[x]Slow and steady, it won't do to get careless and get wiped out
[x]Slow and steady, it won't do to get careless and get wiped out
[x]Slow and steady, it won't do to get careless and get wiped out
Interlude
Let us return to the train, only this time, we will play another role. The role of a young man infuriated by an usurper, a girl who stole everything from him, took from him the glory that should have been his. A young man who was forced to confront his inadequacies and fears through various conversations with Professor Quirrell, and finds himself in a very strange relationship with a young woman far worldlier than he.
This young man is, of course, Draco Malfoy, who once would have been considered something like a prince among Slytherins, given the wealth and influence of his family, save that he had been brought low by an ill-thought wager made with a cunning muggleborn. An adventuress, as it so happened - a goblin slayer, like those who had lived in the days of old, heroes of might and magic who had bowed to no muggle, no beast, no being.
The old stories spoke of adventurers as fearless and cunning, as larger than life, as befit those who pushed into the frontiers, into the untamed world, trusting in themselves to subdue whatever came at them. Today...today there were very few adventurers worthy of the name, with Gilderoy Lockhart being the only one Draco knew of - though sadly, he'd never had the chance to read the man's books, as his father hated the man with a passion for some strange reason, claiming that Lockhart was a fraud, that there was no glory to be found in following the steps of wizards of a bygone age.
Indeed, his father had disdained adventurers, considered them no more than thieves and rogues, thugs who preyed on the vulnerabilities of one's fellow man, taking advantage of their weakness to advance their own interests.
So Lucius had said when Draco had asked if the Death Eaters were not modern day adventurers. The Knight of Walpurgis, Lucius had said, had been founded not to take advantage of their fellow men, but to overthrow a system where so many witches and wizards squandered their potential - squandered their magic - were forced to deal with inhuman creatures like goblins as anything close to equals, instead of taking their rightful place as Kings and Queens of Men. But the Knights had lost their way, Lucius had said, reveling in the power their held, as their leader had forgotten his way.
'Father thinks so little of me that he insisted I take a diary with me, so I do not forget my own purpose,' Draco groused, as his mother saw him onto the train - alone. 'That instead of opposing the mudblood adventuress directly, I should get close to her. Learn her secrets. Find her weakness, so that I might exploit it and use her strength for my own purposes.'
But how could he do so when she didn't see him as someone worth knowing as more than...than a servant? When she treated him like a house elf - no, less than a house elf?
He saw her board the train, in the company of another girl - a blonde that he thought he recognized from the Minister's Ball, with the two of them speaking in French. Not a language he knew particularly well, but not one he was completely unfamiliar with either.
The two spot him, with Selina greeting him with a jaunty wave.
What does he do?
[ ] Duck into a nearby compartment and pretend he didn't see her
[ ] Walk up to them and greet them in French
[ ] Focus on the new student - perhaps he can win her away from Miss Moore
[ ] Return the wave, and gesture them over, given that he is struggling with his trunk. Best his quarry come to him and not the other way around
"You are braver than you believe, stronger than you seem, and smarter than you think." - A.A. Milne
[x] Return the wave, and gesture them over, given that he is struggling with his trunk. Best his quarry come to him and not the other way around
[X] Walk up to them and greet them in French
[x]Walk up to them and greet them in French
[x] Walk up to them and greet them in French
[x] Walk up to them and greet them in French
Sometimes fortune favored the bold, or so Draco had heard, though he didn't like to think that meant that Gryffindors had some special advantage when the dice were cast. Still, how else did one explain how so many didn't end up killing themselves with the inane (or was it insane) gambles they took? Perhaps fortune simply took pity on fools who did not have the cunning and wit to know better.
...that would explain why it took none on him, not that he needed anyone's - anything's - pity, mind.
He wouldn't turn down opportunity though, so when the usurper waved to him, with a pretty blonde by his side that he found somewhat familiar, speaking to her in the civilized language of the continent, he thought he had a chance to make an impression. Surely the us...Lady Selina would not force him to play the part of a servant in front of a new friend.
"Bonjour!" he said, giving them a wave and a brilliant, Lockhart-grade smile as he walked up to them. "Lady Selina. How have you been? And I'm afraid I don't recognize..."
"Lily de Lune," the other girl supplied, holding out her hand, with Draco taking it in one of his and bending as he raised it to his lips. "Enchanté, mademoiselle."
Lily made sound of amusement as he released her hand and straightened.
"Malfoy," he said by way of introduction. "Draco Malfoy. I'm one of Lady Selina's close associates."
"Oh, is that what we are now?" Selina inquired, her lips quirking into something of a smirk. "Well, I suppose that works. You can join us if you'd like," she offered. "We'll just be talking about the summer, with a few of your other...acquaintances joining us."
"Parkinson and her...friends?" Malfoy asked, having kept himself from saying ilk with some great difficulty.
"Why yes," Selina replied, her smirk seeming like that of a demon who delighted in tormenting him. "Do you have a problem with my...friends?" she inquired, mirroring his pause, though perhaps not for the same reason.
"I, uh, no, of course not," Draco answered, cursing silently as he stumbled over his words. This wasn't like him. This wasn't like him at all. "I would be positively delighted to join you," he added.
He had no idea why Lily de Lune stiffled a giggle at that. Honestly he didn't. Really.
Which was why his ears weren't turning red. At all.
Once settled in the compartment, what would Draco like to talk about?
[ ] Ask Selina about summer
[ ] Talk to Lily - ask more about her
[ ] See how his old...friends have been
[ ] Talk about...adventures, and how he'd always wanted to go on one
"You are braver than you believe, stronger than you seem, and smarter than you think." - A.A. Milne
[ ] Talk about...adventures, and how he'd always wanted to go on one
[x] See how his old...friends have been
[X] Ask Selina about summer
Draco wants to know more about selina to secrets so might as well start digging on her summer.
[x] Talk about...adventures, and how he'd always wanted to go on one.
Always start with common interests! That's the key to friendship.
I actually want Selina to sneakily turn Draco into her friend with him thinking he is still working on his revenge before it's too late and he can't go back to hate her. x)
Last edited by Daiki; January 13th, 2019 at 11:22 PM.
[x]Talk about...adventures, and how he always wanted to go on one
[x] Talk about...adventures, and how he'd always wanted to go on one.
Despite his social missteps, Draco Malfoy was not exactly what one would call an idiot. As such, he knew that one of the best ways to get on someone's good side was to ask them about something they enjoyed or were good at. In the case of Selina Moore, this meant asking about about her adventures - but...where should he start?
[ ] How did she get started as an adventurer?
[ ] What was one of her favorite adventures?
[ ] Why come to Hogwarts, instead of something in Faerun?
[ ] (write-in)
"You are braver than you believe, stronger than you seem, and smarter than you think." - A.A. Milne
[x] How did she get started as an adventurer?
[x] What was one of her favorite adventures?
[x]How did she get started as an adventurer?
[x]How did she get started as an adventurer?
"So, how did you get started as an adventurer?" Draco asked as they settled into the compartment. It was a curious thing, really - he'd heard all about some of the grand journeys she had accompanied her brother and his friends on, but then, no one really cut their teeth facing manticores and dracoliches, whatever those were. "Or rather, how did your brother and his friends, since you are a...since magic is...not something that people in your family have had in past generations," he amended, wanting to say Mudblood, but knowing that such would not be well received.
Indeed, to hurl an insult at her now would not be very conducive to his plan of ingratiating himself to her, of wiling his way into her good graces so he could learn her deepest, darkest secrets.
The smirk faded from Selina's lips as she really looked at him, her eyes half veiled by her blonde hair.
"It all began the day they...came into the possession of a tome written by Lord Gygax," she said softly, her gaze...distant as if recalling something from a very long time ago. "A tome in which he wrote of a place set apart from the world we knew. A place called Greyhawk, and the castle within it. Through that book, they imagined their first adventures, practiced for them in a way not unlike the Book of Spells."
"Oh?"
"It was...a game to them at first. Seeing how they could descend lower and lower into the great dungeon of Greyhawk, and how creatively they could manage it, given the various horrors that lurked within."
"Horrors?" Draco echoed. "Like what?"
"Oh, rodents of unusual size - by which I mean horse-sized rats, giant scorpions, and the like."
"...and mu...muggleborns managed to deal with these?" the boy asked skeptically. "How?"
"At first, through their wits and through clever use of what little magic they had," Selina admitted. "By which I mean not particularly well! The first few times they nearly died to a giant rat...well, it was embarrassing."
"Embarrassing? Nearly dying is embarrassing?" Draco echoed, his voice rising an octave.
"Well, yes," Selina said reasonably. "Wouldn't you be embarrassed if you were killed by a giant rat, instead of a dragon or some such? Do you really want, 'here lies Draco Malfoy, a reasonably good meal to a rat' on your tombstone?"
Lily giggled at this, with Draco gallantly pretending that he had heard no such sound.
"...how did they defeat these...creatures?" he inquired instead. "They couldn't have known any spells! Not if they hadn't gone to Hogwarts yet..."
"Cantrips. Focusing accidental magic so it did things they wanted, like light up a room, repair things, work like a third hand - things like that," Selina explained, with Draco frowning. It was true that more clever or powerful wizards could do such things without training, but an entire group? "And as they survived, as they delved deeper and faced more difficult things, the book made certain pieces of equipment accessible to them."
"Equipment," Draco repeated. His eyes narrowed. "You don't mean...enchanted gear?"
"I do," the blonde answered solemnly. "Swords, staves, robes, armor - all things from Greyhawk, from the world that was."
"...and when they finished the dungeons of Greyhawk?"
"That was when they discovered the path Lord Greenwood had opened to Faerūn - an entire forgotten realm of magic and monsters which their trials in the dungeons had prepared them for," Selina noted wistfully. "They've been part of that world ever since, and I was fortunate enough that they shared that world with me, even if I have yet to leave my brother's shadow. They taught me so much over the years, showed me some of the paths they took to greatness."
"And you...you chose to become an...Artificer, was that the word?"
"Indeed. A creator of magical items," the blonde acknowledged. "That I might help equip others who seek to be adventurers and gather my own party, and join my brother and his friends in Faerun as an equal one day."
"Ah..." Draco noted, his eyes widening. "Then...you seek people to join you."
"Of course," Selina said with something like a smile. "Are you interested? The road is long and hard, but the rewards may be worthwhile. Riches beyond counting, lore beyond anything in the modern world, adventures that will change you and make you grow."
"...where would one begin?"
What else would Draco like to ask?
[ ] What she recommends one studies
[ ] What types of adventures she has been on
[ ] What other kinds of adventurers there are in Faerun
[ ] (write-in)
"You are braver than you believe, stronger than you seem, and smarter than you think." - A.A. Milne
[ ] What she recommends one studies
[X] What other kinds of adventurers there are in Faerun
If he asks for her rec, he is given her power over him. Yet if he happens to ask what kind of adventurer types are out there he might have an idea of what to study. One is just flat out asking and the other is a bit more subtle. Not very subtle still but better.
[X] What other kinds of adventurers there are in Faerun
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