not to cry like a little baby when it happens. Because, you know, when other people do it? I just feel this weird urge to hex them again for the fun of it. Better to just get back up and take it. Even I respect that."
"Uh. She's the Ravenclaw Prefect, isn't she? Why? You thinking about asking her out for the Halloween thing? I was sure you'd go with Soleil. I mean, if she wasn't a half-blood she might've been cute."
"Oh, I'm going with Soleil." Gerald corrects easily enough, though he takes a moment to drop down onto the grass again. "Just hang out with her some. It's sometimes the only intellectual conversation I get. She isnot ugly." He chuckles lowly, though he also neighbors it with a shrug, "I guess I'm less die-hard purist than some. They don't bother me. Not sayin I wanna run off with one or anything, but..yeah, she's pretty. And she's smart." Again he shrugs, dismissing whatever it was he seemed about ready to say. Maybe he rethought his words. Maybe he rethought his words due to present company. "Just wondering what you thought of her. Merlin knows if I asked Medusa about it she's have an aneurism. Can't have that, now can we?"
"I wouldn't have such an issue with Half-Bloods if most of them weren't so determined to cause trouble, or rub their mud side in my face. I mean.. how hard is it to accept that you're a wizard or witch, now, and leave all that other rubbish behind?" With a heavy sigh, Alphard dumped himself down next to Gerald. From his tone and general expressive bodylanguage, he honestly seemed to believe it was all -their- fault. "I just don't get it. Stupid."
A couple more pieces of chocolate got broken off, then offered to Gerald. The rest he chewed through all thoughtful like. "Well.. alright. -Aside- from being a Half-Blood.." which obviously was difficult for him to get past, but he did a heroic attempt anyway! Who said Alphard couldn't be a good friend?! "A bit shy. Bookish. A bit weird? Probably needs to be taken to Hogsmead and shown a good time or two. Losen up, you know?"
"I mean, I don't -know- her. But.." But being of the same year meant you accumulated some minor information with time.
"I'm the very last person to take anyone anywhere to 'loosen up'." Gerald reminds Alphard with a chuckle. It's true. He's been there once! And he didn't drink..really. Distractions kept any real fun from being had. And he left angry. It's safe to call it a wash! "But maybe I'm alright with her because she's pretty much left the muggle world back where it belongs. That being said.." he reaches to toss the baseball over toward Alphard. "It does have some upsides." He traveled a lot! It can't be helped. "Maybe being around them so much numbed my distaste or somethin." It's spoken with a shrug still. "Sunny's pretty hard up on the whole half verses pure thing too, I think." He then laughs, "I was supposed to go to that meeting thing Briar was having..but I completely forgot." Ousp!
Alphard caught the ball on instinct, then slowly turned it around to look at it from different angles. The light caught the leather, the stitches, and all through it he wore a puzzled expression. "What's the point? It's just a ball? It doesn't even try to hit me." With a wrinkle of his nose, he tossed it back. "Don't be an idiot, Gerald." There was a seriousness in his voice, all of a sudden. "Playing around with a half-blood is one thing. They're not all completely bad; half of them -is- wizard after all. But associating with the Mud Club in any way? That's bad stuff. Stay clear of it, for your own good." Alphard wasn't someone who hesitated in threatening people, but this time it sounded more like an earnest attempt to give good advice.
"Oh, you're absolutely right about that." Gerald admits with a shrug. "Like I said before, I wouldn't call me a purist, but I'm also not a complete idiot. I told her I wouldn't join the club. She looked putout but….I was nice." Unlike Alphard, Gerald cares about his disposition toward others. "That being said, I would never allow popularity or social scrutiny determine my morals or my beliefs. I just don't think a club was necessarily the way to go about a march for equality. Equality is nonexistent. It defies the very nature of civilization. Even in the muggle world." In the end, he sighs, dropping his head forward to run his hands through his hair. "I think I need to get out of the school. I may actually go do something this afternoon….or I may stay in and read." Likely the latter.
Satisfied that Gerald wasn't a complete idiot, Alphard let the topic go. He gave a lazy stretch, folding his arms up beneath his head. "Could take the brooms for a spin?" He offered. "I could use som air time before the Quidditch season starts in earnest. Bugger Hooch about it and perhaps we'll get away with taking a nice long one. Or well, if she doesn't.. we can always just steal away anyhow." Because rules existed to be bent, then broken.
Gerald chuckles, "Maybe.." he admits, "We'll see. I still have to get with Medusa today, but after that I'm probably free..assuming Sunny doesn't have plans." At which point he's a lost cause. "If I go take a nap, are you going to pin another kid down for chocolate?" He tilts his head over to eye Alphard, though he doesn't seem to be holding his breath for an acceptable question.
"You are?" Alphard asked, a sideways squint. Then he shrugged and heaved himself up to his feet, stretching and going tall. The sun was behind his back, giving his dark mane a halo effect. His smile was so innocent that it should be caues for incarceration on its own merit. "Of course not. See you around, Gerald."