Closed RP: Cox and Sirius
It had not been the best weekend for Dr. Cox. First he'd fought with JD; then the conference he'd been called to had wound up being less the intelligent meeting of medical minds that he'd been hoping for and more the grandiose posturing of old people and pharmeceutical companies that he'd feared; and then the ride back... well, no need to get into
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Sirius held his wand high above his head and pointed it down at his own face. He repeated the incantation he had used previously to fill Cox's bottle, and another fountain of foamy beer poured directly into his open mouth. After taking in an impressive amount of it (Sirius was quite good at holding his throat open!), Sirius cut off the flow and looked over at Cox. Yes, he was showing off.
Somehow managing to grin and grimace at the same time, he said, "Ugh, your Muggle beer tastes like piss. Firewhisky's far better." Then, twirling his wand around a little as small red sparks shot out of it, he said casually, "I can teach you the spell, if you like. As long as the bar stocks it, you can get it through your wand. Maybe you'd like to learn a few tricks to impress a bird?" Jordan. Jordan. Jordan. And maybe Lily, because if anyone deserved a little fun, it was Lily, but Sirius certainly wouldn't admit to himself that he might possibly be enabling Cox to score some points with Lily. Not because he had a problem with Cox, of course. He just couldn't bear the idea of Lily and James no longer having any hope as a couple. It was just what he had known.
As Cox looked away, letting his guard down just a little, it hit Sirius that he actually didn't know a whole lot about Cox's personal life. Most of the time he and Cox hung out, he spent his energy harassing Cox, drinking, and joking, and Cox spent an equal amount of energy protesting Sirius's advances. This opening up, this slight crack in Cox's snarky exterior, intrigued Sirius - not because it was something Sirius could use against Cox, but because he genuinely liked Cox. And he wondered if it had anything to do with the friend in need Cox had mentioned previously in an owl exchange.
Sirius leant back a bit, his wand back at rest, head cocked slightly as he looked at Cox. "Who'd you leave behind?"
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Allowing himself a snicker, he shook his head. "Oh, no, Fido, the minute you let yourself taste it, the beer has won. The point is to pour it down your throat as though it were the antidote, in this case to~ sobri~ety and, you know, being in shape." He eyed Sirius who, in all honesty, could use the carbs, and was immediately distracted by the red shinies. He lifted an eyebrow, impressed but skeptical. "I~ appreciate the thought there, Skippy, but in case you haven't noticed?" He cupped his hands to his mouth and leaned forward. "We're in a magic school." Not particularly wanting to go back on their agreement, he refrained from mentioning that the only bird he was interested in impressing wasn't going to care much about parlor tricks, but the implication was there.
As it had before with Jordan, the conversation was starting to edge into territory he was less than thrilled about. It wasn't Sirius's fault, it was just that, as he had sort of noticed, Cox wasn't the best when it came to opening up and talking about the personal stuff. Especially when the topic of conversation was someone like Ben; his feelings these days on that matter were... complicated, at best. Still, he'd already sort of told Sirius about him, and it wasn't like he was ashamed to have a friend outside the school... Besides, he figured, possibly incorrectly, that if he shied away now he'd just hear about it again later.
Still looking away, he smirked, a shade bitterly, and shook his head. "I'm not the one who left, actually. To leave someone behind, you... really need to know where the hell they are in the first place, right?"
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“The professors won’t teach you this one. The incantation is Fermentummenti, and to get it right, you’ve got to very clearly envision just what alcohol you want to come from your wand - and, of course, to know that there’s a supply of that alcohol you’d have ready access to. Can’t just go stealing from someone else’s liquor cabinet." Sirius demonstrated the spell again, this time with Firewhisky, knowing full well that Cox had deemed it unnecessary to teach it to him. Sirius figured it might come in handy at some point and that Cox's pride would prevent him from ever admitting any marginal interest he might have in learning it.
"What kind of magic are you trying to learn, anyway, besides the healing stuff? I'm a fully qualified wizard; most of our professors aren't." Homsar may have been a Jenga master, but he was no wizard, and Sirius was consistently puzzled at how he had managed to secure a position as a student, let alone a professor. He didn't even have a wand, for Merlin's sake. Well, okay, he had a wand, and it was very magical, and he had secured many delightful positions with it, but...that was all in a completely different sense.
At any rate, the implication that Sirius would be glad to teach Cox a spell or two was there, and Cox could seize upon it any time he wanted. After all, Sirius always glad to help out a mate, especially one who was apparently dating one of the people Sirius cared most about in the world.
Along those lines, Sirius noticed the edge in Cox's expression as he talked about his mate in America and decided to pry more. At some point, Cox would have to open up a bit, and if there was anything Sirius was really good at, it was being a friend.
"Hmm, sounds like you were left behind first...." Sirius purposely trailed off, knowing that if he pushed too hard, he'd likely get nothing from Cox. He truly wasn't being nosy; he just thought Cox might like to talk about it, especially considering that Cox didn't seem to have a lot of close friends at Hogwarts, at least not that Sirius knew of. And a large part of him did hope for the opportunity to know Cox better. Harassing him was fun and all that, but friendship ran far deeper than propositions and naughty glances.
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Still, he remained, outwardly, impassive. Rubbing his hands together thoughtfully, he sniffed and nodded. "Huh. So I'm guessing this stuff is pretty much what you spent your formative years on, right?" It was a logical question! He had yet to see Sirius in many other roles than "sex-addicted boozehound. "I... did not realize that was all you needed to become," he lifted his hands into 'air-quotes,' "'fully qualified.'"
Leaning back again, he shrugged. "Anyway, yeah, it's... I dunno, mostly the healing stuff, I guess. I don't really give a damn about the rest of it. A... couple of people," by which he meant Lily, "were suggesting I take a peek at some defensive stuff which," he grinned ruefully, "I~ admit, mi-hi~ght just be a good idea given how many people here actually have the means to do something about the completely irrational hatred I seem to provoke in others." And by 'irrational,' he definitely meant 'completely justified.' "Not to mention all the people I just haven't gotten to yet," he added, snickering.
"But... yeah, it's... I mean, I came for the healing thing, I don't exactly have a lot of time to waste with the other stuff." Cox sobered slightly with the words, and he toyed with his bottle without taking a drink. He wasn't quite ready to explain his motivations to Sirius -- it had been hard enough talking to Jordan about it -- but he did open up a little more under Sirius's careful prying. He knew what the Animagus was doing, he wasn't stupid, but so far at least he was willing to roll with it.
He glanced up as the other man trailed off, and nodded absently. "Somethin' like that. It's... this friend of mine. I mentioned him before, I think. Guy goes into remission and decides it's time to go off and 'see the world'... the jerk." He muttered the last part with a sort of self-deprecating smirk. Perry knew he was being completely selfish about the whole Ben thing; he just didn't care.
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"I didn't spend all my time on this type of spell," he said in a rather thoughtful tone. "I mean, sobering charms are important, too. And my mates and I spent quite a bit of time working out the Animagus transfiguration so we could make Remus's monthly transformations easier." Sirius knew of Cox and Remus's rivalry, but didn't take it very seriously at all, seeing it as similar to the poke-prod-smirk type of relationship he himself had with Cox. Therefore, he thought nothing of introducing the topic into the conversation. "And we also devoted a lot of energy to exploring the school's secret passages and making a magical map of the grounds."
He waved his wand around absently, perhaps a side effect of all the alcohol he had consumed to this point. As he did so, a small burst of pink glitter shot out the end of it. Too inebriated and focused on the conversation to notice, he continued rambling talking. "Anyway, I was always one to learn by experience, not in structured settings. Magic's something you've got to do, not sit and read about, you know? I grew up with it, saw my mum - may she rest in utter misery - and my dad - hope he's rotting in his grave - do it every day. Seemed ridiculous to me to waste time in the library or listening to some boring, stuffy old wanker droning on about goblin revolutions and arithmantic theory when you could be learning the things you wanted to learn on your own."
Having talked up a storm, Sirius took a swallow of Firewhisky to wet his throat. He wasn't too drunk to realise that Lily was the 'couple of people' Cox was referring to, but he was drunk enough to let it slide, and the context in which Cox referred to her wasn't something Sirius had a problem with anyway.
"Defensive spells are very useful," he agreed. "You never know when you might get hit with a hex that turns your lips to the size of cucumbers. A very good female friend of mine - " by this, of course, he meant Lily, and his slight eyebrow raise was meant to indicate as such " - has been known to hurl such hexes. It's good to know how to counter them. I highly recommend the Protego charm for that one...although sometimes she can be a bit quicker on the draw. Smart witch, that one is. And a loyal friend."
Perhaps it was the alcohol, or maybe the way-deep-down part of Sirius that knew Lily had every right to see other people and that adored the heck out of both Cox and Lily had decided to shove the I'm-in-deep-deep-denial part of Sirius out of the way. Whatever it was, Sirius couldn't seem to stop himself from tacitly encouraging Cox - or at least letting him know that he had found an absolute gem in Lily and hinting that this was something to be greatly appreciated.
Having talked himself out, he sat quietly as Cox elaborated a bit on the situation with his friend. Through his alcoholic haze, he remembered Cox's having mentioned something about saving his best friend's life, and so he knew in a vague sort of sense who Cox was talking about.
"He'll come back. I don't know what remission is, but, look - " Sirius leant forward a bit, looking at Cox with what he hoped was an open, sincere expression " - my best friend died. And then he came back to me. Yours will, too."
It was liquor logic, but as he said the words, Sirius was entirely convinced they were true.
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More interesting to him, anyway, was Sirius talking about learning -- and his attitude towards his parents got him quite a bit of wry empathy as well. "I gotta say, Fido," he replied lightly when Sirius paused for his drink, tipping his bottle as if in a toast towards the Animagus, "it's... just a little weird hearing you talk about this stuff as if you actually, y'know, studied and practiced and all that. I mean, it totally gets in the way of my image of you." Grinning, he made a little 'cheers' motion and took a drink. "Not to mention saying something I... actually agree with, I mean, you're just firsts all over tonight. Maybe you'll even get lucky -- wait, no, I'm pretty sure that one's just not in the cards."
It was true, though, that Sirius was certainly surprising him at the moment. As strange at Sirius being studious was, his little hints about Lily were even more bewildering, given how strong his denial had been only a short time before. They weren't exactly subtle, but Cox was kind of... touched wasn't quite the right word, but grateful probably was. "I'll... keep that in mind," he replied in response to the mini-defense lesson. "God knows it might come in handy." Because from what he'd seen, Lily's temper was almost as good as his was, and that spelled trouble on the day he finally crossed the line.
Cox wasn't quite as drunk as Sirius was, and besides he was a little more up on the situation (with good reason; it wasn't like he'd told Sirius much of anything), and so Sirius's words regarding Ben stung a lot more than he would have liked. He flinched openly, a look passing across his face that he never would have wanted the Animagus to see under other circumstances. He sat forward in his chair, suddenly considerably more intense than he had been a moment ago. "He came damn close enough already, alright? Remission... means..." He hated to even say it. "...Cancer, remission means he has leukemia, Fido, and that means that we all thought he was going to die, and every minute he's out there is another minute I don't know if..."
This was just a little too much vulnerability for his tastes, and he drew back as soon as he realized it, shutting down with a distasteful grimace. "Lookit, point is, no matter how much of an asshole he may be, I'd... rather not he have to go and die on me before I get to see him again."
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"I'm quite a formidable wizard," he said, his words slightly slurred and his tone oddly casual and rather agreeable, as he pointed his wand at a nearby armchair and muttered several syllables. After a burst of soot-coloured smoke, the armchair had disappeared, and in its place stood a rather large armadillo.
"Did my first charm within hours of receiving my wand." Another gesture with the wand and a brief incantation later, two Butterbeer bottles that had been resting on the bar had sprung wings and were enaging in a midair chase.
"Even a decade and a half of being deprived of my wand couldn't make me lose my abilities." Sirius pulled a couple of Galleons out of his pocket. After a set of manoeuvers that involved intense staring, wand tapping, and several complex phrases, Sirius tossed one to Cox. Then, pointing his wand at the coin remaining in his hand, he said something else. If Cox were to look down at his own coin, he'd see the serial number on it start to shift and change into letters that rearranged themselves to spell out a phrase: "Not bad, huh?"
Sirius dusted his hands off on his robe. "Keep the change," he said, sitting back down in his chair just as casually as he had stood up. "That spell's a lot harder than it looks, especially when you make the numbers transfigure themselves into letters." He put the Galleon back in his pocket. "There's a lot more I can do, but I don't hex, manipulate, lift up, push down, or otherwise toss around other people's bodies without their permission - unless they're an arsehole, of course, in which case all bets are off. And since neither is the case for you, you'll just have to take my word for it."
The rush of his demonstration over, Sirius leant back in the chair and was about to pick up his Firewhisky bottle when he suddenly sat forward again. "Fuck! I haven't got the first clue about what armadillos eat. Should've gone with something less showy, but more common, easier to take care of, like a Kneazle or Puffskein or something." He fumbled about in his robes. Pulling out a couple of owl treats, he tossed them to the armadillo. "Hopefully you like those, and if not, well, we'll have to work something out."
He turned back to Cox. "Anyway, you've got to admit all that's fairly impressive for someone who's already well on his way to pissed." He took a swallow from his Firewhisky bottle and then pointed it sloppily at Cox. "And that's the British pissed, for your information, because if I were angry, you'd know."
((This one's two posts. Sirius had to go and show off! XD))
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Cox's explanation left Sirius equating remission with cancer itself, but either way, he understood that Cox's friend might be out somewhere dying right now and that Cox clearly missed him something awful. The brief glimpse into Cox's personal pain made Sirius suddenly feel a little bit more sober.
"I hope you find him, or he finds you," Sirius said simply. He knew all too well the pain of losing a friend and would wish it only on his worst enemies (after all, it was Peter who had inflicted that pain upon Sirius) - certainly not on someone he liked and believed to have a good heart. Then, in an attempt to cheer Cox a bit, he added, "If he ever shows up here, I promise not to come on to him in any way, shape, or form. You're a handful as it is. I don't think I could handle the both of you."
He was so intent on making Cox smile a bit that the 'handful' innuendo was entirely unintentional.
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Of course, it wasn't like Sirius making him slightly uncomfortable was anything new. Ultimately, he wound up watching the display in somewhat horrified amusement, snickering along with the performance. When Sirius threw him the coin, he caught it one-handed, and then promptly also made a grab for one of the bottles that was winging its way through the air.
Falling back into his seat, he kicked his feet up onto the back of the armadillo, used the edge of the coin to open the bottle, and gave Sirius a brief round of very dry applause. "Oh, and here I thought you didn't know any tricks, Fido!" he joked. "Well, actually, that's totally not true, I already knew you could roll over and beg. But, I will admit, I used to have a dog, and good ol' Rocky could not have pulled that off, so-hooo: good boy. I'd... give you a treat but I'm honestly afraid of what you'd do with it."
Settling down, he realized that he really was feeling better. And even though talking about Ben hurt way more than he would have liked, enough that he wanted the topic to go as far, far away as the man himself had, Sirius's sympathy appeased him more than he might have expected. Of course, Cox knew Sirius had lost people, in terrible ways; perhaps that was why he accepted from him what he wouldn't have taken from most other people.
Sighing, he rested his chin on one hand, half-hiding the smile Sirius had been looking for. "Actually, y'know, Ben would probably love you," he admitted fondly. "He's... weird, like that. He'd probably just think you were funny. And, well..." Giving in, he let the dog have the aforementioned treat, one of the little tidbits of genuine friendship that he kept carefully locked away. "Y'know, he tends to like the same things I do."
Man's best friend, huh? Quickly, to disguise the fact that he had just said something that could possibly be construed as nice and/or caring, he added, "By the way, Fido, a handful? Please. I'm way more than that."
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