I Got A Name ((Jack))

[Violette Silva S6]

"They can change their minds, but they can't change me."

"You still don't understand, do you?" Lette tucked her blonde hair behind her ear and pulled her glasses from her eyes. She looked at her younger brother as he tossed a muggle soccer ball up into the air and caught it. Logan's blue eyes focused on Lette and he smiled that bright, charmingly disarming, smile. They were so opposite it wasn't even near humorous. "I just can't be like you in that way, Logan." He sat up, catching the ball and hugging it to his stomach as he leaned forward and rested his arms on his knees. His eyes implored her with unspoken questions; questions that he didn't dare ask her because he knew she wouldn’t give him an honest answer the way she would if he just let her ramble on. "I mean, you get along with people so much easier than I do. You're charming, sociable, you know how to make people laugh. I don't. I cringe at the thought of socialization, I end up awkward instead of charming, and my jokes go above peoples' heads…no one understands them at all." Violette pulled her dark blue zip up jacket tighter around her as a breeze trickled by them and teased with her hair, her skin temperature, and her eyes. Logan was silent a moment and Lette found herself reveling in the comfortable silence. It was never awkward with her younger brother. Although they were total opposites, they were so similar that she didn't feel like she had to say or do something.

"Well," Logan said after a moment, hopping up and dusting off the grass from his jeans, "Here's your first lesson: smile, and flirt, and talk, and be happy. No one likes to feel like they're disliked. Treat them like you would like to be treated by a friend." He held out his hand and Lette took it, pulling herself up by using him as leverage. She placed her glasses back on her nose and sighed as her brother continued to talk, juggling the ball back and forth between his feet; "You're a different creature altogether, Lette, and you're a great person. But sometimes, you just need to loosen up a bit in order to show others just how great of a person you are." Violette folded her arms over her chest and watched the soccer ball go back and forth, back and forth, between her younger brother's feet. He had a point, and she knew he did, but it wasn't so simple to change everything about herself. And becoming more social would require changing everything about herself; or at least a rather large part of herself. The ball stopped, Logan bent down to pick it up, and he smiled at her; "I have to go and study for Charms, but I'll catch you later, alright?" Before Lette could agree or disagree, Logan turned and sprinted toward the large double doors of the castle; leaving the 17 year old alone, like always.

Lette shuffled her feet, looking down at the worn pair of converses she was wearing. How could she even begin to do all those things, be all those things, that Logan had said she needed to? It was going to be a task that she wouldn't easily defeat, but one she would have to attempt nonetheless. With a sigh, Lette stooped down and retrieved her messenger bag, before turning and heading toward the entrance to the courtyard. It had been a bright and sunny day, warm and friendly, but as the sun sank lower it began to get colder and Lette kept having to wrap her sweatshirt around her more tightly. She lowered her head as she pushed open the gate to the courtyard, hoping that it wouldn't be nearly as breezy in there as it was out in the open grounds. It was around dinner time, so Lette hadn't expected there to be many people, if anyone at all, to be in the Courtyard. Thus why she was surprised to see someone entering the courtyard from the corridor entrance. She stopped in her tracks. Swiftly, Lette tried to make a decision. Stay? Or go? Logan's words rang through her head and she decided right then to stay; although she would probably regret it later.

The person moved into the fading light and Lette recognised him as Jack Reid, a guy in her year and house. She hadn't ever spoken to him, but that wasn't much of a shock considering Lette rarely spoke to anyone. Perhaps now was the time to. But how was she to go about talking to someone? This whole socialization thing wasn't her forte. What would Logan do? No, probably not best to ask herself what Logan would do – he was male, not anything like her at all. What would her mother do? Eh. Again, not something she should think about. Perhaps the correct question was: what would Lette do? After a brief moment, she took a deep breath and moved out into the opening, "Does your girlfriend often let you out on your own, Jack?" She didn't know much about anyone, but she did know Jack was dating a girl in the year below them. The fact that the girl was a Gryffindor was what had made the fact stick to Lette so easily.

[Jack Reid]

Jack Reid sat in the Common Room, bored of his spells book that he pulled out any time he had no homework left to do. While it was getting close to the end of the year, he still had quite a bit of work to do. But right now, homework was the last thing he wanted on his mind. Riley was busy off with the Daughters, and since they had spent most of the holidays trying to get to see each other as much as possible, he wanted to give her time to spend catching up with the girls. No doubt that Erica and the rest of them were anxious to hear about her exploits over the break, especially with him. The two of them had only made love once, but it was enough to bring them closer together. The time in New York for New Years had brought them even closer as they had explored the American culture together, and for that, Jack was extremely grateful. He felt right now that nothing in the world, not even magic, could pull the two of them apart.

Since he wasn’t in the mood to read any more, he decided to take a trip down to the courtyard, to chance it and see if anyone was out there. While it wasn’t too late, the sunlight was fading fast. It would be fine if no one was there, since he could just sit and reminisce of the day his life changed, when Riley had been given the challenge to come and talk to him. He had to remind himself to thank the girls for getting Riley into that predicament, since without it, they wouldn’t be together like they were now. Pulling a black cloak over him and untucking the collar, he headed out of the Common Room. Making his way down the stairs, he couldn’t help but notice the random couples out in the hallways, finding places for them to get some kind of alone time. Obviously some of them hadn’t seen each other at all over the recent holiday, so it just made Jack thankful for the time he and Riley were able to spend together. There were a few entrances to the Courtyard, and Jack decided he would take the quicker way of going through the corridor entrance.

When he made it to the entrance, he realized the light was pretty much gone, save for a few spots in the actual openness of the Courtyard. His eyes adjusted quickly to the darkness, and he walked into the slim amount of light, seeing the figure of a girl standing there in the middle of the Courtyard. Walking further, he recognized the colors she wore as Slytherin, and he eyed her facial features. This was someone he knew, just not well. Violette, he thought to himself. She wasn’t a very social person, in fact she seemed to keep to herself more often than not. Jack understood that, as he was not very social himself. At least he hadn’t been until Riley had come along. She hadn’t changed that completely, but he was a bit more open than usual. Any other time, he would have ignored Violette and found another spot in the Courtyard to spend some time alone. But something compelled him to stay, and see what she was doing by herself out here.

She walked out in the light and immediately recognized him. “Does your girlfriend often let you out on your own, Jack?” she asked him. It was obvious this could be another fight that he should stay within the House of Slytherin, but he wasn’t in the mood for it right now. “We spent some time together over the past holiday. She’s catching up with her girls. I do allow her some time alone, thank you very much.” His words weren’t full of venom like they usually were when he was home. His father had brought that tone out in him plenty of times, particularly after Riley had left on Christmas day. Shaking the thought away, he addressed Violette. “I’m a bit surprised to find someone out here. I come down here often and I’ve never seen you around this hour. What brings you down here, Violette?” He was sure he would give her something to complain about, even if it was something as simple as her name. He knew she preferred Lette over her full name, but he wanted to test her patience, specifically her patience with someone like Jack Reid.

[Violette Silva S6]

Lette stumbled slightly, taken aback at his tone of voice. Hostile. She didn't know what it was that made him reply so negatively, but she hadn't meant it negatively in the least. She… instead of thinking about it, Lette offered him a smile and shook her head; "No, no, no. I didn't mean it negatively. I think it's quite admirable that you spend so much time with your girlfriend. Not enough guys do that these days. It's as if chivalry is at its worst." She tucked her hair behind her ear and took a step closer to him, so as not to feel like there was an ocean between the two of them. "Besides that, I think it takes a quite bit of courage to date a Gryffindor. I hear they're pretty hot headed." It was a joke, and she hoped he caught onto that, but if he didn't then it wouldn't be anything new. People weren't accustomed to jokes from Lette. That was perhaps because they were more subtle nuances as opposed to flat out jokes. And she didn't laugh at her own jokes. She felt it was conceited and Lette hated being seen as conceited. It was one thing to be seen as stuck up, even a bit anti-social, but there was something about the idea of being conceited that just rubbed Violette the wrong way.

"Oh, uh, I was talking to my brother and he ran off to do Charms," she shrugged and looked slightly at a loss, "Thus, here am I." Lette spread her arms wide and did a small turn as if to show off a dress she were wearing by a famous designer (which she happened to know, but that was another tale altogether). When she faced Jack again, she smiled brightly and moved to sit down on a bench, enjoying the cool night air. It wasn't frigid as it had been these past months, but it wasn't warm enough to be considered spring quite yet. She gripped the edge of the bench and crossed her feet at the ankles, swinging them back and forth – hardly scraping the surface of the ground with her shoes. "Do me a favour, though, will you?" Lette looked back up at Jack, trying to appear friendly and easily approachable although she was frankly quite insanely nervous, "Don't call me Violette. Only a few people call me Violette; it's Lette." It struck most people as odd, how she had come up with a nickname like Lette. Seeing as it was pronounced Lettey and not Let, but she didn't like the idea of someone going around saying "Let Let do it…" because then it was just incredibly stupid and ridiculous.

"So…" she bit her lip, already feeling the apprehension that came with holding a conversation with someone she hardly knew at all, "tell me something, will you?" Lette lifted her blue eyes and looked up at Jack, wondering what line was okay to cross and what line wasn't. She thought over what could happen, the scenarios that might unfold if Lette proceeded with her question. If she asked the question, and she received a negative reply, would she really care all that much if she never spoke to Jack again? She supposed not, and she supposed even more so that she would quite enjoy listening to his response. Lette took a deep breath and leaned back a bit on the bench, staring the other Slytherin straight in the eye and asking with a casual smile; "How do you handle all of the pressure that is put upon you for dating a Gryffindor? I mean, don't get me wrong – I'm sure she's a lovely girl, whatever her name is, but I'm also sure you get a lot of crap about it.

"Personally…" Lette continued, lifting her gaze to the night sky and silently reminding herself of the lunar eclipse that was taking place in two days; the one she had to meet Valmer for, "I think that if you like her, or love her, or whatever.. then whatever.. be happy about it. But I'm sure if you have the typical Slytherin family and group of friends, they aren't happy about it. How do you deal with all of that pressure? And do you ever just… want to give it up?"

[Jack Reid]

Jack found it interesting that Lette was making some decent conversation with him. She had been known among Slytherins to be anti-social at times, and for her to talk this much to him, or even initiate conversation seemed to be a big step for her. He listened with little intent as she applauded him for his efforts with Riley. “Well, doesn’t that muggle phrase ring true? ‘Chivalry is dead’, is that it?” It was true that many of the men, even at Hogwarts, gave no respect to their women, the women they claimed to love and cherish. When Jack was in a relationship, the girl became a part of him, someone he wanted to see, wanted to spend time with. If she had a problem with that, she could move on. Obviously Riley hadn’t had a problem with his rules yet, and that made him happy. “Hot-headed?” he asked, as she described what she had heard about the Gryffindor house. “I don’t know where you’re getting your information from, but Riley and her friends are quite down to earth, and believe me. If you were a part of the famous Godric’s Daughters, you’d have every right to be hot-headed.” As he finished his statement, he realized that Lette might have meant her comment as a joke, but it was too late to take his own comments back. It didn’t matter anymore, that part of the conversation was over.

As Jack asked Lette why she was in the Courtyard, he noticed her attractiveness. It wasn’t every day that he happened to talk to another girl one-on-one besides Riley, and even then the girls were always around her, so when they did get alone, he only had eyes for her. But Lette seemed to be showing off a bit, which was odd. She knew that he was dating Riley. Jack brushed the thought that Lette might be trying to steal him away quickly, since Lette wasn’t even close to his type, save for being in the same House. Then again, Riley hadn’t been his type either, and look where they were now. Jack followed Lette around the side of the bench, sitting across from her, with his arm around the back of the bench. She asked to be called Lette, rather than her full name. “Fair enough,” he replied quietly, taking the hint from her that it bugged her when people called her by her full name. Jack saw it as normal, since his real name was Jackson. He shuddered at even the thought of having the same name as his father. That man wasn’t even worthy of the term father. Before he could think about that further, Lette spoke again.

“So...tell me something, would you?” Without speaking, Jack met her blue eyes as she looked up at him from the other side of the bench. They were sitting rather close, and anyone who walked into the Courtyard at that moment might think something was up. But with the hour being what it was, Jack didn’t care. He watched her eyes and searched for what her question might be. She was likely going to ask something about Riley, since that was the bulk of the questions for him nowadays, particularly from those in his own house. Sure enough, Lette asked him how he put up with all the pressure put upon him by dating Riley. “Her name is Riley, first of all,” he said more sternly than he had meant, but he wasn’t about to apologize for it. He let her finish, as she explained herself. “I do come from a largely typical Slytherin family, save for my younger brothers. Somehow the sorting hat shoved them both into houses that would normally make my father fume, and I, as the eldest, would typically be the heir and become a Slytherin.” Jack knew how he felt about this entire situation, and he wasn’t sure how much detail he should share with someone like Lette, since they did barely know each other.

After a pause, Jack decided to continue. “My father is the kind of man who won’t take no for an answer. He won’t be the kind that just lets people do what they want. However, he’s basically abandoned me and made me have to take care of the children while he runs off with whoever he sees fit, so I need to have a bit of responsibility, but I don’t bother with it. How do I deal with the pressure, you ask? Simple,” he said almost triumphantly. “I don’t.” He was particularly surprised that Lette was delving into his personal life so quickly, seeing as they didn’t know each other that well. But he wasn’t about to shove it away and leave. He wanted to attempt to win this one. “Give it up? Give up the happiness I have? Never. How absurd to think that someone who is happier than they have ever been would give up so easily, just because of what some people say. I’m not pressured that easily.” After another moment of silence, Jack had to know something. “Why do you ask?” It was a simple question, but he knew she must have had some kind of point to what she was saying.