Under a Desk

[Cedar Ethat]

He did not feel like being stuck in the common room but he didn't think he was aloud on the grounds this early in the morning either, so dressed in jeans and a green sweatshirt he wandered through the castle until he came to an empty classroom facing the sunrise. He found one on the sixth floor and entered. Soon after he had found a seat on a desk next to a window, which he had opened. From his pocket he pulled a leather bound book. He opened the book where lines of neat handwriting filled the page. He flipped through to about the middle, where he had left off, and leaned against the wall to enjoy the book by the early morning sunlight the streamed through the window. He had been reading barely five minutes when, to his great surpise, somebody else entered the room. Looking up from the top of his book, he stiffened, watching the door swing up with a knot of dread in his stomch. He was certain it was a teacher who, upon finding him in here, would give he a lecture. He snapped the book shut and dove under the nearest row of desk a milisecond before the person entered the room. He slipped his book into his pocket, and crouched under the desk, hoping that he would not be seen but ready to try and run past whoever it was if he was seen. Of course it could just have been another students who would most likely ask awkward questions.

Perhaps he had been to quick to react and he reacted quiet stupidly. He sighed heavily and peered through the legs of the desks to see who had entered the room.

(Drew)

[Drew Thornton]

The early morning sky was a deep dark purple when Drew woke up to take his run. Slipping into a pair of shorts and a sweatshirt, tying up his trainers and tugging a baseball cap onto his head, he exited the Ravenclaw common rooms and worked his way through the maze of hallways and staircases to get to the front doors and the crisp new day outside.

There were hardly many people out at that hour, a few early risers, many like himself wanting to get in a bit of excercise before breakfast, a couple of late birds, leaving those secret places that had kept them hidden all night. He smirked as he passed them. Drew had been on that side of the morning more than once.

Drew had reached the head of the staircase going down to the fifth floor when the glimpse of a figure caught his attention. A small body had slipped into a classroom and while there really wasn't much for the kid to mess with on the sixth floor, it still peaked the Head Boy's interest. With people going outside, down to an early breakfast, or back up to common rooms, ducking into a classroom was a little out of the ordinary.

Veering towards the now occupied room, Drew carefully opened the door, not wanting to startle the occupant. Every so often he'd come across a kid writing or drawing or even just thinking by the window at sunrise and he didn't want to disturb.

But the room was empty. Drew frowned, wondering if his eyes were playing tricks on him as he looked around the room. He could have sworn he saw a kid dressed in green entering...

"Hello?" Drew called out, feeling a little stupid for talking to an empty room. Perhaps it had just been a ghost he had seen. In certain light, their foggy images sometimes took on some pretty cool colors.

[Cedar Ethat]

He would like to get to a position where he could see something of him other than his legs before he revealed himself. But to get close enough he would almost certaintly be seen moving under the desks, if he hadn't been already. He slowly moved into a sitting position, thinking if he should answer the boys call. Then a funner, stupider, and incredibly inviting idea came into his head. He licked his lips and his face split into a grin. He took a deep breath and howled. Not to long and certainly not to loud, he didn't want anybody other than the boy to hear him, but a wolfish cry of hello. Grinning mischievously he peered under the desk again, very aware that if the boy did look under the desks he would be very easy to spot wearing green.

He looked around for a better place to hide but found none that he could get to without exposing himself first, even if he stayed on all fours. Of course he could offer a decoy. He pulled off his sweatshirt and revealing a black shirt underneath and folded up the sweatshirt and slid it down the row of desks. He then curled up to make himself a smaller target and waited.

[Drew Thornton]

Drew raised an eyebrow at the wolf cry, not sure what to make of it. He didn't doubt for a second that it was the kid he had seen, but was wondering why the little guy... or girl... had chosen that for a response. A flash of green slid between the desks, and while the Head Boy turned to watch it, his focus stayed on where he had heard the howling come from. The green had been too small and too fast to be what he was targeting.

Drew hunkered down, squinting in the direction of where he thought the kid was. He thought he might have been able to make out the form of a small human under the desk, but in the subtle light of the breaking dawn, it was hard to tell what was what among the shadows. Eventually, he ended up on his rump, crossing his legs in front of him, and watching the desks in front of him carefully.

"Miaow," Drew finally answered, figuring if the kid wanted to cry wolf, Drew could answer with a cat call.

[Cedar Ethat]

The boy did not go to investigate the sweatshirt, so no escaping. He watched, tense, as the boy sat down. Since he was not under a desk Cedar could make out his face, it wasn't a teacher. He relaxed a little but still did not move.

Miaow

Well that was an odd thing to say, and he obviously wasn't very practiced at it; he still sounded like a human imitating a cat. He grinned a little, feeling that this boy would not get him in trouble. But how to respond. Responding at all would give away his position for sure but it seemed the older boy already was starting at him. Ok, so he would say something, but what.

He finally settled on three swift barks deep barks. He tried to move as little as possible during this vocalization, if the boy didn't know exactly where he was he wasn't going to give him any help. He knew the boy would not understand what the meant because if he had he would have never said that. He waited for the boys answer, wondering who he was and if he would answer with another animal call or in human tongue.

[Drew Thornton]

Drew smirked again as the kid under the table barked sharply. The Ravenclaw wasn't sure why the kid was choosing to speak canine instead of anything human, but Drew was willing to play along at least a little while longer.

Drew gave a low and long snort as a reply, sounding a little like a Tebo. Of course, he couldn't turn invisible, but that wasn't really part of the game. Then again, Drew's conversation partner was doing pretty well keeping hidden. He leaned back on his elbows, keeping his eyes on where he belived the kid to be and waiting to see what the kid would do next.

[Cedar Ethat]

He listened as the older boy snorted, which sounded to him like he had just stuck his nose up a hole and gotten a snout full of spider web. Thinking this brought back a very vivid memory of Comet doing just that with a fallen tree when she was a pup. Of course it was all off but it was pretty good imitation for a human that, or atleast Cedar suspected, didn't know what he was doing. He nearly grinned broadly but was worried the light would glint off his teeth and give away his spot. So he answered with a sympathetic whimper.

He was having fun but it was getting a little uncomfortable staying all scrunched up under a desk. The boy didn't seem to be a threat so, he uncurled and stretched. He let out a short whine of greeting and then crawled out from under the desk and saw down in between the isles and watched the older boy. He grinned.

[Drew Thornton]

Drew gave a low whine back in answer to the whimpering, feeling this little kid was pretty cool even if hidden from view.

And then the boy appeared, crawling out from under the desk he had been hiding beneath. The boy had to be about Jeremy's age and seemed to be just as quirky, communicating with dog noises almost like he actually knew what he was saying. Drew grinned back at the kid and tried another animal. "Quack!"

[Cedar Ethat]

That was an odd noise. He thought about it for a moment before deciding it was a duck or some type of bird. After another brief moment of thought he responded with a short burst of excited whining like he wanted to go and chase the bird. Chasing birds always ended up badly though, just like chasing the cat. Birds let you get really close but not close enough to attack then they flew up to the top of trees where even he or Flint could not get them because they were to heavy. But still they were fun to chase, just like the house cat. He still sat very still, watching the boy with searching eyes. He had seen him before, most likely in the great hall because he wasn't from Gryffindor and he was to old to be in one of his classes. Maybe they passed each other in the hall once. He was pretty sure he had only seen the boy once and then in passing because he could not recognize him.

He stood, well more like crouched because he only rose up so he was on all fours. He took a few paces forward and sat down again, this time cross legged like he was.

[Drew Thornton]

Drew laughed when the boy across from him started whining excitedly and the older boy gave another happy quack, feeling like he liked that animal sound the best. He thought for a moment about asking Percy, Seanna's Duck, if he'd give him lessons. Drew knew a bit of Spanish, a few phrases in Mermish (mostly swear words), but thought it would be pretty cool to speak Duck.

The boy across from him sat cross-legged as well, but still seemed to be in puppy character. It was kind of cute, but Drew would never demean the kid by saying so outloud.

"We've gotta work on your Animagus form some more," Drew told him with a wide smile. "But you've got the barking down pat."

[Cedar Ethat]

"It's Wolfish," Cedar said simply. He wasn't sure wolfish was a word or not though, after a moment of consideration he decided it did not matter. He supposed it might be called Canine-ish because wolves and dogs spoke close to the same language and if you knew one you could manage to convey what you wanted to somebody who spoke the other. But wolfish was more sophisticated. "Whats Animagus?" He asked, he had never heard that word before. The boy seemed friendly so Cedar returned his smile with a his own big grin, or rather an animalistic baring of his teeth that was that was the closest thing he ever came to a grin. He scooted closer and said, "You're do funny impressions." He wasn't sure if it would offend him or not, he might have been trying to sound serious. But the older boy seemed to be good natured enough so he was not really worried about it.

He leaned forward and stuck out his hand. "I'm Cedar."

[Drew Thornton]

"Cool," Drew answered, not sure if anyone could actually speak Wolfish, but at the same time not doubting the kid at his word. He knew there were Parselmouths that could speak to snakes, one of his best friends could communicate to her duck, so he didn't doubt the kid could speak Wolfish if such a thing existed.

"An Animagus is a wizard who can shift into animal form," Drew explained. The Ravenclaw had recently learned the process, but was wary of showing off for the kid. Drew didn't want to scare him.

He laughed at the boy's evaluation of Drew's animal-speak. Felicity seemed to really like it when Drew spoke Squirelese, but the Head Boy figured that was just because it was Felicity. Sammy didn't seem to like it at all.

"Drew Thornton. Nice to meet you," he answered with a wide grin, leaning in to take the boy's hand and shake it.

[Cedar Ethat]

He was certain that if he could change into an animal form then he would become a wolf. Such a thing seemed impossible and unrealistic but in the good fairy tail type way; but this was a magic school after all. Why shouldn't he be able to learn to do? He shook Drew's hand and then leaned back saying enthusiastically, "Nice to meet you to, how do you become an Animagus? Could I learn?"

He guessed that it probably involved some really complicated spell or hard-to-make potion and that he probably wouldn't be able to do it but maybe if it was a potion somebody else could make it for him, or if it was a spell somebody could cast it on him. But that would probably cost a lot and Katie would never pay for such a thing. He wondered if maybe there was a class on it but for some reason he doubted that. He wondered if he could turn into more than one animal once he learned how. It would be cool to be able to be a bird, wolf, or leopard at will. Then maybe another animal that could swim, then he would have all the elements covered.

[Drew Thornton]

Drew grinned at the kid's enthusiastic attitude. Cedar reminded the Ravenclaw a little of himself at that age, inquisitive and ready for a challenge.

"I don't see why not," Drew answered with a shrug and a smile. It wasn't like being an Animagus was like being a Metamorphmagus. That was all genetics. "It's not easy, really advanced magic, but it's possible to learn. It took me a while to figure out, but if you aren't afraid of hard work and making a few mistakes, I figure you could learn how too."

"But I'd start with working on your Patronus first," Drew suggested. Still higher magic than most first or second years could do, but not totally out of reach and a good first step to an Animagus.