reel it in (open)

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It was the warmest day of the year they'd had so far, and a lot of the students were heading outside to the grounds and lake for some much needed sunlight. Atticus had got up early and woke up his dorm mates, asking them if they wanted to go fishing. He'd managed to find an old fishing rod from the muggle studies classroom and had been reading up on the practice, now raring to go while it was still early.

After a lack of response, he'd gone to the lake by himself. Later on, after being completely unsuccessful in catching anything, he was sat by the lake flicking through a fishing book. He'd been joined by Wade who was practicing his swinging technique, and had dug up some worms in the vegetable patches. Then Lien had come along and sat by him, reading a book of his own: for once it seemed to be a fiction book, and nothing to do with studying for the exams.

"You should know the most about this Wade, you've got muggle parents. Don't they go fishing?"

Holding out her skirt, she bent her knees to a small curtsey, unable to resist after that sort of reception.

"It was good, until Rowle got up to his usual tricks and started morphing like he was half rubber. It's actually frightfully disturbi--"

He was cut off when something cold, wet and heavy pelted to the back of his neck. Spinning around, Rowle was laughing at him and already gathering another lot of snow. By now it was layering on the ground behind the bushes.

Astounded by his sudden childish behaviour, and of course Lestrange would be giggling her head off at it, Hector gave him a very sharp glare.

"Sounds like it was a rather exciting duel, Hector..." He wasn't going to admit that he and Bellona had mainly spent the time talking.

Turning over to Bellona, wanting to minimize any effect of Ptolemy's charisma, Thius asked, "Would you like to learn more? Or do you want to wait and head for lunch now?"

@Bellona Lestrange @Hector Burke

She was half listening to Thius as Ptolemy appeared to be quite merciless with Hector. Then he was squaring up to send one in their direction, and Bellona screeched playfully.

She took Thius's hand suddenly. "Lunch. Now. Let's g-- eek!" One flew past her right ear, and she laughed, pulling Thius away with her to get out of the firing line.

Once they were clear of them, she thought she actually heard Hector laughing.

"I am quite hungry now," she said, still chuckling.

@Melanthius Burke

As snowballs were being yeeted in their direction, Thius chuckled, enjoying some of the closeness that was caused by Bellona taking his hand and getting away from him.

He could feel the warmth that was growing within his cheeks. "Me too. All I've had for breakfast was kipper..." Grinning widely, he began to head away from the forest and to the direction of Hogsmeade.

"I think you'll master Meteolojinx quite quickly, so we'll go over the counterspell later. Are there any specific advanced spells you wish to learn in particular?"

This would help him figure out what to focus on when they meet later in the week.

@Bellona Lestrange

"I must know the shield charm properly, and a strong one too. I want to be the only one in my class that can cast a proper, inpenetratable one," she said, getting straight to the point. Usually she was quite direct on how she wanted things to be, there was no point in wasting time with filler words and pleases where they weren't needed. "I need more defensive strategies in general, but obviously I want to learn all the fun things first: the hexes and the curses. That Babbling one I cast on Grayson actually turned out better than I expected."

She smiled smugly to herself and, realising she was still holding onto Thius, she released him at once as though receiving a shock. His hand was quite soft, actually. Did he use hand cream, or was he just soft in general?

"I didn't want to admit this, but I've enjoyed myself today far more than I ever have done hanging around Jeneva. She can be so tedious sometimes, and her vanity is exhausting. Even that Astrid girl isn't as vain as she is!"

@Melanthius Burke

"That babbling curse was bloody amazing!"

He was in awe of her during that entire exchange with Grayson. The way she carried herself and humiliated that whiny wench with such ease... "Those Gryffindors make it too easy to humiliate them." Thius would've also liked to see her kick the mudblood's arse...

"Speaking of fun hexes, you should've seen some of the ones I used when duelling against Ptolemy. One of them actually made him less graceful than Tremlett!" He found humor to be an unexpectedly great weapon in his duelling arsenal; the element of surprise never failed him thus far.

In a way, Thius hadn't noticed that Bellona was still hanging onto him. It was like a weight, a sensation that was meant to be there.  When it finally hit him that she let go of him, his cheeks flared a bright scarlet.

"I must say, today's been really wonderful as well." He always felt as if he was walking on air with Bellona around. How could he let his fears overwhelm him when she was there? It was blissful, very blissful; he never wanted it to end. "You're much better than I for being able to put up with it. Had Rowle or any of the other lads I hang with behaved in such a way, I would've hexed them numerous times."

@Bellona Lestrange

Now she was positively beaming with pride. She was having a very easy time laughing and smiling today, as she tried to imagine Ptolemy floundering about while trying to compose himself.

"She has no sense of loyalty or value of friendship, so I often wonder what the future holds for her. Once she loses her looks, she'll find herself completely alone."

What man would want to put up with her? They would either have to be very self-loathing, or very stupid.

"I haven't let her go on Thalia's magical mirror: she needs to buck up her ideas first."

@Melanthius Burke

"I'm sure she'll find some poor sucker to leech off of like a parasite. Unfortunately, there are plenty of desperate men in this world. I think we're both aware she'd go through any means necessary to maintain her looks," Thius said, rolling his eyes thinking about Jeneva's conceited nature and horrid temperament.

He always found Avery rather boring and irritating, even when they were children at all of the various pureblood gatherings.

"So, what exactly is the story behind that mirror? Grayson seems to particularly have it out for you."

Hogwarts was becoming smaller and smaller as they walked towards the path to Hogsmeade.

@Bellona Lestrange

Moments later, Hermione returned to the lake from her office with two mugs of green tea. She smiled at Atticus and Lien as she handed the beverages to them. "Here you go, boys!"

@Atticus Nott @Lien Chang

"I took it from them by summoning it, then switching it out for an ordinary mirror. I then broke the ordinary one to make it look like an accident. They think the real one is smashed and lost its enchantment, but I have it. It's a rare one - and very popular with us girls. Most of us want one, but they're difficult to get ahold of."

She wouldn't normally take things willy nilly, it had to be to some sort of purpose.

"Perhaps if they weren't being so rude and not letting us have a few turns with it, I wouldn't have done it."

She couldn't be certain of that, though.

@Melanthius Burke

Atticus was still very firmly attached to him, so it was up to him to acknowledge Mrs Granger's kindness. Atticus was just sniffing and trying to say thank you, but it came out all runny and snotty and wet. Lien sighed, taking his cup.

"Thank you," he said, flushing slightly. She was very nice. "Would it be entirely unfair if I asked you about your thoughts of Professor Voclain, Mrs Granger?" It was worth a punt.

@Hermione Granger

He immediately understood that the mirror seemed to be a more girlish matter. Nonetheless, Thius enjoyed listening to her talk about it. "You sly little fox!" he teased in amusement.

"What is it about the enchantment makes it so sought after? I know you wouldn't have gone after it for no reason."

@Bellona Lestrange

"You're welcome," she replied calmly, still smiling slightly. Hermione pursed her lips upon the mention of Professor Voclain. She was preferable over Riddle, but...

"Voclain is a very nice, caring woman. She has some great ideas, but I don't think she was ready enough to take on the role of headmistress."

@Lien Chang

He was taken back by her honesty. He thought she would likely do that adult thing of making train crashes seem like strategic art projects. She was one of the more assertive sorts of politicians in her time, after all.

"Yeah, I agree. Maybe she needs someone to be kind to her, and ask her what she really wants. She must realise that the majority of the student body can't take her seriously..."

"Lien!" Atticus protested, red-eyed and wet-faced.

@Hermione Granger

"We all try our best to work with her, but I think she didn't realize just how different Hogwarts was from Beauxbatons. I think she'd flourish as an event planner. She does very well with planning school functions."

She bent down to Atticus and patted him lightly on the back.

@Lien Chang

"Actually, it was Ptolemy who suggested it, so I can't take all of the credit."

Now this was the awkward part. Of course she knew Thius was a boy, but she hadn't thought about having to tell him about the nature of the enchantment. It was a little embarrassing to say now.

"It, er..."

He may think less of her now! Wait - why did that matter? Argh. Her cheeks turned slightly pink.

"It's a silly thing, really. It's supposed to show the person you like... saying something you'd want to hear," Now she was turning darker, and looked annoyed. "I just think the magic is very impressive, okay?" Urghghgh.

@Melanthius Burke

It was Rowle who suggested it? He really needed to put him in his place later...

"Ah, I see."

Thius could tell how embarrassing this was for her, so he knew not to tread further. "Hogwarts actually had a huge mirror that was said to show one's deepest desires, no matter what it was. I'd quite like to see it to figure out how it worked magically, but I'm not sure where they must've stuck it... From the description, it sounds like it may be derived from it."

@Bellona Lestrange

"Hmmm..."

He wasn't going to ask her what she thought about Professor Riddle. Except from not being worth it, he imagined there were a lot of feelings there about where their family name had originated from.

"Why don't you do a meal plan for us, Atticus?" he suggested, wanting to distract him from... whatever he was feeling.

"Oh, yeah..." he agreed, sniffing, and taking a sip of the tea. Green tea was weird. "What's your favourite food, Mrs Granger?" he asked her, cheering up slightly.

@Hermione Granger

Favorite foods? Hm...

"Molly, my mother-in-law, makes a wonderful cauliflower cheese. I haven't had one of those in a while."

@Atticus Nott

She was frowning when she said:

"Perhaps."

It was all very confusing, being the age that she was. As her family had a certain reputation, she didn't want to be perceived as a product of a whore den or something of that nature. She also didn't want to be perceived as a slut herself. But when she had the dreams she was having, and saw the faces of boys and men alike, she thought there was something infecting her.

She wanted to be seen as a Lady to these boys...

@Melanthius Burke

However, it may be a good thing that he wasn't able to track down the Mirror of Erised. If liking womanly curves was vulgar, some of the images that would pop into his mind were beyond vulgar. He had a reputation to keep up as presenting himself as a gentleman. Thius was always rather chivalrous, but there were some thoughts he had that would make him come across as sleazy. He certainly didn't want to be seen as vulgar as Alayna or mudblood MacKenna.

"I've never ate at Puddifoot's before," he stated, changing the topic to be less awkward for the both of them. "Is there anything you recommend?"

Thius never ate at Puddifoot's due to its girly reputation and because he had nobody to go with. Until now.

He felt his forehead and fiddled with some strands of hair that had broken free from being pulled back.

@Bellona Lestrange

"I think we should go for the afternoon tea," she said, relieved that he'd changed the subject. "It's a perfect mix of finger sandwiches, scones, macarons, cakes and pies - both sweet and savoury. Jeneva doesn't eat anything whenever we get one between us, because she's hopeless at eating anything significant."

That could be a little bitchy dig there.

Hogsmeade village was approaching: the signs came into view and the brickwork of the buildings appeared not long after that. Soon enough, they were mixing with the bustle of visitors, although it wasn't quite as many as when there was an event or a festival.

"I have such a sweet tooth though," she confessed, "I would just eat all the sweet things for every meal if I could..."

@Melanthius Burke