Hold your breath, I'll give you time

With the lights down low and the tension high
And just for the night, you'll be all mine now
And that's fine with me girl

The Valentine's dance hadn't been too long ago and while most students had brushed off their assigned partners, Nys hadn't. If anything it had just driven him to want to spend more time with his housemate Vet. He had known her vaguely before the dance despite having quite a few classes with one another. It was easy for him to miss opportunities in class, though. He had his close group of friends, as large of a group as it was they were extremely close, and he always found a way to be with one of them in partner situations. It was a blessing and a curse. But mostly a curse because it had kept him from mingling with others, like Vet, who he was steadily growing to like.

Like, that was an interesting way of putting it. It was more of a crush than anything, something that had always quietly been seeded in his mind and had only recently blown up when he actually began speaking with the witch. She was funny, and smart, and an absolutely stunning beauty even when she wasn't trying to be. Since the dance he had made it a point to visit with her more often and invite her places when he could. Need a partner in Defense class? Allow him to volunteer. Heading to dinner? He'd more than happily walk her down.

The way that Nys was some people could have shrugged his new behavior off as him just trying to be pleasant. Zeph had somehow had somehow figured out that there was a bit more of an ulterior motive behind his actions. Blind as he was his Hufflepuff friend had the nose of a bloody canine unit. Pheromones, ha, he had completely laughed it on when Zephyrus stuck that as his claim to whatever know-how he thought he had. He had brushed it off in conversation but made a mental note to research the capabilities and limitations of the human olfactory system. 

Research would have to wait, of course, until he had the free time. Which was never. He was a member of two very time consuming clubs, an intern, and-- a struggle all upperclassmen had to complain about-- NEWTs were just around the corner. It was a Saturday and as much as he had wished that he could have taken a break he knew that it was simply not something he could do. He would feel guilty if he had. Like Ina or Pita were going to pop out around a corner and holler at him about wasting valuable time on anything other than school. He had thought it a long shot when he asked Vet if she would accompany him to the Turret to study, but to his surprise she had agreed.

The hidden tower was completely vacant when they had arrived at the stroke of midnight. He hadn't really anticipated many people but none? Dionysus wasn't going to complain. Having some alone time with Vet would be interesting, considering each and every time he had been around her from the Ball until now had been in the presence of other students. In class, in the Great Hall, at the dance. What was alone time in a castle like this? 

The two had been sat in the quiet tower for a short time and while he tried to focus on his books it was growing increasingly more difficult. His pale green eyes wanted to leave the page before him and wander over her more than they wanted to read any more nonsense about potions they were looking over. Not just any potions, but love potions. "Can you believe they're actually teaching this," Nys said with a soft smile. "I understand Valentine's just passed but..." His face twisted into a visual yikes, his brows raising as he let out a small laugh. His book was open to a standard potion, one that seemed relatively harmless, but as he flipped the page it turned to show the Kissing Concoction.

"Causes the drinker to become infatuated with the giver-- could you imagine what it must be like to drink this?" In truth it sounded like it might be quite fun, given that the giver of the potion was someone worth while. "We should--" he  started strong before trailing to a stop. He felt a light flush across his cheeks, as he went to retract his would-have-been statement, "Nah, never mind. Stupid idea."  

@olivette | Outfit | Words:739

MADE BY VEL OF GS + ADOXOGRAPHY 2.0

Olivette had gone to the Valentines Dance not really knowing what to expect but she hadn’t gone in with expectation. But she had been surprised with how well her night had turned out. Nys was the reason for that. Of course they had been housemates since their first day here but she wasn’t as close to him as she was with Dina. She had kicked herself for ever having feelings for her best friend. She knew he had it bad for Zoe but she had still found herself having feelings for him. But at least she had the ability to keep it to herself and not tell him and then get shut down or even worse, do something embarrassing in front of him and that cause her even more pain. She was already dealing with her parents being separated. She didn’t need to cause herself anymore hurt on top of that.

Her mum knew the separation was hurting her but Vet knew she had to be mature about this and accept what came of it. She had taken much the same approach to her date for the Valentine’s dance. She was so grateful that Dionysus had been her date for the night. She had worked herself up so much in the lead up to the evening wondering who would be her date for the date. At least it was someone she was familiar with. She couldn’t work out how she had never really talked to the blonde haired wizard before despite them being in the same house. She felt guilty for not making the effort. The witch knew she could have made of an effort to get to know hte wizard before the night but she had done virtually nothing. Normally she was more outgoing and she made the effort to get to know someone, it just hadn’t happened with Nys.

But she had to admit that he did look very handsome on the night, so much so that she had been unable to take her eyes off him. Maybe that had been the secret intention of the faculty by pairing up students. It was supposed to bring about inter-house unity but it wasn’t going to happen given taht she had been paired with another eagle. Not that she had hardly complained, she had had a handsome date and one who had treated her well. Vet had been in no hurry ever to have a boyfriend. She just hoped it would happen one day. She had seen enough girls in her year acting desperate and purposely flirting with boys, hoping they would catch their attention. But that simply wasn’t Vet, she just didn’t flirt. At leas she had never been aware she was flirting. Her sister would think it was hilarious that she wasn’t even aware of what flirting was. Viv was popular and she was way confident in her sexuality in comparison to Vet.

But Vet tried her best be friends with everyone. And since the dance she had the chance to do that with Nys. She suspected that he was open to that and when he had suggested the study together she had gone along with the idea. They were just going to study, there was no harm in that. Nys had been spending more time with her and it was fine with her, he was trying to be a gentleman, even she could see that but she didn’t to embarrass him by pointing that out. She didn’t think that she was replacing Dima because he was her friend still but had been preoccupied lately and she had struck up a new friendship with Nys. That was fun and she thought he was a cool guy. She had seen him act differently around his friends compared to her but then again they were guys and she was a girl. Maybe he just saw her differently.

She had not been against studying with him in the turret. It was cozy and they were positioned close together. The weather was still cool and she was glad she had brought a blanket with her. She looked up as he spoke and laughed a little. ”Relax, I know boys think love potions are ridiculous but it’s hardly going to be covered in our NEWT exams next year.” Well, she hoped they didn’t. They had the chance to test them on something more serious than love potions.

Vet shook her head. ”I couldn't even imagine drinking a Love potion but from what I’ve read, it would taste better than Polyjuice” she replied as she fished around her bag for a packet of Bertie botts. She had picked it up the night before when she had been making way back to castle from St Mungo’s. ”We should what?” she asked as she opened the packed and picked up one. Thankfully it was popcorn flavoured. Vet held it out to the wizard, offering him. She had no idea if he liked them or not but she would now find out.