| Details for Girl Talk |
| Summary: | Ria and Medusa are cutting it close to curfew when they turn up one after the other to the 7th Year Slytherin Girl's Dorm. They chat about boys and politics before bed. |
| Date: | 23 October 1938 |
| Location: | 7th Year Slytherin Girls' Dormitory |
| Related: | On the same day as: What's in a Name? and soon after: Stuck |
| Characters |
  |
Prefectural privledges are convenient when one is out past curfew and returns just as people are starting to head to bead. Ria Sykes slips into the 7th year girl's dormitory a little later than usual with her hair wet and her towel draped around her neck indicating she's come from one long bath. Quietly, she tiptoes to her bed in the mostly dark room illuminated by only one or two bedside lamp lights. But then suddenly - BUMP! the girl makes impact with the corner of a trunk, knocking over a few books that were settle on top of it. "Ugh..bloody—mmrrfff," she exclaims in a whisper, biting her knuckle. The trunk wasn't that hard to see in the dimness. Was she even paying attention to where she was going?
Medusa has no excuse for her disheveled appearance when she strolls in from the common room. Well she has a reason but not one she'd share with a teacher. Shrugging off her fur coat she eyes Ria and smirks, "Problems, Sykes?" The trunk Ria kicked happened to belong to her. After returning to school this year Medusa made sure her bed was nowhere near Helene. The two do not speak anymore. Instead now Medusa has a bed between her cousin Beatrice and a wall, meaning her stuff has a penchant for getting in the way of others. Nudging the trunk with her booted toe she slides it back where it was meant to be and hangs her coat up in the wardrobe beside her bed. "What happened to you anyway," she asks, her back to Ria. Medusa tugs off her jumper and then looks down, rolling her eyes when she realises her blouse is buttoned lopsidedly, but with her back to the room nobody else sees.
Ria lifts the hem of her skirt an inch to see where the corner tug into her thigh. "How on earth do you live in such an awkward corner?" she scowls, half in-pain, half annoyed. And picking up the displaced books, the sets them back onto the trunk after Medusa pushes in back. Naturally it's replaced neater than how it was found. "What happened to…me?" she looks over her shoulder confused at Medusa. "I'm not sure I understand the question." Of course this response comes from a hint of paranoia. Did the Malfoy somehow know what just took place? A glance back to her thigh and Ria pouts. That'll bruise. She hates bruises.
"Your hair is all wet," Medusa elaborates as she shrugs off her blouse and drops it into the laundry for the elves. "And it isn't raining." She doesn't explain why she knows that, Medusa just does. She removes her bra and swaps it for her silver silk pyjama top. The top is almost as long as her rolled up skirt. Medusa drops down ont her bed and pulls off her boots, looking back over her shoulder to peer at Ria. "Do you think Flint would let me into the Magijugend?"
Ria peers up at the locks on her head. "Oh, I've just come back from the bath," she points to the towel and replies casually, moving over to her bed which is just on the other side of Beatrice. There's still look on her face that she's still not altogether there. "What happened to you then? Seeing as a fur coat is rather warm for a night inside the castle," she smirks lightly. Though every snake should know by now that Ria is rather apathetic to the illicit activities in her house. So long as they don't. get. caught. The last question catches her off guard, and her brow quirks in surprise. "I don't see why not. Have you any reasons as to why he wouldn't let you in? I mean … other than that Mud Club business. But everyone knows that was a joke."
Medusa grins as she kicks her boots under the bed. "Nothing which hasn't happened before, never you fear." She wriggles out of her clothes and pulls on her pyjama bottoms. "I think he'll have me. He told Douglas as much. I just have been hesitant. You know me. I want to be in charge not be led." Medusa rolls onto her stomach so she can watch Ria. "Hey, can I ask you something? You can tell me to sod off if you want, but he and I are in a good place again - mates again - and I know Lucian misses you. Believe me, I get the whole parental disapproval thing." Afterall she wrote the book on breaking up with Lucian over parental disapproval, albeit her book with a much slimmer and G rated version than Ria's likely was. "Can you two maybe be friends at least?"
A snort comes from the prefect when she too changes into sleeping clothes. "Nothing that you haven't done before? I have no idea what you're talking about," Ria says dryly. "Having a Malfoy in the Magijugend would put the icing on Flint's cake. And I don't blame you for using your brain before you act, but based on the few people who I've heard were interested it seems to be a pretty good lot. Ones who have their values right and who know where their place should be in this world." Her words come out strongly and confidently as if her opinions were cemented on this matter. She slides her tiny feet into a warm pair of slippers, and proceeds to put on a nightie from her drawer. But in the midst of her process, Medusa's next question makes her get tangled in her own clothing as she gets out of them. "Erm…," Ria struggles anxiously with her shirt before tugging it off an leaving her hair a bit of a mess. "Wh- … I don't even … what brings that up all the sudden?" If she wasn't paranoid enough before, she's even more so now.
Medusa could help but she won't. It is more amusing to laugh at the mess Ria is getting herself in. Besides, she needs to file her nails. Hopping up onto her knees Medusa reaches over to her bedside cabinet and takes a glass nail file from the top drawer. "We spoke earlier today. He's been tutoring me in transfiguration, I figured you knew that." She might have even mentioned it before. "He's bloody brilliant at it, always has been." Whereas Medusa is…the opposite. The file is drug across her nails in one direction before being lifted and drug across again. This doesn't mean Ria is completely off the hook for Medusa is watching her from beneath her lashes. "And I'm right. He does miss you. People in this place are awful to him and kiss up to that tosser Victor."
Clearing her throat, Ria turns around to slip "gracefully" into the nightie and smooth her hair into place. Going to bed is no excuse for crazy hair. "Has he?" she hmms, as she looks into her mirror, "No I didn't know." She says casually, ignoring the lump in her throat that she feels rising, and abating the slight sting of jealousy that comes with not knowing what goes on in Lucian's life anymore. "I'm surprised you're seeking out tutoring, Medusa. What's forcing you to turn over a new leaf?" Ria smiles. "Well that's because Victor is loaded and isn't afraid to roll around in it. Lucian on the other hand …" A finger is run over her lip as she thinks about how to phrase her words. "He's a boy, who is very much trying to be a man. And I'm not entirely sure I have the time for that anymore. So it hasn't nothing to do with my family really, but is my own personal choice." Pfffttt, yeah. Right. "Has he said anything further to you about all of this?" Ria looks curiously over at Medusa. The relationship between the two blondes has always been somewhat of a mystery to her.
Medusa holds her hand up in front of her so that she can look at her nails, checking to see if they are even. "It isn't as if we are children anymore. We can buy alcohol. Apparate. Leave school if we want to. Lucian isn't a little boy, Ria. He's a man and what happened between you hurt him." She lowers her hand to her lap and looks over at the dark haired girl. "When I broke things off with him we were kids, thirteen and just silly. When dating was about skipping stones on the lake and giggling over holding hands in Hogsmeade. What I did hurt him, but we never loved each other. I got the impression that what you two had was deeper." The Malfoy shrugs, "Maybe I was wrong." She sounds as if she doesn't think she was wrong. "If I was right, don't you think you two owe it to each other to at least be friends. My sister once said to me that your first love stays with you long after they have left your life." Her brows draw together over her blue eyes, "I never understood what she meant before, but she is right."
Ria has turned around now, to comb her hair in the mirror attached to the inside of the wardobe drawer. And she continues on listening in indifferent silence, mostly out of stubborn pride since she doesn't take advice too well from anyone. "It's more than about having adult responsibilities. The world around us is changing, Medusa. You and I are about to be thrown into that world, and we need to focus, find out what it is we want and what we're willing to sacrifice for the things we want." As she combs her hair, the light from her bedside lamp, glimmers off the pendant of her bracelet. A triangle encompassing a circle, both bisected by a vertical line. But she does at least hear her housemate out, pretending as if she isn't considering whatever the hell Edwardlinda told the younger Malfoy. Ria presses her lips together, and pauses to look at herself in front of the mirror. But her head then turns slowly around, a teasing smile on her lips, "If I'm not mistaken, Medusa. You sound rather in love." Her head tilts curiously, awaiting the gorgon's response.
Medusa isn't so fastidious as Ria, her hair usually has that just out of bed look to it that will become all the rage in sixty years time but for now is merely another thing about her that sets Medusa apart from all the other girls. "Lots of us know what we are going to do, some of us even have jobs lined up already. The world after Hogwarts doesn't scare me, Ria. It is an adventure waiting to be had. Connections to make. Alliances to form. This place," she waves a dismissive hand, "I have conquered. I'm the Queen of Slytherin. Next year I get a real challenge." The nails of her other hand are now given attention. "Are you going to tell me off for being with Douglas too?" Medusa doesn't deny her feelings for their fellow seventh year, it would be ridiculous to given their relationship is common knowledge and she is often in his company. "He's really good to me. More than anyone knows or understand."
"Silly," Ria goes back to finishing up her combing. "What have I got against Macmillan? Oh nothing at all! Other than he's Gryffindor, and usually they're arrogant, haughty, self-righteous sorts, but he's not that bad." Unlike her Proudmore darling, she doesn't have too much against the lions, given that her little brother Garrett is one of them. "Always seemed to have sensible values for a Scottish wizard." And we all know how the Scots can get. "So go ahead, be in love. Let yourself be swept away if that's what you desire. Just don't let your head get too far up in the clouds that you forget yourself." Ria twirls her comb in the air at the word 'clouds'. "Because as you dear sister said love seem to have a lasting effect. Which no offense doesn't sound too appealing to me. When I'm done with someone, I am done, and I must make room for other things." An amused snaky giggle emits from Ria when Medusa dubs herself 'Queen of Slytherin.' "Well, your highness, I by no means disagree that life after Hogwarts will be an adventure. And I think you'll do quite fine for yourself, and find a means to be royal once more but this time in the real world. I only know that Lucian and I didn't see eye to eye on things that were quite important to me. And so unless, he can't shape up on his end, I can't let him into mine."
Tired of filing her nails or just finished doing it, Medusa tosses the glass file back into the top drawer of her bedside cabinet. "You both should do something to show each other that you still care. I'll talk to Lucian about the Magijugend and you need to think about something to show him that even if Daddy says no, that doesn't mean you can't still have him in your life - even if it is only as a friend." She lifts her hands and makes light work of loosely plating her hair. "Maybe you can dance with him at the feast. If he doesn't just dance with you people will think it is because you are friends not a couple." Because Medusa is such a give she throws poor Lucian a bone, "I'll dance with him too. Maybe we can get Morgana to as well, just once. Oh and Beatrice." Medusa ropes her cousin into all sorts of things.
"I don't believe I ever said I still cared for him," Ria says in calm defiance. Because she insists on being an obstinate bitch for little to no reason at all. She puts down her comb neatly back into place and folding her dirty clothes - because of course Ria folds them. "So feel free to dance with him all you choose. You and Beatrice and Morgana, whichever girl fancies to. I will kindly be busy." The ice queen daintily shimmies her way into bed, hardly displacing any of the sheets. And just before drawing her curtains to sleep she says perhaps one of the few sincere things she's said in a while, "I appreciate you concern though, Medusa. And I also believe that if Douglas has succeeded in turning the gorgon into a softie, then there must be something good going on in your match. Good night." And with that the curtains close.