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Iko
When Iko found out that Cinder had promised to remove the werewolves from the forest, she was probably the only one who was actually excited about it. Come on, it was a heroic quest! What's not to like? But that was before she found out that heroic quests also meant extra homework.
It was Kai's idea of course. He said that they all had to start researching werewolves to help come up with a solution and how to fight them if they came across them blah blah blah boring! Werewolves were just poor schmucks that got bitten and had to transform into bloodthirsty mindless monsters on the full moon. What more was there to know? But Iko didn't want to seem like she wasn't contributing, which was why she found herself staring at a textbook, going cross-eyed with boredom. She was definitely going to slip some flobberworm mucus into Kai's pumpkin juice later for this.
"You're actually studying? Since when do you care about your grades?" A voice said from behind her
Iko rolled her eyes and groaned. Great, not only was she bored out of her mind, she was stuck with the biggest jerk in the school.
She swivelled around in her chair and threw Kinney her most heated glare. "I care about my grades! I just don't obsessively pour over textbooks; unlike some people I know."
Kinney raised an eyebrow and studied the assortment of books splayed haphazardly around Iko.
Catching his look, she growled. "I have a big project I need to work on."
"Oh really?" He said dubiously, "And what would this big project be about?"
"Werewolves." She snapped, "It's for DADA."
"That's strange," Kinney pretended to muse. "I attend the same DADA classes as you and get the same assignments. So why haven't I heard anything about a project on werewolves?"
Iko gritted her teeth, partly to contain her frustration, partly from the effort of keeping her hair from turning red.
"It's a bonus assignment." She said.
Kinney raised an eyebrow. "Since when do you do bonus assignments?"
"I want to get my grade up! Isn't that allowed?"
"Oh, it's allowed. But it's a very unusual thing for you to care about. Didn't you skip studying for exams last year to go shopping in Hogsmeade?"
"Do you make a note of everything I do just to make fun of me for it later?"
"Don't flatter yourself."
Huffing, Iko turned back to her textbooks. "If all you're going to do is keep me from studying, I suggest you leave. Don't you have your own work to do or something?"
"Normally you'd thank me for giving you an excuse not to study."
"As if I'd ever thank you for anything." Iko spat.
"You thanked me just last week for helping you with non-verbal spells." Kinney replied dryly.
"That was because a teacher was watching."
"I might believe that if you were actually looking at me."
Iko felt her cheeks burn. When her arguments with Kinney got heated, she often resorted to focusing on something other than him because, through years of experience, she finally learned that looking at Kinney's face for too long tended to make her forget how to speak because, despite the fact that he was a world class jerk, Kinney was very, very good looking. Occasionally, Iko would see him smile and her heart would do a crazy dance in her chest. Iko always gave it a stern lecture when that happened, but the annoying organ didn't seem to know the meaning of the word "obedience" and just. Kept. Dancing! Once or twice (or ten times) the idea crossed into Iko's head to ask Kinney out on a date. She always crushed that idea and figured it was due to too much pumpkin juice or something like that because a) Kinney would probably say no in the rudest way possible, and b) he was a jerk and she didn't want to ask him out anyway, so there!
She turned the page of her book, trying to look like she was actually studying. "I'm not looking at you because I'm reading, or was that not obvious enough for your single brain cell to figure out?"
"You never read non-fiction. All you read is fashion magazines and dragon romance novels." Kinney remarked.
"That was before I became a N.E.W.T student."
"If you were actually reading non-fiction for your N.E. you'd be complaining loudly for the whole school to hear."
"I got a detention last year for that remember? I don't want to be punished again."
"You've never cared about punishment before."
Iko didn't have an answer to that, which made her very, very annoyed. She hated being argued into a corner!
There was a screech of chair legs against stone and Iko looked up to see Kinney pulling up a chair beside her. Swallowing back a curse, she furiously directed her attention back to her book.
"Iko, you're obviously hiding something." Kinney said quietly. He sounded more serious than Iko had ever heard him. "If you tell me, I might be able to help."
Iko snorted. "I highly doubt that."
"I am good at magic Iko, and I know you're probably not actually reading anything in that book so there's not much point."
"You don't know that. I could be learning months' worth of DADA material!"
"We both know that would be severely out of character for you."
Iko huffed and moved to turn the page again. A hand gently but firmly gripping her wrist stopped her. She froze and lifted her gaze slowly up to Kinney's face. At the same time, he seemed to realise what he'd done and snatched his hand away as though Iko's skin had burned him. The warmth of his fingers lingered on Iko's wrist.
His face flushing tomato red, Kinney coughed awkwardly into his fist. "So, yeah. You can tell me. If you want."
Iko almost smiled. She'd never known Kinney to be this awkward.
Eventually, she sighed. "Fine, I'll tell you some of it, if it'll get you to quit pestering me. Sound good?"
He nodded.
Alright, here goes. "Me and a couple of my friends think that there are werewolves in the school and I'm just trying to figure out how to defend myself if I ever come across one."
Kinney blinked at her, looking like she'd just grown a third head (could she grow a third head? That would probably be stretching the limits of her powers but…). "You think that there are werewolves in the school."
"I'm sorry, do I stutter?" Iko grumbled. She didn't like Kinney's dubious tone.
He shrugged in a resigned way. "Well, I only know one spell that'll be any use against werewolves, and it's really faulty and temperamental, but it's effective when it works. I can try teaching it to you if you want."
Iko raised an eyebrow. "And what is this faulty spell?"
"The homorphus charm."
A/N: Iko + Kinney = long arguments that are really fun to write
We've finally got a whiff of Kinniko in this story! I haven't written nearly enough of either of these characters. I've really gotta weave them into the story better.
Until next week. Please review!
