these are the lies. | magnolia

November 4th, 2003

Allison kept feeding Isaac and Duncan more ammunition, plucking little pieces of parchment out of whatever library book she was pretending to read. No one was fooled. The three of them sat together in one of the alcoves of half-height bookshelves. Allison on the table with her legs crossed at the knees, Duncan next to her, and Isaac in one of the chairs. Isaac’s legs were stretched out underneath the table so much that the slouching made him look like he was much shorter than he was, his arms resting on the surface. They cackled quietly as they rolled the little bits of paper between their fingers and tossed them at passersby. It was a study hall, but no one was studying, well except for maybe the cluster of Ravenclaws not far from them. They had already landed a half dozen parchment balls in the hoods of their nerdy uniform cloaks, though, not that Isaac had anything better to do with his afternoon.

It was the middle of the day sort of study hall, after lunch, but before the end of classes, so going to do anything else seemed more annoying than it was worth. He couldn’t change out of his school uniform, since he had another class to go to, but he didn’t feel like reading the pages they had been assigned in his last lesson either. Instead, he fell into familiar routines, sitting with some of the students he’d been hanging around since his first year and generally getting up to no good. Throwing another piece of parchment, they were littering the ground around the tables next to Isaac now; he chuckled when the targeted boy swatted his head like he thought a fly was buzzing around. Completely clueless.

Hearing the clacking of determined shoes headed their way, he turned back down to his books, assuming it was the librarian. His textbooks were laid open on the desk, but Isaac hadn’t noticed one of them was upside down. The other two turned their heads down too, but the stealth was short-lived as Allison began to snicker. Shushing her, he shook his head and waited for the footsteps to pass by them. Instead, they stopped short, and he turned up to look at who had approached them.

“Hawkins,” he said slowly, his accent deep and low in the relative quiet of the library, smirking, he knew this was going to be interesting.

@Magnolia Lane Hawkins

Magnolia had been on edge all week; between preparation for her midterm exams, keeping up with her friends, and trying to extend her extracurriculars, the young witch's plate of personal responsibility was overflowing. On a positive note, she had been doing a good job of turning in all of her assignments on time even if it meant staying up all hours of the night to finish up. Unfortunately, that meant that the quality of her sleep suffered and in turn, the Gryffindor had become much more irritable than usual. To make matters worse, the girl had boys on the brain, well in particular one wrath-inducing boy who had made a fool of her on Halloween night and to whom she had sworn to never talk to again. Just as her mind drifted to the Slytherin, her eyes sought him in the crowd of students studying in the library. It did not take long for her to spot him, an almost immediate frown marring her features when she did.

Rude she thought to herself, seeing the little pieces of paper bounce off of unsuspecting students and fall onto the floor, a litter of little balls of parchments scattered across the floor. It might not have been as big of a deal if each throw had not been accompanied by a series of airy, almost silent laughter, which only further grated on her nerves. Magnolia had tried staring in their direction with the hopes that one of them would look in her direction and take the anger written all over her face as a sign to stop. But after a few moments of silently trying to gain their attention, Magnolia stopped, sinking back into her chair in exasperation before closing her textbook rather loudly.

The witch decidedly had had enough of his nonsense. Setting her quill down rather dramatically, the young witch sat up and rose from her seat, determined to say something. She would make sure that he knew once and for all that he was messing with the wrong person, completely oblivious to the fact that much of her anger was composed of hurt feelings rather than a response to his actions. Magnolia frowned as she approached them and they 'pretended' to be studying, their expressions and the little pieces of parchment telling otherwise.

Magnolia leaned in to whisper angrily, "You think you and your dumb friends can find another corner of the castle to waste time in?" she demanded to know, her deep brown eyes shooting a menacing glare in the direction of his friends, before returning to look at him. "Some of us are trying to study and you're starting to piss me off," she added.

Isaac’s deep brown eyes followed her as she approached them, and he spotted that irritated frown from a mile away. The Slytherin couldn’t help the smug look that came to live on his face as he turned in his seat to see her a little more clearly. “We like it here,” he answered her plainly as if she was asking him something far less hostile, and he had seriously considered it. When she spoke again, Duncan began making ghost noises, implying she was so scary, and Allison snickered.

“If you want to study, then study; we are not stopping you,” Isaac told her, his thick accent filling up the spaces between his slowly spoken words. He didn’t plan on leaving, and he certainly didn’t intend to stop doing what he was doing. Partly because he didn’t want to, but mostly because she wanted him to. Looking at Duncan and Allison and then back to Isaac, he laughed again.

“Lighten up Hawkins, you sound like a Ravenclaw,” Isaac said, intending to insult her by implying she was a nerd. And a square. And boring. And all of the things he had been calling her. She was so much more than those words, but on some fucked up principal, he didn’t say the nice things out loud.

Of course he would say no, she should have assumed that this would be no easy conversation as soon as she had taken it upon herself to go over there and do something about their misbehaviors. And in the company of his friends, whom Magnolia believed Isaac was always too eager to impress, there would be no way to get through to him without a little force. Maybe if she embarrassed him enough he would leave the library and leave her in peace so that she could stop thinking about why she was really angry at him. But he knew what he did and the Gryffindor wouldn’t dwell on it. She had done a marvelous job of ignoring him all week, he wasn’t going to ruin that for her today.

 Magnolia frowned at his response, “My mistake for asking, I forget you’ve got no manners,” she replied, moving over Isaac and closer to Allison, she snatched the book out of the witch’s hand, ignoring the girl’s angry complaint in return. “I don’t want you here,” she started but soon realizing her mistake, she gestured at the general library area, “none of us do,” she added, but only a couple of students were looking onto the scene she was making, the others were buried deep into their assignments. Must’ve been the Ravenclaws. Either way, Magnolia had taken it upon herself to make this a communal cause even if she had her own ulterior motives for going over there.

“Yeah well I can’t study if you and your friends are making all that noise now can I?” she reiterated, not understanding why he wouldn’t just use that opportunity to get lost somewhere else and skip out on Study Hall. It wasn’t as if the Professor was paying attention anyway, too busy catching up on a rather noisy nap at the front desk. But of course when she told Isaac one thing, he did the complete opposite. Magnolia was well aware that she was wasting her time and yet, couldn’t find a better reason for time other than being here, starting an argument with Isaac for what seemed the nth time. His laugh was really rubbing her the wrong way. She clenched her jaw when he called her a Ravenclaw, deciding then once and for all that this was never going to get her the response she wanted.

Tightening the book in her hand, her frown deepened. “You know I could just as easily get you sent to detention again, right?” she threatened.

There was a nuance in how she said that she didn't want him here, and Isaac picked up on it, just before she course-corrected. Allison protested when Magnolia took the book she'd been ripping pages out of, and from the noises Duncan made, Isaac could tell he was thinking the same thing. Hoping there was about to be a girl fight. Shooting his mate a knowing look, Isaac got more comfortable in his seat. Settling in for the show, but unlike how Nola responded to him, she didn't even seem to care that Allison was angry with her. The Gryffindor didn't insult her back or push her buttons; she just ignored the sixth year with an impressive icy coldness he hadn't seen from Nola yet. It was... something.

"Because you are such a good student, otherwise," He tempted, the knowing look on his face shifting to hers. Isaac knew she was dreadful with notes, regardless of how intelligent he was pretty sure she was. Her notes were pitiful; he had half a mind to confiscate and correct all of them. They were that pathetic. Allison snickered at his hurtful words, and weirdly, Isaac began to enjoy the fact that he had said them less. He wasn't going to take them back or even follow-up with something less insulting, but still.

Just when he thought she might huff and stomp away, she did something that was classically Magnolia, which meant something he had never seen coming and something that pissed him off to no end. His body tensed, jaw slamming shut, for the slightest of seconds before he forced himself to relax. The other two hadn't noticed, but Nola's words had undoubtedly gotten a reaction from Isaac. Playing it off like they hadn't, he stared at her unphased.

"You are the square, worry about your detention," He told her, wiggling his eyebrow as he saw the librarian approaching them from behind Nola. There was an angry look on her face. An annoyed one because they had been making so much noise. Slickly Isaac passed a different book back to Allison under the table and pulled his own into his lap like they had been studying all along, and Nola had caused the disruption alone.

Magnolia didn’t like the way he called her dumb, or at least that was what she had gained from the context of his statement. While the witch was no genius, she had her moments of enlightenment and she was doing just fine in school. Actually, she was doing a little less than fine in her studies but that was none of his business. Although Magnolia originally suspected that he might have gotten this information from one of her friends or closer acquaintances, she realized that the more probable reason was that he was shooting in the dark hoping to find something that got a reaction from her.

The fact that Isaac probably could not even be bothered to do his research and say things that would hurt, bothered her for some reason. She supposed it had something to do with the thought that he only offended her because he could but not because he was invested in saying things that were particularly hurtful to her. But that didn’t really make much sense; his actions confused her.

“That’s besides the point,” she responded but it was a weak comeback, it was obvious in the way Allison was still laughing at her over the thing that Isaac had said. “Didn’t know you were so invested in my education,” she added in a snide remark, upset that he’d even believe she cared what he thought even though it was obvious that she did care.

Of course when he commented on how square she was she realized she had walked right into that when she had brought up detention. Naturally someone with as much experience in getting sent there like Isaac wouldn’t care about being sent one more time. Magnolia figured that at this point the Slytherin boy wore it like a badge of honor, proudly collecting one detention after another as if a grand prize awaited him at the end of the year for having the most. She could only imagine that his grades had to be much worse.

Just when she thought to comment on her speculations on his grades the librarian came closer, shushing her and telling her to return to her seat and to stop disturbing others. “Sorry,” she said sheepishly, that same apologetic smile turning to one of anger when she looked back in Isaac’s direction. “I don’t care if I get detention,” she whispered loudly, though low enough so that the librarian wouldn’t overhear. “Just stop.”

It was probably because she was telling him to, but naturally, shutting up was the last thing Isaac wanted to do when Nola said to. The librarian had scolded her, and he had snickered, but upon raising his eyes from the book he was pretending to read, he saw her walking back to her desk. He could have just sat there, let her walk away, and then returned to menacing the Ravenclaws at the table next to him. It would have been just that easy.

But his feet had different plans. Before he could justify his actions, not that Isaac Hackney explained his actions to anyone, he was lifting out of his seat. He grabbed his book bag and slung it over his shoulder as he followed her toward the table she had returned to. "So you get one detention and say fuck it all?" He asked, the heavily accented curse words rolling off of his tongue so comfortably.

He clicked his tongue at her, tsking at her bad behavior, and then took it upon himself to take a seat in the chair directly next to hers. Not across the table, which was also empty, but right next to her. "What will people think?" Isaac challenged as a wicked grin came to his face.

Magnolia had decided that interaction moments earlier had been enough, the witch had not forgotten about the promise that she had made to herself therefore it only made sense for her to return to her seat after she had made her point. That had not been an invitation for Isaac to follow her to her empty table upon which she had spread out a series of assignments she was still behind on. But the witch only gave him a side glance, running a hand blindly across the table until she stopped on a piece of parchment. She picked it up and looked closely; Herbology was apparently the winner.
 
The Gryffindor heard his question but chose to ignore it, dipping her quill into some of her favorite glittery ink and writing her name along the top of the parchment in cursive. Her letters were not perfectly straight but she took care in the curvature of her letters, making sure to dot the “i” in her surname with a carefully drawn flower. He was trying to provoke her, that much was obvious, but Magnolia refused to give in. She’d give him the same treatment he had given her when he ditched her after the haunted house fiasco. She had written a very angry note to herself, words she might have directed towards him if she had the courage to do so, and had tossed it out in the bin of her room before the day was out. It did  help a little bit.

When he sat next to her, she moved her chair over to make sure that she put some distance between them, the further she stayed away from him the better. She was doing such a great job, too, at keeping her feelings and words to herself until he had to ruin it again. The girl sighed heavily, resting her quill against the parchment before looking over at him, “You know what I think, Isaac?” she started slowly, making sure that those words really sunk in. “That you like me but you’re such a chicken,” she said proudly, knowing he’d be aware of the reference, “that you call me names hoping I’ll like you back,” she said, giving him a smug smile as if she had it all figured out. Even if she was wrong, he’d surely feel uncomfortable. She turned back to her work. “That might work on Allison but it certainly won’t work on me,” she added casually, taking her time to write the date and then the title of the assignment.

Isaac blinked and then blinked a few more times after she declared what she was thinking. His face was free of any clue to what he was thinking. Until a smile curled onto his face, head tilting back a little as he chuckled. Of course, she had felt his attention meant that he liked her. All teenage girls were the same. It was something he had used to his advantage in the past, but it wasn't what he had been doing right then, or at least, not consciously. He didn't have a good reason for why he was hanging around her as much as he had been.

The wizard told himself it was because of what she knew about his mum, that it was just paranoia that she might tell people, but even he had become less and less convinced by that. His eyes sparkled a little, the laughter gathering there as he turned back to look at her. Isaac didn't consider that his mocking her words might have been rude, but he never thought about those things before acting.

"Nola, we are not primary school children," He corrected her with smugness in his voice. He wasn't pushing her on the playground or stealing her lunch box. "I am not mean to you," Isaac informed the Gryffindor in front of him, even though he kind of knew that he was, "You are not as interesting as you think you are," The wizard lied again. He was pretty sure he had told her this before, but perhaps it bore repeating.

Not that it was even remotely true. In the short time Isaac had known her, she had threatened him, tricked him, attempted to blackmail him, got him into detention (not that he wouldn't have already been there), and made him laugh. She was far more interesting than the witches he typically hung around, witches like Allison, who Nola was once again comparing herself to.

In a very Magnolia-like fashion, the teenage girl had said something that she instantly regretted, especially when Isaac had not given her the response she had been anticipating. Not that that should have been new to her, the boy had seemingly made it his personal business to be as contrary to what she said as possible. He had even gone as far as to move over to her table, a move she had not anticipated at all. Naturally, the girl had felt the need to say something, and just as soon as he chuckled, in that mocking way he often did when he insulted her, she knew that maybe she had taken the wrong route. Magnolia didn’t actually believe her interpretation of his actions, or at least pretended not to, she just wanted to embarrass him. But it also seemed that such things were impossible.

“I’d say you’re quite—” she started only to fall silent when he made sure to remind her that she was still, and had been since the beginning of their conversation, boring. Rather, she frowned, making a loud noise that reflected her exasperation. The librarian was none too kind to Magnolia’s sudden outburst and proceeded to shush her, making the girl sink a little in her chair in embarrassment. It seemed that trouble followed her wherever she went, and lately that trouble had taken the form of Isaac Hackney.

His words had hurt her, not because it was obvious that he did not like her but because he did not find her in the least bit entertaining. For someone that had spent much of her career at Hogwarts on finding ways to appeal to others, it felt like a negative review of her life’s work. It sounded dramatic after she had considered it so complexly, but it didn’t take away from how she felt even if the person giving her such a harsh review was him

“And yet, here you are,” she scoffed, pretending like his words had not hurt her but Magnolia wasn’t making an active effort to send him back to his table either. Sure, her point had not stuck and had probably given him even more ammunition when they spoke in the future. But, in a way, it had felt comforting to express a part of her reflected reality even if the girl was not completely aware of it at that moment. “How long does it take to brew veritaserum?” she asked casually, shifting from one conversational topic to the next as if it had been the smoothest transition in the world, her quill stopping momentarily as she looked over to him. “Might as well make yourself useful if you’re so intent on being mean to me,” she pointed out.

“And yet, here you are,”, she'd told him, and Isaac couldn' decide if it was the way she'd said it or how true the words were that irritated him more. He was right here, sitting with her, even though he was still trying to convince himself he'd rather be anywhere else. Isaac wasn't the kind of wizard who needed permission to do whatever he wanted; he didn't ask for it, he didn't wait for it, so why was he still here if he didn't want to be? It was not so hard-to-crack-secret, but he avoided the solution, and her eyes, for now. More than once, he considered moving back to his table, but his legs just wouldn't carry him. Despite his cruel words, there was something undeniably interesting about Magnolia, and he couldn't just walk away.

Struck with surprise, confusion, and an overwhelming amount of suspicion at her next question, Isaac blinked at her a few times. He'd thought no one could catch him off guard, he'd have to care for things to affect him in that way, but Nola was a constant surprise. "Uh, what do you need, Veratiserum for?" He had assumed it was to dose one of her 'friends' into spilling some kind of gossip or some other equally trivial thing. The fact that she was reading from a textbook completely lost on him. He rolled the ideas around in his head for a moment before shifting to offer her a typical Isaac Hackney sort of answer.

"For most witches, just over one lunar cycle, for you..." He squinted a little, shaking his hand back and forth as if to imply he doubted she'd be able to brew one no matter how many moon phases she had.

“To uncover all your secrets, obviously,” the girl countered playfully, her eyes focused on her textbook and her voice low, almost as if it were his friends overhearing that concerned her more than the wrath of the librarian. The girl was almost certain that the topic of veritaserum would appear on the next Potions test and though she had thought to write down the entire process, she almost always got it wrong. Apparently studying for a Potions test a day before it was to happen was not really a good strategy, especially not with the sheer complexity of the Potions she had failed to commit to memory the first time around. But Magnolia remained positive, she’d settle for just barely passing the test.

Though the girl had never thought to use the potion on anyone, in particular, Isaac’s question made her wonder if it might be a good tool to extract information from unsuspecting first years. Instead of following up her remark with the truth, she tapped the quill against the textbook in front of her and returned to her notes. Magnolia thought that he might have noticed that but figured his mind was lightyears away in her company, only reinforcing the fact that she wasn’t that interesting, to begin with. It made her a little angry, but in a very confusing way in which she wasn’t sure why she was upset, to begin with. As long as he left her alone, what else did it matter? Of course, as soon as she considered it, he spoke again and she frowned, mildly offended that he’d assume she was bad at the subject. So she was but that wasn’t the point. Without thinking it through, Magnolia’s reaction was to swat at his arm, hard enough to show him her displeasure.

“Piss off, just because I’m no good at remembering doesn’t mean I can’t brew a perfectly good potion,” she told him pointedly. “you think you’re so smart,” she huffed, rolling her eyes at him as she returned to her notes. She continued on to the next question and just as she was about to ask him again, she refrained, sure he’d quipped with another insult. Of course, that knowledge didn’t stop her from wanting to talk to him. Maybe Magnolia was dumb in more ways than one. She glanced over at him for a moment before simply skipping the question and moving on to another one.

She hit him in the arm, and Isaac laughed; he hadn't seen it coming, but he supposed he should have. It was the first time she'd swatted at him, but far from the first time he'd deserved it. The Slytherin didn't think she was actually as bad at classes as he let on, but he knew she was easily distracted. Right now is a prime example. His dimples lit up his face as he smiled at her, a true smile, and laughed again. "I am smart," He told her reflexively, shrugging his shoulders upward and chuckling again.

"Besides," He began, forcing himself to control the volume of his laughter through his words, "Using a veritaserum on another student would surely earn you more than just detention." Isaac entertained the secrets she might uncover if she somehow brewed the potion and successfully slipped it to him. Did he have any secrets he didn't want her to know? She already knew about his mum, and that he was good in school, not that it was a secret exactly, and then decided there was nothing she couldn't know. Of course, there was one thing, the root of why he was still sitting here with her, but that was a secret he kept even from himself.

"You really have turned to the dark side, Magnolia; I am impressed." He was positively beaming by now, a new lightness in his typically dark brown eyes. "Guess you have me to thank,"

“Yeah, right,” she jeered, though Magnolia’s assumptions on his intelligence were a byproduct of her assumptions of his image, and it didn’t seem to make any sense for the bully in the story to also be intelligent and hardworking. Such speculation was only further supported by the fact that she’d never seen him respond anything in class, but now upon second thought, it was probably because he was too busy staring at her. And that in itself, made her smile just a little to herself.

“So?” she shrugged at him, pretending to be unfazed by what more than just detention meant. Would they call her parents for it? It felt like an overexaggerating considering it was a potion that was taught and brewed at school. If it was so terrible, why bother learning about it in the first place? Not that the girl had any intention on brewing any of it, what sort of person had one lunar cycle to spare anyway? The Gryffindor was not invested.

The girl had been perfectly content (not really) to stay within the intricate processes of her mind until he made a comment that made her smirk. Even if she knew that he was just making fun of her it felt like a backhanded sort of comment, and with that the girl could speculate plenty. “Hm, if you think that’s dark, I might be more Slytherin than you,” she retorted. “Suppose you better hope you don’t cross me,” she added. There was no weight behind her words, not even in the amused way in which she spoke them. But it was fun to banter with him, even if the entire thing had taken on new meaning in her head.

"Oh, you think so, do you?" He countered, that playful smirk still playing on his lips, and tried to imagine Nola in Silver and Green. She was calculating enough and bold so that she might have fit in quite well, but he wondered if she had the motivation for it. "I have seen your notes, Magnolia, or lack thereof," He countered with a nod, "You do not have the dedication of a Slytherin."

Isaac knew motivation and dedication were the last things people attributed to his house of snakes. Thought to be a group of lying, deceitful, naturally evil bunch, and while that was true in some respects, it was just as often completely false. Slytherins were ambitious, to the point of being cruel, but the stubborn wizard saw nothing wrong with taking what he wanted. He grew up in a world without handouts; it was the only thing he knew.

"But I will keep that in mind," Isaac lied; he crossed her at every intersection, just because he liked to be aggravating. Not that he didn't think she was up to all the same antics. There was no way someone was this argumentative, and it wasn't on purpose, not even a Gryffindor.

"Firewhiskey is easier to get a hold of, no brewing required, and it has the same effect," Isaac told her with a little nod of his head; if she were looking for a truth serum, she'd be less likely to poison a classmate with some alcohol than a home-brewed potion. "For what it is worth,"