Magical Hogwarts

Phil was in a bit of an unusual space for himself…the term had only just begun, but he was already starting to feel weirdly overwhelmed by the conflux of numerous events all at the same time. The beginning of term feast seemed like it had been weeks, even months ago, yet it was only a few days previous. Between classes, catching up with friends about their respective summers, the new issue of Transfiguration Today, trying to find time to set up his philosophy group again, and having to run Quidditch trials this year…he was finding about exactly the right amount of time to sleep, eat, and shower.

Tucking a strip of parchment into his class work for reading, Phil packed up his things from the library and headed towards the grounds. He was supposed to meet up with @Célestin for a bit so the two could talk. On top of all the other things he had on his calendar, something else had come up; something Phil had next to no experience at all. Making his way through the familiar corridors, Phil shouldered open the door to one of the plaza that he had mentioned to Cél for their meetup.

The weather was great. Fall in France was, at least to Phil, some of the nicest weather he had ever experienced. The sky was a brilliant blue with only the lightest, fluffiest of clouds that did nothing to obscure the sun’s beauty. If he’d have been thinking, he would have done his reading for class here as well, but for some reason the thought hadn’t occurred to him, and even if it had, he read better in the library. Less distractions, less likely to get pulled away into something else.

Taking a lap around the garden area and the fountain, Phil found a bench off to the side where it was unlikely they’d be overheard. Their conversation wasn’t secretive per say, but it wasn’t something he necessarily wanted to broadcast to the whole of Beauxbatons. Sitting down, Phil fished out his copy of Transfiguration Today—no reason to waste the time until Cél arrived—and paged through the most recent article on the use of ritual castings to increase the efficacy of particular transfigurations. The article was a bit over his head even if it was fascinating and seemed to be very important. It wasn’t long before Phil heard the crunch of the gravel behind him. Setting his journal on his bag, Phil turned to see if it was his friend joining him or if he had a bit more time to read.

September 2005

Being back at Beauxbatons felt good. Célestin might not be one of the overly ambitious nerds that enjoyed studying every waking hour of the day, but he liked school per se. Being back at the castle was incomparably better than staying at Manoir Vertneuf and he happy to see all his schoolmates again. The prospect of a sports initiative felt alluring to the boy who liked to try out new things even if he didn’t quite have the discipline to make it very far in any sport.

His cousin had asked him to meet and Cél felt certain that the newly appointed Bellefeuille Quidditch captain wanted to catch up and maybe boast a little because of his new position. Cél himself hadn’t received the honour of a school position. Truth be told, the boy hadn’t even thought about the possibility - probably because he knew deep inside that it hadn’t been actually possible for him to be marked as a leading figure for his house.

As he stepped out of the castle to meet his cousin, Cél took a deep breath. The weather was nice and it was still pretty warm. He liked it that in the South of France the summer lasted so long. Sometimes it was still pretty warm until mid October even if the days were already noticeably shorter by then.

He spotted Phil from afar. He was sitting on a bench, apparently distracted by something he was reading. He would have liked to sneak up on him from behind and startle the other boy, but the noise his feet made on the gravel on the ground gave him away prematurely. Such a shame.

“Phil,” he said, unceremoniously sinking down onto the bench next to him. “What’s up?”

“Cél, good to see you.” Phil got up off the bench and gave his cousin a hug. Social niceties and such had never really been all that important to Phil, he preferred to get to business and would show affection for family in other ways, but he knew it was important to a lot of his family, and beyond that to the proper functioning of a socially constructed reality…so he obliged. He wasn’t overly stiff, he knew how to engage socially, he just didn’t always see the need. Then again, maybe he was just being overly analytical because he was feeling so stressed and so many things were out of control. This was one thing that he could hold at arm’s length and analyze, eh, maybe that was too much too…

Nodding his head towards the bench, Phil walked over to it and sat down. He’d never really talked to Cél about crushes before. Sure, they had grown up together, they had talked about pretty much everything, they’d even talked about girls before, but for some reason he’d never found out someone had a crush on him, much less that they wanted to go on some kind of a pseudo-date. Phil had no idea where to start.

“So, Cél, uh, yea. Thanks for coming by” Long pause…’great start Phil’, he thought to himself. “Merde, I don’t know why I am being so weird about this. I’m sorry.” ‘Better, starting to recover.’ “So, you know Émilie right? From my house? She, uh, well she asked me to go with her down to the Chatoeil with her.” There, he’d finally gotten it out. On top of all the other things that had been weighing on him, school, Quidditch, everything else, now there was a girl who was asking him to go on a date. He didn’t know the first thing about dating. Sure, he’d gone through puberty, he’d received a talk from his parents about how things worked, but that wasn’t dating. That wasn’t intentional action in service of prescribed courtship ritual…there he was again, over analyzing.

He paused, not sure what to say next. He had so many questions. He and Cél talked a lot, but he had never mentioned anything about going on a date or about true feelings of intimacy for anyone but family or juvenile crushes on people that both of them knew they would never meet. Deciding it was probably best to just let the silence hang between the two, he waited. Cél would have something to say, hopefully. And if he didn’t have anything immediately, maybe the two of them could come up with an idea as to how to address the situation with Émilie before it was time for them to head back to the Palace for dinner.

Sometimes Phil was really a little awkward. Cél grinned at his cousin as the other boy struggled to say what he apparently felt the need to share. He wasn’t patient or particularly tactful, so he made some funny grimaces while Phil worked up the courage to tell him about a girl which probably didn’t really help his cousin’s confidence. However, Phil knew him and should be aware that this was all in good fun or so Cél thought anyway.

“Émilie, huh?” Cél’s grin widened. “She’s pretty enough.”

The Papillonlisse gave his cousin a few seconds to add to what he had so far shared but Phil didn’t look like he was going to share a lot more. He’d have to pry it out of him.

“Well,” he began, making a mock-serious expression and straightening his back. “Then let’s go through a few questions first. Did you accept the invitation? Do you like Émilie? Do you want to go on a date with her? I have more questions, don’t you worry.” He couldn’t help but grin again. “Let’s just start with these.”

Cél himself had been on dates and he had kissed girls before. Phil, however, had not as far as he knew. Probably his new school position had made him more interesting in Émilie’s eyes.

Célestin punctuated his “confession” with far too many facial expressions for his own liking. Sure, most of them were meant to give Phil a hard time, but still…couldn’t he take this at least a little more seriously? Phil obviously had no clue what was going on and it was rather unsettling for him, or couldn’t Cél tell? Putting it aside as ‘just how Cél was’ Phil waited in the silence until his cousin broke it in a seemingly congratulatory way. “Bien sûr, she is nice looking enough, but,” and this was the part that Phil hadn’t really come to terms with entirely just yet, “I am not sure that her nice looking-ness is all that important to me. I mean, yes, I know, it’s part of who we are as guys, but I don’t know, it just doesn’t seem that matters so much for me…”

Taking a moment to collect his thoughts, Phil listened as his cousin and confidant peppered him with question after question. “Well, I didn’t take notes on all those questions you had for me, but I guess I don’t know. I know I didn’t accept the invitation yet, I really don’t know if I like her or not though. That is kinda what I was saying…as for a date, I really don’t know much about dates. I had a kiss, once, but that was a few years ago…and it wasn’t serious either. Going on a date seems like a whole different thing. I mean, is that even the right thing to do if I don’t know whether or not I like her? Should I just do it because that’s what I am supposed to do? I just really don’t know, hence asking you…”

Phil’s mind was spinning. He didn’t know exactly what else to say or do. He felt completely comfortable talking with Cél, but completely uncomfortable talking about what they were talking about. It was a weird pairing. He knew that even if Cél was a bit of a jokester, Phil could still count on him to be there for him in his time of need. Maybe he had an idea now that he was a bit more aware of Phil’s hesitation and his situation. “Starting there sounds like a good idea…so, you got any ideas?”

Phil just proved again that he was a bit odd, Cél thought. His own facial expression changed from bemusement to amusement back and forth. Émilie was a pretty girl, she could maybe be called a little superficial, but that was not necessarily a disadvantage. Overall she was nice enough company. According to Cél, Phil could not hope for much better, given how socially awkward he sometimes acted.

Now his cousin explained that looks weren’t all that important to him and Cél sighed. Phil still had so much to learn…

“Oh man,” Cél started, “you don’t get that Émilie is sort of your ticket to get more and better options, don’t you? If one girl deems you interesting and dates you, you’ll get more attention from others as well, unless you spoil the date, of course.”

The amount of questions Phil asked him, made Cél’s head spin. He laughed out and lifted his hands in defence. “Whoah, Phil, calm down.” He said, grinning widely.

“Okay,” he began, forcing a serious expression on his face. The corners of his mouth still twitched as they were itching to move up in a full grin again. “It’s good you came to me with this,” he continued. It was brilliant Phil had chosen him to confide in. This totally made Cél’s day.

“First of all, say yes to the date. It’s only polite and there’s nothing wrong with it. If you don’t enjoy it, you thank her for having asked you out and say that you feel flattered by her attention. Then you say that you’re sorry and that you had been hoping that it would turn out differently, but that it didn’t click with her. You could, of course, also give her more chances, go on several dates. That way others would realise you’re out there and it would be good for your image to have a pretty girlfriend. However, don’t underestimate the revenge of a hurt girl. Once Émilie finds out that you only used her to get other girls interested in you, she’ll switch from sweet girl to mean bitch. Be warned.” Cél leaned back comfortably and looked at his cousin curiously, feeling certain that he had given him great advice so far.

It seemed to Phil that Cél was taking his sweet ole time coming up with something to say…couldn’t he see how uncomfortable this whole thing was making Phil. I mean, c’mon, they were cousins. Cél knew that Phil would be much happier in the common room or in the library, curled up with a hot drink and a nice book, happily lost in his own world. Or he also would have been happy out on the Quidditch pitch running the team through a training session from hell. In fact, he would have been happy in almost any other place than here, admitting to his cousin that he knew nothing about dates, girls, or intimacy.

“My ticket to what…? Seriously? You think that going out with Émilie is about getting MORE dates? Why would I want that? I don’t know what to do on one date with one girl and here you are going on about expanding my pool and getting more options. You must be joking, right?” Cél seemed serious, and exasperated, enough. Phil was sure he was serious about that. And yet he hoped that this was just his cousin pulling his leg.

Cél and Phil had always been close. They were cousins, had grown up together, were there for each other through thick and thin. When they were younger, if you hadn’t know any better, you’d have thought the two of them were brothers rather than cousins. As such, Cél knew how to push Phil’s buttons…his nonchalance, his attempt to hide a smirk, his feeling of self-satisfaction. On any other day, that probably would have been enough to get at least something out of Phil, but right now, right now he felt very unlike himself. He needed Cél to help him figure out what to do.

Finally, Cél got to the business of helping out. This is why Phil had asked him out to the courtyard in the first place…couldn’t he have just started here rather than giving him a hard time first? Anyhow, Phil started taking mental notes. ‘Yes to the date, check. Break it off gently, check. Several dates? Really? Well probably not; but who knows? If I avoid several dates I should be ok on the not being a bitch part…but what if I screw up date number one? Didn’t he say something else about that earlier. Crap, maybe I should have written that down too…’ Shaking his head, Phil let Cél finish.

“I don’t know man…I just don’t know. I mean, sure, we always used to talk about who the ‘good looking’ girls were, but I just kinda thought they were like, out there, unattainable. Now that someone is asking me to go out, it seems a little real, do you know what I mean? It just seems like a lot.” Phil was nervous, flustered, and all kinds of not himself. Cél had to see it. He would have given anything for his cousin to give him a reason to go to the pitch or back to the common rooms rather than have to go answer Émilie. Maybe he just wasn’t cut out for this kidna thing.

Célestin couldn’t hide his amusement. He bit his lips but didn’t manage to suppress a chuckle. Phil seemed honestly shocked by his remark that having a date with one pretty girl might get him the attention of other girls. Sometimes Phil was a little hopeless, but that didn’t mean that Cél loved his cousin any less.

“I’m definitely not joking. Why would I joke about this anyway? Listen, mate, no matter how you feel about this all - you have to think about your social standing. You should be happy when girls see you.” He hesitated for a moment, not wanting to offend his cousin whilst still being honest with him. “You know, you’re lucky that they made you Quidditch captain or else you might end up being the nerd who never gets a date. Now you’re a person of interest to some girls. Use this advantage.”

Cél heard what his cousin said about things having become too real and too much for him. It was something strange to say and yet it was typical for Phil in some ways. While he really tried to understand his cousin, the Papillonlisse couldn’t relate to him at all. He frowned and took his time to find a reply.

“It’s just a first date,” Cél finally said. “You don’t have to marry her and you don’t even have to go on a second date with her if you don’t enjoy it. What’s the big deal? You go to Chatoeil together, get a coffee or ice cream, chat a bit about something… the summer holidays, Quidditch, classes, student service, whatever. I’m sure Émilie will manage to keep the conversation going. She’s chatty enough for both of you.”

As an afterthought he added, “and if you want to be nice, tell her that her hair is looking particularly nice today. Girls like that. If you want to be particularly charming, you could tell her that you never noticed before just how beautiful her eyes are.” Okay, Célestin was exaggerating a little now. He knew that his cousin would never pull that off. However, complimenting her hair seemed like a manageable task - even for Phil.

Why was there so much more to school than simply going to school? Why was it so important to have social capital, good standing, blah blah blah… why couldn’t it just be, go to class, learn the things needed to be a good wizard, get a job doing what he enjoyed, and go from there. It all seemed so needlessly complicated. Why weren’t people worried about academic standing? Shouldn’t that be the thing that mattered most in a school after all?

Guys like Cél were well suited for a world that revolved on social capital. He was self-confident, clever, not too smart as to put anyone off, athletic and pleasant to be around. Thus, for him, an economy based on social capital would put him on top. Phil, not so much. He was athletic, a tactician, smart—often too smart for his own good—but nobody was going to mistake him for his cousin’s self-confidence, charm, or boyish good looks. Phil needed another growth spurt to even out his frame before he would catch too many eyes. It all seemed unfair…but at least he had his cousin to help him navigate the challenges that came on the social side of things.

“The nerd who never gets a date huh? Maybe that wouldn’t be so bad, huh? Think about all the extra time I’d have to plan our match strategy to send you flying home to mummy after the match…but alas, they did pick me, and apparently that makes me desirable as you say.” Phil had never really understood Cél. They were the best of friends, they were like brothers even, but Cél worried about different things than he did, he was interested in different things.

Phil smiled as his cousin listed off the itinerary for the date. Now he really wished he had been keeping notes. “Slow down, slow down, how am I supposed to remember all those topics when you are blowing through them so fast,” he laughed. Maybe he was treating this a little more tentatively than he should have. Maybe it really wasn’t so bad. Like Cél said, it’s just a first date. Those are supposed to be awkward, or at least he thought that’s what other people had told him.

“Compliments are easy enough. I think I can come up with one or two of those, that’s a good idea, thanks Cél. You know, you really are smarter than you look.” He gave his cousin a bit of a nudge in the rib as he smiled. He could feel the tension going down a bit. He may not be all that interested in girls, at least not for the same reasons his year mates were, but at least he felt like, with Cél’s help, he could probably make it through an afternoon with one without losing his mind over going on a ‘date.’

“I really don’t understand why you're not embracing your popularity. See it as a game, as your time to shine. You’re the protagonist in your life’s story. Go out there, have fun.”

Sometimes Cél really didn’t understand his cousin. What was wrong with him? Was he maybe gay? That would explain why he didn’t want to date Émilie but it wouldn’t be a problem. As a Quidditch captain he certainly also had the attention of some nice guys who’d enjoy dating him.

Cél sighed as Phil told him to slow down. A date really wasn’t rocket science. Surely he’d be able to do some smalltalk without his advice… or maybe not. He grinned at his cousin, enjoying the power he had.

“Oh man, it’s not that hard. Don’t fret. Do you have something to write? If you really want, I can repeat the possible topics.” He shrugged and was relieved to hear that Phil found compliments to be easy enough.

“Wow, Phil, are you practising your skill of making compliments on me now?” he teased, “I might blush!” He did not blush, but his wide grin showed unmistakably how amused he was by the entire situation.

“Seriously though,” well, maybe not really seriously… Cél could hardly be serious for more than a minute. “Given that you are the quiet type and feeling insecure about the date you could fish for some compliments yourself. Tell her that you were surprised to have been made captain. That you hope that you can live up to the pressure and that your teammates respect you. Then she’ll boost your confidence for sure, telling you just what a great captain you are… And ask her about the summer. She’ll probably have lots to tell you. If you like, tease her a little and ask if she had any noteworthy holiday flirts. That’ll make her blush and give you the upper hand.”