Redemption ((Payton))

[Ivy Tunstall]

Ivy sat down on a chair in front of the fire, the flickering light playing in her eyes as she gazed into it. It seemed almost alive. A coal popped every now and then, giving off a wonderful smell. One which Ivy was sure she remembered somewhere from her childhood. Vaguely. When she was very little. Something to do with a black carpet and pink flowers. What was that black carpet and pink flowers? Why was that memory - that image - etched so firmly into her mind?

Ivy was in a contemplative mood today. She was trying to work out some things about her past - who she had been, who she was now, what had happened with her mother, was it too late to put it straight? She flipped open the photo album she had brought down with her. It was a pink, thick-bound book. Inside it were pictures from her very earliest days. Pictures of her as a baby, in her mother's arms, pictures of her in the bathtub, pictures of her crawling, riding her bicycle, a small girl on a horse. A picture of her with a man in his senior years. She wondered who he might be. Her father's side or her mother's? She didn't know, because she had never had the chance to know much of her extended family. Her father didn't have much of one.

She pored over the pictures, allowing her mind to drift. She felt rather sleepy. It was quite late in the evening, gone half past eight. At least Ivy had no more homework to do. She smiled at that thought. It had been welcome relief from the constant pressure she had been putting herself under for the past few months. She was completely unaware as someone approached her, surrounded by her own thoughts, more peaceful and harmonious than they had been for a long time.

[payton]

It was looking like it was going to be a quiet evening in the common room. After dinner, he had changed from his uniform into a pair of jeans and an orange t-shirt with a navy celtic design on the front. He had also grabbed a deepl blue zip sweatship to guard against the falling tempratures and topped it off with what his Pops always called his 'irish fishing hat.' Well, that was if his fater was calling it something other than ugly. He had bought it three years ago when they went to Ireland for a vacation. It was the first time he had ever seen that style of hat with orange in it, and orange was after all his favorite color.

After he was in something much more comfortable, he made his way back down to the common room with his charms homework. He settled down at a table in the homework and worked carefully on his favorite subject until his work was finished. He then glanced down at his watch before leaning back in his chair and glancing around the room. Nine o'clook was on the horizen, and he had yet to have even a remotely social evening. It was then that he spoted Ivy. She was a third year whom he had only had one conversation with, and saying that it didn't go well would have been an understatement. He hesitated for a moment. She was the first person he had ever met who openly disliked it, and it wasn't exactly and easy thing for him to handle.

He finally decided he had to take care of this. That decided he grabbed his books and walked over to where she was sitting, and pulled up a chair next to her. He sat for a moment before saying something, reaching into his pocket for his wand--the thing he always turned to when talking to people he wasn't familiar with, but he stopped himself and instead pulled out a bag of every-flavor-beans, his favorite solution to his never ending sweet tooth, and held then out towards her.

"Break for the reality of Hogwarts?"

[Ivy Tunstall]

Ivy looked up as she heard a chair creak as someone pulled it up and sat down on it. She looked up and smiled vaguely, before looking to see who it was. It came as quite a shock when she saw who it was: Payton Moore. Now he was one person Ivy had taken a great disliking to. That was something that was very unusual for her. She had taken a disliking to Phoebe, but Phoebe was different. Phoebe was... well, did it matter? At the moment she had a different situation to deal with. Did she tell him straight out to go away or bear with him?

Ivy wasn't in the mood for telling people to go away, so she accepted the proferred bean. "Thank you," she said, in a perfectly normal tone of voice. She eyed the bean suspiciously before biting into it, as she had had some bad experiences with them. She grimaced as she was greeted with a less than pleasant taste, and then smiled at Payton, not really sure why.
"Not my lucky day," she told him lightly, trying to remember the last time that Kiyla had actually said anything about him. Ivy wondered what had happened there. She herself had had other things on her mind. But Ivy told herself that as long as Kiyla was happy, it wasn't her business any more than what Kiyla chose to say. Even when Kiyla wasn't happy, probably. But that wouldn't make her like this person any better. She had disliked Payton Moore from the word go.

[payton]

He was still leaning back in his chair, watching her as he took a bean after her and popped it into his mouth. It seemed that the nasty flavors had made their way to the top as he reconized his flavor as dirt, either that or earthwork, but it was hard to tell the two apart. He cringed for a moment, before smiling back at her.

"Seems to be in the air."

He made himself a bit more comfortable in his hair, still holding out the beans in case she cared to try again.

"But then I still keep trying, even when things don't seem to go my way."

After the words came out, he wondered if she could carry it to more than just the beans.

[Ivy Tunstall]

Completely alert, considering the company she was keeping at the moment, Ivy glanced at Payton sharply. She wasn't sure she liked the implication behind his words. She found that he was very self-confident, beyond any confidence that she had in herself, at least on the surface. She had found him rather arrogant at times, as well. But she knew that she hardly knew him, and tried to stop judging. What was the point?

She took another bean, as he was still holding the bag out to her. It tasted rather of trout. She didn't particularly like the taste, and wished she hadn't eaten it. But it was a bit late now. She looked at Payton seriously, brooding and thinking about the past. She might as well think about the present and future while she was at it.
"Well, that try was less than pleasant," she told him, frowning slightly, more at herself than at anything else.

[payton]

He smiled slightly and glanced down at the bag. It did seem that there were more unplesant flavors than plesant ones at time, but they were still his favorite candy, he never went anywere with out a bag of them.

"Risk of the treat. I guess. After a while you get use to the nasty flavors though."

He smiled again and shrugged, with out thinking reaching into his pocket and pulling out his wand. He always that that when he was talking with someone who was a bit new to him, or sometimes when they weren't. Holding his want out he moved it in his hand for a moment before looking back at Ivy then down to the bag.

"Too bad there isn't a charm to pull out all the good flavors."

He shrugged again, still holding his wand as if he was wondering doing a charm with it, though he recided no such spell.

[Ivy Tunstall]

((I'm sorry I've left it so long, I didn't realise. ))

Ivy watched sharply as Payton withdrew his wand. He seemed prone to doing this, as if he could not think of any other way to make people like him, and Ivy wished he would not do it. She found it made her uncomforatble, for some reason she could not quite grasp. She had seen him charming people with his skill with it the first time she and Kiyla had met him. Kiyla had been impressed.

"Mmm," she said noncomitally as a reply to his comment. She clasped her hands together and took them apart together, and kept on repeating this action as something to cover up her own awkwardness. Perhaps that was what Payton was doing with his wand. He probably came across as more confident than Ivy, but Ivy didn't particularly like to deceive people anyway. She looked to where Payton was sitting beside her, and gave a small puzzled frown. It was an odd situation. She had been sure he was making a concious effort to avoid him for months since she had... confronted...him about how upset he had made Kiyla. So why had he come over to talk now?

"If you have a sweet tooth you could always make some sweets yourself," she said suddenly, having finally thought of something to fill the silence. "That way you could put your own charms on them." She looked away again, preferring to gaze into the bright fire rather than meet Payton's eyes. She closed hers and found that the light had left a lasting pink colour in front of them, which stayed there when she opened them again. Ivy waited for Payton's reply, not really sure why she was still talking to him.

[payton]

He raised an eyebrow at her coment over him making his own candy. It was an intresting coment to be made to him, though he was sure Ivy didn't know why. He was a bit of a contradition when it came to how he expressed himself to others. For the msot part, he treated his life as an open book. He always told everyone anything they wanted to know. At the same time though, there were certin elements that he kept to himself, one thing in particular only Sethia and Dillion were aware of.

"Actually...I plan to to just that. I'm not sure about candies exactly, but I want to be a chef after Hogwarts"

[Ivy Tunstall]

Ivy looked at Payton curiously as he said he wanted to become a chef. She hadn't really thought about what he might want to become, or what his strengths were before, mainly because of the fact that she had not had a civil conversation with him before.
"Are you a cook then?" she asked. She supposed he might be. He probably didn't have the depth of experience she had after cooking for her father and herself for so many years, but of course she didn't know what his family circumstances were. Hopefully he didn't know what hers were either. She didn't want someone so insufferable to know.

"Myself," she said, "well obviously I'm not sure yet, but I think I want to do something to do with Charms. What exactly that would entail I don't know." She looked down at her toes, wondering why she had just told him, of all people, that. She hadn't talked to many people about what she wanted to do - conversation didn't seem to drift to that subject very often - but she had been sure for a while that she wanted to do something to do with Charms. It was her main strength, and something she enjoyed as well. Those seemed to her to be perfectly legitimate reasons to follow it as a career path. As long as she could make enough money out of it to live on. Ivy looked back at Payton. Perhaps he wasn't so bad. Although he still unquestionably had a rather overlarge ego.

[payton]

He watched her expression when he mentioned that he planned on being a chef one day. It seemed to change slightly, no longer eyeing him with such harshness. Maybe the comment surprised her, the fact that he did see that there was life being whatever his latest actions were. He shrugged it off though, putting his attention to answering her question.

“I do cook actually. I cook for my family when I am home, and I work in a café down the street during the summer.”<br>
The topic then shifted to Ivy and how she thought she would pressure a career in charms. He wondered if she knew that was his best subject too.

“I’m sure you can find a god career that has to do with charms. Maybe in the Ministry or something.”<br>
Even though they were speaking rather civil to one another, there was still tension in the air. They were sharing more personal elements of their life, but there was this almost uncomfortable quality to it. They weren’t close by any means, and while he always took his life as an open book, Ivy seemed much more reserved, and that coupled with the fact that he wasn’t exactly her favorite person was making their conversation rather awkward.

[Ivy Tunstall]

Ivy nodded slowly, still slightly wondrous at the fact she was even talking to this boy. After all, wasn't he the one who had toyed with Kiyla's affections? And left her confused about where she stood? And left Ivy confused about how she could even resolve the situation? Maybe it wasn't her business, but for Ivy, anything that made a friend unhappy was her business. Be it work, parents, other friends, herself or boys. But if she didn't want to speak to him, she could make some excuse and get up and walk away. She didn't feel like doing that right now. It was him who had approached her.

Ivy shifted in her chair, aware that she would have to say something. The heavy photo album she had in her lap nearly fell onto the floor, and Ivy only just caught it in time. She opened it to the first page again, a picture of her as a tiny baby. All Muggle pictures. Only the later ones were moving. And they were right at the back of the book. She looked up at Payton, recalling what he had said before.
"I hope there is something I can do," she said. "I want it to be something there's some interest in for me though." She returned to the photo album, finding a picture of her at about three years old and a distinctly younger looking father, who was holding her at the top of a slide, smiling. It had her mother's writing on the back. 'Summer '85'. She said nothing else to Payton. She was quiet, and in a mood for doing more thinking than talking.

[payton]

When the photo album began to slip, he glanced down at it, having not really noticed it was in her lap before then. He saw the page it was open to now, a muggle print, which he was all to familiar with, of a small baby that had a date underneath it. He wondered if it was Ivy when she was younger.

“You are more organized with your photos. I bought ones of my family with me, and I just charm them to stick to my bed posts.”<br>
Ivy said she liked charms before, now that he could relate with. For some reason he really needed her to like him, and maybe he just found something they could both relate to. He glanced down at his wand, which he had had his hand on and was moving about in his fingers, and drew it out, mumbling a few charms he moved his bag of ever-flavor-beans to the front of the arm of the chair Ivy was sitting in and stuck them there.



((Pardon the delay, with Selthia not around these days, I just can't bring myself to post most of the time))

[Ivy Tunstall]

Ivy looked up at Payton as he commented on her being organised with her photos. She supposed it was true that she was fairly organised with her photos. But this wasn't an album she had put together. She had discovered it over Easter while she was spring-cleaning the house. She'd done some of the rooms that her father usually did, although she still hadn't ventured much into her father's room. She certainly hadn't gone looking at anything. She wasn't brave enough to. Besides, it wasn't her business. It was gone... like her father, surely? But her mother was still there. But then again, Ivy might as well forget about her too. As if that were possible. Ivy shook her head and turned the page of the album.

"I don't really have many photos," Ivy said, "that's why these're interesting for me. I only have a few that I actually look at much." Ivy wasn't sure how to explain what she meant, but she wasn't obliged to anyway so it probably didn't matter. She had a picture of her dad on her bedside table, one of the Ashtons and one of Gilbert which Charles Driscoll had taken. He really seemed to have a talent for photography. Ivy considered hers a good photograph if she hadn't taken it wonkily, and if no one had blinked just as she'd taken it.

Ivy glanced down at the bag of Every Flavour Beans which appeared to have been charmed to stick there, and took one, peering at the rather alarmingly coloured light green bean before biting into it. It tasted of leek. Not really a sugar addict, Ivy drew her own wand and moved it back over to Payton's chair, where she left it hovering for a while, struggling to keep her concentration on keeping it there while she drew the charm for sticking it to the chair out of her mind. It came fairly quickly, and although the bag had dipped a little in the air, it had stayed put. Ivy stuck it to the chair and grinned at Payton. Such a simple task was a bit more of a chore for her than for a sixth year. "I'm always worried about what they actually put in some of the less pleasant ones to make the flavours," Ivy commented, looking over to the sixth year, expecting him to have some idea.

((Heh, my muse has been gone for a long time, but seems to have temporarily come back, if at the expense of my being good at maths. ;D))

[payton]

He smiled at Ivy when she completed the charm. While the charm to move was taught to the yearly years, not all budding young witches and wizards fully got the sticking charm until they were in their fourth or fifth year. But then Ivy had said she wanted to do something with charms, so he should have expected her to have some talent.
"Well done. You are one of the few people charms come more easily to. If you ever need any help, I would be happy to. We share a similar admiration for the swish and flick."

He glanced back down at his beans, pulling one out of the bag and tossing it into the air, then quickly adjusting his body so he could catch it in his mouth. He paused for a moment, chewing very carefully before grinning and nodding
"Mango. And thats the surprise with the beans. Its like everything else in life, you never really know for sure."

He shrugged and looked down at the bag again, pondering over his next choice.
"You said you are going into charms right? I say you develop a charm to pick out the good ones."

[Ivy Tunstall]

((Sorry bout this, I'd like to finish this post off because as we both know time is getting short. )

Ivy smiled as Payton gave her a slight compliment and nodded as he offered his help, giving a small "Thanks" and another smile. Charms was the one thing that came naturally to her - she could get good results quickly, especially when she was concentrating properly. She rolled her eyes slightly as Payton did what so many people seemed tempted to do with the beans - show off. Personally Ivy would never want to toss the beans into her mouth. It would seem rather rude to her. Having been brought up to mind her manners. But she would allow him it. He seemed to have been trying hard not to be too outrageously showy. Instead she gave him another small smile, unsure whether he had seen her rolling her eyes but not particularly concerned - she didn't much care for him.

"Mango?" she enquired lightly, repeating his words. "That actually sounds quite tasty. Have you ever tried putting mango juice and passion fruit juice and orange juice together?" she asked offhandedly. "That really is very refreshing. If you haven't you should try it some time." Ivy blushed slightly at having gone off topic, before replying to his next comment. "I certainly hope to go into charms, I don't know what else I'd be able to do if I couldn't do the thing I'm best at. But wouldn't developing a charm to pick out the good ones be rather defeating the object? Isn't the idea that the beans have an element of surprise?" Ivy grinned at Payton before stretching her arms behind her head, interlocking her fingers and standing up, photograph album in hand.
"Well, I'm pretty much at leisure this evening," she said, "but to be honest I'd like to get an early bedtime so I'm going to go and get things sorted upstairs now. Nice talking to you though." Ivy gave Payton another smile, quite friendly, before walking towards the stairs to the girls' dormitories, wondering exactly how it had come about that she had talked to someone who she wasn't exactly particularly fond of.