wearing

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This was, without a doubt, Liviana’s favorite time of year. There was something about the family spirit of it all and spending time at home that just made her happy. She had spent the latter part of the afternoon tucked away in the overly occupied cottage, she and Beatrix had made spiced cider and talked about her plans for the evening. For once it didn’t feel as though her aunt was trying to suffocate her. Of course the lenient nature of the conversation could have had something to do with the fact she told Beatrix that she was meeting with Drake. The other woman had some set ideas about the kind of boy that Livi should date or just be seen with, and Towler met most all of those requirements. He was a pureblood, with ties to old families, he was ambitious, and smart, as well as wrapping the whole package up in a pretty face. Smiling to herself as she wandered around the booths in Hogsmeade, she had to admit he was pretty damn good looking… and she kind of missed his face. It felt like forever since she’d sat across from him in the common room studying for midterms. She couldn’t help the small trill up her spine as she tried to spot him in the crowd.

They had known one another since first year but it wasn’t until the previous summer that she’d taken serious note of him. She was stuck with family tickets to see the Falcons play, and while she was a big fan of her big brother she was not a big fan of Beatrix trying to set her up with every pureblood who happened by. Her fall back date backed out on her last minute and she’d been scrambling to find a way out of going or at least someone to pawn off the other ticket on so she wouldn’t be alone. Then someone had pointed out that Dracon was a big Wiedman fan - even if he wasn’t all about the Falcons. So she’d made a deal with him - if he went and pretended to be remotely interested in her she’d try to get him an introduction and at the very least he’d get to see the match. Much to her surprise they’d actually had fun, even though Dominik bowed out of meeting and having dinner with them. The Falcons had lost and he was in no mood to meet a boy his sister brought along with her [Dom’ wasn’t a fan of knowing Liviana liked boys].

Now, all these months later she wasn’t exactly sure what to call what they had. He wasn’t seeing anyone else, at far as she knew - and she didn’t have time to try and date with all the crazy stuff going on in her schedule. They were together in class and often studied in the common room but there was no sense of privacy that ever allowed them to talk about what exactly they were doing. They did couple things, well she at least did girlfriend things - like watching him practice when she could get away from the greenhouse or spare some time from potions. Then there was dueling club, they were together then too. If she tried to analyze everything her brain might pop. She’d had plenty of boyfriends in the past - but it was always clear cut where she stood with them. With Drae you just never knew. Mostly she didn’t mind though, he was fun to be with and it kept her mind off whatever troubles she thought she might have. She didn’t like when he made her wait though, especially standing out in the cold. Blowing on her fingers she scanned the crowd again, breath white in the winter air.

Outfit: http://lookbook.nu/look/401823-Memories-made-in-the-coldest-winter

It situation with Liviana wasn’t complicated to Dracon. What they had was fun but he didn’t both to delve any deeper into his mind to find how he would feel if she saw someone else or what if she never spoke to him again. Perhaps if he bothered to look more closely at what they were, he would discover that perhaps he did want to be considered her boyfriend, or perhaps he’d decide that he was far too busy to commit to anything or, especially, anyone. Whatever the case may have been, because he was a boy, the meaning of emotional relationships held a minuscule priority in his mind. He could readily admit that Liviana was fun, and that the time they spent together was nice. Dracon could even easier admit to how beautiful she was (absolutely stunning) and that kissing and touching her was great. However, the boy couldn’t admit outright how he felt about Liviana because he didn’t really know. Besides, he was too busy to think about his feelings and it wasn’t considered to be a very masculine trait to wonder about such things. So, he simply didn’t.

Dracon had arrived in Scotland a little later than he had anticipated. He had been working hard in the broom shop all winter break and had become consumed by the holiday rush. It had been a good season for the Towler’s family business. The holidays always brought all kinds of wizarding Welsh into the store and it was the holidays that allowed them to eat and pay for their flat. There were only two times a year where the store made a decent profit – just before summer and just before the holidays. Dracon always had spent his breaks polishing and repairing brooms, setting up displays in the store window, or helping customers select the appropriate size and make for their nine year old son. This year had been different, Dracon had put in extra time and effort into his job and came out with a pocket full of sickles, knuts, and even a couple of galleons. Hard work always paid off, that he knew, but the motivation for his hard work came from Liviana and their pre-scheduled “date” at the winter festival. He had been waiting for his father to shell out his earnings from the register that morning when his father went on one of his long rants about being a good man, about having self-control and saving his hard earned money. Dracon nodded and as soon as the last knut hit his palm, he was out of the shop in a flash and headed for Scotland.

It had been Liviana’s idea to meet for the festival. She had wrote him a letter the beginning of break and was telling him about baking cookies with her aunt and how she loved the holidays, then it turned into loving the winter festival, which turned into her “supposing” she would like to see him sometime soon. They agreed to meet near Honeyduke’s, near the family owned cocoa booth that was there every year. It was always a festival favorite and the Lancaster family was famous for their homemade whipped cream and cinnamon sprinkles. He had gone there as a boy before and still remembered his first cup of eggnog he had ever tasted, which had been from the Lancaster booth. The sun was low in the sky as Dracon walked along the street. The lanterns that dotted the landscape had not yet been lit yet but the mild glow from the fading sun had provided a relaxing hue over the crowd. There were few holiday shoppers by now, and instead it was groups of families moving casually between booths or signing up for events. It was a dramatic change from the daytime winter festival. Dracon neared the infamous booth and pulled a gloved hand from his pocket and ran a hand through his hair. He looked over the heads of a couple that passed in between him and the booth, tilting his chin up to peer over their heads. There was a single solitary figure standing at the corner of the booth, her back to him but he could see her neck turning and looking for someone. Dracon knew it was Liviana. Everyone around her was in constant motion and moving from place to place, but she stood still in the middle of a wave of festival attendees, waiting for him. As Dracon approached, his eyes traced her perfect outline of her curvy shape. Even with a thick coat to shield her from the cold, he could make out the smooth curves of her waist and hips. Merlin, even from behind she looked nice. It wasn't until he was closer did she turn her head slightly so he could see her face. Quietly, he walked up behind her and with chaser-like speed, placed a hand gently on her hip.

Before she could react to his touch, Dracon lowered his lips to beside the girl’s ear and with a low accented voice, he said, “yee look very nice tonight. Who ever you're waiting fo' is very lucky.”

He would have owled if he wasn’t coming. She kept reminding herself of that; and also that in the grand scheme of things waiting a few extra minutes here or there wasn’t really a problem. She just felt silly was all, it was a constant battle for control between them sometimes. They both had a lot of pride and neither one easily backed down when pressed. The difference between Drake and other people was how easy the banter came between them. They didn’t fight, they joked - and sometimes those jokes had a had edge of truth to them. She felt a bit silly waiting and feeling so excited. It'd been less than a week since they were together - it was just that feeling of never really being completely alone together. This was their first sort of... date since the summer before, where it would be completely just the two of them.

Her fingers were freezing as she blew on them once more before stuffing them in her pocket. She was in such a rush to get to the festival she’d forgotten her gloves. For someone so meticulous about details she had a way of forgetting things needed for basic survival of winter. She was curing her absent mind when she felt a body behind her, hand on her hip, and she couldn’t help but smile. Without turning to face him, her head demurely bowed, voice tinted with laughter, “Ah, he’s a might luckier I haven’t just run off or turned into a snowman in this dreadful cold”, turning her head, brown eyes bright lips curved into a teasing grin. “I suppose some would say he’s worth it. Though I don’t know if Father Christmas thinks he still deserves the surprise I have for him”. Any and all idea she had of being mad at him went out the window the second she saw his face. She just couldn’t really stay mad at him. It was a problem when withholding affection was the most effective solution she’d ever known to get what she wanted out of someone. Placing a kiss on his cheek, she was mildly surprised at her own contented desire to just stand there with him for the rest of the night.

Reaching up with a cold hand to touch a wayward lock of his hair, she felt her stomach tighten. She was still a virgin - but it was a wonder how after last summer and the first term of the school year. Their touches were usually fleeting and while thoroughly pleasant; rather frustrating. Even if this would be the first night they were really alone together - she was slightly startled by the overwhelming urge she had to be close to him. Physically intimacy was not something she regularly engaged in. Even with her extensive dating history, there was always sort of a wall around her, an arms length between her and other people. Dracon seemed to just obliterate that in the most sneaky of ways; a hand on her back as they walked down the hallway, his leg resting against hers when they studied, the way he’d absently touch her hair for no particular reason…sneaking up on her in the middle of the Festival and cooing against her ear. He was a sneaky devil he was - but she rather liked it. Slipping an arm around his waist she looked around the milling crowds and snuggled a little closer, “Glad you finally showed up. Another ten minutes and I might have lost fingers, or my terribly adorable nose”.

With her voice edged with humor, Liviana remarked, “ah, he’s a might luckier I haven’t just run off or turned into a snowman in this dreadful cold”, and then she turned her head and looked at him. He felt his lips pull back in a grin as he looked at her. Liviana’s face was long, but didn’t contain sharp features like her relatives. She was smooth featured with wide brown eyes and pink lips that contrasted against her warm, cinnamon tinted skin. Even her hair was warm colored, not a stark and cold black but several shades of havana browns and melted chocolate. Despite the chill in the air, Dracon could feel her body warmth through her clothing and his, right against his skin. She was pleasant to look at, that was undeniable. Every bloke in the school could readily admit that fact. “I suppose some would say he’s worth it. Though I don’t know if Father Christmas thinks he still deserves the surprise I have for him,” Liviana said through her amused expression, her lips spread in a teasing smile. He feigned a look of complete surprise, Dracon’s hazel eyes widened and mouth opened slightly and closed. “Good thing fer me that Father Christmas is a forgiving bloke,” he remarked. He was curious in what the surprise was. Dracon knew what he was hoping it was but the logical part of his mind reminded him that it was more likely to be a gift certificate to the quidditch supply shop or a peck on the cheek. It was nice to live in a fantasy for a little while, anyways, despite how irrational that was.

Liviana placed a delicate kiss on his chilled cheek and snuggled against him, her body burying deeper into his arms as he placed his free arm around her other side, allowing her closer to him. She was simply torturous. Her eyes scanned the crowd lazily, and he followed her lead and watched the families and slightly familiar Hogwarts’ students’ faces pass them. Dracon took note of more than one set of young student eyes burning into them. They were two well known students, Liviana and himself, and Dracon wasn’t surprised at the curious looks they received. “Glad you finally showed up. Another ten minutes and I might have lost fingers, or my terribly adorable nose,” Dracon looked down at her and then up at the crowd. “That would've been a shame. Ah am sorry that Ah was late. Ah was in Wales longer than expected,” was all Dracon said on the matter, the tone of his voice as simple and passive as his words. Dracon didn’t want to talk about the fact that he had to work. He found it humiliating and disliked it when people asked, it always seemed like the more questions and more they probed, the more they did it out of amusement. He placed a kiss on the top of her head against her brown hair and looked down at the girl finally; “come on,” he said taking her hand in his and leading them into the entrance to Honeydukes, “let’s get out of the cold.”

There was a strange sort of knot in her stomach that tightened when he pulled her closer. She almost forgot her freezing fingers. She liked the way he looked at her, sometimes it almost made her want to giggle - if she were the giggling type, which she most definitely was not. She was aware that people found her attractive, but somewhere in her mind the fact didn’t hold much importance. A part of her believed it was just the way you were supposed to be if you were going to get anywhere in the world. Appearances were important - but then Drake looked at her, suddenly being “pretty” had a whole new meaning. Even if he was a boy of very few words, the way his eyes traveled over her features was almost poetic, and enough to make her chilled cheeks turn a slight shade of pink. For a brief moment she almost forgot they were standing in the middle of a street and that people could see them. How utterly shameful - only she didn’t really even care. Looking up at him again she grinned, “He is a very forgiving man. Girls though, we hold grudges,” her voice was teasing as she hugged him a little closer for just a moment.

And then they were moving and he wasn’t offering any real reason for being late. Drake kept a lot of his life outside of Hogwarts a mystery. He was vague and rather passive - and she knew better than to try and press him. She, on the other hand, was an open book - sort of. When she was with him she shared things, she talked about Daz and Dom, she talked about Aliec and Beatrix, she talked about the cottage and vacations they’d gone on… but she didn’t talk about how things made her feel. She didn’t talk about the way she worried everyone was slipping away from her. She just painted a pretty picture and left it at that. She certainly never talked about her biological parents, the whole situation was rather creepy in her mind. Then again, most of her memories concerning her father involved him talking about whisking her away from her happy little home, so, there was that. All of these things added up to the reason she wouldn’t press him to genuinely apologize and tell her what he’d been doing.

The other reason, of course, was that he might have been with another girl and she simply didn’t want to know. She was in no way ready to try and fathom the idea that he was seeing other people. It would drastically change the dynamic of their relationship - and then she’d be forced to see two other people just to make sure he knew she was keeping score. Walking with him toward the candy shop she chewed the inside of her cheek, finally remarking lightly, “Are you trying to fatten me up before the New Years ball, Towler? No one likes a chunky monkey in an evening dress,” she kissed his cheek again and followed him through the shop. It was one of those things, her and food - she’d never been “fat” a day in her life, but she had always been acutely aware of the way her body could fluctuate - especially during stressful periods. Her faced filled out too much and the dainty lines of her clavicle were suddenly not dainty anymore. Shaking her head she flicked her eyes back to Drake, it was not healthy to fixate on things of that nature when a gorgeous boy was tugging you into a candy store.

Dracon liked spending time with Liviana. She was easy to get along with and she never pressed him, or made him feel, intentionally or otherwise, inferior to her. Every moment was a deep breath – even during their little disagreements. When they did bicker, it was over trivial things like her taking something he said a wrong way, or her giving a hug to a long time friend (who was gay as the sunrise) and Dracon taking it to mean something more. It was typically misunderstanding which would always be cleared up in a matter of minutes. They both were good at logical thinking and seeing the other point of view, which often led to them both apologizing and making amends. He loved how she took him at his word and never was seeking any deeper meaning. Dracon said exactly what he meant and revealed exactly how much he wanted to, and Liviana somehow understood and accepted that without hesitation. He loved not feeling like she was staring at him and trying to detect his worth or thinking of things that simply he would consider overstepping their boundaries. If he ever shared anything he considered personal with Liviana, or anyone, it would be on his terms and when Dracon was completely and utterly comfortable in every way - physically, psychologically, and emotionally. If he ever did reveal anything to anyone, Dracon knew it would probably have been Liviana.

There was just something about the girl that made everything peaceful. His brain didn’t overflow with panic every time he wasn’t studying or practicing. Dracon didn’t feel the constant go-go-go feeling in his blood, or the anger at himself when he felt like he was slacking off on his responsibilities. That isn’t saying that he wasn’t responsible, or he didn’t study or work hard anymore, but he found it easier to sleep at night, or laugh. Without him realizing it, Liviana had improved every aspect of his life. “Are you trying to fatten me up before the New Years ball, Towler? No one likes a chunky monkey in an evening dress,” she said, and if he truly had listened to her tone, he might have detected a slight worry in her tone as they crossed the threshold. He looked down and her briefly, "Well, at least yud be a cute monkey." The room they stepped into wasn’t unlike a childhood fantasy, but it was more similar to a war zone from the earlier rush of holiday shoppers and sugar-high children. It was still busy, of course, but not to the point where Dracon felt the need to turn around and run out of the store. It was crowded, but doable, so the couple proceeded down the first aisle.

Dracon’s main reason for bringing Liviana into this store was because he knew that she had a sweet tooth. In her letters, she would always talk about what she did that day, and it usually had to do with sugar. For all of Dracon’s likeable traits, when it came to his social life, he was absent minded as a person in a deep coma. He rarely remembered to keep his appointments to have fun, or do something with someone else, but he was never late to a quidditch game or failed to attend a duel. He hadn’t forgot to buy Liviana something as much as he wasn’t quite sure what to buy her. He was a bloke who liked certainty and wanted to be absolutely positive she wanted what he got her, so what better way to do that was to bring the girl along with him? They walked for a minute or so, passing a few familiar Slytherin faces and a large barrel of Ice Mice, in comfortable silence. Liviana’s small hand still nestled inside of his own as they walk. When they had to share the aisle with someone passing by, Dracon would smoothly shift behind Liviana and place his fingertips against the small of her back, leading her gently through the crowd. When they would pass, he’d be at her side again, sometimes placing a kiss on the top of her head.

He really had to resist the urge to snog her.

She was just so damn irresistible – Dracon could never keep his hands off of her.

As manipulative as she might have been with other people, she didn’t even try with Dracon. It was a bit like “handling” Dominik after the war. Everything changed, he wasn’t her charismatic loving brother anymore. He would get into these dark funks for days and days and nothing she said or did could reach him. At first it had been terribly scary for her, because Dom was her protector, her best friend, the one who ran in and scooped her up like she was a rag doll and spun her till she was dizzy. By and by she learned that if she sat quietly and waited… he would come back to her. It wasn’t like it had been, and that was hard for her, but there were moments that it was almost that good again. Living like that, knowing that sometimes the secret was to just be still…made waiting out Drake easier. She gave him something she never gave anyone else - the benefit of the doubt. Somehow over the last few months… she just trusted him. He’d never given her a reason not to. With other people it was a hard fought battle, and there were still people that had been in her life for years she didn’t trust. There might have been a small part of her that wondered, sometimes, when the other shoe would drop and it would be all bad again. She did her best to try and quash that feeling whenever it popped up.

Looking over her shoulder at him she rolled her eyes, “Monkeys are not cute Drae. They are hair and smelly…wait-” she paused, playfully narrowing her eyes at him before sticking her tongue out and going fpppt, skipping ahead to the display of fudge. She liked being silly with him, it was sort of like when she could get Dominik to crack a smile for her. The way Drake’s eyes shifted, crinkles forming  just around the edges. There was a dimple in his cheek too, she loved that dimple. “Don’t tell my aunt I ever said this - but their fresh fudge is so much better than hers…and I don’t have to risk third degree burns to have some,” feeling his hand on the small of her back, she ducked her head to hide a smile. Drake was a guys guy - and she liked that. It reminded her of Aliec and Dominik. There was something possessive about the way he touched her - but not in an over powering or disturbing way. It was a safe feeling, like nothing really horrible could happen when they were together. She’s always thought he was so serious and dower - but he really wasn’t at all, and the monkey face he made when screaming for joy during Quidditch cracked her up.

Trailing along the counter she came to the display of Fizzing Whizbees and started bouncing on her feet, “I haven’t had these in forever! Dazzy used to bring them home for me and we’d sit in the study and levitate around Beatrix’s old crystal ball.” she laughed a little resting her head against his shoulder. She liked telling him the silly things for her childhood. She was a thoroughly different person now, but sometimes it was nice to look back at a time in her life when everything was  simple. She didn’t miss that time so much as she missed the mentality of being easily amused. She was rather glad she’d thought of this little date night. The cottage had been rather crowded as of late with everyone coming in for the holidays. She’d offered to stay with Dom - but her aunt staunchly refused. She had a feeling it had something to do with Dolly St. James being in down and Beatrix trying to give Dom as much privacy as possible. Which was yet another aspect of her surrogate mother’s personality that Liviana didn’t totally understand. She was expected to remain a virgin till she was married but no one had a problem with Dom being a bit of a slut these days. Maybe it was an age thing, tilting her face toward Drake she lightly poked his side, “See anything you like?”

Liviana could be very serious. When it came to her schoolwork, or her art appreciation club, she was completely business. Dracon respected that about Liviana, she could be as gentle and sweet as a breeze but she wasn’t simple minded and always did her best. Liviana was more like him than Dracon realized, at least the girl form of himself. However, on the same level, her playfulness was equally attractive. Dracon admitted that while he was clever and sometimes called charming, he wasn’t very silly. Sometimes Alexander Snark or Devlin Matthews got into a little trouble (ex: hovering a sleeping dorm mate three feet over their bed and waking them up with a loud shout and sudden drop, slipping Tongue Toffees into a Hufflepuff prefect’s tea and laughing hysterically as he tried to explain what happened to his Head of House with a swollen tongue and tear-filled eyes) here and there but never anything on a steady basis. Typically, it was Devlin who was getting him into trouble, not the other way around. Liviana’s humor was softer, and he liked that. He couldn’t imagine himself seeing a girl who acted like a boy. The fact that Liviana had once played quidditch had been difficult enough to swallow, but she was built like a piece of art, not a tree trunk, so that made it easier to bear the weight. He did enjoy when they had gone to the game together, she had engaged him in his rampant quidditch conversation on the tactics of the Falcons offense. She had joined in eagerly, eyes lit up with excitement, hands moving quickly with her lips, and they both spoke so fast and overlapping, it was impossible to tell what the other was saying. When she stuck out her tongue and hopped away from him, Dracon just smiled and followed behind her. He was glad she was having a good time. He liked to see her happy, especially happy with him.

Dracon watched her walk around the counter, her fingertips lightly dancing over the glass. Her chocolate brown eyes were scanning and consuming everything she saw. Her body language made it clear how much she enjoyed herself, even if her words made it even clearer. “I haven’t had these in forever! Dazzy used to bring them home for me and we’d sit in the study and levitate around Beatrix’s old crystal ball.” Dracon laughed and stepped beside her when she paused beside the counter. Her head found his shoulder and she leaned against him for a moment. He smirked and placed two fingers under her chin, titling her pretty head up, and placed a small kiss on her mouth. When she got close to him, it pulled him in like a planet pulls in anything that passes by. She had a fierce gravitational pull on him, sometimes he wondered if she’d suck him in so deep that it would break him – but he didn’t try to think about his emotions, so he never solved the riddle. When their lips parted, he smile at her.

He didn’t really have any stories of his childhood to tell. Dracon’s parents didn’t come to Hogsmeade, at least not since he was old enough to be able to come into a store and purchase his own supplies without a chaperone. The last time they had come just for fun had been the winter festival when he was seven years old and he tried that eggnog at the encouragement of his father. He always said you know what you want until you give it a chance – something that Dracon carried into his present lifestyle, even while looking at Liviana. He had given this relationship a chance and Dracon no doubt wanted Liviana. He was glad she didn’t expect him to answer with one of his own amusing childhood stories, because those were few and far between. She looked around and then looked up at him, giving him a playful poke in his side.

“See anything you like?”, she asked him.

Dracon’s eyes slighted at her as if he was trying extremely hard to read her meaning and a small smirk on his lips lingered as he asked, “Is this a trick question?”

It was a strange feeling, being so content - it wasn’t something she experienced often. In reality most of her life was a constant battle for more, to do better, to get to that other place, the next level. She did it with her school work, with her art, with her spells. She was naturally driven, it was a part of her nature. If she couldn’t give 110% of herself to something she’d rather not do it at all. That was why she wasn’t playing Quiddy this year. There were so many other things she needed to be doing, things that demanded her focus, it made her a little sad. In the end it was for the best because she knew without a doubt that she could not have been on the team with Dracon. One of the things she disliked about him was…his rather chauvinistic leanings when it came to girls playing Quidditch. There wasn’t a lot about him she found disagreeable but that was one thing they just could not talk about. She wanted to punch him repeatedly in the head whenever it came up. He wasn’t trying to be cruel and for most things he understood her worth ethic entirely… he was just so vehemently against female Quiddy stars - especially beaters. Which in a sense she could understand, being a beater required a lot of upper body strength.

Still, for that to be the one thing she disliked about him, it was saying a lot. Especially since it was an easy enough topic to avoid. All of that lead her mind back to the package she carried tucked under her coat. She’d gotten Dom to give up one of this old bats from his Hogwarts’ days and sign it. She knew that Drake had been rather disappointed that he hadn’t gotten to meet Dominik the last time they went to a match - so she’d also roped him into two more tickets with a promise to eat with them after. When she used her big puppy eyes on them most people had a hard time refusing her, especially her big brother. She was excited to see his reaction because, well, despite other selfish tendencies she liked giving presents. She liked getting them too, but finding the perfect thing for someone else and seeing the way their face could light up - it buffed her ego a bit. Biting her lip she narrowed her eyes a little at the boy, flicking a hair from her face, “Is there any other kind of question when it comes to me?” She managed to keep a straight face for a faction of a second before her grin won out.

“Is there any other kind of question when it comes to me?”

That was a typical girl thing – saying one thing and expecting something else entirely. A typical sort of girl with a typical sort of boy who said what he meant and meant what he said. The opposite behavior complimented the other nicely. She kept him on his toes and interested and Liviana could always rest easy knowing that he wasn’t the type of boy to make up lies or keep something a secret. While he liked his privacy and space, Liviana respected that, so they never had a problem with her asking a question and him answering truthfully. If she asked him about something he didn’t want to answer, he would simply say as much. There was a silent understanding of each other that was hard to find in a partner, or whatever they considered each other to be, since they certainly weren’t lovers.

Sex had come up often, and not always a conversation started by him. Liviana was a tease, she’d let him get close and allow his hands to roam and pull apart her blouse’s buttons or place his hand on her thigh, but the upper thigh was a no-fly zone. His fingers would stretch and feel the lace hem of her knickers before receiving a gasp in his ear and her hand jerking him out from underneath. It was like throwing a quaffle at the hoop and bouncing off the rim every time – no matter how many times he got rejected, if he didn’t take a shot he’d regret it later. It was obvious she wasn’t intentionally playing games with his head, but from a man’s point of view, it was still frustrating. It wasn’t that she wasn’t interested in him, Liviana made that very clear, and it sure as hell wasn’t that he wasn’t interested in her. Somehow, they were always in a bad place at a bad time. There was always a class letting out nearby, or a stray quaffle went sailing over their heads, or the dueling club needed help; they never had a moment alone.

Dracon shook his head, a small smile still lingering lightly on his lips. “No, you’re right,” he paused and looked around the store. “Now, if yee were asking me an honest question,” he continued, walking alongside her and leading her further down the aisle. Dracon stopped and picked up a small black box with a large dragon head on the top. There were several different colored dragon heads on top of black boxes, none of them the same. Some sapphire blue with several little spikes, other dragon heads were green or orange, but the one in Dracon’s hand was red. He smirked and looked at her, “Ah’d have to say my favorite being the Pepper Snaps.” Dracon winked and tossed the box to her, when she caught it in her hands by reflex, he continued, “Have yee ever had ‘em before? The classic Chocolate Frogs were my favorite as a little bloke but,” he shrugged, smiled and nodded at what sat in her hand, “Ah always liked the Pepper Snaps.”

Her reflexes were still sharp, slender hand zipping out to snatch the box easily. She grinned, looking down at the dragon head. She liked when he was playful back. They had a healthy balance between them. It was an ideal relationship - even if it didn’t have a title. Really, the “what are we doing” conversation had never come up, she certainly wasn’t going to push him. Girls who let their need for definition rule their relationships often ended up alone and unhappy. As long as he wasn’t making it known he had twenty other girls he was shagging then she could deal with a non-title. Of course it was part of the reason she wouldn’t sleep with him, at least part of it. It wasn’t that she didn’t want to, she did to a degree, it was just that old double standard. Boys could do what they liked with whom they liked and it was just a boy being a boy. When your future prospect was being a housewife… well a girl had to be more careful. She hated the old analogy but really, why would someone marry you and do the right thing if they got whatever they wanted from you whenever they wanted it form you. There wasn’t enough give and take in that equation. She needed to know that there was something that separated her from everyone else.

“I should have known. Pepper Imps make the absolute most sense,” she grinned at him and stepped a little closer, resting one hand on the breast of his jacket. “I’ll have to tell Santa to leave some in your stocking along with that big lump of coal,” she grinned before placing a fleeting kiss on his chin and heading back up the aisle. Now she had to find a sneaky way to add it to his gift without him seeing - though that was probably a silly notion. He’d know she just bought them when he opened it - even if he didn’t see her actually buying them. Heading back toward the register she picked up some fudge as well, glancing over her shoulder, “I still haven’t found anything for the twins yet. Maybe I’ll just get them fat. Merlin knows Auntie Beatrix is already trying the way she force feeds us all,” there was an amused note of laughter as she grabbed three packages of Canary Creams. “I ought to pick something up for Effy too. She’s staying with Dazmond this break. I swear Beatrix wants her to have kids so badly she’s forcing her to mother any wayward pureblood we meet,” she was a little less amused by this statement, distracted for a moment between Sugar Quills and Chocolate Frogs.

When she looked up again, it was because she felt a hand on the small of her back, with a smile she turned to look at him, “I think you’d have been rather adorable chasing after a chocolate frog. I will demand a demonstration some day,” though one arm was now loaded with candy, the other slipped around him, “Makes me sorry I always avoided the car with all you boys in it the first years of train rides”. That was one of the most vulnerable things she’d ever said - but she spoke in such a way that it came across as more of a joke. There was a part of her now that wished she had known him, really known him back then. Her life was so much better with him in it - she could hardly picture what it had been like before. Sure she still had problems and she worried too much and she probably already had an ulcer… but when they were together things just didn’t seem that bad anymore. It didn’t feel like everything was slipping away because here was this one constant thing. She liked that, she needed it. Now she had it.

“I should have known. Pepper Imps make the absolute most sense,” she replied. Then she was against him again, her hand flat against his breast and her face looking up at him. Dracon took a deep breath and resisted the urge to kiss her again. She was right, of course, that the Pepper Imps made the most sense. He hadn’t had them in a long time, but the last time he had tasted one, Dracon almost set fire to his bed curtains. They were always good fun when he was a boy. He had collected the dragon heads and set them on a small wooden shelf that had sat above his quidditch gear. He kept them away from Chester since the staring and blinking dragon eyes made the owl uneasy. His chocolate frog cards were still in a shoebox under his bed. Dracon’s collection had been pretty extensive. He had ran to the sweet shop in Cardiff every Sunday after receiving his meager allowance to purchase a new card. While the frog was fun and tasted good, it was the cards that were important. The boys used to trade them and at one point, he owned at least seven Albus Dumbledore cards, then he traded them all for one Kevin and Karl Broadmoor from the Falcons. It was a dual-sided card and too sweet to pass up. Looking at the Chocolate Frog display, he wondered if that old shoebox still had the infamous beater brothers still shut inside.

“I’ll have to tell Santa to leave some in your stocking along with that big lump of coal,” and placed a kiss on his chin before darting off into the store again. He followed behind her, letting her have a little space while she searched through creative displays and looked on the shelves for presents. ” “I ought to pick something up for Effy too. She’s staying with Dazmond this break. I swear Beatrix wants her to have kids so badly she’s forcing her to mother any wayward pureblood we meet,” and something small changed in her tone. Not enough to cause any sort of thought process in Dracon’s head, it was subtle, but he did notice a change in her face. From the side as he approached, her smile a lost some of its shine and her eyes were duller as she scanned the items in silence. He couldn’t put his finger on it. Before he could ask if she was all right, he placed his hand against her back again and stood behind her, leaning over her shoulder. He kissed her between her cheek and ear and gave a small rub with his hand against her back.

And she smiled and all was right with the world.

“I think you’d have been rather adorable chasing after a chocolate frog. I will demand a demonstration some day,” she said as she turned around to look at him. He laughed and followed up her statement with a simple, “is that so?” Dracon’s voice was light and amused. Her arm slipped around him and Dracon draped his long arm around her shoulders and they walked forward down the aisle. ” “Makes me sorry I always avoided the car with all you boys in it the first years of train rides”, Liviana said. “Ah, yee didn’t miss much. Ah wouldn’t change anything about how we met, besides, I wasn’t the good bloke you see beside yee now,” which was completely true. He sounded jokingly and playful confident, Dracon head even raised as a smile spread on his lips, but it was true. When he had been younger, between when he discovered he wasn’t accepted by his peers and the middle of his first year or perhaps the beginning of his second year even, he had a reputation for fighting and causing trouble. Dracon had acted out a lot before Hogwarts and more than once did he get brought home by police for fighting after school. Typically, it was him defending himself from others, but that kind of information didn’t matter. The more he learned to defend himself, the more emotional unsettled he became and it had caused him to assume every bloke near him wanted to box. It was Hogwarts that had set him straight, and he was eternally grateful. No one remembered the eleven year old with a temper and he preferred to leave that part of him dead and buried.

His history was no one’s business but his own.

Before she could ask him what he meant, Dracon changed the subject.

“What’s your favorite sweet?”

There was this way that he was sometimes, like he just knew that she needed someone to touch her right in that minute, she felt the tension slowly ebb from her shoulders as he kissed her cheek and rubbed the small of her back. Before…everything was different, when she’d been little and the world was safe physicality was something she craved from everyone. She’d crawl all over Dom and Daz, she loved to curl up under a blanket and have Beatrix read to her. She needed to be close to people. After Dominik’s trial that changed in a way - she still needed it, but she didn’t ask for it anymore. Sometimes Beatrix still brushed her long hair out for her at night, or when she was particularly stressed Dazmond would rub her temples with a concoction of essential oils - but no one had ever been able to read her like Dominik. He just knew when she needed to be reminded that someone was there. Now Drake did that, it was like a sixth sense maybe, or maybe she just gave off more distressed signals that she realized. The how he knew didn’t matter so much as the fact he knew.

Looking up at him over her shoulder she grinned, eyes half lidded, “I’m trying to picture it actually - you running after a hopping frog with chocolate all messy on your face,” narrowing her eyes a little for a moment before she laughed, she just shook her head, “Nope. I just can’t see it, all I get is this brooding smirk face you make when you’re concentrating in Potions - which while rather hysterical is not exactly what I’m going for”. He did make some of the strangest faces when he thought she wasn’t looking. When he was really concentrating on a particular task the tip of his tongue would sometimes snake out the corner of his mouth. The first time she’d noticed this is was very hard not to have a complete laughing fit in the middle of class. Since then she’d tried several times [unsuccessfully] to catch him making the face on camera - not in class of course, but when they were studying together. The only problem was he never believed it was really an assignment for the art club, so he’d never give up and just make the face for her anyway.

She picked up on the subtle inflections of his voice - but was more acutely aware of how quickly he moved onto the topic of her favorite sweets. He didn’t like to leave a gap for her to try and press him - even though she should have known she wouldn’t. She never did. She knew next to nothing about his home life other than he and his parents didn’t really get along. He just didn’t talk about home. It was the one thing she was genuinely envious of Maeve for - because she just knew things about him. They’d grown up together. Actually that was why Liviana took such little note of him. Sure she had Whitman blood in her, but she identified herself whole heartedly as an Wiedman. Her mother hadn’t wanted her and the sentiment was mutual. Not that she ever told anyone that, no that was a secret she saved for herself. The last time she’d seen her mother she’d been on a three day bender and showed up at the cottage wanting to talk the previous summer. So, for all that fun, for the longest time she thought of Drake as belonging to her cousin.

Now? Well now he didn’t really seem to belong to anyone, except maybe Liviana herself. She wouldn’t go that far though - because there was still so much both of them kept under wraps. Yes they were happy together, yes they had fun, and that was all that mattered. Eventually they would either give themselves a title or they’d fizzle and drift after graduation. That was still a fair bit off, it wasn’t something she needed to worry about in that moment. Grinning at him, she wrinkled her nose slightly, “You say that like I’ll only have one. Silly Drae- don’t you know I love them all fairly equally? It’s why I’m getting so fat!” pouching her belly out a little bit under her coat she rested her fingers against it, “Shameful really, I’ll never catch down to Dazzy if I don’t give up my sweet tooth,” she made her voice light as she turned toward the shelf behind him, pointing when a slender index finger, “But, if I had to pick, I’d say Peppermint Toads”.

They didn’t talk about themselves very much. Liviana rarely asked questions and Dracon rarely had a clear answer for questions he wasn’t comfortable answering. Even Dracon felt there was a emotional boundary he wasn’t able to cross with Liviana when it came to her parents. There was a lot he didn’t understand about her parents, like what happened and where they were, and how they could have left their daughter to be raised by another couple, blood relation or not. Part of him thought maybe he should ask her about it and the other part told him that if she wanted to talk about it, then she would. So, he left it at that. What they instead filled their conversation up with was school, quidditch games, the last dueling meeting, her cousins, Dracon’s favorite color (red), or Liviana’s favorite animal (panda bear). He didn’t see what importance his home life or her past had to do with the two of them in this moment. If he had it his way, no one would ever see his little flat in the city or the rundown broom shop in the cheap part of town. Dracon didn’t want to be associated with that part of his life. Everyone could hear his name and imagine him as chaser for Slytherin or dueling president and that was just fine by him.

“Nope. I just can’t see it, all I get is this brooding smirk face you make when you’re concentrating in Potions - which while rather hysterical is not exactly what I’m going for”

Did he make strange faces when he concentrated?

Dracon thought for a moment, trying to remember if he felt his face ever contort in an unnatural way during Potions. She must have been joking with him, he finally decided. “Ah smirk when Ah’m in Potions? Hmp,” he gave a light grunt, nodding his head. “ ‘Course, Ah’d rather be smirking than doing-,” he broke off his words and made his imitation of Liviana’s hard stare, her nose all wrinkled and forehead scrunched. The face only ended when he felt a light slap on his shoulder and he laugh for a few moments, pulling his arm back to shield himself from her fake fury. “Aw, come ‘eere, love,” he said, consuming her in a hug even if she gave a playful resistance. Dracon let her go and kept one arm loosely around the smaller Slytherin as he reached for a plastic bag tied near the barrel of nearby goodies.

“You say that like I’ll only have one. Silly Drae- don’t you know I love them all fairly equally? It’s why I’m getting so fat!”

He made a pffft noise with his mouth, shaking his head as he pulled his arm from her to use both hands and open the bag with a few shakes. “Yee know you’re stunning, Liviana,” he threw a look at her and smiled. Dracon turned back and shoved a few handfuls of Peppermint Toads in the bag and handed it to her and said, “for making fun of your Potions’ face, which Ah think is rather cute.”

Watching him with an amused smile as he seemed to ponder the idea of his “Potions Face” she nodded, “You do smirk when you’re in potions - but it’s a smidge smaller than the smug look you wear in the Pitch,” that was also true. He walked into every match oozing this self confidence. As his cheering section it was cute, if she was his teammate she’d want to knock him off his damn broom. He was good, he knew he was good, and he worked to be better, so she figured a little of that smugness was deserved. As long as he didn’t act bigheaded with her one on one she could deal with some amount of ego. If she had stopped to think about how similar Dracon was to Dominik it would be almost sickeningly Freudian. Of course, on the other hand, it could all boil down to her needing an equally dominant partner. She couldn’t be with someone she couldn’t respect and she couldn’t respect someone who just let her walk all over them for the change to be seen with her on his arm. Drake wasn’t like that. Dominik hadn’t been like that until he started seeing Rocio - and Merlin, that was a mess.

Drake challenged her, was an equal rather than a play thing - and that is what made him different than any other boy she’d ever been with. Having lived with Dominik simply made her more patient with him, slower to the snipe. It was all worth it when he spurred on their silly banter, making fun of her potions face. She cracked up, her laughter hearty as she covered her mouth before lightly slapping his shoulder, “That’s dreadful! No wonder Beatrix said she thought I was getting wrinkles,” she playfully tried to pull away as he wrapped his arms around her, almost instinctively her head rested in the crook of his neck, slender arms pressed against his chest, her hat slipping from it’s former jaunty angle on her head, “Oy, you’re going to muss my hair. We can’t all pull off the winter windswept look like you Towler”. Her teeth playfully nipped at a bit of exposed skin before she tugged away, his frame slipping naturally to her side with one arm still wrapped around her. Her cheeks stained a soft pink at his compliment.

“I bet you say that to all the girls at Christmas. It’s your charitable contribution for the season, fattening up the egos of plain girls,” now she was mildly pushing the believability of these pseudo insecurities. She knew she was by no stretch of the imagination ‘plain’. She knew that she was a healthy blend of her biological parents German-Italian and English Rose heritage. There was a difference between being aware of your attractive features and being a self-important vain prissy bitch. She was somewhere in the middle. Not entirely as practical as Artemis not nearly as vain as Aphrodite. Pursing her lips as he scooped up the toads she shook her head, “See! You are trying to make me fat. Sneaky Devil. You’re lucky those are still my Achilles’ heel. I never have been able to turn them down,” she stuck her tongue out for the briefest flash before she tugged him toward the end of the line, “Besides, my potions’ face is no where near as comical as your quiddy-match-monkey-face yell,” she grinned up at him, “I still have pictorial proof of that one too”.