Ice Patches. ((Seth))

[Reaegyn Eschen-Brenner R7]

The sun was high in the sky. A perfect sphere of a golden ball of energy. It's rays moved toward the earth at amazing speeds, only to deflect off the pure white snow that had formed ice on its top. The ray would then travel back into space, being lost there forever. Reaegyn stood in the castle atop the hill, looking out of a window with a passive expression on her face. The sun continued to blaze its rays toward Earth, only to have them get lost forever. "How depressing," Reaegyn stated blandly as she turned away from the window and pushed her hair behind her ear. Adrian, her girlfriend, sat on her bed – doing her homework, but only because Reaegyn had nearly forced her to do her homework. Adrian and Reaegyn didn't often see eye to eye on the whole homework thing and Reaegyn often made Adrian do her homework, sometimes it was the other way around but that was rare. Reaegyn walked over and perched herself on the edge of Adrian's bed, her eyes watching Adrian scratch something out in her essay. Reaegyn smiled lovingly and then leaned and kissed her forehead, "Alright, I'm off to tutor Henry, I'll meet you for dinner?" Adrian nodded, kissed her goodbye, and then Reaegyn was out of the dormitory and down the stairs, through the common room, and making her way leisurely through the corridors toward the Charms classroom.

The hallways were filled with students milling around and talking to each other, laughing, gossiping, things that Reaegyn used to thrive on but didn't any longer. As she walked by, some girls in her house stopped to stare at her and she knew that the moment she passed, they would turn and talk about her. Reaegyn didn't care. Let them say what they wanted to say. People were going to talk, the key to dealing with it was to give them something to talk about. Of course, Reaegyn wasn't the type to throw herself out there and do something completely outrageous so they had something to gossip about, but being a lesbian and being with Adrian was proving to be entertainment enough for her classmates. She turned down a corridor, out of the sight of those younger Ravenclaws, and then headed down another corridor toward the Charms classroom. When she reached the room, Henry was talking to Professor Flitwick, his hands moving animatedly as he spoke… nearly bouncing up and down in his spot. Reaegyn stood back and listened to Henry talk about how he had finally mastered the accio spell and then he demonstrated it. Finally, Reaegyn spoke up and Henry said he had just come to tell her he wasn't going to be able to stay – he had promised Professor Miller his afternoon to help her organise her star charts. Reaegyn nodded and smiled and left the classroom, wondering if Adrian was done with her work. A quick decision came to mind and Reaegyn turned to head down toward the courtyard.

She hadn't been outside all day and she thought it looked nice out, or it had from her window, and she figured Adrian needed to finish her homework anyway. Reaegyn broke out into the cold afternoon and immediately realised she had forgotten a jacket, but that was okay – the cold would go away eventually. She crossed her arms over her chest and walked around aimlessly. Reaegyn often walked around aimlessly, but it was never completely aimless. She always had something going on inside her head and she always was looking for some form of inspiration for writing. These days Reaegyn didn't have to look very far for inspiration, after all she had walking, breathing, and talking inspiration as a girlfriend – but sometimes nature inspired things that Adrian couldn't. Today, however, was proving fruitless and all it did was make Reaegyn cold. She didn't go back in yet, though, because it honestly felt refreshing to get out of the confining walls of the castle. She breathed in deeply through her nose and let the cold air wake her up. When she reopened her eyes, it was to see someone bending down to pick up some things. Reaegyn, being the nice girl she is, hurried over and helped the boy gather his things. When everything was gathered she stood and smiled at him, "Gotta watch out for those ice patches, they're quite nasty."

[Seth Wright]

“Seth…” Willow demanded with as stern a voice as possible as her boyfriend jumped eagerly up and down on the spot. His short ebony curls bounced in time with his movements, his grin on his face nearly infectious had Willow not made herself outwardly immune to them long ago. Who would think that Seth Wright was so loving and romantic? Everyone who knew of him thought he was a geek, a nerd, someone not worth their time. Willow had certainly thought so at first, and when she had discovered Seth had been harbouring a five-year long crush on her, she had been more freaked than flattered. However, as she and Seth had been forced to spend more time because their best friends were dating, Willow had discovered a new side to Seth Wright; he was a human being too. Although even today Willow was a stereotypical girl, Seth was someone she couldn’t help but fall for; his nervous but adorable laughter, his annoying yet charming antics, and his childish but caring mannerisms. Right now, Seth was beaming back at her so happily Willow could barely restrain a smile from breaking onto her own face. But she wasn’t to allow it if she was to get what she wanted. “I have to go now, Seth.” Willow sighed when her boyfriend for once didn’t actually kill the peaceful serenity of silence. “I promised to meet someone…”

Seth finally responded with an adorable pout of disappointment, although the light merely flickered rather than dimmed within his warm brown eyes. “Aw, but don’t you want to spend more time with me, your gallant, handsome boyfriend, than… um… what’s her name again? Daisy? Donna? Deirdre?”
“Danielle.” Willow answered dryly, gathering her bag onto her shoulder as Seth shrugged carelessly with a lopsided grin. Willow smiled up at him as he gripped her hands gently between his, yanking at her arms as he continued to bounce on the spot from the cold. “I told you before… I promised her I would help her with some homework. A promise is a promise, Seth.”
“Yeah.” Seth finally sighed in defeat, though he continued to cling onto Willow’s hands. “Fine. I admit defeat to this… Daffy girl. I’m evidently not good enough for you. What does she have that I don’t, eh?”
“It’s Danielle, for the tenth time today, and the answer to your question is she actually has a brain.” Willow retorted with a snort, and before he could protest to her words, she stood up away from Seth, trying to take off the black jacket draped over her shoulders. Immediately he tried to stop her from doing so and Willow frowned up at him. “You’re staying here, right? You’re going to freeze your butt off, so be sensible and take it back. Stop being a gentlemen, Seth.”
“I’m not!” Seth protested somewhat helplessly, holding his hands up in surrendering position. “I just don’t want your pretty face to get wrinkled in the cold, you know? You and I both know how precious that button nose of yours is.” He leaned down and kissed her daintily on the tip of her nose, causing Willow to blush slightly.
“Seth!” She complained, hitting him away with battering arms. “Fine, fine, I’ll keep it. Just… don’t catch a cold. Idiot.” With that, she turned and stalked into the castle, a grin on her face that Seth couldn’t see, but was mirroring.

Sighing a little at Willow’s departure, Seth sat himself down on the bench his girlfriend had been using a few minutes before, and attempted to warm himself. It was quite chilly for nearing the end of winter, and frosty dew could be seen clinging to the buds of some of the early bloomers. Seth looked across at some half-opened snowdrops, a beautiful pure white against the expanse of pale clear sky. Smiling to himself whilst rubbing his hands up and down his arms, Seth knew it had been a bad idea on his behalf for letting Willow take his jacket. Now he was left in only a bright yellow t-shirt, rather embarrassingly with a picture of the X-Men team on it, struggling to keep warm in arctic conditions. Seth smiled despite this though; he didn’t regret giving his health up for Willow; anything for her. Glancing at his watch distractedly, Seth supposed he shouldn’t stay out much longer, otherwise he really would freeze his butt off.

“Look at the time, Seth, look at the time. Whilst Chace and Lara are happy making out behind a statue, and Willow hooks up with girlfriends to ‘discuss homework’, you’re left out here with only the cold for company. Get your butt out of here, Seth, honestly…” Babbling to himself, he was just gathering his books and walking away from the bench, when a slippy patch of ice beneath his feet caused him to slide. Alarmed, Seth dropped his books in an attempt to stabilise himself. But of course, balance had never been his strong point, and with a loud yell, he fell down and hit his backside hard. “Ow!” He cursed extremely noisily, and had he been looking, he would’ve been glad no one else was in close vicinity to see and hear his embarrassing fall. Groaning to himself and muttering incoherent words of annoyance under his breath, Seth straightened up, his butt sore, and began to collect his stuff. However, it was then someone rushed up to help him. Seth was surprised at first, thinking it was a prank of a Slytherin’s behalf to steal his books, but when he looked up, he saw a very pretty girl with Ravenclaw robes. Seth recognised her as someone from the year above, but that was it. When they had finished gathering his books and he once had them in his arms again, he turned to her to thank her, a small flush of red in his cheeks. “Um…” But before he could speak, she cut in and warned him about the ice. Seth looked down and finally noticed the slippy surface, before laughing in embarrassment. “Hahaha, no kidding. Thanks.” He gave the older girl an awkward smile, but felt the need to continue conversation; as per usual. “Seth. Seth Wright.” He tried to stick a hand out in politeness, but since he had so many books, he almost dropped them all again. Floundering, Seth managed to shove them all back into his arms as he gave the Ravenclaw another flustered smile. “Hufflepuff. Sixth year.”