The Three Broomsticks

There was general surprise around the table to hear Nicolas' words.

"You are?" and "Alright! We've got a Gryffindor competing!" were amongst the reactions.

However, Diana however, was most unpleaed. She frowned at Nicolas and crossed her arms.

"What?" He said innocently, "Weren't you planning to?"

"I wasn't...." Diana started to protest. She was considering but she didn't exactly want to advertise it.

Nicolas chuckled. "Of course you weren't." He said condensingly.

Nicolas turned to Boris in a somewhat half-whisper. "She wants to get back in our grandfather's good graces."

Boris found Diana's displeased countenance slightly amusing. It seemed to him that her decision wasn't to be known by those outside the family, as clearly none of the others had been told.

"Is that so?" Boris replied in a kind of half-mocking surprise. "Vone vonders how that could have happened. . ." he added in the same manner. The Durmstrang didn't really expect an answer, having joined in Nick's teasing of his cousin without missing a beat purely out of habit.

"I'm afraid that isn't any of your business." Diana said coldly.

"Might as well tell him Diana," Nicolas said teasingly.

"What for?" Helena said on the edge of laughter. "He'll probably find out when he walks into any empty classroom at Hogwarts."

"And who precisely said that it vos? From vot I recall, I had only said I vondered," Boris replied in obviously feigned innocence. "It is qvite a big difference, don't you agree?"

"Your cousin does not listen very vell, does she?" he asked Nick in a comedic tone of voice.

When Helena spoke, Boris focused his chocolate-irised gaze on her. Both eyebrows shot upward, his curiosity tamely in check. "That bad, is it?" he asked Helena with a slight laugh.

"The vay I see it, I could very vell have vaited to tell Nicolas about Gleb and Professor Petrov. . . but I decided not to take the cowvard's vay out. Vith the media the vay it is, you vould likely have found out sooner or later," Boris remarked in carefully-displayed neutrality, his attention focused on Diana as he took a long sip of butterbeer and subsequently hid a teasing grin that was forcing itself to manifest.

"From vot Nick has said in his letters, I had thought Gryffindor House - to vich I assume you all belong - vos vone that valued courage," he added, likely without realizing how he sounded right about now. "But perhaps I vill take the challenge of finding out myself," Boris mused aloud, sending a glance Helena's way. It was her, after all, that more or less suggested it albeit not in those same exact words.


((I'm going to assume Nick and Boris wrote to each other at some point after Nick's transfer...))

((Haha indeed. Makes sense.))

Nicolas chuckled, "No, she doesn't listen at all."

Helena laughed as Boris said his comment. "It is that bad, I think Diana's got a couple of detentions because of it."

She laughed heartily at the scandalous look Diana sent her.

"What is it today?" Diana said indignantly. "Pick on the Gryffindor Prefect day?"

"I didn't think so!" laughed Boris.

He greatly appreciated Helena's laugh, though couldn't exactly place why. Perhaps it was because he took it as a sign that Nick's friends were slowly getting used to a foreigner in their midst. "Oh," he half-whispered, half-mouthed, leaving his lips in a tight circle as though he'd just gotten hold of something incredibly sour. "Must have been positively dreadful - who vould get more than vone detention for just vone transgression?" he asked paradoxically. The snippet of conversation between him and Nick clearly indicated that he had a penchant for getting into trouble. A hearty laugh of his own joined Helena's at the look Diana had bestowed upon the other girl.

"I vouldn't know, vot vith Hogvarts not being my school and my practically arriving not too long ago. I take it you are said Gryffindor Prefect?" Boris replied to Diana, laughter still on his lips. "Is it?" he asked the rest of the group, though it was clear he was kidding around.

"That's depends," Nicolas said in an overly-exaggerated manner. "Is it Saturday today?"

Helena nodded.

"Yep, it's Pick on the Gryffindor Prefect day," Nicolas said smilingly sweetly at Diana.

"It wasn't just one transgression, Boris," Helena said. "It was four."

"No, you got it wrong Helena," Nicolas said chuckling. "It was a little over ten."

"It wasn't like we were doing anything remotely wrong." Diana defended. "Not like animal fighting in the Halls." Diana directed her comment at Nicolas.

Boris couldn't help but mirror Nick's countenance. Or at least he tried to. His version of Nick's "sweet smile" looked rather more like he was up to something devious. He turned his head slightly toward Helena when she mentioned his name, though kept his eyes trained on Diana. If it were possible for the smile to spread even further and mutate into a grin, it had just happened. Before he could comment, though, Nick corrected her.

A raven eyebrow quirked upward at Diana's defense. "If it vos not wrong, vy did it earn you detention then?" he queried, not expecting to really be told an answer, and busied himself with the glass of butterbeer in front of him.

"Animal fighting?" Boris queried, intrigued, after hurriedly swallowing a mouthful of butterbeer. "As in vhile in animagus form?" He didn't wait for an answer and instead turned to Nick. "Who von?" By the look on the Durmstrang's face, it was clear he'd expected to be told - unnecessarily, Boris mused after the fact - that Nick was the victor and that he found absolutely nothing wrong with the idea. What other outcome could there possibly have been for a Conquistador?

"Alright..." Diana was about to defend herself. But then she though, 'Who is this Boris bloke anyway?'

"I don't have to explain myself to you." Then she looked around the table. "I don't have to defend myself to any of you."

Nicolas and Helena and the rest of the table laughed.

Nicolas turned to Boris, "Do you even have to ask? If the teacher didn't interfer when she did, Darien Vaight would have a totally different face."


(Darien went to Drumstrang too and they didn't get along there either. XD)

((Okay. I kinda surmised as such since I read both profiles and seen both had been at Durmstrang, but I wasn't sure. Boris has a way to work around what I had him say last post, though - not to worry! ^_^ ... Did Nick and Darien come to Hogwarts at the same time, or was the time between transfers spaced out a little?))


Boris snickered into his glass of butterbeer at what he assumed was Diana's frustration. She likely wouldn't last a week at Durmstrang, being this easy to annoy. "If I had a sickle for every time I heard or said that. . ." he trailed off, laughter clearly infused in his speech, "Then I vould likely have my own fortune to do vith vot I vill." It was a slight hint into his background: the Kaminski's, at least starting in the late 1800s, were a wealthy and prominent family in Russia.

A grin practically split his face from ear to ear. "Vell, I had suspected as much," he admitted, unabashedly. "But, if I hadn't asked, you vouldn't have been able to boast - likely yet again," the side comment had been added hastily as his eyes scanned the table, though his grin never faded, "about your victory, now vould you?"

"Besides: new school, new archenemy is the usual pattern, isn't it?"

((Spaced out a little. XD))

"A shame..." Diana said sarcastically.

"Yes, more like the same archenemy." Nicolas said.

"That's not what I heard." Helena frowned at Nicolas' comment. "I heard Vaight had the upper hand."

"Well..." Nicolas said raising his brow, "that's my technique see, make my opponent arrogant, then when his ego's one big balloon, I go in an pop it."

"Does it matter who had the upper hand? They're both idiots that's what that proves." Diana sighed exasperatedly.

"Is that how that vorks, Nick?" Boris asked in a playfully mock-serious tone. "And here I thought you had been dueling me earnestly the whole time, ven I pulled that vone prank on you - practically right before ve formed the Conquistadors," he elaborated, a knowing glint in his eyes. "I vill remember that, next time ve duel for fun." It was likely no surprise right now that Boris' ego was already very much like an overly-inflated balloon on a daily basis.

Raven brows furrowed, though one was allowed to rise higher than the other at Diana's statement. He looked to her with unabashed, overconfident chocolate-colored eyes. "It matters to me," Boris stated flatly. "And I hardly think being able to become animagi - at our ages, no less - is in any vay idiocy. Do you have an animagus form?" he added, the question rather haughty as if to make his point clear.

"Yeah, amigo, that's why you should never underestimate me." Nicolas said slapping Boris' back.

Diana narrowed her eyes at Boris' insinuation. "As a matter of fact, Boris," she said. She wasn't entirely sure she liked her cousin's friend all that much. "I do."

A few of their Gryffindor table mates cracked smiles.

"I never implied turning into an animgus was as you say an idiocy - I do know that fact for myself - I meant, their inablity to get along was idiotic. Almost as idiotic as their reason for fighting in the first place."

Boris laughed at Nick's comment, the slap to the back making said laughter distort slightly. That, of course, only made the situation even more comical.

The emphasis Diana used on his name did not go unnoticed. In the pause between this and her next statement, Boris bestowed the group with a knowing smile that was slightly mismatched with the playful intrigue his eyes showed. "Congratulations then: you can join the Animagi club," he answered, one part sarcasm and one part gratingly annoying but slightly complimenting condescension... with a dash of honesty. Boris withheld that he was an animagus as well. Obviously, however, there was no such organization.

"Do you mean to say you get along vith everybody?" Boris asked wryly, both eyebrows raised in a kind of faux innocence Nick would have seen many a time. "It surprises me that you vould judge your cousin by his issues vith Vaight ... I vos not avare that everyvone's cousin vos their personal over-reactive Idiotoscope," he added, giving Nick a sly but supportive smirk-like grin. There was no such thing as an idiotoscope - Boris coined that one from his experiences with a sneakoscope.

"Thank you," Diana said frowning, "Your sarcasm is greatly appreciated."

"Of course I don't get along with everybody." Diana said.

"Exhibit A," Helena said gesturing at Boris. The other Gryffindors and Nicolas laughed.

Diana's frown grew. "I just wished that he," Diana glared at Nicolas as if blaming him for her anger at the moment, "would stop fighting with my boyfriend!"

And with that Diana stood up and walked away.

((I'm going to make it where Boris is unaware of Diana/Darien's relations...))


Boris raised his glass in a silent toast, as if to say that she was welcome for his sarcasm. However, a slight snicker - playfully intended - escaped him upon taking a sip.

Being named "Exhibit A" earned a hearty laugh from Boris that joined the Gryffindors' chorus. It was clear he was enjoying the whole thing.

His raucous laughter halted the moment Diana had said the word 'boyfriend'. Boris' jaw quite literally dropped. He knew of the feud between the two families, and was not expecting this turn of events. By the time he'd formed a question drenched with his particular blend of vocal tones and nuances, however, Diana had fled the scene. Or at least that was how Boris perceived it. "A Casillas and a Vaight?" he asked Nicolas, as if in confirmation. "Vell, that is an interesting development... I take it this is vy your... ah-boo-ay-loh ((abuelo, he's trying to say))... is none too happy vith her?" It was actually a little comical, hearing a Russian enunciate Spanish words.

Horatio McKevin entered the pub and looked about curiously. His pipe was held to his mouth by one large hand and he was wearing his teaching robes with a dark green cloak thrown over them.

"Can I get you something, sir?" a waitress asked, nicely as he took a seat at a table.
"Yes, a butterbeer would be nice, thank you." The young woman nodded and hurried away to procure the item.

Several patrons glanced over in his direction, no doubt wondering where the large older man had come from and what he was doing there. He could care less about the stares.

Darien wandered into the pub, looking for Diana.
Predictably, the waitress avoided and ignored him. He rolled his eyes. You cause one tiny tornado and suddenly the world hates you.
He glanced around and noticed Nicolas and...Boris? Was Diana there too?
He took a step or two forwards, looking to see if Diana was there. She wasn't.
Where was Diana?

((anyone want to talk to him...or fight/insult him, whichever, I don't really mind. lol ))

Amy and Aiden walked into the pub and spotted Darien.

"Hello Darien...

"Hows it going?" they asked as stood at either side of him.

Aiden ordered 2 butter beers and Amy order one.

Aiden handed one of his to Darien, "Service in this sucks don't it?" he asked.

"Hi...thanks." He accepted the butterbeer, feeling awkward as the waitress glared daggers at him.
He winced, then rolled his eyes, covering his iritating conscience with some typical Slytherin denial.
"Merlin, you cause one little breeze and sudenly the entire pub despises you..." he shook his head slightly.
"I mean, it could've been worse...I could've knocked the wall down or something...Anyway, how did you find History of Magic? That bear just reminded me of some cheap magical circus..." He smiled.

Aiden nodded, "yes it reminded me of a muggle circus.. Don't know what it had to do with histroy though"

Amy perked up "what did you do in here Darien? the bar lady looks like she could kill you.."

Darien raised a hand to his hair and ruffled it slightly.
"I might've caused a tornado...a mini one, nothing major...It was all that Ravy's fault, she burnt Ana! Little..." He muttered under his breath, cursing April.
"Anyway, it kinda wrecked most of this," he gesturred to the walls and general area. "Nothing a simple spell wouldn't fix, but now they hate me."
He shrugged. "So really I'm the victim." He flicked the lid off the butterbeer and downed half of it in a long gulp.

Amy laughed "Of course, the Ravenclaw asked for it then"

"So what brings you here Darien?" Aiden asked.

"Escaping from Ana...and looking for Diana...Have you guys seen her?"

sub_rosa wrote:

"A Casillas and a Vaight?" he asked Nicolas, as if in confirmation. "Vell, that is an interesting development... I take it this is vy your... ah-boo-ay-loh ((abuelo, he's trying to say))... is none too happy vith her?"

"Indeed, none of my family is happy with her at the moment..." Nicolas said jokingly but there was a slight squint in his eyes to validate the statement to be true. He didn't add that he himself was one of the unhappy family members... Though he would tell Boris anything, Nicolas didn't think it was appropriate to say so in front of the Gryffindors.

"I should probably go after her," Helena sighed. "Well it was nice meeting you Boris. See you around," she said to everyone else. And with that she got up, headed our but unfortunately, hit a few Slytherins on the way.

"Watch it!" Helena said to Darien.