[saé] escaping time. [léon]

October 2003

When Jaspar signed up for his student service at the beginning of the month, he had not expected to be sent to the senior center in Chatoiel. He figured he'd be picking up trash or maybe volunteering at the free magizoologist clinic or something. Something far less... interactive. Being social had never been the wizard's strong suit, at least not where strangers were concerned, and for the better part of the afternoon, that had remained the case. He'd brought food trays to different rooms, he'd avoided the pool like it was no body's business, and he'd managed to be relatively quiet.

And then @Léon Lachapelle showed up, and everything quickly changed. The two wizards weren't exactly friends, but they had been in the same classes for seven years, so it wasn't like Jaspar could reasonably pretend he didn't know him. "Hello, Léon," he said just before his foot was rolled over by a runaway senior in a wheelchair. "Merlin's son of a..." Jaspar cursed under his breath, the expletives barely understandable.

His cheeks were red and eyes watering when one of the coordinators found them and began ushering them toward the game room. "So you will be entertaining the group for about two hours. There are board games, sewing needles, some upcycled instruments, and wizarding wireless, but don't let Lester listen to the British Quidditch league broadcast. He will throw a fit when Puddlemere loses, and I just do not need that today." The witch babbled, leading them down a twisting hallway with fluorescent lighting until they reached the "recreation room." The center was a cluster of round tables with half the chairs missing, old carpet, and mismatched corduroy sofas lined the walls.

"So, what should we do?" Jaspar asked the Papilonlisse, his toe still stinging, as he looked around.

Pretty girls liked to help old people, right? At least that was the conclusion he had reached when signing up for this year’s student service. It had been a strategic move on his part; after the confusing things that had occurred over the course of the summer, it only made sense for Léon to move forward and as far from those memories as possible. And what better way to move on from the fact that he ruined the opportunity to lose his virginity to the pretties girl in school than to spend  his required volunteer hours pursuing another pretty girl? Maybe Gabrielle and him had known each other for too long, maybe if it was some random student he had never spent much time with it would be much easier for him to seal the deal. Either way, he was intent on finding out.

Of course, when he arrived and spotted Jaspar Travis, the unusually confident Papillonlise frowned, possibly a little too visibly to be considered polite. “You’re uh—here to visit your grandparents?” he asked, though deep down Léon already knew the answer to that question. He could not help the half grin that came about as soon as he saw the old senior citizen run over Jaspar’s foot and speed down the hallway. That’s right, Jaspar wasn’t really any competition at all. Now, all he needed to know was where the girls were at. He’d leave all the big responsibilities to Jaspar, he obviously already had a way with the older folk.

“Two hours? Piece of cake,” Léon said as they followed the coordinator into the game room, his hands in his pockets as he leisurely looked around the room. He only half-listened to what the woman said, much more interested in the bad décor and his thoughts on how they had allowed it to get so bad. The boy was a little arrogant but certainly not heartless, he figured charming a few of the older ladies would be a good way to entertain them, too. However, once the witch left, Léon took a seat on one of the sofas, almost jumping to his feet when it sunk too uncomfortably low—it was obviously someone’s favorite seat.

“Um—” he considered the question, not really thinking he’d have to make these sorts of decisions, “My grandma likes to play bingo or I play her the piano sometimes,” he offered, moving over to the bin of board games to see if he could find something he could play. “Where are the rest of the volunteers, anyway? The pretty ones I mean,” he

Jaspar took Léon's suggestions as gospel because he had no idea what to do. He had assumed the people who actually worked for the center would have given them some more instructions. The wizard hated when there weren't instructions, organization, or rules to hid behind. Left to his own devices, he usually got into trouble, or worse, got picked on. Giving the other wizard a quick shrug, Jaspar pointed toward the center table with a bunch of old ladies sitting (or rolled up to) it. "Maybe we ask them what they want to do?" He offered, though he wasn't sure if that was the right idea either.

"Um, I don't know if there are any more volunteers," Jaspar said timidly as his eyes shifted from the bad furniture, the balding lady in the corner, Léon, and the scratchy record playing by the door. Just as Jaspar was maybe about to say something definitive (unlikely), a little old lady whacked him in the back of the shin with her cane. What was it with these violent witches, and why did they only pick on him? It was like she had been irritated by Jaspar's presence, but as soon as she saw Léon's baby face, her tune changed entirely. "Oh deary," She began, her thick french accent (and obviously over smoked lungs) making her voice sound leathery, and Jaspar cringed.

"Clarisse, Françoise, ladies, come, we've got young wizards here to entertain us," She called to the ladies at the table, and they began heading over in droves. Jaspar felt wildly outnumbered and ridiculously uncomfortable as he tried to move out of their path. "Wait, is it Tuesday?" One of the crazy-haired ones asked, "No, madam, it's Friday," Jaspar informed her, but the way she brushed him off with a wave of his hand, he wasn't sure if she hadn't wanted him to answer or if she had forgotten the question.

It was going to be a long two hours.

“You’re not supposed to ask them what they want to do, Travars, if they knew what to do, they wouldn't need us to entertain them” Léon scoffed, taking on that air of arrogance he often did when he felt himself the expert on a subject he really knew nothing about. “Ladies like it when you decide for them, don’t you know that?” he asked, furrowing his brow just a little as if to emphasize that such was the way of the “man” and him not knowing that only meant that he wasn’t as aware as Léon was. The Papillonlisse didn’t really know what he was talking about because in truth, the only reason he played piano for his grandma was because she demanded that he did. The woman didn’t care for Léon’s poorly executed shows of (toxic) masculinity and she made sure he knew that.

Hearing that there were no other volunteers felt like a stab in his stomach, the thought he’d have to spend the entire afternoon with Jaspar even though he had prepared to work his magic on whatever girls had managed to land the position pained him greatly. But he would have to make do. At least the elderly women were unlikely to shut him down like Gabrielle and some of the other pretty girls had on more than one occasion and his ego could use a little stroking once in a while. Case in point this lovely woman, whose entire disposition had changed as soon she had seen him. Giving her his bed smile, he winked, “And good afternoon to you too,” he responded, opening his arms as if to welcome the little old women to his side of the room.

“It can be whatever day you want it to be, Tuesday or Friday, as long as you have fun, that’s all that matters,” he smiled, turning to Jaspar, “my friend Jaspar here is going to help you ladies set up for bingo aren’t you?”

When he was told not to ask them what they wanted, Jasapar nodded; he could follow that instruction. Honestly, the wizard would do whatever Léon told him to because fighting or going against the grain was just not in his nature. He did raise an eyebrow in disbelief at the next things the Papilonlisse told him, though. Jaspar wasn't a ladies man, he had barely even had a real girlfriend, but he was pretty sure that wasn't true. Maybe he was wrong, Léon seemed to have a lot better luck in the department, but something about it didn't quite sit right with Jaspar.

He shrugged as the women approached, and Léon corrected him again, 'No, it's Friday..." He said as quietly as humanly possible, his eyes falling to the floor as his words became as small as he was feeling. Jaspar's attention sparked back up to the other wizard when he was volunteered to set up Bingo, and of course, despite everything that said that he shouldn't just agree, Jaspar nodded again. "Yeah, I can do that,"

"Where is the Bingo...?" He asked quietly, not entirely of Léon or the ladies who had just arrived, but instead of anyone who would hear him.

Léon suspected that Jaspar had said something but he couldn’t be bothered to listen nor could he actually listen to what the boy said as he started to look at the floor like he was talking to it so the seventh year chose to ignore it. He pulled out the chair for one of the elderly ladies, but the other one tried to shove her out of the way to sit down first. “Ladies, ladies, there’s enough Léon to go around, be kind to each other,” he added with a grin, deriving a little pleasure from the fact that the women (though significantly older than both of them, combined) were fighting for his attention. Maybe these two hours would not be entirely a waste of time.

“On the shelf, I think?” he added, pointing at the cabinet before just deciding to go over himself, “Come on, I’ll show you,” he offered, inviting the boy to accompany him to the shelf in the corner. “You’re not scared of the little old ladies, are you?” he teased, wondering if the reason why Jaspar was sort of just shyly walking about went further than just a quiet personality. The old ladies could be a little intimidating but so far, they were pretty sweet to him, though maybe not the way a grandmother would be with their grandson. The Papillonlisse wasn’t sure how he felt about that just yet.

“You have a grandma, right? What do you two do?”

"Not scared.." Jaspar answered all too quickly. Of course, he was nervous; he was always a little bit nervous. It was the wizard's default resting state, really. "But, they are a little intimidating?" Jaspar had a feeling that the other wizard did not share his opinion. Leon seemed like he was always in control of a situation. Like he knew just what to say, what to do, and Jaspar wished he had that kind of confidence.

Reaching the shelving unit cram-packed with more nonsense than Jaspars eyes could process, the teenager reached for the bingo set. Cards, ink blobbers, a bag of numbered balls, and a collapsible rolling cage, it was more than he could handle, and the apprehensive look on his face showed it. "I'll get this stuff," He said, motioning to the cards and the ink, leaving the balls and the rolling cage for the much more athletic looking Leon.

"I have one, but she is like...." Jaspar tried to figure out the nicest possible way to describe that his grandmother was stuffy, not at all playful, and said very little to him when they visited. "She is not like them. Is your grandmother like them?"

"You look pretty frightened to me," he countered almost immediately, "they can sense that kind of thing," he added, not at all oblivious to the fact that he had just likened the nice old ladies to fear-sniffing creatures ready to pounce on the weakest link in the room who was, by definition, Jaspar. Though Léon was significantly more popular in his own head than he was in real life, he knew a thing or two about the power of confidence. In fact, it had been that very pretend type of confidence that had allowed him many of the opportunities he had weaseled his way into. It was like a game he was more than prepared to play.

Bingo wasn't really his favorite game, and as soon as he saw the pieces to it, it was as if he was reminded of the countless times his grandmother had dragged him to a Bingo competition. He hated those, especially because of the way the little old ladies would pinch his cheeks and call him adorable. But, he nodded at Jaspar's request, reaching up to pull the rest of the materials off of the shelf. "We're going to have to come up with a good prize," he noted as he pulled the things from the shelf, realizing that they probably wouldn't settle for a job well done.

Turning to Jaspar, the boy smiled. "Not at all, my grandma's pretty scary but all the ladies in my life tend to be fiery," he sighed dramatically, thinking in particular about everyone's favorite blonde princess. "What's she like then? Your grandmother?"

"Can they?" Jaspar asked, his eyes growing a bit wide because the more Léon said, the more he was likely to believe. And Léon said things with such conviction like they had to be accurate, and even the scientist in Jaspar couldn't deny that. He had no variables to test here, no evidence or past studies when it came to the female race, so at some point, he was going to start taking the other wizard's word for it. And that was going to be a disaster. "What kind of prize?" He asked, still reeling about the whole 'they can sense your fear' statement and not paying attention to what he was doing.

Tripping halfway back to the table, Jaspar threw the bingo cards, and they scattered across the floor between the shelve and the fear-sensing old witches, and he huffed loudly. Crouching to begin gathering them, Jaspar shrugged his shoulders, remembering the question Léon had asked just before he started throwing things, and began to answer. "She is very... proper? I don't think she likes me much; actually," Jaspar's mother and father loved how interested the boy was in the Scientific muggle world, but his grandparents were more 'traditional' and proudly pureblood. "I guess I don't know her, though; we only go over there on the holidays." He wasn't sure if Léon cared about what he was saying and realized that worry after he had already said too much, so he tried to wrap up his thoughts quickly.

"Are you close to your grandparents?"

“I don’t know, maybe you can give them a little smooch,” he teased, sighing loudly when the boy tripped and dropped the cards all over the floor. Ugh, why was this kid so uncoordinated? Or were they in the same year? He actually did not know much about Jaspar, except that they were in Medical Studies last year and he pretty much interrupted his moment with Gabrielle when he was trying to feel her up for a pulse. But after what had happened over the summer, he figured that maybe that little inconvenience could be forgiven. It had not gone exactly how Léon had planned for it to go but he had seen things he could not unsee now and he felt pretty damn proud of himself for it. Had he been closer to Jaspar (or had gone through with it) he might have told the boy.

As he kneeled to help him pick up the bingo cards, winking at one of the ladies that mumbled something about him being so nice, he gave Jaspar a glance over. No, he wasn’t on the Quidditch team either, or if he was, he probably sucked. “What?” Léon said incredulously, finding it hard to keep a serious expression on his face when he said that his grandmother didn’t like him,, “But you’re such a delight to be around,” he added dryly, hoping that his sarcasm was obvious enough for the boy to understand. He was only teasing him, though, as soon as Jaspar stood up to him or was ready to fight him, he’d probably stop it. Léon was not about to get into another scuffle with a boy from school, his face had suffered enough the last time he’d gotten punched in it.

“Oh yeah?” he asked, wondering what holidays were like at his house, probably better than his own were now that his parents were splitting. He frowned a little, not at him just at the thought. “We meet up once in a while, nothing special,” he explained, “grandma used to take me to bingo and things like that a long time ago, I think I get my musical genius from her,” he explained further. “You anything like yours?”

Well, now he knew that Léon was messing with him. "I don't think that is the kind of service they are expecting from us," Jaspar said apprehensively. There was no way he would kiss one of the little old ladies; that was so weird. And if they so much as made eyes in his direction, he was going to be out of there like an Abraxan during a half-off whiskey sale. As Léon moved to help him collect the spilled cards, Jaspar silently thanked him with a nod, his blond hair falling over his eyes, and he shook it out instead of just pushing it away. He should have gotten his hair cut a long time ago, but who had the time? Jaspar's social calendar was obviously very full, not.

"No, not really, I mean, I guess I don't actually know, but I don't think so," Jaspar said a bunch of words and very little all at once as a nervous hand gripped the bingo cards tight, and he finally stood up. Was he anything like his grandparents? Probably not. "What music do you play?" Jaspar knew enough to know that Léon was a Papilonlisse, so he was not surprised by creativity's confession. "Maybe you can play something for them if Bingo is boring?" Jaspar figured the ladies would love that, one of them might even try to sing in that old fashion sprawled across the piano kind of way, and while no one wanted to see it, Jaspar wouldn't stop it either. The point was to help them have some fun, even if it got weird, right?

Léon could not help but smirk at Jaspar's conclusion. Obviously he was only joking but on second thought, the idea that he might see one of the little old ladies try her moves on Jaspar, suddenly made the idea of soending two hours there that much more entertaining. "It's ladies' choice," he emphasized, fully intent on dragging that whole fear of kissing an old lady that was clearly written on his face for as long as possible. And if Léon wanted to be extra entertained, he might even go as far as to get them in on it. They looked like a group of fun, and for a moment Léon was glad that he had agreed to go along with this student service, if certainly beat hanging out with the horses or digging in the dirt as part of a beautification project.

"Uh--" Léon started, trying to make sense of what Jaspar was saying but sort of reducing his answer to a very complicated form of no. He had never spent a lot of time with Jaspar before but it became increasingly obvious that communicating was an issue for him? Had he been hanging out with Cosimo or one of the other members of his little group of friends, he might have made fun of him some more. But deep down, Léon did feel a little guilty. "Anything, really," he confessed. This wasn't him trying to be cocky, but he figured that at this point in his school career, everything sounded like it was said for recognition.

"I play better by ear than sheet music, it slows me down," he explained, "but if you can hum a tune, I can figure it out, and if they want me to, I will," he promised with a smile. Léon felt passionate about his interest in music, but most of his favorite songs were outdated when compared to the age of his schoolmates. He wondered if the old ladies might know some of his favorite songs. "You play any instruments or have a special talent, something like that?"

Jaspar couldn't pretend like he wasn't impressed that Léon could play any instrument and then, on top of that, play them without the pages. He could listen and figure it out. What talent! Jaspar wished he was naturally gifted at something creative, but honestly, he just wasn't. Unless creatively writing other student's essays for them counted. He figured it did not. After they had collected everything, Jaspar was apprehensive to head back to the group of ladies, but with the way they were staring, he knew avoiding it wasn't an option.

"Uh, talents...." He tried to think of something, anything, that he was good at, and there were things, but he was nervous and put off by the sudden attention and began to blank out. "Pretty good at science, like muggle science..." He said, adding the last bit as slowly as possible, painfully slow because he was half sure he would be made fun of for it. Jaspar loved the science of things, especially how magic and science started to coalesce in the last few years. Maybe it had always been happening, but the older he grew, the more aware of it he became. After the internship last summer, he had a job lined up for after graduation. It was safe to say that science was his thing.

"Like chemistry and stuff," He wondered if Léon knew about any of the times Jaspar and his best friend @Rainer Fischer had blown things up performing their own homemade (and unsanctioned) chemistry experiments in the castle.

“Science?” Léon looked at him in confusion, before it dawned on him that the boy probably was good at Potions or something that involves the more logical side of one’s brain. “Ah—” he added as he continued to explain. Unfortunately, the Papillonlise had no talent for that sort of thing, the idea that something could only have one solution was not appealing to him in the least. He was all about self-expression and creativity, excelling in anything related to the arts whether it be painting, music, or even dance though his older brother had much more talent in that area. It seemed in direct contrast to his position on the Quidditch team but considering that his house was full of creatives, it made sense that no one ever gave him any problems because of it.

“That’s pretty interesting, yeah,” he added, though his tone didn’t necessarily match the level of enthusiasm of his words. Léon wasn’t sure what he meant by chemistry to begin with but he had an idea, “Like Potions?” he asked, wondering if his earlier assumption had been correct. “Or like Medical Studies?” he offered in addition to, that sounded like something that had science in it, figuring out a person’s ailments through a series of a logical processes. “You don’t play any instruments or anything like that? I’d say I’m good at school stuff but apart from Music, I’m not,” he shrugged off with a smirk, setting the cage and other materials he had gathered from the shelf on the table.

“Alright ladies, we’ll start you all off on a game of bingo,” he promised, “and Jaspar here is going to tell us a story about his interest in…” he looked over at the boy and smiled, “science and chemistry and stuff.”   

"Uh, yeah, potions and medical studies, but also the more muggle type sciences." Jaspar was beginning to feel slightly less under pressure talking to Léon, and even though the wizard didn't believe this experience would make them friends, he was less intimidated by him. But only slightly. Léon hadn't made fun of him for his admission, and it didn't seem like he was going to, which made Jaspar want to talk about it more. Other than a couple of other students, Jaspar felt like he was a complete outsider at Beauxbatons. He liked science more than magic, but he couldn't say that out loud; they would look at him like he was even more of a loser than they already did.

"Like robotics and jet propulsion and stuff. Did you know muggles have giant steel boxes they fly in the air to transport hundreds of people at a time? You sit in a tiny seat, but you get snacks, so... I'd say that is better than apparition." Between snacks and losing his lunch, Jaspar would choose flying on a muggle plane any day.

"I've never been very good at music," Jaspar admitted, "But I do like the math of it," Maybe they could find a middle ground there. Jaspar was almost hopeful until he remembered that Léon said he didn't like the sheet music. And his smile deflated a little bit. "You were pretty good in medical studies that one time?" It was a while ago, and he wondered if he should feel weird for remembering a random interaction, but Gabby was there, so it was memorable.

Jaspar gulped loud enough to be heard, the nervous look flashing across his bright red cheeks as Léon volunteered him to be in the in-flight entertainment. He blinked a few times, palms beginning to sweat, and set down the bingo items on the table in the middle. "Uh," He had just told Léon his one good story, so now what was he supposed to talk about. Think of something, think of something, he repeated in his head until he felt like he might pass out. The ladies grabbed for their bingo supplies, fighting over the pink dotter like it was the last bit of water in the desert, and Jaspar was glad for the extra moment.

"Well, I did a summer internship at the Magical Academy for Scientific and Magical Advancement (MASMA) before the term started." He told them, idly packing the Bingo balls into the golden-colored spinning thing. Of course, the balls were magical, so as he picked them up, they responded to his touch by changing colors and shooting tiny fireworks into the air. A neat effect for later, but annoying and impractical for this step of set-up, he thought. "We spent a week working on meteorology." The more scientific-sounding words the wizard said, the more comfortable he became, and so, he continued.

"Muggles send these giant balloons into the atmosphere and use data from them to predict weather patterns. It seems a bit more reliable than tea leaves, wouldn't you say?"