{potions dungeons} should have learned by now | nola

early february

Magnolia had utterly ignored him on the train ride back to Hogwarts after the break. Isaac hadn't expected it, and the fact that he was blindsided frustrated him even more than the actual event. The Slytherin hated not being in control, and Magnolia always kept him guessing. After all the time they had spent together over break, ultimately culminating in a kiss on New Years', Isaac had thought things would be better at Hogwarts. Honestly, after she'd invited him over to "listen to music" a few days after New Years', Isaac had thought they would be sort of together when they got back to Hogwarts. Maybe not Boyfriend/Girlfriend labels, not like she probably wanted, but at the very least still talking (and doing other, better, things).

Everything had spiraled out of control after the train, though. Isaac had thought maybe it was because she had been with her friends, not that he loved the idea, but at least there would be a reason for the ghosting. After more than a few lessons without even a glance and her pretending he didn't exist even when her friends were nowhere in sight, Isaac realized he had been wrong. And having held onto that tiny hope made him feel pathetic, which in turn vexed him. He became resentful toward her; if she didn't want even to be friends, fine, whatever, he was over it.

They had been back in school for well over a month now, and Magnolia had exchanged not a word, but Isaac had seen her wearing his sweater now and then. It didn't make sense, but the teenager forced himself to forget it. To forget her. She was nothing but drama he didn't need, and to make it even worse, she was now dating none other than Horus fucking Heyward. Isaac had accidentally broken his quill in half when Alison came rushing into the common room with the news. That had been a few nights ago, and Isaac still hadn't let it go.

Even as he sat in the potions dungeons, brewing something he'd need to perfect before the OWLs, Isaac could barely focus. She had been all over Horus in class earlier, hanging onto his arm, laughing when he said something (Isaac doubted it was funny), but he'd noticed her looking at him once, and that was enough to throw his thoughts all out of whack again. The teenager had no idea how to wrangle his feelings. Liking someone that wasn't into him was not something he was familiar with. He was usually on the other side of the equation, and he very much preferred that.

He cursed under his breath as he burned the tips of his fingers, reaching for a spoon he'd left in the pot for too long. The handle was scalding now, and the potion desperately needed a good stir, and Isaac felt chaotic. There was still another forty-minutes of free-study before lunch, but Isaac didn't feel hungry at all. He sucked on the tip of his index finger, willing the pain away, as he used a spell to stir the cauldron. The Slytherin had noticed the time or that most of the other students had cleared out by now until he looked up and accidentally made eye contact with Magnolia.

"What?"

@Magnolia Lane Hawkins

Things were supposed to be perfect, she had decided as soon as the two of them had had that magical moment on the ferry back to Gravesend, perfect. And yet, in some weird turn of very embarrassing events, Magnolia felt even more stupid than she had when she had first started talking to Isaac. Everything would have been fine if she had not run into stupid Allison, she decided, because even after Isaac told her he didn’t want to hang out after they had had that magic moment in Bristol, she had been fine with it. Surprisingly fine with it and then she had to run into Allison in the mall and it all went to shit. 

In the beginning, she had felt sort of disillusioned and had spent several days in her ‘woe-is-me' mode eating out of the carton of ice cream with a spoon, walking around the house like a zombie, and even watching one of those terribly sad romances at the theater all alone with the track “All by Myself” playing on repeat in her head contemplating the reality of love and when she’d ever find it. Probably a little more dramatic than usual but not enough to provoke questions from her parents (did they even love her at this point?) until she had sighed loudly for the umpteenth time into the soup she totally intended to eat once someone paid attention to her plight. She was sad but not like ‘not having dinner’ type of sad, but after that carton of ice cream who really knew.

Magnolia had not gone into detail, and instead had made general statements about the male population, ignoring whatever JR had to say before returning to her room. But this only lasted a few days, there was nothing a good disco soundtrack could not fix and by the time she was back on the train to Hogwarts, she had turned the whole thing around. Ignoring him on the train to Hogwarts was going to be the least of Isaac’s worries, she decided and if he wanted to two time her with Allison then she’d make sure he regretted her decision. Anything was possible with the right background music. 

And for a while she was doing fine, spending most of her time convincing herself that Isaac was not that good of a kisser anyway (not that she had anything to compare it to) and that he was better off with dragon-breathed Allison if that was his kind of girl. But they still had classes together, and even when she was hyped up on her own self-esteem, she had a hard time keeping her eyes from wandering in his direction. Of course, when she looked over to see that Isaac was looking back at him, all she could do was frown.

“What are you looking at, Hackney, trying to steal my Potion secrets? Should’ve known you’d try to cheat,” she grumbled accusingly at him.

"Only an idiot would cheat off of you, Magnolia." Isaac spat back quickly and without a second of thought. Magnolia was irritating him before she had spoken a single word, and then after she had, he found himself silently wishing she'd go back to ignoring him. And yet, some other, little annoying part in the back of his brain was hoping she'd keep talking to him. And even that, he could find some plausible excuse to go and sit by her. And that was even more aggravating.

The teenager did not want to have a stupid crush on an obnoxious Gryffindor, but he supposed he didn't get a say in the matter now. And of course, it was the one he knew who didn't want to talk to him, or so the Slytherin had imagined in his mind. "Seriously, though, did you put Shrivelfig in that?" Isaac knew she had because he had been watching. He'd been watching her the whole time, but he wasn't going to admit that to himself, let alone to her. "You know you are supposed to skin them first, right?"

He narrowed his eyes on her potion and trying to ignore the fact that she had been glaring at him, and then shook his head. Isaac wanted to convince himself that he just wanted to go back to silently studying and generally being angry about everything, but instead, his body moved without his permission. Walking away from whatever remained of his own ruined potion, Isaac plopped his books down next to Magnolia's cauldron and took the stool beside her. The teenager turned toward her, close enough that his knees would touch hers if she turned too, and met her eyes. Staring for a long moment before he spoke, Isaac realized he didn't care about the potions assignment or that she had accused him of cheating.

"Why did you ignore me on the train?"

“Rude,” she said almost immediately, even if there was probably a little truth to what he was saying, and she hadn’t really given the entire accusation much thought. But comments regarding her academics didn’t really bother her as much as they probably bothered Isaac, so rather than being upset by it she just rolled her eyes at him. A very mature response indeed.

“Did I put a what in what?” she asked, her brow furrowing as he asked her as if she was supposed to have an explanation for it. She probably should have known that and might have noticed had she actually been paying attention but that wasn’t really possible when Isaac was sitting across the room and she was still very upset with him. “I wouldn’t know, didn’t know you were looking that hard,” she said instead, feeling a little proud of herself for knowing that he was at least looking in her direction even if it wasn’t for an entirely positive reason. But those little details didn’t really matter.

“You can’t sit there,” she protested but rather weakly, plus it wasn’t like she could do anything about it when he sat there anyway, and maybe she didn’t really want him to go away. She thought about turning toward him but that would give him the wrong idea so she just returned to what she was doing (nothing, really) to keep her eyes off of him. She could tell that he was looking at her, got that weird creepy vibe that one got when they knew they were being watched but ignored it.

Even though she heard his question she took a moment to answer, debating whether she wanted to tell him the truth or ignore him so more. So instead, she shrugged, stirring the cauldron a couple of times before returning her eyes to her book even though she wasn’t actually doing the reading. “You know what you did.”

Isaac ignored her comment about how focussed he had been on what she was or wasn't putting into her potion, he knew it was a valid point, and the Slytherin refused to give her the satisfaction. He just knew that if he flinched, even a little, Magnolia would never let him live it down. She had all of the annoying Gryffindor traits, and as he was learning, a surprising number of impressive Slytherin ones. She was stubborn, just like a snake, and she refused to take no for an answer most of the time. And when it wasn't irritating the shit out of him, Isaac rather liked that about her. Not that he would ever say so.

He moved to her table, took a seat, rolled his eyes when she told him not to, and dramatically got comfortable. As if to say he didn't care and he was going to sit here anyway. Isaac hadn't entirely planned on confronting her right now, but once the words were out, he waited for the answer without blinking. He wanted to know why she ignored him, even if it made him look stupid to ask.

"The fuck I do," He stated, eyebrows furrowing as he looked at her. Isaac thought New Years' had been a good night, and the days following, it wasn't until they were back on the train that she started to act differently. "Hang on, is it because we did not hang out on the last day of break?" Isaac nearly laughed, that stupid smug look on his face again. Was she all emotional because he wasn't willing to spend every single second with her? He'd been upfront; he had other plans and couldn't hang out, so what was the big deal?

"Are you serious?"

Magnolia rolled her eyes again, a part of her hoping that he’d see the annoyance written all over her face and do something about it. So far, he was failing pretty bad but he’d always sort of failed pretty badly when it came to apologizing. It wasn’t even that hard, all he had to do was say sorry and she’d grill him a bit about what was going on with Allison and him and she’d drop it.

Probably not forever because she wasn’t crazy but at least she’d drop it for now and they could go back to that weird half-way friendship they’d sort of had going for them since last term. Except with kissing. Yeah, Magnolia wanted to do a bit more of the kissing part this term, particularly with Isaac, Horus had made it clear he wasn’t going to waste his first kiss on the likes of Magnolia. Or maybe he was lying, it was hard to tell when his expression was always the same.

But back to the scheduled program. “I don’t care about that,” she said with a shrug of the shoulders, stopping herself before offering him a hint, not wanting him to know that it was in the realm of the same subject even if it would have made the conversation that much easier. “I had things to do anyway,” she lied. Eventually she had ended up at the local mall where she had run into Allison but otherwise, she had been sort of hoping that Isaac would dump his friends (or his plans) and spend time with her instead. Of course, he hadn’t done that which might have fueled her anger towards him but it was Allison that had really made it stick.

“Maybe you should ask Allison,” she said after a moment’s pause, frowning at her own inability to stick with the program and give him the silent treatment. “You two obviously spend all of your free time together,” she added and frowned again. "But like I said before, I don't care."

“What are you even talking about, Magnolia?” Isaac asked, frustration rising as he stared at her. For some reason, he did not understand, Magnolia had taken up a cause against Allison from day one, and Isaac was always in the middle of it. He didn’t care if they were besties or enemies, so long as they left his name out of it, but it seemed like the Gryffindor was incapable of doing so.

Not that Allison was any better. Every other thing the Slytherin witch said these days was some backhanded comment about Magnolia, and Isaac had made the mistake of sticking up for her once and had been teased relentlessly since. Not that he cared what his “friends” thought of Magnolia or him, Isaac had more important things to deal with.

And today, Magnolia’s global warming level of mood swings was at the top of the list. “So your not pissed that we didn’t hang out, but you are mad that I hung out with my friends?” He asked, the second half hanging off the first like an accusation, and Isaac’s eyebrows rose slightly. “That’s some bullshit, and you know it.” She had no right being snobby like this, they weren’t dating, and for as much as he knew based on the way she’d treated him since they were back at Hogwarts, they weren’t even friends.

“Are you dim or what, Hackney?” she frowned at him, though she realized that at the same time, talking to him about her feelings because (for whatever reason) he could not read her mind was much more frustrating than she could have ever imagined. On one hand, she didn’t want to spell it out for him, and on the other, she wanted him to acknowledge that he had hurt her on purpose. But he couldn’t know that she was mad at him in particular because then he’d take it the wrong way but then, she was angry at him and wanting him to know it. It was a confusing trail of thinking and it was making her head hurt.

“I don’t care about your friends either,” she emphasized because apart from Allison, who she was almost certain had it in for her, she didn’t mind or think about anyone of his mates. “But why not just say you were going to hang out with Allison? Why do you have to be like that, Isaac?” she said and she knew exactly what she meant, secretive, but of course she also assumed he knew and wouldn’t give him any more insight into her thinking. “But whatever, like I said, doesn’t matter, I’m over it,”

Returning her eyes back to her cauldron, she reached over him to grab the next vial she needed and accidentally knocked the plant sitting at the edge of her desk onto the floor. “Ugh-!” she let out a sound of frustration as she looked at the plant that couldn’t have possibly survived that fall. “Why does it matter why I’m upset anyway?” she turned her anger towards Isaac again, “Not like you care, go play games with Allison or whatever.”

Magnolia frowned at him, and Isaac clenched his jaw at her insult. She was so irritating; even when she was friendly, she frustrated him, but this was on a whole other level. They had been friends, he thought, and then they had been more, he thought, and now they were this, and Isaac hated it. This was a stupid place to be, and he would instead go back to not being friends at all than dealing with whatever drama she had come up with. Of course, he blamed her entirely because this could not have possibly been his fault, right?

She said she did not care, but Isaac did not believe her, and the look on his face said about as much. And then the truth came out, and Isaac ran his hand over his hair, annoyed, and gave her another insulting look. “Because I don’t owe you anything,” He added quickly, even after she said, again, that she did not care, but Isaac felt like she was far from over it. “Do you see me asking you to tell me when you are going to hang out with your Gryffindors? Or with fucking Horus?” He asked, and if he weren’t already turned toward her, Isaac would have spun around the seat quickly; instead, he sat up a little and stared at her.

The plant fell off the table, going the same way as their friendship, apparently, and Isaac shook his head at the destruction. Magnolia turned back to him, and he saw the look on her face. He was used to her teasing him, insulting him even, but he had never seen her do it like this. Like she meant it like she did not want to talk to him anymore, and of course, that just made him want to sit here even longer. Out of spite, or some other envious energy, it did not matter. “It matters because I thought we were friends, but you are just a snob.”

 â€œIt’s the decent thing to do, Isaac,” Magnolia tried because guilt-tripping him into believing that what she was saying was right and that he had made a mistake seemed like the easiest way to go from here onward. “But if you asked, I’d be transparent about it,” she said pointedly, because to a certain degree she would be. “I wouldn’t even be with Horus if it wasn’t---ugh! Why don’t you get it?” she said in frustration.

Then again, it wasn’t as if Isaac suspected that she was going out with someone in her group of friends or cheating on him. They weren’t in a relationship, after all. Then again, weren’t they something? Hadn’t all this time they had spent together mean anything to him? The thought that he couldn’t care less about her or that he felt that he didn’t owe her anything made her feel a little sick to her stomach.

She looked at him as he sat up straighter in the chair, a little annoyed that he didn’t just apologize like she expected him to and realizing that boys were just complicated all the time. She didn’t like the way he was shaking his head at her as if she’d done something terribly wrong, “It’s just a stupid plant, it will live,” she said angrily though by the look of how it almost instantly withered, it was obviously a wrong determination. “We’re not friends,” she declared, moving past him to kneel onto the floor and somehow try to salvage the poor plant.

“It’s the decent thing to do, Isaac,” Magnolia had said, and Isaac should have just walked away, but that was just not something he was going to do now. “No, fuck that,” He said instead and shook his head again. “You asked if I wanted to hang out, and I said I was busy; why do you need more details than that?” It did not make sense to the wizard. He had told her the truth, he was busy, but it’d be a lie to say he hadn’t avoided the details on purpose. Every time Allison’s name came up, it was like Magnolia turned into someone else, someone who was jealous for a reason, and Isaac hated to deal with it. He wasn’t dating Allison, and he never would, but Magnolia didn’t seem to believe that. Not that Isaac felt like he needed to convince her. He was not dating Magnolia either, even if she acted crazy like they were sometimes.

“Get what?” He asked, suddenly and entirely consumed by what she had just brought up and already beating himself up for needing information as much as she did. He was jealous of Horus Heyward the Whatever, and it was quite possibly the worst thing that had ever happened to him. Okay, that was dramatic, but it wasn't terrific. Isaac knew he was better than Horus in every way, and yet Magnolia hadn’t picked him, and somehow that hurt? Even though Slytherin said he didn’t want to be selected in the first place? What was wrong with him? Why did he care about this so much?

Isaac’s head fell back in frustration as she shot out of her chair to clean up the plant. It was no use now, the planter shattered and broken, and it could wait, but of course, she had to pick something else other than him. Anything else, it seemed. “We’re not friends,” She said, and Isaac stood up fast enough to knock his stool onto the ground. He met her on the floor, across from her with the remains of the planter between them, and he used one hand to move between them as he spoke. “You are right because friends don’t pull shit like this.” In his mind, Isaac hadn’t done anything wrong, and she was overreacting, and even if he didn’t think he was right, it wasn’t like he’d apologize.

”Because!,” she insisted but fell short of a response. There was no technical reason for him to tell her anything apart from her assumption that they had been technically dating—but he had gone to her house and they had spent time together, didn’t these things sort of just happen? No one had conversations about them anymore, right? So why didn’t he know? The idea that he was making this much more complicated than necessary upset her.

Magnolia rolled her eyes in response to his question, feeling that he was for sure playing dumb just so that she’d humiliate herself further and that wasn’t the game she was about to play. She wasn’t even supposed to be talking to him but here she was talking to the enemy. “If I have to explain it to you, you don’t even deserve to know,” she said instead, rather pleased with the way she so smoothly (at least she thought so) avoided talking about her feelings even more. Plus, part of her knew that it would kill him to have part of the information but not all of it. And then she’d have the upper hand again.

Maybe.

The sound of his stool falling onto the floor startled her as she glared at him, not sure if it had been a clumsy accident or if he had thrown it on the floor with the intention of being rude. She wasn’t about to put that past him. She rolled her eyes at him again when he crouched down. “You mean like the shit you pulled with Allison?” she shot back, “Yeah, I know,” she added with a sigh. “Why can’t you just say sorry?”

Sighing, Isaac wished there was a world where he could get along with Magnolia Lane Hawkins. A mystical, mythical, magical place where they didn’t argue just for the sake of argument, understood each other and stopped with the drama. But he knew better than to think that could ever happen. And Isaac was used to reality sucking, so whatever.

“Why are you so interested in Allison?” he asked, and even though every brain cell was shouting for him to leave her here, Isaac stayed. He should have gone and put this drama behind him once and for all, but something kept him on the floor and just aggravated enough to demand answers to his question.

Isaac was probably one of the last people in the world who would ever apologize for anything. A potent concoction of stubbornness, pride, and generally not giving a crap about people’s feelings kept him from ever doing so. And he wasn’t about to start now, especially when he had no idea what she was talking about anyway.

“Because I didn’t do anything wrong?” He answered her question with a question, and a snarky eyebrow raise followed. Magnolia thought he’d done something, and by default, Isaac denied it without even knowing what it was, but it’d be a lie to say he wasn’t curious now.

“I don’t care about Allison, or did you miss the memo?” she retorted angrily even though by all intents and purposes, she had said so much on the topic of the girl that it seemed like she was one of the very few subjects she was actually interested in. If only Isaac could understand how upsetting it was to hear that he had shrugged off the possibility to spend more time with her just to spend time with Allison.

Stupid Allison. But of course, how could someone as dense as Isaac every understand anything like that? At least Horus was obviously out of the loop because he couldn’t read the room. Isaac on the other hand, was working the room to his advantage.

“Listen,” she said, giving them the meanest glare, she could muster even if she was trying to salvage a plant she had absolutely no clue about. “If you want to be the type of person that drops all your friends to spend time with that girl doing Merlin knows what, then by my guest, but at least have the decency to say so,” she insisted, gathering the soil with her hands. “Didn’t think you were the type to choose some girl over your friends but—” she looked at him again, “guess I was wrong about you,” she said.

“Magnolia, what literal hell are you even talking about right now?” Isaac asked, finding the need to stop her from saying anything else about his shoddy character surprisingly overwhelming. Ten minutes ago, he’d thought she dropped him for her friends, and now she was turning it back around on him? And who had he dropped? Isaac wondered if Magnolia counted herself in the “friend” category or was just sour because she wasn’t in the “some girl” category. And he hated that she’d made him confused about the situation in the first place.

“I didn’t spend time over break with any girl but you.” Isaac had spent more time with Magnolia over the break than his friends, and the one day he did hang out with Allison and Duncan and the others, he’d wished he went to the dumb mall with Magnolia instead. “I don’t want to spend time with any other girl but you; how do you not see that?” He added but felt stupider for saying that than anything else that had escaped from his lips this afternoon. Isaac knew he didn’t want to be her boyfriend but that he hated that Horus was, and it was ridiculous. Illogical. Annoying.