[hampstead] this ain’t a heartbreak anthem

"Do the ones at Gringott's count?" Mavis asked, smiling at him even though she was pretty sure it did not count. And she couldn't exactly say she had "met" one of those either. Mavis had never actually spoken to any of the goblins at Gringott's the few times she had gone to the wizarding bank with her father. "But I'd say you are at least even with them as far as grumpiness," she added. Mavis laughed at him even as he swatted her hand away, and she felt that little flutter in her stomach again. Blaming it on nostalgia or nerves about tonight, Mavis buried the feeling behind a bit of laughter at his next question.

"Nooooo~ it's not a costume party," she brought her finger to her chin, tapping it twice before speaking again. "but that would have been such a good idea!" Mavis made a note to bring it up to Magnolia A.S.A.P. because they had to do that next time!! "But you always wear stuff like this, you gotta do something different tonight. Like, it's a big deal, innit?" She was dead serious, despite the smile still lingering on her features, and Mavis nudged him. "Like I got a super cute dress just for tonight, you know, and fancy hair clips." Okay, she borrowed the clips from Magnolia, but still, they were new for her.

The teenage witch bounced off the bed, leaving Jae in her wake as she approached his closet door. "There must be something good in here, something you never wear, something different."

"Of course not," he said immediately even though he didn't really have a reason why. Sometimes he just liked to be oppositional and if anyone knew that it was Mavis. Jae just rolled his eyes at her and shook his head, trying not to notice how close she was sitting next to him on his bed. Why should this be any different than how they had played and hung out before they were 11 and shipped off to some crazy boarding school for kids with sticks that did magic. It didn't make any sense.

But at her answer to his costume party question, he visibly relaxed, his shoulders losing some of their tension. Of course, she could be lying - history had shown him that she was capable of it - but he didn't think she was in this instant. Besides, that twinkle in her eye made him regret mentioning it at all. He groaned and flopped back on his head, his arms out to the side. "Why do you like ridiculous things," he complained. His gaze up on the ceiling as she talked about his clothing made him jiggle his leg. "It's really not though," he said, disagreeing with her 'it's a big deal' just like usual. At her nudge and mention of her new dress he frowned, his leg going still. He wondered if she got a new dress just for Killian. He hated the thought.

He felt her get off the bed and he glanced up, moving to rest on his elbows as she went towards his closet. He wanted to tell her to stop, but he didn't. "It's just all my usual clothes, Mae," he grumbled. "Besides, I don't think I own any clothes that say 'I'm here to get drunk and puke up my guts later into some bushes.'" Not that he planned to do that really but still. He was a little curious about what she would pick for him. He watched as she pulled open the closet door, the tiny closet half-filled with his clothes and half with his brother's.

"Oh, don't be such a drama dragon, Jae," Mavis insisted, calling him more names but smiling sweetly as she said them. Jae had tossed himself on the bed and said she liked ridiculous things, and Mae had responded in kind. It was almost like they were flung into the past before everything had become so strained. Playing around, secret handshakes, casual insults; it was just like old times. Mavis ventured over to his closet and pulled the door open to find precisely what the wizard had told her she would find. Lots of blacks, charcoals, and grays, and minimal colors. Mae scrunched her nose up at the contents of the closet and then spun back around to face him.

Hands-on both of her hips again, she gave him a deadpan stare. "Is that what you think tonight is about? Getting pissed and hogging the bog all night?" She shook her head at him as she stalked back toward the bed. Mavis stopped just short of where his legs hung off the bed and frowned. "Tonight is about making friendships, and dancing, and having fun," She kicked at his foot and continued to speak. Her words took on a new cadence as she grew more serious, almost as if she had spent way too much time thinking about tonight and what it meant.

"Nights like tonight are the things we're going to remember when we're old and gray and finally free of Hogwarts. These are the nights that will matter, not our OWLs or what house we were in, not Quidditch scores or what books in the library tried to eat us, no, these nights. Nights with friends." The young Gryffindor finished her speech, meeting his eye at the end and taking a soft breath.

Was Mavis taking this a little too seriously? Probably… Was she going to chill? Never.

"A drama dragon? Did you really just call me a drama dragon?" he asked as he craned his neck to look at her from his flopped position, tracking her as she moved toward his closet and started flipping through his clothes. She really hoped she wouldn't mistake Jin's dorky Lord of the Rings tshirts for his (Jae would never wear something so obvious). He was ready either way with a quick denial, but as she turned to look at him with a hard look, Jae frowned at her.

He kept his eyes on hers, sitting up a little more as she came closer, her tone insistent, pushy, determined. Jae couldn't help the small smile that turned up the corners of his mouth as she spoke so fervored and passionate about this one night that yes, he did think most students were going to just to get wasted. He was surprised and then not surprised that Mavis saw it all differently. And there was a second there where he saw it differently took. He grinned as she kicked his foot and noticed her taking a breath, like the words had been so important that she had forgotten to breath.

"If you say so," he said lightly, not arguing for once even though he wasn't completely convinced. It was a nice picture she painted and it was something he secretly longed for, but there was still that voice in the back of his head that set himself apart from Mae and her group of friends. He wasn't entirely sure why she had invited him or wanted him to come at all, but he also couldn't deny the part of him that wanted to wholeheartedly believe in the world she imagined.

At the very least, he wouldn't put out all the flaws in it. He nodded back towards the closet. "If you're done with your grand speeches and schooling me on the fact that this isn't about teenage drunkenness, weren't you going to tell me what I should wear to this thing?"

"Yes, I did," she said pointedly, her hands crossing at her chest and her chin tilting up a little, but not even Mavis Nandamuri could keep a straight face for long. Eventually, laughter broke through the sass, and she looked around for something to throw at him. Instead, she came up short and then moved on to his profound lack of style, and Mavis was back to being sassy. There was so much riding on tonight, and perhaps Mavis had built the whole thing up to grandly in her head, but she was too far in now to backtrack. She was committed, and when the Gryffindor decided on something, she could be a force to be reckoned with.

She scrunched her nose at his response to her ' grand speech' and spoke again, "It's not just about that! Jae!" She whined, but honestly, teenage drunkenness was a large part of what tonight was about, and not even Mavis could convince herself otherwise. The young witch wondered if she'd like the taste of beer or if because she was a girl, she was supposed to drink something more delicate like wine; there were a lot of nuances.

Mavis turned back to the closet and began tossing things aside. She was making an absolute mess of whatever organizational structure consumed his wardrobe, but there was no stopping her now. Mavis pulled out a shirt and then hung it back up, and then another, but it fell from the hanger before she returned it to the rack. "No, no, certainly not, oh… this could do," Spinning quickly, the teenager faced him again and held up a shirt that was a charcoal gray and the tiniest bit shiny. It wasn't flashy, it wasn't preppy, but it wasn't the same kind of shirt she'd seen him wear a million times either, which was perfect.

"What about this one?" She held it up, running her fingers over the soft fabric of the sleeve as she waited for him to dismiss the idea or say something snarky inevitably. "This one would look nice," she added quietly, staring at him.

Jae watched with an even expression as she took on that stubborn look she had, her chin jutting out, the furrow in her brow that seemed all too familiar before she started laughing and he couldn't help the smile that showed on his face too. How did she had that power, he didn't get it. He shook his head at her as she whined and waved a hand at her towards his closet even though he was apprehensive about it. Curious about what she would think he looked good in, but apprehensive. "Yeah, yeah," he said as she argued. They would have to agree to disagree just like usual. Unless she whined a bit more and he might consider giving in just for her to stop.

But then she started going through his closet and before he could blink, she was making a mess. "Mae, don't," he complained as she started tossing things and knew that she could tornado things quicker than a sneeze. "Mavis," he grumbled a little louder. She turned around, holding up a shirt that his mum had gotten him and he hadn't worn it except for one family dinner out. Jae was already shaking his head.

"No, it's shiny," he started to say, his eyes catching on the way she ran her fingers over the material, making him want to do the same. He sat up on the edge of the bed as he met her gaze and the quietness of her tone made him rethink. "Ok fine, if I wear it, will you get out?" he asked as he dropped his eyes after a moment, feeling a bit awkward and unsteady, as if he looked too much at her, she would read everything he was thinking.

Jae's way of describing the shirt made Mavis smile, and she tilted the metallic fabric back toward her before speaking. "It is shiny, innit?" It wasn't as if she minded, though. "You say shiny like it is a bad thing, Jae," One hand fell back to her hip as she gave him another look; Mavis thought the shirt was excellent, and it was undoubtedly the best option from his drab closet. Jae's following quip had her rolling her eyes as she moved closer to him and held out the shirt defiantly. "Fine, whatever, just wear it," She said and then huffed loudly, dramatically. Mavis waited for him to grab the shirt before retreating to the middle of his room and stepping on the little pile of clean clothes she'd just made by accident.

Mavis wasn't irritated with him, the opposite because she was about to get everything she wanted (Jae was coming to the party, Jae was wearing the shiny shirt), but she knew better than to take a victory lap yet. If she let up, he'd pull back; it was a constant battle. Luckily, the Gryffindor came prepared for war. "Besides, that color will look good with your new hair," Mavis had never imagined Jae might do something so drastic, but it would be a lie to say she didn't like the way that it looked. Mae was even a little bit jealous about how confident Jae was to have done something so bold.

"So I will see you tonight, don't be late," She said, nodding before heading for the door. She had to get ready, or she was going to be the one who was late! Mavis half hoped his grandmother would be hovering on the landing of the stairs so that she could say hello, but seeing no one, the teenager rushed out the door and ran back home.

/end

"That's because it is a bad thing," he grumbled right back, giving her a look as she held out the shirt and waiting a second before he grabbed it out of her hand with a huff. He ran his fingers over the front of the shirt, feeling the softness of the material and the slickness that made it shiny. It did feel nice.

He was running his fingers over one of the buttons when his brows flew up and he snapped his gaze up to her, trying to detect the note of sarcasm he was sure she meant about his hair. But that was more his thing than hers and he was surprised to find himself pleased to see the sincerity in her gaze. Really pleased. "Yeah?" he asked, a warmth spreading within him. Decision made then. Done.

Jae was so surprised by it and a little thrown off that all he could do was lift a hand in goodbye as she popped down the stairs and was gone before he could blink.

"Don't worry, I'll clean up!" he called out the door as she left and then glanced down at the mess of shirts she had pulled from his closet and then the one she had picked out for him. He bit his lip to stop the smile from forming on his lips as he set it down with the pair of jeans he was going to wear. Hell, he had made bigger mistakes than this before. What would the difference of shirt choice make?

/end