[mp] sell your soul. [magnolia]

“I’m only being bossy because you lack direction,” she replied in the best bossy voice she could manage, but only because he had called her bossy and now the witch felt the need to prove his point. Either way, Magnolia found that she felt much more comfortable talking to him if she pretended, because this way she could say as she wished and laugh it off as a joke. If she thought of his objectionable comments as if they were jokes too, they didn’t seem to hurt as much, either. That didn’t stop her from giving him a disgusted look when he compared her to what assumed was the name of his date. Or was it his girlfriend? The two had seemed to be going at it a little too seriously to be on a first date. But then again, the Slytherin girls did have their reputations.

“Rude. You haven’t kissed me how would you know,” she retorted cheekily, obviously more vexed about his comment than she needed to be. She had not said it for the sake of egging him on though lately it seemed that she often spoke in this way to get a reaction from him, but knowing that he was still thinking about Allison rubbed him the wrong way. And the last thing that she wanted to do was to talk to Isaac about the girl he was just caught snogging.

Magnolia hesitated as he waited at the door, feeling once again like she was walking into a trap but having a difficult time convincing herself not to go through with it. She reached out to catch the door right as it was closing, picking up the pace to keep up with him. Now she remembered why she hated these heels so much; they were uncomfortable but went so well with these robes. She looked around the area as they stepped out, worried that she’d run into someone and have to explain herself. “I’m not a chicken,” she said, frowning at him, “Anyway I don’t mind haunted houses when I’m with my friends, plus it’s Halloween,” she explained herself. Everything was easier with friends. “I was doing just fine anyway until you showed up,” she grumbled, loudly enough for him to hear.

Isaac could see why she might have thought that, from the outside, that he lacked direction, but in reality, he knew exactly what he was doing. ANd the wizard never did anything he didn't want to. Even though he could have told her differently, he proved her wrong even though he said nothing to dispute her statement. He didn't care what she thought of him, though; he could stand to learn how often she thought about him. A smirk rising to his features as he thought about it, the Slytherin raised his eyebrows at her. "Rude. You haven't kissed me how would you know," "Keep bringing it up, and I'll think you've put me to a dare," He warned her, assuming only one of them would go through it if such a challenge was presented.

Ignoring her hesitation, Isaac walked out of the door in front of her, growing less amused by the way she kept wanting to leave, but never actually did. Isaac rarely stayed in one place for very long; he had that sort of energy that kept him moving unless he was distracted. And since she wasn't offering up any useful distractions, he wanted to get moving. Asking his question, he expected her answer to be something snarky; she was full of it tonight—even more than on the train. Part of him wondered if he'd caught her off guard that day, or if she was getting used to his antics. He preferred option one.

Slowing his long strides to laugh at her, Isaac ran his hand through his brown hair. "Fine? Nola, you were screaming," He reminded her, teased her really, and then laughed again. "You probably would have never made it out, if not for me." Isaac took all the credit; he always did and slid his hands back into his pockets. Now that the sun was gone entirely from the October sky, it was colder than it had been on the walkover. Little goosebumps spread across his arms, popping out from under the short sleeves of his shirt. He could have cast a warming spell, but he didn't feel like it.

“Not a chance,” she clarified but only to make sure that he understood that there was no chance in hell (they were practically standing in the middle of it) she’d ever dare him and if she did, it’d only be because she had no intention of following through with it. She could already imagine the sorts of nasty rumors he’d start spreading about her, Isaac seemed the type to kiss and tell. Tell everybody. Poor Allison was just out the door and he was already calling her bossy and violent. Magnolia could already begin to imagine all the terrible words he’d used to refer to their encounter. Though moments earlier he did seem to know what he was doing.

No chance, she scolded herself, seemingly needing the reminder more than he did. The Gryffindor witch had decided that this year would be different and she intended to follow through with that promise. But outside things felt safer, even if she regretted not wearing those tights like she’d initially intended to. It was chilly out. She crossed her arms to keep herself warm.

“So?” she challenged him, having a hard time making an argument when she had no evidence to prove that she was right. But there was no way she was going to let him have the last word. “Plus I wasn’t scared, I was participating, there is a huge difference,” she added pointedly. “Didn’t you get the memo? It’s October, why aren’t you wearing a coat?” she scolded him, giving him a look as if he were the dumbest person in the world and bumping into him as she did to emphasize her point. “Or were you trying to show off to your girlfriend?” she teased but mostly because she wanted to know if they were dating but she wasn’t going to ask.

No, that’d be too obvious. Either way, she was dying to know.

She kept telling him, no, and Isaac heard it loud and clear, but he'd keep pestering her just to get that look on her face. He sort of admired her for pushing back, even if it was annoying. She was trying to be confident, trying to one-up everything he said, and she put up a good fight. He laughed again. He mouthed a brief 'oh' at her revelation, participating, she had called it, and then shrugged like he didn't really believe her. Which he didn't. Isaac had seen the look on her face when someone pulled her hair; he'd felt how tightly she clung to him, she was scared, and it was funny. Laughing at her expense, he shook his head, "No, you were scared," He corrected with another chuckle.

Shrugging again, the wizard knew she was right, but it wasn't like he would admit that. "It's not that cold," He lied, it was pretty chilly, but he still couldn't be bothered to cast a warming spell. Isaac didn't typically mind wearing his uniform cloak, but it wasn't exactly the most comfortable thing to wear while doing, well, what he had been doing with Allison in the haunted house. He didn't need to spell that out in detail for Nola, but it might have been fun to see if her cheeks flushed at the idea. Nola bumped into him, and the informality of it brought his wandering mind back to the present. Her friendly gesture, or whatever it was, made him uncomfortable and her words even more. Isaac didn't like that she had bumped into him like they were old pals or something, but he hated it less than he usually would have. If it had been someone else, he probably would have snapped at them for it.

Frowning at her movement, he looked from his shoulder to Nola and then in front of him. "Allison is not my girlfriend," He said sternly, more for his own benefit than Nola's. The last thing he needed was some nosey student passing by them, hearing her talking and running straight for the rumor mill. Allison would never let it go, she'd be trying to get him to ask her out for months, but it was not happening. "And trust me," he kept walking, but turned his head to make eye contact with her again, "She was plenty impressed,"

“I was not!” she insisted, her tone rising in emphasis, in the same way that it did when she wasn’t particularly convinced herself but was in too deep to give in to the opposition without losing face. And when it came to Isaac, the young witch was quickly realizing, everything she did and said revolved around not losing face. Of course, she’d never tell him that she cared what he thought of her but Magnolia did. That was what being a teen was all about, right? At least one adult had told her that.

“Yeah right,” she rolled her eyes, wondering why he thought being purposefully uncomfortable made him look cool. It wasn’t like he had a jacket that he could lend to her, therefore sacrificing his own comfort for her. Now, that would be cool. Well not really, Magnolia soon corrected herself, because that would mean that she’d have to accept the jacket and she had no intention of doing that, ever. Plus what would she tell her roommates when they asked? Those were the cute things that polite, kind boys did. Isaac had made it overwhelming obvious that he was neither kind nor polite, especially not when it came to her. Boys were dumb.

Magnolia kept her focus on the path ahead of them as he continued speaking, a small smile gracing her lips when he insisted that Allison was not his girlfriend. Good to know she thought to herself, even if she had no intentions of her own. But the positive note was short-lived, his arrogance reappearing only moments after to reassure her that Allison had indeed been impressed. Did that mean he was trying to get Allison to like him? Was he trying to be cool by pretending he didn’t like her? The Gryffindor would have to investigate. Discreetly, of course. “Well she’s got poor taste in boys,” she quipped in return, realizing how ridiculous she sounded only after the fact. Magnolia wanted to sound mature, above stupid boys and silly feelings and whatever insults he flung in her direction. "

Isaac rolled his eyes and gave Nola a look that screamed, 'yeah, sure, whatever you say' when she refused to admit she had been screaming. She wasn't fooling anyone, but he found her need to save face entertaining. "Are you saying you had ulterior motives when you grabbed me in the dark?" He put her on the spot with a raised eyebrow and a sinister smile on his face. Shrugging again, Isaac didn't fight her on the temperature; it was fucking cold, and he should have worn a jacket, but it was too late now, and there was no way he was going to tell her she was right. Telling Magnolia she was right about anything was dead last on the 'things to do when the hell freezes over' list.

Moving along, he made sure to give her his serious look when she implied that Allison was his girlfriend, a rumor he did not want to spread. That would be the last thing he needed; Allison would never stop pestering him. The Slytherin didn't mind hanging out with her in the dark when she wasn't talking, but other than that, Isaac would rather not. He could barely stand her even with Duncan as a buffer between them, but she was part of the group; it was what it was. Not that he was explaining the entire dynamic of his crowd to the likes of Nola. Instead, he focused on how she reacted to the news, but she gave very little away, and it was annoying. He liked it better when she was obnoxiously obvious, then he could call her on it.

"So judgy," he tsked at her, shaking his head as they walked. But honestly, Nola was so right in her judgments. Isaac was not the boyfriend type, he wasn't the good guy, and not even Allison deserved his nonsense. Not saying he was going to stop or anything, though.

“You just happened to be convenient, don’t flatter yourself,” she defended herself almost immediately, protesting at what she believed to be the beginnings of a conversation she could already tell would not end well, “Could’ve been anybody, even Allison if she’d been closer,” she continued her defense, hoping that at least her tone would convey a sense of sincerity in her words. It wasn’t entire a lie, the witch had only wrapped her arms around Isaac because he was taller and seemed like a much safer choice than her simply taking off down the hallway. As for the reason why she had held on to him second or two longer than necessary, however, was open to interpretation.

“Am I wrong?” she retorted, shooting back a serious look of her own when he called her judgy, as if to dare him to prove what she was saying false. In general, Magnolia liked to think she gave people the benefit of the doubt. And even she had left the train on the way back to Hogwarts assuming that maybe he’d had a bad day or he was just that desperate. But time and time again, at least the handful of times the two had interacted since then, that the reputation that preceded him was not baseless. And everyone knew that if others had to hear about you first, it often came in the form of a cautionary tale.

“What kind of weirdo takes a girl on a date to a haunted house anyway?” she added. Magnolia supposed if the two of them were into that sort of thing it made sense. But why leave his date to take an enemy home? She wondered. Isaac said Allison wasn’t his girlfriend but there seemed to be some miscommunication there. She knew what hookups were and had heard plenty regarding the adventures some of her classmates got onto over the summer and the weekends at Hogsmeade. Magnolia knew crushes and romance when she saw it. If Allison didn’t care either way she wouldn’t have whined about him talking to her and she certainly wouldn’t have left. “Sounds shady, Isaac,” she said, figuring he’d enjoy further judgement on her part. 

Laughing at Magnolia, Isaac found himself more interested in imagining how Allison would have responded it Nola had latched on to her than he dd in replying. His Slytherin date probably would have pushed the other girl off, maybe even tried to smack her, and of course, the teenage boy loved the idea of a witch fight. Any fight really, it had less to do about gender and more about violence in general. "That would have been fun," He told her, still picturing the fight and wondering who might have won. It certainly would have been entertaining to watch. Continuing, Isaac fought back a shiver, growing still because he wouldn't let her see it, as they got to the more deserted end of Hogsmeade, a quarter of the way on their journey back to the castle.

Fighting back the shiver but giving her a smug look and a shrug of his shoulders, Isaac didn't answer. Was she wrong? Probably not. Anyone who put up with his shit, without an ounce of self-respect, like Allison so often did, absolutely had poor taste in wizards. When she asked her next question, he grew quiet, not particularly caring to share his dating tricks with her or carry on this conversation, really. It was increasingly tedious and annoying, but he thought to himself, what else is new? Telling her to chill seemed like the right way for her to get pissy, and he thought about it, but then she called him shady, and he shook his head.

"You sound like you've never been on a date before," Isaac half asked, half assumed, with a disapproving tone in his voice. He didn't know anything about Magnolia, but he was pretty sure if she were anything like Allison, he would have.

Magnolia rolled her eyes, ignoring his comment, well aware that if she went on to detail that she’d probably win the fight he’d come up with some witty comeback that she probably could not prove. Who cared what he thought anyway? Well she did but that was besides the point. “Is that all you think about?” she said disapprovingly, making a point to take a step away from him and give him a look of disgust. If he thought she was judging him, he’d be correct.

“I’ve been on dates before,” she responded almost immediately and very defensively, “Plenty of them in fact,” she qualified her statement, as if adding that vague bit of information would change the fact that spending one-on-one time with a boy she liked was not really a date if the other person hadn’t explicitly stated as much. But Magnolia figured it was a little detail that didn’t matter as much, what sort of teenager used the word date nowadays anyway? It almost seemed like asking whether an outing counted as a date or not would ensure that you never got asked again.

So, Magnolia had made assumptions for her own, drawing conclusions based on the things those boys had said or measuring their interest from their level of politeness or their gestures. With a complicated algorithm that had developed itself over years of trial and error, the Gryffindor had concluded that she had gone on many dates in the last four years at Hogwarts. Sort of. “Going to a house full of ghouls, blood, and terror doesn’t sound like a date.”

Pretty much, he silently asked her question. As a sixteen-year-old wizard, what else was he supposed to be thinking about all the time? The way she asked it, though, like she disapproved, amused him. As if she wasn't thinking about all of the same things. He didn't believe that. And he absolutely didn't believe her when she said that she had been on dates before. Something about the way she answered so quickly, so precisely, made him sure it was a lie. Or at the very least, quite the exaggeration.

"Plenty of them in fact," she added for good measure, but it just furthered what Isaac was already assuming: that she was full of it. It seems he wasn't the only liar between them. "Oh yeah?" He asked, kicking some rocks with his sneakers as they traveled down the path to Hogwarts. The pebbles shot in front of them, clacking against other stones like a chaotic pinball machine, and he laughed.

"Privacy, loud music, no talking... sounds like one to me." He ticked his fingers as he counted the things he considered to be the perfect date ingredients. He had a very skewed opinion on the matter, especially since he had never actually been on a real 'date'. Isaac had been out with girls before, sure, but he never asked them out in cute ways, never paid for their dinner, and he certainly didn't walk them home. None of the things he assumed someone like Magnolia would expect of a date. Witches like Allison had far lower expectations, though.

"I don't believe you," He said, turning his dark eyes onto hers again and starring just a little longer than he probably should have.

Magnolia didn’t like the way he said oh yeah, it almost sounded like he was mocking her. What did Isaac know about dating anyway? If Allison and some of the other girls she had heard him linked to were anything to go by, he wouldn’t know what a date was if it punched him in the face. But of course, in typical Magnolia fashion, that only lead her down the path of wondering if Isaac had ever had a real girlfriend and if that experience had been similar to Allison or if he actually had been on a date before. Like the type where he wanted to impress the girl, and not in the weird, gross way but like the sweet and sensitive way. She smiled a little at the thought, though not too openly as to not attract more questions. She figured Isaac had no kind bone in his body, he wasn’t like every other boy, he was probably worse: self-assured, rude, and so intricately irritating.

She should have just followed her gut and looked for her friends on her own. “The point of a date is to talk,” she expressed, as if to further prove that she had much experience on the issue and therefore was an expert in the field. The poor fifth year was far from being an expert in anything, much less dating. But it was a point she was sticking to, her romanticized perspective of how dates were supposed to go: guy picks up girl, guy and girl share meaningful conversation over activity, and guy and girl grow fonder of each other. But Magnolia could already draw conclusions about why someone like Isaac preferred a silent date in the dark. But she didn’t want to think about Allison or the compromising position she had found them in.

“Believe what you want to believe,” she shrugged off, pretending like what she had just said hadn’t been textbook for what a wimpy response looked like when you didn’t have anything better to say. Magnolia figured she could get creative and start giving him examples but then he’d probably ask for details she’d have to make up as she went. The witch figured she could probably involve one of her male friends into the mix, but then she’d have to explain why she had said it to begin with if Isaac started asking around. Though it would not really make sense to ask around unless he actually cared. Then again, this was Isaac and he never did what he was supposed to do. “Unless you’re keeping tabs on me, or something?” she asked as nonchalantly as she could manage, hoping that the question would be enough to steer the conversation into a different direction.

"The point of a date is to talk," , she'd told him, and he tilted his head to the side to show her he was considering her words. After a pause, he turned back to look at her, a sheepish smile crossing his features, "Well, Nola, we 're talking," And as quickly as it had appeared, that seemingly innocent smile snaked into a dimpled smirk. Joking as he was, Isaac hadn't realized he was not only having an actual conversation with Magnolia, but he was also walking her home, and in a way, he'd protected her in the Haunted House. If someone kept track, it might have looked more like he had been out with Magnolia tonight rather than Allison.

Shrugging at her accusation, Isaac shook his head distantly. "Hogwarts isn't that big," He reminded her. Everyone knew everyone's business, and the number of tangled webs of teenage romance and drama was astounding. Isaac imagined she knew all about what he had been up to. Maybe not in great detail, but at least the quick notes. So it should have been just as likely that he had heard about her if she had been dating. He hadn't heard a thing. Unless she was dating that Buckley guy, he always saw her and her girlfriends hanging around him.

Without much warning, a sudden gust of fall wind blew through the trees lining the path, rusting up dried leaves and sending goosebumps up Isaac's exposed arms. "Fuck," He cursed under his breath; he was cold now. The wizard looked at the path, gauging how far they'd come and whether or not they were technically close enough to Hogwarts for him to do magic yet. He saw the iron gates and decided they were as he pulled his wand from his pockets. Performing the warming charm, he used a circular motion to encompass himself inside warmer air. Before his bad manners and worse attitude could get in the way, he turned to Magnolia and spoke.

"You cold?"

Magnolia felt offended that he’d go as far as to twist her words and use them against her but was more upset with herself for falling for the same trick every single time. She had to speak clearly to him, to make every statement straightforward and never open to interpretation. For someone that spent most of her free time chit-chatting with her friends about whatever came to mind, no matter how profound or utterly vapid those topics were, doing all this thinking before talking annoyed her.

 â€œI meant talking to someone you fancy, Isaac,” the young witch replied, her tone condescending as if she could not understand how he could see it any other way than the way she had explained it. But before she allowed him to quip in with another insult, or worse, speculation about her romantic life (or lack thereof), she looked up at him before she continued. The pause between her sentences had not been on purpose, but it did add a flair of drama to the point she was trying to make. “And in case you haven’t noticed, I don’t fancy you,” she added. It felt nicer to say it out loud, so much so that she almost convinced herself that it was true.

“Who says I’m dating anyone at Hogwarts?” she replied, frowning at him for making such an assumption. Magnolia didn’t know why she was so invested in continuing onward with her tall tale, but figured it had something to do with feeling offended that he had inferred she had never been on a date before. Did she look like the sort of girl that couldn’t land a date? In comparison to her friends, Magnolia did feel like the odd girl out sometimes but tried not to make a big deal out of it.

The last time she had mentioned it to her mom, the woman had gone into a long winded speech about how the right one would come along when she least expected it. It sounded like the sort of thing someone told you to make you shut up. At this rate, Magnolia figured she wouldn’t get a proper boyfriend until well after Hogwarts and it made her a little sad but that didn’t matter. She didn’t share that with her friends, she certainly wasn’t going to share that with Isaac.

She gave him a look when he swore, a small smirk tugging at her lips, “Told you so,” she muttered. It was cold, but Magnolia didn’t want to fall into that cliché she thought about earlier, so she pretended that she was unaffected. She’d suffer for it tomorrow but that didn’t matter now, “You trying to be nice now?” she teased him instead. "It's a little late for that."

He had known what she meant, but that hadn't stopped him from trying to twist her words. He was trying to imply that he was talking to her. Just because he wanted to get a rise out of her, and it seemed like he had, or at least the teenager let himself believe he had when she clarified again that she did not fancy him. There was something about the way she insisted it that made him think it less. But maybe it was his ego talking. Instead of laughing at her when she implied she was dating someone outside of school as he should have, his eyes found hers. She caught his interest in the statement. He shot her a skeptical look, eyebrow raised and then turned to face forward again.

No way, Isaac was making assumptions again, but he couldn't believe that she'd be the type to date someone outside of school. Still, his mind couldn't help but float as he wondered if that meant it was a muggle boy or someone older, and for some unknown reason, both of the ideas bothered him.

He could have asked her for more information, surely he would find holes in her made-up story to poke at, but that didn't interest him either. What if it was real? That would change what he thought about her entirely. What if it wasn't? And most importantly: why did he even care. Rolling his eyes at her instead of saying anything, Isaac cursed when the wind picked up. He brought out his wand and warmed himself up, even began to offer to do the same for her, but then she had to be a jerk about it and ruin the one nice thing he tried to do.

"Forget it," he told her stiffly, shoving his wand back into his pocket with enough force it probably tore a hole in the lining. Isaac wasn't the sort of person who did nice things out of the goodness of his heart. There was always an ulterior motive, something he could get out of the deal. But once and a while, tiny bits of sunshine poked through his otherwise stormy attitude. Brief, fleeting, and irritating, they passed quickly. Even more so when Nola gave him that attitude and made him wish he'd never offered in the first place.

He gave her a look but she didn’t know if it meant that he believed what she was implying or if he’d ruled out the possibility entirely. Magnolia had never given dating outside of Hogwarts much thought but only because it didn’t seem to fit into the little romantic moments that her mind had convinced her were must-do’s for someone her age. This was completely ignoring the fact that guys outside of Hogwarts (the one’s she fancied, at least) didn’t make it a habit of asking her out so it wasn’t like she had any options. But if things didn’t start looking up for her romantically, the teenager considered that she might be better off expanding her search.

Magnolia had wanted him to insist on the warming spell but only because she was cold but she was being obstinate, just because the idea of asking him for anything didn’t sit well for her. But at least he was walking her back to Hogwarts, so the night at the haunted house had not been an entire waste of time. Now she just needed to find her friends so that she could give them an earful regarding the fact that they had abandoned her and not looked back. Whether that was true or not remained a mystery but considering what it had led her too, Magnolia would demand an apology from the girls. She was terrified, after all.

Just as she was about to open her mouth to say something, ask him about classes or something equally redundant, she heard a group of loud voices several paces in front of them. Magnolia couldn’t quite see them but she could hear them and unfortunately the closer she got, the more familiar those voices started to sound. She looked over at Isaac, slowly down a little just in case he wanted to avoid his friends, too. They’d make snide remarks about them walking together, she was sure of it. And if Allison was there too, well that’d get awkward fast.