Two minutes ago, Lucas Norwood been consumed with the devastating loss of his notebook.  For the Ravenclaw, it was on par with losing a limb and as such could not be tolerated.  Even if he had great working memory, the likes of which saved him time and again, there would be no way to recover the plays, designs, mock ups, player stats, everything. Sure he doodled or jotted on nearly every bit of parchment in his possession, but the notebook was different.  It was the core, and he needed it to function if not to prepare for the showcase coming up in the next couple of weeks.  Americans were as good as defeated in his head, but he needed something to back that belief up.

Standing in the doorway of the bathroom, was a bit like being sucked into a vacuum... Luc failed to hear anything Sophie was asking him at the moment.  All of it, everything that been utterly and overwhelmingly important simply vanished and for a good minute and a half... Lucas rather forgot how to speak.  The boxes in his head were getting all mixed up with each other.  Sophie's box was contained, or else, it had been up until the beginning of the Summer.  She operated on a level above certain other girls.  As much as he cared about her, sometimes in a brotherly way, sometimes in a very much not brotherly way, dating wasn't an option.   There were numerous reasons, but the biggest of all being neither wanted to put their friendship on the line.  Boundaries been drawn, and this definitely pushed all of them and there was quite enough things going on in his head at the moment.

"Bloody hell, Sophie, where's your shirt?!"

Ollie perked up then, wet, blonde chunks of hair clung to the previous brunette's face and Luc gratefully accepted the distraction.  Captain Obvious came out to play, as his brain struggled to recapture whatever wit and humor he had to his name. "You're blonde."

"My shirt," she looked at him in total exasperation, "is under your foot. Thanks. I was trying to avoid mussing it up and now it's got a damn boot print on it," she gestured with her elbow to the crumpled pink fabric under his shoe and shook her head. She was used to the way Luc's brain sometimes locked up, at least when it was about other people. She had no idea why he was standing there with his eyes wide - like he was watching some kind of train derailment. She didn't pause to consider there was something inherently scandalous about standing around without a shirt on. Realistically, sans the water element, bras covered up much more than the average stylish biniki you might encounter (not that you encountered a lot of those in London, even in the summer). She also didn't understand the seeming inherent sexualization of breasts, or why nudity was some how awkward and scandalous; even though it often made her feel awkward.

Turning the shower off, she reached for a towel and wrapped it around Ollie's head, letting Luc sputter and spin his wheels for a few more moments. Rubbing the other girls' (now blonde) curls she snorted at the suggestion they both practically lived with her. It was true (especially in Ollie's case) but Soph wasn't about to complain. It felt nice to have Luc sort of bumming about - even if he was currently being an absolute idiot, and with Ollie... Whatever the Governors and new Headmaster decided they either needed to spend all the time they could together because a) it'd be Christmas before they saw one another again or b) Ollie'd be in Hufflepuff and it just wouldn't be the same. In the back of her mind she considered that no matter what happened with the presence of the other three schools at Hogwarts it was going to be a completely different year anyway. She didn't dwell too long on it of course, because there wasn't any point and she could work herself up into a panic attack if she weren't careful about it.

So instead she helped Ollie dry off as much she could before picking up the wide tooth'd comb and gingerly starting to work out the tangles. She actually snorted when Luc pipped up with more hall of fame worthy commentary, "Yes, Luc. She is blonde. Were you on planet I-am-the-center-of-the-universe when I said, 'HEY OLLIE LEMMIE MAKE YOU MORE PURDY'? I swear..." she trailed off, wincing as she tugged a little too hard on the other girl's hair, "Sorry Love". Norwood could be so distracting sometimes, also he didn't always pay attention to things - like words coming out of her mouth. She narrowed her eyes at the now honeyed sort of blonde tresses in front of her, head tilted to one side, it was a good job really - totally easy too. She considered dying her own hair then vaguely remembered a desire to somewhat resemble her mother and dismissed the notion out of hand. The she turned her brown eyes back on Luc, "Now that we've solved the mystery of Sophie's Missing Shirt and Ollie Being Blonde, what did you lose again"?

A chuckle formed as Sophie explained about the location of her shirt, "that's unfortunate." After all that effort it ended mucked up anyway all because of a boot. Ollie probably would have preferred to have Sophie in the shirt since the proximity to her boobs was somewhat nerve wracking to Ollie. There was this slight idea to stare, which she was sure would look both suspicious and inappropriate. Ollie felt she would be staring in a similar manner if she saw her at the beach, which Ollie was somewhat fortunate had not occurred. She was just not used to seeing this much skin of Sophie.

Ollie closed her eyes and thought of other things as Sophie started to dry her hair. She did not want to think about how close a topless Sophie was to her. She danced around the ideas of bacon and various food items she liked, which worked but made her hungry. She then decided to direct her thoughts to things like wolfsbane and the not so delicious taste. It was much easier to stop any lingering thoughts about ones friend from popping up when thinking about Wolfsbane.

"Yes, I am blonde." She paused, "Like it?" She was interested in seeing exactly what she look liked in a mirror. She had to admit she was rather intrigued by the prospect of being blonde. She grinned over at Luc, he would be the first person of the opposite gender to tell her what she looked like as a blonde. As Sophie tugged on her head she shrugged, "Not a problem," when you compared things to the extraordinary pain of a shift nothing really seemed to come up muster. "Let me see!" Ollie finally said and she moved her hand to pick up a strand of her hair. No, that would not do. She moved and slowly and tentatively got to her feet. Boy, kneeling and sitting was fine, but the moving to stand up she felt like she had aged seventy years. She peeked into the mirror and smiled. "Brilliant." Though she wished she did not look so haggard.

If someone were to tell Lucas Norwood he'd be put off by a pretty girl without her top on, he'd likely have laughed in the person's face.  He didn't have a lot of experience in that field, but he certainly wouldn't turn down a pretty girl (half naked or otherwise.)  When exactly had Sophie become pretty, he wanted to know.  She'd always been somewhere between cute and adorable, tipping over to pretty just didn't seem all that fair.  It happened slowly, he guessed, so slowly one couldn't have noticed unless they'd been paying attention.  Had he been paying attention?  Had it been rooting around in the back of his mind, this notion his tiny pixie of a friend seemed to be growing up? 

Somewhere in the last year or so she'd come into the gangly limbs and bits had filled out that he couldn't remember from the Summer before.  Somewhere in the last year they'd snogged not once, but twice.  Somewhere in the last year he'd started looking at her just a little bit differently.  Even now, he wasn't too keen to examine the difference and he certainly didn't want to try to explain it aloud for anyone, much less present company.  That and he really couldn't think given the current circumstance.  The pink shirt lay ruined under his boot and with nothing else to on hand he grabbed the bottom of his t-shirt impulsively.

"Here," Lucas tugged his t-shirt over his head and tossed it at Sophie.   "Put this on." As an after thought he smiled at Ollie, "I do, like it, I mean.  Suits you."

Sophie looked at Luc, then the shirt as it bounced off her face and into her hand, then back to his face. Maybe it was the part of her that just felt contrary, maybe it had been too long since she'd had a fight with someone, maybe she was just pissed off at the ridiculous double standards that there were in the world - whatever it was her next move was to actually whip the shirt back into his face, "You are such a hypocrite Lucas William Norwood! Now you're standing there without a shirt on like it's a completely acceptable thing to do. Gordic's garters, its a fecking bra. It covers more than any boom-maid Veela Vixens' bikini, but you've got stack of those mags under your bed, don't you"?! The harumph noise that followed was so audible it echoed off the hard bathroom surfaces.

"One minute you're crying about Gracie and Liv being hacked off at you and the next you've got your tongue down my throat; then you act as though I ought to go around in a bloody Burqa. I'm not running about town in skirts two sizes too short with my bum hanging out. I'm in my own house, in my own bathroom, and if I want to walk around half naked I damn well will! You're not my father and you're sure a shit not my boyfriend," maybe there was a little bit of Nix[1] left in her after all. She certainly felt more righteously indignant than she had ever before when Lucas went big brother protector on her. She was tired of everyone treating her like she was supposed to be twelve forever. She'd have been sold off into marriage for two goats and a sturdy cauldron in some cultures by now.

She started to stomp out of the room, pushing roughly past Lucas before throwing a look over her shoulder, "You look amazing Ollie. I'll be down to start dinner in an hour," before banging her way up the stairs to her room. The nerve of some people! Luc had been being massively weird since the whole kiss thing anyway, today had just been the final straw. What the big deal was she would never understand, nor did it seem particularly fair that other people got to decide what she ought to do with herself and how she looked. She was tired of being sweet little Sophie, everyone's darling little sister. And so she set to the task of removing every offending article of clothing she could possibly find from her closet, leaving Luc and Ollie alone in the bathroom (possibly to gossip about what a crazy bint she'd become).

1.	Sophie's alias in the Hammertime & Tin Foil Armor threads

Ollie just sat on the ground in the bathroom taking in the scene. She of course knew about the things that had happened with Luc, since Sophie and her talked about nearly everything. Though all the same hearing it out in the open like that with Luc near by made something in her rather irked. Just thought of Luc kissing Sophie bothered Ollie to some degree in a way she really wished it didn't. Maybe it was something to do with the way Sophie had decided to phrase it, after all she sounded like Luc had used her or something to that effect. Ollie tilted her head to the side trying to avoid watching the scene as it unfolded in a big mess. What the heck was she supposed to do now?

"Uh thanks," she said awkwardly to both Luc and Sophie's compliments as she watched Sophie stalk away. By the sounds of it Sophie was not keen on the idea Ollie following along behind her like a lost puppy. So that meant she was stuck just sitting here in the bathroom until Luc moved or did something. Well, with the way her bones felt she was more than likely just going to be sitting here until she gathered the courage to move again or someone helped her up like she was some grandmother.

"Luc?" She asked somewhat awkwardly. "Could you help me up?" Ollie hated depending on other people but with days until the full moon she was starting to get particularly rigid and sore. She looked at Luc with an awkward smile on her face and held out her hand.