Tweak

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Tweak says, "no one can push you around"

in_the_grass (in_the_grass) wrote in wished,
@ 2010-10-31 19:53:00

Entry tags:

!2003: 10, !incomplete, !open, essery oakby, fleur delacour, severus snape

Who: OPEN to anyone at Hogwarts during or after the Halloween Feast.
What: The Halloween Feast!
Where: Hogwarts, the Great Hall; possibly other places.
When: Tonight
Warnings: TBA / Up to you.
Status: Open - I've put up some subthreads, just to keep things organized for anyone who wants to hop in. If anyone wants to divide them further, do so to your heart's content!

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	oakbye 2010-11-08 02:11 am UTC (link)
	"Oh, are you sure? I'm sure I could put together something for you. Fill out some missed childhood experiences?" She grinned to show she was joking, then looked up as the last of the other professors left the great hall. "I think the elves will try to run us out soon," she commented, still chuckling. (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

in_the_grass
2010-11-08 02:24 am UTC (link)

Severus gave her costume another slow once over, and by now he expected she knew that this particular arch of his eyebrow was a good-natured one. "That's very generous of you," he said, dry. "But I may have to decline."

It was emptying out, that was true. No elf was going to run him anywhere, but something about the thought of sitting in this huge empty space scattered with the various spent trappings of a holiday already enjoyed seemed a little ... depressing. "They may well try." He pushed his plate away, mostly untouched. "I suppose we ought to let them. Perhaps I'll just go lurk about outside, instead." He gave a half-smile.

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oakbye
2010-11-08 02:26 am UTC (link)

"This isn't a graveyard," she pointed out, and she looked at his plate, then back up to his face. Something was... off. Wrong. She just wasn't sure what it was that made her think so.

"The mean wasn't the best, left over, was it? Aren't you hungry? I have some things my mum sent, in my quarters, if you're feeling like something lighter. Everything the elves puts up is so heavy..."

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in_the_grass
2010-11-08 02:42 am UTC (link)

"I'm -" Not at all hungry, he had been about to say, before something shoved him sharply off course. He wasn't hungry. But the thought of company was much more appealing than going up to be alone, and that was strange enough that he had to take a moment to try to get his bearings.

She was a perceptive woman. She would have to know that something was wrong - or at least very different - if he accepted. It was probably inappropriate. It was not something he should have wanted to do. But he did. It made sense, in a way. This wasn't the first time he'd thought of her tonight. "No, it wasn't. And it isn't all just sugar?" he asked, not particularly caring what the answer was. "Really, I think anything might be better than more boiled steak."

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oakbye
2010-11-08 02:45 am UTC (link)

"No... mum's a bit of a gourmet, or thinks she is. She sent a few chicken dishes, and a potato salad she knows I like. I always complained about heavy food while I was in school. Living here again, she thinks it's her duty to see I eat..." Was he considering it? Was she considering it? Having him in her rooms seemed suddenly like something very, very dangerous...

And something that she wasn't really going to second guess. "And a lemon cream cake, of course."

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in_the_grass
2010-11-08 02:57 am UTC (link)

He had finished considering it; tonight he saw no reason to refuse. He wasn't himself and he wasn't taking the long view, as he had just said, but for once he didn't altogether care. This was ground he hadn't walked in a long time. He liked her. He couldn't think of anyone else he wanted to talk to. He could damn well go with her and have ... well, and have pie, if it came to that. He even smiled, although it blended with a bit of a sneer when the first elf popped up at the end of the staff table. "I thought I'd about died and gone to heaven, when I first came here ... but boys eat rather more, don't they. Let's, then. Cake sounds about the thing."

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oakbye
2010-11-08 03:01 am UTC (link)

"Oh, I can eat..." Essery laughed, as if she were sharing a secret, then stood when he agreed and started from the table. No time to let him second guess, either. And no time to make herself think what it might look like if someone saw the Headmaster going into her rooms with her, this late. "I'll need to go and check on Hufflepuff, first, of course," she pointed out. Duties and all.

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in_the_grass
2010-11-08 03:08 am UTC (link)

"Of course. I ought to make a round, too." Just to make sure that no one was up to any particularly obvious Halloween pranks. Filch often made out pretty well around this time of year, as far as confiscations went. "Ten minutes?"

He shouldn't have given himself even that long to think about what he was doing. But after spending the evening steeped in all the muck he'd dredged up from his past, everything seemed so ... not unimportant, but simple. Relative to what had gone before, nothing could be very bad. And it might even be much better.

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oakbye
2010-11-08 03:23 am UTC (link)

Essery thought that might ruin it - might give them both time to think about it and realize it was a bad idea. She tried to push that thought away, though, and instead touched his arm for a moment - just a moment - then smiled and let it go with a nod. "Ten minutes, Sir." She said, then turned on her heel to head for Hufflepuff. Those kids had better be in bed, she thought, or there would be hell to pay.

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in_the_grass
2010-11-08 03:33 am UTC (link)

His eyes flickered down to where her hand had been on his arm a moment earlier, and he nodded, taking it perfectly in stride - it felt less surprising than it should have, somehow - and left the Hall, heading in the opposite direction to sweep a few of the more traveled corridors. His mind was a mess tonight, strewn with so many different unconnected old feelings, that he had little opportunity to dwell at all.

But really, he thought it was a genuinely good idea. The only reasons it might not have been - that his job demanded something else of him and he wasn't in the habit of letting people know him at all - were laughably unpersuasive. He had never cared much about the former, and the latter was ... less than attractive, tonight. It was without very much anxiety that he made his way down toward the kitchens and the Hufflepuff common room, where he assumed he'd find her.

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oakbye
2010-11-08 03:38 am UTC (link)

Most of the students were in bed or headed that way, which, Essery decided, was good enough. She left the prefects in charge and told them again what a good night she hoped they'd had, but then she was waiting outside the portrait - assuming he'd come to find her there. When she did see him coming down the hall, she was almost embarrassed to realize how fast her heart was beating, how flushed she felt.

It wasn't like he'd do anything more than have dinner, right?

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in_the_grass
2010-11-08 03:50 am UTC (link)

He realized almost as soon as he caught sight of her that she was more agitated than when he had left her. He wasn't used to seeing her that way; he had grown used to her confidence, by now. He let himself make more than a cursory scan of her face without actually digging any deeper, which he was still quite reluctant to do. He thought - and hoped - that she was only nervous, for whatever reason, instead of reluctant. Or worse, regretful.

He wouldn't ask. He resisted the urge to offer to let her get her rest. "No catastrophes?" He stopped beside her, glancing don the hall. "We've only caught two so far tonight, trying to bewitch the stairways. Not a banner year."

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oakbye
2010-11-08 03:53 am UTC (link)

"Well, they can't all be Weasleys...." Essery said it as a joke, then smiled at him and nodded toward the small hallway near the portrait entrance to Hufflepuff. Her own rooms were a bit down that hallway, and she gave him a slightly nervous smile before she turned that way in a silent invitation for him to follow.

The password for her doors was "Charring Cross" and the door swung back into her own rooms - decorated in warm browns and, of course, purples and yellows. "Make yourself at home. Watch the cat."

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in_the_grass
2010-11-09 12:57 am UTC (link)

"And thank goodness for small favors." He followed her without hesitation. It was strange to think of how many places there were in the castle that he had never been, even after spending so many years here. It was better than trying to think about whether he ought to be here at all. Her room was something like he had expected - it seemed warm, and better lived-in than his own, although that wasn't saying very much. He gave in to the urge to look around a little more closely, for a moment. He was quite curious as to what exactly she did when she wasn't grading.

"No," he said, shutting the door behind him as the streak of white shot for his ankles. "We wouldn't want him to escape, never to return, would we?" Then who would come scatter white, wiry hair all over his office? He didn't mind quite as much as he let on, now that he'd found a way to strip it away reliably.

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oakbye
2010-11-09 01:10 am UTC (link)

Essery did a quick once around of her front room too, just to be sure there wasn't anything she needed to rush to hide. There was a half read book open on the coffee table, and a few muggle magazines about along with the notes for her latest idea at a book - which was in the very early stages. Otherwise, the room was neat, if lived in, and she picked up the afghan she curled up under as she read and folded it over the back of the sofa, but that was about it.

Her bookshelves in the corner were full, but no where near as bulging as his own, and there was a collection in the corner of the room of cat toys - she wasn't sure he wasn't stealing them from other cats around the castle - on top of the tattered remains of what used to be Snape's own scarf.

"We certainly don't," She said seriously, then laughed as the kitten started rubbing up against his favourite post - Severus' legs. "Make yourself at home. Tea? Or wine? While I see what we have to eat?"

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in_the_grass
2010-11-09 02:02 am UTC (link)

The books were almost like background noise to him; he hardly noticed them, except that they were vaguely pleasing, the sort of thing he expected to see anywhere. The magazines and toys were the only things he thought at all strange, and here they didn't look out of place. It was comfortable. The corner of his mouth twitched up a little when he caught sight of a pile of very familiar tattered wool yarn.

"Thank you. - Wine, if you're having any." He didn't particularly want to sit on the sofa, at least not until she did - that was rude, wasn't it? he really didn't know - and so stood, perusing the bookshelf, and doing his best to ignore the cat. Whose name he would not admit to remembering, for now.

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	oakbye 2010-11-09 02:13 am UTC (link)
	"Sure," she said, and a few minutes later she came out with a bottle and two glasses - she was just in a black dress now, the rest of the costume cast off. She handed him a glass, and then sat the bottle down on the coffee table. "So, it looks like we're stuck with a chicken cordon bleu, or a chicken salad with warm rolls..." (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

in_the_grass
2010-11-09 02:26 am UTC (link)

He'd hung his cloak somewhere by the time she returned, no longer feeling obligated to at least approximate the look of academic robes. That was about as at home as he ever made himself. He took his glass with a nod, turning from the shelving to face her again. "Whatever shall we do." He was well settled into his usual smirk. "You have a very accommodating mother, you know. I'd be partial to the salad."

She looked rather striking, actually. It was hardly the first time he'd noticed, but in the absence of the usual professor's costume it was a little ... easier. And then, without the nose it was a different look entirely.

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oakbye
2010-11-09 02:30 am UTC (link)

"Right. Chicken salad it is, then..." She smiled, and she thought it might be her imagination that told her he was... looking at her. She did have to be imagining it, right? Still, with his cloak off, and his muggle clothes, it was easy to believe that he wasn't the Headmaster - at least not tonight. "Pour the wine, then, and I'll get it warming..." She said, before she could say anything too embarrassing, and disappeared into the kitchen.

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in_the_grass
2010-11-09 02:38 am UTC (link)

"Of course." It was some remedy, at least, to the slowly accumulating feeling of uselessness that came from standing out in the sitting room - and he sat at the edge of the sofa to pour, feeling strangely awkward and a little too tall leaning over the coffee table to do it. By the time she had returned he was flipping through one of the Muggle magazines with his chin propped in one hand and wearing a highly skeptical expression.

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