In Your Eyes ((Valmer))

[Violette Silva S6]

"And all my instincts, they return. And the grand façade, so soon will burn."

"Girl, he fine…"

"Harlow, please…" Lette put a finger to her lips and used her other hand to motion for her friend to keep her voice down. Harlow and Lette's friendship had blossomed out of nowhere. They were the only two people in the library, and while Lette enjoyed doing her work, Harlow had been looking for any reason to become distracted. Lette became her distraction. The two girls were complete opposites, and yet somehow they worked. Quickly, Harlow became Lette's best friend. It was something she had cherished, a friend. Logan had been proud of her, saying that it was all his help that had made her so amiable and friendable to other people. Lette thought her younger brother was full of hot air. "He might hear you." Her eyes grew wide as she cast a surreptitious look at Professor Druex in the front of the classroom. The biggest difference between Lette and Harlow was the latter's taste in men. Lette liked them to be around her age, whereas Harlow was completely turned off by those men who were her age and totally turned on by those who were older than her. Lette was convinced the Ravenclaw was going to get a professor fired sometime in her career at Hogwarts.

"Oh, please," Harlow rolled her eyes, letting her gaze land on Druex, as well, "He couldn't hear us unless he were Batman with that super sonar hearing stuff. Oh, Druex in a Batman suit…" Lette's eyes grew wide again and she looked at her best friend practically raping the man in her mind. Sometimes Lette wondered what exactly had gone through her head when she had decided to be more sociable. Then again, Harlow really was a gem…even if she did have her rough edges. "Don't look so innocent, Lette. You know he's fine." Luckily, the class ended and Lette was able to gather her things and leave the room that was slowly closing in on her. Harlow followed close beside her, sending a flirtatious smile in the older man's direction just before the two of them crossed the threshold out into the corridor. From time to time it was disturbing to hear Harlow talk in that way about a man who was probably old enough to be her father, but Lette had practice in ignoring it as best as she could. Now, if Harlow ever started a relationship with a man that was probably old enough to be her father… Lette might have to interfere.

Defense had been the last class of the day, breaching at just about 8 o' clock. Lette looked at her wrist watch, and pondered heading out to the lake already. She could get some reading done by the dying light of the sun. It was probably better than eating alone again. "I'm going to head out. I have that project I have to work on with that guy…" She tucked her hair behind her ear as she and Harlow came to a stop in front of the entrance hall doors. Harlow made a sound like 'oooh' as if Lette never spoke to guys, which was partially true, and Lette whacked Harlow in the arm gently before pushing open the doors and leaving the entrance hall to head down toward the lake. It was still semi-bright outside, not as if it were in the afternoon, but still bright enough that she needn't light her wand for guidance. It was mildly cool outside, just cool enough to send a slight shiver through her body and cause her to pull her cardigan tighter around her body. The wind teased at her skirt, and if it had been any shorter she might've felt uneasy, but as it was past her knees – she didn't much care about the wind tugging on the end of it. Lette reached the edge of the lake and stood before it, casting her gaze along the horizon as the sun sank into the water, drowning in its splendorous color. Slowly, she let the hoods of her eyes close and she let the warmth of the setting sun tingle across her skin. She grew warm, even with the wind brushing over her gently, and so she shed herself of her cardigan and loosened her tie so she could unbutton the top button of her crisp, white shirt. Casting the cardigan aside, she set her messenger bag down on the ground beside her, and turned her attention back to the setting sun with an open willingness.

There was something so incredibly exhilarating and so disarming about the sunshine that Lette never felt anxious, tense, or apprehensive when she was basking in it. It was a side of Lette that not many people were capable of seeing, something that she hadn't ever felt confident enough to let anyone else see. She tilted her head back, listening to the wind, feeling the sun, and smelling the lake. It was amazing how many things you could pick up without actually seeing anything, but at the same time… Lette loved seeing things. Colors, expressions, anything that could be seen and everything she wanted to see. She sighed happily, blissfully even, and opened her eyes as she righted her head – staring straight ahead of her. There came a sound beside her and she jumped, reaching a hand to her heart and looking nervously at who had snuck up on her so easily; "Merlin! Valmer…Holy…Damn…you scared me!"


((G-Moding of the NPC Harlow Monroe, Ravenclaw sixth year, was given to me by her soon-to-be creator.))

[Valmer Van Ruster S7]

Valmer stood in the lounge, wondering what was taking Bryan so long. While he really didn’t have much else to do that day, he wanted to get his broom fixed after the incident with India and the lake, and Bryan Sangert, a sixth year Hufflepuff, knew his way around a broken broom. In fact, the younger boy knew more about fixing brooms than probably the guy he had taken it to last time did, down in Diagon Alley. The man at the shop had spent a good week working on his broom, and had given it back to him saying it was good as new. He had also charged Valmer much more than he was expecting to pay, but assumed it was all worth it for the amount of time and effort to get the product fixed. Of course, the incident with India had happened merely a week after he had been given his broom back, so he was out quite a bit of money plus he needed to get the broom fixed before the next Quidditch game. He needed it to be fast and able to turn on a dime, and right now it wasn’t even allowing him to turn at all, as he had tried to do before running headfirst into India Nightingale. Bryan was a good guy, and Valmer was sure that he would fix the broom within a few days, if he knew what the problem was, of course.

Bryan finally showed up and took a look at the malfunctioning broom. “Well,” Bryan said, with a bit of a dejected tone. “I definitely see the problem, but it’s going to take more than a few hours to fix. How much did you say that shop guy in Diagon charged you?” Valmer laughed. “Too much, Bryan. Can you fix it?” Valmer wasn’t getting anxious, but he just wanted to know if the thing could be fixed. “Yeah, yeah definitely. Just need a few days. There’s a few other Huffles in my year that have had the same problem, so I’ll see what they did and get it back to you as soon as possible. Alright?” Bryan sounded sincere, which Valmer appreciated immediately. “That’s fine. Just let me know as soon as you can get it finished. I need to practice more for Quidditch, and soon.” Leaving his broom with Bryan, Valmer grabbed his books and took a quick glance at his muggle watch. It was Friday, wasn’t it? Tonight was the night of that eclipse that Professor Valencia wanted the Astronomy class to study. The assignment had been to try a few different spells and charms during the eclipse, and record the differences in effect. He had to meet up with his partner Lette, and as soon as he thought of her, he knew it was going to likely be a rough time.

While Lette wasn’t necessarily mean, in her own right, she had explained the first time they met that she just came off cold towards people. It seemed that she just didn’t know how to be social, and this was hard for Valmer, seeing as he wasn’t the average Slytherin. Rather than being manipulative, uncaring and harsh, Valmer tended to be a nice, easy-going kind of person, with a temper that could flare up at any second, if provoked. Lette just appeared as anti-social, and Valmer couldn’t quite deal with that, since it had been hard for him to make conversation during their original assignment in the classroom. But the assignment needed to get done, and he had agreed to meet Lette out by the lake that day to get their work done. Walking out of the castle, he spotted the blond-haired girl sitting next to a tree right near the water’s edge. Walking up to her, he didn’t realize how quiet he was being, until he was right at the tree, behind her. He came one step closer to her and heard a twig break beneath his feet, and she jumped alarmingly, reaching her hand to her heart as if he had taken the breath right out of her.

“Sorry, didn’t mean to,” Valmer said simply, as she explained how he had scared her. Valmer assumed that this assignment would be just like the day they had met: full of cold, blank stares and no emotion whatsoever. “Are you ready for our assignment? I came up with a few spells to try during the eclipse. Any ideas?” Since she had been cold to him originally, he made no effort to be fully social with her at this time. He plopped himself down next to her, leaning against the tree, and pulled open the astronomy book. “What time does the eclipse happen? Is it midnight?” He glanced at his watch again, noting that it was about 11:40pm. If the event was happening at midnight they had plenty of time to figure out what spells they wanted to try. “I figure we’ll have time for about 5-8 spells or charms, since the eclipse only lasts for like 10 minutes, right?” He had gone over the work in his head, and he hoped that Lette had done her work as well. He waited for her to respond.

[G-Moding of NPC Bryan Sangert allowed]

[Violette Silva S6]

A simple shrug issued from her shoulders, a gentle roll; an easy response. Though, it wasn't unpleasant in any sense, nor was it dismissive. She was easily shrugging off the fright that Valmer had bestowed upon her and she did it with a friendly smile. Something about Lette had changed. It was something inside of her, something that had changed when she had spoken to her brother. Logan, who had always been so supportive of his older sister, told her that she intimidated people – that she made them uneasy – and that if she wanted to be happy, really happy, with herself and with everyone around her; she would have to be less cold, less distant, and more friendly, more willing. Lette hadn't really taken that to heart before, but the encounter with Valmer in the classroom earlier on in the week had changed her perception of her attitude. Where she had seen herself providing protection for her heart, other people saw her as being abrasive and cold. That was her mistake, and it was one she was attempting to remedy. Whether or not Valmer was willing to allow her to remedy her mistake with him was something Lette hadn't explored quite yet, and she was hoping tonight's assignment would somehow patch up any bad perceptions she had given him two days ago.

"It's okay," Lette told him after a millisecond – because all of those thoughts she had been having took place just under a millisecond. Her violet eyes, which were at their darkest shade because of the inky blackness of the night, turned to look up at him and it was for the first time she noticed how… how… just how he was. He was taller than her, but not by too much considering Lette was rather tall – or average for her age, but people were generally shorter than her because they hadn't reached their full potential of height just yet. Valmer was incredibly…these thoughts were so foreign to Lette she didn't even know how to put them into words. She couldn't use descriptives to explain how he was. Even to Harlow, and Harlow was great at providing adjectives. Lette blinked, realizing she had been staring slightly, and then smiled again, briefly this time but no less warm than her previous smile; "I get scared quite too easily. Right then, I have a few." Lette looked around for a minute for her messenger bag, noticing it was beside Valmer, she looked at him apologetically a moment and then reached across him for it – dragging it over him. The polite thing probably would have been to ask him for it, but Lette was too flustered to think politely at the moment.

She pulled her notebook out and flipped it to the list of spells she had thought might be interesting to try. As her eyes skimmed over it, she spoke: "Oh, because I think the 'reversing of the spell onto the castee' notion is complete bollocks – I wanna try a spell that would possibly be reversed onto me. Something…potentially disastrous, I suppose." A small bit of a fear reared its ugly head at her, and she looked at Valmer and said, "But it's bollocks anyway, it won't reverse." As if she were having to convince him of it instead of herself. Looking back at her notes, "So, for that I've got the blinding spell. It will require something to turn blind, though, and I'm certain you enjoy your eyesight. So, I'll accio a mouse here for that spell." Her top teeth raked across her bottom lip as she looked down the rest of her list, "I've got some things like wingardium leviosa – simple spells that would be interesting to see the effects, whether they work or not, or if they reverse and make us float." A wicked grin spread across Lette's face and she shoved her notebook down in front of her, stretching out her legs and looking up at the sky. Lette loved the night sky, it was so expansive and so readily open. It was a complete contradiction to herself. Rather, the Lette that everyone saw who wasn't a part of her family. She tilted her head back and looked up at the moon. Bright and outstanding. In seconds it would be covered up, and all would be still and black around them.

"Midnight." Lette confirmed as she closed her eyes and relaxed, then she shook her head. "No. The eclipse lasts a total of 3 minutes. That isn't including the 2 minutes it takes to pass into the moon, and the 2 that it takes to pass out of the moon. So we're looking at a total of 3 minutes to cast those spells." She opened her eyes and looked at Valmer with a broad grin, "Challenging but certainly doable. We can get a set number of spells each, or even categorize them by the effects. You can do the failure to happen spells, or the uhm…" Lette was drawing a blank on the third effect of the lunar eclipse, "The incomplete one? I'm not sure. Whatever the other effect was. And I can do the reversal. Then we can do 4 spells each, and as we do that we can record our findings with…" sitting up, she pulled out her wand, set it on her lap, and then pulled out two quick quill pens, handing one to Valmer, "These. You know how to use one of these, right?"