Waiting for Sara on Labyrinth Gardens

Arthur Carey

August 28, 2012 6:58 PM

Waiting for Sara by Arthur Carey

The tall hedges of the Labyrinth Gardens almost hurt Arthur’s eyes – well, made them hurt more than they already did – under the full glare of the morning light, here illuminated in such sharp detail that he could make out the small patterns in leaves close to him even without his reading classes, there throwing strange patterns of shadows which, for Merlin only knew what reason, were almost harder to look at than the leaves. He kept most of his attention on the ground beneath his feet, pinching the bridge of his nose and looking up only when he heard footsteps on the path leading past the one he was lurking in, to make sure the owners were not the person he was waiting for.

Learning where the other Houses’ common rooms were had been something Arthur had decided to do early in his time at Sonora, but it had been a more difficult endeavor than he had initially expected. Crotalus had not been terribly hard, but he’d taken longer to puzzle out Teppenpaw and Pecari, and he still had more of a ‘somewhere along this path’ idea for Pecari than he did a concrete location. He had not felt the need to get more specific than that, since he’d really only learned these things just to alleviate the irritation of knowing there was something the staff didn’t want him to know. Last night had been the first time a practical application of that knowledge had really occurred to him, and he was inventing the most interesting demises for the man who’d decided Pecaris should spend time outside he was awake enough to think of as he, too, spent time there in order to intercept one person on her way to breakfast.

Really, everything would be so much tidier if everyone did the exact same thing at the exact same time each day. It would make it much easier to keep up with them. Finally, though, he saw Sara Raines pass by and waited until she was past before stepping out of the passage – no need to let her be quite sure he’d been standing here waiting on her, not least because that behavior might be interpreted as bizarre – and then catching up with her.

“Good morning, Miss Raines,” he said, very pleasantly, he thought, especially for the accursed first day of school. “Might I have a moment of your time?”

0 Arthur Carey Waiting for Sara 182 Arthur Carey 1 5

Sara Raines

August 28, 2012 9:19 PM

Wait no more by Sara Raines

Sara had followed her usual morning routine almost to the letter on the first day of sixth year, but with all of it pushed back ten minutes, so she would have time to escort the first years as she had promised to do during her speech the night before and still look her best while she did it.

It was still later than she got up at home, since there was usually less to do in a day at Sonora than there was at home, especially recently, but she still felt tireder than usual as she brushed her hair out in anticipation of curling the ends of it. The time zones, she supposed, and also that Blinky didn’t appear with a small cup of coffee as soon as she got out of bed here. She was sure to take extra care with her make-up to hide any signs of fatigue around her dark eyes, and when the charm she’d set to let her know it was time to leave the dorm went off, she had just stepped back from the mirror to admire her appearance of the day. She paused to reapply her pink lipstick, then walked down to the common room, where she collected all the first years she saw around and began to make her way back to the main building.

Once she had, she went back to Pecari to get her bag, since it wouldn’t have looked very professional to have her schoolbooks on her back while she was guiding them. She hadn’t thought of anyone not in Pecari being outside at this time of morning and was surprised when, on her way back, she recognized Arthur Carey’s voice a moment before he materialized, having apparently come from somewhere behind her. “Good morning,” she said, startled but hoping that she wasn’t showing that very much. “Good early morning.”

He did not help her become less confused when he asked if he could speak to her for a moment. What was this about? She knew the Aladren boys, of course, because she was dating one and her best friend was betrothed to another and had been close to him even before that, but Arthur was neither of those two, and they had never been more than acquaintances. She knew Preston did not think badly of him, and that he was very smart and friends with Alice Adair, but not much else.

“Of course,” she said. She saw someone and smiled automatically until they had passed. She kept the perfect prefect’s smile in place even as she began to speak. “How can I help you?” she asked, since she assumed from the way he’d said it that he wanted to ask for help with something, thought she couldn’t imagine what he could want from a Pecari prefect. Surely an Aladren prefect, or even Jane, if it wasn’t something Aladren-specific, would do better than her.

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Arthur Carey

August 29, 2012 7:53 PM

I'm glad not to have to by Arthur Carey

“Indeed,” Arthur said, making the effort to smile – an effort which was actually uncomfortable when he was tired, but which he felt was necessary – when Sara pointed out that it was early, at least to be doing anything other than eating breakfast, which was not something he thought happened very often in the Gardens. “I don’t sleep well our first few days back, so a walk seemed like as good a use of my time as any.”

At least when he had to account for Preston not becoming prefect, anyway. In a way, he knew it was good that Preston had not – he might well have become insufferable if he’d gotten that badge – but his reaction meant that Arthur was going to spend more of today than he would have liked running around smoothing things over. He thought he’d convinced Preston with his staff theory last night, but it couldn’t hurt to bring Sara in, too. There was, after all, how he thought they hadn’t talked yet and Sara did still have a badge where Preston did not. He could see how it might be…irritating, to date a girl with greater authority, even though Arthur did not expect dating to be something he got a chance to do.

Not that he would have dated Sara even if she’d been single and he’d had the first idea how to go about getting the favorable long-term romantic attention of an appropriate girl. Objectively, he saw that she was beautiful, reasonably well-connected, a perfect lady, and yet, he was as completely disinterested in her as he was in Jade Owen, at least in that way. Which did make this easier, he supposed, and would help when he decided if he wanted to try to talk the rest of the year into or out of electing her Head Girl at the end of the year, but he thought it was a little peculiar, too. He’d found the presence of girls rather overwhelming since last year, proper and improper ones alike, but not this one at all.

“Actually, I was thinking more of how I could help you,” he replied to her question. “I’m sure you know Preston was disappointed by…how things went with the prefects last night.” To put it mildly, at least at first. He had seen other people at the table looking at them during Preston’s initial rude outburst – one of the third years, he was sure, the one who’d been talking to Preston’s sister. Henny. That always did amuse him, considering his cousin.... “I don’t know how you were planning to approach the issue with him, but I found it helpful to point out how the staff politics this year were…clearly not favoring…people like us.”

Even though he’d decided not to say ‘rich purebloods’ outright, Arthur lowered his voice as he said that. Gardens were not an ideal place to talk to anyone, since people could easily be lurking, just as he had before. It wasn’t likely, but it was possible – something to think about. Yet more reasons to think unkind things about the person who had decided it was a good idea to put the Pecaris where they were; he knew it had been nothing personal, not a plan to cause him inconvenience two hundred years down the line, but it still irritated him. “He seemed to accept that. I thought you might find it a useful approach if he brings it up again.” Arthur didn’t know if he would or not, but it had, at two o’clock in the morning, seemed like a base that he ought to cover.

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Sara

August 29, 2012 9:41 PM

I may not be by Sara

Sara winced when Arthur mentioned how Preston felt about how the prefect selections had gone the night before. Disappointed…well, how was he not going to be disappointed? He had been so sure he would become prefect, she was sure everyone knew he had been sure, and then to be embarrassed like that – it had, she was sure, been awful, even worse than she imagined it was. It was why every thought she’d had about breakfast today had been overshadowed by a sense of dread, because she had no idea what to say to make that better.

Arthur, however, did not seem to have that problem. For a moment, Sara just looked at him, not really sure she was hearing exactly what she thought she was hearing. Then she laughed, uneasily, because that was the best reaction she could think of in that second, though she regretted it a second later.

“Thank you, I – I suppose,” she said. “But…” There were most likely certain words smart girls didn’t use to Careys, but Sara crossed that line anyway. “I don’t, um, really think that what Preston and I talk about is any of your business, is it?”

At least, she devoutly hoped their relationship was not Arthur’s business, that Preston didn’t sit around repeating their conversations word-for-word to his roommates. There had never been anything truly improper, of course, but a few slips – how she really thought about Eliza Bennett, for example, little things like that – had occurred, and of course there had been a few personal things here and there, and it made her uneasy to think of all the Aladrens, and Arthur in particular, knowing all that when she didn’t really know any of them that well. She was going to be angry with Preston if that was the case.

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Arthur

August 29, 2012 10:34 PM

That's not for me to say by Arthur

Sara’s response was a surprise to Arthur. He’d always assumed that all other reasonably intelligent people took the same approach to information that he did, which was that more of it was always a good thing if he had the means to get it without too much trouble. He had not only not caused Sara any trouble when it came to getting this information, which could be very useful to her, but he had walked up and offered it to her freely. Admittedly, he’d done that because what was good for him lined up with what was good for her at the moment, but that wasn’t the point….

Of course, it occurred to him a moment later, Sara didn’t know exactly how their interests aligned at the moment. To her, he supposed it could have looked like he was doing anything, including what Arnold called just being weird. He had forgotten about that, and when it was something of a private, embarrassing thing, being attracted to someone, which people at least thought she was….He had never been sure, of course, because people could act differently than they thought, but she did seem to genuinely like Preston on some level, and Arthur supposed he was not bad-looking for those who didn’t mind red hair. If he did not have a good explanation, then he could have overstepped a boundary.

Luckily, then, he had a good explanation, or at least what he thought was one, with the truth.

“Of course not,” he said, smiling to show he had taken no offense. “I just wished to help, if possible. Preston is my good friend, you are my brother’s fiancée’s good friend, so it’s in my best interests to see that the two of you are happy, yes? The sooner we’re past all these…feelings about the prefects, the better off everyone will be.” He smiled self-deprecatingly. “I have to admit, I like it that we’ve always had a peaceful dormitory. I’m not really someone who enjoys the thought of everyone arguing all the time in my own house.” He suspected he might be tempted to do unethical things with his potions lessons if they did start that, since it would mean many headaches and he didn’t enjoy having headaches. They were enough of a regular feature of his life as it was without adding any new reasons to the slew of reasons that already existed for them.

0 Arthur That's not for me to say 0 Arthur 0 5

Sara

August 30, 2012 3:08 AM

No, it isn't. by Sara

If it had been left all up to her to pick a single word to describe Arthur and Preston's relationship, friend was not the one Sara thought she would have chosen. They seemed to respect each other, to maybe like each other, to have more in common with each other, than they did with anyone else in their dorm, and maybe it was just the girl in her not understanding how males used words, but she though more than that was required to really call something a true, good friendship.

The choice of word, though, had not been all up to her, but had instead been settled by Arthur, who was claiming his waltzing into the middle of things was an attempt to look out for her and Preston. It was a good thing he didn't try to disclaim any personal motive at all, because then she really wouldn't have believed him. As it was, she had...reservations. There was something a bit too pat about it to her mind, and the question was whether or not it really was. Normally Arthur seemed like a handsomer male version of Alice Adair, who Sara didn't see as a threat, but, well....

"I can imagine how you wouldn't," she said politely when he spoke about not wanting a war in his dormitory. She and Sophie weren't on wonderful terms, but they were always on civil ones. Fighting people she had to sleep in the same room as didn't seem like a very good idea to her. "Well, I, I thank you for the advice. I think I'll go to breakfast and see if I can find Preston now."

She thought it was safe to assume he wouldn't want to tag along, since he'd been out here at this time of morning just, Sara suspected, to intercept her, which to her implied a desire for secrecy. Along, of course, with the actual content of the conversation; she thought they both knew Preston well enough to know how well he'd react to seeing Arthur giving her advice on how to handle him. It was a point of pride with Sara not to let him know he was ever being handled at all. In any case, though, she needed to go see her boyfriend herself and figure out how things were going before she did anything else.

Sara set her shoulders and then smiled at Arthur. "Good day," she said, and headed for the building. It looked like it was going to be a long year.

0 Sara No, it isn't. 0 Sara 0 5

Arthur

August 31, 2012 7:53 PM

If you really wanted, though... by Arthur

“Of course,” Arthur said when Sara said she wanted to go find Preston now. “I wouldn’t mention this to him, you know how he can be, but I hope I’ve been some help.”

All this was, of course, assuming she hadn’t thought of the exact same thing he had when trying to come up with a way to rationalize the situation for Preston. If she had, then she might be insulted that he didn’t think she could think of it herself, or at least curious about someone thinking the same way she did. If it had worked, though, and then applying the advice worked, then she might feel she owed him a small favor in return sometime, which would be ideal, or at least be favorably disposed to listening to him again another time, which would work just as well. The only problem was the ‘if.’ Arthur did not like ‘if.’ ‘If’ meant the plan had gaping holes which could be used against him if everyone didn’t react just the way he expected them to.

He’d tried to patch for that, but he was still depending on what he assumed to be the motives of people that he wasn’t completely sure of. Mentally, he added another check beside learn legilimency on his list of goals. Being able to know that whoever he was talking to was telling him the truth, or just to figure out the truth without going through the asking phase, would be hugely useful no matter what he ended up doing. From what he had read, people who learned it would never be quite as good as those who were born with a natural talent, but anything was better than nothing, and he knew there was a spell. Figuring out how to do that non-verbally, even, would beat nothing.

Once Sara was gone, Arthur dropped the smile for a moment and ran a hand over the side of his face again. The potion had worked well enough that it no longer hurt, but the pressure was still there, letting him know that it should hurt, a strange, unpleasant sensation only a little better than the pain, at least at the level it had been at. He wanted to skip breakfast entirely, but needed to see how things were going, so he settled for waiting a few more minutes, for Sara to get well ahead, before subjecting himself to the madness of the day.

0 Arthur If you really wanted, though... 0 Arthur 0 5