these are the lies. | magnolia

Though the Slytherin house might have gotten their evil claws into JR, Magnolia was not about to give them the pleasure of her allegiance either. If anything, the girl had just been joking around, not in the least bit interested in the treacherous on goings of that cursed Common Room. But even so, Magnolia enjoyed making little remarks like these, partially with the intention of hearing whatever silly thing he said in return and partially with the hopes that he’d continue to engage her in conversation.

Though Magnolia had not been fully convinced just yet, it seemed that their relationship had shifted from that of apathetic schoolmates to sort of acquaintances and if that wasn’t a sign of progress, who knew what was. It did bear to repeat, though, that the girl was not remotely interested in his friendship but did like to observe these little shifts and read into them.

“Only because I’m not interested,” she shrugged it off, “But once I set something in my sights, I don’t let it go,” she continued. It wasn’t like he needed to know that, but it also wasn’t like she didn’t want to share it either. Magnolia had a rather obsessive personality, in the sense that when something was in her sights, she’d pursue it until it was no longer interesting to her anymore. She could follow through. And it felt like a challenge when he had said it, as if she couldn’t have been a Slytherin student had she tried hard enough.

“Tsk, tsk, underage drinking, huh? You truly are full of bad habits,” she responded, almost certain he’d call her a square for saying that but also looking forward to it now that she expected it? Weird. In her mind, it wasn’t really square anymore anyway, it was more like good girl which if heard at the right time and place also felt like a compliment, a very nice one in fact. It wasn’t something that the girl had never done before, after all, but she wasn’t sure if he’d hear the rumors her and her friends were discreet about it and it almost never happened on school ground. Almost. “Unless you’re just saying you’re a lightweight , in that case I’d probably drink you under the table and get your secrets,” she smiled, looking down at the page she realized there nothing else she could answer so she closed the textbook. 

He knew she was truthful when she explained her stubbornness, he hadn't known her very long, but he had indeed gotten the impression. She seemed like someone who didn't give up, not even when she was losing, and there was something to be said about that. Isaac was the same way; though he was sure their motivations for doing things were the furthest thing from similar, he could still relate. He was dedicated when he put his mind to something, and it'd take a freight train to deter him from his path.

Shifting in his seat, Isaac grinned at her mocking tone; he was full of bad habits. He didn't even have the decency to try and fight her on the idea. Instead, he nodded with a smug look on his face. He wondered what sort of bad habits she had, other than assuming everything and being generally irritating. "You could try," He dared her; Isaac highly doubted she'd be able to drink him under the table, but what did he know? Duncan and Allison had spent quite nearly the entire summer getting trashed, but Isaac had never been as interested in waking up in his vomit as they seemed to be. He'd had a drink here and there with them, it wasn't like he was a straight-edge or anything, but he also wasn't a budding alcoholic.

"Have you ever had a drink before?" He asked her with an incredulous look, he was so sure she was a square, but there was also a reckless side. He figured if she had it was with her girlfriends, and it was probably some teenage act of rebellion, pushing back against her perfect parents in their perfect house and her perfect life. He rolled his eyes at the thought, assuming things first was one of his strengths, too.

Theoretically, Magnolia could try to drink him under the table which would only mean that they’d have to meet under the right circumstances to do that. And how would that play out? It wasn’t as if she actively looked for the opportunity to spend time with Duncan, Allison, and whatever wayward teen formed part of his crew of delinquents. It wasn’t as if she could just as easily invite him to one of the little outings she had with friends. Her circle wasn’t exactly devoid of new people, even Phillip was closer to being in the circle than out, but then again, the girl couldn’t go around inviting others into her secret space, either.

“I’ve had plenty of drinks before,” she replied insulted that he’d assume otherwise. In retrospect, it sounded like a roundabout way of saying that drinking didn’t seem to fit her image and in turn maybe that meant that Isaac had plenty of positive thoughts about who she was as a person? Maybe. He certainly didn’t show it. “I have friends, I go out when I’m home, I do things,” she further explained, as if having friends was enough of an excuse for drinking. In her world, it was more than enough.

“Just because I don’t go around acting like you and your friends, doesn’t mean I don’t know how to have fun,” she said decisively, not looking at him but rather moving on to another part of her homework. Arithmancy. Nope. She skipped that piece of parchment and tried her hand at Astronomy.

She said she had had plenty of drinks, but of course, Isaac didn't believe a word of it. It was the way she said it, really, and even if he did take her word for it, pretending he didn't was always still the best action. She'd get irritated; he would find it entertaining. "Oh, have you?" He teased and listened to her tell him about her friends and going out. She got one thing right. Magnolia acted nothing like any of the kids he hung around. She was different and interesting so it was a good thing that she wasn't like them. Isaac would probably not have enjoyed talking to her as much as he did if she were just another Allison or Shauna.

Leaning back in his seat, the front two legs coming off the ground, Isaac entertained what she was saying with a question. "Oh, yeah, and how does that look? You being fun, I mean, because I can not picture it," It was low hanging fruit, an easy insult, but Isaac was nothing if not consistent. He watched her skim through her Arithmancy homework before turning to another page and starting in on Astronomy instead. How the hell much homework was she behind on?

Magnolia realized that claiming to do things without having any actual examples to back up her claims were probably sounded like a bunch of nonsense to Isaac. Not that she wanted to impress him or anything, but oh how infuriating it was when he talked to her like he did not believe a word she said. “Of course, you can’t,” she scoffed, but it was a weak come back but at least she had said something. And then of naturally, the girl felt compelled to say even more, “If you’re so curious, then come find me during break and I’ll show you just how much fun I know how to have,” she challenged him, only noting moments after that he’d probably interpret that sentence completely differently than she’d intended. But it didn’t matter anymore, at least she had put the invitation out there and if he didn’t take it, then he was the one being a chicken, not her.

“Plus, what do you even know about fun?” she asked, which was more like: Tell me what you and your friends do for fun. since the two teenagers were incapable of having a productive, civil conversation, however, her tone dripped with the same irritation with which she regarded him. She glanced over at Allison and Duncan before making a face, “And why do you hang out with those bloody idiots anyway?” she continued. This was something that had been on her mind for some time, though it had never really come out that way in her head. But she didn’t like the way he made her feel so boring so instead, the only defense she had was to make him feel stupid for hanging out with the people he did.

He couldn't help but smirk at her offer, knowing she didn't mean it the way it sounded, but smiling just the same. For a fleeting moment, he wondered how fun Magnolia was. If she was as annoying outside of school as she was right now, but it passed quickly. He knew he'd never take her up on the offer, so it didn't matter. Her return question made him sit forward in his seat, the legs of the chair hitting the library carpet with a muted thud.

"I do not think you could handle how fun I am," The Slytherin told her with a wink, followed by a silent chuckle. Isaac's eyes followed to where Nola was indicating, seeing Allison and Duncan still at it throwing little papers at unsuspecting students, and then returned to the conversation with a shrug. "They are fun," He informed her before flicking at her homework assignments. "They do not give a shit about anyone, or what people think of them, they just do whatever they want, whenever they want," So did Isaac, and he was proud of it.

"You could learn a thing or two,"

Magnolia looked at him curiously, tilting her head just a little to the side as she wondered if she might find him more attractive if he didn’t sound like an entitled jerk all the time. Hm, maybe not. “Oh yes, so much fun you lot must have, you and all of two friends,” she emphasized the number though she knew for a fact there were a couple more people he regularly hung out with. To the average person, the number of friendships one maintained probably didn’t mean much but to the Gryffindor, it was further evidence of her likability. People only liked hanging out with you if they thought you were fun, right? Naturally.

“Well if you hang out with those two, you’re right, I wouldn’t want to,” she retorted. It wasn’t that she hated Isaac’s friends (well she did those two) but the girl couldn’t begin to imagine having a good laugh with people who thought throwing paper at others was the most entertaining thing in the world. Magnolia’s perspective on Isaac had changed a little within the last few weeks but his friends were still questionable.

“I do whatever I want, too,” she tried to insist, “but there’s a time and place for everything, and I’m not going to waste the rest of the term in detention,” she continued, rolling her eyes at Duncan and Allison. Raising her hand, she tried to grab the librarian’s attention, “Duncan and Allison are making a mess of the floor, surely we’ve all gone to detention for much less?” she noted as seriously as she could muster, turning to Isaac and giving him a wink in return. “Would you like to join them too?” she teased.

Even though he knew she was sort of right, Isaac wasn't going to let her win this one. His friends were trouble makers, and not even in the good kind of way, they acted out because they were bored, not because they were standing up for something. Still, Isaac hung around them, they were his friends, so whatever. He shrugged at her, not believing for a second that she did whatever she wanted to, at least, not in the way he and his Slytherin friends probably did.

"So you have never gone somewhere, or done something, with your friends that you did not want to?" He asked, a curious eyebrow-raising up. Isaac didn't know a ton about Magnolia but he knew enough to know she basically ran the gossip database of Hogwarts. She had a group of loud Gryffindor friends. And that she came from money. All three of those things had their own expectations attached to them and the teenager had a hard time believing she lived above the influence of peer pressure.

Magnolia shook her head at his question, “I don’t get dragged into things I don’t want to do, I won’t stand for it,” she explained, though that wasn’t entirely the case. The Gryffindor felt strong affinity to the people she spent time with and so if they wished to do something that she hadn’t thought of before, Magnolia was happy to go along for the ride. “If my friends want to do it, it’s probably something I want to do, too,” she shrugged, as if her explanation was just as simplistic as it sounded. Her friends were her own because they shared interests, so it only made sense for them to like the same things.

The girl watched with much amusement as the librarian moved over to Duncan and Allison’s side of the room, struggling to contain her glee. “Obviously you spend all your time following Duncan and Allison around,” she scoffed. It wasn’t so much a statement as it was an uncertain truth, something she had heard about that she wanted to clarify. “Maybe you ought to start standing up for yourself,” she added as an afterthought. It hadn’t really been said with the intention to offer him advice as much as to start a small argument. And Isaac was the sort to take the bait.

"Stick up for myself?" Isaac repeated her with a quiet laugh, vaguely aware of the Librarian and her inspection of Duncan and Allison's table. Not that he was afraid of getting detention, he was used to them by now, but when the witch started to scold the two of them, Isaac was glad to be sitting over here with Magnolia instead. Sometimes he felt like he knew exactly what Magnolia was talking about, and other times he was absolutely fucking sure that even she had no idea what she was saying; this was one of those times. Isaac hated the way she assumed she knew everything about him by now. That her stereotypical assumptions about him, his friends, and his attitude just had to be right. He reveled in proving her wrong.

"What the fuck are you even talking about?" He whispered; it was harsh, but there was still a smile playing on his lips. Was she seriously trying to tell him he should find new friends? What was she telling him? The Slytherin had no idea, but he didn't like being told what to do either way, "Think I would be better off with your friends?" Isaac asked with a sharp look. He wanted to tell her that Allison and Duncan followed him around, but that went without saying, or so he thought.

Maybe we ought to be friends, she wanted to say but that wasn’t something that the witch would have been able to express. Would he fit in with her friends? Not likely. But he would at least start making a case for himself. These conclusions all came under the assumption that he wasn’t really himself around them, only the version of himself that he thought they liked. But it all boiled down to one simple truth: Magnolia didn’t like that she had to weave herself in and out of his life according to the location of his friends or how interested they were in making fun of her or other classmates. Why she felt the need to seek time out with him like this, though, was still beyond her scope of understanding.

“No,” she shook her head when he asked whether he’d be better off with her friends. He would probably hate every last one of them. “I guess not,” she added, falling silent as she returned to her work, or to stare at the piece of parchment in front of her with no intention of doing anything with it. She didn’t like it when he asked her questions she couldn’t answer; especially questions that made her feel stupid for making assumptions in the first place. "But whatever, it doesn't matter anyway," she said with a sigh. If he wanted to hang out with those idiot friends of his then who was she to deny him the right? Nobody.

"Yeah, you are right; it does not matter," Isaac said through his teeth, annoyed with the direction this conversation had taken, but he was talking to Magnolia, so what else was new. He was pretty sure her words irritated him more than anything; it was impressive how much they annoyed him, really. He sighed loudly, loud enough for her to be able to hear him, and probably even for the next table over to hear him, too. Isaac looked over his shoulder to where Duncan and Isaac were being instructed to clean up their mess before reporting to their detentions. So much for seeing them at dinner, then, but Isaac was unphased. Better them than him, he supposed, but he wasn't a Slytherin for no reason.

Turning back to Magnolia, Isaac peaked at the papers she'd been half working on for the last twenty minutes and decided to change the subject. There wasn't much time left in the study hall, and it wasn't like he had been studying, to begin with; all of his assignments were already finished, but it couldn't hurt to ask about hers. Right?

"What are you working on?"

He dropped the subject and those few moments of silence before he spoke again seemed to restore the balance between them. But now that Allison and Duncan were being escorted from study hall, the girl felt a sort of weight being taken off of her shoulders, one that came with the responsibility of pretending that she and the boy sitting beside her simply could not have a conversation. Then again, maybe it had just been Magnolia’s strange assumption that anyone cared to begin with; but she cared about what it would look like to her friends and in turn, it dictated her actions.

The girl had resolved to not speak to him for the rest of the period, a little unsure as to how to recover from her display of interest in his well-being. Or was it just her judgement? Probably both. “Astronomy,” she said almost as quickly as she had made up her mind. “But this is ridiculous, I can’t even finish the work ‘till I go to the Astronomy Tower anyway, and who cares about memorizing thirty-nine moons?!” she ranted, ending her little bit with a sound of frustration before taking a deep breath, and turning to look over at Isaac again.

“Why aren’t you ever doing any homework? Doesn’t that sort of thing get you kicked out of school?”

Isaac was in tune enough to sense the shift in the way she was talking to him now. Maybe not emotionally intelligent to understand that it was his fault, but at least he noticed it happening. It made him slightly more uncomfortable than he had been earlier, like maybe she really didn't want him here, and he should actually go back to his table. He was a second away from pushing up from his chair and leaving her be when she spoke again. A huff and a complaint, and he smirked. Isaac opened his mouth to explain that she didn't have to memorize all thirty-nine of them, only the three groupings of them and what classified the groups, but she cut him off.

His mouth closed, lips pressed tightly together into a smirk because she still didn't know anything about him, and he found entertainment in that. "It has not yet," He teased when in reality, he already knew he was going to tell her the truth. She probably thought he was some idiot delinquent, and he could understand where the assumption came from, given to goons he hung around daily, but it couldn't have been further from the truth. Okay, well, the idiot part was wrong... the delinquent part was... less wrong.

"I have already finished my assignments, Magnolia." Isaac began, and there was no mistaking the pride he felt when speaking on the subject. While he wasn't typically the sort to highlight how good a student he was, he felt something different talking to her. He wanted her to know that he wasn't a total fuck-up. "I finish them in class or before," Isaac made a waving motion to the study hall they were currently sitting through. "Study hall is much too distracting," The Slytherin told her with another grin. Wasn't that the truth?

“Are you like—” she started, looking at him in part disbelief and part admiration, “actually good at school or you’re just telling fibs?” she asked, eyeing him suspiciously. All things considered, Magnolia was more or less aware of who got talked to after class for missing assignments and she couldn’t remember ever seeing Isaac drawn into one of those meetings. But the fact that it was so skewed from the category she had so effortlessly placed him into made her suspicious of all the other things she might have been wrong about.

“Huh,” she stated, impressed by how long he had kept such a secret. Then again, academic excellence was not what the database was about, nobody cared about who was good at school because that was just a total bore. But it was obvious that there was nothing boring about Isaac at all.

“Then good for you, I was starting to wonder if you were on the Azkaban track or not,” she said after a beat, smiling to herself at the thought. “Of course, it’s distracting, especially with you and your mates around,” she added, shaking her head as if to scold him in the process. She continued trying to write down letters that sounded like something she had heard in class. Maybe. But curiosity overtook her and she stopped, looking over at him again, “Do you mean to tell me that Duncan and Allison are like secret geniuses or something? Like straight A students?” she asked, “because if that’s so then I’d do better dropping out of Hogwarts once and for all—” she said dramatically. Her parents would never let her drop out no matter how much she often wanted to.