| Details for Just a Pair of Animal Lovers |
| Summary: | Alone time is interrupted by someone unexpected and they discover a bond over animals. |
| Date: | Feb 2 1939 |
| Location: | Lake View Louvre, Hogwarts |
| Related: | Niffler on the Beach and Misplaced Thanks. |
| Characters |
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Not an odd place for someone to linger about. One can always find students in every nook and cranny within the castle. Ignatius is standing near an open window, smoke grey winter coat buttoned on and a newsboy cap settled on his head. The class of Gryffindor scarf warms his neck as a pair of winter gloves are peeking out of a coat poket. In one hand he holds a collection of stones. The other is tossing a few through the window and aiming dead for the frozen lake. Why? No reason. He felt like throwing things.
Dora's impossible to miss arriving, mostly because she hums. Oh to be fair, she peeks around corners to check that no one she doesn't want to see isn't lingering but, for the most part she is happy. Composed. Put together. Her dress is a soft shade of pink that compliments her skin tone. A modest piece that was sleeveless, with a high empire waist and a pink satin ribbon just beneath her bosom. The hemline for the dress stopped just at her knees. It went well, with the dove gray color of her robes.
Of course, she appears to have company too, for there's what definitely looks to be a toad peeking out of the front pocket of her robe and beneath the curve of her arm, there's a tripod for the camera that's in the satchel that's dangling off her shoulder. She makes no move to bother the boy.
It's difficult to hear the soft crack of stone landing on the ice in the distance. Some of his efforts come up short. Others he was lucky. The humming causes the next launch to halt and his hooded brown eyes turn for the source. She's been seen about the castle but not one he knows personally. From face, to camera equipment to then the toad, Iggy's eyes explore the female. "I uh… what are you doing?"
"Coming to take pictures," came the quiet answer in the soft notes of a natural soprano. From her pocket Penseverus looked out at the boy as if he'd already done something foul and awful and needed to be sent away. "Of the snow, mostly. I want to capture it turning colors when the sun sets. See the way the clouds break just enough to let the rays of light shine through?" There's a gesture with it, as she tentatively invites herself over to his window, pointing out across the distant horizon. "Not always, but sometimes, in the way the clouds can color with a sunset, the light will do the same thing to the snow and…," a blushing near bashful smile was offered. "I'm hoping that it will today."
Staring as she spoke Ignatius' arm was slowly lowered as the girl approached. A nature lover perhaps. When she indicates to the snow covered land beyond the open window frame his eyes follow. "I've never really paid attention to that." Snow was snow. Where was the beauty in a blank canvas? "Do you do this everyday?" The Prewett boy asked. Curious about her devotion to this one particular and seemingly rare moment.
"Only when it's actually snowing," Dora murmured in response, the color lingering in her cheeks. Pictures, it seems, were a personal thing with the girl. "Sometimes when it's just finished, because the world looks so white and so pure, before there's been a chance for people to ruin it with footprints." But then she seems to think beyond her self. "..you weren't busy..were you? I mean, it won't be a bother if I'm here? If it's a bother than I can go. I don't want to interrupt anyone."
Iggy's head shook before his mouth could open. "No, not busy. Not really busy doing anything at the moment." Except for ruining a perfect landscape for the girl. He shoves the remaining pebbles into his pocket. "Ignatius Prewett. But some mates call me Iggy." The freckled face boy had offered, never knowing where that nickname had came from. "Do you always take pictures? Got any on you?"
"So you don't mind?" The girl has the same hopeful air a puppy gets, when someone mentions going outside. She can stay! "Oh. Uhm. Dora. Er, Adorabella," she offers and sitting her things down on the lip of the bench, extended her hand. "Selwyn. Some people call me Adora or Belle or Bella or Ella or Ellie, so honestly it's whatever you prefer. Nothing so neat as Iggy though. Do you like lizards?" The question was asked, instead of actually answering his own about photographs.
Iggy shrugged his shoulders. "Nah, not at all." There was plenty of other windows for him throw stones through and opposite of her focus. His own hand extended for a proper introduction. "Yeah love them." The light of interest in the topic flickered in his eyes. "Toads too. All creatures really. Actually I'm hoping to study magical creatures. Can you imagine all the ones we haven't discovered yet?"
Sweet Merlin. Dora stared at the boy for a moment as if he'd grown a second head and then the most magical thing happened. She smiled and when she did, all the traditional hints of that bashful shying nature of hers just melted away. "Really? I love animals! That's what I want to do, actually, well sort of. I want to be a healer, but not just for people, for animals too. Have you met Mister Bubbles?" And with the question, her hands dipped into the front pocket of her robe, to pull the three legged toad free, who glowered further. "Isn't he great!"
Finally, someone who understands his passion for the four, three and no legged creatures of the world. Iggy cracked a goofy smile that grew once Mr. Bubbles was presented for introduction. "Ha!" Who's also missing a leg. "Yeah sure does." The boy's head careened to the side for inspection then hands extended, "Mind if I hold him?"
"Penseverus Bubbles," the girl beamed proudly, looking from the toad to the boy and back again. "Because see how his face looks all scrunched up and pensive and serious? But then, sometimes when he gets all excited and he croaks, he blows bubbles so I just sort of..smushed them up all together. Someone didn't want him, can you believe that? I was at the shop in Diagon Alley about two years ago and someone had brought him in to trade on something with four legs, instead. And the owner…well, I won't say what the shop owner was going to do, but I took him home instead. Sure you can hold him! Only..sometimes if he gets nervous he pees so…be careful. He's peed on my brother several times," she admits and can't help the giggle that slips out with it.
"I think you got the better deal. It adds some character to Mr. Bubbles. Not like he's supposed to dance or anything." Even the flawed creatures were admired. Iggy chuckled as she giggled over her brother's mishap. "Just a little pee." The boy smirked again, "Bandit is around here somewhere. He keps slipping out of the dormatory." As though he should know who he is. Then as the toad is handed off Iggy clarifies, "My ferret. Slippery bugger. Always up to no good I tell ya. Mean little thing. Hates being held but the bravest little critter if I ever saw one."
"No. No he doesn't dance. He wallows. And he likes to wiggle into the dirt in the green house but..he's wonderful and I love him," Dora smiled, affectionately looking at the toad in the boy's hands. "Is he white?" She inquired, of his ferret. "Like the Slytherin boy's ferret? That's the only other one I've ever seen running around the school. D'you want to work with animals when you finish school? Is that what you're going for?"
Iggy shook his head again. "No black and tan. With a mask over his eyes. The tip of his tail is black. He chitters. A lot. When he returns he always has something with him. Last time was someone's hair ribbon. I found his stash though. Bandit didn't like that…" While holding the toad against his coat, mostly for warmth against the cool breeze blowing in from the windows. "You didn't lose a silver bracelet did you? Sort of looks like ivy and thorns."
"Oh I'd love to see him," Dora gushed, offering an all too warm smile; fingers reaching out to scritch against one of Penseverus' ridgeplates. "So they really do take all sorts of small things? That's so precious! Oh I hope you didn't take his nest apart, did you?" Her bottom lip caught between her teeth at the heartfelt question, before she rocked back on her heels, giving a little shake of her head. "Oh no. That's not mine. It sounds lovely but…no. It's…we don't..," the funds. Dora didn't appear to wear any jewelry, ever. But she made artistic use of ribbons!
"Only a little. I mean he could have something cursed in there or worse, Lucretia's." Iggy gave the toad some careful strokes along his backside, careful of Dora's hand. "I'd honestly love to see him too. I'm missing a sock. But yes, they're thieves." Thus Bandit's name was born. "No matter." He cut in her stammering words. "I'm sure someone will be shouting about for a missing bracelet." The young boy lifted a shoulder. "So uh did you have any pictures with you?" Like he'd forget.
"She fancies one of my brothers," is Dora's response without thinking, before she blinked abruptly and looked apologetic. "Everyone does these days. And all of them want to meet with the 'family' in Hogsmeade but I'm not stupid, I know the girls just want to flirt and don't really care if I'm there or not." It came with a sigh and a little shake of her head. But her smile stayed, this time aimed at the boy for the careful way he handled Penseverus. "I have…a couple of pictures. But I doubt they'd be anything you'd like. Corners and flowers and butterflies in the garden, or the way the Great Hall looks when it's empty just after a meal, but before the dishes all go."
That was unexpected to hear. Immediately Iggy's eyes lift and brows knitted closer until finally they sloped in a pensive fashion. "I suppose." He responds half-heartedly. "Probably just as well, I don't drool or chase after girls like some of these boys do. I can't be distracted." Iggy was cautious in offering the return of Mr. Bubbles, excitement may cause urination. "A couple of pictures are just as good. I mean, you seem to you know, capture in moment things we don't really notice or care to notice. I guess some people notice them. I mean you do. Or did." He rambles. "Uh yeah… the pictures."
"I'm sorry. I babble. I'm not…I don't..I'm terrible with people. Er, talking to them. Generally it's just my cousins, or my brother." Her safety bubble. Dora did not do well outside of her safety bubble and for a moment, she'd forgotten precisely who she'd been talking to. "Distracted from what?" She settled on instead, gently taking Mister Bubbles and easing him back into the warmth of her pocket. Once he was settled, she squinted up at Ignatius. "Do you really want to see some of my pictures?"
After the toad was handed over Iggy ran his hands along the outside of his coat. "I do." He nods and some of the warmth was returning after a brief visit of dismay. "I babble, sometimes. I guess animals are easier to understand than people. Especially girls. Most certainly girls now. I mean not that you aren't a girl. You just don't seem like the other girls. It's not a bad thing. Not to say it's bad at all…" Iggy began scratching at the back of his neck, "Uh distractions like who's snogging who. I mean I really shouldn't care for it. That life is already set for me." Then he says after a moment. "Maybe." Iggy walks towards the bench that she had set her belongings upon and against. There he sits himself. "Let's see those pictures."
"Animals are easier to understand than people," the girl agreed, looking down at the toad in her pocket with a smile. "But they're worth it. Boys…," that made her nose wrinkle. "Well, anyway, I like animals and you still haven't told me what it was you can't be distracted from and what it is that you're studying to do, when you finish school and I have asked you," Dora points out, before reaching over to set up the triopod and open up the satchel that held her camera.
"There's some in the bag there," she gestures, letting him look for himself because she felt awkward showing things. And there were…interesting pictures, at least to Dora's mind. One of a corner of the castle, shot from the ground aimed towards the sky so that it was just the sharp points of stone shaping up towards a background of clouds, that looked to have been managed on a clear day, even if the icicles hanging down gleamed in the light. Another, of just a butterfly's wing, so close the camera was focused to the creature; so that the designs appeared to make an eye. And, as she said, one of the great hall, plates in disarry with full on clutter which seemed to somehow give it a skeletal appearance rather than a real one. And one too, of a picture that seemed to be a beautiful shot of the sun setting over Black Lake, except that…all of that seemed blurred just a little and the clear focus was on the way the frost gleamed off the blades of grass that dominated the front portion of the image.
"Oh I thought I said? For the Ministry maybe. With their Magical Creatures division. I'd like not only discover more creatures out there but possibly create a safe haven for some of the abused. I do want to visit the unicorn sanctuary." Iggy then reached for the bag to retrieve the portraits. One by one he studied them. "Is this something you want to do after Hogwarts?"
"Oh no. Not at all. What I want…," Dora began, "What I really want, is a just, a home somewhere. One with lots of rooms, for strays. Stray people. Stray animals. A sprawling farm, maybe. So that everyone and everything has a place to go and somewhere they can get help, without having to worry, in the case of poeple, over payment. The pictures..," she looked up from focusing the lense, then. "Those are just," the smile turned almost bashful again. "Those are just for me. I like them. I like taking them. It makes me feel better."
As the portraits are precious to Dora he treats them as such. "People too?" Not something he even considered. "I wouldn't go that far." The freckle-faced boy shook his head. "But hey, at least you have a goal. More than what most have about now. Kind of reminds me of something I heard from one of the mudbloods. Some garden where the animals live and man tended it. I forget the story." Iggy then returned the pictures into the satchel except for one. The one of the butterfly. "Can I have this one?"
At that word, Dora's nose wrinkles and a frown touches on the girl's face. Those big ole doe eyes of hers appearing wounded. "Do you think…, Ignatius, that perhaps, you could not use that word in my presence. It isn't a very nice one, you see and it's so very hurtful to people. You can have the picture…," she granted, because sometimes it was hard to say no. "But, just please, don't use that word again."
"Huh?" It took a second for Iggy to realize which word she was indicating. "Oh." For something used about so frequently he simply nodded. "Sure. I won't and call me Iggy. I'm pretty use to it by now." Not a bad tradeoff in order to keep the portrait. "I'd like to see more of animals if you take more. It's interesting."
"Okay Iggy. I have some more I'll show you, too." The agreement came easy and a ghost of the former smile returned with his word. Just as the sun seemed to catch the light and for a moment, the snowflakes glittered in bright splashes of color. "It's like little fairies dancing on the air almost, so small that all we can see are the sparkle of their wings." And with that awe filled statement, Dora took her picture.
The boy cracked a small smile, his eyes lowered the butterfly portrait. A simple thing. A wing transformed into an all seeing eye. "Were you able to interact with them? Some say fairies are pretty wicked. Nasty sometimes but still beautiful creatures."
At that Dora blinked rather owlishly and turned to glance back towards Ignatius. "I meant the snow," once again she gestures. "See. Look. The way the light dances against the flakes, making the colors sparkle. Not actual fairies."
"OH!" Immediately Iggy rubbed at his forehead, then moved to stand up. Portrait in hand. He turned for the window to see exactly what she was attempting to take a picture of. There must have been a gift to this because at first he wasn't seeing it. The Preweet boy squinted his eyes. "I don—ah… hah. I see it now. Strange. It's sorta pretty. I think." Apparently everything that sparkled was pretty. One of the pockets of his coat was pretty large and so his gloved shared the living space with his newly acquired picture.
"Dora. You're a girl. I need to ask you something. Do you require someone to buy you things? I mean do you have a sense of humor?"
Adorabella laughed when the boy seemed to catch on and then look and when he saw or at least sort of saw, if his expression was anything to judge by…, "It'll be different when the picture's done," she promised, "Because you'll be able to see the shape of the flakes themselves, at least those that were right on top of the lense and it's going to look amazing and…," what? Buy her things? A sense of humor?
"If something's funny, I laugh. I laugh at Mister Bubbles all the time and Uly and some of my cousins. So…I guess I do? But I don't find hurtful things very funny, either. Why would I require someone to buy me things?"
"I hope it does because I'm not sure what I should be seeing here Dora." He couldn't even pretend to so the boy turns from the window then, briefly, a small glimpse given to Mr. Bubbles. "Some girls do at least that's what I hear." Iggy removed the newsboy cap in order to run a hand through his russet hair. "Nevermind." He once more peeks over the window's ledge to the snow below. "What if your bath soap was charmed. To turn your skin blue. Harmless fun or just flatout mean?"
"I turned my hair pink once just to make someone smile," the girl admitted with a shrug. It'd gotten her teased by everyone for almost a week, but…it'd brought someone who was sad out of a funk. That was what mattered. "I'd probably just charm my hair blue to match," Dora supplied, with a grin.
Log continues in 'Misplaced Thanks'