Creepy Meetings

[Shava]

Darius picked up the pair of sheers with the rusty blade edge to return to the Groundskeeper. From a distance the red rusty edge looked very much like blood, but that merely amused Darius. He could tell even from a distance it didn't have a correct blood splatter pattern and was something else. Not that most people would have been able to. He had borrowed them for an assignment and had spent a bit of time sharpening them for the Groundskeeper in return in thanks. While some people might suspect him of actually using them in a violent manner, it just wasn't his nature.

If he wanted to get someone he would never be so unprofessional or stupid as to give them a chance to either see him coming or in fighting back. How silly!

Stepping outside the front door, he breathed in the air for a moment enjoy the cold crispness of the early day just barely lightening up as the sun rose out there somewhere. One would be hard pressed to see it however as the cold fog this morning hid things even a few feet away making visibility hard at best. However the path was still easy to follow so Darius began walking if slower then normal, his head turning back and forth as he walked looking for the familiar markers along the path to let him know he was headed the right way.

If you had pointed out to him that he looked a bit eerie in the thick fog, carrying those large bladed things over his shoulder and walking slowly as if looking for something he dropped, he wouldn't have been able to understand you. Why, he knew garden sheers were a tool, not a murder weapon and they were too old to be of much use unless one wanted lead poisoning. Which he in fact had a recipe for which he might have scraped off some of the rust while sharpening since he had them anyway-- but his brother had warned him long ago not to tell people things like that. Brier as well had spoken to him about being too honest about certain subjects.

Thus he didn't think of pushing his sweatshirt hood back uncovering his head...

@emblyn

[Shava]

]

Emblyn had to go far to get time for herself. Her friends were annoyingly smothering sometimes, and besides that, she had a lot to hide. Her closest friends knew little about her real life, or what she was thinking. Sometimes, even she forgot who she was. The early morning and the late hours of night were the only times that Emblyn felt entirely like she could dwell on her thoughts... Well, then and around a certain acquaintance that was both infuriating at times and incredibly difficult not to be herself around. 

She found herself a place on the grounds, sitting on a heavy blanket. She hadn't felt that sneaky carrying that out, but now, she felt perfectly relaxed. The morning darkness disguised her as well as anything else. She held a letter in her hands, one that she'd read through several times with mounting rage.

Her parents were considering a contract with a boy that she didn't even know. She knew of the Silver-Moon family, of course, everyone did. That didn't mean that she knew the boy well enough to have a strong opinion about marrying him. Except... She didn't want to marry anyone, at least not if she didn't get to make the decision herself. She thought about his face, and how hard it was to read. Since she'd first got the letter of potential matches, his name first on the list, she'd been paying more attention to him in school, trying to figure him out. Usually she was good at figuring others out, since her own mask was so carefully constructed.

Suddenly, she saw a shape in the distance, growing nearer. She stared, her eyebrow raising at first, then both her eyes widening. It was like something out of a scary story, she thought. A man wielding a sharp weapon seemingly coming toward her?

She had to calm herself down. After all, there was a good chance that she saw him before he saw her. No one expected to see someone down on the ground, and they were still rather far from each other. She pulled her wand out and pointed it toward him, the end of the wand lighting up and illuminating his form. “What exactly do you think you're doing with that?!” she demanded, as though she knew more about the situation than she did. At first she thought the face was her imagination because of what she'd been thinking about, but then... It wasn't fading away. Darius Silver-Moon, her own personal mystery lurking before her, apparently a homicidal maniac. Just her luck.

@shava44444

[Shava]

Unaware of the volatile situation he was on the edge of, Darius continued down the path with the freshly sharpened sheers watching for the path edges in the thick fog, sure he was headed in the right direction for the groundskeeper's cottage. It was, therefore, a surprise to be lit with a wand suddenly from out of the fog at the same time a voice challenged him to his consternation and bewilderment. Not quite rearing back, he stopped, an arm up against the light in his face as he judged the voice he did not know. "Carrying them, of course."

Probably not right to assume she meant the sheers, but he wasn't carrying anything else at the moment so it was safe enough.

"Besides, the path only goes one way." He pulled them off his shoulders and opened and shut them twice rapidly, the clean 'snick' sound clear in the area around that they were sharp and well used. He didn't see that as intimidating, naturally. "You do use them in the outdoors and I am headed for the cottage. Isn't it obvious?" To make sure she could see them (and to get close enough to make a guess at identity), Darius walked directly to her off the path, sheers slightly open and down-turned as if ready to use.

"Here, see? Nothing odd about that. Nothing threatening either, unless you are a willy vine trying to get into the garden where you shouldn't be of course." Which was probably the only part of gardening he found really satisfying, the destruction of weeds. The rest of Herbology he could handle, but took no great delight in really. It was important, he understood why, and his many poisons needed many of the things grown that way. That didn't mean he felt joy in it.

@emblyn

[Shava]

Emblyn wondered if she had just jumped to conclusions. He did look genuinely confused as to why she was suddenly in his face about things. It made her feel like an idiot, losing her cool like that... “Well, I knew that part.” She almost put away her wand when he pulled the shears from his shoulders and opened and closed them in succession. Was she being threatened after all?! She noticeably jumped at the sound, keeping her wand aimed at him. “Why at this time of morning? What sort of gardening do you possibly have to do?”

He stepped forward, she moved backward, and practically sprained her ankle in the process. Before they were even married, she was going to be a skin for this madman's living room floor. She'd heard things about Darius, some pretty nasty things, but had always assumed those were just stupid rumors. Now it made sense why people thought that there was something just a little off about him. 'A little'... Ha!

“You don't think that there is anything odd about wandering the school grounds before the sun comes up carrying rusty shears? How about you look like a murderous lunatic?” Emblyn could totally see this happening in one of her books. Only, by the next chapter, she'd be the body that they found in the lake. Deciding not to be a complete coward before her death she stepped forward and pushed the shears downward. “Can you please stop pointing those at me?”

[Shava]

She wavered in her reaction to his straight forward answer (which seemed obvious to him at least, but apparently not to others). Although detail in the fog wasn't the best, he did give her an odd look, wondering what was making her so uptight. He could recognize her face now, though he knew her not. At her further nerves and demanding to know his business, he tilted his head on one side looking at her as if she was the most curious specimen he had ever seen. Not the most wonderful thing to see focused on you when you were already weirded out. "Returning them. To the Groundskeeper? I wanted to do it before class..."

Goodness, go out to run an errand and get accused of all kinds of things! He tried to explain farther. "I needed to borrow them for a potion I was working on as a special assignment. Once I finished with them I sharpened them as thanks before returning them, you see. I was just on my way to put them where I was told..." He snipped again just to underline how sharp they were, though he wasn't pointing them at her this time. The perfectly innocent look on his face showed he had no idea why she was over reacting.

She nearly fell over and he saw her balanced on her ankle a moment. "Are you all right? Don't hurt yourself." He was a skilled healer-in-training, not that he thought he would carry that training all the way and he wasn't going to volunteer to check her ankle; the idea of it made his skin crawl, touching someone like that. Far too personal unless one saw them as a subject only. "Oh no, you couldn't use these to murder someone," he chuckled dryly, "Not sharp enough by far and you couldn't even get enough lever force on the handles to do anything but cut a finger off."

Darius seemed amused though his smile was never much with strangers. "No, I'd never consider murder by garden implements, though the hoe or a hatchet might work if you have the arm muscles for it. Far too violent for my tastes." He saw nothing wrong with his phrasing, though he hadn't said he wouldn't murder, just that the style was wrong. She pushed the sheers down and he frowned, thinking her a very forward person and swung them up onto his shoulder, one handed. "There, that better?"

@emblyn

[Shava]

The explanation that he wanted to return the instrument before class made entirely too much sense for what she'd seen so far. When he went on to explain that he sharpened them back up for the groundskeeper, she suddenly felt a little bit guilty for making assumptions. Of course, one had to recognize what others would think about what you were doing before you did it. A lot of people didn't quite understand how the rumor circle worked, though, and from what she'd heard about Darius... Maybe he didn't even know what people said. She sighed a little bit, resigned to the fact that she was probably just guilty of being a b*tch again.

She had to get some points for not freaking out when he snipped the shears again, especially because they were newly sharpened. She decided to take him at his word as her heart rate slowed. She sat back on the blanket, tentatively stretching her leg to make sure that her foot was going to be alright. “At the time it seemed like a good idea. A sprained ankle is a lot better than being decapitated.” Now she was just being dramatic, because she doubted garden shears could do that. She cringed slightly but figured her ankle wasn't in too bad of shape. “You gather ingredients for potions? Why not just buy them?” She asked it just to seem more casual, though there were a lot of good reasons to be hunting down one's own ingredients...

Emblyn just stared at him as he claimed that you couldn't murder someone. “Are you sure? I bet with enough force you could drive it into someone's chest like a stake. You know, like a pair of scissors. Plus a cut might mean a slow death by tetanus.” Now she sounded a little bit crazy. But it was true... Especially garden shears, which she doubted could always avoid touching contaminated areas. He said that he wouldn't kill someone with garden implements but never said that he wouldn't kill at all, prompting a 'wtf' kind of expression from Emblyn. “But a potion might suit you just fine,” she suggested.

Shears tucked away, he didn't look that threatening. Besides that, the sun was just a little higher than it had been when she first saw him. “You're Darius, right? Silver-Moon Darius?” It was kind of backwards to call him that, but she knew that everyone knew of his family, and he was just one of the clan. “I... I'm Emblyn. Thorburn... Maybe I should walk with you the rest of the way. An adult sees you walking like that alone and creepy, you might have to contend with more than light in your eyes.”

[Shava]

He made a look of disbelief at her then the sheers. "you know physically that's just not possible?"
And then a questioning look at her as if wondering what she had been thinking. "Not to mention messy and noisy. Heck, the nurse told me about a hand wound she had to work on once and it made a mess, and now you are talking about a major artery?" he shook his head at the knowledge some people had. Maybe that was why Vincent said so many people who killed were caught if they thought of murder that way.

A raised eyebrow. "Well they are expensive first off some of them and who can say they were gathered correctly? Plus, and this is particularly important, the best ones are always the ones you gather because you control how potent they are and when they are used. And I am placed two years ahead of my level with potions so I would like to say I know what i am talking about." And he was, well on his way to Master class in potions and poisons. She spoke about forcing them into someone's chest and he made a face of disgust.

"Even louder, the nurse said sucking chest wounds are a sound from nightmares. Besides, you would have to be really strong and the victim would have to be standing nicely still for you to aim right. Whose going to do that?" No, murder was a messy business unless one approached it correctly. However she had a point about the tetanus. "Now that has happened accidentally before I'm sure tons of times so yeah that I could see. But it's not as much rust, believe it or not, but more in manure."

His head went over on one side slightly. "Hmm let's see, less mess, no screaming, no trouble, just slip it in a drink? Yes, that sounds much more logical, wouldn't you say?" Odd he would find someone willing to talk about the reason in murder! He'd have to tell Brier about this conversation later. "Not exactly. We have two last names in our family and I have the second type. My brother is the only Silver-Moon male, I'm one of several Silvers. It's confusing to a lot of people." he shrugged knowing that was certainly true enough.

"Thorburn? Where's that from?" Interesting name. He thought it nice enough of her to try and keep him from trouble. "If you want, sure come along. Were you having a picnic in the dark?" He looked at the blanket with some confusion about what she had been doing.

@emblyn

[Shava]

Emblyn couldn't help but crack a smile. “Of course I know that it's not possible. I guess I just wanted to see what you would say,” she admitted. Although she was still a little hesitant, and yes, still just a little scared of him, she was also interested. She smirked and raised her eyebrows a little bit. “If you really want to take care of someone, I doubt that you're going to care as much about the mess. Are you one of those Slytherins that takes fashion very seriously?” she asked. She was... not any different. She wasn't a Slytherin but she was a high-class pureblood and so expected to maintain her looks.

She almost rolled her eyes at what sounded like bragging, but reminded herself that she wasn't completely in the clear yet. “Well, I guess that makes sense if you know what you're doing. I'm surprised that they let you just go and collect your own, though, seeing how expensive they are. Are you thinking about going into a career in potions?” She remembered that some people had been brave enough to try to steal from the potions professors over the years. (Since Snape wasn't one of them it was probably less of a risk!)

“The victim wouldn't have to be standing still for you to aim. We're not muggles, we have wands. We could just immobilize them.” If someone was going to kill, that made more sense than the killing curse which was so easy to trace. If she was ever going to do it (hypothetically of course) she would mix magic with non-magic methods. “I know that rust isn't where tetanus comes from. But gardening shears have more contact with the soil and manure than most metal objects, right? It could still happen.”

Emblyn giggled, surprised she was kind of enjoying this conversation. “Definitely. But you would have to make sure no one saw you hauling around garden shears collecting your ingredients first.” She was confused by the naming scheme. “There aren't any siblings with the last name 'Moon'? How come? That seems kind of sexist.” Though she was really just assuming that Silver was his father's last name. For all she knew, Silver was the mother. Wasn't their mother Lindsey Moon, though? She knew that name... Hm...

“I think some of my relatives are from Norway,” she said with a shrug, not entirely sure herself. Like most people these days she was something of a mutt, and couldn't trace her exact origin. She looked at the blanket, debating on even taking it with them. Maybe she'd leave it for now because she didn't think anyone would take it. No great loss anyway. “Huh? No... A picnic by myself? I'm not that pathetic. I was just... I don't have a good explanation.”

[Shava]

She was testing him? Or just curious where he stood on the subject? Was she contemplating a murder herself? "That's one way to find out for certain." She spoke about the mess and 'taking care of someone.' that made him hesitate. "I would imagine the phrase 'take care of someone' is not exactly appropriate when talking about murder versus healing information, but they ought to consider the mess." An odd look her way, although he was wearing nice enough clothes. "Fashion? I assumed we were speaking of evidence."

Who thought about how they looked during a murder beyond getting away with it so disguising ones identity? "Again, one potion or poison solves this entire discussion really. Much less evidence to work with and no mess to deal with. Fashion I'm not sure really enters into it much during a murder." A nod at her surprise. "Private lessons. I think they want to see how well I do at collection as well. And I am seriously considering a life of experimental potions. It sounds rather exciting actually and there are not many people willing to put in the effort for the challenge." Plus people thought it boring.

They clearly hadn't thought about exploding flagstones and melting houses much.

He shrugged as if the use of magic was only part of the solution, but didn't argue the point. "magic leaves behind trace evidence as well, but I guess it depends on how careful one is being. Still, the arm strength is important." As would be the anger. That was definitely a personal and angry way o deal with someone, not Darius' style at all. "Oh it's possible, certainly, just not likely. you'd be better off going and getting the resulting tetanus, isolate it, and apply it to something before using it to attack the victim I guess, or put it in something that would be near a cut on their skin."

Mentally he made a note to think about some methods that might work with. He softly smiled thinly. "Well yes, that goes without saying if one was planning something sneaky." He hesitated. "There is I think, but it was a secret till recently for reasons I do not know. Legally my oldest brother is a Moon, but he's gone by Silver-Moon all his life.My oldest sister is a Silver-Moon still. I'm not completely sure why the change was made." Norway? Hmm, interesting. "I don't know anyone from Norway I think."

His eyes went over the blanket. "Wait, a picnic by oneself would be bad? Why? What if one can't find someone who wants to go but it's a beautiful day for it and you have food? Waste otherwise." If not a picnic what had she been doing? His curiosity was peeked now.

@emblyn

[Shava]

It seemed for the moment that she had him just as uncertain as he'd made her feel, and that was a small victory in Emblyn's mind. She hadn't expected to run across someone so entertaining this early in the morning. She busted out laughing when he didn't quite seem to get what she meant. “It is the opposite... It's rather like taking care of a problem, not like taking care of a sick person.” Emblyn couldn't believe that she was talking so candidly about murder, but as they were the only people around, she didn't mind too much.

“You do have a point. You don't want to make too much of a mess, unless you don't care about being caught. These days it's hard to get away with anything... especially after the war.” People had gotten more paranoid since the war, and it was not a surprise. “I simply meant that you wouldn't want to get anything on your clothes, but... Well, the potion idea works well enough. I still think that one would be able to track down the murderer anyway with a little work. There are only so many people who are good enough at potions to know the best ones for... that sort of thing. And if you're possibly going into a career with potions, you'll be among the first that they look at.” A pause. “Not that I think you're really going to kill someone.” That had been her opinion before, for sure!

Emblyn thought about it. She didn't think that she had it in her to hurt someone... at least, not seriously. “You know, I never thought about all of this before. It might come in useful in my role as a new wife.” This was a very dark joke considering Darius was who she thought her future husband might be, but she wasn't actually thinking about that part. She was imagining herself chained to a disgusting older pureblood or something. Still, it reminded her about the Darius thing.

She looked surprised when Darius smiled about the whole sneaky issue. For some reason, seeing a smile there made her smile a bit more, even though she was well aware that this was the strangest conversation she'd been in in a very long time... However, it was probably the most interesting, too. Not about the school's gossip, who was dating who, or even the 'important' things like what she was going to do with her future. No, it was (she hoped) all purely hypothetical weirdness.

“Is he planning on changing his name now that he's older, or no?” she asked with a slight tilt of the head. If his brother was older, she was assuming that he was out of school or near enough. She giggled because honestly, she didn't know anyone from Norway. “Well, that makes two of us. My father has talked about trips like that, but...” She trailed off. She was going to say that they didn't really have the money for that, but it was something her parents wanted kept secret. A huge part of why they wanted her married off to someone rich was to help their own fortune. Of course, Emblyn being Emblyn, she went out and said it anyway, as a personal form of rebellion. “They're pretty broke.”

“I... haven't thought of that before.” A picnic to herself would be something like paradise, actually, since most of the people that she hung out with were annoying. She imagined for just a second what a picnic with Conall would be like... He was quiet, but was rather uptight. She erased the image from her head. “Maybe I'll have to try it sometime. Shall we go?” She kind of hoped he'd just drop the whole wondering what the Hell she was doing alone with a blanket thing.

[Shava]

A nod as she laughed, explaining further. "I guess studying healing has got my mind angled more towards the second," he admitted. She spoke about the war having made things more difficult and he was about to open his mouth and say he didn't think so -- but then he realized he had promised his brother to leave that particular subject alone. "Ah, yes, the Ministry is certainly sending aurors out after anything." Her comment about the potions being easy to track he felt was also wrong, but this one he felt fine answering.

"Not as much as you might think. Not all potions leave behind easily identifiable remains and a mere crossing of two potions is often enough to create something fatal. I think anyone who understands potions would know that accidents happen more often then not. So using them has an advantage if you pick the right potions for the situation. All of them are different, of course." She said she didn't think he was going to do that and he brightened, nodding at her. "Thanks." One more person to use as an alibi if needed? Quite possibly.

An eyebrow raised. "You expect to kill whoever you marry? Interesting." What was the advantage of that? Curious concept, marrying to procure victims. While it would leave a trail, it was one that might enable other possible twists and he set that thought aside to study later. He shook his head however about Vincent. "Oh no, I understand there is a reason he is a Moon as he does inherit the manor house we have. Seti will get the house in Egypt and I get the wall house. It's all worked out in advance." Descendant from an area would make him curious about going there to learn more about his past personally, but apparently not her. Maybe she needed more curiosity.

When she mentioned her family was broke, he shrugged. "I think compared to what I have seen my family is well off. I've never investigated." When she mentioned she would have to try a picnic by herself and then invited him to join her he looked surprised. He totally misread the two sentences together! "What, like a date?" He hesitated. "Ah, I guess so. Never been on one before personally."

@emblyn

[Shava]

She blinked. She wouldn't have expected someone like Darius to be studying healing. At least not after that awkward first impression. She decided not to comment on that because anything that she said, however well-meaning, would probably come across as mean. Would that even bother him? It was too early to guess. “According to my parents, they've been sending aurors out after anything for years. I think that most of that office was rather useless during the war,” she said with a shrug. It was so long ago, and before they were born, that while it was important it just didn't seem to have as much an impact anymore.

Emblyn wasn't going to argue this because it would show that she probably knew more than she wanted most people to think. Instead, she put on her most quizzical expression. “You make it sound like one should be toting around a utility belt full of different potions.” At this, she lowered her eyes a little bit to his waist as though expecting to see just that. But she was smiling again in that slightly bemused manner when he actually thanked her for saying she didn't think that he was a killer. “Ah? You're... welcome.” She tilted her head slightly, thoughtfully.

He had to word it that way... “Well, no... Well, maybe. My parents are going to pick my husband, and there might not be any other way out. Depending on who it is...” She had heard stories of abusive husbands this way. And why not? They were being given away as property, and their new men knew it. Emblyn frowned just slightly. “Really? What about the rest of your siblings? Nothing? I mean, I know that there are a lot of you...” This seemed almost as confusing as arranged marriages. If she was lucky, she wouldn't inherit all her parents' debt.

“It's not easy to hold onto anything anymore.” Emblyn was repeating words that her father had said before, because she wasn't quite old enough to understand. She tried, but she thought it more immature to pretend she fully knew than to just admit she didn't. “If you have three places to inherit, I would say you probably are.” She was confused for a moment when suddenly he was asking something about a date. He'd misunderstood her! She giggled a little, her face going slightly red in embarrassment. “Um, alright. I'm sure that it's possible to get some food from the kitchens. Hufflepuffs do it all the time.”

[Shava]

He nodded, agreeing with the point. "I'm sure it was. Still, Dad says the government likes to be seen as doing stuff and succeeding at it so they probably do it without hesitation anyway." He debated pointing out his mother was part of the judges group there, but it didn't really connect in, did it? It wasn't like she made decisions of such a nature, she was more a witness that could access information few others could. He frowned at her wording. "Utility belt? What are those?"

Dare always carried his healer's kit, a bag which simply slung over his back and carried emergency items needed for on-the-spot care, but it wasn't immediately noticeable. It mostly just looked like he had a sash on if you saw it at all. Darius wasn't so much interested in how to heal people so much as how they came apart and understanding how the human body worked and was held together was important to that understanding. He shook his head however. "I don't know about a lot of potions, but having a few things along would always make sense as long as they weren't cumbersome. Especially with accidents, having some things on site for intimidate use can make the long term healing later far better and faster."

Her look of thoughtful examination he ignored.

"Ah, so contracted then? I've heard about forty percent of those work and the rest fall apart." He tilted his head at her, curious why her parents were so backwards as to find that system worked better. Or was she a problem child? "It was really popular in an earlier time, but some families still do it traditionally. I guess there are some advantages to it in a way. Although now that I think about it, nearly all the advantages are about blood lines and contractual obligations. Does your family owe someone a lot of money?"

Emblyn asked about his siblings and he shook his head. "Not property. It goes into magic, possessions, antiques, and then gold in various quantities I understand. Of course, I doubt any of them would find themselves turned away from any of the homes to begin with so it's about family mostly. I know I'll have enough space to house probably a few hundred people if need be." Her comment sounded like a quote, but he found it very wrong. Frowning at her he said "Well I know that's not really true. My family never threw anything away. We have centuries of collections around, it will take my brothers and I decades to get through most of it."

A giggle and a blush? Why? Dare c0cked his head at her with curiosity in his face as she answered. "One of my cousins is in there and she said they always had a table set up with hot chocolate and ilk for drinks whenever students were in the common room. I think they have to get their own snacks, but the drinks are provided by the Head of house." Hoping she could manage the food he said "Where would you like to go for it?"

@emblyn

[Shava]

Emblyn shrugged a little bit. “I just wish that they were better at it,” she said simply. Darius asked her what a utility belt was, and for once, Emblyn felt rather knowledgeable in something. She was a pure-blood without any real access to the muggle world, but she was learning more all the time from friends that knew it better. “Just a belt that you wear around your waist that you can keep important stuff on. You know, things that you would keep with you 'just in case'.” Darius was just strange enough that she wouldn't be at all surprised if he went with this idea and really did keep potions or ingredients on a belt. She hadn't exactly explained it was mostly a comic book thing. For all she knew, muggles really did that.

“I guess that's true. There should really be spells that can handle it right away, but... I guess there is a reason why some people are in the Hospital Wing for more than a few minutes.” She looked uncomfortable with the idea. In truth she was one of those people who had been forced to stay in the Hospital Wing for a while, recovering from an injury on her broom. That hadn't been so nice. “You could always have one of those bags that is deeper on the inside than it looks on the outside. Some potions work better when they're assembled just before use, though, don't they? So for some, just having the ingredients and a small cauldron to work with might be better. Not so easy to hide if you're among muggles or something... Hm.”

Emblyn sighed. “Part of it is the money, and part of it is the blood status. My parents need money, and they think that because I'm a pure-blood they can get more by marrying me off to someone wealthy.” He had mentioned that he was well off, so that made her even more worried about it. She decided that there was one way that she might gather some hope from this conversation. “It sounds like your parents aren't really the types to go for that sort of thing.” She looked at him, trying not to look as interested as she really was.

She was trying her best not to feel jealous. Material possessions were the least of her desires, but if she had them, she probably wouldn't be thought of as another opportunity by her parents. “Your family seems pretty close. That's... good.” There were so many of them and they were close, while Emblyn was an only child and didn't feel that way about her parents. It was odd, it seemed like with one child there should be more than enough love and respect for her, but it wasn't the case. “If I can get married, and make a respectable wife long enough for the husband to help out, my parents can keep their family homes.” Why did she say that suddenly?! She didn't talk about that with anyone, and here she was blurting it out to someone she'd just started talking to. It was clearly too early for her to be out and about.

Emblyn filed away the information that he gave her in her mind, also deciding that she would ask one of her Hufflepuff friends later how they went about it. “For the picnic? Anywhere on the grounds, I guess. It's usually done on the grass after all. How about after classes?” That would give her some time to figure this out because she tended to do her homework in a sneaky fashion at night rather than let people know she was paying attention during class. She carefully picked her words this time. “And I'll go with you now to give those sheers back to the Groundskeeper. Sound fair?”

[Shava]

"Well if not it's up to other people to take care of problems," he said simply not realizing how that could sound to someone. She explained a utility belt and he nodded, patting the sash on his chest. "Ah those. Healers usually carry a bag around for those things. The nurse helped me make up one so I could get used to the idea of carrying one around and knowing how everything in it works. I think the word 'utility' sounds odd though." He nodded to her realization as she worked it out out loud.

"Yes, one of the first things we learn is what can be done on site and what works best later. Being able to determine the problem is the hardest part because there are so many variables for everything. It's quite a challenging type of career." He was glad he had decided long ago not to go all the way with it, but just the basics. A shake of his head no as he gave her pursed lips. "Supposedly everything you need on the spot during an emergency is covered by what's in the bag. I imagine if you were a full healer you would keep extras of the things you did use the most from experience, but you shouldn't ever need a magic bag for it I think."

Darius thought about that for a moment. "Oh sure, that makes sense. We have a lot of extra stuff that could be cashed in. I suspect all of my siblings would count as wealthy in that case." He didn't realize how wealthy an outsider might consider him. "I mean mom owns an island and I guess you have to be worth a lot to own land mass, right?" A glance at her, wondering why this was so important to know; wouldn't she marry whoever her parents picked anyway? It's not like teenagers had any legal rights to complain until they moved out of their family homes. "Not contracts so much, no I guess not, maybe Mom and Dad would consider one for me if I have not found someone by a time, but that's not something I should worry about."

Remembering the way Anne had leaped upon him in bed early this morning nearly getting herself thrown across the room he nodded vigorously. Too close most times! "Yes very close." A tilt of his head at her over her words and he hesitated before speaking. "So why not just go ahead and do it to get it over with? If it's to help your family out and save their home, that seems good enough. Family is everything." She got a slight smile for her comment about anywhere would be fine. "Well maybe not under the Whomping Willow."

Then he relented. "However it's often very quiet around it. Maybe near it we could meet and after classes is perfect. What do you need me to do or get?" He shrugged. "Okay. I've just got to add them to the shelves in the tool cabinet on the backside, but feel free." Another peering through the fog. "I was just trying to be careful of staying on the path so I didn't get out of the way headed there."

@emblyn