Closed Punishing Palmistry PV George Henry

"Hang on now!" Bubba said indignantly at the idea of having an apple stuffed in his mouth, "You make me sound like some sort of stuck pig!" With his free hand he gestured towards himself, "I think I'm quite slim myself, that's quite rude!" He said, actually a bit annoyed this time. He put far too much time into his appearance to be compared to a pig. "Plus I thought that house elves were supposed to be very polite, prim, and proper! Surely they'd just shove my ass out of there with the iced coffee and a platter full of eclairs or something..."

He had to rack his brain to try to even remember what happened during that quidditch match. Honestly once he'd seen Greta there everything kind of turned into a great big blur. He remembered Ravenclaw doing well at first and then making a fool of himself in front of Greta. Then he didn't remember much of anything. "To tell you the truth, no idea, I remember us doing well when..." He wasn't sure what to say, he didn't want to embarrass himself or for George to think he was stupid, but figured what the hell, "There was this girl from Durmstrang I met, and every time I saw her I felt... a bit odd... blushy... flustered... whatever... I saw her at that match and I don't remember much of it besides seeing her."

Bubba yanked his hand away from George, it was really sore from how tight he was holding onto it, "Hey, take it easy!" He said as he shook it to restore some feeling in it before offering it back to George, "Bit rough aren't you?" He said as George went on about June, he really didn't want to talk about this but he'd brought it up. "Yeah so basically, at the detention, I heard your story and then thought I zoned out... because when I kinda woke back up she was gone." He paused and continued, "Turns out, I told her that if she'd said to me what she said about you in the fire, I would've set the free on fire instead of flipping her." He finished and all the color drained from his face. "I... I don't know what came over me. It must've been one of those out-of-body experiences or some shit because I didn't remember saying it... and I never would joke about that after... what happened to me."

He was quiet for a minute or two after that. He didn't really know what to say. He kinda zoned out and didn't pay much attention to what George said for a couple of minutes. It wasn't that George was boring he just got lost in the moment again. He still couldn't believe he'd set it and was deeply ashamed that he had.

Then George started talking about Samantha. Bubba could tell George was enjoying his big reveal. So he thought Samantha liked him. "Wait a minute," Bubba said, holding up a hand, "Samantha didn't say that, the girl who pushed me into the lake said Samatha liked me. But still, she gave me det-" Bubba broke off midword and everything made sense, he used his free hand to slap himself on the forehead (could've had a V8). "I... am such an idiot... of course she likes me... I acted the same way around Greta that Samantha did around me... which means... that... I like Greta..."

He wasn't sure what to do with this new information.

Interacting: @George Henry Mentioning: @Samantha Salwis

"No one's stuck you yet," George said blithely, with a dark look across at Bubba. He knew that Bubba was not very piglike at all, at least physically, and was mostly interested in making vague threats as payback for what he interpreted as a rather rude introduction to manicures and a tea party. He shook his head with disapproval at the shallow stereotyping of house elves. While he, too, had heard they were meant to provide very good service, the truth was that they were a varied sort, like anyone else. George grumbled "Maybe..." and swapped his grip to Bubba's other hand as he continued cleaning him up.

"Durmstrang quidditch girl?" George said, quirking his head to the side slightly. Someone so pretty that it made the whole match fade into the background? A part-veela, maybe, or something like that. George hadn't met anyone from Durmstrang at camp, let alone any girls pretty enough to wow him, although he had thought Marion was strikingly pretty. Perhaps they just didn't wow George in the same way as they did Bubba, who seemed quite frazzled by all the girls buzzing around him. "Hmmm, okay. What's her name?"

The whole thing with Sam Sandwich or whatever the other Ravenclaw prefect was called suddenly had a fun new twist - Bubba had googly eyes for some random foreign girl who he would probably never see again. Or maybe he would next summer, or over the Hexwizard, and her and Sam would need to duel for Bubba's heart. George couldn't think of a less worthy cause to stage an international incident over, but if he wouldn't get in trouble for it, it was no less than free entertainment.

"Sorry," George said with a shrug as Bubba called out his rough treatment. He, too, took the opportunity to flex his fingers, which suddenly seemed to be made of ice. Certain memories made him feel like he was being petrified, but it became easier with time. Having made amends with June several months ago, he resisted the harsh words that bubbled up when he thought of that detention, listening to Bubba's words instead. "...That's... I can't believe you'd say that."

He didn't say it in a judgemental, or shocked way - merely that he didn't find it believable. He found it perfectly believable that Bubba could have blanked out after hearing the story that Alan so boldly and stupidly shared with the class without even a moment's hesitation to ask permission. George almost did, too, but he was unfortunately rooted firmly in reality, unable to dissociate for even a moment's peace. "Yeah, I... you wouldn't joke about that. Thanks for being mad on my behalf, I guess... me and June are on good terms now. Our dads are friends now... which is weird..."

The older boy gave the prefect's hand a comforting squeeze, though his fingers did feel a bit cold now. "It's okay," George said, sensing that Bubba deeply regretted saying whatever he'd apparently said. The Hufflepuff shifted in his seat, rummaging through his mind for a comparable story to dispense upon Bubba. What happened with Aaron... George felt worse after punching him, but he suspected June felt the slappings were wholly justified. "I'll put in a good word. You'll get along. We've come back from worse."

It was a sure thing that Sam liked Bubba. The only thing for Bubba to do was not fumble it by mentioning the pretty Durmstrang girl, or by trying to ask Sam Salmon out by sending her to detention or something. "Wow - even the lake girl knew," George said, shaking his head in disbelief. Was this another out-of-body experience, or simply part of the out-of-mind experience that constituted Bubba's entire life? "Well... Fall Ball is next month, so I suspect you'll need to decide which one you're going to ask before then. And I'd personally suggest going with the local option. Durmstrangers are weird."

"Yeah, I only learned she played Quidditch kind of accidentally... and apparently not anymore." He said in response to George's question about her. Now that it had been some time since he'd seen her he was feeling significantly less ensorcelled with her. She seemed nice enough and was cute but he really didn't know anything about her. He wondered if he'd go all aflutter if he saw her again. "Her name's Greta," Bubba answered, "I dunno she was just cute... I don't really know anything about her. She has a slightly better English vocabulary than a Niffler so communication was... difficult." He finished before adding, "Not that I had much success stringing two goddamn words together around her."

Bubba was really quite glad he'd lured George here. George was fun to talk to (even if a little bit of a pain in the ass) and he'd done him a real solid explaining what was going on with Sam in regards to him and him in regards to Greta. Now he just had to figure out what to do with it. Sam's flustered expression on the train certainly made more sense now. Did he like Sam? She was very nice, and smart, and a Ravenclaw which was always a bonus. And now that he knew what her deal was he was less mad about the detention. She basically did to him what he did to George, just for different reasons.

Bubba looked out the window as George talked about what he'd said to June. "Shit, man, I can't believe I said it either... I was shocked, absolutely shocked when Maggie told me." He took a sip of his now lukewarm tea to buy time and collect his thoughts. He didn't really care about the slaps, he was mouthy, and it wasn't the first time someone's hand had made uncomfortable contact with his face. It was the realization of what he said that bothered him. "When she told me I honestly felt like I deserved a few more."a

Bubba nodded in appreciation when George offered to talk to June for him. "I appreciate that but it's not needed," Bubba said as he watched George continue to work on him. Manicures could be a bit uncomfortable depending on the shape your hands were in but George was going a good job with it. "She and I talked the day after all that happened. We're not going to be bosom friends anytime soon but we've at least agreed to... I guess cease hostilities. I'll take it." Bubba laughed when George told him about his and June's dad being friends, "Can't say I know anything about her dad though."

"Alright look..." Bubba began, he may have sounded annoyed but he wasn't, hopefully, George understood, "When she was alive my mom would always go on about how my dad was absolutely oblivious to whatever signs she was giving him so... guess it just runs in the family." Bubba had already been thinking about the Fall Ball when George brought it up. "I don't know... I have to figure out how to feel about Sam... I like her I just don't know if I like her like her, but at least I know her. I don't really know anything about Greta..." He trailed off before adding, "Although based on my experience Greta was the only Durmstrang I met at camp that didn't seem like a complete asshole."

Interacting: @Alan Vanes Mentioning: @Samantha Salwis, [mention[Evelynn Decipio[/mention] as Greta Fransson

"Awwwww," George said, putting his hands up to his cheeks as he fawned over Bubba's adorable reaction to his crush on Greta. Puppy love was so adorable. George could hardly imagine goofy, headstrong Bubba stumbling over his words, all red-faced and blushy. The boy was like a little politician most of the time, although that could have been a quality of his American accent more than anything he actually did. A minor penchant for scheming was hardly enough qualifications to be a politician, and his apparent obliviousness wouldn't serve him well either, but he was twelve, so he could be forgiven for such imperfections.

"I think that could be a positive quality in the right person. I know far too many people who talk too much for their own good," George offered, turning Bubba's hand over in his own. It looked to be about groomed, by now, with his nails clean and filed. It was a successful manicure, although it still seemed to be lacking something.

The older boy shrugged when Bubba shared his thoughts on the sentencing Maggie doled out for him. Slaps were warranted. If it were him, a few jinxes might've been put on Bubba, but the detention so long ago - the statue of limitations or whatever was gone by now. "Well, I guess if you've reached some kind of peace, I won't interfere," George said, though he wasn't sure he meant it. Normally he would've been certain he would interfere, but he hardly had the time these days. It wasn't like he had time to get bored between all his classes. "Just watch your mouth, I guess."

One of George's hands left the table, reaching down to dig through his enchanted satchel. It returned with a small vial of shiny blue fluid that shimmered as George shook the bottle. Nail polish! "Her dad is a writer, so's mine, so they bonded. It's very weird," George said with a sigh. To be honest, George was glad his dad made a friend - he'd been having a lonely summer. Even better that it was a wizard friend, which might get Mr. Henry to finally take his son's whole education a bit more seriously.

"You don't have to like like her to ask her to a ball. Besides, it's not like you're proposing or whatever. Unless Sam is like... you know, super clingy," George said, with a repulsed shiver. Being obsessed with a boy? Could never be him. Bubba seemed to be weighing his options between the familiar prefect and the mysterious, alluring quidditch queen of Durmstrang. George reached for the nail polish, twisting the cap off as he continued speaking, swiping the excess off the rim of the bottle and preparing to move in for the kill on Bubba's blank nails. "I'm not sure 'the only one who isn't awful' is the best standard for your love life, Bubba. Besides, if she's friends with all her awful little schoolmates, you're going to have to deal with them. They could be your in-laws."

Bubba was keenly aware that George was having too much fun listening to him talk about his experience with Greta over the summer. He guessed it had been fun, well parts of it were. The Prank War was fun, but he still had a model car that was still bright pink and not as it should be. Then there was Capture the Jolly Roger. "Yeah, I didn't really talk to her. She did help me out once though. I got kinda yeeted during Capture the Jolly Roger and she patched me up." He also remembered meeting her Durmstrang 'friends', who seemed like a thoroughly unpleasant lot.

"I don't know," Bubba replied to George's thoughts about people that talk too much. "My family has always been pretty... not loud but we always talked a lot. If you said something with ten words when you could've used fifty, you just weren't trying hard enough." The McGarry household had always been loud, between Joni's music and his mom and dad talking politics all the time. The truth was Bubba didn't like complete silence. Every time the dormitory got very quiet it just felt wrong to him. "My father's a politician, I think talking a lot just runs in the bloodstream."

Hindsight, as always, was 20:20, of course, he needed to watch his mouth more. What no one seemed to understand was that he didn't know he had said it. It wasn't a conscious decision to say what he said to June. It was more he basically blacked out without passing out, one minute she was there, and the next she wasn't. He couldn't exactly watch his mouth when he wasn't even in control. He had tried to work on keeping control and talking to George about had helped. Instead of arguing the point he just said, "Yeah, I guess you're right."

"Both your dads are writers? That's cool!" Bubba said excitedly, which he realized was the predictable nerdy Ravenclaw response. He loved books so of course, he was interested in writers, hell he wouldn't mind writing a book himself one day. "My dad's a muggle so he doesn't know anyone in our world. And my grandfather's so far 'round the bend that I doubt he'd remember anyone if he did."

"I don't know, I've never, well this is really the first time I've ever liked anyone. And if I'm going to take someone to the ball I want it to be someone I like, not just go because there's no one else to go with." Bubba said, basically thinking out loud more than anything else. "Still, why not? Two Ravenclaw Prefects. What could go wrong?" He then hastily added, "Don't answer that."

Bubba hadn't been paying much attention until George tried to paint his nails. He pulled them away suddenly, barely avoiding knocking the open bottle of polish over. "Hey, I appreciate the manicure but I'm not into polish." He said in what he hoped was a non-offensive manner. He just really didn't want his nails painted. "Like I said, I didn't really get to know her at all. It's easy to be the least worst when you can't say anything offensive."

Interacting: @George Henry Mentioning: @ N/A

George looked up at Bubba, his brow furrowed, peering at him as though he'd just spat out a rabbit or something equally inexplicable. "Yeeted?" the older boy repeated back, quirking his head to the side. It took him a few moments to register that he had heard that term before from his older brother, but he couldn't quite remember what it meant. Obviously it was a bad thing, if it required patching up. "She sounds sweet."

Something which George missed about the muggle world was the ease with which one could find other people. It seemed like George's brother and his mom always had so many pictures of the people they knew, whereas now he just had to trust that Bubba really had met an enchanting Danish princess over the summer. The last thing that George was willing to trust was Bubba's taste, even if he didn't have any particular taste in girls himself.

"You do talk a lot, don't you?" George observed with a dramatic sigh. A smirk appeared briefly as he glanced up at Bubba, revealing that he was of course, only teasing. Many of George's friends were more the quiet, introspective type, so it was nice to spend time with someone who could actually contribute to the work of filling the silence.

"June's dad is quite good. I've never read my dad," George admitted, pursing his lips and humming curiously as he considered that fact. His father's books were always in early drafts, and he'd never really considered reading them again since he left for Hogwarts. Muggle books, all in all, were sort of uninteresting. They always had some sort of problem that could easily be solved with magic, and it just made the whole experience impossible to connect with as a wizard. "My whole family're muggles. But my parents know me, so hey, there's a wizard."

The elder of the two clicked his tongue and wagged a finger no at Bubba. "You should go with someone every time, otherwise people will notice and think, 'oh no, he's got something wrong with him,' and then next time you ask somebody they won't go with you." George advised as though he were the expert on the subject of tweenage politics, knocking on the table to add some extra oomph to his ruling.

"Oh, what could go wrong, well-" George began enthusiastically, before Bubba silenced him with that hasty addition. His fun ruined, he was doubly insulted as Bubba nearly knocked over the bottle of polish that he'd been prepared to generously share with the prefect. Incensed, George snatched up the bottle and began screwing the cap back on tightly, tossing it down into his satchel again.

"Hey! That's expensive, you know!" George scoffed. Some boys made such a big deal over getting their nails painted. It wasn't like it was poison, and it would certainly get Bubba some of the attention he seemed to enjoy so much. "Sam would probably like it. You'd look open-minded and avant-garde. But fine, if you want boring, naked nails, suit yourself..."

George leaned back and folded his arms - the manicure complete, and his polish denied, his work here was done for the time being. In terms of the beauty treatment, that was. There was still the important work of making sure Bubba scored a date to the upcoming ball and did not chicken out. Imparting a final piece of wisdom on the young lad, George sighed and took on a grave tone. "Ask out your little prefect girlfriend or someone else will."

"Yeah, you know, yeeted," Bubba said if it was the most common thing in the world to use yeeted. At least it was to him, but it clearly wasn't to George. "You know, like I could take this teapot and yeet it out the window right now." He said as he gestured to the teapot. He tried to think of another example, "Like when June was in the tree and you yeeted her out." He hoped that would sufficiently convey the meaning he was trying to convey to George. To Bubba it was all very simple really. To yeet or not to yeet? That was the question.

Bubba shot George a playful dirty look as he said he talked a lot but it was all in good fun. "Honestly, it depends, some people I talk a lot with, others I'm really quiet," he said with a shrug more to himself than anyone else. "I think it's just a matter of being comfortable with people, once I get to know someone I tend to talk a bit more, until then though I can be a bit of a clam." It was something he didn't really like about himself but he wasn't sure how to fix it. He thought it might be a confidence issue but he didn't know. He just wished he could be a bit more gregarious when he first met new people.

Bubba listened as George talked a little bit about his family. Bubba didn't normally talk about his given all his losses but he figured George already knew the worst thing so he might as well talk about the rest of his family. "It's weird," Bubba started, still not sure what he was even going to say, "I know my mom's side of the family is at least all wizard-born but for some reason, my mom cut herself off from the world when she left Ireland for America, I've never met her mother. The only reason we moved her is that my grandfather was really sick and there was no one else to take care of him." He decided that was all he needed to say on the subject for now.

As Bubba listened to George talk about the intricacies of teenage politics he couldn't help but think that George had no idea what the hell he was talking about. The stuff George was saying just didn't track with him. He didn't think there was anything wrong with going stag. He'd rather do that than go with a complete stranger or someone he didn't like. "Look I'm not an expert but I don't think that's necessarily true, I think it'd be far worse to go with someone and then act like a complete buffoon around them than to go alone."

Bubba gave a wry smile as George got defensive about his nail varnish. He had no doubt it was expensive but was definitely not wearing it. "I'm just fine with boring nails," he said with a smirk.

As he said that, his Siamese cat Kalle walked into the classroom and jumped up on the desk between them, "Well look who it is," he said with a smile as he took his free hand and started scratching Kalle behind the ear, who began purring immediately. Without looking away from the cat he responded to George's encouragement to ask Sam out, "Don't worry, I intend to."

Interacting: @George Henry Mentioning: @ N/A