plastic life, plastic world

Hermione internally winced when Clare asked ‘who died’ though she knew it was in jest, a turn of phrase. There were deaths too raw for her to take words like that lightly. The rest though she could withstand. She suspected Clare was lashing out from a place of vulnerability, though why her defenses were raised so high Hermione did not know. “You’ve been caught out doing something illegal. You need to take responsibility for your choices, though I know it’s not a virtue of your House. I might be all those things you said, but I still only need to tell the right person about this.” She’d considered letting it go, but Clare’s turn to hostility made her want to make her see those consequences she’d promised. Hermione wasn’t afraid for her own reputation, even if snitching wasn’t the most favoured of traits. She’d done too much else for that blemish to stick, and no one that mattered to her would care.

Clare pursed her lips. “I’m not hurting anyone with my choices,” she said flatly. “But if you still want to report me for no reason than your own prejudice, then go right ahead. I don’t care.” She shook her head, turning to leave then.

“I bet you’re like a tiger, but with words” he grinned looking over at her.

“Or a snake,” Clare said pointedly with a smirk, looking back at him.

“yeah, you would butt heads too much, and I wouldn’t want to be anywhere near the two of you having an argument. Neither of you would back down”

“Never,” Clare agreed, shaking her head with a grin, looping her arm through his as they walked back toward the castle. “And you don’t want to see how vicious I can be in an argument either.”

“I don’t think people like Granger loosen up” he shook his head a little “she’s probably more wound up since Potter and Weasley aren’t around anymore”

“Yeah. I probably should’ve figured that,” Clare admitted. “But it’s whatever. I don’t really think we’d work well as friends anyway. We’re both too stubborn, I think.” She shook her head.

“wait a second….you offered a joint to Hermione Granger?” he couldn’t help the laugh that came out. “Ballsy move Goldsworthy”

“Shut up,” Clare said, shoving him to the side, unable to help but laugh herself, though. “I know, it was stupid. But, I don’t know. I guess I thought maybe she’d loosened up since everything or that she’d at least take it as an offering of friendship or whatever. But she went straight to practically accusing me of being a criminal.”

“oh come on a little fresh air is nice” he joked a little

“Whatever. It just bothers me that she thinks she can stick her nose into my business. I mean, I was offering one to her as a gesture of friendship and she threatened to report me,” Clare said with a frown.

“think of it more like having alone time”

“Yeah, I get that. That know-it-all Granger made a huge stink about my weed, so I had to come out here to smoke. So inconvenient,” Clare said with a roll of her eyes.

“Just trying to clear my head, and the quidditch pitch is being used and there were too many students wandering around parts of the grounds. It was away from people. It sounds stupid, but I don’t like running when others are around”

“Why? Do you run funny or something?” Clare asked with a faint grin, turning toward the castle to start walking that way.

“Well just because I think we should doesn’t mean I wouldn’t respect your wishes if you think we shouldn’t. I’m a lot of things, but a forceful asshole isn’t one of them”

Clare studied him for a moment before nodding absently. “Yeah, okay. I’ll think about it. But that’s all I can say for now,” she said, moving to stand and brushing off her robes. “Why were you running in the woods anyway?”

“Didn’t say you did. Just putting the offer out there if you did or do in the future.” he said waving some of the smoke from his face. “and like I said, no strings attached. I don’t fall in love with you and you don’t fall in love with me. Just friends who have seen each other naked.”

“Okay, but for the record you did say ‘we should have sex’ and not ‘do you want to have sex’ so you weren’t even asking me, just sort of assuming I’d be fine with it,” Clare said pointedly, finishing her joint and flicking the butt of it into the trees.

“I umm, I guess so, yeah. I - not that I’m not friends with people I haven’t had sex with. I still have those. Probably have more friends I haven’t slept with than ones I have. It’s just always there if they want it.”

“So what makes you think I want it?” Clare asked, staring at him as she took another long drag off her joint, nearly finishing it. She held the smoke for a moment before exhaling into his face, raising an eyebrow.

“If someone wants to have sex I have sex” he shrugged once again “besides, you wouldn’t be the first girl I’ve slept with. I’ve slept with some before. Not strange girls…my friends. I have sex with my friends if they want to. I just care about them in different ways than I do guys….some guys…one guy. I mean, it’d be fun right? If you’re into it. There’d be no strings attached for either of us. No expectations.”

Clare stared at him as he rambled. She took a long drag off her joint, trying to understand what he was talking about. “Sure, if a friend wants to have sex with you, you oblige them ‘cause you care about them, okay. Makes sense, I guess. But you’re the one asking me, here, so that implies that you want to have sex with me. So . . . why? Is that your way of asking to be my friend? Is that how you cement a friendship?”

“what’s the point of talking when it doesn’t change anything” he took the joint from her, taking a hit off of it, and then another quick one before holding it back out to her. “we should have sex” he said after a moment “not right now, but sometime, when we’re bored enough and there’s nothing else to do”

Clare nearly choked on her next drag when she heard his suggestion. She coughed for a moment, swallowing hard, as she shook her head to clear it before turning to frown at him skeptically. “Are you serious?” she asked. “I thought you said you were gay.”

“believe me there are worse things that can happen”

“You want to talk about it?” Clare offered after a moment, extending her joint out to him.

“Don’t those only come out during a full moon?” he asked looking over at her, still trying to catch his breath. “besides, that wouldn’t be the worst thing to happen, right?” he gave a soft chuckle and shrug.

Clare raised her eyebrows. “Really? Being attacked by a werewolf is low on your list of worst things?” she asked skeptically, her heart gradually slowing to a normal rate.

There were few moments Gavin ever had to himself, running on the grounds or on the quidditch pitch was one of them. Every now and then he’d venture out into the forbidden forest, but that often required not getting caught or being able to talk his way out of getting in trouble. Some of these attempts were more successful than others. 

Today had been one of those days that he’d gone into the forest, running to clear his mind of all the images and sounds he still couldn’t get out of his head. Maybe he should talk about it, but why? Why, when it wouldn’t change anything? Why, when others had lost more than he had? So, instead, he ran and ran and ran until he had come back around to where the edge of the forest met the edge of the grounds.

After her unfortunate run-in with Granger, Clare had taken to spending more time outside with her joints, away from school grounds. She was enjoying one of said joints, when a rustling in the woods startled her. She sat up, tense, and only relaxed when she saw it was Gavin coming out of the woods. Shaking her head, she leaned back against the tree she was sitting beside, returning the joint to her lips.

“You know there could be werewolves in there,” she told him nonchalantly, trying to pretend she hadn’t been frightened by his sudden appearance, though her heart was pounding quickly in her chest.

Hermione pursed her lips. There was a time when those kind of words would have made her tear up. She’d grown too much since those days. She could hear the emptiness in Clare’s words, bouncing off her because they held no truth. “I know you’re only saying this because I rejected you, but I seriously suggest you rethink your attitude and take the offer I’ve given you. I’ve given you the chance to put those –things– away without facing any consequences this time. I think it would be best if you don’t make me reconsider.”

“Take the offer you’ve given me? Who died and made you all hoity-toity?” Clare asked, raising her eyebrow. “You think you’re better than me just because you’re fucking Hermione Granger, best friend of the Chosen One and former perfect prefect? You do realize that you’re not a prefect now, right? You have no power to give me any consequences. And I already put it away, so you can get off your high horse and forget about it.”