WHO: Ally Urquhart and Daphne Greengrass WHAT: Just chillin’ and making fun of Hufflepuffs WHEN: September 16, 1995 WHERE: Hogwarts Grounds STATUS/RATING: Completed Log/G
A crisp, but sunny, fall day easily led to one wanting to get out of doors, and Daphne was no exception this Sunday afternoon. Looking to escape the giggling of firsties and all the dramatic snarking going on between Slytherin and Hufflepuff the past few days, Daphne had wound her silver and green scarf around her neck and headed out of the castle with little thought to where she was going. With Pansy wrapped up with Draco, and Tracey who knows where, a walk seemed like a perfectly acceptable alternative to passing the time lying on her belly, journal open on her bed.
Dressed rather plainly in a plain, fitted white shirt and denims with her house scarf Daphne wasn’t expecting company as she took a deep inhale and snuggled into her scarf. Her feet followed the beaten down, dirt path towards the lake as she took in her surroundings. Thinking maybe she could gather up a bit of monkshood for a potion she wanted to practice. Oddly, Daphne actually enjoyed gathering her own potioning supplies rather than raiding a store cabinet. Using fresher ingredients improved her outcome, a fact she thought, which meant she probably ought to pay more attention in herbology.
Coming up on the lake she was surprised to see a familiar figure sitting nearby, and figuring she owed him for the cute hair comment the previous night, approached quietly and placed her hands over his eyes. “Guess who?!” She said with a cheeky grin he couldn’t see.
The soft footsteps had gone completely unnoticed by Ally, his entire attention focused on the book in his lap. The drawing that had been forming there in the past hour or so was far from finished, but one could already clearly see the faces of his tired schoolmates drawn as caricatures as they stood in the Great Hall, waiting for the little Hufflepuff boy to confess. It was easy to see which students - and which houses - were his favorites; those who did not please Ally were given warts and hooked noses, among other horrible ailments, while the people he preferred to spend time with had flowing hair and clear skin.
Drawing wasn't the only reason Ally had come down to the lake, but it was a good excuse to get out of the castle and to get a break from all the noise and commotion that seemed to fill every last corridor. As much as he enjoyed hanging out with his mates Ally needed time to himself every now and then, and drawing was as good an excuse as any.
Still, he wasn't even the slightest bit annoyed when someone placed their hands on his eyes, and even if he didn't immediately recognize Daphne's voice, a huge grin spread on his lips as soon as she spoke. "Oh, Potter," Ally gasped. "We've got to stop meeting like this. What will your friends say if they ever find out? Your reputation is going to be completely ruined."
“They’ll say; Potty, when did you get so charming and female?” She laughed softly and peeked her head over Ally’s shoulder, hair spilling into his line of vision and proving, as if her voice hadn’t already that she most certainly wasn’t Potter.
“Not that Potter has any reputation left to ruin; everyone already knows he’s a nutter. Spewing all that talk about You-Know-Who being back.” Daphne grinned and straightened herself from where she leaned over Ally's back and came to sit by his side. She crossed her skinny legs, one over the other, and leaned back on her arms. "Mind company?" She asked, fearing she might have been intruding only after she plopped herself inches away from him.. Her gaze settled on the lake as she watched the squid floating languidly at the surface. She never had quite the fascination with the squid that others had. In fact, she was a little frightened of it's slimy self and tried to hide the displeasure at it's presence in her face.
"Or; Potter, you should wear that cute skirt of yours more often," Ally laughed with Daphne, brushing her hair off from his face as he closed his sketch book before setting it aside.
"He should have been a Hufflepuff," Ally agreed with a shrug. "That whole house is nuttier than a bag of cashews. I'm honestly surprised they manage to stay alive year after year. Well, not counting Diggory, obviously." It was a mean, horrible thing to say and he knew that, of course. If any of the professors knew he'd said that he would surely find himself in detention for the rest of the month, but he didn't care. He was so used to being in trouble and spending almost all of his free time in detention already anyway, the possibility of being punished for speaking his mind didn't frighten him in any way. Besides, it was just him and Daphne here, and Ally had a feeling Daphne wouldn't tell on him.
He folded his long legs under him to sit cross-legged, his eyes fixed on the lake and the giant squid. "Not at all, I was starting to get tired of my own company. I never knew I was such a bore until I started to spend so much time with myself." A small smile tugged at his lips as Ally fought to keep his face serious. "You're actually saving me from a slow death due to boredom."
"He really does have such smashing legs." She retorted with a grin, rocking towards him. Before running her fingers over her mass of long hair and pulling it over a shoulder. Daphne arched an eyebrow, breaking into a laugh at Ally’s comment about Hufflepuff house. “Honestly I imagine their house is full of glitter and safety scissors. Sometimes I wonder how they manage to even feed themselves.”
His comment about Cedric didn’t bother her so much and she just shrugged, “Bit sad really. He was the only one of the lot to seem half capable of functioning.” Daphne turned her head back over the lake. “He must have lacked the innate dumb luck the rest of them inherited.
“Lucky you I came along then, eh?” She grinned, “But somehow I have a feeling you’d find a way to amuse yourself before your impending doom actually occurred.” She pursed her lips sideways, and then nodded towards his sketchbook, “What were you drawing?”
Glitter and safety scissors. That seemed like an accurate description of that entire lot, and Ally couldn't stop himself from snorting. "I bet that's why Smith and Jones were so bloody angry. Someone took away their glitter."
His brow furrowed at Daphne's comment about Cedric and his ability to function. "Well, he did manage to get himself killed during the Tournament, so I'd say he was more like quarter-capable, if even that." During the summer Ally had come up with all kinds of wild theories about Potter, Diggory and what actually happened between the two, and nearly all of them seemed to revolve around Potter going crazy and killing Diggory for various reasons. He didn't mention any of them to Daphne, however, but just simply turned to her, grinning that lopsided grin of his. "Maybe they've all got a really short shelf-life, and Diggory finally met his expiration date."
"Lucky for me," Ally agreed as he ran his hand through his messy hair, that grin still plastered all over his face. "You're a real lifesaver, aren't you. Now I don't have to spontaneously combust from boredom, or face the wrath of Umbridge just because I tried to find new ways to entertain myself." His gaze followed Daphne's to the sketchbook, and Ally shrugged again. "Nothing much. I just like to doodle when I've got nothing better to do." Turning back to Daphne he reached out to tug on the end of her scarf. "Why aren't you back inside with Pansy and the others?"
Daphne laughed at Ally’s comment about Smith and Jones losing their glitter.”That thought just makes the whole spectacle ten times more amusing.” Absentmindedly she picked up a fallen leaf, twisting the stem in her hand and watching the browned piece of discarded foliage twisting in front of her. “Like spoiled milk? “ She looked over at him, “They ought to come with a sell-by date so you can have some expectation of when they’ll sour.”
“Well, it looked good, whatever it was. You should doodle something for me sometime.” Her lips twisted back up into a grin as Ally tugged on her scarf, instinctively she scrunched her shoulders up and snuggled into it. “Pansy’s off with Draco,” Daphne trailed off, looking up at the castle, “I’m not sure where Tracey is right now.” Her gaze turned back out to the lake as she finished. “It’s nice to get away sometimes anyhow.. plus, it’s nice out.” That part was true, sometimes Daphne did just appreciate escaping the expectations of her friends and trying to fit in, but then part of her felt just the slightest bit abandoned that afternoon. Fearing everyone had made plans together that did not include her.
“Thought I might get some fresh air. Maybe gather some potioning supplies to practice for OWLs.”
"Like spoiled milk, yeah," Ally agreed, watching Daphne play with the leaf. "Someone needs to go and stamp their sell-by dates on their foreheads when they're all asleep."
It wasn't like Ally to be insecure about anything, mostly because he never cared about anything enough to find it worthy of being insecure about. He was, however, definitely uncertain about his drawings and they were rarely shown to just about anyone. It seemed like a rather silly thing to be so hesitant about, but he couldn't help it. When Daphne mentioned them Ally fought hard against blushing and pretended to adjust his own scarf in order to hide the faint flush that rose to his face. "Sometime, maybe," he muttered and was extremely relieved when she didn't press the issue.
She was right, it was nice to get away sometimes and it definitely was nice out. Winter was definitely on its way, but the weather was still relatively warm and Ally didn't feel chilly at all, not even after sitting in one place for so long. But his legs were falling asleep and he was growing tired of having the squid just float about there, staring at him as if it wanted to make him its next meal. "Well then," he smiled at Daphne and poked her ribs with his finger. "If they don't want to hang out with you and look for potion supplies, it's their loss. I'd be more than happy to help you, if you don't mind having some company."
“It would do the world a favor; knowing who the nutty one’s are at first glance. And advance warning for when they might just keel over in front of you so you could make a timely exit.” Eyes widening with a thin smile at the wisdom of such a plan.
No stranger to feeling insecure, Daphne herself was at most times, she didn’t think anything of Ally’s reluctance to discuss his sketches or press the issue. “Just think about it.” She winked and started climbing to her feet. “You wouldn’t mind? I’ve just found that gathering my own gets better results in draughts than the stored ones.
“Fair warning, might be incredibly dull and you may find the need to resort back to your own company to avoid that slow death by boredom after all.” She smiled and offered a hand to help him to his feet in case he was on board. Already mentally preparing a list of the plants she might want to try and locate.
"You'd have to stamp every last one of them, honestly," Ally pointed out matter-of-factly, his face remaining serious for a brief moment. But the thought of having a school full of Hufflepuffs with their expiration dates written across their foreheads was just too amusing and before he could stop himself, Ally burst out laughing. "The whole house would be like a walking, talking time bomb of expiring Hufflepuffs."
Snatching up his sketch book and quill Ally grabbed the offered hand and pulled himself up, the book quickly disappearing into his robe pocket. "Just as long as you're not expecting me to be useful in any way, I'm absolutely rubbish at potions and herbology. Got a P in herbology, you know." He hadn't done much better with potions, but he didn't mind. Neither of the subjects had ever been that interesting to him, and he was actually glad to be rid of them both this year.
"Just wake me up if I fall asleep," he winked at Daphne, motioning her to lead the way.