Brie

Bertram caught her joking tone but he scoffed indignantly anyway. “You know that’s a gross miscalculation. I like… four… five boys in our year at most.” His list of crushes in the seventh year was a whole different story. But bringing that up wouldn’t really help his case so he dropped it. Even if he was currently the butt of the teasing and the jokes, Bertram was still glad that they were able to steer the conversation to a different topic. “So?” Bertram asked, pushing the imaginary scenario even further. “You could teach him? Or… you can learn Russian? There’s no reason that language should stop the power of love.” Bertram wriggled his eyebrows playfully.

“You say that like five isn’t a lot! I don’t know how you get anything done with all of them in your head.” It was still very clear she was joking, a smile playing across her face and fondness for her friend in her eyes, as all final thoughts of who she had recently been (possibly still was?) crushing on fled from her own mind. “That sounds terrible. Not learning Russian, although, if it’s not going to just drop into my head and I’ll immediately be fluent, then I don’t want to learn it! But teaching somebody else how we can talk to each other? That sounds way too much hard work when I’m sure I can find plenty of decent blokes who already speak English.”

Amos simply nodded as Brie explained the cards. Most of it flew over his head but what he understood and how she thought it applied to herself intrigued him. “I’m no seer,” Amos started as his hands mindlessly shuffled the cards. They were bigger than your usual standard deck of cards that he had a lot of experience using during downtimes back at home but he figured that the principle of shuffling was the same. “But it sounds to me that all it’s saying is that the future is uncertain. You have to make some decisions. And some of those decisions will stress you out.” 

After handing Brie the cards back, Amos bent down to pick up Miles who had settled by his foot. “Let’s see…” Amos trailed off as he bounced Miles playfully on his crossed arms. “I just asked what’s in store for me the rest of the year. Does that count as a general reading?” Amos took a mental note about the love reading but he showed no indication of considering it. To ask that of Brie would be tasteless, even if they were good friends. 

She smothered a snort of laughter with a hand, thinking tell me something I don’t know. The future had always been uncertain to Brie, in a way most people couldn’t understand. After all, she always got Os in Divination, she Saw like few others in those classes ever could and, what’s more, she Saw the truth. Her visions had come to be. Yet, she was plagued with vagueness in an already imprecise form of magic. “Isn’t the future uncertain for us all these days?” she mused aloud, because that was one of the few comforts she had, even with it being a double-edged sword for it was little comfort that their country was at war.

“It could go either way. I could do a full horoscope reading but as it’s your first time, we’ll keep it simple. The major theme for you in this time,” she stated as she placed one card upside-down beside her on the bench. “The main challenge you’ll face,” she said, laying down a second, then finally a third, “and advice for how to overcome that challenge. Now, you turn one of them over. You can go in order if you want, but you don’t have to. Sometimes if you feel drawn to a particular card first that can mean it will be particularly important to you in some way.” She kept her eyes on Miles, instead of Amos, willing him to stay still instead of tearing through the cards as Cappuccino would have done if she were here.

Xeno crossed his legs, letting one foot bounce up and down as he watched her take the first hit. The grassy smell wafted towards him in a gentle breeze, and his eyes fixated on the joint as it was handed back to him and he quickly took a large puff of his own and then sucked in more air, holding it in his lungs. He tilted his head back and blew the smoke very slowly up to the sky, carefully holding the joint between two fingers.

He glanced back at Brie with half-closed eyes and a little smile. “You should be feelin’ it in just a few minutes. Take some more hits if not… Lemme know if you start feelin’ bad at all, sometimes the first time is weird.”

She tried to clamp her mouth shut to stop the coughing but another forced its way to the back of her throat, her hand automatically snapping to cover her mouth before she could take the joint back from Xanthus. “Is it supposed to--” she pulled a face and put her hand on her chest, though the smoke had now ceased to irritate her.

After spending the first years of his life as a muggle, not knowing about magic or even his who his father was, Davey thought he knew everything about muggles. Seeing that it was a class taught by someone with magic? It felt almost laughable but the easiest class option for him, given learning felt like a never-ending struggle for him. Eyebrows raised at lectricity as an easy smirk slid on his lips. “Electricity isn’t hard if you don’t think about it further past that it powers stuff. Lots of stuff is easier if you don’t think past the obvious.” Davey couldn’t help the way his smirk widened into his goofy grin as the small stone was handed to him, allowing his hands to feel it, understand it. It was just rock, a pretty one that seemed like one and all colors mixed together and smooth to the touch. He almost missed what the girl was telling him about it. “New beginnings and inner growth?” He almost wanted to laugh, how could a little stone like this promote that, especially in him? But it would be rude to laugh in her face about something she obviously believed it, he never liked it much when people would laugh at him. A smile stayed on his lips as he tilted his head forward a bit, “Professor Frazer, I’m Davey. So, are you trying to get rid of some negative energy or something?” By this point, he grabbed a chair and sat down, fully joining Brie and not even bothering to think if she would have been against it.

“But they don’t have magic so how does it power it?” She paused for a second, a frown on her face. “Are you saying they don’t even cover that in muggle studies?” She was glad she hadn’t taken it if it wouldn’t even answer the questions she had about the non-magical community. She wasn’t interested in a list of objects they used to get by without magic if she didn’t understand why they worked. She hummed her confirmation at what the crystal did, oblivious to his scepticism. Her eyes weren’t on him, but distractedly on the books around her as she moved them around and adjusted her crystals so that there was space for him to sit, lean, whatever he might want to do. “Get rid of negative energy, promote positive energy, either or both, really. They help me focus. I could do with some extra clarity right now, too.” As if to emphasise, she placed her forefinger on a white wand-shaped selenite crystal. “That way I can feel more confident about my readings.”

where: Outside the Ancient Runes Classroom when: February 10, 1978 who: Bertram Aubrey, Brianne Frazer ( @cheesyfrazer​ ), and Dirk Cresswell ( @cresswelld​ )

“Tell me again why we’re doing this?” Bertram’s knees started acting like noodles as he thought about what he was about to do. The truth is, he knew exactly what the answer was to his question. He agreed, hoping that it would help cheer Brie up, or at least, take her mind off the whole Peter situation.

Brie managed to convince him to ask Dirk out for Valentine’s Day. It was a toss-up between Xanthus and Dirk since they were the two crushes of his that he had classes with. However, Xanthus was already Bertram’s friend. Well, kind of… And for some reason, Bertram found the thought of asking him out to be more dreadful and awkward. He didn’t want to make things weird between them in the future.

The problem was… he didn’t even know whether Dirk liked boys. And by choosing him, Bertram will probably find out soon. Either to his horror or his delight. 

His fellow Gryffindor was already waiting outside the classroom when the class had ended. Bertram had been one of the first people to leave and now, it was just a matter of waiting for Dirk to come out.

Luckily she had a free period while the Ancient Runes students had their class and knowing that was when Bertram planned to ask Dirk Cresswell out, Brie swung by the kitchens to get a travel cup of coffee before she went to the Ancient Runes corridor for some moral support. She grinned at him when he came into sight and leaned against the wall, eyes trained on the classroom door. “Because it’s fun. And because one of us deserves to have a good Valentine’s. Anyway, I thought you liked him? I didn’t even know it was possible to wax lyrical about eyebrows before.”

She was distracted slightly by Xanthus leaving the classroom, smiling him and offering a wave but her mind was back on when Bertram had suggested Xanthus, too, when she was interrogating him as to who he was going to ask out for Valentine’s Day. Brie still wasn’t sure why she had found the suggestion so strange but she had convinced herself that it was just because both of them were such good friends to her that it was strange to think of them as together. Much better it be someone like Cresswell who she didn’t know so well -- only one mutual class and a couple of mutual friends to talk of but little reason to hang out with each other with any frequency.

“Here he is,” she muttered to Bertram when Dirk came up last of the Ravenclaws to leave the classroom, copy of Spellman’s Syllabary still in his hand instead of in the bag over his shoulder. Before Bertram could try to chicken out, she shoved him towards Dirk, who looked up, slightly surprised by the movement.

Bertram kept his hand on hers and smiled back reassuringly. “Definitely. The world is your oyster.” He never really knew what that meant exactly but he’s heard it enough from his mother to assume that it was supposed to be uplifting. “You can even have one of my crushes if you like,” he tried as a joke, slightly chuckling himself. “You don’t even have to settle for Hogwarts boys even. You can get yourself a Durmstrang boy.” He hoped that it was enough to lighten the mood. But Brie’s next question sobered him back up. Bertram wasn’t actually completely convinced that they were what the rumors say they were but it was enough to tell him that something must be up with the four boys. Something that the rest of the castle was unaware of. “I don’t know,” he answered truthfully, “but I don’t think it’s wise to trust them, Brie.”

She snorted at his offer. “Thank you, so generous of you. Probably for the best because I’ve lost track now. What is it, half of our year?” She stuck her tongue out at him to show she was messing with him. “Only if he speaks English. I don’t think I can cope with a relationship where we can barely talk to each other.” In truth, a long-distance relationship wasn’t something Brianne had considered or thought herself able to sustain but she had been successfully distracted from the what could have been of her Yule Ball date. She hummed distractedly to his comment. Maybe he was right. True, she trusted James and would probably always hold a different opinion of him to Bertram but what did she really know of the other three? Regardless of her confusions over Peter, Sirius was another who seemed to take a bit too much pleasure in tormenting others and beyond his small circle of friends she had always seen Remus as a bit of a loner.

“And what do those mean?” Amos asked as he accepted the deck of cards and started shuffling them. He never took an interest in Divination but unlike some of the students, Amos didn’t make a habit of discrediting it compared to other subjects. First, he split the deck in half before marrying them together, brushing the sides together so that the cards from both decks slip in between each other, He continued to do so until he felt satisfied that the cards were shuffled enough. He thought about his question. Those that needed a specific answer probably weren’t the best to ask. “Am I supposed to tell you my question?” he asked, jokingly. Whether he was supposed to or not, he settled for a safe question instead. What’s in store for me for the rest of the year? Once he was done, he gave the cards back to Brie. “Okay. What now?”

“The Wheel of Fortune. That means changes and inevitable fates. When I first had it, I thought it was a sign to take a risk but there’s always an element of the unexpected with the Wheel of Fortune. What comes up, must come down. Risks don’t always pay off. The Moon is about illusions and uncertainties. There’s always two possible outcomes. The card is full of doubles. Good and evil reflecting off each other and it can be hard to differentiate between the. Reversed, the card means fear and deception and anxiety.” She chewed on her lip and took and shuddering breath. It wasn’t a fun card to keep seeing, however much she liked seeing the actual Moon in the night’s sky. She put the card down and reached for the seven of cups. “This is about searching for a purpose and careful decision-making, as well as fantasies. The fact that I draw it all the time means I’m a daydreamer and need to be careful not to fall into the trap of wishful thinking. As my brothers always tell me, I live in the clouds.” Her finger ran along the clouds depicted on the card, musing how ironic it was that she was the only one of her siblings who wasn’t an air sign. She slid the cards back into the pack before she handed it over to Amos.

“It’s up to you. I can give you a better reading if you do, or at least if I know what sort of theme it’s on, but if it’s personal I can just give a general reading and try to help you see how that answers the question.” She accepted the cards back. What now? “That depends a little on the question, too. I’ll do a spread but there are different ones which are good for different types of questions. But I’ll do a three card one unless it’s really complicated? Or about love because three cards isn’t enough for a love reading.” She looked down at the cards, hoping it wasn’t about love because she would feel pretty awkward doing that sort of reading for him.

“Oh I hope so, I think I could eat about five hundred m’self.” Daisy grinned as she pulled open her bag to offer Brie a treat as she snuck a tart from the confinements, biting into it. Brows knitted as Daisy watched her friend pause before speaking once more. “You don’t have to say you’re okay if you aren’t.” She encouraged, leaning forward to whisper the comment as she patted Brie on the hand lightly. “We don’t always need to be okay. But I’m here… if you’d like to vent to someone. Quite the pair of listening ears, I’ve got!” It was something she was vastly learning to accept, and only could hope others did as well. “Plenty of handsome lads too, if that’s what you want! Benjy Fenwick’s looking particularly fit this year, I think!”

“Thanks, Daisy,” she offered a weak smile and popped another piece of Turkish Delight into her mouth. “I think I’ve got to the point now where I don’t want to vent any more. I’ll be better either not thinking about it at all and moving on or actually talking to him about it and... I don’t know. He hasn’t sought me out. I did think that turning twenty would stop me feeling like a silly teenager, though.” She bit down on her lip and crossed one leg over the other. “Benjy’s nice, yeah. If you’re noticing how fit he is this year, though, does that mean you’d mind if I dated him?” Her voice took a teasing tone, but if Daisy did say she was interested in him, Brie would never actually tease her for it. She might try and play matchmaker, though.