Strike the Match (OPEN)

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To say that Priscilla Rosier was disappointed not to have heard from her fiancé since she had left Hogwarts the week prior was an understatement. She'd sent Riley an owl, hoping that he would be available to meet up with her in Hogsmeade to begin planning for their wedding, but she had heard nothing about his availability. Knowing what colors they wanted was the first step they needed to take; practically every other decision that they had to make hinged on that one, as far as Priscilla was concerned.

Even if Riley was off doing whatever he was doing without her—something that Priscilla hoped was fun and exciting—she decided to go into Hogsmeade to look around the stalls that had been up since before Christmas. Maybe Riley was planning to do something grand in honor of her sixteenth birthday, just two days away. That was one explanation, and she didn't want to think about the other. Considering that she had confronted Kinsey once about Riley already, she really didn't want to do it again.

Instead, she decided that she would treat herself to a birthday present or two. While there might have been more couples than single individuals opting for carriage rides, she approached the Fletwock's carriages at about a half past eleven, planning to be finished in about thirty minutes' time so that she could try to avoid the lunch rush in the village.

When she had paid for her carriage ride, Priscilla was informed that they would be taking another passenger, as well. She avoided sighing and said that that would be fine, and she boarded the carriage in the meanwhile, sitting down at the far end. She really wasn't looking forward to sitting next to someone who was possibly a stranger—she hadn't looked at the queue behind her—but she'd have to put up with it, she supposed.

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Break had come and Xavier had begrudgingly decided that going home would probably be his best bet when it came to the freedoms of his every move not being monitored by someone who held arbitrary authority over him. His parents came and went, busy with their own lives, and it wasn’t as if either of his sisters knew or cared to know what he got up to. Much better that way in his eyes. Now that he was seventeen he had the freedom to use magic outside of school as he pleased, which meant he was better able to experiment with magic. His work had been going fine as far as he was concerned, that is until today when he’d become frustrated with a spell that wasn’t working quite the way he’d wanted it to. It’d taken a lot out of him to not blow half of his room apart in frustration. And it wasn’t a damaging spell that wasn’t working so there were no explosions to satisfy him with the failure of the spell. He’d decided to get out and enjoy the cool air instead to cool off.

Xavier liked being outside. He liked the winter enough because of the cold air and so he didn’t mind walking around where there was snow laying on the ground. Getting far away from his house had been his plan, and so he’d apparated to Hogsmeade, where he knew the winter festival had been going on. It was the second week the festival had been up so the small village was crowded with families wanting to experience everything the festival had to offer. The decorative snowy ferris wheel touched the sky and towered over the length of Hogsmeade, the ice rink was full of people carving up the ice at different paces. The festival was full. And it was fine enough for him to walk it. He nodded at the few people he knew; he expected Hogwarts students to be there too, with or without their families. The cool air was doing its job too; he was more focused on avoiding bodies even if his thoughts kept flickering to the spell that went wrong.

He was walking at a slow pace, passing up what looked to be an impossibly long line for the carriage rides that had been set up when he felt someone grab onto his arm and pull him. He became defensive immediately, moving his arm in an attempt to yank it out of the grip of whoever had grabbed him and he was let go of immediately. ”Whoa! I was just trying to see if you could go in front of us on this carriage ride! My wife and I want to ride together and they need another passenger.”. His glare traced the older man’s figure before looking at his wife, and then the attendant for the carriage who was looking at him expectantly. He went to turn away before he caught a glimpse of the carriage. Inside sat Priscilla Rosier, looking a little too bothered, probably by the wait. He didn’t mind the carriages so much anymore. He stepped up, arms tucked into his coat, before he climbed into the carriage and took a seat. ”Been waiting long?” he commented, his lips twitching into a small smile.

Tag; @priscilla

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Feeling the carriage move slightly as someone else boarded it, Priscilla turned her head to see who it was. Xavier Weasley spoke before she could say anything to him, smiling at her. "Been waiting long?"

"Thankfully not." Priscilla shook her head, trying to look disinterested at first. Aside from her being betrothed to Riley Fudge, she knew that she had to mind her behavior around Xavier. If anyone were to suspect anything, even friendship between them—and it looked as though the carriage operator would be the type to say something about how they would be a nice match, come to think of it—people would have questions, including why she wasn't with Riley.

Now, the Weasley boy wasn't exactly her "type". For one thing, his name—and the soiled blood that came with it—made that obvious. It was unfortunate, really, that he had ended up with that lot in life. She did like Ondina, too, and she was glad that they had enough sense to rectify things for themselves. Did it help the rest of their blood-traitor family? Unfortunately not.

As the carriage operator came past to give them their safety instructions for what they would need to do in the unlikely event of an emergency, Priscilla paid about half of her attention. It wasn't as though someone couldn't just use magic to pull the carriage back down to the ground, and anyone would be an idiot if they decided to go and open the carriage door while they were in midair.

@xavier

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Her answer was clipped and he should have expected it. The smile upon his face stayed in place but a bead of annoyance started in the back of his head. He knew what this was. At least he suspected why it was that she was being short with him. He assumed it had everything to do with the fact that she was betrothed to that Fudge kid. Was she really excusing him because of that, or was it something more? Did she just not like him? The tick of annoyance grew and he gave a slow, repeated nod in answer to her. ”Good.” It was a shame; he admired her and the work she’d started at Hogwarts. Priscilla Rosier had been at the forefront of the creation of Society for the Preservation of Magical History, something he’d thought about joining but had changed his mind considering that he was in his last year. Having a collection of magical history at his hands, or at the very least research on magical history, had been tempting. Preserving magical history was important in that way, to reference. And her acknowledging that importance, her heading it, had made her seem like less of an idiot than others. ”Has your day been going well?” His words were spoken just as the carriage lifted into the air. His stomach dropped immediately but he took a second to look out and see the landscape, thoughts returning to her shortness. He wondered for just a moment where Fudge was, why he wasn’t with her, considering this was the type of thing couples did together. Yet he was the one sitting across from her. Odd.

Tag; @priscilla

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"Good," Xavier answered her. He didn't speak to her again until they were lifting off into the air. "Has your day been going well?" he asked.

Looking out of the carriage at the view as they moved upwards, she nodded and then turned her attention back to the Weasley. "Yeah," she told him, letting her guard down now that they were alone. "It's been great. I love all of the little shops popping up all over." Aside from not having seen Riley in days—the longest she had been without him since they had found out that they were engaged—it really hadn't been too bad. The festival was as enjoyable as ever, and she was glad that she was in a carriage with Xavier, rather than plenty of other people.

"Yours?" she asked. Hopefully he hadn't been stuck with his family all day. Priscilla could only imagine what a bore that would have been.

@xavier

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Xavier turned back to the younger Ravenclaw as she spoke. Her tone had settled into a civility that was acceptable by most people’s standards. Xavier, however, kept a bead of paranoia in the back of his mind, unable to let go the thoughts he’d had. Outwardly, though, he nodded at her discussion of the shops she must have seen around the festival. While he’d walked around a bit himself he had not covered the entirety of the small village and what little he had walked around he hadn’t paid much attention to any of the stores. He would have to see what they had, though he doubted he’d find anything personally interesting in them. She turned the question on him then and he mentally moved back to work he’d left at home. ”Better now” he stated with a deep breath before his attention turned back to Priscilla, ”I’d been working on… some things at home. Got a little frustrated so I left to get some fresh air.” He didn’t want to give any details of his work. He couldn’t trust anyone with it. And while he thought Priscilla capable, he couldn’t trust his ideas with anyone. She could be perfectly capable of steal his ideas as well. ”Is your fiance elsewhere in the festival?” he thought to change the subject to something safer because he didn’t want to talk about his research. He didn’t necessarily want to talk about her fiance either but it was safer.

Tag; @priscilla

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Xavier explained that he had been working on things at home but had left to get fresh air. Priscilla could sort of relate, though she didn't really have problems with her family, per se. As such, there was nothing for her to bother leaving to get fresh air about in the first place. Her siblings were usually busy with something or another, as were her parents, but that was how it had always been. That was what had gotten her into books from the start, so she couldn't fault them too much. Besides, her upbringing was no different from that of most of the other people she knew in her family's circles.

"Is your fiance elsewhere in the festival?" There was also Riley, as Xavier brought up, but it didn't feel intrusive that he had. They were almost always with one another at school—save for during classes—so it only made sense that Riley would be with her at the festival.

"No, no. I came alone," Priscilla answered Xavier, nothing in her tone suggesting that she hadn't seen Riley since the start of the winter holidays. If Riley was at the festival at the moment, she hadn't heard anything from him or anyone else about it. Lydia was the type of person who would have told her something, so it wasn't as though Priscilla was paranoid about his whereabouts. Besides, from what she had heard, it was probably better if he wasn't in Hogsmeade.

"I'm sure someone in your family is here," Priscilla laughed somewhat bitterly. She didn't blame Xavier for wanting to be off the ground. "Do you still get those lumpy jumpers for Christmas?" she asked him curiously. She doubted that he actually wore his, considering that they were about as visually appealing as a sack of potatoes, but it would be good to know for when they got back to school.

@xavier