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Post by Henry Lordings Jr. on Mar 13, 2009 2:55:47 GMT -5
"HAVE YOU COMPLETELY LOST YOUR MINDS!?"
Henry was in a towering temper. It had been his day off, in a manner of speaking, and so he had decided that the time was ripe for a leisurely stroll around the grounds. Taking in the fresh air and enjoying the exceptional weather in lieu of sorting through a pile of homework that had been accumulated the previous day.
He had just turned down one of the four corridors that ringed in the courtyard when a blazing red beam of light hit the wall over his head, making the stone crumble slightly. As the pieces of the wall soared up and back into place of their own accord, Henry had straitened up and scanned the courtyard for the stunner's source, finding it almost immediately.
Jeremiah Sans, a Gryffindor first year, and Phillip Tenzle, a Slytherin of the same year, had begun dueling each other in the middle of the semi-crowded courtyard with absolutely no regard for anyone or anything around them. Like Gryffindors and Slytherins of centuries past, the two boys had instantly become enemies, indeed, this wasn't the first time that Henry had had to deal with the two of them fighting, though, until now, they had confined their duels to the verbal arena...this was a step too far.
Henry didn't bother scanning the area for other prefects or teachers. There was far to much movement, what with people trying to get away from the battle or just trying to get a better look, that it would have been impossible to pick such individuals out of the crowd anyway. All that mattered was that if this kept up, someone was going to get hurt, and judging by the boys' aim, it wasn't likely to be either of them...
Henry moved into the courtyard and toward the boys. He waved the wand clutched in his right hand once to silence the new volley of spells the pair had unleashed, and again to disarm the both of them.
"HAVE YOU COMPLETELY LOST YOUR MINDS!?" He raged at the both of them, who stepped back in surprise at his fury as he approached them. Neither said a word. "DON'T YOU, EITHER OF YOU, MOVE AN INCH!!!"
Those who had stayed to watch looked as though Christmas had come early, though Henry didn't notice on account of his complete and total attention being focused on the two boys before him.
"I..." began young Mr. Sans, though Henry cut him off.
"You, keep your mouth shut, I don't want to hear it!" he said, pointing at the boy with the hand in which Henry held both the boys' wands. "You are just lucky that you didn't hit me with that stunner back there, Mr. Sans, or a verbal berating, however loud and unpleasant, would be the least of your problems!"
Young Mr. Sans closed his mouth slowly and sat back upon the bench which stood behind the pair of first years, examining his own shoelaces as he did so, but jumped up almost immediately as Henry addressed him once more.
"Stand up!" he said. "No one said you could sit!"
Young Mr. Tenzle sniggered at the young Gryffindor as he was berated, but Henry silenced him a moment later.
"What the hell do you think you're laughing at!?" Henry said, shooting a dangerously piercing gaze at the Slytherin. "You're going to..."
"You can't do anything to me..." the boy cut in confidently. "you aren't one of my house prefects."
"Oh, you want one of your prefects!" Henry said with mock realization, ignoring the many things that were incorrect in the sentence the boy had just spewed in favor of embarrassing him. "Tell you what, I'll do you one better!"
He looked around and pointed at a fourth year boy who was chuckling openly at the exchange while leaning against the frame of one of the doors into the courtyard.
"YOU!" Henry said, making the boy's chuckling die away almost instantly in surprise. "Go fetch the head of Slytherin house!" the boy hesitated for a moment, forcing Henry to continue: "NOW!", and causing the boy to scamper off immediately.
It was at this point that several professors and a number of prefects arrived, looking around at the ring of onlookers and the three individuals that said onlookers were encircling with a bit of confusion. No doubt they had been told there was trouble, though few of them seemed to know what fashion of trouble was taking place. They waded through the crowd, ordering most of them to disperse as they did so, an order that was largely obeyed. Henry cast one last whithering look at the pair of first years before turning and handing their wands of to a passing prefect and explaining the situation quickly, aware all the time that his voice had become somewhat hoarse from all the shouting.
He was just passing through one of the arched doorways situated around the courtyard when he distinctly heard his name called from close by...
[Closed || Felicity]
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Post by Felicity Hjort on Mar 13, 2009 12:00:51 GMT -5
Standing further back than the rest of crowd, only having moved closer due to the loud voice shouting about the noise of those who'd gathered, Felicity could hardly believe what was happening. Having just readied herself to exit the castle to enjoy the last bits of warmer weather out by the lake, she had only seen the gathered crowd and stopped to find out what was going on, after a quick rundown from a Hufflepuff she quickly retreated, knowing she didn't want to be near in case a few more spells started to fly. Though she hardly believed the girl about the kinds of spells which were being cast, she knew enough to not be nearby.
Taking cover closer to the castle, nearer to an open space which would lead her on her way to the lake, she waited to see the final outcome of the situation. Would Henry react with magic? Would he continue to shout himself silent?
And really, he surprised her. As soon as was possible, he removed himself from the situation, the lion stepped back from the snarling fight. Brown eyes absorbed all the commotion around her, not sure whether to keep her attention on the rallied crowd, or to watch the boy who frightened her. But he'd done what she thought was right, he spoke to the boys, to another fellow Prefect, and he'd walked away before losing his temper far too much.
Staring out at the boy, she wondered. Drew had always said he was a nice person, but that one time, it frightened her terribly, but what about the events of recent? Had he not just proved himself by approaching two who'd apparently been ready to fight one another magically?
"Henry?" the blonde called out softly, tentatively. Did she really know what she was doing?
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Post by Henry Lordings Jr. on Mar 13, 2009 22:21:31 GMT -5
Henry looked around with a raised eyebrow. He almost hoped that he had imagined it; he wasn't entirely sure that he would be able to control where his fury would be directed, such was his outrage at the foolishness he had just witnessed.
What he saw, however, surely made his heart stop, not out of love nor surprise nor excitement, no, but out of fear. His eyes swept over and absorbed the blond hair, light brown eyes, and lightly freckled complexion that had haunted his thoughts for the better part of a year. A memory of the past which still lived in his present. That face...terrified...because of him.
The eyebrow that had raised sank to it's regular position on his face. The brilliantly blue eyes, those that had burned with fury and purpose but a moment ago, seemed to dim to the cold pale blue of ice brought by winter, and the hand that had cursed him with such memories, that had held the wand in that hour, was quickly buried in a pocket to disguise the shaking brought on by the memory's recurrence.
He realized all of this a moment after such had taken effect; he looked down at the hand buried in his pocket for the briefest moment, but found he was unable to prize it from it's shelter, and so, to mask the oddity, sank his other hand into the opposing pocket. He made himself clearly visible to the girl who had addressed him, and tried to make himself appear at ease, but surely failing miserably. He stood there silent for half a moment before words came to his lips, and he found himself speaking them before analyzing what, exactly, they were.
"Hello, Felicity..." he looked around for some excuse to leave, but found none; this was, possibly, the most uncomfortable he had ever been. Something within him, however, almost thought he deserved this discomfort...and more. "nice to...see you..."
He stood immobile for a moment more, then turned to go, feeling he shouldn't inflict his presence upon her any further...
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Post by Felicity Hjort on Mar 15, 2009 2:28:30 GMT -5
No, she answered her own thoughts. There was no way to really know exactly what she was doing, except calling out to the one Gryffindor she didn't know how to feel about. Every Gryffindor she'd ever met she loved, adored, respected, admired, every single one except him. Fear was a way to describe how the blonde felt, but at the same time, it wasn't perfectly so. Yes, she feared his movements, feared what he was capable of doing without thinking, but she did not fear him himself. But, was this not the very boy who had frightened her terribly, who she had avoided, had watched flee from her, avoid her, go out of his way to not be near her?
Did it matter anymore?
While she was still frightened of a wand pointed in her direction, she could breathe again when it happened. It was highly unlikely a number of these students, her peers, knew the spells and could perform them well enough to hurt her like that man had. Hadn't he taken his sweet old time with her? Playing with her trinkets before destroying them, and then her?
Standing silently, Felicity shook her head, trying to clear her mind of thoughts which were clouding everything she wanted to remember, to think of, to distract her. Doing her best to focus on his words, she wondered if she was keeping him from something. His movements seemed distant, his words far more distracted than her own mind, perhaps it wasn't the best time to say hello. She'd been avoiding the moment since the last time they were in close quarters, but it'd been so long, and though it was only autumn and June was still far away, at the same time she wanted to talk with him before then, to know where they stood.
"It's nice to see you, too, Henry," the lioness answered softly, a small smile touching the corners of her lips.
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Post by Henry Lordings Jr. on Mar 15, 2009 5:21:49 GMT -5
The first foot that he placed before the other froze where it fell at the sound of her words. It was, to his memory, the first time she had strung more than two words together in his direction since that day. More than anything, he wanted to believe this was just a casual hello, but he knew there was no way it could be. There was something in him that had dreaded the day that they would have to deal with the events that the apologies he had stammered a year ago couldn't possibly have covered. He had known coming into this year that if it was going to happen, this year would provide, possibly, the last opportunities to do so.
He so wanted to just keep walking, but he couldn't; he was frozen, by his own conscience, into place. There was only one person who had the right to dismiss him from this, and it wasn't him. He turned on the spot, once again, this time so that he was facing her in full once more.
"Is there...something I can do for you?" he said, rubbing the back of his neck with his left hand and carefully examining a nearby stone set into the wall, only meeting her gaze after he had spoken his part and let his left arm fall to his side once more.
He had considered his words quite carefully, allowed a most awkward moment of silence float between them whilst doing so, but was unable to deliver them quite the way he had intended. He heard his own words spoken in a tone that was flat, cold, distant, and businesslike; not at all what he had intended them to be. He had intended it to sound...well...sound like anything but hatred or disrespect.
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Post by Felicity Hjort on Mar 15, 2009 22:19:50 GMT -5
She could tell she was bothering him. Perhaps he hadn't forgiven her for what had happened last year, or wasn't ready to talk to her because he was angry about something she had done. Maybe handing in her Prefect's badge was a bit too much? There was a chance he could be angry with her for that, being as he was the new Prefect, and Sophia as well now, too. They were both wonderful at their job as far as she could tell, but no one was there to really teach either of them what had to be done for their house, specifically. Sure, other Prefects and the Head Boy and Girl, but they couldn't point out what needed to be done for Gryffindor alone, just in general.
But she doubted that bit bothered him.
Then his question came, and she knew he was annoyed, bothered, flustered that she'd stopped him in a prime moment. Maybe he was headed for the Headmistress, and in that case she would gladly hightail it to her original destination, not willing to stick around to see that horrid woman he loved to torture her students. Giving Felicity a Prefect badge, what had she really been thinking at that time?
"I was...well...I..." What did she want? "I wanted to ask..." her words faltered, but she had to force them through, knowing he'd only be angrier if she kept him from something important. "I was wondering, if maybe...perhaps...you weren't doing anything today? If maybe you'd want to... hang out?" Those words felt awful on her tongue, but she didn't know if spending time together would come out correctly, and opted instead to use Drew's phrase when he wanted to spend time with another person, he asked if they wanted to hang out.
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Post by Henry Lordings Jr. on Mar 16, 2009 3:54:16 GMT -5
"I was wondering, if maybe...perhaps...you weren't doing anything today? If maybe you'd want to... hang out?"
"I...hang out?" Henry said blankly, certain he had misheard her.
He was taken utterly by surprise at this. He had been certain that she was going to say...something else. He looked at her blankly for a moment, then at the ground about halfway between them, and then at her once again, playing for time so that his brain could process what she had said fully.
After a moment, he decided that he had heard her correctly. If there was a word that could have been applied to the way he felt at that moment, it would have been 'shocked'. Never in a million years had he thought that was what she was going to say. After a moment, however, he realized he still hadn't given her an answer...
"Well I...I guess that'd be okay..." He said; it wasn't as though he had to do something. He was utterly perplexed as to why Felicity would want to be anywhere near him after that day...
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Post by Felicity Hjort on Mar 16, 2009 23:29:38 GMT -5
A tiny smile spread across her face at Henry's reaction. It was as she'd thought, he would be surprised by her suggestion, especially after what had happened the last time they'd actually spoken to one another. She had curled under the Ravenclaw table at Drew's legs, nearly in tears over what he'd done, and now, suddenly out of the blue she wanted to spend time with him. The thing was, she had hoped he'd end up her friend, up until that moment, but Drew had convinced her, made her believe, it wasn't meant, it'd been a mistake.
"Yeah?" she asked, some excitement stealing into her voice, the way she moved, how her eyes lit up. "What...what would you like to do?" she asked, completely at a loss for anything he enjoyed. Drew's basket was still tied up, they could play ball, or they could sit and talk and attempt jokes, or something else...
What mattered at that moment was that he'd said yes, or something to that effect. Henry was willing to spend a little time with her, hopefully give her a chance to get her nerves up to talk to him, and maybe give them a chance to begin that friendship again. It would've been nice to have another friend around lately, her whole last year was nearly dedicated to Drew, and it was only a bit too late she realized it'd left her a bit on the friendless side recently.
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Post by Henry Lordings Jr. on Mar 17, 2009 0:51:06 GMT -5
"What...what would you like to do?"
"I suppose that's up to you..." Henry said, at a loss for what they could possibly do to hang out. "...I was just going to have a walk around the lake and get some fresh air, but if there was something else..."
He had no idea what to suggest that wouldn't piss Drew off if he heard about it. Henry wasn't the sporty type and really wasn't any good at any of that. It wasn't a Hogsmeade weekend, so going for a stroll in the town was out. He could duel pretty well but he was absolutely certain that Felicity wasn't up for a sparring match. In fact, there wasn't anything they could do other than study or have a walk now that he thought on it.
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Post by Felicity Hjort on Mar 17, 2009 21:33:51 GMT -5
A smile flitted across her face at his suggestion, thinking it was uncannily coincidental he'd think of something she'd planned on doing before seeing the scene a few moments before. It reminded her of the first time they'd met, he was cautious, but at the same time able to let his guard down without realizing he was doing it. His suggestion was safe, nothing short of what she'd expected, but at the same time he'd opened himself up to being somewhat of a soft guy. A walk by the lake-- safe, secure, and not solitary.
"Nope, nothing else," she answered, her smile set securely where it belong, making her entire face glow. "I was actually just headed there myself, until I heard screaming..." Glancing over at the slightly shorter boy, she couldn't help but wonder. As far as she knew he was for fights with magic, as long as they weren't too harmful, and as the boys looked like first years, likely they wouldn't be able to do permanent damage to one another, or those around them. Though...if it did get out of hand... "So...exactly what was going on, over there?"
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Post by Henry Lordings Jr. on Mar 18, 2009 1:02:54 GMT -5
"Hmm...?" Henry said, blankly, looking over at the pair of boys who were now sitting upon their bench with a look of extreme embarrassment while a pair of prefects, one Gryffindor and one Slytherin, argued with each other over the best punishment for the rule breaking. He had almost completely forgot about what had gone on before. "Oh, that, well; looks like two new first years joined the Lions versus Snakes war and decided to settle it with wands."
He looked back around at Felicity before continuing.
"The smaller one is a Gryffindor, Jeremiah Sans; I think he started the actual fighting, I'm not sure. No doubt there was some kind of provocation on the part of young Mr. Tenzle over there, he's the Slytherin in the equation. Foolish little duel that was likely to knock someone in the crowd unconscious, and then neither of them would ever hear the end of it from the staff. It's one thing if they knock each other out, it's quite another if they hit some passer by."
"They hate me right now, so they aren't quite seeing this one, but I helped them avoid a whole lot of trouble by stopping them." He said, looking around at the two first years once more, shrugging, and looking back around at Felicity again. "I wasn't really that angry with them about what they were doing, but Sans almost stunned me...I hate stunning spells...as long as I'm on the wrong end of 'em. I always seem to fall in some awkward way the leaves me aching somewhere whenever I get stunned..."
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Post by Felicity Hjort on Mar 22, 2009 3:12:08 GMT -5
"Oh," she answered surprised by his assessment. Felicity couldn't remember having troubles with only but one Slytherin, and that was the Head Girl. The blonde got on fine with Connor, considered him one of her best friends, and liked a number of the other Snakes. Though, she did recognize that sometimes Quidditch games got a little out of hand, or competition within a classroom now and then as well.
Carefully observing Henry while he spoke, Felicity tried her best to assess her own situation. Though she really had begun to like Henry, that one time, just that once with him pointing his wand at her bothered her for weeks. And since then, she'd avoided the boy, as well as he seemed to have done at avoiding her. Drew liked him for the most part, didn't have much to say about him really, but seemed to get on just fine. And really, Felicity felt like she was losing touch with a number of people, so, why not find a few more to try and share a few memories with? Henry was awfully nice, she'd just have to be careful around him, that was all.
A small, quiet giggle escaped when he mentioned falling awkwardly. Though she couldn't remember ever being stunned, she managed to fall on her own quite awkwardly enough. Through the mud, over fallen branches, a few blades of grass, on her bum, back, nose, whatever it took to make her laugh more.
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Post by Henry Lordings Jr. on Mar 22, 2009 7:49:40 GMT -5
Henry had taken the opportunity while he was talking to get one last glance at the pair of first years before they disappeared from view. As he had looked, however, he could have sworn he heard a giggle and looked around at Felicity in surprise. He didn't quite know if it had been her, but she was the only other person within earshot. After a moment, he wrote it off as just and anomalous sound, an all too common occurrence at Hogwarts.
"So," said Henry, looking across the courtyard toward the exit onto the grounds. "why don't we get started on that walk around the lake, eh?"
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Post by Felicity Hjort on Mar 22, 2009 11:03:05 GMT -5
The expression the lion's face carried was far too funny to ignore, and Felicity flashed a smile at the boy, hoping he didn't think she was being mean. And when he asked about their walk, the pretty blonde nodded and slipped her arm through Henry's as he guided their path toward the grounds. The lake was a nice place to chat, and it would be perfectly set with the weather being nice, the sun allowing its warm rays to beat down on the water.
"Henry?" she called to get his attention. "How was your summer? Did you spend it all at home? Or travel a bit?" Maybe it was a little late to ask about summers, as past the school term start as they were, but she hadn't a clue what he did, where he lived, who he spent it with. She was curious.
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Post by Henry Lordings Jr. on Mar 22, 2009 17:00:19 GMT -5
"Oh, it was...eventful." said Henry, watching the ground ahead as they walked. "My cousin from America, from Seattle, Peter came around and stayed for a few weeks. Mostly I just hung out with friends and family in Oxford. We went and did some stuff in London and the like, but it was fairly quiet. We had quite a few interesting little surprises, though."
They strolled leisurely around the edge of the lake as they spoke. It would take some time to fully encircle the body of water, but it wasn't as though they some schedule to keep. The day was fine for reminiscence, indeed. He remained silent for a moment, and then a smile broke out across his face; the happiest memory of the summer surfaced.
"...My mother," he said, looking over at Felicity. "she's expecting sometime around Christmas. I'm going to have a sister or brother..."
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