NATURAL | RILEY

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WE'RE BRIGHTER THAN FIREFLIES LIGHTING THE SKY

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NOVEMBER 23, 2024

It was the Hogsmeade trip in November, and things were going rather interesting. The Thanksgiving feast was coming up soon, and Peyton was growing more and more excited by the day. She was happy to see a tradition brought to Hogwarts to make the Americans feel more at home. It was also getting close to Christmas, which brought extra joy to Peyton as she got to go home and see the family that had moved on from Hogwarts. Here she was, wandering through Hogsmeade Village, a bag of candy in her hands.

She enjoyed the trips to the little village, ever since she was able to start, she always went, and that was how she met Miss Angie, the lovely lady that worked at one of the shops. She realized that she hadn’t seen her in a while, probably because she had been so busy the past couple of Hogsmeade trips. It was then that she decided that she would head to her place of work and see if she was there, her feet crunching fallen leaves and twigs. Brushing strands of blonde hair out of her eyes, she realized that she probably needed a haircut sometimes soon – it had gotten down to her waist pretty quickly.

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TAG @riley

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Riley liked to take advantage of every Hogsmeade weekend he was allowed. He adored the little village and he loved the chance to get out of the castle and off of the grounds. Not That there was anything wrong with the castle, the young man loved it, but sometimes it felt very small, even though it was possibly infinite. He would do something with Priscilla in the town a little bit later, probably take her for a butterbeer or something, but he wanted to get out a little earlier and have a walk around.

He loved the view covered in leaves, so he didn’t mind even just spending time walking around the orange and yellow covered path. Leafs had stacked up along the sides as footsteps of the visiting students had cleaned the center. Riley walked along the sides a bit, his boots crunching the leaves below. It wasn’t until he came face to face with the blonde that he realized someone else had a similar idea. “Oh. Hello Peyton.” he said kindly when she recognized her.

@peytonbainbridge

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[attr="class","next"] The blonde’s wandering around of Hogsmeade alone was short-lived because it wasn’t long before she came face to face with someone that she had met, but didn’t want to see. Last she heard from Kinsey was that the two of them had broken up and not on the best of terms. Maybe it was because she was somewhat close to Kinsey she felt drawn to be annoyed by the presence of the guy before her. She was sure that Kinsey wouldn’t want her to treat him any differently. Thus, she plastered on a smile as he kindly brought attention to her. She was glad he still remembered her and her name, she would have thought he would have forgotten about the whole Bainbridge family after the breakup.

“Hello Riley. Fancy seeing you here,” she said with a soft, but somewhat forced a smile. Her jaw was slightly clenched. Usually, she was a sweet little angel and a gentle soul, but there was a bit of a temper hidden beneath her smile. “Enjoying the trip to Hogsmeade?”

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TAG @riley

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Riley couldn’t ignore the bit of awkwardness that she was putting off, and he knew he had to be putting off a bit of it too. It wasn’t exactly easy to see her ex-girlfriends siblings around the castle, at least, not the ones who had liked him. All the ones who hadn’t liked him had graduated. But now, none of them liked him anymore, and he couldn’t blame them. He knew he disappointed them all. He disappointed himself. He knew that her smile was forced, it was easy to notice that sort of thing, a lot of his books were about what the various types of facial expressions meant. She didn’t want to be talking with him as much as he didn’t really want to be talking with her, but he wasn’t rude. He still liked the younger girl and he still wanted to be liked by her, and the rest of them. “Yes, very much. Well I just made it to town, but I’m sure I will.” he said with an easy nod, but it was a lie, underneath. He knew he’d be seeing Priscilla in a bit and he wasn’t exactly looking forward to that. “...and you? Have you had a nice visit?” he asked in return. Fiddling his fingers in the pocket of his hoodie.

@peytonbainbridge

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[attr="class","next"] When Peyton had first learned of Riley, she had been excited for her older sister Kinsey. For the first time in her life, she seemed happy and didn’t let her gift stop her. Of course, Kinsey saw it as more of a curse than a gift and usually moved away from any physical touch, she wasn’t much of a hugger like the blonde girl was. When she finally got to meet Riley, she had liked him—he was cute and nice—and she was ecstatic for the two of them. At the beginning of term though, that all changed when she learned of what happened between himself and her sister. She felt bad for both of them that they both had to go through with this—but unlike her engaged friend Lydia, who was enjoying the attention of being betrothed to someone—she didn’t get that from Riley. Why couldn’t he state what he wanted out of life? Sure, he was a Fudge like her dear friend Lydia, the older brother of the younger girl, but couldn’t he have a say? She swallowed and smiled, “I am—Hogsmeade is always fun, especially right before Christmas. Everyone is getting ready for the Holiday,” she said, she could tell that he wanted to run away as much as she did. Instead, she found herself clearing her throat, “Am I keeping you from meeting someone?” she asked, quite awkwardly, playing with her jacket hem. She didn’t want to hold him up if he was meeting someone, especially his fiancé.

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TAG @riley

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Riley always had a lot of trouble with her members of Kinsey’s family. Her two older sisters had never given him an easy time, and while he had never met her older brother, Dustin, he had a feeling that it was for good reason. He tried not to think about that and rather just listened to what the girl in front of him was saying about the village, and especially during christmas time. “It’s a great time to be here.” he agreed. He loved when the air turned cold and the spirits grew high in the festivities of the season, it was still a little ways off, but it was here, nonetheless. She asked if she was keeping him from meeting anyone and he sighed and shook his head, “No…” it was true, he wasn’t meeting anyone. He would be later, but not right now. “Are you?” he asked, wondering if she was dashing off somewhere, the awkwardness of the situation not lost on either of them.

@peytonbainbridge

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WE'RE BRIGHTER THAN FIREFLIES LIGHTING THE SKY

[attr="class","next"] Peyton would have to say she was one of the nicer ones when it came to Kinsey. Dustin was hard on her, and so was Cara, but Peyton always tried to be nice and was somewhat close to her older sister, even if she shadowed Cara for a bit when she was younger. When she learned about Riley, she had been ecstatic for her sister, even got to meet him, and then she discovered they had broken up because of a betrothal. Peyton wasn’t surprised since Lydia had always talked about it and they were siblings, but she had thought it wouldn’t have affected the older Fudge—she was wrong. He responded with a shake of his head before asking her the very question, and she shook her head as well, “No—I was just wandering around before I headed to see if a friend was working…” Awkwardness and silence appeared afterward, what was there to say?

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TAG @riley

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She admitted that she also wasn’t busy or meeting with someone, but she was going to pop in and see if a friend was working somewhere. He began to wonder who she knew that would be working in the village as she was still young and he didn’t really see her as someone who would have older friends, but everyone had their surprises and he wasn’t one to judge. “That’s cool.” he agreed. He cleared his throat at looked down to her, wondering if she was going to say anything else. He wasn’t sure how to bow our politely. “So how are Seph and Penelope?” he asked. He knew she’d catch that he didn’t ask about any of the others. He didn’t really care for or about any of the others. And he already knew how Kinsey was, there was no need to ask about her.

@peytonbainbridge

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[attr="class","next"] Peyton felt bad for the way she was acting, she wasn’t usually this “petty” but the mixture of her social awkwardness and her feelings towards Riley at this moment – her tone was not the best. She internally beat herself up, but she couldn’t help it. She and Kinsey had grown somewhat close recently, or she liked to believe so and didn’t like seeing her hurt. The older brunette had been hurt enough because of how people acted around her ability, and seeing her happy was amazing to the young blonde – and now, she wanted nothing more than to throttle the life out of Riley. Then again, it wasn’t his fault – that was how purebloods were. And she was sure that Lydia would not let her hear the end of Peyton killing her best friends brother. ‘So how are Seph and Penelope?’ Peyton smiled slightly, “They are good. Everyone has been good lately. Thank you for asking,” she said with a curt nod of her head. “How is your—fiancé?” she questioned, the word fiancé sounding forced.

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TAG @riley

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Peyton confirmed that everyone was good and Riley gave a nod in agreement, he was glad that they were good. Not that he was expecting her to tell him anything other than that they were good or fine. This wasn’t really a conversation to get deep and serious in. She then turned the conversation and asked about his fiance, definitely forcing the word. Riley could see the disgust in her face. He didn’t blame her, but he also didn’t really want to talk about it with her. She wouldn’t understand. He couldn’t even really talk about it with Kinsey. “She’s fine. Probably.” he didn’t spend too much time with her, at least not on purpose. “Yeah, anyway, i should probably get going…” she cleared his throat a bit, feeling thoroughly uncomfortable.

@peytonbainbridge

(I think you can end it )

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[attr="class","next"] Things were awkward with Riley, and she hated it. The guy had been kind when she first met him, and yet, he turned out to be a jerk and broke her older sister's heart. She didn't trust him, not even for a split second. How could someone that seemed madly in love with someone instantly turn their back on them because of a blood status? She didn't understand, and maybe she didn't want to. She nodded her head, plastering on a fake smile, "I should too...it was nice seeing you Riley," she said in a chipper voice before she turned on her heels and disappeared into the small Hogsmeade crowd.

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LE END

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