[december mp] all wrapped up || isaac

By Magnolia’s standards, Horus was dull and not just in the sense that he didn’t have much going on in his social calendar, no one could ever quite reach the ridiculousness that was the Gryffindor’s friendship schedule without sacrificing something (in her case, academics). He was dull in the sense that one might easily fall asleep talking to him, the quiet, monotonous way in which he spoke paired with the very boring, expressionless face he put on every time he strung together words to form a sentence. It was a wonder that he’d had such adventurous parents, who, if rumors were anything to believe in (read: all the facts the girl would ever need) were still traveling the world several times over while the boy wasted away at growing his brain and trying to be the best Ravenclaw there ever was. Boring.

Unfortunately, desperate times called for desperate measures. He had sort of interestingly been chosen by fate one lovely afternoon in the library in the middle of one of her and Isaac’s bickering fests and it had sort of been decided that he would be the one, he simply didn’t know it yet. But, the Gryffindor had found it in her heart to take him on as her own special project, a figurative middle finger to the boy that was standing beside her and had called her virtually undatable by the male species.

Well, he hadn’t said all that, but it had certainly felt that way. She would turn Horus into the perfect boyfriend and then Isaac would not feel the need to laugh at her every time she brought him up. She’d teach him a lesson, show him that messing with her was messing with her determination to get things done (except her homework!) and that there was nothing fiercer than a Gryffindor with a purpose.

“Not in French, no,” she said, looking right at him with as much of a straight face as she could. She was making a point now, “How many languages can you speak, again?” he had never told her but Magnolia had already assumed that he wasn’t going to have much to say in that respect. Though the girl spoke French fluently, as did her family and her mum, talking to Horus hadn’t exactly changed his dullness, it had simply intensified it (if that was at all possible). He’d tried to have an entire conversation by trying to impress her by listing the cities in France in order of population and she’d always fallen asleep halfway through.

“You think you’d be a better boyfriend than Horus?” she asked in return, scoffing as an afterthought so that he might not take her too seriously. She was dying to know. “You’ve never even had a proper girlfriend, what do you know about anything? Sounds like you’re jealous,” she decided, leading them in the direction of the community center. “Doing some good for other people will do you some good, Horus is off at the library reading books to the little kids, I can invite him over if you’d like?” she suggested with a smirk. 

Isaac chuckled when she corrected him. Apparently, Horus wasn't boring in French, but the Slytherin didn't believe it. Or he didn't want to. Either way, he shook his head at her next question. Isaac only knew how to speak the one language, and even though he was a little jealous that Horus knew more and Magnolia seemed to find that interesting, he pretended he wasn't and answered. "Enough, besides, I'm interesting in English," He told her smugly, laughing again, as they approached the community center.

Magnolia's next question had him nearly tripping over his own shoes. Had she honestly just asked that? After his speech about how he'd never date someone on Valentine's, and basically, explaining that he didn't date at all when she'd asked about it on her birthday? Magnolia didn't quit. "Never said that," He began, shrugging because he knew he probably wouldn't be. While he believed he was better than snore-fest nerd-herd Ravenclaw Horus Heyward in every other way, Isaac knew he wouldn't make a perfect boyfriend. Not that he was ever going to try.

Of course, it wasn't long before Magnolia was taking it back and doubling down on accusing him of being jealous. It didn't matter that she was a little bit right; Isaac wasn't going to give back an inch. "If you invite him,  I am out," Isaac stated, his dark eyes finding hers as he rechallenged her. "Also, charity at Christmas time is bullshit. Do you do this all year long? Or just around the holidays?" One eyebrow raised as Isaac waited for her answer. He found the whole idea unbelievably fake, and he couldn't help but call her out on it.

“That’s what you think,” she emphasized, giving him a sideways glance as if to imply that he wasn’t half as interesting as he believed himself to be. But in fact, he was easily one of the most interesting people she had spent time with, which might have accounted for why she wanted to spend so much time with him. Of course, that explanation only worked if she pretended that she didn’t have a blatantly obvious, massive crush on him because of course, she did. There was nothing more thrilling to the girl than unrequited romance, obviously, and though she could already tell that this entire thing would one day deal a massive crush to her heart, she couldn’t so easily dismiss the opportunity.

Magnolia felt a little conflicted by her own thoughts and words, finding it unfair to say that he’d be a bad boyfriend because she was still sort of holding on to the hope that he would one day realize that they’d be brilliant as a couple and she’d get secret access to a side of him she never knew. It only piqued her curiosity; was Isaac the sort of boyfriend to do things like buy his girlfriend flowers just because or plan ridiculously sentimental dates during high profile holidays? Magnolia gave him another look, wondering what else there was to this boy who seemed so simple yet complex, a walking paradox. She only heard what he had said about Horus a moment or two after and the words brought her back to reality. If that Isaac did exist, it might be some time before she’d meet him.

“Of course,” she defended herself, offended he’d think she only did things like this on Christmas, “there’s plenty of more holidays and lots of people that need someone to spend time with them. Don’t look at me like that, wanting to help other people sometimes doesn’t make me vapid, what do you do for others that are so great, huh?”

What did he do to help the world? Not much at all, Isaac knew this, and he wasn't about to try to convince her of anything else. Instead, the Slytherin settled on tearing apart her idea of doing a good thing just so that he could see the look on her face when she got frustrated with him. There was something unhealthy and satisfying about irritating Magnolia. "Well, for starters, I am not giving them my old shit and pretending it is charitable," Isaac motioned toward the bundle of clothes in the box and shrugged. "They do not want this rubbish any more than you do," The teenager spoke with such conviction he may as well have been the Spokesperson for whoever Magnolia was donating the box too, but it was all bull.

Half of Isaac's belongings were second-hand growing up; it wasn't until he was old enough to make his own sickles that the wizard had started buying new things. His mum had never given him a brand new winter coat, they were always from the thrifty, but he never minded as a child. Coming to Hogwarts and meeting people like Magnolia, whose families had more money than they knew what to do with, had soured him. And maybe that was why he was so deadset on thinking her charity was a ruse. That it was for her benefit more than anyone else's, but Isaac hadn't stopped to consider that it didn't matter even if it was. Selfish reasons or not, she was still doing good, and that made her better than him. Deep down, he knew that too, and it probably added to his irrational need to bring her down with him.

“For your information,” she started, placing emphasis on every part of the sentence so that he would be well aware of how utterly irritating and incredibly out of line his entire accusation had been, “It isn’t like I’m giving them trash, I would’ve kept this stuff if there wasn’t someone out there that needed it much more than I do,” she explained. The fuzzy pink sweaters and dresses in lace and flowers were probably not particularly needed by anyone but the Gryffindor had figured that maybe someone would find it worthy of being worn again. Magnolia might not have been good at many things but at least she knew how to keep her clothes tidy, and apart from the inevitable piling on some of her older sweaters, the things she was giving were in perfectly good condition so she wasn’t really sure what he was going on about. Either way, it didn’t frustrate (or hurt her feelings) any less.

“I didn’t know you cared that much, anyway,” she added, in order to take away the attention from herself and put it on him, that was a much easier subject to talk about anyway. Magnolia didn’t like the way he made her feel like she had to defend everything she did, it made her feel like regardless of what she did he thought her square or dumb or otherwise unaware, and that rubbed her the wrong way. How Isaac was ever popular with any girls was beyond her. At least until she remembered that like probably every other girl with her eyes on the Slytherin boy, there had been something undeniably attractive about his terrible attitude. Maybe it was her desire to one up him, maybe she wanted to dig deep and find out that everything she thought she knew about him was a complete lie, or maybe, and most likely, she had grown to romanticize rebels no matter how cruel she knew they could be.

“My family’s really big into giving back,” she said finally, not that he’d care but she felt the need to explain everything to him. “It’s okay to help other people, you know, everything doesn’t have to be about you twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week,” she chastised him softly.

For your information, Isaac mouthed her words back at her sarcastically, teasing her for being so serious even though he gave her no other choice. The Slytherin thought the whole idea of Christmas Charity and Secret Snidgets was ridiculous. The teenager was not in the mood, he didn't understand Christmas's spirit in the same way that people like Magnolia did, and his judgemental words proved it. "So you are saying you have more stuff than you need?" He countered, already assuming he knew the answer. Magnolia was from a rich family, and Isaac hated her for it, even though rationally he knew she had nothing to do with it. Like Purebloods hated Muggleborns for something they couldn't change, the teenager rationally blamed her for coming from money. Maybe it was jealousy.

Did Isaac care? Why was he even bothering to keep up with this argument. Magnolia was going to do what she wanted regardless of whatever he had to say about it. It would have been easier and less stressful just to drop the box and go on with his day. And yet, here he was, listening to her and participating in the discussion (even if he was awful). Something kept him here. Something he was uncomfortable with.

"Yeah, sure they do," Honestly, the teenager knew very little about the Hawkins family other than her dad used to play on the Griffins, they were loaded, and her little brother was a prick. Maybe they were charitable. Maybe they were redeemable for having more money than they knew what to do with. Isaac doubted it. "You think I'm doing this for me?" He held the box up a little higher, tilting his head to one side as he implied that being nice to her was charity, and smirked.

“Everyone has more stuff than they need,” she replied almost immediately, finding the error in her sentence right away but hesitating to correct herself because she knew that he’d be looking for an in to insult her some more. For someone that seemed so disinterested in her, Isaac surely did spend a lot of time arguing with her about everything. Then again, Magnolia had willingly set up the trap and walked right into it. “The point is,” she noted, turning to him again as she pulled the hood of her puffy jacket closer to her face to prevent the cold wind from harassing any more skin than it needed to, “I’m doing something nice and I feel good about it, I don’t care what you think,” she added, a smile tugging at the corner of her lips as he brought up his own selfless act.

“No,” she laughed out loud, mostly to make him upset even if deep down she did actually think that he was sort of sweet for helping her out when he could have just told her no. “But I’m sure you’ve got some ulterior motive, all you Slytherins do,” she pointed out. It was a generalization, of course, but not an unfounded one. Magnolia knew enough Slytherins to know that they rarely did anything for others without reasonable self-gain; sure, the girl was selfish, too, but their tendency towards it was on an entirely different level. “Unless you’re worried Santa’s going to leave coal in your stocking again?” she joked.

“If so, you owe me a lot of favors, Hackney, don’t think one nice thing is going to set the karmic balance straight, I’m pretty sure I read about this in the Quibbler,” she added. But these days she was always checking in on his horoscope the same way she did with all her friends, the ones she cared about, at least. “Over there,” she pointed to the center in the far side of the town as they entered Hogsmeade. “You’re free all afternoon, right?” she asked though it was more of a rhetorical question, she wasn’t going to take no for an answer at this point.

"That is a fucked up thing to say," Isaac commented even though he knew she knew better than what she had just said. The teenager might have thought of Magnolia as a prissy, rich, square, but he didn't think he was that naive. Sheltered, maybe, but not entirely unrealistic. Not that his words matched that opinion. "You are completely clueless," Isaac shook his head as he accused her, but her next words hit him harder than he was willing to admit. She felt good about what she was doing, and she wasn't going to let him change that. Isaac was a jerk, he didn't care about Christmas or charity or any of it, but he did care what she thought. And he hated that he did.

For all of five seconds, he actually thought about apologizing again, or his version of an apology, which was closer to sweeping it under the rug than actually admitting to any fault. And then she blamed his house for his attitude, and Isaac did the only reasonable thing in response. "Spoken like a true fucking Gryffindor, Godric would be proud of your prejudice," He huffed, kicking at a lump of snow that turned out to be a rock on the path and then cursing out loud as it struck his toe.

Isaac rolled her eyes when she brought up Santa leaving coal in his stocking because even if he believed in Santa, he would have stopped expecting gifts a long time ago. Coal was all that he had earned, and there was no use in denying it or pretending he was anything more than he was. Isaac was good with who he was; though, he didn't try to be better because he didn't want anyone to start expecting better. Life was easy. He looked to where she was pointing and grumbled at the mess of people hanging around the center. They were looking all sorts of cheerful; there were even a few carolers, "Fuck," He breathed, rolling his eyes yet again and trudging forward.

"Make it worth my while, I do this for you, and you pay for lunch?" He offered, knowing better than to kick the next lump of snow as they approached the center.

Magnolia had not meant the words the way that they had come out and instantly regretted saying them when he responded to them. She did not want to be defined by the things that her parents had but the truth was that it played a big role in who she was and, in turn, who she would probably end up being ten years from now. She was a little frivolous at times, bought way too many things that did not matter, cared too much about what others saw her in or doing, but at the same time she was appreciative of her family’s hard work. The girl had decided long ago that giving back was her way of restoring a little balance, and though it probably did not mean much as Isaac had already alluded to, it did make her feel better than not acting at all. No matter how ridiculous it might have felt, it did not seem right to have it and keep it all to herself.

The two of them might have had a moment of honesty if Isaac did not have a knack for saying things that made the more genuine parts of her personality go back right where they came from. He was insufferable, and though she had said something that had challenged a response right out of him, sometimes she wished the sweeter side (there had to be one in there somewhere) would choose times like this to make an appearance and cheer her on or tell her how great she was for doing what she was doing. But giving Isaac one more glance over, that didn’t seem like something he’d do at all. Oh well, a girl could dream. “Don’t act like it isn’t true? When have you ever done something without ulterior motives?”

She had sort of expected him to shrug her off and disappear like he had on Halloween when she assumed he had nothing better going on. In all honesty her conjecture didn’t seem entirely off base considering what she had found him doing when she’d sought out his help. Alternatively, she expected that he’d say something rude or ask for something in that pervy way he did sometimes like he had on the train. So when he did neither and asked for lunch instead, she felt shocked and it probably showed in her face when she looked over at him in disbelief.

“Just lunch?” she wondered if he meant more than that, like something ridiculously expensive but Hogsmeade didn’t have that sort of thing, not that she knew of. “I’ll do you one better and even get you dessert, oh!” she said suddenly, “what about we have hot chocolate, you can put like little marshmallows and charmed sprinkles in it,” the sprinkles would settle into little scenes of Christmas. Sometimes they would appear as a Christmas tree with blinking lights, an image of St. Nick and his elves, or as a group of carolers, like the ones in the distance, “it’s so good, you have to try it,” she said with a smile. 

"Why do you want something more?" Isaac asked, suddenly entirely too interested, before realizing that wasn't where she had been going with the thought and feeling deflated. He pretended like it didn't matter, winking at her in that slimy way that made him feel like he was in control again and turning back toward the building they were heading toward. Cocoa with sprinkles, of-fucking-course, "Yeah, that sounds just swell," Isaac said sarcastically, purposefully stopping where he was standing and giving her a look of judgment before carrying on. Honestly, a warm drink did sound pretty great right about now. His fingers felt like they were frozen solid from the wind and lack of gloves.

"Where do they sell this hot chocolate?" Isaac followed up quickly, realizing that he should probably say as much if he actually wanted to take her up on the offer. The Slytherin was good at being a jerk, but he was new to this whole 'friendly activities.' His friends weren't the sort to wrap gifts for charity and reward themselves with hot cups of sugar and enchanted sprinkles. They were far more likely to break into the kitchens and steal cookies or ignore the holiday altogether if left to their own devices. The students Isaac hung around with made fun of girls like Magnolia, the ones full of Christmas spirit, and deep down, Isaac knew why. It was easier to bully people when it seemed like they had everything you wanted.

"Okay deal, but can we walk faster? My fingers are about to fall off," He asked, shivering as he saw his own breath surrounding his face.

Sometimes Magnolia wondered if he went out of his way to get a rise out of her or if he did to every girl he encountered, though on second thought it was probably the second one and not the first. She even bet that most girls found it incredibly charming when he told them what he really thought of them no matter how rude he was. “I’m surprised that you don’t,” she added, though that probably just sounded like she was disappointed that he hadn’t tried to drag her into another one of his sex jokes. “Not that I want anything else or anything,” she added quickly, not wanting to wait long enough to give him any ideas about what she was thinking. “Doesn’t it sound swell?” she teased, emphasizing the word only if to make him upset. She knew he was teasing her, it only made sense for her to do it back to him, especially now that she knew she had the upper hand here.

“They don’t,” she continued, though now that she considered it, it would’ve been a great selling point for any of the cafes and restaurants lining the streets of Hogsmeade, and had she known of a place, she’d be there every day, well, technically, every weekend. “I’ll make it for you myself,” she announced proudly, “I know one of the girls at the center, normally they don’t let outsiders into the kitchens but if we’re on volunteer duty she’ll let us have whatever we want from the pantry, they’ve got Christmas tree-shaped marshmallows too, but those are a bit minty and mint chocolate is yuck,” she made a face. Whoever had thought that mixing chocolate and toothpaste was tasty was absolutely mental, but she figured that to each his own or whatever.

“You wouldn’t be cold if you would’ve worn a proper coat,” she chided him softly, pausing to unwrap the thick, red scarf from around herself and reached over to wrap it around him instead. “Better?” she offered, trying her best to tie it in a way that would at least keep his face from falling off, even if not his fingers. Starting to walk faster so that they’d reach their location sooner.

Isaac grimaced when Magnolia assumed that he would want more from her, rolling his eyes to show just how little he appreciated the idea and shook his head for good measure. It didn't matter that he was a Slytherin, and bargaining for more than what was fair was sewn into the fabric of their being, or that it was far from the first time that he thought she 'owed him' something. The dirty look he gave her did nothing but sour further when she picked up on his sarcasm, repeating the adjective and turning it around on him. "I happen to like mint chocolate," He didn't, but disagreeing with her was Isaac's default by now, and proving her wrong about everything seemed to be his new mission in the world. "Have you ever even tried it? I bet you are one of those people who hate things on principal," She had probably proved him wrong a hundred times on that account, but Isaac had noticed, or chose not to remember it, and rolled his eyes again. "How very Gryffindor of you," He teased.

In all honesty, a bit of Hot Chocolate (mint or no mint) sounded just about amazing right now. It sounded warm, and Isaac was anything but. He shivered again, thinking about how cold his fingers and the tip of his nose were, and the wizard was surprised when she moved to wrap her scarf around him. It was a nice gesture, prefaced by an insult, which was standard for the two of them, and Isaac smiled a little beneath the soft fabric. If he wasn't freezing, he might have told her to take it back, red and gold were certainly not his colors, but he doubted they would run into anyone he knew at the Community Center. The closest his group of friends got to charity was not picking on the same first year every day. "Uh, thanks," He mumbled, his words muffled under the scarf that smelt like flowers.

Magnolia picked up the pace, and Isaac didn't protest even a little. He caught up to her quickly, his sneakers making loud crunching sounds in the fresh snow, and he tried to will the feeling back to his fingertips. "So... you really just want to give this stuff away because it's... nice?" Isaac's tone shifted as his cheeks warmed up again. He returned to the topic, but this time, he was less judgemental and more confused. Isaac didn't understand the idea of having so much stuff that you needed to shed some of it.

“Isaac,” she whined, her voice rising to a shrill as she said his name when he said the most sacrilegious thing she had heard in what had to be months. “Mint chocolate is disgusting, I know you’re just saying that to get back at me or whatever but you should know that I am judging you for your choices right now,” she added, giving him a look that showed just how displeased she was. It wasn’t even edgy like say dipping your French fries into ice cream or putting salt on watermelon or all the weird, but completely acceptable food combinations that existed, it was simply wrong. “But for your information, I have tried it and lived to regret it,” she shuddered just thinking about it.

Magnolia half-expected him to recoil at her gesture or at least make fun of her for it but he didn’t and it was nice, he had even gone as far to say thanks and she wondered if that meant the Christmas spirit was catching up with him, too. Even the Grinch was no match to the kind gestures of Whoville so it made sense for Isaac, a mere wizard, to feel equally touched by her gesture of kindness. At least he should have been. Plus he looked great in Gryffindor colors and maybe in an alternative universe had he been a Gryffindor they would have been dating already and he’d be part of her little gaggle of friends. She smiled a little, deep in her fantasy world again when his question pulled her out of her thoughts.

“Huh?” she looked over at him, blinking as she tried to let her brain catch up with what she had heard. “Oh, yeah, I mean, you know it’s the least I can do,” she added, waving to some of the workers that were leaving the community center before she moved to hold the door open for him, “You mean to tell me you’ve never done one volunteer activity in your life?”
 

As much as he lived to disagree with her, Isaac had a hard time keeping the frown on his face when Magnolia began to whine at him. She really must have hated mint chocolate to put up such a fight about it, and the Slytherin made sure to remember that little nugget of knowledge for later. "It is just a flavor, Magnolia, not the end of the world," Isaac sighed at her dramatics, pretending to be exhausted by them when in reality, he found them entertaining. Magnolia had an Opinion about everything, and he liked that about her, but he'd never say it out loud. Especially not to her face, he knew she'd never let him live it down.

Tucked snuggled behind her scarf, Isaac felt less cranky by the second; he supposed not freezing his face off was good for the spirits, and of course it had absolutely nothing to do with the festive Christmas elf bouncing around next to him. Bring back up the idea of giving things away, Isaac turned to look at her, needing to turn his entire upper body because the scarf kept his head from being able to swivel properly. He stepped behind her as she held open the door, awkwardly reaching for it to hold it politely for her instead and scowling at whoever was leaving the center (to keep the cosmic balance).

"The least you can do?" Isaac repeated, "That is a useless saying; they are plenty of other things you could probably do," He wasn't rude on purpose, but the teenager couldn't help himself; negativity was just his default. Had he ever done a volunteer activity before? He thought for a moment, the pause was too long, it was clear he wasn't the charitable type, but then a smug little look grew on his face. "Sometimes I give the first year's directions back to their dorms," Isaac offered, purposefully leaving out the fact that he tended to give them the wrong directions, and stepped inside the center.

"Where do I put this shit down?"

Maybe she was overreacting about the mint chocolate, but then she decided no, no she was not. Food was important to the young Gryffindor girl and anyone in her group could attest to the amount of food she often stuffed into her face and how indiscriminate she was about most things. She enjoyed eating as much as the next kid her age and while she was open to most flavors, eating toothpaste-tasting chocolate did not top the bill for her delicate palette. But she’d let it go and watch him with awe as he ate the minty Christmas tree-shaped marshmallows with much awe and disgust. Then she’d know he was positively evil for sure.

The community center was her favorite place in Hogsmeade around the holidays, especially because of how much effort the staff put into decorating the place. She had arrived a few days earlier to help out and had helped with making the decorations with some of the kids from the local primary school. They were energetic but sweet kids, and until they started running around the center screaming, she had thought about how fun being a primary school teacher must have been. But they made sure that thought didn’t stay with her for long.
 
“Sure, there’s a ton I could do, but I don’t so the least I can do is this,” she explained. Had she the time and the means, Magnolia would have spent much of her free time outside of school volunteering. But, like most kids her age, again, she sort of fell into those occasional feelings of the need to do something which was what drove her to actually do something, make plans to do more, and sort of end in the same situation again during the next holiday. “Do you?” she looked at him suspiciously, not completely believing him but also not wanting to accuse him of being awful again. She did sometimes want to give Isaac the benefit of the doubt.

“Um, right next to the tree over there,” she pointed walking with him as she did. “I helped decorate the tree,” she said proudly, the pink and purple tinsel had been her personal touch along with the ornaments she had put on there. It was severely unbalanced, way too many ornaments for one poor tree but her and the schoolchildren had been happy with their work. “So,” she peeled off her coat and left it on the nearby seating area. “Any special request for that hot chocolate?” she o0ffered, greeting a few people as she made her way into the kitchen.