Chapter 102: Marcus Belby, Deal of Friendship!
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The link is also in the synopsis.
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[The chapter is edited by my Editor: Alan_Loo/AlanL]
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Marcus Belby was a wizard and a Ravenclaw student at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry and was a year above the famous Harry Potter.
He was from the British Isles and of the magical Belby family. The Belby name wasn't famous in political circles or in the world of business. The place one would recognize the Belby name was in the academic circles.
Two members of the Belby family had substantial contributions to the study of magic.
Flavius Belby had been the first person to come across a Lethifold and survived to tell the tale. In addition, he had been a master in charms and well-versed in the art of Defense Against Dark Arts. And he was the person who discovered the way to chase away Lethifolds, also known as Living Shrouds, a carnivorous and extremely dangerous magical beast. It was also considered a Dark creature because of its extremely aggressive and violent nature.
In a surprise combat against a Lethifold, Flavius had discovered that the Lethifold could be driven away with a Patronus Charm. That day Flavius, while fighting for his life, accomplished a never-before-seen act.
Flavius went on to research his discovery and its credibility and finally gave the world a method to drive away a dangerous creature like Lethifold, a dangerous Dark creature.
His accomplishments were celebrated for centuries after his death and he was immortalized on Chocolate Frog Cards and every Magizoology book that mentioned Lethifolds, credited for his contributions.
The second famous member of the Belby family had an even greater impact than his ancestor. He had won an Order of Merlin, and was a potioneer who single-handedly had changed the lives and fates of people infected by Lycanthropy. A person who had helped people's lives all around the globe and arguably became the most famous potioneer of the 20th century.
Damocles Belby was a famous potioneer credited for the invention of the Wolfsbane Potion, which was his greatest achievement among his other contributions to the field of potions.
Before the Wolfsbane, the unwilling Lycanthropes would rather die than suffer the consequences of losing sanity once every month for the rest of their lives. But after Wolfsbane, there was a beacon of hope in the Lycanthrope community.
Even though the Wolfsbane potion didn't cure Lycanthrope, it was the symbol of progress. It represented faith in magic, that with time, maybe, one day a cure would be found that would rid an unwilling person of the curse of Lycanthropy.
And from that family came Marcus Belby. He was not the brightest tool in the shed but had a passion for learning that landed him in the Ravenclaw house. Whenever people met Marcus, they saw a soft-spoken, shy boy who was polite and curt.
To people with whom Marcus was comfortable, he was a trustworthy friend who was a good listener, a keen observer, and a person who appreciated the little things. When you got him out of his shy shell, he happened to be a person with a bright personality, capable of talking at lengths on the topics he was interested in. And a friend who would be there for you no matter what.
In Hogwarts, Marcus had two close friends, Eddie Carmichael and Quinn West. Eddie and Quinn had extroverted personalities. They were outgoing and socially confident.
And one would think that Marcus would have problems getting along with the two people who had very different personalities than his, but that wasn't the case. He was very comfortable with his roommates.
Marcus, who wasn't comfortable taking the lead on things, was grateful that Eddie and Quinn always knew what to do and would pull him along with them.
It was easier for Marcus to talk to both Eddie and Quinn because he didn't need to initiate conversation, as the two of them would, for most of the time, would have topics and things to talk about. They would keep the conversation going while Marcus silently listened and sometimes chimed in when he wanted to contribute something.
But these days, Marcus found himself alone frequently. Both of his best friends were busy with their own activities.
Quinn West, his raven-haired friend, had always been a busy bee. He would start the day early (before him) and finish his day late (after him). Quinn would be busy during the classes doing the homework given to them; after classes, Quinn would disappear, and no one would know where to find him. In the evening, Quinn would spend his time in the A.I.D office that Quinn had built in his second year, and at night, he would regularly break curfew to do his own things.
The only reliable way to track down Quinn West was to approach him in the Great Hall, during mealtimes, where you would always, without fail, find him eating his food. For some reason, Quinn ate a lot of food for his size, and if he could help it, he would not miss a meal.
Marcus usually hung out with Quinn between classes, mealtimes, and just before sleep time, when Quinn returned after curfew. Or if Quinn didn't decide to disappear.
Then there was his second roommate, Eddie Carmichael, blonde-haired, talkative, loud, competitive, not afraid to say his opinions out loud; the exact opposite to Marcus. And many times, Marcus envied Eddie's personality.
Till last year, Eddie had been 'free' like Marcus and didn't have an 'extra-curricular' activity that required time from him. The two would hang around, spend time together playing gobstones, exploding snaps, Quidditch-catching and any other games they could find to play.
But this year, Eddie had decided to train for the Quidditch tryouts, and for that, he would wake up early and join Quinn for an early morning workout. And after classes, Eddie would do his own personal flying and Quaffle-control training.
Eddie was way less busy than Quinn and had a lot of free time for playing around. And Marcus still spent much more time with Eddie than he did with Quinn. But things had still changed a lot from the last three years.
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- (Scene Break) -
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Sitting in a chair inside the Ravenclaw common room, Marcus looked around the room and roamed his eyes over the room. Most of his fellow Ravenclaw students, both younger and older, were studying alone or in groups either completing their homework, studying in advance for the upcoming class or going through extra recommended material from the exclusive Ravenclaw in-house library with the faculty recommendations, among other things.
He sighed and looked at the busy people around him, and sighed. 'At least they know what they are doing. On the other hand, I...' Another sigh escaped him, and he sunk further into his chair.
A hand suddenly was placed on his shoulder, followed by: "Now, now, don't sigh. At least not a heavy sigh like that one."
Marcus raised his head to see Quinn standing there, smiling. His stone-grey-eyed friend had a barstool in his hand. He then sat in his chair.
As he watched Quinn sitting on a barstool, Marcus thought about how in nearly five years he had known his friend, the number of times he had seen Quinn sitting on a chair with a backrest was frighteningly low. Even when the client chairs in the A.I.D office were chairs with backrests, Quinn always sat behind his desk on a barstool.
Marcus looked at Quinn, who sat with the best posture he had ever seen from anyone he had met. 'Proper as always. Quinn always sits perfectly well, doesn't he?' thought Marcus and put himself back together from his slumped posture in his chair.
"You know what they say, right? A sigh is an amplifier for people who suffer in silence," said Quinn.
That made Marcus tilt his head and ask. "So you don't sigh?"
At that, Quinn laughed and shook his head. "Oh, no, I wish that was true. I sigh a lot, every day." Quinn then sighed, which made point his finger at himself and smile. "See! I just did it."
"Let's not talk about me. Tell me about you," asked Quinn and tapped Marcus's thighs, "Tell me why were you slumped in the chair with that introspective expression that you tend to get on your face when you are overthinking stuff."
'This is it. How does he do it so smoothly?' thought Marcus when he heard Quinn.
Marcus was used to listening to Quinn. He noticed that whenever Quinn wanted the conversation to go his way, he would very smoothly turn the direction of the conversation to his interest.
And right now, he was watching Quinn do it again. But it didn't bring discomfort to his heart to see his friend manipulating the conversation. The reason for that was because Marcus could see the expression on Quinn's face.
Usually, whenever Quinn influenced or manipulated the conversation, he would have a situation-appropriate expression on his face. And the times that Quinn smiled, he would have a calm and restrained smile on his lips. That same smile would slightly change according to the need, and those small changes would change the meaning of the smiles; confident, friendly, dominant, polite, embarrassed, and any other smile that Quinn wanted to portray.
But right now, Quinn didn't have that restrained smile. The smile on his face was wide and joyous, supportive, comforting, bright and free. This was the real deal and not something that was put on just because the situation demanded it.
"... What? why are you looking at me like that?" asked Quinn and touched his face with confusion. "Is there something on my face?" Marcus saw Quinn take out his wand and conjure a mirror to check out his face.
"Why are you smiling? Tell me, is there something wrong with me? Come on, tell me!" stressed Quinn when he looked away from the mirror to Marcus's smiling face.
"It's nothing. I just remembered something funny. There is nothing on your face," chuckled Marcus.
Quinn looked at Marcus with a suspicious face before banishing the mirror. "Now, tell me what had turned you into sad sap," asked Quinn, getting the conversation back on track.
Marcus stared at Quinn for a while before finally opening his mouth to speak. "I was thinking about how both you and Eddie have something you guys do so seriously."
It was clear to Marcus that Quinn loved magic. His friend spent time reading books out of the course material. This wasn't uncommon for a Ravenclaw, but to put it clearly, Marcus would rarely see Quinn read the course material. Most of the time, he would see Quinn reading something that wasn't even close to what was being taught in the school.
Even recently, Marcus had seen Quinn had been going through numerous books on Healing magic and biology. The number of books that changed Quinn's hands had been baffling to Marcus.
Then there was Eddie, who had started playing and practicing Quidditch because he wanted to get a girlfriend. Eddie was a person who got dialed in when motivated, he devoted so much time and effort to Quidditch that if one was told the real reason behind his actions, they wouldn't believe it.
Of course, Marcus and Quinn knew about Eddie's ultra-competitive nature from their early days of friendship. Eddie liked to win and succeed, and when he didn't win, he would get upset, but instead of throwing a tantrum, Eddie would try again to see if he could win.
Quinn and Eddie had been playing the card game Concentration for three years, and despite not winning a single time, Eddie would challenge Quinn regularly. Even after losing for three years, Eddie's competitiveness didn't let him back down.
Eddie was so competitive that he even challenged Quinn at magic. The two would often play the magical game of Tug-of-Accio. In the game, two to more people would simultaneously cast an Accio spell on an object. The objective of the game was to pull the target object towards them. And the one who was able to get the target object near them would win.
Despite knowing that Quinn was better at magic, Eddie would often initiate a game, trying to defeat Quinn at magic, which for obvious reasons never panned out. But that didn't stop Eddie from time and time challenging Quinn. Such was Eddie's personality.
"You have magic. You love it so much, we all knew that just after a few days of our meeting in the first year. The time you put in just shows how much you love it. Even Eddie is dialed in on Quidditch and won't leave his broom in his free time. That always-wants-to-win idiot won't stop till he makes it to the team," sighed Marcus, looking into his lap and whispering in a downtrodden tone. "Only, I have nothing to do. I don't feel passionate about stuff like you guys do. And, well..." he paused because it affected him a lot. "... I feel left out. Like I am wasting my time and that you guys are going to leave me behind."
Marcus looked up from his lap and saw Quinn staring at him with wide eyes. Immediately, Marcus thought he had made Quinn would feel uncomfortable and felt embarrassed because of it.
He was about to speak up, but Quinn interjected. "Marcus, do you remember my sister, Lia? You met her at Hogsmeade, remember?"
Marcus blinked at the question and silently nodded for the reply.
"You see, my sister travels a lot, like, a whole lot. She travels almost the entire year and goes to different parts of the world. One week she would be in Europe and the next week in Australia," spoke Quinn, but Marcus wasn't following where Quinn was going with this. "But you see, my sister doesn't decide where she goes. My grandfather decides where she is deployed, and he still sends her away. He's been doing that for a couple of years. Can you guess why he does that?"
Marcus silently shook his head. He barely knew Quinn's sister; he had no idea what Quinn's grandfather was like.
"My grandfather is trying to make Lia experience new and different things. He keeps sending her to different places to handle business, and while a representative is needed to communicate between countries, there is no need to send Lia as much as he has been sending her."
Quinn beamed as he continued.
"My grandfather knows Lia quite well. He knows that if you give Lia new and exciting things, she will try to find more things about them and see what it's all about. So by sending her to different countries that are different from ours, he stimulates Lia's curiosity by introducing her new experiences."
Marcus listened as Quinn spoke, and he felt like he understood what Quinn was talking about, though it was out of his reach.
"Eddie's character will make him pursue things just because he wants to win, but nobody knows how long he will keep doing things that way. He might get bored and drop them to pursue other interests. You say that you don't have anything you are passionate about. And I will tell you this, neither is Eddie. I think the reason Eddie does all these different things and tries to succeed is that he is trying to find something that clicks with him."
Marcus saw Quinn raise his hand and bring it near him (Marcus) to repeatedly poke his chest.
"The only difference between you and Eddie is that he tries all kinds of things and tries to get better at them. Eddie is trying to find something he enjoys, and he has already found one thing. He enjoys playing games, and that might not be something of importance, but it is still something Eddie clearly enjoys. Marcus, if you want to find something that clicks with you have to do new things."
Quinn then placed his hand on his own chest and continued.
"Yes, I love magic, and that is good for me, hurray! But don't you think I spend too much time on it. Look at the three of us. You and Eddie hang out and have fun while I am alone doing who knows what?"
Pointed out Quinn, and Marcus felt surprised to hear Quinn speak like this.
"I spend so much time on magic that I have barely any time left for other things. I love to play violin and piano, but because I spend so much time in the library in the A.I.D office, and practicing magic, I haven't played my violin for weeks, closer to a month, and that sucks! Then there is the piano which calms me down. And I haven't touched the keys for so long. I can't spend enough time with you guys. I miss so many things that you two do; many times, I don't understand the inside jokes and then realize that I didn't understand them because I missed things, yet again, and that sucks! I know it sucks, and despite that, I don't try to manage my time better."
Marcus felt more and more surprised as Quinn mockingly chuckled at himself.
"You and I aren't that much different, you know? While you haven't tried to explore new things to see what makes you interested, I have wrapped myself in this thing so tightly that I haven't tried something new in a long while and am losing touch with things that I did earlier. Sure, I learn new magics, and it is so much fun for me. And while that might be seen as doing new things, to me personally, it is the same thing: magic is magic no matter what the branch. And my own view is what matters at the end."
Marcus didn't know that Quinn felt like this about himself. The Quinn that Marcus knew was always prepared, confident; a person who commanded any room and company of people he was among. A person who had everything figured out and had his life set.
But now, here he was listening to Quinn vent about things that he didn't know existed a few minutes back.
And while Marcus knew that he should feel sympathetic for his friend, Marcus felt good. Quinn sharing all this made Marcus feel close to him. It made Quinn someone who wasn't flying miles above him, but someone who was right beside him.
"So step out of that comfort zone and try to do new things. Out in the wide world, many unique, intriguing, entertaining, mind-opening things exist. It is a complete waste and pity if you don't try them out. You only live once, Marcus, and it isn't too late to try them. Seriously. If you don't have something you aren't passionate about, then find things, try them out. I guarantee that you will find something that suits you, something that will feel like it was made especially for you."
Quinn suddenly and abruptly stood up and stared down at the surprised Marcus.
"Let's make a promise. No, a deal. As long as you try out new things without worry, I will try to get out the bind I have trapped myself in and get myself back to try things, both old and new."
Marcus felt his heart beat faster and felt his blood boil with enthusiasm as he stood up. He grabbed and shook Quinn's hand tightly as if the firm grip signified the sincerity of his determination and commitment to this deal with Quinn.
"Deal?" questioned Quinn, staring into Marcus's that now showed seemingly boundless energy.
"Deal!" affirmed Marcus, smiling a curve from the bottom of his heart.
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- (Omake: Two Weirdos) -
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Eddie Carmichael entered the Ravenclaw common room after performing maneuvers he deemed necessary to be in a Chaser's arsenal after an intense session of flying around Hogwarts.
'Ah, my chest hurts,' groaned Eddie as he stepped inside, and the first thing he saw with his tired eyes were his two roommates staring at each other with passionate eyes and ardent smiles on their faces, their hands locked in a handshake as they stood in the smack dab middle of the Ravenclaw room.
He stood there for half a minute, staring at his roommates, but they didn't move or break the handshake.
"What the hell are these two weirdos doing?"
But looking at them didn't give him answers, and he was exhausted. So Eddie acted like he didn't know them and walked past them to his dorm room.
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Quinn West - MC - "Marcus!"
Marcus Belby - A deal of friendship - "Quinn!"
Eddie Carmichael - Grinding hard - "I am too tired for this shit..."
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