Parlez-Vous Francais?

Shoving her hands into her pockets, Marianne grinned as she walked around the forest. Term was starting in just a few days and it was odd to be back. It was comforting, to be back in the place that she'd spent seven years, but a little discerning and Deja Vu-like.

It'd be weird to see all her old professors again, but as equals and not as a student. Ignoring the nervous feeling in the pit of her stomach, she glanced around her again. Maybe she'd find an interesting animal around here. Brightening up at the idea of animals, she added a little bounce to her step as she continued alone the path.

Roul whistled as he walked through the woods; it was an odd place to find the man, for one certainly couldn't rob a deer, or any other animal that should come across him.

But Roul never let an opportunity pass him; and who knew what would become an opportunity.

His ears pricked up as he heard the sound of distinctly human footsteps. A smirk grew on his face as he turned direction, wandering towards the sound.

"Excuse me!" he called quietly, loud enough to get attention but quite enough to sound as if he wasn't trying to startle ... which of course he wouldn't mind if he did, "Are you-"

He paused for a moment when he recognized the form. He tilted his head and a smirk grew on his face.

"Well, if it isn't little Marianne Delancy. Long time no Lance."

Freezing at the sound of a voice, Marianne frowned, tilting her head towards the voice. Why did it sound so familiar? Turning around, she cautiously stepped towards the voice, blinking up at the man before a slow smile spread across her face.

"Not so little anymore, Roul. I haven't seen you in forever. How's life treating you?"

Roul gave the girl a charming ring, and wrapped his arm around her shoulder easily, "Oh, Lance, you'll always be little to me."

"Now, now, its only felt like forever because you have been deprived of my charming face, and daziling intellect. In fact I do believe its only been... four years?"

He winked and gave an easy laugh.

"Life has been more than good."

Shaking her head, Marianne grinned at him as he threw an arm around her, smacking his stomach playfully. "Sure, Belly, keep believing it. Maybe one day it'll be true."

Letting out a little snort of laughter, her shoulders shook as she broke down into a fit of giggles. "Someone hasn't changed a bit," she teased with a smirk. "I would've thought that you would've at least grown up a little in four years."

"Ooh," Marianne looked up at him curiously, eyes wide. "Tell me, Belly, what makes your life so great?"

"What I believe is always true my dear," he quipped, plucking a forest flower off the ground and holding it out to her in the most casual gesture in the world. He made it appear as if he had just done it on impulse, upon seeing the flower, when in fact he'd noticed the plants long before he'd met up with his childhood aquiantence and thought they would work lovely in just such an occation.

"And ruin the perfection that is Roul Ettiene Belanger? Never!"


"Oh nothing in particular I suppose," he said with a blaise tone, "I merely enjoy the opportunities I got. It is my life after all."

"Everything? Now, I wouldn't want to be the person bursting your bubble and making you rethink your very existence." Shaking her head at him, she pushed back a strand of her dark hair that had been obscuring her vision. Smiling at him and then down at the proffered flower, she gently took it, twirling it around her fingers for a moment before placing it in her hair. "Thank you," she said softly.

"You know, you might not want to go around saying that in public. People might think you have a bit of an ego. And we can't have people thinking badly of you, now can we?" Raising her eyebrows, she grinned at him before continuing. "Then who would go around feeding your ego?"

"Ah yes. It slipped my mind. The life of the one and only Roul Belanger is extraordinary beyond belief without reason. How could I possibly forget?" Giggling, she glanced around the forest for a moment before returning her gaze back to him.

"What are you doing out here, anyway?"

Roul made a mock pout, "No you most certianly do not; you would be responsible for the ruination of a perfectly good life."

"An ego? What on earth is that?" Roul smirked slightly as he leaned a little closer to her to whisper softly into her ear, "Trust me Lance, if I have an ego... its well earned."

Smirking only for a second more, he pulled away and continued to walk, and joke as if he had never changed his mood at all.

"Can't a man just desire a walk in the woods?"

"And we would all just hate that, wouldn't we?" Raising an eyebrow, Marianne did her best to keep her face as straight as possible, even as her lips twitched upwards. She had really had missed Roul, along with the majority of her friends from Beauxbatons. After graduation, she'd been so busy in Romania that staying in touch with friends hadn't been as important.

As he whispered in her ear, she shivered, but it had nothing to do with the temperature. He was flirting with her, wasn't he? She almost wanted to tell him that flirting with her wasn't going to get him anywhere, but she just couldn't. Biting her lip, she walked after him, deciding that she'd let him down easy if he flirted anymore.

"Sure they can," Marianne shrugged. "You just never seemed like the outdoorsy type."

Roul hummed as he continued to walk. His lone show of obvious flirting completely forgotten in his mind. He had meant nothing by it more than he merely enjoyed flirting. It was much like another con.

You could con someone into giving them you're heart.

"Well, a man can change," he flashed her a smirk, before jumping to grab a low haning branch and pulling himself up. Once there, he sprawled, a leg along the branch, leaning against the trunk, and leaving the other dangling.

He hummed slightly, "I got married you know."

Shoving her hands back into her pockets, she allowed her gaze to wander around the forest, eyes looking for anything of interest. Because after all, a forest was full of many odd and interesting thing to see.

Smirking at him, she tilted her head back to watch him climb. That was it? Shaking her head, she grabbed onto a branch, shimmying up the tree to sit on a higher branch. Grinning down at him, she raised her eyebrows.

"You? Married? Huh, who's the special girl?"

Roul snorted as she climbed higher than him. He looked at her lazily before he swooped down, off his perch, apparated mid-fall and landed back on the perch at the top point of the tree.

There was not a point higher than him for her to climb.

"Nadine Levesque," Roul said leaning back on his perch, grinning down at the memory of the girl who had ruled the school. Other than him of course. "Though I don't know if I'd say so much as lucky.|

Shaking her head at him, Marianne stuck out her tongue. "At least we know I can actually climb!" She called out, a teasing edge to her voice.

"Nadine Levesque," Marianne repeated, tapping her nails against the trunk of the tree in an attempt to jog her memory. Her eyes widening as it clicked in her brain, she looked back up at Roul, "I remember her," she breathed. "I don't know how anyone can ever really forget her, but..." trailing off, she frowned. They'd both been popular, and their paths had crossed a few times, but the two had barely spoken. She'd heard more about her from rumours than from Nadine herself.

"Why would you say that?" she asked curiously.

Roul just gave a carefree smirk and a chuckle,"I would have ended up here eventually. I just saved us time."

He winked, and then swung down from his branch. He dropped himself a few more down, so that he was still above her, but no longer had to yell to continue their discussion.

"She'll be wounded she was ever forgotten," Roul rolled his eyes and then laughed. "So charming my Naddy. Though, mind you don't go calling her that. She hates it. Not the Naddy so much, but the mine."

"Just keep thinking that." She teased, giggling softly. Humming softly as he moved a few branches lower, she glanced around her, watching the squirrels scurry around the tree branches. Looking back up at Roul, watching him curiously.

Shrugging, she smirked amusedly. "Well, she'll have to get over it. And besides," she winked at him, "it can be our little secret." Her look of amusement slipping off her face, she frowned slightly. "Are you two having a rough time?"

"Not at all," Roul said with a charming smile, leaning back against the trunk, tone and posture suggesting complete ease and contentment. "She keeps out of my way and I keep out of hers. Neither of us seemed to have a problem with that."

He tilted his head, and smirked a little more.

"But I don't care what she says; she's still mine."

"Ah," was all she said, raising her eyebrows slightly as she nodded. Absentmindedly drumming her fingers against the tree trunk, she remained quiet for a few moments, enjoying the silence that had fallen. Marianne could barely remember the last time she's been somewhere quiet.

"After graduation, I didn't really do anything grand, like getting married." She said finally, looking up at Roul, "I was in Romania, actually. With the dragons. It was absolutely amazing." Marianne sighed happily, eyes glazing over at the memories.

Roul shook his head, "I wouldn't call marriage grand. I'd call it... amusing until you combust, then so much more so."

He smirked and snagged a leaf out of the air as it fell past.

"Dragons huh?" Roul raised an eyebrow, "And what can one do with those?"

"That's...an interesting way of putting it." Marianne said slowly, frowning slightly. She didn't want to get married. Not now, and definitely not in the future. Her parents marriage had crumbled before she could even speak, and even though she loved her step-father to bits, she just didn't want marriage.

"Tons of things, really. You can ride them, even though you're more likely to end up crispy than alive. And you know, there are uses for it's parts." She said darkly, as the idea of killing anything simply for it's parts disgusted her.

Roul shrugged his shoulders and winked, "Well darling, I'm an interesting person. You should spend more time with me - you might come to see things my way."

He nodded his head as she spoke, his eyes thoughtful. Facinating creatures, he supposed.... but it didn't sound like they'd ever be any use to him. What could he gain from a dragon. So far, it seemed like nothing.

"Am I sensing a little hatred to animal harming, Lance?"

"That doesn't sound like such a bad idea," She said softly, grinning up at him. She wouldn't mind spending more time with him. He was nice. He always had been. Sure, he had a bit of an ego, but that'd always been there for laughs. She'd never thought he'd been serious about it.

"You are. I don't see why anyone would do such a thing. The same thing with hunting. How is killing a sport? If they think it's so fun, why not go around killing people?"

"Of course it doesn't, everyone is fighting to spend time with me," he smirked and gave her a wink, "But I suppose since we go way back, I may move you up the line a bit."

Roul shrugged, 'Because theres laws, and laws are messy?"

"Just a bit?" Marianne teased, smirking. "Who's in front of me? They'd better not be prettier than me." Tossing her hair over a shoulder with a dignified sniff, she laughed.

This was nice, just joking around.

"Like people don't break laws all the time." She said with a snort, swinging her legs.

Roul winked at her, "Well I can't tell you that, its confidental. Its for their own protection you know. I've had a few incidents of attempted harm just to have people move up on the list."

He nodded at her solemnly, nothing in his face betraying that he was in fact joking.

"The law was made to be broken," he mumbled easily without truly thinking. Though his rakish grin made him seem like he was perhaps joking this time.

"As amazing of a person as you are," Marianne began, grinning up at him, "I think that's just the tiniest bit crazy. Tell me, did those people get taken off the list for their grevious crimes?"

Playing along to Roul's joke, she smirked slightly, winking back.

"With that attitude, I'm surprised you didn't break every rule Beaxbatons had." she remarked casually, smirking.