Heads for Luck, Tails for Love. ((Ashley))

[Lynne Collins]

Heads for luck, tails for love. Lynne continued to flip the sickle idly, sighing as she noticed that it always landed on heads. Love just wasn’t within her reach, it seemed. Not that luck had been on her side either, not since her best friend had left without even writing to her. Hmph. Who wanted love anyway? Certainly not her. She still had Kael and her parents, the three constants in her life. Just as she knew that her own name was a rather bright shade of yellow, she knew that she could always count on Kael to be quiet and grumpy, her mother to be warm and comforting and her father to always have a joke and a warm hug for his only daughter. Kael’s colour didn’t suit him at all though, Lynne mused with a distant smile. Perhaps in a world where she had not existed to take the place in the spotlight, Kael’s burning orange might have been more suited to his personality. If she hadn’t been around to unwittingly push him back into the shadowed areas of their life then maybe her twin would smile more often, maybe he would like people more than he did. But maybe was a dangerous game to play because, all too often, Lynne found that she didn’t like the outcomes that her mind came up with. After playing maybe, her heart was burdened with guilt and unhappiness for the wrongs her child-self and her condition had done to the one person she relied on more than anyone. Even now, she still ran to Kael for anything and everything. Even for the things she could do for herself. Because he was always there, he was always available and he was always ready and willing to help her out, no matter how much he grumbled about it.

“Here’s your coffee, Lynne. And a chocolate chip cookie, free of charge. Don’t look so down.” Lynne looked up and smiled as the waiter placed her order, and the free cookie, in front of her. “Ah, Matt my love, what would I do without you?” Lynne teased laughingly. She frequented this café so often that the waiters and waitresses had become friends of hers but Matt was one of the few who would ever try to cheer her up with a cookie. She wouldn’t ever date him, mostly because he had had a steady girlfriend for the last three years, but both of them still found it fun to flirt and know that nothing would come out of it. He was the only one who had ever noticed her crush on Danny, leading to an amusing afternoon of him serving her and Danny while dropping hints to the oblivious boy. Her best friend had been so adorably clueless that day. “You’d get your own cookie, that’s what you’d do.” Matt’s voice broke into her thoughts once more, making her eyes cloud over with confusion before clearing as she pulled herself together once more. “There’s no fun in that, silly boy.”

She deserved this coffee, Lynne told herself after the first burning hot gulp slid down her throat, distantly hearing Matt’s fading laughter as he walked away. She deserved this one cup of her secret vice because she was spending a day in Hogsmeade all by herself in the bitter cold. What better reason to warm herself up with a lovely, hot cup of caffeine goodness? She drained the cup quickly enough, needing to brave the cold once more in order to buy some more quills for herself – really, Jupiter must have been using them as toys again because just didn’t have a clue where they were disappearing to! – and a bottle of black ink for Kael. The cookie she picked up after shrugging her white coat on, huddling into the warm fabric as she headed for the door. At least the snow had cleared today because Lynne had no wish to be strolling through slush and mud. The cold was enough! She barely heard the cried warning before stepping into the spilled drink on the floor, slipping backward and sliding until she crashed into someone’s legs. Tilting her head backward to see who she had inadvertently attacked, Lynne smiled and waved weakly. “Hi.”

[Ashley Hill]

Ashley stuffed her numb fingers into the bottom of her yellow winter jacket as her boots crunched under the thick layer of snow beneath her. It had just stopped snowing that morning, but the snow was beginning to slowly melt away, leaving large slush puddles throughout the small path. It had been a long time since Ashley had headed into Hogsmeade. She needed more supplies for her classes since she was beginning to run low on everything. There were only two more unbroken quills left, one half bottle of ink, and a couple pieces of parchment. Ashley hadn’t done much shopping lately before the Holidays. She kept promising herself she would go out to buy more supplies, but she always seemed to get caught up in something. Last time she headed into Diagon Alley and meet Raele Gray while looking for a gift for her grandmother Nadine. Ashley didn’t realize she would make a friend, and then was soon invited to a Christmas Party. Ashley had asked Bryce to go with her even though their relationship was still on rocky grounds. She hoped they could just forget about him kissing Weetzie and return to how things were before that incident. That’s how Ashley dealt with things. She tried putting it in the past, and moved on with her life the best she could. However it just caused them even more complications which still weren’t quite resolved even back on the train ride. Ashley still needed time. Even though it was something so little as a meaningless kiss, it broke her heart to hear him say that. Ashley wanted to be the only person Bryce ever though about doing something that intimate with, and when he went around and kissed his best friend, that broke her trust. She just wanted all this chaos to end.

Feeling her feet begin to slide from under her, Ashley quickly held onto the side of the building next to her as she carefully trudged her way through the village of Hogsmeade. It would have been quite embarrassing if she had fallen right there in front of everyone on her but. It would be the first time though. Smiling slightly, Ashley headed into one of the café shops, greeted by a blast of warm air. Rubbings her hands together, Ashley stared down into her bare skin. She wished she would have grabbed gloves, but Ashley wasn’t thinking clearly that morning. Sighing, she rubbed them together wiggling each finger as she made her way up to the counter. A waiter was standing there, fixing a broken menu with his wand. “Could I get a cup of hot chocolate with extra marshmallows please?” Ashley asked staring into the guys face with a kind smile on her lips. “Is there anything else you would like?” Ashley bit her lip as she looked up into the glass case that sold different varieties of desserts or pastries. “A plan bagel would be good as well.” Watching as the guy went behind the counter to collect her hot chocolate, Ashley glanced around the small café noticing that it quite crowded. Everybody must be trying to get away from the cold weather outside. “Here you are Miss,” he said setting her mug in front of the customer along with the bag of bagel. Ashley smiled as she gave him some coins from her wallet before taking the warm mug into her hands. It felt so warm between her half frozen fingers. Next time, Ashley was going to make sure she brought gloves.

Noticing that there were was spilt coffee on the floor, she take notice to go around it but stopped in her tracks as a girl walked right in front of her. “Watch out-” Ashley warned, wincing as the blonde girl fell to the ground almost nearly taking Ashley down along with her. Laughing as the girl weaved warily up at her, Ashley set her mug and bagel on the table next to her. Leaning down she helped the girl up from the ground, brushing off her white jacket that collected the dirt from the ground. “Are you alright?” she asked trying hard to contain her own laughter building from her throat. “That was quite a nasty fall. Didn’t you notice the spill on the floor?” Ashley then gestured her arms to the ground a small taunting smile on her face. “Ah. Don’t worry about it. It’s a good thing you didn’t get any one your white coat. That would be extremely hard to get out.” Nodding Ashley grabbed her own mug of hot chocolate and bagel before looking back over at the younger girl. She looked quite familiar, but yet again, Ashley as horrible with names. “I’m Ashley Hill by the way. You call me Ash if you like though.”

[Lynne Collins]

See, boys just got her into trouble! The evidence was all there. If she hadn’t been thinking about Danny, she wouldn’t have been feeling so unhappy so she wouldn’t have tried to drown her sorrows in a mug of coffee, Matt wouldn’t have brought her that cookie to try and cheer her up and she wouldn’t have reached for it before leaving so she wouldn’t have slipped on that puddle of coffee – see? It all came down to coffee! – and then she wouldn’t have made herself look like a clumsy idiot in front of so many people. At least her coat wasn’t stained, Lynne admitted grudgingly as the girl helped her up. And she seemed to have crashed into a friendly person so that was a good thing too. Kael always joked that Lynne lived to make friends and be social so, naturally, making new friends was the least she could do to uphold her socialite image. Heh. A slightly cynical smile curved her lips as she imagined Kael’s reaction if he had seen her just ten minutes before. Lynnette Collins sitting by herself, staring quite dismally into a cup of coffee? Insane. He didn’t even know that she drank coffee. For how perceptive Kael could be sometimes, Lynne thought that her brother was extremely blind when it came to her. She was his little sister – by a matter of minutes, part of her growled exasperatedly – and therefore she could do no wrong. That included drinking coffee and alcohol or dating. And Danny had wondered – but only before meeting his stupid Gryffindor girlfriend – why Lynne had never introduced him to her brother. Maybe all boys were just idiots.

“I’m really sorry about that.” Lynne apologised, slightly flushed from embarrassment. “I didn’t make you spill any of your hot chocolate did I? I’ll pay for another one and another bagel for you if you want.” Lynne forced herself to stop talking, hoping that her red cheeks would cool if she stopped rambling. And if she stopped trying to knock innocent bystanders over. That would probably help her out too. Oh, she really needed another coffee. Sweet, addictive caffeinated liquid. Where are you when you’re needed? In compensation, Lynne bit into her cookie, thankful that it hadn’t been splashed with coffee during the fall. Much as she liked coffee, she didn’t want her cookie to be saturated with the liquid. That wouldn’t taste nice at all. The chocolate was almost as good as she coffee she craved when it came to steadying her. Her flush faded completely and her urge to ramble inanely had halted. Now to try again.

“I’m fine. It’s just my dignity that really got hurt.” Lynne rolled her eyes and finished off her cookie before responding to the other girl’s taunting comment. She had dealt with people far worse than this girl, and she didn’t just mean the Slytherins. Besides, if she had helped her up and brushed off her coat then she couldn’t be all bad. “I was somewhat distracted. You know, the usual teenage drama. Mostly boys with a side order of brothers.” Now her smile was completely sardonic and Lynne had the feeling that if she looked in the mirror the smile on her face would be an almost exact replica of Kael’s when he was feeling irritated or defensive. Her twin was a surprisingly bad influence on her, considering that Lynne had never managed to influence Kael in anything. “I’m Lynnette Collins. Please call me Lynne. It’s shorter and I like it a lot more.” Ash. Lynne mouthed the name silently, needing to try it out and get used to the colour that she, being the synaesthesia-suffering person that she was, associated with it. There had been times when the colour she saw was so blindingly bright that she had actually stumbled. Luckily, Lynne had grown used to it over time but there were still names that made her want to flinch away and avoid them. Oh, a nice mint green. That wasn’t so bad. That wasn’t bad at all. She could almost see herself relaxing when the colour appeared before her eyes. “So what brings you to Hogsmeade?” Lynne inquired cheerfully, obligingly moving out of the doorway to let a woman past. “It’s so cold that I wouldn’t be out here myself if Jupiter, that’s my kitten, hadn’t decided to ruin all of my quills by hunting them down and murdering them. She’s adorable, really she is, but she can be such a pest sometimes. I left her with Kael today so that she wouldn’t get lonely so you’ll probably see her wandering around your common room when you get back. You are a Hufflepuff, right?” ...And the coffee kicks in, the somewhat not-caffeinated part of Lynne’s mind acknowledged.