Opposites Do Not Always Attract Finished

Adam wasn't really paying attention to his surroundings while he walked down the school corridor, which might have been why he collided with the angry girl. He had been prepared to murmur a quick apology and be on his way, but it seemed the girl had other ideas -- she glared at him and berated him severely, and for a moment he was too overcome by surprised fear to answer. He realized, when the shock of it had worn off, though, that he hadn't done anything wrong. People got hit sometimes, so what? Waiting until the girl was finished with her rant, he met her eyes and raised his hands in mock surrender.

"Whoa, there, calm down. Sorry for hitting you, but, is everything okay? That seemed like kind of an overreaction, if you don't mind me saying. It's not every day you get called a peasant by a stranger." He made sure to put a calming tone in his voice, hoping to reassure her that he wasn't trying to yell back. Adam wasn't sure what was going on with the Slytherin girl, but he was pretty sure he didn't want to end up on her bad side. Better give her a chance to explain first.

Aravis listened to the boy speaking. He sounded calm and looked a bit scared at first. She took a deep breath and was prepared to say he was forgiven (even if it was really her who should apologize). That was, until, he had said the simple little word she hated so much. Overreacting. Her eyes flared up once again with pure rage. "Overreacting? Overreacting?! I do NOT overreact to things!" That was a flat out lie. She had overreacted about at least seven things that morning. This would make number eight. She knew she was overreacting much to far but Aravis was too stuck up to actually let someone get away with calling her that. 

"Maybe had you been looking out for others enjoying their stroll you wouldn't have nearly run me over! Your lucky I'm not going to hex you into next week!" Her Aunt would be proud of her for her attitude. However, her mother would have been disappointed. This fact sunk in as Aravis's mood went from pure rage to sadness. Her eyes stopped glaring with anger for a moment. "I wouldn't have called you a peasant if you hadn't ran into me. Quick apologies and running off after aren't good enough when you could have trampled me."

"Oh, is that true?" he answered, starting to feel himself get angry too. Who did this girl think she was, stalking around the halls, shouting people out of her way and getting mad when they disobeyed? He should remind her how it worked at the school, and he was about to -- when he saw something change. The light in the girl's eyes dimmed just slightly, the anger wavering just long enough to be noticeable. Adam was no psychologist, but he knew how to read changes in emotion decently. He couldn't help wondering what caused these violent outbursts from the Slytherin in front of him.

Adam shook his head and lowered his hands. "Actually, never mind. I'm going to get out of your way--" he stepped aside, showing off the empty hallway behind him, "--but I just want to ask you one more time, are you okay? You seem kind of sad. I know it's not really my place to judge. Go on if you feel like it. I'm not going to stop you. But if you want to maybe, uh, talk a little, I'd be....I'd be open to that." He scratched the back of his neck awkwardly. Adam wasn't really prepared to deal with these kinds of situations, and he hoped he was doing okay. Maybe he should end a little more light-heartedly? Yeah, it couldn't hurt. "'After all, peasants aren't necessarily a bad thing, right?"

The boy had seemed rather angry himself at first. After Aravis lowered her guard he was kind and had said nice things. It confused Aravis to no end. She didn't see how someone could go from angry to kind so quickly. Mad to sad she understood well however. "I-" She had begun to speak but found her voice to be cracking. 

Her family would be disappointed in how she let her guard down and then let her voice falter. For some reason she could not find the words she was looking for in her mind. One thing pushed it's self to the front of her mind. A picture of her mother and a note in her diary. For a moment she was happy yet sad. It was as if she had forgotten that the Ravenclaw boy she had yelled at was there. 

She quickly shook her head pushing the thought of her mother and the note away. "I'm fine thank you very much." Aravis had a rather mixed tone, both polite yet cold. She had considered talking about the issue with her family for a moment. A voice in her head forced it's way into her thoughts. "Aravis, you must never let your guard down. Never let someone sneak a look in your emotions. You would disgrace your Father. Do you understand?" The black haired girl nodded her head as if to say yes to her Aunt who wasn't even there. 

"My mother-" She had begun to explain why she was upset but stopped. She caved into to the dreadful voice of her Aunt. "Actually, it's not of your buisness! Don't pry into someone's life after knocking them over!" Her words were cold again, but her eyes showed fear and sadness. Like she was in a water with herself. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to-" 'To what? What exactly should I say' Aravis couldn't find exactly what she should apologize for. Lashing out perhaps? Blaming him for something she did? She shook her head and decide not to finish. "I should probably go. I'm sorry."

Adam was concerned for the girl still in front of him. She seemed confused, tortured, even, torn apart by some inner conflict that Adam couldn't begin to guess at. She had bounced from angry, to apologetic, to angry again, and now she seemed ready to slip away. Adam would feel guilty if she went on feeling bad about herself, or whatever it was that she was feeling bad about. Maybe it was his mother's kindness showing through, or maybe it was just natural human decency. No matter the reason, Adam was determined to make her feel better -- or at least find out why she was so angry.

"Well, I'm not going to stop you, but if you wanted to talk...I've got nowhere urgent to be." He smiled awkwardly, hopefully reassuringly as well, and tried to make himself seem as friendly as possible. "I mean, I may not know exactly what you're going through, but I've had my share of bad days. It's always good to talk, right?" Adam hoped he could help this girl out, or at least begin to. He didn't like seeing other people sad.

As she went to walk away he spoke again. Aravis stopped to listen. He was probably too kind for his own good, or so she thought. "I'm fine. I'll be fine. Besides you wouldn't understand what it's like to go through what I do."  Aravis spoke with a flat tone. She seemed rather bored of talking. She hated talking about her past. All the rumors about her spread through the school like a wild fire. "Besides, I don't talk about feelings. I was always told to hide them." She had always assumed hiding feelings was the way to close yourself off from others. She was always isolated from people she had wanted to talk to so she began to isolate herself from everything. 

Aravis always assumed that no one ever understood her past. Maybe no one really did. Not many people could say they did some of the things Aravis did as a child. It was a war between her Aunt and her mother in her head. "If you don't mind, I really should go. You see I have an event to prepare for." She could never remember the name of the event. All she knew was it started with either Bloom or Blossom and it was near the great lake. She really needed to work on remembering names. "I guess I'll see you around." She said as she ran off back inside with her long black hair flowing behind her as she dropped the crumbled letter to her mother behind her unknowingly. 

Adam watched the girl run back into the school, feeling a little guilty, and knew that there wasn't much he couldn't have done anyways. It still felt bad, though. Resisting the urge to call out to her again, to try and help even though he knew she didn't want it, Adam held back and turned to leave. It was pure luck that he noticed the letter fall from her grasp, down onto the ground. She'd need that, wouldn't she? Rushing to pick it up, Adam realized that this could be the reason the girl was so hostile. Was she having problems at home? Had something terrible happened? It really wasn't Adam's place to wonder about others, but he couldn't help it. He would feel awful if something was going on and he didn't do anything to help with it.

No. What was he thinking? Adam couldn't read anyone's mail! Was he seriously considering that right now? Shaking his head in an attempt to clear it, Adam looked down at the letter and bit his lip. It was wrong, it was wrong, it was wrong.....but what if it could help? What if it could make this girl just a little less angry? Would it be worth it?

God, Adam sounded like he was in a TV drama. He had been confident coming into the school, and he needed to get that confidence back before he found himself in more situations like this. Chasing after the girl, he called out, "Wait! You dropped your letter!" Hopefully, he could still catch up to her before she disappeared.

Aravis was speedily walking down the corridor as fast as she could that wasn't considered running. She was long gone by the time Adam started running after her. She was hurrying to the common room to chuck hee letter kn the fire. She found it pointless to write seeing as her mother was dead. She went to grab it put of her pocket before she realized she had droped it. She looked frantically up and down the halls. Retracing her steps she ran to where she had been earlier. 

"Wait! You dropped your letter!" A voice said from around the corridor. She knew who it was immeaditely. However she didn't manage to brace for impact the second she ran right into him knocking them both down rather hard. She simply had no warning that someone would be there until it happened. 

"We have got to stop meeting like this." She said with a slight laugh as she sat up rubbing her head. "The letter wasn't too important I just need to burn it. Are you ok? I didn't mean to slam into you like that." She seemed to have always been running straight into people no matter who she met.

Was he destined to get hurt every week this year? Adam was on the ground yet again, rubbing his knee, cursing his bad luck. He'd been so desperate not to let the girl forget her letter that he hadn't seen her running back, and as a result they had both collided with each other and toppled over. He laughed at her joke as she sat up and rose to his feet, offering a hand to help her up. "We really do. Believe it or not, I think I've spent more time on the floor than anywhere else in the castle."

Adam handed her the letter, wondering why she had said she was going to burn it. It looked like she'd been meaning to send it...was it really as unimportant as she claimed? He knew it wasn't his place to ask, so he kept his mouth shut. "It's totally okay, by the way. I really should've been watching where I was going. It's not your fault at all!" Smiling, Adam dusted himself off and figured he should at least give the Slytherin girl his name before they parted ways. "I never introduced myself, did I? I'm Adam. Good to meet you!"

It was at that moment that the great bells in the clocktower rang out and Adam realized that he was going to be really late for class. Embarrassed, he smiled apologetically at her. "I'd better go if I don't want to get in any more trouble. Good luck with that letter! Hope to see you again soon!" Adam knew it would've been polite to wait for an answer, but he had run out of time for answers. Practically running down the hallway, Adam wished he had more time to talk to the girl, but he knew they'd see each other again some time.

Adam exits the thread, running to his next class.