Magical Hogwarts

Phil had been excited when the new headmistress had mentioned that there would be a sports initiative this year at Beauxbatons. He had been involved in the arts initiative last year and while a lot of it was outside his comfort zone, he had been ok with a few of the monthly ‘events.’ Sports, however, now that was right up the young man’s alley. He had grown up on several wizarding games and sports and, as a halfblood, was at least familiar with several of the Non-Magiques games as well…that said, he had not expected the first of the “sports” to be what it was…

When the announcement had first appeared in the common room and had been made at one of their meals, Phil thought they had to be joking. There was no way that the school, in all of its wisdom after last year’s fiasco, would seriously be bringing magical ostriches to the school and giving students the opportunity to ride them. Nobody would be so crazy as to approve such a hairbrained idea, would they? And yet, as sure as the sun rises and sets, a few days later Phil had been outside and heard strange new noises as a part of the symphony that was his home. ‘Merde,’ the boy thought, ‘just what we need, one more crazy creature to attack someone, to maul and maim, to ensure that we all get sent home for good this time around…’

So, naturally, Phil was surprised when Dino had invited him to go down to the paddock to see these “creatures” (beast was probably more apt, but Phil would make that point as soon as something went wrong). He’d accepted for numerous reasons. First, he didn’t want to tell Dino—or anyone else for that matter—that he wasn’t particularly fond of magical creatures. He would probably have been given a pass, especially after last year. Even so, the addition of his newly acquired accessory seemed to have made Phil care a bit more about his reputation than he had previously. Second, Dino was a few years his senior. It was going to take a lot more than an ostrich with some gold feathers to let an upperclassman down. Finally, he didn’t have a very good excuse why not to go down and see them. Between the emphasis on the sports initiative, on the house cup, and his own feeling of needing to lead by example, there was no real reason to skip out on the first event in the initiative.

As the time for their meeting down at the stables approached, Phil fastened a light cloak over his robes as he headed down the familiar path. It wasn’t particularly cold, but who knew how it would feel if he actually ended up on the backs of one of those things and they started running. Wind like that could make it a bit chilly. Rounding the corner to the stable, Phil noticed a few others were down already. It looked as if they were marveling at the birds, albeit from a safe distance. While Phil felt the only real safe distance was the palace, the time for doubt like that was past. He was here. He'd spend some time with Dino looking them over, familiarizing themselves with the creatures, and then head back up after he put in his requisite time “participating.” Lost in his own head, Phil almost didn’t notice when someone said his name.

Seventh year was going to be the best yet! The arts initiative last year had been amazing, but Dino was easily as excited about the sports this year. Admittedly, he might not manage to sign up for everything, given his fear of heights, but he could watch and encourage others in anything he didn't feel able to do himself. Oh, and there were some NEWTs too, but he was sure they would take care of themselves.

Dino loved animals and had excitedly watched for the magical ostriches' arrival. He probably hadn't been the first student to see them, but he had been down by their paddock as soon as his final lesson had finished to ask Prof. Said all about them. What they ate, where they came from, how they'd been trained...and when his teacher had suggested he try to get some other students interested in the planned races, Dino had readily agreed.

It had seemed easy at the time, but actually walking up to people and saying 'hey, d'you feel like racing a magical ostrich?" felt a whole lot less simple. He may be of age, but Dino still lacked confidence, particularly when it came to just walking up to people and engaging them in random conversation. So in the end he'd pretty much asked everyone he knew, starting off by just asking what they thought of the sports initiative, then if they wanted to look at the ostriches, and after a day or so he'd talked to quite a few people about it. Trouble was, he couldn't remember exactly who he'd said what to. Dino knew he'd suggested to a couple of people that they go down early and look at the creatures, he just wasn't sure if anyone was going to turn up.

Oh well. Worst case scenario he just wandered down there on his own. At least his little brother had signed up for the actual races, and had apparently convinced a few of the younger kids to do the same. Dino consoled himself with that thought as he pulled his school scarf a bit tighter and headed for the stables. As he got closer, he realised that someone had actually turned up. Dino couldn't help grinning. "Hey, Phil!" he called as he got close enough to be heard, then jogged the last bit of distance so they met up a short distance from the paddock.

"They're amazing, aren't they?" he asked, not bothering to keep the enthusiasm out of his voice "I can't wait to ride one!"

[ooc: sorry this took sooo long]

Phil looked over his shoulder and saw Dino jogging up to him at the paddock. It took everything he had not to dramatically hush him…didn’t he know that creatures got spooked easily? What if one of them freaked out and attacked, or started a stampede, or something. Phil didn’t know much about these creatures, but he was sure that they, like any other creature—magical or not—wouldn’t be incredibly fond of loud noises and quick, unexpected movements.

Putting on an air of far more confidence than he actually felt, Phil greeted Dino and noted his question. They were something…Phil couldn’t help but admit that. At the same time, he had literally no desire to ride one. He didn’t even really want to get much closer than he already was. He was here to do his part for his house, and that was really it.

Feigning an air of cool-ness (anyone who knew Phil knew he was anything but cool…), Phil replied, “sure, I guess they are amazing or whatever…if you are into that kinda thing. I kinda figured they’d be like, running around or something.” Phil hoped that Dino didn’t notice that he was sweating just a little bit, that his face was reddening a little, that his heart was beating a little faster than it should have been all things considered. Had this sport been anything else: football, rugby, Quadpot, exploding snap, even swimming or diving, Phil would have been fine. But no, it was one of the few “sports” that involved magical creatures.

Phil looked over at Dino and couldn’t help but notice that he looked quite a bit more excited than Phil was nervous. It was written all over his face. Trying to keep his mind off the magical ostrich not but a stone’s throw from them, Phil smiled at Dino, “if I didn’t know any better, I would say you are pretty darned excited to see these things. Is it the competition that gets you going or do you just really like oversized birds and students who have a death wish being paired up?” Phil sounded a little more like himself as he made the joke, but only a little…

Up close the ostriches really were magnificent. Dino stared as if it was the first time he'd seen them, thinking as he did how lucky they were to have so many interesting creatures to study. The abraxans, and the other winged horses, and now these... He was grinning widely and, at least for the moment, entirely oblivious to the possibility that not everyone shared his delight. Even when Phil spoke he just assumed the other boy was just not used to giant birds or something.

"Oh, no. They're actually pretty placid most of the time. And they've got those gold wings for defence, so they don't bite unless they're really scared. And of course these ones are trained - you can't just jump onto any random ostrich and expect to ride it." That was what Professeur Said had told him, anyway. And now he came to think of it, not all of these were trained, but it would have been unkind to split the flock up. Dino had nodded and not asked which ones had been trained, so he hoped Phil wasn't going to ask. Up until now he'd felt quite comfortable talking about them, but then Phil's next words brought him up short.

He paused for half a second, deciding whether it was a joke or not, then couldn't help letting out a short laugh. "I don't have a death wish!" he exclaimed, holding his hands up and shaking his head "I just... well, I do like the competition, but I don't play Quidditch so it's a great opportunity, and... well, you've got to admit they're seriously cool" he sounded a little less certain now. Dino really didn't want to admit he was deathly afraid of getting on a broom, because it just sounded so pathetic to admit. It wasn't the flying itself, just the...well, the possibility of being stuck somewhere high he couldn't get down from.

He leaned against the fence and frowned. "You're not so keen on them, are you?" he asked, as one of the larger ostriches noticed the boys for the first time and started heading in their direction.

The more time Phil spent at the edge of this enclosure, the more likely he was to show more overt signs of his discomfort. The face reddening, the sweating, that could be attributed to the late fall warmth and to the more “strenuous” nature of the “sport” going on. But if he wasn’t careful someone might see that this was less about exertion and more about the fact that he just didn’t like magical beasts. Thankfully, Dino seemed just as content to talk about the birds as he was to go out and try to do anything with one. Phil could keep a weary eye on them as he engaged in conversation to distract himself from the possibility that something could go wrong.

As Dino explained far more than Phil really cared to know, it became obvious that the other boy really did admire these things. He had clearly read up on them or talked to someone about them or something. Rather than mirroring Phil’s nerves, Dino seemed almost elated to be around the beasts. Had he forgotten the spider incident last year? Did he not realize that mundane, non-magiques animals were often times dangerous enough without extra powers like superspeed, bright shiny wings, and the like? Either way, Phil didn’t really want to ruin the other’s fun. Sure, he was uncomfortable, but he would be able to push through it and do his job for his house and for the cup. If nothing else, that thought helped make this experience a little easier.

“Yea,” Phil responded to the other boy, “I guess the competition is a great opportunity. That’s one of the things I enjoy about Quidditch. I get the chance to play the tactician, to plan, counterplan, to observe, and then stick it to you Paps.” Phil grinned and gave Dino a gentle nudge in the ribs. He knew that Dino didn’t play, but that didn’t mean he was not part of the proverbial “enemy” when it came to house competitions like the Quidditch Cup. The rivalry really only lasted on the pitch, for the most part, so good natured fun and giving each other a hard time generally was part of the regular lives of the students.

Dino’s question did a really good job of putting his finger right on the issue. Phil had a choice now. He could lie and save face, or he could give up the façade of bravado and let Dino in just a little bit. He normally held out on the later, preferring to talk to Cél rather than others about things that made him uncomfortable, or really anything else for that matter. But what harm was there in a little honesty, especially with someone who was set to graduate in just a few months and would probably not be running rampart to rampart to tell people that he didn’t like magical creatures. “Yea, magical creatures aren’t my favorite. I mean, I can handle normal animals, or the super chill ones like our horses, but I haven’t really seen these before. I don’t know anything about them. Plus, they have a mind of their own. I am a lot better with things that don’t think for themselves, you know, stuff that behaves in a predictable pattern, with rules, and stuff like that…I don’t know, maybe it’s stupid. But between a general disposition against them and then everything that happened last year, I just feel like magical critters and I don’t really see eye to eye is all.”

It was more truth than Phil normally shared, but Dino seemed like a good guy, trustworthy and all that. “That said,” he continued, “if you really do wanna ride these things, I guess I can put my competition hat on and see if I can make it through a bit of a training session with you. Heck, I ride a broom for sport, why not raise the stakes a bit and give the broom a brain, fancy wings, and a distinct drive for self-preservation?” Phil chuckled at his own attempt at a joke, succeeding in calming himself a little as he talked through his feelings and processed everything aloud.