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Post by Ashlyn Swallow G5 on Jun 30, 2008 4:46:39 GMT -5
Ashlyn looked at him oddly before shaking her head, deciding that she really didn’t want to know if Damon really did have a secret love for romance novels. He didn’t seem like the type of person who would be interested in them but, well, everyone had their own secret vices. Some people sang, some played instruments, some read romance novels. “Wicked Witch Wyominga?” Ashlyn arched an eyebrow sceptically. It didn’t sound like much of a romance novel to her, but what did she really know about romance of any kind? Violins and pianos and flutes were far more simple.
“Your brothers may be arrogant – which I don’t doubt they are since you tend to be arrogant also – but I have to deal with whiny, complaining girls every day and my glare is the only thing standing between my violin and their wands.” Well, her glare, a professional protective ward embedded within the violin case and some of her more vicious hexes. Ashlyn had grown up in a situation where she had to shut herself off to survive so it wasn’t surprising that she was used to defending herself and her belongings even without a wand. She hadn’t been trained but she could, and would, fight physically if she had to. The times when she had needed to fight were long gone but some skills just remained, whether they were needed or not.
Yes, Ashlyn thought wryly, there probably had been good actresses before. Rich, charming, handsome – she was a man-hater, not blind - and one of them was famous, right? An actor, a model; something like that. One was a musician, if she remembered rightly, and then there was Damon himself. Dark, forbidding, demon Damon. But smart too, and witty. Model, musician, Damon...wasn’t there another one? Ah, that was right. The one who had been warned off by Damon in the library. He had seemed somewhat kind – he had, after all, stopped to help a stranger, and a stranger with a reputation for strongly disliking people, especially men – but the kind ones were the ones Ashlyn distrusted the most. Arrogance, sarcasm and insults she could deal with. She had been raised on them; they were part of her life. But outright kindness? There was always a hidden motive somewhere. Always.
Males and their arrogance. Ashlyn rolled her eyes. Snarling was not plebeian, no matter what Damon said. If snarling was plebeian, she wouldn’t snarl. But it wasn’t and she did. Simple. “Don’t even think about it.” Ashlyn warned fiercely, following his gaze to the lake and latching on to his train of thought. If she had to get wet, he was going to be soaked too. “James was a great man,” Ashlyn agreed slowly, her expression slightly troubled as she relived the past but without the naivety of a young girl. “But he had his bad points, as does everyone. He seemed absolutely perfect to me when I was younger though. He was my saviour, my mentor. And then he died and I was right back where I started; alone. It’s not a bad place to be really.” It wasn’t, Ashlyn insisted to herself firmly. Alone was quite a nice state to be in. Less chances of being hurt. “Magical Studies would be a useful class. We will never be equal simply because purebloods and muggle-borns have different bloodlines, different heritages, but we wouldn’t be quite as far apart.”
“Things that don’t seem important now could always become important at a later time,” Ashlyn answered vaguely. “But no, you don’t need to rush to the library to research it. One thing I will tell you is that it should have no direct effect on either of us and therefore will not affect anything.” That had been tricky. Ashlyn hated having to choose her words so carefully. It should have no direct effect. Yeah, that was true enough. But should have no effect wasn’t the same thing as will have no effect. That was fine. She knew enough even without her books to know that it wouldn’t actively affect Damon so she was the only one she had to worry about. And Ashlyn was stubborn and wilful enough to resist anything that the magic suggested to her. It had been her rash decision, her mistake. Now, she would deal with the consequences without involving anyone else.
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Post by Damon Graas R5 on Jun 30, 2008 11:14:27 GMT -5
“What’s wrong with the name Wyominga? I think there’s even a state in America named that,” Damon grumbled quite good-naturedly as he shrugged at Ashlyn’s raised eye-brow, “It seemed to be a bit on the racy side so I didn’t want to know much about it. I’d rather be blissfully obvious to the racier books my sister reads. There’s not much harm in reading. Even if she’s not entirely allowed to take it to life practice.” Maybe they were over-protective of their sisters as Lita kept pointing out. But they had reason to be. Leaving aside the part of brothers and sister. Damon saw that his sisters were growing up to be quite delectable beauties. And third year that Leandra was graduating and Morgana entering? Why, it was just the time for guys to start taking interested notice. No. Morgana and Leandra would have overprotective brothers and anyone who thought themselves to be worthy… well, they might not think that anymore after meeting him and Rister and Jared and Gabriel. They, as well as their father, were in general quite a lot to live up to. And he was sure that his sisters would have high levels of expectations to their guys.
“ME? And arrogant? Since when!?” Damon exclaimed, while throwing a quite sincerely surprised look at Ashlyn. Well, perhaps he had played the cold shower part in the library. But he had been polite on the way to the Hospital Wing, the retaliation hex had been necessary out here… He hadn’t always been nice, but he had behaved well enough. Coming out of his pondering, Damon shrugged at Ashlyn: “There’s no point in groveling pointlessly and letting people trample over you. But I don’t entirely think I’m that arrogant either. And everyone deals with whiny girls. They’re the burden of everyone in every common room and they always have far too shrill voices while whining. It was far calmer before they all learned to take off the ‘Silencio’ spell themselves.”
He listened quietly at Ashlyn’s description about her uncle. James. He seemed to have been smart. There was no denying he had had talent. But even though she spoke as an adult, her brain understanding that he had had mistakes too. The memories and the heart remembering the man were those of a scared child. Damon smiled quite softly, not even aware he was doing it as he looked at Ashlyn. Everyone needed a saviour. He should just be glad Ashlyn’s hadn’t came when it was too late. Ashlyn herself might perhaps not agree with that, but she wasn’t entirely cold. She had suppressed her feelings and had a high wall with threatening wire on it around her… but her emotions weren’t dead. But this was not his place to comment on it, Damon thought with a wry grin.
“Should have is not the same as would have. And either of us? Does it mean it will influence only you?” Damon questioned even as he swiftl dropped Ashlyn’s things to the ground before slipping his other arm under Ashlyn’s thighs and picking her up. “Not think of it? Too late, I already had. And you just had to tempt me with a warning, didn’t you?” Damon told Ashlyn almost morosely as he started walking towards the lake, toeing his shoes off as he walked. “Stop smacking me,” Damon grumbled, as he pressed Ashlyn tighter against himself, attempting to stay in balance as he walked into the water and to hold her up. Damon continued walking until he was in the water up to his waist – not that it took that long. The lake seemed to go steep quite quickly here. Removing his hand from Ashlyn’s thighs Damon discovered with some amusement that the girl wasn’t entirely planning on letting go, so he simply let them fall forward, submerging them both entirely under the water. Letting Ashlyn go, being sure that she was properly soaked, Damon stood up again, brushing his hair away from his face. “I really did like these pants you know. Ah well, they’ll probably do for a nice enough rag now,” he told conversationally to the spluttering girl next to him.
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Post by Ashlyn Swallow G5 on Jun 30, 2008 12:03:45 GMT -5
“That’s Wyoming,” Ashlyn corrected laughingly. She had been right in guessing that romance novels weren’t Damon’s preferred way of passing the time, and she was actually quite relieved to have it confirmed, but that didn’t stop her from teasing him. “Oh, so you only want to be oblivious to the racier books but you fully enjoy the slightly more innocent ones? You shock me. I would have thought that you would enjoy the racy books more. You have to entertain yourself somehow when you’re cooped up in the library being a bookworm.” Aw, he was protective of his sister. That was actually quite cute. He definitely wouldn’t be able to make a career out of being the dark and forbidding demon Damon now.
“You’re arrogant. Perhaps not quite so much as I would have expected because – don’t take this as being anything more than me listening to rumours because I certainly haven’t experienced it – apparently you can be handsome and dashing and charming. People described in such a way tend to be incredibly arrogant.” Ashlyn knew how to judge a person’s character after a short time and, most of the time, she was right. Damon had been one of the people she had judged wrongly. Either that, or someone from his mini-army had grown and replaced him. He had been cold and annoying in the library, sympathetic and almost caring on the way to the Hospital Wing and now they were something like friends. “Gags are far more satisfying than Silencio,” Ashlyn answered with a grin.
James had been the first and only person Ashlyn had loved. Most people loved their parents but Ashlyn had never known hers as anything other than people she had to sit with and be civil to during formal occasions when she had been a child. At 11 years old she had won the right to live by herself and claim most of what James had left her. Her parents weren’t stupid. If they had given her everything then she would have stopped listening to their demands years ago. Anything they could pass on to her was worthless in her eyes. She had loved James and he had died. The only message Ashlyn could get from that was that people she loved would leave in some way.
“Don’t you dare!” Ashlyn yelped, horrified but quite content to focus on the threat of being dumped into the water and ignore the questions Damon had thrown at her. Smacking him proved futile so Ashlyn resorted to pressing closer to him and winding her arms around him so that she could hold on to him after he tried to drop her. Just because she could swim, didn’t mean that she wanted to. “Crushing me,” Ashlyn gasped out theatrically, scrambling to grab on to Damon again as he stood up. She ended up in a similar position to before, with her arms around his neck but her knees pulled up to rest between their stomachs. It was extremely lucky that she was wearing trousers, Ashlyn thought grimly as she glared at him. With her hair plastered to her head because of the water and her clothes dripping, she succeeded in looking about as scary as a wet kitten.
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Post by Damon Graas R5 on Jul 4, 2008 3:49:56 GMT -5
„Wyoming, Wyominga. It just made it a bit more feminin. I’m sure there are girls living in there too,” Damon said with a shrug. He didn’t care much. America was large, rich, popular – but it wasn’t for him. He was happy to stay stationary in Europe and rather turn his eyes towards Far-East if he wanted to spread a company beyond the limits of Europe. There was plenty of work to do home first though. „Of course I like racier stuff. I’m a fully red-blooded male too, in case you haven’t noticed. But I entertain myself with fully intriguing books. Flobbering Flobberworm. Magical Moles. Tremendous Tremors. Starting to see my line of thinking here?”
„Just because the rumours are right this time and I am handsome and dashing and charming, doesn’t mean I’m arrogant,” Damon countered with a dignified sniff, „I’ve been perfectly nice and helpful and friendly. Not cute though, before you start adding silly adjectives to me.” Damon let his mind wonder to the image of a tied down and gagged girls piled in the corner of a dormitory, while Ashlyn was practicing her violin in the centre of it. „Charming prospect. But I can’t really raise my hand against a girl to put the gag in place,” Damon said with an easy shrug. His family didn’t claim everyone was smart or nice or polite or that sometimes a punch or a crude word wouldn’t help more… but for a man to raise his hand against a girl? It would never happen.
„Ashlyn, Ashlyn, Ashlyn,” Damon sighed and shook his head disappointedly, „Do you really honestly think I wouldn’t dare?” Chuckling softly Damon didn’t mind Ashlyn holding onto him. There were some perks to having a girl clutching onto you asi f you were her only life-line. „Oh, you enjoyed that? Refreshing and all that?” Damon grinned victoriously at Ashlyn’s glare, wrapping his arms around her, „Maybe we should repeat it then.” Submerging them again Damon let ttem float under the water for about 15 seconds, before standing up again, dragging Ashlyn to her feet along with him. Grinning softly at the rivulets running down her face, Damon smoothed her blonde hair out of her face. „Have we properly discovered the line between what we dare and what we don’t now?” Damon questioned innocently, as he turned and started making his way back towards the shore.
Turning his eyes downwards, Damon looked straight into Ashlyn’s eyes, wondering if she knew how big of a toll not laughing took from his self-control. Not letting his eyes waver from Ashlyn’s even by a fraction Damon questioned with all seriousness: „But I can’t help but wonder. Getting soaked is good either way but… should I send a thank-you letter to the manufacturer of your top? Which is around the corner way of asking if it turned see-through as it got wet?” Turning his eyes towards the castle as he stepped out of the water, Damon didn’t even bother to hide his grin as he raised his wand and pointed it towards the quidditch pitch. None of the siblings played quidditch, but that didn’t mean they didn’t have brooms. „Accio Rister’s Firebolt.” Catching the broom whizzing towards him after a few moments, Damon hefted it in his hand: „I’m not planning on tramping through the hallways soaking wet. Need a ride?”
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Post by Ashlyn Swallow G5 on Jul 4, 2008 11:30:51 GMT -5
“I’ve already told you,” Ashlyn answered complacently. “I don’t think of you as a male. Thus the lack of attempts to castrate you, remember?” She was starting to get the idea that Damon enjoyed alliteration in his literary pursuits, to be quite truthful. Flobbering Flobberworm; Magical Moles; Tremendous Tremors. Yes, definitely a lover of alliteration. But that was okay, Ashlyn decided with an almost mockingly sympathetic glance toward Damon. Alliteration was an important part of expressing yourself for some people.
“Handsome, I unfortunately cannot deny. But dashing and charming? Not to mention nice and helpful and friendly?” Ashlyn raised an eyebrow inquisitively. “I’ve seen you be annoying and bad-tempered and curious but never dashing, charming or nice. I have heard you described as cute though. And adorable.” It was quite a pity that she had never actually had the chance to gag her room-mates, in her opinion. It would have done them so much good to be forced to remain silent for more than five seconds. Two of the girls even talked in their sleep so it was rare for Ashlyn to get any peace without the silencing charm even during the night.
Ashlyn shivered and pressed her face into Damon’s shirt when he soaked them in the water for the second time. She could swim, but that didn’t really mean that she had wanted the experience. Especially not when she hadn’t been swimming in about 6 years and was entirely out of practice. “You’re mean,” Ashlyn informed him with a pout, quite unhappy to be all wet. Ah well. The clothes had been purchased with her parents’ money so the idea of spending more money on new clothes didn’t bother her. It might annoy her parents though, Ashlyn thought viciously. “I think I’ve discovered the line. You dare to soak us both just to prove that me wrong and I dare to tell my dorm-mates that you’re interested in one of them but I’m not sure which one it is so they’ll all have to stalk you.”
He was trying not to laugh at her, Ashlyn noticed and scowled. “No, it doesn’t turn see-through whether it’s wet or not though it did when I first bought it,” she answered good-temperedly. Spells were such useful things when it came to things like preventing white fabric from turning see-through after being splashed – or, in this case, soaked – with water. And that question was such a typically male question to ask. “You could just use a charm to dry your clothes,” Ashlyn rolled her eyes as she flicked her wand and demonstrated that exact charm, noticing with satisfaction that, while her clothes would never quite look the same ever again, they were at least dry. “But no. I’m going to stay out here for a while. I need to think and I can’t do that in my common room. It’s too noisy there.”
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Post by Damon Graas R5 on Jul 5, 2008 11:02:17 GMT -5
Damon scowled darkly at Ashlyn. He didn’t like being told that someone didn’t think of him as a male. It would have raised the ire of any full-blooded male and Damon was no exception. “And by not thinking of me as a male, you might fully well be doing a mistake,” was what he said out loud though, dumping Ashlyn into the water once more for calm retaliation. “Even if I’m quite glad I get to keep all my body parts,” Damon mused quite calmly after he fished Ashlyn out again, “I’m quite fond of myself the way I am, so while your offer has been exceedingly kind, I must politely refuse it.”
“I’m not bad-tempered,” Damon argued with a huff, “And I certainly not cute. What did I tell you about adding silly adjectives to me? It just manes no sense.” But it felt quite nice to have Ashlyn holding onto him for once. Usually it was him helping the poor maiden in distress or keeping her from running away. So feeling Ashlyn holding onto her – trusting him enough to trust him to take care of them – was quite a welcomed change. “Mean? And I thought you just said I’m adorable,” Damon teased, absently rubbing Ashlyn’s arms as she shivered.
“Doesn’t? Shame. I have a feeling I’d still end up seriously bruised if I dared to let my eyes wonder though,” Damon chuckled, pulling on Ashlyn’s hair lightly, “And why should I bother with the spell? Yes, I did know it. These clothes are going to have to be trashed anyway, as I don’t usually fancy swimming with food.” Damon grimaced lightly towards the Giant Squid, having never liked the creature. “It would be a simple waste of magic and the power needed to execute a proper spell. I’m not weak, but that doesn’t mean I’m ready to waste my strength reserves.”
But Ashlyn probably did have a point. Picking up Jared’s COMC book, Damon mounted Rister’s broom and with a hand circled it around, coming form behind to Ashlyn so that he could whisper directly into his right ear: “Besides I want a nice hot shower, before I dry up. Beyond the more volatile interlude I did enjoy our run-in. Don’t hex the crowd at the castle-door too badly.” Reaching his hand out, Damon turned Ashlyn’s face towards himself, kissing the tip of her nose. Sending the girl a wicked grin, Damon leaned forward on the broom, speeding away towards the Ravenclaw tower to get a shower, change, and think about all that had transpired.
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Post by Ashlyn Swallow G5 on Jul 6, 2008 7:02:55 GMT -5
“But you’re just not a male,” Ashlyn explained calmly, only interrupting her explanation to glare at Damon while pushing her once again soaked hair away from her face. “If you were a male, you’d be even more arrogant than you already are, pursuing some idiot with ridiculous attempts to win her over and just generally being more of a fool than I’ve seen you be so far. So when you think of it logically, it’s actually almost a compliment. An insult would be calling you a whining, love-struck idiot of a girl who would get along very well with my dorm-mates.”
Ashlyn stared at Damon for a second before shaking her head. “You’re very bad-tempered. And I never said that I thought that you were cute. I said that I’ve heard your described as cute and adorable; not that I thought that way.” She hated the British weather with a passion, especially when she was wet. Before their dip into the lake, the breeze had been pleasant and somewhat welcomed. But now she was shivering as the very same breeze whistled through her wet clothing. British weather was officially evil.
“You would definitely end up bruised, bleeding and whimpering on the floor,” Ashlyn assured him, smiling viciously. Well, perhaps Damon wouldn’t – Ashlyn refused to think that it was because she was growing fond of him, in her own strange way – but plenty of other guys had reached the same fate after being obvious enough about ogling her for even Ashlyn to notice it. “The Giant Squid isn’t food,” Ashlyn rolled her eyes. “It’s more like...Dumbledore’s favourite pet and Prestimon kept it as a memory of him. You might not feel the need to use the spell, but you’re not a girl living in a House full of perverted guys.”
Ashlyn frowned at Damon curiously for a moment – what did he mean, don’t hex the crowd too badly? – before jerking her head back instinctively, a light blush dusting across her cheekbones as she watched him fly away. Hmph. Ashlyn scowled slowly, putting her books back in her bag and slinging it over her shoulder carelessly. Men. She just couldn’t understand them at all sometimes. But...maybe a shower was a good idea after all. The lake wasn’t really the best place to have a bath.
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