Out of Thin Air || James

James’ greeting was loud and booming and immediately, Darcy jumped at the sound of his voice. She had not expected him to be so...well, enthusiastic about the whole thing. She looked up at Pince who was glaring in their direction and tried to offer her a weak smile to let her know that this would not be the way that they would be behaving the entire time that they were in the library. It was then that he dropped his books on the table and she jumped yet again, being the skittish girl that she was. She hated loud noises and everything that James was doing seemed to be louder than normal, ”Yes-” She winced as he seemed to slam his books down again, ”It’s Darcy.” She answered quietly. This was going to be a disaster, she could already see it now. James was loud, he was proud, and he most certainly had little concern for organization - she noticed as she stared at his books. They were all out of order, their corners turned in opposite directions, hanging off one another. She bit down on her lip, trying her hardest not to go off and start fixing everything, but she could already feel the anxiety setting in.

Her experience with conjurations was very limited, but unlike James, she was interested in the topic. It was fascinating to her the ability to make something appear from no where and it brought to light the interesting idea of creating something where there was nothing. ’Is it possible to conjure life with their wands?’ Darcy thought. She bit down on her lip, her eyes still trained on the mess that was his books, ”What is your favorite form of Transfiguration, then?” She asked quietly, her finger reaching out and finally making contact with all of his books that were to her left. She began moving them quickly so that the bindings were all lined up in perfect succession. After she did that, Darcy began to shuffle the books so that they went from largest on the bottom of the pile to the smallest on the top.

”I was thinking that we could do our essay on the comparison of Muggles’ idea of conjuration and the reality of-” She leaned forward and straightened his ink pot so that it was adjacent to his parchment stack, ”-this type of magic.” She furrowed her brow at the sight of his books again, realizing that by putting them from smallest to largest, she had now made them less than parallel to his quill, which bothered her to no end. Instead of trying to fix it, she bit down even harder on her lip and moved her hands to her necklace, sliding the charm across the chain and onto the very center of her neck where it belonged.

James mentioned that his favorite form of transfiguration was human transformations - specifically the animagni - and she felt her fingers slip off of her necklace and fall to the table. She definitely hadn’t been expecting that one. Most people that were interested in Animagi were highly focused and, although Darcy knew that James had a reputation for getting high marks, he didn’t seem like the kind of guy that would spend months upon months of tying to get the transformation right, ”Well that’s-” She looked up, catching his sly grin and returning it with a confused look of her own, ”I mean, it’s certainly an interesting field to be sure.” She mumbled as she ran her hands through her dark hair for a moment, trying to get the tangles out of the ends, ”Takes a lot more concentration and practice than any of the other branches. I guess I can see the appeal.” Not a lot of people knew that she was an animagus; it wasn’t something that she wanted widely broadcasted. Instead, she kept it to herself, using it as her own secret little escape from the world. She leaned back slightly in her chair so that she was more comfortable, but managed to keep her back pin straight, ”I think it’s widely under-appreciated, honestly,” A lot of people didn’t understand just how hard it was to transfigure one’s self into a completely different being but Darcy knew first hand that it was the most difficult of all types of magic....or at least, very high up on the list.

She watched him carefully, still unsure if she trusted him to write the paper, but growing steadily more at ease of the idea. He seemed to be literate and that was more than she could say for her last Transfiguration partner - a random Slytherin that McGonegall had shoved her with. Darcy wasn’t even sure that James trusted her either. It seemed as if they were both still stuck in the ‘trying to figure each other out’ sort of period. He mentioned something about a hat and she laughed, ”Exactly-” She nodded, leaning forward so that she was able to reach the book that was to her right. James seemed to be confused about the appeal, ”Think of it as...theatrics. Non-magical people are fascinated by the idea of pulling something from nothing. That’s why magic shows exist.” She flipped through the first couple of pages of the book, looking for something to support her argument. Looking up, she realized that he probably didn’t know what she meant by magic shows, ”They pretend they can do what we can.” She explained, her finger running down the page of lines.

She waved her free hand through the air, letting him know that it was fine that he continue writing; she didn’t have a problem with his hand writing. Worst came to worst, she would just rewrite it if she felt that it was too messy...that was just the way that Darcy operated, ”That’s true-” She nodded, ”I think it’s also going to be important to touch on the Principle of Artificianimate Quasi-Dominance somewhere in our paper. Even though muggles think that it’s as easy as pulling a rabbit out of a hat; complications do arise-” ‘Frog-rabbit mutations do arise in most cases.’ Dars smiled to herself as she crossed that part of the book where the lay a picture of a mutation staring up at her from the pages, ”Merlin, that would terrify mum and dad.”

Darcy blushed profusely, ”No, I haven’t been studying up on the subject, I just-” She was going to admit how interesting she found it, but she figured that she had probably already drawn too much attention to it. Most people’s opinions gave away whether or not they were interested in such...risky transfigurations and Darcy could only assume that her own opinions had sparked a bit of recognition within James’ brain. He said something about self understanding and Darcy couldn’t help but smile a little bit larger. That was the first thing that McGonegall had told her all those year ago: That in order to truly transform one’s self physically, one had to first understand the very root of their personality. That had been when Darcy had come to terms with her OCD and started ignoring what other people said about her. She knew that she was a curious human being, but very intelligent, likewise, she was self-reliant and often kept to herself so ultimately, her form had been that of the Havana Cat. Beautiful in its own sort of exotic way while still managing to exemplify everything that she stood for as an individual, ”I think that most wizards can’t do it because they depend on everyone else in the wizarding world to give themselves personality and reason for their actions, you know what I mean?” She reached up to her hair and began adjusting the headband that was there, making sure that it was holding her hair away from her face.

Darcy couldn’t help but roll her eyes when James started talking about pretending to be a muggle. The very fact that he had just said picture-box was enough to make her start giggling even harder, ”It’s actually...erm....called a television.” She managed to say in-between her fits of laughter. He had just strange views about what muggles did all the time and she wondered if that was what everyone thought, ”James, virtual reality is not even a real thing. But...arcades are-” She could only assume that that was what he was thinking about. Darcy hated the arcades, but she did like one of the games normally made an appearance there. It was called Breakout and it was by far the most tedious of all the arcade games; you had to bounce a ball on the screen to destroy all of the blocks that were above it, ”Arcades are pretty groovy, if that’s what you’re talking about.” She grinned as she looked over at him, realizing then that he probably had no idea what she was talking about. Most pureblood wizards were a little dense when it came to the muggle world and she understood that: It wasn’t their fault that they hadn’t been raised knowing about the things that she did. That being said, that was the way that some people saw her in the wizarding world: they knew that she didn’t understand a lot of the references because she hadn’t grown up surrounded by it all.

Her mouth dropped open, she guessed that she had pretty much given it away with the way that she talked about muggle things. She simply nodded her head as he said that it wasn’t a bad thing; he very well might have been one of the few people who didn’t think that she was an anomaly or freak of nature. She just bit down on her lip and waited for him to finish, ”Yep. I’m about as muggleborn as they get. My mom’s a Biostatistical Professor at Oxford in London and my dad’s a structural architect, nothing too magical about the pair of them.” She shrugged her shoulders, ”Don’t worry. If you haven’t gone off of me for being a freak-of-nature yet, I guess I can trust you with that kind of information. What about you? I’m going to guess pureblood because no one in their right mind would ever call the TV a picture-box if they knew anything about muggles.” She offered him a weak smile, happy to know that he wasn’t weirded out by the fact that she was different, ”‘Rabbits from Hats: Conjurations at their finest.’ Or perhaps, something more long winded to appease McGonegall.” Darcy knew that the woman was a stickler for words and a long title would leave them with an inch or two less to write in the five foot long parchment.

Darcy nodded along with his statement, surprised to see that he felt the same way that she did. She couldn’t imagine saying it in any better of a way. There was something about the way that Potter spoke about Animagni and their transformation that began to make her wonder if there was more to him than met her eyes originally. Sure, she had seen him around many times over the past five years, but what she had gathered wasn’t much. She knew that he had a core group of friends and they enjoyed pranking the entire school, she knew that he had a crush on one of the red headed girls in Gryffindor, and she knew that he liked to play quidditch. Apart from that, he was always making trouble in Transfiguration class, which might have been the reason that she had been paired up with him in the first place. McGonegall always told her that she was too soft spoken and needed to open up and she always told James that he was much too loud and obnoxious for her classroom. There was an interesting dynamic now, between the pair of them, as they sat in the library discussing the very essence of what she loved most, ”Funny. Had it not been for today, I would have pegged you amongst those who define themselves by their surroundings-” She said, referring to James and the Marauders, ”But there’s more to you than that.” She finished her sentence rather quietly hoping that she hadn’t offended him.

Darcy laughed loudly, ”No no no-” She said as she rummaged through her bag and pulled out her sketch pad and the dipped her quill into her ink. For a moment, she sketched what was a rough outline of a television so that James would have better visual representation, ”Television.” She said, pointing at it. She hoped that he didn’t think that she was patronizing him by giving him such a basic lesson, but in her defense, he had asked, ”You watch movies...erm...or television shows.” She said, biting down on her lip. She dipped the quill into the ink and then drew a sketch of a telephone, ”This is what you’re talking about, right?” She asked, making sure that she was getting the correct information from him. It was so odd for her to have to explain the things that she had grown up with to people that were her own age, ”This is called a telephone. And that-” She placed the quill down neatly next to her parchment, ”Is what you phone people on. You can talk to people all over the world.” She smiled, triumphant about her explanations. She thought that there was nothing that was grey-area now. James should know the difference...after all, she did. As for his next assumption about arcades she couldn’t help but laugh, ”Merlin, no. Nothing so...boring-” She said as she tucked some of her dark hair behind her ear, ”You go there and play...games. Electronic games. Powered by electricity.” She ran her hand down her face knowing that he probably wouldn’t understand anything that she just said...there were some things that were easier seen than said.

”Thank merlin. Guess that explains why you’re not a Slytherin,” She replied to his answer about his blood status and beliefs. She had just about had enough of the pure-bloods and their elitism. Especially since she had been at the blunt end of all their teasing for the past six years of her life. She couldn’t stand how superior they thought that they were to everyone else. She was glad to know that James was on the same page as her...but from the other side of the spectrum. She laughed at his title, but knew that it was perfect. After all, McGonegall had always been a sucker for long-windedness, ”We’re going to want to begin with something dramatic or she won’t even read the whole thing...” Darcy picked up her quill and began sketching around the outline of her sketch pad absentmindedly as she thought, ”Mmmm, here we go. ‘Muggles and Wizards have always had conflicting views when it comes to the basis of conjuration magic. Muggles find themselves rooted in the general and trivial task of pulling rabbits from a hat where as Wizards see practicality of it all.’” She suggested and shrugged her shoulders. She wasn’t feeling on top of her writing game, but she figured that they could expand upon it if she started throwing ideas out there.

Darcy smiled up at him, taking a short break from looking down at the table and counting the number of lines in the mahogany. It was then that she realized that he was asking about her core friend group. ‘Blast,’ She thought, biting down on her lip as she tried to think how to explain her...situation. There was no easy way to say that her friend group rarely extended past one other human being. Just the same, she knew that she needed to offer James an answer because he had been completely honest with her. Slowly, Dars raised her fingertips to her necklace and began playing with the charm that hung from the chain, ”I don’t really-” She paused, realizing how ridiculous she sounded, ”I don’t have very many friends. Except for Bradley Parker and he’s-” She laughed slightly, ”Well, he’s a mess.” She dropped her hands from her necklace and tilted her head to the side, trying to think upon the second part of his question. Would she be satisfied if one day she had to define herself by those that she hung around with? She began nodding in agreement with her thoughts, ”Bradley is a little full of himself, but he is the most loyal person that I’ve ever met. Merlin, he’s like a brother to me and I probably wouldn’t be sitting here if it wasn’t for him,” She knew that there was a little bit of truth to the statement...she had been through hard times but Bradley had always seen her through the teasing and bullying, ”I would venture to say that that’s a fine way to define oneself, wouldn’t you?”

”No, no, it’s alright,” Darcy said as she shook some of her hair away from her face so that she could see more properly, ”A lot of people get them mixed up. It’s difficult because they both start with the same prefix.” Darcy had hoped that she wasn’t demeaning James with her explanation...she hated the thought of sounding like a professor lecturing a student on the differences between the muggle technologies, ”It’s way easier to explain than the Professors make it...I mean, who really wants to know about wiring and all that stuff-” Darcy shrugged her shoulders. She wasn’t even entirely sure that she knew how any of that stuff worked in the muggle world and she had grown up there. How could Professors expect students to grasp concepts that they had rarely ever seen before? She laughed at his suggestion, knowing that it sounded rather like a poorly-written science fiction movie than anything else. Briefly she wondered if James had ever seen a movie from the muggle world, but she decided against asking lest she have to explain the entire projection system to him for the next five minutes. James went off on a bit of a rant and Darcy couldn’t help but laugh, ”Might I remind you that the muggles don’t have the luxury of Quidditch. They have football.” She pushed her hair behind her ears and almost felt herself wink at James in playfulness, but decided against it at the last minute, ”They’re fun nonetheless. You should give it a go. Same reflexes used on the pitch would help you dominate.” She shrugged her shoulders and then went back to looking at the parchment that James was writing on.

Darcy smiled along with the words that seemed to be flowing freely from James’ quill. He understood why muggles pretended to use magic, that was for sure. But she couldn’t help but laugh when he said that they used it to fulfill impossible fantasies. Darcy had never known any muggle who’s impossible fantasy was to bring a rabbit from a hat...or to saw a woman in half. Just the same she nodded her head in agreement, ”Sounds perfect to me. May I?” She asked, holding out her hand for the parchment so that she could write some; McGonegall got suspicious when it was only one person’s handwriting, and, although it made it look terribly non-uniform and agitated her OCD, Darcy knew that they both had to be equal participants in the essay. She raised both of her eyebrows at his mention of his pranks, ”They deserve it, those bloody tossers-” Darcy realized the words that had come out of her mouth and immediately drew her fingertips to her lips, her eyes wide in surprise, ”I’m sorry...I just-” She wasn’t sure there was an explanation for her rude language. She had just spent so many years at the brute end of their ridicule that she was fed up, she supposed.

Darcy giggled at James’ apt description of Bradley. For as long as she had known him, she had known that he was a little full-of-himself and verging on mentally ill-efficient. But just the same, Darcy loved Bradley like her own brother and she would do anything for him. They had such a tight familial bond that she often forgot that they weren’t technically biologically related, ”Bradley trains a lot. I think that’s why he’s gotten so good. Takes a lot of care into his future profession.” She sad as she fiddled with her necklace, her fingertips moving over the charm that was centered on the chain. She wanted to explain to James that the reason that she kept such few in her company was not because she didn’t like others...but it was because others didn’t like her. She didn’t have a magnetic personality like many of the other students at Hogwarts. In fact, she was rather normal except for the OCD tendencies. That being said, people seemed to flock in the other direction of the ‘muggle-born freak’ as they called her. No one wanted to be bogged down with her oddities. Bradley was the only one who had ever given her a chance at friendship and for that, she was forever grateful. She was happy that she had met him all those years ago...happy that she had someone to protect her when she was feeling down, ”The papers just said something about the British National team being interested. I’m not surprised. They want to take him on for the World Cup next year, but I’m not sure if he’ll be ready.” She had talked strategy with Bradley a million times and although she didn't understand the sport completely, she understood the territory quite nicely, ”I think it would be better if he trained with the Abbleby Harpies or whatever they’re called-” She had completely butchered a Quidditch team’s name and she knew it, blushing sheepishly.

”And there you go-” Darcy nodded along with his realization of the television’s etymology. He seemed to bite on the topic of muggle sports and she wasn’t surprised. Even though muggles and wizards chose to play different games, the concepts were the same; there was similar competition...the same euphoric high that both of them seemed to get upon winning a match or a game. It was fascinating to Darcy how people that believed themselves to be so different had developed over the time to have very close similarities in that respect, ”I don’t know a lot about American football.” She said honestly as she shrugged her shoulders. It had never really interested her, ”My mum signed me up for Standard Football one year when I was young. I spent the entire time trying to get off of the field.” She said honestly, ”I guess I’ve never been that much into sports and extra-curricular activities,” She preferred to read and write, and in her eyes, there was nothing wrong with that in the slightest. Perhaps one day she would learn how to play Quidditch or even Football...but now was not that time, ”There just different ways to say things, honestly. Convey a complex idea in fewer words and everyone understands them.” She laughed when she realized what she had said, ”Well almost everyone understands them in the muggle world.”

Darcy felt her mouth fall open in surprise; she had completely forgotten about Mardoneth. He was a sneaky wizard, that much was for certain. With a grin, she looked down at the paper and began writing in the story of Mardoneth and the connection that it brought; bridging the gap between the muggle views of conjuration and those of the wizarding world, ”Thank Merlin someone else feels the same way-” Darcy breathed a sigh of relief as she looked up at stared at James, ”I mean honestly; Riddle creeps me out a little. I was glad that I dropped Defense Against the Dark Arts in lieu of Herbology.” She shuttered at the very idea of having to be in the same room as Professor Riddle for more than ten minutes. She could only imagine what insanities that man brought into the classroom setting, ”What is it about him that’s got the entire school all riled up?” She wasn’t sure that she understood the rumors that had been floating around, considering she knew little about Hogwarts’ history from prior to her entrance into the school. Perhaps James could enlighten her just as she had enlightened him on the muggle world.