One snake to rule them all. (Ronan and Leonore)

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Raoul had a letter he was going to send to his stepfather, Stephen Wolfe.  Rather, it was a response to a letter his stepfather had written to him.  Stephen was just casually asking after him, and although Raoul was tempted to write back "life is boring as usual" to get things over with, he realized the importance of sucking up to Stephen.  It was relevant that he treat Stephen with respect, as he was going to inherit the man's winery when the latter died.  In fact, upon graduation Stephen was going to have him receive part of the revenues acquired from profits of the winery.  It was Raoul's goal to own it one day, but for now he was content to be a recipient of the profits.  He shouldn't be too hasty and demand more than he could ever have at the moment.  And if he was to have what he wanted, he needed to be on good terms with the person who had what he needed, and who could give it to him.

Therefore, Raoul had forced himself to write a more detailed account of how life was at Hogwarts.  In other words, that he was behaving, that he was doing good in his studies, his latest grades, etc.  And he was happy to say that he was doing well.  The Slytherin was ambitious and wouldn't brook receiving poor grades.  He wanted to be the best of the best in anything that he had the ability to be the best of the best of.  He refused to lose to anybody. 

Anyway, Raoul was climbing up the stone steps that led up to the owlery.  His letter was scrolled up and tied with a string, and he held it in his hand as he marched up the steps.  He was already used to climbing up these tediously long steps, for he had done so countless times.  Yet he always thought it was a waste of time whenever he had to lose energy just to get to a stinking owlery.  Her forced himself to, but he really thought it was an ordeal that he would rather not have to go through.  He could be spending the time climbing up the steps doing more entertaining things that he enjoyed, not to mention his feet ached because of all the steps he had to climb.  A rather moody expression played on his face and he muttered a French swear word.

But, eventually, he made it up to the owlerly.  Entering it, he wrinkled his nose slightly at the sight of owls and the floor covered with straw, droppings, and mice skeleton.  He never liked entering this filthy, germ-infested room, as he had to watch his step lest he step on something that he did not find pleasant.  Gross.            

Tag: @leonore and @ronan
Notes: Uh, so obviously Leonore posts firsts so the problem can happen .

[Deleted]

The Slytherin wasn't the only one who had a letter to send home.  Leonore had one, too--no, make that two of them.  One was for her grandparents and another one was for her father.  For a while, Leonore had stopped contacting her father after her family had come to ruin.  While she and her sister still lived with their parents, her father became lazy and irresponsible, causing her mother be stressed.  Therefore, when her mother died giving birth to a stillborn child, although her father grieved, most people faulted him for making her lose the will to live.  Her grandparents, who were her father's biological parents, had custody over Leonore and her sister, for their father was too broke, miserable, and deadbeat to look after them.  Her grandparents had been adamant about casting her father out and not getting into contact until he made a man of himself again and could provide for himself.  Therefore, during the time that her father had still been unstable, her grandparents hadn't allowed either her or her sister to get into contact with him.  That sounded rather cruel, but the truth was Leonore had been glad that she could keep silent.  She wouldn't have been sure what she wanted to say to him, for her feelings for him had been mixed.  She blamed him for her grief and thought that he deserved what had been happening to him, even if she still loved him, of course.

But, now, Leonore was happy to say that all was good.  Her father had once again established by opening an apothecary.  He had once managed the winery that he inherited from her grandparents, but her grandparents had taken it back while he had been away regaining himself--in fact, he had been pretty irresponsible with the winery business during the time that he managed it.  He lived in a flat in Hogsmeade and Leonore got to see him occasionally on the weekends.  She forgave him, and she was slowly beginning to become more comfortable around him again.  She wasn't ready to see him a lot yet, but at least she could exchange letters with him.

Anyway, Leonore was careful to walk slowly and unhurriedly up the stairs that led up to the owlery.  She had walked up these stairs many times before, but knowing how clumsy she was, she didn't put it past herself to trip over a step or lose her footing at any given time.  That was just how she was.  If she wasn't extra cautious, then she would find herself regretting it.

Eventually, after a slow and steady trek, she was able to breath easy when she made to the top of the steps.  The awkward thing was that, while Leonore was holding the letters in her hand, she was also holding a goblet of orange juice in her other hand.  That was unusual, but the thing was Leonore had been thirsty and requested a drink from the house elves before heading out to the tower that housed the owlery.  She didn't see the harm in drinking the juice sip by sip while walking to the owlery at the same time.  Perhaps it would've been more sensible to drink it all in the kitchens, but her stomach would really allow her to do that.  Therefore, she had to drink it slowly.

Unfortunately, she was to discover that there was harm in bringing along a goblet full of orange juice up to the owlery.  The door that led into the room was open to her delight, and climbing up the final steps, she walked right through it and into the room.  Unfortunately, though, the moment she entered it, she bumped into someone who had been standing with his back to her.

That caused the goblet to fly out of her hand, and the juice spilled all over the person's head before the goblet dropped to the ground with a clang.

Leonore gasped, horrified at what she had done.  She immediately stepped back, and to even more of her horror, she saw that this was her step third cousin, Raoul, the stepson of her father's cousin.  She could recognize the back of his head by now, as she had known him for all of her life, sadly.  Raoul was like an Alice to her, or even worse--he hated her.  Well, he was more annoyed by her clumsiness than he was truly hateful toward her, for he never had a reason to really hate her.  She'd never done a serious wrong to him besides invoking his irritation with her utter shyness and proneness to accidents--and, considering that her clumsiness affected him often, it was understandable why he would be so edgy with her.  But he had made a habit of picking on her ever since they were small children, taking advantage of the fact that she was a weakling.  He had thrown things at her, slapped her, yanked her hair, all that childish tomfoolery.  He most likely did it out of both mischief and spite.  Of course, now that they were older he was less wild.  Yet, his glares, scowls, sneers, and insults of today were still enough to scare her.

Her face had gone pale, and her expression was one that was full of fear.  She even started to shiver a little; out of fear, not out of any chill in the room.  With the way she was acting, it was almost like Raoul was holding a knife at her, but she knew that his rage would be almost akin to such a horrendous action as that.  "R-Raoul!" she squeaked.  "R-Raoul, um...erm...Raoul...Raoul..." She kept on repeating his name as if it were the only word she could remember in her inner dictionary--whatever she meant to say kept on evading her memory because of her nervousness.  She couldn't think clearly.

Finally, she was able to say something that wasn't just a repeat of his name.  "Oh my god, Raoul, I-I am so sorry!" she exclaimed miserably, taking in the sight of his dripping wet head with ever increasing fear.  "I am so, so sorry...h-how can I ever a-apologize enough...w-what I j-just did was inexcusable.  But, u-um...n-no worries! I-I can fix this for you!"

She immediately produced her wand and pointed it at him.  "Aguamenti!" she said, but she realized too late that it was the wrong spell when she watched water shoot out of the tip of her wand and splash his chest.  Her blue eyes widened with terror.  No, no, no!!! That was the wrong one!!! 

"Agh, no! T-that's the wrong one!" she said weakly.  "I-I swear, I didn't mean that! I truly didn't! It was a m-mistake, I s-swear!" Well, she swore two times but she kind of forgot that.  Anyhow, she wracked her brain desperately for the right spell.  "I-I'm trying to remember the right incantation; p-please, I beg you, give me just a s-second.  I'll dry y-you up in n-no time."    Oh, lord, what was it...Aha! The drought charm (whatever the incantation was)!

Her face brightened up at her revelation.  She knew what to do now! Leonore said the incantation of the drought charm twice, first to dry the water on his chest and then the orange juice on his head.  Okay, done! He was spotless again.  All was good.  "T-there.  See? I fixed it for you...y-you're okay now."  She really hoped that she had mollified him.                       

Tag: @ronan and @raoul
Notes: And then Raoul posts one more time to show himself as a jerk.

[Deleted]

Just when Raoul was about to cautiously make his way over to his owl, for he wanted to be careful not to dirty his expensive shoes from all the gross waste in this accursed room, he felt someone bump into him from behind.

The boy quickly turned around to see who the idiot was with a glare on his face.  His anger was evoked even more by the sight of Leonore, or Eleonore as his French mother called his step-cousin--so, it was her.  She had annoyed him to no ends, ever since they had been younger children up until now.  Not only had he found her cowardice chagrining; she seemed to ramble and stammer without the need of a babbling curse, but she was also stupidly clumsy to a fault.  Sometimes he wondered if she feigned it, because honestly, it was simply ridiculous.  And that, if you add in his disdain for her father into the mix as well, had provoked him to treat her rather cruelly.  As a little kid he had been physically abusive.  Nowadays he just resorted to smirking and sneering at her and making sarcastic quips if she somehow crossed his path, but he spent as little time around her as possible for nothing serious to happen.  It had to do with him not being able to stand her presence AND the fact that she could do something embarrassing that could possibly involve him at any given time, and that was definitely something he did not want to have to go through.

"Hey! Watch where you're going, you--" He was about to call her an idiot until the orange juice from the goblet that was flung from her grip splashed onto his head, causing it to be wet and dripping.

Well, now his hair was soaking wet, and he had a look of both bafflement and anger playing on his face.  He couldn't believe that this had actually happened to him.  That dolt had done it.  She had actually done the unthinkably klutzy thing to him.  Oh, she was capable of setting the whole school on fire.  He shouldn't have put it past her to soak him with juice.  But still, how could anyone be that troubled in the head?

She only made things worse by spraying more water at him.  He clenched his jaw, still staring at her with a look of disbelief and murderous rage.  Eventually, she did get it right and he was no longer wet, but by then he was past clemency--he had never been one for clemency, anyway.

Raoul immediately took a step forward and wrapped his fingers around her wrist, squeezing it hard until it hurt.  He hoped it would.  He had been holding his letter in his other hand, but he released it and let it drop to the ground as he raised his hand, preparing to strike her face.

"You fool! Imbécile!" he snarled.  "You utter, misbegotten, idiotic, stupid fool! Look what you did to me! You may have 'fixed it up', sweetheart, but that doesn't change the fact that you included me in your retarded display of insanity."  He took a sharp breath.  "You're damned lucky that we're alone with only those brainless owls to witness this, Leonore.  Otherwise I really don't know whether I'd let you walk out of here alive!"

Raoul was developing a new sneaky, sly, and wily side to him in which he never gave his enemies the satisfaction of seeing him out of control.  Yet, he couldn't help but lose his temper in this situation.  It was something that had been so sudden, so unexpected, and caused by a person who he had a long history of animosity towards.  He had been ready to hit her, but something was stopping him from really smacking his palm against her cheek.  Perhaps it was his more level-headed self telling him that it was not a good idea, for whatever reason.  Regardless, she was too afraid of him to tell anyone.  The ironic thing was, she usually thought she deserved such treatment, the pathetic creature.  Looking into her eyes that were misty with tears from the pain he was causing by squeezing her wrist, he had to acknowledge that she was very pretty.  Sometimes when he looked at her from afar he had to admit that she had grown to be quite a beauty.  Yet the old feelings died hard and they weren't about to go away anytime soon.                           
Tag: @leonore and @ronan
Notes: And, now, enter Ronan

[Deleted]

Ronan was taking a leisurely stroll out by the lake by himself today since all of the guys were doing homework or something of that nature for example Carcer was taking care and spending time with his giant winged horses, and then Ethan could probably be found in some broom cupboard with an unfortunate girl…maybe not unfortunate in their opinion, but in his he could care less as long as it was not his sister. So much had been going on lately or at least it had seemed that way. Ronan had a brief chat with his parents and also with Harry down in the Three Broomsticks the other night. Of course he had snuck off of the grounds without tripping the any of the wards or detection charms. It really wasn’t that hard to do, or at least it wasn’t for him.

During that talk he had been asked if he would like to join the Order of the Phoenix. Of course he would but Ronan was skeptical at first and had asked what would be required of him. Ronan agreed to do it and so he was like an extra set of eyes and ears at Hogwarts. He had told them about the group he was starting and his parents along with Harry had agreed that it was a good idea for them to do it, but that they needed to be careful. They were putting a lot of trust into the seventeen year old boy, and he was and is more than willing to take upon himself that trust and responsibility. When he had gotten back to school at three in the morning Ronan was greeted by Professor Grey who asked him to call him Walton when they weren’t in an official setting. What was even weirder or not weird but odd was the Walton had said that later in the week he wanted Ronan to stop by his office so that they could have a chat and that there would be a few more people there as well. All of that was going through his mind as he walked by the lake.

Continuing to walk around the lake he glanced in the direction of the owlery as he heard a distinct hoot, much like the one that Nieve made. However he was to far from the owlery to hear her unless she was close by. Looking up into the sky he saw Nieve start to descend towards him and hooting. Well that was odd she never did that unless there was something wrong happening. Nieve flew down to him and Ronan stuck out his arm for her to land on which she did. “What’s wrong Nieve?” Ronan asked. Obviously owls can’t speak but he was sure that they could understand people. Nieve nipped him twice in the hand before she flew off back towards the owlery at a speed that he knew meant that he should hurry. “That bird is way too smart sometimes, but then yet again she is usually right when she wants me to follow her.” He said to himself before he took off running towards the owlery.

After a couple of minutes Ronan had reached the owlery and he quickly and quietly ascended the stairs that went up. He was going where he heard a shouting voice. "You fool! Imbécile! ou utter, misbegotten, idiotic, stupid fool! Look what you did to me! You may have 'fixed it up', sweetheart, but that doesn't change the fact that you included me in your retarded display of insanity. You're damned lucky that we're alone with only those brainless owls to witness this, Leonore. Otherwise I really don't know whether I'd let you walk out of here alive!"

Damn that voice belonged to a slimy git, Raoul, and he was apparently shouting at and threating Leonore. Ronan pulled out his wand and he was also ready to use wandless magic with his empty hand. He hated everything to do with Raoul and hearing him insult Leonore made Ronan’s anger rise. Most people saw red when angry but not Ronan. No he was calm and focused and he did not see red. He saw everything normally but all of his senses were heightened. He was ready for a fight if need be. Ronan finally made his way onto the floor where they were staying in the shadows Ronan made his way around to where he was behind Raoul. “Raoul. Let her go. Or you will be the one not walking out of here.” Ronan said in a deadly tone. He wasn’t messing around at all. Raoul wasn’t only a slimy evil little git, he was also a bully which is one thing that Ronan hates. Stepping out of the shadows Ronan had his wand at his side. To most it would seem that he had let his guard down but he hadn’t. Ronan was prepared to use both his wand and wandless magic, the only question was he going to have to use it?

@raoul & @leonore

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He had been too quick for her.  Before she could do anything--before she could even turn around to flee down the stairs, he caught her wrist before she could budge.  Leonore gasped and actually whimpered.  She shrank back as much as his hold would allow.  In fact, his grasp on her wrist was so tight that tears began to mist her eyes, for it was rather painful.  She was too frightened to really pay attention to what he was saying, really.  All she knew was that he was being aggressive, and that scared her to tiny bits. 

"P-please Raoul," she begged him weakly, her voice quivering.  She was too frightened to start yelping in fear.  Hers was the type of fright that rendered you speechless, you see.  "I-It was j-just a mistake...I already...I already cleaned it up for you..." Darn it, why did she have to start problems for herself on her own, just by one clumsy move? And then the situation just had to escalate into something worse.  She wished that she was anywhere, just anywhere, anywhere other than the owlery. 

However, her eyes widened in shock at the sight of the blonde young man approaching from behind Raoul.  She recognized him; she'd be damned if she didn't.  "Ronan?!" she let out without thinking twice.  She wondered how she couldn't have noticed him entering the owlery.  Either it was because he was stealthy or she had been too caught up in her fear to pay attention to anything else in her surroundings.

Ronan was coming to her rescue.  He was telling Raoul to let her go, and threatening him if he didn't.  Deep inside of her, Leonore wanted to smile triumphantly.  But on the surface, she was more worried that Ronan and Raoul would get into a fight, which would cause both of them to get hurt...and all because of her (of course, though, the greater concern was for Ronan, but her pride made her think of Raoul somewhat).  She was ashamed that she couldn't stand up for herself, causing her to need the help of nice people like Ronan who would suffer for what she couldn't do.

The look on her face was one of even more worry.  "Ronan...its...its alright.  It was my fault to begin with," she tried to reassure him, even if it was kind of ridiculous to do so.  With the scene that Raoul was causing, no one would just smile and back off to let him commence to bully her.

She then looked at Raoul again, her eyes full of pleading.  She felt like she had to be the one to take charge now to prevent a fight from happening on her silly behalf.  "Please, Raoul, just let go of me.  I know I was wrong, but there's no taking it back now.  I already cleared up the mess for you, though.  I promise you that nothing like this will ever happen again.  I'll keep my distance.  I promise, and I'm willing to forget this ever happened at all."  Actually, this had all been by coincidence and she wasn't sure how she could stop herself from being clumsy, and she couldn't predict when she might happen to bump into him again without knowing.  However, that was what she could think of at the moment.  She really hoped that Raoul wouldn't be so stubborn.  Sadly, though, she knew how hardheaded he could be, too.                             

Tag: @ronan and @raoul