Friendly Fun (Ian)

Astoria's footsteps were light as she maneuvered her way to where a familiar dark head of hair with yellow trimmed robes sat. The courtyard was full of students from four different schools, but Astoria was one of the few Slytherins who didn't mind having so many people around. In fact, she had met a few of the French girls earlier in the term, and had found them rather pleasant company. Today, the Slytherin was feeling light hearted, so she made her way to Ian as quietly as she could. Smirking, her hands moved around to cover her friend's eyes, and she whispered, "guess who?"

What a day! Ian thought chuckling slightly to himself as he stepped outside into the courtyard to enjoy the warm sun. The last few hours he had spend chasing after his friends to make sure they did not get in any trouble with the Woflclaw students and now he really needed a rest and where better to do that than in the pleasantly warm afternoon sun. Falling down on the grass, Ian closed his eyes for a few seconds when suddenly, someone came from behind him and covered his eyes with their hands. Laughing warmly, he decided to play along and crooked his head slightly to the side in thought. The hands were definitely female which narrowed down the list of suspects quite a bit. Wolfe would probably just have jumped him from behind which left only two other girls, but something told him that this wasn't Rowan. "Mhm..." he wondered out loud, a small smirk on his lips. "I wonder if this could be my serpentine friend, Ms Greengrass?"

A bright smile spread across Astoria's face as Ian played along with her. She was sure he knew who it was, though, but she enjoyed the change in atmosphere when she was around her only Hufflepuff friend. Pulling her hand away, she laughed and dropped down next to him, looking in the opposite direction. "Hey Ian!" she said happily, resting her things on the ground beside her. "You've been oddly absent lately," she mock-scolded, "have the professors been laying it on a little thick or something?" Honestly, she didn't mind that Ian had seemed pretty busy lately, as she had been as well, but it was nice to catch him at a seemingly 'un-busy' time.

Ian grinned at his friend when the Slytherin fell into the soft grass beside him, happy to see her again after some time. It was always quite refreshing to spend time with her, as she was so very unlike the rest of his friends. He groaned and flopped backwards to lie down, shaking his head at her. "You have no idea, Astoria!" he told her and sighed dramatically. "I wish it was just homework I had to worry about, but somehow my friends are set on getting themselves killed by messing with the Wolfclaw students." Ian glanced up at the Slytherin. "So you see, I had to do my best to make sure they stay out of trouble." He snorted and started to laugh, thinking that no matter how exhausting his friends sometimes could be, at least they were fun to hang out with.

Astoria’s mood, whether good or bad, always inflated when she was around the infectious Hufflepuff. She knew that he had times when he wasn’t feeling the greatest just like she did, but his wholehearted goodness was always refreshing to her. Some of her fellow Slytherins often teased her, and occasionally threatened her, because of her friendship with Ian, but she had quickly learned to ignore them. It wasn’t something that she couldn’t handle, and if it had not been for her friendships, they’d find something else. Astoria frowned slightly when Ian mentioned his friends getting into trouble with the Wolfclaw students, though she quickly laughed as she too laid herself back onto the grass. These were the times when she did not have to be the youngest Greengrass daughter and a pureblood. Instead she could be just Astoria and she was always surprised about how much she liked that. “I’m sure that they’ll be fine,” Astoria said, before laughing again, “well, I hope they’ll be fine anyway. That lot from Czechia are a bit confronting at first. Though, I’d love to properly meet the Gryffindors of your group some time.” The girl knew Artemis from the common room, but Mio and David she’d never properly met, only seeing them in classes.

The hot sun that was burning down on his face made Ian close his eyes against the brightness of the light, but he enjoyed the comfortable warm feeling on his skin. At his parents farm he would often spend the whole day outside, just with some of their horses and dogs, enjoying the pleasant weather during the summer. Because of that he had gotten quite a tan which was a great contrast to the elegant pale skin of his Slytherin friend. Blinking up at her, Ian could not help but realize how different the two of them were. Although both of their families were pureblooded, they could not been much more different. Him being a normal down-to-earth boy who loved to just do whatever he felt like while Astoria came from an old pureblood family which still held tight to the old believes as she once told him. But these differences made their friendship all the more special to him and Ian smiled at her with warm green eyes when she laid down next to him. "You're right, they can take care of themselves." he nodded quickly at her next words. "I'll definitely need to introduce you to them. They can be a bit ... much sometimes, but they are great and loyal friends." Ian knew that his friends would welcome the Slytherin in their group without a problem and once again he thanked Merlin for the having them. "I talked to some of the Beauxbaton girls earlier this week, they seem nice enough, but I don't know about the other two schools yet, though it would be quite interesting to have some more interaction with them, don't you think? Just to find out how different they study magic and so on."

On the other hand, Astoria’s fair skin was prickling at the unfamiliar sensation of sunlight that seemed to bathe her like it was planning to cook her. She hated the sun, but she was happy to tolerate it to be able to spend some time with a friend. As opposed to Cinnia, who was far too focused on her training for goodness knows what, and Alaska who was far past down to earth, Ian was the most care-free company that she had found herself sharing since her first year. Her hair fanned out around her as she swept her gaze across the sky, taking in the lovely fine day. “I’m sure I can handle them,” she Slytherin said, a playfully evil tone to her voice, “besides, Artemis and I already get along pretty well. My friend Cinnia and her sometimes do their silly training together... okay, I only say it’s silly because the other week Cinnia invited me to join her and I almost passed out after about ten minutes.” Letting out a laugh at her own expense, she turned her head to look at Ian. “Have any of those pretty French girls taken your fancy?” she asked, a smirk touching her lips as she did. “I’ve heard that the other schools are much harder on their students, both in different ways. I’ll admit that is only speculation between a few friends, so maybe it would be worth striking a conversation with one of them.”

Ian laughed warmly at her words and quickly nodded in agreement. "Oh yes, I have no fear about that. Slytherin girls seem to have a way with my friends if Artemis is anything to go by, though I think you two are actually quite different...you're more..." Ian tried to think of the right words to describe his thoughts. Wolfe was one of his best friends and mostly she acted just like a guy would, tougher and more active. Astoria on the other hand was quite different in her whole demeanor. While Artemis was like a warrior, the girl beside him was more like a true pureblood lady, probably due to her upbringing. But like every Slytherin, she knew how to use it to her advantage. "... you're calmer, gentler, I think. That will have the other boys right at your feet, I'm sure." he said at last, before pouting playfully at her. "I might have to get jealous at that." Ian wasn't able to keep up the expression for long and started to laugh again, though he knew he really would be a bit jealous if Astoria would start to hang out more with another guy.
"I haven't trained with Arty so far, so I don't know how hard her training is, but not everyone is made for that anyway. You can be a fighter with more than just your body." he said thoughtfully. Somehow Astoria struck him more as the person who would hold the strings in a war than to fight a battle in the front line, unlike him, who never would be good as a leader, but a loyal fighter till the end.
When she asked him about the Beauxbaton girls, Ian chuckled, but shook his head. Not really, I mean they are very nice and charming, but all so ... girly. Not really what I look for in a girl, I guess." he winced slightly when he thought of Sydney and once again thanked Mio for opening his eyes about that girl. Shaking his head, Ian turned back to the conversation. "Yeah, I was thinking that as well. I'm always interested to learn new things and I doubt that we will ever have the possibility to talk to so many different people from different countries. Maybe we will have the chance to talk with them at the ball. They should be a little more relaxed there, especially if we can smuggle some alcohol past the teachers." he agreed with her.

Astoria raised an eyebrow as Ian seemed to think of a way to describe her. Artemis definitely had a different way about her, though the younger Slytherin often found herself admiring the older girl. Sometimes Astoria wondered how two Gryffindors, a Hufflepuff and a Slytherin had ended up so close, but she was sure that there would be some epic saga to tell if she ever asked. Sometimes, she found herself wishing that she had friends like that, rather than decent acquaintances to keep her company. Cinnia was a friend, but there was always her twin who would take precedence, and although she didn’t deny that was the way things were supposed to be, she always wondered what it would be like to have someone think of her before anybody else. Her parents were always focused more on social standing, her sister Daphne hardly looked her way while they were at school, while she and her new found half-sister, Alaska, had yet to explore a proper sisterly relationship either. Ian, her sweet and unlikely Hufflepuff friend was the closest thing that she had to a ‘normal’ friendship.

“Calmer..” she said softly, “you should see me when my sister takes the last piece of apple crumble. 'Calm' doesn’t even come close.” Glancing at the Hufflepuff, Astoria’s stomach turned in a gentle kind of way, and for a moment after Ian had started laughing she still didn’t join him. But then she did, and she shook her head. “I don’t think that anybody would  be jealous for me, silly,” she said, her eyes returning to look at the sky. “You don’t like girls who are girly?” she asked, her tone returning to it’s early playful state, “I’ll have you know, that we English girls can be girly, too.”

At the mention of the ball, Astoria’s interest spiked even more and she rolled onto her side toward Ian, resting her cheek on her hand. “I’ve heard about this ball, and I can’t wait!” she said, “though, I’m going to have to start looking for someone to go with, because I’m certain that all of the good guys will be snatched up pretty quickly.”

Ian pulled himself into a sitting position and crossed his legs below him while his eyes kept observing his Slytherin friend with a mixture of interest and amusement. He was just enjoying the time with Astoria and he loved the long and interesting conversations they usually had together which were so very different from the stupid messing around with Mio and David, although of course he loved that as well. Furrowing his brow, he realized that he did not know much about Astoria’s friends at all, but he did not think it polite to just inquire after them.

He let out an easy laugh at her words and shook his head, his green eyes sparkling happily. “Oh really? That’s quite hard to imagine, maybe I should try to steal some food from your plate next time I get the chance, just to see your reaction.” Ian commented grinning at her, though he turned serious again only a few moments later. He knew that a lot of boys would be more than happy to be able to go with such a pretty girl like Astoria and that he wouldn’t like that very much, but Ian also didn’t want to sound weird to her, so her did not comment on those thoughts for now. He smiled at how excited his friend seemed to be for the ball and it felt kind of infectious, so Ian just decided to take an example on his Gryffindor friends and just ask. “Hey, why don’t we just go together, Astoria?” he suggested, trying to sound off-handedly. “I mean, just if you don’t have a guy in mind already…” Ian added, glancing at the girl to see if that might be the case.

Astoria laughed yet again, something that she never remembered doing quite so much, when Ian made a joke about trying to take her food. If there was one thing that Astoria loved more than almost any object, it was food, Apple Crumble in particular. For some reason she had yet to gain weight from it, and even if she did she knew that her mother would force her to drink a potion so that it would fall right off again. “I strongly suggest against it, Mr Mortinson,” she said in a faux-serious tone, “you may think that you are brave as your house suggests, but never come between Astoria Greengrass and her plate. It may be the last thing that you ever do.”

When Ian seemed to suddenly think of something, she stopped her teasing to listen. At his question, a million different thoughts flew through her mind at once. But in the end, she just smiled and said, “I would love to. At least that way neither of us need to go through the stressful torture of asking people to be our dates, right? Or even worse.. going alone.” Not wanting to sound like she was silly, she shrugged and said, “there were a few boys that I had in mind, but I think that this way makes things way easier.” In honestly, she didn’t want to go with anyone else, because she didn’t like anyone else. But she was just Ian’s friend, and she preferred that over nothing at all.

Ian put on his cheekiest grin and leaned very close to his friend when she spoke in such a serious tone with him. Two could play that game, he thought, laughing on the inside. "I think I would be willing to give it a try. I'm sure your face would be worth it." he told her in a low voice, his green eyes sparkling mischievously at Astoria before he sat back again. Ian loved to tease, but for some reason he thought that Astoria with an angry face would be quite cute. Whenever he saw his friend from afar, she always seemed to wear a rather calm mask, so Ian enjoyed to put some emotion on her face, usually be making her smile.

He turned a bit more serious again to listen to her answer to his question. To be honest, Ian had not even been givng much thought to the ball, especially not with whom he would like to go there, but now that the question had been asked, he actually wanted his friend to agree to come with him. Finally, Astoria gave him the answer he had been hoping for and Ian grinned broadly at his friend. "Brilliant! I'll make sure that you will enjoy yourself and I even know how to dance, unlike some other guys..." he snorted, thinking of some of his friends who did not like to dance at all. His mother though, had taught him how to dance, because she loved doing it and Ian had slowly found himself enjoying it as well.

Astoria noted Ian’s grin, and had a feeling as to what would come next. They always played such silly games, and the ease between them was always something that Astoria appreciated, due to the lack of it in her other friendships. At his words, she silently slipped her wand from the waist band of her skirt and raised it in front of her, though keeping the tip pointed skyward. “Who dares threaten my apple crumble!” she announced, her voice deep and dramatic, she her eyes showed her amusement. She then lowered the wood in her fingers and added, “and while my face may be worth it, the tip of my wand in yours would certainly not be.” After a moment of holding the most serious expression she could muster on her fair face, she broke into a burst of soft giggles, dropping her wand onto the ground beside her as she remained laying on her back.

When Ian mentioned dancing, the girl grinned. She loved to dance, and although she wasn’t overly phased if Ian could or not, she was glad to hear that he did know how. A thought came into her mind and although she would have never been so openly playful normally, and especially in public, she found that around Ian she couldn’t bring herself to care. Sitting up, and then moving to her feet, she stood before the Hufflepuff and reached down, taking both of his hands in her own and tugging, though she knew that she wouldn’t be able to actually pull him to his feet. “Prove it!” she announced, amusement dancing in her brown eyes as she made a show of pulling on his hand harder. “I can’t go to the ball without being sure that you aren’t exaggerating your talents!”