[X] Amber
A possibility for how she might look in the future...
"Well if you put it that way, I think a rapier sounds like a better fit for what I had in mind," Shinji commented, with Phelan grimacing as the Japanese boy made his declaration. "I'll be in your care, Lady Gainsborough."
"A good choice," Amber murmured, giving the boy a smile that made his heart race. "I will arrange for a full set of training gear for you, though it may take a few days to get that sorted."
"What, you have his sizes already?" Phelan exclaimed, narrowing his eyes. "But how...oh right. You did help pick out clothes for him, didn't you?"
"Mhm," the copper-haired girl confirmed, much to her brother's discontent. "We'll give you some directions about how to take care of your new training weapon, and show you how to wear the protective garb, when everything comes in. No need to do waste time by having to repeat ourselves, right?"
"...right," Shinji agreed, though inwardly, he was a little disappointed, as he'd thought the lesson would start today, with Amber perhaps loaning him her sword and correcting his posture, holding his hands in-- "Shall we all go for a walk?" he asked, trying to distract himself from rather inappropriate thoughts about the daughter of a noble house.
"All of us?" Phelan asked carefully. "Or just..."
"All of us," the Japanese boy said brightly. "Perhaps you could show me around?"
"Ah, certainly," the Earl's second son agreed. "What would you like to see? The grounds about the manor? The ruins of the old house? The lakes?"
"...maybe the village?" Shinji asked instead. "We're going to be around the manor all winter, so I wanted to see what things were like in Exton."
"It's well...there's not that much to see," Amber supplied.
"Oh?"
"Only a few hundred people live here," Phelan noted, shaking his head.
"Which I think is part of why you wanted to be an adventurer, right? To see the world?"
"...you've got me there, sister."
"Wow. That's...not a lot of people at all," the Japanese boy mused aloud. "Especially since there a million and a half people in the city I grew up in."
"And what brought you all the way to Britain, and to Hogwarts?" Amber asked curiously.
Shinji sighed and looked away, unable to meet her curious green gaze.
"...my mother's legacy," he said after a few moments. "Let's leave it at that, shall we?"
Deciding to humor their guest, the twins did as Shinji asked, leading the boy from the manor to the quaint little village just outside the grounds of Exton Park. To the boy's surprise, it only took about 15 minutes to go from Exton Hall, the ancestral home of the Earls of Gainsborough, to the tree-planted green just outside the Village Hall - the social center of the village.
"I had my graduation from primary school here," Phelan recalled, shaking his head as he walked up to the doors. "Right before I came to Hogwarts. I grew up here, in this small town, unlike you, sister."
"Well, its true, you attended the village's school, while I went to Malvern St. James," Amber noted with a thoughtful expression. "Three hours away from London by train. But it was one that went direct, unlike the one here."
"Hogwarts and Hogsmeade...they remind me of Exton, actually," Phelan admitted. "Mostly in how small they are, and how everyone knows everyone else. I thought the world outside the village would be grander, full of wonders. But its just full of people, same as every other place. People with their worries. People with their cares. People too caught up in the details of their lives to appreciate the world around them."
"Magic or not, people are people, you know," Amber quipped, shaking her head. "It's strange. You were much more excited than I was when you received your letter, and yet you seem...disappointed."
"While you're never really disappointed because you never expect anything of people, sister," Phelan grumbled. He glanced apologetically at Shinji. "Well, maybe not never, I guess. You do get along with that Natsumi girl."
From there, the two made their way to the War Memorial Garden just off the village green, dedicated to those who had died in the Great War - a number which included one Robert Noel, son of the Third Earl of Gainsborough, many years ago, where they encountered someone they - or at least two of them - hadn't expected to see.
'Is that...'
"Greetings of the season, Miss Tonks," Phelan greeted, his cheeks tinged with just a hint of red as he graced the young woman with a gallant bow.
"Ah, back from school, are ya, Phelan?" the young woman replied, a bright smile gracing her features as she curtseyed to the boy, glancing over his companions. "And you even have friends from school! Did they come to visit for Christmas?"
"Heh, well, one is," the earl's son admitted. "The other...Amber is my sister."
"...Auror Trainee Tonks?" Shinji asked quizzically, with the newcomer's expression going slack with shock as she took a closer look at the two besides Phelan.
"Oh. Oh. The school-age couple, yes!" Tonks said brightly, as Phelan tried very hard to keep his expression from curdling. "Makou Shini and Amber Noel."
"Matou Shinji, actually," the Japanese boy corrected, with a nod. "What a pleasant surprise to see you here!"
"Heh. I'm more surprised to see you two again, since I live close to here, on the other side of Exton Park," Tonks pointed out. "While you two--" Her mouth closed with a click as her thoughts caught up with her tongue, and she turned to Phelan. "Wait, if you all know each other, then when you sai you were going to school, Phelan, did you mean...to Hogwarts?!"
"...yeah," Phelan admitted sheepishly. "You...you're a witch then, Miss Tonks?"
"An Auror, actually," the Metamorphmagus said proudly, puffing out her sizable chest - with the motion drawing Phelan's eyes as certainly as a moth to a flame. "What House? I was a Hufflepuff, which these two know already."
"Gryffindor," the Earl's son said stoutly. "But...how do you know my sister, and...Matou?" He frowned then. "And why...a couple?"
Tonks chuckled, a very pretty sound which made Phelan's cheeks heat up yet further.
"I gave them a tour of the Ministry some time ago, but they were in dress robes then," she recalled, looking them all over. "In more casual clothing, I didn't recognize you."
She smiled impishly.
"Certainly didn't recognize Miss Noel without that sword of hers," Tonks cracked, with Amber smiling just a hint.
"Few people do."
"Heh."
"So how you know my brother, Miss Tonks?" Amber inquired. "You said you live near here, but..."
"Your brother used to visit the memorial garden every weekend, much like I did," the Auror trainee related with an odd expression. "I come here often enough myself, but I didn't know why a schoolboy would. There aren't any pretty girls about, after all."
"There was always one," Phelan mumbled, going red at the admission.
"Heh. I was curious, and asked him one day why he looked at the memorial stones, and do you know what he told me?"
"What?" Amber asked.
"That he was reminding himself that the world outside was dangerous, and that when he went on his great adventure, he would need to make sure never to end up on a stone like this, because otherwise, his sister would cry," Tonks recalled softly. "I didn't know you would both be going to Hogwarts. Have any adventures yet?"
"Oh, just a few..."
There was a bit more conversation, with the young woman revealing that this would be her last winter in Exton, as she and her mother would be moving to London as soon as they sold their cottage.
"I'll miss it but...I think I like the city more," Tonks admitted. "Its more...lively."
That night, after meeting the family over a fairly formal dinner, there is free time, with Shinji being shown to a very spacious room. He's not tired yet, being rather more thoughtful than anything else, and there are some things on his mind.
Even so, what does he choose to do to conclude his first day, before he goes to sleep?
[ ] Meditate - he needs to keep working on Occlumency
[ ] Study one of the books he's neglected
[ ] Knock on Phelan's door - it would be good to talk with the boy
[ ] Knock on Amber's door - it would be good to talk with her
[ ] Roam the halls alone
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