Closed Just Keep Walking PV Percival

By the time the pair had made the long journey back to the castle it was seemingly empty. Many of the students and professors were elsewhere using their time, leaving only Winnie and Gray alone to ponder what happened this chaotic night. They were walking in silence for a short time to the sound of their beating hearts. It was only when they were walking in the corridors did the fellow Irishman broke the silence.

Winnie was correct about the night being confusing. If someone had come up to Gray and said to him he'd be acting this way with Winnie he would have laughed in their face. Something clicked tonight, but he was unsure as to what caused it. However, the headliner incident was a little more clear. To say the least, he was acting like a prat there "Yea, the headliner..." Gray said awkwardly while lifting a hand to his face briefly "I feel like I may have gotten ahead of myself there" The boy said with a sigh, unsure of how to explain the reasoning behind it.

Thankfully, Winnie seemed to head into a more wholesome. Every girl wanted a fairytale ending with a lad who treated her like a gentleman, she was no exception. The only disappointing part of that was she was never going to have that with a boy like Matt, he'd probably dump Winnie in a heartbeat if he started to lose even a single ounce of interest. Even with that, Winnie still desperately believed with hope in her heart.

"You know, it's still possible to have that happy ending" Percival said with a brief smile as he slowly came to a stop and looked at her "Sometimes it takes longer than others to find that story, the same one that you dream to happen. Just because we live in the real world doesn't mean we can't make these stories a reality. All you need to do is keep searching and one day a person with the same dream will find you"

Gray looked into Winnie's eyes and smiled lightly, his expression translating the memories he was thinking about "I had that once..."

Action:
Statistics, Abilities, & Items
Stamina: 9 / Evasion: 10 / Strength: 9/ Wisdom: 7 / Arcane Power: 7 / Accuracy: 11
Abilities: Fearless
Statistically Relevant (+2 Stamina)
+1 Stat Point from Duelling Win

‿︵‿୨✿୧‿︵‿

Interacting: @Percival Gray

Outfit: ✿ | ✿ | ✿

Mentioning: @

English | Irish

"You think?" Winnie responded a bit too sarcastically, a raise of her brows following. At least the comment had broken the tension. "I still don't understand why you were so interested in my love life. Do you know what my mother told me after I owled her to complain about you? That you must have a crush on me." Her lips curled into an amused grin, "So I told her that she mixed the words up, because I was pretty sure you wanted to see me crushed."

Winnie thought it was very kind of the Slytherin to play into her delusions, it seemed he had grown a tolerance for her starry-eyed naivete. "I don't think I'm the type of girl who will get a fairytale romance, but that's okay." Winnie's voice cracked as she relayed her fate to Percival, but she swallowed her feelings to continue, "I really wanted that with Matt, but he can't even tell me apart from some other redhaired girl." Was this really what three years of what she thought was a happy relationship came down to? She bit down on her lower lip to keep it from trembling, "I don't want to believe he's a bad person, I was being honest when I said he has always been kind to me..."

Her expression softened when he brought up his past relationship. "I know you did. I miss her too." Winnie admitted to Gray with a knowing nod. Santario had been a good friend to her and the reason she had stopped actively shooting glares at Percival whenever they crossed paths. She wasn't certain if the two had kept writing to each other after she had moved, but... It seemed like they weren't together anymore. "If you're telling me not to give up, you shouldn't either. I mean... I know that nobody can replace someone you've loved so dearly, but new love can blossom. T-That's a common theme in love stories too."

She suddenly realized how much eye contact they were making, and quickly glanced away with a flush blooming across her cheeks, "If there's a girl you already have your eye on, maybe I can help you. I'm okay at writing poetry. I could help you write her something." Her free hand played her a lock of her hair, twirling it around her finger as she nervously continued, "I feel like I owe you after tonight."

Maybe this was the start of a beautiful... Tolerance between the two of them.

@Winnie Harper

Attire: Clothing

"Don't worry about me Winnie I don't give up so easily"

Smiling down to her he also noticed that they had been staring at each other an awful lot. He couldn't help but blush at the same time Winnie did and seemed to try and shove it away by clearing his throat "And please, you don't have to owe me anything. I'm just grateful you're okay now and not too upset with what happened out there" Gray said softly "You also helped me with my thoughts of San, so I'd say we're just about even." Winnie in a way had also helped him this night. For a while, he had felt quite lonely without San as his companion. Now after today, it appears to have given him a whole new perspective.

The thing he found funny was the fact that her mother thought he had a crush on her. He was unsure what to think of that right now, but as time went on he'd be able to have a definitive thought on the statement "Y-you know, I was thinking. After the summer camp do you want to hang out sometime? I'll be visiting my grandparents in Cork and I won't have too much to do. We can have a good walk to the castle ruins maybe?" he asked with a tinge of nerve in his tone.

It wasn't like him to do this, but he wanted to know Winnie a bit more after tonight. Like he thought before, the Irish born girl had made him feel something he hadn't felt for a very long time. He just wanted to make sure his feelings were true and not in the moment.

‿︵‿୨✿୧‿︵‿

Interacting: @Percival Gray

Outfit: ✿ | ✿ | ✿

Mentioning: @

English | Irish

"That is something I have noticed about you, something I found extremely... annoying during our earlier years at Hogwarts." Stubbornness was what Winnie was more likely to call it, but during a time like this it seemed more endearing than anything; if a boy like Percival Gray could still dream about romance, why couldn't a girl like her?

"Well... Who knows, I'm still in shock; talk to me tomorrow. Maybe I'll be pissed off by then." She started to joke before her brows furrowed a bit, "Or maybe what Mathias has done just happens to be overshadowing anything else that's happened tonight." A rare bit of self-reflection from Winnie, it was helping her forget how flustered she had been minutes before.

Until, "... Oh?" She tried to do the math in her head, how long of a drive was it to Cork from Dublin? Three hours? Then it dawned on her that she could probably just ask her Grandparents if there was a public transportation Portkey of sorts. Wait a minute, was Percival... He wasn't... No, it couldn't be that he was asking her on date. He just wanted to hang out with her. Like friends did. When they did... Friendship stuff. "Yes! I mean, I d-don't know the exact dates for the summer camp yet but... I... I would really like that. I gets lonely around my home too. I'd invite you over, if you have any interest in seeing a muggle farm? I know it's not castle ruins or anything..."

@Winnie Harper

Attire: Clothing

"Well, we don't need to talk about that do we?" Percival sighed, his lips curling into a smile after remembering some memories of his younger self in the first two years. As he said, things had changed in terms of his attitude. He didn't want to admit it but he had grown more lenient and patient compared to when he was quick to pass judgment onto those he thought were doing something wrong. He learned to take more time with things, in turn allowing him to get a better understanding of individuals who were a puzzle to figure out.

"Forget about Matt, the more you think about him the more you'll only get more aggravated" Gray encouraged. It was best to reflect on it in the morning when she had a more clear head. Things had been chaotic tonight for poor Winnie, if anything she needed some good rest.

However, when she replied to his request to meet her over the summer he was quite surprised with what she said. A muggle farm? it was certainly a place he wasn't expecting to visit anytime soon or to be invited to in that regard. His parents always told him to be cautious of muggles and the places they lived. Not out of hatred but from the fact it was just two different worlds. Percival didn't know an awful lot about the muggle world other than what had been taught to him in muggle studies, there was probably an awful lot of things he didn't know about out there.

"Hm, I almost keep forgetting your muggle born" Gray chuckled at first, his mind being careful of what to say next just in case he accidentally insulted her "I mean... my parents wouldn't be too fond of me going to such places unsupervised but I can always try and pull a few strings" the boy said with a shrug as if it was no big deal. Going against his parent's word was a no go, however, if something could be done as a compromise then maybe it could be a possibility.

"It wouldn't be too hard to get there, port keys should drop me off close by at least. Although, I must ask. What would your parents think of a pureblood stepping onto their land?"

‿︵‿୨✿୧‿︵‿

Interacting: @Percival Gray

Outfit: ✿ | ✿ | ✿

Mentioning: @

English | Irish

Winnie's brow raised at the Slytherin's request, and she couldn't stop a small smile from twitching onto her lips, "Uh huh. I get it; you don't want to talk about it because you know you were a jerk to me." Her tone was more teasing than accusatory, painted finger nails reaching up to begin untangling the mask's ribbon tie. It had gotten caught in her long locks during the night, tugging on her scalp.

She could only nod in agreement at Percival's suggestion; she knew he was right (Merlin, no one tell her younger self she was thinking such things). It was difficult when her entire brain wanted to hyper fixate on the night they had just had. She likely wouldn't get much, if any, sleep. Luckily her poetry was always a welcome distraction.

"Oh, I'm not actually... A muggleborn, I mean." Not that she minded being mistaken for one; she had pretty much been raised as a muggle after all. "I'm a half-blood; my mum's a muggle, my dad is a pureblood. It's... An odd situation." That was an understatement, considering there were things about Winnie's family that she didn't even know.

Unsupervised? Was this the Edwardian era? She wasn't going to mug the guy and leave him for dead, or take him into a sketchy area. The worst criminals around the farm were the damn goats that had once stolen some clothing from the clothes line to snack on. "Do all purebloods need a supervisor? Are they like babysitters? That sounds exhausting."

"My mum doesn't really understand blood status that well... She'll just be happy to meet one of my fr-... C-Classmates." She wasn't sure if they were at the friendship stage yet, but inviting each other over had to mean something, right?

"Um, she's really only met Jack; we grew up together. She might have a lot of questions about magic... My dad didn't really like to talk about it... He's... He uh... He left a few years ago so it's just my mum and I. His parents, my grandparents, own a bookstore in town. I'm pretty sure they'd love to meet you though, might try to load you up with books."

"Are you sure your family wouldn't mind you hanging out with someone 'like me'?" The last two words were accompanied with air quotes. Winnie may had been naive, but she wasn't completely oblivious to what some pureblood families thought of her kind. She may not have been muggleborn, but she had muggle blood and that was 'close enough' for some of them. Hell, her own great-grandmother had told her as much and had even called her a mutt before. She also knew that the papers always said things about how progressive Matt's family seemed, but she had her suspicions about why she had never met them.

@Winnie Harper

Attire: Clothing

"A jerk? I think I'll stay silent on that one" Percival said with a slight smile. There was doubt he was a little bit mean to the fellow Irishman back in the early years, but as time went on he grew to stand her yapping and annoying teases. Thankfully, with age, he was starting to understand Winnie more and how she was probably better than most people at this school. Most of the students had some arrogance in their step, Winnie on the other hand was skipping through without a care in the world.

Gray's eyebrow raised as soon as Winnie mentioned she was, in fact, a halfblood, which in the pureblood world was almost worse than Muggleborn. For a long time, he had been very cautious of people who considered themselves such a thing. It was only after his third year and speaking with different students of the sort did he started to feel indifferent. He still kept them to a high standard, but at the end of the day, they were like anyone else.

Gray's grandparents on the other hand wouldn't even think about agreeing with such a statement.

"No, my parents are just a bit hesitant in sending me to places that are not a part of the wizarding world. They are not against it by any means, they just want me to be safe." Gray stated truthfully. Compared to the older generation in the family, his parents had a more open mind to what was out there. They even listed muggle music on vinyl, but that was only when it was only them in the house. Even with that going for them, the family still expected anyone coming into their world to go above and beyond.

After all, any slackers were just a waste of magic.

Chuckling to himself, Percival couldn't help but show the humor behind what Winnie was saying. It did certainly sound like Winnie was a copy of her mother, who from the looks of it was going to give him an earful of information regarding books. However, the same question he aimed at her was soon shot back at him. Would his parents allow such a venture?

"Yes, if I give them a good reason. I have a feeling if I simply said that I'd be just going to see you and your mother they'd start going into interrogation mode. However, if I said to them I was doing it for a muggle studies assignment that may lift some doubt away from their minds"

Staring down into her eyes, things seemed to go silent again. A calming aura ran between them both like a river, one that had only just been formed after years of development. Winnie was different, and that alone wanted Gray to find out more about her.

"Creid dom, beidh gach rud go breá"

Reducio

Trust me, everything will be fine

‿︵‿୨✿୧‿︵‿

Interacting: @Percival Gray

Outfit: ✿ | ✿ | ✿

Mentioning: @

English | Irish

It was a damn good thing the Ravenclaw wasn't a mind reader, or Percival would have gotten an earful. Thankfully she could only see his brows raise in surprise. She wasn't sure if he was confused over her lineage or surprised because everything about the girl screamed that she must be a muggleborn. "It's okay; people often mistake me for a muggleborn. I don't mind!"

Pureblood families had always seemed to be far more protective of their children than muggle parents were. "I would assume the wizarding world is a lot more dangerous than the muggle world, but I can understand worrying about sending you to an unknown place."

"An... Assignment?" Winnie couldn't really wrap her mind around not understanding the basics of muggle things, like how her pureblood Grandfather had gotten confused over what a radio was. Still, she wasn't certain how much she liked that Percival would have to lie about the reason they were hanging out.

"Maybe they'd feel better if they met me first? I don't want you to get into trouble. Though-- G-Getting in trouble because I happen to be a half blood is kind of..." She found herself trailing off, her eyes cast downwards. It was always going to be this way, wasn't it? Swift judgements based on her mother being unable to use magic.

Glancing back up at him, she felt her fears start to melt when their eyes locked. Winnie couldn't ignore the way her heart skipped a beat. "Go raibh maith agat... May you have goodness (which basically is a way to say 'thank you' in Irish)." Stepping she pushed herself onto her tiptoes to give the Slytherin a hug.

Realizing just how close she had grown to Percival, the Ravenclaw suddenly stumbled backwards, her cheeks burning red as she tried to regain her composure. "S-Sorry, I should go-- It's getting late and you should get back to your dorm room too, b-before the prefects come out and start yelling at us--" She nervously rambled, her fingers gripping the fabric of her gown so she could start the descent up the long spiral staircase that led to the Ravenclaw common room entrance. "Thank you again, for tonight."