| Details for His Name Is NOT Felix |
| Summary: | While Elise is Gardening, Novak shows off his less-than-stellar broomflying skills, Cillian brings a snack, and Madeline brings nothing but Mischief. A certain grey tomcat is not amused. |
| Date: | 1939-05-16 |
| Location: | Hogwarts Gardens |
| Related: | — |
| Characters |
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It's a rather bright and sunny day, with a nice cool breeze that smells, ever so faintly, of the sea, and rather more strongly of heather. Elise is here in the gardens as she often is after classes or on the week ends, tending to some flowers. She's got a floral-print apron on over her robes, the sturdy kind with big pockets that can hold tools. Her dark hair is held back behind her ears in two braided pigtails fastened with spring-green bows. She's singing as she works, mostly because she's alone, and there's no one to hear how off-key she occasionally gets. Elise won't be winning any singing competitions any time soon, that's for sure. An enormous grey tomcat is nearby, occasionally idly batting at butterflies from where he lies blinking in the sun.
Shwoom! The air makes an audible blowing and cracking noise as Novak makes a nose-dive down towards the area of the garden on an old Oakshaft 79 broomstick. He's not very skilled at flying it, that's for sure.. he's got speed but he's often tilting left and right and almost fighting to stay mounted at times. He already looks like he's got a few wounds from flying already, his lip is busted and he has road-rash along his neck but it doesn't seem to affect his landing, well.. not that it's good in the first place. He swoops down with lighting speed and makes an unclean landing, his heels are engraving themselves into the dirt of the garden as he tries to brake and slow down the broom he's riding - managing to after a good fifteen seconds and a few yards of runway in the garden. Novak wears a pair of goggles to keep the wind from going into his eyes, he looks around for a brief moment before he spots Elise - "You following me?" he jokes, always seeming to run into her.
The entrance of the boy on the broom startles the tomcat so much that he leaps up, fur on end from nose to tail-tip. He stands with his side toward Novak and growls menacingly, ears back, his nearest fore-paw lifted and ready to strike. The butterflies explode away from the flowers in a cloud of color, flitting frantically about for a few moments before beginning to settle back down, one at a time. As for the girl? She's knocked over a couple of flower pots, and the dirt and plants have made a right mess of things, including her shoes. She stares at the boy with her hand pressed over her heart, consternation on her face. "You scared me!" she accuses. Then she places her hands on her hips and scowls properly. "No, I was here first, you're the one that's come here. Look at this mess!" She huffs.
The boy's gaze darts over the kicked up dirt and the prone cat, as well as the flower ports.. "Oh.." he says, his lower lip pouts out a little, "I'm sorry.." he says, trailing off. "Let me help." he jogs over towards her and starts to pick up flower pots while keeping watchful eye on the kitty - he doesn't want to be mauled. He places the flower pots back where they should be, getting dirt on the knees of his slacks in the process, he quickly brushes the dirt off her shoes and he stands to his feet once most of the destruction has been fixed, "Forgive me?" he asks, grabbing his own wrist behind his back.. he looks towards her rocking from heel to toe.
The cat growls at him again, and then realizing that Novak isn't a threat, he settles slowly - first his stance, then his fur. He starts to groom himself, pausing occasionally to level a baleful stare at the boy. Elise sighs. "Next time please be more careful," she admonishes. When he reaches for her shoes, though, she steps back a tad and tends to them herself. "Why are you so battered, anyway?" she asks curiously, looking at the various scrapes and road-rash.
Novak smiles at the cat, "Good kitty.." he whispers.. smacking his hands together to rid them of the dirt and debris he gathered on them from fixing his path of destruction. Novak touches his neck slightly with a wince and nods at her stern reminder to remain careful, "I've been learning to ride this broomstick 'ere.. tryin' to get good, I want to do Quidditch." He turns back towards the cat and raises an eyebrow, looking back to her - he points a thumb over his shoulder to the feline while looking at her and says, "Is that your kitty?" in a whisper, as if it's a tiger.
Okay…so its wet. And its raining. And Cillian is loving it. The young student's slipped outside and has his robes open over his normal shirt and pants combo, tie is currently tied around his hair to keep it out of his face and he stands outside the greenhouse, looking up towards the sky and smiling with his eyes closed as he enjoys the feeling, the smell, even the taste. He does carry a canvas sack and his satchel, both of which are tossed inside the greenhouse before he's back outside, swaying and chuckling to himself.
The young student's slipped outside and has his robes open over his normal shirt and pants combo, tie is currently tied around his hair to keep it out of his face and he stands outside the greenhouse, looking up towards the sky and smiling with his eyes closed. He does carry a canvas sack and his satchel, both of which are tossed inside the greenhouse before he's back outside, swaying and chuckling to himself. Its Cillian.
Elise's eyebrows quirk up. "Well," she says, sounding rather doubtful. "Perhaps you'll be able to make a professional team in a few years, if you practice rather a lot. Quidditch isn't really something one does on a whim," she says. "It's a passion. I've been flying on my brother's brooms since I was five - that's more than half my life, now. Still. Never too late to start a new hobby." She glances at the cat. "Him? No. Don't think he belongs to anyone but himself." The cat's gaze finds Cillian, and Elise's soon follows. On seeing him she brightens and waves. "Cil! Over here!"
Novak shrugs an unsure shoulder, "Maybe.." he swivels back towards the cat and reaches out a hand to pet it lightly on the head, he moves to sit by the small feline and watches as Elise invites 'Cil' that one-eyed pirate kid right? Must be, sure freakin' looks like it.
Cillian's eyebrow raises over his eye patch as he hears his name and looks over towards Novak and Elise, lifting a hand in a wave and flashing a grin before shrugging his shoulders and turning back to looking up to the sky with his eyes closed. "'ello luv. 'ello Novak." He pauses. "Everyting is singin' today, can't ye hear it? The trees, the sun, the grass the flowers, all because there be a breeze."
Elise skips like the child she still is toward Cillian, stopping about an arm's length away. She, too, closes her eyes and tips her head back, the better to hear the singing. After a few seconds, she giggles. "It's probably all singing to drown out my own attempts to carry a tune," she laughs. "I was just planting some flowers, and Greyson was, er… trying to learn how to fly so he can play Quidditch," she explains. "Care to join me? What's in the bag?"
Novak nods towards Cillian, "G'day, Cill." he smiles towards him and looks back towards the cat whispering, "I'm going to call you.. Felix." he pauses and nods, "Felix the Cat.. would'ya like that, buddy?" he continues to pet the cat gently and looks towards the duo with wide-eyes, "Yeah, what's in the bag?" he wonders himself, curious.
"I…" Cillian trails off before nodding towards the bread. "Ahh, some biscuits, apples…carrots and some chocolates of course. I tink there are some peppermints in there too. I've got to be fillin' up soon." He snaps his fingers. "Oh! And some sausages on rolls stuffed with a bit of jam sometimes, I 'ad to move quickly at Lunch."
The cat doesn't look impressed with the name. He continues to groom himself, somehow seeming to say with his body language that he's only tolerating Novak's petting. Elise giggles at the name. Looking at Cillian, she grins at the list of food. "Ooh, a regular picnic!" she says. "I could use a bit of a snack. I didn't eat much at dinner." She starts wiping her hands on her apron to get rid of the dirt from her flower pots.
Novak scoops the cat gently into his arms and sets him on his lap, not caring if he gets clawed or not in the process. "You're a good kitty, Felix." Novak looks at Cillian, "Jeesh! I settle for like three/four apples a day and some milk." he stops and adds though, "It's good you have a variety unlike myself, apples, pears, oranges, and grapefruit is all I can really stand to bare." He scratches Felix behind the ears, "Kitty kitty.." he murmurs.
Cillian's eyebrows just raise as he nods slowly over to Novak. They are outside. Its sunny and there's a breeze. There's bags of goodies (normal canvas one and Cill's satchel) just beyond reach int he greenhouse as he's standing with robes open, his tie worn to pull his hair out of his face and comfortable as can be as he just kneels down to begin untie his shoes with a soft snort. "Aye, its a picnic, not just fer me. Well the carrots be for me, the rest ye all can divvy up amongst yerselves until more of me crew comes around." Then he carefully wiggles one shoe off.
The cat, rather incensed that his grooming has been interrupted, does indeed try his best to claw Novak with his ears flat against his skull. Given half a chance he'll run away. Elise frowns just a little bit at Novak's limited list of fruits. "That's too bad," she says. "There are strawberries, blueberries, raspberries, lemons, bananas, peaches, apricots, cherries…" She watches Cillian start to take off his shoes. "What are you doing?" she asks curiously.
Madeline enters the garden, carrying on one arm a rather large black bird - a raven. Dangling from the bird's leg is a new addition - a leather jess, that she's firmly tied to her wrist. The bird reaches down repeatedly to tug at the jess on his ankle, looking rather displeased by its presence. Periodically, he caws out a protest to Madeline, fanning his wings. "Oh, settle down, it's for your own good, you know. Kettleburn says if you keep making trouble I'll have to send you home, you know, you little thief."
Novak jerks his arm back after he's taken several nasty claws from the cat into his forearm. "Ouch.." he calmly says, watching Felix scurry off to get out of his hold. Novak calls after the cat, "Sorry, Felix!" he says in a loud tone. He shakes his head and looks back towards his wrist noticing that blood droplets have formed on the scratches and roll down his arm, he lowers his arm back down onto his lap making no attempt to wipe any of it off. Novak swivels his head towards Madeline and her raven, he lightens up - oh boy, a raven! "That's a nice bird you 'ave there." Novak says with a smile.
"Taken off me shoes." Cillian explains gently before he sets his shoes aside and wiggles his be-socked toes, moving over to the greenhouse to retrieve the bag before moving back to where he was standing, throwing himself down in a comfortable slump/sprawl/laying on the ground and staring up at the sky. He lifts a hand to wave to Madeline as she arrives and then tucks his hands behind his head and sighs happily.
Elise looks up when Madeline enters, her eyes going right to the bird, as well, and the jesses on its legs. She waves at the girl, too, and then settles primly down next to Cillian. She reaches for the bag and starts to unpack it, arranging the food on top of the sack, since they don't have a blanket. "This all looks rather good," she says, nibbling at a biscuit. "Greyson, why don't you clean yourself up? If you leave the scratches untended you'll get an infection."
"Well. Depends on your definition of nice, I suppose. This is Mischief," Madeline introduces her bird.
"Mischief!" he chimes rather helpfully. "Hello Mischief! Stop that!"
"…yeah. That about sums it up." Madeline's attention turns from Novak, towards Elise and Cillian, smiling at the pair of them as she moves to join them. "Hello, Cap'n! Elise! How are you? Mind of Mischief and I join you?" she asks. "He'll probably make trouble," she adds.
The bloodied and scarred boy nods towards Elise and grabs a small rag from a pocket inside his robe and he dabs it upon the blood, soaking it up; he leaves it tight against the scratch to stop any bleeding that might still remain, planning to wash the wound out later. He chuckles at the talking of the bird, "I like'em.. more then the cat now I admit, but we'll see if Felix wants to apologize later." He talks about the cat as if it's a human, strange. Novak stands up still holding the rag against his wrist, he walks over towards the duo in the grass and plops himself down about five steps away from each of them - a fair distance from where they sit, he doesn't plan to eat.
"Ahh, Mags, good of ye to be joinin' me and Mousie." Cillian does spare a one eye glance at the Raven, head cocking to the side curious as he props himself up on an elbow before he blinks and shifts back to his laying down position. "A little Mischief never be hurtin' anyone luv, so settle down…have a spot to eat." He glances over towards Novak for a moment. "Cats dun apologize, they /always/ believe they were in the right."
Elise laughs at the bird's words. "Aw, that's brilliant!" she says with a grin. "I'm alright, how are you?" She nods when Madeline asks to join them, and wiggles a few inches closer to Cillian, patting the ground on the other side of her to make room. "We'll just feed him a bit, see if he won't behave then," Elise suggests. "Of course… the other day I had a vole in my hand for Jeeves, and he decided he'd rather have someone's puffskeine, instead." She sighs sadly at the memory. "Poor, fluffy thing." She nods in agreement with Cillian. "That old tomcat disappears for weeks at a time, and usually comes back with another scar. I do think he's probably king cat in these parts, so crossing him is a bad idea." She drops her voice and leans in closer to them, like she's telling a story - which she clearly is. "Even now, he may be issuing an edict… Any humans calling me 'Felix' are to be scratched and given the cut," she intones in a kingly sort of manner. Then she giggles.
"He's pretty smart - Mischief," Madeline says, a note of pride creeping into her voice. "But the other day he went and made off with Adam's /wand/ - so I've been keeping him on a jess ever since.
"We did get it back, though. The wand."
With Maddie now seated, the bird hops off of her arm, and starts picking at the ground. All the while, though, he's eyeing the bounty of the picnic askance and sidling towards it.
"Can't trust a tom anymore'n you can trust Mischief," she adds in cheerful agreement.
Novak chuckles and shakes his head, "Perhaps you can think of a better name, Elise." he chuckles again, standing up.. he waves towards everyone and nods towards his cut which he has a rag pressed against, "I better take care of this, g'bye everyone.. nice seein' ya all." he nods and starts to walk back into Hogwarts, leaving the garden.
"I think the cat already has a name, and he just doesn't want to share it with anyone," Elise replies cheerfully to Novak. She nods when he takes his leave… and then she seems to relax - it's clear that she was somewhat tense around him. For a time she tips her face toward the sun, and when she looks down again, Cillian is asleep. She places a finger on her lips and looks up at Madeline, raising her eyebrows.
Madeline can't help but giggle as she sees Cillian sleeping. Of course, this distraction is all that Mischief needs to start tossing about some of the food far and wide.
"Mischief!" she hisses quietly, looking appalled by the bird's behavior, and pulling him away from the food. She gives Elise an apologetic look. "Guess I better go - Mischief'll wake Cillian for sure. I'll let him cause his trouble somewhere else."
"I'll stay here and guard him from grumpkins," Elise stage-whispers. And she does just that, going back to her gardening while Cillian catches a nap, and glancing over from time to time to be sure he's alright.