The League of Genius, (Angel)

[Marli Young]

Although Angel was quite possibly the most irritating person he'd ever met, Marli couldn't help but find him endearing at times with his loyalty and gentle affection. Also, they both fell into the 'genius' category of intelligence - though that really was a tentative link. Fundamentally, they both had a great capacity for learning and knowledge, but where Marli was driven by his head and what was the sensible answer, Angel followed his heart and emotions which often made him seem dramatic and over-emotional.

Still, Marli sometimes enjoyed spending time with the Hufflepuff, so here he was in the Hufflepuff common room waiting for Angel to get dressed - for some reason, he had attended breakfast in his pyjamas and slippers again 'just because'. They were going to take a look at the NEWT level books for transfiguration and charms, which they had so far managed to avoid in fear of getting too far ahead of the class. Together, however, they had made the decision to start them - after all, the wizarding world was a rather dangerous place at the moment and they might need to know how to defend themselves.

[Angel Edwards]

Angel pulled on his jeans and fastened his belt, then turned to look at himself in the full-length mirror. His hair looked reasonable - well, it wasn't sticking straight up, so it counted as reasonable to Angel. He flexed his arms just to check they were still looking good, before turning round to retrieve a t-shirt from the drawer. Putting it on, he reached down to the bottom drawer to get socks, then put them on and started down the stairs towards the common room.

Stopping just outside the doorway, he thought he heard Marli greeting one of his housemates, so that meant he was there already. Angel, although he wouldn't admit it easily, had a tiny bit of a crush on Marli and wished he wasn't such a spack because it annoyed the Slytherin and ruined any chance he would have with him. Ruffling his hair a little, he took a deep breath and entered the room, smiling as he saw the other boy.

"Hey!" he greeted as he tried to walk calmly and sensibly round the sofa instead of his usual 'clambering over' entrance. Once he was seated next to the taller boy and spotted the books, he grinned. "This is going to be awesome!" he said, cursing himself internally as he realised he'd used an Americanism, which had no doubt annoyed Marli already. Rather than bring it up - in case it hadn't been noticed - he shuffled closer and reached over to pick up one of the textbooks.

[Marli Young]

Marli smiled as he saw Angel appearing in the doorway, looking sort of messy in a way that suggested he'd just spent some time in front of the mirror perfecting the mess. He watched as the boy walked round to sit down - clearly done for his benefit - and tried to ignore the word that had crept into the sentence as it was probably accidental. When Angel moved closer, Marli felt strangely warm and fuzzy inside, which happened from time to time when the Hufflepuff was nearby. He couldn't be sure, but he suspected he might be developing feelings for the smaller boy, which wasn't a good idea. With the inevitable war heading in their direction, loving someone would only make it worse if he lost them.

With the charms book now open, Marli looked down to start reading. Before he had reached the bottom of the page, the other boy was trying to turn it. "I'm not finished yet, you spack..." he whispered with a smile, prodding the Hufflepuff in the side as he spoke. Holding Angel's hand in place for now, he read quickly to the end of the last line, then turned the page over. "How can you read so fast? I mean, I know I'm quick but I don't read at my fastest in case I miss anything." Resting his chin on Angel's shoulder, he continued to read, wanting to get to the end of the explanation so that they could try the charm.

[Angel Edwards]

Angel giggled as the other boy prodded him, because his sides were very ticklish and even that simple movement made him squirm. He waited until the page had been turned to start reading again, although he was soon disturbed by Marli's question. "It just goes in quickly I think... like, I might not remember it straight away, right now, but if you asked me tomorrow or next week I could tell you all about it in detail. I can usually remember enough to do the spell though. I'm clever, it's just that my memory works differently to other people's," he informed the Slytherin, then started to read again.

When he felt something on his shoulder, he glanced round to see Marli's face only inches from his own. Swallowing, he cleared his mind of any thoughts that might have been trying to emerge and focussed his attention on the book in front of them. When he'd read the part about how to actually perform the spell, he turned to face Marli and spoke again. "Right, so we need a pen or a quill or something..." he announced, then looking around. He spotted a discarded quill sitting nearby and picked it up, inspecting it. "Yes, this should do. Do you want to go first? It's probably a bad idea if I do it and mess up..."

[Marli Young]

Marli nodded in what he supposed was sympathy as he listened to Angel's explanation of his memory. He knew exactly what it was like to have a mind that didn't work like everyone else's, which was probably what gave him such a connection to Angel - the other boy didn't think he was crazy because his memory kept him up all night or he genuinely checked for monsters before he slept in case they had turned up. He knew such things weren't very likely, especially at home in the muggle world, but his imagination had trouble believing that. Once he'd finished reading, he realised that Angel had once again beaten him to it and was now ready to try it out.

"Er..." he started as he eyed the quill, reaching out to take it from the other boy's hand. "Yes, that's probably a good idea actually," he continued, taking it and putting it down in the gap between them. He had briefly considered putting it in his lap, but if it went wrong he might not get to be male for very much longer. Once it was set up, he said, "Hold the book up so I can see what I'm doing." Retrieving his wand from the table, he pointed it at the quill and recited the charm, moving his wand as shown in the book. Nothing happened, so he gave it another try, at which point the quill twitched a little but then stilled once again. On his third attempt it lifted up a few inches before dropping down again.

"This is hard..." he muttered, frowning. Leaning back a little, he indicated for Angel to try instead, as Charms were more the Hufflepuff's strong point.

[Angel Edwards]

Angel held the book up and watched with interest as his friend started to try the charm written in the book. The idea was that it could be charmed to copy any piece of writing, but first it had to be charmed to react, which was the part Marli was doing now. His first attempt did nothing and his next two didn't do very much better, which surprised Angel as the other boy usually got the hang of things on his first or second go. When he'd given up for the moment and leaned back, Angel decided to give it his best shot - after all, what could really go wrong?

Closing his eyes, he thought hard about the wand movement and the word he had to use, then opened his eyes again and stared at the quill. The first time he tried the charm, he was successful and the quill lifted up and floated between them. Grinning, he grabbed a piece of parchment and the book and put them next to each other. He studied the page again and said, "Right, so I say that charm and the quill should be smart enough now to know what to copy..." With a flick of his wand and a word, the quill responded and descended towards the page, where it began to write.

"Yay!" Angel squealed with delight, then remembered that the only reason he'd had a turn at it was because his friend hadn't managed. Calming down a bit, he looked at Marli and asked, "Should I uncharm it now so you can try?"

[Marli Young]

Marli contuned to watch what the blonde boy did, wondering why he himself hadn't had any luck with it yet. Fair enough, it was an advanced charm, but it wasn't so difficult that they couldn't manage it at all. He studied the flick of Angel's hand as he started the charm and realised that he hadn't been finishing it off properly like the smaller boy had. When the charm worked, Marli smiled, feeling happy for his friend. "Well done, Angel!" he commented, and was about to nod in reply when he realised that he could uncharm it with a generic spell.

Once the quill had fallen back to the sofa below it, Marli picked it up and inspected it just in case he'd missed anything else. It didn't seem he had, so he placed it back down and tried again. This time, it seemed to rise up into the air and stay there, though it was taking a lot of concentration. He managed to get it to start copying, then quickly uncharmed it again because they didn't really need a copy of the book.

"I think we've done well, Angel," he said, smiling. "Not bad for a thicky!" he teased, ruffling Angel's hair. Normally, he wasn't one for name-calling, but he knew that the other boy was incredibly intelligent and would know it couldn't be true.