✷ ✷ ✷ ɐılnɾ ✷ ✷ ✷ (hurlyburly) wrote in thedisplaced, @ 2018-02-23 13:26:00 |
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Entry tags: | !log/thread, julia wicker, percy weasley |
Who: Julia Wicker and Percy Weasley
What: "Cultural hobbit education"
Where: The Shire
When: Backdated: About an hour or so before this post.
Rating: Mild for drug use
Julia might have felt a little guilty about taking Percy away from his girlfriend if she’d known what he meant when he referred to Zelda. All she’d focused on was the word mother and combined with her knowledge of the books, she felt kind of bad for him. The hedge witch had no idea what to expect when they agreed to meet up at The Green Dragon in the Shire. Only she should have expected the smaller door frames that she had to duck through, the shorter chairs and tables that were not quite comfortable, and the smaller steins of beer that would keep her from getting drunk. The locals were friendly though, and didn’t look twice at her black, modern attire. Perhaps it had to do with Julia’s ability to pay well. Maybe she should have rented some hobbit clothing and gone native after all. Julia tried, and failed, to remember the details of the Harry Potter books. It had been a while, if she was being honest, and she didn’t read and reread them like she had the Fillory books. Perhaps she’d been a little bit like a twelve year old hipster, preferring the less known older classics to the newer more mainstream fantasy books. What she did remember was that Percy was Head Boy and maybe a little preoccupied with following rules. She hadn’t remembered his role at all in the later books. Maybe that was for the best. Julia had gone into the Shire early to seek out hobbit weed and a couple of pipes. It hadn’t taken her long at all to find and purchase, but at least she wasn’t late. When in Rome, right? Percy seemed like the type that could maybe learn to relax. (Maybe she could, too.) There was something about the rustic atmosphere of the Shire that reminded Percy of his childhood, growing up in the Burrow. Simple, straightforward and (usually) friendly people, living a simple life on the land. Percy was both charmed, and surprisingly unsettled. He liked to think he’d put his past behind him and had moved on, but instances such as these made him realize this wasn’t the case. Percy hadn’t really thought about it, but besides Zelda, he didn’t really have any friends among the Displaced. Family members didn’t count, and Luna he’d known from childhood but she wasn’t exactly his friend in the conventional sense that meant they hung out and had fun together. That didn’t bother Percy very much - he really only had two close friends back home, Oliver and Penny, and that was fine. He wasn’t the sort that needed a whole group of people around him to validate his worth, he was more accustomed to people assuming and misjudging him since Hogwarts. So you could say his main motivation in meeting Julia was sympathy - when she told him that all her friends were dating and she felt like the third wheel, Percy knew exactly what she meant. It would be a shame if the only reason why she stayed on the trip was because she didn’t have anybody to join her, so he’d volunteered, neglecting to mention that he was dating Zelda. After asking around, Percy located the Green Dragon and went inside. It wasn’t difficult to locate Julia, she stuck out head over shoulders among the rest of the local patrons. He strode right over with a smile and a friendly greeting, “Hello! Julia?” “Hey!” Julia saw the first three movies and stopped after that. Part of her was thankful Percy didn’t look like his cinematic counterpart, but he looked just as she imagined, just as he was described in the books, if not a little older. And though she would never admit it, part of her had asked him to spend time with her because maybe she felt a little sorry for him. Just a little. And maybe because she wasn’t entirely over the idea of meeting people from Harry Fucking Potter. “Thanks for coming,” she said. Julia’s smile didn’t quite manage to light up her face fully. Like most of the Displaced, she wasn’t unattractive, but perhaps her distinguishing feature was her sad, sleepy eyes and an elegant, pronounced nose. “Are you hungry? Their beers are tiny, uh, the seating kinda is, too. We could go take a walk around if you wanted first?” She was relieved that unlike the magical land of Fillory in the beloved books of her childhood, that The Shire and Middle Earth wasn’t darker than it had appeared in the books and media. If anything, it was actually a little more touristy. Percy noted Julia’s weak smile and as somebody with low self esteem, wondered if it had anything to do with him, personally. He shook it off, and warmly smiled back, perhaps overcompensating a little. “It’s my pleasure, really! I wanted to see the inside of the Green Dragon, anyway.” He gave the place a quick look around. “Actually, in many ways, it resembles the Leaky Cauldron back home.” It was grounding, in a positive way. He noticed the small size of the Hobbit mugs, and his eyebrows rose, humorously - they were the perfect size for children, but that didn’t stop him from wanting to take one home. He idly wondered if there was a gift shop, when Julia finished her train of thought. It sounded like Julia would rather get up and stretch her legs, so even though Percy would’ve liked to have stayed, he told her, “A walk around the village sounds delightful. The weather is perfect for it. And then we can have a drink, when we return.” He was sweet and, the mention of the Leaky Cauldron tugged at her heart strings a little. “I know I should be more excited to be in Middle Earth, but honestly I’d rather see Hogwarts or try butterbeer.” She smiled sympathetically. “You must miss it.” Julia didn’t have the same feelings about her own world, or even Fillory. She worried about her friends, Quentin’s friends if she were being honest, and the state of her world without magic. But those worlds themselves? Not really. Maybe she should have asked him if he knew about the books first, but Petunia and the others seemed very aware by now. It wasn’t her smartest assumption, but then Julia was a little distracted. She walked with him from the tavern, but despite being barely over five-feet tall, she was still careful to duck her head in the doorways as they left. The Shire was green and lovely, though maybe it was the lack of trace elements of opium in the air, it was not quite as lovely as Fillory. Percy hadn’t anticipated Julia’s expression of desire to see the Wizarding World. Having grown up in it, he never thought too much about it - only after being dragged away to another universe did Percy realize he wouldn’t take it for granted again. “I do,” he confessed. “In the past, I’ve always had some exposure to the Muggle world, either through my father’s obsession with them, or Muggle studies at school, or work related business, or through my Muggleborn friends, like Penny. I never thought I’d be living among them…” but he quickly added, “No offense.” He smiled awkwardly and continued. “I heard that there’s a Muggle amusement park somewhere that’s recreated Hogwarts, Hogsmeade, and Diagon Alley, and I’ve been tempted to go see, because yes…. I miss my home something terrible.” “Oh,” Julia blinked with surprise. “I’m not a muggle. But I wouldn’t have been offended if I was?” She smiled apologetically to him. “I’m a hedgewitch? I guess. Where I come from, people don’t learn magic until later in life. We have a school, Brakebills, but not everyone with magical talent gets in. They kind of rejected me.” And if Julia were being honest, that still hurt. It was just a smaller shame than everything else she’d been through since then. “People who are schooled are considered classically trained magicians, and people who learned anyway that they could, like me, are called hedgewitches.” She shrugged. “We don’t use wands. We sort of conduct the energy ourselves? It’s more dangerous but, it’s more flexible, too.” Julia brought her hands out in front of her and began an intricate sort of dance with her fingers, folding and unfolding and moving them until she created a small sparkle of light that hovered just above her fingertips and held it there for him to examine. “Not a Muggle?” This revelation surprised Percy, but he listened through her explanation, not liking what he heard at all. “They didn’t accept you at their magical school?” he exclaimed, offended by the thought and defensive for her saket. It was lucky that there weren’t any Hobbits around to eavesdrop on their conversation. “Why, every witch or wizard is accepted at Hogwarts, and even being expelled is a rare thing! Doesn’t your world know the dangers of not teaching somebody how to use their magic properly? In the worst case, they may become Obscurial!” He turned to Julia, sympathetically, “I’m sorry to hear what happened to you. At least you were able to learn something. Wands are just a conduit of magic, anyway, so the fact you can cast spells without one shows you’ve got incredible focus and willpower. Why, there are some wizards in my world that go their whole lives without being able to do wandless magic!” Percy looked carefully at Julia’s sparkle of light - it rather reminded him of the Lumos spell - and then asked, “What sort of other spells are you able to do?” Julia shook out her fingers and the light dissipated. “Yeah, kinda makes me feel like I was born on the wrong world.” The hedgewitch smiled at him, but it didn’t quite reach her eyes. Maybe he was beginning to see why, because it certainly wasn’t due to his company. “We don’t have patronuses, but we don’t have dementors, either. I made a sort of miniature time turner once? We called it the quarterback because it could rewind time fifteen seconds. I mean, the spell effect was miniature, the device was actually kinda huge.” Julia shrugged modestly. “I don’t really know what an Obscurial is? Where I’m from, magic users have to be careful about the level of power they channel. Bigger spells always require more than one person. If we try to do something too big on our own it sort of magically burns us alive? It’s called a niffin, sort of like a ghost, but different. Meaner and made purely of magical energy. My friend Quentin and I figured out how to reverse it once, but it kinda required a trip to the Underworld and I don’t think we’ll get away with that again.” Percy could certainly empathize with how Julia felt - he’d probably feel the exact same way if placed under those circumstances, on the outside, looking in so to speak. Obviously Julia knew something of Percy’s Wizarding World - he suspected she was a fan of the books or the movie, or maybe even both, but there were some details she still didn’t know. “An Obscurial is what happens if a witch or wizard tries to suppress their magical ability. A parasite develops inside them that feeds on their strong emotions or distress, and can take them over. It’s very destructive. It happens very rarely nowadays, which is a positive sign.” He gave her a curious look. “Quentin. He’s here with us, isn’t he? I remember reading the name before on the network. It’s interesting that you were able to perform such a bigger spell with somebody else, being a hedgewitch. It rather sounds like you have some skill, after all. Pity your school didn’t recognize that.” A pause. “What was the Underworld like?” “Yeah. Q is here. Eliot, Margo, Penny, Alice, Kady… they’re all from my world. I, uh, sort of was supposed to go to Brakebills. At least I did in thirty-nine other timelines. It’s kind of a long story.” It was kind of Julia’s whole story. She wondered how different she was in those other timelines more often than she liked. “The Underworld wasn’t so bad. It was pretty mundane, actually. We had to find a dragon and offer it an enchanted button. It let us go into the Underworld for twenty-four hours.” Another long story. Julia looked around. They were more or less secluded. “It sort of looked like a muggle waiting room at a government building. Have you ever been to an American DMV? That was the first part. Then your soul is placed in these pocket worlds before it’s ready to move on to whatever comes next. My friends were there in a bowling alley. Oh, and we went to Elysium, and got to see inside of Hades’ and Persephone’s house. It was nice. We didn’t have a lot of time to do any sightseeing, but it wasn’t bad.” Julia had a small bag with her and produced a tin of hobbit weed labeled Southern Star and two pipes. “So… I was thinking while we were here we could try out some of the local offerings? I always wondered what this stuff was like or what it was exactly. You in? Do you smoke? I got you a pipe as a commemorative thank you gift for coming out with me.” Julia offered him a brighter expression, this time it did manage to find its way to her eyes which may or may not have been a little mischievous. “I don’t know what this Dee Em Vee is, but what you’re describing sounds less like the afterlife, and more like the Ministry of Magic.” And Percy knew, because he’d been working in a bureaucracy since he finished Hogwarts. “Except for the dragon part, that is. Getting into the Ministry is a little more easier than that. For some reason, what you described sounds so odd, I can only imagine it as if it were a cartoon, like the Adventures of Martin Miggs, the Mad Muggle comics that my brothers and I would read while growing up. A colorful dragon with silly proportions, handing over a button to wear that transports you like a Portkey into a Ministry office.” Percy smirked to himself at the thought. “You ought to tell my brother about the dragon, Charlie. He’d be interested to know.” Percy stared at the bag, not recognizing it at first, but then a glance at the pipes made him understand. Scandalized, Percy gasped, “Isn’t that a narcotic? Besides, I’ve never smoked before!” “No?” Julia said. Her face wasn’t so certain while she puzzled that one out. “Actually, I have no idea. But, I have a lot of friends that are smokers so I figured we should try it out and see if any of these are actually tobacco. Plus we’re in the Shire and… think of it as educational? Hobbit culture?” Julia waved the pipe she bought for him. Bought was a generous term, it hadn’t really cost her anything. “I got you a pipe?” Though her look said please, she softened her stance just a little. “If you don’t want to, you don’t have to. No judgement. But… we are in the Shire. How many times are you going to get this opportunity?” Huffing out of indignation, he initially turned his face away, but after a moment, glanced at her out of the corner of his eye. He hated to admit it, but he was a little curious. And it couldn’t be as bad as getting drunk, could it? He held out for one more stubborn moment, then carefully suggested, “Maybe if you smoked, and you blew some of it in my direction?” Julia smiled, but rather than agree to his request, she said, “Let’s find somewhere comfortable to sit.” There were plenty of green little hills to watch the comings and goings of the Shire, though it took a little longer to find a spot that wasn’t actually the roof of someone’s home and would afford them a small amount of privacy. Julia set out her supplies, packed one of the pipes with a leaf the locals called Southern Star and when everything was set and they were comfortable, she started with a gentle: “Watch how I do it, then you can try if you want.” With a quick flick of her fingers, Julia’s index finger held a flame to light the pipe with and smoke. The smoke was sweet and thick like honey, rolling down her throat. She held her breath for a moment, brought her hand to her lips and cast another spell before exhaling, creating a star shaped smoke ring, before reaching out to flick the smoke ring which divided into more stars before they faded away. Her eyes met Percy and she grinned. “Okay, don’t worry about the smoke ring. Just inhale a little if you want slowly and exhale.” The pipe was offered. He only had to take it. Wandless magic wasn’t anything new to Percy, so to watch Julia light the pipe with nothing but her hands was not a surprise, however the smoke stars was something delightful that he’d never seen before. “Oh! How fun!’ If there was a comparable spell in his universe, Percy didn’t know it, but then again Percy didn’t smoke, so it wouldn’t have been something he’d be keen to learn. Poor Percy always had a bit of a problem with peer pressure, though he’d gotten better with it in recent years. Julia was his new friend and he enjoyed her company, so when she offered him the pipe, he frowned at it, but carefully took it from her despite his initial protests. He held the bowl up to his nose to give a little sniff and found it wasn’t offensive. Finally, he shot a wary glance Julia’s way before putting the pipe in his mouth and inhaling… a little like she instructed. And immediately started coughing. Julia patted his back with a smile. “Everybody coughs the first time. It kinda takes some getting used to.” Gingerly, she took the pipe back from him so he could recover as she took another drag from the pipe. This time, she didn’t make a smoke ring, exhaling it away from Percy’s face. It wasn’t so bad, or so strong. For the first two hits it was just kind of nice. Like a favorite blanket and cup of soup on a rainy day. Julia handed him the pipe to try again. “It’ll be easier this time. Don’t breathe in too deeply or too quickly until you get used to it.” Maybe it would change once they had smoked more, but her initial impression was that it was pretty mellow. Which made sense for hobbits, they were small for one, and secondly, pretty mellow. “I don’t want this to become a habit,” Percy warned, still not pleased by his first reaction to the smoke, but he still received the pipe from her. Oh, what would his mother think if she found out?! Then again, a part of Percy secretly delighted in the fact that he was ‘being bad’, which is why he took another drag. Again, he coughed, but not as bad as before. “This isn’t like a regular thing for me, either,” Julia insisted, though she may have been smiling. Whether it was the weed making her lips curl or the insanity of getting high with Percy Weasley in the Shire was anyone’s guess. “It’s educational,” she insisted. “Cultural hobbit education.” She took her turn, taking another drag on the pipe, this time handing it back to Percy without thinking. “Would it be weird if I asked to hold your wand?” “Hrm,” was Percy’s only response. Cultural Hobbit education, indeed. It rather sounded like something Fred and George would say for an excuse to do something mischievous, but for some reason, that thought really didn’t disturb Percy right now. In fact, he found his mood elevated. So that when Julia asked for his wand, Percy suddenly burst out with an explosive laugh. He found it ridiculously funny, only because he was thinking of the euphemism ‘wand’ suggested. He covered his grin with his mouth, then said, “Sorry, sorry. It’s just… never mind. Yes, you can touch my wand.” Holding back a snicker, he reached into his pocket and pulled it out, handing it over to her in exchange for the pipe. Julia’s face turned a little hot as she grinned, “Shut up, Percy.” He didn’t have to say it, she knew what he was thinking, which just made it that much harder to keep a straight face. Once he had the pipe, she laid both of her hands out flat with the palms up. It was a respectful gesture, meant to indicate she wouldn’t try anything stupid with it once he handed it over. But the moment it touched her skin, the initial reaction was like a slight chill. Her fingers curled in loosely around it, and her eyes closed. She felt it. The magic inherit to the wand. It was unlike the large, bulky thing she’d handled back in Loria with the illusion wizard. This was… “Wow.” Julia didn’t quite have the words. Her eyes opened, a little by force and she handed it back to him. “So, what’s it made of?” she asked. “Cedar, 12 and a half inches, dragon heartstring core,” Percy recited, watching Julia while holding the pipe in between his teeth in a smile, smoke curling around his face. “Here. Let me show you something.” He suddenly leaned forward and snagged the wand away from her hands, setting the pipe down on the grass between them.. “Try this,” he said. “Now you’ve got to concentrate, alright? Not now, don’t concentrate now. Later, when you give it a go. Just… concentrate on what I’m showing you. The wand movement is simple enough, just lift your wand upwards like this.” He demonstrated once, then a second time, “Got it? And the incantation is Periculum. Puh- RIK-you-lum. Say it just like that. Then together.” Percy lifted his wand to the sky. “Periculum!” A shower of bright red sparks leapt from the tip of his wand, and then Percy handed it back to Julia. Now you try.” Percy wasn’t sure if his universe’s magic would work with somebody from somewhere else, but something about that Hobbit leaf that made him giddy with hope that it would. “I am definitely not trying that while we’re smoking,” Julia grinned. “I don’t even know if I can turn off casting with my hands. That just seems like a recipe for disaster.” But she didn’t stop grinning at him. The fact that he was willing to let her try, the chance that she might be able to cast a spell from a children’s book, fascinated her. (The Fillory books didn’t have any actual magical spells in them, as far as she knew, but the Harry Potter books had some pretty explicit instructions.) “You cast wandlessly?” Julia asked him, pausing to consider if wandlessly was a word or not. “You mentioned it earlier.” Taking the pipe, Julia finished it, before emptying out the ash and repacking it with more hobbit leaf because that somehow seemed like a good idea at the time. “Hrm,” came Percy’s first affirmative reply, but followed by, “Yes, yes I can. But only simple spells. Trickier, more complicated ones, I don’t do well at.” The Southern Star was having its effect on making Percy relaxed, because usually he wouldn’t be so open talking about not being able to do well, especially with near strangers. “Well,” Julia said, passing the pipe back to him. “When we’re not high, you can teach me how to use a wand, and I’ll teach you how I cast without a wand.” Her face was straight for a few moments when her head lulled slightly to look at him. If she hadn’t been high, it might have been a different story. His red hair might have set her off, she wouldn’t have felt so unguarded. But she hadn’t had a single flashback once they started smoking, and she didn’t feel in danger of one. She felt mostly safe. It wasn’t a feeling that came often. So she laughed. Not at Percy, of course. She laughed because she felt legitimately, spontaneously happy. And perhaps because what they were doing was absurd. But it was worth it. Julia would hold onto this memory forever. |