InsaneJournal

Characters: Inigo Imago and Gladys Gudgeon
Setting: October 23, Saturday
Content: PG
Summary: Gladys decides to write a letter to Gilderoy inviting him to the ball but then Inigo interrupts and makes her think otherwise.

Gladys chewed on her sugar quill, as she pondered over a piece of parchment. Never had she found it so terribly challenging to write letters. But for this particular letter, she found herself completely at a blank - well, actually, it was more like she had too much to say and she didn’t know exactly how to say it. In all honesty, she wanted to pack her parchment and her box of sugar quills away and merely just grab Magical Adventures of Prince Merlin off the library shelf and just escape into the world of dragons and quests. But no, she suppressed the urge of running away from something she shouldn’t even have a problem with.

But apparently writing a friendly letter to Gilderoy Lockhart asking him if he needed a date to the ball was something she was clearly having a problem with.

And she shouldn’t even since Gilderoy was so friendly. She was almost sure that he wouldn’t mind the letter. After all, he himself offered to personally teach her to get back on a broom again. Surely, it would just be a nice gesture to her to invite him to the ball? It was the least she could do. She was just being nice and nothing more right?

With a sigh, Gladys began her letter, biting her lip, as she began writing Dearest Gilderoy, The Halloween Ball is coming up and....


As far as anyone could tell, Inigo was in her normal, pissed off mood but contrary to their beliefs, Inigo was feeling rather cheerful. She had managed to fire up a seventh year Hufflepuff, calling him ‘daft’ which not only resulted in zero consequences for her but she had managed to point out Ogden’s foul language to Felicity who took five points from Hufflepuff. Inigo was quite pleased with her success and was starting to fully understand how easy it was for her to manipulate a situation. Inigo was obviously trying to fire Ogden up and she managed to play the victim successfully. It was a skill Inigo was starting to admire. It was at least one thing she liked about herself even if it wasn’t a particularly positive trait.

Inigo also managed to track down the sod who nicked her sugar quills. After threatening the third year with a wide variety of hexes he gladly handed them back over and even gave her some of his chocolate frogs. The fear that filled his eyes was priceless and it had immediately turned Inigo’s frown upside down. Her dramatic change in mood even caused her to apologize for bumping into someone. The girl’s eyes widened as she quickly accepted Inigo’s apology and ran off. Again, the fear in the younger student’s eyes only made Inigo’s usual temper fade. If anyone could gain enough courage to ask Inigo how she was doing, Inigo would reply with something about walking on sunshine.

The only thing that could bring Inigo’s mood down was the fact she had to take a trip to the library. Her Divination homework wasn’t going to do itself and when Inigo had tried to make a start on it in the Slytherin common room, Narcissa just proved to be way too distracting. If it wasn’t Divination Inigo would have subdued to her friend’s wishes and forgotten all about her homework. If it wasn’t for the fact that Inigo was naturally talented at Divination she would have gladly taken the detention as a consequence but since she was one of the professor’s favorites, she didn’t want to disappoint. That and the fact that her title as ‘teacher’s pet’ was something she wasn’t going to give up anytime. Inigo entered the quiet library to find very few students actually studying, her eyes lit up and a mischievous grin spread across her face as her eyes lingered on the Hufflepuff. Inigo quickly glanced back and forth between Gladys and an empty table before deciding this opportunity was too good to pass up. Inigo pushed her thoughts concerning her homework to the back of her mind as she approached Gladys quietly.

When Inigo reached Gladys however, she waited to make her presence known as she read over the blonde’s shoulder. Too easy Inigo thought as she read what Gladys had written neatly on the parchment that sat in front of her. Inigo’s smirk grew as a thousand thoughts rushed through her mind. Inigo could have some fun with this. Gladys had been on her list for a while but Gladys only brought more attention to herself writing stupid and unwanted things in Inigo’s journal entry. After Inigo thought she had read enough she grabbed three of Gladys' sugar quills as she sat down. She stuffed two in her pocket and unwrapped the other. “I hope you don’t mind. I mean, you seemed so adamant on me taking some of your quills so...” Inigo said with a fake, friendly smile on her face though the coldness in her voice suggested differently. “What are you up to, Gladys? Writing to your parents?” She questioned as she began to chew on the sugar quill.

---

The words weren’t exactly coming out as easily as she had wanted. She had found herself stopping at Halloween Ball, another frown wrinkling her expression. Would it be really proper for her to ask him and send him a letter? I mean, as far as she heard from the rumours going on around, Gilderoy hasn’t asked anyone yet. Maybe perhaps, he was waiting for someone to ask? But then he was a gentleman, shouldn’t he be doing the asking.

She sighed, deep in thought, as she chewed down and finish the quill she was holding. Grabbing for another one, Gladys let out a small gasp, as Inigo Imago appeared in the seat in front of her, Inigo’s hands much faster than hers, as the girl took some of her quills, before Gladys could even say anything.

“Er, sure. Of course. Help yourself.” Gladys’ said, her expression cautious, however, as she looked at Inigo. She knew the girl wasn’t particularly friendly - and in fact, she felt like Inigo had tendencies to pick on others. Gladys’ didn’t blame her for that. She felt like the girl was probably misunderstood. After all, she was now taking up the offer of sugar quills Gladys gave her when she was complaining about someone stealing her own quills.

Gladys’ couldn’t help but gulp and cover her parchment as soon as Inigo referred to them though. “Er, not particularly. Just writing a letter to a friend is all,” she answered, adding a shrug to her statement, her face, however, paling a bit. Gladys’ wasn’t a liar - and besides, Gilderoy was just a friend, and she shouldn’t be ashamed of saying that she was writing a letter to a friend. But then why did she feel like running far away from Inigo and evading every question she had for her?

Inigo felt a wave of accomplishment as Gladys spoke to her. It was obvious to Inigo the girl was being cautious which she had the right to. Inigo was someone anyone had to be cautious around. She has a temper that can be switched on by someone simply saying the wrong thing and when Inigo is set off it isn’t unusual for her tantrums to be described as ‘hurricane Inigo’. Whatever Gladys was feeling, however, Inigo took it as fear even if it wasn’t. Inigo loved to dilute herself with the idea that everybody was frightened of her. Gladys’ change in complexion only fuelled Inigo’s beliefs.

Inigo rolled her eyes as she dropped her gaze down to the table. Why did this girl have to be so nice? It almost made Inigo feel sorry for her. Inigo quickly recovered from the thought and shook her head almost as if she was shaking the thought out. She smiled sarcastically at Gladys, well, what one would call a sarcastic smile if one existed. She continued to chew on the sugar quill, almost in frustration at the girl’s generosity, before she responded. “You really ought to toughen up. Honestly, your kindness is making me queasy. It’s pathetic.” She replied, irritated. Deep down inside Inigo, she was kind of jealous of Gladys. From what she could tell, the blonde came from a good family causing her to be a good person. But if anyone knew how dark the world could be it was Inigo and she saw this as doing a favor for the Hufflepuff. If no one else was going to toughen her up, she’d have to.

Inigo raised her eyebrow as Gladys referred to Gilderoy Lockhart as a ‘friend’. It was obvious that Gladys was wanting more than that since she was specifically inquiring about a date to the ball. Inigo narrowed her eyes suspiciously almost as if she was telling Gladys she knew better. “Do I know this friend?” Inigo snapped as she chewed on her sugar quill. She wasn’t stupid, it was obvious that Gladys was hiding something. However, in order for Inigo to have fun with this particular information she needed to pretend she didn’t know better. She paused, looking at the girl that sat directly opposite her and quickly spoke before Gladys could reply to her statement. “Never mind. I know a secret letter when I see one.” She noted slowly, making sure she left ‘love letter’ out, titling her head to the side.

“It’s not a...” Gladys began before trailing off, looking much paler than ever. The way Inigo was looking at her and the way the girl was asking her questions made a feeling of uneasiness grow in her. In all honesty, Gladys wouldn’t have minded if the girl sat with her and got some of her sugar quills, but she acted as though they were friends. And while Gladys would normally act friendly to anyone that showed it, she wasn’t completely oblivious to Inigo’s track record of friendships and doings.

She found herself taking a breath as she covered up her parchment, her heart beating unusually fast as she tried not to meet Inigo’s eye. “There’s nothing wrong with being kind, Inigo,” she offered in response to the girl’s comment prior to her question, Gladys’ tone kind and much meeker than Inigo’s. She tried to force a smile on her face, but it only came out as a weak twitch of the mouth. “And I think people often prefer to have privacy when they write letters,” she began, her cheeks flushing, as she still avoided the girl’s eye. “But I don’t mind. I mean, curiosity is always a good trait to have, right?” she quickly added, not particularly wanting to get on Inigo’s bad side.

Inigo found herself rolling her eyes again. Gladys’ outlook on life was extremely naive and infuriating. She wasn’t sure why it annoyed her the way it did but it was starting to push her buttons. Just when she thought she was in a good mood. Inigo narrowed her eyes at the girl who was avoiding her gaze. “There is something wrong with being kind. It’s stupid and pathetic. You’re only going to get hurt.” Inigo replied, stopping herself from continuing as if she actually cared about this girl’s well being. If anyone knew about the world’s darkness it was Inigo. She had experienced it first hand from her family but thanks to her ability to ‘see’ certain things, she also knew too well that everybody had a hidden darkness and no matter how hard they tried to hide it from everyone else, Inigo knew it was there. And people like this? Well, they just were so stupid to think otherwise, they were the people who were bound to get hurt. The idea that people would purposely be nice despite what the world was sickened her.

Inigo’s mind started spinning as she thought of all the possibilities. This particular information could come in handy now as a form of embarrassing Gladys or it could be used for something much more vicious and fun. And as much as people would like to assume, Inigo was actually smart, after all, you have to have some brains to create such plans that Inigo normally does. Considering all her options Inigo decided against mentioning the letter again simply because she didn’t want Gladys to believe she was thinking about it. And for all her face revealed, Inigo could have been thinking about fluffy bunnies and nuclear fissions. It was something that came naturally to her, she could be portraying a totally different emotion than she was actually feeling. If she wanted to she would be able to keep straight face while she thought about the many places one could bury a body. Maybe that’s why Inigo was rather dangerous, she had such control over her composure that no one knew what she was thinking.

Inigo stood up abruptly, almost as if she was wanting to get away from someone who had been diagnosed with the black death and grabbed another sugar quill for good measure. “I don’t think it’s safe for me to hang around, I mean the way you speak about kindness it’s easy for one to assume it’s catching.” Inigo said, emphasising ‘catching’ to suggest that kindness was a disease. Inigo quickly looked down at the parchment as an idea popped into her head. It was so simple, yet, it would cause Gladys some heartbreak and Inigo some self satisfaction. Though, for this plan to work she needed to talk Gladys out of writing a stupid love letter to Gilderoy. She would also have to go to the extreme lengths of ensuring Gilderoy and Gladys didn’t speak before the ball, clearly, Inigo had her work cut out for her. Firstly though, she had to stop Gladys from sending that letter. She bent down to Gladys’ eye level which probably intimidated Gladys if she wasn’t already feeling that way. "By the way, asking someone to the ball over a letter is pathetic." She said slowly, almost dragging it out so it would ring in Gladys’ ears a little longer than what a normal sentence would. She started to walk away quickly, her books still in hand, suddenly forgetting her reasoning behind coming to the library in the first place. Her Divination homework could wait, right now the girl had a scheme to cook up.

Gladys was trying hard to keep a smile - to keep a neutral face even. She couldn’t understand why Inigo didn’t accept kindness. She had grown up knowing to appreciate all the traits of someone - even someone as... persistent as Inigo herself. But as the girl looked her in the eye and said the very words she hoped she wouldn’t say, Gladys knew she can only take so much before the urge to hold back tears grew strongly in her. She wasn’t going to cry. Goodness she wasn’t going to allow that - she wasn’t going to even allow her eyes to glisten. Inigo had her views and she was to respect that.

However, as Inigo took leave, Gladys found herself paling, gulping, and taking a deep breath, as she stared regretfully at the barely full parchment in front of her. It wasn’t like she was asking. She was just offering. But then this was Gilderoy Lockhart, after all. Why would he even think of going with her when there were so many girls he could go with?

With another breath, Gladys frowned and tore the parchment to pieces. What was she even thinking inviting Gilderoy to the ball?