Friends? (Dare/Jory | Lawns)

[Dare Blackwood-Hardt]

It was far too cold for Dare's taste, but the dogs didn't have a care in the world as they trotted along beside him. There was no jogging just now, only a walk with broad steps, but he might let Elouai loose when they got closer to the lake. Hero would likely be content to sit and watch his adoptive sister romp.

[Jory Addison]

Jory wouldn't tell Hyacinth, but he was kind of glad his friend had been called away for a lesson and he hadn't needed to come up with a way to explain what had happened. He'd spent a bit of time in his apartment setting up things for the puppy, but soon enough it was time to take her out. The cold helped clear his head a little, though he wasn't in a much better mood.

It would have been hard to miss Dare with his two huge dogs even if Astra had ignored them. As it was, Jory was having to be firm with her to try to get her out of the habit of straining at her leash. For a moment he debated, then took a deep breath and approached Dare. Go hang out with the Blackwood-Hardts. Astra yipped in excitement as they got closer. "Hey," he said. "I couldn't stop her from dragging me over."

[Dare Blackwood-Hardt]

Dare's eyes brightened, both at Jory and at the ball of fluff attempting to haul him around. "Hey," he returned. "Who's your friend?" He gestured toward the puppy with a slight nod of the head, casually wrapping two leashes a bit tighter around his hand to keep his own dogs in line. They were friendly, but sometimes Elouai was overly friendly.

[Jory Addison]

"Astra," Jory said. "I went to Diagon Alley with Hyacinth today and found her at the pet store. I couldn't resist." He stopped just far enough away that the dogs could get acquainted without getting tangled together. "She's an Australian Shepherd, mostly. I could only handle having my apartment alone for so long, you know?" He attempted a smile but wasn't entirely sure how successful he was.

[Dare Blackwood-Hardt]

"Yeah," Dare said. "I know." He'd been living with other people and he'd still needed Elouai. He got the feeling that something was up with Jory, but didn't say anything just yet. There were people he'd call out as soon as he noticed, but Jory wasn't one of them. "You haven't met Hero, have you?" Not that anyone could miss him, he was huge. "He's a Burmese Mountain Dog. We picked him up from an animal rescue in London. You ever had a dog before?"

[Jory Addison]

"We had one back home when I was little, a lab mix, I think he had about every breed in him," Jory said, after shaking his head to the first question. He hadn't actually met the new dog. "He stayed outside mostly, though, so this is my first indoor dog." It was going to be an adventure, but he was very grateful he'd decided to get a dog rather than something smaller. At least for now.

[Dare Blackwood-Hardt]

"Get used to running outside," Dare said. He didn't know how Jory intended to house train a dog from inside the castle, but surely there was some magical solution to the problem. He and Elouai had done it the old-fashioned way, and Hero had come already trained.

"So what have you been up to?" It seemed like a good time to start heading toward whatever was bothering Jory so much, if Jory was up to talking about it. "You've been on staff for a while, but I don't see you around a lot."

[Jory Addison]

Jory wasn't too long of a walk from outside, and it wasn't like he had much else to focus his free time on other than training, so he wasn't really worried. "Yeah, I'm up in the Astronomy tower a lot," he said. "When I'm not there I'm in the library. I've been helping grade papers and stuff, but a lot of time I'm studying. I've been looking into like a divination/astronomy crossover thing, reading a lot of centaur studies." Thankfully, the species was much more accommodating to wizards than it used to be and was more willing to share its secrets.

[Dare Blackwood-Hardt]

"That's cool," Dare said. "So are you hoping Professor Pythia will let you work with her, or what? All the professors are so young now, it doesn't look like anyone will be leaving any time soon." Though he'd almost left, hadn't he? He'd given it until the end of term, until the end of summer, and just one more term until he'd ended up staying after all.

[Jory Addison]

"I doubt I'd be a good teacher," Jory said with a half smile. "I like working with the professors, though. Maybe I'll run a shop or something, I don't know." Right now he enjoyed learning still, there always seemed to be something else to figure out. "Are you and Michael going to be staying here a long time?" He wondered which was more common, for people to stay in one spot for a long time or to move on relatively often.

[Dare Blackwood-Hardt]

"Unless something happens, we're staying," Dare said. "Michael's got his dream job, he's got everything he wants, and if I decide I want to do art instead, I don't mind staying either." He'd love to just travel all over the world and see everything and do everything, but he'd chosen Michael over all that. Besides, maybe they'd do their traveling when the twins were older.

[Jory Addison]

"Maybe you can replace some of the portraits in the castle if you decide to do art," Jory said. "That Sir Cadogan guy is super annoying running around all over the place, and I'm pretty sure all the old ladies get together and gossip about students." He would about bet that there hadn't been any new art put in the castle for a couple of centuries. At least.

[Dare Blackwood-Hardt]

Dare chuckled. "I'm not that good," he said, "and I haven't done wizarding portraits yet, anyway." He'd been interested, but he'd never gotten around to it. Maybe when he had some savings again he'd find out where he could get the special paints.

"Sir Cadogen's not that bad anyway, once he figures out who's side you're on. Give him a few quests and he'll... well he won't chill out, but he'll leave you alone."

[Jory Addison]

"Send him on a quest to the dungeon," Jory said under his breath, then changed the subject again, mostly to keep his mind working. "What's it like having kids in the castle? There aren't any playgrounds or anything." He was pretty sure he'd never even seen the twins, just heard about them, but he knew enough from having a brother who was so much younger than he was that staying in the castle would get super boring.

[Dare Blackwood-Hardt]

"It's like having kids," Dare said. There wasn't any better way to put it. You never really knew until you'd done it. "So what's up with you? You can pretend I didn't say anything, but you look stressed." Did Jory really want to know what it was like having kids? Probably not enough for more than a couple funny stories.