A Little Flame (Hyacinth/Jory)

[Jory Addison]

It had been a long, hot, boring summer, so when Jory woke to what appeared to be a decent day outside he packed up his books and headed to the lake. Maybe he had worn trunks in place of shorts just in case he decided to take advantage of the cool water. He quite liked doing his studying outside, even if he had began to be wary of his readings due to their increasingly accuracy. It was nice to be out of the castle.

[Hyacinth Duprel]

Hyacinth was deep in thought today, and still thinking as he made his way toward the lake, to where he'd find Jory. That little something which had niggled at him the past few weeks was forgotten, but he was going over and over his conversation with Rhys, about being a wizard and being gay, about acceptance from your family, approval from God, what was sinful, and what was natural.

He'd linked the two in his mind, though not in the way he'd first considered. He no longer believed that magic and homosexuality had anything to do with one another. He'd learned much in the past months, and it was apparently unusual, though not unheard of, for Muggles and Wizards to intermarry. Perhaps, he'd decided, he simply saw so many because they were accepted here.

He'd wondered if it was wrong to be so openly accepting, but no, everyone was to be treated with courtesy and respect, everyone. It just brought his questions back. How could something natural be sinful? How could it be natural to be gay, and be sinful to be with another man? How could witchcraft be sinful, but his magic be natural?

[Jory Addison]

Jory and Hyacinth hadn't had a serious conversation in a long while, but they along with Indigo had been becoming closer as friends over the months. Jory was paying enough attention to his surroundings to hear when someone approached, and when he looked up to see Hyacinth he smiled. "Hey," he said, waving. He sat his book on the grass in front of him and gestured for Hyacinth to join him. "There's plenty of grass for everyone. What are you thinking about?" It was obvious there was something on his mind.

[Hyacinth Duprel]

"Ah," Hyacinth said, as though that were the eternal question. "I am thinking many things." He had to pull himself out of things a bit before he sat, in his usual thin, white button-down shirt, with jeans today. He lay his bag gently on the grass beside him, and Remiel tumbled out, thrilled to finally be able to chase one of the tempting fluttering creatures she'd eyed all the way from the castle. Hyacinth watched her bound away, but not so far that it didn't feel safe.

"I have been talking much to Professor laSalle. I should be learning English better, he says I am better, but mostly we talk, sometimes in English, sometimes French. Very much talking," he explained, and glanced over at Jory before turning his gaze to the water. "I miss my Church, and my family. I have many things which confuse me, you know?" He tapped the side of his head for emphasis.

[Jory Addison]

"Well, life's confusing," Jory said, shrugging. "Anyone that says they know what they're doing's lying. And I think your English is really good." He smiled over at Hyacinth, then shut the book in front of him. "Do you think you're going to go home before school starts again to see everyone?" He rarely went home but he knew some students went home every chance they got.

[Hyacinth Duprel]

"I want to go home," Hyacinth said, then clarified, "I want to visit my family, but I want to control the magic first. Professor laSalle has a sister who is..." he gestured airily. "Morph-mage-us," he sounded out. "He knows many people, and he asked her to give advice. Her hair was always a different color. She said it will get easier, I will be able to change my hair and stop thinking about it, and it will stay. I can not do that for very long yet." A minute at most. Then he got distracted or excited and it changed again.

[Jory Addison]

"I still thin it's super cool that you can do it, but it'll be even cooler when you can make it do whatever you want," Jory said. Hyacinth almost had the word right, too. "Maybe by Christmas you'll be able to go home without worrying about it." Christmas felt like a long way away, but time flew during the school year, it seemed.

[Hyacinth Duprel]

Christmas was such a long time away! Hyacinth sighed, then closed his eyes and concentrated. His typically Remiel-colored hair blossomed with a vibrant blue, and when he opened his eyes again, he smiled. He knew that he'd done it. "It is easier now," he said. "Professor laSalle's sister can make her face change to look like someone else. I do not want to try, but I can do this." As long as he kept that shade of blue in his mind somewhere, it would stay.

[Jory Addison]

"I heard once that a lot of the time metamorphmaguses will work for the ministry being aurors," Jory said. "Because they can change what they look like and stuff, it's easier for them to disguise themselves." He wondered if Hyacinth would even want to stay in the wizarding world once he left school. Jory still didn't know what he wanted to do, which was why he was still at school, learning more advanced techniques for Divination studies.

[Hyacinth Duprel]

"Aurors are... Detectives?" Hyacinth asked. He'd heard it before, but he'd heard so many things that sometimes it was difficult to keep up. "Maybe I will join the Church," he said. "It is difficult to find a Catholic priest wizard, and I would maybe help many people." That would be the best use of his life, and he thought that he could be very happy doing such a thing.

[Jory Addison]

"Aurors are bad wizard catchers. Um...cop or something is the muggle word? I don't remember," Jory said. He just remembered that word being said at a couple of the clubs he had gone to. "If you did the whole priest thing, though, you could help other kids like you." That was always a good thing, having someone to talk to that had been through the same stuff.

[Hyacinth Duprel]

Hyacinth nodded, and his gaze searched out Remiel, whose tail waved happily above the grass. He was silent for some moments, and his hair faded back to its preferred pale color as he watched what he could of his kitten.

"I talked with Rhys, at the ice cream shop," he said at last. "I asked him about magic and witchcraft." And other things. "He said that he does not think this magic is the same as the witchcraft in the Bible. So even if witchcraft is sin, he thinks that this magic is good, and is not a sin." He peeked aside at Jory, wondering what he thought about that.

[Jory Addison]

"I don't know much about the Bible or whatever, I just always assumed it was a different witchcraft. Maybe evil wizards or something," Jory said. "I mean, just because something's called the same name doesn't mean it's the same." He reached out to encourage Remiel to come to him for petting. He really didn't know much about religion.

[Hyacinth Duprel]

Hyacinth nodded. That was what he'd been telling himself. "We talked about many things." He brought his legs in, crossing them in front of himself, and gestured for Remiel to come, which she did in clumsy leaps. "I said that the magic, the witchcraft, is like Rhys is gay. The Church says that it is natural, and he is to be treated with kindness and respect, as all people are, but the acts are sin. The Church says that witchcraft is a sin, but this magic, it is natural. It is confusing, but it seems much the same." He caught up Remiel, who immediately began to purr.

[Jory Addison]

Gay was a topic they hadn't really talked about yet. It was nice, then, to hear that Hyacinth didn't think badly of it. "For the Catholic church to think being gay is natural, there's a whole lot of people that hate it," he said. He had never imagined Catholics wouldn't think there was something wrong with it. He looked down at his hands, which were oddly bare due to his possible dip into the lake.