[detention] lost in the madness. [nola]

late october 2003

Lazily arriving at detention five minutes later than he was supposed to be there, Isaac took a second in the doorway to survey the attendees. Eyeballing the other students who had landed themselves here for the afternoon, the wizard scanned the desks, but he was really looking for her. Magnolia was the reason he was here in the first place (or so he believed), and there was no way in hell he was going to let her have peaceful detention.

Isaac blamed her for his misfortune, but they had both been at fault. When his dark eyes found her, the near-permanent smug look on his face intensified, and he crossed the room to sit next to her. Sliding into an empty desk in the detention hall, Isaac rolled his eyes at the board's instructions. Use this time to finish homework assignments, but he didn't have any outstanding projects. The Slytherin was the sort to finish things on time, if not early. And even if he did, he was too apathetic to bother being productive during an undeserved detention session. (Undeserved in his opinion, of course.)

Instead, he slid back in his chair, slouching with his feet sticking out the front of the desk, primed and ready to trip someone who wasn't paying attention when they passed by.  Leaving the black cloak behind, the sleeves of his white uniform shirt were rolled up nearly to his elbows, but not enough to show off the small tattoo he had hidden there. Laying his arms on the tabletop, the Slytherin took to starring at Magnolia sitting next to him, one of many attempts he would make to irritate her over the next hour. He tapped his fingers on the desk, no pattern, no rhythm, and it grew more obnoxious the longer she stayed quiet.

@Magnolia Lane Hawkins

This was unbelievable. Not once had the young witch ever been given detention and the dread of knowing that she finally done it felt more like a death sentence than a rite of passage like it did for some of her peers. Magnolia had tried to reason with herself that it wasn’t a big deal. She wasn’t a square; she could handle getting into a little trouble. The Gryffindor was no stranger to parties or sneaking out after bedtime to meet up with her friends in the city. She had experimented with things here and there, had enjoyed her adolescence just as much as the next witch. But she had always been smart about it. Her parents might not have been strict in the worst sense of the word; however, they did have expectations. And as someone who had never been to detention before, Magnolia feared the worst.

Would they send an owl home? Would this be part of her permanent record? It was with those and a half a dozen other questions that the girl entered detention, several minutes early, avoiding eye contact with all the other “degenerates” in the room as she took a seat as far away from any other student as possible. Had she not been so embarrassed and frankly traumatized by the entire situation she might have looked for Isaac first to scowl at him for putting her in this situation to begin with. If he was not so annoyingly (attractive) she might not have ended up in detention. Magnolia obviously needed to sort out her priorities. Badly.

It didn’t take long for her to come to a fundamental conclusion: Magnolia Lane Hawkins did not belong there. Looking at the board, she sighed quietly, deciding that the best way to deal with this was to do as instructed and make sure that it never happened again. Setting down three of her textbooks onto the desk, she opened one up right away, having already dog-eared the pages that she would need for her homework.

Magnolia didn’t have to notice Isaac to feel his eyes on her, she had glanced up when he had come in but only for a second because she didn’t want to give him the impression that she wondering where he was. She continued working diligently, very conscious of her actions and making sure that she didn’t make any silly faces, all while pretending that she didn’t notice at all. But eventually, in a very dramatic display of putting down her quill, sighing, and turning to him, she frowned. “Yes?” she asked, whispering loudly, “Do you need something? Are you lost?”

Isaac wondered how long he could keep this up, or more specifically, how long she could go on ignoring him and pretending he wasn't bothering her. Maybe he saw things that weren't there, but he was sure she was actively trying to keep a straight face. It made him smile. When she finally said something, he shrugged, "Don't think so," He said, drawing the words out slowly. Isaac moved to reach for whatever book she was currently using. He slid it toward him, reaching over her and not even bother pretending like he didn't mean to invade her personal space. Seeing the little folds she had used to mark pages, Isaac considered unfolding them so she'd lose their place, but instead, he just flipped through the book idly.

Realizing what chapter she was in, he scoffed at her, whispering as he waited for her to snatch the book back from him. "You know this was due yesterday, right?" He told her, wondering if she'd gotten an extension or if she was just that far behind. It was muggle studies, and he knew for a fact she had a reason to be distracted in that class (him), which made him all the more amused. Putting the muggle studies book down, he sat forward in his seat again, clasping his hands together on the desk, and leaned on his elbows. Looking at her sideways, he smirked, wondering how she felt about being in detention. She had her books all lined up, she looked more prepared to work on assignments than he typically saw her, even during class, and it was cute. There must have been a reason.

"Nola," he said slowly, "Is this your first detention?" He asked as he started to put it all together. Even though they hadn't really deserved detention, it wasn't like they were setting first years on fire or something; Isaac had thought she overreacted when the professor issued it to them. Now he thought maybe he understood why. Perfect little Magnolia had never been in trouble before, because, of course, she hadn't.

Magnolia hated Isaac, she decided. Particularly, she disliked the way he said things as if he was completely oblivious to how annoying he was being. At this point, it was rather obvious that he went out of his way to insult her and tease her on purpose. Maybe he did like her. Or maybe (and more realistically!) he was keeping tabs on her to make she did not tell his secret. The witch had not given it much thought after the train though, too busy partly enjoying and partly hating all of this newfound attention he was giving her. Magnolia rolled her eyes at him before returning to her work, she wasn’t going to let him ruin this for her. This was one detention too many.

But like usual, he did not stay out of her thoughts for long, drawing her attention once again when he revealed to her that the assignment, she was currently working on was overdue. “What?” she exclaimed, remembering towards the end of her question to keep her voice down lest she get assigned detentions for the rest of her time at Hogwarts. Frowning at him for causing such an emotional response in her, she leaned forward to pluck the textbook right out of his hand again. “Mind your own business,” she said menacingly, though her voice remained low. What was the policy on late work again? She hadn’t actually read it before tossing it into the bin on her way out.

“Yeah, so what?” she replied, rather defensively for such a simple question. Magnolia shrugged, putting on her best face of nonchalance as if she were telling him that she was all the more cool for it. There was nothing wrong with trying to graduate without arecord. “Don’t make a habit out of getting in trouble, but you wouldn’t know anything about staying out of trouble, now would you?” she replied as if trying to emphasize the things she assumed about his personality.   

Isaac found her reaction to his words amusing, and his smirk proved it, but he wasn't smiling at her. Part of him was glad she had gotten detention too, not because he wanted to be around her, but because she deserved it. He blamed her for getting him into trouble and for the note she had written that had pissed him off so much. But the other part wished she hadn't gotten one, and his feelings on that were a little more confused. The teenager thought or was trying to convince himself that it was because he didn't want her anywhere near him. That he would rather go through this detention, and the rest of the term, never laying eyes on her again.

In truth, he wished she hadn't gotten one because he could tell she never had before. It was a strange feeling, not regret or sympathy, but something more selfish. He didn't want her to be like every other witch he spent way too much time around. Isaac didn't want to think of her as another annoying witch who got detention for attention and let boys like him sneak them into broom closets. She was better than that.

Instead of acting on that weird mix of thoughts, Isaac did what he always did when faced with any emotion deeper than anger or selfish amusement: he lashed out. Being insensitive was more manageable than admitting to anything, he had learned, and anything less would be backtracking. She told him she didn't make getting detentions a habit, and he nodded slowly. "That's because your boring," He said with an insulting tone; his brown eyes gave her a once over, and then he shook his head. She was anything but boring, but Isaac wasn't trying to be truthful.

Magnolia might have committed her fair share of mischief but surely nothing so terribly evil that would result in being tormented like this. Okay, maybe that had been a little dramatic. But she did not like his attention, especially the way it always seemed to catch her when she least expected it. He would drift in and out of her life unexpectedly, almost as if he knew much more about her than he let on. Or he would poke holes into her confident statements with words that would only make her insecurities or embarrassment resurface.

Just when she thought she’d said something witty; he’d call her boring. Just when she thought she was being pretty cool; he’d call her a square. And it hurt her feelings, not a lot, but just enough to egg her on as if she had a point to prove. Magnolia knew the whole she shouldn’t care about what other people thought thing but it was much easier said to her friends than practiced.

“If I’m so boring why are you talking to me?” she all but hissed in return, nodding in the direction of a group of familiar faces on the opposite side of the room, “Looks like you missed your friends on the way in,” she added as if it were a matter of fact. Magnolia didn’t actually know any of his friends though she had seemed him hang around enough of them to know the sort of students he spent his time with. Not that she was looking over during dinner or anything, it had sort of just been an accidental observation. “Go on then, I’m sure they’ll make room,” she egged him on, promptly returning to her assignments. Naturally, now there was no way she was going to get anything done.

Though he expected her to come back at him with something snarky, Isaac hadn't expected her words to ring true. Why was he over here talking to her? The real answer was so much more than just needing to annoy her because he blamed her for the detention, but he didn't realize it. Brown eyes followed to where she was nodding, and he blinked when he saw Duncan, Allison, and the others, shit. He should have known they were going to be here. Mostly, Duncan, he was here pretty much every day, but Isaac had been distracted. Sitting still, he watched them for a second; so far, it seemed like they either hadn't seen him or didn't care, but he knew it was only a matter of time before they were giving him shit for sitting with Magnolia Hawkins. Another irritation he did not need.

Any clue about what he might have been thinking, about not wanting his friends to see him because it'd be annoying, was gone from his face when he turned back to look at her. He'd rather she think he didn't care at all. Nola told him to go on, and he wondered if she meant it. He knew he was irritating her, but his confidence assured him she enjoyed the attention. Confusingly, the thought that she might want him to stay despite what she said made him want to leave even more. It was chaos. "Good point," He told her with a shrug, acting icy and distant to prove a point, and he slid out of his seat.

Isaac didn't even say goodbye before walking toward the table that housed his actual friends. He didn't look back as they welcomed him, and he took his seat. The same seat he'd occupied so many detentions over the last four years. This was where he was supposed to be, with his friends, and not with her. He settled into his seat and fell quickly into pretending he was listening to whatever they were chattering about. And even though he wanted to, Isaac made sure not to look in Magnolia's direction.

Her quill stopped moving the moment she heard him stand up, but she continued writing nonsense, pretending not to notice as she wrote her name over and over on the piece of parchment that she had intended to use for her Muggle Studies homework. He had said it was late anyway, did it make sense to turn it in? Magnolia frowned softly. Why did that even matter, he was probably lying anyway, now that statement had made much more sense. And content with her conclusion, she flipped the pages in her textbook aimlessly, stealing a glance over in his direction as she suddenly pretended to yawn. Well then, she hadn’t actually expected him to move. The fact that he did exactly the opposite of what she had intended made her upset. It was always one step forward and hundred steps back with him. Just as soon as the girl was able to deduce a pattern in his behavior, it would shift, he would change, and nothing would remain the same. It was equal parts fascination and frustration that kept her interested.

Whatever. Magnolia glanced at the pages, the frown on her face only becoming more serious as she skimmed the page, soon realizing that she had absolutely no idea what this assignment was about or what the Professor had wanted them to do. She had written a few scribbles in the corner of the textbook, illegible at this point, and had spent the rest of the corner on drawing little flowers and hearts, a pattern that had made sense to her at that time, not really having much structure at the moment. It was a chapter related to music and art, that much was clear, but she didn’t really remember what the instructions to the assignment had been. She looked nervously at the person at the front of the room that was supposed to be in charge of them, finding it even harder to concentrate now that it was increasingly obvious that she didn’t know. Magnolia trying to overhear their conversation, didn’t help either.

After several moments of consideration, she slowly raised her hand. “I’m not quite sure what I’m supposed to be doing with my assignment, could I go ask?” she offered, to which she was given a prompt no. This was detention, not the time to be visiting Professor’s offices. “Ask someone in your class,” the man responded with a shake of the head. And of course, as luck would have it, the only person who would have the answer was the one she had sent to the opposite side of the room moments earlier.

Sighing heavily, hopefully loudly enough to show her annoyance, she dragged her textbook along the desk noisily as she stood up, walking with heavy footsteps to the gaggle in the corner. “Is-,” she started, but decided against it, it felt weird referring to him with the familiarity of his first name in front of his friends. “Hackney,” she said flatly, glancing over at his peers. Ugh. “Do you mind?” she asked as coldly as she could, offering the textbook to him for the sake of not asking him for help directly.

Sitting at the table, they'd pretty much had a claim on since the first year Isaac was at Hogwarts; he tried not to make his boredom too apparent. His buddies were cool, but they didn't challenge him the way Nola had been lately. She was so feisty, fighting him on every little thing, and even though it irritated the shit out of him, he was also entertained by it. Isaac rolled his eyes at Allison as she painted her nails some awful green color. She probably thought it looked sassy, but really it just looked like vomit.

Slouching in his seat, Isaac's arms were hanging off the sides; it was apparent that he was not participating in the detention or the conversations happening at his table. Fiora played Hangman with Duncan, and even though half the letters were still missing, Isaac was sure he'd already figured it out. And, because Duncan had been in charge of the answer, it was, of course, something dirty. He looked over at Fi, assuming she knew the solution already as well, not just because she was light years smarter than Duncan, but because she had that smirk on her face.

Isaac perked up slightly when he heard Nola's voice across the room, but he quickly slid back into his neutral posture. The Slytherin laughed silently when he realized she was trying to figure out what to do on the assignment. She was a menace when it came to classwork, honestly. The professor declined her request, and that made him laugh a little bit more. But then he told her to find someone from class, and instinctively he tried to sink further into his seat. He knew she'd pick him, not just because most of their detention-mates were in other years, but because he just knew it. Maybe it was overconfidence, but when he heard her making a ridiculous amount of noise on the way, he knew he had been right. Fuck he thought, if he helped her, he'd never hear the end of it from his mates.

"Hawkins," he coldly replied, as if he hadn't been calling her Nola for the past week. "Do you need something?" He asked, painfully slow, as he tried to make her go away with his eyes. Either that, or he was going to make sure to drag it out. If she wanted his help, she'd have to ask for it.

Naturally, Isaac was insufferable as usual. The fact that he, too, had chosen to call her by her last name was not surprising even though she did wonder if his reason for it had been the same as her own. It wasn’t as if he hadn’t been calling her Magnolia, Nola, and a host of other nicknames (very impolite ones at that) over the last few weeks. Even if his reason was the same as her own, to not give his mates the wrong idea, it irked her. He liked it better when he called her by her name; it sounded different when he said it.

Her eyes shifted over to his friends, the same old group of awful Slytherins he kept company and…Fiora? Her confusion lasted for only a moment. She had never expected someone like Fiora Maccrae to be part of Isaac’s crew, the girl had never noticed it before, but it made her wary of their intentions with her. Not that Fiora couldn’t fend for herself but still. The thought that she might be Isaac’s new girlfriend did cross her mind, but she didn’t want to dwell on it. She made a mental note to refer to the database later, to see what the deal was. For now, there were more urgent matters at hand, like her homework.

Instead of answering his question directly, she set the book down heavily upon his desk, with the pages relating to the assignment open before him. “You heard me,” she muttered in response to his question. She took a seat at the desk in front of him, not waiting for an invitation that she was already convinced would not come. Turning around in the chair to face him, she tapped a finger on the paragraph she had highlighted. It had something to do with that page, that much she had remembered, and had she been paying enough attention to write down the assignment instead of believing she would commit it to memory, she wouldn’t be going through this now. Magnolia had learned her lesson.

“Just tell me what I need to do so that I can leave,” she added begrudgingly, not wanting him or his friends to get the impression that she wanted to spend any more time with them than she needed to.

Isaac couldn't stop himself from sitting up a little straighter when she took it upon herself to sit at the desk in front of his. She was so annoying, always doing whatever she wanted, not that Isaac wasn't the same way. He blinked at her slowly, his eyes staying on her as she showed him the book and demanded that he help her. Isaac then looked from her to the friends he was sitting with and scoffed.

Of course, she didn't know what the assignment even was. They had already established it was late, and she had seemed surprised by that too, and Isaac couldn't help but wonder how she had even made it to her fifth year. She wasn't dumb, that was evident, but could she be this bad at classwork? To someone like Isaac, this was nearly unbelievable, but he was the complete opposite.

Despite the reputation and the cliche, Isaac wasn't a bad student. He turned all of his assignments in on time, often finishing them early, and he took impeccable notes when needed. He was motivated to succeed at Hogwarts because it meant he could get out of shit-hole Tilsbury.

Turning back to Nola, he leaned across his desk, bringing his face closer to hers, but made sure to speak loud enough that his buddies could hear him. "What are you offering me in return, then?" He asked, chuckling as he did and wiggling his eyebrows in a way that made Allison giggle. Surely Nola didn't expect him to help her just because she asked. The wizard knew she could turn this around on him, threaten his secret, but he wanted to see if she remembered what happened the last time she tried to play that card.

The fact that Allison laughed provoked her anger but not enough for her to make a scene out of it. It was obvious that it was what he wanted and it was something she had vowed never to allow again. Of course, the girl was still a teenager and highly volatile but the circumstance had not called for that sort of thing. Not yet, anyway. But before it went that far, Magnolia intended to stop all communication with him and his buddies all together.

She could survive the next hour or so, all she needed to do was remind herself of how she had landed herself in this situation to behind with. Magnolia had never thought herself to be the type to hold a grudge but after the last exchange she had had with Isaac, the witch was starting to think otherwise.

"My gratitude," she said flatly, not allowing herself to fall into that trap again. Magnolia hadn't forgotten the promise that she had made to herself but the way she saw there, there was no other choice. Therefore, the best she could hope for was caution when approaching a conversation with him, especially with his friends present. So, she decided the best way to get what she wanted was to take a page out of Isaac Hackney's book and embarass him. "And that's all you'll ever be getting from me," she clarified, tapping her fingernail, against the page to draw his attention to it again.

"You should really stop trying so hard to impress your friends, Isaac, I've already rejected you twice," she emphasized the number, giving him the sweetest most unaffected smile she could muster. It only fueled her hate. "So just tell me what I need to do," she suggested again, hoping he would just do as she asked and she could get on with it.

Her gratitude, Isaac smirked at her answer, but he didn't smile as much at the next things she began to say. She thought she'd rejected him? This girl was mental. Had he been trying to pursue her, he knew for a fact she wouldn't have said no. It wasn't that long ago that he'd pretended to kiss her, and she had been all ready for it. Eyes closed and everything. Isaac hadn't mentioned it to Duncan or Allison; he thought he would but never ended up saying anything. He usually would have. It would have been one of many stories the group would share about how they had terrorized various classmates that day. Most days ended that way. If the Common Room walls could talk, they would certainly have some stories.

"How do you know I'm not trying to impress you?" He asked, his slow accented words falling like leaves across their table. Allison snorted, and Duncan seemed uninterested as a Seventh year Hufflepuff with her skirt higher than was allowed in the dress code walked past them. Isaac's eyes lingered on Nola, intently, as he smiled. If she was going to try to call him out in front of his buddies, then it looked like he'd have to prove his point, yet again, that he was better at these games than she was. Better in every way. And if she wanted to embarrass him, then he would do it right back to her, and he would do it tenfold.

"So just tell me what I need to do," Nola made it easy to fight with her, and way too much fun. "I have a couple of ideas," The Slytherin insinuated, recalling the dirty answer to the game of hangman Fi and Duncan had been playing and smirked. "Solve the puzzle, and I will help you." He offered, beginning the bargaining stage of today's festivities with a playful but sinister tone in his voice. He pulled the parchment out from Duncan's hand and slid it toward Magnolia. Some letters were still missing now, but not nearly enough to say it was unsolvable. 

“Because if you’re trying to impress me, I suggest you try a little harder,” she responded though the thought that his statement might ring true made her uncomfortable. Had she once again misinterpreted his actions? Was there any truth in his words or did he want her to assume as much in order to play that hand against her? It made her second guess herself and she didn’t like it. Boys weren’t supposed to be total jerks when they liked you, they were supposed to treat you like you were special, to do nice things for you so that you might consider liking them back.

Or maybe this was Isaac’s ideas of treating her special, by singling her out and driving her crazy with these conflicting statements and those little looks he gave her as if he was trying to share something that he couldn’t put into words. What does it mean? she asked herself for what seemed to be the one hundredth time that week. Allison’s reaction didn’t help make things any clearer either. If it was a joke for her then maybe that was because this was typical behavior on his part. Had it been any other girl in that very room he might have acted the same. And then she suddenly didn’t feel so special anymore.

Magnolia looked down at the puzzle that he slid in her direction, trying to make heads or tails of why they were playing a child’s game to stay busy. She wasn’t sure about Duncan but Fi seemed way too smart for this sort of thing. She looked down at the word, ten letters, two solved, was that…she frowned. Magnolia had heard the word before, had been enough passionate Quidditch enthusiasts to know what it technically meant as well as what it figuratively meant. Either way, she wasn't about to give herself another detention by saying it, much less by writing it down. Well she wasn’t going to say that out loud. She slid the piece of parchment back in his direction. “No, thanks, I’d rather not. You’d waste less time just telling me the assignment.” 

Isaac's eyes followed hers as she began to study the hangman puzzle, and it would be a lie to say he wasn't interested to see how she would react. It wasn't that hard of a mystery to figure out, but then again, neither was Duncan. He was a seventeen-year-old boy with a dirty mind. And they were all teenagers. Even though she had far less of a reputation than girls like Allision, Isaac assumed that Nola would have at least heard the word before. Staring at her, Isaac saw the deep frown that appeared across her otherwise irritated looking face. Her frown made the corners of his mouth turn upward more. She must have known what the answer was.

Pulling the page back toward him, Isaac slipped it back to Duncan, who had only just then noticed that he'd taken it in the first place, but the fifth year paid him no mind when questions. Turning back to Nola, Isaac thought about what she had said for a moment and then countered yet again. How was he supposed to help her if they couldn't even agree on why he should? Or rather, how could they ever be friends if they couldn't say more than three words to each other without disagreeing on them? It seemed unlikely.

"I have time to waste," He told her, not that she'd believe it, but he had already turned in that homework. He had finished the rest of the week chapters, days ahead even, not that he was bragging about it. Isaac's friends knew he paid attention in class when he needed to. They knew he did his assignments and cared about the exams, but it wasn't something they talked about. Duncan could care less, and Allison was the sort of witch who found other things to do during study sessions. He sighed because Nola wasn't playing the game; some part of him wanted her to answer the puzzle out loud and then rolled his eyes.

"Fine, but at least tell us this," Any sign of exasperation that almost appeared on his dark features was quickly replaced with a renewed sense of interest. "Is it because you don't know what that is or because you are too much of a square to say it out loud?" The smugness on his face should have earned him a slap as he tried again to embarrass her.