Jay sat on the well groomed grass of the open front courtyard of the Hogwarts grounds. A large flat and mostly round rock sat in front of him. To his left sat a large box full of matches. They had originally been a set of standard matches found in any muggle store (his father had actually picked the box up for him) but he had enchanted the set of them to not only become non flammable but to also stick together. The second enchantment was linked to his touch. He was sitting cross legged in front of the rock, his back slightly curved as he concentrated. He had already taken a fair amount of the matches and was using them like a toddler might use building blocks.

The matches currently didn't look like much but Jay was working furiously away at them adding a dozen or so by the minute. Each stick had their own specific spot, conforming to a design set firmly in the French boy's head. He was thoroughly enjoying his time at Hogwarts and the chance to use the massive castle as inspiration for his latest designs. He had already filled up two notebooks with new designs and decided the weather was perfect for a little impromtu model building. Had he been at home he likely would have been carving the new building out of wood or perhaps clay or even stone. He had plenty of materials back in his workshop (aka the garage) but all he had here was his box of matches which he planned to make the most of.

Katy paused just outside the doors to the entrance hall and pushed the ham roll, wrapped carefully in a napkin, into her bag.  She only had an hour before she had to be back and she wanted to go down by the lake.  Outside she could find a quiet place to think and do her homework.  The Great Hall was always too noisy and distracting to get any real work done.  She pushed aside her notebook and pulled out her Potions textbook.  They were going to be starting the Wit-Sharpening Potion soon and she wanted to be prepared. 

She meant to skim of the ingredients and memorize the amounts in order as she walked down to the lake but she hadn't even cracked the cover when she became distracted by an older student hunched over something strange.  Her textbook hung at her side, unconsidered, as she moved closer to get a better look.

Matches.  He was playing with matches.  Not many wizards had use for such a thing, especially once they got their wand and learned to cast a proper Lumos.  He wasn't using them correctly though.  Instead of striking each stick against the side of the box, which was sitting right there beside him, he was putting them together in a most peculiar way.  She stood there staring at him, not even pretending to do something else.  A small furrow appeared in her forehead as one by one the matches came together.

"What are you doing?" she asked rudely and suddenly.

Jay jumped and twitched his hand dropping a half dozen matches onto the stone, clearly not where they were supposed to be. He scowled slightly at the small clump. Unfortunately with the sticking charm activated by his touch that group would now be useless to him, having not be put into their proper place before he dropped them. It wasn't that bad though, he had another three hundred and seventy six left in the box, a half dozen was a mere drop in the bucket but it was still a little upsetting.

Jay lifted his head to the girl that had startled him, she was young though he'd properly put her at around thirteen or fourteen, not one of the youngest to go to the magical school but certainly not one of the seniors. He looked to his match stick masterpiece that was only now beginning to resemble some kind of structure then looked back to the girl, his blue eyes sparkling, "Uh modeling," He answered rather lamely.

A blush of colour crossed his stubbled cheeks for a moment before he got to his feet, "Uh I mean I'm making a model. You guys don't have workshops here or even a design course for that matter so I've had to improvise. The carriage doesn't really lend much space for being creative." He held out his hand to the girl with a smile, "Jean-Paul Valjean, Beauxbatons." He introduced himself expecting the usual double take he got when he mentioned he was from the French school (considering he spoke with a American accent), "You're from Hogwarts right? Hufflepuff?" It had taken him a little getting used to but he was getting good at distinguishing the different houses depending on what the Hogwarts students were wearing.

Katy stared, thrown off by the smile and the hand thrust out in her direction.  Now that he was standing (and towering over her), she realized how much older he was.  And sophisticated; an American studying in France.  She wiped her suddenly sweaty hands on her pleated uniform skirt and held out her hand.  It just hung in the air for a moment, forcing the boy to take her hand after a moment.

"I'm Katy," she said quietly, still staring at him.  Honestly, she wasn't quite sure what to make of him.  The older boys at Hogwarts were never this nice.  "Katy Bevans, Hufflepuff," she finished lamely.

She glanced over at the rock where the lump of matchsticks was growing.  She dropped his hand and walked over to it, stooping and peering at it.  It didn't look like anything in particular.  In fact, it was all around unimpressive.  She didn't say so, but the tone of her voice when she asked, "What are modeling and why?" clearly suggested that she thought him a bit loony for his hobby.  But she was mighty curious about it.

Jay extended his hand a little bit further and took hers in his grasp giving it a few quick shakes before letting it go. He gave her another winning smile, Jay was known for being weird, eccentric even but he was also well known for charming pretty girls despite his almost phobic aversion to being attached to anyone. He didn't date but he loved talking to girls and making them smile, every girl deserved to feel special, or at least that's how Jay thought of it.

When she moved past him to the rock he had been using as a base Jay stuck his hands in his pockets and rocked on his heels. He wasn't offended by her tone, he was used to people not understanding his obsession or the beauty he saw in the structures around him but he was always more than happy to try and explain it, perhaps one day he'd get lucky and find someone who shared his passion (though he doubted today would be that day)

"It's a castle, or at least it will be. Right now it's just a small portion of the ramparts." He picked up the clump he had accidently created when she first arrived and shove it in his pocket before closing the lid on his remaining matches. For the moment he'd leave his unfinished model there, he could continue working on it later and the enchantments on it meant it was in no danger of falling apart in the mean time, "Back at Beauxbatons I'm majoring in magical design, so to speak. My Dad's an architect and I will be too once I graduate. I'll be making magical buildings all over the world." he smirked and blushed a little bit, "At least that's the dream right?" He turned to the girl, his sweet and charming demeanour still intact despite her own attitude, "Any thought on your future?" He chuckled to himself, "What a boring question. How about, what do you like to do in your spare time?"

Katy noticed that he closed his box of matchsticks.  She'd obviously interrupted his work and she felt bad immediately.  He was stopping his work because of her. It obviously made him passionate and she had cut him short.  Was it something she said, she wondered?  As perceptive as the quiet Muggleborn was, she had a difficult time understanding how she came across to others.  She only knew that quite often she did not come across in the most positive light.

Katy reached out to pick up the unfinished model but stopped short and pulled her hand back in.  She didn't want to mess it up.  She was clumsy and knew she'd probably drop it or get fingerprints on it or something.  She tilted her head and tried to imagine the rest of the ramparts extending out from what he'd already started but eventually shook her head in confused resignation.  There simply wasn't enough information to extrapolate.  So she turned back to him.

His smile made her stomach flip. She wasn't sure she like the feeling because it was like being carsick on a long trip.  He also changed the topic unbearably quick as well.  She privately wondered if he was uncomfortable talking about himself.  She certainly was.  She wracked her brain for something to tell him but 'studying' seemed kind of lame.  So did going for a walk by the lake.  She suddenly felt like the lump she'd been accused of being.  She didn't have anything nearly as interesting as magical architecture design, or even art.  The closest Hogwarts offered to classes like that were Herbology and Care of Magical Creatures.  She was pants at both of those.

So finally, Katy mumbled, "I fly early in the morning." 

She paused, bit her lip.

"On the weekends when no one will see me.  I'm horrible at it."

Jay kept his charming smile wide as he studied the younger girl. He noticed the shyness, the reserved nature that kept her apart from him. He hoped he wasn't being too candid with the girl. He was simply just being friendly. Packing up his supplies had been more subconscious than anything else, he didn't want them to get in the way and having a new face around offered something exciting for as long as she was around. He could always go back to his design later, he had plenty of time. Not participating in the tournament and only picking a few electives gave him plenty of free time and part of this experience was supposed to be about meeting the other students and immersing in their cultures.

"I'm sure you're not that bad petite." He smiled again, fiddling with his match box, "How would you know if you never let anyone see you. Bet you've gotten better after all that early morning practice."

He wasn't trying to sweet talk her, he simply didn't like that defeated look in her eyes. He wanted to make her smile, make her confident. Everyone had something they were good at, something that made them feel special. Jay loved seeing that in a girl, that sparkle in their eye, that true moment of being themselves.

"What about something you don't think you're horrible at?"

Katy bit her lip and stared off at the treeline. He wouldn't say that about her flying if he'd seen her fly himself.  She was lucky if she didn't bruise horribly when she fell off.  Staying on the whole time was usually out of the question if she went any faster that a person could walk.  But she kept at it, without really knowing why.  She liked putting her mind to it, she supposed, and the idea of being on the team tickled her fancy in a I-wish-but-it'll-never-happen kind of way. 

Asked about something she was good at, though, stumped her because once again 'studying' didn't seem like an appropriate answer.  "I suppose I'm good at spells, charms and hexes mostly," she said finally, still staring out over the walls of the courtyard.  She was pretty decent at them, once she understood the theory behind them.  She'd never had much a problem in her classes and enjoyed the practical applications.  She'd never really considered doing it for fun.  And, other than dueling club, she wasn't certain she knew of a way to do it for fun.  She didn't feel comfortable joining in on dueling club either, the possibility of public failure and humiliation looming quite heavily.  She had enough problems with the way people treated her.

"I'm kind of horrible at everything else though," she admitted quietly, thinking about her poor flying, her vicious owl, and her absent social skills.   

Jay smiled as he regarded the younger girl. She seemed so closed off and shy. He would love to see what she looked like if she ever came out of that shell but he had a feeling that was more of an over time thing. He didn't think one good conversation with her was going to be enough but he found himself intrigued and willing to try. Much like his blueprints and designs Jay had always been told that he could see the potential beauty in anyone (mostly by his Dad and some of his Aunts) and this one was just radiating untapped beauty. Not in the super model, movie star sense but more in the powerful witch sense. If she got past the shyness and awkward social skills she could be gorgeous.

"Charms can be a very good thing to be good at." He picked up a leaf that had blown across the courtyard and removed his own wand. With a silent swish of his wand, the golden leaf turned into a fully bloomed crimson rose. He handed it to the younger girl, "You can go very far being good with things like that."

He leaned back to assess her with a comfortable smile, "I can't imagine you being horrible at everything else." He gave her a wink, "Pretty girl like you, just not possible."

Katy stared at the rose, tempted to point out that turning a leaf into a flower was transfiguration, not a charm.  Her mouth pulled to one side as she decided not say it out loud.  Instead she pulled out her wand and cast a charm that caused the rose to sparkle in the sunlight.  Her smile was small but content.  She took the rose from the boy's fingers and tucked the stem in her bag.  Go far indeed, she thought wryly.  Charms to charm the girls, she thought to herself with a secret smirk., someone should write a book about that.

"I can't imagine you being horrible at everything else." He gave her a wink, "Pretty girl like you, just not possible."

"I guess I'm also pretty good at hexing people," she said, keeping her face perfectly straight and her gaze fixed firmly up at his face.

Jay watched with a smile as she used a spell of her own to make the rose sparkle before finally taking it from his hand and tucking it into her bag. He had managed to get a smile out of her even if it had only been a small one and she had taken the flower which was also a good sign. Jay's own smile got wider, perhaps she could find what she was good at and perhaps he could manage to spend more time in her company.
 
Jay was thinking that things were looking up when she stared straight at him and mentioned hexes. She didn't flinch didn't smirk, didn't give any indication that she was bluffing. Jay suddenly had to wonder if he had read the whole situation wrong from the start but then she had come to him, hadn't she? If she wanted to be left alone wouldn't she have just kept walking instead of inquiring about his work? There had to be something he was missing.

Jay held up his hands in surrender after holstering his wand but kept a smile on his face, "Message read loud and clear, petite." He took a single step back, "Best be getting out of your way then, before finding out just how good you are at hexes, non?"

"I was only teasing," Katy huffed with a scowl.  This is why she didn't do it too often.  People always assumed she was serious.  Granted, she usually was serious which made it awfully difficult to tell the difference. 

But now she was afraid she'd messed everything up.  He smiled but clearly she'd thrown him off and now he wanted to leave.  Katy self-consciously looked down, saw the sparkling rose, and plucked it from her bag.  She held it out to him.  She wasn't sure if she was giving it back because it could be seen as a peace offering or as if she didn't really deserve it anymore.

"I only hex people who deserve it," she said quietly.

Jay's smile widened. He wrapped his hands around her own small ones and tightened hers around the stem of the rose, thankful that he hadn't added thorns to the stem, "Non petite, that's for you." He chuckled and gently moved the rose back towards her. With his smile in place he added, "Perhaps it was something lost in translation." It was a simple enough excuse. Even though Jay was bilingual and had no problem understanding English, better than most of his Beauxbatons peers anyway - it was easy for him to pass it off as some kind of misunderstanding due to a language barrier, though he had a feeling she wouldn't fall for it.

It seemed the more time he spent with this girl the more he wanted to get to know her. He had never really met any one like her before. All the girls at his school were prissy and thought very highly of themselves. She was a complete mystery to him, one he really wanted to solve.

"So you're good at charms, you fly early in the mornings so no one can watch and you're good at hexes but only use them on people that really deserve it." He ran a hand over the back of his neck and sighed softly, "Anything else I should know about you?"

His hands were very warm as they wrapped around her own, pressing them into the cool stem of the flower.  She was once again struck by the intensity of his regard.  He looked at her and she could tell he was seeing her.  He was here, in the present, experiencing it.  Experiencing this moment with her.  She didn't know what to do under the scrutiny but stare up at him, her eyes wide with fear.  She stepped back so quickly she stumbled.  Her hands shook and she dropped the rose by accident.

"Anything else I should know about you?"

"There's nothing," she protested, fighting the urge to flee.  Overall Katy felt there was more to her than just the list of things she was good at but the thought that a stranger might find them out, or even want to know was a strange one.  She didn't talk to people and she certainly didn't make any friends that would want to know her any deeper than their first impressions.  "What about you?" she asked, looking at her shoes.  "Surely you do things other than build matchstick models in the grass."

Jay's expression shifted from smiling to concern and back to a simple smile. The girl was becoming more and more of a mystery. The moment he got any semblance of close to her she pulled away but if he withdrew himself she called him back. It was enough to make one boys head spin. He instinctively reached out when she stumbled but was still a few inches away from actually touching her. He half expected her to run this time and everything in him was screaming to make her stay. He wasn't sure what it was about her, perhaps if she had been a few years older he would have just chalked it up to plain old attraction to the opposite sex but considering she was only fourteen Jay was preferring to steer clear of that line of thought.

He bent and picked up the rose from where it had fallen and once again handed it to her. For a moment he thought about how the flower was quickly becoming a good analogy for their current conversation, the way it moved between them.

He had to laugh at her comment and once again gave her a smile that caused his clear blue eyes to sparkle, "Well it's more than just matchsticks, the entire modelling is a hobby," He rubbed the back of his neck and pink rose to his cheeks,"Actually it's more like a passion. Architecture, design, building things that no one has ever seen before. Seeing my thoughts become real." The pink in his cheeks deepened to a light crimson. Normally Jay had no problem talking about his passion but for some reason in this back and forth they were having he was feeling self conscious about it, he couldn't tell how she'd react to anything he did.

"Other than that I guess the usual, music, hanging with friends, Quidditch. I get along real well with my brother but considering we're twins it would be hard not to." He smiled again, "I'm actually rather boring when it comes down to it."