The wind blows broken melodies [open]

[LORANA ALEXIS SMITH]

Even his smirk was something that she liked. The only other person that could smirk without her thinking that it made them look overly arrogant was James, which was weird considering James was arrogant, but that was besides the point. Lorana actually liked Ivan, more than just some fleeting crush. This of course was something that she was still blissfully in denial about. Epic romances and love at first sight, all of those things were pipe dreams. Her mum had filled her head with romantic notions saying that they could and in fact had, in her and Lori’s father’s case, come true. But then what of their relationship now? Yes, they loved each other but it was an odd thing to see them interact as they did. They bickered now, something that Lori’s mother had said was only their way of keeping the love alive. It was contradictory and perhaps the exact reason that she could indulge in the levels of denial that she currently was. All of the flirting that Ivan had done was taken lightly, outwardly at least.

Now with this mention of going to Hogsmeade together. Lorana could have admitted to herself that it sounded like a potential date, but she couldn’t and wasn’t going to. Ivan hadn’t said that specific word and even if he had she was liable to play the fool regarding it. Hogsmeade weekend that was done with friends too. Yes, friends was what Ivan had said they were. She pushed the treacherous thoughts from her mind. There was no sense in getting her hopes up like that. Surely someone as charming as him had a girlfriend. Lori hadn’t even thought to ask but was that really something that someone could just blurt out and it not throw suspicion on them in any way. It could be thought of as an advance and Lorana wasn’t much for being the first to make a move, call her old fashioned.

Lori kept up with Ivan, though intentionally fell back a few paces three at most, letting her recompose herself. It didn’t take long, she was awfully good at pushing things away, and was back at his side a moment later. “We can go some other time, re-up on the candy. Maybe you could bring your girlfriend or something.” She just couldn’t resist. But after that was said Lorana wanted to facepalm. If Ivan did have a girlfriend and now that he knew or thought that she had suspected it would it make her seem trashy or something because she had been so friendly with him. Hand holding, sitting in his lap, the kiss on her neck, and massage… even if they were just done in a friend way, if he did have a girlfriend then it still wasn’t appropriate. Lori mentally scolded herself.

[IVAN VLADISLAV KIRKE]

Ivan didn't really know Lorana all too well, but she was beautiful as he had said many times to himself throughout out the night. It was getting way too repetitive and boring him on it's own from telling himself that. What else could he say about her besides the fact she was incredibly sweet with the way she talked about everything as if the world would just make their problems all go away on the spot. Walking back towards the castle seemed to take longer than he remembered, but he had to consider where they had been this whole time. Ivan's feet felt like glass as he was trying hard not to fall down flat on his face. Having been out for so long and walking around most of the grounds earlier had finally taken it's toll on him.

Even so, he kept on going, and was braving the world as his feet threatened to give out on him. Sore as they were, he could feel every bone in his body aching for him to stop at the same time. Only if he did that would he notice that Lorana had lagged behind a bit while she was speaking to his back at the same time. Finally he heard her pop up beside him and shrugged his shoulders. Almost feeling as if the weight of the world had shifted when she assumed that he had a girlfriend, and then blushed crimson at that sudden blurt.

Just assuming she was thinking he had a girlfriend right now, but he wasn't sure what he considered it at this moment. Shaking his head softly, "I don't have a girlfriend at the moment, but if I did I would have told you already...although I may have one soon," he said to her, not really revealing who it would be. One could only tell as he looked over at Lorana curiously, and Ivan really wasn't with anyone at -that- moment in time since this was before the Masquerade ball so far. Even so, he smirked as they made their way to the castle and were now standing in front of it as he had lost track of time a bit.

[/blockquote][/blockquote][/justify]

[LORANA ALEXIS SMITH]

Lorana was definitely revealed that she hadn’t been doing anything inappropriate with someone else’s boyfriend. That really wasn’t the sort of thing that she liked to involve herself. All that catty girl drama had never been of interest for her and Lori had never understood why some girls thought it entertaining to be in a big mess all that time, what with their bickering and bitch slaps, hair pulling, and verbal tug-of-wars over one particular boy. Friendships could be so easily ruined over things like that. Lorana preferred to play things safe, which one might not have really noticed considering how naïve she chose to be about some things.

It also dawned on her that in mentioning that Ivan might have a girlfriend she could have been insulting him. Making him think that she thought he was the kind of person to get all cozy with another girl when he was already spoken for. That wasn’t the case actually. Lorana, with these thoughts filling her mind, was even more embarrassed with herself. His blush was distracting though. Seeing it light up Ivan’s cheeks like it did, so vibrant and noticeable, it put her embarrassment on the back burners. The hem of her shirt suddenly became of great interest to Lorana, her fingers inching around the stitching compulsively to keep her hands from being ideal. There was this hard to resist urge to reach out and brush her fingers against Ivan’s cheek to see if it was as hot as it looked, like some mini flame blazing underneath his skin. A heat was rising inside of her that was for sure.

“Well I guess you can just tell me when you do.” Lori almost let her mind slip to the possibility that Ivan could have been talking about her but stopped herself just in time. She didn’t need to be thinking about that sort of thing. The odds of him referring to her were slimmer than she would have liked. They had just met and though friendship seemed to blossom nicely, romance was another avenue. It wasn’t the same and was more complicated. Besides he was such a catch already from what Lorana could tell so she wasn’t the first to have interest in him. Reaching for the door Lori gave it a great tug having just the slightest bit of trouble. “They should really leave this thing open.” She commented. It was understandable, it being colder this time of year. “Either that or I should be stronger.” Flashing him a quick smile Lorana headed inside hoping that the atmosphere of the common room would ease her racing heart.

[IVAN VLADISLAV KIRKE]

Ivan really didn't fancy anyone right now, but even the thought of going after someone else besides Lorana seemed a little off to him. Sure, she was quirky by nature, but everyone was in their own way. Finding it cute that she talked his head off about certain subjects was definitely a plus that wouldn't lead to awkward conversations that would go nowhere aside from discussing relationships that made them look at each other with strange huge lovable eyes. Ivan considered himself to be more like a puppy dog that almost everyone wanted to treat with kindness until he bit them hard enough to make them aware he wasn't an easy catch.

Even so, right now, appealing to Lorana seemed to be working wonders for him, but in his own mind he was curious how everyone would react if he ended up with Lorana right at this moment instead of his other crush. Weasleys and Potters weren't obviously working out for him anytime soon, and was on the verge of just cussing out someone for that fact. It almost seemed like destiny was going to intervene at every corner, and finally he nodded to Lorana. Opening the door further with one hand as his muscles strained to push it, although it seemed to move more with ease when he had done it.

Ivan was chuckling slightly at that and did have to make a joke, "Don't work out much do you? I got these pipes from opening and closing this door at least a hundred times a day, that's why you hear it slamming shut all the time all the way up from the seventh floor. Impossible as it is, you'd be surprised how far it could echo up those moving stairs," he spoke rather confidently and then chuckled hysterically for a moment. Even after he was getting tired and soon trudged up the stairs, he knew the onslaught of candy was awaiting him to be devoured. Either that or he'd set his attentions on Lorana after he was hyper.

Nothing good would come of that, and he was afraid she might see him as being a bit too playful. Walking up the stairs to the common room, and finally reaching the tower he soon said the portrait's password and let it open letting Lorana go in first, "Ladies are always first," he spoke bowing in her direction.

[/blockquote][/blockquote][/justify]

[LORANA ALEXIS SMITH]

Lori wasn’t too embarrassed with the fact that her upper body strength wasn’t something to rival his. After all it was the natural order of things. Guys were supposed to be physically stronger than girls. That didn’t mean that Lorana thought that she was inferior in any way, she just knew that there were something that Ivan could do that she couldn’t, or would have greater difficulty doing. Besides it appealed to her romantic ideals to have him open the door, even if he made a joke out of it. After all that had been what she was doing to him the entire time, turning everything into some flippant joke and making damn sure that she was blissful delusional so that her mind didn’t wander to places that it shouldn’t yet.

“I’ll have you know I work out daily, I do curls with my quill.” Flashing him a cheeky smile Lori headed into the castle satisfied that they could joke back and forth like they were without it being over done, which was something that Lorana’s personality always threatened. She was the extravagant sort it seemed, always taking a good laugh to its furthest reaches. But it was working with Ivan considering he had quite the hefty humour on him. “I always did wonder what that loud bang was periodically through the day.” She doubted that many girls had the bitchiness to slam the door in his face for such a kindly gesture, but Lorana was aware that there were a few amongst the Hogwarts students that did have the gall to do such a thing. Those were the ones that she usually steered clear of, though there were some cases where she still tried to be friendly despite their obvious hatred for her bubbly disposition.

Moving through the castle, up all those stairs to the Gryffindor tower, there was a comfortable silence that passed between them. It also gave Lori more time to admire how handsome he was something that she had been trying to put off, but simply couldn’t help herself any more. It was Ivan’s smile that she was drawn to first, definitely- and also the thing that was most important to her when it came to a person’s looks. If a person’s smile didn’t have the innate ability to make her smile in return then there was no way that Lorana could be attracted to them. Ivan luckily did have such a way about him.

As requested she was the first to enter the common room. “Thanks, I’ll be right back.” Lorana didn’t want to waste any time heading up to her dorm to get her stash of candy so they could get started on their binge. Really she was looking forward to it. It seemed silly to look forward to something like that but it didn’t change the fact that she was. Straight to the room that she shared with three other girls, Lori was glad there were any distractions to delay her, and grabbed the large bag from her bedside drawer taking it back down to Ivan. “We’ve got a pretty wide array of sweets to chose from. What’s your favourite?”

[IVAN VLADISLAV KIRKE]

Ivan so wanted to taste Lorana's lips on his own to see how it would feel to kiss such soft, yet wonderful lips. In return for these thoughts he got a natural reaction to whatever it was he was thinking about, but he was by no means going to let that slow him down at all. In fact, he had to say this now otherwise she might consider it a little off at first. "Oh, just a little warning, if we do get extremely hyper, I'm more or less likely to do things I wouldn't normally. I kind of get drunk off of candy to put it in better words but not like slurring my words. More like acting crazy and doing stuff I may regret," he said, blushing as he admitted this.

Ivan remembered a time or two when he had let loose a dozen chocolate frogs throughout the dorm he lived in. Well, it was just him and a few others that had to chase the bloody things around if they wanted their chocolate sugar rush. Ivan really didn't mind doing that, but at some point he found he wasn't too fond of waiting for frogs to come to him. They usually hopped in random directions but he was great at catching them. Nothing could hide his true intentions any longer as he just watched her walk away, and loved that sexy sway her hips made. Even though she herself was probably unaware of her sensual way of moving, kind of like a snake in general.

Ivan had to mentally chastise himself again for getting too attached to her, but what could it hurt to spare one little kiss over friendship. Ivan could make up a tradition where his family would say that you had to kiss a girl to become friends with them. The friendlier the kiss, the more invited into the girl's life you were, but no, he wasn't going to use that kind of bull-crap material on her. Ivan knew that Lorana was smarter than just some of those other frilly girls out there, she was just bubbly and energetic. A plus to that, and he loved the way he made her smile whenever she did.

Deep down he knew she was right for him, but how to get that out at a later date without upsetting his current interest? Well it would all come down to the end of the year when he wasn't sure how things would pan out with him going off to a newer and higher job degree meanwhile Lorana would definitely be suited to be someone who would be there for him if he needed her. Looking at all the sweets he decided to stick with one going to for the Ton Tongue toffee, and a few chocolate frogs of course. Starting to chew on the toffee he spoke to her, "Well, you're my favorite for sweets, haha, but seriously I like the chocolate ton-tongue toffee, and chocolate frogs of course....Berty bott's every flavored beans are up there too," he said, not really telling her favorite, but his favorites in general. Adding her in there was definitely a plus especially when compared to sweets that could get you higher than a kite.

[/blockquote][/blockquote][/justify]

[LORANA ALEXIS SMITH]

His blushing did make Lori a bit wary as to what Ivan considered regrettable behaviour. It could be any one of infinite possibilities. Maybe he liked to sing Gilligan’s Island theme song while doing the Snoopy dance, or it could have been something along the lines of making crude jokes that weren’t necessarily appropriate in a females presence, but she had brother’s so she wasn’t as squeamish about that kind of thing as some. Her mind did have the audacity to drift off to thinking that maybe Ivan meant that he might kiss her or try and feel her up drunkards had a tendency to be handsy in some people’s cases. But it that was what Ivan meant then wouldn’t that mean that he found kissing her to be filed down under the regrets in his life? He had kissed her neck once already today, would he wake up in the morning and hang his head in shame about that? Lorana gnawed on her lower lips as her mind spun these theories. Then waved her hand in the air. “Don’t work about it, as long as you don’t hurl on me- that kind of drunk off candy, we’ll be all good I think.” Beaming at him Lorana tried not to gush over how adorable his blushing was. She still had that old bittie urge to pinch his cheeks. If it got any strong Lorana was going to have to sit on her hands to resist.

To the dorm and back, Lori started to rummage through the bag to retrieve whatever it was that Ivan had a sweet tooth for. Her nose scrunched up making her look almost like a bunny twitching its nose and opened the bag wider. “I don’t think there is one of me in there.” Lorana retorted looking up at Ivan underneath her eyelashes to flash him a cheeky grin. She liked chocolate as much as the next normal person but when her hand reached in the bag after Ivan’s Lori pulled out a sugar quill and was more than content with it. After all that was her favourite. It had almost been like rather than random selection her hand had a mind of its own and sought out the unmistakable shaped sweet. There was nothing like the rush of pure sugar buzzing in the back of your head, which was exactly what Lorana got when she unwrapped the quill and started to suck on it.

“My brother said that he once got a tire flavoured Bertie’s once, and at the time I was thinking, how could he know what it tastes like unless he went over to a car one day and licked the tire… but then I thought about how when you go into a tire store and all that vulcanized rubber has such a pungent scent that you can taste it in your mouth, which only led me to wonder why Bertie’s would even make flavours like that. I mean do they have some perverse sort of agenda to make their customers sick to their stomach or is it just some magical concoction that they pour into all the jelly bean mix that leaves it all up to chance?” Popping the quill back in her mouth Lorana closed her eyes making a soft sound of pleasure from the sweet taste that made her previous spiel in a better position to keep a happy stomach.

[IVAN VLADISLAV KIRKE]

Ivan understood when it came to candy binges and sweets that you had to utilize everything around you, but he never thought of carrying a bag around wherever you went. The idea was almost unheard of, but he kept to his own thoughts for now. Ivan was obviously in another world as he let her hand whatever candy he had asked for. Ivan would just take what he could get and right now that was almost every single candy in the dang candy shop that she had brought with her. Ivan was literally stunned that she had so much, but that shouldn't have surprised him at all when she told him she was a candy junkie essentially. The tingling did indeed come as he reached inside the bag for the chocolate ton-tongue toffee and soon chewed on it. Feeling the delicious sensations crossing his tongue and then pulled out some Berty bott's every flavored beans too.

It was funny seeing her to try explaining to him why she thought all of those flavors were the way they were. Fortunately for both of them Ivan did have a stomach that would be able to contain every ounce of the sweets he was going to be eating. Whatever though, he was just happy eating the berty bott's every flavored beans now that he had just gotten. Feeling the beans with his fingers, he intentionally put all the ones that resembled ear wax or tires or even vomit aside. Ivan knew fully well what colors those were, and would rather eat a watermelon or pumpkin over those. Hell, he even knew that every flavor out there was obviously going to be on his taste bud anyways, but he wanted to get rid of the icky ones first. Mostly the dark brown ones and light brown ones were the first ones gone. The green, and then the yellow ones as god knows what was int hose, but he had intense knowledge from eating them all the time.

"With magic anything is possible, and I'm not going to risk getting a queasy stomach over guessing which ones are nasty, cause i already know which ones are from eating them so much," he said to her smirking softly. Tossing all the disgusting ones into the trash and then noticed a speckled green one that would probably be a strange icky flavor like slime or something like that. Close enough to vomit for him to discard it too, but Ivan hadn't really gone through the whole bag though. Luckily he knew that the rest were all safe as he chomped on the next one that tasted like lasagna making him give out a rather wide-eyed expression.

"Now that's a new flavor, but very very good," he commented, but he wondered what that food was doing in this bean. Ah well, with Berty Bott's every flavored beans....EVERY FLAVOR was possible after all...which he chuckled at. "Yeah I think they do use some magical qualities to give the beans their taste," he said to her in return.

[LORANA ALEXIS SMITH]

Lori perched herself on the couch comfortably, legs tucked up on the cushion and facing Ivan. She had always wondered what the other common rooms were like. When it came to Gryffindor it had those really rich colours of gold and red, or was it maroon- but it had comfortable furnishing. Those cushions that a person could just sink into and be perfectly content for hours on end, but who was that much of a couch potato or had the time for that much leisure time? Maybe on weekends but even then it was sketchy. If Lorana had to guess it was Hufflepuff that would have the homiest feel to it, over stuffed chairs and a couch that woody little nook of a room. She could just picture a bunch of chubby-faced first years snuggled up in the huge cushions letting the fire warm their rosy cheeks in the winter. The thought of it made her smile a bit blissfully making it obvious that her mind, as it so often did, had gone off in a tangent. It was just something that he would have to get used to since they were going to be friends. Lorana had a very active imagination.

The sugar quill was quickly dissolving in her mouth and she was a bit irritated with herself for not remembering to get something to drink too. She didn’t want to leave Ivan’s company though, not again, any time soon. Luckily when Lori had gone up to her dorm to get the candy she had only dropped off her camera and not her wand as well. Fishing into her pocket to get it Lorana took it upon herself to not only accio her a water bottle from her room but one for Ivan as well. If she got thirsty eating all this candy then he was likely to too. It took a little bit to get to them, after the fact that Ivan had sorted and the potentially disgusting ones discarded her lips pursed to keep her giggling at bay. She found it a funny thing to do, but there had probably been dozens of quirks of hers that he found funny so far.

“Says a lot about how you feel about leaving things up to chance.” Lori nodded in the direction of the trash bin that he had dumped some of the beans in. Just about then, from behind Ivan, Lorana saw the waters coming their way, a little too late. Her instincts reacted and she leaned over Ivan to catch them, which giving her lack of grace didn’t go over too well. Lori did manage to get the waters before they smacked Ivan in the back of the head. This landed her in an awkward position, pressed up against Ivan’s chest, nearly straddling his lap. Laughing nervously Lorana pulled away offering a guilty smile. “There was a head’s up there somewhere between the lunging. Funny word lunging, to lunge, especially since it means so many things when taken out of context. I mean I wasn’t thrusting you or working my gluts but- am I the only one that is suddenly really thirsty?” Lorana put the water bottle meant for Ivan in his lap before uncapping her own and taking a long sip from it to give her mouth a reason to stop with all of that pesky talking that she did.

[IVAN VLADISLAV KIRKE]

Ivan was considering what he was going to do when he felt her straddling his lap all of a sudden and she for sure felt his lower body itself working up from just that touch. Ivan wasn't used to such affections from Lorana at the same time, and now he was just going to lay back to enjoy the sugar rush. Even as the beans entered his mouth and flowed with the saliva down along into his throat so that he could chew them. Feeling them texture of the beans turn to mush as his teeth seemed to chomp slowly each time to get the dizzy feeling of having the excitement travel to his loins. Ivan was worked up from Lorana's certain accidental straddling of his lap and decided to go with it as he turned towards her kissing her cheek softly catching the edge of her lips.

A very bold move that left him blushing deeply as he turned his head away, "I'm sorry, just a passing fancy and that was the candy talking, but candy doesn't talk. I'm thinking the sugar in these is probably due to the fact that no one can resist all of the flavors, but I sometimes think they put in the extra flavors to make it ANY flavor like mud, or vomit. Those ones are the worst next to the ear wax of course, but yeah you're right they do have different meanings. To lunge at someone is to imply you're going to punch them, but lunging across a couch to catch something is totally difference. I understand where you're coming from in that aspect," he said to her, letting his own long-winded speech cause him to drink from the bottle of water she had grabbed for him.

Luckily he now could just look at her without wanting to kiss her lips as the sugar finally took hold of him and made his whole body shake slightly. Getting the jitters was definitely normal for him, but she probably didn't know that since she didn't hang out with him that much. Then he just decided to go with his feelings and tell her what he thought about her, "You know, I have to say, eating sweets like this may make people think we're dating haha," he said to her, chuckling softly, but then looked at her softly

[/blockquote][/blockquote][/justify]

[LORANA ALEXIS SMITH]

It wasn’t so much her clumsiness that had Lori as worked up as she was, that was something that she had accepted a long time ago. What did have her a bit anxious was how excited she felt for that taste, so to speak, that she got while in Ivan’s lap. She wasn’t really promiscuous and yet there was that lust that was buzzing in the back of her mind right along with the sugar rush- even more so when Ivan kissed her. Lorana mustered up all her control not to turn her head so that his lips landed smack dab onto hers. But his aim was a bit off it seemed when he barely kissed her lips, or maybe he was just confused. Lori sure as hell knew that she was confused. This wasn’t like her, having such a desire for a guy to kiss her. Sure, when she and James had been dating it was one thing, but someone she just met, no matter how well they clicked… was it wrong? If so why did it feel like it would be right?

“Oh good. It’s always nice to be understood.” Lorana was pretty much just letting words tumble out of her mouth so that they could keep away from the subject of what had just happened. Her mind did drift to the possibility of them dating. Who wouldn’t when it was brought up, it was just natural right? It was a nice thought really- but they couldn’t, could they. It was too soon, having just met and all. But they did seem to get along really well. Their chemistry was favourable for such a relationship to bud, and what was the harm in it. You never knew what might happen until you try it out and a little thing like not knowing each other that well shouldn’t be the only reason not to see where things went. It would be fun to get to know each other and learn new things it would keep them interested in one another. But Ivan wasn’t suggesting that they date just making an observation. Lorana nodded her agreement, but also shrugged. She wasn’t much for caring what other people thought as long as she was happy and the people that she was with at the time were as well.

There was nothing against Ivan, he had said it himself- just a passing fancy- Lori just didn’t want to blurt out something as the silence loomed that would scare him off. Would it scare Ivan off to know that she had thought- was thinking- about kissing him? Passing fancies could easily be called back into present so that wasn’t it. Ivan would be fine with that admittance, but Lorana wasn’t sure if she would be. After all who did that? Of course the answer was Lori. “You don’t have to be sorry though. It was nice. Thought about kissing you myself since we were outside but I can’t, I mean- can I?” It was like there was some kind of connection that was lagging from her brain to her mouth and despite it screaming at her to shut up Lorana just couldn’t.

[IVAN VLADISLAV KIRKE]

Ivan really was stumped at this conversation as he munched on another Berty bott's every flavored bean and got a coffee bean flavor that made his face scrunch up slightly. "Adding new bean to the dump list" he added thoughtfully as he considered her words carefully and how he could answer them without honestly hurting her feelings. Sure, he fancied her more than most guys probably did, but for them to have a fling right now would have gone against all of his standards. Honestly, one kiss wouldn't hurt but he wondered if he should make light of this at all. This was a Gryffindor and rumors tended to spread fast especially when one is sitting in the common room with the opposite gender. If Roxanne did get word of this, it would lead to quite the disaster.

So even as she mentioned kissing him, he sighed softly, and shook his head softly for a moment trying to find the words to say it without sounding harsh. "I'm sorry to say, but that was an accident if I kissed you partially on the lips, but...I'm not against it once I've got my feelings sorted out. I'm just confused right now, but I'm sure I'll get back to reality soon after I figure out what's going on. Too many people trying to go after me, but no I don't mean you. You're sweet, and kind, I don't wish to hurt you by saying that, although I can't help but feel there is some connection between us like we've been friends for years. You ever get that feeling with someone you just met? It's weird and new to me, plus I'm scared about it too...my brain is just...going all different directions at once and now I can't shut up," he laughed at that.

Now it was Ivan who was blabbering on and on about gibberish, that was what she did to him, drove him crazy to the point he couldn't form coherent enough sentences to keep his head on straight. Now he just looked up at her again and then shook his head for a moment placing one hand on her cheek deciding to go with his gut instinct. Instantly he placed his fingers across her lips holding two up to make a sshing noise, but didn't just to feel her soft lips and that was it as he sighed softly once more at annoyance at himself for even getting interested in her when he was about to be seeing someone else when he blurted out his true feelings.
"I shouldn't have done that, I apologize now, but if you forgive me, let's continue on this candy escapade!" he said to her, smiling warmly not wanting to think about what he had done, and would just blame it on the candy in the morning.

[LORANA ALEXIS SMITH]

Already Lorana had that sinking feeling in the pit of her stomach. She had said too much, on the wrong subject, and made things awkward, if only briefly. But now Ivan would always have this moment in his head- the moment where Lori had just had to do the girl things and muddle things up with feelings when they could have just gone on indefinitely dancing around the issue without ever addressing it and everything could have just been hunky-dory. But no! Lori was mentally scolding herself keeping her gaze intently fixated on Ivan as his mind worked over something. At first she thought it was rejection, his apologizing had her mind leaping to the notion in a fraction of a second and she broke the eye contact, finishing off her sugar quill to look absently in the bag for the next piece of candy that she wanted, but Lorana wasn’t really focused on that task, she was listening carefully to everything that Ivan said.

He had feelings to sort out, which was a good start at least it wasn’t rejection. But Lori had stirred things up in him that Ivan would have been better off, at this present time in his life, doing without. She didn’t know about Roxanne, how could she, but if she had would she still have compromised their potential budding romance with making Ivan have feelings for her as well? Lorana would have liked to think that she wouldn’t have, but then she had to consider that she hadn’t really done anything, except mentioning that she thought about kissing him, to really stir any feelings. Lori had just been herself the whole time. It wasn’t anyone’s fault that they connected so well.

She opened her mouth to reply but was quickly silenced by Ivan’s fingers pressed gently to her lips. They tingled from just his touch, which only made Lorana want to lean in and snag that kiss of hers even more. However she didn’t and for a while it did have the desired effect of keeping her quiet. Lori was literally rendered speechless from the feel of his fingers brushing against her slightly parted lips- voice stilled by the action. Again Ivan was apologizing to her and this time trying to encourage a perking response from her. She could do that. Just sweep everything under the rug for now and get back to willful ignorance. Lorana returned the smile unwrapping a piece of hard candy and popped it into her mouth. Mango flavour coated her tongue, a pleasant taste indeed. “Sure, I understand and everything.” Getting that out of the way there was still the matter of getting back to their friendly rapport.

[IVAN VLADISLAV KIRKE]

Ivan really didn't have any good luck with his past relationships and even though he wanted to take a break, love somehow found him at every corner. Lorana wasn't quite the handful he expected her to be and almost made him quite sane to say that she was rather normal compared to most of the other girls. At least she was down to earth, bubbly and very sporadic with her comments at times. Quirky was the right word, but more or less Ivan was just as much so as she was. Ivan was also more susceptible to actually bring out the best in people instead of the worst, just like she was, but if he started comparing their personalities to one another it would seem like he was already trying to make a love connection.

Whatever that case was, well he had to remember that he wasn't dealing with another house at the moment, and they were in the privacy of the common room where anyone could even pick up on just a little bit of Gossip. Ivan was going to make sure that the gossip witch, whomever she was didn't get a whiff of this news at all, but he was sure someone was stalking them right now. Just that pair of watchful eyes seemed to be everywhere and had made him stiffen a little at the thought of what would have happened if he had let anything get about his recent antics. No, he wasn't going to feel guilty about it if it cropped anywhere, and so far so good right? Oh yes, he was quite the devious little prankster if he wanted to just go about his own way of doing things taking another bean and made another bleh noise.

"It's really hard to get all the nasty ones, cause they use every single flavor out there. Even sewer, I don't know why they had to put that one in there," he added, scrunching up his face into a rather disgusted face at just mentioning that one. Surely, Lorana knew exactly what he was talking about, especially since sewage was common anywhere you went, and normally used to route out the nasty crap in the ground from toilets. Flowing along into a reservoir, there was even a bean that tasted like salt water, which Ivan honestly didn't mind compared to the nastier flavors. Like snot flavored ones, or even grease. Yuck, if Ivan had his own choice of which flavors he wanted, he would at least choose the desirable ones and keep them in the bags. Yes, he planned on taking over that company just to change the flavors.

"I seriously just want to request my own flavors and have an Ivan special where it's just the good flavors, no horrible ones. I'm guessing they just put incredibly random flavors in their beans to spice them up to make people just enjoy them all that more with the fact you could get one bag full of the nasty ones," he said to her, shrugging his shoulders as he let the thought continue roaming around in his mind

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[LORANA ALEXIS SMITH]

Slipping back into what they had going on before did prove to be easy. Lori never would have thought that she would be thankful of an unpleasant tasting Bertie Bott’s bean, but there she was grateful that it had picked the conversation back up. Her own face distorted with disgust at the thought of it. It was beyond her reasoning as to why they would intentionally put flavours such as those in a product that was supposed to bring you a smile. “It brings into question also why they would make flavours that could potentially be hazardous- I mean if it is true every flavour then what it you get like carbon monoxide or something, sure it would be tasteless but would it still have the effect on a person that the actual thing did? It’s a scary thought.”

Even with what Ivan mentioned, sewage had dozens of chemicals in it so wouldn’t that be tasted too? Her mind ran with the notion mulling it over. There hadn’t been any cases that she had heard of involving long term sickness from a jelly bean, but then it was a popular brand, there must have been tons of money backing them up- could have been hushed up like all that stuff with Voldemort was way back when. The daily Prophet could have been bribed, St. Mungos as well. Lorana did have quite the fantastical mind set, spinning these outrageous hypotheticals, but it kept her entertained, which was the important part.

“You should do that. Make a suggestion to the company that they have specialty boxes where a buyer can customize their jellybean assortment. It would be a smart marketing move in the least and allow people to avoid the flavours that make them loose their appetite for their product.” Lori moved a little bit closer to Ivan to get a look at the multicoloured box that the bean came in looking for an address or some form of contact information for the company. If Ivan wasn’t willing to do it then she was more than happy to.

Looking up from the box her gaze landed on Ivan’s face realizing in that moment that she had taken it upon herself to close her hand around his moving the box to different angles until it was nearly flipped upside down threatening to spill the remainder of jellybeans into his lap. One cream coloured one in fact was teetering on the edge Lorana couldn’t help but to smile, otherwise that awkwardness that she was so desperately trying to avoid would once again take hold of her. “Anyways, you should definitely look into it.” She slowly removed her hand.

[IVAN VLADISLAV KIRKE]

Ivan didn't know what Lorana's angle was on all this, but he suspected as much she was just trying to have a regular conversation with a guy that deemed himself unworthy of her attentions. Ivan hated being the party pooper no matter where he was, and almost felt like he was draining the atmosphere with how callous he had acted. Acting on impulses wasn't good for him and having almost made out with her wasn't helping his conscious anymore either. Shoving all thoughts of her out of his head and continued to get rid of the awkward notions she was giving him. Her hand on his set off immense warning signals to get away from her as far as he could instead of letting her do whatever she wanted to him.

Sighing ever so softly, he smirked in her direction looking all over the bag for any contact info he could find as well. Every bag of these surely had some sort of number he could dial or some way to reach them as he was about to ask for his owl. Such things could honestly wait until the morning, and he wanted to enjoy the time he had now while he wasn't preoccupied with anything that would take him away from enjoying her company. Yes, best friends they would be even if it meant going to the ends of the Earth for her just to say it was out of friendship. Little did they both know, it could have been something way more already, and he wasn't just going to admit that from the start. Ivan bit his lower lip in concentration as he stuffed another jelly bean in his mouth as he almost hacked it up getting the flavor he had been talking about.

Sewage, gross! Now he just needed to believe what was being said behind his back and the many rumors about him being with Arielle at the library. Shameless flirting was allowed, but he made no other contact other than touching her hand. All Roxanne had to worry about was Ivan falling for this woman's wiles, yet he had been the one to invoke them on himself. This was as far as he would take it and merely took the cream flavored one feeding it to her playfully for a moment. No blush evident as he merely considered it a rather friendly favor for her as he moved his hand away rather quickly.
"Well you're right about that, it seems there's no contact info on the bag, but I'm sure I know of someone that might know the owner of the facility to get them to change the recipe a little" he said warmly to her, smirking in triumph.

[/blockquote][/blockquote][/justify]

[LORANA ALEXIS SMITH]

Lorana wasn’t trying to make Ivan like her, and wasn’t intentionally putting any moves on him, it was just the way that she could be some times. She was a bit too innocent to be some evil seductress coming into the life of a guy she just met and making them fall for her. But then wasn’t that what usually happened when it came to such things. If two people just clicked right away and there were complications to any advancement in that particular direction, then wasn’t every move that she made considered a temptation of sorts? The only safe option was to simply walk away and avoid Ivan that way she wouldn’t cause any dilemma with him. The damage had already been done though, so that would only make them miss each other’s company if they did go for the whole cold shoulder approach. Besides Lorana wasn’t capable of it. Whoever the girl was that kept Ivan at a forced arm’s length she hoped was worthy and would fully appreciate him.

The look of disgust on Ivan’s face when he popped another bean into his mouth was priceless. She bit into her lower lip to contain her giggle at the sight of it. Really it wasn’t funny that he had a foul taste in his mouth, but just the expression had been comical. Lori found it ironic that talking about unpleasant flavours had led to Ivan eating one. It said a lot about that whole mind of matter thing. Was it possible for one’s thoughts to directly affect the outcome of something, like if you focused on it hard enough it would come true? Or was it simply a matter of thinking on it so much that you worked that much harder to get it. Maybe it was just one of those things like thinking about a person calling you all day and then out of the blue they did, it was hard to tell, given the fact that magic did exist, whether things happened by chance or if there was so psychic link that every person possessed, just didn’t know about or know how to control. Humans only did use ten percent of their brains after all….

Her mind, as it so often did, of in a tangent, she was a bit startled when Ivan popped the cream flavoured jellybean into her mouth. It took her a second to react, before biting down on it with a satisfied smile once she tasted it. “Thank you.” Lorana laughed lightly savoring the flavour. Her face lit up when he told her that he might know someone that could help. “Really?” Lori was beaming- smile broad and vibrant, reaching her eyes. “That’s so cool. I wonder if they do tours of the factory, I’d be interested to see exactly how they make the jellybeans, but then it is entertaining to simply imagine and speculate what they do too.” Her run-on sentence was uttered quickly all in one breath, more rambling.

[IVAN VLADISLAV KIRKE]

Ivan wasn't considering whether he was right or wrong in this instance, but nothing would keep him from getting his way with Lorana in the end. What Lorana wouldn't know is that he did indeed have his eyes set on another woman, and would indeed keep an arms length away from her despite having wanted to kiss her many times already. Their contact was going to be limited over the times they would be getting to know each other, and the evening would only continue with many trivial conversations about where their lives were heading. At some point Ivan started talking about constellations out of nowhere, and almost expected him to just end this whole thing right now. Going to bed sounded like a wise idea to him but he couldn't get past the fact he wanted to spend more time with her.

Lorana's presence was one he probably wouldn't be able to go without any longer and would be seen hanging around her like most common friends would. At least now he knew they could be friends without crossing that hazardous line of becoming anything more. Stating that he was going to hold himself responsible for anything in the future when it came to her sake. As soon as he was free of another vixens clutches he was going to make sure he jumped at the first opportunity to actually mend things between him and Lorana. Then tell her his true feelings about her. "Well, it's getting really late and we should probably both start heading to our dorms. I get very grumpy with no sleep, and you're correct. Most people don't use ten percent of their brains, I wonder if that means Ravenclaws only use 20%?" he asked, and then chuckled at that.

Surely anyone who used at least more than just that ten percent had to have been incredibly special to get this far in their lives. Funny as that sounded, he wasn't about to let anything he learned go to waste this night either. Plucking the last berty bott's every flavored bean into his mouth he soon stood up and then ended up nodding towards Lorana before he stopped to say good night to her. Of course, offering a hug was a little compensation for not kissing her, and perhaps he would steal one. No, not now, he needed to sleep and get his mind sorted out from this mess.

[/blockquote][/blockquote][/justify]

[LORANA ALEXIS SMITH]

With the conversation flowing as nicely as it had been Lori didn’t even notice all those seconds ticking away. She had always found that fascinating, how, though time was constant, human beings had the ability to make it seem as though it had slowed or quickened, when in reality the same amount of time always passed within a day. It had to have something to do with the mind playing tricks on you, which only called into question if anything was even real at all. If people were subjective to different perceptions then who was to say that the sky truly was blue? Maybe that was just the way the human mind perceived it and it was really green. That was the tangent that her mind had gone off into when Ivan had directed the conversation to the constellations. Lorana certainly was quirky, but luckily she refrained from sharing her outrageous theories with Ivan too soothed by the sound of his smooth voice to get pulled into another one of her rambling rants.

It was getting late though. Regardless of the sugar buzzing at the back of her head, Lori’s body could still tell, in the vague sense, what time it was- that internal clock of hers ringing that she needed to get rest soon. The effects of fatigue were already settling in, speech becoming lazy. Motor functions sluggish as well, but in her contentment, Lorana still had that smile of hers brightly shining on her face, energetic as ever. “It certainly is something to think about.” She doubted that it was true even if Ravenclaws were supposed to be brainy they were still human. A higher percentage increase in brain functionality would make a person super-human, like adding an extra chromosome.

“You’re right though, we should head to bed.” Standing up after him Lorana was pleased to be swept up in a friendly hug. There was the notion of wanting to spend even more time together but absence made the heart grow fonder… in a friend way of course. Lori had to remind herself of that. Returning the embrace she soon pulled back looking into his face for a moment. “I mean I wouldn’t want you to be cranky. Think of the horrible pranking wrath you could incur.” Nodding her head sagely Lori offered him one final smile, “Sleep well.” And off she went to toward the girl’s dormitories. Going out that day Lorana hadn’t expected to meet someone so wonderful, but she knew better than to ignore the Cardinal Rule; expect the unexpected.