i want to let you and me collide -- emile.

[Deleted]

@emile

ripley had never been good at waiting. she wasn't the worlds most patient person and even though she was waiting for emile she couldn't fight the urge to walk into the sweet shop without him. after all they had agreed to meet there first, they hadn't specifically said they'd meet outside. so she didn't feel all that bad about walking around and looking at all the new sweets. it was the new year now so there was no christmas themed decorations everywhere, there were a few new candies that she stood checking out. oh chilli flavor. she thought as she took a few of the wrapped candies and tucked them into the basket she was carrying. she took a few more random flavors from the shelf and turned to go find some of her other old favorites and some possible new ones. she figured she should stay away from the lollipops this time, although they had been a big part in how she had started spending time with emile. she smiled at the memory of walking up to him and asking him to suck on something random. it had been a good one and of course where it had led had been even better.

she hummed to herself as she turned a packet over in her hand to read the back and she stood there, resting her basket on the counter and she leaned her arm on the edge of the basket. "seems interesting." she said to herself as she looked up at the window so see if she could spot emile in the crowd yet. they were supposed to be going on a date. their first real one. because even though it had been fun their jaunt in honey dukes, chasing each other over rocks after the first task and the yule ball, while it had been wonderful, hadn't been a date. well at least not to her. they had been easy coincidences that she had had a lot of fun at but this would be a test of sorts. for both of them. she tossed the bag she had been reading into the basket and picked it up, rounding to the front of the shop when she caught sight of just the person she was waiting for. "you're late." she said as she walked up behind him and poked a finger lightly into the middle of his back. "you better have a good reason." she said, a twinkle of joke in her voice, the sarcasm light in her tone as she stood behind him, waiting for him to turn around.

[outfit]

[Deleted]

@ripley

It was strange, really. Émile had made it this far, and much further in some cases, in past relationships, but this one was different. There were only a handful that he could recall that had ever remotely been close to this and yet they weren’t at the same time. Not many girls had been on equal ground, let alone stood higher above him. Margaux came to mind there, but she had been too much to handle and that never really went for too long. Fun while it lasted though. Émile boiled it down to what interested him the most, and Ripley Krum had definitely piqued his interest far more than he initially thought she would. What had started as joking prods, a game if he was to be honest, had turned into this. He somewhat hoped that the game aspect wouldn’t go away either. Constantly having to stay on his toes and alert of what she was doing made it that much more enjoyable. He could tell it was the same with her; they wouldn’t let it get boring.

With the Yule Ball behind them, and what Émile would have considered the first hurdle in all of this, now it was time for a real date. Hogsmeade was seemingly unoriginal though, even if it was a new experience still for him. It had only taken the first few trips to take note that virtually everyone of age went there on the weekends, and it was sickening how many were on dates. Then again, there wasn’t anywhere else to do was there? He was supposed to meet her in Honeydukes. Simple enough. He needed some candy anyways, his supply dipping low in the past week. Stepping into the store, the sugary air hit his nose, as it usually did, and he shivered with how wonderful it was. If he died during this tournament, which wasn’t going to happen as long as he could help it, but if he did, he was going to haunt Honeydukes. That was a pretty good after life.

Walking, or shuffling rather, through the first aisle inside, Émile planted himself firmly where he was to look at some of the candy. According to his watch, he was a few minutes early. Being near the front would be easy for Ripley to spot him. It didn’t take long to feel a poke on his back, and a Krum staring at him asking why he was late. Émile glanced at his watch before holding it up to show her. “You’re on time.” Grinning, he noted that she had a basket of candy already. “Or were you early? This line is pretty impressive, and so is the amount of candy you have there.” That had to be indicative of her being there for a decent amount of time. And here he thought being a few minutes early was a good idea. She had one-upped him once again.

[Deleted]

@emile

“You’re on time.” she rolled her eyes as she looked at the watch, putting her finger on the glass and she shrugged a little as she pushed it down lightly. "late." she said, raising one eyebrow slightly as she smiled, almost a smirk as she looked up at him. she was teasing, she had been early and she knew it but there was no point in giving up on it now. “Or were you early? This line is pretty impressive, and so is the amount of candy you have there.” she looked down into the basket and tilted her head slightly. "i think we could do with more .." she said as she looked back up at him, her head tilted to the side as if studying him. "i thought i'd get a start on dessert." she said, licking the corner of her lip without thinking as she turned away from him, her hair flicking slightly as she did and she made to walk further down the aisle to keep looking at what the new selections were.

she tucked the basket over one of her arms and reached to take a sample lollipop from a bowl and she slipped the wrapped off, dropping it in the bin as she stuck the sweet into her mouth. it was a lot nicer than the one she'd had the last time she had been in the store, but that lollipop had led to bigger and better things, so she wouldn't complain. speaking of, she took another one and held it out to emile. "try one?" she said with a smirk. "maybe it won't be too sour this time." she said as she smiled around the lollipop that was in her mouth. she had yet to decide whether or not she liked the flavour of the one she had grabbed, but there was no telling what the flavour of the one she had held to emile would be. she took the sweet on a stick from her mouth and looked at him, resting the basket on her slightly jutted out hip ad she spoke. "so. what else did you have planned for today?" she asked with a raised eyebrow. "or is it going to be a group effort to come up with a plan?" she said with a smile, sucking on the lollipop again slowly.

[outfit]

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@ripley

There was no way he was late, and yet Ripley kept insisting he was. His watch was still early by his count. He leaned over, taking hold of her wrist lightly so that he could check her watch, looking back and forth between their respective clocks. His was…ten minutes behind hers. His eyebrows raised as he looked at his watch one last time. “Well look at that…I’ll give you that one.” Émile tapped it a few times. He’d have to remember to fix it later. That was actually kind of important, as was getting more candy, which Ripley was currently stating that she needed to do. One could never have too much candy. A grin formed on his face as she said she thought she’d start on dessert, and then she licked the corner of her mouth before turning away. How was he lucky enough to snag this one? “We can most definitely start on dessert.” He muttered under his breath as he followed her over to a new aisle.

He hadn’t even been next to her for a few seconds before a lollipop was sent in his direction. Émile reached for it unconsciously, only remembering then what he had subjected himself to the last time they were here. Ripley seemed to remember of course. Yes, the sour lollipop. It was a little viler tasting than sour, but he had made sure not to let her on about that. It paid to be a candy connoisseur from time to time. Having tried sweets from around the world, he had gotten pretty good at keeping a straight face even if something tasted awful. Not that the last lollipop had been terrible. There had been worse in the past. “Guess we’ll see.” He followed her movements and unwrapped his candy, placing it in his mouth a bracing for the flavor impact. And all it tasted like was grape. He made a so-so face, but kept the lollipop in his mouth, moving it to the side with his tongue so he could talk. “Grape. The one time where sour would have been fine with me.”

What did he have planned to do? Even though he had been there for a few months now, nothing in Hogsmeade really screamed date-worthy. There was that gross looking lovey-dovey tea shop place, but there was no way in hell he was going to bring that up. He was almost positive that the guys brought in there were drugged with love potions, something he didn’t really need to help him out right now. “How about you show me your favorite spots? I usually only come here to get candy before leaving.” He stated, returning the smile.

[Deleted]

@emile

“Grape. The one time where sour would have been fine with me.” she couldn't help the face she pulled and she shook her head slightly. well that was a little bit of an anti climax. as bad as it would be to say she'd enjoyed watching the last time he'd eaten a lollipop. the look he'd been trying to keep off his face had been enough of a hint that she wanted to try that again. "well that's disappointing." she said with a smile that had the hint of a smirk behind it as she kept trying to find candies to buy. “How about you show me your favorite spots? I usually only come here to get candy before leaving.” she turned her body to face him and she titled her head again as she thought about what there was to do. in the summer there was a hill she liked to walk up but that would be covered in snow right about now and she had a feeling that emile wouldn't have anything against sledding. it wasn't the most extreme of sports but it was pretty much the only one hogsmeade had to offer. unless of course avoiding the tea shop in town was a sport.

she set the basket down at her feet and then took a step toward him. she trusted no one would go for the basket with the two of them were right there. she looked him up and down and then reached out to take the hem of his shirt between her fingers and she rolled it slightly, licking the side of her lip again slightly as her thoughts started to turn over in her head. "well we can start with dessert ... and then go sledding ... and then eat candy .. some more sledding ... finish of with dessert .." she said as she looked up at him with and touched a finger to his jaw for a second before dropping her hand from his face and her fingers from his shirt and she bent to pick up the basket. "don't want the snow to melt before we get there." she teased, after all there was every chance it would melt while they were there. because of obvious reasons. she walked away from him toward the counter so they could go start on that dessert and find something to slide down the hill on. it wasn't as if she had a sled in her purse and she wasn't sure if there was a shop around here that sold them but they would work something out. that was half the fun. she finished paying for the candy, handing the money over and taking the bag from the woman beind the counter. "thanks." she said cheerily as she turned back to emile and held out her hand to him. "come on."

[outfit]

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@ripley

Quite disappointing actually. For as much as he had complained in the past about hot and sour candies, grape had always been the one shining light, the champion of sourness. Lemon and raspberry flavors were decent as well but could get overpowering, especially in the muggle candy. Grape, on the other hand, was like a gift sent from god. Not only could it be used for wine and eaten on its own, but also give off the perfect sour flavor. And yet here he was, being subjected to a non-sour grape lollipop. There should have been a law against this. Émile was quite passionate when it came to his sugar and candy, almost on par with girls and competition actually (and sometimes more than either of those two things combined). Today he was severely disappointed by Honeyduke’s. He held them to the highest of standards, which was something considering nothing else at Hogwarts was to that point yet other than Ripley. “Yes well, there’s always next time I guess. May have to have a conversation with the owner if it happens again. Very well can’t have grape lollipops that aren’t sour, now can we?” Émile was dead serious about having that talk if he needed to. He had been to candy stores all over the world and never been subjected to this level of torture. It would need to be corrected if it happened again.

Apparently his decision to let her pick a spot or two to go to today was an interesting idea, considering the way she looked at him as he brought up the idea. But it was starting to look like Ripley had other ideas on where they could go, and focusing more on what they could do as she set her basket of candy on the ground before grabbing onto the bottom of his shirt and moving closer to him. Were they really doing this right now in the middle of a crammed candy store? Granted, it had happened once before and he wasn’t exactly opposed to the thought of it, but PDA did somewhat annoy other people. “So we’ve nailed down this dessert thing for sure. Sledding sounds interesting as well. Where do you propose we find a sled?” He asked as she brought her hand up to his face. Of course there was more that he didn’t question, like eating candy, which was rather obvious, and the second round of dessert, something Émile would only leave up to his imagination at this point. He watched Ripley back away from him again, picking up the basket once again, adding what would seem like a cryptic message to almost anyone else, but what Émile understood fully. “No, I don’t think we would want that would we? Then we wouldn’t be able to sled.” He added with a small grin as she went to pay for her candy.

Taking her hand and intertwining his fingers with hers, they left the candy store and its wonderfully sweet aroma behind only to be met with the snow and cold again. When he was younger, before school of course, his family would go to the south of France or Spain during the winters to escape the frigid climate. This weather took the cake for being terrible though, and he would do anything to be somewhere warmer. Unfortunately the tournament kept him tied to Hogwarts until the end of the term. “What’s on the menu for dessert, if you don’t mind me asking? Or is it one of those ones where it’s by the customer’s request?”

[Deleted]

@emile

“So we’ve nailed down this dessert thing for sure. Sledding sounds interesting as well. Where do you propose we find a sled?” she raised a brow slightly as she looked back at him. they had it nailed that was for sure but there was no fun in admitting that. "if you say we do." she just said as she smiled, sorting out buying the candy and getting it put into a bag that would be small enough to tuck into a pocket of her jacket while they had fun sledding. the beauty of magic, the ability to make things bigger than they needed to be, for instance pockets. she squeezed her fingers lightly around his as their hands intertwined as they left the store and she smiled slightly. she had never thought she'd be a hand holding kind of girl, she had always thought she'd be the not a lot of contact kind of girlfriend but she hadn't found that at all. she could quite happily never let go of his hand, but that would be weird. she stepped closer to his side as the snow and the cold hit them, after the warmth of the store it was almost enough to make her turn around and go back inside but she wanted to go sledding, see if they could have fun trying to out do each other in that too.

“What’s on the menu for dessert, if you don’t mind me asking? Or is it one of those ones where it’s by the customer’s request?” she smiled as she walked with him and she reached her other hand across her middle to wrap her other hand around his arm as they walked and she shrugged slightly. she spotted a store where they should be able to get sleds from, since the muggle population at the school seemed to be growing there were some stores in the small town that were gearing things toward them and they had some cool muggle things so she was hoping they had some since it was winter and things were covered in snow. "depends on what you can request." she said as she squeezed his hand once before untangling herself from his hand. "i'll get the sled. wait here." she said with a smile as she took a few steps toward the store, though she looked back over her shoulder and smiled back at him, a look between cheeky and challenging. "lets just hope you sled slightly better than you eat dessert." she teased as she ducked into the store, leaving him standing out in the street while she found one sled in the store and paid for it, slightly disappointed she'd only been able to get the one but they could make it work. only a few minutes passed in the time she'd gone into the store and when she came out and she walked back over to him.

[outfit]

[Deleted]

@ripley

Never in a million years did Émile think that he would enjoy what he was doing right now, for numerous reasons of course. The first was quite obvious; getting to spend time with Ripley in a situation where he was in the limelight. He supposed that had to do with her being a Krum and understanding what came along with all of that. Surely there weren’t too many students at school here that were children of high profile Quidditch players or government officials. At least the ones that didn’t stick out the most definitely were not. The second point to having an enjoyable weekend also came with the fact that he wasn’t constantly harassed by other students and reporters while in Hogsmeade with Ripley. He wasn’t sure if they were scared of him or her, or the fact that they learned to give people some space. The tournament was in limbo until the second task was announced, so there really wasn’t a reason for anyone to be asking him questions right now. Putting all of those things together ended with quiet days for him, which was nice considering the whirlwind of being announced a champion and then the first task that quickly followed it. He was prepared for whatever came next.

Émile raised an eyebrow at the thought of requesting a “dessert”. The difficult thing here was trying to decipher if Ripley was being serious, or just playing around. He still had issues figuring that out. But that was what made all of this interesting. He watched her run off to buy the sled, issuing one last challenge to him about sledding better than eating dessert. That would be a tough one, seeing as he’d never been sledding before. It couldn’t be that hard though, could it? Standing idly in the street as he waited for Ripley to return, Émile made sure to step off to the side of the main path to avoid people walking around him. Being an inconvenience was the last thing he wanted to be right now. There were still some charged emotions about his attitude and response to winning the first task. The tournament was supposed to promote friendship (which he didn’t buy for a second), and yet here the other schools were, being idiots about it. Not his fault that he was better than Greyback and the Hogwarts girl.

A few minutes passed and Ripley returned with a sled. A sled. As in one. He had seen enough muggle shows to know it was possible to fit two people on one of those things, but this was definitely going to be a squeeze. Maybe an enlargement charm would work on it, stretching out the sled slightly just to be able to get both of them on it comfortably. It was something they’d have to figure out once they got to the location in mind. “Looks like it’ll be a cozy ride.” He held his hand out for her to take it again. “Lead away. Can’t say I know where this hill of yours is.”

[Deleted]

@emile

“Looks like it’ll be a cozy ride.” she looked down at the sled in her hands and she had to agree. she'd ridden a sled with more than one person before so she knew it could be a tight fit but it didn't make it any less fun. the extra weight made it go faster which was never a bad thing. the more speed the faster it went and the more speed meant the more fun. "well if we fall .. one of us will have a softer landing." she said with a laugh as she took his hand and started to walk towards the edge of the small town. she'd sledded down this hill with her sisters on more than one occasion, a few times when they hadn't even been at the school, just when they'd ventured to the town with their parents. “Lead away. Can’t say I know where this hill of yours is.” she hadn't expected him to know, which was why she kept hold if his hand, their fingers tangled with each other as she led him to the hill. it wasn't a long walk but the view from the top was something else. looking at the valley when it was all white was wonderful and the castle in the distance just made the place seem all that much more magical. she looked down the hill and held the sled against her hip, judging the best path to take.

she sat the sled down on the snow when she'd picked, it seemed to look like it was pretty smooth sailing to the bottom. they could always climb back up and take some more paths when they finished this one, it wasn't like they had a time limit. she swung one leg over the sled, settling herself at the front of it and she looked back at emile with a flick of her hair, reaching behind her to pat the small seat that was there. "squeeze on." she said with a sweet smile as she looked back down the hill. "i have a problem handing over the reins to anyone." she said with a laugh as she waited for him to sit down. "give us a push with your hands." she said behind her, not wanting to do it herself in case she did it before he'd sat down properly. the last thing she wanted was to leave him sitting on his butt in the snow .. well it was one of the last things she wanted. the very last thing she wanted was to leave him so far away from her, at least today. after all it was a date.

[outfit]

[Deleted]

@ripley

Émile cracked a smile as Ripley commented on the fact that a crash would mean one of them would have a softer landing. He had a feeling that meant whoever was delegated to the back seat of the sled. Which was probably going to be him, considering he had never done this before. The way she put it also made it sounds like there was going to be quite a bit of speed involved. For Quidditch players like them, that wasn’t a big deal at all. Émile had been through plenty of high speed broom chases over the year, the only difference here was that they were on the ground and had minimal control on where they could go. It was barely different from usual. Plus, adrenaline junkies like themselves would never have any issues with getting into a high-speed crash. Émile was positive that he was made of rubber at this point. If a manticore couldn’t kill him, nothing could. “If we fall, that is,” he repeated. That was a really big if, because he was positive that there was no way they could crash.

Up the hill they went; Émile had never been in this part of the magical town before. The sight was something to behold though. He couldn’t help but take in the picturesque landscape that lay before him. It was a photographer’s dream up here. Émile found himself caught up in taking in the scenery around him as Ripley placed the sled down on the edge of the hill and got situated on it. This was one of those views that needed to be fully absorbed into memory. It wasn’t until Ripley turned around to address him again that he snapped out of his little bubble. They’d probably go down this hill numerous times today, so this wouldn’t be the last time he’d see it. Plus, there was still the rest of the year as well.

Following the Hufflepuff’s lead, he managed to squeeze himself, quite literally, onto the back of the sled. It was most certainly going to be a cozy ride. “Just a push?” Émile responded, grinning at her. Placing his hands behind him and the sled, Émile made sure to get a steady hold on the ground. They were close to the edge of the hill, but not close enough that he could easily prod the ground until they were over it. This was going to take a little effort. “Ready?” He called out to make sure Ripley was prepared. With that, he put everything into pushing the sled off. Slowly but surely it crested the hill, Émile quickly wrapping his arms around Ripley’s waist because he had nothing else to hold on. This hill was starting to look a lot steeper than it had at the top…

[The End?]