(Untitled)

[lackxluster]

Week Name/Date/Time: A Moments Peace / Monday, October 3rd, 2005/ Just after supper
Location: 3rd Floor
Open To: Tze-Ming
Currently Involving: Julian O'Brien

With a full belly, Julian made his way up to the Hospital Wing. Over the years, he had accumulated a large number of visits to the Hospital Wing, and reckoned he could get there in his sleep.

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[tzeming]

Not long after Julian had wondered if Ming would ever show up, he appeared, seemingly out of nowhere as he had to hide and make sure noone spotted him lugging his cauldron which has a long stick protruding out of it. He had picked up a small twig from the grounds, and eager to try his hands at the Engorgio spell once again, he enlarged the twig, but ended up making it too long and thick, and he had no idea how to reduce it back to its original size. Every so often then end of the stick would poke his head and he would pushed it away violently.

"'Lo, Jul," he greeted the other boy non-chalantly, trying to look calm despite the butterflies in his stomach. What was wrong with him? Sissies get butterflies in their stomachs, not manly boys like him. Seeing Julian waiting eagerly for him as expected, he decided to give the boy a small grin and nodded his head at him, signalling that he was ready

[lackxluster]

Had Ming mentioned it, Julian would have told him that everyone got butterflies in their stomach, just the more manly ones called it jitters. He didn't have butterflies zooming around his stomach, but he was rather excited at the chance to brew up some trouble. Julian had a feeling, however, that he might get caught this time around. He had been pushing his luck last time, and he didn't have all that much to be pushing around

[tzeming]

Ming offered a lopsided grin at Julian as his gigantic stick shrunk a few inches shorter. "Thanks, mate." One day, he vowed, he would perfect that spell and do it whenever he wanted to, wherever he needed to.

He merely followed him as they walked in the general direction of the empty room they had found the previous Saturday night, his eyes darting around him to ensure noone was following them. Well, he knows noone would be following them, but he had heard of Mr Filch's cat, Mrs Nordy or whatever, and that she had a tendency of showing up unexpectedly.

Slinging his cauldron over the crook of his elbow, he looked straight ahead and saw the familiar wooden door. "Where did you get all your ingredients? Did you steal them from Professor Snape?" he asked excitedly as they reached the room and stopped right in front of it. He was very attentive already, waiting eagerly to learn.

[lackxluster]

Julian just nodded, and continued walking. His pace was a little faster than usual (then again a snail moved faster than him usually). Ming was making him feel as if he had to live up to something. Julian was afraid he wouldn't be able to. He glanced a Ming a few times, who seemed to be antsy. Or at least he needed to see everything that was around him. Julian had to assure himself that it was because he was carrying a rather large pot around, with a large stick protruding from it. That could get a little conspicuous

[tzeming]

Ming let out the breath he didn't know he was holding as Julian tried to open the door, but failed to. He froze. Are they going to be caught out here with his large cauldron and stick? No, that would turn ugly.

Luckily for the both of them, Julian seemed to have only forgotten the charm to use. The door swung open, and Ming realized he hadn't responded to Julian's earlier remark. "I didn't mean that you would steal them for the sake of stealing, but Professor Snape seems like the kind of person that noone could steal from. It'd be downright fabulous if one of us does." One day, he thought, I might just do it, a smirk appearing on his face.

"Oh, what's Hogsmeade like? I heard we could only go there in third year. That's so not fun." He was excited at the prospect of going to Hogsmeade, to see what a real Wizarding village was like, but waiting till he was bloody thirteen to be able to go, that just spoilt everything

[lackxluster]

Julian shrugged, tending to his cauldron. "In my third year I needed to get some extra chopped mandrake root." Julian paused before adding, "And it was just so expensive in Hogsmeade that I had to take some. Very nearly got caught actually. That bloody cat Ms. Norris snuck up on me." He didn't realize was rambling so he continued. "And I don't that Filch character is actually a squib either. I think he's just a faulty wizard." Like me, Julian thought to himself. "I think he has a cat that is Ms. Norris, but I think he's an animagus. And his form looks exactly like that his bloody feline. How else could she retrieve him so fast?!" Julian looked up from his pot suddenly, right at Ming and rubbed his head, embarrassed. "Ah. Sorry." He hadn't realized what he had been doing until that very moment. He was just a poor first year, Julian didn't need to be unloading his complaints on to him

[tzeming]

Ming nodded as he listened, but his eyes got wider and wider as Julian started droning on about Filch and his cat. That was saying a lot, as his are typical Chinese eyes, single eyelid and all. "But how can he be an Animagus when he's so obviously useless?" He had no idea what an Animagus was, but wasn't going to ask as he decided it would sound stupid. Yet another thing to research on. Groan.

"I don't reckon I'd buy so much, but I'd like candies! Jackie jie said she'll give me some chocolate frogs, and I've only had them once. Do you know her?" he shuffled his feet a little and turned to Julian. "The castle is only nice when there are not so many giggly, silly girls around." Of course, it didn't escape his mind that his Jackie jie was a girl, but they'd seen each other so many times over the years that she ceased to be one, in his eyes anyway.

Ming set the bottle he had been swirling back down and pursed his lips. He could examine them more later. Now he would get back to business. Their mission was important! And nothing, not even

[lackxluster]

"I suppose he isn't, then, huh?" Julian shrugged, thinking about it for a moment. He didn't reckon he could ever become an animagus, but what a treat it would be if he could! What would he become? Maybe a bird, so he could fly successfully. A pigeon, actually, since people liked to feed those. "You know what an animagus is, right? Someone that can change into animal. Has Gonagall changed for you yet?" That had been his favorite part of transfiguration; forgetting turning one object into another, he wanted to see the professor become a cat! Julian seemed to have read Ming's mind, but Julian had just remembered that in his first year, he hadn't known what one was

[tzeming]

Right. So that was what it was. Changing into an animal at will. Ming supposed it was sort of cool to be able to do that. Turn into an eagle or something, since they're so majestic. Maybe it wasn't such a coincidence that he ended up in Ravenclaw. "Well, yeah, she did, in fact. She didn't tell us what it was called though." He shrugged slightly.

He grinned at Julian's remark on candies. "Oh yeah, of course I'd like some. One can never have too much can they? And girls, ugh!" He shuddered at the thought. "God forbids that I should have to face them all day, especially at home. My Aunt Ling pinches my cheeks whenever she visits. It seems to be a very girl thing to do, from what I see

[lackxluster]

"Just like her," Julian said cheerfully, even though the statement out of context might have sounded slightly bitter. He gave his mixture a bit of a stir, looked into and smiled. This was coming along nicely, better than last time actually - then again they had only added one ingredient.

"I'll send them to you, then, huh? If I don't see you sometime soon, that is." Julian did love his candy; he had a small trunk for it that sat under his bed, right next the trunk for the ingredients. "No no. That's not a girl thing. That's a "horrible older woman" thing. I assure you." Julian could only think of his own horrible aunts, and how they viciously tugged at his cheeks, even now. And he was going to be 17

[tzeming]

"That's great. So it's settled then, and I'll be waiting for your owl!" Ming exclaimed, hardly able to contain his excitement. He gave his mixture a thorough stir and frowned at what Julian said. "I'm going to hex them right if they ever do that to me again, now that I'm magical and everything," he said, finishing off with a smug smirk.

He reached for the disgusting looking pink stuff and poured it in in one swift motion. One look at the colour that his mixture turned into was enough to make him want to throw up. "Yuck. How do you stand looking at this stuff anyway?"

Looking at Julian, he decided to try something else. Instead of stirring in one direction, he let his stick go in slow circles, in clockwise direction 3 times, and then changed the direction. He had read that things might be different that way. He just wanted to see what, exactly.

[lackxluster]

Julian seemed busy with his potion as he nodded in Ming's direction. Really, he was just thinking of how he might procure the proper things to send a package. He was coming up short, but at the same time realized it might seem like he had been ignoring Ming and smiled brightly at his friend. "Ah, you might want to be careful. They'll snap your wand, and then where will you be?" He had meant the statement to be funny, but as he thought about it, he realized Ming would be in the same boat as himself - unable to successfully do any difficult magic

[tzeming]

At the mention of his wand snapping, Ming whipped out his wand from the pockets of his robes and took a long look at it. "I don't know, back in the Muggle world?" He chuckled, not really caring, actually, but a part of him knew he had started to find the Wizarding world to be much more interesting than the Muggle one.

"Good, because it's starting to make me sick." The colour was nauseating, but a little while later, just as Julian had said, it started getting clearer. He smiled to himself before taking the gloves from Julian and slipping them on, and then adding the contents of the flask the other boy had pushed over. He looked at the green stuff in the bottle with interest, before looking up at Julian. "You really do get all the great stuff. Too bad not many people know how to appreciate them."

He continued stirring, thinking hard about who to prank. "Say, when will this be done? It'll be totally wicked for us to try it later!"

[lackxluster]

"Back to the muggle world with your father and I'd imagine a pile of books," Julian corrected as he absentmindedly stirred his potion. He peeked in, watching his own potion go rather clear. This was working out perfectly. Nothing like a good potion to make the day a million times better

[tzeming]

Ming gave a chuckle as Julian mentioned 'a pile of books' but turned at look at him, instead, face full of faux horror and shock. "Noo~," he whines, "anything but books, please." And he started laughing, though still careful not to make any drastic movements that would knock his cauldron over.

Catching the last few words of Julian's sentence, which he assumed was even a sentence at all, he continued to look at him. "What did you just say?" He stirred his cauldron mixture a little bit more, not sure what would count as the potion being ready.

He nodded as Julian told him about the being able to use the potions the next day. "Brilliant! I haven't thought of who to prank though. But it's going to be awesome, isn't it?" He beamed and looked at the antidote, glad that the other boy had at least thought about that.

[lackxluster]

And when Julian laughed, it was in the same cautious manner. Just because he could brew things did not mean his luck had grown at all. There was still the very real possibility that he could bump into his cauldron and watch it come crashing to the floor. That would look brilliant in front of first year.

He looked slightly startled for moment, before shaking his head. "Nothing. Nothing. You can go ahead and add half of the green now." Waving his hand as if to say, 'Go on', Julian then pulled on his gloves. He hoped that Ming would realize that he didn't want to let him judge what was half (he didn't have any extra of the liquid to make his come out correctly), but that he had let him. Trying not to look nervous is difficult, when you are extremely so