Archie Blakeney
Dec 5 2010, 10:22 AM
The towers held that late night air of remaining undisturbed and peaceful, the majority of students being sound asleep in their beds. Those that hadn’t been, when discovered by the Prefects on patrol that evening, had been cautioned and sent on their way. It was still a few weeks into the new academic year and it took a little while longer for the rules to sink into the minds of those younger students.
It was comforting to take the usual routes around the castle with Lily. There wasn’t any difficulty in trying to make conversation and any silences that did fall between them were familiar, usually interspersed with hand holding and the odd, rogue kiss. After the new and strict guidelines imposed upon the Prefects this year, even those small gestures felt rebellious.
Their footsteps beat softly on the stone flagstones as they explored the familiar towers, finding no one and nothing out of place and the blond frowned. The longer they could patrol, the more obstacles they found keeping them from their beds, the more time he had with Lily. They had both been caught up in the whirl of lessons and responsibilities, the only time they really got when they weren’t in class or doing homework, at mealtimes and the weekend.
The third floor had already been explored for those breaking curfew and so far as yet, the pair had remained somewhat professional (meaning that they hadn’t found an alcove behind a tapestry and gotten far too frisky). Banishing those insubordinate thoughts from his mind, he sighed heavily, looking ruffled with tiredness. His hair was slightly mussed from where he’d pushed it back from his forehead and his shirt was untucked as per usual.
“I guess that’s it then,” he murmured, squeezing Lily’s hand gently after they’d finished their patrol of the towers, “I suppose we should call it a night.” Both sleepy, Archie found himself yawning when Lily did, giving her a soft smile. Archie gave a reluctant look towards the staircase leading downwards and then to Lily, not willing to move just yet despite his words.
“Or maybe,” he began, needing some reason to delay as he met Lily’s questioning gaze, “we could stay here a little longer. Keep an eye on things, y’know? Just in case there are any rule breakers.” There was a degree of suggestion in his voice as the pad of his thumb skimmed over her knuckles.
Lily Potter
Dec 5 2010, 10:56 AM
Lily had never been exactly used to having responsibility. The girl had always lived by a certain degree of seat-of-her-pants spontaneity, somewhat tempered by Cameron’s anxious worries, or Archie’s Headmaster-given ideas of responsibility. That said, the idea of having to patrol the halls after curfew was a sort of joyous release from the norm from the past four years. For four years, all her nefarious deeds after hours (ones like giving her cat a bath, slipping Self Esteem Giving notes to Professor Lawrence, etc.) had been under the cover of dark and secrecy, and in the fear of being caught by a prefect. Now that she was a prefect, Lily realized that her deeds were 1) quite silly 2) still easily carried out.
Tonight, however, she got to patrol with Archie. It had been a pleasant evening of hand-holding and covert yawning when the boredom of their task grew too wearisome and the magnitude of their scholastic duties weighed too heavily. The thrill of being out after hours was soon dampened by the necessity of walking around aimlessly for hours. Lily wasn’t eager to catch the trouble-makers. The redhead didn’t especially enjoy catching and having to punish those out after hours, after all. Only a few months ago she had been the same kid, eager to fight the law, even if the law won.
Not to say that she wasn’t eager to still fight the law…
The girl yawned enormously as Archie announced the end of their tour, and instead of pulling her hand away to begin her journey up to Gryffindor Tower, she did her normal response, and wrapped her free hand around his torso, pressing herself into his chest in a half-armed hug. Her eyes gazed upwards to reach his with a quizzical glance. His eyes went downwards, and the girl’s quickly went upwards. They would have to separate if they were off to their own towers.
With her eyes closed, Lily burrowed her cheek into his rib, and Archie’s thumb went over her knuckles slowly. Her eyes opened, and her mouth formed into a slow-growing smile. “I love the rule breakers,” she murmured, before she pressed their joined hands against Archie’s chest, raised up on her tip-toes, and planted a kiss on the boy’s lips.
Falling down back on her heels, Lily looked around the corridor that the pair of prefects were currently occupying. “So do you see any?” she asked inquisitively.
Archie Blakeney
Dec 5 2010, 06:44 PM
The sleepier they got the closer Lily came, cuddling into his side and he placed his hand on the small of her back, pressing her close. What Archie had said when they’d first met rang true now: Lily was good at hugging. Thankfully this time the girl’s cat hadn’t gotten in the way and nearly clawed his face off. Thankfully, neither had her friend Cameron recently: Archie was still sure he had a bump from when the boy had boxed him over the head with a camera of all things. Twice. Archie had taken no heed of Creevey’s words because nothing could scare him off Lily.
If he had to fight to keep her, he would.
Of course next time he would actually attempt to use brute force: it turned out that some people were beyond being rational during things like this.
Over their blossoming friendship and eventual relationship, he’d noticed that Lily was good at a lot of things, not only hugging. Most of those things involved making him laugh or smile or being one of his best friends. She just made everything a tad brighter. She was dazzling – her hair and her smile – that same one she was giving him now as though they weren’t exhausted from parading about the corridors and the influx of annoying small children that came with the beginning of term. They always seemed to have energy with each other.
The thought of detaching and separating to their separate dormitories was not a welcome one and he curved an arm around her. The kiss came and he could feel her smile against his mouth and it made him all the more determined not to leave to his own bed. “Well, I can see one rule breaker,” he admitted, pulling his other hand from Lily’s grasp to slide it around her, tugging her lightly to face him, “but she’s a very pretty rule breaker so I think I can make some allowances.”
Sometimes, on occasion, for one girl, Archie did break the rules. This current behaviour had to be counted as rule-breaking or else it wouldn’t feel nearly so thrilling. “But, you know, rule breakers do need to be punished and I don’t think taking House Points is really going to cut it this time, Miss Potter.” Resting his forehead against hers, hands shifting down to rest on her hips, he added with a grin: “I do have one idea though.”
Lily Potter
Dec 7 2010, 01:30 AM
Lily had always been a hugger, ever since she had discovered that her two arms could wrap around her Mother’s neck or her Father’s legs in a tight embrace, but she had quickly discovered that hugs with Archie were different. Hugs with your boyfriend were different than hugs with your best friend, and it had been a shocking realization when the girl had discovered that her emotions when she hugged Archie were so much different, even from her hugs with Cameron, her all time best friend. That said, Lily enjoyed the difference, and took any chance she could to hug him.
Sometimes it was one armed, another arm shoving toast into her mouth as she ran away, late to yet another class. Sometimes it was long and reassuring, sometimes it was quick and perfunctory. Her favorite hugs though, were the hugs before bedtime. Hugs that had to tide over the girl until the next morning. Hugs like this one. She especially liked when she thought she was going in for the goodnight hug, and then was surprised with more time with Archie, and then an even better and more cuddly goodnight hug later.
The blonde replied that he did see one rule breaker, and Lily’s heart skipped a beat. More time with Archie, yay! “What, where?” she rebutted, attempting to scan the area once again, sure that she hadn’t seen anybody. It was hard, though, when Archie was death-trapping you into a tighter embrace. Her lips pursed slightly when Archie mentioned that she was especially pretty, and her eyebrows raised, momentarily wondering why if Archie was going to proceed with fawning over some girl why he wouldn’t do that on his own time.
Her expression of disbelief was quickly transformed, however, when the light bulb went off in her head, and that Archie meant her. ”Oh!” She grinned sheepishly, and reached her arms up to tangle her fingers in the hair at the nape of Archie’s neck. “So what’s the idea?” She shifted weight onto her other foot, and jerked her head awkwardly to dislodge it from where Archie was pinning it to her waist with her arms.
“You’re not going to make me pretend to like looking at your skateboarding magazines again, are you?”
Because that was actually punishment.
Professor Grimsby
Dec 7 2010, 03:35 AM
Grimsby was only slightly ancient, and he was still quite active for his age. He had to be, in his old job, because many of his experiments required him to sprint out of the room before proceeding to duck and cover. Therefore, the old man found patrolling the corridors before bed quite relaxing rather than tiring.
And when he found trouble-makers, it was slightly exhilarating. Of course, Grim didn’t particularly like punishing the children, per say, but the part where he got to think up new and exciting punishments was always fun.
He was headed up towards the North Tower, where he hoped to catch a glimpse of the foxy Divinations Professor he had met at a staff meeting who looked like an absolutely fascinating woman. He was quite anxious to get to know her better and what better way than to ‘run’ into her while patrolling.
This plan was, of course, not foolproof, but Grim still had the excuse that he remembered the North Tower being a very popular spot for rule-breakers in his Hogwarts years (even though they were now considered History of Magic material and therefore ‘not pertinent to real life’).
Voices from the North Tower stopped him in his tracks, so nothing had changed, it seemed. And people say History isn’t relevant. Wanting to assess the situation before charging in, Grimsby listened in on a bit of their conversation… And soon wished he had been the Gryffindor who charged in, wand blazing.
“I do hope I’m not about to walk in on anything indecent,” he called as he pushed through the door.
In front of him, he found two Prefects of all things, having an inappropriate rendezvous in the tower when they had work to do. And Grimsby found it utterly amusing.
“Well, this is quite the discovery. Miss Potter, fancy seeing you here. And you are, young man?”
Archie Blakeney
Dec 7 2010, 11:33 PM
Her hair smelled like floral shampoo and she was downright adorable. At the preliminary belief that they had indeed stumbled across miscreants and then when it actually dawned on her face – the he meant the two of them – he couldn’t help but grin. It was a warm, affectionate expression that was just for her and replaced that brief seed of doubt that she probably did just want to curl up in bed and was too tired to spend any further time with him. There would always be that nagging worry about whether or not he was boring her (though he managed to remain oblivious to it when it did involve skateboarding magazines) or if she needed her own space.
And yet here she was, holding onto him as he was her.
“You were pretending?” he asked in mock-surprise, “I think you’d be good at it. You can ride a broom alright.” The girl had balance and stamina: that much was evident by her actions on the Quidditch Pitch. “Well, I was thinking a proper goodnight kiss because that last one was just a little too short for my liking, especially if it’s going to be the only one I’ll get until morning.” With that he leant forwards, lips brushing hers lightly as he said, voice soft, “And I was thinking-”
The door creaked, there was an elderly voice and he half thought it was just a really pervy ghost wanting to relive their youth by spying on students. That was until he recognised the Potions Master and figured the guy was probably up to the same thing.
“-old man.” The blond froze, mouth inches from Lily’s and eyes craning towards the intruder into their rather private moment. “I wasn’t thinking about old men,” he quickly informed Lily, before realising he’d said that rather loudly in his haste to assure the Gryffindor she wasn’t dating a total nutcase. Dropping his hands from the redhead’s waist, he shifted back a little. “Not that you’re old,” he continued to say, addressing Professor Grimsby, “We were just saying good night, really, that’s all. I’m Archie and we were just with the going and the stuff, not that there was stuff. No stuffing here.”
Is this the part where he offered to hold him off and she made a run for it? It felt like that moment. “It was my idea, sir, Professor, man, person. Not that I had any ideas. Nope. Fresh out of ideas.”
Lily Potter
Dec 8 2010, 12:08 AM
“I can ride a broom alright?” Lily replied slowly, her eyebrow raising once again. “I’m the daughter of Hogwarts’ youngest seeker!” y’know, before the new rules were instated and first years started playing seeker like every day. The girl’s natural mirth took over, and she laughed loudly for a moment at her own joke. Because it was just so funny. >.> But yeah, no. Riding a skateboard was the muggle’s version of flying, and it just didn’t seem nearly as dangerous enough to be worth her time. She quieted down, though, and Archie continued with plans for her punishment, and Lily was pretty sure that she had seen a special type of “film” like this before. His lips grazed her lightly, and her arms twined around his neck even tighter, and she was thinking about –
“Old man?!” Her eyes widened, and then her neck twisted around to indeed, see an old man.
Archie’s arms dislodged from hers, and the girl suddenly realized just how cold the castle was at night when you didn’t have another body to share warmth with. Lily didn’t have the natural fear of authority that Archie did, and the girl was less quick to drop her hands from Archie’s neck, and less quick to start offering excuses and general bumbling.
With an amused look on her face, she glanced from Archie, to the professor, then to her shoes so she wouldn’t start laughing, and then back to Archie, just as he was proclaiming his lack of ideas. She stepped one step back in the direction, and then easily and fluidly clamped her hand over his mouth. “Nice to see you up here too, Professor!” she said with a smile. “Were you going to meet somebody up here too?” she asked innocently.
Perhaps a particularly foxy interesting Divination professor, hmmmm?
Professor Grimsby
Jan 2 2011, 06:22 PM
The boy had called him old? “Old?” he tried to sound shocked but he couldn’t really muster up the emotion. “Fair enough I guess. It’s nice to meet you Archie.”
He was obviously startled and his bumbling was just another cherry on top for the professor. He had no interest in getting the students in trouble, he had been fifteen and in love once, but he didn’t mind scaring them a bit.
Not that the Potter girl seemed scared. She seemed cheeky, if Grimsby was going to be perfectly honest with himself, and he found that completely endearing.
“Oh, ho, ho” he laughed, sounding reminiscent of old St Nicholas, “Aren’t you just adorable, Miss Potter. Nope, not meeting anyone tonight, just taking a bit of a walk before bed. Barging in on young kids hiding out in dark towers, trying to figure out where the castle has put my old favourite spots. Keep forgetting that things got swapped around.”
Those were normal, professor-y things to do, weren’t they?
“Now, about this little gathering I’ve so rudely interrupted. I believe it’s my job to scold you and send you back to your houses. That doesn’t sound very fun to me.”
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