What's My Line

January 8th, 1891 - Library

Venusia Crickerly had been slightly less Fun since coming back from break; their OWLs felt so much more real now than they had before break. And she had a secret, one she was keeping very carefully in her chest - she wanted very desperately to be an auror. In order to do so, she was going to need to take at least five NEWTs, and they were going to have to be in real subjects. She couldn't afford to slip now.

So getting as much homework out of the way as possible before the distractions of the weekend was a necessity. She was holed up at a table in the library moving through her History of Magic work, and was startled when she flipped a page and spotted Elon out of the corner of her eye.

Venusia looked up slowly, as if she had been aware of his presence the whole time and was only just now choosing to acknowledge it. This was not too far off, she supposed, if one pretended that she had been less sunk into her textbook. "I hope you're here to study," Crick said. Elon could not always be counted on to actually follow through on doing their homework; when they were hanging out for social reasons, Crick didn't care about this, but the library was a sacred place and she had OWLs to excel on in just a few months.

---

@Elon Wildsmith

Elon didn't care about his OWLs. He was smart enough to get at least passable grades in most of his classes. He also had no career ambitions, so it wouldn't matter whether he got an A or an O or a D in any class. The ones that interested him truly he could pass. The others... Meh, whatever happened happened. It would all be down to luck and what sort of questions they'd have on the exams.


They hadn't been taught anything exciting that week as far as classes went. He had some assignments to do and he was planning on doing a half-assed job so he'd hand at least something. He didn't believe in not handing in homework at all. However, one could easily tell when he was bored with an assignment. It was the Victorian equivalent of copying and pasting off of Wikipedia and changing the sentences a bit so it wasn't direct plagiarism.

His heart fluttered when he saw Venusia at the library. One, because it was nice to see a friend when you had boring assignments to do and two, because he rather liked her.

That being said, he had noticed that she had become a lot more tense ever since they'd returned from the holidays.

He exclaimed loudly but kept a smile on his face. "Yes, I'm here to..." He paused in a rather theatrical manner and started scrambling through his things until he retrieved a rather crumbled piece of paper. "Write about the medicinal properties of bird eyes in potion-making." He made a face. "That's so boring. Thank Merlin some people are passionate about learning this stuff so we go to them to cure us if anything happens. And what about you?" He leaned forward towards her to peek into her book and exclaimed loudly. "The Werewolf Code of Conduct." He made another disgruntled noise. "Why are we even learning about this so extensively, it's not like any of us is a werewolf."

---

Elon was talking a lot for a person who was here to study. Venusia squinted up at him, trying to decide how much she believed him - how much he cared about potions. She could not really accuse him of lying, she supposed, but she did not entirely believe him.

"It's important to know how others govern themselves," Venusia said, tapping her fingertips against the pages of her book. "The potions assignment isn't too bad once you get into it - there's a lot of good examples to use in the homework, because there's so many birds."

---

"As you say," Elon replied with a bored tone. He couldn't imagine how an assignment about eyes being used in potions could be interesting. In all honesty, potions were only fun when they were brewing something. He hated learning all the detailed theory behind them. Especially when it was for boring potions such as these. He had never once had to brew his own medicine.

Elon allowed his friend to work for a bit, as he began to scribe down his assignment. However, at some point, he started to feel bored and he started flicking the book of his page quite loudly. He was shooting glances at Venusia, hoping that she'd notice how bored he was and offer an alternative to the current state of affairs.

---

Crick was absorbed in her work; she had practically forgotten that Elon was there. She was nearly done with her work when she heard the sound of him flicking the piece of paper and was startled out of her paragraph.

She glanced at him sidelong.

"You want to start your weekend," Venusia said, factually.

---

This was all Elon needed. He closed his book with a 'thud', crossed his legs and leaned towards Crick with a smile. "Yes!"

"Don't tell me you feel like studying any more than I do!" By studying he meant for school, of course. There was always something Elon was independently studying about.

---

"Mmm," Venusia demurred. "I think that I might." Elon would get decent OWL grades, take a smattering of random classes in whatever was most interesting to him at the moment, and eventually find a career he probably did not enjoy, or otherwise become an odd academic duck. Venusia had Plans.

---

"No you don't!" Elon countered with a laugh. He got up from his seat and extended his hand to his friend. "Let's go on an adventure, Venusia Crickerly!" Where to? He didn't know. They could run around the castle, perhaps charm a portrait to swear at people or break into the kitchens to banter with the house elves.

---

She shouldn't.

But.

Crick already felt a sense of FOMO blossoming in her chest if she chose not to.

"Alright," Crick agreed, taking his hand and shoving her textbook into her bag. "But you have to choose what it is."

---

Elon had suggested the adventure for the sake of being dramatic, but he didn't actually have a plan as to what this adventure could be. In the scandalous novels, this adventure would likely involve getting undressed and kissing. While Elon wouldn't mind doing that with Venusia at some point in his life, he couldn't just suggest that now.

First, he lead Venusia out of the library as he went over his options.

They could break into the kitchens and banter with the house elves. Maybe ask them if they could cook instead of them? That seemed as great fun for Elon.

Maybe they could break into a potions' cabinet and take some potion that made you elated?

Maybe they could go up to the Astronomy tower and summon fireworks in the sky?

Oh!

"Let's steal two broomsticks," Elon told Venusia. "And then we can make shapes in the sky!"

---

Venusia followed Elon out of the library. She couldn't tell whether or not he had a plan - she suspected that he didn't - but he was usually good at coming up with things, and she laughed when, finally, he suggested stealing brooms. She wasn't big on flying but said, "Alright. Sure. Where do you think we should get them from?"

Hopefully he wasn't planning on stealing Elijah's broomstick; she didn't think Elijah would handle that very well.

---

"The broom closet!" Elon replied. "I do have a broom here, you know." He'd had his own broomstick for his flying classes in his first year. A brand new one, a recent model for that year. He hadn't used it much since then, but it was still kept in the broom closet. As such, they could access it and then simply steal another one for their plan.

He lead Venusia to the broom closet, used the appropriate password to open the door and they got inside.

"U—V—W—Wildsmith, here we go," Elon said as he picked up his broom. It had collected dust. He removed his handkerchief and started wiping it away. Once it was sufficiently cleaned, he handed it to Venusia. "The best broom for the lady," he said as he looked around for a place to dispose of his handkerchief. He could charm the dirt away, but he didn't feel like it, not when he knew that he could buy a new one. And so he used some bin at the edge of the room.

Now it was time to get him a broomstick.

"I suppose Elijah won't mind if I borrow his." Elijah probably would mind, but whatever. Elon could buy him a new one if anything happened.

"Alright, last one to get off the ground is a flobberworm!" he said as he rushed outside.

---

Crick took the newly-dusted broomstick from Elon, and decided not to comment on the usage of Elijah's broomstick. Elijah would definitely hate it, that was far up there on the list of things Elijah Would Hate, but if Elon wanted Elijah to yell at him then that really wasn't her problem. She could just watch it happen.

Venusia followed him outside, only slightly resenting running in her robes. "You're very enthusiastic about flying for someone who doesn't do it very often," she called, getting to the grass only a few moments after Elon. She wasn't really in a rush - Venusia didn't fly very often, and was more concerned about falling than she was about winning.

---

Venusia had a point. Elon rarely flew on a broomstick. He and Elijah had done races when he'd invited his friend over for the summer but that was all about it. He wasn't a very good flyer and he tended not to enjoy things he wasn't instantly good at.

"This is an adventure, remember?" he answered. He rode the broom and kicked off the ground. He waited until Venusia was flying as well.

Soon, it became apparent why Elon didn't fly often.

He didn't calculate accurately how much force he'd need to put into the broomstick and it started flying fast towards a wall.

"Venusiaaaa!" he yelled pathetically.

---

Venusia got on the broom and kicked off, but was a lot more - well, reasonable - about her actual skills on the broom. She stuck with hovering
ten or so feet above the ground and occasionally flying in a cheerful circle, which seemed to be about where her skill level had topped out after first year. She was starting to think about getting a little more ambitious when Elon started flying right at the wall of the pitch.

Crick calculated quickly:
1) If he stayed on the broom, he might be able to avoid damaging Elijah's broomstick.
2) If he stayed on the broom and didn't get out of the way of the wall (likely), he would maybe break his neck.

"Bail out!" she shouted; he wasn't high enough up that a fall would do more damage than a wall, and she wasn't better equipped to save him. She started lowering her broomstick to land on the grass, where she could be more helpful.

---

Elon did as he was told. He released his grip to the broomstick and pushed his body to one side, so he'd fall off the broom. He brought his hands towards his head to protect it from the fall.

It still hurt when he fell, but there was no bone cracking or a similar indication that he was about to lose his life.

Part of him found the whole experience quite thrilling and wished he could do it again.

Well, Elijah's broomstick had crashed on the wall and had snapped in two, so that would have to happen another day. Maybe Elijah would be so mad he'd push him off the Astronomy tower.

"I'm well!" Elon told Venusia, smiling sheepishly. He rolled so he was laying on his back. With one hand, he shaded his eyes from the sun. "That was fun."

---