(1941-11-27) Canary with a Pocketwatch
Details for Canary with a Pocketwatch
Summary: Mackenzie and Virgil have a Clock Tower talk about themselves and the future.
Date: 1941-11-27
Location: Clock Tower Entrance, Hogwarts
Related:
Characters
MackenzieVirgil

Seated cross-legged in the clocktower, Virgil has a large simple plain sheaf of parchment in front of him upon which he is making notes. Including rather harshly penned diagrams of the ticking clockwork. He seems to be lost in thought as he works, making notes and seemingly deep in thought. The diagrams on the second page are more arcane in nature, and reaching aside, he lifts a book into his lap. Seemingly do some sort of cross-reference work, or research.

Mackenzie is carrying her bag of school books along with her as she enters the entrance to the Clock Tower. Upon seeing Virgil, she sighs rather dramatically, rolling her eyes to herself. She's going to have to go to the Forbidden Forest before she finds a place alone to study. Virgil seems engrossed in his work, however, and after watching for a moment, Mackenzie decides to risk it and finds a seat on the floor in a corner, leaving the pendulum swinging between the two.

Pushing a bit of the parchment aside, underneath the lot of it, is a pocket watch which has been disassembled and spread out upon a stretch of cloth. Waving his wand over it, he makes an arcane motion with it, and mutters something. His wand then emits a bit of a whitish flicker and the various cogs and clockwork wiggle a bit, but don't actually do anything. This seems to confirm something for him, and he goes back to making notes.

Mackenzie pulls out her Transfiguration book and lays it in front of her, opening it up to a middle chapter before pulling out a bit of parchment and beginning to scribble down notes. Her lips move silently as she reads, her entire focus on this book until the white flicker from Virgil's wand draws her attention and she looks up, watching him for a moment in silence. Her whole body shows attentiveness to him, as if he were the only thing in the whole world and she must watch him for fear of dying.

The notes to his side being made, Virgil glances up when he senses Mackenzie's gaze and gives her a smirk before he goes back to it. His hand writing is much neater and more precise than his drawing aptitude would seem to imply. He lifts his wand again and tries a different spell, this time a different effect happens, and the parts sort of rattle into the housing of the pocket watch, but in no particular order. He nods to himeslf then, and goes about manually pulling the pieces out of the watch's housing again, sorting them out across the cloth.

Mackenzie's stare continues for a long while, undaunted by Virgil's smirk. After his next bit of magic, she seems to lose interest and looks back down to her notes, giving another soft sigh as she scribbles some out and starts over. Once again, her lips move as she reads, her eyes flicking over the lines carefully. As she reads, one hand smooths out the opposite page repetitively, unable to stop her constant need for motion.

Focusing a bit more intensely, Virgil tries another spell, this one he hesitates on, and it sends sprogs and gears flying all over the interior of the clocktower. He immediately jumps up and starts trying to find all of them. "Oh boy, oh, oh, no," he half-groans and goes scrabbling across the interior of the tower, putting away his wand as he shuffles on his hands and knees. Getting over to the edges of the tower, he is quickly finding many of the pieces, but one or two of the small ones are evading him so far. "Did I get any of the pieces on you?" he asks.

Mackenzie startles as Virgil's gears start flying everywhere, one hitting her in the chest and bouncing off to land on the open book in front of her. She stares at it blankly for a moment before looking up at Virgil's question. Picking up the gear, she holds it out to him in offering. "Just the one," she says in a friendly enough tone, and takes the moment to look around her place to see if any others have fallen about her.

Getting to his feet, Virgil walks over toward Mackenzie and gently holds out a cupped hand for the gear. He takes the gear back in hand and apologizes softly, "Thanks. What are you um.. studying?" he asks, and looks around near her while he talks, staring at the corners a bit as he tries to find one or two still remaining missing pieces. The interior of the clocktower is unfortunately rather a poor place for this sort of experimentation, but perhaps nowhere would work well for all those small things- if they go flying very often.

"Transfiguration," Mackenzie responds, "I am determined to get Outstandings in both of my NEWTs this year, so I'm actually putting work into it." She snickers at herself and, satisfied there are no gears around her, brings her sight back to Virgil. Her stare becomes intense again as she watches him move about the tower, though her hands begin smoothing down the pages of the book in front of her repeatedly. "Just what, exactly, are you trying to do there?"

"What are your NEWTs?" Virgil inquires as he leans over and with that tremendous hawk-eyed gaze he'd seemingly mustered, he leans over and pries up a small spring from between the floor boards near the corner of the room. He has to go back over to his things to grab his quill to really jiggle it the rest of the way out of the tight gap.

"Transfiguration and Charms," Mackenzie says immediately. She frowns slightly at Virgil's lack of answering her question, but doesn't say anything of it. "I'm Mackenzie Lestrange, by the way," she says, reaching up with a hand to brush her hair over her shoulder.

"Oh, I'd offer tutoring in Charms, if you need help, I'm professor Viridian's student aide," Virgil offers as he finally gets that spring pried up. He seems a bit lost in thought, and glances back over toward the cloth, and only then does the introduction resonate with him, and he realizes there was another question somewhere in there, "Virgil Goshawk," he pauses, "The Seventh. You asked me soemthing, didn't you?" he asks as he focuses on her a bit more notably, his eyes stopping their endless search of the nearby ground.

Mackenzie smirks. "I asked what you were doing with all of those gears," she says, "Besides exploding them everywhere." Her gaze on Virgil never falters, staring hard and intently, as if he were the only thing in her world. She continues the movement of her hands over the pages of her book, though she doesn't seem to notice the action herself.

"Oh, I'm attempting to devise a method that combines the natures of the Pack and Reparo charms, to put together complex items that can't simply be put back together all randomly, but in itself, isn't broken," Virgil explains as he carries the little pieces back over to the cloth, and starts counting, comparing them to the papers beside it, he only takes but a moment before he straightens up and glances around the interior. He says, "What sort of transfiguration do they have you studying? Just general purpose stuff?"

Mackenzie glances down at her book for a moment and then back up to Virgil. "Right now we're working on the Superior Transformation Spell," she says, "Getting close to learning human transformation." Lifting her chin slightly, she adds, "I am probably the best in the class at it. It shouldn't be long before I am able to make you into a canary if I want to." She gives a devious smile, looking thoroughly amused.

The boy nods his head at that, and says, "I've always wanted to be a canary. To fly without a broom, would be a real treat," he goes on, and takes a seat near her, now carrying his diagrams and notes, he goes on, "Anyhow, the magic for repairing things can put things back together, but that's usually more of an issue of simple mending breakings, not of complex assembly orders, which is something that packing does well."

Mackenzie nods at Virgil, looking down to his drawings severely for a long moment before back to her Transfiguration book. She releases a huff of breath through her nose and closes it, tracing her fingers over the embossing on the cover. "I suppose I know this as well as I'm going to," she says, frowning as she folds up her parchment, "I've taken to studying to keep me out of trouble, but once I learn everything… the urge to get into trouble returns." She gives a wry smile.

"And you have the urge to get in to trouble now?" Virgil asks, following her line of reasoning, and her behavior, he looks at her a bit owlishly, and then down at his notes. He lets his wand flow over the parchment, and he looks down at his work. He seems to make a decision about something then, and crosses a note out.

"Something along those lines," Mackenzie says dryly, "I haven't lost the House any points yet this year, so I call it a success." She stretches her legs out in front of her, crossing them at the ankle. "You fix watches when you get bored, I suppose," she says, "I sneak out of the dorms." She shrugs indifferently.

Virgil snorts a little and says, "I actually don't have any idea on how to put it together normally, I just had my parents buy one that wouldn't work, for cheap, and send it to me, so I could experiment." Not wanting to give the impression, perhaps, that watches are the aim here, but that the magic required is the crux of the issue. "Where are you um.. sneaking?" he asks with a smile.

"I was debating going to the Restricted Section of the library, but I think I might try a different tactic instead," Mackenzie says, rubbing her hand along her chin as her vision grows distant. She seems to be lost in thought for a long moment before she suddenly inhales and looks back to Virgil sharply. "Anyways, it is of no importance," she says flippantly, "Tell me about yourself a bit, Mister Goshawk. What is your future looking like?"

"About myself? I'm a um.. student? Student aide to Professor Viridian, and so really good at Charms," Virgil begins and realizes that's sort of boring. "I'm a fair hand at chess, I can play piano, I like astronomy, and quidditch and I'm top marks in all of my classes," he tells her, not sure what to tell the girl. "I uh.. speak French?" he goes on, not sure what sort of thing she'd expect from a fellow student. "You?" he asks, stopping his focus on the books around him.

Mackenzie cocks her head to the side as Virgil speaks, soaking in his every word. "Piano?" she questions, ignoring his own, "I just joined the Arts Club, going to learn how to -learn how to- dance." She nods once at herself curtly before pursing her lips. "Perhaps you could show me a bit on the piano sometime," she says, "It would be good for me to learn new skills."

The teenager nods his head and says, "I'm not a prodigy at it, but my mom makes me practice over the summer. I'd be happy to show you, but we'd have to find a piano, I never play here, so I'm not even sure where we'd find one." Virgil has a solid belief he could teach the basics as well as he knows them, not necessarily because he's so good at it, but because he has a mind for academia and how to construct a lesson. "You wanted to learn how to learn how to dance?" he repeats the phrase back to her.

"Something like that," she says, "Dancing is hard, I'm learning. But I'll get it. I always do." She gives a wry smile, tracing her fingers over the lines of the cover of her book. "I like pretty and useful things, but my mother stopped teaching me anything when my father was taken." She speaks casually, as if it were no big deal that her father was in Azkaban. It was a bit of a scandal at the time, so it's not uncommon knowledge to some of the Pure-bloods.

"How is your mother, besides not teaching you?" Virgil inquires, trying to empathize as best he can. He looks at his notes then, and makes a small note on one of the sheets. He doesn't ask about or comment on her father being 'taken' but does nod a little. No reason to rub salt in that wound, he simply acknowledges it and focuses on Mackenzie, who he suspects, is her favorite person to talk about.

"She is," Mackenzie responds cryptically, rolling her eyes and giving a sigh, "I will figure myself out, though." She gives a grin that lights up her face. "I always do." She reaches up and runs a hand through her hair, mussing it about her shoulders roguishly. "Are you a part of the Arts Club?" she questions eagerly, "I haven't been to a meeting yet to see. Perhaps we could ask whoever the advisor is where to find a piano. I hardly think this school doesn't have one somewhere."

"No, chess, domestics when I have time, very handy spells there, duelling— official clubs," Virgil replies, and while she might seem cryptic, silence speaks volumes. He leaves out his being a part of unofficial clubs which might earn derision from a Lestrange, mainly because he doesn't feel the need to make problems where there aren't any. Better to be pleasant. "We could," he agrees, "If I find one, I'll let you know, and you should do the same, and then we can make a plan to meet occasionally for lessons," he tells her.

Mackenzie nods eagerly at Virgil. "That sounds like a wonderful plan," she says, grinning broadly, her eyes intent and focused only on him, "Thank you very much!" She looks down, slipping her Transfiguration book into her bag alongside the parchment. "Tell me about your future, you never did," she says, "What do you plan on doing? Staying in school for your NEWTs or no?"

"Oh, of course, I'll be taking as many NEWTs as they'll let me, five, I imagine," Virgil replies, even though he hasn't taken his OWLs yet, so that's surely a distant thought. "My future? I could go in to business like my father, maybe, making things," he tells her, "But really, I suppose I could do a variety of jobs rather well, I'm sort of waiting to see how I do as the years get harder, and see if I find myself with more of a knack than just Charms," he tells her. "You? What about you, what are you going to do?" he asks.

"I'm looking into perhaps a career teaching," she says, "Here or elsewhere, I suppose, I had not truly considered." She purses her lips as she takes a moment to consider this now before shaking her head roughly and then focuses back on Virgil. "I excel at Transfiguration and have taken up aiding Professor Pettigrew as of late."

"Teaching here would be a good job, but as far as job openings go, Professor Pettigrew is still fairly young as far as teachers go, so you might have to cut your teeth doing transfiguration work elsewhere, first," Virgil suggests and holds out a hand to her as he rises to his feet, leaving his things laying on the ground, he waves his wand and performs one of those Domestics charms he'd mentioned. "Pack." And his things all quickly fly, neatly and orderly-like, into his satchel. Lifting it up. Holding out that hand to help her to her feet, he says, "I need to get to my next class, I think," he tells her. Somehow unaware of the time, despite being inside a giant clock.

Mackenzie takes Virgil's hand and lifts herself up, drawing her bag up with her at the same time. "I will get back in touch with you about the piano soon then, I hope," she says eagerly before giving him one last smile and walking off.

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