Halloween was still weeks away, the least the school could have done if they weren't going to let them have a Hogsmeade weekend on the holiday, at least push it to late in the month. As it were, Lucas Norwood would no doubt be through his candy stash before half through. He might be seventeen and fully considered a legal adult, but Halloween meant candy and he wanted it. Unfortunately, there was only so much money he could spend without having to resort to charming his sister for a few coins and the lot in his basket was edging ever closer to the limits of his very small budget. It was down to the last two items on his favorites list and he couldn't afford both.

A figure moved into his peripheral and without looking away from his choices he turned his head toward the figure to indicate he wasn't just thinking out loud. "What you think? Green apple strips or sugar quills?"

Beside Luc, Gracie blinked. And then a broad, wicked smirk flashed across her face, like a bolt of lightning.

They really had to stop meeting like this.

“Apple strips, definitely,” she said, peering into his arms, tone carefully neutral; it wouldn’t do to give up the game too quickly. He had always paid too little attention to his surroundings, when something already had it...

But a thread of amusement slipped through, and after that she couldn’t keep a straight face for long, cracking him a grin once he realized. “Stocking up for winter or something, are we?” she teased, giving his basket a slight jerk of her chin. A wispy lock of light, mousy brown hair clung to her cheek, stubborn and stray.

Gracie focused on the bulk of its contents, rather than their variety; recognition would only lead to awkwardness, and after a year of avoidance (and then a bit more of tentative stabs at friendly familiarity), she was glad to find them in more comfortable waters; she could look at him now, bold and curious, with the quiet sense of entitlement that came with ‘having history’—eyes roving, head cocked to the side in consideration. A smile still tugging at her lips.

Apple strips had their place, they were tangy and sour, but then the sugar quills lasted longer and could be rationed that much easier. It was good to have an outsiders perspective if only to keep him from spending an unnecessary and admittedly embarrassingly long time on what amounted to such a minor decision. "Apple strips it is." He dropped them into his basket and glanced to his rescuer, he knew the voice, but wasn't trying to place them until now. "Oh." It was only now that he realized why the voice sounded as familiar as it did. A smile stretched across his face to match her own. "Hey you."

Lucas considered the contents of his basket, all the more aware of the actual mass now that someone knew about it. "Something like that. It's a long month, yeah?" He admitted and rubbed the back of his neck. "Does it help that I've got some white chocolate?" It was somewhere in there, towards the bottom. He looked back to her, soon distracted by the stray strand by her face. Protocol, and really, any sense of common decency meant that he didn't have any business invading her space, much less touching her hair of all things. His hand, however, hadn't gotten the memo and gone and down the thing anyway, tucking it behind her ear.