#gryffinclawwrites

“The two known venomous breeds are the Peruvian Vipertooth and… and… crap. The Peruvian Vipertooth aaaaaand… damn it.” She muttered to herself, giving in and flipping the page over. “Norwegian Ridgeback, damn it I knew that!” She groused in a muffled grunt of frustration, trying not to be too loud. It was a library after all. She wasn’t the only one trying to study.

She didn’t notice the boy crossing the library with a determined look on his face, she was leaning so far over the book her nose was practically touching it, but she definitely snapped to attention when that boy fell at her feet, literally.

“Oh!” She moved like she’d get up to help him, wondering what the hell had just happened, looking around for whatever he’d tripped on or whoever had tripped him. But he rose on his own, groaning when he realized who’s feet he’d fallen at.

Well that wasn’t very nice. She knew him vaguely from classes, and knew he was a Gryffindor, but she wasn’t completely mean, she’d have helped him up, the groan wasn’t necessary. But then he stammered out an apology and she realized he was probably just embarrassed, and felt bad for her mean thoughts. “Don’t be, it’s-” but he was already gone, trotting out of the library and away from her, leaving her watching his retreating back with confused eyes.

“What was that?” Carey asked as she sat next to Aurelia, accompanied by Meagan and Olivia.

Aurelia shook her head, turning back to her roommates. “Honestly? I’ve no idea. He fell, groaned, apologized and ran off.”

“You just draw them in against their will.” Meagan teased.

“They’re literally falling at your feet!” Olivia chimed in, but it was Carey, Aurelia’s best friend- using the term loosely considering the competitive type of friendship the two girls had- that made the comment that stuck with her.

“And all you can focus on is your silly dragon lore.”

“It’s not ‘silly lore’. It’s a field of study, and one I intend-”

“To succeed in if it’s the last thing I do.” All three girls finished her sentence in unison, dissolving into barely smothered giggles.

“We know the speech, Auri, relax. We’re just playing.” Carey assured her, opening her own book.

“He’s cute though. You should go see if he’s alright, play nice.”

“Olivia, stop.” Meagan made a face. “He’s a Gryffindor. He’s probably got some hero complex and a chip on his shoulder where Slytherins are concerned, just like everyone else. She goes anywhere near his dorm and she’ll probably be three different types of bitched out.”

Aurelia opened her mouth to disagree- he’d apologized, after all, how bad could he be even though he was a lion?- but the other two voiced their agreements and settled in to study, and she gave up, thinking it was pointless to continue the argument.

But she did sort of want to go check on him. “I’m going to go see him anyway.”

All three gave her the same incredulous look.

“You’re kidding right?”

She felt her expression twist into indignation. “No! I’m going to make sure he’s alright.”

“Do you even know his name?”

She opened her mouth to say yes, but realized that no, she didn’t know his name. Shit. “It’s…” she knew he was the son of Alicia Spinnet, a girl her father had… not exactly gotten along with in school. But other than that… he was in a few of her classes, and she racked her brain for a name. She really needed to pay attention to more than just The Deal and her fellow Slytherins. “Elijah!” Success! She gave her friends a ‘so there’ look. “His name’s Elijah.”

“Yeah, Elijah Spinnet. As in, the Spinnets that are close to the Weasleys? As in the Spinnets that don’t like your family like, at all?”

“Our parents don’t like each other. There’s no reason he and I can’t be civil.”

“Don’t come crying to us when some lion hexes you.” Carey said, going back to her book as though signaling the conversation was over, but Aurelia narrowed her eyes.

“I wouldn’t dream of it.” She said loftily, slinging her bag over her shoulder and striding out of the library.

It wasn’t the most mature thing she’d ever done, but getting the last word did make her feel a little better about her friends’ attitudes, and she was content as she came up on the staircase to the Gryffindor tower. No wonder none of them could be on time for anything, living up in this little corner of nowhere in some tower. She’d be late all the time too if she had to run from the tip top of a tower to any of her classes. Just another reason the Slytherin common room was one of, if not the best of the dorms, even in location.

It was an hour later that the boy she was looking for happened to come out of the common room painting to see her sitting on the steps, her book reopened and in her lap as she stared down at it, her blonde hair hanging over one shoulder that she kept having to readjust out of her vision.

“Aurelia?”

She looked up in surprise at the sound of her name, and smiled at the sight of the boy she’d been hoping to see, hastily setting her book aside and standing to face him. “Yes, hullo, I’m sorry I know this looks strange, I just wanted to make sure you were alright, and no one would let me in, which is of course perfectly understandable but everyone had someplace urgent to go which I think were mostly excuses so they wouldn’t have to help me and I may have inadvertently insulted one of your housemates and I am sorry but if she’d have given me a chance to explain-”

He was wearing the same thing he’d left in yesterday, shenoticed. It wasn’t obvious, a dark shirt and dark pants, but she paid attentionto these things. For this reason specifically.

“So was it the window, or did you decide to experiment withthe door this morning?” She teased as he came near to her, falling into stepwith him.

“Shut up.” He said with a smile as they headed toward theshatterdome.

“I’m just asking questions!”

“Shut it.” He practically sang the words, acat-that-ate-the-canary grin on his lips.

“So the window, then. Do you even know what her door lookslike?”

He shot her a chiding look that was diminished a little bythe amusement in his eyes. “I’m going to smack you in a second.”

“I don’t get the issue, dude. She’s a hottie.”

“I’m not having this conversation with you.”

“Really? Funny, because I’M having this conversation withYOU, so that’s curious.”

“Don’t we have a job to focus on?”

“Ugh, job, right. Danger, imminent death, save the world,all that jazz.” She said, skipping a few paces ahead as they came up on thedoor and she breezed into the shatterdome, leaving him rolling his eyes at herback. “We’re not finished with this!” She called over her shoulder as she wentto gear up. He didn’t even bother to respond other than a laugh, and shesmiled, thinking of the first time they’d been paired together to drift. He’dlaughed like that then, too.

It’d been chance, mostly. Her partner had retired, gottentired of the danger, the physical and mental toll, and quite frankly, her. Hispartner had been injured, and it was unclear if they’d ever return to fullfighting, and a Kaiju had attacked, leaving the base mostly unprotected and inneed of at least one of it’s two divided teams.

There hadn’t been time for the weeks of vetting and testingand training between two pilots, and they’d decided to fast-track the processto see if the two abandoned pilots were compatible. It’d been likely, but not perfect,and they’d both been offered to opt out. But both had been eager to return totheir jobs, and so Kinsley had gone to meet Caleb Lawson.

They had remarkably similar reputations. Easygoing,unruffled, slightly to very promiscuous depending on their mood and theircompany, and part of the worry had been whether the two would rather jump eachother than drift with each other. But they’d kept it together, and met for thefirst time in the Conn-pod.

She’d shot him a reckless grin he’d returned, and without aword- who needed words when you were about to drift?- they’d settled in to thedrift.

It was like watching her life if she’d been born a boy, andby the time they came back to reality, she was laughing in delight and grinningwidely at her new partner, whom she hadn’t given a chance to speak first.

“Can I keep him?!” She’d called to the control room, andthat laugh she’d quickly gotten used to rang out from next to her, and she knewshe’d found her new partner.

They’d managed to keep from letting their personal livesinto work, but that didn’t mean they kept them separate, and Kinsley was veryinvested in this girl he refused to admit was more than just some fling.

So, as they did last minute checks, she smirked up at him. “Can’twait to get in there and see if you finally got acquainted with her door.”

“You are never going to let that go, are you?”

“You went out the freaking window!”

“It was one time!”