"Why do you keep following me?" The masked blonde asked the other girl. Pansy Parkinson huffed, arms crossed defensively. "Because." She answered oh-so-helpfully, sniffing disdainfully though her red runny nose.
Hunstgirl rolled her eyes at that and continued walking across the snowy landscape, heading back towards the castle's main entrance. Pansy kept following her.
"Aren't you cold?" the dark haired girl opened her mouth once more to ask. "You always seem to wear the same thing. And while I understand the means needed to get a bloke's attention, it's hardly gonna work if you bore him to death, not to mention if you catch pneumonia while doing it."Huntsgirl's grip on thin air tightened considerably; she took a deep calming breath before facing the Slytherin student.
"I'm not trying to get attention." The blonde replied straight-faced, then proceeded to walk away. Pansy huffed out a short chuckle and her footsteps in the snow overlapped the other girl's.
"Yeah, right, girlfriend. That suit looks like it's directly painted on." She wasn't paying attention to catch the widening of Huntsgirl's blue eyes, the falter in her step. The scandalized blush coming over her face was safely tucked underneath her mask. It probably could've been blamed on the cold, yet considering the Slytherin's attitude, she doubted the girl would buy a lie when she did not even believe the truth (her green battle outfit would've been less form-fitting, and she cursed the fact that she did not wear it more often. But it was much noisier due to the armor plating and the swish of looser fabric, a disadvantage when trying to use stealth on the peaceful castle grounds.) .
The thoughts roaming through the blonde's head were left unsaid and Pansy remained ignorant of them, as she continued talking. "But I do understand, you know. We girls have a hard time getting through their heads. I have my own personal experience as proof." The last part she muttered in a more put-off voice; although it was less loud, the other girl's keen senses picked it up.
"Through who's head?" Huntsgirl blurted out the question, then cursed herself for that. She wasn't supposed to make small talk with the students, nor anyone. Pansy didn't notice her turmoil though, probably too immersed in her own to see anything more. "Don't play me like a fool, you know who I mean. We all know guys can be totally thick. Caught up in their cockfights against each other, too bloody blind to appreciate the ones who truly care about them. One minute they seem to fancy you, then the next they're too busy with their own plans to make time for you. It makes me angry, how unfair it is."
"You sound very bitter concerning a very specific scenario." A slender golden eyebrow rose underneath the girl's mask as she faced Pansy, now both entering the castle at the same pace. "Having trouble in your love life?"
Pansy shrugged, trying to seem nonchalant, but her movements looked creaky and stiff. "It's just… It's hard, you know? I mean, have you ever even met a bloke who isn't hard to understand? Moreover, someone who's willing to let you understand?" She aimed her gaze towards the ground, sleek dark hair falling down her face. "The one I'd like to get close to doesn't care enough to let me. He's too busy with his own thing, caught in his own world. There's never enough space for me there too." Hunstgirl, against her better judgment, felt bad for this girl.
The student raised her head, staring into blue eyes. "You look like you're fairly pretty underneath that disguise. But I know that being pretty doesn't save you from heartache. It might draw their attention more easily, but quantity doesn't make quality and neither makes the experience any better. Us girls are always made to look like we're desperate for attention and marriage, nagging men with our simpering and wanting to talk about feelings. It feels to me like we're unwanted. They only want us to look pretty and sit quietly and want nothing for ourselves. They don't think that there's anything else. If this is all there is, does this mean love can only be found brewing in a cauldron? I just wonder if you have something to show me that I'm wrong, that a guy can truly, selflessly care for a girl."
Huntsgirl could only rip her gaze away from hers, suddenly preoccupied with removing her gloves and rubbing her hands and arms together to warm up.
"Ah, I knew you were cold." Pansy cracked a teasing smirk and the blonde could only offer a weak glare in response. "But, getting back to what I said" Huntsgirl turned her head once more towards her cold hands "if you ever happen to meet someone who's not like that, I mean someone who's willing to make space for you, no matter what… don't you dare push them away. It's the least us girls can get after all this rubbish we have to deal with. So if you know what's good for you, you will take that boy's heart and eat it."
Huntsgirl stopped at that and turned to stare at the girl, naked shock seen even through the fabric of her mask. Pansy turned to fully face her, and the blonde could see her eyes shining with unshed tears, an angry frown on her face. "You listen to me, Huntsgirl, or whatever your real name is. You shall take the heart you're being given and keep it. I know you have one." The masked girl could not get anything out at the girl's last sentence, too caught off guard to deny. Pansy continued with steel in her voice. "Keep it where nobody will find it. Treasure it like leprechaun gold and burn anyone in your way who might want to mess with you and what is yours, because that is the only justice that you can give to another girl who shall never find such love for herself."
"I…" Huntsgirl's thoughts were far from coherent at this point, stumbling and unfocused. She swallowed apprehensively, caught under the sad, fervent gaze. "Why are you telling me this?"
"Because you are Huntsgirl, are you not? As it is your name, so shall you hunt down what you rightfully deserve, as a woman."
"No… no, that's not…" She stumbled over her words, too flustered to even care at that point, scrambling to explain herself to this teenage girl who asked her to be happy in ways she would not dare."That's not how it works." She started rubbing her arms once more, trying to find her muddled thoughts in the physical motions. She breathed into her joined fists, focused on calming herself before choosing her answer.
"Here, let me." A voice intervened, just as a pair of hands appeared in front of her and carefully caught her wrists. The sound brought goosebumps onto her flesh underneath the thin uniform, and the body warmth of the voice's owner even more so. She couldn't move, too caught off guard to retaliate, too stunned to deny herself the contact, too petrified by the conflict in her head, mind and body. Because the one in front of her was someone she knew all too well.
He had taken her hands, so small and slender, in his larger ones. The calluses on hers shifting against his. His mouth pressed against her cupped palms, hot breath, clammy and like fire, enveloping her fingers, warming them and making cold shivers of fear from the intensity shoot up her spine. Huntsgirl could swear that their joined hands were glowing from the inside, magic coming out like gold in gas form from his lungs, his breath focused on the empty space made by the curve of her fingers. Dark eyes like black velvet looking straight into her own, clear and intense, then the tips of his eyelashes fluttered against her skin as they closed. A small kiss was quietly left on her fingers, like a whisper, a lover's promise, and she twitched against his lips. She felt his smile on her skin and she recognized the shape of it in her memory. As he let go of her hands, she saw it as well, but it had shifted into something else in the meantime, something she hadn't seen so often. The curve of his mouth was less soft and loving, more on the verge of teasing. Provocative.
He looked like he wanted to play.
"Much better, isn't it?" He said, his voice even huskier than she remembered. Like the fire inside him had turned to smoke in his throat, crackling right beneath his vocal chords. His eyes never left hers, but Huntsgirl was aware of the Slytherin student looking curiously at the two of them. Jake didn't seem to care though, too delighted at what he just did to her.
"Beg your pardon… uh, who's that?" Pansy asked, looking between the two. She then studied the boy in particular. "I don't think I've ever seen you around before." He was wearing a red jacket (a shade brighter than the one Griffindor House used, so it didn't prove a thing), a pair of blue pants with the hem below his knees – despite it being mid-December. His hair was a long, spiky mess, deep black with green streaks. And this strange boy grinned, obviously amused, placing his hands into the pocket of his pants. He had dimples in his cheeks, thick dark eyebrows and almond shaped eyes. He was shorter than both girls and he laughed openly, joyously and said "We have! But we also haven't. But we will soon enough. We're starting right now, anyway." and the rasp was everywhere in his odd voice, tingling her eardrums.
"What are you going off about?" Pansy couldn't help but exclaim indignantly. "What's up with you, talking in riddles like you're a bloody sphinx?"
"Nope, totally not a sphinx. Good call though, since I'm far from a normal human." He then turned his dark doe eyes to the masked one. "Little miss Huntsgirl would know plenty about that, now wouldn't she?" He had this look on his face, smiling cheekily, swaying on the balls of his feet, hands still in his pockets, "But neither of us is here for any explanations, so I'm not going to even pretend like I'm gonna give any." Then he jumped excitedly, turning around in midair and running off ahead of them further into the castle. "Your move, Thorn!" the boy yelled before disappearing around the corner of a hallway, amusement in his voice. Huntsgirl stiffened at that and Pansy could see tremors wracking the blonde's entire body for the first few seconds. She seemed unnerved at what had just happened.
But to be fair, nether the Slytherin had expected to witness such a thing. She had never seen anyone get that close to the blonde, neither had she heard of anyone managing to touch her, not for even one second. Whoever this boy was, he seemed to have no trouble in matching up to her, like the perfect counterbalance to her strengths. The dynamics between these two seemed… intriguing.
Yet Pansy wasn't sure if it was safe to assume anything when it came to… whatever that was.
More female bonding, this time about fashion choices and the average girls' frustrations with boys! Yay? :U
I'm not sure about Pansy's voice, since I don't remember her having that many lines to get a good proper feel about it. Also, I've read the books in my native language, so idk. But since she's a "well-bred" Slytherin, coming from a family deemed respectable enough to be able to hang around Malfoy, I imagine she'd be taught to speak in a really posh, dignified, "refined" manner.
I don't necessarily agree with Pansy's opinions, but it's one side of the coin and I'm sure many people have had these kind of thoughts at some point. Relationships, man. They be cray.
And speaking of love problems, I've been DYING to write this scene between Jake and Huntsgirl! It was one of the first scenes that popped into mind when planning this fic. These two have their own issues, but the most pressing one is probably the fact that they are into each other too much.
... ngl, I'm kinda jealous.