like chasing cars , [yori&dunstable]

[poppy]

With a small shiver Poppy dropped her pencil and rubbed both hands on her forearms in attempt to warm herself. As she did this, her eyes glanced up from her page and to the subject of her previous scrutiny. Art was something Poppy was quite passionate about. Just as some students were passionate about their studies or quidditch, Alice found solace in her pencils and paints, papers and canvases. Sure, it was an odd habit, or talent rather, for someone who could perform magic to develop, but she found that it calmed her whenever she was told she was getting too excited. Today had just been one of those incidents; she’d been bouncing around the Great Hall in the early hours of the morning, before a professor, she couldn’t remember which, had told her to calm herself before coming back into the hall. Begrudgingly, Poppy made her way out, still bouncing on the balls of her toes. She wasn’t always overly hyper, but she had slept very well last night, and had plenty of energy.

After running around the staircases a few times, she found herself in the Hufflepuff common room alone with nothing to do, as everyone was still eating breakfast. What a pity, a gorgeous Saturday morning and Poppy was already at a lack of activities. She sat on one of their squishy couches, but only for a moment before she started fidgeting and feeling restless. At this rate she was going to drive herself mad. In a loud huff, she stalked around her room, pacing, knowing exactly what she needed to go, but not able to form it into a complete thought. She knew she needed to just relax for a while, but one could only spend so many years at Hogwarts without capturing every bit of it on paper. Her book and pencils were in her hands before she made a decision, and she resigned herself to the fact that she’d be inspired on her small adventure outside.

And that is how Miss Poppy Longbottom, the social butterfly of Hogwarts, came to be alone on a bright and breezy October morning, sprawled out on the grass near the Whomping Willow, doing her best to capture the ever-moving tree. It was a stubborn thing, she had to admit, it did not listen to her at all when she asked it to stop moving for a moment. (Not that she was crazy and talked to her plants all the time... right... and even if she did, was that so bad?) Her hands and eyes didn’t move nearly fast enough to capture the enchanted tree. As hard as she tried, she just couldn’t. And she would not resort to hexing it still either. After all, that would ruin all the fun of fighting with the tree.

Ten minutes later and her tongue was nearly touching her nose, her eyes were beginning to water from concentrating and squinting. Her cheeks were puffed out in determination and her eyebrows furrowed together. It was evident that she had almost had enough of the tree when it finally froze. Green orbs went wide with surprise, and her mouth dropped open before letting out a cry of accomplishment. “Yes! Success! It stopped moving! I knew if I just kept it up it would give in! Nothing beats Pop-Why are you moving again!?” It would seem she has spoken too soon. “Arrgh! You stupid tree!” abruptly, she stood up and threw her tools to the ground. “I give up!” she placed her hands on her hips and tried to appear intimidating to a tree with no eyes. “I was trying to do something nice for you and you completely ignore the small thing I needed you to do! You’re such a meanie!” and with her final statement, she stuck her tongue out defiantly.

tags; yori/sari & dunstable/kassy
words; 638
outfit; click
notes; blah, this is kinda meh, sorry~

[DUNSTABLE VERNON DURSLEY]

Dunstable had gone out for a run that morning, trying to keep himself in shape for Quidditch, something that he usually did with his cousin Albus. But it seems that today Albus had his Quidditch practice and since the two cousins were on different teams, they didn’t practice together, they only went out for runs together. So wearing his black sweatpants with his yellow hoody, he was jogging around the school that was until he heard his friend Poppy call out saying someone was a meanie. Dunstable stopped for a moment to see where her voice had come from. He glanced around for a moment until he spotted her by the Whomping Willow. Why in the world was she over there? Rarely anyone went over by the Whomping Willow after all, unless you wanted to get hit by it. Or you knew it’s secret and Dunstable was quite sure that Poppy didn’t know the secret.

He changed directions and headed right for the Whomping Willow and to his good friend Poppy, before he stopped right next to her and looked down at her. “Who’s being a big meanie?” he asked her as he pulled out his wand. “Am I perhaps going to have to hex them? Al’s taught me a new one recently that I’ve been wanting to try out,” he smiled a slightly crooked smile.

[poppy]

Not very often did Poppy find someone or something that she did not agree with. Mostly because she herself was a rather agreeable person, at least she liked to think that she was and tried her best to be so. She did her best to understand people, as tough as it was sometimes, and like them for what they were. It was lucky that although she lacked more basic intelligences, she was greatly apt at reading people and figuring out their body language. She usually attributed this to many years spent watching people react to different things around the Leaky Cauldron; and quite a few people came and went through the place. For a very long time all Poppy could really do was watch people as she swept the floors, cleaned off tables, whatever needed to be done really. She liked people watching a lot, especially people she knew; if you understood the way someone was, it wasn’t hard to pick out what made them happy.

Happy Poppy never really left her, but right now she was a little bit of Happy Angry Grr Poppy, and that one could get messy, even if Poppy’s anger was half of a normal person’s. She squinted her eyes in attempt to intimidate the tree, but at her small frame, and considering the Whomping Willow had no eyes (which she really found quite debatable and wanted to investigate further; how could it have such dangerous accuracy?) it didn’t have much effect. She threw her hands up in exasperation –that’s what it was, not real anger- when a familiar voice interrupted her thoughts.

Instead of using her words like a normal person, and Merlin knows she liked to hear herself speak sometimes, she merely huffed and pointed in the general direction of the tree, who had attempted some semblance of stillness, probably just to irk her farther. “See! Won’t even cooperate!” she crossed her arms across her chest and pouted until she heard what Dunstable said next. “Dunstable Vernon Dursley! You will do no such thing! If I ever see you harm a plant in my presence I’ll-I-I’ll... well I don’t know what I’d do, but I’d be rather cross with you. I’m not particularly fond of the Whomping Willow at the moment, but it still is a tree and should be treated with proper respect.” She huffed one last time, grinned and sat back down, still fuming a tad. “So, g’morning Dunny,” she laughed.

tags; yori/sari & dunstable/kassy
words; 410
outfit; click
notes; eww.. she's bipolar today... as usual...

[YORI OSHIRO]

She wasn't too hungry at the moment. It was an odd sort of thing for her as, despite her lean and twig-like appearance, the Okinawan absolutely loved eating. The apartment that she lived in with her family almost always was filled with some sort of aroma of spices and mouth-watering dishes. Her eldest brother often cooked meals from all sorts of cultures and ideas, making it easy for Yori to each and every meal. It was often in those days that she learned to cook those dishes. Next to magic, that had to have been the Hufflepuff's favorite subject. It didn't really make much sense for her to just wake up this morning without looking forward to the breakfast waiting for her in the Great Hall.

Maybe it was the lack of variety. There wasn't anything wrong with what Hogwarts had to offer, but Akito had always made a point to never repeat a dish in a month. Of course, its not like the magic school could afford to be as versatile as a cook as her eldest brother. The man made a living making those dishes. So long as the meals were good and its students were living comfortably, the Japanese girl sincerely doubted they would care so much about variety. So, maybe it was a mixture of that and homesickness? It had been a while since she had written a letter to the eldest Oshiro. He didn't even know about the wizarding tournament unless Ichigo had broke the news to him. She didn't think he would.

Nonetheless, she found herself wandering the grounds with this new free time. The Okinawan supposed she could've spent the time researching for the first task that was to come, but the hufflepuff knew that was mostly useless until she at least received some sort of hint as to what it would be. Considering the partnership of this year, it would be good to talk to Dunstable for a good time for it as well. Suppressing a small shiver, the Okinawan drew her grey sweatshirt closer to her, realizing it might have been best to wear something more than just that, t-shirt, and loose sweatpants.

That was pushed to the back of her mind however when she noticed two familiar figures near the whomping willow. An almost silly grin formed on her face, and Yori quickly crossed the remaining distance, catching the end of the conversation with a raised eyebrow. ”Who's harming plants? Must be drastic.” She offered as she came to stand next to Dunstable. ”Morning, you two!”

[DUNSTABLE VERNON DURSLEY]

“Dunstable Vernon Dursley! You will do no such thing! If I ever see you harm a plant in my presence I’ll-I-I’ll... well I don’t know what I’d do, but I’d be rather cross with you. I’m not particularly fond of the Whomping Willow at the moment, but it still is a tree and should be treated with proper respect.” Dunstable felt a bit taken back as Poppy went off at him. Harm a plant? Why would he do that? He thought that perhaps it was a person that was being a bit of a meanie, as she called it. “So, g’morning Dunny,” and there she was smiling again. Oh dear Poppy could always make him smile as well with how sudden she changed expressions. “I wouldn’t harm the whomping willow anyways. It’s too valuable, or so I’ve been told. I thought perhaps someone was being a bit of a meanie to you,” he chuckled as he sat down on the grass beside Poppy. “So why is the Whomping Willow being a big meanie? I mean I know it whomps people and all when you get too close to it, but well I see you’re far enough away from getting hit,” he said lightly as he tilted his head to the side in curiosity.

“Who's harming plants? Must be drastic.” and a familiar voice filled the air as a person joined the duo to make it a trio. Dunstable couldn’t help but chuckle knowing that Yori probably only caught a part of the conversation. “Morning, you two!” he smiled at Yori before he decided to say something to defend himself, just in case Poppy changed expressions again. “No one’s harming any plants. Apparently it was the Whomping Willow being a big meanie to Poppy, but I had thought perhaps another student was,” he chuckled lightly as he looked up at the young Asian girl. He really did enjoy both of their company. After all they were good friends, plus there was the fact that Yori and Dunstable were both the Hufflepuff champions and were of course going to be working together to bring Hufflepuff to victory. “So how are the both of ya this fine morning?” he asked lightly.

[poppy]

As usual, when faced with a question she didn’t quite understand, all Poppy could do was stare back, wide-eyed and confused as to what had just been asked of her. “Well, that’s good to know. Plants deserve to live in peace too, but why would someone be mean to me, Dun?” Her eyebrows knit together in confusion and her middle finger rose to push back her glasses which had been cast down on her nose during her little outburst. “Well,” she began. “I was kicked out of the Great Hall this morning, not sure by who, might’ve been da’ might’ve been someone else, for being ‘too excitable’ –Dun, aren’t I always like that?- so I ran the staircases for a bit, but that didn’t help. Since it was still early, everyone was still eating, so I waited for a bit in the common room, but I got impatient and fidgety, so I grabbed my stuff and came out here. I sat down far enough from the tree, but I couldn’t see so I got a little closer. I tried to sketch it again, but it wouldn’t stay still! I even asked it politely and everything, but no! It had to be a meanie and keep moving!”

[/b] With a last huff, Poppy crossed her arms across her chest and stuck her tongue at the tree, who flippantly whipped one of its branches in her direction.

“Yori! Hi!”[/b] she exclaimed brightly at the sight of her friend and waved her arms viciously, her attitude making a complete 180 in less than thirty seconds, as it was apt to do. “Awww, Dunny,” she said babyishly as she pinched one of Dunstable’s cheeks. “You’d hex someone for me? That’s so- well, not good to be honest; you shouldn’t go around casting spells on people for my account,”[/b] she tapped a finger against her lips. “But I s’pose the sentiment’s still there...” she trailed off completely, obviously in some deep internal battle that even she herself couldn’t quite figure out.

She let out a long sign when finally, her head hurt too much to continue fighting with herself, and fell back on the lush grass. “I’m good,” she drew out the ‘oo’ sound a little longer than necessary. “A little frustrated, but good. How're you?” She did it once again.
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tags; yori/sari & dunstable/kassy
words; 383
outfit; click
notes; eww.. she's bipolar today... as usual...
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[YORI OSHIRO]

She watched Dunstable and Poppy interact with something of a silly smile. The vibrant energy between the two so early in the morning was contagious, and distracted her a bit from feeling a bit cool from her lack of better outfit at the moment. It was a bit cold at the moment for her, and she shuffled her feet a bit to put some energy in her body, hopefully to warm herself up some. At the mention of the Whomping Willow, her eyes glanced over to the titular tree, reminding herself for a moment that they were out of harm's way from its branches. ”I think you'd have a hard time harming that sort of plant anyway,” she joked with a smile, gesturing toward the Whomping Willow, ”So, I'm glad that's not the case.”


Yori couldn't help a small laugh as Poppy pinched one of Dunstable's cheeks, scolding him at the idea of hexing someone for her. ”That's sweet of you, Dun,” she cooed playfully, ”Its nice to know she's more important than house points and possible detention.” She wasn't sure if the rest of their house would share that sentiment though. It might not look that great if a champion landed himself in trouble like that. However, she certainly couldn't blame Dunstable for that sort of protectiveness. She thought that if she had any sort of bravery in her, she would be rather similar in that regard. Thinking on that, the Hufflepuff knew that she was more of a target than anything really. She was more than just a little gullible at times.

Her grin turned a bit softer at Dunstable's question, rolling her shoulders back in a small stretch. ”I'm okay I think,” she answered a bit vaguely, ”Wasn't too hungry this morning, so decided to go for a walk.” The hufflepuff raised an eyebrow at Poppy's words, curious. ”What are you frustrated about, Poppy?”