Ben didn't have a lot of money allowed to him for spending while at school, but since his needs were also fairly minimal, this served his purposes just fine. He didn't need, at least most of the time, to buy new clothes; the ones he had at the beginning of the year would last until the Christmas holiday, or sometimes until the end of the year. All of his food was provided for him, all of his text books and school supplies were purcahsed during the summer. That meant that the money his parents sent him monthly could be used exclusively for his Hogsmeade trips. Typically, Ben would first check to see that there were no new Quidditch supplies that he might need, for any such things would be well worth saving for, even if it took him a few months to acquire the necessary funds. Usually what happened with these things was that Ben would start saving for them himself, but mention them to his parents; his sister would then tell them when and if they'd bought the items for him for Christmas, and he could use the saved money for his own Christmas shopping. Now that she was here at school, he wasn't exactly sure how this usual plan would work, but so far he hadn't come across anything he couldn't live without, so it hadn't been an issue.
Assuming there were no new Quidditch supplies, the frequent next stop was Dervish and Banges, which sold all manner of little magical gadgets, some of which were useful, and some of which were just fun to play with. Dervish and Banges was probably his favorite store; it had a little bit of everything, from the trivial to things that Ben couldn't even comprehend the use of, from last year's retired fad items to things that dated, from all appearances, back several hundred years. Most of the students avoided the shop unless they were looking for something in particular because it wasn't exactly customer-friendly; the crowded aisles, shelves, drawers, contained items seemingly no order or organization at all, and nothing was ever advertised. It was a little like a treasure hunt, in Ben's mind, and the reason it drove so many students away on weekends was exactly why it attracted him. There were piles and piles of things he would never need or want, but if he dug through enough of them, he could usually find something really unique beneath it all.
Failing that, of course, he would head to Honeyduke's and spend the rest of his allowance on sweets for the month. Still, he had to put in his customary time sifting through things at Dervish and Banges before he could let himself waste the rest of his money on something he knew was rather trivial, and what was worse, fit so well into the student stereotype; spending his parent's allowance on candy and maybe a cocoa at the Three Broomsticks. Even though that was exactly what he did, some weeks, the fact that he'd at least taken a look around a shop with more than just candy made him feel better about wasting his parents' money in that way.
As Ben walked slowly through one of the aisles, something in a low drawer started to sing. He was a bit intrigued, but really just thought it would be best to turn the thing off so that it didn't annoy anyone else who might have been shuffling around the dim little store, so he stopped, crouching and opening the drawer he suspected it to be coming from. He riffled through the things in this drawer for a while before a secondary singing (a different tune, with different lyrics) joined the first and he realized it was actually the drawer above the one he'd been in. Closing the first drawer he opened the second and found the devices immediate, as they were also lighting up. He pulled the two offenders out, just as a third in the drawer started to sing. They must have been some sort of magical alarm clock. Getting his wand out quickly, he fumbled for a spell, since he didn't know how to work the little clocks to turn them off. " Silencio!" he hissed, though he knew this spell was usually reserved for things which could speak. The singing quieted slightly, but did not stop. Frustrated, Ben looked around, wondering if perhaps a shopkeeper would come to his aid.
it's like a darkness in the mind , Fiona loved Hogsmeade weekends. It was nice to get out of the castle and off of school grounds for even the shortest amount of time, and it was always a nice escape from the deathly glares of one-on-one chaperoning when you might be doing something wrong. That wasn't to say that Fiona ever did anything a young lady shouldn't do, as she firmly believed in propriety and the chastity of women (and men). However, she understood that at fifteen, she was still a young lady who was growing up and needed to be informed when certain things were appropriate and when they were not. On Hogsmeade weekends, female professors generally served as chaperons and there were hardly enough to allot each and every student a one-on-one chaperon. For this, Fiona was thankful. It was nice to feel as though you had some breathing space. Her own chaperon usually breathed down her neck. Fiona never minded her presence, but she did like her own little bit of personal space, something she was never granted when her chaperon was around.With her small widget of freedom, Fiona entered Dervish and Banges. It was a small repair shop where many people brought their broken magical items they either needed fixed or no longer wanted. Fiona always thought it was terrible that some people would throw away a perfectly good item that just needed a little fix up. She enjoyed Dervish and Banges simply for the look around, trying to discover a treasure here or there that was hidden among everyone else's junk. Her own family had sent things to Dervish and Banges not to be fixed up, but to be refurbished and them sold to others. Fiona had, on more than one occasion, found these items and purchased them, bringing them back into her home and presenting them as new. No one had ever known the difference.As she wandered up and down the aisles, poking through the items others had regarded as garbage, Fiona could feel the watchful and dutiful eyes of a chaperon boring a hole in her neck. Fiona had become extremely in tune with the glares that chaperons gave when you were doing something wrong. She turned her head around and locked eyes with the professor, who shook her head, signaling Fiona to stop whatever it was she had been doing. She withdrew her hand from the trinkets and treasures she had been looking through and continued through the store, feeling the chaperon's gaze lighten considerably. She never minded having a chaperon around, or a chaperon instruct her when she's doing something wrong, but she just hated their glares, so hateful, so angryà Fiona turned a corner and at long last was away from the chaperon's painful glare. Fiona heard a noise go off in the aisle next to the one she was in, and back tracked a few steps to make her way over to the aisle. She had always been of the curious sort, and though she didn't like to stick her nose into other peoples' business, she had no qualms at all about going to see what was making a racket in the store.As she turned the corner, which was made wide by the presence of a dark stained bookshelf filled with many books (which Fiona noted she needed to go back to look at), she spotted Ben Taylor at the end of the aisle, fiddling with some drawers. Ben was a cousin of Fiona's, one whom she was rather fond of. They hadn't seen each other much that year in terms of social gatherings, as Fiona had been given new duties and responsibilities as a prefect that year. Although they still shared many of the same classes, it was different being in class versus seeing a friend socially. She chuckled lightly as she watching him struggle with the magical items and managed down the narrow aisle towards him. She pulled out her wand from the folds of her dress and shot off a quick spell which stopped the items from making such a racket. "Hullo, Ben," Fiona said warmly, a smile dancing over her features. "It's so good to see you!" Her eyes sparkled with a hint of trouble. Ben had been her partner last year when it came to dark magic. If there was anyone she could talk to about her dealings over the summer, it would be Ben. "I've learned a lot since we've socially seen each other last. I wish you could have spent more time at the manor this summer. We could have studied together." Fiona's eyes roamed the shelves of the aisle, taking in all the things that people had just tossed away.
Why was it that he could never think of the proper spell when he was in a jam, but of course whoever the next person to come along was had one at the ready? Ben was a decent spellcaster--he always performed well in Charms and Defense Against the Dark Arts, and he'd never failed to learn a spell they'd been taught, but for some reason it was just so difficult to pull them all together from his memory and to choose the one which would actually fit his needs. As soon as he heard the spell from the approaching person's lips he knew that it was the correct one, and he knew the spell, and he should have known to use it, but it hadn't occurred to him. His forgetfulness aside, however, the objects had all stopped their singing.
She greeted him immediately after casting the spell, and Ben recognized her as soon as he bothered to look up from the now-silent alarm clocks. Fiona Prewett, his cousin (or something close to a cousin, anyway; he wasn't really ever sure how the various members of his extended family were related to him, he just knew that they were). He returned her smile almost reflexively; he was happy to see her, too. They'd been in some classes together, but they hadn't socialized much outside of an occasional hello, which had really been a shame, since they'd gotten quite close over the past school year.
"I'm not too worried about it," he said jovially, "I'm sure the next time we come for a visit you can teach me. Maybe we'll trade off playing teacher... I'll study something you haven't, yet, and we'll exchange knowledge. Divide and conquer," he suggested, half-joking. He swept his hands across the floor, scooping up the silent little alarm clocks and tossing them back into their drawer unceremoniously--he couldn't particularly say that he liked them much after the neat little display they'd just produced.
As soon as they were all tucked away, Ben stood and took a little step closer to Fiona, with a curious smile on his face. "So, how have you been? And what sort of things have you learned?" He didn't want to sound like he was only interested in what she'd been studying, because he really did like her, a lot more than some of his other extended family members, but he was also intensely intrigued by where they had left off their joint discovery of the Dark Arts. It had fallen out of focus for him, true, when he'd gone home for summer break--despite his father's and ancestors' conditions, the family wasn't particularly inclined towards Dark Arts and the remote Taylor Manor hadn't provided him much opportunity for study. Still, now that the opportunity was again presented to him, he was eager to hear what she'd been up to in the past few months.
it's like a darkness in the mind , Fiona watched Ben move with a twinkle in her eye. They were quite fond of each other and got along stellarly, and there was just something else about Ben that Fiona liked, something she couldn't quite put her finger on. He was pleasant to be around, and as children they always had a lot of fun together. Of course, it had always been chaperoned fun and would be nothing short of chaperoned fun. Fiona liked to adhere to the rules as best she could, but enjoyed finding loopholes wherever she could. That wasn't to say that deep down she didn't like rules or force people to follow them, because she did enjoy that, but loopholes can only be found by those of the highest intelligence, by those who can read between the lines and have functioning brains that are adept to finding such things as loopholes.She certainly fancied herself one of the few people who were able to find loopholes, and she had always looked for them. Many a times, Fiona found loopholes and just pointed them out to any elders who were making rules in order for them to better make the rules so that someone else of less integrity might not find one and use it against others. Being who she was, though, Fiona often found loopholes and tended to use them to her best advantage when she could find any advantage in using said loophole. Today, she was quite fond of loopholes. As it was, any young woman needed to be accompanied by a chaperon, but no one said with what distance the chaperon needed to be from said young woman. Fiona decided today that her chaperon need not come within a ten foot radius of her. This allowed her to be closer to Ben than she would have been otherwise, and could whisper to him things that she wanted no one else to hear.As he spoke of learning things she hadn't learned yet, Fiona inched closer to Ben. "Oh yes, that would be wonderful," Fiona agreed. There were few people who she would ever relinquish control to, but Ben was one of them. He had proven himself last year to be a great accomplice, and she was certain about his studying skills and his ability to learn and subsequently teach certain aspects of the Dark Arts. Ben asked about how she was doing and what she had learned. She waved her hand, brushing aside the question of how she is doing. Pleasantries were nice, and certainly warranted as they hadn't seen each other in quite some time, but pleasantries could be exchanged at another meeting. Dervish and Banges was luckily quite loud enough so that conversations could be drowned out, or one conversation could be easily mixed in with another. Lowering her voice and leaning just a bit closer to Bed, Fiona told him, "I learned about these things called inferii. They're like the walking dead. Essentially, inferii are animate corpses that cannot die. If one is to properly learn how to conjure and control them, one could also have an indestructible army at his or her disposal!" Fiona's voice quickened as she spoke, as was common when she got excited about something. Fiona, being the perfect upper class young woman as she was, tried to feign indifference towards nearly everything, but for those who know her well, they would know that when she spoke faster than normal, she was excited.
treasure hunt
Ben raised his eyebrow as she spoke; she was clearly pretty excited about these creatures she'd discovered (if you could call them creatures; they might have fallen into the category of "creations" more aptly). It was easy to tell when she was excited; her words became less and less understandable. Luckily, Ben had years of practice dealing with an excited Fiona; ever since they'd known how to talk, it seemed she'd been jabbering at just that pace.
"'Cause that's just what you need, Fiona. An indestructible army," he teased with a slight roll of his eyes. The Dark Arts were interesting, honestly, but sometimes he wondered why people thought this stuff was particularly useful. Unless you were planning on taking over the world, and if you were, there were much more crafty, subtle ways to do it than a hoard of undead creations. Like, for instance, politics. Ben was a bit of a pragmatist when it came to politics; he knew that it would be all too easy (and much more stable) to win the world with charm than by force.
In the back of his head, he pictured Fiona Prewett, prim and proper as she usually was, living in a large house similar to the one her parents owned, with about fourteen small children running around and a few undead monsters dressed in frilly aprons acting as their playmates. The idea made him chuckled. Oh, what the neighbors would think.
"You don't go to war with the neighbors often enough to merit an army," he said, shrugging the idea off at that. "And they're not really practice for self-defense, I'm guessing. Unless you kept one around as a guard-dog," this, again, made him chuckled; the image of Fiona holding an undead corpse on a leash, gradually trying to house-train it. No, no, don't leave blood pools in the house. Only in the yard. Good boy.
Although Ben was intrigued by Dark Magic, he was clearly a bit too innocent-minded to use most of it. The only things he really thought useful were the spells; the spells that might, in a pinch, save his life if someone ever discovered his secret. Or what would eventually become his secret, when he was old enough.
made by Emily exclusively for Charming
|
![[-]](https://old.charmingrp.com/images/collapse.png)
