Hey, you (Peter)

[simanus]

Simanus may have been in human form at present, but her cogitation had shifted at least somewhat from the words and images of human thought to the smells and intensities of light and pressure which were the province of animals. When she was fully transformed, she found human thought next to impossible in her vulpine brain, but when she let just a little of her internal chemistry slip in the fox-oid direction, she found a cool focus easy to attain. She sat patiently, the mental equivalent of a swishing tail keeping time, the somewhat ethereal human version of her hunter's nose bearing watch for her quarry.

After some time, she saw the little lump of a boy walking into the courtyard. Much to her delight, Simanus saw that Pettigrew was unaccompanied. She moved like a water-moccasin through the stream of students until she stood before him. "Hello there, Peter," she said, trying not to sound intimidating, but not caring much what sort of initial reaction she produced, "please don't be alarmed, I'm a friend of Sirius, Remus and James. I hadn't met the fourth of their tet and so set out to find you. I" she continued silkily, extending a hand even as she performed a half-courtesy, "am Simanus Flagg, of America and it is a pleasure to meet you."

[Peter Pettigrew]

Peter was making his way through the courtyard, his mind not really on anything in particular. He tripped over his feet and cursed himself, as he stumbled forward, but managed to regain his balance. He was on his way to the green house four. Peter liked to help tend the plants when he could, it relaxed him.

He stopped as a rather tall girl stood in front of him and spoke pleasantly enough. He then noticed she was attired in the Slytherin uniform and took a step back. Even when she extended her hand and told him she knew the others, he eyed her shrewdly. "Well everyone knows James, Remus and Sirius." He paused a moment. "You're going to hex me now aren't you." It was more of a statement then a question. "Why did you want to meet me anyway? I'm not anything special, like the others are."

[simanus]

Simanus could not help but giggle a little at Pettigrew's reaction to her, but stopped as quickly as she could, not wanting to make him more uneasy. "Hexes aren't my style," she said smoothly, "I prefer more esoteric routes to securing an end to conflict. In any case you've no need to fear me, what I meant to say was that I know your friends personally." She gave this a moment to sink in before continuing, her accent thickening slightly, "I've been following their careers as pranksters since I arrived and am a great fan, particularly of Sirius, his 'penmanship' has both style and flair. Of course Remus, clever boy that he is, is your master of subtlety."

She walked to a nearby bench and sat, making sure to leave room for him to sit and still have enough of a view of her to feel safe, if he was still uneasy and wanted to leave, she wouldn't stop him. "I wanted to meet you because...well, because I'm something of a completionist. I like you boys, you're my sort of folks; and don't let the Slytheirn thing bother you. As I'm sure you know, or if you didn't can tell now from the sound of me, I'm a transfer from America. I only moved into Slytherin because I thought living in a dungeon would be cool. I'm hoping to transfer to Ravenclaw for my NEWT years." Rather than go ahead and invite him to tell her about himself, Simanus elected to stop here and give him the chance to either sit down and engage with her or leave if he either still felt nervous or had somewhere to be, friendships were built on mutual courtesy after all.

[Peter Pettigrew]

Peter looks at Simanus with a confused expression on his face. "Essowhatic?" He asked frowning. His face brightened a little, when she continued and he felt better that she knew the others personally. "Oh I see. Well, that's OK then." He nodded. "Yes they're all good, they help me a lot. I'm not that good at some subjects." He smiles weakly. "I like James best, he is my best friend."

Peter slowly followed her to the bench and sat with her. He listened quietly, as she spoke and nodded with interest, as she explained where she had come from. "Oh I see, so you are not actually a Slytherin. Well, that's good at least." He smiled. "So how come you didn't attend a magical school in America?"

[simanus]

Simanus giggled, "Essoterica, it means the...well the more essoteric forms of magic, unusual stuff you might say. Wandless magic, elemental and alchemy work, mostly arcane things are my study." So James was this one's favorite, that made sense she supposed, James was well on his way to being the big star, at least among his own house. "I did attend a magical school in America, the Salem Institute," she added, "I came here for a spring abroad in my third year and decided to stay." She let herself go in reminiscence for a moment.

This one didn't have that hint of scent the others did. She hadn't really had time to get a good whiff of James, but her encounters with Sirius and Remus had left her with a somewhat musty smell in her nose which was quite apart from their natural aroma...what was bothersome was she knew that she knew what it meant, but it wasn't coming to her. Whatever it was couldn't be that important and so she returned her attention to acquainting herself with Peter.

"I can understand if schooling isn't necessarily to your taste," she smiled, "my older sister was the same way and she turned out quite well, even better as of a few days ago. But surely something in magic calls to you, a knack as we call it. So what is it for you, what part of magic sings its song for you." She already knew that Remus had a taste for DADA and James was clearly a transfigurer/hexer, she could spot those a mile away, Sirius had been harder to peg. She felt like this was the route for getting to know students, knowing their aptitudes was a good foundation.

[Peter Pettigrew]

Peter nodded with a vague look on his face, as she explained to him about the more essoteric forms of magic. "Oh I've heard of those. You must be a very talented witch, to be able to perform magic like that." He said with awe. "I don't think I could be that good a wizard. I mean I seem to be so clumsy with my magic." He sighs heavily.

Peter nodded his head, as she told him about her previous school and her reasons for being at Hogwarts. He smiled bashfully. "Well, their loss, is our gain." He shrugged a little. "James seemed to be more accepting of me then the others at first. I suppose I am somewhat annoying to them, but they all like me now...I think." He had to think a few moments as to what he felt he was good at. "Well... I suppose Charms would be one that I feel more confident with." He smiled sheepishly and stuffed his hands in his pockets. "I suppose you're good at everything?"

[simanus]

"Far from everything," she said, drawing her wand slowly and holding it upward as one would with the Light Charm, "Charms happens to be a specialty of mine as well. As is this..." She "lit" the tip of her wand with Coldfire; normally a small blue sun of the stuff would float just outside the wand tip and the caster would modify the quantity and direction, but in this case, Simanus merely let the little un-star wink from the end and then recede. She had now met all three marauders and showed them her little trick, but wait...that wasn't true. Potter hasn't seen it, we only met briefly that one Sunday; oh well, he'll see it sooner or later.

"In my experience, most wizards are good at at least one of the Earth Magics," Simanus was referring to Herbology (Plants), Magical Husbandry (Beasts, taught here as Care of Magical Creatures), Runes (magnetism and gravity, only the reading and writing of it was taught here as far as she knew) and Arboriculture (trees), "I happen to be fairly perceptive both with animals and trees, thus my ambition to become a wandmaker...though I suppose in an amateur way, I am already," she lifted her wand and looked at it for a moment before placing her arm at her side. "What about you?"

[Peter Pettigrew]

Peter watches as she performs the charm and lights up the tip of her wand. He looked on silently as he became mesmerised by the small blue flame. This was a charm he hadn't seen. He knew the Bluebell flame charm, but hadn't really perfected yet. He smiled as she asked him about what he wanted to do. "Well I suppose I would like to be an Auror. Though I really need to study hard for that." Peter sighed. He really hadn't given any thought as to what he would do, when he left school.

"I quite like herbology. I tend the plants sometimes to relax and gather my thoughts."

[simanus]

"Catching the evil and making the world a safer place, eh?" Simanus gave Peter a winning smile, "A noble goal. A good head for plants is a valuable resource, too." Perhaps the faint wisps she'd sensed about this boy from a distance were just vapors and megrims As we say in my homeland, that one smells a bit of a rat, she'd said to one of the others. It was always nice to be proven wrong in such respects, this was a loyal (if sycophantically) fellow and loyalty was a valuable trait.

"Tell me Peter," she said, "What can run but never walks? It has a mouth but never talks, it has a head but never weeps, has a bed but never sleeps." This was an old riddle, and the others hadn't shown the voraciousness for them that she had, but perhaps Peter would surprise her in this respect as well, she looked forward to finding out.

[Peter Pettigrew]

Peter smiled and blushed a little. He lowered his head so she hopefully didn't see. "Yeah, mum will be pleased, she always wanted an Auror in the family." He toed the ground and as she asked him the riddle, he wasn't sure why she asked him. He looked at her a little confused for a moment. He repeated her riddle, then furrowed his brow thoughtfully. He hated trick questions, he was bad enough with straightforward ones. He eventually spoke. "I don't know?" He had a wild guess at it and shrugged his shoulders. "A river?"

[simanus]

It was difficult for Simanus to resist the urge to clap her hands in excitement but she redirected the energy into an enthusiastic "Well done!" She gave Peter a brief but hopefully winning smile, "An old riddle but a toughie nonetheless. A man who can think around corners would make an excellent auror." She cast about for how to continue the conversation, the riddle had been a gamble on whether or not Peter was the type to get enthusiastic about puzzles. This was not the first nor would it likely be the last time she gauged things incorrectly, but she was unperturbed.

"So, how did you get to running about with Remus and them?" she queried, deciding the boys were perhaps the best subject to stick with for a while.