Echo Park [Open]

[cypress]

Today was going to be absolutely horrific, Cypress could feel it in his bones. The weather was miserable, he still didn't have permission to form a drama club, let alone anyone else interested in forming one, and he was failing several classes again, earning a bad conversation via letter with his mother and a detention from the Potions professor for not doing his homework. Add to that the fact he seemed to be pissing everyone off lately, and you had the recipe for a fairly miserable Gryffindor.

To escape the annoying first years in the common room of the Gryffindor tower, Cypress had decided that a walk was in order. Unfortunately, staying inside wasn't really an option – what with his recent escapades, he didn't really want to get into anyone else's bad books and in all honesty, he just wanted to be alone for a bit. Not for the first time in his life, he wished he'd put up a better argument against his mother and tried to go to an acting college instead of Hogwarts. He knew he was never going to get anywhere here, so what was the point anymore? He could feel the brooding was forthcoming, and while he didn't mind being grumpy, he didn't really want to spend the rest of the day acting like a brat. He had better things to do, like pester the teachers into helping him, or tracking down someone he hadn't annoyed so he could pester them into helping him with his work.

Hands shoved in his pockets, he walked down through the school entrance and outside, feeling Francis run off his shoulder and settle in the hood of his top instead, where it was warmer. He hoped the rat didn't decide to jump off him and go exploring, although that wasn't likely. He'd been fed anyway, so he'd probably just go to sleep. Pushing the rat from his mind, Cypress allowed his eyes to scan the landscape and found nothing met his eyes except the grounds. Bloody typical. He'd been hoping to find someone to talk to, preferably someone he hadn't pissed off. Sighing, he finished his walk to the Black Lake and sat by the edge, resting his arms and chin on his knees and glaring out at the water, hoping the Giant Squid fancied a snack. He'd probably be a little scared to find out he was only half joking.

[Tenebrus II]

Cypress wasn’t the only one having a bad day. Then again, the definition of ‘bad day’ probably differed a bit - okay, a lot - between him and Tenebrus. While Cypress was suffering bad marks, a detention, stress with his folks and serious doubts about his future, Tenebrus was dealing with something much, much worse.

He was hungry.

And bored, can’t forget that.

And to make it worse all the grumpy old mares in Hogwart’s rather infamous herd of Thestral’s were more interested in standing under a particularly dark patch of forest, flicking their tails around and blinking contentedly than doing anything else. To be fair, they did move occasionally, although only to stick their heads down and bare their teeth at the young stallion to let him know they wanted nothing to do with him today and his nasty habit of disturbing the peace.

After a few minutes of running around the fringe of the herd with a few annoyed kicks, snorts and frenzied wing flapping to try and work off his agitation, the lead mare finally got annoyed with Tenebrus’s antics and placed herself at the front of the mob near him, pawing the ground once with her hoof, and tossed her head indignantly before screaming an irritated, ringing warning that echoed around the forest and likely the grounds like the cry of some monstrous bird. Basically, the thestral equivalent of ‘sit back down and shut up, you idiot’.

Incensed that he was being reprimanded in such a fashion, Tenebrus arched his neck valiantly and was about to make his rebuff when the second mare in the hierarchy pushed herself next to the lead and snapped her teeth warningly at him. Feeling deflated all of a sudden at not one, but two high ranking members telling him off, he snorted defiantly much like a child sticking out his tounge and trotted off in the direction of the school grounds, taking to the air when the canopy thinned out enough.

The flight was quick, and Tenebrus stayed low to the tops of the pines, hoping he might startle out a bird or two worth catching, but the forest was annoyingly silent. Instead he allowed himself to focus on the steady up and down motion of his wings and the heavy sound of the air every time they came down. His spirits were steadily lifting already. Hogwarts meant students. Students meant possible food and attention. Usually he didn’t like coming out on sunny days, but today was a special case seeing as the herd was being dumb.

The site that greeted him however he didn’t like. Empty. The whole damn place was – no, wait. Ahaha! Someone! Triumphantly, he quickly angled down, back winged a few times to slow his decent then straightened his front legs to brace for impact. He came down with a dull thud a little distance behind the boy and without stopping trotted deftly over, rustling his wings happily. Hopefully this one could see him and might feed him. If not, there was always a chance he might run away scared, and that meant he could at least chase him a little.

Tenebrus slowed to a walk then stopped to the left of the boy. Excitedly he lowered his nose to Cypress’s level and exhaled loudly right next to his face to get his attention, breathing a lot of hot air on him before going to phase two of trying to nudge his head to beg.

[cypress]

Cypress sniffed a little bit and rubbed at his nose angrily, considering the idea of going and getting a jacket before he got a cold and deciding to sit it out instead. It just wasn't worth the risk of bumping into someone he didn't want to see, but on the other hand maybe he could make it up with them? He doubted it, somehow - he was a stubborn headed arsehole when he wanted to be, and he didn't think he'd done anything wrong. He'd only been telling them exactly what he thought... Weren't you supposed to be honest with your friends?

Apparently not, it seemed.

His brooding, however, was short lived as he heard a grunt and felt a load of hot air suddenly hit his face from nowhere. Startled, Cypress turned to see who the hell had snuck up on him, leaning backwards on his hands, only to find himself completely alone. He blinked and turned around again - he must have imagined it - only to find something warm nudging his cheek. Truly freaked out this time, he scooted to the right a bit and looked around, partly scared and partly annoyed.

"Who the fuck is there and what the fuck do you think you're playing at?" he asked, voice a slightly higher pitch than normal. "I swear if that's you, Peeves, I'm gonna find a way to kill you again..."

Silently, though, his hand went to his pocket to find his wand, a reminder that he could probably defend himself against something, provided he didn't freak out too much first.

[Tenebrus II]

Tenebrus’s confidence was slightly dented when the kid made an automatic dart away. He’d completely forgotten that the students weren’t always as happy to see him as Idris was. Oh well, Cypress would surely come around, Tenebrus was simply too amazing to be disliked, right? (The mares would figure that out aaaany day now.) Besides, people were the providers of food and surely this kid wasn’t dumb enough to go down to the lake without anything to eat.

With renewed determination the thestal pricked his ears in interest and whipped his tail left to right as he lowered his head and came forwards in pursuit. Silly children, getting scared like that, just like a prey animal. Sniffing around Cypress’s face again he caught a wiff of something else and his head darted down gleefully to his hood.

Rodent. Rat. Big rat. Rat was food! There were a few that lived in the forest, though they were annoying to catch. Hmm, little delicacy for him today perhaps? Clever of the boy to hide it like that to make him have to look for it, just like Idris. Sometimes hiding meat scraps all over the place was the only way the teacher could keep Tenebrus busy enough to escape. Settling himself in for what would look to be a good game of find-the-treat, Tenebrus grabbed the top of the hood cautiously in his teeth to find a way to get it open.

[cypress]

Cypress gazed around and was still unable to see anything, which unnerved him slightly. Wha the hell could be invisible? His first thought was of an invisibility cloak, like the kind everyone heard Harry Potter used when he was at Hogwarts (and so now everyone naturally wondered which of his children had it, if they even did at all), but he dismissed the thought. They were rare, apparently. He didn't know the exact details but he thought he'd heard something like that. But if not one of those, then what?

He could hear the sniffing, feel the small rush of air come from the unknown creatures mouth and cringed a little. What the hell was doing that? His grip on his wand tightened as he felt something pulling at his hood, and naturally his automatic reaction was to reach back and grab it. It probably wasn't the best idea in the world, but he yanked it back, pushed himself onto his knees and stood up, yanking his wand out and pointing it at the air, probably in the wrong direction.

"I'm not scared!" he lied, considering which of the spells he knew would be good against something he couldn't see. Maybe he should just leg it and hope for the best? He'd definitely keep it an option, that was for sure.

[Tenebrus II]

All of a sudden Tenebrus felt the hood wrench out his teeth and promise of a succulent rodent go along with it. Hey! Not fair! He was about to go chase him down when Cypress pulled out a thin little stick and pointed it lightly too far to his right, but that made the thestral hesitate for a few seconds. That was one of those scary twigs that shot rainbow sparkles. One of the students had shot something at him with it a long time ago that had caused him to break out in hives. To be fair the person had also been eating the sandwich when he’d tried to take it, whereas this kid was just carrying the food with him. So the rat must be for him!

Pleased with his logic, Tenebrus decided to believe this was just an extension of the game they were already playing. Raising his head eagerly Tenebrus quickly took off in a clockwise circle around Cypress, his hooves thudding dully as he went and trying to figure out his next move. Stick was bad, avoid stick, get to the back of him and extract rat without kid noticing. Right, this would be tricky.

Tenebrus was now wound up enough to beat his wings once simply because he couldn’t keep them still. With a whoosh it sent a massive gust of wind all over the place that picked up any fallen leaves off the ground and sent them swirling. Hand on a second, that could work as a distraction! Tenebrus made a lunge for the hood again, trying to grab as much of the fabric as he could.

[cypress]

Okay, so Cypress really had been lying about the scared part. He was extremely freaked out, to be honest, and what with the whatever-it-was being invisible, there wasn't a whole lot he could do to stop it. He could hear a thumping around him, and he turned, trying to figure out exactly where it was. Was it... was it circling him? He felt like he was food being eyed up by a predator, even if he didn't realise it wasn't him the mysterious creature was after.

There was a whoosh of wind, leaves flying everywhere and startling Cypress, and he decided that sod it, he was bloody well leaving. Unfortunately, his run was short lived and he nearly fell over as his hood seemed to be fixed in place. Worried, he shoved his hands behind him, grabbing the sleeping Francis (oblivious idiot) and shoving him in the pouch that served as a pocket on his hoodie, and proceeded to yank at the hood.

"Gerrof!"

[Tenebrus II]

Tenebrus was just starting to fancy his odds of extracting the rodenty morsel when a hand shot up and pulled the furry sausage from it’s hiding spot. Excited he was being rewarded for his effort Tenebrus let go of the hood and made a wild lunge at it with his teeth to grab it. It was lucky Cypress was as quick as he was otherwise he could have found himself with a very bloody hand. Tenebrus felt his teeth snap together on thin air, and before he could react the rat was gone again.

Hey! That was not fair! Cheater! Cheater! Hurt and confused, he backed up and made a half-rear on his hind legs with an agitated hawklike shriek to ask why he wasn’t being given his treat. Maybe this wasn’t a game after all or something. The boy was starting to smell of fear sweat and he seemed to be trying to get away rather than play a chasies. Oh well, maybe it still wasn’t too late to convince him to get go of the food? One way to find out.

With renewed care he lowered his head cautiously once more as though he was stalking and made a beeline for the now Francis-stuffed pocket. He might run, so Tenebrus was on the alert for that and ready to follow.

[August Jensen]

August liked breakfast in the great hall, the company was excellent, the food tasted great and it was always warm. This morning he'd slept in though and so by the time he got upstairs the Hufflepuff table was almost empty. Seth had been there, but despite August's best efforts to make small talk his fellow Hufflepuff's answers had been rather short. Accepting defeat for the time being August gathered up his bacon sandwich and wrapped another in a napkin to put in his pocket for later.

He strode down the steps of the castle, taking a bite of his sandwich as he went and shivering at the way the cold air seemed to instantly permeate his robes. August hadn't exactly planned on a trip outdoors so he didn't have his coat with him, but he persevered anyway, ignoring the way the tips of his ears were already turning pink in the chill. He would have plenty of time to warm up later and if he got really cold there was that heating charm they were learning in class he could test out. Although every time he'd tried it so far he'd set something on fire...

August was half way across one of the many sprawling lawns that made up Hogwarts grounds when he spotted Cypress over by the lake. His Gryffindor friend was behaving very oddly, waving his wand around at thin air and grabbing frantically at his hood every so often. Curious, the sixth year jogged over to see what was going on. "Cypress," He called when he was close enough, grinning happily. "Are you practicing some kind of spell?"

[cypress]

Cypress heard the clack of teeth closing around nothing and groaned. Great, whatever it was, it definitely wanted to eat him. He was on edge now, one hand grasping his hood carefully over his shoulder and the other in his pocket, his wand tucked inside with the still sleeping rat (lazy bastard). He was glaring at thin air and about to leg it when he heard a voice and whirled around to find August approaching. Great, just what he needed right now, to make a fool out of himself in front of the guy he liked.

Typical.

He couldn't help but return August's grin - it was so infectious! - but fought back the urge to snap at him regardless. He rolled his eyes. "Have you ever seen a spell that looks like that?" he asked, for the first time actually snapping at August, even if it was only a hint of annoyance in his words rather than full blown anger. He let go of his hood and waved a hand around. "I'm being attacked by... something!" he exclaimed, retracting his hand again in case it decided to bite him.