Leonard Hall

Cricket folded his rather lengthy legs up into his chest. He wrapped his arms around those legs and balled his hands into tight, tight fists once he had. He then rubbed his sneakers together slowly, the toes catching on the rubber and making a nice, consistent clicking. “How did you do that?” No doubt it was a spell that had been taught in class, but Cricket wasn’t exactly the best student–he wasn’t great on paying attention or showing up. It was as though he didn’t even hear the latter comment. 

“Oh, the incantation is ‘quietus,’“ he explained, then used his finger to spin in a slow circle next to his head. “You move the wand like this and it basically makes a little dome of silence. You can also point it at someone to make them silent, but that’s more of a dick move.” He smirked at his little joke before looking down at the older boy’s sneakers. “Not a fan of loud, huh?”

“You know,” Leonard started, walking up to walk alongside Anthea with his hands in his pockets. “Some fifth years actually ‘caw cawed’ at me on my way to Ancient Runes today.”

   She laughed, “Well, why not?” She was just teasing him, “It’s all the more fun when people give you odd looks.” Anthea put her hands up, “Trust me, it’s easier than you think. It gets confusing in there.”

“The odd looks are the exact reason ‘why not’,” he smirked, shaking his head. “Don’t know if you’ve noticed, Thea, but I’m not exactly the guy begging to be the center of attention.” He knew quite a few people like that, though. He shrugged. “Alright, then I’ll have to remember caw caw. Shit, what was the code again?” he joked.

Cricket’s head immediately snapped up. Everything was…quiet? Of course, at the back of his mind, he knew about the silencing charm. He knew it existed and, hell, he even knew how to cast it. But not in that state. He couldn’t do much of anything when the stimulus got too much. “Y-Yes.” He never stuttered. Ever. Except for right then. “Thank you.” His skin was still shaking as he looked forward, but at least he could think now.

Leonard let out a small sigh of relief, his expression softening. “Great,” he nodded, looking around at the now silent chaos around them. “Sorry I didn’t think of doing that first. Guess my first instinct was to give you food for some reason.” He shrugged, looking down at the funnel cake. “The offer’s still on the table, by the way.”

She held the hammer with both hands, stance changing as soon as the game started up. The moment the first mole stuck its head out, she hit it as fast as she could, face breaking out in a grin as her score changed. “Gotcha!” The first few rounds were easy enough—she even had time to flourish the mallet in between hits. As the game upped its pace, Aura felt a surge of excitement. She would rise up to the challenge. Whack! Whack! Whack! All that stored energy had to go somewhere. By the time the game ended, she was panting just a bit. Not a perfect performance—she’d missed some moles towards the latter part of the game—but it wasn’t bad at all either. She looked from her score to her brother. “Boom! A hundred and thirty points.” She didn’t expect it, but she’d take it. “Beat that!”

Leonard watched his sister’s handiwork and raised his eyebrows as he watched most of the poor fuckers get their heads bashed. She did a lot better than he was expecting, so he gave a slight nod of approval before cracking his knuckles and taking the hammer from her. “Will do.”

And what a name it is. She couldn’t help but smile at those words. “It suits me, don’t you think? But, Leonard, you can call me just Maude if you’d like.”  Maude was always one to call others by their full, proper first name. The only exception she had ever made was one problematic Gryffindor boy. “So,” she said, shaking the thought of Guy from her mind, “what should we dress you up as?” She eyed him up and down thoroughly, thinking of any and all ideas. 

“It does,” he agreed. Mouthful or not, it fit her, or what he imagined she was like. Names did influence people’s personalities, after all. When she eyed him, he placed a hand in his pocket and shrugged. “Do I really need a costume?” he asked, taking a step towards her. “I’m pretty comfortable in this.” She tilted his head to one side before adding “Or... not.” Leonard could be a decent flirt when there was clearly no feelings involved; it was feelings that made it hard, since then you’d care if they rejected you. Leonard was ready to walk away if she seemed uninterested with no hard feelings.

“Sometimes I almost do, but you keep reminding me,” she said. She tilted her head, still rather confused. “Well, I don’t wanna dress you down!” When he had agreed with her choice of game, she happily skipped behind him as he led them towards it. She picked up the hammer, though at his taunting, she giggled. “Are you sure? You might take that back after I play. I may not look it, but I’m quite good at hammering!”

He decided, mostly for his own sanity, to not comment on the “dressing down” comment. He then smirked and exhaled out of his nose, crossing his arms. “Alright, go ahead, Aura. Prove it.”

“You know, using words outside of their intended meaning is how literature when from cavemen in the jungle to Percy Shelley and Ernest Hemmingway, even Rita Skeeter,” he said, matter-of-fact. “Crucify means to criticize. Pick up the thesaurus, Leo.” Santi rolled his eyes at the other, “Anyone else would be easily blackmailed if they did what I do. It takes someone entirely un-chickenshit to hide their entire lives from people they spend their lives with.”

Leonard knew crucify meant criticize, and he had even brought it up, but Leonard was fully aware Santi wasn’t the best listener. Leonard liked that he didn’t ever have to push to keep a conversation going with the Slytherin, but still; sometimes Santi went into his own little “me” show. “Sure, Santi,” Leonard nodded, noticing they were next in line for the zipper. He smirked mischievously before arching an eyebrow at the other boy and asking “You scared?”

“I reckon I can pull off anythin’. And so could you! If ya’d just have a wee bit of confidence.” 

Leonard squinted a bit. “I have confidence, just not...” He nodded towards the gaudy mask. “...that confidence. Plus, purple isn’t my thing.”

“Only by a few minutes!” she said in protest, as if it would do anything to change his mind. She stared back at him blankly. “I don’t understand. Why is it weird?” As he patted her head, she pouted, placing her hands on both sides of her waist. “You know what, I will!” She looked around, pointing towards a booth as soon as she made her choice. “Whac-A-Mole!”

“And don’t you forget it,” he smirked before shaking his head. “It just sounds weird saying you want to dress me up. Just... phrasing.” He watched as she looked around and made her decision, and he shrugged nonchalantly. “Sounds god to me. Let’s go.” He tilted his head in the direction of the game before leading her towards it. He arched an eyebrow at her before asking “You wanna go first? Might be less painful that way, since you won’t have anything to compare your score to yet.”

Maude smiled, both at the feeling of his lips so close to her ear and at his question. What was in a name? If you were to ask Maude, everything. Her mother had once told her that she and her father spent the entirety of her pregnancy making sure they picked the perfect name for their daughter and heir. “Maude Maëlle Delacour-Dupont,” she spoke rapidly and in a thicker French accent than she usually donned. “And yours is?”

His eyebrows raised. “And what a name it is,” he nodded, sounding almost impressed, even though he honestly thought it was a bit of a mouthful. Then again, who was he to judge? His name belonged in the fifties. Plus, the accent was hot. “Oh, I’m just Leonard. Or Leo, or whatever you want to call me.” That was his usual response to people asking his name, but this time, he emphasized the last bit. “Do you... want to be addressed with your full name? Or can I just call you Maude?”

“Hey! I can be. Ever heard of small but terrible?” Nothing she did right now could really help her case, but she tried. She smiled. “Yay! I’m going to enjoy dressing you up,” she said, accompanying the sentence with one of her little claps. She followed his gaze as he looked around, rolling her eyes playfully as she chuckled at his words. “I’ll do you one better and win whatever you win twice.”

“Aura, you’re my baby sister, I could never think you’re intimidating,” he chuckled before he tilted his head at her dressing up comment. “Um... yeah, that sounds fucking weird out of context... no, in context it still sounds weird.” He sighed, patting the top of her head condescendingly. “You do that. You know what? You can even pick the game, if you’re so confident.”

Xan chuckled softly as he shook his head in amusement, “Oh, silly me. I must be hearing things.” Though he was fairly confident he hadn’t misheard the other, mumbled or not. The fact that the other’s comment was so defensive piqued his curiosity, a brow arching slightly. “Interesting. For someone who hasn’t been rejected, you sound a bit heated about it.” He lifted his drink back up to his lips before offering up a shrug of his shoulders in response. “You think that’s bitter? Just because I want people approaching me doesn’t mean that I’m starved for affection. I could easily get anyone to snog me, I’d just rather it be someone in particular.”

    She started walking, hands stuffed into her pockets now. “Yes! A bird call would work. We can say something like, ‘caw-caw’ and then we’d know it’s us.” She laughed just thinking about the two of them saying that if they got lost. She knew the weird looks she would get but she didn’t care. “That’ll be our code word.”

Leonard blinked a few times before shrugging. “Eh, sure, why not?” he said. “Just don’t expect me to put in any effort to sound like a real bird.” He had every intention of deadpanning the words ‘caw caw’ if they did get separated. Plus, he was determined for that not to happen. “Besides, if we pay attention, how would we be able to lose each other in a mirror room?”