musings before the rain .. open

[Bryan Kelley]

[[ I tried to be a bit vague in events, so this thread can take place before or after Alessandro returns, since that seems to be the current big plot that is resolving ]]

It was April and for the past how many days, Bryan couldn't say, it seemed it had been raining non-stop. He knew it was spring and hence the rain usually always followed the season. Bryan couldn't say he was one of those people who always had to be outside, and hence the rain put a damper on some things, but being cooped up inside the castle with really no where else to go was never a good thing. Especially with students who were having probably many of the same feelings. Although water was not the element associated with him, Bryan did love the rain. There was something soothing about the continuing falling drops. They could drive a person crazy, but for Bryan they were relaxing. He loved storms. The destruction they could cause was always impressive. It was like natures way of saying that the human race was not in control, a way to put them in their place so to speak.

However, the winds were always strong and expressive during storms. Even now when he walked out in the court yard there was a light breeze flowing through the area, hinting at the storm that was yet to cloud. Looking up, Bryan could see the heavy clouds over head, and he figured it was only a little bit of time that would pass before these clouds would empty their burden over the school like their comrades before them. However, until that happened, Bryan decided he would take the moment to stretch his legs and just leave the feeling of being in a stone box behind him for a bit. He wasn't dressed in his school uniform, but rather jeans and a t-shirt. His hands were in pockets, his sketchbook between his side and right arm. With the continual rain, Bryan had since casted a water proof spell over the sketch book and its contents. He was no interested in losing any of the sketches to water-logness.

His blue eyes watched the clouds as they moved slowly across the sky. The action was almost hypnotizing to the point it was easy to lose one self just by watching them move. Watching the clouds, Bryan found he just wanted to forget for a moment everything happening in his life. He was apart of some group, yet he felt like an outsider in it as it seemed to falling a part, bit by bit. Since he had joined it, he felt the only thing that seemed to be holding the group as a group was the fact they were Elemental masters or shadow warriors. There seemed to be little feelings of comradeship between the various members who were known within it. With every little bump they encountered, that Bryan had seen since joining them, it seemed like they were crumbling apart like a statue made of dried mud instead of solid stone.

Granted, Bryan wasn't sure he even knew anything about the people he was now thrown together with. He had never interacted strongly with any of them to his knowledge. He was neither friends nor enemies with them. He was merely that Gryffindor boy. A face in the crowd, an acquaintance at the school. Perhaps, he should work to change that, but being strongly social was not part of Bryan's nature. He had always been a background person. Someone standing on the side lines watching and observing more than they were taking part. He wondered how well this would work with this group and the enemies they were fighting. He would be forced to change, forced to take more action than he was used to taking before now.

For a moment a frown touched Bryan's lips. It did not last long before he blinked as a droplet fell onto his left cheek. He looked down as he wiped the water from his cheek. "Seems the rain doesn't want to give us a long break,"

[/color] he mused to himself, believing himself still alone in the court yard. Despite his words, Bryan made no move to head back into the school very quickly. He didn't mind if he got wet.[/size][/blockquote]

[Michael-Thomas Homewood]

The never ending rain, the strong wind chilling the normally kindly spring air; reasons to stay in the castle. Lots of students and the staff sat in their Common Rooms or in the Great Hall enjoying a hot cup of tea or chocolate, doing their homework......everyday life in Hogwarts. But no one had got the idea to stroll outside of the castle. Some students called Michael a "crazy freak" or "plunging seeker". But he didn´t care. Quidditch is the great chance for Michael to grab some reputation, something he never gained in Primary School. He practised on the pitch nearly every day, always imagining how the Hufflepuff Team would win the Quidditch Cup. Even this time, while everyone preferred staying in the castle, he didn´t miss the chance to increase his flying skills; and with it the chance to grab the snitch in his debute match......

However, after an hour Michael realised that this weather can even choke Michael´s ambitions. His body as wet as his Quidditch robes shaked a bit. And again he felt loneliness. Looking forward to grab a snack and hot chocolate with his class mates he reduced height until his feet felt the safe, but very muddy and slick ground of the pitch. He looked a last time at the goals imagining how his debute match will pass off. Will he grab the snitch?? Will he lead the Hufflepuffs to victory?? Will he survive his match without being hit by a bludger??? What if his team will lose??? Would he take the same role just like in Primary School? The role as a victim? Will his past be repeated???
These questions are in his head and the last ones took his last fragment of motivation to continue practice. However, this questions cannot be answered, not yet.....

Michael breathed deeply, clenched his broom-stick and turned around to leave the pitch. Still shaking he spotted the castle in the background and thought about his hot chocolate. But then he noticed that he is not the only one outside. Not far away from Michael there was someone. He was only able to see the silhouette of that person, so he walked unsure towards this person. After blinking once he noticed that another student he didn´t knew before stood, apparently without any sense, somewhere on the courtyard.
"What the heck is he doing in the rain? Such a cursed weather and he´s lazing around HERE? What´s going on there??"
Michael catched the eye of that guy and decided to talk to him.
With shaking legs he walked towards him, trying to fight his own shyness and fear, faced him and said:
"This rain cannot stop you lazing around here, can he???"
Checking out the students clothing style Michael thought that Quidditch is not his reason to get a shower.......

p.s.: I´m sorry because of my bad language, I think there´ll be a few grammatical mistakes xD but I tried my best=)

[Bryan Kelley]

Bryan did not bother to wipe the one drop from his cheek, he knew it would soon be followed by more of its brethren. His assumption did not prove in correct. As Bryan removed his gaze from the sky he felt more droplets of rain begin to fall before they became a light drizzle. Still, the Gryffindor did not make any move to move inside. He was not ready yet to have stone walls on all sides of him. He wanted to see the fresh air, to feel the freedom of the wind on his skin. There was not much wind to be found within the castle and since becoming the Elemental Master of Wind, Bryan had found he wanted more and more to be outside, to feel some trickle of a breeze kissing his skin. He did not care for the trapped feeling the castle seemed to evoke in him, especially during times when he was stressed. He had always liked being outside to some extent, intrigued by the force that made up the wind, but that feeling of kinship with the wind had grown, even before the time he first met D'rorah in the library that first time.

He closed his eyes briefly, for a moment concentrating on the feel of the droplets before his mind tuned those out and felt the kiss of the breeze that accompanied the rain. His nose could pick out some of the smells that the strands of wind had brought with it as they passed him. Bryan did not reach to control the wind, but rather allowed the breeze to act naturally. He did not know who were around in that moment who might witness nature acting strangely around him. He would not chance that. It was better just to enjoy the natural feel that wind held in the moment.

Bryan certainly did not care if people thought him an idiot for being out in the rain. Yet, other people certainly thought such things when a voice reached Bryan's ears speaking on how the rain did not keep him from venturing out side the stone castle walls. Bryan opened his eyes and turned his head, his body following, to look at the source of the voice. A young boy, younger than Bryan, dressed for out on the Quidditch field. Bryan did not hold a strong love for the sport, but nor did he dislike it. It just did not have a strong enough appeal for him to enter in to it. A smile touched the Gryffindor's lips.

"The rain can't scare off everyone,"

[/color] he replied. "Otherwise the rain may end up getting a big ego, and we wouldn't want that,"[/color] he replied in a joking manner, his voice light and pleasant. Bryan had not trouble referring to the weather as an actual person. It was rather amusing actually to attribute human emotions to it, is if the weather really cared whether it forced people to stay inside or not. "I'm guessing quidditch has a stronger tie over you then staying dry and trying to forgo chances of getting sick?" he then asked the young boy as a way in keeping the conversation going. Bryan was not adverse to speaking with people when they initiated conversations with him, despite his being more of a quiet person himself.[/blockquote]

[Michael-Thomas Homewood]

Mike showed a little smile after he heard the guy´s reply. The idea, that the rain would get a big ego is a crazy one. However, Mike thought that the guy seemed to be very nice. At least Michael didn´t noticed a sign of annoyance in his voice. It may be a kind of naive to believe that he and this guy, whose name he still didn´t knew, could be something like friends; and there are loads of naive people in Michaels age. But this fact didn´t changed Michael´s opinion that Bryan is a good conversation partner.

After Michael noticed that the Gryffindor didn´t want to get rid of him so fast he gained a bit of self-confidence. He eagerly answered the Gryffindors question while clutching his broomstick: "That´s why I love this funny cold-curing potion. A reason more to practise in the rain and killing boredom in the same time", he added with a big smile. Everyone would be able to see the brightness in his eyes when Quidditch is the topic of the actual conversation, although the Gryffindor was the only one in presence. "Do you like Quidditch, too???"
It was a simple, maybe even a stupid question, but with the function of keeping the conversation alive.

All in all, Michael was still riddling why the Gryffindor stands in the rain. Alone. Without acting. What is he thinking about? Why didn´t he catched up his friends? Or doing the homework? Enjoying the warm fire in the Common Room? Questions he wasn´t able to answer. And he didn´t dare to ask him. Anyway, it was not Michael´s business, so why did he care about it? But, with a still unconfident look, he added a last question hastily before the Gryffindor had even got the chance to answer: "What´s your name, anyway?"

[Bryan Kelley]

Bryan smiled when the younger lad continued to speak in response to the question he had placed to the boy. "I would depend too much on potions,"

[/color] he said lightly. His tone was chastising, but merely just commenting. "It's easy to get addicted to them and sometimes your body eventually becomes immune to them,"[/color] he finished. Bryan knew the dangers of anything that made one's life easier. Medicine and potions. It was so easy to become dependent on them. The most notable example would be in the case of the ones that were sleep aids. It was easy to become hooked on them that it becomes almost impossible to sleep without it. An addiction forming out of something that is meant to help people. However, in a way, they were still a sort of drug, which people have the habit of forming an addiction to if they were not cautious.

A light smile touched Bryan's lips when the boy asked if he liked Quidditch as well. It was almost a question to be expected from any Quidditch lover. They loved Quidditch so it seemed only nature that other people would love it as well. Bryan remembered running into a girl in his house who had a love of the sport; she had attempted to try and talking him into joining their house team. He liked the sport, but that like didn't not extend as far as joining his house team. He did not even play the sport when he was bored. Rather, he was more apt to draw in his boredom, which explained the sketchbook in his hand -- which had remained dry despite the light rain coming down from the sky.

"Bryan Kelley,"[/color] he introduced himself before he continued on in answering the question that was put to him before the request of his name. "I don't hate the sport, but I don't like it enough to play it," he told the Hufflepuff with a chuckle. "I'm assuming you live your life almost by it?"[/color] he asked the younger boy. Bryan assumed it was a safe enough assumption, given that from the broom the boy held and the fact he was out in less than pleasant weather that the sport had to have a strong hold in his life.[/blockquote]

[Michael-Thomas Homewood]

Michael fell into a state of shock. Potions? Drugs? Is it really true that too much potions in a longer period could harm him? Is he really a kind of drug junkie, although he hated drugs? Of course he knew that a big amount of muggle medicines could be very dangerous when taken in a short time. And he imagined that this fact would count in the magic world, too. But since he had his first potions lesson, he thought that potions are some kind of cure-all; he never mind that they could be dangerous even when he used them correctly. Somehow, Michael was not sure if he should trust him. There was no reason to mistrust him; he felt sympathy for Bryan since he responded the conversation. But the fact that he had been bullied in primary school made him mistrustful. Unsure he asked him: "Is.....it true? With the potins?" However, Bryan didn´t forced him to give him the pocket-money, so why mistrusting him?

Michael noticed that he forget to introduce himself: "Michael-Thomas Homewood; my full name. But everyone calls me just Mike or Michael; doesn´t matter.", he added and smiled again. The potions were out of his mind again. The rain as well. He looked at his broomstick, firstly because his shyness forced him to look anywhere but not in Bryans eyes while talking, secondly because Bryan suggested that Michael plays Quidditch a long time, and rose the broomstick a bit to underline his answer:

"Mhh....not really. I was a sportsman during my whole life, espacially team sports. So I would say, I´ve got a small lot of team experience. But I´m a muggle-borned wizard. In fact I didn´t knew Quidditch before I came to Hogwarts. That´s the reason why I practice a lot, even in the rain. I don´t want to lose my debute match. Some people would call me a 'Rookie', but in fact I´m still a newbie. So I try to kill my lack of experience..."

All this he said without interruption; and when he stopped, he flushed. He sometimes had got the problem that he could speak to other people like a music player in "repeat"-mode. Furthermore he was afraid that Bryan would think that Mike is a kind of arrogant, just because he had said that he has got a lot of team experience. Otherwise, his former primary school mates had gave him the feeling of being a loser, so it was not in Michaels mind to be arrogant, espacially because he wanted to change his status from "loser" to a kind of "superhero".
He rebuilt eye-contact to Bryan and waited for his reply, while the rain started to become a bit stronger...

[Bryan Kelley]

Bryan looked at him when the first year asked if it was possible to get addicted to potions. Bryan nodded his head. "It's possible to get addicted to everything. Sleeping potions for example, you become dependent on them that you can't sleep on your own any more. As with anything, you have to be careful in how you use them,"[/color] Bryan told the younger year. Bryan did not think that the first year would have great trouble with mere healing potions, but he did worry to what extent the first year depended on them. The magical world was such an interesting place and Bryan had seen many muggle borns find complete interest in how it seemed that magic could possibly solve all their problems. Bryan had believe it once upon time himself, but his father and mother had cleared him up on that misconception.

"Nice to meet you, Mike,"[/color] Bryan stated in response when the younger boy had greeted him before he had moved into the subject of quidditch. The subject seemed to animate the small Hufflepuff and for a moment Bryan thought he could almost see a smaller version of his younger brother in the Hufflepuff. Sam was just as lrge a fan of Quidditch. Of course, Sam was the athletic one of the family whereas Bryan was more the creative dreamer, as he had heard Sam describe him more than once. A light smile touched the Gryffindor's lips as he listened to the younger boy, waiting for him to run out of words. Bryan did not mind the triad that the younger lad went into.

"You're certainly building up to living your life by it,"[/color] he stated when the boy had finished. "It's an admirable goal and I wish you luck in it. I'm not much of a quidditch fan but my brother Sam is,"[/color] Bryan finished. If the rain had started to come down harder, Bryan did not seem to notice it. It had been a while since he had just stood out in the rain that he decided not to be bothered by the increased rain. However, Bryan had no wish to toy with the possibility of getting sick, so he did not plan to remain outside too long.

[Michael-Thomas Homewood]

Mike knew the addiction to sleeping things from muggle pharmaceuticals. So he answered: "It´s the same as in the muggle world. There are loads of people addicted to things like that. But if flu-healing potions could as dangerous as sleeping potions or other stuff.....I´ll mark your words. You´re right, I should cut down my ration."
He showed a big smile and thought about it. But his Quidditch ambitions was still very big, although Bryam muffled his ambitions a bit with his opinion about potions.

"Thank you for wishing me luck, although I don´t know why you do that while we are in different houses. It seems that you don´t like Quidditch the way as I do....Everybody has got his or her own opinion, so I cannot force you to like it, can I? In which house is your brother? Is he in Hogwarts or did he left already?" Of course he wanted to keep the topic Quidditch alive, but not for long. He didn´t want to annoy Bryan with some stuff he is not interested in. But on the other hand he wanted to find out who his possible enemies are. He didn´t want to use Bryan as a source of information or as a source of other advantages. It was not his character. As a boy with difficult times in primary school he appreciated social contacts more than other people did. But, eypected from the Hufflepuff team, he never saw someone playing Quidditch, so he wanted to get a picture of his enemies´ skills and to calculate his chances.

[Bryan Kelley]

“You make it sound as if the different houses aren’t allowed to wish each other good will,” Bryan stated in an amused tone of voice when the younger boy confessed confusion on Bryan’s good will wish in his advancement in Quidditch. “There is nothing wrong with wishing a person good luck in accomplishing their goals. It’s not like I’m giving you all the secrets, not that I know them, on how to beat the Gryffindor Quidditch team,” he ended with a small laugh. “I’m not a particularly large Quidditch fan. I like it alright. Sam, my younger brother, he’s on the Gryffindor’s team. He’s the seeker,” he told the Hufflepuff. “But Sam would not likely wish you ill will about trying to make your house team. That’s sort of bad sportsman ship or letting the sport take over your life or something,” Bryan finished with a shrug of his shoulders.

Bryan really did not quite understand why the younger lad would be so surprised by anyone wishing him luck in making his house’s Quidditch team. The world did not revolve around Quidditch that everyone lived their life by it that they would not wish others, people not in their own house or team, luck in getting ahead in the sport. That seemed almost silly and single minded. Even if one wished the person well in Quidditch did not mean the person would even be a threat to the other house’s team. Each team had their strength, and from what Bryan understood from Sam was that teams learned each other’s weaknesses and strengths and built their team upon them. Each time became different with every new player to it. That went for any sort of team and not just those of sports teams.

The rain continued to fall, seeming to grow heavier by the minute. Bryan brushed his bangs away from his eyes as the rain soaked the strands, making them longer and covering his blue eyes. “Well, I think I’m gonna head out of rain now. I like it, but even I can handle standing out it for so long,” he said with a grin.

[Michael-Thomas Homewood]

Mike noticed (or at least he thought) that Bryan had interpreted Mikes words than he did. He knew that there are not many people wishing him a bad injury. But then his dark history came back into his mind cold as ice, colder than that stupid rain. In primary school there were enough students who wished him, or even indeed caused, injuries. Of course he experienced other things in Hogwarts; but his old status as a bullyvictim still affected him.

"I know what you mean, Bryan. And I won´t disagree your opinion. I even appreciate this. But I made the experience that the four Houses always try to beat the others. I noticed that there´s a load of rivalry. And I just feel like that we Quidditch players are the centre of this rivalry. I saw the first match of Hufflepuff. The atmosphere was full of rivalry, and I know it´ll be different when I´m not a spectator, but the Seeker...That´s why I wondered that a Gryffindor wished me luck in my Quidditch business. But I didn´t said that your point is wrong. And I appreciate that your brother has got the same opinion..."
Mike took a deep breath and and looked in Bryans eyes waiting for a reply.

But the rain tried to flood the Hogwarts campus, and Mike, who was soaked for already one hour and a half, was glad that Bryan had got the idea of enter the castle again. In fact, Mike thought that there would be no difference between staying in the rain and joining the merepeople. "Okay, sounds like a good idea. Let´s head on the castle..."

[Bryan Kelley]

Bryan inclined his head, listening as the younger lad spoke. He waited until Mike was finished and he had then made his suggestion to move into the castle before he returned the previous subject. As he spoke, Bryan led the pair towards the doors that lead inside the school. “I don’t really care for the house system, in truth, I never give it much thought,” he told the Hufflepuff. “It just gives people stereotypes and creates bad blood between them, in my opinion. If people aren’t judging you for who you really are then they are judging you based solely on your house.” The older lad shrugged his shoulders in response to his last phrase.

“I’m sure there are people in the school who are as you think, live solely for the house rivalries, looking for any sort of edge against the other house,” Bryan continued as they passed through the door into the dryness of the school. “But that’s taking things too far for me. I’m more mellow in this stuff, and perhaps Sam would sing a slightly different story, but it’s just what I think. Some rivalry is good, but taking it the point where you’d be surprise to receive well wishes from someone of a different house is too far,” again the Gryffindor shrugged his shoulders. “In my experience, people are not so abrasive and more friendly, even in the house rivalry … but there is something in sports that gets people’s blood’s boiling,” he said thoughtfully.

“But I’ve never been much of a sports person myself, so I don’t really understand it, and think most people are crazy for getting affected so,” he then said cheerfully with a slight laugh. After Bryan had finished speaking, he pulled out his wand from his pocket and murmured a drying spell, his own clothes drying up from the rain. He performed the same service for Mike, followed with the Scourigfy charm, cleaning the lad of the dirt from his Quidditch practice.

“Hope you don’t mind I did that,” he said as he was putting his wand away again. “Figured I’d save us both from any further chances of illness by remaining soaked.”