Why must they be so annoying?((Mack))

[Pyro Blackfire S5]

Pyro couldn't help but give an exasperated sigh. What he had hopped was going to be a quite evening in Hogsmeade, had turned into a giant headache. With his father dead and the responsibility dropped onto his lap. Plus the added pressure of school work constantly on him. He had been looking foreword to this trip and be able to unwind a bit. Pyro had hopped to go with Alex, but he had been unable to find her and set a date and he did not see her in the crowd of studen'ts that was going to Hogsmeade. He sighed, a day by himself wouldn't be that bad either. School was becoming a real headache, with all the mudbloods running around and yelling and causing a big fuss over the death of Voldemort. Pyro couldn't understand what all the hype was about.

WHen he had entered this bar it had been quite empty. He had grabbed a booth in a far off corner and ordered himself a butterbeer. As the night dragged on though more and more student's entered the bar. How they had even found it was a mystery to him. Considering this was a much smaller bar and it was out of the way. Most student's perferred the more popular bar in Hogsmeade over this one. One by one the studen'ts began to file in and converse with one another. Soon the quite bar was filled with noise and activity. Pyro groane and rubbed his temple, trying to soothe the headache that was forming.

"Oi!" He said putting his head down on the table. "Is there no where in this world somebody can go for some piece and quiet?"

[Mackenzie Holden]

Mack was looking forward to the weekend. She was looking forward to the distraction, to the break from the world in which she had become so accustomed to. She was looking forward to not thinking about Jack, she was looking forward to not thinking about Tommy, but most of all she was looking forward to just getting away from everything in general. With the tabloids having had their fun, and with Tommy clearing all that up, Mack was able to walk the streets without a horde of people attacking her with questions about her "incestuous relationship" with Trevor. It seemed, though, the people who had caught the tabloid, like Cassandra, would never believe that there really wasn't anything going on between her and Trevor. In fact, Mack cringed at the thought. She wished she could shed her skin like a snake. Maybe then she could start over new. The tabloids just knew how to blow everything out of control, and Mack knew that was the price of being under the peoples' eye. She just wished she knew that before she signed a contract with G-Major.

Oh well, what's done was done. Mack tucked a lock of blonde hair behind her ear as she traveled through the cramped streets of Hogsmeade, pushing through the people that were laughing and enjoying each other's company. She had no one's company to enjoy. She could have asked Tommy to meet her, but things had been so weird between them since... well... hmm. Mack looked through the dark lenses of her sunglasses, the glasses that Kris had given her, and she tried to think of a place she'd be alone in. There weren't many places in Hogsmeade that someone could go to be alone to think or... to not think at all. Which was exactly what Mack was looking for. A place to not think in. A place that would keep her mind from wandering to the places it had wandered to for the past two weeks. She kept passing places that could have been possible non-thinking places, but she never popped inside to see. Finally, she pushed open the door to some place that she just decided had to be the place and walked in. Oh, no. Wrong. Way wrong.

The place was pretty much crowded. There were people laughing and talking and having a jolly good time while Mack stood in her misery. She was about to turn on her heel and leave when she thought that maybe the noise and the din would be a good thing for her. Maybe if they made so much noise, she wouldn't be able to think at all. And then she saw Pyro. Alright, so she could stay. But if she wanted to leave, she could do that, too. Mack put her sunglasses on top of her head and made her way over to her fellow Slytherin. Without announcing her presence, she slid into the booth and tapped Pyro on the head; "You know, the dormitories have more comfortable beds."

[Pyro Blackfire S5]

Pyro rolled his head slowly from side to side. Digging his forehead deeper and deeper into the hard un-even wood of the booth's table. He bit his lip and shut his eyes and slowly began to count in his head. Ten, Nine, Eight, Seven....... It seemed like an eternity but he finally reached one, and yet the sound and his headache had not receded one bit. He growled lightly when suddenly he felt something close by. Someone sat down in the booth across from him. Pyro's anger flared up at this blatant act. Who would be so stupid as to think he was a chummy fellow just waiting for a friend? Whoever it was about to get a face full of glass. Pyro could already feel his hands tighten around the neck of the bottle as he prepared to swing it.

Just than he felt something prod his head and a familiar voice spoke to him. Pyro paused as he contemplated over the voice. He knew it from somewhere, just couldn't place his finger on it. She was female, in his ear. Slowly the picture started to come together, first the hair, than the shape of the face, the eyes and nose and mouth came next. Suddenly a neck attached itself to that image and soon a torso, arms, and legs sprouted. He grinned to himself as the picture materialized and he suddenly placed the girl. Mackenzie Holden, it had been awhile since he meet and last spoke with her.

Pyro lifted his head to look at her, a sarcastic smirk splayed on his face. "Yes, yes they do. But you wouldn't get all this in the dormitory." He said throwing his hand out wide to indicate the loud room around him. "I find that loud, annoying noises, soothes and calms the soul." With that his smirk crumbled and his face dropped to show the true boredom and annoyance he really felt. "Ah, who am I kidding. This place is five minutes away from me going postal on it." He nodded at the seat Mack was already sitting on. "Get comfortable, order a drink. Its been awhile since I last saw you Mack."

[Mackenzie Holden]

Mack smirked at Pyro's response, and then looked around the place once more. She sighed and then looked back at him, nodding at his postal remark, "It's insane, in here, maybe it'll do a world of good if you did. The least it'll do is shut everyone up," Mack shrugged and tapped her fingers absentmindedly on the table top. When he said it'd been awhile, she nodded before raising her right hand to flag down a bar maid. She ordered two butterbeers and then turned to Pyro again, "Yeah, life makes it difficult for me to talk to anyone lately, not that I was very social before life got hectic, but.. you get what I mean, surely?" Mack looked at Pyro, wondering how true of a statement that was for him. She didn't know, not in depth anyway, what had been going on in the Blackfire life. Actually, the only thing Mack could say she knew about was Pyro's dad's death - and that's because Hank made it a point to talk about it one night at dinner. Something about how even the more "prominent purebloods" were dying down. She hadn't paid too much attention, because she couldn't care less about who the "prominent purebloods" of the community were - and that was the main point of his lecture.

But now, as she thought about it, she realized she really didn't know anything outside of what was going on in her life at G-Major. Did that make her self-centered, or just busy to the extreme? Mack wasn't sure and it made her uneasy, but she knew better than to mention anything that Pyro didn't initiate. If he wanted to talk about whatever was going on in his life (which she doubted he did), he would; just like she would initiate the conversation about her hectic life if she felt like going into depth about it, which at this exact moment - she didn't. The butterbeers came and Mack wasted no time in taking a swig. If she had been smart enough two weeks ago, she would have been here - drowning her sorrows in butterbeer instead of holing herself up at G-Major and wasting away hours of doing something more productive.

"So, Pyro, ready to be a sixth year?" Mack smirked and took another drink of her butterbeer, tilting her head to the side in a curious manner.

[Pyro Blackfire S5]

Pyro smirked a little and leaned back in his seat as he surveyed the room. He would give anything to just step out of the booth and unleash on these people, but than again, Pyro was also aware of the consequences of that action. "Yea, but unfortunately I've had enough drama in my life for now. I don't care to add: Arrested for disorderly conduct, to that list." He finished off his drink and watched as Mack flagged down a barmaid and ordered two butterbeers. Pyro smirked as the maid went off to get the drinks and Mack turned her attention back to him. He grinned. "Yes, well. Life always seems to become hectic at the most inopportune times." Boy was that statement true, Pyro's life had finally fallen onto a pretty even and predictable track. He had a girlfriend, someone to share his life with, and everything was moving nicely.

Than Cass had to screw it up. Pyro unconsciously bit his lip at the mere though of his cousin. Who remained, to this day, a constant thorn in his side. She had to bring up old news once again and enlisted the help of Kennedy, one of his own dorm mates. Than Kennedy had crossed the line and gotten Alex involved and broken into his room, exposing his little secret about the Chosen to Alex. This was only the start of the downward spiral. In the midst of all the chaos came the only opportunity for Pyro to remove his father. Pyro shook his heads clear of the thoughts, the images already starting to make his head spin.

He though over Macks question for a few seconds. "Well, I don't think much will change. Aside from me growing one year older, the first years growing one year younger, and the school work growing much harder." He shrugged and grinned a little. "Other than that, I can't wait, even though likely not much will change. The Slytherin team will still be captained by me, The younger, and even some of the older, students already make it a point to stay out of my way in the halls." He laughed a little. "Aside from the constant work of school and the constant drama of my home life, I think I'll be living on easy street." He took another swig of his butter beer. "What about you? Looking foreword to the year shift?"

[Mackenzie Holden]

Mack twirled the bottle of butterbeer on the table top slowly as Pyro answered her question. She contemplated what he was saying, and let it roll over in her mind. When he asked her the same question in return, she merely shrugged. "School's just a distraction from my music. I scrape by, barely, with good grades but my main focus is my album. I guess, becoming a sixth year is just another stupid disruption in my otherwise not-so-peaceful life." Mack smirked and lifted the bottle to her lips, taking another drink of the butterbeer. Her life, essentially, was focused around her music and what was going on in her family. Her school life was almost non-existent. The only thing that kept her there, really, was the fact that without an education - her parents wouldn't let her continue on with her music career. OK, so technically, they would but Tommy wouldn't. He was more of a parent than her parents were. Which was totally weird because of the whole... kiss incident.

"School's the only distraction right now, you know, Jack used to be... but now? Oh ho ho, no, now? Now Jack's decided to play Houdini and vanished from my life," Mack scowled, fully aware that she was speaking of her problems, something she had intended to not do at all. She couldn't help it though. The butterbeer was making her feel comfortable enough to ramble on and on. She sighed and sat back into the booth, her eyes locking on Pyro's; "What 'bout you, Blackfire? How're things with you and Ricci?" Mack wasn't prone to gossip. She hated it. She hated anything to do with barging into peoples' lives without their consent. She got it all the time, too, because of her 'fame.' However, because she hated hearing about it from someone else - didn't mean she didn't like talking to the person themselves about it. Besides, it was just a friendly conversation wasn't it?

There were lots of things her and Pyro could talk about, but she doubted completely that either one would be interested it what the other had to say. Mack put the bottle to her lips again and finished off her butterbeer before scowling again, "And... may I say how much I loath your cousin?" She sighed and tried not to talk about Cass too much. God, was that girl infuriating. "Sorry, sorry, I just... I haven't been able to vent my anger at all. Everything's been so busy."

[Pyro Blackfire S5]

Pyro chuckled slightly at Mack's answer. "Yea. School sure is some kind of distraction." He knew full well how much school could distract someone from what they really needed to get done in life. The constant owls from home asking him how to handle each little tiny situation while he tried to complete his homework were becoming a constant bother to him. He arched his eyebrow at her. "So, your a singer? I'd love to hear it." He grinned a little. "Let me know when your album comes out." He than winked to show his next comment was more a joke than anything. "I've always wanted a famous friend to pull some strings for me at times." He leaned back, taking another drink out his butterbeer as his eyes once again scanned the room. Though the rabble was still here, Pyro did notice that a few of the ones full booths had been emptied. That had to mean that the crowd was slowly disbursing.

He turned his attention back to her. "Yea, I haven't noticed Jack around either. He's been kinda flaky when it comes to Quidditch practice also. He'll show up occasionally, and than the next practice he wont be there. I've been meaning to talk to him about it, but I haven't managed to find him." His gaze dropped down to his butterbeer when she asked him about Alex. He sighed, "Things were going alright. Better than alright actually. Things were going great." He looked away, "Than something." He turned back to Mack. "I tried to fix things, and me and Alex had a talk, but for the past week or so she's been avoiding me. Probably needs to sort out her own feelings, so I've decided to give her the space she needs."

He leaned back and nearly laughed out loud at her comment about Cass. "Trust me, you aren't the only one, and you won't be the last." He inwardly bit his own lip at the mention of Cass. She was the main reason that he and Alex weren't speaking, and for what she had done he would never forgive her. "No need to apologize. I despise my cousin more than anything. The fact that she is family is probably the only reason I haven't taken...." He searched for the correct word for a moment. ".....harsh.....Action against her." He took another drink of his butterbeer, coming to the end of this particular bottle already. He sighed, "So, what did she do?"

[Mackenzie Holden]

Mack smirked, “Oh, yeah, you ever feel like you want to be harassed by my manager, let me know – I’ll pull that string.” She rolled her eyes at that. The idea that she could pull any “famous” strings was so far fetched it made her laugh. The only influence she had on people was whether or not she could change her image. Her music was owned by G-Major, and that really sucked. Mack loved her music, but she loved making it her own… not letting Nelson run her to the ground and tell her she can’t write it a certain way. Even Georgia had given her freer reign than that.

She didn’t say anything when Pyro mentioned Jack’s absence from Quidditch, it was a sore spot. She was angry with Jack, more than angry with Jack, but she still loved him. The fact that he had disappeared from her life completely, and from everyone else’s life at the same time, made Mack want to cry. She had finished with the crying though; she wanted to pretend like it didn’t hurt her anymore. But she couldn’t. Jack was her first love, how in the world could she just get over him? When Pyro went on to answer her question about him and Alex, Mack looked up. “Girls do that. We need time when things end up ruining the great things in our life. I think it’s smart that you’re giving her that space, because if you cornered her… she’d, well, I’m pretty sure she’d be even angrier.”

Space. She didn’t want space. But that’s what Jack was giving her. She needed to stop with the Jack thoughts. With a sigh, Mack was about to say something when Pyro started to talk about Cass. She smiled slightly as she listened, and then shrugged when he asked what Cass did. “She was born?” Mack laughed lightly and sank further into the booth, “No, well…” she sighed and pulled her bag back to her, pulling out the one copy of the tabloid she carried around. She tossed it across the table to Pyro, her eyes locking on the image of her and Trevor kissing. “It’s dumb, right? I mean, all she did was read the article before I got her copy, but honestly? She didn’t have to be snide about it. She just gets under my skin, really.”