Be Thee Friend or Foe? ((Brianna))

[hollow]

Adrian walked through Hogsmeade slowly, sending the few people who sent him curious glances a cutting glare. Not that their curiousity was unfounded. He was walking through Hogsmeade with his usual mocking smirk but today he seemed different, softer. Many people escaped the glare and insults that he would usually have thrown at them. Well, by people he meant Hufflepuffs and Gryffindors. Today, Adrian just couldn't rouse the hatred he generally had for the two weaker houses and was quite content to let them pass by without a word. Not that they'd get the same treatment once the Hogsmeade visit was over. No, then he would go back to his usual attitude and reaffirm his hatred. But today had been special. He had just spent three hours with his parents and younger sister to celebrate his sisters birthday and so Adrian was considerably more mellow than usual.

Adrian made his way through the streets absently, heading for his favourite shop and not even having to think about it. Adrian generally spent most of his Hogsmeade visits in the old bookshop, browsing through the spell books and occasionally settling down to read a muggle book, most often Shakespeare. He didn't have to worry about fellow Slytherins seeing him with the muggle book as he had made friends with the owner of the shop and Mr Aster had been willing to disguise the books as potions textbooks. Rob Aster had been a Ravenclaw when he had attended Hogwarts and so understood the importance of secrecy. Adrian had no wish to be shunned by his house and if being seen reading a muggle book would do so then Adrian was glad that Rob had been obliging enough to spell the book.

Adrian entered the shop and inclined his head toward Rob with a smile. Rob shook his head minutely, unable to talk as he was serving a customer, and waved Adrian over. Adrian crossed over to the owner of the shop and lifted an eyebrow questioningly. He always went upstairs to one of the private rooms, he had earned that privilege early in his third year. Of course, it helped that Rob knew his parents and was distant friends with them. "Sorry, Adrian. The rooms are closed. You'll have to sit downstairs like everyone else and scare the annoying people away with one of your smiles." Rob chuckled good-naturedly but smiled apologetically, knowing that Adrian would dislike being banned from his private room. Not through any fault of his own, Adrian treated the books with respect that Rob had expected from Ravenclaws rather then Slytherins, but because Rob's wife was ill and the bedrooms were close to the private reading rooms. Sending a customer up there would risk exposing them to the virus and Rob wouldn't do that.

Much to Rob's surprise, Adrian merely shrugged and grabbed a book from the shelf before moving to the very back of the shop and collapsing on one of the chairs gracelessly. Adrian looked at the book thoughtfully, blowing a piece of hair out of his eyes and smiling as he recognized the book. Macbeth, most definitely one of Shakespeare's better works and Adrian's favourite of all the Shakespearean books. Adrian opened the book and began reading, quickly getting absorbed in the eventful story of Macbeth and his traitorous thoughts and actions toward the King.

[aithne]

Brianna had searched just about everywhere for her sister’s present. What would Lana want? It was a hard thing to decide. Five years ago Brianna would easily have made a quick decision for her sister’s birthday present, but now it was different. When Brianna came home for the holidays her sister merely greeted her with a half-hearted, limp hug which she clearly disliked. Before she would have rushed at the ring of the doorbell, jumped at the sign of her sister, and hugged until Brianna begged to be released. But since Brianna came back a full witch, able to cast spells and ride a broom, Lana had changed. Well, Brianna knew it was her who had actually changed but Lana had taken it hard that her little sister was seeing things differently from her now. It wasn’t that she refused to believe that Brianna went to a magical school where half-men, half-horse people weren’t unheard of; she simply disagreed with it all and didn’t like to hear about it.

With a last sigh Brianna had left the thought of buying her sister an amazing present which would fix their sisterly feelings. Instead, she bought herself five tops, a pair of shorts which were far over her average shorts-allowance, and some new shoes. Plus the two bracelets and the new necklace she bought of course. All in all, she walked into her favourite little book shop loaded with bags. A smiling face met her, and a happy voice.
“Brianna honey, welcome again. I was expecting you and I saved you our new book! If I didn’t any doubt it would have been whipped off of the shelves in no time.” Rob, the owner of the shop, greeted the Ravenclaw.
Brianna smiled widely back. “Rob, hello. That’s fantastic! I can’t wait- but first you have to tell me how she is.” She spoke gently. Rob’s face fell a little, before he answered in a still cheery tone.
“Better than last week when you last checked. She says for you to tell your mother that Madame Clinch next door should have a great cure for that allergy.” Rob spoke as though in robot-form which made Brianna smile at his eagerness to report the message through correctly.

Thanking him and agreeing to pass it on Brianna watched as Rob went behind the counter, pulling a large book to Brianna. Eyes wide she grinned at the cover before giving Rob a friendly hug.
“This is fantastic! Special addition too… wow, Rob this one’s a real find! I’ll be quicker than I was with Hamlet this time, promise!” She said joyfully. Before long she was sitting in her usual chair at the back of the shop, in the huge white leather chair she always occupied. Romeo and Juliet held in her hands, she began reading happily while her bags lay in a neat line beside her.

[hollow]

Adrian caught sight of a face peering at him from the corner of his eye and half-smiled before setting down his book and lifting an eyebrow expectantly. The girl shrugged sheepishly and gestured to the stack of books next to her helplessly. Adrian rolled his eyes but still stood up and lifted the stack with ease, following the older girls laughing directions as to where he should place the books, and teasing her about her lack of strength. Sometimes being well-known as a fairly friendly and generally helpful boy by the employees was annoying but it had its rewards. Mainly free use of the books and a willing escort to any ball that he was forced to attend but also a sense of companionship with all of the employees that came in handy if he just needed to escape for a few hours or desired intelligent conversation. Not to mention that he now knew the contents and arrangement of the bookshop better than most of the employees, which was fun on the rare occasion that Rob closed the shop and hosted a game of hide-and-seek for himself, his wife, his daughter, the employees, Adrian and his sister, Lita.

"Go and keep her company," Adrian lifted an eyebrow at the order from Rob but followed his gaze to the girl sitting at the back of the room nonetheless. "Why?" Adrian protested weakly, already knowing thast he would be going over in just a few seconds but determined to keep up at least a pretense of defiance. It wouldn't do to just give in instantly. "Because I'm asking you to. Now go," Rob ordered with a smile, pushing Adrian toward the back of the room gently. It wouldn't have made a difference had Adrian been utterly determined to stay away from the girl but, given that Adrian had no argument with her and was in a good enough mood to not mind company, he allowed himself to be pushed forward a few steps before shooting a laughing smirk over his shoulder and rolling his eyes at Rob's innocent smile. Honestly, that man wouldn't know innocent if it hit him on the head with one of his precious books.

Adrian surveyed the girl silently, curious about her and wondering exactly why Rob had ordered him to amuse her. It wasn't a usual occurence, he was generally asked to organize the books after a careless customer had messed them up or he was occasionally asked to stand in for an absent employee but never had he been ordered to amsue a customer. Of course, it was usually something that Rob did and it wasn't surprising for him to delegate the job since his wife was sick and he would want to check on her regularly. The title of the book made Adrian smile and gave him an idea. Mischievous moods didn't occur often and he decided to follow the rare, impish idea that was nagging at him. "The brightness of her cheek would shame those stars, ss daylight doth a lamp; her eyes in heaven would through the airy region stream so bright. That birds would sing and think it were not night. See, how she leans her cheek upon her hand! Oh, that I were a glove upon that hand, that I might touch that cheek!" Adrian winked and bowed. "Adrian Hollows. At your service, milady."

((Extract from Romeo and Juliet obtained from here. *snickers* And I don't know what came over Adrian; he was just in an impish mood, I guess.))

[aithne]

God this book was good, Brianna thought to herself. She loved Shakespeare- before coming to Hogwarts her school had briefly studied it. Everyone else had laughed a giggled at the odd words and the romantic way Shakespeare spoke, snickering at how weird it was and complaining constantly that they couldn’t understand a single word. But Brianna had doted over the books, silently slipping the tattered school copies of Shakespeare’s finest and easiest into her school bag to finish at home. She didn’t tell anyone about her love for the fabulous author- if she did then no doubt she’d loose a fair bit of her popularity, as happened at Primary School. Anyone found doing something that everyone else hadn’t, wouldn’t, or shouldn’t, would automatically be shunned. Although Brianna knew it was stupid, she always tried to hide whatever she truly felt if it were ‘against rules’ so she could stay at the popular position she was often in. If she felt something she did which no-one else had yet done could begin a new craze she risked it, and it always worked. But reading was one of those dreaded things she didn’t even want to risk and try to start a craze for.

Reading was the kind of thing Brianna’s family liked- but not loved. They mostly read a few pages or a chapter or two from a book before going to sleep and if there was truly nothing else to do in the day you could catch a member of the Felica family reading. But they didn’t care for it like Brianna did. She hated it when her sister folded down large corners of pages to mark her place in a book and would constantly be smoothing the folds out and buying Lana bookmarks. She hated it when her mother ate over a book while reading, causing terrible crumbs to get stuck in the binding, often impossible to get out. She hated it when her dad would leave the books lying around for the dog to find and chew on, or he would drop one accidentally and not even care that a precious page had just fallen out. It annoyed Brianna when she thought of the ignorance people directed towards the wonderful books which gave her most of her knowledge.

Not many people loved books like she did and she supposed that was one of the reasons she felt so amazingly at home in the Ravenclaw house-everyone loved books, mostly anyway. Over half of them would gasp along with Brianna when a careless person in the library left a special book lying on the floor, or face-down with it’s binding spread out and bending. She loved the fact that someone finally felt the same with her and she didn’t need to hide her feelings. Although there were a few Gryffindors and Hufflepuffs she met who loved books, she never felt they were truly genuine about the thought and only did it to either a) mock her or b) try and make friends with her by fake means. There were, she admitted, a few Slytherins who read a book here and there and believed that the novels and such items should be looked after. But never had Brianna met a Slytherin interested in Shakespeare, as well as to even know some words.

Eyes wide she looked up from her book, noticing finally the stranger before her. Well- she recognised him as a Slytherin but didn’t know whether he happened to be in a lower or higher year. He definitely wasn’t in her year she was sure.
The words of the famous William Shakespeare reached her ears and made her smile widely, dark eyes lighting up. The beautiful words were spoken and Brianna smiled as sweetly as possible in return as she spoke.
“What man art thou that thus bescreen'd in night
So stumblest on my counsel?”
Although the two weren’t meeting at night she knew the words were correct to say- why on earth was the Slytherin greeting her? That wasn’t what they did! He introduced himself with a wink and a bow which made her laugh inside. Nodding her head slightly she replied again.
“Brianna Felica, how fabulous to meet you, master Hollows.” She smiled wickedly.

[hollow]

Adrians eyes flashed with restrained impatience as the girl took her time to look up but he held in his temper expertly, even offering a gentle smile when the girl finally looked up. Her response was almost enough to make him smile yet he still understood the meaning behind the verse. Slytherins generally didn't socialise much outside of their house but it still happened. Occasionally. "But, milady, how could anyone resist the urge to speak to you in all of your radiant beauty? I, myself, found it nearly impossible and the gentle urgings of the young maiden and the good Sir Rob yonder merely strengthened my resolve and led to my appearance." Adrian smiled, keeping up his act of being a noble knight with no small amount of amusement. Noble he was not and more often termed a knave than a knight. It was still amusingly pleasant to act the part though; even if it was just that, an act.

Brianna Felica. He pondered for a few seconds before identifying her as a Ravenclaw. Probably fifth year since he didn't recognise her as being in his year and she looked too old to be younger yet not old enough to be a sixth year. Adrian lifted an eyebrow in faint annoyance at being called 'master'. Only house-elves called him that and he didn't appreciate it from a fellow student. "Master Hollows? Oh no. Sir Adrian is most definitely preferred by this knight, Lady Brianna." Adrian countered with a slight smile, perching on the armrest of another chair gently. "Why, do you not think that the title of mater proclaims me to be old when I can safely presume that you are but a year older than myself? So by calling me old, think about what you call yourself." Adrian sharpened his tone marginally, warning Brianna that he wouldn't allow himself to be insulted, however accidental or slight the insult was, but softened the tone with a small smile. After all, he had been ordered to amuse her and he hated to break his word. It simply wasn't honourable nor appealing.

[aithne]

The smile the boy sent was returned by Brianna as she waited for his reaction. When it came she laughed a little out loud, and a lot inside. Her radiant beauty? My this boy was a bit like Dare, who didn’t cease to tell Brianna how beautiful and fabulous she was. Although it was fun and she liked to hear it of course- who wouldn’t- after a while it got annoying. So when she realised it was a joke, and act, it made it even better. She laughed again though didn’t bother to return the drama. “Ahh so Rob put you up to this. I was wondering why a Slytherin would come over to me, though I suppose you aren’t all that terrible.” She half-complimented. She had of course met many Slytherins who agreed with Ravenclaws in some views and had had a decent conversation with more than one at least.
She raised her brows as he was obviously insulted by her remark. With an apologetic smile she replied. “Sorry, I didn’t mean any offence. What should I call you then? I apologise for not knowing your name,” She smiled. Hopefully he hadn’t taken offence. It wasn’t as though she spent her life talking in Shakespeare’s fabulous language though she knew she would acquire it should that even need to take place.
((sorry for the lateness and the disgraceful shortness. I wasted most of my inspiration on leon's opening-death post tehe))

[hollow]

"Rob puts me up to a lot of things, I'm afraid." Adrian agreed ruefully. "I'm an unofficial worker for our dear Sir Rob. Quite frankly, I'm surprised I haven't seen you here before since you're obviously enough of a regular customer for Rob to send me to deal with you. I help out when I'm needed and in return I get free run of the shop whenever I wish. My sister and I often take advantage of it and we've been known to spend the night here. Occasionally we invite a friend or two but only if we really trust them and Rob approves of them." Adrian shrugged slightly. In all truth, he had never tried to invite a friend to enjoy the secret highlights of Robs shop. His sister, Lita, had tried it once but the friend had trashed the shop and the siblings had stayed up all night to repair the shop to its former glory before the Aster family returned in the morning. He wasn't keen to attempt the experiment again after that.

"No offense taken, my dear Lady Brianna." Adrian grinned, waving away his earlier insulted appearance easily. "Adrian Hollows, my dear. Not entirely at your service but enough to satisfy you, I'm sure. Should you wish for help or intelligent conversation then I am happy to oblige." Adrian grinned at a passing employee and remarked impishly, "Merlin knows that you couldn't get intelligent conversation from any of the paid employees." That remark earned him a playful slap on the head and a gentle kick to the ankle. "And you'd get worse if your sister had heard it, you annoying snake." The girl called over her shoulder, a smile playing about her lips despite her words. Adrian rolled his eyes and turned back to Brianna with a friendly smile. "That was Katelyn. She delights in being my intellectual match and I don't have the heart to tell her that she's not." Adrian smiled fondly, his eyes flicking to Katelyn quickly. She was a close friend even if they fought all the time.

[aithne]

Brianna smiled. Although Adrian made it sound like Rob 'made' him do what he did, Brianna guessed that the Slytherin actually quite liked to odd job, and the books he no doubt must read. Shaking her head she replied. "I haven't come here in a while apart from once a couple of weeks ago. I usually come on Saturdays too, with permission from teachers when I can get it. And if I can't...." She wavered off. She did now and then come into Hogsmeade when the rest of her classes were in lessons. It was the quietest time then and she could enjoy the magical shops without anyone noticing her, and without the hustle. Brianna nodded, having heard Rob say a few times to his mother about such things for some families who helped him out in spots where he needed staff or just an extra helping hand.

The Ravenclaw smiled as the Slytherin grinned, and she thought about how much better he looked when he did so. Much happier and at-ease. Cuter, you could say. Brianna laughed lightly at his comments before saying; "Oh I'd very much love to have an intelligent conversation with you Adrian. It isn't often I find a Slytherin so knowledgable about Shakespeare's finest works." She smiled a little as she spoke the obvious truth, and watched as the girl 'tortured' Adrian for his comment. When Katelyn spoke about Adrian's sister Brianna raised her eyebrows, speaking as Katelyn walked away.
"Your sister sounds fun. I'd love to meet her. Do you get on with her?" It sounded like the two did, from the playful way her name was thrown about the conversation now and then. Brianna herself had did no longer get on with Lana of course, but since she once did, she saw the reasons why Adrian would with Lita.

[hollow]

"You may not come in here often but you obviously treat the books with great care if Rob sent me to deal with you, Brianna. He knows quite well that if I see someone treating books without the proper care I'll throw them out of the shop without a second thought. And Rob won't say a thing unless it's been a misunderstanding." Adrian smiled easily, speaking from past experience. Alright, so it had only happened once but it had been enough to prove himself. Besides, he hadn't seriously injured the boy. At the worst, the irritating boy had received a sprained ankle from when Adrian had literally hauled him out of the shop and dumped him onto the pavement. Surprisingly, the kid had been Katelyns younger brother and she hadn't taken kindly to Adrians treatment of him - which had been the start of their regular fights. But the fights with real malice and spite in them had evolved into the more playful banter that now existed between them. A brother and sister type of relationship really.

Adrian shrugged carelessly. "Shakespeare may have been a muggle but he was extremely talented." Dark brown eyes flicked to Brianna's eyes hesitantly. "I do have to request that you tell no one about it though. I can't imagine the other Slytherins taking enjoyment from the news about me enjoying a muggle writer. I wonder if I'll escape alive if they ever do hear about me." Adrian pondered, a small smile touching his lips. Not that it was a laughing matter. Older Slytherins knew some impressive hexes. "Lita? She's a regular younger sister. Annoying at times, takes pleasure in pestering me until I feel like killing her but I can't help but love her. And you probably will meet her in September since she's determined to be a Ravenclaw. Trust me, what Lita wants; Lita usually gets." Adrian smiled fondly, adoring his sister despite her annoying tendency to persuade their parents to give her whatever she wanted.