From Fire to Ice in Ten Seconds Flat
In a castle the size of Hogwarts, and with the number of teachers on staff, there's a few rooms about the place which apparently haven't been used in some time -- except by students like lanky sixth year Lowell Marchand, who makes his way into the fifth floor classroom, peeking over his shoulder as he does so as if to check that no one has been following him. It's mid-to-late afternoon, now, and it is with purpose that he steps across the canvas to the blackboard. A wave of his wand clears a patch in the middle, where he slowly begins to chalk in a sketch - a pretty rose, with a long stem, around one side of which he sketches the name 'Eva Wexler'. He pushes his glasses up his nose with the them of his non-drawing hand, and his eyebrows are furrowed in concentration as he sketches.
Eva Wexler has finally escaped from her friend and her older brother who have been trying to pull her into a game of exploding snap. The girl has managed to fob off their excuses, and although she is later than planned, she skips merrily up to the fifth floor, where she has planned to meet with her newest boyfriend: Lowell. Peeking around the corner and looking both ways in the corridor, she quickly tickles the underside of the doorknob (the secret to getting this one to open, which she discovered quite on accident one day) and sneaks in, closing the door fast behind her. "Hi, Lowell," she says sweetly, grinning widely at the boy. She looks to where he is and approaches him slowly, almost deliberately. "That's very sweet," she tells him with a giggle.
"You're late," Lowell replies plaintively, lowering the chalk; the picture of the rose isn't quite done yet, so perhaps it's a good thing that Eva ended up running a little bit behind schedule. "Did your other secret boyfriend keep you?" A smile curls about his lips, though, and it's quite plain that he's just joking; he looks her over with a slightly raised eyebrow, and he reaches out for her with one hand.
"Don't be mean," Eva pouts coyly and crosses her arms across her front, only managing to keep up her front for a moment before she skips over to him happily and takes his hand. "It really is a very pretty drawing," she repeats with a giggle, coming to stand closer to him and tilting her face up toward him. "I had a hard time getting my friend and my brother to let me go. They wanted me to play exploding snap with them, but I said I needed to go practice my charms with another friend..." She trails off with a grin, remaining silent as she lets the full double-meaning of her statement sink in.
"Oh?" Lowell asks, smirking a little and drawing her in still closer by gently tugging on her hand, positioning it neatly on his hip as he asks, "What kind of charms do you need practice with? I'm sure I can offer some assistance in practicing your... romantic ones," he shakes his head at the end of that sentence, adding, "I can't pull off stuff like that, the thought sounded sexier in my head." He chuckles, at this, and leans forward to kiss her, just gently.
Eva responds with a giggle and leans up to kiss him back. "It was alright," she tells him and wraps her arm around his back. After a moment, Eva seems not to know quite what to say or do next - beginning is always awkward. "You're so tall..." she tells him quietly, looking up at him. She stands up on her tiptoes and leans up to kiss him again, perhaps lingering a little longer this time.
In response to her complaint about his height, Lowell casts his glance around the room, eventually landing his eyes on the teacher's desk. With a soft murmur of, "Give me just one second," at her next kiss, he extracts himself from her and motions for her to hop up onto the desk, one eyebrow raised encouragingly, and with just a hint of a suggestive smile at his lips. "Now I'm not so tall, am I?"
Eva giggles again and shakes her head as she sits up on the desk and reaches her arms out toward him. "No, not quite so tall. I wonder if I'll grow any taller. I feel so /short/. And /fat/." She sighs dramatically and shakes her head then waves her hand. This is followed by reaching up to touch his cheek with a slight air of awkwardness. "Alone at last," she sighs happily. "So, about that charms practice."
"You're not short or fat," Lowell tells her seriously, frowning slightly at her. His frown fades to a rather more satisfied smile, though, as his hands move to her hips, just gently resting there for a moment as he observes, "I think you look great. And who else's opinion matters except mine, hm?" He doesn't give her a chance to answer that, though, as he moves in to kiss her again, the same sort of lingering kiss that Eva herself attempted before Lowell decided to move it over to a desk instead.
"Thanks," Eva whispers just in time for her lips to come back into contact with his for an extended moment. "Isn't there anywhere more comfortable to sit in here?" she asks, looking about before she spots a plush armchair pushed back into the far corner of the room. "There," she suggests, sliding down from the desk and pushing him back so she can stand, then basically dragging him across the room toward the chair. "More comfortable, don't you think?" she suggests, gesturing for him to sit.
"Oh, but haven't you always wanted to make out on a teacher's desk?" Lowell asks, an almost mischievous note in his voice. "It's a little... naughtier than an armchair." For all that, though, he is willingly led across the room and, as they reach the armchair, he nestles himself down into it, taking her arm and pulling her down into his lap. "Although, the chair has some added benefits," he adds, after a moment.
"Armchairs are comfier, though. Better than a stodgy desk, anyway." She beams at him mischeivously and settles in comfortably on his lap, wrapping her arms around his neck comfortably. (For her, anyway.) She settles in to kiss him again, leaning against him comfortably. This lasts for several uninterrupted minutes, until the door opens unexpectedly. At first, the girl doesn't even notice, but then "EVA!" is shouted into the room and she is so startled that she nearly falls off of Lowell's lap. "FREDDIE!" she shouts back. "What are you doing in here? Go away!" she calls to her older brother.
Lowell has been getting pretty comfortable himself, to the point where Eva may have noticed just how much he's enjoying the closeness and physical intimacy. This all fades - as it were - when Freddie bursts in, though, and the fact that Lowell just about jumped out of his skin at the sudden shouting does not help Eva's balancing act, and he has to tighten his grip on her to stop her from indelicately falling to the floor. As he rights himself, and his girlfriend, he relaxes his grip on her again, his cheeks flushing red. In a rather deep, unnatural voice, he offers, "Freddie. How you doing?"
"So, about that charms practice," Freddie asks his sister, crossing his arms, ignoring the fact that he has his own female companion trailing behind him in the doorway. "It's none of /your/ business," Eva tells him, crossing her own arms. "I was here first. /We/ were here first. Go away." "Marchand, what are you doing here with my sister?" he asks the other boy in a slightly threatening voice. "I swear to you, Freddie, if you don't get out right now, I'll tell mum!" Freddie scoffs. "Tell her what? That you were necking with a lowlife sixth year?"
Keeping out of it for the moment, Lowell just cranes his neck to see whoever it is lingering behind Freddie in the doorway. Maybe if he doesn't say anything else, Freddie will mistake him for a part of the armchair - no, apparently not. As his name gets dragged into it, the blush on his cheeks rises still further, and he gently tries to coax Eva out of his lap as he retorts, "Exactly what you were planning to do with her," he gestures with one hand, readjusting his glasses with the other. "Some other guy's sister, I'll have you know."
"No, I'm staying /right here/," Eva tells Lowell with a strange level of confidence in her voice, at least for her lately. She has been playing the coy, subdued girl with her latest boy, and with the approach of her brother, a little more of her full personality comes back. She leans in and gives Lowell a solid kiss on the lips. "There. We were here /first/. I thought you and she were going to play /exploding snap/," Eva counters to her brother with a pointed look. "Nobody asked you, Marchand," Freddie counters, though not without blushing first. Apparently he is not as brazen as his sister about his 'flings'.
Astonished into submission by the kiss, Lowell doesn't really respond to it (her /brother's/ in the room, man), but also doesn't do much else, either. Eventually, he offers a slightly annoyed, "I think you did when you bust in on us, /Wexler/." He looks very much like he wants to stand up and have this out with Freddie a little more directly, or at least not offend him further by continuing to feel up his sister right in front of him, but Eva's weight on his lap isn't really helping that.
"You come over here and say that to my face," Freddie shouts to the other boy, stomping his foot. The boy is tall, but incredibly thin with little bulk to him, so his calls to the other boy would be laughable by most. Eva, however, does not think this is funny. Climbing out of Lowell's lap and the chair unceremoniously, she stomps over to her brother, pointing her finger into his face. "You have some nerve, Frederick Herbert Wexler," she tells the boy loudly. "We were here /first/, and it's none of /your/ business, who I'm with and how I spend my time!" Freddie wrinkles his nose at Eva as she uses his full name, then steps around her, walking toward Lowell. "Come on, be a man. Say it to my face."
Also being tall and lanky, Lowell isn't what you would normally call a fighter either - but as Eva finally clambers out of his lap, he stands up and pulls his wand out, though he keeps it pointed towards the ground and not actually /at/ Freddie. He walks over towards Freddie, standing about four or five paces behind Eva, and tells him in as firm a voice as e can manage, "You brought me into when you bust in on us! Wexler!" Yeah, that sure is saying it to his face.
Freddie draws his own wand and instead of safely pointing it at the ground as Lowell is doing, he points it at the other boy. "You keep your hands off of my little sister." "LITTLE SISTER?" Eva shouts. "Eighteen months! Eighteen months is all! You're not even that much older than me!" Eva stamps her foot much in the same way that her brother had. "You leave Lowell alone! We were here FIRST!" the girl is starting to shriek loudly at the boys, angrily rather than out of fear.
As Freddie draws his wand, Lowell raises his own very sharply, though the tip wavers a little, as his hand is shaking a bit. With now just a hint of a stammer, he explains, "She came onto me, Freddie, you have to understand that." He glances sidelong at Eva, and bites at his lower lip a little; a lot of the romance has gone out of the scene now, and his expression indicates that he's a little put off from pursuing romance with her for some time, even if Freddie does go away. To Freddie, he adds, "I wouldn't actively pursue your sister, you know that."
As Lowell makes this protestation, Eva gapes openly at him. "Well aren't you /something/!" she tells him angrily, walking over and pushing him herself. "You are a liar and I never want to see you again!" she tells the boy, then turns to Freddie, drawing out her own wand and pointing it at her older brother. "You /ruined/ my afternoon. You are horrible. I'm writing to mum about this, see what she has to say about /that/!" Eva's cheeks are red as she stands with her wand pointed directly at her older brother Freddie keeps his wand pointed at Lowell and looks incredibly puzzled now, as if he isn't quite sure what to make of this new development. "What were you doing in that chair with her, then? And what about /that/?" he points to the blackboard.
Harried, busy, tired, and above all not planning on spending what little free time she has chasing after more students, Sylvie Winters-Geroff yet finds herself drawn into the doorway of the empty classroom. The yelling might've had something to do with it. Never one to immediately walk in and start yelling, Sylvie takes one further step into the room, then stands there, a slight frown on her face and eyebrows raised. Her last step was just slightly louder against the floor before she stops moving.
"Isn't that proof that I wasn't just messing around?" Lowell asks Freddie sharply, changing tack suddenly, gesturing to the board with his non-wand hand. "This is clearly more than me just feeling her up in a chair, I don't draw roses on the board for just anyone." As Eva shouts at him and pushes him, he has to make a grab for his wand to avoid dropping it, and he shouts back, "Fine! Fine! If you're never going to see me again, I guess it doesn't matter what your brother thinks!" Then, to Freddie, "You hear that? Your sister's a little -" he cuts himself off, though, as Sylvie walks in.
"I don't know what it means?" Freddie protests, shrugging, and lowering his wand slightly. Eva gasps loudly, even though Lowell doesn't finish his statement. "What? What am I?" she asks him, turning to point her wand at him instead of at Freddie. After a moment, both she and Freddie seem to realize that there is a reason for his silence before turning to see the distraction. As she spots Sylvie, she gasps again, dropping her wand hand to her side and putting the other over her mouth in pure shock.
"You might as well put those wands away," Sylvie notes rather mildly to the students, once she has their attention. "No one is going to be casting anything today. I should hope that at least /Slytherins/ should know better than this." As she speaks, she walks further into the room, until she is standing with the students. "Now.. would anyone care to explain what's going on in here?"
"Eva and I were studying," Lowell blurts out, glancing from Eva, to Freddie, to Freddie's girlfriend, and then back to Sylvie, slipping his wand back into his pocket. "Studying... charms. And then he burst in," he points an angry, accusatory finger at Freddie, "and started yelling! And then she started yelling!" He looks wildly from person to person, trying to make himself look as innocent as possible.
"He brought me here under false pretenses!" Eva butts in pointedly. "He said we were going to study charms and then he started to take advantage and then my brother came in here and started THREATENING him meanly!" Eva's sacrificing her own brother for her reputation in this case, but he's having none of it. "They were /kissing/!" Freddie says in pure horror, leaving out any mention of why he's even come to this empty classroom, while his companion, Veronica, merely stands dumbly, inching a way slowly from the group of them as if the distance will dissociate her from the situation. "I was protecting my sister's /honor/!" Freddie insists, then looks puzzled. "I think."
"False pretences!" These words burst out from Lowell's mouth before he even stops to think about them. He looks utterly horrified by this allegation, and he looks to Sylvie for confirmation. "I don't think it counts as false pretences when a GIRL says to come and meet you in an empty classroom so you can have a private chat and you just happen to kiss her!" He glares back at Eva and adds, spitefully, "I heard you were snogging Adrian Turner in here last week, even though you'd already agreed to be MY girlfriend! Is that true?"
Sylvie Winters-Geroff is quiet for a moment as she listens to the various explanations, taking a moment to brush a bit of imaginary dirt of the side of her robe, and looking no more concerned than when she walked in when she finally responds. "I'm sure, if you need extra Charms help, I can ask your professor to set you up with some extra work." Her first remark is directed specifically to Lowell and Eva, though at her next, she glances at the other two as well. "A couple seventh years might even be spared to watch over your sessions - of course, you may join them - and it would certainly save all of you from having to fight over which.. extra-curricular activities.. to enjoy in your free time."
"Oh..." Eva replies, sighing a bit and trying not to make a face as the teacher offers down her 'suggestion' for the group of them. "We didn't mean anything, professor, promise! It was just... a misunderstanding. Right?" She looks to the others and nods as if telling them to go along with it. The last thing the girl wants is /more/ homework, particularly in a class that she's already fairly good in. "I'm - I'm sure we don't need any extra work, really!"
Lowell calms down somewhat when Sylvie offers her suggestion, and he shakes his head firmly. "No - no, you see, actually, I was just helping Eva out, I definitely don't need any extra help..." And although he shoots Eva an absolutely venomous look, his tone is as even as he can manage as he confirms, "Just a misunderstanding." In a bit more of an undertone, he adds, "/I/ understood that we'd be alone. Wexler clearly didn't."
Sylvie Winters-Geroff nods once to Eva, her gaze resting firmly on Lowell now. "I'm not so sure about that. I hope I /never/ catch another of my students in this situation... or attempting to lie to me." That said, her attention turns back to the group at large, eyes settling for a few seconds on each of them individually. "If you are sure you don't want to take me up on that offer..." "Very well. I suggest you go find somewhere else to spend your time."
Eva doesn't have to be told twice as Sylvie suggests that the students take their leave. She offers an icy glare to Lowell, then another to Freddie before looking to the professor. "Er, thank you, professor!" She says slightly dumbly before running past the woman out the door. She doesn't even wait to see what the others do. Freddie is soon behind her, nodding to the teacher before he leaves slowly, giving a significant look to his friend, who then follows him out.
"Yes, professor," Lowell replies quickly, lowering his gaze and scurrying - oh yes, scurrying - out of the classroom. Once he's out of sight of the teacher, he risks another look up at Eva, and he fixes a rather nasty look on her again, making a bit of a face at her as she hurries away. He makes his own way briskly down towards the dungeon, however, not another word falling from his lips until he's safe in his own common room.