BEAT - YOU'RE OUT

‘ Since when professor care about our games?’ Emma was growing annoyed with this conversation. She had been here seven years and he’d be six years, he should know just as much as her how annoying the professors are. ‘ Complaining won’t help you, just skim through the projects and write something to get a grade on and go back to practice. We won’t be last in place this year.’

“Doesn’t make it any less frustrating,” he grumbled, crossing his arms over his chest. Quidditch was the most popular sport in the wizarding world, and yet his professors didn’t even try to adjust to their training program, or cut some slack when big games were coming up. “If we end up last I’ll eat my left arm. It’s not happening. --- I think Mur- I can get some help with some of them, I’ll be at practice, don’t worry.”

“Your strength never fails to inspire me, Hendricks.” Lucinda quipped. Noticing the confused frown playing on Ryan’s lips, Lucinda’s proud grin grew. She had to bite down on her lip to keep herself from laughing outright at him. Lucy’s eyes narrowed, just a little bit in his direction, trying to gauge his reaction. Lucinda had never really thought of Ryan as anything more than a friend. She couldn’t deny he was attractive, but like most of her housemates, far too stoic for her tastes. In the back of her mind, Lucinda wondered what Ryan thought of her. Was he simply humoring her right now, or did he, like her, have some other motivation at work? Before she could let such serious thoughts begin to plague her, Lucinda decided to take advantage of the moment, pressing their bodies closer together so that she had a good hold on him, then jumping headfirst into the lake, using all her strength to try and pull him in with her.

As Lucinda pressed their bodies even closer, he was very close to stepping back and returning to the safe and warm castle with no half-naked girls. Most likely at least. However he didn't have much time to think about it, yet react before she took a good hold of him and jumped into the lake. "No!" he yelled, but his body was too stiff from being outside in the cold for so long and thus he didn't manage to fight back. Ryan fell into the lake with her and fought her arms off him once they were in the water. It was freezing, and it felt like small needles were stabbing the parts of his body that weren't covered by clothes. Gasping as he returned to the surface, he sent a deathly glare to Lucinda. "Merlin bloody fucking hell, Lucy!" He growled, swimming for the shore and cursing loudly.

“Oh really?” Lucinda smirked at him, tucking that little piece of information away in the back of her mind. “Interesting. Try not to get too upset over that, I’m sure the other girls are just shy. I can talk to them for you if you’d like?” When Lucy noticed the small smile on Ryan’s lips, a proud grin broke out on her own. She’d managed to amuse one of the grumpiest people she knew and in this freezing cold weather no less. It was something to be quite proud of, in her opinion. “Okay, you’re allowed one joke, but that’s all.” When Ryan began to complain about the cold, she pressed herself a little closer to him and, having the time of her life, batted her eyelashes at him and said “I can think of a few things to do that’ll get ya warm again.“.”

“I’ll try not to cry myself to sleep at night thinking about it,” he assured her, a small smirk playing on his lips. “Thanks for the very kind offer, but I think I’ll be fine.” Confused about the sudden grin on her face, he simply frowned at her. Perhaps it was something he said, but couldn’t be bothered to care. At least not now. Merlin’s beard, it was getting really cold. The water would probably be even colder. As she pressed herself closer to him, he almost took a step back out of habit, but managed to stay put. He really wanted to roll his eyes when she batted her eyelashes at him, he really did, but decided against it. “Yeah? I don’t doubt that.”

Being a hopeless romantic, astronomy was one of the subjects Murphy actually did enjoy. Stars, planets, There was something… poetic and magical about it. Well, there was something magical about most of the subjects at Hogwarts, but whatever. “She fell asleep, yeah. Guess she didn’t find huge burning rocks a million miles away all that exciting.” She answered him with a little smile as she sat down on the pillow next to him. Hoping he’d get the joke. This time it was even meant as a joke, not random and uncontrolled rambling. Her smile disappeared as she made a sudden grimace, trying to fight back a yawn. A fight she quickly realized she’d lost, but at least she made an effort to hide it behind her hand before looking back at him.

“I’m planning on falling asleep either, so I’ll be happy to keep you company. Also, I’ve been wanting to talk to you. To like, say sorry for being probably the worst date at the ball and stuff. Are your feet alright by the way?” She asked, a worried glance towards his shoes. “And I wanted to, you know, say thank you. Because it was pretty great. In my opinion. Of course, I get it if you don’t think so, because all I did pretty much all night was stumble in my dress and step on your toes and everything, so it may have been a complete disaster to you, but I just wanted you to know that I had fun, and… Oh, wait, is that a shooting star?” She interrupted herself, well aware that there wasn’t anything like a shooting star to see. She simply had to stop herself from rambling on forever.

Ryan scoffed at the mention of the burning rocks. “Can’t imagine how she could resist something so romantic.” How that joke had stayed with them since the fall was a mystery to him, but again he reminded himself that it was a good thing he remembered. The more it seemed like he could remember about her and the time they’d spent together, the more it seemed like he cared about her and truly wanted to be with her. Right? Right. 

“Yeah? I’m glad. --- Oh.” He listened to Murphy talk about the ball, and how she’s repeatedly had stepped on his toes - which was indeed true, and painful. To let her know his feet was okay after the brutal .. erh, dancing, he nodded quickly and sent her a reassuring smile. “Thank me? You don’t have to thank me, Murphy. I thought it was pretty great too. I had fun. Besides, you didn’t step on my toes all the time, I managed to walk around for a bit as well,” he joked. Which was ... rare. The sudden interruption about the shooting star made him look to the skies automatically. Whether there had been a shooting star or not, he didn’t know, but he couldn’t see anything. Returning his focus to Murphy, he tilted his head a bit to the side. “Did you make a wish?”

‘ Ryan, darling-’ Emma’s voice was a little annoyed, but she at least calmed down a bit from her previous sentence, the frown was still present and deepening. ‘- I’m one year older than you. And N.E.W.T.S. are already bagging at my door, so homework means nothing to me. What really matters is: next quidditch game; am I right or am I right?’

Ryan scowled. He strongly disliked it when people called him darling when he wasn't in a particularly good mood. "Do you not think I know all these things? I don't worry too much about the homework and projects either, but it's like they've forgotten that we have an important quidditch game coming up, and I can't sit around all night watching the stars with silly girls who don't want to finish the assignment because it's "romantic". "

“Are you telling I’m the first girl to invite you back to her dormitory? I must say it’s an honour, although I am rather surprised. I never picked you as one for girl troubles.” Lucinda teased, a bubble of laughter escaping from her lips. “Uh uh, no can do on that front. You can’t look as good as you do and have a good sense of humour, us girls would be totally defenceless then.”

“Not exactly what I’m saying, but as far as I can remember, you’re the first girl from your dorm to do so. I don’t really have a lot of girl troubles. Just like I can’t imagine you having much problems with the blokes around here.” He meant to chuckle, but the cold was starting to get to him, and he could only muster a smile. “Sod off, Lucy. I should be allowed to know at least one joke. And can we not stand still? I’m going to freeze my balls off if we keep doing nothing.”

As Ryan began to flex his muscles, Lucinda couldn’t help herself from watching, she was shameless really. “Oh you’re always welcome in the Slytherin girl’s dorms, Hendricks. You know that.” Vaguely, Lucy wondered if her roommates would agree with the statement. For all that she joked, Lucinda certainly wouldn’t mind a midnight visit from Ryan. “You sure about that? Oh Merlin Ryan, don’t tell me you’re one of those guys who is always staring at his muscles. It’s one thing for me to do that, but if you do? That’s just embarassing.”

Finally noticing the looks Lucinda was giving him, Ryan stopped flexing his muscles and folded his arms across his chest instead, trying to gain warmth that way. To keep his facade up, he kept the grin plastered on his face. “How kind of you, Lucy. Well, I might know it, but it’s nice to get an official invite, you know.” He winked. “I’m pretty sur- what? Merlin, no. I’m not that pathetic. All I meant was that going into the lake would be bloody freezing and a bad idea. And now I’m thinking I might have to learn how to make jokes.”

When Lucinda noticed Ryan’s glare, she simply bit her lip and gave him an impish grin and that grin only grew at his angry response. She watched as he began to strip down, allowing herself an appreciative glance as she did but quickly composing herself before he looked back at her. In a matter of moments that mischievous look was back. Lucinda fought off the cold she was feeling and mustered all the bravado she could when she was freezing to her bones, shrugged and said, “The lake just looked so beautiful from my bed. Maybe you should come check out that view sometime.”

The cold crept up on him in a second and he could feel the hair on his arms rise. Though he really had no one to blame but himself, he still blamed Lucinda for this. The worst part was that he knew he still had to take his trousers off, but he decided that it could wait. For now. He clenched his fist to make his muscles work and hopefully keep the warmth, if just a little bit. "Is that an invite? Maybe I should,” he replied, giving her a cheeky grin. “Well, the lake looks a lot better when we are not in it. This body looks better dry, let me tell you. --- Okay, perhaps not, but it does not look good blue from being frozen.”

“No, I’m running around in my underpants because I thought the giant squid might appreciate the view.” Lucinda replied with a roll of her eyes. “Oh come on, don’t tell me the great Ryan Hendricks is afraid of his quidditch captain? Anyway, no measly sickness is gonna stop me from playing in that game.” 

“Well, you never know,” he muttered with a light shrug, though a glare was shot towards Lucinda when she spoke next. No one were to think he was afraid of anything, especially not someone on his own team. “Shut your mouth, I’m not afraid of her.” He paused for a couple of seconds, debating with himself, before he grumbled irritably and pulled his cloak, jumper and shirt off. “Bloody hell, Lucinda, why? How did you get this idea?”

@ryanthendricks

Wouldn’t it be nice if karma actually gave you a big fat thumbs up? Like, I don’t know, if you happened to get the most perfect boy in class assigned as your partner during an all-nighter in the astronomy tower? If you got a chance to sit next to him on some pillows on the floor, and to watch the stars with him for hours? Maybe even hold hands in the dark? That would be pretty nice. Too bad karma is a b. Murphy sighed as she caught herself looking over at Ryan and his assigned partner for probably the hundred time, wishing it was her.

She’d been doodling random stars and quidditch-hoops in her notebook all night, obviously not paying attention to the sky at all. Tired, yawning like everyone else. Nothing exciting was happening in the stars anyways, and students all over were starting to get distracted by everything but the assignment. Chatting about the yule ball, sleeping, etc. So at some point, Murphy simply decided to make her own luck. Her own partner was fast asleep anyways. So she crawled on all fours over to Ryan, who’s partner was long gone, busy murmuring with her friends. “Hey. I just figured, you know, since both our partners are, uh, taking a little break, that maybe we could collaborate. Unless you were thinking about taking a nap or something yourself of course.”

Sometimes Ryan was convinced the teachers had no respect for their students and the fact they had more than one subject each week. Not only that, but the students were given homework and projects in every subject as well, but apparently the teachers either forgot about that, didn’t care or were unable to communicate with each other. Because it felt like every professor used the first class of the year to dump a new project or essay on them to do. It was the first week back and they already had a potions project, transfiguration essay and now an astronomy project. A stupid astronomy project. 

“Are we going to do this project or not?” Ryan asked his assigned partner, a girl in Ravenclaw he’d hardly ever spoken to before this project. The girl had turned her back on him a few minutes ago, choosing to chat with her friends rather than work with him on the stars. It was cold, late and Ryan wanted to be anywhere but there. The Ravenclaw girl just shook her head at him and continued the very important conversation with her friends. “Wanker,” Ryan murmured and returned to his notebook, where he’d hardly written anything during the last hour. The sound of Murphy’s voice made him glance up quickly, and he forced a smile on his face. “Hey. Yeah, sure. Yours ditched you as well? Or .. fell asleep, perhaps? --- I can assure you, I just want to finish this so falling asleep is not a part of that plan.”

Ryan hadn’t been particularly pleased with his Secret Santa, until very recently when he received his stocking filled with candy. And while he hadn’t been happy with it, that never meant he wanted a flock of owls dropping by with little gifts once or twice every hour. When the fifth owl arrived and the gift was wrapped up in just as much paper as the previous ones, he growled and cursed under his breath. “Merlin’s beard, is this really necessary? Wait-- hold on,” he said quickly to the owl. He quickly found a piece of paper and scribbled down; “Dear Secret Santa. I appreciate you trying to get back on my good side, but you don’t have to use an entire forest to wrap up a small chocolate bar.” Then he stopped. Then he put the pen down and curled the paper into a ball. “Nevermind, you can go,” he muttered to the owl, who took off right away. It was annoying, but he was not going to be the one person who complained because he actually got gifts.

[cont] Hohohohello. I couldn’t keep it. The skeleton didn’t go because he had no _body to go with. I really hope you find someone to go with though! At least you don’t have to worry about having a body.

To be honest, Ryan had been quite disappointed in his Secret Santa, as all he had gotten so far was, well, nothing. The last couple of days he hadn’t been able to hold his tongue, so he’d shared his annoyance with his friends - hoping none of them were his shitty Secret Santa. Although at the same time he sort of did, because maybe then he’d actually get something. It was a little surprising because he didn’t think he’d care that much about this arrangement, but apparently it mattered more to him than he thought. Which is why the sudden visit of an owl after Quidditch practice - by himself, might I add - was such a delightful surprise. He read the letter with a smile on his face, chuckled a little when the stranger revealed the answer to their own joke. Diving into the stocking, he frowned a little when he saw all the chocolate hearts. Who would send him hearts? Even for a Secret Santa thing? It would be revealed in the end after all. He ate a chocolate heart and headed for the dungeon. The letter had raised an interesting question though. Who would he go with to the ball?

She arched an eyebrow towards the other. ‘ We have an essay to do for Potions? Wow, I might have forggoten about it.’ she faked it for a while, her head shaking. ‘ If only we’d have essays at Potions…regarding we only brew Potions this year, ah- what a forgetful girl I am.’

“Wh---” Ryan stuttered for a second, and his cheeks flushed. He wasn’t prepared for the backlash of his lie, and while he was sure they had in fact written at least one essay earlier this fall, he couldn’t remember about which potion. “That.. it... --- oh sod it, McKinnon.”

‘ Why would you want to know where Murphy is?’

“... no reason. I just ...” Ryan tried to hastily come up with a believable reason as to why he’d want to see Murphy. “We were just going to ... to talk about this essay. For potions.”