A New Friend (Chase and Open)

"I always have a tan... it might as well be my natural skin color," Antonius said, laughing. "I like the sun... but I don't like the moon much," he grumbled, thinking of how torturous it was being a mindless werewolf.

Chase looked at him for a moment and then laughed. "I love the moon! So big and full! With that funny face on it!" She giggled and looked out at the water. "I never tan."She said softly. "My skin stays pasty all year, no matter how much I stay outside, I don't even burn!" She said looking at him laughing. "It's kind of sad!"

"Yeah, well, there are other things not to like about the moon other than just what it looks like," he said, hesitant to share his reasoning. He scraped the ground and grabbed a pebble, throwing it as far as he casually could with a flick of his elbow. It sailed 30 yards out, skipped once and sank with a plunk.

"Well, I guess your skin has sufficient pigmentation despite its evident pale color," he said, reciting this Muggle scientific fact automatically. He blushed a little bit.

Chase looked at him a bit confused. But didn't seem to really think about his odd behavior towards the moon as anything weird and let it drop. "Wow nice throw!"She said smiling. Looking around her she picked up a flat rock. Threw it like she was trying to make it skid, but it just fell with a PLUNK into the water. She scowled and got up searching for another rock. Picking one up she tried again, with as much success as the first throw. "How'd you make it skid?"She asked having not heard his comment on pigmentation of her skin and wondered why he was blushing.

"Well you have to get a flat one," he said. "Muggles have a hard time finding a good rock, but I just say Accio Flat rock!" and a very flat rock soared into his hand. He placed it into Chase's and grabbed her hand, his body behind her back. He mimicked the motion while holding onto her hand so she could get a feel for how to throw it herself. He blushed and stepped awkwardly away. Evidently he had been inadvertantly flirting again. He kicked himself mentally, hard.

Chase nodded once and did a few practice motions before flinging it. It sailed, smacked the surface, bounced, once, twice, three times, and fell with a PLUNK! Into the water. Chase jumped into the air happily. "It bounced three times!"She said over ecstatic by this little tiny thing. She looked like the happiest person on earth simply because she made a rock bounce on water. "That was so cool!"She said laughing throwing back her head and then looked at the water excitedly.

Antonius smiled at her enchouragingly. "Good job! And if you do a Surface Tension Charm, it's a lot easier," he said, quickly performing the charm on a small section of the lake. He summoned another flat rock. He threw it, and it skipped several dozen times before it finally fell in.

Antonius smiled and pointed out the section of the lake that he did the charm on. He summoned another rock and handed it to Chase.

"Skipping rocks is fun... what do you usually do when you're bored?" he asked conversationally.

Chase laughed excitedly when he made it skip a lot. "Wow! You're so good at that!"She said giggling. But her smile faded as she thought hard. "To tell you the truth, I don't think I ever am bored."She said looking at him carefully. "Seriously! I'm always doing something! I don't have TIME to be bored!"She said laughing happily as she took the rock from him and threw it carefully. She watched it bounce, once, twice, three times, four times, before it landed with a plunk on the fifth. "I did it again!"She said jumping in circles.

Antonius frowned. "Well that's certainly odd." he didn't say anymore on the subject. He didn't want to come off as a lazy slob or anything.

He skipped another rock on the charmed lake. He winced a little as he was splashed by the water. "What do you think of the Dark Arts?" he asked, very casually but genuinely interested. You could tell a lot about people by this simple fact--complete obsession was indicative of evil, narcissistic, secluded; yet exteriorly reliant.

Complete rejection indicated false nobility, generally low intelligence, and closemindedness. Balance meant the person had an open mind, wasn't necessarily evil, usually fair, and realized that government would be corrupt regardless of a certain form of magic.