Failed Intentions PV Finished

Ileen's retort earned a huff and a pout, although the amusement in Dee's eyes betrayed that neither was serious. "I did, too! It's not my fault you suck at explaining things. Maybe Thomas Lestrange here will do better, we should at least give him a chance, right? More incredibly helpful advice like last time?" She'd turned back around towards the boy with her last words, her eyes harder, sharper than before, although the amusement was not entirely gone. There weren't all that many situations Dee couldn't find a bit of humour in, but the Fight Club had been one of them, and the shadow of that day seemed to stick to Thomas whenever she looked at him, an association that likely wouldn't leave any time soon.

It felt like there was a short pause after Dee had made her offer - her challenge? Her next move in this odd game - a moment of silence as if the world was waiting for the Slytherin's response, while his eyes seemed to flicker from her to Ileen and back. Dee certainly was, eyebrows raised, just a hint of curiosity on her face, visible in the slight tilt of her head. She hadn't been sure at all he'd agree - but then, maybe she could have known. He was, after all, a Slytherin, so he should have the pride of one.

When he did, her grin widened, growing smug. For some reason she couldn't really explain, this didn't feel like anything less of a win than if he'd backed down. Maybe it was because of the competition this seemed to have turned into: Winning too easily wouldn't have been fun at all, would have robbed her of fully being able to enjoy it. Meeting worthy competition gave her its own unique form of excitement, and she could feel it thrum under her skin.

At Ileen's suggestion that other ball attendees needed to be warned about her, like she was a walking (dancing) windmill or something, her best friend was met with a gaze that expressed a mixture of indignation and exasperation. Which side was Ileen on here? Dee clearly needed better friends, ones that wouldn't stab her in the back like this. It was outrageous. She already had some few choice words on her tongue for her friend and her betrayal, but there were more pressing matters at hand, so she left it at a glare and a telepathic warning that this would need to be discussed later. They needed to present a united front here. The fact that she'd done much the same thing just a minute ago seemed to have disappeared from Dee's memory without a trace.

"I do," she confirmed, a trace of condescension in her voice at Thomas's question, and stepped forward herself when he moved, meeting him halfway. They were close now, close enough to touch - close enough to dance. She didn't hesitate to put her right hand in his, nor to place her left on his shoulder, smiling up at him, lips closed, eyes a challenge.

Except he seemed to be bending backward oddly. Dee's eyebrows rose, not sure if she should be amused or offended. She threw a quick glance towards where Ileen was standing, eyes questioning. That wasn't... normal dancing posture... right? Her eyebrows quirking up she glanced back at the boy in front of her. "Do I smell bad or something?" she asked in a voice that said she knew it wasn't true, except if he was allergic to... thyme, maybe? It was in her conditioner.

Her eyes narrowed slightly. What, was he going to treat her like she had some incredibly contagious disease? Or like she was the disease, maybe? Well... They'd see if she couldn't get him to look at her.

In a quick movement, Dee shifted her weight onto her left leg, and raised her right foot just enough to step onto Thomas Lestrange's foot. With enthusiasm, and weight behind it. "Oops." Her voice didn't convey any regret. "Thought we'd already started. I'm sorry, I'm terrible at this."

@Ileen Knight | @Thomas Lestrange

Ileen caught the glare the boy shot in her direction and arched her right eyebrow. It wasn’t her fault he had ended up in this situation. He literally had stormed into this. Now he had to deal with it and that would certainly be fun.
The young girl crossed her arms and made a face at her best friend who also gave her a certain look. Clearly she was trying to tell her something and a small smile appeared on her lips. With a slight nod, she let her know that she had understood her telepathic message - they should totally jinx him if he was rude. Agreed!

With a dim look and still some safety distance she looked at the strange couple that behaved so awkwardly that Ileen could only shake her head. Her lack of effort was immediately mocked by the prefect and she sighed before carefully approaching them to save them from the worst. For as little as she knew about dancing, apparently she knew considerably more than they did. “Music? Feel free to sing, I won’t stop you.” She gave him a bright smile and chuckled as Dee stepped on his foot. Well, she had warned him but she was quite sure that her friend had done that on purpose.
Clearing her throat smartly, she looked first at the boy and then at Dee. "You could have listened to me. This is wrong."
Probably posture was the only thing she really knew about dancing. Her father had explained it to her over and over again when they had danced for fun in the kitchen. The man's right hand belonged on the woman's left shoulder blade.
With a great amount of self-satisfaction, she waited briefly before sharing her knowledge. It was good to know she probably was the better teacher after all. Her dark brown eyes returned to the boy and she hesitated before she reached out, grabbed his robe and pulled his hand in the right position.

Ileen did not like to be touched by strangers, nor to touch them herself. This was a problem she increasingly faced since she knew she wanted to become a healer. "There, you're welcome. Let's see what you can do."
With a broad grin, she took another step back, judgment all over her face.

@Dealla Prince | @Thomas Lestrange

With Dealla's approach, the straining retreat was evident. A marginal upward tilt of the boy's jaw, her every step suffocating the air quality and leaving his veins popping out. Of course it did not have much to do with her. The close counters of the Erin Ryan have taught him that when girls get too close for comfort, bruising would soon follow. Whether of his pride or a physical blow, we would soon find out.

Fortunately as she neared, her attention was torn between the other Slytherin that lurked in the wings. A temporary shield the boy could use to collect himself. If not so transfixed on the moment, Thomas would contemplate how he has unseated this brunette's role as a primary dancing partner. Thought from her amused tone, she did not seem displeased with the development, likely reveling in the impending embarrassment from this ticking time bomb.

Thomas tuned out their bickering, attempting to mask his emotions with a neutral expression. A lifeless visage has become a fixture, but he could not deny the acceleration of his heart in this moment. Unease provided a series of discomforting ticks, such as grinding his teeth with a tightened jaw, or an occasional nibble of his cheek's interior. Unusual finger movement patterns, a series of fidgets. We've already established girls are gross, but they are also frightening. And Thomas would not readily be able to establish his general unease.

The other brunette who has rudely yet to give a proper introduction countered Thomas' request for music with a suggestion he should be a vocalist while dancing. The prospect was enough to break his reeling anxiety with a glimmer of annoyance, a slow dramatic roll of his blue eyes before stopping to stare at her direction. "Singing, yes. That's a great idea...for you." He smirked, what was next, requesting a musical number? "Make yourself useful." He issued a cheeky smile before turning back to Dealla.

The distraction only temporarily subdued the unease. The Raven closed in, confidently putting a hand on his shoulder, and the other clasping his left. If she made contact near the veins in his wrist, she would feel the accelerated pulse. Thomas had never done this before, and his pride was swiftly trending to take a backseat to his comfortability. Quite pleased with herself, she peered up at him giving the signal she was ready.

He had to remind himself what this was, and what this was not.This was not your formulaic romcom, where the initiatory fighting words are merely a stepping stone to blooming romance. It was sheer competition between them, albeit a rather intimate form of challenge, but the first to back down would lose. Though the silence combined with a reluctant Thomas was enough for her to call him out shortly before they began. The truth is he had not processed her scent, too transfixed on a plausible way of escaping this predicament. "N-no. A bit like my aunt, but that's...not a bad thing." It was most definitely a bad thing.

With a deep breath, Thomas was ready to begin. And apparently so was she, feeling pressure on the top of his boot. The boy's eyes shot down to see her foot atop before she quickly removed it. Followed by an unapologetic mutter, her eyes unmoved in self satisfaction. To escalate his discontent, nameless girl approached and went on to tug his robes in a slight adjustment of his hand. Thomas closed his eyes momentarily in frustration, biting the corner of his lip with successive nods.

"You're the expert, are you?" Who was he kidding himself, the embarrassment from carrying on this charade far outweighed drawing their collective ire. Thomas would subtly remove his dominant left hand from Dealla's grasp, palm flat against his robe pocket where his wand was. Engaging this pair in a two-on-one was far more intriguing than carrying on this pitiful act. "Y'know, I have a better idea. Apologies, Dee Prince. I hate to crush your obvious excitement.." While Thomas spoke, his eyes would transfer from the pair of girls, but his left hand would subtly find the confines of his pocket, gripping his wand.

Reducio

Detection Check (Wisdom vs Wisdom)
Dealla's Wis roll: 17
Thomas' Wis roll: 12
Dealla detects successfully

Thomas swiftly pulled his wand from his robe pocket, but Dealla's eyes quickly located this movement, or perhaps she had predicted this move from the get go. Either way, the girl's hand grasped his forearm, temporarily limiting movement. Though Thomas had an obvious physical advantage, jerking his arm away and out of her grasp in unison with a pair of steps to the rear. He lifted his wand up at the Slytherin girl, offering a smile. "How about you show me. Tarantallegra."

Reducio

Thomas casts Tarantallegra at Ileen
Thomas' Wisdom DC(9+): Rolled 14
Thomas' Accuracy roll: 13
Ileen's Evasion roll: 21
Ileen dodges the spell

Thomas still seemed to have a case of the trembles, sending the spell amiss, leaving the girl untouched. Only a few choice words to follow before the likely negative reaction. Failed intentions indeed. "Well. This is awkward."

Dee's eyebrows rose at the exchange between Thomas and Ileen, both of them for some reason she couldn't quite fathom trying to get the other to sing. "I'm not sure I want to hear either of you singing," she interjected, sounding highly skeptical. "Would probably be better to dance without music. I don't trust that either of you can carry a tune." Not that she could, but that wasn't part of the conversation, luckily.

The air had changed slightly while she was coming closer, making physical contact. Funny, she remembered quite clearly stating that no one would ever want to hold hands with the likes of him, and yet here she was. But it was worth it. She wasn't quite sure what it was, but the boy appeared... thrown, his earlier bravado faltering, and it had her expression growing even more smug, insufferable. Smile widening, she was about to push the advantage - find the right angle and press until it hurt - but his reply, even with the slight stutter, threw her off-balance. She gaped. "Like your aunt? I smell like old people?" Because surely, any aunt had to be at least fifty years old, one foot in the grave, basically already turning to dust. At least that was the image the word conjured in Dee's head, lacking any experience with actual relatives, or whatever people titled as such.

Still, her self-satisfaction returned in waves when she got the desired reaction from her spiteful foot-stomp, his head jerking back down to look first at their feet and then at her, her gaze a piercing challenge if he met it. He was close to breaking, had to be, she just had to push a little more - and then Ileen stepped in, ripping the moment apart, and just for a second, Dee felt a little annoyed. The feeling was quickly replaced with amusement when Ileen corrected Lestrange's hand placement, moving it from her back to her shoulder blade. Not that Dee really cared. This wasn't about the dancing anymore, not really, not to her.

It did have the effect that the boy's attention was drawn away from her as well, however, and Dee's eyes narrowed. She didn't usually feel the need to hog the spotlight, got enough attention as it was, but in this case she felt... almost insulted. Like she was owed singular focus here, until this little competition was resolved. It seemed that Thomas didn't agree.

There was an odd break in the flow of the situation for her when the Slytherin boy's eyes shifted from her to Ileen, his hand lowering from the dancing stance they'd assumed, slipping away along with the tension. He'd changed his mind, his next words said, along with an apology approximately as genuine as hers had been a minute ago. It left her feeling off-center, expectations unfulfilled, and she might not have noticed his next move if she hadn't been trying so hard to figure out what the mood was shifting towards, her aquamarine eyes hard and cool.

But there it was, a sudden movement, sign of aggression, and Dee's hand shot out before she'd fully registered it, trying to stop whatever he was going to do. Her fingers closed around his forearm before she really understood that he was holding his wand. It didn't stop him, though. With what appeared to equal the effort of swatting at a fly, Thomas jerked free and backed away, out of her reach, and Dee's eyes widened. Was he seriously going to- yes, apparently he was.

The spell wasn't aimed at her, Lestrange had decided to go for Ileen instead, and it was likely a good thing, too, because Dee was still catching up to what was happening. Maybe she should have expected this - she'd written him off as a hot-headed idiot after their first meeting, after all. And just as likely she wasn't actually all that much better, because her wand was in her hand before she'd even checked whether his spell had found its target. It hadn't. Either he had terrible aim or Ileen possessed more presence of mind than Dee had in that moment.

It didn't matter. Protectiveness was rising up, demanding balance. She wouldn't let him attack Ileen and get away with it, no matter that it hadn't done a thing. "Immobulus," she hissed.

Reducio

Dee casts Immobulus at Thomas
Dee Wisdom: 29
Thomas Auto-Dodge (20%, success on 5): 2, no auto-dodge
Dee Accuracy: 28
Thomas Evasion: 9
Spell hits

Her aim was significantly better than the blue-eyed idiot's, but he also didn't appear to make much of an attempt at dodging. A flash of blue, and Thomas Lestrange should be frozen in whatever movement he'd been making at the time, unable to cast another spell, unable to dodge, unable to attack Ileen. Or her, but really, mostly Ileen.

"Now who's too tense for dancing?" she asked, dislike dripping from her voice, lowering her wand just slightly as she looked at him, talking down to him as much as someone could when they were 10 centimeters shorter - but then, she had a lot of practice.

@Thomas Lestrange | @Ileen Knight

Maybe it was because Ileen had expected something like this sooner or later or maybe it was because she knew that she might have pushed too far with her physical intervention. Anyhow, when the mood of the situation changed and the boy broke the dancing posture the brunette Slytherin wasn’t surprised.
Still, she had not really expected him to draw his wand and point it at her. Perhaps she had been naive and had attached more importance to his prefect position than he himself obviously did. When the burst of red light flashed in her direction, she automatically stepped to the side and managed to avoid the attack. Well, she hadn’t expected that. For one second, she just blinked in confusion when he supposedly commented on the situation in a relaxed and neutral manner. Awkward was a very diplomatic description. “Your face is awkward!”

A mixture of different feelings hit her and for a second the corner of her mouth twitched, slightly amused by the choice of spell - he definitely had situational humor. But then the actual fact got through to her. The guy had seriously tried to cast a spell at her. A prefect had attacked her for almost no reason!
In this moment her instincts and reflexes took over. In the next moment her chestnut wand slipped from her sleeve into her hand. But Dee had her back and was a second faster than Ileen. She had the incantation already on her lips when the spell of her friend hit the boy and made him freeze. A strong wave of appreciation came over her as Dee took her side without hesitation. Too bad the two girls were in different Houses because they would make an awesome dueling team.

Like Dee, at least she assumed so from her spell, Ileen had no intention to hurt or jinx this guy even though he clearly deserved it, but she would not lower herself to his level. If he decided to escalate the situation it was up to them to stop this nonsense here and now, something that in Ileen's opinion was actually his job. “Expelliarmus!” It was better to take the wand away from him before he stabbed someone in the eye with it.

Reducio

Ileen casts Expelliarmus at Thomas
Ileen Wisdom: 28
Thomas is under the effect of Immobulus → Acc DC 10
Ileen Accuracy: 14
Spell hits

This time she hit him with her own blast of red light, sending his wand away. She was so upset that she didn’t even notice how good she had performed it.
Ileen glared at the frozen prefect with flashing eyes, her cheeks flushed in excitement. At least he couldn’t do anything stupid right now, so she could share her thoughts. She would try to catch the gaze of his blue eyes before she started ranting at him. “Aren’t you supposed to be a role model? What’s wrong with you? What’s the point when even our prefects are acting like idiots? People like you should help the other jerks get back on the right path! Merlin, you have some responsibility with this position! Do you even try to live up to that?”
The indignation and aversion were clearly written on her face while she was lecturing him. For several reasons, the subject struck her more than Thomas or even Dee could have guessed. She completely ignored the fact that Dee and also herself had done their part to escalate the situation as well. For Merlin's sake, he should have been above that!

Her dark brown eyes were narrowed to judgy slits and she clutched her wand so tightly that her knuckles turned white. She hated being a Slytherin. She hated it. Well, at least Ruby and Nico seemed to be reasonable, so it was a bad prefect out of three. Could be worse…
She herself had jinxed people to stop them from doing stupid things and of course she had crossed the line here and there, but after all she had tried to improve the situation. But maybe this wasn’t enough after all. Maybe she had to try harder if such idiots were prefects and working against her.
And this was the moment when Ileen decided to apply next time they were looking for a new Slytherin prefect. Thank you, Thomas Lestrange.

@Dealla Prince | @Thomas Lestrange

Like a Knight, the defensive posture was a well practiced transition. As soon as the boy brandished his wooden stick, Ileen appeared to be on her toes in preparation to elude. The only redemption was a successful cast, a bright flash of purple left the end of the boy’s wand, idly passing its target towards the lakefront. Perhaps not a complete waste, possibly providing an involuntary twist for an unsuspecting target far away.

As the boy’s blue hues followed the flash of light past Ileen, he would briefly consider the following. Does the potency of a spell’s impact decrease with air time traveled, or would the impact be the same from close range, or 200 yards away. And how long would a spell travel before it simply dissipates into the mist? Or, would it not? Would it simply go until a target is found. If unimpeded, could this dancing feet spell find its way to an outdoor muggle festival in the muggle world, serving as divine intervention for a shy adolescent.

In the corner of his eyes, he saw swift hand movements from his former dance partner. Safe to say they would not be working together again. Thomas’ eyes flickered to the wand she equipped, and then to the Raven’s narrowed eyes. Thomas had a tendency to pick fights with mismatched opponents. From the school’s strongest and most aggressive physically, now to a pair of capable duelists. The constant? He lacked fear, or a sense of panic. When inches from a crone’s long nail and fetid stench, hostile Hogwarts students equate to the bark of a five pound puppy.

After the boy commented on the general awkward tone of their interaction, he first eyed Dee. “Hopefully you can use that better than you can dance.” He stated with an honest smile and confident tone, he had a higher tendency to dodge than most...today would be no different, right? Then a shout from the Slytherin girl forced his eyes back to her. Was it true, was his face...awkward? A twitch of her lips expressed a mild amusement, perhaps not as butthurt as her tone of voice led him to believe initially.

“You think so? Is this your first time insulting someone?” Thomas quirked his brow at the elementary insult. “Maybe you could teach he--” Oh, right. Miss Prince was not interested in conversation following the boy’s attack, why would she be. She silently lifted her wand and spoke the words. Thomas lowered his frame, shuffling to his left, though it was too late. His limbs would tense up, legs tightening as if someone had tied him to a bed intended for uncooperative medical patients.

Fortunately he could breath, though his jaw was stiff and even blinking was a task. Though his limbs would not respond to his brain’s signals to move, his unresponsive jaw did not completely hinder his words. Prince would take this opportunity to address the comment he made earlier on her tense demeanor. Ileen wasted no time to disarm the boy, not that his twig was very useful to him anyway. Followed by a rant, as if his mother or Jenny, reminding him of the responsibilities that come with the badge.

Thomas did not let this awkward situation dispose of his amusement. The boy would let out a subdued chuckle, that may have sounded like an old man groaning as he emerges from his bed in the morning. “Ahhaa.” Thomas could only blink repeatedly as the Slytherin lectured him, the frozen charm that kept his body still did little to impact his reaction, as he most likely would just offer a neutral stare at the girl’s rant anyway.

A little dance spell was grounds for him to not only lecture Thomas, but judge him for the way he handled his duties as a prefect. “I-I am. Today’s lesson: Learn how to have a sense of humor.” The words that would arrive may sound like a person who’d just had their wisdom teeth removed, but Thomas found Knight’s rant undeserved and melodramatic. Would she see it that way? Likely not.

@Dealla Prince | @Ileen Knight

Ah, yes, she could definitely use her wand better than she could dance, although she was rather certain she'd be an excellent dancer as well if she'd put even half the time into dancing that she had into spellcasting. He appeared to be completely unconcerned by having her wand pointed at him, either fearless, stupid, or both, but he learned better right away, right in the middle of lecturing Ileen on the art of insulting someone. To be fair, Ileen's insult hadn't been the most creative, but it had almost been elegant in its own dumb simplicity. Honest, if nothing else. It had the corner of Dee's lips twitching upward. Watching the boy freeze up, his muscles tensing until he was unable to even move his head, did the rest to lighten up her mood.

She could also rather obviously use her wand better than Thomas Lestrange could, so it probably wasn't a big loss for him when Ileen disarmed him just a moment later. Dee's eyes tracked the wand into the grass, marking its position, while Ileen followed her spell with giving the opposing Slytherin a piece of her mind about responsibility and idiotic prefects. Dee blinked at her. Right, right, the silver badge on the boy's chest that Dee had absently taken notice of but then proceeded to successfully ignore. Interesting choice, that one. Thankfully not her House. Ravenclaw's prefects seemed sensible, probably.

At his lesson plan, Dee's lips turned fully into a smile, although one with sharp edges, and she skipped over to where she'd seen his wand disappear into the grass, giving Ileen the chance to reply first, if she wanted to. "I think our sense of humour is fine, thank you for your concern," she tacked on. "Yours is a little questionable, maybe, but that doesn't really surprise anyone now, right?" Squatting down, she picked the slim wooden stick up between the tips of her fingers. Pretty, she thought, a little longer than hers, and less reddish. She liked hers better. It was a little wilful, but so was she.

She gave him a glance from the corner of her eyes, unsure if he could even see her, frozen as he was, but it probably wouldn't last all that much longer. Immobulus was a nice spell, but it had its limits. Of course, she could just cast it again, keep him helpless a while longer, but where was the fun in that? Straightening up, she lifted his wand, pointing it at him. "I don't think you need this, do you? Since apparently your aim isn't good enough to hit anyone either way. So you won't mind if I keep it for you for a while, right?" Glancing down at her watch-less wrist, her voice switched then into an impressively insincere tone of surprise. "Oh, would you look at that? So late already? I've got to go, big plans today, many preparations to make." That part wasn't even a lie, although she had no clue about the time. "I'll try not to drop this into the lake on my way up to the castle," she added, gifting Lestrange with a smile as bright as it was fake. "Although it might be safer for everyone involved if I did."

Turning towards Ileen, she continued with a wink and a cheeky grin. She should be able to handle him fine. Maybe she'd make a run for it, too. "Thank you both for this amazing dance lesson. Are you coming, Ileen?" Only seconds left to her spell at this point, probably. Could she see his fingers twitching? Time to run, although it ended up resembling skipping more than anything.

@Ileen Knight | @Thomas Lestrange

Ileen glared at the boy, her dark brown eyes narrowed to aggressive slits. How could he, even though he was standing around disarmed and frozen, still be so relaxed and cheeky? Either he was a better actor than she had assumed, or he had a completely twisted perception and still thought that his position gave him any advantages.
Anyhow, his calm and somewhat chill behaviour annoyed her even more. Arrogant Slytherins! To be fair, there wasn't much the boy could do right now anyway to revise her opinion of him. Probably that wasn't his intention anyway, but Ileen tended to pigeonhole people very quickly and he had clearly landed in the one labeled 'arrogant irresponsible idiot'.

“Sense of humor?” With a snide snort, she let her wand slip back into her sleeve and raised an eyebrow, half amused, half annoyed. The danger seemed to be banished for the time being, at least the one that could be averted with a wand. She could not help but be a little proud. She had really improved once again in casting. “Maybe you are just a terrible teacher, no matter what’s the subject.”

Reducio

Ileen’s lecturing face

She still had the indignant and lecturing expression on her face. Her heart was pounding and her cheeks were flushed with anger. She had straightened up bolt upright, so as not to indicate any weakness, and drew her brows together.
As expected, Dee didn’t hesitate to take her side, though she was much more relaxed than the young Slytherin girl. Well, after all it wasn’t her House which once again proved that its members were to be treated with caution - how had she ended up there again? And why?

Ileen nodded in agreement to Dee's words as she picked up the ‘conversation’ again, dissolving her passive aggressive posture as a giggle escaped her.
The corners of her mouth twitched as the Ravenclaw picked up the wand, and she couldn't suppress a certain grim satisfaction.
“I’m sure you are actually doing him a favor. His aim is so terrible he would rather hurt himself.”
If she would have thought about it reflectively, she probably would have realized that the boy had perhaps not deserved her concentrated displeasure. Her whole bitterness on her own House had simply discharged at his little 'joke'. But still, it probably didn't hit the wrong one.

As Dee retreated, Ileen didn't even think about continuing to stand around waiting for Thomas Lestrange to move again. The spell would lose its effect soon, and she had no interest in being around then. “Yes, you are right.” She shrugged and waved coquettishly over her shoulder at him when she had already turned to leave. “Sorry. Busy day.”
With a grin she looked up at Dee and shook her head slightly. "Well, you can't deny that I'm the better dance teacher by far. Or it's really you and you're just a bad student."
She was less brave than she let on and had to actively stop herself from turning around to see what her opponent was doing. But maybe it was not bad to speed up her steps a little bit.

@Dealla Prince | @Thomas Lestrange