| Details for Busking Snakes |
| Summary: | An exchange between Slytherins amidst a busking band. |
| Date: | 1941-08-17 |
| Location: | Merlin Square, Mysticked District |
| Plot: | -- |
| Related: | {$related} |
| Characters |
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The evening is early and most cafes are very busy with people sitting down for an early pre-theatre or post-shopping dinner. A band has taken up the best busking spot at an Y-section, facing the two smaller lanes running away from that. They are teenage boys, three of them, all clad in black leather with the occasional dash of dark red. One bangs on the drums, another strums a guitar and the third contributes melody on a saxophone. The guitarist, glowering at the audience from underneath a fringe of floppy black hair, is also the singer and it is no one else but Lorcan Parkinson.
Lorcan is singing a not too terrible song, filled with some teenage angst about life during the war and worries about the future. Way to entertain an audience on a warm evening. Yet, the 20-30 people or so sitting in the cafes facing the busking spot are listening and only one uses a wand to steer a tomato through the air and land on Lorcan's jacket with a splotch.
Walburga walks through the alleys with her chin held aloft, alone this afternoon. Her face holds a scowl of displeasure as she looks at a few folks she passes by and is just about to head past the intersection when she catches the tune and words sung by Lorcan; recognizing his voice, the Black makes her way to where the source is and stands somewhat off-center with her arms crossed over her chest. The tomato splotch is seen and she casts a gaze over a sharp shoulder that could chill a dementor "You missed your mouth." she says, regarding the tomato that was flung before looking back to Lorcan and waiting for him to finish his set. When there's a moment she says over to the band "Not terrible."
Lorcan's face assumes an expression of tortured artist when the tomato hits him, but he only misses a half-beat before he goes on with the song. It ends to a round of polite applause and the band decides to take a brief break so he can wipe the tomato splatter off his jacket. Since it's leather, not much harm is done.
Hearing the words, Lorcan looks up and his eyes light up briefly when he realizes it's Walburga. "Hey. I didn't see you.", he admits, "How long have you been here?"
Walburga takes her wand in a hand and with a swift flick, she says a word "Tergeo!" while pointing the wand at Lorcan. Immediately, the tomato mess is cleaned off his jacket looking as good as it looked before being assaulted by vegetable feedback. She replaces the wand back underneath the long-sleeve of her dress of her left hand. "Not long, but long enough to see folks thinking themselves braver to hit you rather than stuffing their stupid faces of food and shutting up." with a bitter tone to her voice. "Who are your band mates?"
"Oooh,thank you." Lorcan smiles when the stain disappears quickly. Meanwhile, his two companions have noticed him talking to a girl and they curiously stare at her. "Toby's a fifth year and Rufus just graduated from Hogwarts.", he points at the saxophonist and the drummer respectively.
"I'm jamming to earn money for my trip to America.", Rufus explains proudly and nudges Lorcan. "Who's your girlfriend?"
"I've seen you at Hogwarts.", Toby informs Walburga in the meantime. "I think you're the year above mine."
Walburga says "Of course you've seen me at Hogwarts." a matter-of-factly to Toby. To Rufus she bunches her nose up at the thought of America. "Why would you want to go there? The muggles are infuriating and the wizards act oddly. Besides, the better schools are over here." over to Rufus before she looks over to Lorcan. "And what are you …what was the word he used? Bashing? No, something else. Making music." as she's not caught up on the hip words.
"I'm jamming, lady.", Rufus repeats in a very affectuated American accent, "It's how they talk in America. All the cool music is coming from there, you see? I'm going to make my way there too." Despite not holding his drumsticks right now, he moves his hands as if he does.
Lorcan smiles almost apologetically at his friend's antics. "Are you staying a while, Walburga?", he asks, "We have about 15 minutes more in this spot before we need to give it up…."
Walburga nods to Lorcan, "I'd normally just continue walking, but since it's you I'll stay and listen. She looks over to Rufus, shaking her head at the other boy's antics before taking her position again with arms crossed over her chest to listen to the next song.
The vote of confidence makes Lorcan's pale cheeks redden a little. But he hurriedly hides it by turning his back to Walburga to pick up his guitar and get back to the microphone stand. Rufus and Toby also resume their positions and they start into a jauntier tune along the lines of the present hits. Some people in the audience even clap along.
Clearly it's too much fun for the boys who then change to another gloomy song of teenage angst and being lonely for life.
Walburga isn't much into the jaunty hip tune but when it goes gloomy, her face moves from displeasure into mild approval with the smallest of smiles. Once they conclude, she actually uncrosses her arms and claps a few times in response to how they played. "Well, you all have promise. Practice makes perfect, just like dedication to schoolwork. Have you been doing any summer studies, Lorcan? We went to South America to explore some ancient ruins of the Mayan. Jungles are hot, wet and filled with all sorts of things that desire to eat you."
Lorcan looks mildly annoyed when she begins to speak of her exotic summer holidays and his eyes follow Rufus who is now going round with an entirely unmagical hat to collect some money from their audience. Toby is already busy taking his saxophone apart to place it into his case.
"We spent some time on Barry Island with family.", he explains vaguely, not exactly meeting her eyes, "We… uh… I couldn't travel much, I was… a little ill during the holidays. Caught some bug. Guess it was exciting though in the jungle?", he asks, trying to show interest.
Walburga says "I got in some good broom practice and the undead pygmies with their witchdoctors were interesting as we dealt with them to gain access inside further the old ruin. There were a lot of old runes too, which I delighted my granduncle and he's appointed me now his student aide at the study of ancient runes at Hogwarts." letting that nugget out to her friend. "Those pygmies had little blow darts, and they crawled all over the place."
"The blow darts crawled?", Lorcan asks curiously, looking clearly impressed, "I'd like to hear more about the runes some time. Are you gonna be in London now until we return for the new year? Maybe we could meet up some time." He hurries to look all cool and unaffected. "Not that it's urgent or anything…" He reaches for the guitar case and busies himself with that.
"No, the undead pygmies crawled like spiders everywhere." explains Walburga as she watches him. "I'll be in London until we return in September and then of course I'll be at Hogwarts. There's a family dinner tomorrow night, but otherwise I can be persuaded to be available for a friend."
"That would be quite nice.", Lorcan admits, "How about —" "Woooooowsa, that was great!" They are interrupted by Rufus bouncing back with plenty of coin jangling in his hat. "Yea, five miles less to swim to America.", Lorcan comments snarkily, annoyed by the interruption. "Hey, we gonna go have a drink!", Rufus decides, slapping the younger boy on his shoulder, "Bringing your girlfriend along?"
"I'm not his girlfriend." replies Walburga in her flat tone. "I'm sure Parkinson has all sorts of girls lined up though waiting to catch his eye should he desire to pursue, we're simply friends." Although being named a friend by Wally is a bit rare. "I'll come along if you're finished."
"She's not -", Lorcan begins but Walburga beats him to it and so he just shrugs in agreement. "Yeaaa right." Rufus grins. He points his wand at the drum set and murmurs something that makes the whole set pack itself into cases and stack up on a little cart. "Alright, let's go!", he calls out and begins to walk, expecting the three to follow them. He can't resist turning back to Walburga. "Hey… if you're not his girlfriend, wanna be mine?"
Walburga says "Bring me a recording of a Jobberknoll's song and a pendant with one of their feathers and I might consider considering it." flatly to Rufus as she rejects him before moving over towards Lorcan. "This year, hopefully we can use you and your band to ..drum…up support for team Slytherin at the Quidditch matches." She has to face palm when she makes the unwanted pun.
"Challenge accepted!", Rufus says cheerfully and sighs in exaggeration when she moves away from him. "Man, I think she's sweet on him after all.", he tells Toby loudly, but the younger boy just looks embarrassed and hurries to the entrance of their favorite cafe.
"The drums have left Hogwarts.", Lorcan grins at Walburga, amused by the pun, "But we can enchant a drum to beat a steady rhythm I guess…?" He follows Toby and Rufus into the establishment, holding the door for Walburga.
Walburga steps in as the door is held open and she glances around the cafe before choosing to sit at a small table. She smoothes the dress underneath her before she sits rigidly in the wooden chair, her hands placed on her lap before taking a look around and finding a few things not to her liking, naturally. "Using your talents for the house would be good, not to mention I'd like to see you rewarded for your practice. You haven't been participating though with that nonsense acting school have you? It's a waste of magical talent, if you ask me."
"I've been too busy, but I'd like to", Lorcan admits once he's settled down as well. Rufus busies himself with counting his coins, while Toby goes off to the bar to buy drinks for all four of them. "You know, being on stage, singing, you're also acting of sorts. At least I feel like I'm acting … pretending to be a rock star. He - " he points his chin towards Rufus, "He doesn't need to act, he's just being a dick all the time."
Walburga narrows her eyes a bit at the words being said, rock star, dick. She looks at Rufus with the suspicion that something is muggley about him before nodding at whatever the words mean. "I don't think performing and singing is acting, you're not really pretending. It's just you, your skills on full display. Actors lie and pretend, who has time for make-believe when muggles are wanting to destroy our way of life?"
"Whoa, lady, conspiracy theory much?", Rufus lifts his head to stare at Walburga and Lorcan rolls his eyes. Luckily Toby breaks the tense moment when he returns, setting four butterbeers down in front of them. "So how much have we earned today?", he asks curiously, starting at the neat stacks of coins in front of Rufus. The older boy frowns. "I was counting and y'all went and distracted me…"
"Do you really think actors lie?", Lorcan turns to Walburga curiously, "I mean, it's not a lie when you know it's made up? I like the theatre…"
"Actors lie to themselves and to everyone else when they portray something they aren't. It's exactly like at Hogwarts when mudbloods pretend play that they're wizards. They aren't muggles, they aren't wizards, they don't have a place in either world and so they just put on faces that they're something they aren't." says the Black as a scowl comes to her face when she thinks about it. Taking one of the butter beers in hand, she takes a sip of it before setting it down and reaches to the small black lace pouch at her waist. There's a flash of yellow as she tosses a galleon on the pile, sending the neat stack of coins scattered in front of Rufus; a small smile of amusement touches her face. "You did alright."
"Man!", Rufus whines when she scatters the coins and he has to start all over again. But Lorcan actually smiles as well. "Why, thank you, that's nice.", he comments on her donation, "One might think you'd like to hasten Rufus' departure to America…" He takes a sip of his butterbeer and ponders for a moment, then sighs. "You know, it's a pity you think so little of acting… I had a spare ticket for the new play at the Wyndham's Theatre…"
Walburga says "Just because I think little of actors doesn't mean I wouldn't attend a play, it's just that I find them a waste of wizarding talent if I'm asked." as she explains her position. "I don't think I've been invited by someone before to any plays, not that I can recall. You'd be the first."
Lorcan glares at Rufus before the older boy can as much as open his mouth for an unbidden comment. "You know, Iryna Ananyapova, the stage legend of the Moscow wizarding world, is here on tour. She's living proof that you can be a legendary witch AND a fantastic actress. I think it would be nice to see her live on stage. She's doing some Chekov thing."
Oh no, someone disagreeing with Wally? There's a moment, but Walburga takes a drink of butterbeer as she mulls over Lorcan's position. With a lick of her lips, she offers a "Perhaps." before setting the drink down. "What time and where will the play be on? And what do we wear? You'll be required to come to Black Manor and say hello to my parents and family before we go anywhere, and we'll need to be back by a specific time."
Rufus knows better than to comment but does manage a low whistle under his breath, while Toby giggles into his butterbeer. "It is three days from now. I think it starts at eight and I don't know when exactly it will end. We cannot be back before the play ends.", he points out quote logically, the gulps and nods. "I… uh… okay. I will pick you up."
Walburga says "Good, then send an owl to me addressed to my parents and I'll give it to them. They'll no doubt send an owl to your parents. I don't usually go out on excursions with friends." she says, perhaps because she doesn't have many. "You should write about the play and timing issues too in the letter so my parents can understand. If they say though a time, I'll leave."
Lorcan looks slightly alarmed by the set of instructions. Who ever knew that taking a girl out was so complicated. "I… I will explain things.", he promises vaguely, "And I will tell them that my father is connected to some big people in the world of entertainment. So we get tickets and everything."
"Well, here we go." Rufus has finally counted the money into three stacks, one of which is, perhaps not surprisingly slightly taller than the other two. The shorter stacks are pushed towards Lorcan and Toby respectively, who pocket them. "Great, now I can even buy you a drink before you play!", Lorcan says proudly.
Walburga watches how Rufus divides the coins, a brow lifting up in a high arch and a questioning look given to him. But the other boys pocket the coins they are given and so she leaves it at that. "Selwyn will probably be interested in that, but I'd be careful sharing that information otherwise she'll most likely entice you to giving her constant access and tickets to those things. She likes plays."
"Your sister?", Lorcan asks curiously, looking quite excited by the prospect of a female theatre fan. "It's quite nice, but my parents prefer the opera.", he explains, "My Mom always says she's bored by people talking on stage, she rather hears them sing. Once during a particularly boring play she put a hex on one of the actresses, so she sang everything she had to say. I guess that was very funny."
Walburga actually has to laugh, and she shakes her head, "No. Morrow Selwyn, she's a dutiful Ravenclaw socialite that wheels and deals in the realm of make-believe and fantasy…acting. I like her for her reasonable head on her shoulders, you'd probably like her for her theatrical flair. I only caution you because you're a boy, and boys do stupid things all the time when it comes to girls." She takes another drink before saying, "I think your mother is a very bright witch for doing that."
"Oh, I see." Obviously Lorcan is making a mental note of that name. "I don't do stupid things.", he declares firmly, which makes his friends chuckle. Toby empties his butterbeer and gets to his feet. "I should better get home, it's gonna be dark soon.", he points out and the other boys realize it's getting on. Lorcan is reluctant to shift. "Well… I guess I'll see you in three days then?", he turns back to Walburga.
Walburga stands up and says to Lorcan, "See you in three days. Don't forget the owl message." With that, she heads out the door and back to where she was going.