An Ode to Maybe (Jory/Dare)

[Dare Blackwood-Hardt]

Dare didn't want to be here. He wanted to be on his way off campus to work. Well, to be honest he wanted to be home in bed with Michael, after the confession he wasn't looking forward to making. But honest to God, the woman had assigned him the Draught of the Living Dead! He wasn't going to get out of telling him, and he was probably going to be kept company while he was making it. Probably not a bad idea.

He was looking for a book just on that potion right now. The woman had said excellence only, and if there was anything he'd learned from SWIM's theory policy, it was that textbooks usually weren't worth the parchment they were written on. He'd find a good book, try his best to make an academic project of it, and turn the damn stuff in. And, if necessary, he'd remind himself that he'd been sleeping fairly well lately.

He sifted through the shelves in the potions section, silently cursing whoever had decided that the most interesting books had to go on the lower shelves. It was times like this that his height was most definitely not an advantage.

[Jory Addison]

Jory had no idea what he was doing or where he was, all he knew was that the woman had told him to go this way for the book he needed and he had promptly gotten lost in the maze of shelves. Of course, it probably didn't help that he was just thinking fleeting thoughts of Lyric and the couple like them. He almost walked past the guy in the shelves looking at the books, but as he was getting ready to leave the row it registered that the guy had the different color hair. Logically, he knew he couldn't know if it was the right guy, but he could hope.

"Hey, um..." he said, turning and taking a couple of steps closer to the guy, reaching up with one hand to rub at his neck. His hand immediately came down again to take his other in front of him. "Could you help me find something?" he asked. It was something, at least.

[Dare Blackwood-Hardt]

Dare straightened slowly, trying to mentally save his spot along the shelves before he turned to look at the guy. A moment's flickering glance gave him a first impression of someone shy, and maybe curious. But not, at the moment, asking asinine personal questions, so for now, he let his learned suspicion simmer. "Depends on what you're looking for," he said. "If it's a potions book, it'd be the blind leading the blind." At least he'd found the right section.

[Jory Addison]

Jory shook his head, "No, I um...came from a different school and the Divination book was different..." Wow, the guy was tall. One hand came up and scratched through his hair, leaving a line of ruffled dark hair sticking up at odd angles, before he pulled out his necklace to play with the colored ring that hung from it. He kept it hidden, for now. "So I'm having to wait for my mum to send me the one I need but I want to go ahead and read some of it and they said they had a copy in the library." He forced himself to stop abruptly and dropped his eyes. If this was the right guy, he'd probably think he was weird or something.

[Dare Blackwood-Hardt]

"Oh," Dare said. He tossed his head lightly, a motion that sent his fringe back momentarily before it fell over his eyes again. He understood the insanity of transferring, so he didn't register any weirdness about looking for one of his textbooks. Rather, he scanned the nearby shelves, mentally plotting the places he already knew. "Divination's this way," he said, glancing back at the guy, then gesturing further back into the library. I think. But thinking it was that way was enough, and he grabbed his book bag before turning to lead the way. "I'm in Divination, too. Haven't been to class yet, though."

[Jory Addison]

Jory looked up at that and his eyes widened slightly. He certainly hadn't expected him to be in Divination. "Yeah, me neither." No wonder he was...taken. You don't even know if it's the right guy! Well, he wasn't about to just ask, it would be too weird. He came up beside the taller guy, still fiddling with his necklace with one hand. "How's the teacher?" he asked, looking up at him again.

[Dare Blackwood-Hardt]

Dare glanced down at the guy. "She's pretty cool," he said. "All about that Eastern Mystic stuff, and she actually has visions. Story goes that she predicted a Death Eater attack a few years ago." Dare really only knew one side of that story, but it was a big enough one that he'd picked up bits and pieces elsewhere over the past year. "So what are you in Divination for? 'Cause Professor Pythia doesn't give easy O's." Dare thought that was fair warning.

[Jory Addison]

Jory wondered absently if there were any schools that hadn't had a Death Eater attack, but was easily pulled out of that line of thought by the guy's next question. "I don't want an easy O," he said. "I mean...I hope I have an easier time than some people, since I pretty much constantly study divination and that kind of stuff. But that's different than just taking a gimme class." He had always loved that kind of thing, enough that his mother had always teased him about having his head in the clouds with his mystical studies.

[Dare Blackwood-Hardt]

Dare paused, then gestured down the nearest row, past Dragon Breeding for Fun and Profit and The Doormice and Hippogriffs to Divination. There were quite a few books, and Dare was no expert on locating them, so he resumed the conversation. "Any one kind of divination you're really into?" he asked, looking aside at the guy. He was really going to have to get his name soon.

[Jory Addison]

"Just about anything I can get my hands on," Jory answered, flicking a glance up before he looked at all the books. He could barely even remember the exact title of the book, much less figure out where to begin looking. "It's like...I know Divination is, like, the future and stuff, but there's so much other stuff involved. I like trying to figure out...where I belong..." He took a breath and kept his eyes away from the guy. Yes, he liked trying to figure out what everything meant but it had come out wrong and it felt like he had said too much. He shook his head and started skimming the titles.

[Dare Blackwood-Hardt]

Where I belong. That gave Dare pause, and for a moment he simply stood there thinking about it. "Y'know, you're not going to find out where you belong from a book," he said at last. Of course, he didn't believe in Divination so much as he found it entertaining. He flipped open his bookbag, digging through it a moment before he found his book. He turned it over to look at the spine, picking out identifying characteristics before even beginning to scan the shelves.

[Jory Addison]

"I won't find out from cards or tea leaves or arithmancy, either," Jory said, "But it can't hurt to try." He looked at the book and then focused on the shelves. "Who knows, maybe I'll get a crystal ball to work this year and it'll tell me if I'm doing the right things." He shrugged lightly and started on the next shelf of old books. It was easy to look at something else to figure it out, and he had only recently begun to talk to people, so books had been all he had. He felt like he was just fumbling through with no real clues, but the ideas of divination helped just a little.

[Dare Blackwood-Hardt]

Dare gave a noncommittal sound as an answer, unable to form an argument that would hold any kind of weight. What could he advise, anyway? He didn't know this guy or what he was looking for, really. Aside from the book, which he'd just spied from the flowery lettering along the spine. He tucked his own away, then reached over, pulling its match from the shelf. "Here it is," he said, double-checking the cover before he offered it. "So you're really into Divination," he observed.

[Jory Addison]

Jory nodded and looked at the book before reaching for it. "I mean...I guess I should probably find something that's more practical," he said. It was something he had heard before. "But...would you stop doing something you liked because it didn't seem practical?" he asked, raising an eyebrow at the guy. He wondered how many people had stopped doing something they loved because no one else got it. He didn't want to be like that. His eyes hovered on the guy for a moment before he looked down at the book in his hands.

[Dare Blackwood-Hardt]

Dare actually laughed at the question. He smothered the sound after a moment and glanced both ways down the aisle to make sure Madam Pince wasn't around. She wasn't, but the thought had sobered him up a little. He looked at the guy with one brow arched behind his fringe and gently gleaming eyes.

"If I let what was practical decide things for me, I'd have nothing I've got now," he said, dropping his voice to a more appropriate level for the moment. Dying his hair wasn't practical. Art wasn't practical. If he'd done what was practical, he sure as hell wouldn't have Michael. "If you're that into Divination, I say keep it up. It doesn't hurt anyone, and it's fun."