| Details for Purist Tendencies |
| Summary: | After the gift of the ring from Genevieve, Silas goes for a much needed drink, and meets up with two others. Talk of friendships, relationships, and purity ensue. |
| Date: | 15 February, 1939 |
| Location: | Three Broomsticks Pub, Hogsmeade |
| Related: | Takes place about an hour or two after Bittersweet There is a public group scene that occurred between, although it does not appear to have been logged, or at least posted. |
| Characters |
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Despite the obvious patina of age, The Three Broomsticks has a warm, inviting ambiance. This character the pub has attained is, no doubt, thanks to the years it has been steeped in the environment of this particular village. Just one evidence of the village's influence on the pub can be seen in the dark paneling inside the building. The wood was once the outer walls of the home that housed Hogsmeade's founding family. Put to good use once again after the founding family bequeathed it to the pub, the paneling has served the pub just as well as it once served Hogsmeade's founders. The Three Broomsticks has flourished under its current proprietor and is always open and ready for a customer or visitor.
The dark wood surface of the floor glows with a polished sheen from much cleaning, and exposed ceiling rafters, which appear to be original, cross the ceiling in tidy squares. Wood tables of varying sizes litter the room, and matching chairs are scattered among them. Several secluded booths fill up the space along one wall. A flavorfully aged mahogany bar takes up most of the space near the back wall with a series of mirrors and shelves of varying heights hanging behind it. Those shelves behind the bar are lined with memorabilia depicting the life and people of the village as well as items which are special mementos to the pub's owner.
It's not long after Elizabeth left the grounds that Silas chose to do the same, enjoying the walk to the town, even in the cold. He's still dressed rather simply, brown robes and black slacks, with the matching black blouse. Cane, new wooden ring on his right ring finger… and sporting a slight whisper of a grin.
He enters the Three Broomsticks quietly, barely allowing the door to open, just enough so he can slip in, without bringing too much of the cold in after him. And so, once in, he moves himself over to a booth, flagging down a server.
As focused as he is on his own thoughts, he doesn't really pay much mind as to who is in the pub just yet. Indeed, right now he's intent on two very specific things: first, something decently warm and appropriately strong to drink, and second, something decidedly unhealthy to eat.
Elizabeth had been here for a little while, secluded at her own table wtih a half-full mug of Butterbeer in front of her. Presently, her cloak has been shed, gathered around her waist and dressed in a navy blue dress that hints at darker hues. Every once in a while she takes a small sip of it, but considering that Butterbeers only have the smallest percentages of alcohol, it's doubtful that she would become inebriated. It's almost offhandedly that she spies Silas as he enters, allowing a cool wave of winter wind to enter in his wake.
It's not that Morgana doesn't take care in her appearance, it just seems to took a lot of care in what she is wearing today. She has on a black dress that is trimmed with lace, and she's even put on a bit of make-up and some modest jewelry as well. While she hasn't really noticed anyone entering, since she is pacing toward the back of the room. She is obviously waiting for something, or someone. However that chill breeze does cause her to tear her attention away from her pacing and she gives a very faint smile at Sy, making sure he isn't waiting for someone himself before she approaches him.
The server was taking Silas' order around the time Morgana approaches, having ordered some roast beef, veggies, and a Yorkshire pudding. The drink order likely preceded it. As it stands, he hands the server a few coins, setting his bag down on the floor, and his cane to the side.
As he sits down, he catches sight of Morgana, and does indeed offer a smile to her, and waves her over despite the fact that she's already approaching. This, as well, causes him to catch sight of Elizabeth as well, to whom he offers the second friendly nod as well.
Looking back to Morgana, he half stands to greet her, before grabbing cane and bag to scoot over further into the booth, offering a place next to him.
The movement pulls her pale eyes towards it, catching sight of Morgana and Silas, watching for a brief moment as the older girl approaches him. Once more Silas greats her, perhaps surprising Elizabeth for a moment before her expression relaxes and she dips her chin in return. Slytherin or not, pure-blooded or not, he was friendly enough that he at least acknowledged her existence. Another couple, on Valentines weekend, she notes to herself. Elizabeth pulls her gaze away from them to stare into her drink instead, not wanting to disrupt them by staring or something rude like that.
Morgana gives a nervous smile to Silas as she slips into the booth, taking care to properly smooth her skirt down before she sits. "Afternoon Sy. He's late. Or I'm early. Or I got the place wrong, I am not sure." She says as she bites on her lip, trying to calm her nerves. "Either way, how are you? Did you get my letter? I wasn't sure if I got it out on time or not."
If Morgana and Sy are a couple… he's really dating out of his league, or she's rather forgetting, considering his current state of dress compared to hers. "Well, if your boy doesn't have the wherewithal to know where you are, clearly he's not looking hard enough. Have you considered sending an owl to remind him?" A chuckle, and he looks back at Elizabeth once more, before piping up, "Dweedle! You plan to just sit over there on your lonesome?"
He then looks back to Morgana, the right hand with its unfamiliar wooden ring on it touching hers for a moment, "I did, Ana, and thank you," his voice lower for a second. "My first ever valentine's day card. I may have it pressed and preserved." A wide grin at that.
Elizabeth blink up from her mug as she hears her name, surprised perhaps by the summons and catching her off guard. She pauses as she glances between them, attempting to gauge the air. "Um, are you sure? I wouldn't want to interrupt anything." She respected both of them enough that she didn't want to butt in where she isn't wanted. That and she isn't sure just what exactly it is she would be intruding upon in the first place. There seems to be allot of glances exchanged between them.
Morgana shakes her head in slight exasperation. "If you had any idea how badly my date went last year, you would understand my nerves." However she does smile faintly at the hand pat, and the gratitude for the card. "It was nothing, just a simple gesture, that is all." Something does catch her eye however and she raises her brow. Reaching over she'll tap her finger against the wooden ring. "This is new." When Liz joins them she'll nod her head. "Afternoon Dweedle."
At Elizabeth's question, Sy rolls his eyes, just a touch. "I wouldn't offer if I didn't mean it. It's Valentine's, and none of us have one here. Might as well let misery have company," the offer made once again.
Then he's looking down at the ring, the darkness of it a contrast against the white scars near it. "Yes. It is. As in hours new. Apparently Jenny had it made before…" a pause, "Well, before I broke things off. We had a talk today. A good one. Painful… but good. I think she understands the situation more than I gave her credit for. She didn't even yell. Not once."
Even so, she had to make sure, and still she hesitates a pause before she pushes herself to her feet. Draping her cloak over an arm, Elizabeth holds onto her drink with both hands as she carries her Butterbeer to Morgana and Silas' table. She takes a seat on the other side of them, before lightly setting her drink on the table. Glancing up at each of them, she pauses again and tries to smile. "I don't mind if you call me by my first name."
"You're not helping my nerves Sy." Morgana says, as he points out that Kaiden still isn't here. However at the end of his little story, she nods her head and squeezes his hand. "I'm glad that she does, and it is a lovely gift." That seems to be all she'll say about Gen. "Very well Elizabeth." Morgana says with a nod. "Are you here to get away from the castle for a bit?"
Sy nods at Elizabeth as she finally joins them, a grin on his face, "Good, Elizabeth. I like first names, although you at least have a last name that's fun to say. Please call me Silas, then." And it's about time that his order comes, a decent-sized play of the stuff. He grins at it widely. Of course, it's often amusing to see him eat out, since he tends to peck at his fod at school. Also brought is a large flagon, itself easily a liter in size. Something vaguely fruity, and definitely alcoholic, is inside, and warm enough that steam is seeping over the top.
He looks over to Morgana, and smiles, squeezing her hand back. Clearly the two are close, and familiar. "He'll come, Ana. I'm sure he's just being held up. I didn't mean to unnerve you. Do you two have special plans?"
Her expression relaxes a little when they both call her by her first name. "Yes well, I think quite a few think the same thing, Silas, though on less friendly terms." Not that she really minds. A small smile tugs at the corner of her lips when Silas insists that she call him by his first name too. "Alright." His food is delivered, and Elizabeth glances to Morgana. This time, the question earns a small smile that's tinged with sadness. "As much as I enjoy this holiday, this year seems to be proven more challenging than usual." From her voice, it wouldn't be all that difficult to tell that she's just lonely.
The flagon is barely set down before Morgana swipes in and takes a sip from it. "Pay backs." She says with a grin, setting it back down in front of Silas. "I know he will, at least I hope so. If not than I will just hex him until he promises never to do it again." There is a seriousness to her tone, but she easily slips back into a grin. "Let me guess.. you're growing?" Turning back to Liz, she'll nod her head. "It's over-rated. Had I thought about it, I would have gone with my orginal plan of a low key, anti-valentines day. Maybe there is still time." Seeing that her actual Valentines day was spent breaking up snogging couples in the hallways.
Whatever it is that he's drinking, it's got a taste of raspberries, something nutty, and a definite kick of a strong ale, heated. Boy likes his drinks. Silas' reaction to the theft is an open laugh. And then to Morgana's question, "No… not this time around. Just hungry. A week of having almost no appetite since the breakup has just… finally left me starving."
He looks at Elizabeth with a nod, "I've been meaning to offer you my… heartfelt condolences, ever since our last conversation. I know that must have been difficult to watch, and see the fallout from." He grunts, "It's been a difficult time for many this year." He agrees.
Elizabeth smiles faintly as she takes a drink, taking a moment before she sets it on the table in front of her again. Almost idly, she lifts a hand up to pull at the heart-shaped glasses on top of her head, pulling them away from her raven head in order to look them over. "I don't mind the holiday. After all, there's lots of different kinds of love. Like for your friends or family. Not just romantic. But…" it wasn't the same. She exhales a small breath. "While I'm happy for the couples I see, it just makes my chest hurt."
Her pale eyes glance to Silas from behind her frames, and for a moment a smile flickers across her lips. It was difficult not to, he's just so upbeat right now. It's catching. The heart-shaped glasses are set on the table before she reaches out to steal one of his chips. "Don't be. I still have mixed feelings on the whole thing." Elizabeth admits, wondering if she should bother getting into details. "Lots of mixed feelings."
Morgana is a little out of the loop at the moment, and just when she's about to ask for clarification she spots a familiar dark haired boy. "There he is!" She says with a hushed tone. "I should go, I don't want to jinx it any further." With that she does lean over to kiss Silas on the cheek, leaving a bit of her lipstick there, just for fun. "You two enjoy your meal, I'll see you back at the castle." And with that, she'll slip out of the beach and off toward the seventh year.
As Elizabeth talks, Silas nods, listening, all agreement. He fingers the ring on his hand a bit, before responding, and as Morgana gets up to leave, he offers her a slight grin, a touch to her arm again as she leans over. He doesn't even move to remove the lipstick after. "Friends… definitely important." He does sigh, though, and goes after some of the beef on his plate with a knife and fork.
After a moment, he looks back at Elizabeth, "Nearly didn't even come out this evening. Avoided the whole town last night." He smirks, "But at least I don't have her job," he remarks, looking after Morgana again.
Elizabeth watches the exchange quietly, her expression warming and eventually becomes a chuckle. "I agree." she murmurs, before admitting. "I'm rather envious of you, to have a friendship like that." Her eyes close as she takes another, longer drink of her Butterbeer, finishing it off and gently setting the empty mug on the table. Meeting his eyes, she chuckles again as he smirks. "I wouldn't have blamed you if you had. Though I suppose being out tonight is an act of rebellion of itself." Elizabeth likes the sound of that. She chuckles again. "I agree, I would be concerned if you had to chase after a bloke like that." The Ravenclaw girl winks.
There's a warm smile that alights Silas' face, "Yes. Ana… Morgana, I mean, has been a good friend. A comfort during some very trying times. I've found such friendships are hard-won, and rare to come by." He looks over again, watching her and the young man she went to. No jealousy in his eyes there, although Elizabeth's joke does make him pink at the cheeks slightly, and laugh, "No. No. Definitely not the sort of chase I go for." Again the hand to the ring… almost an unconscious action already.
But then, almost as an afterthought, he says while sawing at what appears to be a well-overdone Yorkshire Pudding, "Actually, would you believe it was an act of retreat?"
Her smile becomes gentle as he speaks of his 'hard-won' friends, knowing that this was true. So much so. Thus why she's rather envious. The sight of the pink flush that abruptly brightens his cheeks makes her chuckle, joining in along with him, her own pale eyes sparkling with mirth. Absently she notices the attention he pays the ring on his right hand, taking not of it but since she hadn't heard it's origin, she doesn't comment on it. Elizabeth watches as he almost saws into the Yorkshire pudding, a slender brow lifting at him. "Retreat?" she asks. "How so?"
"Well… from what is essentially a bad situation. One which even a week later is still rather raw." He gives up on the pudding, the thing so overcooked it couldn't possibly be palatable any more, and instead spears a potato, absently. "Don't know how well you know Genevieve… but we've been seeing each other for a while now. Lost her for a bit after the holiday, but won her back, two weeks ago. It was a week exactly, the day I threw the bonfire. Then mother happened." The potato is eaten.
Elizabeth watches his expression as he shifts his attention from the pudding to the potatoes, spearing one of them with a fork. The mention of Genevieve elicits a flicker of something in her features, something pensive, perhaps even fearful before she focuses her attention back on Silas. It's a quiet moment, then another as she lightly shifts his hand to touch at his wrist, much like he had in January. "What I know of her… is only from what I've experienced of her first hand. And… admittedly it wasn't good." she says in a softer voice. "But I know how it feels, and I know what it's like to want to hide away." Elizabeth isn't quite sure what he refers to his mother, besides that she was involved somehow. "To be honest… your social standings seem different than one another…"
"Don't misjudge me, Elizabeth," Silas states, spearing another vegetable. "I am a purist. Unabashedly so. But for me, it only matters in whom I date, and whom I take as my mate when all is said and done. And in that, she and I are very attuned. I simply don't see the point in extending that to friendships or associations, or the more extreme views about power and station and all that. And I don't think it my right to judge who and what others wish to love. It's only mine that matters."
He frowns, "She means the world to me. She's strong. She speaks her mind, and it isn't always kind… but she's honest. And that's important to me. Still love her with everything I have, too." A solid statement. "But my mother threatened to disinherit me if I didn't break it off."
Still her gaze remains on him, watching his expression as he spears another potato. A longer pause lingers before she exhales a small breath and shifts her gaze, pulling the hand away to idly toy with the pair of red, hear-shaped frames on the table. "That's all fine." Elizabeth replies. "That's what you believe, you're honest and up-front about it, and I accept that. You aren't an ass about it." she murmurs lightly. "And Solomon is all of that. I would be able to accept that she isn't always kind too if it wasn't for the fact that she was purposefully cruel. That I cannot tolerate." Pain flickers through her expression as Elizabeth withdraws further, pulling her arms in to fold against her stomach. "I'm sorry that your mother threatened such a thing…" Elizabeth says softly, without looking at him.
"Depending on how long ago this was, I may have been a part of it." He grins, "When your relationship is built on honest truth, without filters, sometimes it means cruelty as well. She and I, however, have both been working to change the other. Again, I don't know when this was…" He spins the ring on his finger again, and even touches the scars on his hand, "but you may find her as oddly changed as I have."
As to his mother? "That is her way. I have defied her too many times. I defied the arranged marriage they intended for me. I took the person whom I had chosen over her choice for me to our holdings in France without her permission over the Holiday. Little defiances over time… until in the end…" He reaches over, finally taking a long draught of his still-steaming drink, "until she finally played her gambit and I was in check-mate. Choose the girl, or choose my dream. Stay with her, and get pulled out of school, disinherited, left destitute with nothing to give her… or give her up."
"Not too long ago. About a month." Elizabeth admits quietly. After a few moments, she closes her eyes and exhales a breath. "I'm not sure if it had anything to do with you. At the time, I had discovered Variel and Myrus with herself and Marcus, right here actually. I think Lowe was attempting to get drunk that particular weekend, and Goyle and Solomon were fully supporting this. Goyle had mispronounced my last name purposefully, yet again, and I made a comment that he should be careful, lest I mistake it for flirting. Such as little boys often dip the ponytails of the girls they like in inkwells. I was merely joking, or trying to at least, as Solomon was the one that answered. She told me not to flirt with her boyfriend, then proceeded to rub it in my face that not only was Variel too good for me, but also pointed out the necklace of the Magijugend that was around his neck then."
Her nose faintly twitches, and she pulls out a few coins for her drink to set them on the table, for her Butterbeer. "Whatever. It's not like my feelings matter." Elizabeth murmurs softly, slipping the heart-shaped glasses into her cloak before she pulls it over her shoulders and rises to her feet. "I wish you better luck in romance in the future." Pulling the cloak a little tighter around herself, she reaches up to pulls the hood over her raven head, covering herself as she begins to make her way to the front door. Without another word.
A quirk of the head and an arch of the brow is the answer Silas offers, although it's quite clear that he bites his tongue at the statement she makes just before she bids him farewell. Instead, he simply nods, offering, "And you as well."
Another long pull of his drink, then.