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 Posted: Mon Dec 10, 2012 7:34 am
Dec 9, 2012 1:58 PM
Jeri was sitting reading one of his favorite astrology books by the fire in the Hufflepuff common room, settled deep into a worn armchair and wrapped in a thick woolen blanket. He knew he should have been writing his essay for Charms class, but he really didn't feel like working on it just yet. It was only just evening and the night was young. He had time.
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Posted: Mon Dec 10, 2012 7:35 am
Dec 9, 2012 2:06 PM
Charm kitteridge
Anya came tearing through the common room tears streaking her face. She tripped several times over the carpet and she wasn't slowing down till she hit the floor after tripping over his blanket. "Sorry. So sorry." Her voice was slightly muffled as she hadn't picked herself up yet. She took a deep breath and sat up slowly making sure no damage had been done. "Again sorry." She wiped the tears form her face and casting a look at the main door she stood up, a necklace had fallen out of her pocket when she fell and she failed to notice it right away.
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Posted: Mon Dec 10, 2012 7:37 am
Dec 9, 2012 2:13 PM
The pale boy stiffened and sat upright in his chair as someone entered the room with a great commotion. He shifted and finally got up from his warm place by the fire to get a glimpse of the source. It turned out to be a girl he'd seen around - Anya was what she was called if memory served, though he wasn't sure about her whole name. The poor girl had tripped over his blanket and he suddenly felt stupid for having allowed it to trail onto the floor. It had just been a very large common room blanket and he hadn't been able to fit it all into the limited confines of the armchair. Hurrying to help Anya, Jericho reached out a hand to help her up but hesitated. She didn't seem all that eager to leave the floor. The boy hadn't been the older sibling of two younger kids and looked after them for the majority of his childhood without knowing when someone was upset. "Don't be," he told her, watching as she stood. "What's wrong?"
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Posted: Mon Dec 10, 2012 7:44 am
Dec 9, 2012 2:21 PM
Charm kitteridge
She looked up at the kind boy and just shook her head. She felt so lost, her shyness kicked in and she saw the necklace. With a squeak she bent down and stuffed it in her pocket. "I. I rather not talk about it." It was clear that she was heart broken and was quite unsure how she was to react or say or even do at this moment. "Sorry to have bothered you. I'll try to be more careful." She made as to move but it seemed like the flight instinct had left her and now she was going numb. She turned to look at the boy and a small smile tried to make it to her face. "But thank you for caring."
Dec 9, 2012 2:26 PM
"Oh. Okay," he said, feeling that he understood that, at least. He wasn't a Hufflepuff of many words, either. Still, he wished there was something he could do to make her feel better and that was always easiest one one knew the source of a person's troubles. But then she was apologizing again. "No, no!" he assured her, putting up his hands. "No trouble." Realizing she seemed to be freezing up, he moved to try to help her. Her smile made him pause. "Don't smile when you don't feel like it," he told her seriously, taking the blanket to wrap around her shoulders.
Dec 9, 2012 2:28 PM
He felt she must have been deeply hurting inside and the fact that she was smiling just for his sake made him all the more sorry. Jeri knew how painful it was to try to smile when you were upset. More than that, it felt almost decietful, even if she was doing it to keep others from worrying. They were Hufflepuffs, weren't they? Supposed to be patient and honest. He wanted her to know she could act however she felt around him - no need to put on airs. The only thing was he wasn't really sure how to articulate such a concept in so many words.
Dec 9, 2012 2:34 PM
Charm kitteridge
She took the help and when he told her not to smile she let it drop. She wasn't sure how to act so she just wrapped the blanket around her shoulders and seemed to shrink in them. She hated to inconvenience other with her issues knowing that many had their own issues to deal with, and she didn't want to be one of them. "Thank you. I'll be fine, my boyfriend just broke up with me. And it had nothing to do with him not liking me anymore, so I can't tell if I'm more mad or sad." She didn't want to burden him too much but that shouldn't have been too much information had it? She raised her hand to her mouth and started to chew on her fingernails. "But like I said either way I'll be fine." She was still sniffling but the shock of falling and having someone nearby seemed to have repressed the tears for now.
Dec 9, 2012 2:57 PM
Jeri reddened a little at the mention of 'boyfriend'. That wasn't something he knew anything about at all. His big-brother instincts seemed rather useless all of a sudden, but he picked up his book from the chair in case she wanted to sit. "Changed his mind...?" he asked, not sure why any boyfriend of this girl would suddenly decide to break up. She certainly didn't seem too bossy or pushy like most guys seemed to complain, and judging by the amount of times she apologized, she certainly didn't have a lack of consideration for others. In fact, if anything, Jericho thought she might have had a little too much. "Not your fault," he assured her. If the guy couldn't accept her as she was, then he didn't deserve her at all. He wondered vaguely who it was and if he new the guy, but he decided it wasn' his business. He would have been too nosy to ask into the matter. Noticing the girl chewing her nails, he shook his head a little and gently reached over to lift her hand from her mouth, holding it in his. It was something he did when his little sister bit her own nails. "Want to sit?" He asked, nodding toward the chair he'd cleared. "...Anya, right?"
Dec 9, 2012 3:03 PM
Charm kitteridge
When he asked his first question she shook her head but didn't elaborate. She really shouldn't be out here talking about this, especially with a boy, what if Marc came in? What if he thought her loose to be out with another boy already? He mind traveled down these lines until he took her hand. She looked at him and their hands but nodded before sitting down in the chair. Thanks to the blanket around her she tucked her feet up til her knees reached her chin not realizing she was still holding his hand. "No, seems his father did something and so to rebel he said we had to break up." She sighed and just stared at her knees.
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Posted: Tue Dec 11, 2012 8:01 am
Jeri was pretty oblivious to the train of thoughts that must have been going on in Anya's mind as she looked at him and then their hands. He was glad she accepted the chair and the blanket, however, and though he was a bit surprised she didn't let go of his hand, he dared not say anything of it. Hopefully his pale face wasn't as red with embarrassment as it tended to get. Maybe she would attribute it to the heat and/or light of the fireplace. "To rebel?" Well, that was one of the most stupid things he'd ever heard. Sounded childish, like something one of his two younger siblings would do. "Sounds spiteful." Did Anya really want to waste tears on a guy like that? Someone who put the defiance of his elders - his parents - before a girl who actually cared about him? The whole situation seemed strange enough, to have to break up with someone to defy one's parents (since it seemed to Jeri that usually young couples were running away together to do so) but he did not question it. Once again he had to remind himself it was really none of his business.
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Posted: Tue Dec 11, 2012 3:35 pm
33 mins ago
Charm kitteridge
Anya sighed and sniffled softly. "Well he kind of has reason. He was betrothed to a girl and neither were happy with the arrangement. Then at the beginning of the year he got news that it was dropped. Now it seems his father and mine have betrothed us as well." She pulls out the dolphin necklace from her pocket and stares at it. Realizing she's still got his hand she lets go and blushes deeply. "So by dumping me he sends a message to his father that he wants to make the choice. Though I think he's still letting his dad control him." Tears start falling again but she wipes them off with the back of the hand holding the necklace. "My father's not going to be very happy either, and will probably blame me for ruining things." Her voice had gone kind of flat as her defense mechanism started kicking in. "Who needs him anyway, right? I'm only 11 there's a better guy out there, right?! Right."
19 mins ago
Jericho raised a brow. That was peculiar. He'd heard of arranged marriages before, but two? And why drop it? Why even have a second one if the first was a failure? What purpose did this arranged marriage thing even serve? Was it pureblood stuff? Aristocrats wanting to keep their line clean? Didn't seem like it, but who knew? Some wizarding families were really old-fashioned. His pale eyes fell to the dolphin necklace as Anya gazed at it. He ended up blushing harder as she let go of his hand. Just when he had started to forget about it, too. What a stupid thing to do, hold a girl's hand after her boyfriend and her broke up. He hoped Anya didn't think anything of it; he certainly didn't have the tact to consider mannerisms like that. "Why?" was all Jeri could ask. Why would his dad arrange the marriage? Why would he break up the first? Why would 'breaking them up' prevent the marriage from continuing? Could arrange betrothals really end like that? Jeri supposed one couldn't be forced to marry if they really didn't want to, but still... And her fathr blaming her for things? That was just wrong! The ivory-haired boy straightened as Anya consoled herself with self-pep-talk. "That's not right," he said slowly. "Blaming you." He knew he shouldn't intervene, but if a third party was what was needed to convince her father, he would do it. That wasn't fair to blame her for something that was clearly not her fault, especially when Anya was having a tough enough time getting her feelings hurt in the first place. It seemed neither her boyfriend nor her father were considering the girl's feelings.
11 mins ago
Charm kitteridge
Anya looked up at his why and shrugged. "Muggle old fashion practices. His father's a duke and wants to continue the tradition. And I'm guessing my father told the duke that Marc and I had become friends and thus convinced him to switch one girl with another. I hate greed." She caught his blush and tilted her head to the side slightly. She blushed a lot but she didn't think they'd said or done anything to warrant it. "But that's what my father does. Something goes wrong, I did it. I wasn't a good enough girlfriend, I gained weight, i should exercise more,so on and so forth." She clasped the necklace back around her neck and dropped it under her shirt. She'd gotten used to it being there and until the betrothal was off she'd continue to wear it as a reminder of not to get too interested in someone, you never know when they'll shatter you.
5 mins ago
The boy sighed and rolled his eyes. The whole matter certainly sounded like a headache to him. "Tradition...causes greed?" he asked, growing a little confused at her last remark. Though he liked to think he knew enough about modern muggles, he wasn't too familiar with dukes and the like. What did traditions have to do with greed? As for her father...what?! Blaming her was bad enough, but blaming her -weight-? What a perfectly horrid thing to do! As resentful as Jeri felt toward his own, useless father, the Hufflepuff had never been treated badly by him. This was just plain mental abuse or something.
"Don't tell," he advised. If Anya didn't say anything about the bethrothal being off, then if her father heard of it, then he would hear about it from someone else. And if that were the case, Anya could play dumb and pretend she had never known. No matter what, at least her father would have to know it wasn't her fault and he could blame the boy who had called it off. It could then be that boy's problem; the one who was selfish enough not to consider Anya's side of the situation.
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Posted: Tue Dec 11, 2012 4:31 pm
49 mins ago
Charm kitteridge
Anya shook her head and untucked her legs to look at Jeri. "The greed creates these traditions. The betrothal was a financial agreement between the Fathers. Basically, my father sold me to the Adairs. So why Marc's so upset is beyond me. And it wasn't like he didn't like me or get along with me." She'd reached the mad stage of her emotions and got up to pace. "And yea I'm not fond of the fact that our father's did that, but I was happy and so was Marc. The adults just used the situation. I bet my dad set this up when I first told him that Marc and I were friends. I bet that's why the other betrothal was shredded, they'd drew up this new one. And if they'd kept their mouths shut nothing would have changed!" She would not cry again instead she walked over to Jeri and hugged him tightly. "Thank you. I guess I needed to talk it out more than I thought. And I don't even know you're name. I'm Charmaine, Je'Anya Cummings. Anya for short please." She refused to be upset, He wasn't worth it. "If I don't tell Dad right away, he'll yell at me for not telling him when Marc broke up with me."
36 mins ago
Sold?! If Marc had any reason to be upset - or Anya, for that matter - wouldn't it be about the way she was being treated like a bargaining chip? This was preposterous. "Mouths shut...from Marc?" Jeri asked, trying to keep up. It seemed like a lot of things could have been solved if things had not been said, such as Anya telling her father that she and Marc were friends. This was something that Jericho found especially odd, though, because he'd always figured that communication was good. Not necessarily verbal communication, but this girl trusted her father and he turned around to use that info against her...? Perhaps Marc did have a reason to be angry, but Jeri felt it was for the wrong reasons. If he really cared about Anya, they could have just pretended to break off the betrothal or - or something! Whoa -
Before Jericho knew what had happened, Anya had hugged him. He got more red than ever and rubbed the back of his neck, patting her back awkwardly with his free hand. He was glad he could help by listening, at least, even if that didn't seem like much. It was the best he could do without interfering, it felt like. So he was right; her name -was- Anya. Well, partly, anyway. "Jericho Neil Gibbon," he told her in return. One full name for another - it seemed the proper thing to do. "Jeri." He supposed Anya could have pretended that she hadn't known Marc was breaking up with her, but that was dishonest, and Hufflepuffs were known for their honesty. Everything just seemed so -wrong-. He wished he could help, but this really wasn't any of his business and Anya hadn't asked for his help. Besides, he felt that if he tried to interefere with matters he didn't fully understand, then maybe he might even make things worse for Anya. "...Anything I can do?" he asked her softly, feeling altogether helpless and useless.
27 mins ago
Charm kitteridge
She smiled brightly feeling much more like herself. She shook her head, he'd done more than she could put in words. "You've been a great friend Jeri. Thank you." She was still pacing but it was more of a fidget she stopped for a moment and turned to him. "Would you like to go to dinner with me tonight? Seems I'm free and I hate going down there by myself." She beamed at him happily, if Marc didn't want to be with her there was no reason she couldn't be seen with someone else, right?
16 mins ago
He smiled bashfully at the compliment about him being a good friend and had hardly the time to recover from that bit of flattery when Anya bowled him over with yet another shocking bit of conversation. Dinner? That sounded...strangely more formal and meaningful than it ought to have been. After all, didn't the whole school eat dinner together? It was just a friendly invitiation; no need to get all flustered. His face wouldn't stop heating up, though, and he tugged at his shirt collar. Suddenly he felt it was a bit too warm to stay near the fireplace. Maybe that Marc could realize what he was missing out on. "Sure," he agreed, honored she would ask.
12 mins ago
Charm kitteridge
When Anya turned around and saw him blushing she started blushing. "I mean, that is, if you're not busy already. And I figured we're in the same house and sit at the same table anyways.." Ah hell she was rambling again. Though right as she got quiet he said sure and her face lit up like a Christmas tree. "Really?! Awesome!" She mentally chided herself and calmed down. "Thanks. I still don't know many people around here." She gave a little chuckle and left it at that.
17 mins ago
Jericho shook his ivory-haired head vigrously. No, no, he wasn't busy. In fact he was glad she reminded him about dinner or he probably would have been reading his astrology book straight through it. And - duh, of course they sat at the same table! How could he have forgotten? They just didn't normally sit together was all. If Anya felt she wasn rambling, Jeri felt stupid for being speechless. Maybe she thought him to be dim-witted, but he just didn't know what to say most of the time; certainly not now. His one-word answer seemed to be enough, though, and he wished he could have taken a picture of her face. It was so sweet when she smiled...so much less distressing than when she was in tears. It made him happy to know that, somehow, he had helped her make the change from one emotion to the other. "Me either," he assured her, putting his book away. "Just...from flight class."
11 mins ago
Charm kitteridge
She smiled glad that he was going to be joining her for dinner though at the mention of flight class her face flushed a deep red. "I didn't make too many friends in that one." She gave an embarrassed chuckle and twisted her hands together behind her back. Sometimes she liked to pretend that never happened, at all. Nor had she been on a broom since. "Do you enjoy flying?" Ah ha! A topic of conversation they could have. Classes, classes were a good thing to talk about, right? She really was a nervous wreck when it came to meeting new people and she always hated the awkwardness that came with asking weird and odd questions, as she was known to do. Her eyes drifted to the book trying to catch the title but missed it. But knowing he was a reader too was a good thing, maybe they liked the same kinds of books, she'd have to ask him later. Yay another topic they could discuss.
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Posted: Wed Dec 12, 2012 1:09 pm
Izaya Orihara (18:10:40): "I disagree," he told her, remembering the boy who saved her once her broom went zooming off. He had planned to as well and it seemed the Ravenclaw, Lysander, had been just as ready to provide assistance, but the situation had already been gotten under control by that point. As for whether he enjoyed flying...well, it had been fun, but since they had been limited in the time they had on the broom and the bounderies to which they could fly, there wasn't as much freedom as he thought there'd be. At least not for a few years. He shrugged. Before he could elaborate, however, he stomach growled, speaking for him. He placed a hand on it, eyes wide, glancing to the left and right corners of his vision to be sure no one else had heard it. "Whoops."
Charm kitteridge (18:17:25):
Anya blushed when he disagreed but she'd remembered the two boys who'd tried to help her but in her mind got stuck on how she got teased alter on about it. She was about to inquire about the shrug when the noise caught her ears. "Mine does that all the time. Maybe we can talk more after dinner." She gave him a bright smile and looped her arm through his and rested her hand on his wrist, it seemed like a natural reaction and she didn't think anything of it as they walked towards the door. "So what do you think it on the menu today? I'm hoping for a nice hot bowl of stew and warm rolls." She loved to smile and have a good time so for now she'd shoved her depression under the rug and proceeded on with that goal. "the other day I saw a Ravenclaw boy shove a whole dinner roll in his mouth. I didn't know that was something to show people. It's not very polite after all, but it was funny."
Izaya Orihara (19:14:02): Pleasantly surprised by the formal action, Jericho played along to the best of his knowledge when Anya sliped her arm through his. He swallowed hard, but his mind wasn't on food as he accompanied his housemate down to lunch. All he could do was nod and agree vaguely until he heard her mention a boy shoving a whole dinner roll in his mouth, at which he did a double-take. He snorted in amusement at the thought, shaking his head. Honestly, the things people did these days...
Charm kitteridge (19:19:21):
At his snort she giggled and it ended in a squeak. She used her other hand to cover her mouth but it was clear she was blushing deeply. She liked and hated that her giggle would do that at times but at the moment it was just a tad embarrassing. She looked away and just enjoyed the walk. As they approached the hall she started t o get nervous. He was going to be there...maybe she should have just skipped dinner... She pressed her side against Jeri's. "So just how awkward do you think this is going to be?" She looked up at him shyly and nervous, so very nervous.
Izaya Orihara (19:25:04): Jericho grinned at Anya's giggle and chuckled slightly at the polite hand that went to her mouth. She really was brought up to be a lady, wasn't she? It'd be nice to her her giggle some more; he wasn't sure why she seemed to be ashamed of it. Feeling her press closer to him, he looked at her when she asked him her question. He winked. If she acted like nothing was wrong, nothing would be. Maybe her heart might not mend as quickly, but as long as she didn't dwell on the problem, it didn't need to affect her.
Charm kitteridge (19:30:07):
She blushed at his wink and giggled again. So she had nothing to worry about, sure. Easier said than done. As soon as the door opened and she saw Marc her heart fell again. She kept her chin up and turned to Jeri. If she didn't focus on Marc, things should be alright. "Well now this is a little weird. So what's your favorite food? And let's seat on the far end if you don't mind." There she could listen to him talk, find out more about him and in the end sit as far from Marc as possible. "Also what were you reading when I rudely bumped into you?"
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