#asher 1

Mio sat alone at the Slytherin table for dinner, helping herself to the strawberry pudding dessert. A few seats down she noticed Asher Avery, one of the prefects, sitting by himself, lost in thought. Bite after bite, she stared at him—his neck, his arms, his hands. He was gorgeous, and he would never waste time with someone like her. Mio shook her head and helped herself to seconds of dessert.

Olin kept his gaze on where their president was discussing the success of the weekends event, and quietly turned to the wizard next to him. He knew of Asher, of course, for other reasons. “How much longer do you think he’ll be rambling on?”

For all that he had made his you can learn from everything speech to Charlotte, he sure as hell was not learning anything now. A sigh, a little drawn back look. Even their very attractive professor’s poetic antics couldn’t draw James’s attention today. Chair lifted, walking across the room in strong movements, he was buzzing with energy, but their energies, their restlessness clashed, were on a different wavelength, perhaps. And so, impatiently, James tapped his pen against the desk, resisting the urge to go on his phone. (It was a sinkhole, his phone. Once he began, he wasn’t going to look up again.) He was majorly zoning out, and only caught himself a minute or so in. He corrected it immediately, because as much as he wanted to fuck around - there was still a standard he needed to ascribe to, if not for himself then for his scholarship. And so he glanced down at his notes, and then to the person seated beside him. It was a shame, he couldn’t even sit beside Charlotte because some asshole had decided to arrive earlier than him, and he didn’t feel like making a scene today. He gave the boy a cursory glance for one moment, before asking, in a whisper: “Sorry, what is he talking about now?”

Sometimes, not often, but certainly sometimes, Nadia wished she could kill every member of her crew and start a fresh. Then at least she could be more picky, instead of having to deal with what she was given. More women, for one, and a whole load more common sense.

A letter had been delivered that morning, from the Fae. They had two of her men, who had been caught trying to steal from the museum. Hadn’t she taught them better than this? Not only were their lives in danger and Nadia would have to clean up this mess, they had tainted her reputation. “Fucking idiots,” she muttered to herself, tearing the letter into two pieces and throwing it into the bin by the side of her desk. She looked up as she heard the door to her office open without a knock, asking harshly, “What is it?”