wunderkind | (no subject)

wunderkind

STUFF GOES IN HERE

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

From:

bitty_justice

Oh - um, California.

[Miles can tell that Sirius seems suddenly less enthusiastic; he's afraid that maybe he doesn't like Americans. That would be...really rotten - he's got his permanent residency in Great Britain, though, and he'll get his citizenship eventually, he thinks.]

I've tried to get rid of my accent, though. I think I've done a pretty good job.

From:

parumcanis

California.

[There is little of the muggle world that Sirius knows--he's been too isolated to know very much--but California is still something of a mystical land, thanks to the little that he's managed to absorb. Not as good as New York, maybe, but still. Pretty good!]

I wouldn't have guessed that. Are you really from California? So do you know muggle film stars, then? I've only seen one film. I snuck in, once. My mother was furious.

From:

bitty_justice

[Miles gives a little laugh and shakes his head.]

No, I don't know any. I think I saw one once, though - there was a limo and everything.

[Still, it's good to know Sirius' mom isn't so different from his dad - ]

My dad would be really mad if I snuck into a movie, too. You do always have to pay.

From:

parumcanis

She wasn't angry about that.

[Don't you know? He wants to ask Miles, but he seems so-- happy. He doesn't know. Not about the Blacks, not about Sirius' parents, or where he comes from--or even what he is going to face.

He should tell him. He knows he should. But he can't, yet, and perhaps that makes him a coward. Sirius looks down at the floor.]

What's a limo?

From:

bitty_justice

[Miles starts to ask what she was mad about, then - but he's distracted by that second question. It's weird that Sirius knows so little about his world - the "Muggle" world, and that's a strange word, too - but it's really kind of fun telling him about the cooler parts of it. After all, he's excited about where he's going, but he's proud of where he came from, too.]

Oh, it's a...really expensive car. It's not fuel-efficient at all, so that's bad - [He's obliged to throw in a little bit of sanctimony, of course - ] But it's really long, and the inside is done up with really plush seats and they put hot tubs and that sort of thing in there. I don't know. I've never been in one. But maybe someday.

From:

parumcanis

[Fuel efficient means absolutely nothing to him, but the rest of that, Merlin's pants--]

They put a hot tub in a car! How do they do that? I didn't know muggles could do things like that--without magic, I mean, without stretching charms and things--

How do you know about them if you've not been in one?

From:

bitty_justice

TV.

[He admits that with a guilty grin.]

I don't really watch it myself, but my friends back home - sometimes I'd go over to their house and we'd watch it. Anyway, I think the hot tub...It probably didn't work at all. Probably splashed everywhere.

From:

parumcanis

But it would be brilliant, wouldn't it! You could drive in a car with a bath in it. It's mental.

[The more he considers this, the more excited he gets. It's exactly the sort of ridiculous and superfluous nonsense he likes, when all is said and done. Somehow he's managed to escape some of the stuffy superiority of a pureblood childhood.]

We should find one.

From:

bitty_justice

[Miles, meanwhile, is stuffy - is marvelously stuffy - but Sirius, as it turns out, has a naturally infectious enthusiasm. Besides, this is a new situation, and he's still figuring out who he's going to be; he is going to, as it turns out, in this situation, be someone who doesn't get sanctimonious about stupid things, but instead get a little excited as well.]

I bet we could. My dad has a car - I bet he'd be willing to drive us out to the really stupid custom car dealerships -

From:

parumcanis

You should write him, as soon as we get to Hogwarts, and ask.

[He leans forward, eagerly--and if they go from Hogwarts, his parents won't ever find out. He can go and see the muggle world, and the limousine, and no one will ever know.]

You don't think he'd mind?

From:

bitty_justice

[Miles shakes his head, though his voice is dubious.]

No, he wouldn't. He...wouldn't get it, I think, because he sort of thinks all things like that are a bit stupid, but he wouldn't mind at all. He likes when people expand their horizons.

[And he's quite certain of this last fact, so this he says with confidence.]

And he'd like you a lot.

From:

parumcanis

Really?

[If Miles is dubious of the actual trip to the limo, Sirius is dubious of-- well, the rest of it.]

Even though he doesn't-- know me?

From:

bitty_justice

[Miles wrinkles his nose; he'd never outright say that's a stupid question - or, at least, not when he's thinking about Dad, who taught him good manners - but he's definitely thinking it.]

Well, he'll know you once he meets you, won't he?

From:

parumcanis

Well-- yeah--

[Truth be told, this is his first time of meeting people he doesn't know already--or really, more accurately, people that don't know him. The unknown is strange to encounter, and--he's not nervous. He's fairly likable, probably, he thinks. But still.]

If you say so. I s'ppose it would be okay. D'you think they'd let us go back to London? From school, I mean.

From:

bitty_justice

Well, for breaks.

[He frowns a little bit, trying to remember the term schedule.]

I don't know about for weekend trips and the like...Perhaps not. But there's no harm done in asking permission...

[He looks up and brightens.]

But of course it would work out for breaks, wouldn't it? You're in London anyway. You'd hardly have to travel at all to get to my place.

From:

parumcanis

[Oh. Sirius' shoulders slump a little, and he looks down at his hands.]

I'm not allowed to--to go into London, at home. My parents wouldn't let me go. [He scowls, faintly, bunching his fingers into fists--and then he looks up at Miles again, determined.] But if we went on the weekend from school, they'd never know--

From:

bitty_justice

You're not allowed to go?

[Miles frowns at that, uncertain.]

Well...What if they met Dad first? So they would know he's trustworthy and that you'd be safe.

From:

parumcanis

[A worse idea yet. Sirius folds his arms over his chest, hunching his shoulders a little.]

We could just go from school.

From:

bitty_justice

[And Miles stares, confused and a little bit alarmed by Sirius' clear reluctance. And then, finally, he understands - ]

Do your parents not like...science?

[...almost understands.]

From:

parumcanis

[He's reluctant to say this, to go on at any great length about this--because it could ruin things a little, and he knows that--]

They don't-- they don't like anything, to do with muggles.

From:

bitty_justice

[Miles' brows draw together a little bit. That's...strange to hear, and he doesn't fully understand.]

They...don't? Why not?

From:

parumcanis

We're purebloods.

[He says it flatly, without the usual manic pride that comes along with it. He doesn't know what it is to be ashamed, nothing so strong--but he's reluctant to say more than that, to offer an explanation that will drive a wedge between Miles and him--the beginnings of shame, maybe.]

Only witches and wizards in my family. That's superior.

From:

bitty_justice

Superior.

[He tries out that word like it's a new candy; by his pursed lips he doesn't like the taste of it.]

As in, you're better at magic? That sort of thing?

From:

parumcanis

At everything. Magic, because it was ours first, but-- really, just better.

[He hesitates--glancing at Miles, first, tentatively, and then jerking his gaze away once more, almost guilty.]

That's what they say.

[And he doesn't know why he couches it that way, exactly, why he takes it back.]

From:

bitty_justice

I...see.

[And Miles frowns a little bit at that, troubled. What would Dad say? That's not hard: Dad would say that there's no one who's superior automatically, that some are born with certain skills and others are born having to work a bit harder but that in everyone there's a capacity for greatness. Or something like that. Miles isn't a hundred percent sure, but he thinks that sounds a lot like racism - which is weird, because that oughtn't exist...

But - that's what they say, is what Sirius said, which means that he shouldn't be really worrying about it because that's not what Sirius says.]

But I bet you anything that I'll get better marks than you in history class. I'm always at the top of my class in history. So you're not superior there, are you?

[And Miles offers a tentative grin, hoping Sirius will return it, hoping that Sirius won't suddenly start hating him.]