Dusty Picnic PV Haley Rose

English: #008000 Parsel: #008080

@Emma Wynn as Louca

Haley was just reflecting on the previous evening laying on her bed. While most of the students had gone to the ball, Haley had spent the evening on a very private date with Ronnie. While she was lost in her thoughts she got a little surprised as the girl received an owl from Louca, but a big smile had immediately formed on her lips. A quick glance at the clock told her that she would have to get ready and leave immediately in order to make it on time, and so she did. She looked at the note one last time and surprised at the location she laughed softly and shook her head before heading out.

It wasn't long before Haley had arrived at the Dungeons and spotted Louca, who was doing a handstand. "Well this is an unusual place for a meeting." She greeted him with a smile, not meaning it in a negative way. "This looks great." She looked at the blanket and the food on the floor and glanced back at him, who by now was back on his feet and not his hands. "Please teach me how you do that." She laughed but meant it sincerely, she would only love to be able to do a handstand.

Opening her arms, she walked towards Louca to give him a warm hug. "It's so good to see you again." She said before releasing the hug. "How are you? Did you go to the ball? Are you excited about your the first task yet?" Haley had so many questions for Louca and was dying to know how he had been and what was new with him. She didn't even know where to start, but it was nice to get some distraction from all the other things. "Okay, that was a lot of questions all at once." She giggled and shrugged her shoulders apologetically. "Still, I'd like an answer to each one." She added with a laugh.

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Grinning upside down at Hailey, Louca pushed off the ground, bringing his feet back to the ground. Dusting off his palms on his jeans, he shrugged, replying "If the weather would have cooperated, it would have been outside, but I figured the dungeons were less likely to be crowded like the hallways and classes." He knew Hailey probably didn't mean it in a negative way considering the smile, but he still wanted to make it clear it hadn't been his first choice either.

Once he was sure he had gotten as much dust off his hands as possible, he moved towards the blanket. Laughing slightly, he said "I'm sure you'd pick it up in no time. Honestly, I just learned from leaning against walls and then trying to take some steps away. Meant some bruises for a bit but it seems to have stuck at least." Louca usually found that more physical pursuits came somewhat easily to him although he did still need to do things several times before picking them up. And he was fearless at going for something. Especially when it came to something new.

Accepting the hug, Louca stepped back for a moment, waving his hands to the blanket, before dropping down himself. "It's good to see you again as well! Glad my owl got to you in time." Laughing, he grabbed some grapes, and popping one in his mouth, he then answered, teasing her as well. "Did you take a breath between those sentences? and do I need to reply in the same manner?" He didn't wait for her response, nor did he manage it in one sentence either. "I'm good, glad to be back at Hogwarts, nice break from school. And I did very briefly. Didn't really feel like sticking around I guess." The truth was he had been feeling a bit out of sorts that night, though he couldn't really explain why. He just hadn't felt up to his usual interactions so had left shortly after he arrived. "I sure am! Though admittedly, I have no clue how to play chess so that will be interesting. Kind of curious how they're going to make it easy for everyone to see what's going on. Now back at you. I looked for you at the ball but couldn't find you, figured it was just so crowded it would be impossible. "
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English: #008000 Parsel: #008080

@Emma Wynn as Louca

Haley couldn't help but laugh when Louca claimed it wasn't that hard to do a handstand. "Well, we'll see. I think I'm going to have to try this out later and I need you to protect me from bruises." Laughing, she shook her head before sitting down on the blanket with Louca. "This is great, really. Even if we're not outside." She really meant it, it was great that he had made the effort and she appreciated it.

Haley copied Louca and threw some grapes into her mouth as well. "Yeah I'm glad too, that was a really close one." She giggled. "As you know, I'm particularly good at saying a lot in just one breath." She stuck her tongue out at him for a moment before continuing. "But let me answer your questions. You CAN answer the same way, of course you don't have to. Even if you try you could never do it with just one breath." She joked further, finally waiting for him to answer her questions.

"I'm really glad to hear you're doing well. I'm afraid I hadn't seen you when you arrived, or I would have made you stay a little longer. But anyway, we're finally seeing each other now." Haley picked up a few grapes again before continuing. "Well I can't give you an express lesson in chess right now unfortunately but I do have a tip for you that I got from my grandmother: Don't think too short. Think about your move and its consequences. But above all, think about your opponent's moves. Try to understand him, what he wants to achieve with his move, what could be his next move and how will he react to your move. I hope this helps you and I bet you will do well. Not good enough to beat our team of course but certainly good." Of course she was making a heartfelt joke. Of course she was Team Hogwarts, but may the better one win and while she would always cheer for Hogwarts, she would begrudge the others if they did well.

The ball - Haley had to smile. "Well, never thought I'd miss a ball here." Again the girl giggled, as she did so often and probably far too often in her opinion, but that was her cheerful nature. "But I had a great evening anyway. I had my own private ball, so to speak." Haley smiled at the memory. The starry night, the dinner by the lake, the music of the ball in the background and dressed as if she was actually going to the ball. "Well I sort of had a date, but it was at least as nice as the ball. In fact, much more awesome for me." Haley blushed and while it was a great memory, after all it was the night Ronnie and her officially became a couple, she didn't want to bug Louca about it.

"But tell me, how was the ball? Who were you there with? What crazy thing happened this time?" And there it was again, one breath and lots of questions. When it hit Haley, she started laughing out loud. "By Merlin's beard, I'm sorry. But seriously, it's Hogwarts, something must have happened, right?" She was curious to see what Louca would tell her. If she had been focused on anything other than Ronnie for the last few days, she would surely have picked up on it by now but that's how she is, young stupid love, it limited the field of vision.

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Louca laughed along with Haley, glad the girl would trust him enough to catch her when she fell. Alright, that seemed a bit corny and all, so he just laughed harder, sure he looked like a mad person. Forcing himself to try to stop laughing, he was able to reduce it to chuckles before saying “I’m glad you trust me that much. just got a bit corny in my head. I mean it’s not that funny otherwise.” He said to try to explain what had been going on in his head and try to rationalize the crazy laughter. Although he couldn’t say whether it had been truly crazy or not, but certainly more heavy than the situation had warranted.

Grabbing a strawberry, he bit into the fruit, grinning and trying to prevent juice from running down his chin. He failed, so quickly popped as much as the fruit in his mouth without eating the green stem, and then wiping at his chin. Shrugging, he said “Nothing wrong with that. In fact it probably is a timesaver. And nope, I don’t have that particular skill set. I’m sure some people wish I did.” He had been told sometimes that he talked too much, but he wasn’t one for silence and he preferred to fill it with talking. Or music but since he couldn’t carry a gramophone around in his pocket and he wasn’t a very good singer it was just better for everyone that he talked instead of other options.

Louca’s eyes widened at Haley’s tip, and he did his best to keep his reply focused in his mind. Because thinking ahead was admittedly a weakness, but maybe he could be the voice of reason and keep that in the forefront of his team’s mind? And hopefully develop the skills. Thinking about others thoughts and understanding them might be a bit easier for him than thinking ahead, but both were skills he hadn’t felt the need to develop as of yet.

He chuckled, grabbing some more grapes and a strawberry, carefully eating them before responding. “I’ll have to keep your advice in mind. Admittedly not a strong suit but maybe I can help pass that wisdom onto my team or at least keep it in the forefront of everyone’s mind. Who knows? Maybe this is a chance to work on those skills. And here I thought I’d have your support.” Sighing dramatically, he put a hand to his forehead, trying to frown a bit but unable to pull it off. Louca grabbed his water and took a quick sip, placing it down.

Grinning, Louca couldn’t help but tease the blushing girl. “Ohhhhhhh…someone’s got a crush! Do tell.” He chuckled, wondering what else he could say. He was sure there must be something better that he could have added to make his response even better. Adding quickly he said, “but good, I’m glad you enjoyed it even if you weren’t at the traditional ball.”

“It was good, I didn’t end up going with anyone but I had a fun time. Mostly just chatter with some new people honestly. Admittedly it was a rather quiet night at least around me. I don’t think anyone caught fire or ended up in a duel, but maybe it was just my bad luck to miss all the excitement.”


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