[name] has a point to prove (vindicovir) wrote in pastabsolution, @ 2011-08-18 16:16:00 |
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Entry tags: | ! complete, ! log, roland harper, sarah jane entwhistle |
Who: Roland Harper and Sarah Jane Entwhistle
When: Before OWLs commenced, their 5th year
Where: By the lake, Hogwarts
What: Roland becomes increasingly demanding in taking over the backstory comm An ex-couple get re-acquainted.
Taking advantage of the warm spring day, Sarah Jane was seated on one of the sun-warmed rocks by the lake with her Charms textbook in her lap. With OWLs coming up, she was determined to cram as much into her head as possible so she would pass with more than just respectable marks. However, the lovely weather was distracting and after a while, she was leaning back on her hands, tipping her face up to the sunshine, her long hair dancing gently in the breeze. “Why can’t we have more classes outside on days like this?” she murmured, eyes closed, asking her rhetorical question to the wind. Sarah Jane was sure she would pay more attention in class on fine days if she wasn’t forced to sit in a stuffy classroom.
Sadly the prospect of convincing anyone - other than Hagrid and Professor Firenze - of the value of outdoor education was extremely slim, she concluded with a little grin as she leaned back more until her back was on the rock, her Charms book clasped on her chest with her arms folded over the top. A little voice was telling her to sit up and keep studying, it wasn’t long until the exams started, but she was comfortable and warm, and she’d be studying so hard. Surely a little nap in the sun wouldn’t hurt?
“I find that generally, the teachers frown upon relocating to places where we’d rather sunbathe than do work” came Roland Harper’s grinning reply, as the blond Slytherin made his way towards Sarah Jane from the direction of the castle. He’d had a similar idea, although the textbooks he carried were for Astronomy and Divination - the only two subjects for which he was confident of getting a good mark in without extensive revision, so coming outside wouldn’t hurt as much. He was gently teasing her, of course, but nonetheless took the liberty of stretching his long frame out along the grass, lying on his stomach and propping open the Astronomy text in front of him.
Well that voice brought Sarah Jane sitting bolt upright in seconds, her book sliding down to her lap. One hand went to her heart and she pulled a face at the boy. “You practically scared me to death!” she accused, but a twinkling grin followed the accusation as she slid off the rock to sit on the grass as well, legs crossed, knees bared. While officially Roland was no longer her boyfriend, they’d parted on amicable terms, agreeing that the intense study for OWLs was no conducive to a relationship (and she wasn’t the only one with the issue, Sarah Jane had heard Ginny Weasley wasn’t able to spend as much time with her new man either), so she still had very fond feelings for the blond Slytherin.
“So is your brain about to break?” she asked cheerfully, flipping her hair over her shoulder. “I’ve crammed so much in that I feel like I’ll explode soon.”
“You know me, Sarah Jane” he said casually, “cramming would cramp my style, so to speak.” He grinned, flicking through to the chapter on the moons of Jupiter. “Besides, I already know what subjects I want to take for the NEWTs, so I’m concentrating on those.”
“Oh I know you,” she said archly, smirking and reaching out to poke his shoulder teasingly. “Know you very well indeed.”
With a sigh, she rolled onto her stomach as well, facing him, knees bent so her feet were in the air, ankles crossed. Textbook under her hands, she rested her chin on the backs. “Wise choice, unfortunately all the ones I need for the dreaded NEWTs are the hard subjects. Like Potions, which I swear to God is going to be my Waterloo,” she mused, unconsciously dropping a Muggle historical reference into her speech.
Roland grinned to himself as Sarah Jane poked him - he was glad that, despite the fact they weren’t officially together any more, that they could still have a laugh. And it was sort of indicated that there were still certain feelings there, anyway, even if they’d never been all that serious, having dated for only three months.
“Um, yeah, you’re going to have to explain that to me” Roland said, looking slightly awkward as he settled down to his reading. He had a Muggleborn grandfather who had recently passed, and a Muggle grandmother on the other side of the family who’d died years back, but that didn’t mean he really knew much about Muggle history. He wasn’t exactly prejudiced against Muggles, but he felt uncomfortable when reminded of his own lack of knowledge. It did not occur to him, but this was mirrored by the awkwardness felt by many muggleborns upon their arrival in the wizarding world... a topic he had never really broached with Sarah Jane, to see if she felt it too.
“I don’t mind Potions, really” he said quietly. “I think Transfiguration is harder, but still OK. I’m probably going to take Astronomy, Charms and Divination as well... but at least there’s not much theory to that one” he added with a thought, rubbing the side of his face in concentration.
“Heh, sorry, I forget you wouldn’t get that one,” Sarah Jane grinned sheepishly back at him. If she had been a petty person, she might have pointed out that she had floundered with the popular references in wizard culture when she first started Hogwarts. The simplest things were a mystery and even now, she was more used to referencing ‘God’ than ‘Merlin’ when expressing surprise or exasperation. “Waterloo was a famous Muggle battle almost two hundred years ago and it was when this French chap called Napoleon was defeated after he’d conquered a lot of Europe. So saying you’ve ‘met your Waterloo’ or something is your Waterloo, means it’s something that’s defeated you - or will.”
She laughed at his comment about Divination. “Isn’t that the truth! You could get an awesome pass just with a little acting,” to illustrate, she sat up again with her fingers pressed against her temples, a look of intense concentration. “I see... mist... swirling mist on a vast lake... a dark cloud rises... the banshees wail... danger is coming!” she gasped out the last and then rolled her eyes back and flopped over on a mock swoon, long hair covering her face.
“Oh... right. I see” he said, still not quite sure why one battle rather than another was influential enough to become a turn of phrase... not that he’d admit that, though.
Rolling his eyes as she teased him about Divination, Roland leaned over and flicked her nose. “Some of us are good at Divination without making stuff up, I’ll have you know!” he exclaimed, huffing ever so slightly.
She made an attempt to lick his finger in retaliation for the flick before sitting upright, smoothing her disordered hair. “I’m not saying you’re not, or I’m not,” she added with a grin. Not that Sarah Jane took Divination that seriously. She had only picked up the subject out of sheer curiousity and stuck with it because she had some middling talent, and also found Trelawney rather entertaining. Whether she was going to continue on with it after OWLs was currently up in the air. “But you have to admit, nothing makes Professor Trelawney happier than a doom and gloom prediction!”
Sarah Jane paused then and a serious expression settled on her merry face, her gaze sliding beyond Roland and fixing on some distant point. “I really don’t want anything like that coming true though,” she said softly, thinking of the reports and rumours in the Daily Prophet of Death Eater activity, and the rising tide of concern amongst her friends who knew more about the war with Voldemort than her uncle was willing to tell.
Making a face at her and making a show of wiping his finger on his shirt, he settled back to his books. He actually really enjoyed the subject, Trelawney’s insanity or otherwise. There was something quite restful he found about the process, particularly using the crystal ball, which required an element of meditation in order to concentrate. Secretly, he also enjoyed the fact that Divination was a subject taken by very few boys in their year...
He blinked slightly at Sarah Jane’s change of mood. “Anything like what?” he said, slightly more gently this time. He knew the main stuff in the reports, of course, but the optimist in him had chosen to ignore specifics rather than reading too much into it.
She chewed on her lower lip. “Oh you know... something like that fake prophecy... some of the news in the Daily Prophet is a bit worrying isn’t it?” Sarah Jane chewed a little more, reddening the lip considerably and then shook her head, her mouth quirking up into a wry smile. “Or maybe I’m just letting exam stress get to me.”
“Fake prophecy? You mean the rumours about Potter?” he asked, doing his best not to let his dislike of the Gryffindor show in his face. He believed that there was probably a prophecy concerning Potter and the Dark Lord - past history indicated that - but they all knew the likelihood of the Prophet sensationalising a story. The writers were probably salivating at the very thought.
“It’s hard to know what’s rumour and what’s truth, right?” Sarah Jane said with a small shrug. She looked up at the sky. “Anyway it’s too nice a day to think about that sort of thing...” perhaps she was avoiding reality, but surely issues to do with dark wizards were more for the authorities to deal with, not kids like her and Roland. She glanced back at him. “Sorry, I shouldn’t have brought it up.”
“It’s all right. Doesn’t really bother me” he replied, meaning the fact that she brought it up, not the situation at large. Flicking through the textbook again, really not able to focus on a single one of the planets (he was by now half convinced that each and every one of Jupiter’s moons had been created to spite him), he let out a groan of annoyance and hit his blond head onto a diagram of Saturn’s rings. “I bloody hate revising” he said, simply.
“Aww, poor baby,” Sarah Jane was actually grateful to move away from the uncomfortable subject of dark wizards and back to OWL study. She leaned over and placed her hands on his shoulders, thumbs moving to massage the base of his neck. Sarah Jane was good at giving massages, she frequently doled them out to her friends and family. “Does anyone actually enjoy it?” she wondered as she worked on the knots in his neck and shoulders, trying to ignore the swell of attraction she felt for the boy. She missed Roland, she realised, especially having the ‘right’ to kiss and hug him. Firmly Sarah Jane pushed aside her emotions and continued speaking. “Well, apart from some Ravenclaws and that Hermione Granger girl, but even Kevin hates it and he’s a lot smarter than me!”
Unable to help himself, Roland purred pleasurably as Sarah Jane’s nimble fingers rubbed away the knots of tension in his neck. He’d always liked her hands. And when they were on him, he liked them even more.
...well, he was a teenage boy, after all. That was to be expected.
“Fuck knows” he replied, letting out the curses inadvertently as his body relaxed. “And that Granger girl... well, she’s one of a kind, that’s for sure” he said, doing his best to sound polite even if he didn’t like her.
“Mmm, that’s fantastic” he muttered, his eyes closing as her fingertips fluttered higher. If she’d been lying next to him, rather than sitting above him as she currently was, he would have found it difficult not to lean over and touch her back.
Her mouth twisted in an amused smirk as Roland relaxed. “Of course it is, I’ve got the magic hands,” she pressed deep against the knots she could feet even through his clothes. “And you seem in dire need of my help, Mr Harper,” she put on a mock-stern tone. “What have you been dong to cause all these knots, hmmm?” Sarah Jane’s tone turned teasing as she leaned over, some of her long, loose hair falling forward, her fingers kneading and soothing.
It was only after a couple of minutes that she realised she’d been getting closer and closer, her lower torso now touching his and if she leaned a little more, she would be giving him a back hug. Sarah Jane blinked and jerked back slightly, quickly ending the massage with a little light slap on his shoulder blades before sitting back, knees to her chest, arms around them. “There, that’s the best I can do, but I recommend not hunch over those books for long stretches of time,” she said briskly, trying to ignore the flush in her cheeks.
“Aaaah, you know what O.W.L. year’s like” he replied, his face smushed against the page of the Astronomy text as he hands crept all over his body. He tried to breathe calmly, because the last thing he wanted was to enjoy this too much.
As she sat up, his eyes opened and he stayed still, looking across at the parts of the lake that he could see from his odd position. Where had that come from? Whilst they’d still been friends after breaking up, he couldn’t recall them ever being as physically close as this...
Sarah Jane didn’t really know what had prompted her actions, except for just missing him. Maybe once OWLs were over, they could start over. Would he want to? She opened her mouth to ask and then shut it again, momentarily unsure of herself. “What are you doing over hols?” she asked finally, settling on that as a way to ease into the topic.
“Oh, I don’t really know, yet” he said, closing his eyes and now neglecting the revision entirely, resting his head on arms folded across the pages. “I’ll probably get nagged into doing something worthy by Dad if I can’t escape, though. Particularly if I don’t get straight Os or something.”
“Ugh, that’s unfair!” she shook her head, once again glad she’d not been born into such a traditional family. Of course her parents wanted her to do well, but they didn’t punish her for not getting the highest marks. “He should at least appreciate that you’re trying your best.”
She sucked in a deep breath and then exhaled. “Well... if you can get out of the house then you’re welcome to come to the beach with me,” Sarah Jane took the plunge then, reaching out her foot to poke him lightly in the thigh with her toe. “We’ll be taking a few trips in August and would you really want to pass up the chance to see me in a bikini?” she added, her tone lightly teasing.
Roland blushed slightly, his face turned away from Sarah Jane. Not gonna lie, that’s a good mental image he thought to himself, knowing that any chance he could get to be close to her was not one to be missed.
“No comment” he said dryly, a hint of amusement creeping into his voice.
She heard the amusement, but couldn’t see the blush so she wasn’t entirely sure whether he was laughing at her or not. Sarah Jane’s lips pursed slightly as she shifted into a kneeling position, gathering up her books. She wasn’t embarrassed by her invitation, but it was only human to feel an itty bit miffed by his dry reaction. Prompted by a little devil inside, she leaned over him.
“Well then, Mr No Comment, you’ll just have to wait and see if I owl you an invite or not,” her tone was casual and gave no hint of what was in her mind. Quickly, before she lost the nerve, she brushed away the hair covering the back of his neck and kissed the spot in one smooth movement, just as she’d wanted to do a little while earlier. Then she was on her feet and running away before he could stop her, laughing and spinning around to wave. “Catch you later!”
At the kiss, Roland jumped. He definitely hadn't been expecting that. Raising his head as she departed, he lifted his hand a little in acknowledgement, all the while wondering...