It was really no surprise that Jordyn had broken away from her group of friends.  Neely and Julian were being adorable with one another – ever since they’d started dating again, they had been.  Jordyn would never begrudge them that sort of thing but it did get taxing, and then Bran had run off for one of his… interests… so, Jordyn had excused herself under the premise she had to mail something home and would catch up with them later.

She didn’t have anything to really mail to her parents – she only wrote to them when they wrote to her, and since they’d started pestering her about apparation, she’d only written them once to assure them she’d go to the classes and attempt to get her license.  She’d gotten her license, of course, but they didn’t really need to know straight away. 

Instead, she decided to windows shop – moving from store to store, conserving her sickles and knuts for the important purchases, like a green quill from Scrivenshaft’s and a chocolate frog (Jordyn was allowed her desire for chocolate) from Honeyduke’s.  Last, but certainly not least, she’d made her way to The Three Broomsticks to procure a hot cocoa.  She wasn’t a particular fan of butterbeer, particularly after the bottle incident, but some cocoa she could use to warm herself up. 

Hanging her cloak over the back of her chair, Jordyn perched herself right down with the cooca she’d gotten from the counter and looked around – younger Hogwarts students everywhere, causing a ruckus.  If she still had her badge, she’d probably say something, but she didn’t exactly have the authority to at this point. 

Ignoring their ridiculousness, Jordyn pulled her Defense book out of her bag.  She could study just about anywhere, and her patronus wasn’t getting any better if she wasn’t doing anything about it… the other day she swore she’d seen something forming in the cloud – but so far, only whisps.  That needed to change soon. 

Jai was a creature of habit, so the Hogsmeade trips that came once in a while interrupted his weekend flow. Still, it was anxiety worth having- he could stock up on much-needed supplies, like quills, ink, parchment.... and candy. He preferred to shop alone, as he found the task  of shopping a bit stressful (too many options!) and he liked to get it over-with as quickly as possible.

After shopping, Jai was feeling peckish, so he headed to the Three Broomsticks. Hogsmeade was also his chance to drink a little firewhiskey, which was hard to come by at Hogwarts. Jai was of legal age and didn't like to drink too often, but he enjoyed the strange sensation of cleansing as he felt the strong liquid burn his throat.

The place, of course, was mobbed with third-years. Towering in over six feet tall, Jai was several heads above most of them, and despite the fact that he was pretty lanky, they all parted the way for him. Jai found a small section of the bar and squeezed his way in. His height helped him capture the bartender's attention, and he ordered a firewhiskey, quickly paid, and weaved his way back through the crowd. He'd worry about food later, when it was less crowded. Didn't all of these kids belong in Honeydukes?

There weren't any open tables, so Jai leaned against a wall in the back, next to a pretty girl he vaguely recognized as a Slytherin. She, like Jai, was by herself and was studying. How she was managing to do that here, he had no idea- Jai required complete silence when he was studying. He sipped on his drink.

She wondered how long it took for someone to develop a fully formed patronus, or what kind of happy memory was really required to do so.  She certainly had quite a few things she was proud of that she called upon to conjure the spell, but they hadn’t been enough to actually get a fully corporal shape yet. 

She wondered what hers would be – supposedly they were to reflect the personality of the caster, a sort of signature animal or creature – she hoped it wasn’t something silly, like a turtle.  That’d be far too embarrassing for her to ever use it, let alone demonstrate it in class.

Outside of happy memories, she knew she needed to follow the Ds from apparation to get this done.  Determination – Deliberation – it was all there, she just needed to do it.  She wondered if a third year would be sufficient to test it on – they certainly made the same noises as dementors… or at least what Jordyn imagined they’d sound like. 

Flipping the page of her book with a slight huff, Jordyn was about to slam it shut when the table was jostled – not only once, but three times, as younger students ran by, chasing one another through an indoor establishment!  Jordyn swept her book off the table top to save it from the cup that she couldn’t stop from spilling all over.

“Oh knuts!” she scowled as the students ran off and her drink was now spilled all over the table.  She didn’t have the money to be spending on another cocoa.  The pipsqueaks had disappeared into the crowd and Jordyn stood frozen, not wanting cocoa on her dress or shoes, but also wanting to clean up the table, freezing on where to put her book while she cleaned it up – what a mess!

Just as he was getting settled into the position of wallflower, a bunch of kids sent the studying girl's drink everywhere. Jai shook his head at the inconsideration. He knew that 13-year-olds shouldn't be allowed to come to Hogsmeade, especially not unsupervised. He had a 13-year-old sister, and she certainly wasn't mature enough to be in the Three Broomsticks. Jai was pretty sure she still played with dolls.

Jai grabbed a bunch of napkins from behind him and then realized he was a wizard. He took his wand out of his pocket and said "Scourgify!" while pointing it at the table. It was one of his favorite spells, and he used it frequently. Jai liked things dust- and mess- free. This was a lot simpler than the muggle way, which Jai frequently got caught up doing for a long time. Besides, this was the Three Broomsticks -- it wasn't as if their cleanliness standards were that high, unfortunately. It was hard to keep a place clean with a bunch of nitwits running around like it was playtime.

"Dumb kids," he said. He made a nervous face for a moment and then downed the rest of his drink. It wasn't to show off, but rather a way to buy the girl a drink without coming across as a creep (he hoped). There had only been a sip or two left of the drink anyway, and he did enjoy the feeling. As an added bonus, the slight buzz it had given him gave him the confidence to continue talking to the pretty girl.  "Looks like I need another drink. Want me to get you anything while I'm there?"

A spell whizzed past her and for a second, Jordyn thought that someone who worked at T3B had seen what happened and was on top of it, so she turned her head to thank the person. 

Turned out it wasn’t someone who worked at the Broomsticks at all – she recognized the young man holding the wand a little – she thought they had a couple of classes together, though she was fairly sure she hadn’t really talked to him before.   Lowering her arms with the book in hand, Jordyn took a deep breath, “Thank you,” she looked at the now very clean table and put the book down – having lost her page the second she’d swiped it up. 

“I guess there’s no use crying over spilled cocoa, right?” she reached up and tucked her hair behind her ear.  An inspired comment if there ever was one, to be certain. 

When he offered to get her a drink, after having tipped his head back on his own, Jordyn paused, pulling her lightly painted lips between her teeth to bite down on the tender inside flesh.  It was tempting, she really didn’t have the money for another, but at the same time, she didn’t really know the seventh year, outside of the fact he was a NEWT student with her, and that wasn’t quite… proper, was it? 

“It’s fine,” Jordyn smiled before biting her lip again, “Thank you though – I mean, it's a very nice offer... but you don't have to - get me a drink, I mean.  You should go get your own, of course.”  Since when did she stammer and sound stupid?  Oh right - when idiot third years made her drink spill and feel like an idiot in front of an entire, packed pub - that was when.

“I guess there’s no use crying over spilled cocoa, right?”

Jai smirked at the joke. He remembered one time, his youngest sister Fae had gotten a tea set as a gift, and Lydie had abruptly broken during their 'tea party' (which had really been not tea, but hot cocoa). In that case, someone really had cried over spilled cocoa.

“It’s fine,” Jordyn smiled before biting her lip again, “Thank you though – I mean, it's a very nice offer... but you don't have to - get me a drink, I mean.  You should go get your own, of course.”

Resisting the urge to frown, Jai instead responded with, "Oh... so you were going to weave your way through this crowd of flobberworms, then?" He gave a quick smile. "Well, if you're sure." Without saying anything else, Jai began heading towards the bar. He walked away with a plan, and hoped that the girl didn't leave in the meantime. He didn't want to just invite himself to join her, because she was studying- so he hoped his plan would help him out. She did have some pretty mesmerizing eyes, he happened to notice.

Again, the crowd parted before Jai and he slipped into the same space at the bar that he had just gone to. "Two cocoas, please." He didn't want to order another firewhiskey, because he was not normally the type to drink alone. He only did it today because he was able to do it so rarely. Jai didn't try sneaking any back to school like some of the other students did and sometimes managed to get away with; he wasn't really a big rule-breaker.

He headed back to the table and put one of the mugs down. "It's weird, they gave me this extra one," Jai said seriously.

Flobberworms – Jordyn couldn’t help but laugh just a little bit.  He had a point, really, she didn’t want to go through the crowd, but she wasn’t going to anyway – unless she intended to leave, which she didn’t want to.  “I wasn’t,” she informed him, an awkward smile stretched across her face as she did. 

He seemed to be excusing himself though, and Jordyn felt a little bit more at ease as he did.  She dropped back into the chair, adjusting her skirt on the seat and over her knees before she started reaching back from her book. 

She had to get this down before class or she would be a laughing stock of DADA and she’d never be a healer because she’d be completely unable to prove she was capable of being an adult witch.  She felt her chest tightening just a little bit – she was getting ahead of herself again.  Just focusing on the patronus was enough, she reminded herself, and she flipped the book open again. 

The way the text was written it really made it seem like it should be the easiest thing ever… like all magic was just so easy they dind’t have to do anything to actually do it.  There was nothing more of a buzz-kill than reading a textbook.   Resting her chin on her hand, Jordyn let out a deep sigh – doing her best to focus on the words before she saw two white mugs enter her field of vision and she lifted her eyes – up… and up…

She could already feel her cheeks warming up.  “You didn’t have to do that,” she informed him, knowing full well they weren’t just giving away cocoa on a Hogsmeade weekend.  That’d be a dubious business plan, at best.  She shifted her eyes from side to side for a moment before she motioned to another chair at the table, “Would you like to sit?”

As he had (a little bit) hoped, the girl invited him to sit down. He took the seat across from her, which was much better than watching a crowded room of kids weaving their way around a bar with at least 14 crooked frames. Instead of itching to fix them, he could focus on the person in front of him.

"I'm Jai," he felt he needed to say, and so he did. He looked at the books she was perusing- Defense Against the Dark Arts. It certainly wasn't Jai's best subject and he hadn't taken it in years. He knew a thing or two, but he was pretty shaky with his spells. He preferred the things he could study - the subjects he took weren't so 'hands on' as Defense Against the Dark Arts tended to be.

"We have a class together, right?" He did recognize her, but Jai remained very focused during class. If he became distracted during class, it wasn't very easy for him to regain focus, and he would leave with the feeling that he missed something important that would probably be on an exam. So, Jai couldn't really remember which class the girl was from, which did surprise him - Jai thought he'd remember a girl like her more specifically, a girl wearing gloves in a bar that was growing warmer as the number of patrons increased. He didn't comment on it; everyone had their thing. Maybe she was cold. Girls, for some reason, were always cold. She was also cute, if he was being honest. He suppressed his desire to comment on how nicely symmetrical her face was.

“It’s nice to formally meet you, Jai,” Jordyn nodded, committing his name to memory.  She’d definitely heard his name in class before – arithmancy, at the very least, and she added another vigorous nod after his question.  “Yes, I think we do. Aritmancy and Runes?" 

She was usually very good about faces and names, she always had to know who people were and what they were doing, mostly because if they could be of an use to Jordy, then she’d have to capitalize on it later.  It was odd that she’d never really paid attention to the very tall boy before – at the very least he’d be good for putting things back on high shelves.  Though, the little bit of conversation with him also proved he was useful for cleaning up messes and replacing cocoa – becoming more useful by the moment! 

Running her hands through her hair in a moment of anxiety, Jordyn reached forward and took the mug into her hands.  She supposed it was okay to take, since he brought it over and went through the trouble.  “I’m Jordyn, by the way,” she added before taking a sip of the cocoa that he’d brought over.

She was sure it was the best cooca she’d had in ages. 

Arithmancy and Runes! Now he remembered her in the context of these classes, which were two of his favorites. Jai liked code-breaking and puzzles. He tended to catch onto patterns pretty quickly, and found the class very helpful in honing this skill. He wasn't entirely sure what practical use the classes he was taking provided -- but he would worry about that later.

"Yes- those are the ones," Jai answered. He wasn't entirely sure what to say next. "I'm not in Defense Against the Dark Arts-" something she obviously knew. "- are you studying anything interesting?" He was genuinely interested in this -- it was an interesting subject, just not one that Jai was any good at.

Jai was happy to see her accept the hot chocolate. So Jordyn was her name. "Ah- another J name!" What a dumb thing to say. Idiot!Jai regretted the words halfway through saying them. "I hear they're the best," he added in an attempt to recover. It was clear from the look on his face, no matter how hard he tried to hide it, that he was feeling a little bit more bashful. Part of him wished he had a little more firewhiskey -- liquid confidence, apparently. Jai was now becoming worried that everything he was saying was asinine.

Looking from Jai’s thin face to the book, Jordyn suddenly remembered the rules  of the social world and she could practically hear her friends whispering in her ear that it wasn’t cool that she was studying in public on a Hogsmeade weekend, no less.  She was supposed to be having fun and buying things and drinking hot chocolate with a boy… oh wait, she was doing that! 

Licking her lips free of the whipped cream perched atop the warm, melted chocolate, Jordyn figured she should answer, lest the awkward silence between them continue.  “Just patronuses,” Jordyn shrugged.  “It’s not my favorite subject, but it’s supposed to be useful.” 

“I can’t say that’s entirely true at the moment,” she added with a slightly smile, lowering her eyes to look into the cup.  She was not an interesting person, she realized, and the fact that she now had to entertain someone she hadn’t spent years building up a friendship with was now slightly overwhelming. 

At least, judging from his comments about J-names, she wasn’t alone.  Chuckling awkwardly, Jord wrinkled her nose a little and took another sip of cooca before she spoke up: “I’ve heard that too: I can confirm that’s true,” she tagged onto what he said.  You’re the coolest person ever, she thought to herself, stuffing her mouth with another giant gulp of cocoa to avoid having to look at a judgey face reconsidering why time would be wasted on a crazy person like her at all. 

As Jordyn sipped on some whipped cream, Jai came up with a conspiracy theory. Did girls only eat whipped cream because they looked adorable when they were doing it? They had to be aware of how cute they looked with whipped cream on their nose and lips. They had to be using it to control people. Jai smiled. She looked like she could do well in control.

When Jordyn mentioned Patronuses, Jai snapped out of his perverse thoughts and refocused his attention back into the conversation. "Patronuses - that was the one thing I actually wish I could learn," Jai admitted. Any spell that would protect or help protect others was a good charm in Jai's book.

He was glad that she had laughed off the whole 'J names' ordeal, because he had been feeling really stupid since the moment the words left his mouth, and the feeling had not yet abated. The fact that she laughed about it and didn't just look at him like he suddenly turned into a flobberworm himself helped.

"I wonder if it would be easier to practice a little more hands-on?" Jai wondered. He took a few sips of the hot chocolate and let it warm his chest up. "What can you really learn from a book about something like that?" He knew the background behind the spell -- it was a pretty important one. Think happy thoughts, and a little critter comes out and chases them away, or delivers some sort of message. Something along those lines. He'd never made one himself, but his Aunt Padma had talked about using hers during the Battle at Hogwarts.

Jordyn had a split desire in talking about this subject: she didn’t want to make it seem too hard, like he couldn’t learn it, but it wasn’t easy either.  She certainly had limited success with it and they’d been working on them for weeks.  Her grand gesture at this point was a timid shrug, “You could learn it,” she informed him, “whether you’re in class or not: the books tell you everything you need to know.”

She was good at school, if there was anything Jord could claim excellence in, so she had a lot of faith in books.  She could read them on her own, practice on her own, and then come back to class without anything threatening to trip her up or embarrass her.  She couldn’t have that – she’d melt into a pile of mortification under her desk were that the case. 

Of course, his next point was really undercutting what she had just said: hands on learning.  “I suppose it would be easier,” she agreed, “but there’s cocoa in here, so I settled on the theoretical for the time being: seeing if what I had been trying was congruent with the text.” 

She dropped her shoulders, though her posture remained impeccable.  “I think,” she slid the book to the middle of the table, “the only thing I think I’m having trouble with is there is no specificity to what sort of happy memories are required,” she scooted her chair just a little so she could point to the text, “Everything else is written in such detail – but not that.”  She frowned, “I know you’re not in DADA, but do you know anything about that part?”

Since his first year, Jai had always been a little bit jealous of the people who immediately excelled in classes like Charms and DADA. Jai struggled with spells that involved his wand; he was nervous wielding so much power. He wasn't awful at Transfiguration, but he still struggled to get by sometimes. He liked classes where he could read the things he was studying to make sure he was definitely getting it right. Wand-based spells, to Jai at least, felt like they left too much up to chance. So, when Jordyn told him 'books tell you everything you need to know,' he felt a little more confident about the Patronus spell. He liked the idea of what she'd said. He had to admit, his Transfiguration book was probably his most valuable resource for the class.

Once he learned her theory on learning, he felt bad that he had kind of just completely rejected it by saying a hands-on approach would be more conducive to learning. It wasn't even what he believed, so he didn't know why he said it. Maybe it was because secretly, he wanted to see what her Patronus was- they say they had something to do with personality, and Jai was becoming more and more curious about Jordyn's. Besides, he didn't want to embarrass himself trying to do it.

He took a sip of his drink and let it warm him up. Why even think about going outside and leaving this cozy scene? He had apparently forgotten about the kiddies running around. Now that they were behind him, they really seemed to fade away. "You're right," he agreed. "And this is some pretty good cocoa."

Jai liked the fact that this girl knew how to speak. She used big words and sounded very textbook. Clearly, she was not messing around - but Jai had guessed that by the fact that she was studying during a school trip that was supposed to be an escape from books. Jai often spent a good portion of his weekends with his and didn't usually like to spend the entire time out socializing anyway. Sitting here with some cocoa and a bright conversation was a better-than-decent way to spend his weekend, though.

“I think,” she slid the book to the middle of the table, “the only thing I think I’m having trouble with is there is no specificity to what sort of happy memories are required,” she scooted her chair just a little so she could point to the text, “Everything else is written in such detail – but not that.”  She frowned, “I know you’re not in DADA, but do you know anything about that part?”

When Jordyn pushed the book towards him, Jai took a gander at the text and graphics. It did look vaguely helpful. "Well... my aunt told me about it," Jai said. "She said the first time she did it, she just thought about the happiest place she'd ever been and imagined herself back in it." The context of his aunt's first Patronus, though, had been sort of an anywhere-but-here sort of deal. There were a bunch of rabid dementors, probably. And general scariness. It probably felt really good, in comparison, to think about anything happy.

“People always come here for the Butterbeer,” she started matter-of-factly, “but I have to say, I’ve always preferred cocoa.”  She drummed her fingers on the cup, realizing only after she’d started talking that she sounded like a ridiculous human being.  Butterbeer and cocoa – she was really proving to be a sparkling conversationalist. 

She didn’t talk to people she didn’t really know well very often.  She cut herself off mostly from accumulating too many people in her life, it was easier to keep track of and easier to maintain one’s persona when you didn’t have to stretch it over dozens of people.  Slytherins were just about all that Jordyn could handle, with the occasional Ravenclaw in the mix as well.  Other than that, Jordyn was as closed off as possible in a place like Hogwarts. 

So, talking to someone she didn’t normally talk to was both incredibly liberating and anxiety driven at the same time.  Say the wrong thing and it could get around and everything she’d work for would be destroyed, but then again, hadn’t it already?  And if she wanted people to think she wasn’t quite as frigid or horrible as she was depicted, she could do that too.  But, for someone who didn’t know her – and seemingly of her reputation either – did it matter?

Letting out a deep breath, Jordyn reminded herself that there was a point where she could think too much and stay creepily silent for far too long, which would make it even worse when she finally did speak up, so she blinked and refocused.  He took the book to peruse it, and Jordyn felt a little relief – at least her being quiet could be seen as considerate and introspective and not as creepy beyond reason. 

“That makes sense,” Jordyn reasoned out loud, again scooting to be able to look at the page with him, rather than attempt to read upside down.  “I’ll have to try something similar next time,” though she assumed there was very little she’d actually call upon, considering home was just about as depressing as any one place could get, and Hogwarts had its ups and downs.  Maybe holidaying with friends would qualify…

Frowning a little, Jordyn slid the book back toward her and ran her hand over the page, vaguely protectively… but mostly just to smooth out the page.  “But, it must be terribly boring, you don’t even take this class,” she avoided looking at him for a moment, “what other classes do you take?”