foodie at heart; OPEN

[erika]

theres a thunder in our hearts baby

so much hate for the ones we love

TAG: OPEN OUTFIT: N/A ONE LAST THING: this is rather bad and for that i apologize

it was a cold and dreary day that lucy weasley awoke to and as she squinted and waited for her body to fully awake she was overcome with the feeling of dread that typically accompanied her mornings. luce was the type of person who would fight tooth and nail to remain cozy in her bed but as soon as she was awake there was no going back and so it was with great annoyance that she woke up this particular morning. glancing at the time she realized that there was still more than two hours before class started and so she opened her curtains in order to fully glare at the girl who had made the offending noise which had woken her. grumbling to herself she got out of bed and pulled her hair up into a pony tail, knowing that she still had plenty of time to get ready for classes she wasn't in any particular hurry.

lucy weasley was not the type of girl to deny what she wanted. she had the means to get what she wanted, when she wanted it and didn't really care what others said in regards to this attitude. that being said when she woke up early before classes this morning it wasn't earning top marks that was occupying her mind so much as it was food. luce was hungry, ridiculously so in fact and so without bothering to worry too much about her appearance she began to make her way towards the great hall. luckily she had enough sense to grab a robe before exiting her room as she was still in her pajamas which consisted of grey shorts and a maroon tank and were entirely inappropriate public wear.

it was early enough that there weren't many people in the great hall and so she made her way towards the gryffindor table without having to speak to anyone she knew, although she did wave to a few students at other tables. she sat herself towards the end as she knew that would make for the quickest escape once people did start to arrive and looked at the food around her. while there were times when luce was sociable in the morning this was not one of those and all she wanted was to shove her face full of food and so she began to pile it onto her plate. grabbing a little bit of everything she began to eat whilst flipping through the charms text book she had brought down with her. not really needing the review she nonetheless figured it couldn't hurt and it had the added benefit of dissuading people from talking to her and interrupting her food time.

luce was therefore more than a little annoyed when she saw the shadow of someone who was clearly standing behind her. knowing that there were still plenty of open spaces at the table and so the person must want something she shoved another fork full of food and turned her head to see who was foolish enough to get between a weasley and her food.

tell me that we both matter dont we

TEMPLATE BY: THERE CAN BE ONLY ONE MIKEY ! @ CAUTION.

[dana4]

Nikola Krum stared in disbelief at the current rankings of their year. He was third. Perhaps not by much, but it was still a solid three staring down at him. Persephone was ahead of him, but he didn’t quite mind so much as the other person. His blue eyes narrowed into thin slits as he read the name over and over again, almost as if he were committing her name to his memory. That way, he wouldn’t need paper to chart down his hit list.

… The brunette sighed and dropped his head into his hand. He’d been reading too many horror novels lately. He didn’t have anything against the Weasley girl; in fact, he might as well admit – if only to himself – that he respected her. But his standing at the school had always been a source of pride (especially since his father was continually pressuring him to do quidditch), and now it was on thin ice with Lucy Weasley on the edge, laughing maniacally and spewing flames from her wand to melt the surface even further. Nik ran his hand through his hair and looked up at the list of names again; perhaps he should’ve gone to bed earlier as well, since his imagination seemed to be hyperactive that morning. He turned and trooped down to the Great Hall, spirits rather dampened even so early in the morning.

As Nik strode through the threshold of the castle, he resolved to study even harder. Unfortunately, he realized, he’d forgotten his charms book; although the Krum wasn’t particularly forgetful, he always managed to slip up on that particular subject. Nikola wasn’t particularly gifted in charms, but he believed in hard work, and it was on that principle he’d made it through his years at Hogwarts. Nikola, however, had no interest in tromping back up to the Ravenclaw Tower, especially not when there was food to be eaten (his stomach rumbled incessantly); however, studying whenever possibly was essential, especially if he wanted to beat—

His eyes alighted on the one person whose name had been seared into his short-term memory. Lucy Weasley, wearing a ratty robe, her uncharacteristically brown hair pulled back into a pony tail, was sitting at the Gryffindor table, quite alone and pushed toward the edge, shoveling eggs and other breakfast foods into her mouth. Nik was inclined to brush past the girl with a huff (he couldn’t believe he was being so rude, but she’d hit him where it hurt: his grades), but then his eyes landed on the charm book she was poring over. He blinked; even at breakfast, she was one step ahead of him. Nik weighed his options: he could keep his dignity and pride and stride past her to get breakfast then book it back up the stairs to Ravenclaw tower to catch up on studies… or, he could swallow that pride of his and ask to study with her. For a moment, the Ravenclaw toyed with either idea, but in the end, the desire for knowledge won out and he reluctantly walked over to the Gryffindor table.

She’d been in the middle of eating, and when she whirled around toward him, Nik almost burst out into laughter. With her cheeks puffed out like that, she hardly looked like a scholar. She resembled more of a chipmunk. “Morning,” he said stiffly, his Bulgarian accent giving his greeting even more edge. “Do you mind if I sit with you and study this morning? I’ve forgotten my Charms book.”

[erika]

theres a thunder in our hearts baby

so much hate for the ones we love

TAG: OPEN OUTFIT: HERE ONE LAST THING: this took much longer than i wanted.

when lucy had turned away from her food in order to confront the villain who was interrupting her breakfast one of the last people she had expected to see was nikola krum. in fact there were only a few people who would have shocked her more. when she had come down to the great hall that morning she really had not cared about her appearance but seeing nik stand there made her wish she had at the very least put on some real clothes or brushed her hair. their state of near constant competition meant that she should be on her A-game at all times and her current look couldn't be further from that.

working to chew and swallow the food she had so carelessly shoved in her mouth lucy began to choke when she heard his question. as she continued to choke she wondered briefly if she had in fact already died. she had always believed hell would freeze over before the great nikola krum would stoop to ask anyone for help, especially her. finally managing to swallow, she sputtered for a moment before successfully drawing in a breath 'well i suppose killing me is one way to beat me once and for all'. looking up at him she wondered if she should deny his request, lucy was not in the habit of helping people beat her, but her curiousity was piqued and so she motioned for him to take a seat 'yea, of course. i'll be honest though i wasn't studying too intently, i've already finished the essay that's coming up and was just wondering if perhaps there was something that should be added.'

[/b]

as he sat down she couldn't help but stare at him, luce had always liked puzzles and nik was one she had never been able to quite figure out. they had obviously known each other since their first year, and having always gotten similar grades she was aware of him but he hadn't even spoken to her until their fourth and it was fairly evident he wasn't her biggest fan. lucy understood the drive to be at the top and she knew it drove him mad when she beat him so she truly couldn't understand what would possess him to sit with her. the strangeness of his actions immediately put her on the alert. luce wasn't crazy per se but she was sneaky, as such she often suspected others of being sneaky and at this point she couldn't help but feel as though nik was up to something. in true luce fashion she squinted at him and didn't say anything for a minute or so, finally coming to the conclusion that her stare wasn't actually accomplishing anything she decided to leave her suspicions for a moment.

'judging by your pout i assume that class rankings are up and persephone is once again beating you? really nik you musn't take it so hard, percy beats everyone, even me.'[/color] at this she aimed a cheeky grin at him. it was true that no matter what persephone zabini took first in the class and so all one could hope for was beating her in a class or two, which luce occasionally did, but as it was expected she truly didn't understand why he seemed extra dour this morning. and extra dour for nik was quite the accomplishment considering his usual disposition, a disposition which made him extra fun for lucy to tease. in truth she liked nik, he was a bit of weenie at times, but he was smart and driven and luce could respect that. but she also got a great amount of glee from the look on his face when she teased him, he was simply too uptight for his own good, and so she did so as often as she could.

unsure about how to treat this truly unique situation lucy found herself staring some more. acting on the assumption that it was her turn to make a move, so to speak, luce extended an olive branch and turned her book towards him, 'did you need to look at something specific?'[/color]. as she waited for his reply she pushed her food around her plate some before putting another, much smaller fork full, in her mouth.
[/div]

tell me that we both matter dont we

TEMPLATE BY: THERE CAN BE ONLY ONE MIKEY ! @ CAUTION.

[/center]

[dana4]

It was difficult to find a reason to continue to stand awkwardly stiff near the Gryffindor table. Even though it was a weekend, Nik imagined the curious glances from his table boring into him. He wasn’t popular, by far, but his last name attracted more than enough attention (usually from a younger crowd; the older dubbed him “the odd Krum out” and left it at that), and even the younger Ravenclaws knew the three most important things about Nik: he disliked quidditch, he was a horror novel fanatic, and he was always studying to beat Persephone Zabini and Lucy Weasley. (A fourth, lesser known thing was that he hung around Slytherins, but no one had bothered to call him out on it.) To see him, awkward and tall, his hair sticking out erratically in all sorts of odd directions (his hair was one thing he hated about himself), standing beside the Gryffindor table, talking to his competition was… out of the ordinary, to say the least. It seemed that Lucy herself thought that, judging by the way she’d choked on her food.

“I’d rather not have that blood on my hands,” he deadpanned, though his expression was still as austere, his tiny scowl still as apparent. Nik rarely had qualms with anyone, but Lucy managed to get on his nerves rather often. What irritated him more was the begrudging respect that he held for the brunette Weasley; wouldn’t it be easier to hate her if she was more of a bitch? She agreed to let him sit, and he sat at the Gryffindor table, feeling distinctly like a fish out of water. Although the tables were made of the same material, it seemed like he was in an entirely different world. Whereas the Ravenclaw conversations may have ranged from quidditch to eccentric experiments to books and the sort, the Gryffindor table had arm-wrestling matches over dinner and argued about quidditch teams over lunch and breakfast. (At least, that’s what Nik had heard from others; he hadn’t yet had the fortune to see it.) He fiddled nervously with his books, playing with the frayed edges of his book of the moment.

“The essay was rather easy,” he admitted. Nik’s tone took a bit of superiority. If there was one thing he and his father shared, it was pride in themselves; it didn’t very often pass into extreme arrogance, but occasionally, Nik’s pride toed the line rather closely. “Though I think drawing parallels between that charm and—” He abruptly bit off his next few words; he was sharing precious information! She did say that there was something she thought she could add, right? He had to stop before he gave her any ideas.

You’re being paranoid, his better half reminded him, but Nik brushed him impatiently away. For the sake of his grades, he had to be. His father already disliked Nik’s disinterest in his favorite sport; if Viktor knew about Nik’s falling rank, he’d force quidditch on the seventh year for sure. Nik clung to silence for a long while, awkwardly avoiding her curious glance. He was still waiting for her to offer him the Charms book, and he had to say, the situation made him impatient. He had just opened his mouth to snap at her when she interrupted him. With the worst possible subject.

His face soured almost immediately. “I’m not pouting,” he said, though his expression completely and utterly denied that claim. “I expected Persephone to beat me,” he continued shortly, keeping the conversation as brief as possible. Oh, how he wished he’d brought his Charms book down with him! Then Nik could have sat at the Ravenclaw table and committed the words to memory in peace. “But I’m still third.” A tone of anxiousness slipped into his sulky tone before he clammed up, flicking his eyes up to her face then flicking them away, his scowl deepening. He was acting petulant, he knew, but in front of Lucy, Nik couldn’t be bothered to care.

Finally, some sort of luck dawned upon Nik as Lucy turned her book toward him. Unfortunately, it wasn’t as turned as Nik would have preferred (in fact, it seemed sort of the theme for that morning); the seventh year had to crane his head to read the words. He leaned over the table and cocked his head, reading the page that she’d stopped on. To his dissatisfaction, she was on the same page he had been; Nik had hoped for better news. “Not really,” he said, half-distracted by the words. “I just wanted to look over it. It’s my worst subject, after all.” Another slip-up. Nik stopped for a second and chanced a half-glance at Lucy. Abort, abort. He’d just exposed his weakest spot to his opponent, a mistake both in the animal kingdom and the student kingdom. “Er… you were actually on the same page as I was,” he continued hastily, jabbing a finger at a random passage on the page. “I found this incredibly interesting.”

[erika]

theres a thunder in our hearts baby

so much hate for the ones we love

TAG: NIK OUTFIT: N/A ONE LAST THING: yay lucy is safe now!

lucy was a fairly confident and outgoing person and as such she rarely found herself in awkward situations yet nik managed to make even sitting together into one. grinning slightly at how clearly uncomfortable he was she briefly considered being nice to him before quickly dismissing this thought as being too absurd. upon hearing his cavalier response to her near death(!) luce let a wry grin of her own cross her features, 'why nik, i'm glad to see you're so concerned about my safety'.

lucy was one of the most competitive people she knew and one of the few who actually topped her at that was nik krum. in fact it was one of the few things he regularly beat her at so it was no surprise when he clammed up halfway through his sentence on his own essay, she was worried he may swallow his own tongue with how quickly he stopped speaking. while unsurprising his act was however a little insulting. luce regularly beat him at charms and was fairly confident that she had probably already thought of whatever he was going to say. lucy was not her father though and arrogance wasn't something she found to be particularly attractive so she bit her tongue and held back the bitchy comment that immediately sprung to the ready.

that being said luce also wasn't about to let nik get the upper hand in this conversation, it like all things between them seemed to be a competition, and so she had to respond somewhat in kind, 'honestly krum i've taken the first in charms two years in a row now. i fully intend for this year to be my "three-peat" as the muggles say, you don't have to hide your essay secrets from me' as she said this she could not help but add an eye roll and decided to let a somewhat bitchy comment slide in anyways 'besides i'm sure i've already thought of it.'

one of the things that lucy enjoyed most about nik was in fact his pout, and his complete unwillingness to admit that he had one. it was with great joy and glee that she called him on it as often as she could and her amusement only grew as his pout did whilst trying to deny that he even had one. giggling as this pout, like almost all before it grew she couldn't help but tease him some more, 'i'm sorry to be the bearer of bad news dear but that' and at this she pointed at his mouth in order to further her point, 'is most certainly a pout'

what had started off as a bleak morning had become much more bearable once nik had joined her at the gryffindor table. while lucy was well aware that nik wasn't overly fond of her, despite the fact that he, persephone and herself had a fair amount in common, he almost always managed to amuse her in some way. she had never been friends with either of them and he always seemed to take it harder when she beat him than when percy did. she had always assumed it had something to do with the fact that she, unlike he and persephone had not made it into ravenclaw. in her first few years at the school luce had struggled to prove that she was indeed intelligent and it had certainly ruffled some feathers when she continued to earn high grades but she had assumed that people would become used to it. most in fact had but it still seemed to bother nik.

any amusement she had been experiencing quickly died out though when nik revealed that he had taken third. lucy had headed straight for the great hall that morning and had not stopped to check the rankings. now she mentally cursed herself as panic began to set in. while it would have been safe to assume that she had taken second the thought barely crossed her mind before she began to mentally scroll through the other students who had the potential to beat both her and krum. ever the worrier, and not always as confident as she pretended to be she looked up at nik, her emotions clearly written across her face, she leaned closer before whispering, 'i'm in fourth?'. slumping back into her seat she pulled at the strands of hair that had managed to escape her ponytail 'how could this have happened?'

it was only after several moments of freaking out that lucy began to connect the dots. nik had been extra pouty that morning because she had taken second and managed to beat him which would also explain him asking to share her charms book, he was desperate. letting out a relieved breath she felt it best to confirm it before relaxing totally just in case, 'i'm second?' she asked hesitantly.

upon hearing his admission lucy looked up in shock, briefly meeting nik's gaze before he turned his own away. in the six plus years that they had been school mates nik had never confided in lucy about anything, intentionally or not and yet this morning he had revealed more than one weakness. unsure of how to respond she hesitated, had they been friends luce's response would have come easily but they weren't friends and so she drew a blank. knowing that this was in fact an opportune moment to try and make nik feel worse and defeat an opponent, so to speak, lucy simply didn't have it in her to deliver another blow when he was clearly already suffering. knowing she would most likely regret it later lucy instead offered a proverbial olive branch of sorts, 'well i'm doing much worse in DADA than expected, father is quite displeased by that, i'm almost expecting a howler to arrive from him any day now.'

unable to fully believe that she had just admitted to doing poorly at something she was grateful that nik also seemed uncomfortable. she eagerly looked towards her textbook to see what he found so interesting, glad for the distraction, when she couldn't help but laugh aloud. nik had pointed to the most random and inane of paragraphs, there was no way he actually found it interesting. pleased to be back on familiar ground and have something to tease him about she let out another snicker 'really krum? that is something you find interesting?' relieved that the awkward tension had passed, for the moment at least, luce giggled some more, something she seemed to be doing an awfully lot of that morning, while shaking her head, 'honestly.'

tell me that we both matter dont we

TEMPLATE BY: THERE CAN BE ONLY ONE MIKEY ! @ CAUTION.

[dana4]

There were few things Nikola resented. One was dog-eared pages in books. Nikola always, always used bookmarks to mark his spot before closing his favorite version of an old horror story before falling asleep at three in the morning. It preserved the quality of the book and the words, and to Nikola, there was nothing better than seeing unwrinkled pages within a book’s bindings. All of his books were in near perfect condition as a result. The seventeen year old was oddly stingy with his books as well; he rarely lent them out to anyone for fear of damage. It seemed to Nikola that if his dreams of becoming a wildly popular author fell through, he’d have a good job as a librarian, perhaps even here, at Hogwarts.

Another was true humility and unawareness. Perhaps it was because Nikola recognized the absence of that trait in himself. Nikola was aware of his cleverness, too much sometimes, and on those occasions, the knowledge went to his head (resulting in a rather long fall from the pedestal he’d put himself on, as his third place rank had shown him all too clearly). Lucy, who had clearly taken more than a few moments to register that she’d beaten him (ugh, he hated admitting it, even to himself), clearly lacked that particular trait. Others might’ve found her modesty endearing, even likeable; Nikola wasn’t so charmed. He looked at her panicked face irritably and his pout deepened into a shadow of a scowl when she finally came to the correct conclusion. “Thank you for reminding me of the ranks, I really had no idea,” he sniffed sarcastically, his pride injured at her so-obviously innocent revelation. It almost made him feel guilty that he was a sour puss. Almost. “How that speed ever got you second place, I’d like to know.” Now he was just being snappy, Nik realized, and he quickly cut his attention back to the page. His long, slender fingers flipped the page so quickly, Nik gave a funny little gasp, afraid that he’d torn the paper. If there was one thing he disliked about his eagerness to finish a book, it was the danger it posed to the page’s fragility. Some of his books still bore the marks of his enthusiasm.

At the admission of his weakness, Nikola nearly burnt a hole through the page with the force of his glare. He was mortified. No, he was beyond mortified. How could he have slipped up so badly? As he predicted, there was nothing but stunned silence from the brunette, and Nik wished that he had food before him so he could stuff something up his mouth and keep it busy chewing rather than spewing out personal information of his. For a moment, there was only silence between them and the background noise of the silverware clinking together and their peers chatting at breakfast, unaware of Nikola’s inner turmoil.

Nik was relieved when she burst out laughing. He knew she was far too clever to have missed his little mistake, and Nikola Krum felt a small stirring of respect for the girl when she said nothing of it. The last thing he needed was her to press upon that weakness. He might as well have offered up his throat, but in the laughter, Lucy had thrown away the proverbial knife that would have slit it. Nik’s pout – because he was most definitely pouting – lessened, transforming his mouth into a flat line that curled up just slightly at the corners. He had to admit, his finger had no sense of direction when he flailed it wildly around; he’d landed on what was perhaps the least interesting section in the entire book, and Nikola felt a profound sense of irony that it had been the one section he’d chosen to gush over. “Yes, didn’t you know? I find it fascinating,” he quipped sarcastically, turning to the next page. It wasn’t an ill-intended sarcasm though, unlike the one Nikola had used before. This was lighter. Better. Like how he’d speak to his friends in Ravenclaw, or Bronte even. His voice was dry, but the small grin on his lips showed that he was joking. Had he ever shown to Lucy this side of him? Nikola didn’t know. “But really, Lucy, you mustn’t knock it. I’m sure that…” Nikola craned his head to read the words on the page, “a passage from Cheering Charms for the Depressed Soul is very, very entertaining.” He glanced up at her and flashed a semblance of a grin. “You know, if you’re a trussed up middle-aged housewife who pines over her loneliness in all her wealth.”