8 Feb 2021, 01:54
Oops- Did I step on your toes?
@Anja Murtaja
Notions of wistfulness that may have accompanied the Gryffindor first year in his initial days at Hogwarts had long since vanished. There was nothing better to keep the mind moving than constant workload, co-curricular commitment, and the intricacies of social interaction.
Valentine was busy, and delightedly so. His days shuffling about the corridors of the expansive castle to get from point A to point B absorbed most of his schedule and his thoughts, an unexpectedly pleasant distraction from greater things that might've troubled him. He wasn't extremely academically inclined to the extent that some of his peers were, nor was he very good at the sports that he played, but he made up for this in his diversity of experiences; a diversity that was now costing him nearly every second of his day. The few pockets of breaks he had in between scheduled classes or meetings with the Gryffindor dueling team were dedicated mostly to practice or to catch up with friends whom he would otherwise only be able to speak with on the weekends.
It was on such an occasion that he would run into an altercation. Or walk into, rather literally.
It happened when his head was turned, probably to glimpse at something that had caught his eye for just a brief second. Moving forward steadily meant momentum, momentum which couldn't be stopped lightly. Inevitably, he brushed into someone, the sheer forcefulness of his movement carrying him straight through her like a bull ramming through a fence. Had it been a direct collision, they would both likely have fallen (one on top of the other, nonetheless, which would be a whole other rollercoaster on its own). Thankfully, a mere shoulder impact resulted in the sound of books falling onto the ground beside him.
"Sorry-" he exclaimed, and though it likely wasn't conveyed in the swiftness of his tone, he had meant it. Without skipping a beat, he immediately moved with the intention to continue on his way to where he was going. There wasn't time to express it now, but he resolved to make it up to this girl if they ever met again.
Discord: Valentine#6117
9 Feb 2021, 21:36
Oops- Did I step on your toes?
@Jackson Valentine
For Anja, Hogwarts had come like a shock of cold water, the sort that woke you up. It wasn't that Anja had been naive — in fact, she had known things most hadn't — but that she hadn't known the sense of freedom that came with being away from the stifling confines of her family. At Hogwarts, she was free to befriend whomever she liked, and make enemies with whomever she wished.
She found the work set quite easy, but she did have a lot of homework to do, and not much time to do it. On the way back from her last class, she hadn't had the opportunity to pack up her things, so she stacked them up in her arms. Anja's books, once precariously balanced in her arms, had been sent flying. The boy's impact had jerked her arms, and the books spilled, clapping down to the ground. The one inkpot she couldn't pack smashed, spewing pigment. The pages of her books began to soak up the ink, and she knew she would have to ask an older student to clean them up for her.
She spun around in the direction he had gone. "Where the hell do you think you're going, you little freak?"
The boy turned back around. Anja didn't pick up her books, and her hand hovered over the wand in her robes. She schooled her face into a cold mask. This boy clearly didn't know how to use his manners. She smiled at him slightly, and it was not a kind smile.
When he didn't reply, she asked, "What's your name?"
's Grace | Stam 4 | Evas 4 | Stren 3 | Wisd 8 | Arc power 8 | Acc 810 Feb 2021, 11:42
Oops- Did I step on your toes?
@Anja Murtaja
Little freak.
Valentine froze in his tracks, the corner of his lip twitching involuntarily. All things considered, this was a strangely familiar experience. Perhaps Anja hadn’t yet realized how bloodthirsty some of the students here could be; it was oft better to conform to the expectations of the school’s student body than to demand one’s freedom to conduct themselves as they wished.
When he turned, he would indeed discover that the person he had bumped into wasn’t someone he knew. For a comical moment, he stood there awkwardly in the corridor assessing the situation. It was at times like this that he began to wonder if his growing unpopularity with pockets of the cohort were a direct fault of his. Granted, it had been him who had caused the collision, it wasn’t like he hadn’t apologized.
“Chill. I said I was sorry, didn’t I?” he swiveled about on the spot to challenge what was likely a death glare. Her inquiry about his name would not be responded to. As if he needed one more thing for her to use against him. When he retorted, his gaze fell to the ink splotched books at her feet and his expression softened.
“. . . Oh. . .” the resolve in his voice faded away. He was strong-willed, but he wasn’t so blindly stubborn that he couldn’t see when a line had been crossed. At this point, he was quite embarrassed with his behavior. “. . . Do you know anyone who can cast the cleaning charm on that?”
Discord: Valentine#6117
11 Feb 2021, 14:45
Oops- Did I step on your toes?
@Jackson Valentine
"No. No I don't." Honestly. Chill? Who did he think he was? Without even the courtesy to tell her his name, although he was probably right to do that. The less people who know who you are, the better your chances at survival would be, but that was mostly her paranoid side talking.
Anja didn't recognise him from any of the pureblood gatherings she had attended, and wondered where he had come from. "You're not a pureblood, are you?" Not that it mattered, but she would let him think that she was a typical snobbish, purist Slytherin. Even if it went against her own philosophy. "In fact, I doubt you're even a half-blood. At least some of them have manners." Anja knew that he wouldn't respond to her, so she released the grip on her wand, bent down and began to gingerly pick up her books. Bending down in front of the boy was not something she wished to do, but she did want to collect those ink-soaked books and hurl them towards him. She imagined the satisfying squelch they would make, and smiled to herself. Avoiding the broken glass and the pool of ink as best she could, she tucked the dryer books into her satchel and held the drenched ones under her arm. The inkpot would have to be cleaned up by someone else — a house elf, probably. On a different day, she would have had it out with him right there in the corridor, but assignments were piling up, and she had only received an E on that Charms homework. Today was not that day, so she comforted herself in the knowledge that she would get back at him.
Anja walked back down the corridor, books dripping ink, and planning revenge on her enemy.
12 Feb 2021, 13:44
Oops- Did I step on your toes?
@Anja Murtaja
What else does she want me to do? Get on my knees and call her M'lady?
Perhaps his apology was insufficient. Not that he felt that it was. All semantics in the end... for now they were here, and they would have to deal with the consequences. A consequence Valentine in particular never expected... as he never desired it.
He would have offered to cast the cleaning charm then if he was confident that he could execute it correctly. Unfortunately, he didn't have much faith in his familiarity with the spell, and he could only imagine how matters would be made worse if he failed.
Yet, her attitude caused his brows to furrow in annoyance. She made a statement about his blood lineage and his manners. There were plenty of purebloods and half-bloods who lacked manners and just as many muggle-borns who had them. Conduct was independent of descendence. Either Anja was taught otherwise growing up, or she knew of this and was deliberately using his heritage to attack him.
He gave her a once over as she turned her back on him, assessing her and taking the measure of her.
"Cya," he looked on past her to the throngs of students she would inevitably disappear into, his voice no louder than the brush of a feather, and his tone no more neutral than the staccato beat of a metronome. It wouldn't do her well to hold grudges, but what she chose to do with his reaction was out of his control. He had come to terms with who he was and what he believed to be proper conduct, and he was willing to live with the consequences that this brought upon him. Could the same be said about her?
Bowing his head, the Gryffindor turned and scurried off to where he had initially been heading in the first place.
Valentine has left the thread.
Discord: Valentine#6117