The newest batch of Hogwarts students have entered this historic school and no one knows how their future will turn out - will you be a quidditch pro or maybe a prefect? The year is now 2021, and now it's time for the next generation to make their mark. The newest batch of Hogwarts students have entered this historic school and no one knows how their future will turn out - and that is where the fun begins.
The plot will be determined by the characters of the site as of now - future plots will change as these forces weigh in on the Wizarding World, and we see where these characters take us. So join in and let your character make their mark!
Minimum word count is 200.
Post by Tobin "Toby" Hugo on Jun 19, 2018 22:13:25 GMT
Toby leapt into the Great Hall with merely minutes to go before lunch, feeling what felt grossly like sweat down his back. Not his greatest look - but he’d made it in time to grab a fistful of his favourite bread rolls (which on a Tuesday were only available at the Ravenclaw table - at this stage he had the food timetables memorised), and he stacked them up onto a plate, adding a generous dollop of hummus and all the cheese within arms’ reach. Stacking up a roll with hummus and halloumi, he stuffed them into his mouth and almost groaned with pleasure. He’d been up since some ridiculous time that morning doing Arithmancy with Christian, which would’ve been fine had it not been for the fact he’d needed to do some astronomy homework at exactly 02.05 the night before, and before that … well, anyway, all this had meant his essay that morning had taken way longer than expected, and it was only chance that he’d looked at his watch and realised that if he wanted feeding, he needed to move.
Then, obviously, on his way down to the Great Hall he’d bumped into (not literally, but it had been close) a tiny first year, crying because the staircases had moved and she was lost and late and didn’t know how to get to her classroom and was terrified that McGonagall would eat her. Toby was pretty certain she’d said ‘eat’. Anyway, by the time he’d shown her how to get there he had almost given up on the prospect of food, resigning himself to a late night kitchen run, but the combination of staircases acting mercifully in his favour and a couple of speedy tricks he’d picked up from Baggy and Christian had just about managed to make up for it.
Putting down his sandwich down, Toby poured himself a large black coffee and sighed. Maybe if he finished his essay after lunch he’d skip arithmancy and go back to bed. Maybe.
Post by Miles Phillip Fawcett-Vance on Jun 20, 2018 23:02:36 GMT
Miles always made it a point not to avoid any mealtimes. Multiple studies showed that it was important to avoid any sort of strenuous activity on an empty stomach. That included thinking, probably. Moving around. How could he expected to have any energy if he got hangry? He was like a bottomless pit. Comparable to his Ben, if he had to think about it. His Dad was always complaining that Ben had food on him. That he attracted ants and other small creatures. The teen always appreciated it because he was hungry. He could always count on some sort of snack. Like his Ben, he, too, generally carried snacks on him. In some pocket, of some kind. He wasn’t particular about the kind. He preferred ice cream above al other snacks, but that wasn’t exactly healthy. Which suited him perfectly. Healthy food was gross and put him in a generally bad mood. Looking at his food, he was having what was generally referred to as an American breakfast. Scrambled eggs, bacon, some sausage. He was probably going to eat himself into some sort of food coma and avoid going to any of his classes.
He’d get a bunch of hexts from Dom because...who else would hext him to harp on him about classes? It was a general agreed upon consensus back in his...third year? Maybe. From the rest of his House not to even bother anymore. It was a bigger waste of energy attempting to convince Miles that classes were important. That homework should be down. That house points were worth the effort. He didn’t think they were, so he always laughed when the occasional younger year tried to make him care. All it took was a conversation with him to realize that he was still an academic force to be reckoned with. That one need only have a conversation with him to know that he generally knew what he was talking about. And house points? They were hardly worth the effort they took to achieve. It always made him wonder about the students who would do what they could to achieve those points. Who showed up to class and raised their hands to ask relevant questions not about Professor Laffy-Taffy’s leg. What were they after? What did they hope to achieve?
Who had taken all the bread? How was he supposed to eat his brunch without any scones? Or rolls? These were the important questions that he needed answered. Perhaps it was because he had actually managed to get out of bed in the morning. Miles wouldn’t consider himself a morning person on a good day. Nor would he consider himself a particularly helpful person without getting some coffee in his system. Tea was good, of course. Delicious most of the time. It was just that coffee added that sort of kick that he needed to get through such a dreary day. Probably, he could have just waited until the bread had managed to refill. Probably. But, he could see where one Tobin Hugo had more than enough back at the Hufflepuff table. It seemed like such a logical thing, at the time, to pick up his plate and move automatically until he was taking a seat down next to him. “Pass a roll, yeah?” He grinned, downing the rest of his coffee in one go and reaching for sugar for his next cup. “The milk too, thanks.”
Post by Tobin "Toby" Hugo on Jun 29, 2018 9:21:29 GMT
It was just about getting to the point (inevitable in every term day) when Toby started to doubt the amount of stuff he was doing, and had to list again why it was he was doing it. Right. Six year plan. He couldn’t get a grad job without his grades, and he couldn’t get his grades without working, and without the grad job he wouldn’t be able to save up, and if he didn’t save up then he couldn’t do any work with the ministry, creating bridges between muggle and magical children or not. There were only a few months left, and he could do that. Only a few weeks left before the Easter holiday, and he could definitely do that. Just... maybe he needed a bit more coffee.
Looking up at the question asked, Toby managed just about not to groan - God, of course, when he was looking like a sweaty, shiny, possibly-slightly-derangedly-downing-bread-rolls monster, the person who showed up was the most gorgeous of his friends/acquaintances. Miles still felt a lot like Dom’s friend, no matter how long they’d known each other and worked together on Wizards for a Better World, and he wasn’t quite as comfortable pigging out in front of him as he might’ve been in, say, the Hufflepuff dorm. Swallowing his mouthful, Toby handed the (almost empty now, oops) bread roll plate to Miles, and reached for the milk jug as well, trying to work out just how gross he currently looked. “If you inject it, it might kick in faster.” he joked, watching Miles knock back coffee as if it were a shot of M.
He wondered what it was that brought his classmate there. Well, obviously he was the interloper at the Ravenclaw table, but why he was eating at such an odd time. He couldn’t particularly remember seeing Miles in any of his classes that morning, but should he have? Honestly, Toby was pretty certain that he could have missed anything as obvious as a troll, he was tired enough. He sighed, not certain he could even remember any of the lessons’ content, which someone defeated the point. “Pass me the coffee?” He asked, hoping a teeny bit more caffeine might provide the energy injection needed. “How’s your day going?”
tagged: Miles Phillip Fawcett-Vance words: 389 notes: random toby-future-thoughts plus food makes for a weird post, enjoy xx
Post by Miles Phillip Fawcett-Vance on Jul 3, 2018 17:55:12 GMT
There were always rumors floating around that Miles Phillip Fawcett-Vance was in love with or at leaved involved with Dom Weasley. And while he would concede that it was true. That the two were best friends; kindred souls that managed to find each other and thrive. They weren't romantically linked. Despite all the rumors and ships of Domiles or whatever else names were floating around, he has never felt anything but amicable. If he were the romantic sort that actively pined for a partner, he'd be begrudgingly upset that this left fewer options with everyone convinced he was enamored with Dom. Except that romantic partners often got in the way of his plans and actions. Or were people that ultimately decided that the relationships were too difficult. It also gave Miles the opportunity to admire both the facial features and general personality of...whoever. Maybe it said something about him and his dad that they were attracted to go-getters who gave so much of themselves to their causes. Who wanted the world to be a better place and actively tried to make it so. Maybe it was weird that he and Dom were platonic friends. Hmm. Food for thought for another day.
Dom pushed him to be a better person almost as much as she willed the world to be better people. He liked that. So perhaps that explained the reason that even he occasionally got flustered and flirted with one Tobin Hugo. Because the teenager was damn cute. And polite and friendly. Had the desire to leave the world a better place than he had found it. Merlin, though, was he a try hard. He was such a try hard. The type of person who actually went to his classes and got his work done. The type of person people swore up and down was responsible. That wasn’t to say that Miles was completely irresponsible; he would have given up on his last and final year of Hogwarts if he were. He knew that there were better opportunities for him if only he got as many NEWTs as society required of him. He didn’t even have a clear-cut vision of what he wanted to do with his future, anyway. Dom probably had some plans. Instead, he dumped sugar into his cup and grabbed the milk and coffee pot next. It probably would have been faster for him to inject it. Or to find some supplier of the Threstal and ask for a jacked up version of the pepper up potion. Something like that would undoubtedly be more fun, but then he had a feeling he'd be on the receiving end of another lecture.
From someone. People always wanted to scold him. Professors, still, gave him a hard time for dismissing classes. For sitting in on classes he wasn't registered for - like muggle studies. For hooting in classes he was in. Better the wizard web receive his many thoughts than be disruptive. It wasn't like he kept his sound on loud on his quiv. He didn't even keep it on vibrate. “Are you offering to join me?” He teased, picking a spoon and stirring his coffee until it was a dark brown color. The other boy always put him in a better mood. Generally it was at meetings, as Tobin generally spoke to his platonic half more than Miles himself. “Otherwise I'll have to settle for a slow high. Wouldn't do for my productivity, though. Might be lazy for longer.” He built himself a sandwich with the roll he had taken, flashing the Hufflepuff a smile and thoroughly pleased to have something so delicious. He felt like he probably should have added something else; asked him how his morning was, maybe. Added more to the conversation than asking him to pass some breakfast and lunch items...and not asking him if he wanted to get high. He had a nagging, almost mum-like voice that sounded suspiciously like Charles nagging him. The same Charlie bean who had no place and no reason to be nagging him from inside of his head with her own occasional bad choices.
Post by Tobin "Toby" Hugo on Jul 5, 2018 22:28:40 GMT
Toby watched Miles, trying not to look too weird as he did so. He’d be lying to himself if he tried to claim that he’d never harboured a crush on the other boy, but it had been way back, and he’d kind of presumed it was based on fascination more than anything else. He remembered someone whispering to him early on that “he’s a foster kid too”, back in first year, and he’d watched Miles from afar, then from a bit closer when they’d both been adopted by Dom. Miles had never brought it up, so Toby didn’t either, but he had remembered, and when he’d found out a bit more about Miles’ dads (again, Dom had provided the knowledge), had wondered what his own childhood might have been like with magic involved from the off. Or with opportunity, and with the access to the people he figured Miles must know. And he wasn’t jealous - genuinely - and never had been. He just wondered. Ah well, no point dwelling on it.
Of course, knowing Miles better hadn’t changed the fascination. He was terrifyingly smart (and terrifyingly attractive), and had been known to cut down a pages-long argument with a single phrase. Toby was glad they’d never been on opposite sides of a debate in meetings. Indeed, it was probably the opposite, and whenever he’d heard Miles get involved in a discussion, it’d been his side Toby agreed with. He was passionate and whenever he did care about something, he would fight for it. It wasn’t just terrifying, Toby admitted to himself, his passion was brilliant as well. Toby smiled, watching Miles fill his coffee and taking mental note of his order. Who knew when that might be useful in the future.
Toby blinked at Miles’ suggestion, not 100% sure how seriously he should be taking it. “Well, over lunch feels a little early,” he said, feeling like a twat even before he’d finished saying it. He blinked. “I guess I could schedule you in,” he went for, trying his hardest to sound slightly less idiotic. “Although maybe after I’ve done the charms homework, rather than before.” Homework? For god’s sake. He could surely do better than that, what was he doing?
“How have you been, anyway?” Toby asked, unable to stop his own grin as he saw how pleased Miles was with his food. “I feel like I haven’t seen you since the dance - which to be honest, feels like years ago.” Toby didn’t envy the night he was sure Miles would have had. He’d been pretty lucky in terms of his own dorm, only Francisco having been hit by the love potion, and as it’d been a couple of the girls from their own house, hadn’t resulted in anything too horrific. Which Toby knew had not been the case for either of Miles’ best friends. Honestly, Toby had enough difficulty with his friends’ usual romantic pining and whining (Christian, he meant Christian) without the addition of love potions. He also couldn’t help but be grateful that Miles himself hadn’t been affected by it - he wasn’t sure he’d be particularly keen on watching him giving whatever ‘love’ the potion created to someone else across the room.
Post by Miles Phillip Fawcett-Vance on Jul 11, 2018 18:03:39 GMT
He looked up from his breakfast so pleasantly surprised and, for lack of a better word, pleased. With a grin that didn’t feel like a forced smile. He had made the offer without thinking too much about it. As a sort of joke that he understood and only half thought that Toby would get. He didn’t think that the Hufflepuff would actually go along with it. It only actually proved how little he actually knew about his friend. It made sense. They didn’t normally run in the same inner circles. Outer circles, definitely. It was hard not to at least know a little bit about each other when they were dealing with Dom Weasley. Dom who made it a point to know about everyone else. Because she loved the people. But what good did it do to love the people if the person didn’t know the people? If they weren’t out and about with the people - growing and learning and loving and understanding. Best of all was the understanding - which was something that even he still had troubles with. This entire exchange, for example, had gone only a little beyond him. “Nonsense. You can probably do your best work if you do it beforehand.” That was what he did, anyway.
Whenever he could be bothered to actually do his homework instead of just traipsing about until he could get away properly with not doing it. That usually meant avoiding his more studious friends and insteading hanging around with the likes of Nikkolette, who did not pressure him to do anything he did not want to do. Not itsy bitsy Fitzy. It wasn’t exactly a fair comparison because Fitzy rarely ever pressured him to do anything. It was more that she stood there and stared at him with those disapproving eyes until even he caved in and did the right thing. Or Fitzy and the general populace of Hogwarts’ definition of the right thing, which was schoolwork. It wasn’t his place to be so forward, either. He liked to play the subtle and long game The problem was that this particular thing had been so long in the making that it was frankly more annoying than it was anything else. “Although, knowing you well enough, I suppose you’d appreciate waiting until the high wears off so that you’re able to over your work. You know, for spelling mistakes. I recommend it. Otherwise, the likelihood of you turning in nonsense becomes tenfold and they’ll surely suspect me of corrupting you. Which I’d like to do.”
He gave it a moment, to sit in. He was generally content with waiting it out, but with months left before people were split into general directions, it was going to become more and more difficult to remain in contract. As much as people claimed they would, time and circumstance got in the way. So that the implication of it was still just that - an implication. Whether Toby wanted to pick that up and roll with it, well that was something else. Romance was always a bit of a sticky subject for Miles, personally. Because people generally made assumptions about his likes and dislikes and then got all uppity when he corrected them on it. “Oh, that. That was fun, for me. Did you know Dom didn’t even know to avoid the punch?” He snorted. He maintained that it was still the most basic thing about parties that should have been known. He could reconcile the fact that she wasn’t much of a party girl to know that, but...actually, come to think of it. He didn’t see Toby at very many shindigs either, did he? “I was glad to see that you avoided the whole thing. Someone warned you about it, right?”
Lucy's morning had consisted of every awkward lesson she took, all crammed in one after the other, so that she by lunch time she was completely frazzled, mentally, and physically. Between Care of Magical Creatures and Potions, she was pretty sure she probably had some questionable substances on her shoes, and she was sure the left one had glowed slightly blue as she'd walked through a shadowed area of the castle, but she'd deal with that later. Luminescent shoes - was it spilled potion or some sort of glowing creature poop? Who knew!? - were secondary to the hunger that clawed inside the Ravenclaw girl, and if she didn't get lunch soon, she'd start hangry snapping at people, which nobody needed. She was bad enough with her mouth on a regular basis without adding any more reasons to offend people. Besides, those baby Mokes had been so cute, she was actually in a pretty good mood, despite one of them shrinking itself and crawling up her sleeve. She'd had to unbutton her shirt halfway down to try and reach it and get it out, which was embarrassing, but it could have been worse.
She entered the great hall and meandered over to the Ravenclaw table, eyeing up the food on offer as she scanned the length of the table for any of her friends. Sitting alone to eat was just not something she usually did. How did people manage to get through their day without talking about what they'd been up to and getting things off their chest? If she'd had a particularly eventful few hours, she needed to have people to tell, it was like therapy, only permanent therapy, since she pretty much always had company and could talk until the cows came home. She halted as two beautifully familiar and welcome voices reached her ears. She was mid-motion, leaning across the Ravenclaw table to snatch up a slice of pizza that was too good to pass up, but her eyebrows nearly shot through her hairline at what she was hearing. Miles and Toby flirting!? A grin spread across her pretty face as she waited for an appropriate time to turn around. Certainly not while Miles was talking about wanting to corrupt Toby. Sweet Merlin, that would be something to see.
Talk turned to the Valentine's dance, and Lucy's cousin, which was the perfect opportunity for her to let on that she was there, though she wouldn't be revealing just how much of their conversation she'd already heard. She took a bite of her pizza and turned, enjoying the sight of the two ridiculously good looking boys sat side by side at the Hufflepuff table. Why was Miles sitting over there? It didn't matter, Lucy was about to do the same, and purely because she couldn't resist spending time with Miles if he was around, and seeing Toby sitting still without anything to run off and busy himself with was nothing short of miraculous. She was definitely snatching this moment. "Ignore me," she said as she took a seat beside Miles, sandwiching him in between herself and Toby, where he looked damn good. "I'm just here to admire the view." She gave the guys a cheeky grin and took another bite of her pizza.
Post by Tobin "Toby" Hugo on Jul 23, 2018 21:16:22 GMT
Toby laughed, imagining for a second the damage he could do to his academics if he gave himself the chance. It’d been a while since he’d taken anything really, a lack of time and opportunity preventing him more than anything else, but if he remembered correctly then Toby-on-M was not likely to be productive or intelligent. He was more likely to spend large amounts of time convincing Christian and Jasper that they were made out of stardust and that freckle-constellations proved it, in fact. Anyway, why did he keep drifting into thinking about his best friends’ torsos? “Maybe for you,” he grinned, “although I’m yet to see the academia-appropriate essay effects.”
“Spelling mistakes would be the least of my worries, truly - it would be more like a different language.” Figuratively speaking of course - more of a syntax issue than any actual random words. Ish. At Miles’ talk of “corruption”, Toby looked at him properly, trying to gage how serious Miles was. There wasn’t a trace of joking on his face, not that Toby could see, and he took a moment to consider it, turn it over in his mind. Miles flirting with him wasn’t exactly how he’d woken up thinking his day was going to turn out - but here he was, and it made him think. Would he date Miles? He could see it being fun, more than anything else. Which, well, maybe he should allow himself some of. And besides, they were leaving Hogwarts in mere months. If anything was going to happen then it needed to happen soon. He couldn’t keep putting it to the back of his mind forever. “I think I could enjoy .”
Blushing slightly, Toby was about to hide in his sandwich for a moment when Lucy sat down with them, squeezing Miles closer to him. “Hey Lucy, you're not a bad view yourself” he smiled at her - again feeling like they hadn’t seen each other in ages, and that he needed to get better at catching up with all of the people he cared about, “how did you avoid the drama at the dance?” Laughing, he remembered watching Dom careen about the Great Hall, desperately (and weirdly) in love. It’d definitely been a preferable sight to watching Barbary try to woo her, at least. “Poor Dom, it was not her night. Maybe someone should’ve warned her, but … ” he trailed off suggestively, well aware that all three of them might fall under the heading of ‘should’ve warned Dom about the punch’. “If there’s one thing the combination of my older brother and Baggy have taught me, it’s to never trust the group drinks. If it’s been unsealed for more than twenty minutes in a hall full of Hogwarts students, I was going nowhere near.”
Post by Miles Phillip Fawcett-Vance on Jul 24, 2018 5:06:36 GMT
Part of the fun of never turning in his essays, Miles believed, was that on the rare times that he did and they were complete garbage - in comparison to the likes of Dom and Toby, probably, who put forth effort into what they wrote their name on - was that it was still treated like something of value. His essays rarely got to the point the professors wanted; he lost count of how many times he could indirectly refer to Professor Laffy Taffy’s leg in a way that was relatable to the subject matter. Sometimes he didn't even bother to hide the fact that his work was, in the surface, not something that needed to be turned in. If he got it done in class, then that's where he put the effort. What was Hogwarts going to do? Fail him? He always passed his exams and the curriculum was meant to teach to the exams anyway. “Do you know more than one?” He asked, interested. Miles liked to dabble in languages, but never had enough commitment to stick to any particular one. “Fitzy Bitzy and I like to practice mermish, but she's loads better.”
He did not grin because he was pleased by Toby’s reponse. Of course not. Except that he absolutely was and probably could have leaned over to poke fun at the redness in the other boy’s face. “Perfect. Let me know when, where, and how. I'd be there in a heartbeat.” The blush had not been there before. Miles did not pride himself off being so forward. Normally his flirting was more subtle. But if the result was going to be like this, he was obviously doing it wrong. There were also a million and a half Weasleys at Hogwarts. Running into one - or a Krum or a Potter as they were all related - was immanent. But, he did not think he'd run into Lucille Bella (that was to say that she was gorgeous.) He slid over easily to give her more room to sit and did Not Mind At All that he was sandwiched between the two. If anything, this was almost preferable. Albeit still confusing and his brain definitely had to readjust to two incredibly hot people talking. And a voice that sounded suspiciously like Dom but also maybe his dad told him that the term “hot" was demeaning and to blah.
He got bored with the voice in his head when he could be staring in awe at these people before him. “I maintain that the viewing pleasure is all mine,” he laughed, sliding his coffee over to make room for anything Lucy might like. “Blessed. I've been blessed with your company, truly.” It was a second debate in his head - a little about pushing his luck vs seizing the chance distraction and taking advantage of his new closeness to Toby to move his hands to the bench just to the side of his hip and press his knee loosely against the other boy’s. Cheerfully. Without drawing too much attention while shifting his own towards Lucy. Lucy whom Miles had always thought was pretty and engaging- intelligent and passionate in a way that was different from his own, yes, but in a way that always made him smile. “That's true. I’ve been meaning to ask you. I saw you in the common room, but you looked too lovely for me to waltz over and ask a dance from.” Then again, give how Baggy and Christian ended the dance, he should have been bold. Then again, he’d had a gaggle of people to look after in the aftermath. “Not Dom, not Charles, certainly not James Potter. But that was whatever he took with Grimaldi and not the potion.” but he did not like to think about them because then he felt guilty all over again about not telling Dom.
At Toby's question, Lucy's expression was one of someone trying to keep their composure whilst admitting to something slightly naughty. "Well it was was my first solo Valentine's in a while," she said, focusing on her pizza instead of her companions. "I had something a little bit stronger in my cup, I didn't need the punch." She flashed a quick look at Toby and Miles as she shrugged. She had indeed had quite a lot of alcohol in her cup, which was charmed to refill itself as soon as it was empty. She had needed it to get through the night, to be honest. Lucy was far from one of those people that liked to get drunk all of the time and do crazy things, but she wasn't scared to have fun. Getting drunk wasn't a new concept to her, and if it got her through one difficult night, then she had no issues with it. She'd gotten through the dance unscathed, aside from that glimpse of Linus she'd gotten across the dance floor, which had caused a horrible knot to form in her stomach. Had he had any of the punch? Had he hooked up with some random girl? She'd left not long after that. She really was over Linus, she was. It had been months, and she was ready to move on, but it still felt weird to see him having fun with other people, and to be completely cut out of his life. That was the hard part to deal with, losing one of her best friends.
Luce definitely wasn't short of friends, though, she was lucky in that department, and had plenty of pretty amazing people to spend her time with. The two guys beside her were proof of that, though she really needed to pin Tobes down for a bit of quality time, it had been far too long since they'd hung out properly and she missed his face. She tilted her head with a smile at Miles as he told her he'd seen her on the night of the dance and she had looked lovely but he hadn't asked her for a dance. "You should have asked me," she insisted, nudging him with her shoulder against his. "You owe me a dance, mister." It was debatable whether or not she'd hold him to that. She'd likely forget after a while, but dancing with Miles in some random part of the castle with no music sounded like fun. She put her pizza on a plate in the space Miles had cleared for her, and grabbed a cup of orange juice, taking a sip and cringing half at the weird pizza/orange mix going on in her mouth, and half because the thought of James on Valentines night just made her want to hide. He had been so out of control, and if she didn't love him like she did, she'd have labelled him a complete arsehole and avoided him like the plague. As it was, he was one of her favourite people, and her family above all else, and she couldn't dislike him for having a tough night. The usually outspoken girl decided to keep her mouth shut on this one, and kept to her juice.
Post by Tobin "Toby" Hugo on Jul 30, 2018 8:25:27 GMT
“Mm, not well enough to be worthwhile.” The summer before sixth year Toby had spent a couple of months in Turkey, volunteering in a refugee camp (that had needed wizards and more, really) and he’d picked up bits of Turkish and snatched of Russian there, but had relied on basic translation spells for most of his communication. Languages just weren’t his thing enough to work out in so little time. Although he had been thinking of going back, and maybe if he did then he should try - he wondered briefly if Bea Selwyn knew any Turkish. He’d have to ask her.
Hmm. Even having looked away, Toby still caught the end of Miles’ smile. He swallowed, hot with pride at being the cause. Making Miles grin was something he wanted to do again (a lot), and he started to think of where he could take him, what they could do. Somewhere that wasn’t the Great Hall. But then Miles’ knee on his brought him incredibly back into himself and his surroundings. He just about succeeded in not blushing again, feeling like a kid for how proud of himself he was for doing so, and pushed his knee back against Miles in return.
At Lucy’s reference to Linus, Toby bit his lip and looked down, feeling suddenly serious. They’d seemed like a great couple to the outside world, or to him at least - he couldn’t help but feel it was the main reason he’d never before thought of Lucy in a romantic light. Which he now couldn’t help but do - which was weird in itself, sat next to Miles (whom Toby, if he was being honest with himself, had crushed on for a while) and flirting with him properly - thinking about her at the ball, and how genuinely good Lucy had always been. She was funny, and passionate, and light… and literally what was Toby doing, thinking about this right now over lunch with Miles pressed up against his leg and half the school there? This was not the time.
Toby frowned, thinking of James Potter. It was fairly well established by this point that he was not having a good year - and who could blame him? Toby’d never really known him well enough for much more than a nod in corridors, his attention taken up with other members of his clan, but he did feel for him either way.
“I suppose it could’ve been worse.” Grasping in his mind, Toby tried to think of a conversation topic that wouldn’t cover the breakdown of any of Lucy’s family members. Or the ministry, which still felt pretty linked to both of the other’s families. Or classes, which were painfully dull and not worth thinking about. Merlin, he was tired. Suddenly overwhelmed with it, Toby checked his watch. Still time, if he left now, for a nap and to write some notes ready for the next WFABW meeting before he met Baggy for a workout later.
“I’m actually gonna head back to bed.” He said, swinging his legs round the bench and blushing (again) slightly as he realised how it might be construed. “I’m shattered.” He paused, weighing his words. “Quiv me though?” He said, flinging the words to both of them, the blush still not fading from his cheeks.
