| Details for Stone Mask Slipping |
| Summary: | Medusa seeks out Augustin to see how he's doing after his breakup. Douglas makes more jokes about the French. |
| Date: | 1938-11-04 |
| Location: | Great Hall |
| Related: | The Breakup Drama |
| Characters |
    |
After yesterday Medusa has decided she needs to speak with Augustin, maybe clear a few things up…maybe just be nice to the boy after news of his crying has turned him into a thing of ridicule. Whatever the reason she has managed to track Gus down to study hall and after making her way over has dropped into the empty seat next to him.
Augustin, who hadn't actually been studying, but rather doodling absently on his parchment with a sort of dead look on his face, looks over at Medusa's arrival. Then he looks back at his doodling. "Malfoy," he says, formal and polite and not at all warm like he usually is.
Medusa reaches over and gently runs a hand up and down the Hufflepuff's back. "I heard about you and Lil. I am sorry. Is there anything I can do to help?" She speaks softly so as not to add any further embarrassment to the situation. Were he to look at her he'd see she is genuinely concerned for him. Mind you she doesn't know he got her silver flask confiscated, but maybe she'll forgive that.
Augustin blinks, stiffens a bit at the hand, and looks at her, then at her arm like he doesn't quite believe he sees what he's seeing. She's never touched him before. "Er…" he says, displaying his famous eloquence. He does note the genuine concern, and so relaxes a smidge and actually thinks about it. "Just keep an eye on Lil… Lillian, would you?" he asks. "She's kind of… she needs friends around her, right now. Her father's done a right number on her head and I just…" he shakes his head. "I couldn't fix her."
She turns in towards him, her pale moonlight hued head nearly touching his more golden one. "Douglas and I were very worried about you. I hope you know we were just teasing, he thinks you're great - his best friend and I know that you don't know me but I'm not half the monster everyone thinks I am." Medusa pulls back and reaches over to pick up the pot of hot chocolate from the things the elves leave out for studying students. "I'd be happy to keep an eye on Lilian I'll get the word out. Is there anything specific we should be looking for?"
"Him, yeah," Gus says. "I've known him forever, we take the piss with each other all the time. But you I don't know much. And you're a terrific liar." That's a compliment, and it comes across as such. "Your teasing seems like you really mean what you're saying, sometimes. Maybe if you winked or something?" he suggests. "To let people know that you don't actually mean any harm by it." He demonstrates an exaggerated almost comical wink. Then he nods gratefully. "Thanks," he says. "I dunno, just… make sure she eats enough, don't let her beat herself up. If… if she says it's my fault, then it is," he says solidly. "Whatever she says. I'll take it."
Medusa pours hot chocolate into a cup sitting on a waiting saucer and slides them both over to Augustin. "I have nothing against the French, not really. You know how it is, you must do, you're half English right? All that cultural antagonism." She snorts a laugh at his exaggerated wink. "Let's see if I can do that…" She looks around and raises her voice just enough for a couple of students a little further down the table to ear, "Augustin, I heard that you are offering to give proper French kissing lessons. I just wanted to say, count me in." Medusa then gives him a clearly exaggerated slow wink before lowering her voice, "How was that?"
"My parents were both born in France," Augustin says. "Aix-les-Bains." As if she'd know where that is. Though she might, actually. "I was born in Kent, though." English, is himself. He accepts the hot chocolate and raises it to take a sip, eyeing her curiously as she tries out a tease. And so her impeccable timing has him nearly snorting hot chocolate through his nose. There's a lot of coughing and watery eyes and sputtering. "Good," he wheezes. "You almost had me for a second," he responds in a voice loud enough for those same other students to hear. "But sorry, Malfoy — single girls only."
"So you're a proper Frog, then?" Medusa pulls her handkerchief from her pocket and offers it to Augustin. "You've got a little something," she delivers deadpan, "just here," and draws a circle in the air over her face to indicate where the mess is on his. "Now this is when I come into my own." She winks at him then her gaze flits briefly to the students down the table, the pair who are trying to listen but not making obvious. Medusa pouts prettily and reaches over to run her fingers through Gus' hair as she pouts, speaking just loud enough again she says, "But Guuuuus, I'll leave Douglas for you. He's such a brute…always pawing and pinching at me. I want a real gentleman."
"Proper English Frog," Augustin says. "I was born in England. Speak the language. Long live the King, all that." Then she's pawing his hair and he leans waaaaaaaaay back. "That's a bit too far," he says nervously. "He's me best mate." He glances at the other students, too. "Er… thank you for the offer, Medusa. It is a tempting one. However, I must remain loyal to my best friend. And I think this time I'll look for a girlfriend with a different hair color." Both Lillian and Medusa are blondes. "Maybe brunette. Or a redhead." He is not so great with this whole charades thing.
When he doesn't play along Medusa isn't the least bit bothered. Augustin clearly isn't as much fun as Douglas. "I heard the thing about you an Evie. Not that I believed you'd do anything untoward with her or her with you, but Evie is nice." She reaches for another cup and saucer, this time to pour some hot chocolate for herself. "If your parents aren't the sort to care you wouldn't do bad to be with someone like her. I mean you're a Hufflepuff, so most around here would cut you some slack."
Augustin's face goes beet-red. "That was an /accident/," he hisses quietly, scooting toward her and giving her that earnest, pleading look. "She stumbled and I was reaching for her /shoulder/! Honest!" Then he blinks a few times as the implication of her words sinks in. "Er… what? No. I mean… my parents would disown me. At least my mum would. I'd get a Howler and then I'd have to figure out how to survive without them…" he shakes his head suddenly. "And anyway, I /just/ broke up with Lillian. Can't a bloke have five seconds to — to get over someone before he has to date another girl?"
Medusa chortles. "So you did grope her," she murmurs quietly and with no attempt to hide her amusement. A single brow rises as Medusa watches Gus over the rim of her cup while taking a sip of hot chocolate. "I would never have taken you for a purist, Augustin." Her nose wrinkles at the mention of a howler. "Yes, well we wouldn't want to have you treated like Janette." Slowly nodding she agrees with him, "You are right, I wasn't saying you had to be with Eibhlin. I just said ending up with someone like her - some one clever and kind - isn't a bad thing."
"Well, she… she's most kind, actually," Augustin says, seeming a tad confused. "I was somewhat upset when I saw her and she was very sweet." He shakes his head a little. "And I'm not a purist," he says. "But my parents are. And… well… I do love them. I don't want them to cast me out of their lives." He looks rather miserable at the prospect. "I don't understand their point of view. In fact… I think it's wrong. Sorry," he says, because he knows her opinion of the subject. "That's just what I think. But they're my /parents/. For the most part, they were good parents. Loving and warm and all that."
"There is purism and there are purists," says Medusa. "I wouldn't take away Eibhlin's ability to do magic. But I do think that we need to keep ourselves safe from mobs of muggles who would, if they knew about us, treat us as they did during the middle ages or as they still are in places like Africa, India and the Middle East." She sips her hot chocolate. "But I can also understand not wanting to be disowned. I'm lucky really, I've never had feelings for someone who isn't pure-blooded. Douglas worries my family won't like him, but I worry about his family not liking me. Being a Malfoy has a lot of…complications."
Gus sighs and rubs his forehead. "My mother told me I had better find a good pureblood girl to marry soon, or she'd find one for me," he says. "And she means it, too." He picks up his cup of hot chocolate, but then puts it back down again. "She was so pleased with Lillian. I'm probably going to get a Howler, anyway." He grimaces. "What if Douglas had been a Half-blood?" he asks curiously. "Or what if we find out that his mother was lying about her heritage and she was a Muggle-born? What would you do? Just… hypothetically?"
Medusa tops up his hot chocolate. "Be honest with your mother, Augustin. Women know when someone is lying to them. Our parents always want us to be like them, or to surpass what they did, but even your parents must realize that not everyone falls in love at sixteen." His hypothetical questions make her shrug, "I don't know. What ifs are not reality. I think if his mother lied about being muggle-born then there is a much bigger problem in his life than if his girlfriend still wants to have sex in the broom closet."
Augustin sighs from the depths of his lungs. "You tell her, see how far you get," he says with a mirthless laugh. He waves off the hypothetical. "Anyway… Eibhlin is nice." He blushes a bit. "But I doubt she'd ever want to go on a date with me after… after the, erm, accident." He looks embarrassed again. Poor guy - his first feel of a breast and it wasn't on purpose.
"She might. When you feel ready ask her. If you dare." Medusa doesn't really encourage him, but more makes it clear he should do what he feels right. "If not there is always batshit crazy Janette." She waggles her brows at Gus and then sips more of her hot chocolate.
"Oh, /no/, please!" Gus whispers, horrified by the thought. "She's just the kind of girl my mum would love, too." He grimaces, shakes his head.
"Seriously?" Medusa gives him an odd look. "She's a nut case. A picnic short of a sandwich. An apple without a core. A brick shy of a full load. A nail that's been hit on the head a few too many times."
"She's well-bred, well-trained, and well-mannered," Gus answers. "And rather pretty in a cold, wintery sort of way." He shivers. "My mum would fawn all over her." He pitches his voice into a falsetto and puts on a French accent. "Augustin, she ees so polite! So well-behaved! Have you seen the fine robes she dresses in? What a perfect leetle lady, Augustin. She will make a perfect bride!" He shudders. "Can you imagine her in a wedding dress? It'd be like a cloud coming down the aisle, all blinding white."
Medusa sips her hot chocolate. "Are you sure your mum is right in the head?" she jokes. "Janette is…did Douglas tell you what she did to me?"
Gus shakes his head. "No," he says. "What did she do?"
Setting her cup down carefully Medusa leans in and lowers her voice, "She threatened to kill me. She blames me for her break up with Niko and decided it would be fun to threaten to push me off the roof. I had to tell Slughorn and my parents. I'm not supposed to be alone if I can help it until the whole thing settles down."
Gus is aghast. "What?" he asks. "That's /awful/." He frowns. "Well. If my mum gets any funny ideas about Janette, I'll tell her that. Ugh."
"Yeah, just steer clear of her if you can." Medusa props her chin on her upturned hand. "So now you can tell me why it is you don't like me. Do you think I'm not good enough for Douglas? Or is it that you dislike my family? I know some people do."
The question takes Augustin aback. He blinks a few times. "Well… before you got together with Douglas, as far as I knew you were a bully. I don't like bullies. Like that ungrateful prick Alphard Black," he sneers as he says the name. "But now that you're Doug's girl, I've been trying to like you. You haven't really made it terribly easy. Though you coming here to comfort me today is a good step." He runs his hand over his hair, messing it up more that it usually is. "You're just hard to get to know, is all. But I don't… I don't /dislike/ you, Medusa. And I'm glad you make Doug so happy. I can tell you both really like each other, and that's a good thing. The important thing, really."
Medusa's gaze flits down the nearly empty Hufflepuff table to the nearby pair of students who were eavesdropping earlier on their study hall conversation. "I am not a bully. Bullies use force to bend people to their will. I have never raised a hand to another student. Or a wand." She looks back at the mussy haired blond sat next to her. "I'm a bitch and I like to get my way, but then so does everyone. The trick is to know just what people want and use that to get them to do what you need. That's not being a bully Augustin, it's good business."
Douglas ambles in, arm in arm with Morgana. He sniffs the air, then gives Augustin a cheery salute as he spies him. "I thought I smelt bad cheese and frog's legs. Hey, Gus. You surviving?" he calls over, heading in that direction. "Malfoy. New boyfriend? Seriously? I step out for five minutes and you're over me."
Morgana rolls her eyes at Douglas and his exclamations. She easily lets go of his arm, moving to fold hers in front of him, knowing he enjoys it far to well to escort her around. "Really MacMillian." She says, shaking her head. "Are you so insecure in your relationship? Here I thought you had more pride than that." She teases nodding to the other two in greeting.
Augustin listens patiently and thinks about what she's said. "Some bullies use words," he tells her. "Not just threats, either. Hurtful words to exclude people that they don't like for some reason. Taunting them, teasing them… even shunning someone if you know that will hurt them, but don't care… that's all bullying. Can you tell me you've never done any of that?" He looks up when Douglas comes in. "Oi, mate, that smell is coming from your armpits. Use soap once in a while, yeah?" His ripost is only half-hearted, though. Clearly he still feels a bit down. He just shakes his head at the comment about new boyfriends. Morgana gets a nod hello.
"By your own definition you're a bully for breaking up with Lillian." Medusa turns her head towards the seventh years and grins, "Caught me. I asked for him to teach me proper French kissing but he refused because of you Douglas. Something about scalpels…maybe scruples." She waves it away as if they were irrelevant whatever they were.
"I'm going out with Medusa Malfoy," Douglas points out to Morgana, shaking his head sadly. "I have no pride at all." He heads over, looping his arms around Medusa's shoulders from behind, and stooping to rest his chin on her shoulder. "Yeah, Gus saves his french kissing for me. I'd invite him to the bonfire night party, but I'm a gent and I don't want to break Rashley's heart, too. You got it sorted yet, Gus? You and Lil, I mean? Because if you're both going to mope around all miserable, I'm going to punch the pair of you."
Morgana laughs and shakes her head at Douglas, moving to join the rest of them. "Careful, she can hear you. I'd hate for her to have to come up with a creative way to retaliate." She'll nod her head to Gus, and Medusa as well before she joins them. "I hear Italians kiss better than the French, but I have no basis for comparison." Morgana says thoughtfully before she tilts her had at Douglas. "We had a date? I completely forgot all about it."
Gus shakes his head, and once again looks miserable. "If you think I get any pleasure out of this, you're wrong," he half-whispers. He glances up at Douglas and then drops his gaze again to the doodles all over his parchment. "Go ahead," he says in a monotone. Punch him.
"I didn't say you took pleasure from it, just that it fit your definition. Especially seeing as how your definition mentioned nothing about enjoying it." Medusa reaches back and slipping her hand under his robes lightly pinches Douglas' leg, she is of the treat 'em mean keep 'em keen school of teenage romance. "Augustin doesn't want to come to the bonfire anyway. He shuns purists and prefers to think we are all plotting the deaths of muggle borns." Her nose wrinkles at Morgana's words, "I will never believe an Italian is better than a Frenchman, even without having sampled Rousseau's wares. Italians smell like garlic."
"Well, are they?" Morgana questions Medusa with a hint of amusement in her voice. "Granted I know very little about what is to go on at this bonfire." She's teasing mostly and shakes her head at the two. "Douglas needs to not be punching people right now, lest he loose even more points for his house." She does laugh at the Italian comment and shake her head. "If that is what you believe. What about Russian men then?"
"It mentioned caring," Gus says. "And… I do care about her. We just can't make each other happy is all, and… I just wanted a girlfriend who was /there/." He starts rolling up his parchment, his motions jerky and his posture stiff. "Is that really so much to ask?" He stands up suddenly. "Oi! You never /sampled my wares/," he snaps. "And don't put words into my mouth. /This/ is why we're not fast friends, if you must know. When there's no one around to judge you, you act like a human being, but as soon as a peer shows up it's all prickles and shards of glass with you. It gets /old/." He starts shoving things into his bag.
Medusa looks at Augustin, "You need to learn to lighten up and take a joke Gus. Nobody here thought I was serious but you. But if you want to toddle off in a huff well as a Hufflepuff that is your right." She turns her attention on Morgana then, leaving it up to Gus to storm off with his knickers in a twist. "I don't really have an opinion on Russians, so seeing as you are half Russian I will take my leave from you. I do remember reading somewhere that all Russian men were handsome but the women hideous and all Ukrainian men were hideous but the women beautiful. But I can't recall where I read it."
"She was just kidding Rousseau, and I believe she was attempting to use humor to lift your spirits a bit." Morgana to help, really, but Gus' actions are not raising her opinion on Hufflepuff males. "And I do not believe she attempted to put words in your mouth either. However, I see that you are upset and perhaps humor may not be the best tactic here?" Turning to Medusa, she'll smirk. "Well it's a good thing I am half English then. Have I ever shown you a picture of my brothers?" She asks thoughtfully.
Gus sighs and stops stuffing things in his bag for a moment. "Sorry," he apologizes. "I might be somewhat prickly for a few days. It's not easy to break it off with your girlfriend, alright?" He shrugs. "I'm a bit unbalanced, now." He nods to Morgana. "Yeah, what she said."
"Lighten up, Gus," Douglas agrees, rolling his eyes. "Come on, did you at least get the flask I lent you? If you're really nice I'll lend you my collection of… uh… 'postcards'."
"Apology accepted," Medusa tells Augustin before looking at Morgana and shaking her head, "No, but I would like to see one, especially if Russians are handsome."
"It happens." Morgana says with a nod, as she starts fishing around in her satchel wondering if she does have a picture on her somewhere. "Postcardes? Really MacMillian, I do plan on eating this evening at some point." At least him, she can tease with out any issue. "Ah, here we are. The taller one, that's Serafim, he's a little stuffy, but he just had a baby girl. The shorter one is Eduard, he also plays the violin." Both men are rather strapping, but the taller one does seem a bit more polished than the other. Eduard has his tie loosened and his collar undone, but they both have charming smiles and look as if they may have broken several hearts in their day.
Guilt flashes across Gus's face. "The… flask…" he says. "Right… ah, that was confiscated," he says. "Sorry. I'll buy you another, though." He glances without much interest at the pictures of Morgana's kin. They are blokes, after all.
Douglas glances to the pictures, then pokes Medusa in the side. "No." He raises a brow at Augustin. "Seriously? Mate, what is wrong with you? What did you do, sit swigging it in the middle of your common room or something? Get pissed and hand it over to a damn prefect… no offence, Rashley."
When Morgana brings out the photos Medusa looks them over paying close attention as she looks for a resemblance to the Head Girl. The poke from Douglas makes her laugh softly. "You've no need to fear, Douglas, they're old and not likely to fancy it in the broom closet." Lifting her head she smiles at Morgana, "You look a bit like them, the hair and I think the eyes." She gives Gus a rather frosty look when he mentions getting her flask confiscated.
"I have never been, nor will I eve be a Prefect." Morgana says to Douglas, shaking her head at him as he talks about the flask. It's not like she can take it away anyway, since it's already gone. "Well, Eddy is only a few years older than I am, but no, I think he is past the age of hiding in broom closets." At least, that's what she likes to think. "Besides, that would be awkward." She says, slipping the pictures back in.
"Well how was I supposed to know there was more than just lemonade in it?" Augustin says. "No, I didn't get pissed." Yeah, he's not renown for his intellectual acumen. He catches Medusa's frosty look. "Was that yours?" he asks. "I promise I'll replace it." This is the second time the broom closet has come up, and Gus blushes. "Isn't it a bit cramped in there?" he asks faintly.
Douglas half grins. "Well, how much space do you think you need?" he points out, shrugging one shoulder and casually sliding a hand inside Medusa's jumper. "It's all about being close to them, isn't it? You're not in there to practice the bloody long jump, are you?"
"Yes it was mine. It was a gift and made of silver." Medusa makes it clear she expects like for like in the repayment of her flask. "Augustin, sometimes I wonder about your mental faculties," she shakes her head with a soft sigh but her annoyance is quickly dashed away Douglas' joking. "I should like to see you try the long jump in there. I swear that closet is charmed so that it is the perfect size for whoever is in it." She re-positions the invading hand so it is in a much more safe for being around nervous Hufflepuff type of company.
"I wouldn't know, I never really went in there for anything but brooms." Morgana says thoughtfully. "Though with me being tall.. yeah I could see where that would be problematic." She'll shake her head however. "You might likely be able to at least get it back by the end of the year, but I suppose that would depend on who took it, and who they turned it into." She'll say with a shrug. She gets quiet for a moment, something obviously causing her to ponder a few things.
"Perhaps I can get it back," Gus says. "I'll just explain that I need it back." He tugs at his collar and clears his throat. "In fact, I should… go do that, now," he murmurs. "See you all around," he tells them. Quickly he finishes packing up his things and scoots.