i could be violet sky [egan]

As the chilly November wind blew briskly around her, Julia pulled her jacket closer. The overcast sky seemed only to add to the cool weather and the petite blonde couldn’t help but long for a break to escape to somewhere warm. She had heard nice things about Thailand—clear calm waters on sandy beaches, tropical flavored chilled drinks, a lively night seen…the seventeen year longed for a break from England’s dreary climate. Yet she found herself still in the UK, unable to get enough time off of working at Sirens or time off from Leon’s side jobs to justify taking such a trip. Maybe in a few weeks, after working well in both positions, she’d be able to talk her boss into getting an extended weekend break. She could use that more than monetary or materialistic compensation.

She did however, manage to get this solitary Saturday and Saturday night off after trading shifts with one of the newer girls at Sirens who was longing to prove her worth on the weekend. Julia didn’t think much of her. Her coworker was pretty, but nothing special and what the girl thought was being flirtatious, Julia saw as being overly available. It was a delicate game to be able to balance taking off your clothes for strangers while still seeming out of reach. Julia’s coworker didn’t seem to grasp the concept and she imagined that after this Saturday night, the girl wouldn’t be employed much longer. Although Julia herself was promiscuous, she was always able to keep that side of her a mystery to the patrons while she was working, which was something Leon asked of all the girls he employed. Something about tarnishing the reputation or whatever…Julia didn’t really care. The teen just did whatever he needed of her to keep herself happily employed in a job with easy money.

Today, Julia decided to take a break from London and visit the village near Hogwarts. She had only been here once before, but she found something about the little village quaint and homey. The shops had a nice selection of clothing and bits and bobs that outshined Belushya Guba easily. Even more than that, most of the shopkeepers and shoppers here were friendly, unlike those at her former school’s village. Those shopkeepers often seemed to act as though the students were trouble makers going to steal all their merchandise. Although Julia had to admit she used the five-finger discount on more than one occasion, she was never able to grasp why people would set up shop in a place frequented by students, literally steps away from a school and not at least pretend to tolerate children. Then again, most people, students and adults alike were generally cold and distant. The British people always appeared to be more welcoming and charmingly folksy to the young German girl.

After spending about an hour strolling the pathways, window shopping and venturing in and out of a few shops, Julia found herself in a pub…something about broomsticks in the title, but she hadn’t really been paying attention. After a long night working the previous evening, Julia found herself craving something strong. Thankfully the barkeeps here never questioned her age or her confidence in ordering an alcoholic beverage. Either they just didn’t care or assumed that someone with a foreign accent had to have graduated from another school. People never seemed to assume she was a drop out and for that, Julia was thankful.

As her drink arrived, Julia pulled out a book she brought with her in her purse. It was something Leon recommended after he saw her perusing his bookshelf in his office. Although he wasn’t the warmest man or made Julia feel at ease in his presence, she did have to admit he was intelligent and had good taste in literature. Since he was letting her borrow the book, she figured why not? As she opened her book and took a sip of her vodka heavy drink, she began to hear rain tapping on the window and thanked her stars that at least inside here it was warm and she could get a buzz going before she’d head home.

As the year was coming to a close, in preparation for the holiday break every single one of Egan's professors had decided to pile on the assignments. In particular, a pesky group Potions project in which the Hufflepuff solely and specifically was not allowed to chose his group mates. Egan was unjustly punished, he had decided, for his vocal response to the word 'group' in the classroom. Apparently letting everyone else know that Tess and Jack belonged to him and only him was frowned upon, and for that reason he was stuck in between the most undesirable selection of peers he could dream up. The Slytherin boy with bad breath and even worse handwriting; a girl in his house who was more concerned with flirting with said boy than figuring out this assignment; A Gryffindor girl who had spoken no more than two words all afternoon; And Egan, miserable.

"I'm happy to call it a day..." Egan spoke to deaf ears. It seemed that his trusty team had checked out. It was Saturday after all, they probably had things they wanted to get to for the night. "You two have a date, right?" He attempted joke, but it ended terribly. The quiet girl had already scurried off, the lovesick one was choking on her drink, and the boy was staring back at him blankly as though there wasn't a single thought in his head. "Oookay, well... let's just meet up Monday, then?" Egan closed his book, with a definitive nod. They (meaning Egan, the undeclared group leader) had decided to meet in The Three Broomsticks to get away from the bustle of school and hopefully clear their minds to get a grasp of their subject. Mission failed.

Egan watched as his new friends quietly exited, and he couldn't help but wonder where they were heading for the night. He knew that he was itching to get back to the castle -- Tess, Jack and himself had big plans for the evening. The muggle tape player Jack had so graciously brought to school was more entertaining than Egan could have even imagined, and he was always finding an excuse to study it. He had been working for days on a new, sexy dance routine to show his friends thanks to the mysterious object. But, first things first, toilet. "Too many Butterbeers..." Egan mumbled to himself sleepily, grabbing his Potions book and making his way to the back of the bar. Moments later, so ready to start the trek back to Hogwarts, Egan was half way through the bar before he realized that the sky had opened up in the two minutes he was gone. "Rain?!" He huffed, chucking his textbook on the bar next to him dramatically.

"Damn..." Egan shook his head, turning around to see if the other patrons could sympathize with him and his lack of umbrella. There were a few dodgy older wizards, and a blonde with a book. A book that Egan immediately recognized. The Chronicles of Narnia. He practically leapt over to this mysterious women, putting his hand on the book obtrusively. "Narnia?!" Egan turned the cover, finally making eye contact with this stranger. He felt his heart beat loud in chest as he took in her appearance. "You like this book?" Egan asked, gulping down on his now dry throat. "This one is one of my favorites," He took a seat next to her in a barstool, nearly falling over in the process.

The book had only just begun to capture Julia’s full attention when she had been snapped suddenly out it. A hand came into view almost ripping the novel out of her hand. “Was verdammt?!” She yelled out in her native tongue, shocked and surprised that someone had ruined her reverie. Looking up at the stranger, her bright blue eyes, wide with alarm, laid upon a boy who was probably neither much older or younger than she was. A student, she figured, as her eyes calmed and her face rested back to its normal cool disposition. “Uh…yes,” Julia responded, now in a calmer tone. “Narnia.” Reaching over to him, she gently took the book back into her own hands, marked her page and set it down on the bar top in front of her.

She did think the English people were friendly, but wasn’t snatching a book out of someone’s hand normally considered rude in all cultures? The seventeen year old was almost prepared to snap at the boy about manners and startling people, but as she watched him fumble his way onto the seat next to her, a smile formed on her face. The young blonde studied the boy for a moment. He was neither dashingly attractive nor ruggedly handsome, but he wasn’t painful to look at either. Something about his face was charming, though. Normally, Julia would blow off a man who approached her but wasn’t instantaneously something she considered going to bed with, but he seemed genuinely excited to be talking to her and Julia found his clumsy approach somewhat endearing.

Never letting her curious eyes leave his face, Julia took a sip of her drink. “You see, though,” she purred at the boy, her German accent obvious. “I don’t know if I like it yet. Someone seemed to come and snatch it out of my hands as soon as I started.” After staring at him a moment longer, a smile cracked on her face and she laughed lightly to let him know she was teasing. Taking another sip of her drink, she looked down at the book carefully and realized she could still hear the rain pattering on the roof of the pub, growing steadily stronger since she had started reading. Distantly, Julia could hear thunder clapping. This boy must have gotten stuck in the storm that was about to open, so Julia figured he was probably in search of someone to talk to. “Want to join me at a booth,” the teen asked suddenly, eyes jumping up to meet his. “I feel like we will be stuck here for awhile until the storm clears and booths are more comfortable anyway.”

Gracefully sliding off the barstool, Julia picked up her drink and book and led to boy over to a booth towards the back. There was a fire burning back here and the short girl was beginning to feel cold up towards the front door. “Oh,” she said, turning towards him, a playful smile on her face, before making her way fully towards the back of the pub. “I’m Julia, by the way.”

“One of your favorites, though?” Julia asked him as she slid easily into one side of the booth.  “What did you like so much about it?“




idk how i feel about this soz if its sucky

"Wha-" Egan nearly flew off of his acquired bar stool for the second time when a foreign sound escaped his new friend's lips. Had she sneezed, he wondered. "Excuse you...?" The Hufflepuff responded, leaning forward to get a closer to look at her as if something on her face would give away the answer to the question on his mind. Egan titled his head, visibly confused as to why this woman was being short with him. If a witch or wizard acknowledged the fact that he was reading an unknown muggle book in public, he would be beside himself for hours talking their ear off about plot points and character development. When she took the book from his hands, Egan huffed, wishing he had got another moment to check out the condition of her copy. The one he had at home was old and some of the pages were missing.

Brown eyes carried longingly from the book up to the blonde stranger's own piercing blue gaze that he swore could burn a hole through his head if she tried hard enough. Egan recoiled slightly, taken aback by her uninterrupted and uninhibited staring in his direction. As far as he was concerned, he had done nothing wrong, why was she looking at him like that? And why was she talking like that? A few more minutes of this and Egan would have to wipe the drool from his chin before he could even come up with a response.

"I got excited," Egan explained matter-of-factly with a nonchalant shrug of his shoulders. "It's not often you see people around here reading muggle books," He continued, nodding assuringly at her as if he had all the knowledge in the world. Something about the way she was interacting with him made Egan desperately want to impress her somehow. Whatever confidence he had built up over the past minute was shattered with one simple question: 'Want to join me at a booth?' Egan could have melted into the floor. "Me?" He repeated, his eyes wide, throwing a hand to his chest dramatically. "Join... you?" Egan hesitated. His legs had a different plan it seemed, and he dutifully followed the woman. "Yeah, booth. I love booths!" He perked up, putting a little pep in his step to keep up with her. "Egan," The boy skipped closer to her offer his hand with a grin as they made their way to the back of the pub.

Egan fought to get comfortable in the side of the booth across from Julia, but the proximity of her gaze was making him squirm a bit. He slid his Potions book to the corner of the table and did his best to get comfortable. "Oh, it's my favorite," He replied, leaning forward a little to get a better look at the book. "You know that's the third one though, hey?" Egan asked, tilting his head slightly. "Don't worry though, first two are rubbish, anyway," He leaned back with a smirk, putting both his hands on the edge of the table. "There's nothing not to like!" He added, suddenly enthusiastic again. "I can't give it all away," Egan teased, clicking his tongue. "Do you go to... Hogwarts?" The boy asked suddenly curious about this being. She had an accent, he was sure, but he couldn't make any assumptions. It seemed he met a new person at that school every day.

“It was German for…nevermind,” the seventeen year old blonde said dismissively to the boy. She rolled her blue eyes slightly, which had become such a habit for her now that she rarely noticed when she rolled her eyes. As his face moved in closer to hers, she wasn’t disturbed, but surprise. A small smile tugged at the corners of her mouth, somewhat interested by this boy’s lack of understanding of personal space. At least being overly friendly was better than her former fellow Durmstrang students attitude of being cold and distant. “Don’t huff at me, sir,” Julia said teasingly as she put the book back in her back. “I wanted to mark my page. Maybe I’ll let you look at it later.”

It was a muggle book? Julia’s eyebrows rose in surprise, but she didn’t comment on her shock. She didn’t expect Leon to carry muggle books in his library and he hadn’t mentioned that the book was written by a non wizarding person. She supposed she shouldn’t be that surprised. Most wizarding books weren’t quite as fantastical. One thing Julia always noticed with muggle fantasy books was that they had unlimited potential for imagination. Perhaps it was because they weren’t aware that half the things they thought were magical or imaginary were in fact real. “Hm,” she said quietly, making a note to maybe ask Leon about it when she got the chance. With a shrug she added, “Yeah I supposed you don’t.”

As she slid out of her chair, her eyes lit up happily and she laughed at the boy’s dramatic actions. “Yes! You! Join me!” she replied with equal enthusiasm and a laugh. He might be a little rude by normal standards, but the kid sure was interesting, Julia thought. He was funny and seemed sincere and there was something about him that Julia just liked. The normal guys the teen went for were in their 20s or a little older and usually dripped with sex appeal, but for whatever reason, Julia found something about this kid attractive as well. It could just be the difference in his personality that Julia found attractive. Her attention span with guys was usually short and she was always interested in the ones that were different from the ones before.

She took the hand that the boy offered in her own smaller hands and gave it a quick shake. “Nice to meet you,” she said softly, her eyes lingering on him just a little longer than she needed to before she dropped his hand. Her mind was already churning with ways to have her fun tonight with this boy. The school was probably off limits what with rules and all that nonsense. As she sat in the booth seat, she looked up at him as he continued on about the book.  She stayed quiet as he spoke, fascinated by the boys extroverted personality and obvious display of his excitement for the book. He was loud and childish and Julia felt a little giddy sitting with him. His excitement was contagious. One pale eyebrows raised at the boy and a playful smirk grew on her face. “Aw, you sure you can’t give something away, even to me,” she teased, clearly giving a double meaning to the words.

“Oh,” Julia shifted in her seat uncomfortably as Egan brought up school. She hadn’t thought about what she would say to this. She couldn’t say she went to school there, he’d ask about classes and different things she wouldn’t have an answer to. Had it been break time she could still lie about going to Durmstrang. “Uhm, no. I’m…homeschooled.” She faltered. Normally her lying was flawless, but she found herself so caught off guard from the question that she couldn’t even come up with a proper lie to cover up the fact she dropped out.

“So,” Julia said quickly, her eyes lighting up again and rising to meet the boy’s brown eyes again. Her took a quick sip of her drink, trying to calm her nerves. She just wanted a subject change, maybe he would realize that or just accept her lie without question. “What do you do for fun around here?”

Was this girl staring at him? He could have sworn her electric gaze lingered for a just a fragment of a second too long. Egan had to consciously remind himself to take regular breaths and to blink at normal intervals. Blink. Good. Blink again. Good. The teenager quickly fumbled into the booth, his own brown eyes struggling to break away from her own. They narrowed curiously up at her before once more before he was able to speak. "Nice to meet you! A friend of Lewis is a friend of mine," Egan piped up cheerfully, not even stopping to think that Julia may not have any idea who he was talking about.

Egan's mouth shot open as the double entendres flew his way. Even for her? Surely she didn't mean anything more by it, but something on her face was making him second guess his usually flawless instinct. The Hufflepuff boy prided himself in being somewhat of a sleuth in the lady department, so he was baffled by this troubling case. "Nope," He quickly replied. "You'll thank me later for this, I promise," He declared.

For the first time in their encounter, Julia was the one squirming in her seat and Egan had to admit he quite liked it. Although, he couldn't put his finger on why school could possibly be such a point of contention for her. "Homeschooled?" Egan repeated as if it was a word he had never spoken before. Sure, he had heard of the system, but not once had he actually met a child of it. "As in your parents teach you? Everything?" He leaned forward, eyes positively brimming with curiosity now. He had hundreds of questions for her and didn't want to waste any time not getting right to the point. "Why?!" He finally spat out without any intention of holding back his shock. No quidditch? No friends?  No common room? No lake? No wonder this one was so peculiar.

Egan leaned back in his chair lazily, his eyes shooting to the ceiling in thought. What did he do? "Well..." The brunette began. "Usually ruck about the castle.... but.... I guess you wouldn't know anything about that," Egan trailed off. His words were in no way meant to be hurtful, sometimes most of the time he just didn't think things through. "There's a lovely little bakery up the road! Go there quite a bit. I'm actually rubbish at Quidditch, but it's nice to watch," He pursed his lips. He could go on for hours about how he entertained himself, really. "What about you. What do you.... do?" He tilted his head.

Did he really just say that?

Julia stared at him for a moment for her face revealed a large smile and she laughed happily. It was such a lame joke and Julia found it totally charming. This kid, awkward as he was, was very disarming to a girl like Julia who tried so hard to keep her emotions even and her demeanor cool. He was easy going and made her feel more laid back. Although she had been a little put off by his forwardness at first, she could feel him growing on her.

Julia sighed, convinced he either missed or ignored her suggestion. If he missed it, that was fine—annoying, but fine. If he ignored her, maybe it was because he wasn’t as fascinated by her as she was by him. She couldn’t figure out why; she saw the way he was looking at her—confused, bright eyes, awkward smiles. That usually meant the other person was at least interested. Hmm. Maybe he had a girlfriend? Inside, Julia felt a twinge of disappointment at the thought of him having a girlfriend. At the very least, the boy sitting across from her could provide her with a bit of fun for the evening.

Julia nodded nervously, hoping Egan was buying her lie. “Yep,” she replied as casually as she could manage, but her higher than usual pitch might have gave her away. More questions? Julia shifted again, uncomfortable by all of his questions, but didn’t want to snap at him to stop asking. “No reason really,” she began, her voice unsteady. “I didn’t really like Durmstrang, so I get home schooled.” That part was partly true at least. The blonde German really didn’t like her former school. She bit down on her lip out of habit, trying to untie the knots in her stomach from what she was sure were obvious lies. “And my dad travels a lot. I just wanted to travel too.” Again, kind of true. Erik did travel a lot and Julia did love to travel. She just didn’t travel with him. Quickly, Julia reached down to her drink and promptly finished it.

Oh, she knew well enough about rucking up a school. There were parts of Durmstrang that would probably never get her drunken vomit off the walls and students were probably still finding her old hidden alcohol bottles. She remained quiet as she listened to Egan rattle on. She liked watching him talk, he was very animated and it interested Julia. He could probably talk about anything and it would seem interesting judging by the way he was talking now. “Me?” she said, jokingly imitating him from earlier. She smirked thinking about what she did for fun. A blur of parties, drugs, alcohol, men and women swirled through her head. “Not a whole lot. I go out to clubs a lot…for dancing. And drinking. Speaking of, be right back.”

The teen shot up out of her seat quickly as she noticed a larger crowd come in. She rested her hand on Egan’s for a moment, before throwing him a flirtatious and playful wink. Julia eased her way up to the bar in between the crowd of older men and ordered two shots of Firewhiskey and two vodka and cranberries. The bartender seemed so overwhelmed by the sudden crowd that she didn’t pay much attention to who Julia was getting drinks for. Slipping her hands through the crowd, she pulled her drinks forward and left some money on the counter. The short blonde made her way back to the booth, happy that she chose one in the back that was out of the view of most.

“Here,” she said presenting him with the drinks. She needed a drinking buddy even though she wasn’t sure if Egan drank. But, who ever turned down free alcohol? Maybe the vodka and cranberry wasn’t his drink of choice, but then again, the seventeen year old wasn’t sure what he drank. “Cheers,” she said happily, raising her shot to him before quickly swallowing it. Her eyes fixated on him once again, eager to see how he would react to her offer of alcohol.

"Durmstrang..." Egan interrupted before Julia could even finish her sentence. "That's all you had to say," He shook his head back and forth in thought, remembering when the school had come to Hogwarts for the Triwizard Tournament. Truthfully he preferred the Beauxbatons pupils more, their accents were far less terrifying and their women completely enchanting. It seemed he had found the exception.

"You must have really cool parents," He added matter-of-factly with pursed lips. His parents would never approve of him being homeschooled. Boys like Egan Enders needed constant social contact, he justified. Although Emilia and Murray might have cited different reasons for sending their son away for majority of the year. He would never agree, but the teen was a bit of a handful.

The way that Julia's mouth tugged into a smirk at the corner of her lip made Egan feel inherently uneasy. There was certainly a lot more going on in that brain of hers than just the odd party here or there, but he couldn't place his finger on what. "Club? Y'mean like this?" Egan prompted, brown eyes carrying around the Three Broomsticks.He had never seen people dancing, but then again he had a curfew to uphold.

It seemed as soon as they sat, his new companion was getting ready to leave again. Egan opened his mouth to protest, but her hand on top of his occupied all of his attention. The Hufflepuff stared blankly for a moment before flicking his gaze back to her eyes. "Oh..." He breathed. This was new.

Egan watched with careful eyes as she flitted over to the bar, but lost her bright blonde hair in the new of new arrivals. The goofy, mindless grin that had been plastered on his face only grew wider when he realized Julia came back bearing gifts. Drinks. In a public place. Egan felt his heart skip and then start to race. What if he were to get caught? He might as well kiss his holiday privileges away for the next four years.

"Are you... sure?" Egan asked slowly as his eyes scanned the room for any Professors who might recognize him. Julia had already down her shot and he decided it was now or never. Sink or swim. The teen threw back the burning liquid in a fit of sudden bravery and let out a groan. "Errrr," He stuck out his tongue dramatically. "That tasted like bad pumpkin juice!" Egan eyed the other drink, which looked much nicer with now curious eyes.

"Why did you get me these?" He prodded, taking a sip with the aid of a bit of liquid courage. "You don't even know me..." Egan added, glancing back at her earnestly. This was certainly the strangest Hogsmeade trip of his life. "I'd really better get going soon," He looked outside at the setting sun. "Curfew," He added, as if to remind her.