Started here: https://absitomen.com/index.php?topic=20334

Lennie strolled into the Great Hall, produced a comb, fixed his slicked down hair and began to look around.  Cheeky of Greyfriar to ask a favor after the last time, although not surprising in the least.  Somehow, he was excellent at sticking his nose in other peoples' business, despite its size. 

Lennie spied the lad sitting by himself at a long table, with his face in a book.  From the stare on the lad's face Lennie wasn't entirely sure he was actually reading anything.  The kid was shorter than he expected.

'Well, you ready to help me figure out who Jack the Ripper really was?' Lennie deadpanned as he walked up.

The book he was reading begged for an interruption. He tilted his head back and let it hang off the top of the chair with his mouth open, staring at the ceiling. He heard someone approaching but he lost too much sleep last night to be vigilant of his surroundings as he usually is. Before he could fix his body language to fend off any unwanted social interactions from people with low confidence -

“Well, you ready to help me figure out who Jack the Ripper really was?” the man said with an expressionless face, hard to read for most but Rigel had no trouble seeing he was annoyed at something. Maybe sarcasm was his way of coping. See, he did that thing again where he entertains his thoughts for too long.

“You mean to tell me I won’t find out who he was in this book? Damn.” Rigel said this still with his head tilted back and left his mouth open at the end of his sentence to signal his feigned disinterest. He doesn’t entertain serious matters in the mask of folly. Other his interest was caught. Rigel desperately wants an escape from this negatively reaffirmed castle, constant stress and toxic social environments, politically charged climate. His world view was changing. He felt as if he was standing on an island watching the clouds slowly move by. Such magnificence and grace in the movement of a monumental and intangible thing. The texture of the white cloth folding in on itself, forming bumps and cliffs at an already indiscernible height. It seems to Rigel that he was most like a cloud. Drifting away, in forms of condensation being torn apart by whatever atmosphere he landed in, ever changing and adapting. Before he could realize it, those clouds are miles ahead from where they started. After reaching that point one could never really imagine where they began in the first place, only that they can see them ever changing and moving forward while being stuck on the island.

He snapped back. Pernicious thought loops. Rigel decided he would read some Psychology books after this adventure, if it is one.

'You mean to tell me I won’t find out who he was in this book? Damn.'

The lad seemed miles away, like he was talking to somebody else.  Lennie had definitely been there before, but would rarely have had the gall to sit slack-jawed and ignore an authority figure.

'So, at least you can read, I suppose that's a start.  Greyfriar wasn't too specific as to the details of you're particular deficits.' Lennie smarted back, staying carefully expressionless except for one raised eyebrow.  This kid had no idea who he was dueling with.

'On your feet, flobberworm, we got stuff to do other than catch flies.' He turned abruptly and quickly paced away, wingtips clacking on the floor in an even rhythm.

Despite his body language he was floored. For two reasons, first, deficits? Rigel is familiar with his own, he likes to think he knows all his answers to his problems. He does often know when he is wrong. Second, he walked away. Rigel is forced to entertain this man. He relents.

“I see auror’s aren’t really taught in fashion advice. I hope you’re better than you look.” Rigel matched his pace. He is extremely excited. This man needed to earn his respect before he let down his walls.

“I see auror’s aren’t really taught in fashion advice. I hope you’re better than you look.”

"You'll have to forgive me, auror salaries aren't high enough to have somebody else put holes in our jeans for us,"  Lennie retorted, keeping his pace up but flashing a smirk as he glanced momentarily back at Rigel.  His ploy had worked, the kid was too flustered not to follow and was catching up with him.

'Greyfriar tells me you wanna do something with the law, and you've got the OWLs for it, but you're buggering the basilisk with the NEWTs quickly approaching.  Whelp, get ready to see the sausage grinder and decide if you're the filling or the case handler.' Lennie allowed himself a satisfied smile at the stretched metaphor/pun.

Rigel hated this and loved it at the same time. At this point in his life he was used to dichotomy.

“I was like this before the OWLs, and I scored perfect. I will do the same with the NEWTs. But to add to your metaphor, I’m usually the machine that puts them both together.”

Maybe he did need a little mentoring. Deep down Rigel was glad Greyfriar reached out.

"Perfect on every OWL?  I didn't realize I was in the presence of greatness!" Lennie chirped with mock surprise.  "Shouldn't have any problem fixing this then."

Lennie stopped abruptly, rounded on Rigel with a shit-eating grin, loosed his wand from his holster and bellowed, "Colovaria."

With a wide flourish and a flick Rigel's moody attire turned pepto bismol pink. 

"I'm Lennie by the way," he said as he re-holstered his wand, turned back around and resumed his march to the Ministry portkey.

Did he really just do that as an introduction? What is this kindergarten? Unbelievable, Rigel was annoyed. Although he kind of likes the color. Goes well with his glasses. He took this in as soon as it happened and there wasn’t a single misstep to guide Lennie into another satisfactory shit-eating grin. Besides, Lennie was stuck with him now, Rigel has no shame. Seemed like Lennie doesn’t either with the way he dressed, Rigel let out a chuckle before responding.

“I’m Rigel, don’t let my genius get to your head. I hide it well, kind of my thing.” He has more pip in his step now. His mood is ascending, this was nice. Maybe Lennie will understand Rigel’s problems. Too soon to tell.

“I’m Rigel, don’t let my genius get to your head. I hide it well, kind of my thing.”

This cocky little arse is going to be a challenge Lennie thought. He wondered if the kid's nonchalance was genuine or feigned, and was more than a little surprised to find himself leaning toward the former.

Lennie strode intently up the stone staircase to the headmaster's office, knocked, walked in as the door swung open of its own volition.  Knox looked up from his reading and returned Lennie's curt nod as he crossed the office and touched the head of the golden statue.  The very top of his head began to twist slowly, independent from the rest of his body and looking like a distortion from a mirage.  The twist sped up and rippled down his body until he momentarily looked like a Picasso, then disappeared from the office entirely.

Knox Greyfriar was an oddly respectable man in Rigel’s eyes. Didn’t conform to the normal authoritative roles, and he certainly wasn’t afraid to operate in the grey which is where Rigel lived most of the time with his guile.

Rigel was intimate with the path Lennie chose to walk, he’s walked it countless times without guidance. As the door opened, the familiar territory drew Rigel closely following Lennie’s footsteps. He mindfully observed the interaction between Knox and Lennie, just a simple non-verbal monosyllabic nod. It was tense, suggested a harsh and mal-ended relationship.

Lennie touched the portkey, and did as all creatures did when they are allowed to pass through a portkey, twisted and turned like play-dough. Unruly and cruel imagery, appalling to eyes unaccustomed to horrible sights. Wasn’t the first time Rigel has seen a human mangled. His thoughts led him to this, he ended up self aggrandizing himself for how well he can compartmentalize things. The irony of self praise on a self defence mechanism didn’t escape him.

Rigel saw he was reading a corny romantic novel, the man did have weird taste despite his prominent understanding of power. A big and powerful teddy bear who’s into rom coms. Rigel saw the back of the book and made out one of the character’s name.

“Hey, what do you think about the pink? Oh and by the way Lisa dies when she visits Ronnie behind the hay bail... in chapter 24? I think, anyways.” Rigel did not want to stay for much longer after that comment. Although he didn’t let his body run as much as it’s brain was telling it to do. He touched the portkey.

“Want to tell me you and Knox’s history? Or should I just chalk it up as you being annoying. Maybe even pompous, no… no superfluous, that’s the one.” Rigel said this as soon as he saw Lennie. He touched up his hair, as he usually found it unkempt after using a portkey.

Rigel caught up to Lennie at the elevators and they began to make their way to level two.

"Pompous is as pompous does. Your parents are muggles, you should be familiar with that quote, ya?" Lennie quipped back as he closed the gate. "In case you're not familiar an example would be...," Lennie paused in fake thought for a moment,"...like perhaps needing to throw in the whole thesaurus in your attempt to dissect someone you met 15 minutes prior? Or goad someone into giving you information you want through feeble attempts at embarassment?"

"Let's get you in something more appropriate." Lennie said following it with a wide wand swish and pronouncing, "Multicorfors." Both his outfit and Rigels turned to nicely cut black suits with white shirts, black ties, black trilbies and nice black Ray-bans.  Let's see if the kid knows the Blues brothers or not he thought to himself.

"Welcome to Level 2 Signore Acrux. The orderly shield that guards the wizarding world from the encroachment of the chaotic swirling darkness." He proclaimed with a grand flourish his hand.  He began to stroll off and glanced back over his shoulder, giving Rigel a sideways nod to indicate he should follow.

Proceeding with the tour he dropped into his best Chicago accent and started gesturing willy-nilly at nothing in particular, "We've got a cop motor, a 440-cubic-inch plant. It's got cop tires, cop suspension, cop shocks. It's a model made before catalytic converters so it'll run good on regular gas. What do you say? Is it the new Bluesmobile or what?" Lennie stopped and looked at Rigel with his brow furrowed and his lips pursed out a bit duckishly. He waited expectantly to see if Rigel would pass the little muggle culture test.

Not a bad suit, maybe Lennie’s style wasn’t so bad. He recognized this appearance and he wasn’t a big fan of the hats or the pants. Rigel decided he’d put his own spin on it.

“You’re so old. Multicorfors.” Rigel opted to keep the style of the outfit but not the age. No, what he changed into was much more confident and stylish. Ditching the jacket and hat but changing the shirt to be a faintly crosshatched white texture. Going well with the white undershirt. Changed the tie from pure black, to a deep midnight blue with white polka dots to compliment the cross hatching on his shirt. A silver clip to match with the ones on each strand of his black suspenders, forming an X on his back. The silver matched the watch that he had, stainless steel and always shining. His sleeves were rolled up to give his arms room to breathe and to show them off, confident posturing was his favorite.

Chicago wasn’t Rigel’s style of an accent, he much preferred modeling the mafioso that he so regularly came into contact with.

“Eh so Jackie the Rippa eh? Funny guy uh? You know my cousin Vinny said he- no wait was that Tommy? Alright well my family knows this guy, just say Rigel’s looken for em. He knows me and my family.”

He spoke in the Italian accent he suppresses at school and let his arms run wild and free with each word. Enunciating with his gestures as much as his tongue and lips.

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