[thd] just say you feel the way that i feel • • j a s p a r

Gabrielle was waiting to meet a friend, but she was fifteen minutes early. Gabrielle appreciated punctuality and sometimes it resulted in moments like this, where she waited patiently outside the trendier bookstore in Chatoeil. The girl was dressed simply; a pale blue, summery, knee-length cotton dress with a wide neckline to show off her collarbones and slender neck and white flat sandles. At the moment she also had a cardigan draped over one forearm. The weather had been kind and not too cool today. The location of Beauxbatons allowed for such conditions. The blonde appreciated winter fashions, but she didn't like being cold.

Whoosh! Gabrielle's pale grey eyes flicked from the window of the shop opposite the bookstore to a bench that had apparently just caught on fire. She combed a long strand of silvery hair without even thinking about it, watching with surprise and mild interest as the scene unfolded in front of her. Their eyes met. "Pretty sure that's arson," she said with a gentle smile, not having to speak very loudly for him to hear her across the street. The blonde glanced over her shoulder at the people inside the bookstore before looking back at the obvious accident in front of her. "Do you need help?" she asked, amused.

Pretty sure that's arson.

Her words rung in his head, rattled around from ear to ear actually, as he tried desperately to put out the flames. Jaspar had always been just a tiny bit accident prone and his curious (if not some times eccentric) attitude toward science constantly had things blowing up in his face. He even had a pair of safety goggles strapped to the top of his head on most days for exactly this kind of mishap. "Shit shit shit." He swore under his breath as he tried to use whatever was available to him to put out the fire. Back at school he could wave his wand and douse it with water, it wasn't pretty, but he'd pretty much mastered that spell by now.

Instead all he had was a potion vial of a baseline solution in his pockets and he tried dumping that on it. For a second it looked like the fire would go out, it dampened, and then roared back to life. Magical fires had a mind of their own in that way. "Yes please help before I get arrested..." He said back to her, not even really aware of where she was standing because he was so focused on the fire. He was like a moth to the flame but the only difference was that he was aware that the fire would be his downfall. He really shouldn't of been messing out with a firecracker concoction but he wanted to finish it in time to show Rai this weekend. They had been impressed with firecrackers pretty much forever and Jaspar wanted to learn to make his own magical ones.

He unwrapped his cloak and started swatting at the flames, panic clear on his flustered face.

Gabrielle watched as the guy poured something on the flame, causing it to blast even higher. The blonde watched with a sort of detached interest. She moved forward when his cloak caught on fire, drawing her wand. It was a wizarding area, after all. She was sure she wouldn't get in trouble for performing magic here. Especially not when she was saving lives. "Aguamenti," she said, taking a few steps over and pointing her wand at the fire. After a moment, the fire fizzled out. His cloak was probably ruined though, she thought, glancing down at it. From across the road she hadn't recognised him immediately, but now she did.

"Oh, hi Jaspar," Gabrielle said with a smile. She should have guessed. Rainer's accident-prone friend was apparently setting things on fire constantly. Rainer linked him to multiple explosion incidents. "How are you...?" she asked, trailing off as her pale grey eyes flicked from his sooty face to his burnt cloak. A light breeze made both her silky hair and his ruined cloak gently. "Umm. Enjoying being back at school?" The veela gave him a pretty smile, covering up her lingering looks at the singed ends of his hair and ashy clothes.

When she came over to save the day Jaspar's jaw dropped at her magic. "Thanks." He said before leaning and whispering, "Are we allowed to do magic here?" Jaspar was a fifth year now, he'd been coming to the village for sometime on weekends, and yet he was totally oblivious to the fact that magic was indeed allowed here that was just his way. For an intellectual he was extremely clueless. Maybe that was why he hadnt managed to land a spot in Ombrelune with Anne.

Turning to look at her he ran his hand through his hair nervously and it stuck up on end. It was tinted with soot, his clothes were covered in it, and his cloak was ruined.

"As man my mother is gonna kill me for this..." he turned the tattered cloth ovet and over, trying to find a silver lining where there was none and then he turned back to look at her. "Don't suppose you know a spell to repair this?" He knew who Gabby was, everyone knew who Gabby was, but they weren't exactly close friends. He remembered them being in potions together though and he was pretty sure she was good at magic. He was hopeful, maybe she could and would help him.

"Oh yeah, except for the quakes. Those were weird right?"

Gabrielle blinked at him a couple of times, waiting for him to shut his mouth, which was currently sort of ajar like he was about to speak. He didn't though, so she talked instead. "I've done magic here and I've never gotten in trouble," she said, a slight frown on her pretty face. "I mean, this is a wizarding area, isn't it? So there's magic happening around us all the time." Perhaps he just didn't know how the trace worked, she thought. Or - less likely, but still possible - maybe he was right and she'd been performing illegal magic the entire time. She didn't care too much either way, but she did make a mental note to find out what the actual rule was for later.

"No, sorry," she said, flicking her eyes down to the tattered and charred edge of his cloak before looking up at him again. Gabrielle liked clothes, but not enough to dedicate any sort of time to learning the spells one needed to be a tailor or a dressmaker. Or a cleaner, she thought, the idea tacked on at the end like an afterthought. "You could probably get a potion to get rid of the stain, but the burned bits... I don't think they can be fixed," she said, hoping she was at least a little bit helpful.

"Yeah, they were strange," Gabrielle said, glancing over her shoulder at the bookshop. There were still about ten minutes before she had to meet her friend. "Oh Jaspar... stay very still..." The blonde pointed her wand at his shoulder, where a large and dangerous-looking spider had suddenly appeared. "Stupefy," she said firmly, expecting him not to move at all.

The idea that he could of been doing magic in the village all along was not lost on him as he frowned a little. Jaspar often missed important things. He slumped down just a little and leaned against the wall, barely realizing what he was leaning up against. "Yeah you'r right." He would have to find someone who knew the potion recipe for fixing his cloak though because he didn't know that either. Or maybe he would just leave it the way it was. It wasn't like he had anyone to impress. He played with the threads that were coming off of it idly as she mentioned the quakes being strange. He still wasn't sure what had caused them but that didn't mean he had stopped looking. He was planning to try and catch up with Anne and Remi later for more investigation.

If the faculty wasn't going to be bothered with figuring it out they would just have to do it themselves.

When she pulled out her wand he gave her a puzzled, and a little bit frightened, look. What was she about to do? Jaspar wanted to move out of the way but he felt frozen in his spot and then he looked to where she was pointing the magic stick and screamed. It was high pitched, girlish even, and he wanted nothing more than to flail around ridiculously until he bucked the monster of an arachnid off of his slender shoulders. He pulled out his own wand, desperately needing to get the thing off of him. He waved it but it misfired just in time to deflect a portion the spell that she'd sent his way straight back toward her.

And then he froze solid for real. Wide eyed and mouth half open from another unfinished scream. Being stunned by her spell he felt the world slipping out from under him. He was confused and then he was on the ground, his hands catching his fall just barely and getting scraped up in the process. The spider seemed fine though as it trotted down his arm and finally reached the ground.

Jaspar just lay there mortified, really hoping she would leave and he wouldn't have to make eye contact.

How embarrassing.