idle minds | lance

[Deleted]

high-flyer.

ANA RAN EVERY DAY. IT WAS A WELL KNOWN FACT about her that when she could bear to wake with the sun, she would run. And on the days she slept through it, she ran while it set instead. So, as the months grew colder and autumn reared its head, Ana was hindered by the rain and like a trapped feral cat, she paced and whined until her mind was distracted.

Skulking in to the Hufflepuff Common room, hair in disarray and a pair of sunglasses perched haphazardly on the top of her head, Ana searched the sleepy, Sunday students for a familiar face. She found one near one end of a sofa and nearly jumped in place with glee. Though, she was maintaining a facade of misery, so she settled for a smile as she rounded the back of a long, leather sofa and promptly threw herself over it.

Rolling on to the cushions, her legs hanging off one arm, Ana tilted her head back in to the stuffing to stare upside-down at her friend, Lance Finley's face. "It's raining," She told him sadly, like he couldn't hear it beating a tuneless song on the little windows near the ceiling, but she was pouting. "Why is it raining?" She asked, as if he might be able to fix it as she pulled her sunglasses from where they were digging in to her head, placing them on the end of her nose with a huff. 

lancelot ray linley

NEVERLAND at ADOXOGRAPHY 2.0!

[Deleted]

@iliana

There were two aspects of being a Prefect that Lance disliked more than anything else: the first being early morning patrols – the graveyard shift – where the only things moving in the hallways aside from him were the ghosts, the odd ill student heading to the Hospital Wing, or annoying couples giggling quietly in an empty classroom, not realizing that they could be heard from the end of the corridor. He didn’t do that. He picked better times for that. Three in the morning was not a good time for that, and Lance didn’t want to be there and they didn’t want him there. Hell, the ghosts didn’t want any of them there because that was the only time of the day where they had free reign to do whatever they pleased without having screaming children running through them or asking a million and one times about how they died. Occasionally he would chat up one of them during a shift and they would unload all of their woes on him, most of which had happened centuries earlier in places he had never heard of before. Lance still listened though, enjoying any sort of distraction from the job at hand. Occasionally the ghosts would assist him if he was feeling especially grumpy and wanting to toss a couple of detentions out. He never followed through with reporting the more innocent acts; seeing the fear in their eyes told him that they wouldn’t do it again when he was patrolling and that meant less work for him in the future. The Hufflepuff thought it was a great plan even if it made him out to be the bad guy. Killing them with kindness usually got the job done.

The second part of the job he hated only happened occasionally, and that was when the entirety of Hufflepuff was stuffed into the common room. Today was no exception. The forecast was cloudy, rain even, which was hard to ignore with the pitter-patter of droplets slamming down on the windows in the common room. Lance had been instructed to go back to the common room while he was still eating breakfast, disrupting a nice stack of pancakes which had just been soaked in syrup. Why a Prefect had to be in around at all times during days like this, he was unsure of. Hufflepuff wasn’t exactly rowdy this year. To pass the time, he had popped open a book, one of his Charms ones, and was going over advanced levitation charms and how they could be permanently applied to smaller household objects. Not a lot of time had been spent in a real magical house over the last seven or so years, so he wasn’t sure if this was a common practice by magical families or just a suggestion to make life easier.

His research was interrupted when he felt the back of the couch compress behind him, a body soon flying over the back and onto the remaining empty space next to him. Lance closed his book slowly as he looked down at Ana, who was now complaining about the rain. She was in one of those moods again. “Magic?”

[Deleted]

high-flyer.

IT WAS VERY TRUE WHAT THEY SAID ABOUT weather reflecting and influencing moods, Ana thought. The rain was definitely making her more dreary than usual and she really wasn't fond of it. Though she wasn't afraid of getting a little bit wet, she couldn't really afford to get sick. Quidditch was getting more intense, and Ana felt more and more pressure to win as the year drew to a close. It was her last year, she wanted to make it a good one.

Rolling her head back, Ana pouted her bottom lip out a little further at Lance before deflating back on to her back. "Ha-ha," She deadpanned, twirling a stray piece of thread between her fingers as she stared up at the ceiling, the vague impression of Lance in her peripheral vision, like a great looming shadow. "You ever thought about stand up, Lance?" Ana teased dully, flicking the piece of thread across the room before bouncing in her seat until she was sat up and around. She crossed her socked feet under her and leaned against the back rest, staring at Lance forlornly. "At least then you could charge people for your magnificent wit."

It was quite obvious that Ana's misery was catching and she was being perhaps a little sharp with her friend. She thought about that as she grabbed a cushion from behind her and plonked it on her lap. "I take that back," She said reluctantly, sighing heavily through her nose as she watched rain turn the world blurry through the small hatched windows near the ceiling. "You know how I get when I can't-" She gestured at herself, a ball of restless energy. "Exercise my demons." She joked, shaking out her arms before letting them go limp in her lap. 

lancelot ray linley

NEVERLAND at ADOXOGRAPHY 2.0!

[Deleted]

@iliana

His joke simultaneously struck the right and wrong chords, from the sound of Ana’s response. Lance only snuck a quick glance at her initial reaction, the sarcastic laugh, before turning his attention back to his book. He wasn’t going to get any studying done now that she was here. To do so would be an almost impossible feat, and the only reason he had brought the book with him in the first place was because it was better than nothing. Sitting in the common room and listening in on conversations other students were having was one of the most boring things in the world when he couldn’t participate in them. His novelty as the American guy was gone now too, and he was considered more British by his fellow Americans and less American by the Hogwarts students. It was a strange place to be.

“I prefer sitting,” he said straight-faced, eyes refusing to budge from the pages of his Charms book. That had to make her laugh more realistically, right? He thought it was funnier than the last one too. “You think I should?” Lance added as he looked down at her. She wasn’t even paying attention, instead playing with a string. It didn’t take long for that to lose Ana’s interest though, because she tossed it away and replaced it with a pillow. Hopefully that wasn’t going to be thrown away as well. In a crowded common room, the last thing he wanted to do was break up an all-out pillow fight war amongst the Hufflepuffs (mostly because he would have to comply and participate in it as well).

She tried to reason that she was like this because she wasn’t able to get rid of her demons. There was an entire castle to run through to get that out. Lance bit down on his tongue to prevent himself from saying something along the lines of Quidditch not being life. He knew enough about the sport and those that played it, that telling a Krum that would lead to a life of misery and crummy seats during professional matches. “You’ll live,” he said as he closed his book and set it down between them. “At least you can leave the common room whenever you want. McGonagall has me glued here all day.”

[Deleted]

high-flyer.

ANA DIDN'T EVEN BOTHER HIDING HER SNORTED laugh when Lance caught her sarcastic comment and threw it straight back at her. He was good at that, she thought. Always so fast she could barely keep up. She rolled her eyes anyways, and shoved him him playfully. Though she didn't have anything better to reply with, so she apologised instead. Sort of.

"I think you'd be a great comedian." Ana said sincerely, clutching the pillow to her lap and resting her chin on it. "You wouldn't even need to write any jokes," She began innocently, "They'd pay to laugh at your face." Which was her way of getting him back for making her laugh. She smiled at him so he knew she was joking, though she couldn't resist quirking her brows daringly.

Ana was happy when Lance finally set his book aside and gave her his undivided attention. She was feeling a little more needy than usual and it showed, though she really made no effort to hide it. "I don't want to leave on my own," Ana grumbled, though she would surely find someone to go with if she truly wanted to. Ana could be charming. "Why can't you leave?" She asked curiously, a slight frown between her brows. "You're not exactly the delinquent type." 

lancelot ray linley

NEVERLAND at ADOXOGRAPHY 2.0!

[Deleted]

@iliana

Lance knew he shouldn’t have gotten his hopes up too high for Ana’s compliment, as she turned it around on him almost immediately after. He let out an exaggerated sigh, shaking his head slowly at her dig about his face. If they were going to keep doing this, he needed a comeback. Luckily self-deprecation was an in thing these days. “It’s the lip ring, isn’t it? Killed my dad and made my mom run away. Been thinking of getting rid of it lately…” He was joking, of course, and utilizing his parents’ unfortunate situation was a lot darker than he had intended it to be. Still, it would probably land well enough. There were still times where his dad’s death and the second abandonment by Barbara hit hard, but more often than not he found himself laughing at it. For years he figured they were dead already. Finally having closure was better than nothing. Being able to laugh and joke about it was even better, filling in the gaps of nothing with something. He could convince himself that was a normal thing to do, since it felt better than the alternative.

Ana continued her tirade of bellyaching over the fact that she didn’t want to leave on her own, but there was also nothing to do. Lance almost asked which one she wanted more, to die of boredom in the common room or to venture out on her own and possibly not find someone to hang out with. “Prefect duty,” Lance responded, pulling at the golden badge on his shirt so that Ana could see it. “So you can blame everyone for staying in the common room today for that. If they went out, then I wouldn’t be here either.” He tried not to sound too annoyed by the situation, but it still came out that way. Hiding his displeasure in a task he had taken upon himself was a lot harder than he had realized. “I’m more of the delinquent type now more than ever before,” he dangled in front of her, hoping that would catch her attention. There were plenty of stories he had as a Prefect and how he had abused his power to get away with midnight walks and ‘borrowing’ books from the library without properly checking them out. Everyone did that at some point in time, but now he could get away with without a second thought from the professors. It was kind of great.

[Deleted]

high-flyer.

LANCE HAD SUCCEEDED IN LEAVING ANA WITH his blunt retort. She was always left a little speechless when ever he spoke about his unfortunate past. With her 'perfect' family and trouble free upbringing, Ana could hardly match him in complaints. And worst of all, she wasn't - under any circumstances - allowed to feel sorry for him. Instead, she reached over and shoved him roughly, though she couldn't help her badly contained snort. "You're not allowed to use the orphan thing," She told him with a forced scowl. "That's cheating."

Every time Lance told Ana he was a prefect, it hit her like a surprise. She often forgot he was considered responsible enough to lead a common room to charge. "I forgot about that..." She mumbled, frowning slightly as she ran a hand through her hair, pulling it up through her fingers until it fell through and flopped over her forehead. "I'll blame them then." She nodded her assent, turning to glare over the back of the sofa at the smattering of gathered Puff's, dispersed around the room in little like-minded clusters.

Though, Ana snapped her attention back to Lance as he very deliberately caught her attention once more. She scooted across the cushions hastily, brows raised as she regarded him expectantly. "How so..?" She asked, blinking at him as she thought about Lance getting in to trouble. It just... didn't compute in her mind. He was too nice, she'd always thought. Too friendly for trouble. "Who's corrupting you?" She asked after a moment, because it was the only thing that made sense to her. Her eyes narrowed. 

lancelot ray linley

NEVERLAND at ADOXOGRAPHY 2.0!

[Deleted]

@iliana

A laugh escaped him as Ana pushed him, letting the force of her shove and gravity take him into the couch’s armrest briefly, before he wiggled back into his original position. “Guess you’re right. I’m a child of a single, widowing mother now. Who has abandoned not one, not two, but three children in her lifetime.” He put up a finger for himself and his two siblings. Lance was positive he had mentioned Luke at one point or another to Ana, his older brother that he and Georgie didn’t know existed until roughly five months ago. It was a superb way to find out. The icing on the cake that was the Linley’s shitty family drama over the past year. “I’m not bitter or anything,” he said quickly. He really wasn’t, at least not anymore. The apartment and bank account Barbara had provided him and Georgie with had helped out a lot and meant they would have a place to live this upcoming summer. The orphanage hadn’t been keen on letting him go before turning eighteen, but they would have had to after graduation anyways. Having his own place only made that easier, and with his mother kind of back in the picture (or at least alive), he and Georgie were free of the orphan shackles. Finally.

“I do too,” he agreed, following her gaze at the small groups littering the common room. This was kind of silly, really. Who actually wanted to be in the common room all day? Lance could understand first and second years wanting to get their work done while they could, but everyone else? There were dozens of places for students to go in the castle or on the grounds. There weren’t even enough seats in the Hufflepuff common room to accommodate everyone that was currently there. It was ridiculous, in his opinion.

He almost got away with his comment about causing trouble. Almost. Ana was too sharp though, and he should have known better than to lead her right into it. There was no use keeping it from her now, because she probably wouldn’t relent until she knew every little detail about Katherine. “A girl from Ilvermorny. She’s in Slytherin,” Lance began, settling in because it was going to be a tumultuous conversation in a few seconds. “We met over the summer and it’s kind of gone from there.”

[Deleted]

high-flyer.

ANA HAD KNOWN THE TALE OF LANCE'S UNIQUE family circumstances, but she'd never really mentioned it. While she could be a good listener, her attentions were often on lighter subjects. Ana would much rather make someone laugh than watch them cry about something. Not that she expected many tears from Lance, but still. The dry way that he referred to it was devoid of anything particularly heartbreaking, and it still make Ana wriggle uncomfortably.

"Yeah, well..." She mumbled, shrugging her shoulders. "You don't sound that bitter." Though she stared at him for a moment, making a show of leaning in and squinting as if she were looking for something. "Nope, you get a pass with... 'orphan sarcasm'." She didn't comment much further, though if he were to go on she wouldn't stop him. Ana didn't mind being an ear, she just didn't like looking for trouble unless it was on the field. And Lance wasn't a competition she was looking to win, he was her friend.

Following Lance's gaze, she watched a few Hufflepuff's wrestling with soft, hand-made throw pillows and cringed. He had a good point, the common room was unusually stacked. Bodies on bodies, all afraid of a little bit of rain. It didn't make sense to her, really. Then again, she was another body vying for a seat in the overly populated space, so maybe she was just as bad. She didn't say that, though.

Instead, Ana focused all of her attention on extracting information from Lance. He'd never really talked about girls with her before. Ana had certainly vented to him about her own romantic entanglements, but for the most part Lance stayed silent. She had always figured he was simply private, but maybe not. Maybe he hadn't met the right girl, until now. "A transfer?" She gasped, as if it was scandalous, scooting forward even more, so it was like they were trading secrets. "What's her name, do I know her?" Ana ran over the few Ilvermorny names she knew, but no Slytherins popped in to mind. "Have you gone on a date yet?" She asked after a second, mind running a mile a minute. "Have you kissed?!" 

lancelot ray linley

NEVERLAND at ADOXOGRAPHY 2.0!

[Deleted]

@iliana

Orphan sarcasm. A hell of a way to summarize his situation in as few words as possible. Lance didn’t even know if he was technically an orphan or not anymore. The orphanage had some sort of stake in his life until he turned eighteen, but at the same time they didn’t really seem to care anymore. Once Barbara had gifted him the apartment, they were more than happy to let him run off and live there for the remainder of the summer, and even said the winter break was fine as well. “That’s my super power. King of the orphans and beholder of all of their sarcasm. With a southern twist, of course,” he laughed. The sheer ridiculousness of the position he and Georgie had been thrown in at eleven and ten, respectively, had yet to be lost on him. It didn’t sound believable at first and really shouldn’t have. But that was that, and things were starting to look better. Complaining about it and being bitter wouldn’t have solved the problems anyways.

Maybe telling Ana about Katherine wasn’t the best idea in the world after all. Her excitement was observed in the way she moved closer on the couch, Lance knowing full well that her attempt to extract information out of him was going to be accompanied by impeding on his personal space as much as possible. “Katherine Kowalski. Her twin brother is Jacob. Jake?” Lance wasn’t actually sure what her brother went by, because he had heard it both ways from his new roommate. Whenever he was with Katherine, they didn’t spend a lot of time discussing their siblings. They weren’t exactly a taboo topic, but there were more important things to do and talk about. “A few, I guess. Kind of like that weird line between hanging out and deciding what it actually is, you know?” Trying to figure out what actually constituted as a date and what didn’t was a tough one. Even though they had been ‘seeing’ each other for a little while, Lance still didn’t know when or how that bridge would be crossed, if ever. As far as he was concerned, whatever their thing was right now was perfectly fine with him, and it seemed to be fine with Katherine as well. “Maybe we have, maybe we haven’t,” Lance teased, refusing to look Ana in the eyes as he did so. If she wanted to go fishing in his personal life, he was going to take his time with the bait.

[Deleted]

high-flyer.

THOUGH SHE MADE A POINT OF ROLLING HER eyes, Ana still gave Lance a very feeble round of applause. "Points of creativity," She told him, a rather reluctant grin on her face. Lance was funny when he wanted to be, though the sarcasm suited him better. But, for the most part, Ana didn't know Lance beyond the shallowness of their friendship. She wasn't the type people went to for advice - a shoulder to cry on. She was more of the type you went to when you wanted to have fun and forget - which for the most part she was perfectly content with.

However, when it came to her friends love lives, Ana was infinitely curious. She buzzed with it as she shuffled closer to Lance, eyes alight. "Jake?" She hummed slightly before nodding. "Cute, kind of goofy looking..?" She narrowed her eyes. "Always smells like a glazed doughnut." He was a Puff, if she remembered correctly. Though she hadn't done much other than admire his pretty face in passing. "I didn't know he was a twin." She frowned at that, feeling as if she'd missed out on something, but it didn't last long. Lance was teasing her with information.

"That's the best phase!" Ana declared confidently, slumping dreamily on to her cushion as she sighed happily. "It's so exciting and mysterious." She wiggled her brows at him once before falling on to her open palm, elbow bent against the back of the sofa to hold it up. "Enjoy it while it lasts." She kissed her teeth and watched him carefully. As far as she knew, that point in a budding relationship collapsed as soon as one or the other decided they needed something boring - like clarity. She wondered which of the two were the type to ask first, though she didn't know Katherine enough to figure it out for herself.

"You dirty crup!" Ana exclaimed, shoving Lance's shoulder as he refused to look at her. She'd asked as a joke, but Lance's silence filled in the gaps more than anything he said ever would. "God, I'm jealous." She groaned, laying her head on the cushions and pouting out her bottom lip as she reached over and playfully flicked Lance's cheek. "Look at you..." Though he hadn't revealed much at all, Ana had already decided he was quite happy. "All smitten and cute." She felt a little bad at not having noticed beforehand - was she a bad friend.

"I'm gonna find her if you don't tell me everything." She clicked her tongue and shrugged easily. "I'm gonna hunt her down and stick my nose in to your business." She probably wouldn't, though she'd definitely find a picture to see which lucky girl had snagged Lance. He was premium real estate, as far as she was concerned. Cute and funny - which was getting harder and harder to find. "I feel hurt you didn't come to me for advice." She narrowed her eyes at him, but there was no real heat behind it. 

lancelot ray linley

NEVERLAND at ADOXOGRAPHY 2.0!

[Deleted]

@iliana

Was Jake (Jacob?) Kowalski goofy looking? Ana nailed it on the head by saying he smelled like a doughnut all the time, because Lance sort of knew him as the guy that was always talking about cooking. He had yet to run into him while patrolling the dungeons at night, leaving the kitchens or wherever it was he most likely snuck off to in order to practice his craft. Bumping into Hufflepuffs and Slytherins heading to and from the kitchens had been one of his most dreaded encounters. He didn’t want to tell them off because he had been in their shoes before too; sneaking off to snag a cookie or two from the house elves before going to bed. Acquiring comfort food disregarded the law, and he was more oft than not to let them go on their way. “He does. They don’t act like twins, let alone siblings though,” he mused. “I don’t think she’s ever really mentioned him before either…” And since Katherine didn’t speak of her brother, Lance didn’t ask.

“While it lasts?” he said, feigning surprise that something like this would ever come to an end. “You make it sound like it won’t.” Lance knew that she was getting worked up over the fact that he hadn’t said anything to her about it until now. The tease about whether he and Katherine had kissed or not was working exactly how he had intended it to. “You snooze, you lose,” he teased her again. She was obviously talking about being in her own relationship and not with him, but holding that out in front of her would get her going again.

Ana continued on though, stating that she was going to find Katherine and talk to her herself. Lance didn’t know he could shake his head as fast as he did, immediately trying to put a stop to that. “I would not do that,” he warned. Katherine was abrasive and rough, and he could see her flipping all the wrong switches on Ana if they ever encountered each other. The two of them were like a cat and a dog; they could coexist peacefully and separately in his life, but not in the same room together. “Honestly, it happened so fast that I didn’t even have time to think if I needed help or not,” he laughed. “How do you keep dates interesting when you’re here? There Hog’s Head doesn’t exactly scream candlelit dinner for two, does it?”

[Deleted]

high-flyer.

ANA WAS A SEVENTH YEAR BUT SHE FELT LIKE she'd barely scratched the surface of the student body. She knew almost all of the Puff's in her year, but even then a few slipped through the cracks, especially those who had not been around since First Year. This bothered her a little, as she liked feeling like she knew and was known. But, Lance's love story was much stronger than her mild inconvenience so she let it slide as she probed him for more information.

"Then she's definitely cute," Ana said confidently, a growing smile on her face as she listened intently. And while she found it a little odd that the girl didn't talk about her brother, it wasn't that surprising. By the looks of things the two barely came up for breath, or so Ana had quickly assumed. Though, she hadn't meant to insult Lance when she'd teased him about the strength of their situation, she was being more serious than she let on.

Sitting forward, she shrugged her shoulders helplessly. "I mean, you have to DTR eventually!" She said, twisting her lips and lifting her brows. "That is, 'Define the Relationship'." Even Ana, who was prone to skipping from conquest to conquest, always found himself in a similar situation. "Otherwise, it gets boring and confusing..." She wrinkled her nose at the few memories she had of such situations, when the unknown was worse than just going to a school dance by yourself.

Throwing her head back, she snorted at Lance's retort, pushing his shoulders playfully. She hadn't meant him, and she knew he knew that, but it was still funny to tease. "I'll just pine..." She joked, pouting out her lip before collapsing in to raspy laughter at the back of her throat. But, her relaxed position didn't last long and she was pushing him for more before he was even really done. Lance had always been a little private, thought Ana. Being an open book, she never really understood peoples desperation for secrets - most of the time.

"Why?" Ana asked obliviously, her curiosity peaking at the very serious tone of Lance's voice. "Are you going to stop me?" She hadn't even considered Katherine as an opponent, but then again, she didn't really know her either. All she really wanted was to be helpful and in the know. She shifted closer to Lance and shook his shoulder slightly.

"Hogwarts is massive, you get that, right?" Ana said, teasing slightly as she curled her legs under herself more and cosied in to the back of the sofa. "There are empty rooms everywhere," Her brows lifted as she urged him to catch her drift. "And, as far as staff are concerned, everybody's in bed by 10." She waited to see if he was catching her drift, but was too eager to wait longer than a few seconds before she was off again. "Any room is romantic with a handful of candles and a picnic blanket." 

lancelot ray linley

NEVERLAND at ADOXOGRAPHY 2.0!

[Deleted]

@iliana

The twist of knots in his stomach at the prospect of having to ‘define’ his relationship with Katherine made him not want to even more. Everything was fine without a solid definition on what they were. Lance had no idea if his other half even wanted to put a label on it and more or less just call it whatever it was. They were seeing each other so he didn’t think there had to be anything other than that. “It hasn’t become either of those things yet, so I think we’ll be fine,” Lance deflected. He had only been worried about that over the summer, but since the start of the term he was positive that things were working and fine between the two of them. Who needed labels for things anyways?

“Pine all you want, but you might be smothered by a snake if you’re not careful,” he laughed, pushing back against Ana. He wasn’t really sure what Katherine was capable of, but she definitely had a territorial feel to her. That much had been apparent since their first date, where she had stubbornly declared her opinions on magic and science. She was headstrong and one-hundred percent stubborn, the type he was sure that Ana would thoroughly enjoy antagonizing. “Only if it becomes my job,” he tapped the Prefects badge on his chest. “I don’t know if you’d like her much. She’s…a lot, sometimes.” The last thing Lance wanted to do was say something negative about Katherine, especially because he didn’t see anything wrong with her personality. Some people were just a bit more extra than others in certain areas. Katherine was one of those types.

Lance scrunched up his face at the idea of having a romantic dinner in one of the empty classrooms. That wasn’t his idea of fun. “I know all the places, remember?" he didn’t tap his badge a second time, but being a Prefect gave him all the premier tickets to the shows put on at Hogwarts. The worst part was running into someone he knew, because then he could never look at them the same way again. “And maybe that’s gotten old already. I don’t think she’s exactly the type to want to stargaze from the Astronomy Tower on a snowy night.” Or maybe she was. Lance didn’t really know.

[Deleted]

high-flyer.

LANCE SEEMED SURE ABOUT HIS NEW LOVE AFFAIR, but Ana wasn't. She felt a protective concern for her friend, only reinforced by the fact that whoever she was, Ana didn't know her. She knew most of Hufflepuff, and a fair few Gryffindor's, but this girl was dangerously unfamiliar. Ana would fight just about anyone for her friends. "Good," She said primly, and not another thing. Because Ana knew all too well how it felt to be pushed in one direction.

"Who will smother me?" Ana said with an open mouthed smile. He was being funny, but she was curious. "You or your girl?" Ana felt like she already knew the answer to that - his new girl being a Slytherin - but she still found it funny to ask. Whoever she was, Lance clearly found her to be a formidable opponent. All the more reason Ana was eager to speak to her face-to-face. Leaning against the back of the sofa, Ana shrugged her shoulders loosely. "I play by the rules, Linley." And she did. She was an honourable, if insufferable, winner.

"I'm a lot sometimes," Ana said in defence of a girl she didn't even know. Though, she was more annoyingly enthusiastic and competitive. Ana knew that, though it didn't make her want to change. "Maybe we'd be the best of friends!" This was a joke, mainly to try and make Lance feel better about it all, but he didn't look so sure.

"Yeah, yeah, Boss-Man." Ana rolled her eyes, snorting in the back of her throat as she shifted against the back cushions. Turning her face to watch the crackling fire instead. Being a Prefect had never put them at odds before, but the power balance had indeed shifted. She wondered if she'd be so forgiving if he reported her. Though she'd never given him reason to. "I guess," Ana muttered to the fire, though she wasn't totally convinced. "But, I mean," there was a warm slither of romance in Ana's chest then. "If you like someone, it doesn't really matter where you are, you know?" She tilted her chin to catch his eye. "Just that you're with them, or whatever."

lancelot ray linley

NEVERLAND at ADOXOGRAPHY 2.0!