alittlemirror | wit beyond measure is man's greatest treasure

wit beyond measure is man's greatest treasure

To say Jade is displeased would be an understatement. It's not that he cares about this detention tarnishing his record, no. He doesn't really care about his record. What he does care about is how it cuts into his studying time. He had just come across a particularly fascinating snippet on the nature of death and the soul...

(And besides, those Hufflepuffs had started it with their incessant chattering. They're like a less annoying version of Saphir, and nobody had ever really objected when he hexed Saphir. And it's not like he used a serious hex; he just sealed and removed their mouths. Easily reversible, if they knew what they were doing - and knew how to use nonverbal spells.

After all, what kind of first-year doesn't know how to use nonverbal spells?)

But someone had taken offense to his hex, and now he finds himself trudging to Professor Rammsteiner's office, growing increasingly irritated at the loss of his study time. From what he's heard of detentions, they usually entail doing useless, mundane tasks easily accomplished with a little creative wandwork. He's thought about ignoring Professor Rammsteiner's orders more than once, but he's also been told that it would just lead to more detentions and thus a bigger waste of time.

Oh well. He's here now. With one last irritated sigh, he raises his hand to the door and knocks.

"Professor Rammsteiner? This is Jade Curtiss."

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Bad dreams aren't uncommon for Heine, and there are days when he stays up late as possible in an attempt to keep them at bay. It doesn't often work, and Sleeping Draughts are even worse when the magic in them reacts badly.

It isn't often, however, that he wakes up with a gasp in his throat and sees someone standing by his bed.

Immediately, his reaction is to throw a wordless, formless force at the figure, to just get it away. He throws his arm out in a sweeping gesture just as he sits up. Already he's preparing a second spell to pin the intruder to the wall.

Something hits him like a punch to the gut (did Professor Rammsteiner actually punch him? Jade wouldn't put it past him). Jade goes stumbling backwards, and it's pure instinct that has him hurling a silent Stupefy at his attacker, his wand slashing through the air in a precise swipe even as he struggles to regain his footing.

Heine makes the second strike immediately after, and it clashes with a red flash that lights up the room more than the previous soft glow of a Lumos. There's barely a moment before he casts the same kind of force again as he starts to realize what's happening.

"What the fuck are you doing in here?" It has to be past midnight already. And despite recognizing Jade by now, he's still on guard, one hand raised in front of him and a shield shimmering slightly in the dim light.

Jade is a similar position: he has a shield up, his wand at the ready. His free hand is up as well, ready to supplement his usual magic with wandless spells.

"Duelling you, apparently," he answers in a deadpan. He remains on guard, just in case Professor Rammsteiner really decides to duel him. People can be a little temperamental when they've just woken up.

"Did you break into my fucking room?" Heine grumbles, clearly not in the best mood. But that's what happens when you come in without warning in the middle of the night, Jade. He doesn't drop his shield, either, as he finally clambers out of bed in sweatpants and a battered looking t-shirt.

"No." Breaking in implies force, doesn't it? He wasn't forceful at all. With how easy it had been to enter the room, it's almost as if Professor Rammsteiner invited him inside.

His shield still up, he looks at his professor over the rims of his glasses. He had started wearing them over a year ago; they helped keep the amplifying spell he put on his eyes in check. The amplifying spell was useful when he was younger, allowing him access to stronger magic than he should have had at his age. But now, as he grew more and more powerful, there are times when the amplifying spell works too well. Without keeping it in check, he runs the very real risk of his magic going out of control.

Professor Rammsteiner seems angry, but that's nothing new. So Jade will just go ahead and ask: "Can I stay?"

Heine just sighs, rubbing his eyes and finally letting his own shield drop. He's not happy about this, no, but at least it isn't an actual emergency.

"Why aren't you out with the others?" But he's pretty sure he already knows the answer. Odd and often antagonistic as their student-teacher relationship is, Heine is at least aware of Jade's attitude towards others. It stands to reason he wouldn't be partying with the other students (whom... he should probably be chaperoning, but Heine figures they can have at least one free night here).

Jade dismisses his own shield as well, slipping his wand back up his sleeve. He probably won't have any more need of it tonight.

"Why aren't you there?" He retorts. "You're supposed to be supervising us."

He's still not entirely sure why Professor Rammsteiner was selected to be their supervising teacher. He can respect the Professor for his skill in wandless magic. But when it comes to dealing with his children, Professor Rammsteiner's approach can be somewhat lacking.

It's true, he should be there. First nights are usually the worst in a new place. But it's a big party with other students—and other professors.

"Legal drinking age here is lower," he mutters. "They can do what they want."

Lacking indeed. Heine rubs his eyes again and stretches his arms.

"What do you want to do, anyway?" The first task isn't for another week. If he wants to practice, that's good, but surely he could find somewhere else.

Jade looks at him, judgement in his eyes, but he doesn't say anything aloud.

"Wandless magic," he replies. His peers can live without Professor Rammsteiner for one night. Or maybe they'll drink themselves senseless and freeze in Durmstrang's endless grounds, but that's not his problem. "I want to practice."

Heine still really doesn't see why Jade can't practice on his own, or outside. Admittedly, today it's already late and the grounds are unfamiliar.

"Fine." He pulls on a robe—more of a bathrobe, not a uniform—and picks up his wand for security (or to make sure Jade won't try to take it again).

The process of helping Jade practice tends to be at least interesting. He's fully awake again after fifteen minutes, if only because he's getting frustrated.

"You were better last week." Having sat down again, he rests an elbow on his knee and his chin on his fist. "How'd you get worse?"

Heine isn't the only one frustrated. Jade had taken off his glasses, needing that additional boost to his abilities, but not even that had helped.

"I don't know," he says, then stops. No, he does know. Or he has an idea, at least. When he frowns, his expression is even darker than usual.

Professor Rammsteiner had sat down, so Jade interprets this lull in the practice as a break, and leans against the wall, folding his arms. Durmstrang really is cold. The stone is frigid under his body, rough-hewn and ungiving.

But despite the chill that surrounds him, he feels an odd (but not entirely unfamiliar) flush of heat under his collar.

Heine, for his part, is unaware of Jade's realization. He watches him lean against the wall, frowning.

"Maybe you should just go to bed. Get some sleep and come back tomorrow."

"Maybe." Maybe that would be enough to make it go away. Sometimes, it works. Too often, his sense of distraction comes back, stronger than ever.

But tonight is the worst night yet. He can't stop thinking, about the tournament, about his own goals, about Professor Rammsteiner. Try as he might, he can't achieve that crystal clear focus he needs for spellcasting.

He stays in place, deep in thought.

Heine waits a moment longer for Jade to say something. When he doesn't, he stands up and takes the short walk over to the window to look outside.

It's still the dead of night. There probably people still up, reveling in a new place and new experiences, but he doesn't doubt there are some asleep already. Heine glances back at Jade, moves a bit closer so he can talk without raising his voice across the room.

"What, are you moping about something?"

"No." The reply is automatic. He turns his head, looking straight at Professor Rammsteiner instead of at the ground. He doesn't even have to tilt his head to look at him - they're almost eye-to-eye with each other nowadays. He thinks he'll be taller than Professor Rammsteiner soon.

"I was thinking," he says, a little slower than usual. Inside the pocket of his robes, his fingers curl restlessly. He still feels hot, flushed with the same incessant heat that had plagued him for weeks now, and even the brush of his own robes against his body makes him straighten unconsciously, tension radiating from his frame.

Well, obviously he was thinking. Heine exhales inaudibly and crosses his arms over his chest.

"Thinking about what?" He is definitely not the person who should be trying to make someone feel better. But he asks, anyway. Maybe because Jade is still a child to him, even if he's not that much older himself. Maybe because the whole situation is just annoying him and he wants to get it over with. He couldn't say.

What he's about to do will probably change things between the two of them. Jade isn't afraid (he thinks), but there's a strange sort of tension building up in his chest, something like the excitement of trying out a new spell but not quite. He lets out a soft sigh, and focuses on answering the question. It's as good a lead-up to what he wants as any.

"I've been distracted lately," he admits. "I think the tournament made things worse."

If there's one thing he dislikes, it's not knowing. The task is meant to be a secret. He fully intends to find out what it is before the day of the task, but for now, he's in the dark.

"But that's not the main thing," he continues, an edge in his voice that's rarely there. Professor Rammsteiner had moved closer to him, and now Jade moves forward as well in precise, calculated steps, closing the distance between them. He reaches up, fisting his hand lightly into the front of Professor Rammsteiner's robes, looking at him with a hint of challenge in his eyes.

Of course the tournament would make things worse. Or at least it would for any normal student, but Heine's not surprised it's at least affecting Jade, too.

What he doesn't expect is for Jade to come up right in front of him and reach out. Heine doesn't flinch back because he can see it coming, but there's surprise and almost shock in his eyes all the same. A moment of eye contact and he quickly looks away, pulling back just enough to tug his clothes out of Jade's grip. At a safer distance, Heine turns his gaze to Jade once more.

"What's the main thing?" His voice is wary, but he wants an answer to the question. A real one, and not dodging around the subject.

He takes another step forward, unused to being so close to another person, but wanting it all the same.

"You," he says simply. Professor Rammsteiner is afraid of looking straight at him, and that feels strangely thrilling. "Well, not you, specifically. Just people in general."

He wants a warm body against his, pressing close. Wandering hands, maybe a kiss or two. For someone usually so adverse to intimacy, those are foreign desires. Jade would rather not navigate these treacherous paths with his peers - they're too loud, too full of gossip and pesky things like feelings.

Which left Professor Rammsteiner. He looks calmly at the older man, waiting for him to acknowledge him.

Foreign desires or not, Heine isn't ready to accommodate them. He chances quick looks at Jade, but someone standing so close is something he doesn't understand or want.

"Stop it," he mutters. Heine tries to make distance between them again, turning away and sitting down at the desk in the room like that'll help him. "Go find someone else."

"I don't want someone else," he says, like it's simple fact. When Professor Rammsteiner moves away he follows, robes whispering against the cold stone floor. It would be so, so easy to bind him to that chair and take what he wants.

Well, not exactly. He's not interested in forcing anyone. It's the only thing that stays his hand. He simply stands behind Heine's chair, a quiet, unrelenting shadow. "You're trying to run from me."

"You don't want me either," Heine points out. He focuses on the grain of the wood that makes up the desk, shoulders already slumped, aware of Jade standing behind him and uneasy with it. It doesn't matter if it seems like he's running. He just doesn't believe that this is the best thing for Jade.

(And why 'the best thing for Jade' matters to Heine is another matter altogether.)

"You don't know what you're doing anyway."

He shrugs, a light rustle of his robes. He doesn't deny Professor Rammsteiner's first point. Why should he? It's true. He doesn't want Professor Rammsteiner specifically, he just happens to be the best option he has.

The second point he does take issue with.

"I know enough." He may not have the experience, but he has the technical knowledge. His fingers brush experimentally over the back of Professor Rammsteiner's neck, along the collar of his robes, following the line of it to the clasp that holds his outer robes close.

I know enough does not mean that he knows what he's doing, to Heine. It's something a person says when they don't want to admit the lack of experience, and that bothers him. But it's the brush of skin over his neck, along his clothes, that makes him start upright in his seat and finally stand up again. Heine turns to lean against the desk, chair a barrier between them.

"...tell me what you want. Exactly."

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NOOOOOOO NOW MY FORMATTING FAIL IS IMMORTALIZED

IT'S OK i can delete and you can reformat if u want though :0

no...it's okay........let me live and die with my shame

rip

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