Rolling In The Deep | Zaire

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Crayla Howlan sat in the common room on a bench along the large glass wall that looked into the black lake. She had some homework spread out across her lap, but she hadn't even picked up her pen to get any work done. She found herself mesmerized by the water and she watched the creatures that inhabited the body of water swim by. She loved being under the lake and able to see inside of it. It was such a rare experience and she loved the green light that it cast into the room from the sun shinning above the lake. It was just about sunset, and the light through the lake was dimming, instead, the candles around the room began to light seemingly by themselves, though she knew there was magic of house elves involved. 

There were a few other students around but no one that she really cared to bother with. Crayla was fairly picky with who she chose to associate with, people had to have something to offer her, be it something physical, material, mental, emotional or status-evoking. So her friends were few and far between. She had come to have a handful of people that she simply didn't hate and even fewer that she actually considered friends. She had fully given up on getting any studying done and instead was just hoping that someone walked in soon to take her mind off of school, something that she did actively hate. 

@zaire

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Boredom did not become Zaire Shafiq. Well, actually there were multiple things that he could be doing, including his homework. There was a charms assignment due next class and he didn't particularly care to partake in it. Overall he was doing well in the class anyway so one assignment wasn't going to kill his chances on doing well on his upcoming O.W.Ls for the class. Instead, he would rather kill his boredom with something he wanted to do, something he could take interest in. Or someone, whichever came first. He hadn't seen Theodosia all day and he'd rather not. He'd come up with a plan to distance himself from her. Yes, he still wanted to be friends with her, they'd been friends for much too long for him to want to throw that away. He did want to stop himself from being in love with her. There was no point. He didn't even know why he'd continued to be in love with her for so long when she'd told him long ago that she'd had no interest. So he was done. Or wanted to be anyway. It wasn't as if he saw her too often these days anyway so it was a bit easier.

He'd decided to return to the common room after finding nothing to do outside. He'd contemplated flying around the pitch for a while but he'd seen the Ravenclaw team gearing up for practice and quickly abandoned that idea. He might as well have come back here. Upon entrance, he saw Crayla sitting near the glass wall that gave them a view of Black Lake. Now there was someone who qualified as interesting. She was leaning over a bit of work but she didn't seem like she was too interested in it. He smirked and walked over too, sitting down and resting his head up against the cool glass. "You look entirely too focused on that. Is it that Charms homework?" he commented in a relaxed though amused tone.

Tag: @cray

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Score. Zaire Shafiq walked in and straight over to where she was sitting. He sat with her, leaning his head against the glass wall. Zaire was someone that Cray definitely didn't hate and was fairly within the friend zone. He was someone that Cray honestly felt benefited her. He had the status, he had the charm, and they actually had a shared interest outside of their desire for power and disdain of anyone they deemed lesser than them. Cray had loved creatures since she was a child, both magical and non, but she had a strong preference for the magical. Her family had a cat growing up that she sometimes felt understood her better than any of her family members. Animals were patient and simple. It was easy to understand their needs and they only needed what was basic and primal. No one got mad at them for fighting or being anti-social because it was simply their nature. Cray had a way with them, while the girl was anything but patient with people, with animals she had nothing but patience.

Zaire spoke and she closed her book on her lap, trapping her parchment and pen inside to keep her page. "Charms." she nodded. "How'd you know? You putting off the assignment too?" she asked, fairly confident that her assumption that he was would be correct. Another thing the two Slytherin's had in common was their simple lack of caring for certain things involving school. However, Cray's lack-of-interest never really went away, grades and marks were the last thing on her mind.

@zaire

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Crayla Howlan was not a pureblood, no. But in his opinion that seemed to be her only blemish. She was everything that a Slytherin girl should be, minus her less than desirable blood. She was graceful, cool-headed, and ambitious. All very admirable things. That's why he liked her and it was why he was able to overlook her blood status. She wasn't boring, she made him laugh. And, she loved magical creatures as much as he did. They could talk for hours on end about them. He genuinely liked her and liked being around her, which had been different for him because for a long time the only person he'd seen as worth getting to know was his betrothed, Theodosia. He actually considered her a friend.

Watching her book close gave him satisfaction because really she didn't need to be worried about some random assignment. He was more important and she could have more fun with him anyway. "Putting it off. Not doing it at all. Same thing really. I am rather surprised to know that you've decided to do it." he'd sat up a bit on the bench and grabbed at the textbook in her lap, opening it to where the parchment had been smashed inside the book. He wasn't sure why he'd expected there to be a mess of writing but the parchment was empty, she hadn't written anything on it. He chuckled. "I retract that statement. I guess you aren't getting anything done."

Tag: @cray

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Cray's blood status haunted her everyday. While she didn't really care about blood status, she knew that the people who could give her the power she craved did care about blood status. She knew she would always be a step down because she was a half-blood and it haunted her. She almost wished that she had lied about her blood status, though she knew there were easy ways to track that kind of thing. However, both of her parents were magic and while she did have a muggle grandmother, her entire maternal family was French Pure-blood, at least as far as she knew. And she felt like that had to count for something. 

"My dad's down my throat about my OWLs." she shrugged as her reasoning for even opening the textbook; because she didn't want to risk another howler from her father if she got an unacceptable mark on her OWLs. A part of the Slytherin girl was always resentful that he hadn't let her go to Beauxbatons like her mother had wanted for her. She was sure she would have benefited from a French institution rather than this mess of a school. She knew she wasn't going to be something that involved a lot of these subjects, and while magic was good to know. Honestly, if she didn't end up in creatures of ballet, she'd be fine as a house wife to some rich husband, not a stay-at-home type, though. She had bigger aspirations for herself, but she did like the idea of marrying into another family with money and even more desirably: pure blood status. "When have you ever actually seen me do schoolwork?" she asked her friend seriously. "OWLs or not, it's not going to start now." she promised. "So, what are you up to, I'm guessing you weren't coming from the library." she playfully bit her lip after teasing him. 

@zaire

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He nodded in understanding when she stated her dad was on her about her O.W.Ls. His parents had been on him too but he skimmed through most of their owls these days anyway, knowing that they would either be about that or them asking about Theodosia. He responded when he had to, and that wasn't too often when his parents were busy running large businesses. "I can't recall, which is my reason for the surprise. You're usually more fun than that," he chuckled at her question, the seriousness in her voice bringing about his amusement. They were similar in that respect; he could ask her the same question and would get a similar answer from her. He didn't do homework for classes he didn't care about anyway but the classes he did care about and did work for, she usually wasn't around to see him do it. It wasn't like they would get any work done around each other anyway; they'd be too busy distracting each other and making the other laugh. She asked what he was up to and he smirked at the way she bit her lip. "Courtyard actually. I was thinking to myself that I wished I'd found someone interesting to bother. Lo and behold, you're the first person I see when I enter the common room," he grinned, "I do so like getting the things I wish for." He'd already managed to pull her away from her school work, not that it took much coaxing.

Tag: @cray

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Cray, as the oldest of her siblings, had to set a precedent for her younger sister to follow, and as far as Crayla was concerned, the lower she set the bar, the easier of a time her sister would have when it came to what her father expected. She was willing to take that risk for her sister's sake, or at least, she was willing to use it as her excuse. Not that she honestly needed one. As far as the Slytherin girls was concerned, there were far more important things in life than how she did on stupid, standardized tests. “Exactly, and I’m not going to start now.” she nodded, giving a flirty wink as she did so. She was still the same girl she’d always been. And to that same girl, the best cure for boredom was a little flirting, something she knew well. He had admitted that he was looking for someone to bother as much as she had been before he walked in. And he closed his statement by saying how glad he was that he always got what he wished for. She couldn’t say she was surprised to hear him say that, but it was still flattering coming from someone she liked as much as she liked him. “Well what’s your plan now that you’ve found someone willing to be bothered by you?” she asked, sitting up a bit and tossing her books onto the floor, not wanting to bother with them at all. Especially not while much better options sat so close by.

@zaire

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Z chuckled once again at her insistence that today wasn't going to be the day she would become a better student. The wink she gave along with it was full of flirtatious intent and Zaire suddenly had the thought that Slytherin women would be the death of him, thinking back to when Theodosia had wanted to pull him away from the common room. She'd used an interesting tactic to get him out and he'd thought about the false promise in her words for days. He stopped himself from traveling back down that road again and smirked at Crayla. At least he was used to flirting with Crayla and he knew not to expect anything more; it never went further than flirting and he expected it to never go further than flirting. "Well since I actually like my company, the number of things to do goes up significantly," he flirted back, "So, really, it all depends on what you feel like being bothered with." His eyes flickered to her lips then back to her gaze, all part of the game they played. It had never gone further because he was betrothed to Theodosia, right? Or was it that she wasn't attracted to him? He pondered. If he actually pushed, would he find her willing to be swept away by him? She was a good friend, one of the very few he had and one he possibly felt like he could trust. Maybe it wasn't a good idea to push now, but he would find out eventually. There were actually a few things they could do. He hadn't yet been by the COMC hut to check on the creatures. Maybe she had something else in mind.

Tag: @cray

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Cray began to wonder why she hadn't played with Zaire yet. He had been a friend for a while and perhaps she just valued his friendship more than she wanted to have a meaningless flirt-ationship with him. Of course, there was the little fact that he was betrothed to someone whom she also considered a good friend, but Theodosia didn't like him, or at least, she didn't let on that she had any interest at all. Cray wasn't looking for anything serious, she never was. She wasn't mature enough to be in the market for such things, but she was at that age where boys were a majority of her interests. And she would be lying if she said that Zaire wasn't cute. A part of her couldn't help but think that Theodosia was crazy for not agreeing to marry him, if not for love, for the life-style or status that just having his name would provide for her. He said that he was up for whatever she wanted to be bothered with and Cray smirked. "Well, it's a lovely day out and it would be a shame to waste this weather." she suggested, batting her dark eyelashes a little for added effect. 

@zaire

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Z waited patiently for her to answer his question, wondering how far she would take it this time, the silly they game they played where they flirted relentlessly. When she finally did answer, the flutter of her eyelashes pushed him over the edge and he laughed deeply. She really was a lovely girl and he was glad that she was his friend because she made him laugh like this. "That's funny. I was hoping you would say that though," he replied through his laughter. It actually was a really nice day outside, he just hadn't had anyone to enjoy it with. With her offer he was certain that he'd be able to now. Being that it was April, it wasn't too hot outside that he would get uncomfortable. "We don't have to stay for long, but I want to go check on the creatures in the hut. Can't trust everyone in the Magical Creatures club to do their job correctly so I want to make sure they were taken care of. Then you're free to whisk me off to whatever task you had in mind." He didn't like most of the people in COMC club, that wasn't surprising to anyone. He cared about creatures too much to leave them in the hands on someone incapable so whenever it was someone he didn't trust's turn to care for them, he always went behind them to check their work. It was usually sloppy, as he expected. He'd never had to go back after her though.

Tag: @cray

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The fact that Crayla was a part of a club at all was surprising to even herself. She wasn't really the type of girl that looked like she’d belong to a club, a clique, sure. But a club seemed a little trivial and juvenile for her type of personality. However, there she was, a member of the Care of Magical Creatures club, of which the man sitting across from her was also a member. It was originally what made her think of him as someone that was beneficial to her, someone who understood her love for the creatures and didn’t think it was out of her image to do so because he knew why that part of her was there.

“Yeah, that’s fine.” The woman insisted, standing up with him. She didn’t mind stopping by the hut to make sure that all the creatures were alright. It wasn’t a chore to her like she knew it was to some of the other members of the club. They walked together out of the common room and up to the main floor of the castle before they crossed the grounds and got to the Care of magical Creatures hut. While they walked, Cray asked, “So how’s Theodosia? Have you spoken to her recently?” she hadn’t seen the girl lately and wondered if Zaire had, he knew they were friends as well as being betrothed, something that she was, admittedly, a little jealous of. Being promised to a man with the name and social standing that Zaire had would be the icing on the cake for the Slytherin girl and he future plans. Maybe someday she’d find her own pureblood prince.

@zaire

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Crayla agreed to go by the hut with him and he nodded before getting up, allowing her to leave the common room first like the gentleman that he was, and followed her out of the common room and the castle towards the COMC hut. He walked at at easy pace, making sure not too walk too much faster than she so he wouldn't leave her behind since she was shorter than he was and therefore walked at a slower pace. She asked him them how Theodosia was and he wanted to shrug because honestly he was beginning to see less and less of Theodosia nowadays. He didn't know if it was something Elaine related, like it had been before, or if she had gotten involved in something else. He wasn't going to let Crayla know that though. Not because he couldn't trust her but he just didn't want anyone to know. They were betrothed and, like it or not, they were both supposed to be keeping a united front of some sort. At least he thought so. He hadn't wanted to get betrothed in the first place but now that he was, he'd always wanted to at least try and follow the rules. It was a lie and he knew it. He didn't want to think about it any further really. "Yes, of course, but never for long. Theodosia can't keep still. She's always into one thing or another. Most of the time it's amusing but sometimes I question why she feels the need to get involved with some of the people she finds herself dealing with." he replied with his normal nonchalant air about him. No one knew how he felt about Theodosia and if it stayed buried until he died it would be enough. She was his best friend so his criticisms were always light but it would be odd if he didn't question it. "And your sister?"

Tag: @cray

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Zaire explained that he hadn’t seen much of Theodosia lately, but he had seen her a little. Despite sharing a dorm with the girl, Cray couldn’t remember the last time she had spoken to her a great deal either. They were friends, well, as friendly as two means girls could be with each other. They were friends in the way that she and Phoebe were friends, they tolerated each other and made some effort to get along and care about each other and their things, but Crayla wasn’t sure how much she would trust the girl with a secret. Nothing personal against her, Cray wasn’t sure if she would trust anyone around here with a secret. Not that she had any, she was an open book. Zaire then asked about her sister, which threw her off a little, she and her sister didn’t exactly see eye to eye on most things. Tinsley tried hard to actually please their father. She got good grades and took her classes seriously. She was friendly and popular in her year. She was ambitious in different ways than Cray was. They both wanted to succeed, they just went about it in very different ways. “She’s fine, I think.” Crayla shrugged. For all Cray knew, she could have been sick in the hospital wing. She really had no idea, and she felt a little bad for not really wanting to care. They made to to the Care of magical Creatures hut and Cray looked around, taking in the site and smiling when she saw the creatures in their pasture. “This is one of my favorite places.” she admitted, softly, pretty sure he already knew. Creatures were a weakness of hers, something she both hated and admired about herself. Weakness, while annoying, did prove that she was human.

@zaire

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Zaire gave a nod as Crayla gave half-hearted comments on her sister's well-being, as she knew it to be. He knew her and her sister weren't close but he also knew that didn't mean she wished her sister ill. It was just like he and Nailah. He and his sister ran in different circles, especially considering that his sister was years younger than he. He checked on her sometimes but he knew she could take care of herself and probably would rather he didn't hang around her. It didn't take long to reach the COMC hut and just as she did, he took in the sight of the number of creatures that were out on the grounds around it. Because they were a school they couldn't have anything too dangerous but every creature that Hogwarts kept was a magnificent sight. "Mine too," he smiled easily. When he wasn't in class, he split his time equally between the hut and the common room because he liked the hut enough to stay there. Sure, there was the occasional interruption by the Magical Creatures club member who's turn it was to feed the creatures that day but other than that it stayed quiet. When he wanted some peace, it was his destination of choice. "Best place to get away from people." He walked up to the hut doors and opened them to see the diricawls still in their cage. They'd been there for a month and a half now and it seemed that the school still wasn't comfortable with letting them out of their cage yet, lest they disappear. "Coming in or staying out?" he asked though he didn't actually check to see if she was behind him or not.

Tag: @cray

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Crayla followed Zaire into the gate when he asked if she was coming or staying. She had no reason not to. What else was she going to do if she just waited outside for him to be done? Plus, she liked the creatures. She wasn’t afraid of them like some of the students seemed to be. It took a lot to scare Cray, she was someone who willingly put herself into dangerous situations on a fairly regular basis and that barely caused her to blink an eye. Feeding a dangerous creature wasn’t going to cause her to flinch. Adrenaline always kept her going. Plus, she had a way with creatures, a talent. Most creatures were simple and if you gave into their needs and stroked them, sometimes physically, sometimes just their egos’, then they weren’t hard to deal with. There was a reason, while she wasn’t a club type of person, that she was a willing member of the Magical Creatures Club. “You want help?” she asked him. This was one of the few times when she would ever offer to help someone, unless they were asking for help spending money, or, help filling a throne that was empty. She couldn’t remember exactly why he wanted to stop by, or how long he wanted to spend here.

@zaire