Homework and Benefits

A soft smile touched Junis‘ lips as she watched two birds circle each other in the air above her head, probably involved in a courting dance, with the small black male merl singing beautifully for its brown companion. Her blue eyes traveled from the animals to the ground where different flowers and herbs were growing and she went down to her knees to gather some Valerian.
Luckily the plant grew in all kinds of soils and could not even be destroyed by the first cold nights which were slowly happening more and more often as the year moved to its end. The leaves of the herb were rolled inwards which was prove that it had been raining not long before, but that would not bother the Valerian which was a helophyte, a plant which could withstand even flooding.

Junis looked around some more to see if she could find some lavender as well, but she did not seem to be that lucky. With a soft sigh, she pushed herself up again and started to continue on her way through the grounds that surrounded the castle, all the time keeping her eyes open for the ingredients she needed to gather for Professor Snape when suddenly, she heard food steps approaching from her left.

“Damn it, where are they?” Mio kicked another stone into the Black Lake, frowning in annoyance that his friends where still not here. They had agreed to meet here to start on their potion homework, but David, Ian and Neville were already several minutes late. “I swear they do that on purpose to piss me off…” he muttered under his breath and continued to throw and kick stones into the murky water.

Finally, he had enough of waiting for his friends and decided to go ingredients-hunting on his own. The sun would not be shining forever and Mio really did not want to wander through the forest in the dark, so he hurried his steps, following a path till he arrived at a hillside. Even from afar, his nose picked up the strong scent of lavender and he kneeled down next to a small shrub which was growing on the rocky surface. Mio pulled cut off a few sprigs from the plant and put them into a small bag hanging from his belt. Getting up again, he started walking again to look for valerian when he almost ran into someone else.
“Oh, hello.” Mio smiled at the Ravenclaw, slightly sheepish, as he hadn’t seen her coming. “You’re Junis right? Junis Prince?” He had some classes with the girl, but had never much contact with her even though she was a distant relative.

“Yes I am. You’re Professor Snape’s son,  Endymion, correct?” Junis held out her hand for him to shake. “Nice to meet you. Properly for once.” She added when she thought about how they had never talked with each other before. But to her that did not matter in the least, as she was open to get to know new people. Taking a closer look at the boy in front of her, she noticed that his knees were slightly dusty, as if he had been kneeling on the ground and she chuckled softly. “You’re gathering ingredients as well, I see?” she looked back into his warm brown eyes and gave him a small smile. Then she lifted her hand to show him what she had found so far. “I have found some valerian back there.” Junis pointed over her shoulder, in case he was searching for the herb.

Grinning back at her, Mio shook her hand. “Nice to meet you, too, but please call me Mio. Everyone does.” He grimaced a bit. “Well, except my father if he is angry with me.” He admitted and shrugged. She could probably imagine that that was not a situation he liked to be reminded of when talking to other people. Mio nodded at her question and pointed to his bag. “I have the lavender already. You can find some at the hillside by the waterfall. Just follow this path here and you can’t miss it.” He told her with a wink when an idea popped into his head.
Moving closer to the Ravenclaw, Mio whispered conspiratorially “Why don’t we work together and share what we already got? Then we would only have to look for some flobberworms.” It wouldn’t be against the rules as his father had allowed them to work in pairs and he really did not want to spend his whole afternoon with this homework.

Junis had to laugh at his remark about his father, imagining her professor talk to his son in his typical annoyed voice. She could easily picture a scene between father and son, knowing that Mio was one for trouble, just like the guy he always hang out with. “Very well. Mio it is then. Though I do like your full name as well, it is very special.” She told him truthfully.
When he moved closer to her, Junis blushed slightly, but his words made her laugh again, though she tried to stifle it by holding her hand over her mouth. “How do you want to know that I don’t already have a partner?” She asked him, keeping her voice hushed like he had done. Her expression was blank, but her eyes were sparkling with suppressed laughter. It was rare for her to be this playful with other people, but the Gryffindor just made it too easy to loosen up around him.

Shaking his head, Mio rolled his eyes at the girl, muttering about Ravenclaws and their odd tastes under his breath. He rather would have a normal name like David or Ian, but his father had decided to name him after his great-grandfather Endymion Prince. Now that he thought about it, his grandmother was Junis’ father’s sister, so their father was his great-grandfather and Junis’ grandfather. Mio frowned in thought and shook his head again. Who cared for these things anyway, she was a nice girl and that was all that counted. A very pretty girl as well, he thought smirking.
And one that could give back a joke as well it seemed. “Well, obviously they left you alone, so I should just claim their place instead.” He said, linking his arm with hers, to lead her down the path she had come from.

“MIO!” Junis exclaimed laughing when he just pulled her along with him. Not that she minded, a little company would make this homework much more enjoyable, so she matched her steps to his, so she wouldn’t be dragged behind. “You Gryffindors do like to mark your territory, do you?” she commented teasingly and bumped her shoulder with his. That’s when she noticed that even though he was a year younger than her, Mio was still a bit taller than herself. It seemed that all Prince men were rather tall, her father included.

Together they walked in silence for a while, just the way Junis preferred it, till at last she remembered their purpose for being here. “Alright, we should be looking for the worms now. I remember seeing some damp ditches not far from here. Maybe we are lucky and find them there.” She suggested and steered them towards a more shadowy part of the forest.

Mio just grinned cheekily at the girl when she shouted his name. If he would be David, he might make some obnoxious remark about it, but he thought better of it. Junis did not seem to be the kind of girl to appreciate it and he enjoyed her company and did not want to offend her which was weird in itself, as normally he did not much care for the fairer sex. He even annoyed his sisters as much as he could. So far the only exception seemed to be Rowan, but she was like a sister to him as well, just an older one. Especially Sydney always seemed to press the wrong buttons with him, but Junis was the complete opposite of that girl. Calm, playful, but still confident.  

He barely noticed her steering them towards another direction being in thought when she suddenly stopped. “Oh…yeah, let me check.” Mio got down on his knees again and carefully reached into the ditch. He really did not want to touch these worms either, he wouldn’t let the girl do it for him.

Junis felt her lips twitch into smile at Mio’s eagerness to get the worms for them. She truly would not have minded to do it herself, but if he wanted to play the brave man, she was not going to stop him. It was quite amusing to be honest and she enjoyed watching him lie on the ground with his arm stretched into the dark whole not knowing what was inside. “And? Do you feel something slimy already?” she asked him, her voice ringing with suppressed laughter.
Junis kneeled down next to him and looked over his shoulder into the hole, placing a hand on his back to keep herself from falling over. She could easily feel his muscles flex under the robe with each of his movements and raised a brow in appreciation. “Do you train a lot?” Junis blushed again and bit her lip, cursing herself for asking something like that. Usually, she had better control over her mouth.

Mio grimaced when his hand closed around something slimy and he quickly pulled it out and dropped it on the ground. “There it is!” he pronounced and shot Junis a grin. He sat up quickly which brought him face to face with the Ravenclaw and Mio smirked slightly at her. “Impressive, huh?” he asked her and winked at Junis. He often worked out to keep himself fit, but he also had a very tall and trained build from birth. Probably his mother’s side, as his father was more on the skinny side.

Junis blushed even more when she found herself so close to him suddenly. “It’s not bad, though I prefer brains over brawns.” She managed to say. To be honest, it was the first time that she was in such close proximity with a boy and it made her slightly dizzy. Not that he was not pleasant to look at, but Junis really did not know how to act now and lowered her eyes to the ground where the worm was lying, obviously disorientated by being removed from its home.

“Thank you.” Mio said still grinning at her. The blush just made her even more pretty in his opinion and he would try his best to get the expression on her face more often. “You are not bad either, you know?” he winked at her before moving towards the flobberworm. Although he enjoyed teasing Junis, he really did not want to make her uncomfortable around him.

“Oh shut up, Mio!” Junis glared at him, though it did not look very impressive, as she was still bright red in the face. “Here, take this and squeeze out some mucus. We will need quite a bit for the potions.” She held out two phials for him to gather the liquid and crawled over to the Gryffindor to watch. Her face was slowly returning to its normal colour and for that she was immensely grateful, it also gave her back her confidence. “Maybe you Gryffindors are useful for something after all…” she commented, smirking slightly.

Mio took the offered vials and filled them with the mucus which the flobberworm was oozing on one end. It was not the most pleasant task to do, but he quickly finished it and put the vials back into his bag. Junis comment made him grin and he quickly spun around and pinned her to the ground below him. “Is that so?” he growled playfully at her, trying, and failing, to look intimidating. Unlike his father, Mio just couldn’t pretend to be dangerous. Either he was pissed at someone, then it was easy to show that, or not.
“We Gryffindors are good at many things you know?” he said and leaned down to give her a short kiss, before pulling back and getting up again. He had never kissed anyone before that and to be honest, Mio didn’t even know why he had done it just now, it just felt right. Dusting off his clothes, he held out a hand for her.

“Excellent!” Junis clapped her hands as he gathered the Flobberworm mucus and smiled at Mio, glad that they had found all ingredients today. Professor Snape would be so happy! … Well… at least he wouldn’t take any points which already counted as a good thing in her opinion.
Suddenly, Junis found herself pinned to the ground and looked up at Mio. “What are you doing?” she asked, slightly shocked when he got even closer to her, pressing his lips against her own.
What was happening right now?, she thought, her head spinning from the Gryffindor’s closeness.  Just as fast as it had happened, it was over and Junis found herself lying on the ground which Mio standing over her. She let him pull her up, her head not yet registering what happened and started to fall back in step with him.

Mio had to hide a smile as they started to walk back to the castle, seeing her confused expression. Maybe he wasn’t the only one who had never kissed anyone before today which somehow gave him a good feeling. He did not know why, but he did not want to picture Junis with some other guy, which was a bit weird, as today was the first time they had even talked to each other. “You’re okay? I’m not that bad a kisser right?” he asked her jokingly, to pull her back from her stupor.

Junis barely heard Mio’s warm voice talking to her, just feeling him walk right next to her made her feel a bit light-headed. She turned her head slightly to look up at him, wanting to know if he was teasing her somehow, but the Gryffindor seemed to be still as easy-going as before. “No…you’re not that bad.” She gave back his compliment from earlier and shot him a smirk. Somehow, seeing Mio still in the mood for jokes made her loosen up as well and she even leaned into him a bit.

“Good to know.” Mio said, still grinning at her. He was glad that she didn’t seem to be getting angry with him for taking such liberties with her and slipped his hand around hers, squeezing slightly before pulling her against his side. “Maybe we can repeat it then one day.” He suggested, looking straight ahead with an innocent expression on his face.

Junis chuckled and bumped her shoulder against Mio’s chest. His expression was too cute, but did anyone really ever fall for it? They way his eyes were sparkling with mischief, she doubted that. “Maybe we can…” she just said calmly. Junis had been taken aback by the first kiss and did not really have the time to enjoy it, so they would have to repeat it sooner or later anyway. Sooner, hopefully and not later.

Mio faltered in his step at her answer, but quickly caught himself. He looked at her hopefully. “You mean that? Promise?” he asked her carefully. He couldn’t believe his luck. This beautiful girl really wanted to kiss him again?

Junis laughed and brushed a hand against Mio’s cheek. He really was very cute, much different from all the Ravenclaw boys. They usually were rather cold and distant, but the Gryffindors all were very hot and had no sense for private space. The complete opposite actually, but with Mio she did not mind. “Yes, I promise.” She told him smilingand turned her face back to the path before them.

YES! Mio cheered on the inside, on the outside he tried to be cool about it of course and just smiled at the Ravenclaw. Still, beside the kiss being rather short, he had enjoyed it and wanted to do it again. And again, just to be sure that it felt good. And to get some practice of course. He would just have to be careful. If his father caught him kissing in the halls, there would be hell to pay. “Sounds good.” Mio smiled down at Junis and pulled her back against him. "Maybe we should try again now before we forget about it later?" he asked, trying to sounds innocently curious.

Junis' eyes widened slightly, as she was pulled back towards the taller Gryffindor and she couldn't hide her blush. "Eager, are we?" she asked softly, but stayed where she was. He smelled very good, slightly spicy and he was very warm which felt good as the sun was going down by now. Feeling a bit bolder now, she moved closer to him and went up to the tips of her feet to brush her lips against his.

Mio chuckled and deepened the kiss with Junis. She tasted sweet and of some sort of fruity tea and her scent filled his nose in the most pleasant way. When they broke apart for air, he brushed his lips over her neck up to her ear. "Very nice..." he murmered against it and kissed her cheek. They were still standing in the middle of the path, but at this time of day it was rather unlikely that anyone would interrupt them here.

Junis moved her hands around Mio's neck and pulled herself even closer towards the Gryffindor to feel his body against hers. She smiled into the kiss and ran a hand through his long messy hair when he leaned down towards her neck. "I think for our first try we're not doing too bad, are we?" she commented, her voice warm with laughter. Ever the Ravenclaw, she wanted to keep exploring this new situation and started to kiss Mio's cheek and nose and chin before focusing her attenion back on his warm lips.