Hogwarts
School Healer
Creature Task Force - Registrar
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21 years old
Hufflepuff Alumnus
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PLAYED BY OOC NAME
PLAYED BY Trish
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Post by Mali Johar on May 22, 2017 4:50:02 GMT
Mali was a busy little witch. Two jobs, wolfsbane, a boyfriend, a dog and one friend barbarically locked up on wizarding house arrest. She thought it might be easier when Remus got out of Azkaban but the challenge just took another form. She was constantly wracking her brain to think of ways to make it more comfortable for him and she was spending a lot of time at his home and away from her other responsibilities. It was the very least she could do after he took such good care of her during her own house arrest. Today she had no work responsibilities but had spent most of the day over at Remus' watching the kids and helping him with various odd tasks around the house, arriving twenty minutes late to meet Theo for an ice cream date.
She apparated to the ice cream parlor with the loud crack that she was famous for and after assuring that all of her limbs were still intact, Mali beamed up at Theo. Something felt off about his demeanor but the witch thought she could just make up for it with extra sunshine on her part. They didn't get much time together but the time that they did get was magnificent and wonder. The pair of them were seated at one of the outside tables and she was making quick work of her ice cream, plain vanilla in a cup topped with jellyslugs and bits of crystalized pineapple while chattering away. If she didn't leave room for Theo to be brooding and moody then he would just be happy, wouldn't he? "So.." she chattered between spoonfulls of ice cream. "I want to try working charms into my knitting, make the things I make functional, yeah? I've not quite worked out how to do it yet, but I'm working on it." She plucked a jelly slug up from the scooped frozen treat and popped it into her mouth. "Do you think that maybe we should take Remus' kids out sometime this week? Get them out of the house and give them a break? Maybe take them for ice cream.. Oh, can I try yours?" Mali didn't wait for an answer and was already reaching her spoon across the table as she asked the question. "D'you want to try mine? The flavors are a little mixed but they're tasty together. Plus who doesn't like jellyslugs? Honestly I prefer the muggle version myself, they make them into cute ickle bears and you can bite off their heads."
Mali grew quiet for a moment and looked down at her own icecream, pushing a bit of the pineapple around with her spoon and chewing on her lower lip. There was something she needed and it was a sensitive subject between the two of them lately, considering what happened last time. The witch was working up her nerve to broach the subject, they already felt so off today that it was hard to knock them further off kilter. When she looked back up at Theo. Mali was still smiling brightly in an effort to woo him into agreement. "D'you want to come home with me when we're done? I've got to add some things to the potion but Eoin's gone..." She put down her spoon and reached across the table expectantly for his hand. "We can order pizza. Have you ever ordered Chinese? We could do that.. I just need to go by Knockturn Alley first. You'll come with me, won't you? I'd like to visit Mulpepper's Apothecary. Slug and Jigger's claims they're out of some ingredients I need but I've heard that Mulpepper's doesn't have that problem."
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St.Mungo's
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31 years old
Gryffindor Alumnus
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PLAYED BY OOC NAME
PLAYED BY Mego
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Post by Theo Ashland on May 24, 2017 17:51:06 GMT
Something about ice cream tasted a little less sweet when you were eating it by yourself. Or at least, if you were expecting to eat it with a cute girl and ended up eating it by yourself. Theo tried to wait for Mali, got antsy (think bull in a china shop, but troll in an ice cream parlor), and thought the ice cream might make him feel better while he waited. It just tasted...off. Luckily, something about wizard ice cream made it melt slower, or Theo would have been sitting over an even sadder half-eaten cup of melted soup by the time Mali finally got there.
He tried to shake the feeling off, he really did. He didn't want their rare time together marred by his grumpiness. It was just twenty minutes. But that was just the problem - these times together were growing rarer and rarer, and twenty minutes was sometimes all he could get. Theo was the hallmark of a jealous boyfriend and there was absolutely nothing he could do about that, not with his temperament. And the thing was, he knew Mali was a busy woman, and most of the time he could deal. He only really got jealous when he thought too much about why she was busy. Theo was also an exceptionally avoidant man, but there wasn't much he could do when all of Mali's causes and relations were thrown in his face from every angle every day. People were always talking about werewolves, and even more recently, about the Order of the Phoenix. It was still all over the news. They were his causes and his relations in a way too, he supposed, but mostly just because he supported Mali. Her business didn't bring them any closer together, that was for sure.
That was what made Theo feel so jealous. He wanted to support Mali, but he didn't want to be just a support. He wanted to be just as important of a piece as everything else she cared about. Deep down, he knew he really was, that Mali loved him and cared about him and that's why she felt so comfortable to rely on him...Theo focused on that feeling once she got to the ice cream parlor. She made it easy, cheery as ever, even taking it easy on him with random topics of conversation that had nothing to do with werewolves or wars. Theo had never been more excited about knitting. "Is that even possible?" Theo asked, thoughtful. He knew Mali could figure it out, if so. She was showing her cleverness something strong lately. "I'd like a sweater that could adjust to the weather. This time of year is such a bother getting dressed." Layers, so many layers. Theo was freezing in the morning and sweating his bum off in the afternoon.
At the mention of Mister Lupin, the relaxed lines in Theo's face stood at attention once more. It was a harmless question, but Theo was already feeling sensitive. He didn't want to talk about Mister Lupin or his kids, he just wanted to talk about random things with Mali and not think too hard beyond the limits of this parlor table. "We can," he agreed after a moment. He pushed his ice cream a bit toward Mali even as she came for it, the sweetness now just tasting sour in his mouth. He made a face at her offer, eyeing her ice cream. "Mm, no thanks. They remind of...well, never mind." Jelly slugs reminded him of bogies. That wasn't really a topic of conversation for an ice cream parlor or anywhere else.
Mali got quiet after that and Theo grew increasingly uncomfortable, fidgeting in his chair, watching the people around them and out of the window. Mali's voice startled him back to attention, and he smiled with just a little bit of strain back at her. His smile relaxed considerably once he understood her question, and he was just reaching across the table to take her hand and make an inappropriate comment when she went on. Theo dropped his hand on the table and pulled it back, crossing his arms at the ledge. Oh. Was that his reward, then? Getting to watch Mali inevitably hover over her potion for hours even though she promised only a minute, all for 'supporting' her right down Knockturn Alley? Theo's bad thoughts came back with a poisonous vengeance, making his stomach churn. This is exactly what he got for trying to ignore them in the first place; that never bloody worked for him, and he never bloody stopped. "Can it wait?" That came out a bit sharper than he meant, and he sighed. "I don't really want to go there today. Knockturn's already dark by this time of day."
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Hogwarts
School Healer
Creature Task Force - Registrar
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21 years old
Hufflepuff Alumnus
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PLAYED BY OOC NAME
PLAYED BY Trish
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Post by Mali Johar on May 25, 2017 4:00:41 GMT
Truly, she didn't mean to be late at all. Time just seemed to get away from her when she was over there, so much to do and two darling children to distract from it. Remus couldn't really cook for himself so she was trying to make things easier on him by preparing food ahead of time that he could paw into and out of the oven, prepare sandwiches for the children's lunches, help him open and close things. She had so little time to dedicate to helping him that it was important to maximize it. There was even less time with THeo, it seemed and he looked so pitiful by himself. That was something Mali knew she had to change, Remus shouldn't be taking priority over Theo. Sad Theo hurt her heart far too much. It would change.
"Dunno." Mali admitted with a carefree shrug and another spoonful of ice cream. "It seems logical enough that you could charm the yarn." Theo even had ideas on what one could make with charmed wool and yarn and the witch slapped her hand excitedly against the table, overcompensating in her enthusiasm and upbeat attitude. "Brilliant! That'll be the first thing I make! Maybe a cooling charm knit into a light sweater? I'd just have to figure out how to make it not cold all the time, yeah?" The witch tapped at her chin with a newly empty spoon, one of her thinking ticks. "Burgundy is your color, right? I saw a really pretty burgundy yarn in this quaint little muggle shop I was in a few days ago. It was so soft, it'll be perfect." She paused for a moment and chewed on her lower lip. "By the time I finish it might be too late for cold weather..."
The season changes wasn't the only problem for the two to contend with, she nearly flinched at the way his face changed when she brought up Remus' children. Honestly, it surprised her. She thought that it would be a safe ease in to the rest of her requests because Theo seemed to have liked them. It wasn't about liking the children or not though, it was about what the kids were representing.. a man who was becoming problematic to their relationship and the girlfriend that was allowing it to happen. "Or maybe next week.." she said halfheartedly. 'We can' was such an off answer for him, normally Theo matched her enthusiasm for things. That's one of the reasons she loved him, he was on board with all of her schemes. Supportive and encouraging and he even believed in her cleverness when she didn't believe in it herself. He was more than support, sometimes he was her confidence too.
The sour moment was balanced with a light one, much like their whole relationship. He shared his ice cream while declining hers with a face. "You make the best faces." Mali said with a grin as she finished off a spoonful of his and plucked another jelly slug from her own ice cream to taunt him with. "What? They remind you of what?" She wiggled the slug at him before popping the candy in her mouth. "Mmm, slimy and delicious!" Not so much slimy, but the fib was for dramatic effect. "So good. You don't know what you're missing." It felt good to tease him, the lightness and cheer didn't feel so forced, then. Of course, she ruined it. It felt like she was always ruining things for them with her projects and personal crusades. Theo reached across the table but their hands never met. He realized what she was asking and dropped back and away at the last moment.
Mali looked like she'd been slapped across the face, lips parting and eyebrows furrowing in disbelief and shock. Her attention returned to her ice cream and pushing a stray piece of pineapple around the cup to hide the hurt on her face. Withholding physical affection was one of the quickest ways to hit her raw, vulnerable spots that never quite fully healed since Remus tried to establish lines months ago. His voice was too harsh and it made her tense up. "Not really, no." Mali said carefully, peeking up from her no longer so tasty ice cream. The potion was time sensitive, surely he knew that? "I need to add one of them tonight or the whole potion is ruined." The sigh. That bloody sigh. She hated it. It sounded so tired and exasperated and it got her blood pressure up. His comment was met with a dismissive "Knockturn's always dark." because truly, the whole side street seemed to shun sunlight like it was some sort of plague ridden leper. The haze of wickedness was too thick for even the strongest sunbeams to fully penetrate. "That alright. I'll go by myself. Will you wait for me here?" Going by herself was the last thing she actually wanted to do. Theo made her feel safe and protected but she was smarter than pushing him into something he didn't want to do. She really did want him to come spend the night with her, even if he wouldn't accompany her down to the alley.
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St.Mungo's
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31 years old
Gryffindor Alumnus
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PLAYED BY OOC NAME
PLAYED BY Mego
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Post by Theo Ashland on Jun 15, 2017 19:32:58 GMT
Despite all his shortcomings and complications, Theo was also pretty easy. The right words from the right person could override the grumpiest of grumbles in his brain, if only for a short time. For Mali, it was even easier. It wasn't so much about what she said but rather how she said it, how she was always so effortlessly a bottle of sunshine and cheer. They were talking about knitting, for gods' sake, and Theo couldn't be more excited - just because of who he was having the conversation with. "Sounds easy enough," he agreed, smiling at her enthusiasm. She was good at feeding his ego too, and Theo would never say no to that. "I'd be happy to be your guinea pig. And yes, burgundy. Please." He bat his eyelashes over the dark brown eyes that made burgundy look so good on him. Mali brought up another good point, though, and Theo tapped his fingers against the table in thought. "Maybe the other way around, then? Like a shirt that could get warm like a sweater? You know how the hospital is always freezing no matter what the season; that'd be nice."
They couldn't talk about knitting forever, alas. The true constants in their lives would always sneak back into their conversation somehow, this time in the form of two scrappy children. Theo felt a kick of guilt at discouraging one of Mali's ideas - he always did. Even if he wanted to be a big, important piece of her busy life, that was no reason to give up on the support role altogether. "Sure. Whenever you want. The weather's supposed to be nicer next week, maybe we can go to the park." He perked up and smiled across the table, if a bit thinly. He was exhausted just thinking about chasing those two around the park, or the ice cream parlor.
But all the exhaustion in the world was worth it, if it made Mali happy. Theo was immediately reminded of that as soon as she started smiling again. "I have the best face, thank you," he teased, grinning back. His grin turned turned halfway to a grimace as Mali waved the jelly slug in his face. He made a noise that was somewhere between a sound of disgust and a laugh when she popped it in her mouth. "I think I do, actually. I'll never kiss you again." They both knew that was a bald-faced lie. He was just getting ready to start the kissing again already, on her outstretched hand to start with, when her request made him pull back and his heart fall flat in his chest. There was always something.
The shock on Mali's face was painful, and Theo averted his now sullen gaze to the table. He traced circles on the surface as they sat in awkward silence. Finally, Mali answered - it couldn't wait. Theo bit back another sigh and shifted in his chair. "We could have been doing this twenty minutes ago, when it was lighter outside," he muttered. Mali quipped that Knockturn was always dark. Obviously. Theo looked up at her. "You know what I mean. It's twenty times worse down there once the sun starts to set and the halfway reasonable people go home." Mali's solution was to just go by herself, of course. Theo scoffed at that, shaking his head. "You're not going by yourself. Gods, Mali, isn't this something you maybe should have planned for? So we don't have to eat up all our time with that place? Or am I just your bodyguard now? You ought to hire someone else, if that's the case. I'm obviously not very good at it."
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Hogwarts
School Healer
Creature Task Force - Registrar
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21 years old
Hufflepuff Alumnus
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PLAYED BY OOC NAME
PLAYED BY Trish
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Post by Mali Johar on Jun 16, 2017 5:26:57 GMT
These sweet moments were her favorite. There was a little bit of strain underneath the sweetness, mostly because Mali knew that Theo didn't deserve to be kept waiting for their ice cream date. He was the very best boyfriend and deserved all of her devotion and punctuality but he was unfairly sharing it. Even still, when he was smiling and she was smiling they could almost forget all about the fact she was late and talk of knitting instead. His corny flutter of eyelashes made her laugh and slap a hand over her mouth. "Mm! Brilliant!" the witch enthused with a nod. Theo had the best ideas, to flip her idea backwards. A shirt that got warm versus a cooling sweatshirt. "Warming charms are easier anyway! You're so smart. You'll be the best dressed Healer Troll in the entire place."
Despite her initial disappointment at Theo's reluctance, the man offered a pretty good alternative. "That's a really good idea. You really are so smart." Mali said fondly with a smile creeping back over her fallen features. The park was probably a better alternative then plying them with sugar. Remus had a big enough sweet tooth anyway, the kids were probably up to their ears in candies and desserts. And if the weather was supposed to be nicer? Why, that was even better! It put her in good spirits, maybe Mali was being over sensitive a few moments ago when she thought Theo didn't want to see the Lupin Twins. "Smallest ego, too." the witch teased him gently. She was smitten with both his face and his ego, finding them both very charming (even if he could be a little full of himself.) Her jellyslug teasing went over spectacularly! He looked positively grossed out as she chomped down on the candy, threatening never to kiss her again. "You liar!"
And then it happened. Theo didn't kiss her and that hurt. It ached and Mali didn't like the feeling one bit. She didn't like how sad he looked while sulking into the table, either. "But then we wouldn't have had our ice cream date." It wasn't just that Mali liked ice cream that made that part of her day so important, she liked the frivolous little minutes they spent together. They were her favorite, so silly and innocent and pure. "You don't have to go." she told him quietly, nudging at the ice cream with her spoon and doing her best not to look at Theo. If she looked up at him her face would betray her to the fact she really didn't want to go alone.
"S'not that deep into Knockturn, I'll be fine." Her reluctance turned to irritation. 'Gods, Mali'?? Where was the bloody attitude coming from? Mali did look up at him then, eyebrows knit in confusion. "What? How can you get mad at me for not doing it twenty minutes ago because I wanted to spend time with you and then you accuse me of treating you like a bodyguard?" She set down her spoon with a little more force than necessary. Hadn't she just been asking Theo to come home with her? Bodyguard indeed. She rolled her eyes and shook her head. "I don't need you, I can take care of myself! And come off that rubbish, you know you're not bad at anything. Why even say something like that? What's wrong with you today?"
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St.Mungo's
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31 years old
Gryffindor Alumnus
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PLAYED BY OOC NAME
PLAYED BY Mego
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Post by Theo Ashland on Jul 6, 2017 1:22:24 GMT
Even if she was laying it on a bit thick, and Theo knew she was laying it on a bit thick, he didn't mind. He was a prideful Gryffindor at heart and he liked for other people to tell him nice things, like that he was smart. So smart. "Thanks to you," he said, grinning when she said it again. That was one he didn't hear very often and it warmed him right up, glossing over Mali's lateness and general absence as of late. She may not be there all the time, but when she was, she certainly made up for it. Her sweetness made it much easier for him to just go with all her ideas, too, even the ones he was less than enthused about. And really, if he expected time from her, he had to give her time back - right?
After a brief grumpiness, things almost felt perfectly back to normal. Mali was teasing him about his ego, he was making empty threats...then it all collapsed, like there'd been nothing holding it up at all in the first place. Mali needed something else from him today, and Theo just didn't have it in him to give it to her. More time; more than her fair share of time, he thought, more than she'd given him in weeks. She wanted to drag him to a place they both hated, and that's all Theo could think about. How much he hated Knockturn Alley and its creepy shadows full of creepy people. "I wish you would just ask me outright when you need me to do something, instead of trying to warm me up to it. It feels...inauthentic." Theo had an off feeling, like he was misunderstanding what Mali was saying. Rationally, they could totally have both their ice cream date and their Knockturn Alley mission. But Theo wasn't feeling very rational right now, or understanding. He was just tired.
"You're not going by yourself," he said again, not looking at her. He did look up when she started speaking again, the force in her tone drawing his gaze up. Well, great. Now they were both grumpy. Theo mentally kicked himself for letting his frustration show so much, ruining this little time they had together - but he knew, deep down, that he never would have been able to hide it anyway. "This is not how I imagined us spending our time together." He crossed his arms over his chest, leaning back in his chair. "Oh, come off it. We're really past the whole needing each other thing, don't you think? Do you really want to go by yourself? No, or you wouldn't have asked me. You know I won't say no. I'm just not happy about it." He glowered at her over the table, considering her questions. Rhetorical or not, he couldn't think of any good answers that he wanted to say, so he said just whatever came to mind. "We're still bloody breathing today basically by luck alone. I just think it's not that smart to keep willfully throwing ourselves into danger whenever the opportunity arises."
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Hogwarts
School Healer
Creature Task Force - Registrar
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21 years old
Hufflepuff Alumnus
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PLAYED BY OOC NAME
PLAYED BY Trish
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Post by Mali Johar on Jul 6, 2017 3:24:32 GMT
Theo was digging himself into an impossible hole, saying all the wrong things and provoking Mali. She was a little witch but Merlin help the fools who pissed her off, her temper more than made up for her diminutive stature. It sharpened her tongue and shortened her patience. She wasn't going to sit there and be treated like that, not when her intentions had been a hundred and ten percent genuine. "I don't need you to do anything, Theo." There was no more demure mumbles or avoidance, she looked the trollish right in the eye, her own full of barely restrained anger. "And how dare you accuse me of being inauthentic. I've been nothing but candid with you."
Oh, ho! Theo hit another nerve and now he wasn't looking at her. "The bloody hell I'm not." Whatever restraint she had was broken and he was going to bear the full brunt of that temper. Grumpy was an understatement, Mali was growing absolutely livid. She was tired, too. Tired and stressed out and busy and the one spot in her life that had remained bright through every dark day was dimming. It wasn't really anyone's fault, Mali had her good intentions and Theo had his breaking point and together they were floundering. She didn't know how else to respond to it than to get angry. That temper was burning of control, there was no stopping it now. "Well you don't have to be unhappy about it anymore because you're no longer invited." It was childish, but she would rather face the shadows of Knockturn on her own than to drag an unwilling troll down the cobblestone streets.
He glowered and Mali withdrew under his gaze, folding up her arms and slumping her shoulders. There were various unkind comments on the tip of her tongue but she managed to keep things civil if not slightly harsh and venomous. "That's not true at all." Luck was only a small bit of the equation. They were still breathing because they took care of each other and saw themselves through it. They always survived until help arrived. "We're able to sit here and argue over ice cream because we had a lot of help." Mali was certain that the both of them would be in Azkaban or still rotting on house arrest if it hadn't been for her friendship with Remus. They earned the favor of a well connected man and convinced them of their innocence and he convinced his connections that they were worth the effort of investigating. Plus, Remus had literally saved her soul before than and their lives after. "We're still breathing because the right people helped us. And if helping that person and people like him means an occasional trip into Knockturn to get some ingredients then so be it. But if you're too afraid to help him and your sister's friends then I don't need you to come with me."
Some bloody Gryffindor he was. Mali was half his size and as intimidating as a fluffy kitten and it would be easier for her to just go herself. The witched sighed and uncrossed her arms, laying her hands flat on the table in an effort to appear more neutral and less hostile. This wasn't what she wanted at all. Mali loved Theo and she loved the time she got to spend with him but the feeling of security from having him along wasn't worth damaging their relationship. "I'm going to Knockturn Alley, Theo. I don't want you to come with me because I'm not going to have you resent me for it. I don't want to waste the time that we've got fighting. Are you going to wait for me here, or are you going to go home?"
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St.Mungo's
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31 years old
Gryffindor Alumnus
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PLAYED BY OOC NAME
PLAYED BY Mego
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Post by Theo Ashland on Aug 2, 2017 8:44:50 GMT
Mali was being incredibly candid right now, that much was true. Incredibly. Strangely, Theo felt energized. Pissed off, but energized. They were finally saying things that had been bubbling beneath the surface for weeks - maybe months. It felt good to get it out even if he couldn't shake the sick feeling it gave him, like he was turning some corner he couldn't go back around. He grunted at her and held his ground, trying to pull back from saying more than he needed to. "You're not," he repeated again. Even Merlin himself knew nothing would stop Mali from doing what she wanted...but right now, Theo was damn tired of that, too. Like she didn't consider him and what he wanted at all when she was making all of her grand plans.
Theo rolled his eyes when Mali uninvited him. "Good, because I didn't want to go." He tried to explain himself, why by all logic she should want to avoid the place as well, but it completely backfired on him. Theo wasn't that dense. He knew people had helped them considerably in holding onto their lives and livelihoods...he just didn't necessary feel like he owed anything to those people after the fact. He also knew the exact person Mali was talking about - and that made Theo hit a mental wall. No compromise, no solution because he couldn't stand to think that Mali cared more about Mister Lupin's well being than his. It was really a silly thought - but poor Theo, he'd just manage to block off any reasonable or rational part of his brain. "Maybe you should write him up then, get him down here. He should take on the risk if he's getting all the reward."
Mali edged off her anger, and it only left her looking resigned. Theo continued to glower, knowing she wasn't listening to him. Fine. If she wanted to risk her neck, fine. He still wasn't invited though. Theo opened his mouth to raise a protest to that, but closed it a moment later to think about her question instead. He wanted to wait for her. Just because they were troubled right now, it didn't diminish his feelings for her. He had nightmares sometimes about the wreck he would become if he ever lost her. He was always going to wait - even if he was a glowering, sulky mess while he did it. "I'll wait down the street. At that diner." That was closer to the beginning of Knockturn, and he wasn't really in the mood for ice cream anymore.
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Hogwarts
School Healer
Creature Task Force - Registrar
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21 years old
Hufflepuff Alumnus
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PLAYED BY OOC NAME
PLAYED BY Trish
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Post by Mali Johar on Aug 3, 2017 22:31:11 GMT
"Yes I am!" Mali shouted back, not meaning to be so loud but feeding off of Theo's high energy. He was being absolutely frustrating and just as stubborn as she was. Her voice, while loud, was edged with exhaustion and exasperation. Why did Theo have to ruin their bloody ice cream date with things like pigheadedness? Or had she ruined it, by asking him to Knockturn? Whoever's fault it was, there was no turning back.
Instead, they turned into eye rolling, pouting seven year olds. Theo's attitude intensified, from Gods, Mali to eye rolling. "Good." She seethed. "Because you're not invited!" It felt important to point that out, that his behavior had pushed her into not wanting his company. As much because she didn't want him to resent her for it as she didn't want to see how big the rift they were tearing could get. Today was full of firsts, from the first time he didn't kiss her to the first time she didn't want to be around him. And of course he brought up Remus, of course. Mali pressed her lips into a thin, angry line as he spoke. "I really can't believe you. Listen to what you're saying! Remus has risked so much for us and you're talking about petty things like rewards. That is the most selfish thing I've ever heard you say. You really should be ashamed of yourself."
The scolding was the turning point, her anger simmered out in favor of something more sad or resigned. Despite her insistence that she was going to go to Knockturn alone, she didn't really want to. Mali wanted Theo to understand how important this all was to her and want to go, not to feel like he was being manipulated or tricked or used. Their relationship was the weakest it had ever been and Mali was careful not to break it completely. At least Theo still wanted to spend time together after, he hadn't opted to go home. "Why can't you just wait for me here?" Her exasperation was edging her towards tears of frustration. Everything today felt like a fight but she was unwilling to keep arguing. Instead she huffed and ran a hand through her hair. Mali pressed the base of her hands into her eyes to chase the tears away before they could fall while scraping together her composure. "Never mind. I don't care. Wait wherever you'd like."
Mali stood up and hesitated for a moment. This became less and less about Theo and more about her doing it by herself, proving that she wasn't just keeping Theo around to be a bodyguard. She was a Hufflepuff, sure, but that didn't mean that she couldn't be brave too. Foolishly brave, maybe. "I'll be back." she promised without managing to sound confident before she headed down the street towards the stupid black alley. The witch felt smaller and vulnerable the farther away from Theo she got. Mali chanced one glance back over her shoulder at the troll. Just one.
She was gone much longer than she intended, Mali was easily distracted even when frightened and spent far too long browsing through the apothecary, pondering various ingredients and how they would fit into the potions she and Eoin were making. By the time she finished up it was much darker and scarier in the alley and Mali had to make the walk alone back out of Knockturn. The experience was terrifying, people's shadowed faces almost looked like the Death Eaters that made Theo and Mali's life hell. Panic set in, adrenalin poured into her system and by the time she reached Theo she was a trembling, shell shocked looking mess. She grabbed his wrist and tugged at him. "Please, let's go to my house."
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