[mp] sell your soul. [magnolia]

Still aggravated that she had been so rude when he had offered to do something not dickheaded, Isaac kept his eyes facing forward. She was infuriating; why was he even here? And it was like as soon as his mind began traveling down that path, fate intervened. First, he heard the laughter, and he recognized Duncan's raspy one; the eighteen-year-old had been smoking since he was a fourth-year, and then Allison's annoying snicker followed. He groaned, rolling his eyes as he considered the options. He didn't care that they saw him with Nola because he could always make some reason up for him being there. They would believe him; they always did. But he also didn't want to hear it from Allison when she accused him of leaving her at the haunted house. She could be so needy sometimes, certainly not headstrong, nothing like Magnolia seemed to be.

He gave Magnolia a look, but his features gave her no clues about what he was thinking. He noticed her slow down, and he lowered his eyebrows, puzzled, and then made assumptions about what she was thinking. Did she think he was going to stay with her? Had she assumed he'd walk her back to Hogwarts because they were friends or something now? Isaac hated the idea of her deciding anything like she made the rules, so naturally, he wasn't going to anything of the sort. Any kindness, unbelievable as it might have been, drifted from his dark features as Duncan and Allison rounded the corner.

Isaac didn't say a word to Nola, didn't even look back as he half jogged to catch up to them. Pretending like he hadn't even been walking with Magnolia in the first place was easy. Duncan was oblivious, Allison wasn't, but he'd deal with it later. Quickly he fell into step with them, turning on his heel only to pass Magnolia a moment later. His eyes slid over her, avoiding her gaze, and he pushed out a laugh at whatever dirty joke Duncan had just finished.

Heading back to Hogsmeade with them seemed counterintuitive, and suddenly he wanted to be anywhere but there, but Isaac didn't stop talking. He followed them back to the village and ordered food he wasn't remotely hungry for all in an attempt to keep himself distracted. To keep his thoughts on where he was and not what he left behind.

[/end]

Unbelievable, she thought to herself the moment he left wordlessly to join his friends. But had his actions really been that far-fetched? No, not at all. Even so, Magnolia had expected him to be the bigger person, maybe even side step them off the path to avoid the jeers of their peers, the witch might have complained about it after the fact but she would not have minded it entirely. It would have been his dedication to follow through on his promise that would have further attracted her to him, the idea that maybe there was a layer of sweetness that lie right underneath this arrogance he often displayed would have intrigued her.

But to just leave her there and pretend that they had not just spent the last fifteen minutes talking to each other infuriated her. Who did he think he was? But the witch let him go without so much as a word in protest, the only parting gift was the look of disbelief on her face which she was convinced he had ignored anyway. Magnolia should have known that he intended to do this from the very beginning, especially when he had gone as far as to ask her. The young witch scolded herself for being so naïve when he had broken character. She should have known and yet here she was alone, in the dark, and still high strung from the haunted house. She suddenly missed her friends.

But it was his laugh that really pissed her off as he walked past with his usual Slytherin friends, because it felt like they were all laughing at her rather than whatever conversation they were having. Magnolia balled her hand into a fist at her side but she was determined not to react, he didn’t deserve a reaction for what he had done. If anything, this felt like the perfect opportunity to resolve never to talk to him again. Nothing good had come from any of the encounters she had had with the boy in the past month and Magnolia doubted that much would change if she pursued it. Pursued what exactly she was not sure, the Gryffindor was still conflicted about her thoughts on him. Thankfully, Isaac had done her the favor of deciding that for the two of them.

The one fact that remained true at the end of the night was that Isaac Hackney was indeed, the worst.

[/end]