Arnold and Arthur Carey
July 29, 2011 4:06 PM
Joust-Watching by Arnold and Arthur Carey
Arnold had noticed the jousting tournament sign-up sheet with every intention of joining the event, but a simple law of the universe – that Arthur always noticed notices before he did – had forestalled him. By the time he had realized something was happening, his twin had mentioned the occasion in passing in a letter home to their parents, and Mother had written back the very day Arnold saw the piece of parchment to strictly ban either of them from playing.He couldn’t help but feel annoyed with her for that, if not enough for it to last until Christmas when he saw her again or even enough for him to be stupid and lash out in a letter. It was one thing for Arthur, Mother worried more about him more than she did Arnold for health reasons and they hadn’t been sure when the sheet went up if it was going to be more or less dangerous than Quidditch when she didn’t even like them doing that, either, but he was perfectly fine. As far as he was concerned, there weren’t many things more dangerous than playing Seeker when at least one person older and bigger than him was an enemy Beater. Finding out that this was safe as houses just felt like a kick in the bottom after he’d already had a slap in the face. A goad, almost.
“Stop sulking,” Arthur said, not looking up from the book he’d brought to read while Arnold watched the tournament. It was short and thick, and seemed to be about runes. At least there were spiky shapes on the pages that Arnold didn’t recognize.
He scowled at his brother. “I’m not sulking,” he said.
Arthur just made a sort of noise not quite a sigh, and Arnold might have responded to that, but then the Headmaster started talking and improved his mood with the mention of it being the first. First implied there might be more sometime, when he was a little older and Mother either wouldn’t know in time or wouldn’t forbid him if she did.
The first contestants stepped up, and he turned to the person beside him since he knew his brother wasn’t going to admit to secretly being interested for at least five more minutes. “Do you know anyone down there?” he asked, shifting a little on his seat. He wasn’t used to ever being in the stands.
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Arnold and Arthur Carey
Joust-Watching
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Arnold and Arthur Carey
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