March 4th, 1893 — Black Lake

Being a werewolf was something Endy didn't think that he would ever get used to. It was always hell on his body and he had to wonder if it was sad or not that this wasn't the worse he had it. Some of his clients could be rather rough. At least last night had been the last night of his furry time and he was free from becoming a literal mindless animal for another month.

He had made his way out of the Forbidden Forest and felt grimy as hell. Heading to the Black Lake since that was pretty much ones bathtub when you were homeless, he waded into the water, fully clothed but with his shirt already clinging to his skin. The cold water was heaven for his achy limbs. He couldn't swim so he stayed near the shallows. He hadn't been in the lake for very long when he heard the sound of anothers footsteps. "You're up early, he remarked without looking at them. It was rather early but also just about the time that most working class folks awoke to warm the homes of their employers among other staff.

  

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endy's gender is hard to discern from voice and appearance alone
goes by multiple aliases - but mostly by Nico

set by mj!

There was nothing like the air of early morning in late Winter to spark some creativity. Natty, a prolific ghost writer, had a book to finish today, and his muse had to be on point. So he rose early and took a walk, grey scarf fastened around his neck and hands in his pockets as he took the footpath around the Black Lake.

Shortly he saw a figure in the shallows, and came to a curious halt. The person greeted him casually; a young man, Natty would assume from his waterladen shirt. He vaguely recognised the boy as one of the urchins he saw roaming the less reputable streets of Hogsmeade, though he could not be sure. Natty's eyes narrowed slightly; "not making any brash decisions, I hope?" he asked uncertainly. He feared the lad was walking out into the lake in a bid to end his circumstances.

  

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Oh, well hello. What a gorgeous, delicious treat for his eyes on this early morning. Brash decisions like climbing the other like a tree? Luckily for the other, Endy kept his dirty thoughts to himself for once and simply smiled. "Just enjoying a cold soak for my achey bones," he said. "Would you be rescuing me if I was making brash life choices?" The idea amused him but he also doubted that would be the case. In his experience, everyone tended to be out for themselves.

  

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endy's gender is hard to discern from voice and appearance alone
goes by multiple aliases - but mostly by Nico

set by mj!

There was something a little different about the way the boy looked at him — Natty's mind went irresistibly to the idea that the waif might want to rob him, but he also realised that was very unfair. Mustn't judge a book by its cover.

"Well, I suppose that's quite a philosophical question", he replied, surprised that the stranger had brought it up. "On one hand, you have the right to do what you choose, within the law, without a stranger interfering. But on the other hand..." let's be real here, "yes, of course I'd rescue you."

  

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One of the main factors of Endys survival thus far was never letting on when he had no idea what something meant. Besides, he tended to excel at reading context clues. "That is very gentlemanly of you," he said when the other said he would. "But no worries here. I wouldn't want my end to be so miserable and lonely." He knew the chances of it being so for someone like him was high but who knew? Maybe he would be murdered by a john driven wild with jealousy or something dramatic like that. What a way to go.

  

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endy's gender is hard to discern from voice and appearance alone
goes by multiple aliases - but mostly by Nico

set by mj!

Gentlemanly... he'd been called that before, often with a note of surprise; even disapproval. Natty was a lowly thing, after all, more at home among water-laden urchins than high society.

He continued along the footpath, closer to the shallows and the stranger. Upon closer inspection, Natty wondered suddenly if his assumption that this was a boy had been a mistake. There was something very feminine about the eyes that gazed up at him, and if he'd heard that voice out of context he might have assumed it came from a girl. How very peculiar. "So what makes a young... person so full of aches and pains? When I was your age I didn't feel a thing after a day's hard labour. Aches are for the old", he added glibly, rolling one stiff shoulder.

  

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"Well, wasn't that jolly good for ya. I am a very hard worker with long hours," Endy supplied as an answer. Not that it was particularly true but he wasn't about to tell a stranger that he had spent the last three nights running around the forest as a wild animal. "Maybe you didn't get aches because you had more meat and muscle to you at my age. Or maybe I am just an old soul." The latter would still not have anything to do with his body aching at his age but he felt that was besides the point.

  

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endy's gender is hard to discern from voice and appearance alone
goes by multiple aliases - but mostly by Nico

set by mj!

Natty, too, had been a hard worker with very long hours — but he wasn't about to stand here and insist such things to a young... person. (No, he still wasn't sure.) Anyway, he/she was a young person evidently in a more difficult position than Natty was. Albeit quite merrily so. He wasn't sure why the stranger ached from hard labour while Natty had not. It wasn't his business, and he had no solution anyway.

"On the contrary, you seem like a young soul to me. That's not a bad thing", he reassured him.

  

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"Do I? You flatterer," Endy said when the other claimed him a young soul. Of course, being only twenty, he was a young soul. Even so, he would take what he saw as a compliment when it was given. Standing up (and thus making his gender now very obvious due to a now-sheer thin, white shirt), he walked out of the lake towards the older man. "Muh name is Nico," he said in introduction as he held his slender hand out for a shake.

  

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endy's gender is hard to discern from voice and appearance alone
goes by multiple aliases - but mostly by Nico

set by mj!

Flatterer? Curious — the youth seemed almost to speak like a young woman being courted. Natty (quite ignorant of such things) was not sure what to make of that.

"Jonathan", he replied, shaking Nico's much smaller hand. "So what do you do, Nico — are you at the school?"

  

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Jonathan. What a nice, fine name. Better than the accursed one the woman at the orphanage had given him.

He couldn't help a small laugh at the very idea of being part of any school. "I do a lot of things but darkening a schools halls has never been one of those things." He had gotten a Hogwarts letter like most other magical kids did when they were of age to attend but he had never been sent. Not worth the money, the orphanage matron had professed (while purposely not informing the child of the First Year Scholarship). "Did you go?"

  

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endy's gender is hard to discern from voice and appearance alone
goes by multiple aliases - but mostly by Nico

set by mj!

Nico evidently used humour in all aspects of his life, even turning a lack of education into some light-hearted thing. Natty understood that, though. He really did.

"I was there for a year, yes", he shared. Some might argue leaving after only one year was even more painful than never going at all.

  

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This man had gotten to go when he hadn't. Endy didn't dwell on that thought long as he properly came ashore and shook his vibrant, lengthy red hair out like he was some sort of dog. He continued to speak as he did so. "What was it like there for you? Did you get to see that magic ceiling or whatever it is?" One of his 'clients' had told him about the enchanted ceiling in the Great Hall that mimicked skies and galaxies. Maybe one day he would sneak into a Coming Out Ball to see it for himself if it didn't fall too close to a full moon.

  

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endy's gender is hard to discern from voice and appearance alone
goes by multiple aliases - but mostly by Nico

set by mj!

"It is exactly a magic ceiling", he confirmed with a touch of amusement, surveying the damp fellow. "It never lost its novelty, I was staring up at it all the time. It certainly had me bumping into some poor unsuspecting student more than once."

  

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"I wish I could see that just once. But the school has all these barriers." He had tried going past it once but it proved impossible. He supposed that was good though since the vampires called the Forest home.

  

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endy's gender is hard to discern from voice and appearance alone
goes by multiple aliases - but mostly by Nico

set by mj!

Natty nodded. He understood — and while he didn't know first-hand what barriers he was referring to, he could probably guess.

"Perhaps there is some job you could get at the school", he proposed.

  

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