The Courtyard

[Lily Evans]

.

[Arthur Weasley]

Arthur walked into the courtyard, smiling brightly as he sat down on one of the stone benches. He pulled out a Muggle car magazine, which he began to read.

[Seamus M. Finnigan]

Seamus, strolling around blindly around while fishing for some old candy in his bag, glanced up and caught sight of the bench Arthur was on. He jogged over and threw his bag down before pulling everything out. "Hey, sorry. You don't mind if I sit here for a second?"

[Arthur Weasley]

"Of course not," Arthur said as the boy sat down beside him. He looked vaguely familiar to Arthur. "What are you looking for? Anything important?" Arthur asked. He was used to losing things in his bag; it was generally a jumbled mess of notes on his inventions, his textbooks, and occasionally his glasses.

[Seamus M. Finnigan]

"I can't find my stash of Honeydukes candy. . . I swear I left them in here. . ." He paused for a second, looking back up at the red hair. "Uhm," his eyes turned to the magazine he was holding. "You look like . . . Are you . . . Do I know you?"

[Arthur Weasley]

"Yes, I look like a Weasley," Arthur said with a smile. He was used to people knowing he was a Weasley; the red hair tended to give it away. "I'm Arthur Weasley," he said as he extended his hand toward Seamus. "And I hate when that happens. Bags should come with special compartments for candy, though I'd probably never use the compartment anyway."

[Seamus M. Finnigan]

"I thought so!" He grabbed Arthur's hand, beaming. "I'm Seamus Finnigan." He began shoving everything fervently back into his bag. "Yeah, I always promise myself that I'll clean it out but I never get around to it," he said, tossing his bag on the ground with a sigh. "I have to ask. Why are you reading about cars?"

[Arthur Weasley]

"Nice to meet you," Arthur said with a smile. "I'm reading about cars because I love learning about all sorts of Muggle things, like TVs and footieball and eketricity. I'd love to own a car someday and learn how to drive it. It'd be a lot of fun."

[Seamus M. Finnigan]

Seamus coughed as he held back laughter. "I'm assuming you're pure-blood, eh? I'm half-blood. We own a truck back home in Ireland. It's a stick shift, though, so I never bothered learning how to drive it. I figured I'll stick with a broomstick until I learn how to Apparate. They're nothing special." He grinned, pointing at the cover of the magazine. "That looks a bit like the one we own."

[Arthur Weasley]

"Yeah," Arthur said casually. He personally set much store by blood status, and he was a pretty shitty pureblood. Arthur squinted at the picture before reluctantly putting on his glasses. He still hated them, even if Molly liked them. "What does stick shift mean?" Arthur asked; he had never heard the word before and wondered what it meant. Was it a special feature on the car that made it do special things?

{Heading to bed. Good night!}

[Seamus M. Finnigan]

"It's like this thing that sticks out of the bottom of the car next to the driver's seat. You're supposed to push it into different positions to switch shifts while you drive so the car doesn't stall. I prefer the automatics, that way the only time you have to move it is when you're parking and such." Seamus reached down and dug back into his bag. "Here," he pulled out a ring of keys and picked out the only big one. "This turns on the car." He indicated twisting it in mid-air to start the ignition.

[Okay, talk to you later!]

[Arthur Weasley]

"Ok," Arthur said, not sure he understood the shifting process or even what shifting is. Arthur watched Seamus' actions very carefully and began to imitate them, pulling an invisible key out of his pocket and turning it to the side. He did want to learn how to drive, and learning how to turn on the car was a very important step in this process.

[Seamus M. Finnigan]

Seamus grinned as Arthur mirrored his movements. "That's right. The rest of it is just turning the wheel and using the brake and gas pedals. Nothing too special about it." He removed the key and held it up. "This button locks the car without you having to do it manually, and if you tap it twice it makes the car beep. When I was younger, I used to wonder if, when I double-tapped the button, the car beeped randomly wherever it was, no matter how far from home I was." He pressed it twice, shrugged, then stowed it back in his bag. "Not one of the Muggles' cleverest inventions, but, you know, it'll do."

[Arthur Weasley]

Arthur looked at the key in confusion. "Wait, the key is a button?" he asked, squinting his eyes to see if he was missing something. "So you press the key to lock the door. Fascinating. Is it ekeltonic? And there are multiple pedals. So you must use both feet when driving." Arthur didn't know Muggles were able to drive without magic, managing two pedals and a steering wheel and other buttons.

[Seamus M. Finnigan]

It took Seamus a moment to realize what "ekeltonic" meant. "Oh, you mean 'electronic'? Yeah, pretty much." He set the key ring down. "There are multiple pedals, but you only need to use one foot. You can't press the gas and brake pedal at the same time, so there's really no point in using both. There's also the clutch pedal if you have the stick shift I told you about. At first it seems like a lot, but then you get use to it and barely notice what your doing."

[Arthur Weasley]

Arthur just nodded in agreement, not really understanding what Seamus was talking about. "Well, that's good I suppose. How old do you have to be drive? Is it like Apparition where you have to wait until you become of age?"

[Reed Dawson]

Reed is sitting in the courtyard, tapping his feet a bit nervously. He was going to meet his penpal today, and he was a bit nervous since he was a little awkward when he first met people. His thoughts strayed to the tall boy he met and quickly shook those thoughts away, blushing at the memory at how that went. He pulled a picture out of his pocket, memorizing the face, just in case. He really hoped his new friend would actually like him.

[Trey Davis]

Trey is just as nervous, or maybe even a little more. He's not entirely sure, because he doesn't know how nervous Reed gets about meeting new people. Trey just knows that so far every time he, himself, has met new people he gets super nervous and feels uber awkward. He's really hoping Reed will like him though so he's going to try being as not socially awkward as possible. Reaching the courtyard he sees a smaller boy with curly hair, immediately recognizing him as the boy in the picture Reed had sent him over the summer. Taking a deep breath, Trey goes over and stands next to the bench Reed is sitting on. "Er...hi, Reed?"

[Reed Dawson]

Reed looks up from examining his fingernails and smiles when the boy from the picture he was studying before is standing in front of him. "Yes! I mean, hi Trey!" He wasn't sure if he was suppose to stand or what kind of greeting he was suppose to give. Do they hug? No, that doesn't seem right. "Erm, want to sit?" He scooted over on the bench he was sitting on and started biting his lip.

[I have a feeling this is going to be hilariously awkward and adorable.]

[Trey Davis]

[Omg hahaha yes! XD Two socially awkward people trying to hold a conversation...it should be fun.]

Trey smiles a bit when Reed moved over to make room for him on the bench. "Thanks." He carefully sat down and wondered what he was supposed to do now. He had to say something, right? "Your hair looks a lot curlier in person than from that picture you sent me." Wow, probably a lame thing to say right off the bat. Ah well.

[Reed Dawson]

[OOOOOOH I ENJOY THAT NEW PICTURE.]

Reed's hand shot up to his curls, touching them absentmindedly. "Oh. Yeah. It gets crazy sometime. Erm, you look taller than in the picture too." He bit his lip again and made himself stop. "Um, how are you adjusting to Hogwarts? Are you liking it?" Was he asking too many questions?

[Trey Davis]

[AHHH OMG OMG NURRRRRRR....I was google imaging searching and drooling. He's so cute!!! <3
Me and all of my peoples approve of Reed's picture, by the way. Hehe.]

Trey laughed a tiny bit. "I'm not that tall, but I guess I am compared to you...er, sorry, that was rude of me to say." His face reddened a bit and looked down at his shoes. "Not that being short is a bad thing! I mean, you don't have to duck a lot, and it kind of suits you...oh god, I must be digging a deeper hole for myself." He squeaked, his face still red. "YES. Yes, I am liking Hogwarts so far. I am." He replied to Reed's question, cursing himself for speaking so quickly. Could his penpal even understand him? "I mean...for the most part. Getting lost isn't fun, and sometimes I forget the password to Slytherin, but other than that...it's okay here." Better than he had thought, anyway.

[Reed Dawson]

Reed giggled. "Hey no, it's okay. I know I'm short. It's okay. And you'll get used to the castle. I still get a little lost. I'm lucky though, we don't have a password for our common room." Reed suddenly realized it would be hard for them if they were both so shy and awkward. Sure it was a heck of a lot easier for him to be more open in letters, but it was the same person he was writing to, it shouldn't be awkward right? "Have you made any other friends? I can introduce you to my friend Jenna sometime if you'd like. She's kind of spastic, but is really nice."

[Trey Davis]

"No password?!" Trey pouted. "Lucky. I suppose it will get easier though. I can be pretty smart when I want to." He laughed. Hopefully he would stop feeling so nervous and awkward at some point. When Reed mentioned Jenna Trey's eyes widened. "OH! I've already met Jenna. She ran into me the other day. I liked talking to her, she's going to teach me more about Quidditch some time. Other than her...I've talked to some people, but I don't really have anyone I hang out with regularly." He wondered if he'd get to see that Hermione girl again at some point. She had been really nice too.

[Reed Dawson]

Reed bounced a little. "Oh! That's awesome! Jenna is really my only close friend. Practically my sister really. But that's cool she'll have someone to do Quidditch with. I don't play. Well, I should just not be allowed near a broomstick. I don't remember if I told you in the letters, but I'm a bit on the...clumsy side." He blushed and bit his lip a little again.

[Sponsored content]