Kelvin had hurried back to the tower after dinner.  He was determined to have a nice enjoyable evening, where he could read a book and just forget about everything that had happened the first two weeks, not to mention long depressing summer.  Forget the way he had blushed when Connor had offered 'help' in the first creatures class.  Forget the letter his brother had sent a few days before.  Just forget.  All he wanted was a book, and his favorite chair next to the fire, so he had quickly passed through the common room, gone up to the dorm, dropped his bag and robes off on his bed, grabbed the book, Arrows of the Queen, and headed back down to his chair in the common room before anyone else could claim it.

He watched as people started entering the common room, and leaving, older students going to late classes or just to the library.  He put his feet up, getting comfortable in the chair, trying to relax as he found the page he'd left off and started to read.

By the time History had come ‘n gone and dinner was over with, Connor was down for some relaxation himself; like all Fridays, that day had started with Charms (which wasn’t so bad), then Defense (which always stressed him out a lil’) and finally ended with History (which had gotten a lot better since Professor Jowd had been hired on)—a pretty busy day all in all, and he fancied that winding down before turning in was definitely in the cards for him. Whether that meant geting himself ready to sleep like the dead (or the most innocent soul in the world) or up for a long, long night remained to be seen.

It was just too bad for his good mate Kelvin that their ideas of relaxation weren’t exactly the same.

After strolling into the Ravenclaw common room with all the airs of a man on a mission—and then swiftly quieting his footsteps when he spotted his buddy seated in one of the armchairs—Connor noiselessly padded towards him, that lithe, gangly figure hunching more ‘n more with intent the closer its owner got. A mischievous grin played across his mouth; for some reason or another, the lights had been dimmed. He’d be damned if he wasn’t gonna make use of that!

Besides, it effin’ wasn’t his fault that his friend made such a spectacular target, either. And so quietly Connor crept, creeping with a stealth that would’ve made any number of Slytherins proud, until-

—he was right behind him, leaning in with his arm and elbow lightly propped against the chair, close enough ‘til his grinning mouth was level with the other boy’s ear: “Whatcha’ dooooin’~?”

Kelvin had been completely engrossed in the book and had not noticed anything going on in the common room, let alone his friend sneaking up behind him.  So when he suddenly heard Connor's voice in his ear he jumped.  Nearly dropping his book.  And though he would deny it to anyone who said he had he most definitely squeaked as his voice cracked and his face turned red, "What?!"  His heart was pounding as he moved forward to the edge of the chair, and turned back to look at the other boy.  "Don't do that." He said rather forcefully and in a higher octave  than he wanted to.  He cleared his throat and held up his book, "Reading, obviously."

He took a deep breath and leaned back slumping into the chair leaving his head lower than it had been.  Looking up he said to his friend, "One of these days I'm going to die from shock and it'll be your fault."  Leave it to Connor to dispel any notions Kelvin had of a peaceful night with a book.

Amused, Connor took the threat with his usual amount of shame—which was to say, none. Out of all his friends, Kelvin was probably the most restrained; in Connor’s book that translated into ‘most in need of loosening up’. And as Kelvin’s self-asserted best mate, the troublemaker considered himself the perfect guy to accomplish just that. If you stuck around long enough, you either loosened up or broke down.

The fact that they were friends—despite their vastly different personalities—was proof enough that there was hope, Godblesshissoul.

He chuckled at Kelvin’s huffy tone, and the color in other boy’s cheeks absolutely did nothing to discourage him. “Then y’ shock too easily, mate,” he snickered, giving his friend’s head a light shove before gracelessly flinging himself into the nearest chair. Much to the displeasure—and disapproval—of one or two other Ravenclaws studying nearby, he plopped his feet on the coffee table with an audible thunk, one foot crossed over the other and looking comfortable as hell. “Yer not gonna live t’ see fifth year a’ this rate. What’s that yer readin’?”

Unsurprisingly, Connor himself wasn’t really one for books; if it wasn’t a comic book, or a girl’s diary, or an intercepted note or a… mature magazine (usually wheedled or loaned from a generous older year), he wasn’t interested in knowing much more than the title. But Kelvin was his friend; sometimes he did like to know what his friends were up to, even if it was something that usually bored him.

"I do not."  Kelvin said, trying and failing to look anything but amused and interested.  "You just are too good at sneaking up on people."  He laughed as his friend threw himself into a chair and several other students threw glares his way.  Kelvin was pretty sure that Connor wouldn't care even if he did notice that his mere presence in the common room elicited glares from a good number of the other Ravenclaws in the room.  Something that Kelvin nearly always found hilarious, unless it was a night before an exam, in which case he tended to join in the glaring.  But tonight was definitely not one of those nights.

"If you stop sneaking up on me I will."  Now that his heart wasn't trying to jump out of his chest, he did find his reaction a bit amusing, if it hadn't been for his voice cracking.  Stupid puberty. 

"It's a muggle fantasy book.  With magic an' such.  Not the kind of fantasy that you'd be interested in though."  Certain fantasy magazines were one of the few things that Kelvin had ever caught his friend reading. "But you are more than welcome to borrow it when I'm done.  And no I still don't want to borrow any of your graphic novels."

At the offer, Connor gave the book in question a closer look, squinting. On the cover was what looked to be a… boy? Girl?—atop a fancy white horse. Arrows of the Queen, it read, from what he could make of it. The book itself was pretty thick.

“Ehhh,” he articulated, letting his head fall back against the chair again. “Maybe later.” Restlessly he shifted, sinking further into his seat until he resembled a limp banana peel; Ravenclaw’s armchairs were fluffy as shite, but sometimes they made a guy feel like he was drowning, as if the House of Wit and Learning hadn’t gotten the hang of lining its furniture  yet. (He’d bet a Galleon, though, that Hufflepuff had ‘em down to an art.) “Looks like a long read—dunno when I’d ‘ave th’ time t’ finish it.”

He flashed Kelvin a quick, wicked grin. “Seein’ how ‘m busy with me novels ‘n all.”

As far as Ravenclaws went, Connor really was an oddity—or disgrace, depending on who you asked. Even now, just minutes after he’d thrown himself into a chair, he was antsy again; abruptly he sat up—leaning forward to rummage around in his back pockets—and then sat back again, hips lifted, to poke around in his front ones. Eventually he pulled out a worn-looking Bicycle deck, one ragged around the edges from years of use.

“You, though,” the Ravenclaw shook his finger at Kelvin, as the cards began flowing from hand to hand in a steady, navy blur. “Y’ read too much. Play a game with me,” his foot nudged insistently at the other boy’s knee. Without waiting for a yay or nay, he was already spreading the cards into a single, neat curve on the table. With a deft hand, he flipped them all up in one smooth motion, revealing them all to be in various states of vandalism—and then scooping them all up again.

“If ya lose, y’ gotta come with me to th’ girl’s loo and stick some sogballs on th’ ceiling,” Connor informed him, grinning like a loon. “Ya don’t play, y’ still gotta pay th’ penalty anyway-”

-and then he drew a card and held it up, smirking widely. It was the King of Clubs, gesturing rudely at Kelvin through the thick, sloppy outline of a bright

purple

wang.

   

Kelvin just shook his head as his friend declined his offer of the book.  He really hadn't expected a different answer.  Despite many offers neither had ever borrowed the other's reading material.  At least not that Kelvin remembered.  He watched the other boy become obviously restless and start digging around in his pockets.  Rarely did anything good come from Connor's pockets.  He breathed a sigh of relief when it was just cards.

“You, though, Y’ read too much. Play a game with me." Connor said, while nudging his knee.

Kelvin pushed Connor's foot away.  "You don't read enough," He said while Connor showed off with the cards, which was impressive.  Kelvin could barely shuffle cards, though he had a deck of self-shuffling cards somewhere in his trunk. "Fine. but what do I get if I win?"  And then Connor held up a card, with a crudely drawn purple nob on it.  Kelvin didn't even notice the gestures the King of Clubs was making at him, and he froze for a second.  He should have guessed that Connor had added even more of his own artwork to the cards since Kelvin had last seen them.  "You're a nob." He said flatly with a shake of his head.  "Not your best drawing."

Quickly, Connor flipped the card, the look on his face suddenly dismayed. “Wha, really?” He was proud of his drawings, each and every doodle, put his heart an’ soul into each one until a bloke couldn’t rest his eyes on any of ‘em without knowing he had drawn ‘em. His skills were legendary! The thought that he’d failed with his very own, favorite di- er, deck—was so verrry disheartening-

-Hm.

Squinting at it, the boy suddenly clucked his tongue as he looked over it closely. Right back at him, the card flipped him the bird. “Ah, yer right,” he nodded wisely, heaving a noisy sigh of regret.

The smirk he slanted Kelvin then was slight and wicked. “Shoulda made it t’ scale, then, huh?”

He had considered it, he really had, and in the end it’d been a decision that hadn’t been made lightly. But, alas; seeing how it was his way of claiming his stuff for his own… no playing card in the world would’ve been big enough.

And that, as far as Connor was concerned, was a fact.

Kelvin sighed, "To scale huh?"   He leaned forward, plucking the card from his friend's hand, his heart skipping a beat when his fingers grazed Connor's hand.  Flipping the card over he turned his head looking at the card closely, ignoring the knight who was still flipping him off.  "Um, hate to break it to you, but I think this one is bigger," Smirking he tossed the card back, and then realizing what he had said a slight blush crept across his face.  Somehow Kelvin's attempts to get Connor back for making him blush or stutter tended to just leave Kelvin blushing or stuttering again.  Merlin knows, he was tired of crushing on his best friend.

Clearing his throat, and hoping the pink had left his face he spoke, "So are we playing or what?  We don't want to get caught out late in the girls loo?"