Something Wicked This Way Comes PV Jack Closed

The Slytherin boy sat alone in the courtyard, reading a book to determine what charms would be taught to second-years, when a gust of wind scattered several papers his way. Setting down his book, he moved quick to catch them, contemplating using the immobilizing charm to stop them, but ultimately deciding against it. He didn't want to accidentally hit someone else like he had once hit his dorm mate. He also didn't want to risk the possibility of hitting the papers while they were too high, keeping them trapped overheard in limbo too high for him to reach.

With some dashing about, he eventually managed to gather all the ones he could see that hadn't yet been collected by their owner. Said owner appeared to be a Gryffindor girl who Jack thought he might have seen once or twice around the school, but not frequently enough to identify her as his year. She was rather distracting to look at and almost reminded him of Erin in a way. In fact, if she'd had purple hair, Jack might have mistaken her for the other girl at first glance. Could she, perhaps, have been part Veela as well?

A quick glance down at the papers he had gathered heightened his curiosity even further. They didn't look like the belonged to any class Jack knew. It was possible they were for a second year class he wasn't aware of, but…more than that, they seemed to be personal notes. Turning to the girl, he held out the papers, inviting her to take them.

"Having some trouble keeping everything together?" he asked with a small smile. "There a reason you've got everything all spread out here in the courtyard like this instead of indoors where the wind can't get at it? Perhaps somewhere a bit more private?"

@Anastasia Beckett

Anastasia took the papers from the boy, who rather reminded her of Peter Pan. His elfish features and red hair certainly contributed to the resemblance, but there was something else about him that made her think of the trickster book character. As she looked at the boy, she knew this wasn't someone to trust much, and she was worried that he would want something in return for her papers. When he smiled slightly and held out the papers, she was rather relieved. She quickly took the notes and smiled in return. Still, she had to determine if he'd actually read any of them, and if so, how much and what she would need to do to keep him from talking about it.

Somehow, she doubted anyone who read the notes would think that they were merely harmless school notes, given the nature of the spells she had written down. Maybe one or two of the spells together would look as though she was studying. However, pages of hexes that turned someone's head into a pumpkin, made them vomit slugs, or worse would not look so innocent. Additionally, the books that sat next to where she had been sitting were quite clearly not school books. 

Maintaining eye contact with the boy, she pressed her lips together. On the one hand, she wanted to keep things on the secret side, since the more people there were who knew about her plans, the more people there were who could let something slip and ruin everything. On the other hand, this boy had been relatively helpful, and she would rather not have to deal with someone like this disliking her. She simply didn't have the time to deal with that. She was already buried in school work and flaming Hufflepuffs and plotting against Aurelia. She didn't have the bandwidth to have to plot against someone else. "Thank you," she said, as she took the papers. That was a start. "Yes, there's a reason." The courtyard was somewhere she was guaranteed no Aurelia for now. If she was in a study room or the library or anywhere that would actually make sense to do this, there was a risk of encountering the older Gryffindor and that would cause all sorts of problems.

At the lack of explanation for the reason the girl insisted existed, Jack sneered and crossed his arms over his chest. "Not much of a talker, are you?" he remarked rhetorically.

"How secretive. Almost as if you were up to no good." Putting his knuckles to his chin to make a show of pondering something, he added, "Could it be you were afraid of being discovered? Less foot-traffic around here at this time of day in this blustery weather."

He considered the notes he'd seen and the books by the place she the Gryffindor had sat, unfolding his arms to casually amble over to them in order to get a better look at their titles. "Let me guess...does someone have a grudge?" The expression he cast the books was disapproving, shaking his head as if with disdain.

"Tsk, tsk...this won't do. If even a first year like me can work out what you're trying to do so easily, you obviously aren't being discreet enough. The least you could do is try the Illegibility Charm on your notes or something. Aren't you lucky I'm not a prefect?"

He turned back around to offer his upperclassman a pleasant smile. "I'm curious - who are you after and why?"

@Anastasia Beckett

When the boy sneered and crossed his arms, Ana groaned inwardly. Lovely, he was one of those first years who thought that they were oh so cool and oh so clever. She rather wished one of the Hufflepuffs had gotten the papers since they would have been easy to bully into keeping quiet. This boy knew too much for her normal tactics to work since he could just go tell her Head of House about this. 

Good lord, he was a peacock. She rather wanted to punch him in the face, but resisted it, simply because she had to get him to shut up. Once she got that, then she would revisit that idea. Her initial instinct about him was feeling more and more right by the moment. He was far too weasel-like and thought too highly of himself for her tastes. Then again, there had been another Slytherin her first year that she had been able to manipulate into helping with her plots, so this wasn't completely hopeless. "Oh, congratulations on those astute observations, really, you're a regular Sherlock Holmes," she said brightly. At his comment about her being lucky that he wasn't a prefect, she rolled her eyes and revisited the punching him in the face course of action. No prefects were out here right now since everyone else was inside, that was where the trouble makers would be. His smile irritated her, as it rather resembled hers when she thought she had gotten someone into checkmate. If he didn't know who she was, who she was out to get, or why, then he would have a difficult time reporting her. She was suddenly rather glad for the fact that she hadn't included names in any of her notes. She also was dearly wishing she had written them in French or Italian like she had considered doing. She made a mental note to do that later and burn these copies.  "Let me see - the person is absolutely none of your business, and the reason is also, none of your business."

At the girl's response, Jack's eyes glazed over and their lids became heavy with disappointment. His smile disappeared and he sighed deeply. "Wow..." me murmured. "Lioness, you really don't know the first thing about getting under someone's skin, do you? Name-calling and sarcasm are for grade-schoolers. You're going to have to do better than that if you want to get back at someone properly. Don't know if you have the will for what it would take, though."

He thought about the hot-headed Gryffindor, Rafael D'Spacito. Though the Quidditch player called Jack his nemesis and had somehow discovered one of the Slytherin's most closely-guarded secrets, he hadn't seemed to have the self-control or will to utilize the information as well as he probably could have if his emotions hadn't been an issue. By the way this girl talked to Jack, she seemed to be very much the same way.

"Alright," he answered simply, shrugging as he turned around to return to the book he had been reading. "Not like I really wanted to help, anyway. You'll probably learn what you're doing wrong eventually through trial and error. Maybe. Some things can only be discovered through experience."

Picking up his book where he had set it down, he seated himself comfortably and opened it to find where he had left off last.

@Anastasia Beckett

Anastasia rolled her eyes. She wasn't trying to get under his skin, she was trying to get him to get his nose out of her business. If she'd been trying to get under his skin, he would know. She'd managed to get under Aurelia's skin without trying very hard, and now she was trying to get back at her. The last time she had tried to get back at Aurelia, it had resulted in Ana stealing and burning Aurelia's dead brother's diary. It had been a bit harsher than she'd intended, but it had certainly worked. She wanted to inform the boy of this but decided against it. Somehow, she didn't think this was a person to go around confessing crimes to, which, she supposed was the word for what she had done.

She was relieved when the boy walked away and would have left well enough alone had it not been for his last words. What was that supposed to mean? She knew it was definitely in her best interest to not associate with this Slytherin. She wanted to walk away. Her curiosity wouldn't allow this. She was proud, but not too proud not to listen to others with helpful ideas. "Oh? And what would a master such as yourself do differently?"she asked. Her voice was still a tad sarcastic, but it was, in fact, a genuine question. If he said something that she hadn't thought of before, then she would be better off, and seeing as he didn't know much about her or the victim her plans, she didn't think she had too much to lose.