InsaneJournal

Despite a short list of peculiarities, Ignatius nevertheless grew to be an ordinary society boy emulating his father in every way imaginable. From how he spoke to the way he insisted his mother dress him, it became rather obvious which of the two he favored. At nine years old, he was his father's spitting image, and that was a good thing, as it meant he was as polite and courteous as him, even to those who may have not deserved such behaviour. He was especially polite to his friends, or more specifically, his female friends.

The Prewetts had known the Bloxam family long enough to trust their child with them. Although their blood wasn't pure and their name not as distinguished as they might have liked, they knew their son enjoyed Evelyn's company, which seemed to be enough.

"Only a few more years until we get to go to Hogwarts like our siblings. Are you as excited as I am?"

"I don't know how excited you are," Evelyn answered seriously. She stood below one of the largest trees in her yard, looking up through the branches. After glancing behind her to see if anyone else was nearby, she placed one foot on a knot in the trunk before pushing herself up onto the lowest stable branch. "But I am not very excited," she said as she paused there for a moment, contemplating how (or whether) to get higher.

Ignatius watched from a safe distance. He kept his pale hands crossed comfortably behind his back, squinting whenever the sun managed to peek out from the clouds. He cleared his throat loudly like his father would whenever a situation became a little uncomfortable.

"Why are you not excited? Peregrine tells me lies about the ghosts that live there to scare me, but they are only lies."

"Because it is still a long time away and I like being here," she said. She found a way up to the next branch and then paused again. She wasn't in much of a rush to climb the tree. It had been a sudden idea bred out of boredom, and rushing it would simply bring the boredom back sooner.

"And Charles said it isn't exciting except at first," Evelyn added, looking down at Ignatius.

Stepping closer, Ignatius didn't stop until he was directly underneath her. He placed both hands flat against the tree and pressed his weight into the trunk, testing its strength. He didn't want the tree to fall over or something with her on it. The very idea made him nervous--nauseous even.

"Being away from home is why it would be exciting," he said. "It would be an adventure. You don't think the stories Peregrine tells are actually true, do you? That would be less exciting."

"Stop trying to make the tree move," Evelyn told him, ignoring his question about Hogwarts (she didn't know the answer) and glaring at him from what was now her third branch up. "You'll make me fall out or something, and then Vivien'll be angry and we'll have to stay inside with the baby," she continued, referring to her newly born half-brother, who she found very loud and red and inconvenient but would grudgingly admit some fondness for.

Ignatius quickly withdrew his hands and stepped away from the tree. He didn't want to be the cause of her death, should she indeed fall. He stuffed them into the pockets of his coat, but withdrew them from there as well, because if she did fall, he figured he would have to be the one to catch her.

Ignatius inhaled painfully slow before he spoke, watching her movements closely. "You should call your mother by her proper name."

"She isn't really my mother," she pointed out. "She just married Dad." She had decided to stay where she was for now, settling down on what seemed like the sturdiest part of the branch. She wasn't normally afraid of heights but that didn't mean she was comfortable getting very far from the ground.

"Do you want to come up? You can follow where I went," she asked, knowing he would likely refuse but asking out of politeness anyway.

"She is your mother now; she takes care of you--and no, I do not. And you would do well to come down yourself. It is not safe to climb so high and you will hurt yourself very badly," Ignatius replied haughtily, sounding very much like his father. He even put his hand on his hip while the other pointed at the ground angrily.

"Come down, Evelyn. Do it or I will tell."

"Tell who?" she asked, more out of genuine curiosity than as some sort of a challenge. "You'd have to leave me behind, and that seems less safe than you being there to catch me if I fall and I won't fall anyway. I've stopped moving so unless you push me somehow, I can't fall right now, and I don't think you'll push me because friends don't do that."

"What if the wind picks up? And there are birds and other filthy animals that live in trees like that," Ignatius' stomach began to churn just from looking up at her. He covered his eyes with his hand. "And I cannot catch you. You are too big for me. Evelyn, please. I can't look anymore."

"You just covered your eyes. You aren't looking anymore," she said, but nevertheless slid down a branch. She frowned at the next one down, the first one up from the ground, not quite sure how she had managed the space between the two. She glanced at the ground, wondering if she could simply drop from the branch to it. Her contemplation didn't last long before she did just that, landing not far from Ignatius.

"Come on," she said, pulling his hand down from his eyes. "I am thirsty and you look like you're going to fall over instead of me."

When Evelyn pulled his hand away from his eyes, Ignatius looked like he had almost begun to cry. He didn't like heights, and he hated trees even more. Evelyn was also a girl--climbing trees wasn't something she should have been doing in the first place. "You could have died. You must not treat things so lightly," Ignatius chastised, but followed her as she headed back towards the house.

"Also, you have tree things in your hair -- a twig." She stumbled slightly when she turned to face him as she walked, now backwards. "You should get rid of it or Vivien'll think you were climbing trees," she said with a smile.

Ignatius used both hands to try and remove the twig from his hair--he didn't want to get into trouble for climbing trees when he would never dream of doing such an unruly thing.